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diff --git a/42891.txt b/42891.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 6d2c6fe..0000000 --- a/42891.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,16420 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Expositor's Bible: The First Book of -Kings, by F. W. Farrar - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Expositor's Bible: The First Book of Kings - -Author: F. W. Farrar - -Editor: W. Robertson Nicoll - -Release Date: June 7, 2013 [EBook #42891] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE *** - - - - -Produced by Douglas L. Alley, III, Colin Bell and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net -(This file was produced from images generously made -available by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE - - - - - EDITED BY THE REV. - - W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D. - - _Editor of "The Expositor"_ - - - - - THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS - - - BY - - F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S. - - - - - =London= - - HODDER AND STOUGHTON - - 27, PATERNOSTER ROW - - MDCCCXCIII - - - - - THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE. - - _Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d. each vol._ - - - FIRST SERIES, 1887-8. - - Colossians. - By A. MACLAREN, D.D. - - St. Mark. - By Very Rev. the Dean of Armagh. - - Genesis. - By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D. - - 1 Samuel. - By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D. - - 2 Samuel. - By the Same Author. - - Hebrews. - By Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D. - - SECOND SERIES, 1888-9. - - Galatians. - By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A. - - The Pastoral Epistles. - By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D. - - Isaiah I.--XXXIX. - By G. A. SMITH, M.A. Vol. I. - - The Book of Revelation. - By Prof. W. MILLIGAN, D.D. - - 1 Corinthians. - By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D. - - The Epistles of St. John. - By Rt. Rev. W. ALEXANDER, D.D. - - THIRD SERIES, 1889-90. - - Judges and Ruth. - By Rev. R. A. WATSON, D.D. - - Jeremiah. - By Rev. C. J. BALL, M.A. - - Isaiah XL.--LXVI. - By G. A. SMITH, M.A. Vol. II. - - St. Matthew. - By Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D. - - Exodus. - By Very Rev. the Dean of Armagh. - - St. Luke. - By Rev. H. BURTON, B.A. - - FOURTH SERIES, 1890-1. - - Ecclesiastes. - By Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D. - - St. James and St. Jude. - By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D. - - Proverbs. - By Rev. R. F. HORTON, M.A. - - Leviticus. - By Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D. - - The Gospel of St. John. - By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. I. - - The Acts of the Apostles. - By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. I. - - FIFTH SERIES, 1891-2. - - The Psalms. - By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. I. - - 1 and 2 Thessalonians. - By JAS. DENNEY, B.D. - - The Book of Job. - By R. A. WATSON, D.D. - - Ephesians. - By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A. - - The Gospel of St. John. - By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. II. - - The Acts of the Apostles. - By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. II. - - SIXTH SERIES, 1892-3. - - 1 Kings. - By Ven. Archdeacon FARRAR. - - Philippians. - By Principal RAINY, D.D. - - Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. - By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A. - - Joshua. - By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D. - - Daniel. - By Prof. FULLER, M.A. - - The Psalms. - By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. II. - - - - - THE - FIRST BOOK OF KINGS - - - - - F. W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S. - - LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; ARCHDEACON OF - WESTMINSTER - - - - - - =London= - - HODDER AND STOUGHTON - - 27, PATERNOSTER ROW - - MDCCCXCIII - - - - - _Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._ - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - BOOK I. - - _INTRODUCTION._ - - CHAPTER I. - PAGE - THE HIGHER CRITICISM 3 - - CHAPTER II. - - THE BOOKS OF KINGS 14 - - CHAPTER III. - - THE HISTORIAN OF THE KINGS 30 - - CHAPTER IV. - - GOD IN HISTORY 39 - - CHAPTER V. - - HISTORY WITH A PURPOSE 46 - - CHAPTER VI. - - LESSONS OF THE HISTORY 50 - - - BOOK II. - - _DAVID AND SOLOMON._ - - CHAPTER VII. - - DAVID'S DECREPITUDE 61 - 1 KINGS i. 1-4. - - CHAPTER VIII. - - AN EASTERN COURT AND HOME 70 - 1 KINGS i. - - CHAPTER IX. - - ADONIJAH'S REBELLION 81 - 1 KINGS i. 5-53. - - CHAPTER X. - - DAVID'S DEATH-BED 94 - 1 KINGS ii. 1-11. - - CHAPTER XI. - - AVENGING JUSTICE 105 - 1 KINGS ii. 13-46. - - CHAPTER XII. - - THE BOY-KING'S WISDOM 120 - 1 KINGS iii. 5-28. - - CHAPTER XIII. - - SOLOMON'S COURT AND KINGDOM 134 - 1 KINGS iv. 1-34. - - CHAPTER XIV. - - THE TEMPLE 149 - 1 KINGS v., vi., vii. - - CHAPTER XV. - - THE IDEAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TEMPLE 172 - 1 KINGS vii. 13-51; viii. 12-61. - - CHAPTER XVI. - - THE ARK AND THE CHERUBIM 177 - 1 KINGS vi. 23-30; viii. 6-11. - - CHAPTER XVII. - - THE GRADUAL GROWTH OF THE LEVITIC RITUAL 186 - 1 KINGS viii. 1-66. - - CHAPTER XVIII. - - THE TEMPLE WORSHIP 193 - 1 KINGS viii. 1-11. - - CHAPTER XIX. - - THE TEMPLE SACRIFICES 202 - 1 KINGS viii. 62-66, ix. 25. - - CHAPTER XX. - - SOLOMON IN ALL HIS GLORY 222 - 1 KINGS x. 1-29. - - CHAPTER XXI. - - HOLLOW PROSPERITY 230 - 1 KINGS xi. - - CHAPTER XXII. - - THE OLD AGE OF SOLOMON 239 - 1 KINGS xi. 1-13. - - CHAPTER XXIII. - - THE WIND AND THE WHIRLWIND 250 - 1 KINGS xi. 14-41. - - - BOOK III. - - _THE DIVIDED KINGDOM._ - - B.C. 937-889. - - CHAPTER XXIV. - - A NEW REIGN. B.C. 937 269 - 1 KINGS xii. 1-5. - - CHAPTER XXV. - - THE DISRUPTION 275 - 1 KINGS xii. 6-20. - - CHAPTER XXVI. - - "JEROBOAM THE SON OF NEBAT, WHO MADE ISRAEL - TO SIN." B.C. 937-915 286 - 1 KINGS xii. 21-23. - - CHAPTER XXVII. - - JEROBOAM, AND THE MAN OF GOD 296 - 1 KINGS xiii. 1-34. - - CHAPTER XXVIII. - - DOOM OF THE HOUSE OF NEBAT 302 - 1 KINGS xiv. 1-20. - - CHAPTER XXIX. - - NADAB; BAASHA; ELAH. B.C. 915-889 309 - 1 KINGS xv. 25; xvi. 10. - - CHAPTER XXX. - - THE EARLIER KINGS OF JUDAH. B.C. 937-851 313 - 1 KINGS xiv. 21-31; xv. 1-24. - - CHAPTER XXXI. - - JEHOSHAPHAT. B.C. 876-851 327 - 1 KINGS xxii. 41-50. - - CHAPTER XXXII. - - THE KINGS OF ISRAEL FROM ZIMRI TO AHAB. B.C. - 889-877 337 - 1 KINGS xvi. 11-34. - - - BOOK IV. - - _AHAB AND ELIJAH._ - - B.C. 877-855. - - CHAPTER XXXIII. - - KING AHAB AND QUEEN JEZEBEL 347 - 1 KINGS xvi. 29-34. - - CHAPTER XXXIV. - - ELIJAH 357 - 1 KINGS xvii. 1-7. - - CHAPTER XXXV. - - ELIJAH AT SAREPTA 372 - 1 KINGS xvii. 7-xviii. 19. - - CHAPTER XXXVI. - - ELIJAH AND AHAB 377 - 1 KINGS xviii. 1-20. - - CHAPTER XXXVII. - - ELIJAH ON MOUNT CARMEL 383 - 1 KINGS xviii. 20-40. - - CHAPTER XXXVIII. - - THE RAIN 399 - 1 KINGS xviii. 41-46. - - CHAPTER XXXIX. - - ELIJAH'S FLIGHT 404 - 1 KINGS xix. 1-4. - - CHAPTER XL. - - ELIJAH'S DESPAIR 415 - 1 KINGS xix. 1-10. - - CHAPTER XLI. - - HOW GOD DEALS WITH DESPONDENCY 424 - 1 KINGS xix. 5-8. - - CHAPTER XLII. - - THE THEOPHANY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE 429 - 1 KINGS xix. 9-18. - - CHAPTER XLIII. - - THE CALL OF ELISHA 445 - 1 KINGS xix. 19-21. - - CHAPTER XLIV. - - AHAB AND BENHADAD 450 - 1 KINGS xx. 1-30. - - CHAPTER XLV. - - AHAB'S INFATUATION 463 - 1 KINGS xx. 31-43. - - CHAPTER XLVI. - - NABOTH'S VINEYARD 473 - 1 KINGS xxi. 1-29. - - CHAPTER XLVII. - - ALONE AGAINST THE WORLD 485 - 1 KINGS xxii. 1-40. - - CHAPTER XLVIII. - - CONCLUSION 497 - - APPENDIX. - - CHRONOLOGY OF THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS 500 - - - - - AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. - - - Josephus, _Antiquities_, Books VII. to X. - - Munk, _Palestine_. 1845. - - Jahn, _Hist. of the Hebrew Commonwealth_, E. T. 1828. - - Reuss, _La Bible. Hist. des Israelites._ Paris, 1877. - - Renan, _Histoire du Peuple Israel_. 1885-1890. - - Lange, _Bibelwerk_ (_K. C. W. F. Baehr_, 1868). - - Bunsen, _Bibelwerk_. - - Heinrich von Ewald, _The History of Israel_, E. T. - " " _The Rise and Splendour of the Hebrew Monarchy_. - London, 1871. - - Graetz, _Geschichte der Israeliten_, vol. ii. Leipzig, 1875. - - Hitzig, _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_. 1847, 1857, 1870. - - Stade, _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_, vol. i. 1887. - - Kuenen, _Religion of Israel_, E. T. 1874. - - Eisenlohr, _Das Volk Israel unter der Herrschaft der Koenige_. - Leipzig, 1856. - - Klostermann, _Die Buecher Samuels und der Koenige_. 1887. - - Van Oort, _Bible for Young People_, E. T., vol. iii. 1877. - - F. W. Newmann, _Hebrew Monarchy_, Second Edition. 1853. - - Milman, _Hist. of the Jews_, 3 vols. - - Edersheim, _Hist. of the Jewish Nation_. - " _The Temple and its Services_. 1874. - - Stanley, _Lectures on the Jewish Church_, Second Series. 1865. - - Kittel, _Geschichte der Hebraeer_. Gotha, 1888, 1892. - - Wellhausen-Bleek, _Einleitung_, Fourth Edition. Berlin, 1878. - - Wellhausen, _Geschichte Israel_, E. T., Third Edition. 1891. - - Driver, _Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament_. 1891. - - Prof. J. R. Lumby, _The First Book of Kings_ (Cambridge Bible for - Schools). 1890. - - Canon Rawlinson, _Speaker's Commentary,_ 1 _Kings_. 1872. - - Prof. Robertson Smith, _The Old Testament in the Jewish Church_, - Second Edition. 1892. - - K. F. Keil, _The Books of Kings_, E. T. 1857. - - Maurice, _Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament_, Third Edition. - 1871. - - Canon Rawlinson, _The Kings of Israel and Judah_ (Men of the Bible). - 1889. - - Farrar, _Solomon_ (Men of the Bible). 1887. - - Prof. Milligan, _Elijah_ (Men of the Bible). - - Prof. Robertson, _Early Religion of Israel_. Baird Lecture, 1887. - - Riehm, _Handwoerterbuch des Biblischen Altertums_. Leipzig, 1884. - - Herzog, _Encyclopaedie_, E. T. 1856. - - Smith, _Dictionary of the Bible_. 1860. - - Kitto, _Biblical Encyclopaedia_. 1864. - - Duncker, _Geschichte des Altherthums_ (Bd. II. _Geschichte Israel_), - Fifth Edition. Leipzig, 1878. - - Oppert, _Salomon et les successeurs_. Paris. - - E. Maspero, _Hist. anc. des peuples de l'Orient_, E. T. 1892. - - Schrader, _Keilinschriften u. das Alte Testament_, Second Edition. - Giessen, 1883. - - Brugsch-Bey, _Geschichte AEgyptens_. Leipzig, 1877. - - Hamburger, _Real-Encyklopaedie fuer Bibel und Talmud_. Strelitz, 1865, - 1883. - - Book by Book, _Popular Studies in the Canon of Scripture by various - authors_. Isbister & Co., 1892. - - Prof. Robertson, D. D., _Early Religion of Israel_. Baird Lectures, - 1889. Blackwood, 1892. - - Robinson, _Researches in Palestine_, 3 vols. 1841. - - - - - BOOK I. - - _INTRODUCTION._ - - - "Ich bin ueberzeugt, dass die Bibel immer schoener wird, je mehr - man sie versteht, d.h. je mehr man einsieht und anschaut, - dass jedes Wort, das wir allgemein auffassen und in Besondern - auf uns anwenden, nach gewissen Umstaenden, nach Zeit- und - Orts-verhaeltnissen einen, eigenen, besondern, unmittelbar - individuellen Bezug gehabt hat."--GOETHE. - - "Es bleibt dabei, das beste Lesen der Bibel, dieses Goettlichen - Buchs, ist _menschlich_. Ich nehme dies Wort im weitesten Umfang - und in der andringendsten Bedeutung. Menschlich muss man die - Bibel lesen: denn sie ist ein Buch durch Menschen fuer Menschen - geschrieben; menschlich ist die Sprache, menschlich die aeussern - Huelfsmittel, mit denen sie geschrieben und aufbehalten ist.... Es - darf also sicher geglaubt werden: je humaner (im besten Sinn des - Worts) man das Wort Gottes liest, desto naeher kommt man dem Zweck - seines Urhebers, welcher Menschen zu seinem Bilde schuf ... und - fuer uns menschlich handelt."--HERDER. - - - - - CHAPTER I. - - _THE HIGHER CRITICISM._ - - "God shows all things in the slow history of their - ripening."--GEORGE ELIOT. - - -God has given us many Bibles. The book which we call the Bible consists -of a series of books, and its name represents the Greek plural [Greek: -ta Biblia]. It is not so much a book, as the extant fragments of a -literature, which grew up during many centuries. Supreme as is the -importance of this "Book of God," it was never meant to be the sole -teacher of mankind. We mistake its purpose, we misapply its revelation, -when we use it to exclude the other sources of religious knowledge. It -is supremely profitable for our instruction, but, so far from being -designed to absorb our exclusive attention, its work is to stimulate -the eagerness with which, by its aid, we are able to learn from all -other sources the will of God towards men. - -God speaks to us in many voices. In the Bible He revealed Himself -to all mankind by His messages to the individual souls of some of -His servants. But those messages, whether uttered or consigned to -writing, were but one method of enabling us to hold communion with -Him. They were not even an _indispensable_ method. Thousands of -the saints of God lived the spiritual life in close communion with -their Father in heaven in ages which possessed no written book; in -ages before any such book existed; in ages during which, though it -existed, it was practically inaccessible; in ages during which it -had been designedly kept out of their hands by priests. This fact -should quicken our sense of gratitude for the inestimable boon of -a Book wherein he who runs may now read, and respecting the main -teaching of which wayfaring men, and even fools, need not err. 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 fetish, as the -Mohammedan treats his Koran. The Bible was written in human language, -by men for men. It was written mainly in Judaea, by Jews, for Jews. -"_Scripture_," as the old theological rule said, "_is the sense of -Scripture_,"[1] 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 understood. -In these respects the Bible cannot be arbitrarily or exceptionally -treated. No _a priori_ rules can be devised for its elucidation. It -is what it is, not what we might have expected it to be. Language, -at the best, is an imperfect and ever-varying instrument of thought. -It is full of twilight, and of gracious shadows. Vast numbers of -its words were originally metaphorical. When the light of metaphor -has faded from them they come to mean different things at different -times, under different conditions, in different contexts, on -different lips. Language can at the best be but an _asymptote_ to -thought; in other words, it resembles the mathematical line which -approaches nearer and nearer to the circumference of a circle, -but which, even when infinitely extended, can never actually touch -it. The fact that the Bible contains a Divine revelation does not -alter the fact that it represents a nation's literature. It is the -library of the Jewish people, or rather all that remains to us of -that library, and all that was most precious in it. Holy men of old -were moved by the Spirit of God, but as this Divine inspiration did -not make them personally sinless in their actions, or infallible in -their judgments, so neither does it exempt their messages from the -limitation which attaches to all human conditions. 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 one, but complex and multiform, -separated from each other by centuries of time, and of very varying -value and preciousness. They too, like the greatest apostles of God, -have their treasure in earthen vessels; and we not only may, but -must, by the aid of that reason which is "the candle of the Lord," -estimate both the value of the treasure, and the age and character of -the earthen vessel in which it is contained. - -There are hundreds of texts in Scripture which may convey to some -souls a very true and blessed meaning, but which do not in the -original possess any such meaning as that which is now attached to -them. The words of Hebrew prophets often seem perfectly clear, but -in some cases they had another set of connotations in the mouths of -those by whom they were originally spoken. It requires a learned -and a literary training to discover by philology, by history, or by -comparison, what alone they could have meant when they were first -spoken. In many cases their exact significance is no longer to be -ascertained with certainty. It must be more or less conjectural. -There are passages of Scripture which have received scores of -differing interpretations. There are entire books of Scripture about -the general scope of which there have been diametrically opposite -opinions. The spiritual intuition of the saint may in some instances -be keener to read aright than the laborious researches of the -scholar, because spiritual things can only be spiritually discerned. -But in general it is true that the _ex cathedra_ assertions of -ignorant readers, though they are often pronounced with an assumption -of infallibility, are not worth the breath which utters them. All -artificial dogmas as to what Scripture _must_ be, and _must_ mean, -are worse than idle; we have only to deal with what it _really is_, -and what it _really says_. Even when opinions respecting it have -been all but unanimously pronounced by the representatives of all -the Churches, they have nevertheless been again and again shown to -be absurdly erroneous. The slow light of scholarship, of criticism, -of comparative religion, has proved that in many instances not only -the interpretations of former ages, but the very _principles_ of -interpretation from which they were derived, had no basis whatever in -fact. And the methods of interpretation--dogmatic, ecclesiastical, -mystic, allegorical, literal--have changed from age to age.[2] The -asserted heresy of yesterday has in scores of instances become the -accepted commonplace of to-morrow. The duty of the Church in the -present day is neither to make out that the Bible is what men have -imagined that it was, nor to repeat the assertions of ancient writers -as to what they declared it to be, but honestly and truthfully to -discover the significance of the actual phenomena which it presents -to the enlightened and cultivated intelligence. - -If it were not so common a failing to ignore the lessons of the past, -it might have been hoped that a certain modesty, of which the necessity -is taught us by centuries of error, would have saved a multitude of -writers from rushing into premature and denunciative rejection of -results which they have not studied, and of which they are incapable -to judge. St. 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 interpretation. It is just the same in these days. -Half-taught dogmatists--[Greek: autoschedioi dogmatistai], as they -have been called--may sweepingly condemn the lifelong researches of -men far superior to themselves, not only in learning, but in love of -truth; they may attribute their conclusions to faithless infatuation, -and even to moral obliquity. This has been done over and over again -in our own lifetime; 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 prevent, impotent -even greatly to retard, the spread of real knowledge. Many of the -now-accepted certainties of science were repudiated a generation ago as -absurd and blasphemous. As long as it was possible to put them down by -persecution, the thumbscrew and the stake were freely used by priests -and inquisitors for their suppression. _E pur si muove._ Theologians -who mingled the gold of Revelation with the clay of their own opinions -have been driven to correct their past errors. Untaught by experience, -religious prejudice is ever heaping up fresh obstacles to oppose the -progress of new truths. The obstacles will be swept away in the future -as surely as they have been in the past. The eagle, it has been said, -which soars through the air does not worry itself how to cross the -rivers. - -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 own. The mode of regarding Scripture -has been almost revolutionised, and in consequence many books of -Scripture previously misunderstood have acquired a reality and -intensity of interest and instructiveness which have rendered them -trebly precious. A deeper and holier reverence for all eternal truth -which the Bible contains has taken the place of a meaningless letter -worship. The fatal and wooden Rabbinic dogma of verbal dictation--a -dogma which either destroys intelligent faith altogether, or -introduces into Christian conduct some of the worst delusions of -false religion--is dead and buried in every capable and well-taught -mind. Truths which had long been seen through the distorting mirage -of false exegesis have now been set forth in their true aspect. We -have been enabled, for the first time, to grasp the real character -of events which, by being set in a wrong perspective, had been made -so fantastic as to have no relation to ordinary lives. Figures which -had become dim spectres moving through an unnatural atmosphere now -stand out, full of grace, instructiveness and warning, in the clear -light of day. The science of Biblical criticism has solved scores of -enigmas which were once disastrously obscure, and has brought out -the original beauty of some passages, which, even in our Authorised -Version, conveyed no intelligible meaning to earnest readers. The -Revised Version alone has corrected hundreds of inaccuracies which -in some instances defaced the beauty of the sacred page, and in -many others misrepresented and mistranslated it. Intolerance has -been robbed of favourite shibboleths, used as the basis of cruel -beliefs, which souls unhardened by system could only repudiate with -a "God forbid!" Familiar error has ever been dearer to most men than -unfamiliar truths; but truth, however slow may seem to be the beat of -her pinions, always wins her way at last. - - "Thro' the heather an' howe gaed the creepin' thing, - But abune was the waft of an angel's wing." - -Can there be any doubt that mankind has everything to gain and -nothing to lose from the ascertainment of genuine truth? Are we so -wholly devoid of even an elementary faith as to think that man can -profit by consciously cherished illusions? Does it not show a nobler -confidence in facts to correct traditional prejudices, than to rest -blindly content with conventional assertions? If we do not believe -that God is a God of truth, that all falsity is hateful to Him,--and -religious falsity most hateful of all, because it adds the sin of -hypocrisy to the love of lies,--we believe in _nothing_. If our -religion is to consist in a rejection of knowledge, lest it should -disturb the convictions of times of ignorance, the dicta of "the -Fathers," 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 Faith, then indeed - - "The pillared firmament is rottenness, - And earth's base built on stubble." - -"There is and will be much discussion," says Goethe, "as to the -advantage or disadvantage of the popular dissemination of the Bible. To -me it is clear that it will be mischievous, as it always has been, if -used dogmatically and capriciously; beneficial, as it always has been, -if accepted didactically (for our instruction) and with feeling." There -is abundance in the Bible for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, -for instruction in righteousness;--we shall weaken its moral and -spiritual force, and gain nothing in its place, if we turn it into an -idol adorned with impossible claims which it never makes for itself, -and if we support its golden image upon the brittle clay of an exegesis -which is morally, critically, and historically false. - -I do not see how there can be any loss in the positive results of -what is called the Higher Criticism. Certainly its suggestions must -never be hastily adopted. Nor is it likely that they will be. They -have to fight their way through crowds of opposing prejudices. They -are first held up to ridicule as absurd; then exposed to anathema -as irreligious; at last they are accepted as obviously true. The -very theologians who once denounced them silently ignore or readjust -what they previously preached, and hasten, first to minimise the -importance, then to extol the value of the new discoveries. It is -quite right that they should be keenly scrutinised. All new sciences -are liable to rush into extremes. Their first discoverers are misled -into error by premature generalisations born of a genuine enthusiasm. -They are tempted to build elaborate superstructures on inadequate -foundations. But when they have established certain irrefragable -principles, can the obvious deductions from those principles be other -than a pure gain? Can we be the better for traditional delusions? Can -mistakes and ignorance--can anything but the ascertained fact--be -desirable for man, or acceptable to God? - -No doubt it is with a sensation of pain that we are compelled to give -up convictions which we once regarded as indubitable and sacred. That -is a part of our human nature. We must say with all gentleness to the -passionate devotees of each old erroneous _mumpsimus_-- - - "Disce; sed ira cadat naso rugosaque sanna - Cum veteres avias tibi de pulmone revello." - -Our blessed Lord, with His consummate tenderness, and Divine insight -into the frailties of our nature, made tolerant allowance for -inveterate prejudices. "No man," He said, "having drunk old wine -straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is good." But the -pain of disillusionment is blessed and healing when it is incurred -in the cause of sincerity. There must always be more value in -results earned by heroic labour than in conventions accepted without -serious inquiry. Already there has been a silent revolution. Many -of the old opinions about the Bible have been greatly modified. -There is scarcely a single competent scholar who does not now admit -that the Hexateuch is a composite structure; that much of the -Levitical legislation, which was once called Mosaic, is in reality -an aftergrowth which _in its present form_ is not earlier than the -days of the prophet Ezekiel; that the Book of Deuteronomy belongs, in -its present form, whatever older elements it may contain, to the era -of Hezekiah's or Josiah's reformation; that the Books of Zechariah -and Isaiah are not homogeneous, but preserve the writings of more -prophets than their titles imply; that only a small section of the -Psalter was the work of David; that the Book of Ecclesiastes was not -the work of King Solomon; that most of the Book of Daniel belongs -to the era of Antiochus Epiphanes; and so forth. In what respect is -the Bible less precious, less "inspired" in the only tenable sense -of that very undefined word, in consequence of such discoveries? -In what way do they touch the outermost fringe of our Christian -faith? Is there anything in such results of modern criticism which -militates against the most inferential expansion of a single clause -in the Apostolic, the Nicene, or even the Athanasian Creed? Do they -contravene one single syllable of the hundreds of propositions to -which our assent is demanded in the Thirty-nine Articles? I would -gladly help to mitigate the needless anxiety felt by many religious -minds. 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 them. They may -rest assured that sweeping conclusions will not be hastily snatched -up; that no conclusion will be regarded as proved until it has -successfully run the gauntlet of many a jealous challenge. They need -not fear for one moment that the Ark of their faith is in peril, and -they will be guilty not only of unwisdom but of profanity if they -rush forward to support it with rude and unauthorised hands. 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 theology. But the truths of essential Christianity are -built upon a rock. They belong to things which cannot be shaken, and -which remain. The intense labours of eminent scholars, English and -German, thanklessly as they have been received, have not robbed us -of so much as a fraction of a single precious element of revelation. -On the contrary, they have cleared the Bible of many accretions by -which its meaning was spoilt, and its doctrines wrested to perdition, -and they have thus rendered it more profitable than before for -every purpose for which it was designed, that the man of God may be -perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. - -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 lie."[3] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] "Scriptura est sensus Scripturae."--St. Augustine. - -[2] For a decisive proof of these statements I refer to my Bampton -Lectures on the _History of Interpretation_ (Macmillan, 1890). - -[3] Bacon. - - - - - CHAPTER II. - - _THE BOOKS OF KINGS._ - - -The "Two Books of Kings," as we call them, are only one book (Sepher -Melakim), and were so regarded not only in the days of Origen (_ap._ -Euseb., _H. E._, vi. 25) and of Jerome (A.D. 420), but by the Jews -even down to Bomberg's Hebrew Bible of 1518. They are treated as one -book in the Talmud and the Peshito. The Western Bibles followed the -Alexandrian division into two books (called the third and fourth of -Kings), and Jerome adopted this division in the Vulgate (_Regum_, -iii. et iv.). But if this separation into two books was due to the -LXX. translators, 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 Ahaziah. Jerome's version of the Books of -Samuel and Kings appeared first of his translations, and in his -famous _Prologus Galeatus_ he mentions these facts. - -The History was intended to be a continuation of the Books of Samuel. -Some critics, and among them Ewald, assign them to the same author, -but closer examination of the Book of Kings renders this more than -doubtful. The incessant use of the prefix "King," the extreme frequency -of the description "Man of God," the references to the law, and above -all the constant condemnation of high places, counterbalance the minor -resemblance of style, and prove a difference of authorship. - -What has the Higher Criticism, as represented in historic sequence -by such writers as Vatke, de Wette, Reuss, Graf, Ewald, Kuenen, -Bleek, Wellhausen, Stade, Kittel, Renan, Klostermann, Cheyne, Driver, -Robertson Smith, and others, to tell us about the structure and -historic credibility of the Books of Kings? Has it in any way shaken -their value, while it has undoubtedly added to their intelligibility -and interest? - -1. It emphasises the fact that they are a compilation. In this there -is nothing either new or startling, for the fact is plainly and -repeatedly acknowledged in the page of the sacred narrative. The -sources utilised are:-- - -(1) The Book of the Acts of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 41). - -(2) The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah (referred to -fifteen times). - -(3) The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel (referred to -seventeen times).[4] - -By comparing the authority referred to in 1 Kings xi. 41 with those -quoted in 2 Chron. ix. 29, 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 (R.V., Histories) of -Nathan the Prophet," the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and "the -story (R.V., commentary) or visions of Iddo the Seer."[5] Similarly -it appears that the Acts of Rehoboam, Abijam, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, -were compiled, at any rate in part, from the histories of Shemaiah, -Jehu the son of Hanani,[6] Isaiah the son of Amoz, Hozai (2 Chron. -xxxiii. 18, R.V.), and other seers. In the narrative of a history of -450 years (from B.C. 1016 to 562) the writer was of course compelled -to rely for his facts upon more ancient authorities. Whether he -consulted the original documents in the archives of Jerusalem, or -whether he utilised some outline of them which had previously been -drawn up, cannot easily be determined. The work would have been -impossible but for the existence of the officials known as recorders -and historiographers (_Mazkirim, Sopherim_), who first make their -appearance in the court of David. But the _original_ documents could -hardly have survived the ravages of Shalmanezer in Samaria and of -Nebuchadnezzar in Jerusalem, so that Movers is probably right in the -conjecture that the author's extracts were made, not immediately, but -from the epitome of an earlier compiler.[7] - -2. Although no direct quotations are referred to other documents, it -seems certain from the style, and from various minor touches, that -the compiler also utilised detailed accounts of great prophets like -Elijah, Elisha, and Micaiah son of Imlah, which had been drawn up -by literary students in the Schools of the Prophets. 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 writing.[8] - -3. The work of the compiler himself is easily traceable. It is seen -in the constantly recurring formulae, which come almost like the -refrain of an epic poem, at the accession and close of every reign. - -They run normally as follows. For the Kings of Judah:-- - -"And in the ... year of ... King of Israel reigned ... over Judah." -"And ... years he reigned in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was ... -the daughter of.... And ... did that which was {right/evil} in the -sight of the Lord." - -"And ... slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers -in the City of David his father. And ... his son reigned in his -stead." In the formulae for the Kings of Israel "_slept with his -fathers_" is omitted when the king was murdered; and "_was buried -with his fathers_" is omitted because there was no unbroken dynasty -and no royal burial-place. 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 wife. - -4. To the compiler is also due the moral aspect given to the annals -and other documents which he utilised. Something of this religious -colouring he doubtless found in the prophetic histories which he -consulted; and the unity of aim visible throughout the book is due to -the fact that his standpoint is identical with theirs. Thus, in spite -of its compilation from different sources, the book bears the impress -of one hand and of one mind. Sometimes a passing touch in an earlier -narrative shows the work of an editor after the Exile, as when in the -story of Solomon (1 Kings iv. 20-26) we read, "And he had dominion -over all the region _on the other side of the river_," _i.e._, west -of the Euphrates, exactly as in Ezra iv. 10. Here the rendering of -the A.V., "on this side the river," is certainly inaccurate, and is -surprisingly retained in the R.V. also.[9] - -5. To this high moral purpose everything else is subordinated. -Like all his Jewish contemporaries, the writer attaches small -importance to accurate chronological data. He pays little attention -to discrepancies, and does not care in every instance to harmonise -his own authorities.[10] Some contradictions may be due to additions -made in a later recension,[11] and some may have arisen from the -introduction of marginal glosses,[12] or from corruptions of the -text which (apart from a miraculous supervision such as was not -exercised) might easily, and indeed would inevitably, occur in -the constant transcription of numerical letters closely resembling -each other. "The numbers as they have come down to us in the Book -of Kings," says Canon Rawlinson, "are untrustworthy, being in part -self-contradictory, in part opposed to other Scriptural notices, in -part improbable, if not impossible."[13] - -6. The date of the book as it stands was _after_ B.C. 542, for the last -event mentioned in it is the mercy extended by Evil-merodach, King of -Babylon, to his unfortunate prisoner Jehoiachin (2 Kings xxv. 27) in -the thirty-seventh year of his captivity. The language--later than that -of Isaiah, and earlier than that of Ezra--confirms this conclusion. -That the book appeared before B.C. 536 is clear from the fact that -the compiler makes no allusion to Zerubbabel, Jeshua, or the first -exiles who returned to Jerusalem after the decree of Cyrus. But it is -generally agreed that the book was _substantially_ complete before the -Exile (about B.C. 600), though some exilic additions may have been made -by a later editor.[14] "The writer was already removed by at least six -hundred years from the days of Samuel, a space of time as long as that -which separates us from the first Parliament of Edward I." - -This date of the book--which cannot but have some bearing on its -historic value--is admitted by all, since the peculiarities of the -language from the beginning to the end are marked by the usages of -later Hebrew.[15] The chronicler lived some two centuries later "in -about the same chronological relation to David as Professor Freeman -stands to William Rufus."[16] - -7. Criticism cannot furnish us with the name of this great -compiler.[17] Jewish tradition, as preserved in the Talmud,[18] -assigned the Books of Kings to the prophet Jeremiah, and in the -Jewish canon they are reckoned among "the earlier prophets." This -would account for the strange silence about Jeremiah in the Second -Book of Kings, whereas he is prominently mentioned in the Book of -Chronicles, in the Apocrypha, and in Josephus. But unless we accept -the late and worthless Jewish assertion that, after being carried -to Egypt by Johanan, son of Kareah (Jer. xlii. 6, 7), Jeremiah -escaped to Babylon,[19] he could not have been the author of the last -section of the book (2 Kings xxv. 27-30).[20] Yet it is precisely in -the closing chapters of the second book (in and after chap. xvii.) -that the resemblances to the style of Jeremiah are most marked.[21] -That the writer was a _contemporary_ of that prophet, was closely -akin to him in his religious attitude, and was filled with the -same melancholy feelings, is plain; but this, as recent critics -have pointed out, is due to the fact that both writers reflect the -opinions and the phraseology which we find in the Book of Deuteronomy. - -8. The critics who are so often charged with rash assumptions have -been led to the conclusions which they adopt by intense and infinite -labour, including the examination of various books of Scripture -phrase by phrase, and even word by word. The sum total of their most -important results as regards the Books of Kings is as follows:-- - -i. The books are composed of older materials, retouched, sometimes -expanded, and set in a suitable framework, mostly by a single author -who writes throughout in the same characteristic phraseology, and -judges the actions and characters of the kings from the standpoint -of later centuries. The annals which he consulted, and in part -incorporated, were twofold--prophetic and political. The latter were -probably drawn up for each reign by the official recorder ([Hebrew: -mazkir]), who held an important place in the courts of all the -greatest kings (2 Sam. viii. 16, xx. 24; 1 Kings iv. 3; 2 Kings -xviii. 18), and whose duty it was to write the "acts" or "words" of -the "days" of his sovereign ([Hebrew: hmm dvr]). - -ii. The compiler's work is partly of the nature of an epitome,[22] and -partly consists of longer narratives, of which we can sometimes trace -the Northern Israelitish origin by peculiarities of form and expression. - -iii. The synchronisms which he gives between the reigns of the kings -of Israel and Judah are computed by himself, or by some redactor, and -only in round numbers. - -iv. The speeches, prayers, and prophecies introduced are perhaps -based on tradition, but, since they reflect all the peculiarities of -the compiler, must owe their ultimate form to him. This accounts for -the fact that the earlier prophecies recorded in these books resemble -the tone and style of Jeremiah, but do not resemble such ancient -prophecies as those of Amos and Hoshea. - -v. The numbers which he adopts are sometimes so enormous as to be -grossly improbable; and in these, as in some of the dates, allowance -must be made for possible errors of tradition and transcription. - -vi. "Deuteronomy," says Professor Driver, "is the standard by which -the compiler judges both men and actions; and the history from the -beginning of Solomon's reign is presented, not in a purely 'objective' -form (as _e.g._ in 2 Sam. ix.-xx.), but from the point of view of -the Deuteronomic code.[23]... The principles which, in his view, the -history as a whole is to exemplify, are already expressed succinctly -in the charge which he represents David as giving to his son Solomon -(1 Kings ii. 3, 4); they are stated by him again in chap. iii. 14, -and more distinctly in chap. ix. 1-9. Obedience to the Deuteronomic -law is the qualification for an approving verdict; deviation from -it is the source of ill success (1 Kings xi. 9-13, xiv. 7-11, xvi. -2; 2 Kings xvii. 7-18), and the sure prelude to condemnation. Every -king of the Northern Kingdom is characterised as doing 'that which -was evil in the eyes of Jehovah.' In the Southern Kingdom the -exceptions are Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham, -Hezekiah, Josiah--usually, however, with the limitation that 'the high -places were not removed' as demanded by the Deuteronomic law.[24] -The constantly recurring Deuteronomic phrases which most directly -illustrate the point of view from which the history is regarded are, -'_To keep the charge of Jehovah'; 'to walk in the ways of Jehovah'; -'to keep_ (or execute) _His commandments, or statutes, and judgments'; -'to do that which is right in the eyes of Jehovah'; 'to provoke -Jehovah to anger'; 'to cleave to Jehovah_.' If the reader will be at -the pains of underlining in his text the phrases here cited" (and many -others of which Professor Driver gives a list), "he will not only -realise how numerous they are, but also perceive how they seldom occur -indiscriminately in the narrative as such, but are generally aggregated -in particular passages (mostly comments on the history, or speeches) -which are thereby distinguished from their context, and shown to be -presumably the work of a different hand."[25] - -vii. It must not be imagined that the late compilation of the book, -or its subsequent recensions, or the dogmatic colouring which it may -have insensibly derived from the religious systems and organisations -of days subsequent to the Exile, have in the least affected the main -historic veracity of the kingly annals. They may have influenced -the omissions and the moral estimates, but the events themselves -are in every case confirmed when we are able to compare them with -any records and monuments of Phoenicia, Moab, Egypt, Assyria, or -Babylon. The discovery and deciphering of the Moabite stone, and -of the painted vaunts of Shishak at Karnak, and of the cuneiform -inscriptions, confirm in every case the general truth, in some -cases the minute details, of the sacred historian. In so passing an -allusion as that in 2 Kings iii. 16, 17 the accuracy of the narrative -is confirmed by the fact that (as Delitzsch has shown) 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 Sea.[26] - -viii. The Book of Kings consists, according to Stade,[27] of, (_a_) -1 Kings i., ii., the close of a history of David, in continuation -of 1 and 2 Samuel. The continuity of the Scriptures is marked in an -interesting way by the word "and," with which so many of the books -begin. The Jews, devout believers in the work of a Divine Providence, -saw no discontinuities in the course of national events.[28] - -(_b_) 1 Kings iii.-xi., a conglomerate of notices about Solomon, -grouped round chaps. vi., vii., which narrate the building of the -Temple. They are arranged by the prae-exilic compiler, but not without -later touches from the Deuteronomic standpoint of a later editor -(_e.g._, iii. 2, 3). Chap. viii. 14-ix. 9 also belong to the later -editor. - -(_c_) 1 Kings xi.-2 Kings xxiii. 29, an epitome of the entire regal -period of Judah and Israel, after the three first reigns over the -undivided kingdom, compiled mainly before the Exile. - -(_d_) 2 Kings xxiii. 30-xxv. 30, a conclusion, added, in its present -form, after the Exile. - -Two positions are maintained (A) as regards the text, and (B) as -regards the chronology. - -A. As regards the _text_ no one will maintain the old false -assertion that it has come down to us in a perfect condition. There -are in the history of the text three epochs: 1, The Prae-Talmudic; -2, The Talmudic-Massoretic up to the time when vowel-points were -introduced; 3, The Massoretic traditions of a later period. The -marginal annotations known as Q'ri, "read" (plural, _Qarjan_), -consist of glosses and euphemisms which were used in the service -of the synagogue in place of the written text (K'tib); the oral -tradition of these variations was known as the Massora (_i.e._, -tradition). The Greek version (Septuagint, LXX.), which is of immense -importance for the history of the text, was begun in Alexandria under -Ptolemy Philadelphus (B.C. 283-247). It presents many additions and -variations in the Books of Kings.[30] - -All Hebrew manuscripts, as is well known, are of comparatively -recent date, 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 destroyed. The oldest Hebrew manuscript is -supposed to be the Codex Babylonicus at St. Petersburg (A.D. 916), -unless one recently discovered by Dr. Ginsburg in the British Museum -be older. Most Hebrew manuscripts are later than the twelfth century. - -The variations in the Samaritan Pentateuch, 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 -transcriptions. - -A further and serious difficulty in the reproduction of events in -their historic exactitude is introduced by the certainty that many -books of the Bible, in their present form, represent the results -arrived at after their recension by successive editors, some of whom -lived many centuries after the events recorded. 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 (perhaps the -essential parts of the Book of Deuteronomy) in the reign of Josiah, -B.C. 621 (2 Kings xxii. 8-14). It is, for instance, impossible to -declare with certainty what parts of the Temple service were really -coaeval with David and Solomon, and what parts had arisen in later -days. There appear to be liturgical touches, or alterations as -indicated by the variations of the text in 1 Kings viii. 4, 12, 13. -In xviii. 29-36 the allusion to the _Minchah_ is absent from the LXX. -in verse 36, and in 2 Kings iii. 20 another reading is suggested. - -B. As regards the difficult question of _Chronology_ we need add -but little to what has been elsewhere said.[31] Even the most -conservative critics admit that (1) the numbers of the Biblical text -have often become corrupt or uncertain; and (2) that the ancient -Hebrews were careless on the subject of exact chronology. The -Chronology of the Kings, as it now stands, is historically true in -its general outlines, but in its details presents us with data which -are mutually irreconcilable. It is obviously artificial, and is -dominated by slight modifications of the round number 40.[32] Thus -from the Exodus to the Building of the Temple is stated at 480 years, -and from that period to the fiftieth year of the Exile also at 480 -years. In the Chronicles there are eleven high priests from Azariah -ben-Ahimaaz to the Exile of Jozadak, which, with the Exile period, -gives twelve generations of 40 years each. Again, from Rehoboam to -the Fall of Samaria in the sixth year of Hezekiah, following the 40 -years' reign of Saul, of David, and of Solomon, we have:-- - - Rehoboam, Abijah 20 years. - Asa 41 " - Jehoshaphat, Jehoram} 40 " - Ahaziah, Athaliah } - Joash 40 " - Amaziah, Uzziah 81 " - Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah 38 " - -After the Fall of Samaria we have:-- - - Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon 80 " - -and it can hardly be a mere accident that in these lists the number -40 is only modified by slight necessary details. - -The history of the Northern Kingdom seems to be roughly trisected -into 80 years before Benhadad's first invasion, 80 years of Syrian -war, 40 years of prosperity under Jeroboam II., and 40 years of -decline.[33] This is probably a result of chronological system, not -uninfluenced by mystical considerations. For 480 = 40 x 12. _Forty_ -is repeatedly used as a sacred number in connexion with epochs of -penitence and punishment. _Twelve_ (4 x 3) is, according to Baehr (the -chief student of numerical and other symbolism), "the signature of -the people of Israel"--as a whole (4), in the midst of which God (3) -resides. Similarly Stade thinks that 16 is the basal number for the -reigns of kings from Jehu to Hoshea, and 12 from Jeroboam to Jehu.[34] - -It is possible that the synchronistic data did not proceed from the -compiler of the Book of Kings, but were added by the last redactor. - -Are these critical conclusions so formidable? Are they fraught with -disastrous consequences? Which is really dangerous--truth laboriously -sought for, or error accepted with unreasoning blindness and -maintained with invincible prejudice? - -FOOTNOTES: - -[4] How closely these documents are transcribed is shown by the -recurrence of "_unto this day_," though the phrase had long ceased to -be true when the book appeared. - -[5] It is inferred from 1 Kings viii. 12, 13, which have a poetic -tinge, and to which the LXX. add "Behold they are written in the Book -of the Song," that in this section the "Book of Jashar" has been -utilised, and that the reading [Hebrew: hshr] has been confused with -[Hebrew: hshr] (Driver, p. 182). - -[6] 2 Chron. xx. 34, R.V., "The history of Jehu, the son of Hanani, -which _is inserted in the Book of the Kings of Israel_" (not "who is -mentioned," A.V., which, however, gives in the margin the literal -meaning "was made to ascend"). - -[7] Movers, _Krit. Untersuch._, p. 185 (Bonn, 1836). The use of older -documents explains the phrase "till this day," and the passages which -speak of the Temple as still standing (1 Kings viii. 8, ix. 21, xii. -19; 2 Kings x. 27, xiii. 23). Sometimes the traces of earlier and later -date are curiously juxtaposed, as in 2 Kings xvii. 18, 21 and 19, 20. - -[8] Difference of sources is marked by the different designations of -the months, which are called sometimes by their numbers, as in the -Priestly Codex (1 Kings xii. 32, 33), sometimes by the old Hebrew names -Zif ("_blossom_," April, May, 1 Kings vi. 1), Ethanim ("_fruit_," -Sept., Oct., 1 Kings viii. 2), and Bul ("_rain_," 1 Kings vi. 38). - -[9] [Hebrew: miz-hannahar] (compare [Hebrew: 'avar-naharah]). _Lit._, -"_Beyond_ the river," _i.e._, from the Persian standpoint. It becomes -a fixed geographical phrase. Traces of the editor's hand occur in 1 -Kings xiii. 32 ("the cities of Samaria"); 2 Kings xiii. 23 ("as yet"). - -[10] Comp. 2 Kings viii. 25 with ix. 29. - -[11] See 2 Kings xv. 30 and 33, viii. 25 and ix. 29. - -[12] As, perhaps, the clause "In the thirty and first year of Asa -king of Judah" in 1 Kings xvi. 23; and the much more serious "in the -480th year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of -Egypt," which are omitted by Origen (_comm. in Johannem_, ii. 20), -and create many difficulties. The only narratives which critics have -suggested as possible interpolations, from the occurrence of unusual -grammatical forms, are 2 Kings viii. 1-6 and iv. 1-37 (in the story -of Elisha); but these forms are perhaps northern provincialisms. - -[13] _Speaker's Commentary_, ii. 475. Instances will be found in 1 -Kings xiv. 21, xvi. 23, 29; 2 Kings iii. 1, xiii. 10, xv. 1, 30, 33, -xiv. 23, xvi. 2, xvii. 1, xviii. 2. - -[14] Stade, p. 79; Kalisch, _Exodus_, p. 495. - -[15] See Keil, pp. 9, 10. - -[16] R. F. Horton, _Inspiration_, p. 843. - -[17] He was not the author of the Book of Samuel, for the standpoint -and style are quite different. In the First and Second Books of -Samuel the high places are never condemned, as they are incessantly -in Kings (1 Kings iii. 2, xiii. 32, xiv. 23, xv. 14, xxii. 43, etc.). - -[18] Baba Bathra, 15 a. - -[19] _Seder Olam Rabba_, 20. - -[20] Even then he would have been ninety years old. - -[21] There are, however, some _differences_ between 2 Kings xxv. and -Jer. lii. (see Keil, p. 12), though the manner is the same, Carpzov, -_Introd._, i. 262-64 (Haevernick, _Einleit._, ii. 171). Jer. li. (verse -64) ends with "Thus far are the words of Jeremiah," excluding him from -the authorship of chap. lii. (Driver, _Introd._, p. 109). The last -chapter of Jeremiah was perhaps added to his volume by a later editor. - -[22] "The Old Testament does not furnish a history of Israel, -though it supplies the materials from which such a history can be -constructed. For example, the narrative of Kings gives but the -merest outline of the events that preceded the fall of Samaria. To -understand the inner history of the time we must fill up this outline -with the aid of the prophets Amos and Hoshea."--ROBERTSON SMITH'S -_Preface_ to translation of Wellhausen, p. vii. - -[23] "In der Chronik," on the other hand, "ist es der Pentateuch, d.h. -vor Allem der _Priestercodex_, nach dessen Muster die Geschichte des -alten Israels dargestellt wird" (Wellhausen, _Prolegom._, p. 309). -It has been said that the Book of Kings reflects the political and -prophetic view, and the Book of Chronicles the priestly view of Jewish -history. It is about the Pentateuch, its date and composition, that -the battle of the Higher Criticism chiefly rages. With that we are -but indirectly concerned in considering the Book of Kings; but it is -noticeable that the ablest and most competent defender of the more -conservative criticism, Professor James Robertson, D.D., both in his -contribution to _Book by Book_ and in his _Early Religion of Israel_, -makes large concessions. Thus he says, "It is particularly to be -noticed that in the Book of the Pentateuch itself the Mosaic origin is -not claimed" (_Book by Book_, p. 5). "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" (p. 8). "It is long since the composite character -of the Pentateuch was observed" (p. 9). "There may remain doubts as to -when the various parts of the Pentateuch were actually written down; it -may be admitted that the later writers wrote in the light of the events -and circumstances of their own times" (p. 16). - -[24] Driver, p. 189. Comp. Professor Robertson Smith: "The most -notable feature in the extant redactions of the book is the strong -interest shown in the Deuteronomic law of Moses, and especially in -the centralisation of worship in the Temple on Zion, as pre-supposed -in Deuteronomy and enforced by Josiah. This interest did not exist -in ancient Israel, and is quite foreign to the older memories -incorporated in the book." - -[25] Driver, p. 192. - -[26] Delitzsch, _Genesis_, 6th ed., p. 567. - -[27] _Geschichte des Volkes Israel_, i. 73. - -[28] Even the First Book of Maccabees begins with [Greek: kai egeneto]. - -[29] Stade thinks that this is confirmed by viii. 46-49. - -[30] Stade, pp. 32 ff. Thus, in 1 Kings viii. 14-53, verses 12, 13 -are in the Septuagint placed _after_ verse 53, are incomplete in the -Hebrew text, and have a remarkable reading in the Targum. Professor -Robertson Smith infers that a Deuteronomic insertion has misplaced -them in one text, and mutilated them in another. The order of the -LXX. differs in 1 Kings iv. 19-27; and it omits 1 Kings vi. 11-14; -ix. 15-26. It transposes the story of Naboth, and omits the story -of Ahijah and Abijah, which is added from Aquila's version to the -Alexandrian MS. See Wellhausen-Bleek, _Einleitung_, Sec.Sec. 114, 134. - -[31] See Appendix on the Chronology. - -[32] See Wellhausen, _Prolegomena_, pp. 285-87; Robertson Smith, -_Journ. of Philology_, x. 209-13. - -[33] _Encycl. Brit._, s.v. Kings (W.R.S.). - -[34] See Stade, i. 88-99; W. R. Smith, _l. c._; Kreuz, _Zeitschr. f. -Wiss. Theol._, 1877, p. 404. Some of the dates, as Dr. W. R. Smith -shows, are "traditional," and are probably taken from Temple records -(_e.g._, the invasion of Shishak, and the change of the revenue -system in the twenty-third year of Joash). Taking these as data, we -have (roughly) 160 years to the twenty-third year of Joash, + 160 to -the death of Hezekiah, + 160 years to the return from the Exile = -480. He infers that "the existing scheme was obtained by setting down -a few fixed dates, and filling up the intervals with figures in which -20 and 40 were the main units." - - - - - CHAPTER III. - - _THE HISTORIAN OF THE KINGS._ - - "The hearts of kings are in Thy rule and governance, and Thou dost - dispose and turn them as it _seemeth best_ to Thy godly wisdom." - - -Were we to judge the compiler or epitomator of the Book of Kings -from the literary standpoint of modern historians, he would, no -doubt, hold a very inferior place; but so to judge him would be -to take a mistaken view of his object, 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 view. - -It is quite true that he does not even aim at fulfilling the -requirements demanded of an ordinary secular historian. He does not -attempt to present any philosophical conception of the political events -and complicated interrelations of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. -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 -picture. It leads inevitably to the repetition of the same facts in -the accounts of two reigns. Each king is judged from a single point -of view, and that not the point of view by which his own age was -influenced, but one arrived at in later centuries, and under changed -conditions, religious and political. There is no attempt to show that - - "God fulfils Himself in many ways, - Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." - -The military splendour or political ability of a king goes for -nothing. It has so little interest for the writer that a brilliant -and powerful ruler like Jeroboam II. seems to excite in him as little -interest as an effeminate weakling like Ahaziah. He passes over -without notice events of such capital importance as the invasion -of Zerah the Ethiopian (2 Chron. xiv. 9-15, xvi. 8); the wars of -Jehoshaphat against Edom, Ammon, and Moab (2 Chron. xx. 1-25); of -Uzziah against the Philistines (2 Chron. xxvi. 6-8); and of the -Assyrians against Manasseh (2 Chron. xxxiii. 11-13). He neither -tells us that Omri subdued Moab, nor that he was defeated by Syria. -He scarcely more than mentions events of such deep interest as -the conquest of Jerusalem by Shishak (1 Kings xiv. 25, 26); the -war between Abijam and Jeroboam (1 Kings xv. 7); of Amaziah with -Edom (2 Kings xiv. 7); or even the expedition of Josiah against -Pharaoh-nechoh (2 Kings xxiii. 29).[35] For these events he is -content to relegate us to the best authorities which he used, with -the phrase "and the rest of his acts, his wars, and all that he -did." 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 -Omri," does not induce him to give more than a passing notice to that -king. It did not come within his province to record such memorable -circumstances as that Ahab fought with the Aramaean host against -Assyria at the battle of Karkar, or that the bloodstained Jehu had to -send a large tribute to Shalmaneser II. - -There is a certain monotony in the grounds given for the moral -judgments passed on each successive monarch. 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 Lord_," with exclusive reference in most -cases to "the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made -Israel to sin." The unfavourable remark about king after king of -Judah that "_nevertheless the high places were not taken away; the -people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places_" (1 Kings -xv. 14, xxii. 43; 2 Kings xii. 3, xiv. 4) makes no allowance for -the fact that high places dedicated to Jehovah had been previously -used unblamed by the greatest judges and seers, and that the feeling -against them had only entered into the national life in later days. - -It belongs to the same essential view of history that the writer's -attention is so largely occupied by the activity of the prophets, -whose personality often looms far more largely on his imagination -than that of the kings. If we were to remove from his pages all that -he tells us of Nathan, Ahijah of Shiloh, Shemaiah, Jehu the son of -Hanani, Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah, Isaiah, Huldah, Jonah, and various -nameless "men of God,"[36] the residuum would be meagre indeed. The -silence as to Jeremiah is a remarkable circumstance which no theory -has explained; but we must remember the small extent of the compiler's -canvas, and that, even as it is, 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 prophets. His whole aim is to exhibit the -course of events as so controlled by the Divine Hand that faithfulness -to God ensured blessing, and unfaithfulness brought down His -displeasure and led to national decline. So far from concealing this -principle he states it, again and again, in the most formal manner.[37] - -These might be objections against the author if he had written his -book in the spirit of an ordinary historian. They cease to have any -validity when we remember that he does not profess to offer us a -secular history at all. His aim and method have been described as -"prophetico-didactic." He writes avowedly as one who believed in the -Theocracy. His epitomes from the documents which he had before him were -made with a definite religious purpose. 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 Josiah. He strove to solve the moral problems of God's -government as they presented themselves, with much distress and -perplexity, to the mind of his nation in the days of its decadence and -threatened obliteration. And in virtue of his method of dealing with -such themes, he shares with the other historical writers of the Old -Testament a right to be regarded as one of the _Prophetae priores_.[38] - -What were those problems? - -They were the old problems respecting God's moral government of -the world which always haunted the Jewish mind, complicated by the -disappointment of national convictions about the promises of God to -the race of Abraham and the family of David. - -The Exile was already imminent--it had indeed partly begun in the -deportation of Jehoiakin and many Jews to Babylon (B.C. 598)--when -the book saw the light. The writer was compelled to look back -with tears on "the days that were no more." The epoch of Israel's -splendour and dominion seemed to have passed for ever. And yet, was -not God the true Governor of His people? Had He not chosen Jacob for -Himself, and Israel for His own possession? Had not Abraham received -the promise that his seed should be as the sand of the sea, and that -in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed? Or was it -a mere illusion that "when Israel was a child I loved him, and out of -Egypt I called My son"? The writer clung with unquenchable faith to -his convictions about the destinies of his people, and yet every year -seemed to render their fulfilment more distant and more impossible. - - * * * * * - -The promise to Abraham had been renewed to Isaac, and to Jacob, and -to the patriarchs; but to David and his house it had been reiterated -with special emphasis and fresh details. That promise, as it stood -recorded in 2 Sam. vii. 12-16, was doubtless in the writer's hands. -The election of Israel as "God's people" is "a world-historic fact, -the fundamental miracle which no criticism can explain away."[39] -And, in addition, God had sworn in His holiness that He would not -forsake David. "When thy days be fulfilled," He had said, "and thou -shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee -... and will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for My -name, and _I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever, I -will be his father, and he shall be My son_. If he commit iniquity, -I will chastise him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of -the children of men. _But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I -took it from Saul whom I put away before thee, and thy house and thy -kingdom shall be established for ever before thee; thy throne shall -be established for ever._" This promise haunted the imagination of -the compiler of the Book of Kings. He repeatedly refers to it, and it -is so constantly present to his mind that his whole narrative seems -to be a comment, and often a perplexed and half-despairing comment, -upon it.[40] Yet he resisted the assaults of despair. The Lord had -made a faithful oath unto David, and He would _not_ depart from it. - -It is this that makes him linger so lovingly on the glories of -the reign of Solomon. At first they seem to inaugurate an era of -overwhelming and permanent prosperity. Because Solomon was the heir -of David whom God had chosen, his dominion is established without an -effort in spite of a formidable conspiracy. Under his wise, pacific -rule the united kingdom springs to the zenith of its greatness. The -writer dwells with fond regret upon the glories of the Temple, the -Empire, and the Court of the wise king. He records God's renewed -promises to him that there should not be any among the kings like -unto him all his days. Alas! the splendid visions had faded away -like an unsubstantial pageant. Glory had led to vice and corruption. -Worldly policy carried apostasy in its train. The sun of Solomon set -in darkness, as the sun of David had set in decrepitude and blood. -"And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned -from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared unto him twice: ... -but he kept not that which the Lord commanded. Wherefore the Lord -said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou -hast not kept My covenant, ... I will surely rend the kingdom from -thee.... Notwithstanding in thy day I will not do it for David thy -father's sake.... Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; but -will give one tribe to thy son, for David My servant's sake, and for -Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen."[41] - -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 counties. So insignificant, in fact, do the -fortunes of the kingdom become, that, for long periods, it has no -history worth speaking of. 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 prophets. From first to last -we seem to hear in the prose of the annalist the cry of the troubled -Psalmist, "Lord, where are Thy old loving-kindnesses which Thou -swarest unto David in Thy truth? Remember, Lord, the rebukes that Thy -servants have, and how I do bear in my bosom the rebukes of many -people wherewith thine enemies have blasphemed Thee, and slandered the -footsteps of Thine anointed." And yet, in spite of all, with invincible -confidence, he adds, "Praised be the Lord for evermore. Amen and Amen." - -And this is one of the great lessons which we learn alike from -Scripture and from the experience of every holy and humble life. It -may be briefly summed up in the words, "Put thou thy trust in God -and be doing good, and He shall bring it to pass." In multitudes of -forms the Bible inculcates upon us the lesson, "Have faith in God," -"Fear not; only believe." The paradox of the New Testament is the -existence of joy in the midst of sorrow and sighing, of exultation -([Greek: agalliasis]) even amid the burning fiery furnaces of anguish -and persecution. The secret of both Testaments alike is the power to -maintain an unquenchable faith, an unbroken peace, an indomitable trust -amid every complication of disaster and apparent overthrow. The writer -of the Book of Kings saw that God is patient, because He is eternal; -that even the histories of nations, not individual lives only, are but -as one ticking of a clock amid the eternal silence; that God's ways are -not man's ways. 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 -profession, not only amid all the waves and storms of calamity, but -even when we are brought face to face with that which wears the aspect -of absolute and final failure. The historian says in the name of his -nation what the saint has so often to say in his own, "Though He slay -me, yet will I trust in Him." Amos, earliest of the prophets whose -written utterances have been preserved, undazzled by the magnificent -revival of the Northern Kingdom under Jeroboam II., was still convinced -that the future lay with the poor fallen "booth" of David's royalty: -"And I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of -old, ... saith the Lord that doeth this."[42] 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 dust.[43] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[35] _Speaker's Commentary_, ii. 477. - -[36] 1 Kings xiii. 1-32, xx. 13-15, 28, 35, 42; 2 Kings xxi. 10-15. - -[37] 2 Kings xvii. 7-23, 32, 41, xxiii. 26, 27. - -[38] [Hebrew: roshonim nevi'im]. The three greater and twelve minor -prophets are called _prophetae posteriores_ ([Hebrew: 'acharonim]). -Daniel is classed among the Hagiographa ([Hebrew: ketuvim]). This title -of "former prophets" was, however, given by the Jews to the historic -books from the mistaken fancy that they were all _written_ by prophets. - -[39] Martensen, _Dogmatics_, p. 363. - -[40] 2 Sam. vii. 12-16; 1 Kings xi. 36, xv. 4; 2 Kings viii. 19, xxv. -27-30. "His object evidently was," says Professor Robertson, "to -exhibit the bloom and decay of the Kingdom of Israel, and to trace -the influences which marked its varying destiny. 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 kingdom, and was -not even frustrated by the fall of the kingdom of Judah." - -[41] 1 Kings xi. 9-13. - -[42] Amos ix. 11, 12. - -[43] Psalm lxxxix. 48-50. - - - - - CHAPTER IV. - - _GOD IN HISTORY._ - - "The Lord remaineth a King for ever." - - -Had the compiler of the Book of Kings been so incompetent and valueless -an historian as some critics have represented, it would indeed have -been strange that his book should have kindled so immortal an interest, -or have taken its place securely in the Jewish canon among the most -sacred books of the world. He could not have secured this recognition -without real and abiding merits. His greatness appears by the manner in -which he grapples with, and is not crushed by, the problems presented -to him by the course of events to him so dismal. - -1. He wrote after Israel had long been scattered among the nations. -The sons of Jacob had been deported into strange lands to be -hopelessly lost and absorbed amid heathen peoples. The district -which had been assigned to the Ten Tribes after the conquest of -Joshua had been given over to an alien and mongrel population. The -worst anticipations of northern prophets like Amos and Hoshea had -been terribly fulfilled. The glory of Samaria had been wiped out, as -when one wipeth a dish, wiping and turning it upside down. 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 Jeroboam, -which prepared the way for the Baal-worship introduced by the House -of Omri. 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 messengers. In the history of Judah the -better reigns of a Jehoshaphat, of a Hezekiah, of a Josiah, had shed -a sunset gleam over the waning fortunes of the remnant of God's -people. Hezekiah and Josiah, with whatever deflections, had both -ruled in the theocratic spirit. They had both inaugurated reforms. -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 healed. But it was not so. -The records of these two best kings end, nevertheless, in prophecies -of doom.[44] The results of their reforming efforts proved to be -partial and unsatisfactory. A race of vassal weaklings succeeded. -Jehoahaz was taken captive by the Egyptians, who set up Jehoiakim as -their puppet. He submits to Nebuchadnezzar, attempts a weak revolt, -and is punished. In the short reign of Jehoiachin the captivity -begins, and the futile rebellion of Zedekiah leads to the deportation -of his people, the burning of the Holy City, and the desecration of -the Temple. It seemed as though the ruin of the olden hopes could not -have been more absolute. Yet the historian will not abandon them. -Clinging to God's promises with desperate and pathetic tenacity he -gilds his last page, as with one faint sunbeam struggling out of the -stormy darkness of the exile, by narrating how Evil-merodach released -Jehoiachin from his long captivity, and treated him with kindness, -and advanced him to the first rank among the vassal kings in the -court of Babylon. If the ruler of Judah must be a hopeless prisoner, -let him at least occupy among his fellow-prisoners a sad pre-eminence! - -2. The historian has been blamed for the perpetual gloom which -enwraps his narrative. Surely the criticism is unjust. He did not -invent his story. He is no whit more gloomy than Thucydides, who had -to record how the brief gleam of Athenian glory sank in the Bay of -Syracuse into a sea of blood. He is not half so gloomy as Tacitus, -who is forced to apologise for the "hues of earthquake and eclipse" -which darken his every page. The gloom lay in the events of which -he desired to be the faithful recorder. He certainly did not love -gloom. He lingers at disproportionate length over the grandeur of -the reign of Solomon, dilating fondly upon every element of his -magnificence, and unwilling to tear himself away from the one period -which realised his ideal expectations. After that period his spirits -sink. He cared less to deal with a divided kingdom of which only -the smallest fragment was even approximately faithful. There could -be nothing but gloom in the record of shortlived, sanguinary, and -idolatrous dynasties, which succeeded each other like the scenes of -a grim phantasmagoria in Samaria and Jezreel. 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 founded. Nor could there be much real brightness -in the story of humiliated Judah. There also many kings preferred a -diplomatic worldliness to reliance on their true source of strength. -Even in Judah there were kings who defiled God's own temple with -heathen abominations; and a saint like Hezekiah had been followed -by an apostate like Manasseh. Had Judah been content to dwell in -the defence of the Most High and abide under the shadow of the -Almighty, she would have been defended under His wings and been safe -beneath His feathers; His righteousness and truth would have been -her shield and buckler. He who protected her in the awful crisis of -Sennacherib's invasion had proved that He never faileth them that -trust Him. But her kings had preferred to lean on such a bruised reed -as Egypt, which broke under the weight, and pierced the hand of all -who relied on her assistance. "But ye said, Nay, but we will flee -upon horses; therefore shall ye flee: and, We will ride upon the -swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift."[45] - -3. And has not gloom been the normal characteristic of many a long -period of human history? It is with the life of nations as with the -life of men. With nations, too, there is "a perpetual fading of -all beauty into darkness, and of all strength into dust." Humanity -advances, but it advances over the ruins of peoples and the wrecks of -institutions. Truth forces its way into acceptance, but its progress -is "from scaffold to scaffold, and from stake to stake." All who have -generalised on the course of history have been forced to recognise -its agonies and disappointments. There, says Byron, - - "There is the moral of all human tales; - 'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past; - First Freedom, and then Glory--when that fails, - Wealth, Vice, Corruption--Barbarism at last. - And History, with all her volumes vast, - Hath but one page: 'tis better written here - Where gorgeous tyranny hath thus amassed - All treasures, all delights that eye or ear, - Heart, soul could seek, tongue ask." - -Mr. J. R. Lowell, looking at the question from another side, sings:-- - - "Careless seems the Great Avenger; History's pages but record - One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt all systems and - the Word; - Truth for ever on the scaffold, Wrong for ever on the - throne-- - Yet that scaffold sways the Future, and behind the dim - unknown - Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own." - -Mr. W. H. Lecky, again, considering the facts of national story from -the point of view of heredity, and the permanent consequences of -wrong-doing, sings:-- - - "The voice of the afflicted is rising to the sun, - The thousands who have perished for the selfishness of one; - The judgment-seat polluted, the altar overthrown, - The sighing of the exile, the tortured captive's groan, - The many crushed and plundered to gratify the few, - The hounds of hate pursuing the noble and the true." - -Or, if we desire a prose authority, can we deny this painful estimate -of Mr. Ruskin?--"Truly it seems to me as I gather in my mind the -evidence of insane religion, degraded art, merciless war, sullen -toil, detestable pleasure, and vain or vile hope in which the nations -of the world have lived since first they could bear record of -themselves, it seems to me, I say, as if the race itself were still -half serpent, not extricated yet from its clay; a lacertine brood of -bitterness, the glory of it emaciate with cruel hunger and blotted -with venomous stain, and the track of it on the leaf a glittering -slime, and in the sand a useless furrow."[46] - -Dark as is the story which the author of the Book of Kings has -to record, and hopeless as might seem to be the conclusion of -the tragedy, he is responsible for neither. He can but tell the -things that were, and tell them as they were; the picture is, -after all, far less gloomy than that presented in many a great -historic record. Consider the features of such an age as that -recorded by Tacitus, with the "Iliad of woes" of which he was the -annalist.[47] Does Jewish history offer us nothing but this horrible -monotony of delations and suicides? Consider the long ages of -darkness and retrogression in the fifth and following centuries; -or the unutterable miseries inflicted on the seaboard of Europe -by the invasions of the Norsemen--the mere thought of which drove -Charlemagne to tears; or the long complicated agony produced by -hundreds of petty feudal wars, and the cruel tyranny of marauding -barons; or the condition of England in the middle of the fourteenth -century when the Black Death swept away half of her population; or -the extreme misery of the masses after the Thirty Years' War; or the -desolating horror of the wars of Napoleon which filled Germany with -homeless and starving orphans. The annals of the Hebrew monarchy are -less grim than these; 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 race." When once -the Jewish wars began-- - - "Vengeance! thy fiery wing their race pursued, - Thy thirsty poniard blushed with infant blood! - Roused at thy call and panting still for game - The bird of war, the Latin eagle came. - Then Judah raged, by ruffian discord led, - Drunk with the steamy carnage of the dead; - He saw his sons by dubious slaughter fall, - And war without, and death within the wall." - -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 Jerusalem; and, in the -dreary ages which followed, the world has heard rising from the -Jewish people the groan of myriads of broken hearts. - -"The fruits of the earth have lost their savour," wrote one poor -Rabbi, the son of Gamaliel, "and no dew falls." - -In the crowded Ghettos of mediaeval cities, during the foul tyranny -of the Inquisition in Spain, and many a time throughout Europe, amid -the iron oppression of ignorant and armed brutality, the hapless -Jews have been forced to cry aloud to the God of their fathers: -"Thou feedest Thy people with the bread of tears, and givest them -plenteousness of tears to drink!" "Thou sellest Thy people for -nought, and givest no money for them." - -When the eccentric Frederic William I. of Prussia ordered his Court -chaplain to give him in one sentence a proof of Christianity, the -chaplain answered without a moment's hesitation: "The Jews, your -Majesty." Truly it might seem that the fortunes of that strange people -had been designed for a special lesson, not to them only, but to the -whole human race; and the general outlines of that lesson have never -been more clearly and forcibly indicated than in the Book of Kings. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[44] 2 Kings xx. 16-18, xxii. 16-20. - -[45] Isa. xxx. 16. - -[46] _Queen of the Air_, p. 87. - -[47] Tac., _Hist._, 1, 2: "Opus aggredior opimum casibus, atrox -proeliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace saevum." - - - - - CHAPTER V. - - _HISTORY WITH A PURPOSE._ - - "History, as distinguished from chronicles or annals, must - always contain a theory whether confessed by the writer or not. - A sound theory is simply a general conception which co-ordinates - a multitude of facts. Without this, facts cease to have interest - except to the antiquarian."--LAURIE. - - -The prejudice against history written with a purpose is a groundless -prejudice. Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, Sallust, had each his -guiding principle, no less than Ammianus Marcellinus, St. Augustine, -Orosius, Bossuet, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Kant, Turgot, Condorcet, -Hegel, Fichte, and every modern historian worthy the name. They -have all, as Mr. Morley says, felt the intellectual necessity for -showing "those secret dispositions of events which prepared the way -for great changes, as well as the momentous conjunctures which more -immediately brought them to pass." Orosius, founding his epitome on -the hint given by St. Augustine in his _De Civitate Dei_, begins with -the famous words, "_Divina providentia agitur mundus et homo._" Other -serious writers may vary the formula, but in all their annals the -lesson is essentially the same. "The foundation upon which, at all -periods, Israel's sense of its national unity rested was religious in -its character." "The history of Israel," says Stade, "is essentially -a history of religious ideas."[48] - -Of course the history is rendered valueless if, in pursuing his -purpose, the writer either falsifies events or intentionally -manipulates them in such a way that they lead to false issues. But -the man who is not inspired by his subject, the man to whom the -history which he is narrating has no particular significance, must be -a man of dull imagination or cold affections. No such man can write a -true history at all. For history is the record of what has happened -to men in nations, and its events are swayed by human passions, and -palpitate with human emotions. There is no great historian who may -not be charged with having been in some respects a partisan. The ebb -and flow of his narrative, the "to-and-fro-conflicting waves" of the -struggles which he records, must be to him as idle as a dance of -puppets if he feels no special interest in the chief actors, and has -not formed a distinct judgment of the sweep of the great unseen tidal -forces by which they are determined and controlled. - -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 nations. - -Surely he does not stand alone in either conviction. Both -propositions are confirmed by all experience. In all life, individual -and national, sin is weakness; and human life without God, whether -isolated or corporate, is no better than - - "A trouble of ants 'mid a million million of suns." - -"Why do the heathen so furiously rage together," sang the Psalmist, -"and why do the people imagine a vain thing?... He that dwelleth in -the heavens shall laugh them to scorn; the Lord shall have them in -derision." Even the oldest of the Greek poets, in the first lines -of the _Iliad_, declares that amid those scenes of carnage, and the -tragic fate of heroes, [Greek: Dios d' eteleieto boule]:-- - - "Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring - Of woes unnumbered, Heavenly Goddess sing; - That wrath which hurled to Pluto's gloomy reign - The souls of countless chiefs untimely slain; - Whose limbs, unburied on the naked shore, - Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore: - Since great Achilles and Atreides strove, - Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove!" - -In the _Odyssey_ the same conviction is repeated, where Odysseus -says that "it is the fate-fraught decree of Zeus which stands by -as arbiter, when it is meant that miserable men should suffer many -woes."[49] The heathen, too, saw clearly that, - - "Though the mills of God grind slowly, - Yet they grind exceeding small;" - -and that, alike for Trojans and Danaans, the chariot-wheels of Heaven -roll onward to their destined goal. - -Such words express a belief in the hearts of pagans identical with -that in the hearts of the early disciples when they exclaimed: "Of a -truth in this city against Thy holy Servant Jesus, whom Thou didst -anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the -peoples of Israel, were gathered together, _to do whatsoever Thy hand -and Thy counsel foreordained to come to pass_."[50] - -The ever-present intensity of these convictions leads the historian -of the Kings to many shorter or longer "homiletic excursuses," in -which he develops his main theme. 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 Judah, he adopts a method which was -common in past ages and has always been conceded to the greatest and -most trustworthy of ancient historians. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[48] Wellhausen, _History of Israel_, p. 432; Stade, _Gesch. des Volkes -Israel_, i., p. 12; Robinson, _Ancient History of Israel_, p. 15. - -[49] _Od._, ix. 51, 52. - -[50] Acts iv. 27, 28. - - - - - CHAPTER VI. - - _LESSONS OF THE HISTORY._ - - "Great men are the inspired texts of that Divine Book of - Revelation of which a chapter is completed from epoch to epoch, - and by some named History."--CARLYLE. - - -Thus history becomes one of the most precious books of God. To -speak vaguely of "a stream of tendency not ourselves which makes -for righteousness," is to endow "a stream of tendency" with a moral -sense. Philosophers may talk of "dass unbekannte hoehere Wesen das wir -ahnen"; but the great majority, alike of the wisest and the humblest of -mankind, will give to that moral "Not-ourselves" the name of God. The -truth was more simply and more religiously expressed by the American -orator when he said that "One with God is always in a majority," and -"God is the only final public opinion." Only thus can we account for -the fact that events apparently the most trivial have repeatedly -been overruled to produce the most stupendous issues, and opposition -apparently the most overwhelming has been made to further the very ends -which it most fiercely resisted. "The fierceness of man shall turn to -Thy praise, and the fierceness of them shalt Thou restrain." - -St. Paul expresses his sense of this fact when he says, "Not many -wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: -but God chose the foolish things of the world, and the weak things -of the world, and the base things of the world, and the things that -are despised did God choose, and the things that are not, that He -might bring to nought the things that are":[51] and that "because -the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is -stronger than men."[52] - -The most conspicuous instance of these laws in history is furnished -by the victories of Christianity. It was against all probability that -a faith not only despised but execrated--a faith whose crucified -Messiah kindled unmitigated contempt, 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 philosophy, -and genius, and ridicule, and authority of the world, supported -by the diadems of all-powerful Caesars and the swords of thirty -legions. It was against all probability that a faith which, in the -world's judgment, was so abject, should in so short a space of time -achieve so complete a triumph, not by aggressive force, but by -meek non-resistance, and that it should win its way through armed -antagonism by the sole powers of innocence and of martyrdom--"not by -might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." - -But though the thoughtful Israelite had no such glorious spectacle -as this before him, he saw something analogous to it. 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 destined, and which it had -already in part fulfilled. "And thou shalt answer before the Lord -thy God, and say, A Syrian ready to perish was my father; he went -down to Egypt, and sojourned there, few in number."[53] The chosen -people could boast of no loftier ancestry than that they sprang from -a fugitive from the land of Ur, whose descendants had sunk into a -horde of miserable slaves in the hot valley of Egypt. Yet from that -degraded and sensuous serfdom God had led them into the wilderness -"through parted seas and thundering battles," and had spoken to them -at Sinai in a voice so mighty that its echoes have rolled among the -nations for evermore. If through their sins and shortcomings they -had once more been reduced to the rank of captive strangers in a -strange land, the historian knew that even then their lot was not -so abject as it once had been. They had at least heroic memories -and an imperishable past. He believed that though God's face was -darkened to them, the light of it was neither utterly nor finally -withdrawn. Nothing could henceforth shake his trust that, even when -Israel walked in the valley of the shadow of death, God would still -be with His people; that "He would _love_ their souls out of the pit -of destruction."[54] The vain-glorious efforts of the heathen were -foredoomed to final impotence, for God ruled the raging of the sea, -the noise of his waves, and the madness of the people. - -If this high faith seemed so often to lead only to frustrate hopes, -the historian saw the reason. His philosophy of history reduced -itself to the one rule that "Righteousness exalteth a nation, but -sin is the reproach of any people." It is a sublime philosophy, and -no other is possible. It might be written as the comment on every -history in the world. The prophets write it large, and again and -again, as in letters of blood and fire. Upon their pages, even from -the days of Balaam, - - "In outline dim and vast - Their mighty shadows cast - The giant forms of Empires on their way - To ruin: one by one - They tower, and they are gone!" - -Balaam had uttered his denunciation on Moab and Amalek and the -Kenite. Amos hurled defiance on Moab, Ammon, and the Philistines. -Isaiah taunted Egypt with her splendid impotence, and had said of -Babylon: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the -morning!" As the sphere of national life enlarged, Nahum had poured -forth his exultant dirge over the falling greatness of Assyria; and -Ezekiel had painted the desolation which should come on glorious -Tyre. These great prophets had read upon the palace-walls of the -mightiest kingdoms the burning messages of doom, because they knew -that (to quote the words of a living historian) "for every false -word and unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust and -vanity, the price has to be paid at last.... Justice and truth alone -endure and live. Injustice and falsehood may be long-lived, but -doomsday comes to them at last." - -Has the course of ages at all altered the incidence of these eternal -laws? Do modern kingdoms offer any exceptions to the universal -experience of the past? Look at Spain. Corrupted by her own vast -wealth, by the confusion of religion with the indolent acceptance -of lies which paraded themselves as catholic orthodoxy, and by the -fatal disseverance of religion from the moral law, she has sunk -into decrepitude. Read in the utter collapse and ruin of her great -Armada the inevitable Nemesis on greed, indolence, and superstition. -Look at modern France. When the inflated bubble of her arrogance -collapsed at Sedan as with a touch, two of her own writers, certainly -not prejudiced in favour of Christian conclusions--Ernest Renan -and Alexandre Dumas, _fils_--pointed independently to the causes -of her ruin, and found them in her irreligion and her debauchery. -The warnings which they addressed to their countrymen in that hour -of humiliation, on the sanctity of family life and the eternal -obligations of national righteousness, were identical with those -addressed to the Israelites of old by Amos or Isaiah. The only -difference was that the form in which they were uttered was modern -and came with incomparably less of impassioned force. - -The historian who, six hundred years before Christ, saw so clearly, -and illustrated with such striking conciseness, the laws of God's -moral governance of the world stands far above the casual censure -of those who judge him by a mistaken standard. We owe him a debt of -the deepest gratitude, not only because he has preserved for us the -national records which might otherwise have perished, but far more -because he has seen and pointed out their true significance. Imagine -an English writer trying to give a sketch of English history since -the death of Henry VI. in a thin volume of sixty or seventy octavo -pages! 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 mankind? 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 pen? -It is true that it is the _history_ which is inspired rather than -the _record_ of the history; but the record itself is of quite -exceptional value. It is true that the prophetic historian and the -scientific historian must be judged by wholly different canons of -criticism; but may not the prophetic historian be much the greater -of the two? By the light of his histories we can read all histories, -and see the common lesson taught us by the life of nations, as by the -life of individuals--which is, that obedience to God's law is the -only path of safety, the only condition of permanence. To fear God -and keep His commandments is the end of the matter, and is the whole -duty of man. To one who follows the guiding clue of these convictions -history becomes "Providence made visible." - -Bossuet, like St. Augustine, found the key to all events in a Divine -Will controlling and overruling the course of human destinies by a -constant exercise of superhuman power. Even Comte "ascribed a hardly -less resistible power to a Providence of his own construction, -directing present events along a groove cut ever more and more deeply -for them by the past." And Mr. John Morley admits that "whether -you accept Bossuet's theory or Comte's--whether men be their own -Providence, or no more than instruments or secondary agents in other -hands--this classification of either Providence equally deserves -study and meditation." - -Thus, though the Jews were a small and insignificant people--though -their kings were mere local sheykhs in comparison with the Pharaohs, -or the kings of Assyria and Babylon; though they had none of that -sense of beauty which gave immortality to the arts of Greece; though -their temple was an altogether trivial structure when compared -with the Parthenon or the Serapeum; though they had no drama which -can be distantly compared with the Oresteia of AEschylus, and no -epic which can be put beside the Iliad or the Nibelungen; 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 literature, 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 humanity. Millions have known the names of David -or Isaiah, who never so much as heard of Sesostris or of Plato. -The influence of the Hebrew race upon mankind has been a moral and -a religious influence. Leaving Christianity out of sight--though -Christianity itself was nursed in the cradle of Judaism, 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 people. -Professor Huxley is an unsuspected witness to this truth. He has -declared that he knows of no other work in the world by the study of -which children could be so much humanised, and made to feel that each -figure in that vast historical procession fills, like themselves, -but a momentary space in the interval between the two eternities. -What other nation has contributed to the treasure of human thought -elements so immeasurably important as the idea of monotheism, and -the Ten Commandments, and the high spiritual teaching by which the -prophets brought home to the consciousness of our race the nearness, -the holiness, and the love of God? We do not underrate the value -of Eternal Inspiration in the "richly-variegated wisdom" which -"multifariously and fragmentarily" the Creator has vouchsafed to man; -but the Jews will ever be the most interesting of nations, chiefly -because to them were entrusted the oracles of God.[55] - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[51] 1 Cor. i. 26-28. - -[52] _Id._, v. 25. - -[53] Deut. xxvi. 5. - -[54] Isa. xxxviii. 17 (Heb.). - -[55] See Stade, i. 1-8. - - - - BOOK II. - - _DAVID AND SOLOMON._ - - - - - - - CHAPTER VII. - - _DAVID'S DECREPITUDE._ - - 1 KINGS i. 1-4. - - "Praise a fair day at night." - - -The old age of good men is often a beautiful spectacle. They show -us the example of a mellower wisdom, a larger tolerance, a sweeter -temper, a more unselfish sympathy, a clearer faith. The setting sun -of their bright day tinges even the clouds which gather round it with -softer and more lovely hues. - -We cannot say this of David's age. After the oppressive splendour of -his heroic youth and manhood there was no dewy twilight of honoured -peace. We see him in a somewhat pitiable decrepitude. He was not -really old; the expression of our Authorised Version, "stricken in -years," is literally "entered into days," but the Book of Chronicles -calls him "old and full of days."[56] Josephus says that when he died -he was only seventy years old. He had reigned seven years and a half -in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.[57] At the age of -seventy many men are still in full vigour of strength and intellect, -but the conditions of that day were not favourable to longevity. -Solomon does not seem to have survived his sixtieth year; and it is -doubtful whether any one of the kings of Israel or Judah--excepting, -strange to say, the wicked Manasseh--attained even that moderate age. -Threescore years and ten have always been the allotted space of human -life, and few who long survive that age find that their strength then -is anything but labour and sorrow. - -But the decrepitude of David was exceptional. He was drained of all -his vital force. He took to his bed, but though they heaped clothes -upon him he could get no warmth. "He remained cold amid the torrid -heat of Jerusalem." Then his physicians recommended the only remedy -they knew, to give heat to his chilled and withered frame. 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 frame.[58] So they sought out the fairest -virgin in all the coasts of Israel to act as the king's nurse, and -their choice fell on Abishag, a maiden of Shunem in Issachar.[59] -There was no question of his taking another wife. He had already -many wives and concubines, and what the bed-ridden invalid required -was a strong and youthful nurse to cherish him. We are surprised at -such total failure of life's forces. But David had lived through a -youth of toil and exposure, of fight and hardship, in the days when -his only home had been the dark and dripping limestone caves, and -he had been hunted like a partridge on the mountains by the furious -jealousy of Saul. The sun had smitten him by day and the moon by -night, and the chill dews had fallen on him in the midnight bivouacs -among the crags of Engedi. Then had followed the burdens and cares of -royalty with guilty anxieties and deeds which shook his pulses with -wrath and fear. Coincident with these were the demoralising luxuries -and domestic sensualism of a polygamous palace. Worst of all, he -had sinned against God, and against light, and against his own -conscience. For a time his moral sense had slumbered, and retribution -had been delayed. But when he awoke from his sensual dream, 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 sentence, -"Thou art the man!" Many a vulgar Eastern tyrant would hardly have -regarded David's sin as a sin at all; but when such a man as David -sins, the fact that he has been admitted into a holier sanctuary adds -deadliness to the guilt of his sacrilege. True he was forgiven, but -he must have found it terribly hard to forgive himself. God gave back -to him the clean heart, and renewed a right spirit within him; but -the sense of forgiveness differs from the sweetness of innocence, -and the remission of his sins did not bring with it the remission of -their consequences. From that disastrous day David was a changed man. -It might be said of him as of the Fallen Spirit:-- - - "His face - Deep scars of thunder had entrenched, and care - Sat on his faded cheek." - -The Nemesis of sin's normal consequences pursued him to the end. Dark -spirits walked in his house. Joab knew his guilty secrets, and Joab -became the tyrannous master of his destiny. Those guilty secrets -leaked out, and he lost his charm, his influence, his popularity among -his subjects. He was haunted by an ever-present sense of shame and -humiliation. Joab was a murderer, and went unpunished; but was not he -too an unpunished murderer? If his enemies cursed him, he sometimes -felt with a sense of despair, "Let them curse. God hath said unto them, -Curse David." His past carried with it the inevitable deterioration of -his present. In the overwhelming shame and horror which rent his heart -during the rebellion of Absalom, he must often have felt tempted to the -fatalism of desperation, like that guilty king of Greek tragedy who, -burdened with the curse of his race, was forced to exclaim,-- - - "[Greek: Epei to pragma kart' episperchei theos - Ito kat' ouron, kyma Kokytou lachon, - Theo stugethen pan to Laiou genos.]"[60] - -Curses in his family, a curse upon his daughter, a curse upon -his sons, a curse upon himself, a curse upon his people,--there -was scarcely one ingredient in the cup of human woe which, in -consequence of his own crimes, this unhappy king had not been forced -to taste. Scourges of war, famine, and pestilence--of a three years' -famine, of a three years' flight before his enemies, of a three -days' pestilence--he had known them all. He had suffered with the -sufferings of his subjects, whose trials had been aggravated by his -own transgressions. He had seen his sons following his own fatal -example, and he had felt the worst of all sufferings in the serpent's -tooth of filial ingratitude agonising a troubled heart and a weakened -will. It is no wonder that David became decrepit before his time. - -Yet what a picture does he present of the vanity of human wishes, -of the emptiness of all that men desire, of the truth which Solon -impressed on the Lydian king that we can call no man happy before -his death! David's youth had been a pastoral idyll; his manhood an -epic of war and chivalry; his premature age becomes the chronicle -of a nursery. What different pictures are presented to us by David -in his sweet youth and glowing bloom, and David in his unloved and -disgraced decline! We have seen him a beautiful ruddy boy, summoned -from his sheepfolds, with the wind of the desert on his cheek and -its sunlight in his hair, to kneel before the aged prophet and feel -the hands of consecration laid upon his head. Swift and strong, his -feet like hart's feet, his arms able to bend a bow of steel, he -fights like a good shepherd for his flock, and single-handed smites -the lion and the bear. His harp and song drive the evil spirit from -the tortured soul of the demoniac king. With a sling and a stone the -boy slays the giant champion, and the maidens of Israel praise their -deliverer with songs and dances. He becomes the armour-bearer of -the king, the beloved comrade of the king's son, the husband of the -king's daughter. Then indeed he is driven into imperilled outlawry by -the king's envy, and becomes the captain of a band of freebooters; -but his influence over them, as in our English legends of Robin Hood, -gives something of beneficence to his lawlessness, and even these -wandering years of brigandage are brightened by tales of his splendid -magnanimity. 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--who, with the -chivalry of a Sydney, had poured on the ground the bright drops of -water from the Well of Bethlehem for which he had thirsted, because -they had been won by imperilled lives--sprang naturally into the -idolised hero and poet of his people. Then God had taken him from -the sheepfolds, from following the ewes great with young ones, -that he might lead Jacob His people and Israel His inheritance. -Generous to the sad memories of Saul and Jonathan, generous to the -princely Abner, generous to the weak Ishbosheth, generous to poor -lame Mephibosheth, he had knit all hearts like the heart of one -man to himself, and in successful war had carried all before him, -north and south, and east and west. He enlarged the borders of his -kingdom, captured the City of Waters, and placed the Moloch-crown of -Rabbah on his head. Then in the mid-flush of his prosperity, in his -pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness, "the tempting -opportunity met the susceptible disposition," and David forgat God -who had done so great things for him. - -The people must have felt how deep was the debt of gratitude which -they owed to him. He had given them a consciousness of power -yet undeveloped; a sense of the unity of their national life -perpetuated by the possession of a capital which has been famous -to all succeeding ages. To David the nation owed the conquest of -the stronghold of Jebus, and they would feel that "as the hills -stand about Jerusalem so standeth the Lord round about them that -fear Him."[61] The king who associates his name with a national -capital--as Nebuchadnezzar built great Babylon, or Constantine chose -Byzantium--secures the strongest claim to immortality. 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 Alexandria. Jerusalem is a city which belongs to -all time, and even under the curse of Turkish rule it has not -lost its undying interest. But David had rendered a still higher -service in giving stability to the national religion. The prestige -of the Ark had been destroyed in the overwhelming defeat of Israel -by the Philistines at Aphek, when it fell into the hands of the -uncircumcised. After that it had been neglected and half forgotten -until David brought it with songs and dances to God's holy hill of -Zion. Since then every pious Israelite might rejoice that, as in the -Tabernacle of old, God was once more in the midst of His people. -The merely superstitious might only regard the Ark as a fetish--the -fated Palladium of the national existence. But to all thoughtful men -the presence of the Ark had a deeper meaning, for it enshrined the -Tables of the Moral Law; and those broken Tables, and the bending -Cherubim which gazed down upon them, and the blood-sprinkled gold of -the Mercy-Seat were a vivid emblem that God's Will is the Rule of -Righteousness, and that if it be broken the soul must be reconciled -to Him by repentance and forgiveness. That meaning is beautifully -brought out in the Psalm which says, "Who shall ascend into the hill -of the Lord, or who shall rise up into the holy place? Even he that -hath clean hands and a pure heart: who hath not lifted up his mind -unto vanity, nor sworn to deceive his neighbour." - -To David more than to any man that conviction of the supremacy of -righteousness must have been keenly present, and for this reason his -sin was the less pardonable. It "tore down the altar of confidence" -in many hearts. It caused the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, and -was therefore worthy of a sorer punishment. And God in His mercy -smote, and did not spare. - -He sinned: then came earthquake and eclipse. His earthly life was -shipwrecked in that place where two seas meet--where the sea of -calamity meets the sea of crime.[62] Then followed the death of his -infant child; the outrage of Amnon; the blood of the brutal ravisher -shed by his brother's hands; the flight of Absalom; his insolence, -his rebellion, his deadly insult to his father's household; the long -day of flight and shame and weeping and curses, as David ascended -the slope of Olivet and went down into the Valley of Jordan; the -sanguinary battle; the cruel murder of the beloved rebel; the -insolence of Joab; the heartrending cry, "O Absalom, my son, my son -Absalom; would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" - -Not even then had David's trials ended. He had to endure the fierce -quarrel between Israel and Judah; the rebellion of Sheba; the murder -of Amasa, which he dared not punish. He had to sink into the further -sin of pride in numbering the people, and to see the Angel of the -Plague standing with drawn sword over the threshing-floor of Araunah, -while his people--those sheep who had not offended--died around him -by thousands. After such a life he was made to feel that it was -not for blood-stained hands like his to rear the Temple, though he -had said, "I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eyelids -to slumber, neither the temples of my head to take any rest till I -find a place for the tabernacle of the Lord, a habitation for the -mighty God of Jacob." And now we see him surrounded by intrigues; -alienated from the friends and advisers of his youth; shivering in -his sick-room; attended by his nurse; feeble, apathetic, the ghost -and wreck of all that he held been, with little left him of his life -but its "glimmerings and decays." - -It is an oft-repeated story. Even so we see great Darius - - "Deserted at his utmost need - By those his former bounty fed; - On the bare ground exposed he lies - Without a friend to close his eyes." - -So we see glorious Alexander the Great, dying as a fool dieth, -remorseful, drunken, disappointed, at Babylon. So we see our great -Plantagenet:-- - - "Mighty victor, mighty lord, - Low on his funeral couch he lies! - No pitying heart, no eye afford - A tear to grace his obsequies." - -So we see Louis XIV., _le grand monarque_, peevish, _ennuye_, -fortunate no longer, an old man of seventy-seven left in his vast -lonely palace with his great-grandson, a frivolous child of five, -and saying to him, "_J'ai trop aime la guerre; ne m'imitez point_." -So we see the last great conqueror of modern times, embittering his -dishonoured island-exile by miserable disputes with Sir Hudson Lowe -about etiquette and champagne. 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 Israel, whose songs have been to so -many thousands their delight in the house of their pilgrimage. Truly -David's experience no less than his own may have added bitterness to -the traditional epitaph of his son on all human glory: "Vanity of -vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity." - -FOOTNOTES: - -[56] 1 Chron. xxiii. 1. - -[57] 2 Sam. v. 5. - -[58] It is mentioned by Galen, vii.; Valesius, _De Sacr. Philos._, -xxix., p. 187; Bacon, _Hist. Vitae et Mortis_, ix. 25; Reinhard, -_Bibel-Krankheiten_, p. 171. See Josephus, _Antt._, VII. xv. 3. - -[59] Now Solam, near _Zerin_ (Jezreel), five miles south of Tabor -(Robinson, _Researches_, iii. 462), on the south-west of Jebel -el-Duhy (Little Hermon), Josh. xix. 18; 1 Sam. xxviii. 4. - -[60] AEsch., _Sept. c. Theb._, 690. - -[61] See Psalm cxxii. 3-5. - -[62] See Kittel, ii. 147. - - - - - CHAPTER VIII. - - _AN EASTERN COURT AND HOME._ - - 1 KINGS i. - - "Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness."--EZEK. xvi. - 49. - - -A man does not choose his own destiny; it is ordained for higher -ends than his own personal happiness. If David could have made his -choice, he might, indeed, have been dazzled by the glittering lure of -royalty; yet he would have been in all probability happier and nobler -had he never risen above the simple life of his forefathers. Our -saintly king in Shakespeare's tragedy says:-- - - "My crown is in my heart, not on my head; - Not decked with diamonds and Indian stones, - Nor to be seen. My crown is called Content; - And crown it is which seldom kings enjoy." - -David assuredly did not enjoy that crown. After his establishment at -Jerusalem it is doubtful whether he could count more happy days than -Abderrahman the Magnificent, who recorded that amid a life honoured -in peace and victorious in war he could not number more than fourteen. - -We admire the generous freebooter more than we admire the powerful -king. As time went on he showed a certain deterioration of character, -the inevitable result of the unnatural conditions to which he -had succumbed. Saul was a king of a very simple type. No pompous -ceremonials separated him from the simple intercourse of natural -kindliness. He did not tower over the friends of his youth like a -Colossus, and look down on his superiors from the artificial elevation -of his inch-high dignity. "In himself was all his state," and there -was something kinglier in his simple majesty when he stood under his -pomegranate at Migron, with his huge javelin in his hand, than in - - "The tedious pomp which waits - On princes, when their rich retinue long - Of horses led, and grooms besmeared with gold - Dazzles the crowd, and sets them all agape." - -We should not have assumed beforehand that there was anything -in David's character which rendered external pomp and ceremony -attractive to him. But the inherent flunkeyism of Eastern servility -made his courtiers feed him with adulation, and approach him with -genuflexions. 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 thrones. There is something startling to see -what a chasm royalty has cleft between him and the comrades of his -adversity, and even the partner of his guilt who had become his -favourite queen. We see it throughout the story of the last scenes -in which he plays a part. He can only be addressed with periphrases -and in the third person. "Let there be sought for _my lord the king_ -a young virgin; and let her stand before _the king_, and let her -lie in thy bosom, that _my lord the king_ may get heat." Bathsheba -can only speak to him in such terms as, "Didst not thou, my lord, -O king, swear unto thy handmaid?" and even she, when she enters -the sick-chamber of his decrepitude, prostrates herself and does -obeisance. Every other word of her speech is interlarded with "my -lord the king," and "my lord, O king"; and when she leaves "the -presence" she again bows herself with her face to the earth, and does -reverence to the king[63] with the words, "May my lord, King David, -live for ever." The anointed dignity of the prophet who had once so -boldly rebuked David's worst crime does not exempt him from the same -ceremonial, and he too goes into the inner chamber bowing his face -before the king to the earth. - -Insensibly David must have come to require it all, and to like it. -Yet the unsophisticated instincts of his more natural youth would -surely have revolted from it. He would have deprecated it as sternly -as the Greek conqueror in the mighty tragedy who hates to walk to his -throne on purple tapestries, and says to his queen:-- - - "Ope not the mouth to me, nor cry amain - As at the footstool of a man of the East, - Prone on the ground: so stoop not thou to me;" - -or, as another has more literally rendered it:-- - - "Nor like some barbarous man - Gape thou upon me an earth-grovelling howl."[64] - -But the royal position of David brought with it a surer curse -than that which follows the extreme exaltation of a man above -his fellows. It brought with it the permitted luxury of imaginary -necessity for polygamy, and the man-enervating, woman-degrading -paraphernalia of an Eastern harem. Jesse and Boaz, in their paternal -fields at Bethlehem, had been content with one wife, and had known -the true joys of love and home. But monogamy was thought unsuitable -to the new grandeur of a despot, and under the curse of polygamy the -joy of love, the peace of home, are inevitably blighted. In that -condition man gives up the sweetest sources of earthly blessing for -the meanest gratifications of animal sensuousness. Love, when it is -pure and true, gilds the life of man with a joy of heaven, and fills -it with a breath of Paradise. It renders life more perfect and more -noble by the union of two souls, and fulfils the original purpose of -creation. A home, blessed by life's most natural sanctities, becomes -a saving ark in days of storm. - - "Here Love his golden shafts employs, here lights - His constant lamp, and waves his purple wings, - Reigns here and revels." - -But in a polygamous household a home is exchanged for a troubled -establishment, and love is carnalised into a jaded appetite. The -Eastern king becomes the slave of every wandering fancy, and can -hardly fail to be a despiser of womanhood, which he sees only on its -ignoblest side. His home is liable to be torn by mutual jealousies -and subterranean intrigues, and many a foul and midnight murder has -marked, and still marks, the secret history of Eastern seraglios. The -women--idle, ignorant, uneducated, degraded, intriguing--with nothing -to think of but gossip, scandal, spite, and animal passion; hating -each other worst of all, and each engaged in the fierce attempt to -reign supreme in the affection which she cannot monopolise--spend -wasted lives of _ennui_ and slavish degradation. Eunuchs, the -vilest products of the most corrupted civilisation, soon make their -loathly appearance in such courts, and add the element of morbid and -rancorous effeminacy to the general ferment of corruption. Polygamy, -as it is a contravention of God's original design, enfeebles the -man, degrades the woman, corrupts the slave, and destroys the home. -David introduced it into the Southern Kingdom, and Ahab into the -Northern;--both with the most calamitous effects. - -Polygamy produces results worse than all the others upon the children -born in such families. Murderous rivalry often reigns between them, -and fraternal affection is almost unknown. The children inherit the -blood of deteriorated mothers, and the sons of different wives burn -with the mutual animosities of the harem, under whose shadowing -influence they have been brought up. When Napoleon was asked the -greatest need of France, he answered in the one laconic word, -"_Mothers_"; and when he was asked the best training ground for -recruits, he said, "_The nurseries, of course._" 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 form. - -The darkest elements of a polygamous household showed themselves -in the unhappy family of David. The children of the various wives -and concubines saw but little of their father during their childish -years. David could only give them a scanty and much-divided attention -when they were brought to him to display their beauty. They grew up -as children, the spoiled and petted playthings of women and debased -attendants, with nothing to curb their rebellious passions or -check their imperious wills. The little influence over them which -David exercised was unhappily not for good. He was a man of tender -affections. He repeated the errors of which he might have been warned -by the effects of foolish indulgence on Hophni and Phinehas, the sons -of Eli, and even on the sons of the guide of his youth, the prophet -Samuel. The wild careers of David's elder sons show that they had -inherited his strong passions and eager ambition, and that in their -case, as well as Adonijah's, he had not displeased them at any time -in saying, "Why hast thou done so?" - -The consequences which followed had been frightful beyond precedent. -David must have learnt by experience the truth of the exhortation, -"Desire not a multitude of unprofitable children, neither delight in -ungodly sons. Though they multiply, rejoice not in them, except the -fear of the Lord be with them: for one that is just is better than -a thousand; and better it is to die without children, than to have -those that are ungodly."[65] - -David's eldest son was Amnon, the son of Ahinoam of Jezreel; his second -Daniel or Chileab, son of Abigail, the wife of Nabal of Carmel; the -third Absalom, son of Maacah, daughter of Talmai, King of Geshur; -the fourth Adonijah, the son of Haggith. Shephatiah and Ithream were -the sons of two other wives, and these six sons were born to David -in Hebron. When he became king in Jerusalem he had four sons by -Bathsheba, born after the one that died in his infancy, and at least -nine other sons by various wives, besides his daughter Tamar, sister of -Absalom. He had other sons by his concubines. Most of these sons are -unknown to fame. Some of them probably died in childhood. He provided -for others by making them priests.[66] His line, down to the days of -Jeconiah, was continued in the descendants of Solomon, and afterwards -in those of the otherwise unknown Nathan. The elder sons, born to -him in the days of his more fervent youth, became the authors of the -tragedies which laid waste his house. They were youths of splendid -beauty, and, as they bore the proud title of "the king's sons," they -were from their earliest years encircled by luxury and adulation.[67] - -Amnon regarded himself as the heir to the throne, and his fierce -passions brought the first infamy into the family of David. By the -aid of his cousin Jonadab, the wily son of Shimmeah, the king's -brother, he brutally dishonoured his half-sister Tamar, and then -as brutally drove the unhappy princess from his presence. It was -David's duty to inflict punishment on his shameless heir, but he -weakly condoned the crime. Absalom dissembled his vengeance for two -whole years, and spoke to his brother neither good nor evil. At the -end of that time he invited David and all the princes to a joyous -sheep-shearing festival at Baal Hazor. David, as he anticipated, -declined the invitation, on the plea that his presence would burden -his son with needless expense. Then Absalom asked that, as the king -could not honour his festival, at least his brother Amnon, as the -heir to the throne, might be present. David's heart misgave him, but -he could refuse nothing to the youth whose magnificent and faultless -beauty filled him with an almost doting pride, and Amnon and all the -princes went to the feast. No sooner was Amnon's heart inflamed with -wine, than, at a preconcerted signal, Absalom's servants fell on him -and murdered him. The feast broke up in tumultuous horror, and in the -wild cry and rumour which arose, the heart of David was torn with -the intelligence that Absalom had murdered all his brothers. He rent -his clothes, and lay weeping in the dust surrounded by his weeping -servants. But Jonadab assured him that only Amnon had been murdered -in revenge for his unpunished outrage, and a rush of people along -the road, among whom the princes were visible riding on their mules, -confirmed his words. But the deed was still black enough. Bathed -in tears, and raising the wild cries of Eastern grief, the band of -youthful princes stood round the father whose incestuous firstborn -had thus fallen by a brother's hand, and the king also and all his -servants "wept greatly with a great weeping." - -Absalom fled to his grandfather the King of Geshur; but his purpose -had been doubly accomplished. He had avenged the shame of his sister, -and he was now himself the eldest son and heir to the throne.[68] His -claim was strengthened by the superb physique and beautiful hair -of which he was so proud, and which won the hearts both of king and -people. Capable, ambitious, secure of ultimate pardon, the son and -the grandson of a king, he lived for three years at the court of his -grandfather. Then Joab, perceiving that David was consoled for the -death of Amnon, and that his heart was yearning for his favourite -son,[69] obtained the intercession of the wise woman of Tekoah, -and got permission for Absalom to return. But his offence had been -terrible, and to his extreme mortification the king refused to admit -him. Joab, though he had manoeuvred for his return, did not come -near him, and twice refused to visit him when summoned to do so. -With characteristic insolence the young man obtained an interview -by ordering his servants to set fire to Joab's field of barley. By -Joab's request the king once more saw Absalom, and, as the youth felt -sure would be the case, raised him from the ground, kissed, forgave, -and restored him to favour. - -For the favour of his weakly-fond father he cared little; what he -wanted was the throne. His proud beauty, his royal descent on both -sides, fired his ambition. Eastern peoples are always ready to concede -pre-eminence to splendid men. This had helped to win the kingdom for -stately Saul and ruddy David; for the Jews, like the Greeks, thought -that "loveliness of person involves the blossoming promises of future -excellence, and is, as it were, a prelude of riper beauty."[70] 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 dotard. By his personal fascination, and by base -intrigues against David, founded on the king's imperfect fulfilment of -his duties as judge, "he stole the hearts of the children of Israel." -After four years[71] everything was ripe for revolt. He found that -for some unexplained reason the tribe of Judah and the old capital -of Hebron were disaffected to David's rule. He got leave to visit -Hebron in pretended fulfilment of a vow, and so successfully raised -the standard of revolt that David, his family, and his followers had -to fly hurriedly from Jerusalem with bare feet and cheeks bathed in -tears along the road of the Perfumers. 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 speak, -nor of the defeat of the rebellion. David was saved by the adhesion -of his warrior-corps (the _Gibborim_) and his mercenaries (the Krethi -and Plethi). Absalom's host was routed. He was in some strange way -entangled in the branches of a tree as he fled on his mule through the -forest of Rephaim.[72] As he hung helpless there, Joab, with needless -cruelty, drove three wooden staves through his body in revenge for his -past insolence, leaving his armour-bearer to despatch the miserable -fugitive. To this day every Jewish child flings a contumelious stone -at the pillar in the King's Dale, which bears the traditional name of -David's Son, the beautiful and bad.[73] - -The days which followed were thickly strewn with calamities for the -rapidly ageing and heart-broken king. His helpless decline was yet to -be shaken by the attempted usurpation of another bad son. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[63] The same word is rendered "worship" in Psalm xlv. 11. Comp. 2 -Sam. ix. 6; Esth. iii. 2-5. In 1 Chron. xxix. 20 we are told that the -people "_worshipped_" the Lord and the king. - -[64] - - "[Greek: Mede barbarou photos diken - Chamaipetes boama proschanes emoi]." - AEsch., _Agam._, 887. - -[65] Ecclus. xvi. 1-3. He must have had at least twenty sons, and at -least one daughter (2 Sam. iii. 1-5, v. 14-16; 1 Chron. iii. 1-9, -xiv. 3-7). Josephus again (_Antt._, VII. iii. 3) has a different list. - -[66] _Kohanim._ - -[67] From the fact that his son Eliada (2 Sam. v. 16) is called -Beeliada (_i.e._, "Baal knows") in 1 Chron. xiv. 7, it is surely a -precarious inference that "now and then he paid his homage to some -Baal, perhaps to please one of his foreign wives" (Van Oort, _Bible -for Young People_, iii. 84). The true explanation seems to be that at -one time Baal, "Lord," was not regarded as an unauthorised title for -Jehovah. The fact that David once had _teraphim_ in his house (1 Sam. -xix. 13, 16) shows that his advance in knowledge was gradual. - -[68] Chileab was either dead, or was of no significance. - -[69] 2 Sam. xiii. 39. "The soul of king David longed to go forth unto -Absalom." - -[70] Max. Tyr., _Dissert._, 9 (Keil, _ad loc._). - -[71] In 2 Sam. xv. 7 we should certainly alter "forty" into four. - -[72] Rephaim seems a more probable reading than Ephraim in 2 Sam. -xviii. 6; see Josh. xvii. 15, 18. Yet the name "Ephraim" may have -been given to this transjordanic wood. The notion that he _hung by -his hair_ is only a conjecture, and not a probable one. - -[73] His three sons had pre-deceased him; his beautiful daughter -Tamar (2 Sam. xiv. 27) became the wife of Rehoboam. She is called -Maachah in 1 Kings xv. 2, and the LXX. addition to 2 Sam. xiv. 27 -says that she bore both names. The so-called tomb of Absalom in the -Valley of Hebron is of Asmonaean and Herodian origin. - - - - - CHAPTER IX. - - _ADONIJAH'S REBELLION._ - - 1 KINGS i. 5-53. - - "The king's word hath power; and who may say unto him, What doest - thou?"--ECCLES. viii. 4. - - -The fate of Amnon and of Absalom might have warned the son who was -now the eldest, and who had succeeded to their claims. - -Adonijah was the son of Haggith, "the dancer." His father had piously -given him the name, which means "Jehovah is my Lord." He, too, was -"a very goodly man," treated by David with foolish indulgence, and -humoured in all his wishes. Although the rights of primogeniture -were ill-defined, a king's eldest son, endowed as Adonijah was, -would naturally be looked on as the heir; and Adonijah was impatient -for the great prize. Following the example of Absalom "he exalted -himself, saying, I will be king," and, as an unmistakable sign of -his intentions, prepared for himself fifty runners with chariots and -horsemen.[74] David, unwarned by the past, or perhaps too ill and -secluded to be aware of what was going on, put no obstacle in his way. -The people in general were tired of David, though the spell of his -name was still great. Adonijah's cause seemed safe when he had won over -Joab, the commander of the forces, and Abiathar, the chief priest. But -the young man's precipitancy spoiled everything. David lingered on. It -was perhaps a palace-secret that a strong court-party was in favour -of Solomon, and that David was inclined to leave his kingdom to this -younger son by his favourite wife. So Adonijah, once more imitating -the tactics of Absalom, prepared a great feast at the Dragon-stone by -the Fullers' Well, in the valley below Jerusalem.[75] He sacrificed -sheep and fat oxen and cattle, and invited all the king's fifteen sons, -omitting Solomon, from whom alone he had any rivalry to fear. To this -feast he also invited Joab and Abiathar, and all the men of Judah, the -king's servants, by which are probably intended "all the captains of -the host" who formed the nucleus of the militia forces.[76] At this -feast Adonijah threw off the mask. In open rebellion against David, his -followers shouted, "God save king Adonijah!" - -The watchful eye of one man--the old prophet-statesman, Nathan--saw -the danger. Adonijah was thirty-five; Solomon was comparatively a -child. "Solomon, my son," says David, "is young and tender."[77] -What his age was at the date of Adonijah's rebellion we do not know. -Josephus says that he was only twelve, and this would well accord -with the fact that he seems to have taken no step on his own behalf, -while Nathan and Bathsheba act for him. It accords less well with -the calm magnanimity and regal decisiveness which he displayed from -the first day that he was seated on the throne. The Greek proverb -says, [Greek: Arche andra deiknysin], "Power shows the man." Perhaps -Solomon, hitherto concealed in the seclusion of the harem, was, up -to this time, ignorant of himself as well as unknown to the people. -Being unaware of the boy's capacity, many were taken in by the more -showy gifts of the handsome Adonijah, whose age might seem to promise -greater stability to the kingdom. - -But Solomon from his birth upwards had been Nathan's special -charge.[78] 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 offence, and had prophesied -his punishment in the death of the child of adultery. An oracle had -forbidden him to build the Temple because his hands were stained with -blood, but had promised him a son who should be a man of rest, and in -whose days Israel should have peace and quietness.[79] Long before, -in Hebron, David, yearning for peace, had called his eldest son -Absalom ("the father of peace"). To the second son of Bathsheba, whom -he regarded as the heir of oracular promise, he gave the sounding -name of Shelomoh ("the Peaceful").[80] But Nathan, perhaps with -reference to David's own name of "the Beloved," had called the child -Jedidiah ("the beloved of Jehovah"). - -The secret of his destiny was probably known to few, though it was -evidently suspected by Adonijah. To have proclaimed it in a crowded -harem would have been to expose the child to the perils of poison, -and to have doomed him to certain death if one of his unruly brothers -succeeded in seizing the royal authority. The oath to Bathsheba that -her son should succeed must have been a secret known at the time to -Nathan only. It is evident that David had never taken any step to -secure its fulfilment. - -The crisis was one of extreme peril. Nathan was now old. He had -perhaps sunk into the courtly complaisance which, content with one -bold rebuke, ceased to deal faithfully with David. He had at any rate -left it to Gad the Seer to reprove him for numbering the people. -Now, however, he rose to the occasion, and by a prompt _coup d'etat_ -caused the instant collapse of Adonijah's conspiracy. - -Adonijah had counted on the jealousy of the tribe of Judah, on the -king's seclusion and waning popularity, on the support of "all the -captains of the host," on the acquiescence of all the other princes, -and above all on the favour of the ecclesiastical and military power of -the kingdom as represented by Abiathar and Joab. To Solomon himself, as -yet a shadowy figure and so much younger, he attached no importance. -He treated his aged father as a cipher, and Nathan as of no particular -account.[81] He overlooked the influence of Bathsheba, the prestige -which attached to the nomination of a reigning king, and above all the -resistance of the body-guard of mercenaries and their captain Benaiah. - -Nathan had no sooner received tidings of what was going on at -Adonijah's feast than he shook off his lethargy and hurried to -Bathsheba. She seems to have retained the same sort of influence over -David that Madame de Maintenon exercised over the aged Louis XIV. -"Had she heard," asked Nathan, "that Adonijah's coronation was going -on at that moment? Let her hurry to King David, 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 heir." As -soon as she had broken the intelligence to the king, he would come -and confirm her words.[82] - -Bathsheba did not lose a moment. She knew that if Adonijah's -conspiracy succeeded her own life and that of her son might not -be worth a day's purchase. The helplessness of David's condition -is shown by the fact that she had to make her way into "the inner -chamber" to visit him. In violation of the immemorial etiquette of an -Eastern household, she spoke to him without being summoned, and in -the presence of another woman, Abishag, his fair young nurse. With -profound obeisances she entered, and told the poor old hero that -Adonijah had practically usurped the throne, but that the eyes of all -Israel were awaiting his decision as to who should be his successor. -She asked whether he was really indifferent to the peril of herself -and of Solomon, for Adonijah's success would mean their doom.[83] - -While she yet spoke Nathan was announced, as had been concerted -between them, and he repeated the story of what was going on at -Adonijah's feast. It is remarkable that he says nothing to David -either about consulting the Urim, or in any way ascertaining the will -of God. He and Bathsheba rely exclusively on four motives--David's -rights of nomination, his promise, the danger to Solomon, and the -contempt shown in Adonijah's proceedings. "The whole incident," -says Reuss, "is swayed by the ordinary movements of passion and -interest."[84] The news woke in David a flash of his old energy. With -instant decision he summoned Bathsheba, who, as custom required, -had left the chamber when Nathan entered. Using his strong and -favourite adjuration, "As the Lord liveth, that hath redeemed my -soul out of all distress,"[85] he pledged himself to carry out that -very day the oath that Solomon should be his heir. She bowed her -face to the earth in adoration with the words, "Let my lord, King -David, live for ever." He then summoned Zadok, the second priest, -Nathan, and Benaiah, and told them what to do. They were to take the -body-guard[86] which was under Benaiah's command, to place Solomon on -the king's own she-mule[87] (which was regarded as the highest honour -of all honours), to conduct him down the Valley of Jehoshaphat to -Gihon,[88] where the pool would furnish the water for the customary -ablutions, to anoint him king, and then to blow the consecrated ram's -horn (_shophar_)[89] with the shout, "God save King Solomon!" After -this the boy was to be seated on the throne, and proclaimed ruler -over Israel and Judah. - -Benaiah was one of David's twelve chosen captains, who was placed -at the head of one of the monthly courses of 24,000 soldiers in the -third month. The chronicler calls him a priest.[90] His available -forces made him master of the situation, and he joyfully accepted -the commission with, "Amen! So may Jehovah say!" and with the prayer -that the throne of Solomon might be even greater than the throne -of David. Joab was commander-in-chief of the army, but his forces -had not been summoned or mobilised. 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 action. These guards were the Krethi and Plethi,[91] -"executioners and runners," perhaps an alien body of faithful -mercenaries originally composed of Cretans and Philistines. They -formed a compact body of defenders, always prepared for action. They -resemble the Germans of the Roman Emperors, the Turkish Janissaries, -the Egyptian Mamelukes, the Byzantian Varangians, or the Swiss Guard -of the Bourbons. Their one duty was to be ready at a moment's notice -to carry out the king's behests. Such a picked regiment has often -held in its hands the prerogative of Empire. They were, originally at -any rate, identical with the _Gibborim_,[92] and had been at first -commanded by men who had earned rank by personal prowess. But for -their intervention on this occasion Adonijah would have become king. - -While Adonijah's followers were wasting time over their turbulent -banquet, the younger court-party were carrying out the unexpectedly -vigorous suggestions of the aged king. While the eastern hills -echoed with "Long live King Adonijah!" the western hills resounded -with shouts of "Long live King Solomon!" The young Solomon had been -ceremoniously mounted on the king's mule, and the procession had gone -down to Gihon. There, with the solemnity which is only mentioned in -cases of disputed succession,[93] 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 Zion.[94] These -measures had been neglected by Adonijah's party in the precipitation -of their plot, and they were regarded as of the utmost importance, as -they are in Persia to this day.[95] Then the trumpets blew, and the -vast crowd which had assembled shouted, "God save King Solomon!" The -people broke into acclamations, and danced, and played on pipes, and -the earth rang again with the mighty sound.[96] Adonijah had fancied, -and he subsequently asserted, that "all Israel set their faces on -me that I should reign." But his vanity had misled him. Many of the -people may have seen through his shallow character, and may have -dreaded the rule of such a king. Others were still attached to David, -and were prepared to accept his choice. Others were struck with the -grave bearing and the youthful beauty of the son of Bathsheba. The -multitude were probably opportunists ready to shout with the winner -whoever he might be. - -The old warrior Joab, perhaps less dazed with wine and enthusiasm -than the other guests of Adonijah, was the first to catch the sound -of the trumpet blasts and of the general rejoicing, and to portend -its significance. As he started up in surprise the guests caught -sight of Jonathan, son of Abiathar, a swift-footed priest who had -acted as a spy for David in Jerusalem at Absalom's rebellion,[97] but -who now, like his father Abiathar and so many of his betters, had -gone over to Adonijah. The prince welcomed him as a "man of worth," -one who was sure to bring tidings of good omen;[98] but Jonathan -burst out with, "Nay, but our Lord king David hath made Solomon -king." He does not seem to have been in a hurry to bring this fatal -intelligence; for he had not only waited until the entire ceremony -at Gihon was over, but to the close of the enthronisation of Solomon -in Jerusalem.[99] He had seen the young king seated on the throne of -state in the midst of the jubilant people. David had been carried -out upon his couch, and, bowing his head in worship before the -multitude, had said, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which hath -given one to sit on my throne this day, mine eyes even seeing it." - -This intelligence fell like a thunderbolt among Adonijah's unprepared -adherents. A general flight took place, each man being only eager to -save himself. The straw fire of their enthusiasm had already flared -itself away. Deserted by every one, and fearing to pay the forfeit -of his life, Adonijah fled to the nearest sanctuary, where the Ark -stood on Mount Zion under the care of his supporter the high priest -Abiathar.[100] There he caught hold of the horns of the altar--wooden -projections at each of its corners, overlaid with brass. When a -sacrifice was offered the animal was tied to these horns of the -altar,[101] 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 Atonement. The mercy-seat thus -became a symbol of atonement, and an appeal to God that He would -forgive the sinful priest and the sinful nation who came before Him -with the blood of expiation. The mercy-seat would have furnished an -inviolable sanctuary had it not been enclosed in the Holiest Place, -unapproachable by any feet but that of the high priest once a year. -The horns of the altar were, however, available for refuge to any -offender, and their protection involved an appeal to the mercy of man -as to the mercy of God.[102] - -There in wretched plight clung the fallen prince, hurled down in one -day from the summit of his ambition. He refused to leave the spot -unless King Solomon would first of all swear that he would not slay -his servant with the sword.[103] Adonijah saw that all was over with -his cause. "God," says the Portuguese proverb, "can write straight on -crooked lines;" and as is so often the case, the crisis which brought -about His will was the immediate result of an endeavour to defeat it. - -Solomon was not one of those Eastern princes who - - "Bear like the Turk no brother near the throne." - -Many an Eastern king has begun his reign as Baasha, Jehu, and -Athaliah did, by the exile, imprisonment, or execution of every -possible rival. Adonijah, caught red-handed in an attempt at -rebellion, might have been left with some show of justice to starve -at the horns of the altar, or to leave his refuge and face the -penalty due to crime. But Solomon, unregarded and unknown as he had -hitherto been, rose at once to the requirements of his new position, -and magnanimously promised his brother a complete amnesty[104] so -long as he remained faithful to his allegiance. Adonijah descended -the steps of the altar, and having made sacred obeisance to his new -sovereign[105] was dismissed with the laconic order, "Go to thine -house." If, as some have conjectured, Adonijah had once urged on his -father the condign punishment of Absalom, he might well congratulate -himself on receiving pardon.[106] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[74] Morier tells us that in Persia "runners" before the king's -horses are an indispensable adjunct of his state. - -[75] The Stone of Zoheleth, probably a sacred stone--one of the -numerous isolated rocks of Palestine; is not mentioned elsewhere. -The Fuller's Fountain is mentioned in Josh. xv. 7, xviii. 16; 2 Sam. -xvii. 17. It was south-east of Jerusalem, and is perhaps identical -with "Job's Fountain," where the wadies of Kedron and Hinnom meet -(_Palestine Exploration Fund_, 1874, p. 80). - -[76] Comp. 1 Kings i. 9-25. - -[77] The same phrase is used of Rehoboam (2 Chron. xii. 13, xiii. -7) when he was twenty-one, reading [Hebrew: ch] for [Hebrew: m], -forty-one. - -[78] 2 Sam. xii. 25: "And he sent by the hand of Nathan, the prophet; -he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord" (A.V.). The verse -is somewhat obscure. It either means that David sent the child to -Nathan to be brought up under his guardianship, or sent Nathan to ask -of the oracle the favour of some well-omened name (Ewald, iii. 168). -Nathan was perhaps akin to David. The Rabbis absurdly identify him -with Jonathan (1 Chron. xxvii. 32; 2 Sam. xxi. 21), nephew of David, -son of Shimmeah. - -[79] 1 Chron. xxii. 6-9. - -[80] LXX., [Greek: Salomon], and in Ecclus. xlvii. 13. Comp. Shelomith -(Lev. xxiv. 11), Shelomi (Num. xxxiv. 27). But it became [Greek: -Salomon] in the New Testament, Josephus, the Sibylline verses, etc. The -long vowel is retained in Salome and in the Arabic Suleyman, etc. - -[81] Among Solomon's adherents are mentioned "Shimei and Rei" (1 Kings -i. 8), whom Ewald supposes to stand for two of David's brothers, Shimma -and Raddai, and Stade to be two officers of the Gibborim. Thenius -adopts a reading partly suggested by Josephus, "Hushai, the friend of -David." Others identify Rei with Ira; a Shimei, the son of Elah, is -mentioned among Solomon's governors (_Nitzabim_, 1 Kings iv. 18); and -there was a Shimei of Ramah over David's vineyards (1 Chron. xxvii. -27). The name was common, and meant "famous." - -[82] Duncker, Meyer, Wellhausen, Stade, regard Solomon's accession -as due to a mere palace intrigue of Nathan and Bathsheba, and -David's dying injunctions as only intended to excuse Solomon. They -treat 1 Kings ii. 1-12 as a Deuteronomic interpolation. Dillmann, -Kittel, Kuenen, Budde, rightly reject this view. Stade says, "Nach -menschlichen Gefuehl, ein Unrecht war die Salbung Salomos." He thinks -that "the aged David was over-influenced by the intrigues of the -harem and the court" (i. 292). - -[83] She said that they would be counted as "offenders" (_chattaim_) -Comp. 1 Kings i. 12, where Nathan assumes that they will both be put -to death. Thus Cassander put to death Roxana, the widow of Alexander -the Great, and her son Alexander (Justin., xv. 2). - -[84] Reuss, _Hist. des Israelites_, i. 409. - -[85] Comp. 2 Sam. iv. 9; Psalm xix. 14. - -[86] "The servants of your Lord." Comp. 2 Sam. xx. 6, 7. - -[87] Comp. Gen. xli. 43; 1 Kings i. 33; Esth. vi. 8. - -[88] 2 Chron. xxxii. 30, xxxiii. 14. It was apparently "the Virgin's -Fountain," east of Jerusalem, in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. - -[89] Comp. 2 Kings ix. 13. - -[90] 1 Chron. xxvii. 5, where the true rendering is not "Benaiah the -chief priest," as in A.V., nor "principal officer," as in the margin: -but "Benaiah the priest, as chief." - -[91] 1 Sam. xxx. 14; Josephus, [Greek: somatophylakes]. The Targum -calls them "archers and slingers" (which is unlikely), or "nobles -and common soldiers." This body-guard is also said to be composed of -Gittites (2 Sam. xv. 18, xviii. 2); but some suppose that they were -so called not by nationality, but because they had served under David -at Gath. The question is further complicated by the appearance of -"Carians" (A.V., captains) in 2 Kings xi. 4, 15, and also in 2 Sam. -xx. 23 (Heb.). The Carians were universal mercenaries (Herod., ii. -152; Liv., xxxvii. 40). That there was an early intercourse between -Palestine and the West is shown by the fact that such words as -peribolory, machaera, macaina, lesche, pellex, have found their way -into Hebrew (see Renan, _Hist. du Peuple Israel_, ii. 33). - -[92] 2 Sam. xxiii. 8-39; 1 Chron. xi. 10-47; 1 Kings i. 8. The Gibborim -are by some supposed to be a different body from the Krethi and Plethi -(2 Sam. xv. 18, xx. 7); but from 1 Kings i. 8, 10, 38 they seem to be -the same (Stade, i. 275). The thirty heroes at their head furnish, as -Renan says, the first germ of a sort of "Legion of Honour." - -[93] Saul (1 Sam. x. 1), David (1 Sam. xvi. 13, and twice afterwards, 2 -Sam. ii. 4, v. 3), Jehu (1 Kings xix. 16), Joash (2 Chron. xxiii. 11). - -[94] 1 Kings i. 39. "Tent," not "tabernacle," as in A.V. It has -generally been supposed that Zadok took it from the tabernacle at -Gibeon (1 Chron. xvi. 39), but there would have been no time to send -so far. Zadok is called a "Seer" in the A.V. (2 Sam. xv. 27); but the -true version may be "Seeth thou?" The LXX. and Vulgate omit the words. - -[95] Morier, quoted by Stanley, p. 172, says that the Mustched, or -chief priest, and the Munajem, or prophet, are always present at a -Persian coronation. - -[96] LXX., [Greek: errhage, echesen]; Vulg., insonuit. Comp. -Josephus, _Antt._, VII. xiv. 3, 5. - -[97] 2 Sam. xv. 27, xvii. 17. - -[98] 2 Sam. xviii. 27. Heb., [Hebrew: 'ishchai]; LXX., [Greek: aner -dynameos]; Vulg., vir fortis. It is rather "virtuous," as in Prov. -xii. 4. - -[99] It is true that Solomon's adherents had wasted no time over a -feast. - -[100] 1 Kings i. 50. - -[101] Psalm cxviii. 27, and Exod. xxvii. 2 ff., xxix. 12, xxx. 10. -Comp. Exod. xxi. 14. - -[102] Exod. xxi. 14. It protected the homicide, but not the wilful -murderer. - -[103] 1 Kings i. 51. The words "this day" should be "first of all," -_i.e._, before I leave the sanctuary. Many must have been reminded of -this scene when Eutropius, the eunuch-minister of Arcadius, under the -protection of St. Chrysostom, cowered in front of the high altar at -Constantinople. - -[104] "There shall not a hair of him fall." Comp. 1 Sam. xiv. 45; 2 -Sam. xiv. 11. - -[105] "Bowed himself." Comp. 1 Kings i. 47. - -[106] Graetz, i. 138 (E. T.). - - - - - CHAPTER X. - - _DAVID'S DEATH-BED._ - - 1 KINGS ii. 1-11. - - "Omnibus idem exitus est, sed et idem domicilium."--PETRON., - _Satyr._ - - -In the Book of Samuel we have the last words of David in the form of -a brief and vivid psalm, of which the leading principle is, "He that -ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." A king's -justice must be shown alike in his gracious influence upon the good and -his stern justice to the wicked. The worthless sons of Belial are, he -says, "to be beaten down like thorns with spear-shafts and iron."[107] - -The same principle dominates in the charge which he gave to Solomon, -perhaps after the magnificent public inauguration of his reign -described in 1 Chron. xxviii., xxix. He bade his young son to -show himself a man, and be rigidly faithful to the law of Moses, -earning thereby the prosperity which would never fail to attend true -righteousness.[108] Thus would the promise to David--"There shall -not fail thee a man on the throne of Israel"--be continued in the -time of Solomon. - -With our Western and Christian views of morality we should have -rejoiced if David's charge to his son had ended there. It is painful -to us to read that his last injunctions bore upon the punishment of -Joab who had so long fought for him, and of Shimei whom he had publicly -pardoned. Between these two stern injunctions came the request that he -would show kindness to the sons of Barzillai,[109] 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 -Absalom. But the last words of David, as here recorded, are: "his -(Shimei's) hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood."[110] - -In these avenging behests there was nothing which was regarded as -unnatural, nothing that would have shocked the conscience of the -age. 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 at." They belong to the era of imperfect -moral development, when it was said to them of old time, "Thou -shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy," and men had not -fully learnt the lesson, "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith -the Lord." We must discriminate between the _vitia temporis_ and -the _vitia hominis_. David was trained in the old traditions of -the "avenger of blood"; and we cannot be astonished, though we may -greatly regret, that his standard was indefinitely below that of -the Sermon on the Mount. He may have been concerned for the safety -of his son, 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 wickedness," and use his wisdom not to let -the two offenders go down to the grave in peace. - -The character of Joab furnishes us with a singular study. He, -Abishai, and Asahel were the brave, impetuous sons of Zeruiah, the -sister or half-sister of David. They were about his own age, and it -is not impossible that they were the grandsons of Nahash, King of -Ammon.[111] In the days of Saul they had embraced the cause of David, -heart and soul. They had endured all the hardships and fought through -all the struggles of his freebooting days. Asahel, the youngest, had -been in the front rank of his _Gibborim_, and his foot was fleet as -that of a gazelle upon the mountain. Abishai had been one of the -three who, with jeopardy of their lives, had burst their way to -Bethlehem when David longed to drink of the water of its well beside -the gate. He had also, on one occasion, saved David's life from the -giant Ishbi of Gath, and had slain three hundred Philistines with his -spear. His zeal was always ready to flash into action in his uncle's -cause. Joab had been David's commander-in-chief for forty years. It -was Joab who had conquered the Ammonites and Moabites and stormed -the City of Waters. It was Joab who, at David's bare request, had -brought about the murder of Uriah. It was Joab who, after wise but -fruitless remonstrance, had been forced to number the people. But -David had never liked these rough imperious soldiers, whose ways -were not his ways. From the first he was unable to cope with them, -or keep them in order. In the early days they had treated him with -rude familiarity, though in late years they, too, were obliged to -approach him with all the forms of Eastern servility. But ever since -the murder of Uriah, Joab knew that David's reputation and David's -throne were in his hand. Joab himself had been guilty of two wild -acts of vengeance for which he would have offered some defence, and -of one atrocious crime. His murder of the princely Abner, the son of -Ner, might have been excused as the duty of an avenger of blood, for -Abner, with one back-thrust of his mighty spear, had killed the young -Asahel, after the vain warning to desist from pursuing him. Abner had -only killed Asahel in self-defence; but, jealous of Abner's power as -the cousin of King Saul, the husband of Rizpah, and the commander of -the northern army, Joab, after bluntly rebuking David for receiving -him, had without hesitation deluded Abner back to Hebron by a false -message and treacherously murdered him. Even at that early period of -his reign David was either unable or unwilling to punish the outrage, -though he ostentatiously deplored it. - -Doubtless in slaying Absalom, in spite of the king's entreaty, Joab -had inflicted an agonising wound on the pride and tenderness of his -master. But Absalom was in open rebellion, and Joab may have held that -David's probable pardon of the beautiful rebel would be both weak and -fatal. This death was inflicted in a manner needlessly cruel, but might -have been excused as a death inflicted on the battle-field, though -probably Joab had many an old grudge to pay off besides the burning -of his barley field. After Absalom's rebellion David foolishly and -unjustly offered the commandership of the army to his nephew Amasa. -Amasa was the son of his sister Abigail by an Ishmaelite father, named -Jether.[112] Joab simply would not tolerate being superseded in the -command which he had earned by lifelong and perilous services. With -deadly treachery, in which men have seen the antitype of the world's -worst crime, Joab invited his kinsman to embrace him, and drove his -sword into his bowels. David had heard, or perhaps had seen, the -revolting spectacle which Joab presented, with the blood of war shed -in peace, dyeing his girdle and streaming down to his shoes with its -horrible crimson. Yet, even by that act, Joab had once more saved -David's tottering throne. The Benjamite Sheba, son of Bichri, was -making head in a terrible revolt, in which he had largely enlisted the -sympathy of the northern tribes, offended by the overbearing fierceness -of the men of Judah. Amasa had been either incompetent or half-hearted -in suppressing this dangerous rising. It had only collapsed when the -army welcomed back the strong hand of Joab. But whatever had been -the crimes of Joab they had been condoned. David, on more than one -occasion, had helplessly cried, "What have I to do with you, ye sons of -Zeruiah?" "I am this day weak though anointed king, and these men, the -sons of Zeruiah, are too hard for me." But he had done nothing, and, -whether with or against his will, they continued to hold their offices -near his person. David did not remind Solomon of the murder of Absalom, -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 son. Those words had openly warned the king that, if he -did not alter his line of conduct, he should be king no more. They were -an insult which no king could pardon, even if he were powerless to -avenge. But Joab, like David himself, was now an old man. The events -of the last few days had shown that his power and influence were gone. -He may have had something to fear from Bathsheba as the wife of Uriah -and the granddaughter of Ahithophel; but his adhesion to the cause of -Adonijah had doubtless been chiefly due to jealousy of the ever-growing -influence of the priestly soldier Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, who had so -evidently superseded him in his master's favour. However that may be, -the historian faithfully records that David, on his death-bed, neither -forgot nor forgave; and all that we can say is, that it would be unfair -to judge him by modern or by Christian principles of conduct. - -The other victim whose doom was bequeathed to the new king was -Shimei, the son of Gera. He had cursed David at Bahurim on the day -of his flight, and in the hour of his extremest humiliation. He had -walked on the opposite side of the valley, flinging stones and dust -at David,[113] cursing him with a grievous curse as a man of Belial -and a man of blood, 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 shed. 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 _Ayephim_, "the place of the -weary."[114] For this conduct Shimei might have pleaded the pent-up -animosities of the House of Saul, which had been stripped by David -of all its honours, and of which poor lame Mephibosheth was the only -scion left, after David had impaled Saul's seven sons and grandsons -in human sacrifice at the demand of the Gibeonites. Abishai, -indignant at Shimei's conduct, had said, "Why should this dead dog -curse my lord the king?" and had offered, then and there, to cross -the valley and take his head. But David rebuked his generous wrath, -and when Shimei came out to meet him on his return with expressions -of penitence, David not only promised but swore that he should not -die. No further danger surely could be anticipated from the ruined -and humiliated House of Saul; yet David bade Solomon to find some -excuse for putting Shimei to death. - -How are we to deal with sins which are recorded of God's olden saints -on the sacred page, and recorded without a word of blame? - -Clearly we must avoid two errors--the one of injustice, the other of -dishonesty. - -1. On the one hand, as we have said, we must not judge Abraham, -or Jacob, or Gideon, or Jael, or David, as though they were -nineteenth-century Christians. Christ Himself taught us that some -things inherently undesirable were yet permitted in old days because -of the hardness of men's hearts; 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 light. "The times -of ignorance God overlooked," says St. Paul, "but now He commandeth -men that they should all everywhere repent."[115] "Ye have heard that -it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. -But _I say unto you, Love your enemies_," said our Lord.[116] When -Bayle and Tindal and many others declaim against "the immorality -of the Bible" they are unfair in a high degree. They pass judgment -on men who had been trained from infancy in opinions and customs -wholly unlike our own, and whose conscience would not be wounded by -many things which we have been rightly taught to regard as evil. -They apply the enlightenment of two millenniums of Christianity -to criticise the more rudimentary conditions of life a millennium -before Christ. The wild justice inflicted by an avenger of blood, the -rude atrocity of the _lex talionis_, are rightly abhorrent to us in -days of civilisation and settled law: they were the only available -means of restraining crime in unsettled times and half-civilised -communities. In his final injunctions about his enemies, whom he -might have dreaded as enemies too formidable for his son to keep in -subjection, David may have followed the view of his day that his -former condonations had only been co-extensive with his own life, -and that the claims of justice _ought_ to be satisfied.[117] - -2. But while we admit every palliation, and endeavour to judge -justly, we must not fall into the conventionality of representing -David's unforgiving severity as otherwise than reprehensible _in -itself_. Attempts to gloss over moral wrong-doing, to represent it -as blameless, to invent supposed Divine sanctions and intuitions -in defence of it, can but weaken the eternal claims of the law -of righteousness. The rule of right is inflexible: it is not a -leaden rule which can be twisted into any shape we like. A crime -is none the less a crime though a saint commits it; and imperfect -conceptions of the high claims of the moral law, as Christ expounded -its Divine significance, do not cease to be imperfect though they -may be sometimes recorded without comment on the page of Scripture. -No religious opinion can be more fatal to true religion than that -wrong can, under any circumstances, become right, or that we may do -evil that good may come. Because an act is relatively pardonable, it -does not follow that it is not absolutely wrong. If it be dangerous -to judge the essential morality of any earlier passage of Scripture -by the ultimate laws which Scripture itself has taught us, it is -infinitely more dangerous, and essentially Jesuitical, to explain -away misdeeds as though, under any circumstances, they could be -pleasing to God or worthy of a saint. The total omission of David's -injunctions and of the sanguinary episodes of their fulfilment by -the author of the Books of Chronicles, indicates that, in later -days, they were thought derogatory to the pure fame both of the -warrior-king and of his peaceful son. - -David slept with his fathers, and passed before that bar where -all is judged of truly. His life is an April day, half sunshine -and half gloom. His sins were great, but his penitence was deep, -lifelong, and sincere. He gave occasion for the enemies of God to -blaspheme, but he also taught all who love God to praise and pray. -If his record contains some dark passages, and his character shows -many inconsistencies, we can never forget his courage, his flashes -of nobleness, his intense spirituality whenever he was true to his -better self. His name is a beacon-light of warning against the -glamour and strength of evil passions. But he showed us also what -repentance can do, and we are sure that his sins were forgiven him -because he turned away from his wickedness. "The sacrifices of God -are a troubled spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou -wilt not despise." "I go the way of all the earth," said David. "In -life," says Calmet, "each one has his particular route: one applies -to one thing, another to another. But in the way to death they are -all re-united. They go to the tomb by one path."[118] - -David was buried in his own city--the stronghold of Zion; and his -sepulchre--on the south part of Ophel, near the pool of Siloam--was -still pointed out a thousand years later in the days of Christ.[119] As -a poet who had given to the people splendid specimens of lyric songs; -as a warrior who had inspired their youth with dauntless courage; as a -king who had made Israel a united nation with an impregnable capital, -and had uplifted it from insignificance into importance; as the man -in whose family the distinctive Messianic hopes of the Hebrews were -centred, he must remain to the end of time the most remarkable and -interesting figure in the long annals of the Old Dispensation. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[107] 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7. It is no part of my duty here to enter into -the extent of David's share in the Psalms; but I think that it is an -exaggerated inference (of Wellhausen and others) from Amos vi. 5, 6 -to suppose that he only wrote festal and warlike songs. - -[108] Apparently an allusion to Deut. xvii. 18-20. We read of no such -exhortation having been addressed to Saul, or to David. - -[109] Chimham accompanied David to Jerusalem (2 Sam. xvii. 27, xix. -37-40), and perhaps inherited his property at Bethlehem, where he -founded the Khan (Jer. xli. 17), in the cavern stable of which it may -be that Christ was born. - -[110] Wellhausen, Stade, and others venture on the conjecture that -David never gave these injunctions at all, but that they were -invented afterwards to excuse Solomon for his acts of severity -towards Adonijah's conspirators. I cannot see any valid ground for -such arbitrary re-writing of the history. Shimei had taken no part in -Adonijah's rebellion. - -[111] Zeruiah was "a sister of the sons of Jesse" (1 Chron. ii. 16), -and was therefore a sister of Abigail, mother of Amasa; but she is -called "the daughter of _Nahash_" (2 Sam. xvii. 25). - -[112] 1 Chron. ii. 17. "Jether (_i.e._, Jethro, 'pre-eminence') -the Ishmaelite" has been altered in 2 Sam. xvii. 25 into Ithra, an -_Israelite_ (see 2 Sam. xix. 13). The way in which names have been -tampered with is an interesting study, and often conceals Masoretic -secrets. - -[113] David's enemies thought but little of the fact that David had -spared Mephibosheth. They may have supposed that David spared him, -not only because he was the son of the beloved Jonathan, but because -being lame he could never become king. David's relations to him do -not seem to have been very cordial. - -[114] 2 Sam. xvi. 14 (Heb.). For Bahurim, see 2 Sam. xvi. 5, xvii. 18. - -[115] Acts xvii. 30. - -[116] Matt. v. 43, 44. - -[117] 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 lived. See Num. xxxv. 28. - -[118] Comp. Josh. xxiii. 14; Keil, _ad loc._ - -[119] Acts ii. 29. Josephus says that both Hyrcanus and Herod -opened it to find the treasures which legend asserted to have been -buried there (_Antt._, VII. xv. 3. Comp. XIII. viii. 4, XVI. vii.). -The kings alone were buried in Jerusalem; but legend says that an -exception was made in favour of Huldah the prophetess. - - - - - CHAPTER XI. - - _AVENGING JUSTICE._ - - 1 KINGS ii. 13-46. - - "The wrath of a king is as messengers of death."--PROV. xvi. 14. - - -The reign of Solomon began with a threefold deed of blood. An Eastern -king, surrounded by the many princes of a polygamous family, and -liable to endless jealousies and plots, is always in a condition of -unstable equilibrium; the _death_ of a rival is regarded as his only -safe imprisonment.[120] On the other hand, it must be remembered that -Solomon allowed his other brethren and kinsmen to live; and, in point -of fact, his younger brother Nathan became the ancestor of the Divine -Messiah of his race.[121] - -It was the restless ambition of Adonijah which again brought down -an avalanche of ruin. He and his adherents were necessarily under -the cold shadow of royal disfavour, and they must have known that -they had sinned too deeply to be forgiven. They felt the position -intolerable. "In the light of the king's countenance is life, and -his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain"; but Adonijah, in the -prime of strength and the heyday of passion, beautiful and strong, -and once the favourite of his father, could not forget the banquet -at which all the princes and nobles and soldiers had shouted, "Long -live King Adonijah!" That the royalty of one delirious day should be -succeeded by the dull and suspected obscurity of dreary years was -more than he could endure, if, by any possible subtlety or force, -he could avert a doom so unlike his former golden dreams. Was not -Solomon at least ten or fifteen years younger than himself? Was not -his seat on the throne of his kingdom still insecure? Were not his -own followers powerful and numerous? - -Perhaps one of those followers--the experienced Joab, or Jonathan, -son of Abiathar--whispered to him that he need not yet acquiesce in -the ruin of his hopes, and suggested a subtle method of strengthening -his cause, and keeping his claim before the eyes of the people. - -Every one knew that Abishag, the fair damsel of Shunem, the ideal -of Hebrew maidenhood, was the loveliest virgin who could be found -throughout all the land of Israel. Had she been in the strict sense -David's wife or concubine, it would have been regarded as a deadly -contravention of the Mosaic law that she should be wedded to one of -her stepsons. But as she had only been David's nurse, what could be -more suitable than that so bright a maiden should be united to the -handsome prince? - -It was understood in all Eastern monarchies that the harem of a -predecessor belonged to the succeeding sovereign. The first thing that -a rival or a usurper aimed at was to win the prestige of possessing the -wives of the royal house. Nathan reminds David that the Lord had given -his master's wives into his bosom.[122] Ishbosheth, weak as he was, -had been stung into indignation against his general and great-uncle -the mighty Abner, because Abner had taken Rizpah, the daughter of -Aiah, Saul's concubine, to wife, which looked like a dangerously -ambitious encroachment upon the royal prerogative. Absalom, by the -vile counsel of Ahithophel, had openly taken possession of the ten -concubines whom his father, in his flight from Jerusalem, had left in -charge of the palace. The pseudo-Smerdis, when he revolted against the -absent Cambyses, at once seized his seraglio.[123] It is noted even in -our English history that the relations between the Earl of Mortimer -and Queen Isabella involved danger to the kingdom; and when Admiral -Seymour married Queen Catharine Parr, widow of Henry VIII., he at once -entered into treasonable conspiracies. Adonijah knew well that he would -powerfully further his ulterior purpose if he could secure the hand of -the lovely Shunamite. - -Yet he feared to make the request to Solomon, who had already -inspired him with wholesome awe. With pretended simplicity he -sought the intercession of the _Gebira_ Bathsheba, who, being the -queen-mother, exercised great influence as the first lady of the -land.[124] She it was who had placed the jewelled bridal crown with -her own hand on the head of her young son.[125] - -Alarmed at his visit she asked, "Comest thou peaceably?" He came, -he humbly assured her, to ask a favour. Might she not think of his -case with a little pity? He was the elder son; the kingdom by right -of primogeniture was his; all Israel, so he flattered himself, had -wished for his accession. But it had all been in vain, Jehovah had -given the kingdom to his brother. Might he not be allowed some small -consolation, some little accession to his dignity? at least some -little source of happiness in his home? - -Flattered by his humility and his appeal, Bathsheba encouraged him to -proceed, and he begged that, as Solomon would refuse no request to -his mother, would she ask that Abishag might be his wife? - -With extraordinary lack of insight, Bathsheba, ambitious as she was, -failed to see the subtle significance of the request, and promised to -present his petition. - -She went to Solomon, who immediately rose to meet her, and seated -her with all honour on a throne at his right hand.[126] She had only -come, she said, to ask "a small petition." - -"Ask on, my mother," said the king tenderly, "for I will not say thee -nay." - -But no sooner had she mentioned the "small petition" than Solomon burst -into a flame of fury. "Why did she not ask for the kingdom for Adonijah -at once? He was the elder. He had the chief priest and the chief -captain with him. They must be privy to this new plot. But by the God -who had given him his father's kingdom, and established him a house, -Adonijah had made the request to his own cost, and should die that day." - -The command was instantly given to Benaiah, who, as captain of the -body-guard, was also chief executioner. He slew Adonijah that same -hour, and so the third of David's splendid sons died in his youth a -death of violence. - -We pause to ask whether the sudden and vehement outburst of King -Solomon's indignation was only due to political causes? If, as -seems almost certain, Abishag is indeed the fair Shulamite of the -Song of Songs, there can be little doubt that Solomon himself loved -her,[127] and that she was "the jewel of his seraglio."[128] The true -meaning of Canticles is not difficult to read, however much it may -lend itself to mystical and allegorical applications. It represents -a rustic maiden, faithful to her shepherd lover, resisting all the -allurements of a king's court, and all the blandishments of a king's -affection. It is the one book of Scripture which is exclusively -devoted to sing the glory of a pure love. The king is magnanimous; -he does not force the beautiful maiden to accept his addresses. -Exercising her freedom, and true to the dictates of her heart, 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 hills. Solomon's impetuous wrath would not be so -unaccountable if an unrequited affection added the sting of jealousy -to the wrath of offended power. The scene is the more interesting -because it is one of the very few personal touches in the story of -Solomon, which is chiefly composed of external details, both in -Scripture and in such fragments as have been preserved of the pagan -historian Dios, Eupolemos, Nicolas Polyhistor, and those referred to -by Josephus, Eusebius, and Clemens of Alexandria. - -The fall of Adonijah involved his chief votaries in ruin. Abiathar had -been a friend and follower of David from his youthful days. When Doeg, -the treacherous Edomite, had informed Saul that the priests of Nob had -shown kindness to David in his hunger and distress, the demoniac king -had not shrunk from employing the Edomite herdsman to massacre all on -whom he could lay his hands. From this slaughter of eighty-five priests -who wore linen ephods, Abiathar had fled to David, who alone could -protect him from the king's pursuit.[129] In the days when the outlaw -lived in dens and caves, the priest had been constantly with him, and -had been afflicted in all wherein he was afflicted, and had inquired of -God for him. 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 himself. Abiathar had been chief priest for all the -forty years of David's reign. In Absalom's rebellion he had still been -faithful to the king. His son Jonathan had been David's scout in the -city. Abiathar had helped Zadok to carry the Ark to the last house by -the ascent to the Mount of Olives, and there he had stood under the -olive tree by the wilderness[130] till all the people had passed by. If -his loyalty had been less ardent than that of his brother-priest Zadok, -who had evidently taken the lead in the matter, he had given no ground -for suspicion. But, perhaps secretly jealous of the growing influence -of his younger rival, the old man, after some fifty years of unswerving -allegiance, had joined his lifelong friend Joab in supporting the -conspiracy of Adonijah, and had not even now heartily accepted the rule -of Solomon. Assuming his complicity in Adonijah's request, Solomon -sent for him, and sternly told him that he was "a man of death," -_i.e._, that death was his desert. But it would have been outrageous -to slay an aged priest, the sole survivor of a family slaughtered for -David's sake, and one who had so long stood at the head of the whole -religious organisation, wearing the Urim and carrying the Ark. He was -therefore summarily deposed from his functions, and dismissed to his -paternal fields at Anathoth, a priestly town about six miles from -Jerusalem.[131] We hear no more of him; but Solomon's warning, "I will -not _at this time_ put thee to death," was sufficient to show him that, -if he mixed himself with court intrigues again, he would ultimately pay -the forfeit with his life. Solomon, like Saul, paid very little regard -to "benefit of the clergy."[132] - -The doom fell next on the arch-offender Joab, the white-haired -hero of a hundred fights, "the Douglas of the House of David." He -had, if the reading of the ancient versions be correct, "turned -after Adonijah, and _had not turned after Solomon_." Solomon could -hardly have felt at ease when a general so powerful and so popular -was disaffected to his rule, and Joab read his own sentence in the -execution of Adonijah. On hearing the news the old hero fled up Mount -Zion, and clung to the horns of the altar. But Abiathar, who might -have asserted the sacredness of the asylum, was in disgrace, and Joab -was not to escape. "What has happened to thee that thou hast fled to -the altar?" was the message sent to him by the king. "Because," he -answered, "I was afraid of thee, and fled unto the Lord."[133] It was -Solomon's habit to give his autocratic orders with laconic brevity. -"Go, fall upon him," he said to Benaiah. - -The scene which ensued was very tragic. - -The two rivals were face to face. On the one side the aged general, -who had placed on David's head the crown of Rabbah, who had saved -him from the rebellions of Absalom and of Sheba, and had been the -pillar of his military glory and dominion for so many years; on the -other the brave soldier-priest, who had won a chief place among -the _Gibborim_ by slaying a lion in a pit on a snowy day, and "two -lion-like men of Moab,"[134] and a gigantic Egyptian whom he had -attacked with only a staff, and out of whose hand he had plucked a -spear like a weaver's beam and killed him with his own spear. As -David lost confidence in Joab he had reposed more and more confidence -in this hero. He had placed him over the body-guards, whom he -trusted more than the native militia. - -The Levite-soldier had no hesitation about acting as executioner, but -he did not like to slay any man, and above all such a man, in a place -so sacred,[135]--in a place where his blood would be mingled with that -of the sacrifices with which the horns of the altar were besmeared. - -"The king bids thee come forth," he said. - -"Nay," said Joab, "but I will die here." - -Perhaps he thought that he might be protected by the asylum, as -Adonijah had been; perhaps he hoped that in any case his blood might -cry to God for vengeance, if he was slain in the sanctuary of Mount -Zion, and on the very altar of burnt offering. - -Benaiah naturally scrupled under such circumstances to carry out -Solomon's order, and went back to him for instruction. Solomon had no -such scruples, and perhaps held that this act was meritorious.[136] -"Slay him," he said, "where he stands! He is a twofold murderer; let -his blood be on his head." Then Benaiah went back and killed him, and -was promoted to his vacant office. Such was the dismal end of so much -valour and so much glory! He had taken the sword, and he perished by -the sword. And the Jews believed that the curse of David clung to his -house for ever, and that among his descendants there never lacked one -that was a leper, or a lame man, or a suicide, or a pauper.[137] - -Shimei's turn came next. A watchful eye was fixed implacably on this -last indignant representative of the ruined House of Saul. Solomon -had sent and ordered him to leave his estate at Bahurim, and build -a house at Jerusalem, forbidding him to go "any whither,"[138] and -telling him that if on any pretence he passed the wady of Kidron he -should be put to death. As he could not visit Bahurim, or any of -his Benjamite connexions, without passing the Kidron, all danger -of further intrigues seemed to be obviated.[139] To these terms -the dangerous man had sworn, and for three years he kept them -faithfully. At the end of that time two of his slaves fled from him -to Achish, son of Maachah, King of Gath.[140] When informed of their -whereabouts, Shimei, apparently with no thought of evil, saddled his -mule and went to demand their restoration. As he had not crossed the -Kidron, and had merely gone to Gath on private business, he thought -that Solomon would never hear of it, or would at any rate treat the -matter as harmless. Solomon, however, regarded his conduct as a proof -of retributive dementation. He sent for him, bitterly upbraided him, -and ordered Benaiah to slay him. So perished the last of Solomon's -enemies; but Shimei had two illustrious descendants in the persons of -Mordecai and Queen Esther.[141] - -Solomon perhaps conceived himself to be only acting up to the -true kingly ideal. "A king that sitteth on the throne of judgment -scattereth away all evil with his eyes." "A wise king scattereth the -wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them." "An evil man seeketh only -rebellion; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him." -"The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion, whoso provoketh -him to anger endangereth his own soul."[142] On the other hand, -he continued hereditary kindness to Chimham, son of the old chief -Barzillai the Gileadite, who became the founder of the Khan at -Bethlehem in which a thousand years later Christ was born.[143] - -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 Aaron. Aaron had been the father of four sons: Nadab, Abihu, -Eleazar, and Ithamar. The two eldest had perished childless in the -wilderness, apparently for the profanation of serving the tabernacle -while in a state of intoxication and offering "strange fire" upon -the altar.[144] The son of Eleazar was the fierce priestly avenger -Phinehas. The order of succession was as follows:-- - - AARON. - | - +---------+------+ - | | - Eleazar. Ithamar. - Phinehas. (gap.) - Abishua. Eli. - Bukki. Phinehas. - Uzzi. Ahitub. - Zerahiah. Ahiah (1 Sam. xiv. 3). - Meraioth. Ahimelech. - Amariah. Abiathar (1 Sam. xxii. 20). - Ahitub. - Zadok.[145] - -The question naturally arises how the line of succession came to be -disturbed, since to Eleazar, and his seed after him, had been promised -"the covenant of an everlasting priesthood."[146] As the elder line -continued unbroken, how was it that, for five generations at least, -from Eli to Abiathar, we find the _younger_ line of Ithamar in secure -and lineal possession of the high priesthood? The answer belongs to the -many strange reserves of Jewish history. It is clear from the silence -of the Book of Chronicles that the intrusion, however caused, was an -unpleasant recollection. Jewish tradition has perhaps revealed the -secret, and a very curious one it is. We are told that Phinehas was -high priest when Jephthah made his rash vow, and that his was the hand -which carried out the human sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter. But the -inborn feelings of humanity in the hearts of the people were stronger -than the terrors of superstition, and arising in indignation against -the high priest who could thus imbrue his hands in an innocent maiden's -blood, they drove him from his office and appointed a son of Ithamar -in his place. The story then offers a curious analogy to that told of -the Homeric hero Idomeneus, King of Crete. Caught in a terrible storm -on his return from Troy, he too vowed that if his life were saved he -would offer up in sacrifice the first living thing that met him. His -eldest son came forth with gladness to meet him. Idomeneus fulfilled -his vow, but the Cretans rose in revolt against the ruthless father, -and a civil war ensued, in which a hundred cities were destroyed and -the king was driven into exile. The Jewish tradition is one which could -hardly have been invented. It is certain that Jephthah's daughter _was_ -offered up in sacrifice, in accordance with his rash vow. This could -hardly have been done by any but a priest, and the ferocious zeal of -Phinehas would not perhaps have shrunk from the horrible consummation. -Revolting, even abhorrent, as is such a notion from our views of God, -and decisively as human sacrifice is condemned by all the highest -teaching of Scripture, the traces of this horrible tendency of human -guilt and human fear are evident in the history of Israel as of all -other early nations. Some thought akin to it must have lain under the -temptation of Abraham to offer up his son Isaac. Twelve centuries later -Manasseh "made his son pass through the fire," and kindled the furnaces -of Moloch at Tophet in Gehenna, the valley of the sons of Hinnom.[147] -His grandfather Ahaz had done the same before him, offering sacrifice -and burning his children in the fire.[148] Surrounded by kindred -tribes, to which this worship was familiar, the Israelites, in their -ignorance and backsliding, were not exempt from its fatal fascination. -Solomon himself "went after," and built a high place for Milcom, the -abomination of the Ammonites, on the right hand of "the hill that is -before Jerusalem," which from this desecration got the name of "The -Mount of Corruption." These high places continued, and it must be -supposed, had their votaries on "that opprobrious hill," until good -Josiah dismantled and defiled them about the year 639, some three -centuries after they had been built. - -But whether this legend about Phinehas be tenable or not, it is -certain that the House of Ithamar fell into deadly disrepute and -abject misery. In this the people saw the fulfilment of an old -traditional curse, pronounced by some unknown "man of God" on the -House of Eli, that there should be no old man in his house for ever; -that his descendants should die in the flower of their age; and that -they should come cringing to the descendants of the priest whom God -would raise up in his stead, to get some humble place about the -priesthood for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread.[149] - -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 God, visiting -the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth -generation of them that hate Me, and showing mercy unto thousands (of -generations) of them that love Me and keep My commandments." - -There is in families, as in communities, a solidarity alike of blessing -and curse. No man perishes alone in his iniquity, whether he be an -offender like Achan or an offender like Joab. Families have their -inheritance of character, their prerogative examples of misdoing, their -influence of the guilty past flowing like a tide of calamity over the -present and the future! The physical consequences of transgression -remain long after the sins which caused them have ended. Three things, -however, are observable in this, as in every faithfully recorded -history. One is that mercy boasteth over justice, and the area of -beneficent consequence is more permanent and more continuous than that -of the entailed curse, as right is always more permanent than wrong. -A second is that, though man at all times is liable to troubles and -disabilities, 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 life. A third is that the -ultimate prosperity of the children, alike of the righteous and of -sinners, is in their own control; each soul shall perish, and shall -only perish, for its own sin. In this sense, though the fathers have -eaten sour grapes, the teeth of the children shall _not_ be set on -edge. In the long generations the line of David no less than the line -of Joab, the line of Zadok no less than that of Abiathar, was destined -to feel the Nemesis of evil-doing, and to experience that, of whatever -parentage men are born, the law remains true--"Say ye of the righteous, -that it shall be well with him: for they shall eat the fruit of their -doings. Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward -of his hands shall be given him."[150] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[120] These events--like almost everything derogatory to David and -Solomon--are omitted by the chronicler. - -[121] Luke iii. 31. Salathiel, son of Neri (Luke iii. 27), of -Nathan's house, was probably adopted by Jeconiah, who was childless; -or if he had a son Assir (captive), the son had died. 1 Chron. iii. -17; Isa. xxii. 3. - -[122] 2 Sam. xii. 8. Comp. 1 Kings xx. 7; 2 Kings xxiv. 15. We only -know, however, of one wife of Saul, and one concubine. - -[123] Herod., iii. 68; Justin., x. 2. - -[124] Comp. 1 Kings xv. 13; 2 Kings xi. 1. The queen-mother, like the -Sultana Walide, is always more powerful than even the favourite wife. - -[125] Cant. iii. 11. - -[126] Psalm xlv. 9. Some little mystery evidently hangs over the name -of Bathsheba. In 2 Sam. xi. 3 she is called "Bathsheba, the daughter -of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite"; but in 1 Chron. iii. 5 she -is called "_Bathshua_, the daughter of _Ammiel_." Now Shua was a -Canaanite name (Gen. xxxviii. 12; 1 Chron. ii. 3), and it is at least -remarkable that Bathsheba should be married to a Hittite. Further, -the chronicler disguises "Ahithophel the Gilonite (the father of -Eliam) into Ahijah the Pelonite," who is one of David's Gibborim -in 1 Chron. xi. 36. Pelonite means _nescio qius_; in Spanish, Don -Fulano,--Signor So-and-so. And how are we to account for the strange -name Ahithophel ("brother of foolishness?")? - -[127] Comp. Cant. vii. 1. It has been assumed that Solomon had -already married Naamah the Ammonitess, and that Rehoboam was already -born (see 1 Kings xiv. 21), but this is uncertain. Rehoboam, if he -had reached the age of forty-one, could hardly have been called -"young and tender-hearted" (2 Chron. xiii. 7). - -[128] Shunem (Sulem, Euseb., _Jer._) is now _Solam_ (Robinson, -_Researches_, iii. 402). - -[129] 1 Sam. xxii. 23. - -[130] 2 Sam. xv. 18 (LXX.). - -[131] _Anata_, Robinson, _Researches_, ii, 319; Josh. xxi. 18; 1 -Chron. vi. 60. It was the native town of Jeremiah (Jer. i. 1). - -[132] It should be remembered that, as Ewald points out, imprisonment -for life was a thing unknown. - -[133] This interesting addition is found in the Septuagint version. - -[134] 2 Sam. xxiii. 20. Ewald, Thenius, and most other critics, -followed by the R.V., adopt the LXX. reading, "Slew the two sons of -Ariel of Moab." - -[135] Comp. 2 Kings xi. 15. - -[136] See Deut. xix. 13. - -[137] 2 Sam. iii. 28, 29. - -[138] [Hebrew: va'anah 'aneh] (1 Kings ii. 36). - -[139] It should be remembered that when Shimei came to meet David -on his return, he managed to muster one thousand of his Benjamite -kinsmen. Such local influence might prove troublesome. - -[140] Achish seems to have been the dynastic name of the kings of -Gath (1 Sam. xxi. 10, xxvii. 2). If this was the Achish, son of -Maoch, with whom David had taken refuge fifty years before, he must -now have been a very old man. - -[141] Esth. ii. 5. - -[142] Prov. xix. 11, xx. 2, 8, 26. - -[143] 1 Kings ii. 7; Jer. xli. 17. - -[144] Lev. x. 1-20; Num. iii. 4, xxvi. 61. This has been not -unnaturally inferred from the prohibition to the priests to drink -wine while serving the tabernacle lest they die, which occurs -immediately after the catastrophe of the two priests (Lev. x. 9-11). - -[145] 1 Chron. vii. 4-15. In David's time there were only eight -descendants of Ithamar, but sixteen of Eleazar (1 Chron. xxiv. 4). -For full discussion of these priestly genealogies, see Lord A. -Hervey, _On the Genealogies_, pp. 277-306. It is true that they are -not free from elements of difficulty, but I am unable to find any -valid ground for the suspicion of some critics that Zadok was not -even a priest, or of the priestly house at all. All the evidence we -have points in the opposite direction. - -[146] Num. xxv. 13. - -[147] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6; 2 Kings xxi. 6. "His children." - -[148] 2 Chron. xxviii. 3; 2 Kings xvi. 3. "His son." - -[149] 1 Sam. ii. 27-36. For eight centuries there was no other -instance of a high priest's deposition. - -[150] Isa. iii. 10. - - - - - CHAPTER XII. - - _THE BOY-KING'S WISDOM._ - - 1 KINGS iii. 1-28. - - "An oracle is upon the lips of a king."--PROV. xvi. 10 (Heb.). - - "A king that sitteth on the throne of judgment scattereth away - all evil with his eye."--PROV. xx. 8. - - "Ch' ei fu Re, che chiese senno - Accioche Re sufficiente fosse." - DANTE, _Parad._, xiii. 95. - - "Deos ipsos precor ut mihi ad finem usque vitae quietam et - intelligentem humani divinique juris mentem duint."--TAC., - _Ann._, iv. 38. - - -It would have thrown an interesting light on the character and -development of Solomon, if we had been able to conjecture with any -certainty what was his age when the death of David made him the -unquestioned king. The pagan historian Eupolemos, quoted by Eusebius, -says that he was twelve; Josephus asserts that he was fifteen. If -Rehoboam was indeed as old as forty-one when he came to the throne (1 -Kings xiv. 21), Solomon can hardly have been less than twenty at his -accession, for in that case he must have been married before David's -death (1 Kings xi. 42). But the reading "forty-one" in 1 Kings xiv. -21 is altered by some into "twenty-one," and we are left in complete -uncertainty. Solomon is called "a child" (1 Kings iii. 7), "young and -tender" (1 Chron. xxix. 1); but his acts show the full vigour and -decision of a man.[151] - -The composite character of the Books of Kings leads to some -disturbance of the order of events, and 1 Kings iii. 1-4 is perhaps -inserted to explain Solomon's sacrifice at the high place of -Gibeon,[152] where stood the brazen altar of the old Tabernacle.[153] -But no apology is needed for that act.[154] The use of high places, -even when they were consecrated to the worship of Jehovah, was -regarded in later days as involving principles of danger, and -became a grave offence in the eyes of all who took the Deuteronomic -standpoint. But high places to Jehovah, as distinct from those -dedicated to idols, were not condemned by the earlier prophets, and -the resort to them was never regarded as blameworthy before the -establishment of the central sanctuary. - -After the frightful massacre of the descendants of Aaron at Nob, 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 priests.[155] Gibeon stood on a commanding elevation -within easy distance of Jerusalem, and was henceforth regarded as -"the great high place," until the Temple on Mount Zion was finished. -Thither Solomon went in that imposing civil, religious, and military -procession of which the tradition may be preserved in the name of -Wady Suleiman still given to the adjoining valley. There, with -Oriental magnificence, like Xerxes at Troy, he offered what the -Greeks called a _chiliombe_, that is, a tenfold hecatomb of burnt -offerings.[156] This "thousandfold holocaust," as the Septuagint -terms it, must have been a stately and long-continued function, -and in approval of his sacrifice Jehovah granted a vision to the -youthful king. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams and -ten thousands of rivers of oil, when all the beasts of the forest are -His, and the cattle upon a thousand hills? "Thinkest thou," He asked, -in the words of the Psalmist, "that I will eat bull's flesh or drink -the blood of goats?" No; but God always accepts a willing sacrifice -in accordance with the purpose and sincerity of the giver. In reward -for the pure intention of the king He appeared to Solomon in a dream, -and said, "Ask what I shall give thee." - -The Jews recognised three modes of Divine communication--by dreams; -by Urim, and by prophets. The highest and most immediate illumination -was the prophetic. The revelation by means of the primitive Urim and -Thummin, the oracle and jewelled breastplate of the high priest, was -the poorest, the most elementary, the most liable to abuse. It was -analogous to the method used by the Egyptian chief priests, who wore -round their necks a sapphire ornament called Thmei, or "truth," for -purposes of divination.[157] After the death of David the Urim and -Thummin fell into such absolute desuetude, as a survival of primitive -times, that we do not read of its being consulted again in a single -instance. It is not so much as mentioned during the five centuries -of the history of the kings, and we do not hear of it afterwards. -Solomon never once inquired of the priests as David did repeatedly. -In the reign of Solomon the voice of prophecy, too, was silent, until -disasters began to cloud its close. Times of material prosperity and -autocratic splendour are unfavourable to the prophet's function, -and sometimes, as in the days of Ahab, the prophets themselves -"philippised" in Jehovah's name. But revelation by dreams occurs in all -ages. In his prophecy of the great future, Joel says, "Your old men -shall see visions, your young men shall dream dreams." It is true that -dreams must always have a subjective element, yet, as Aristotle says, -"The visions of the noble are better than those of common men."[158] -The dreams of night are reflections of the thoughts of day. "Solomon -worships God by day; God appears to Solomon by night. Well may we look -to enjoy God, when we have served Him."[159] Full of the thoughts -inspired by an intense devotion, and a yearning desire to rule aright, -the sleeping soul of Solomon became bright with eyes,[160] and in his -dream he made a worthy answer to the appeal of God. - -"Ask what I shall give thee!" That blessed and most loving offer -is made to every human soul. To the meanest of us all God flings -open the treasuries of heaven. The reason why we fatally lose them -is because we are blinded by the glamour of temptation, and snatch -instead at glittering bubbles or Dead Sea fruits. We fail to attain -the best gifts, because so few of us earnestly desire them, and so -many disbelieve the offer that is made of them. Yet there is no -living soul to which God has not given the choice of good and evil. -"He hath set fire and water before thee: stretch forth thy hand unto -whether thou wilt. Before man is life and death; and whether him -liketh shall be given him."[161] Even when our choice is not evil it -is often desperately frivolous, and it is only too late that we rue -the folly of having rejected the better and chosen the worse. - - "Damsels of Time the hypocritic days, - Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes, - And marching single in an endless file, - Bring diadems and fagots in their hands. - To each they offer gifts after his will,-- - Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all. - I, in my pleached garden, watched the pomp, - Forgot my morning wishes; hastily - Took a few herbs and apples, and the Day - Turned and departed silent. I, too late, - Under her solemn fillet saw the scorn."[162] - -But Solomon made the wise choice. In his dream he thanked God for -His mercifully fulfilled promise to David his father, and with the -touching humble confession, "I am but a little child: I know not how to -go out or come in,"[163] he begged for an understanding heart to judge -between right and wrong in guiding his great and countless people.[164] - -God was pleased with the noble, unselfish request. The youthful king -might have besought the boon of "many days," which was so highly -valued before Christ had brought life and immortality to light; or -for riches, or for victory over his enemies. Instead of this he had -asked for "understanding, to discern judgment," and the lesser gifts -were freely accorded him. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His -righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."[165] -God promised him that he should be a king of unprecedented greatness. -He freely gave him riches and honour, and, conditionally on his -continued faithfulness, a long life. The condition was broken, and -Solomon was not more than sixty years old when he was called before -the God whom he forsook.[166] - -"And Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream." But he knew well that -it was also more than a dream, and that "God giveth to His beloved -even sleeping."[167] - -In reverential gratitude he offered a second sacrifice of burnt -offerings before the ark on Mount Zion, and added to them peace -offerings, with which he made a great feast to all his servants. -Twice again did God appear to Solomon; but the second time it was to -warn, and the third time to condemn. - -In the parallel account given by the chronicler, Solomon says, -"Give me now wisdom and knowledge," and God replies, "Wisdom and -knowledge is granted unto thee." There is a wide difference between -the two things. Knowledge may come while wisdom still lingers, and -wisdom may exist in Divine abundance where knowledge is but scant -and superficial. The wise may be as ignorant as St. Antony, or St. -Francis of Assisi; the masters of those who know may show as little -'wisdom for a man's self' as Abelard, or as Francis Bacon. "Among the -Jews one set of terms does service to express both intellectual and -moral wisdom. The 'wise' man means the righteous man; the 'fool' is -one who is godless. Intellectual terms that describe knowledge are -also moral terms describing life." No doubt in the ultimate senses of -the words there can be no true knowledge, as there can be no perfect -wisdom, without goodness. This was a truth with which Solomon himself -became deeply impressed. "The fear of the Lord," he said, "is the -beginning of wisdom, but fools despise knowledge and understanding." -The lineaments of "a fool" are drawn in the Book of Proverbs, and -they bear the impress of moral baseness and moral aberrations. - -To Solomon both boons were given, "wisdom and understanding exceeding -much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea -shore." Of his many forms of intellectual eminence I will speak -later on. What he longed for most was evidently moral insight and -practical sagacity. He felt that "through justice shall the throne be -established." - -Practical wisdom was eminently needed for the office of a judge.[168] -Judgeship was a main function of Eastern royalty, and rulers were -called _Shophetim_ or judges.[169] The reality of the gift which -Solomon had received from God was speedily to be tested.[170] Two -harlots came before him.[171] One had overlaid her child in the -night, and stealing the living child of the other she put her dead -child in its place. There was no evidence to be had. It was simply -the bare word of one disreputable woman against the bare word of -the other. With instant decision, and a flash of insight into the -springs of human actions, Solomon gave the apparently childish order -to cut the children in two, and divide them between the claimants. -The people laughed,[172] and the delinquent accepted the horrible -decision; but the mother of the living child yearned for her babe, -and she cried out, "O my lord, give her the living babe,[173] and in -no wise slay it." "_Give her the living babe, and in no wise slay -it_," murmured the king to himself, repeating the mother's words; and -then he burst out with the triumphant verdict, "Give _her_ the living -child! _she_ is the mother thereof!"[174] - -The story has several parallels. It is said by Diodorus Siculus -that when three youths came before Ariopharnes, King of Thrace, each -claiming to be the only son of the King of the Cimmerians, he ordered -them each to hurl a javelin at their father's corpse. Two obeyed, -one refused, and Ariopharnes at once proclaimed him to be the true -son.[175] Similarly an Indian story tells that a woman, before she -bathed, left her child on the bank of the pool, and a female demon -carried it off. The goddess, before whom each claimed the child, -ordered them to pull it in two between them, and consigned it to -the mother who shuddered at the test.[176] A judgment similarly -founded on filial instinct is attributed to the Emperor Claudius. A -mother refused to acknowledge her son; and as there were no proofs -Claudius ordered her to marry the youth, whereupon she was obliged to -acknowledge that he was her son.[177] - -Modern critics, wise after the event, express themselves very -slightingly of the amount of intelligence required for the decision; -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 law. They -rejoiced to recognise the practical wisdom which God had given -to their young king. The word _Chokhmah_, which is represented -by one large section of Jewish literature, implied the practical -intelligence derived from insight or experience, the power to govern -oneself and others. Its conclusions were expressed chiefly in a -gnomic form, and they pass through various stages in the Sapiential -Books of the Old Testament. The chief books of the _Chokhmah_ are the -Books of Proverbs, Job, and Ecclesiastes, followed by such books as -Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus. On the Divine side Wisdom is the Spirit -of God, regarded by man under the form of Providence (Wisdom i. 4, -7, vii. 7, 22, ix. 17); and on the human side it is trustworthy -knowledge of the things that are (_id._ vii. 17). It is, in fact, "a -knowledge of Divine and human things, and of their causes" (4 Macc. -ii. 16). This branch of wisdom could be repeatedly shown by Solomon -at the city gate and in the hall of judgment. - -2. His varied _intellectual_ wisdom created deeper astonishment. He -spake, we are told, "of trees from the cedar which is in Lebanon even -unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts -and fowl and of creeping things and of fishes." This knowledge has been -misunderstood and exaggerated by later tradition. It is expanded in -the Book of Wisdom (viii. 17) into a perfect knowledge of kosmogony, -astronomy, the alterations of solstices, the cycles of years, the -natures of wild beasts, the forces of spirits, the reasonings of men, -the diversities of plants. Solomon became to Eastern legend - - "The warrior-sage, whose restless mind - Through nature's mazes wandered unconfined, - Who every bird, and beast, and insect knew, - And spake of every plant that quaffs the dew." - -His knowledge, however, does not seem to have been even empirically -scientific. It consisted in the moral and religious illustration -of truth by emblems derived from nature.[178] He surpassed, we are -told, the ethnic gnomic wisdom of all the children of the East--the -Arabians and Chaldaeans, and all the vaunted scientific and mystic -wisdom of Egypt.[179] Ethan and Heman were Levitic poets and -musicians;[180] Chalcol and Darda[181] were "sons of the choir," -_i.e._, poets (Luther), or sacred singers;[182] and all four were -famed for wisdom; but Solomon excelled them all. Of his one thousand -and five songs, the majority were probably secular. Only two psalms -are even traditionally assigned to him.[183] Of his three thousand -proverbs not more than two hundred survive, even if all in the Book -of Proverbs be his. Tradition adds that he was a master of "riddles" -or "dark sayings," by which he won largely in fines from Hiram, whom -he challenged for their solution, until the Tyrian king defeated him -by the aid of a sharp youth named Abdemon.[184] Specimens of these -riddles with their answers may be found in the Book of Proverbs,[185] -for the Hebrew word "proverb" (_Mashal_) probably means originally, -an illustration. This book also contains various ambiguous hard -sayings of which the skilful construction awoke admiration and -stimulated thought.[186] The Queen of Sheba is said to have tested -Solomon by riddles.[187] The tradition gradually spread in the -East that Solomon was also skilled in magic arts, that he knew the -language of the birds,[188] and possessed a seal which gave him -mastery over the genii. In the Book of Wisdom he is made to say, "All -such things as are either secret or manifest, them I know." Josephus -attributes to him the formulae and spells of exorcism, and in Eccles. -ii. 8 the words rendered "musical instruments" (shiddah and shiddoth; -R.V., "concubines very many") were understood by the Rabbis to mean -that he was the lord over male and female demons.[189] - -3. Far more precious than practical or intellectual ability is the -gift of _moral_ wisdom, which Solomon so greatly appreciated but -so imperfectly attained. Yet he felt that "wisdom is the principal -thing, therefore get wisdom." The world gives that name to many -higher and lower manifestations of capacity and attainment, but -wisdom is in Scripture the one law of all true life. In that -magnificent outburst of Semitic poetry, the twenty-eighth chapter -of the Book of Job, after pointing out that there is such a thing -as natural knowledge--that there is a vein for the silver, and ore -of gold, and a place of sapphires, and reservoirs of subterranean -fire--the writer asks: "But where shall wisdom be found? and where is -the place of understanding?" After showing with marvellous power that -it is beyond man's unaided search--that the depths and the seas say, -"It is not in us," and destruction and death have but heard the fame -thereof with their ears--he adds with one great crash of concluding -music, "God understandeth the way thereof, and He knoweth the place -thereof.... And unto man He said, _Behold, the fear of the Lord, that -is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding_."[190] And again -we read, "_The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge_."[191] -The sated cynic of the Book of the Ecclesiastes, or one who had -studied, not without dissatisfaction, his sad experience, adds, -"_Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of -man_." And in answer to the question "_Who is a wise man and endued -with knowledge among you?_" St. James, the Lord's brother, who had -evidently been a deep student of the Sapiential literature, does -not answer, "He who understands all mysteries," or, "He who speaks -with the tongue of men or of angels," but, "Let him show out of a -good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." Men whom the -world has deemed wise have often fallen into utter infatuation, as -it is written, "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness"; but -heavenly wisdom may belong to the most ignorant and simplehearted. -It is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, -without partiality and without hypocrisy." - -We should observe, however, that the _Chokhmah_, or -wisdom-literature of the Jews, while it incessantly exalts morality, -and sometimes almost attains to a perception of the spiritual life, -was neither prophetic nor priestly in its character. It bears the -same relation to the teaching of the prophets on the one hand, -and the priests on the other, as morality does to religion and -to externalism. Its teaching is loftier and truer than the petty -insistence of Pharisaism on meats and drinks and divers washings, in -that it deals with the weightier matters of the law; but it does not -attain to the passionate spirituality of the greater Hebrew seers. -It cares next to nothing for ritual, and therefore rises above the -developed Judaism of the post-exilic epoch. It is lofty and true -inasmuch as it breathes the spirit of the Ten Commandments, but it -has not learnt the freedom of love and the beatitudes of perfect -union with God. In one word, it finds its culmination in Proverbs and -Ecclesiasticus, rather than in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount -and the Gospel of St. John. - -We cannot better conclude this chapter than with the eulogy of the -son of Sirach: "Solomon reigned in a peaceable time and was honoured; -for God made all quiet round about him, that he might build a house -in His name and prepare His sanctuary for ever. How wise wast thou -in thy youth, and, as a flood, filled with understanding! Thy soul -covered the whole earth, and thou filledst it with dark parables. Thy -name went far unto the islands, and for thy peace thou wast beloved. -The countries marvelled at thee for thy songs, and proverbs, and -parables, and interpretations. By the name of the Lord God, who is -called the Lord God of Israel, thou didst gather gold as tin, and -didst multiply silver as lead."[192] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[151] See 1 Sam. xxi. 6, compared with 1 Chron. xvi. 39, 40; 2 Chron. -i. 3. - -[152] An old Hivite capital (Josh. xviii. 21-25), now El Jib. -Josephus alters it to "Hebron." - -[153] See 1 Chron. xvi. 39, 40, xxi. 29; 2 Chron. i. 3. The annals of -Solomon fall into three divisions: first, his secure establishment -upon the throne (1 Kings i, ii.); next, his wisdom, wealth, glory, -and great buildings, especially the building of the Temple (iii.-x.); -lastly, his fall and death (xi.). - -[154] It was sufficiently sanctioned by Exod. xx. 24, and Jerusalem -was not yet chosen (Deut. xii. 13, 14). See Judg. vi. 24, xiii. 19; -1 Sam. ix. 12, etc. This seems to have been the last great sacrifice -there. In 1 Kings iii. 5-15 the sacrifice is regarded with approval; -in verses 2, 3 it is condemned, but excused by circumstances; in the -verses inserted by the chronicler (2 Chron. i. 3-6) it is said that -the Tabernacle was there. - -[155] See 1 Sam. xxii. 17-19. - -[156] Herod., vii. 43. Xerxes offered one thousand at Troy, and -Croesus three thousand at Delphi (_Id._, i. 50). - -[157] Hence, perhaps, the LXX. rendering of [Greek: Delosis kai -Aletheia]. This view is accepted by Hengstenberg (_Egypt and the Five -Books of Moses_, chap. vi.), and Kalisch (on Exod. xxviii. 31). - -[158] Arist., _Eth. Nic._, i. 13: "[Greek: beltio ta phantasmata ton -epieikon e ton tuchonton.]" - -[159] Bishop Hall. - -[160] "[Greek: Eudousa gar phren ommasin lamprynetai]."--AEsch., -_Eum._, 104. - -[161] Ecclus. xv. 16, 17. - -[162] Emerson. - -[163] The phrase "a little child" (comp. Jer. i. 6) hardly bears on -his actual age. See Gen. xliii. 8; Exod. xxxiii. 11. It is proverbial -like the subsequent phrase, for which see Deut. xxviii. 6; Psalm -cxxi. 8, etc. - -[164] Heb., "A hearing heart." LXX., "A heart to hear and judge Thy -people in righteousness." In 2 Chron. i. 10, "Wisdom and knowledge." - -[165] Matt. vi. 33. - -[166] Josephus (_Antt._, VIII. vii. 8) makes him die at ninety-four, -and become king at fourteen. Perhaps he mistook [Greek: m'] for -[Greek: p'] in the LXX. - -[167] Psalm cxxvii. 2 (uncertain). - -[168] 1 Sam. viii. 6, 20; 2 Sam. xv. 4. "To rule was with the -ancients the synonym of to judge." Artemidorus, _Oneirocr._, ii. 14. -(Baehr, _ad loc._). - -[169] Compare the Phoenician's _Suffetes_ (Liv.). - -[170] As instances of the lower sense in which the term "wisdom" was -applied, see 2 Sam. xiii. 3 (Jonadab); xiv. 2 (the woman of Tekoa); -xx. 16 (the woman of Abel of Beth-maachah). - -[171] The Rabbis call them "innkeepers," as they call Rahab. - -[172] I follow the not improbable additional details given by -Josephus from tradition. - -[173] [Hebrew: yeled]. LXX., [Greek: paidion]. - -[174] So the Greek version, which represents the clause rightly. -Tradition narrates a yet earlier specimen of Solomon's wisdom. Some -sheep had strayed into a pasture. The owner of the land demanded -reparation. David said that to repay his loss he might keep the -sheep. "No," said Solomon, who was but eleven years old, "let him -keep them only till their wool, milk, and lambs have repaid the -damage; then let him restore them to their owner." David admitted -that this was the more equitable judgment, and he adopted it. See The -Qur'an, _Sura_ xxi. 79 (Palmer's Qur'an, ii. 52). - -[175] The parallel is adduced by Grotius. - -[176] Quoted by Baehr. - -[177] Suet., _Claud._, 15. - -[178] For references to animals, etc., see Prov. vi. 6, xxiv. 30-34, -xxx. 15-19, 24-31; Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. ii. 5; Ecclus. xlvii. 17. - -[179] See Isa. xix. 11, xxxi. 2; Acts vii. 22; Herod., ii. 160; -Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. ii. 5 (Keil). - -[180] See 1 Chron. ii. 6, vi. 44, xv. 17, 19, xxv. 5. Titles -of Psalms xviii., lxxxviii., lxxxix. "Ezrahite," perhaps, is a -transposition of Zerahite. - -[181] 1 Chron. ii. 6. In _Seder Olam_ they are called "prophets who -prophesied in Egypt." - -[182] "Sons of Mahol" (comp. Eccles. xii. 4). - -[183] Psalms lxxii., cxxvii. The so-called "Psalms of Solomon," -fifteen in number, are of the Maccabean age; Josephus calls his songs -[Greek: biblia peri odon kai melon], and his proverbs [Greek: biblous -parabolon kai eikonon]. - -[184] See Euseb., _Praep. Evang._, ix. 34, Sec. 19. - -[185] Prov. xi. 22, xxiv. 30-34, xxv. 25, xxvi. 8, xxx. 15. - -[186] _E.g._, Prov. vi. 10. - -[187] 1 Kings x. 1; LXX., [Greek: en ainigmasi]. See Wuensche, _Die -Raethselweisheit_, 1883; Graetz, _Hist. of the Jews_, i. 162. For -specimens of her traditional puzzles see the author's _Solomon_, p. -135 (Men of the Bible). - -[188] "And Solomon was David's heir, and said, Ye folk! we have been -taught the speech of birds, and we have been given everything: verily -this is a Divine grace" (Qur'an, _Sura_ xxvii. 15). For the legend of -Solomon and the hoopoes, see _Sura_ 27. - -[189] According to Suidas (s.v., [Greek: Ezekias]) Hezekiah found his -(magic?) formulae for the cure of diseases engraved on the posts of -the Temple. See Targum on Esth. i. 2; Eccles. ii. 8. - -[190] Job xxviii. 23, 28. - -[191] Prov. i. 7. - -[192] Ecclus. xlvii. 13-18. - - - - - CHAPTER XIII. - - _SOLOMON'S COURT AND KINGDOM._ - - 1 KINGS iv. 1-34. - - "But what more oft in nations grown corrupt - And by their vices brought to servitude, - Than to love bondage more than liberty, - Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty?" - _Samson Agonistes._ - - -When David was dead, and Solomon was established on his throne, his -first thoughts were turned to the consolidation of his kingdom. He -was probably quite a youth.[193] He was not, nor did he ever desire -to be, a warlike prince; but he was compelled to make himself secure -from two enemies--Hadad and Rezon--who began almost at once to -threaten his frontiers. Of these, however, we shall speak later on, -since it is only towards the close of Solomon's reign that they seem -to have given serious trouble. If the second psalm is by Solomon it -may point to some early disturbances among heathen neighbours which -he had successfully put down. - -The only actual expedition which Solomon ever made was one against -a certain Hamath-Zobah, to which, however, very little importance -can be attached. It is simply mentioned in one line in the Book -of Chronicles, and it is hard to believe--considering that Rezon -had possession of Damascus--that Solomon was master of the _great_ -Hamath.[194] He made a material alteration in the military organisation -of his kingdom by establishing a standing army of fourteen hundred -war-chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he dispersed in -various cities and barracks, keeping some of them at Jerusalem.[195] - -In order to save his kingdom from attack Solomon expended vast sums -on the fortification of frontier towns. In the north he fortified -Hazor; in the north-west Megiddo. The passes to Jerusalem on the west -were rendered safe by the fortresses at Upper and Nether Bethhoron. -The southern districts were overawed by the building of Baalath and -Tamar, "the palm-city," which is described as "in the wilderness in -the land,"--perhaps in the desolate tract on the road from Hebron to -Elath.[196] Movers thinks that Hazezon-Tamar or Engedi is meant, as -this town is called Tamar in Ezek. xlvii. 19. - -As the king grew more and more in power he gave full reins to his -innate love of magnificence. We can best estimate the sudden leap -of the kingdom into luxurious civilisation if we contrast the -royalty of Saul with that of Solomon. Saul was little more than a -peasant-prince, a local emir, and such state as he had was of the -humblest description. But Solomon vied with the gorgeous secular -dynasts of historic empires. - -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 dreamed. We are not told the name of his -Egyptian bride, but she must have been the daughter of one of the -last kings of the twenty-first Tanite dynasty--either Psinaces, or -Psusennes II.[197] The dynasty had been founded at Tanis (Zoan) -about B.C. 1100 by an ambitious priest named Hir-hor. It only lasted -for five generations. Whatever other dower Solomon received with -this Egyptian princess, his father-in-law rendered him one signal -service. He advanced from Egypt with an army against the Canaanite -town of Gezer, which he conquered and destroyed.[198] Solomon rebuilt -it as an outpost of defence for Jerusalem. Further than this the -Egyptian alliance did not prove to be of much use. The last king -of this weak twenty-first dynasty was succeeded B.C. 990 by the -founder of a new Bubastite dynasty, the great Shishak I. (Shesonk, -[Greek: Sesonchosis]), the protector of Jeroboam and the plunderer -of Jerusalem and its Temple. Ker'amat, niece of the last king of the -dynasty, married Shishak, the founder of the new dynasty, and was the -mother of U-Sark-on I. (Zerah the Ethiopian). - -It has been a matter of dispute among the Rabbis whether Solomon was -commendable or blameworthy for contracting this foreign alliance. If -we judge him simply from the secular standpoint, nothing could be -more obviously politic than the course he took. Nor did he break any -law in marrying Pharaoh's daughter. Moses had not forbidden the union -with an Egyptian woman. Still, from the religious point of view, -it was inevitable that such a connexion would involve consequences -little in accordance with the theocratic ideal. The kings of Judah -must not be judged as though they were ordinary sovereigns. They -were meant to be something more than mere worldly potentates. The -Egyptian alliance, instead of flattering the pride, only wounded -the susceptibilities of the later Jews. The Rabbis had a fantastic -notion that Shimei had been Solomon's teacher, and that the king -did not fall into the error of wedding an alien[199] until Shimei -had been driven from Jerusalem.[200] That there was some sense of -doubt in Solomon's mind appears from the statement in 2 Chron. viii. -11, that he deemed it unfit for his bride to have her residence on -Mount Moriah, a spot hallowed by the presence of the Ark of God.[201] -That she became a proselytess has been suggested, but it is most -unlikely. 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 heart. On the other hand, the princess, who -was his chief if not his earliest bride, does not seem to have asked -for any shrine or chapel for the practice of her Egyptian rites. -This is the more remarkable since Solomon, ashamed of the humble -cedar house of David--which would look despicable to a lady who had -lived in "the gigantic edifices, and labyrinthine palace of Egyptian -kings"[202]--expended vast sums in building her a palace which should -seem worthy of her royal race. - -From this time forward the story of Solomon becomes more the record -of a passing pageant preserved for us in loosely arranged fragments. -It can never be one tithe so interesting as the history of a human -heart with its sufferings and passions. "Solomon in all his glory," -that figure so unique, so lonely in its wearisome pomp, can never -stir our sympathy or win our affection as does the natural, impetuous -David, or even the fallen, unhappy Saul. "The low sun makes the -colour." The bright gleams and dark shadows of David's life are more -instructive than the dull monotony of Solomon's magnificence. - -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 display. It is only in the first and last sections -of his story that we catch the least glimpse of the man himself. -In the central section we see nothing of him, but are absorbed in -measurements and descriptions which have a purely archaeological, or, -at the best, a dimly symbolic significance. The man is lost in the -monarch, the monarch in the appurtenances of his royal display. His -annals degenerate into the record of a sumptuous parade. - -The fourth chapter of the Book of Kings gives us the constitution -of his court as it was in the middle of his reign, when two of his -daughters were already married. It need not detain us long. - -The highest officers of the kingdom were called _Sarim_, "princes," a -title which in David's reign had been borne almost alone by Joab, who -was _Sar-ha-zaba_, or captain of the host. The son of Zadok[203] is -named first as "the priest." The two chief secretaries (_Sopherim_) -were Elihoreph and Ahiah. They inherited the office of their father -Shavsha (1 Chron. xviii. 16),[204] who had been the secretary of -David. It was their duty to record decrees and draw up the documents -of state. Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, continued to hold the -office of annalist or historiographer (_Mazkir_), the officer known -as the Waka Nuwish in Persian courts.[205] Azariah was over the -twelve prefects (_Nitzabim_), or farmers-general, who administered -the revenues.[206] His brother Zabud became "priest" and "king's -friend."[207] Ahishar was "over the household" (_al-hab-Baith_); that -is, he was the chamberlain, vizier, or mayor of the palace, wearing -on his shoulder the key which was the symbol of his authority.[208] -Adoniram or Adoram, who had been tax-collector for David, still -held that onerous and invidious office,[209] which subsequently, -in his advanced old age, cost him his life. Benaiah succeeded to -the chief-captaincy of Joab. We hear nothing more of him, 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 army, he turned the sovereignty into what the Greeks would -have called a tyranny. As the only armed force in the kingdom the -body-guard overawed opposition, and was wholly at the disposal of the -king. These troops were to Solomon at Jerusalem what the Praetorians -were to Tiberius at Rome. - -The chief points of interest presented by the list are these:-- - -1. First we mark the absence of any prophet. Neither Nathan nor Gad -is even mentioned. The pure ray of Divine illumination is overpowered -by the glitter of material prosperity. - -2. Secondly, the priests are quite subordinate. They are only mentioned -fifth in order, and Abiathar is named with Zadok, though after his -deposition he was living in enforced retirement.[210] The sacerdotal -authority was at this time quite overshadowed by the royal. In all -the elaborate details of the pomp which attended the consecration of -the Temple, Solomon is everything, the priests comparatively nothing. -Zadok is not even mentioned as taking any part in the sacrifices in -spite of his exalted rank. Solomon acts throughout as supreme head of -the Church. Nor was this unnatural, since the two capital events in -the history of the worship of Jehovah--the removal of the Ark to Mount -Zion, and the suggestion, inception, and completion of the building of -the Temple--were due to Solomon and David, not to Zadok or Abiathar. -The priests, throughout the monarchy, suggest nothing, inaugurate -nothing. They are lost in functions and formal ceremonies. They are -but obedient administrative servants, and, so far from protecting -religion, they acquiesce with tame indifference in every innovation and -every apostasy. History has few titles which form so poor a claim to -distinction as that of Levitic priest. - -3. Further, we have two curious and significant phenomena. The title -"the priest" is given to Azariah, who is first mentioned among the -court functionaries. Solomon had not the least intention to allow -either the priestly or the much loftier prophetic functions to -interfere with his autocracy. He did not choose that there should be -any danger of a priest usurping an exorbitant influence, as Hir-hor -had done in Egypt, or Ethbaal afterwards did in the court of Tyre, -or Thomas a-Becket in the court of England, or Torquemada in that of -Spain. He was too much a king to submit to priestly domination. He -therefore appointed one who should be "the priest" for courtly and -official purposes, and should stand in immediate subordination to -himself. - -4. The Nathan whose two sons, Azariah and Zabud, held such high -positions, was in all probability not Nathan the Prophet, who is rarely -introduced without his distinctive title, but Nathan, the younger -brother of Solomon, in whose line the race of David was continued -after the extinction of the elder branch in Jeconiah. Here again we -note the union of _civil_ with priestly functions. Zabud is called "a -priest" though he is a layman, a prince of the tribe of Judah. Nor was -this the first instance in which princes of the royal house had found -maintenance, occupation, and high official rank by being in some sort -engaged in the functions of the priesthood. Already in David's reign -we find the title "priests" (_Kohanim_) given to the sons of David in -the list of court officials[211]--"_and David's sons were priests_." In -this we trace the possible results of Phoenician influences. - -5. Incidentally it is pleasing to find that, though Solomon put -Adonijah to death, he stood in close and kindly relations with his -other brothers, and gave high promotions to the sons of the brothers -who stood nearest to him in age, in one of whom we see the destined -ancestor of the future Messiah.[212] - -6. The growth of imposing officialism, and its accompanying gulf -between the king and his people, is marked by the first appearance of -"the chamberlain" as a new functionary. On him fell the arrangement -of court pageants and court etiquette. The chamberlain in despotic -Eastern courts becomes a personage of immense importance, because -he controls the right of admission into the royal presence. Such -officers, even when chosen from the lowest rank of slaves--like -Eutropius the eunuch-minister of Arcadius,[213] or Olivier le Daim, -the barber-minister of Louis XI.--often absorb no mean part of the -influence of the sovereign with whom they are brought into daily -connexion. In the court of Solomon the chamberlain stands only ninth -in order; but three centuries later, in the days of Hezekiah, he has -become the greatest of the officials, and "Eliakim who was over the -household" is placed before Shebna, the influential scribe, and Joah, -the son of Asaph the recorder.[214] - -7. Last on the list stands the minister who has the ominous title -of _al-ham-Mas_, or "over the tribute." The Mas means the "levy," -corvee, or forced labour. In other words, Adoram was overseer of the -soccagers. Saul had required an overseer of the flocks, and David a -guardian of the treasury, but Adoram is not mentioned till late in -his reign.[215] The _gravamen_ of David's numbering of the people -seems to have lain in the intention to subject them to a poll tax, -or to personal service, such as had become necessary to maintain the -expenses of the court. It is obvious that, as royalty developed from -the conception of the theocratic king to that of the Oriental despot, -the stern warning of Samuel to the people of Israel was more and more -fulfilled. They had said, "Nay, but we will have a king to reign over -us, when Jehovah was their king"; and Samuel had told them how much -less blessed was bondage with ease than their strenuous liberty. He -had warned them that their king would take their sons for his runners -and charioteers and reapers and soldiers and armourers, and their -daughters for his perfumers and confectioners; and that he would -seize their fields and vineyards for his courtiers, and claim the -tithes of their possession, and use their asses, and put their oxen -to his work. The word "_Mas_" representing soccage, serfdom, forced -labour (corvee; Germ., _Frohndienst_), first became odiously familiar -in the days of Solomon. - -Solomon was an expensive king, and the Jewish kings had no private -revenue from which the necessary resources could be supplied. In order -to secure contributions for the maintenance of the royal establishment, -Solomon appointed his twelve Prefects. The list of them is incorporated -from a document so ancient that in several instances the names have -dropped out, and only "son of" remains.[216] The districts entirely -and designedly ignored the old tribal limits, which Solomon probably -wished to obliterate. Ben-Hur administered the hill country of Ephraim; -Ben-Dekar had his headquarters in Dan; Ben-Hesed had the maritime -plain; Ben-Abinadab the fertile region of Carmel, and he was wedded -to Solomon's daughter Taphath;[217] Baana, son of Ahilud, managed the -plain of Esdraelon; Ben-Geber the mountainous country east of Jordan, -including Gilead and Argob with its basaltic towns; Ahinadab, son of -Iddo, was officer in Mahanaim; Ahimaaz in Naphtali (he was married to -Solomon's daughter Basmath, and was perhaps the son of Zadok); Baanah, -son of David's faithful Hushai, was in Asher; Shimei, son of Elah, in -Benjamin; Jehoshaphat in Issachar. Geber administered alone the ancient -dominions of Sihon and Og. We see with surprise that Judah seems to -have been exempted from the burdens imposed on the other districts, -and if so the impolitic exemption was a main cause of the subsequent -jealousies.[218] - -The chief function of these officers was to furnish provisions -for the immense numbers who were connected with the court. The -curious list is given of the provision required for one day--thirty -measures of fine flour, sixty of bread,[219] ten fat oxen, twenty -pasture oxen, and one hundred sheep, besides the delicacies of -harts, gazelles, fallow-deer, and fatted guinea-hens or swans.[220] -Bunsen reckons that this would provide for about fifteen thousand -persons. In this there is nothing extraordinary, though the number -is disproportionate to the smallness of the kingdom. About the same -number were daily supported by the kings of the great empire of -Persia.[221] 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 woman, who had been sifting wheat in -the noontide, and had fallen asleep over her task in the porch.[222] - -Yet in the earlier years of the reign, while the people, dazzled by -the novel sense of national importance, felt the stimulus given to -trade and industry, the burden was not painfully felt. They multiplied -in numbers, and lived under their vines and fig trees in peace and -festivity.[223] But much of their prosperity was hollow and shortlived. -Wealth led to vice and corruption, and in place of the old mountain -breezes of freedom which purified the air, the nation, like Issachar, -became like an ass crouching between two burdens, and bowing its -shoulders to the yoke in the hot valley of sensuous servitude. - - "Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, - Where wealth accumulates and men decay!" - - * * * * * - -It is impossible to overlook the general drift of Jewish royalty -towards pure materialism in the days of Solomon. 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 reign. The -noble aspirations which throb in one Davidic psalm are worth all -the gorgeous formalism of the Temple service. 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 God. - -There was one innovation, which struck the imagination of Solomon's -contemporaries, but was looked on with entire disfavour by those who -had been trained in the old pious days. Solomon had immense stables -for his chariot horses (_susim_), and the swift riding horses of -his couriers (_parashim_).[224] It seems to have been Solomon's -ambition to equal or outshine "the chariots of Pharaoh,"[225] with -which his Egyptian queen had been familiar at Tanis. This feature of -his reign is dwelt upon in the Arabian legends, as well as in all -the historical records of his greatness.[226] But the maintenance -of a cavalry force had always been discouraged by the religious -teachers of Israel. The use of horses in war is forbidden in -Deuteronomy.[227] Joshua had houghed the horses of the Canaanites, -and burned their chariots at Misrephoth-maim. David had followed -his example. Barak had defeated the iron chariots of Sisera, and -David the splendid cavalry of Hadadezer with the simple infantry -of Israel.[228] The spirit of the olden faithfulness spoke in such -words as, "Some put their trust in chariots, and some in horses; -but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God." Solomon's[229] -successors discovered that they had not gained in strength by -adopting this branch of military service in their hilly and rocky -land. They found that "a horse is but a vain thing to save a man, -neither shall he deliver any man by his great strength."[230] - -For a time, however, Solomon's strenuous centralisation was -successful. His dominion extended, at least nominally, from Tiphzah -(Thapsacus), beside the ford on the west bank of the Euphrates, to -the Mediterranean; over the whole domain of the Philistines; and from -Damascus to "the river of Egypt," that is, the Rhinokolura or Wady -el-Areesh. The names Jeroboam and Rehoboam imply that they were born -in an epoch of prosperity.[231] But the sequel proves that it was -that sort of empire which, - - "Like expanded gold, - Exchanges solid strength for feeble splendour."[232] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[193] Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. vii. 8. According to one tradition he -lived to fifty-three (Ewald, iii. 208), and was only twelve when he -succeeded David. - -[194] 2 Chron. viii. 3. Ewald thinks it is confirmed by 2 Kings xiv. -28, where, however, the Hebrew is obscure. - -[195] 1 Kings x. 26. - -[196] 1 Kings ix. 18. Here the "Q'ri," the marginal, or "read" text, -has Tadmor (_i.e._, Palmyra), as also in 2 Chron. viii. 4. But this -Tamar (Ezek. xlvii. 19, xlviii. 28) is "_in the land_" on the south -border. In the Chronicles Tadmor is the right reading, for the -chronicler is speaking of Hamath-Zobah and the north. It is not at -all unlikely that Solomon also built Tadmor (Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. -vi. 1) to protect his commerce on the route to the Euphrates. - -[197] The forty-fifth psalm is supposed by old interpreters to have -been an epithalamium on this occasion, but was probably much later. -Perhaps notices like 1 Kings iii. 1-3 (the Egyptian alliance), the -admonition in 1 Kings ix. 1-9 and the luxury described in x. 14-29, are -meant as warning notes of what follows in xi. 1-8 (the apostasy), 9-13 -(the prophecy of disruption), and 14-43 (the concluding disaster). - -[198] Gezer is Abu-Shusheh, or Tell-el-Gezer, between Ramleh and -Jerusalem (Oliphant, _Haifa_, p. 253), on the lower border of -Ephraim. Ewald identifies it with Geshur, the town of Talmai, -Absalom's grandfather. See Lenormant, _Hist. anc. de l'Orient._, i. -337-43. The genealogy of this dynasty is thus given by Brugsch-Bey -(Gen. Table iv.), _Hist. of Egypt_, vol. ii.:-- - - Hir-hor==Notem. - | - Piankhi. - | - Pinotem I. - | - +--------+---------+ - | | - Pisebkhan I. Men-khepher-ra. - | - +-------------|----------+-----+ - | | | - Pinotem II. Pisebkhan II. Ker'amat - (a daughter). - -[199] See Deut. xxiii. 7, 8. - -[200] Schwab's _Berakhoth_, p. 252; Hershon, _Treasures of the -Talmud_, p. 25. In Sanhedrin, ff. 21, 22, there is another trace of -the dislike with which the marriage (though not forbidden, Deut. -xxiii. 7, 8) was regarded: "When Solomon married the daughter of -Pharaoh, Gabriel descended and fixed a reed in the sea. A sandbank -formed around it on which _Rome_ was subsequently built." In -Shabbath, ff. 51, 52, we are told that "the princess brought with -her one thousand different kinds of musical instruments, and _taught -Solomon the chants to his various idols_." - -[201] No trace of any such misgiving is found in the Book of Kings. - -[202] "Seine Liebhaberei sind kostbare Bauten, fremde Weiber, reiche -Prachtentfaltung" (Kittel, ii. 160). - -[203] Perhaps rather "the grandson." He was the son of Ahimaaz (comp. -Gen. xxix. 5; Ezra v. 1, where _son = grandson_). - -[204] Shisha and Shavsha are perhaps corruptions of Seraiah (2 Sam. -viii. 17). - -[205] Comp. Esth. vi. 1. LXX., Isa. xxxvi. 3, [Greek: ho -hypomnematographos] 2 Sam. viii. 17, [Greek: ho epi ton -hypomnematon]. Jerome, "_a commentariis_." Comp. Suet., _Aug._ 79, -"_qui e memoria Augusti_." - -[206] It is a somewhat ominous fact that _netsib_ means properly an -[Greek: epiteichismos], a garrison in a hostile country. - -[207] The king's friend (2 Sam. xv. 37) seems to have been a sort of -confidential privy councillor (Prov. xxii. 11). - -[208] Isa. xxii. 21. - -[209] 2 Sam. xx. 24. - -[210] Possibly this clause is an interpolation. - -[211] 2 Sam. viii. 18. Even "Ira the Jairite" is called "a priest" -(2 Sam. xx. 26). An attempt has been made to explain the word away -because it obviously clashes with Levitic ordinances; but the word -"priest" could not be used in two different senses in two consecutive -lines. Dogmatic considerations have tampered with the obvious meaning -of the word. The LXX. omits it, and in the case of David's sons -calls them [Greek: aularchai]. The A.V. renders it "chief officer." -The Vulgate wrongly refers it to Zadok (filius Sadoc _sacerdotis_). -Movers (_Krit. Unters._, 301 ff.) renders it "court chaplains." -Already in 1 Chron. xviii. 17 we find that the title gave offence, -and we read instead, "And the sons of David _were at the hand of the -king_" (see Ewald, _Alterthumsk_, p. 276). Compare the title "Bishop -of Osnaburg," borne by Frederick, Duke of York, son of George III. - -[212] 2 Sam. v. 14; Zech. xii. 12; Luke iii. 31. - -[213] The degraded and ominous apparitions of _Sarisim_ (eunuchs) -probably began at the court of Solomon on a large scale, though the -name occurs in the days of David (1 Sam. viii. 15; 1 Chron. xxviii. -1). In the Northern Kingdom we first hear of them in the harem of the -polygamous Ahab. - -[214] 2 Kings xviii. 18; Isa. xxii. 15. - -[215] 2 Sam. xx. 24. He is not mentioned in 1 Chron. xxvii. 25-31. - -[216] This use of patronymics only is common among the Arabs, but not -in Scripture (Reuss, _Hist. d. Isr._, i. 423). - -[217] If he was the son of David's elder brother (1 Sam. xvi. 8, -xvii. 13) he was Solomon's first cousin. The materialistic or -non-religious element in Solomon seems to come out in the names -of his only known children. The element "Jehovah," afterwards so -universal, does not occur in them. Basmath, characteristically, means -"fragrant"; Taphath is perhaps connected with [Hebrew: tafat], to go -mincingly; Rehoboam means "enlarger of the people." - -[218] The LXX. indeed reads [Greek: kai naseph heis en ge Iouda] -("and he was the only officer in the land of Judah"). But this -would make thirteen fiscal overseers. The Targum, adopting the same -reading, says that the thirteenth _nitzab_ was to maintain the king -in the intercalary month. - -[219] Taking the _cor_ at a low estimate this would amount to -eighteen thousand pounds of bread a day. - -[220] 1 Kings iv. 23, [Hebrew: barburim]. Vulg., _Avium altilium_. - -[221] Athen., _Deipnos._, iv. 146. - -[222] 2 Sam. iv. 6 (LXX.). - -[223] This description of _agricultural_ felicity soon became an -anachronism. - -[224] Not "dromedaries" (A.V.). The ruins of his stables are still -pointed out at Jerusalem. He traded with Egypt for horses and -chariots which his merchants brought to Tekoa, and he then sold them -at a profit to the Hittite princes. The forty thousand stalls of 1 -Kings iv. 26 should doubtless be four thousand (2 Chron. ix. 25), -as Solomon only had fourteen hundred chariots (1 Kings x. 26). In 1 -Kings x. 28 the meaning and reading is "as for the export of horses, -which Solomon got from Egypt _even from Tekoa_" (LXX., [Greek: kai ek -thekoue]), "the royal merchants used to fetch a troop of horses at a -price." The "linen yarn" of the A.V. is a mistranslation. - -[225] Cant. i. 9. - -[226] 1 Kings v. 6, ix. 19, x. 26, 28. Two of those passages are -omitted in the LXX. Comp. 1 Kings xvi. 9. - -[227] Deut. xvii. 16. - -[228] Josh. xi. 9; 1 Sam. viii. 11, 12; 2 Sam. viii. 4. - -[229] The energetic dislike to the importation or use of horses is -also found in Isa. ii. 7, xxx. 16, 17, xxxi. 1-3; Micah v. 10-14; -Zech. ix. 10, x. 5, xii. 4. - -[230] Psalm xxxiii. 17, lxxvi. 6, cxlvii. 10. - -[231] Compare Poludemos, Eurudemos. - -[232] Xen., _Anab._, i. 4, 11; Arrian, ii. 13, iii. 7. For the phrase -"on _this_ side of the river," see _ante_, p. 18. - - - - - CHAPTER XIV. - - _THE TEMPLE._ - - 1 KINGS v., vi., vii. - - "And his next son, for wealth and wisdom famed, - The clouded Ark of God, till then in tents - Wandering, shall in a glorious temple enshrine." - _Paradise Lost_, xii. 340. - - -After the destructive battle of Aphek, in which the Philistines -had defeated Israel, slain the two sons of Eli, and taken captive -the Ark of God, they had inflicted a terrible vengeance on the old -sanctuary at Shiloh. They had burnt the young men in the fire, -and slain the priests with the sword, and no widows were left to -make lamentation.[233] It is true that, terrified by portents and -diseases, the Philistines after a time restored the Ark, and the -Tabernacle of the wilderness with its brazen altar still gave -sacredness to the great high place at Gibeon, to which apparently -it had been removed.[234] Nevertheless, the old worship seems -to have languished till it received a new and powerful impulse -from the religious earnestness of David. He had the mind of a -patriot-statesman as well as of a soldier, and he felt that a nation -is nothing without its sacred memories. Those memories clustered -round the now-discredited Ark. Its capture, and its parade as a -trophy of victory in the shrine of Dagon, had robbed it of all its -superstitious prestige as a fetish; but, degraded as it had been, it -still continued to be the one inestimably precious historic relic -which enshrined the memories of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, -and the dawn of its heroic age. - -As soon as David had given to his people the boon of a unique capital, -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 -worship. According to the Chronicles, 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 God. But it had been -decreed unfit that the sanctuary should be built by a man whose hands -were red with the blood of many wars, and he had received the promise -that the great work should be accomplished by his son.[235] - -Into that work Solomon threw himself with hearty zeal in the -month Zif[236] of the fourth year of his reign, when his kingdom -was consolidated.[237] It commanded all his sympathies as an -artist, a lover of magnificence, and a ruler bent on the work of -centralisation. It was a task to which he was bound by the solemn -exhortation of his father, and he felt, doubtless, its political as -well as its religious importance. 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 world. The presence of the Temple left its impress on the very -name of Jerusalem. Although it has nothing to do with the Temple or -with Solomon, it became known to the heathen world as Hierosolyma, -which, as we see from Eupolemos (Euseb., _Praep. Evang._, ix. 34), the -Gentile world supposed to mean "the Temple (_Hieron_) of Solomon." - -The materials already provided were of priceless value. David had -consecrated to God the spoils which he had won from conquered -kings. We must reject, as the exaggerations of national vanity, the -monstrous numbers which now stand in the text of the chronicler; but -a king whose court was simple and inexpensive was quite able to amass -treasures of gold and silver, brass and iron, precious marbles and -onyx stones. Solomon had only to add to these sacred stores.[238] - -He inherited the friendship which David had enjoyed, with Hiram, -King of Tyre, who, according to the strange phrase of the Vatican -Septuagint, sent his servants "to anoint" Solomon. The friendliest -overtures passed between the two kings in letters, to which Josephus -appeals as still extant. A commercial treaty was made by which -Solomon engaged to furnish the Tyrian king with annual revenues of -wheat, barley, and oil,[239] and Hiram put at Solomon's disposal the -skilled labour of an army of Sidonian wood-cutters and artisans.[240] -The huge trunks of cedar and cypress were sent rushing down the -heights of Lebanon by schlittage, and laboriously dragged by road or -river to the shore. There they were constructed into immense rafts, -which were floated a hundred miles along the coast to Joppa, where -they were again dragged with enormous toil for thirty-five miles -up the steep and rocky roads to Jerusalem. For more than twenty -years, while Solomon was building the Temple and his various royal -constructions, Jerusalem became a hive of ceaseless and varied -industry. Its ordinary inhabitants must have been swelled by an army -of Canaanite serfs and Phoenician artisans to whom residences were -assigned in Ophel. There lived the hewers and bevellers of stone; -the cedar-cutters of Gebal or Biblos;[241] the cunning workmen in -gold or brass; the bronze-casters who made their moulds in the clay -ground of the Jordan valley; the carvers and engravers; the dyers who -stained wool with the purple of the murex, and the scarlet dye of the -trumpet fish; the weavers and embroiderers of fine linen. Every class -of labourer was put into requisition, from the descendants of the -Gibeonite _Nethinim_, who were rough hewers of wood and drawers of -water, to the trained artificers whose beautiful productions were the -wonder of the world. The "father," or master-workman, of the whole -community was a half-caste, who also bore the name of Hiram, and was -the son of a woman of Naphtali by a Tyrian father.[242] - -Some writers have tried to minimise Solomon's work as a builder, 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 cathedrals. Insignificant in size it certainly -was, but we must not forget its costly splendour, the remote age in -which the work was achieved, and the truly stupendous constructions -which the design required. Mount Moriah was selected as a site -hallowed by the tradition of Abraham's sacrifice, 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 Araunah.[243] But to -utilise this doubly consecrated area involved almost superhuman -difficulties, which would have been avoided if the loftier but less -suitable height of the Mount of Olives could have been chosen. The -rugged summit had to be enlarged to a space of five hundred yards -square, and this level was supported by Cyclopean walls, which have -long been the wonder of the world.[244] The magnificent wall on the -east side, known as "the Jews' wailing-place," is doubtless the work -of Solomon, and after outlasting "the drums and tramplings of a -hundred triumphs," it remains to this day in uninjured massiveness. -One of the finely bevelled stones is 38-1/2 feet long and 7 feet -high, and weighs more than 100 tons. These vast stones were hewn from -a quarry above the level of the wall, and lowered by rollers down -an inclined plane. Part of the old wall rises 30 feet above the -present level of the soil, but a far larger part of the height lies -hidden 80 feet under the accumulated _debris_ of the often captured -city. At the south-west angle, by Robinson's arch, three pavements -were discovered, one beneath the other, showing the gradual filling -up of the valley; and on the lowest of these were found the broken -_voussoirs_ of the arch. In Solomon's day the whole of this mighty -wall was visible. On one of the lowest stones have been discovered -the Phoenician paint-marks which indicated where each of the huge -masses, so carefully dressed, edge-drafted, and bevelled, was to -be placed in the structure. The caverns, quarries, water storages, -and subterranean conduits hewn out of the solid rock, over which -Jerusalem is built, could only have been constructed at the cost of -immeasurable toil. They would be wonderful even with our infinitely -more rapid methods and more powerful agencies; 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 nation. - -It was perhaps from his Egyptian father-in-law that Solomon, to his -own cost, learnt the secret of forced labour which alone rendered -such undertakings possible. In their Egyptian bondage the forefathers -of Israel had been fatally familiar with the ugly word _Mas_, the -labour wrung from them by hard task-masters.[245] In the reign of -Solomon it once more became only too common on the lips of the -burdened people.[246] - -Four classes were subject to it. - -1. The lightest labour was required from the native freeborn -Israelites (_ezrach_). They were not regarded as bondsmen ([Hebrew: -'avadim]), yet 30,000 of these were required in relays of 10,000 to -work, one month in every three, in the forest of Lebanon.[247] - -2. There were the strangers, or resident aliens (_Gerim_), such as the -Phoenicians and Giblites, who were Hiram's subjects and worked for pay. - -3. There were three classes of slaves--those taken in war, or sold -for debt, or home-born. - -4. Lowest and most wretched of all, there were the vassal Canaanites -(_Toshabim_), from whom were drawn those 70,000 burden-bearers, and -80,000 quarry-men, the Helots of Palestine, who were placed under the -charge of 3600 Israelite officers. The blotches of smoke are still -visible on the walls and roofs of the subterranean quarries where -these poor serfs, in the dim torchlight and suffocating air, "laboured -without reward, perished without pity, and suffered without redress." -The sad narrative reveals to us, and modern research confirms, that the -purple of Solomon had a very seamy side, and that an abyss of misery -heaved and moaned under the glittering surface of his splendour.[248] -Jerusalem during the twenty years occupied by his building must have -presented the disastrous spectacle of task-masters, armed with rods -and scourges, enforcing the toil of gangs of slaves, as we see -them represented on the tombs of Egypt and the palaces of Assyria. -The sequel shows the jealousies and discontents even of the native -Israelites, who felt themselves to be "scourged with whips and laden -with heavy burdens." They were bondmen in all but name, for purposes -which bore very little on their own welfare. But the curses of the -wretched aborigines must have been deeper, if not so loud. They were -torn from such homes as the despotism of conquest still left to them, -and were forced to hopeless and unrewarded toil for the alien worship -and hateful palaces of their masters. Five centuries later we find a -pitiable trace of their existence in the 392 _Hierodouloi_, menials -lower even than the enslaved _Nethinim_, who are called "_sons of the -slaves of Solomon_"--the dwindling and miserable remnant of that vast -levy of Palestinian serfs. - -Apart from the lavish costliness of its materials the actual Temple -was architecturally a poor and commonplace structure. It was quite -small--only 90 feet long, 35 feet broad, and 45 feet high. It was -meant for the symbolic habitation of God, not for the worship of -great congregations. It only represented the nascent art and limited -resources of a tenth-rate kingdom, 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 calm, eternal eyes." - -When Justinian boastfully exclaimed, as he looked at his church, "_I -have vanquished thee, O Solomon_,"[249] and when the Khalif Omar, -pointing to the Dome of the Rock, murmured, "_Behold, a greater than -Solomon is here,_" they forgot the vast differences between them and -the Jewish king in the epoch at which they lived and the resources -which they could command. The Temple was built in "majestic silence." - - "No workman's axe, no ponderous hammer rung, - Like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung." - -This was due to religious reverence. It could be easily accomplished, -because each stone and beam was carefully prepared to be fitted in -its exact place before it was carried up the Temple hill. - -The elaborate particulars furnished us of the measurements of Solomon's -Temple are too late in age, too divergent in particulars, too -loosely strung together, too much mingled with later reminiscences, -and altogether too architecturally insufficient, to enable us to -re-construct the exact building, or even to form more than a vague -conception of its external appearance. Both in Kings and Chronicles the -notices, as Keil says, are "incomplete extracts made independently of -one another," and vague in essential details. Critics and architects -have attempted to reproduce the Temple on Greek,[250] Egyptian,[251] -and Phoenician[252] models, so entirely unlike each other as to -show that we can arrive at no certainty.[253] It is, however, most -probable that, alike in ornamentation and conception, the building -was predominantly Phoenician.[254] Severe in outline, gorgeous in -detail, it was more like the Temple of Venus-Astarte at Paphos than any -other. Fortunately the details, apart from such dim symbolism as we may -detect in them, have no religious importance, but only an historic and -antiquarian interest.[255] - -The Temple--called _Baith_ ([Hebrew: bait]) or _Hekal_ ([Hebrew: -heichal])--was surrounded by the thickly clustered houses of the -Levites, and by porticoes[256] through which the precincts were -entered by numerous gates of wood overlaid with brass. A grove -of olives, palms, cedars, and cypresses, the home of many birds, -probably adorned the outer court.[257] This court was shut from the -"higher court,"[258] afterwards known as "the Court of the Priests," -by a partition of three rows of hewn stones surmounted by a cornice -of cedar beams. In the higher court, which was reached by a flight -of steps, was the vast new altar of brass, 15 feet high and 30 -feet long, of which the hollow was filled with earth and stones, -and of which the blazing sacrifices were visible in the court -below.[259] Here also stood the huge molten sea, borne on the backs -of twelve brazen oxen, of which three faced to each quarter of the -heavens.[260] It was in the form of a lotus blossom, and its rim was -hung with three hundred wild gourds in bronze, cast in two rows. Its -reservoir of eight hundred and eighty gallons of water was for the -priestly ablutions necessary in the butcheries of sacrifice, and its -usefulness was supplemented by ten brazen caldrons on wheels, five on -each side, adorned like "the sea," with pensile garlands and cherubic -emblems.[261] Whether "the brazen serpent of the wilderness," to -which the children of Israel burnt incense down to the days of -Hezekiah, was in that court or in the Temple we do not know. - -On the western side of this court, facing the rising sun, stood -the Temple itself, on a platform elevated some sixteen feet from -the ground. Its side chambers were "lean-to" annexes (Heb., ribs; -LXX., [Greek: melathra]; Vulg., _tabulata_), in three stories, all -accessible by one central entrance on the outside. Their beams rested -on rebatements in the thickness of the wall, and the highest was the -broadest. Above these were windows "skewed and closed," as the margin -of the A.V. says; or "broad within and narrow without"; or, as it -should rather be rendered, "with closed crossbeams," that is, with -immovable lattices, which could not be opened and shut, but which -allowed the escape of the smoke of lamps and the fumes of incense. -These chambers must also have had windows. They were used to store the -garments of the priests and other necessary paraphernalia of the Temple -service, but as to all details we are left completely in the dark. - -Of the external aspect of the building in Solomon's day we know -nothing. We cannot even tell whether it had one level roof, or -whether the Holy of Holies was like a lower chancel at the end of -it; nor whether the roof was flat or, as the Rabbis say, ridged; -nor whether the outer surface of the three-storeyed chambers which -surrounded it was of stone, or planked with cedar, or overlaid with -plinths of gold and silver;[262] nor whether, in any case, it was -ornamented with carvings or left blank; nor whether the cornices -only were decorated with open flowers like the Assyrian rosettes. -Nor do we know with certainty whether it was supported within by -pillars[263] or not. In the state of the records as they have come -down to us, 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 countries." - -In front of or just within the porch were two superb pillars, -regarded as miracles of Tyrian art, made of fluted bronze, 27 feet -high and 18 feet thick. Their capitals of 7-1/2 feet in height -resembled an open lotos blossom, surrounded by double wreaths of two -hundred pensile bronze pomegranates, supporting an abacus, carved -with conventional lily work. Both pomegranates and lilies had a -symbolic meaning.[264] The pillars were, for unknown reasons, called -Jachin and Boaz.[265] Much about them is obscure. It is not even -known whether they stood detached like obelisks, or formed Propylaea; -or supported the architraves of the porch itself, or were a sort of -gateway, surmounted by a _melathron_ with two _epithemas_, like a -Japanese or Indian _toran_. - -The porch (_Olam_), which was of the same height as the house (_i.e._, -45 feet high),[266] was hung with the gilded shields of Hadadezer's -soldiers which David had taken in battle,[267] and perhaps also with -consecrated armour, like the sword of Goliath,[268] to show that "unto -the Lord belongeth our shield" (Psalm lxxxix. 18), and that "the -shields of the earth belong unto God" (Psalm xlvii. 9). - -A door of cypress wood, of two leaves, made in four squares, -7-1/2 feet broad and high, turning on golden hinges overlaid with -gold, and carved with palm branches and festoons of lilies and -pomegranates, opened from the porch into the main apartment. This -was the _Mikdash_ ([Hebrew: mikdash]), Holy Place, or Sanctuary, -and sometimes specially called in Chaldee "the Palace" (_Hekal_, or -_Birah_) (Ezra v, 14, 15, etc.). Before it, as in the Tabernacle, -hung an embroidered curtain (_Masak_). It was probably supported -by four pillars on each side. In the interspaces were five tables -on each side, overlaid with gold, and each encircled by a wreath -of gold (_zer_). On these were placed the cakes of shewbread.[269] -At the end of the chamber, on each side the door of the Holiest, -were five golden candlesticks with chains of wreathed gold hanging -between them. In the centre of the room stood the golden altar of -incense, and somewhere (we must suppose) the golden candlestick of -the Tabernacle, with its seven branches ornamented with lilies, -pomegranates, and calices of almond flowers. 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 place. The Holy -Place itself was lighted by narrow slits. - -The entrance to the Holiest, the _Debir_, or oracle,[270] which -corresponded to the Greek _adytum_, was through a two-leaved door of -olive wood, 6 feet high and broad, overlaid with gold, and carved -with palms, cherubim, and open flowers. The partition was of cedar -wood. The floor of the whole house was of cedar overlaid with gold. -The interior of this "Oracle," as it was called--for the title "Holy -of Holies" is of later origin--was, at any rate in the later Temples, -concealed by an embroidered veil of blue, purple, and crimson, looped -up with golden chains. - -The Oracle, like the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse, was a perfect -cube, 30 feet broad and long and high, covered with gold, but -shrouded in perpetual and unbroken darkness.[271] 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 Atonement.[272] In the centre of the floor -must apparently have risen the mass of rock which is still visible -in the Mosque of Omar, from which it is called _Al Sakhra_, "the -Dome of the Rock." Tradition pointed to it as the spot on which -Abraham had laid for sacrifice the body of his son Isaac, when the -angel restrained the descending knife. It was also the site of -Araunah's threshing-floor, and had been therefore hallowed by two -angelic apparitions.[273] On it was deposited with solemn ceremony -the awful palladium of the Ark, which had been preserved through -the wanderings and wars of the Exodus and the troublous days of the -Judges.[274] It contained the most sacred possession of the nation, -the most priceless treasure which Israel guarded for the world. This -treasure was the Two Tables of the Ten Commandments, graven (in the -anthropomorphic language of the ancient record) by the actual finger -of God; the tables which Moses had shattered on the rocks of Mount -Sinai as he descended to the backsliding people.[275] The Ark was -covered with its old "Propitiatory," or "Mercy-seat," overshadowed -by the wings of two small cherubim; but Solomon had prepared for its -reception a new and far more magnificent covering, in the form of -two colossal cherubim, 15 feet high, of which each expanded wing was -7-1/2 feet long. These wings touched the outer walls of the Oracle, -and also touched each other over the centre of the Ark. - -Such was the Temple. - -It was the "forum, fortress, university, and sanctuary" of the Jews, -and the transitory emblem of the Church of Christ's kingdom. It was -destined to occupy a large share in the memory, and even in the -religious development, of the world, because it became the central -point round which crystallised the entire history of the Chosen People. -The kings of Judah are henceforth estimated with almost exclusive -reference to the relation in which they stood to the centralised -worship of Jehovah. The Spanish kings who built and decorated the -Escurial caught the spirit of Jewish annals when, in the Court of the -Kings, they reared the six colossal statues of David the originator, of -Solomon the founder, of Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, Josiah, and Manasseh the -restorers or purifiers of the Temple worship.[276] - -It required the toil of 300,000 men for twenty years to build one of -the pyramids. It took two hundred years to build and four hundred -to embellish the great Temple of Artemis of the Ephesians. It took -more than five centuries to give to Westminster Abbey its present -form. Solomon's Temple only took seven and a half years to build; -but, as we shall see, its objects were wholly different from those -of the great shrines which we have mentioned. The wealth lavished -upon it was such that its dishes, bowls, cups, even its snuffers -and snuffer trays, and its meanest utensils, were of pure gold. The -massiveness of its substructions, the splendour of its materials, the -artistic skill displayed by the Tyrian workmen in all its details -and adornments, added to the awful sense of its indwelling Deity, -gave it an imperishable fame. Needing but little repair, it stood -for more than four centuries. Succeeded as it was by the Temples of -Zerubbabel and of Herod, it carried down till seventy years after -the Christian era the memory of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, of -which it preserved the general outline, though it exactly doubled all -the proportions and admitted many innovations.[277] - -The dedication ceremony was carried out with the utmost pomp. It -required nearly a year to complete the necessary preparations, and -the ceremony with its feasts occupied fourteen days, which were -partly coincident with the autumn Feast of Tabernacles.[278] - -The dedication falls into three great acts. The first was the removal -of the Ark to its new home (1 Kings viii. 1-11); then followed the -speech and the prayer of Solomon (vv. 12-61); and, finally, the great -holocaust was offered (vv. 62-66). - -The old Tabernacle, or what remained of it, with its precious -heirlooms, was carried by priests and Levites from the high place at -Gibeon, which was henceforth abandoned.[279] This procession was met -by another, far more numerous and splendid, consisting of all the -princes, nobles, and captains, which brought the Ark from the tent -erected for it on Mount Zion by David forty years before. - -The Israelites had flocked to Jerusalem in countless multitudes, -under their sheykhs and emirs[280] from the border of Hamath on the -Orontes,[281] north of Mount Lebanon, to the Wady el-Areesh.[282] -The king, in his most regal state, accompanied the procession, and -the Ark passed through myriads of worshippers crowded in the outer -court, from the tent on Mount Zion into the darkness of the Oracle -on Mount Moriah, where it continued, unseen perhaps by any human eye -but that of the high priest once a year, until it was carried away by -Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon.[283] To indicate that this was to be its -rest for ever, the staves, contrary to the old law, were drawn out -of the golden rings through which they ran, in order that no human -hand might touch the sacred emblem itself when it was borne on the -shoulders of the Levitic priests. "And there they are unto this day," -writes the compiler from his ancient record, long after Temple and -Ark had ceased to exist.[284] - -The king is the one predominant figure, and the high priest is not -once mentioned. Nathan is only mentioned by the heathen historian -Eupolemos. Visible to the whole vast multitude, Solomon stood in the -inner court on a high scaffolding of brass. Then came a burst of -music and psalmody from the priests and musicians, robed in white -robes, who densely thronged the steps of the great altar.[285] -They held in their hands their glittering harps and cymbals, and -psalteries in their precious frames of red sandal wood, and twelve of -their number rent the air with the blast of their silver trumpets as -Solomon, in this supreme hour of his prosperity, shone forth before -his people in all his manly beauty. - -At the sight of that stately figure in its gorgeous robes the song of -praise was swelled by innumerable voices, and, to crown all, a blaze -of sudden glory wrapped the Temple and the whole scene in heaven's -own splendour (2 Chron. v. 13, 14). First, the king, standing with -his back to the people, broke out into a few words of prophetic song. -Then, turning to the multitude, he blessed them--he, and not the -high priest--and briefly told them the history and significance of -this house of God, warning them faithfully that the Temple after all -was but the _emblem_ of God's presence in the midst of them, and -that the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, neither -is worshipped with men's hands as though He needed anything. After -this he advanced to the altar, and kneeling on his knees (2 Chron. -vi. 13)--a most unusual attitude among the Jews, who, down to the -latest ages, usually stood up to pray--he prayed with the palms of -his hands upturned to heaven, as though to receive in deep humility -its outpoured benefits. The prayer, as here given, consists of an -introduction, seven petitions, and a conclusion. It was a passionate -entreaty that God would hear, both individually and nationally, both -in prosperity and in adversity, the supplications of His people, and -even of strangers, who should either pray in the courts of that His -house, or should make it the _Kibleh_ of their devotions.[286] - -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 them.[287] At the close of the entire festival they departed to -their homes with joy and gladness.[288] - -But whatever the Temple might or might not be to the people, the -king used it as his own chapel. Three times a year, we are told, he -offered--and for all that appears, offered with his own hand without -the intervention of any priest--burnt offerings and peace offerings -upon the altar. Not only this, but he actually "burnt incense therewith -upon the altar which was before the Lord,"--the very thing which -was regarded as so deadly a crime in the case of King Uzziah.[289] -Throughout the history of the monarchy, the priests, with scarcely any -exception, seem to have been passive tools in the hands of the kings. -Even under Rehoboam--much more under Ahaz and Manasseh--the sacred -precincts were defiled with nameless abominations, to which, so far as -we know, the priests offered no resistance. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[233] Psalm lxxviii. 58-64. - -[234] According to 2 Chron. i. 3. - -[235] David's suggestion does not seem to have been received -favourably at first (2 Sam. vii. 1-17). The chronicler (1 Chron. -xxviii. 19) 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 Lord." - -[236] The ancient Israelites named their months from the seasons, -as did the Canaanites. Only four of those old names are preserved -in the Bible: _Zif_, "brightness" (comp. _Floreal_, _Lenz_); _Bul_, -"rain-month" (_Pluviose_); _Abib_, "corn-ear month"; _Ethanim_, -"fruit-month" (_Fructidor_). - -[237] In 1 Kings vi. 1 we read "in the 480th year after the children -of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt." This may possibly be -a later gloss. The LXX., Origen, Josephus, etc., omit the words, -and the Old Testament does not, as a rule, date events by epochs. -Further, the date is full of difficulties, though our received -chronology is based on it. It was perhaps arrived at after the Exile, -by counting backwards from the Decree of Cyrus, B.C. 535. See note at -the end of the volume. - -[238] 1 Chron. xxii. 14 says that David (comp. xxviii., xxix.) "with -much labour" (A.V., "in my trouble," 1 Chron. xxii. 14) bequeathed to -Solomon 100,000 talents of gold and 100,000 talents of silver! This -impossible number is very considerably reduced in 1 Chron. xxix. 4, -where the mention of _darics_ shows an author living in the captivity. - -[239] Comp. Ezek. xxvii. 17; Acts xii. 20. - -[240] According to Tatian, _Orat. ad Graec._, p. 171, Solomon married a -daughter of Hiram. Hiram, like the Queen of Sheba, acknowledges Jehovah -as the (local) God of Israel. He was the son of Abibaal, and, according -to Menander (a Greek historian of Ephesus about B.C. 300, who consulted -Tyrian records), he began to reign at nineteen, and reigned thirty-four -years. Josephus thinks that there were two successive Hirams. - -[241] _Giblim_, 1 Kings v. 18, where "and the stone-squarers" should be -"and especially the men of Gebal." LXX., Alex., [Greek: hoi Biblioi]; -Vulg., _Giblii_, Comp. Ezek. xxvii. 9, Psalm lxxxiii. 7, "The ancients -of Gebal and the wise thereof were in thee." It is now Jebeil, between -Beyrout and Tripoli. The Phoenician and Sidonian artisans were -famous from the earliest antiquity for metal-work, embroidery, dyes, -ship-building, and the fine arts (Hom., _Il._, xxiii. 743; _Od._, iv. -614-18, xv. 425; Herod., iii. 19, vii. 23, 96, etc.). - -[242] 2 Chron. ii. 13, iv. 16, where "a cunning man of Huram my -father's" should be "even Huram, my father," _i.e._, master-workman -or deviser (comp. Gen. xlv. 8). In Chronicles he is called the son -of a Danite mother. Here we have another of the manipulations used -by later Jewish tradition to get rid of what they disliked; for in -Eupolemos (Euseb., _Praep. Evang._, ix. 34) Hiram is said to belong to -the family of David. "Quite a little romance," as Wellhausen says, -"has been constructed out of the fact that the chronicler assigns -his mother to the tribe of Dan; but it is not worth repeating, being -a mass of hypotheses." To the dislike of Sidonian and semi-Sidonian -influence, we perhaps owe the notion that David had already received -a design from the hand of God Himself (1 Chron. xxviii. 11-19) -(Ewald, iii. 227). Jerome mentions the Jewish fable that the artist -Hiram was of the family of Aholiab, the artist of the wilderness. - -[243] "Araunah the king" (2 Sam. xxiv. 23). The Temple Mount was -usually called the "Mount of the House." It is only called Mount -Moriah in 2 Chron. iii. 1. It cannot be regarded as certain that "the -land of Moriah" (Gen. xxii. 2) is identical with it. - -[244] "The present platform is 1521 feet long on the east, 940 on the -south, 1617 on the west, 1020 on the north." Bartlett, _Walks about -Jerusalem_, pp. 161-70; Williams, _The Holy City_, pp. 315-62. Kugle, -_Gesch. der Baukunst_, p. 125. The excellent stone was supplied by -quarries at Jerusalem itself. Comp. "Cavati sub terra montes." (Tac., -_Hist._, v. 12). It may have been extended by Justinian when he built -his church. See Ewald, iii. 232, "The Mount of the Temple was 500 -yards square"; _Middoth_, c. 2. Comp. Ezek. xiii. 15-20, xlv. 2; -Josephus, _Antt._, XV. xi. 3. - -[245] Exod. i., ii. - -[246] 1 Kings iv. 6, v. 13, 14, 17, 18, ix. 15, 21, xii. 18. - -[247] Ewald thinks that it was only "at the beginning" that Solomon, -like Sesostris (Diod. Sic., _Hist._, i. 56), could boast that his work -was done without exacting bitter labour from his own countrymen. But -1 Kings ix. 22 shows that the king's opinion on this subject differed -widely from that of his people (1 Kings xi. 28, xii. 3); for we are -told that he did not make _servants_ of the children of Israel, -but used them as military officers (_Sarim_) and chariot-warriors -(_Shalishim_, [Greek: tristatai]) and knights. It required a little -euphemism to gild the real state of affairs. The details of numbers in -the Books of Chronicles differ from those in the Kings. - -[248] 1 Kings v. 13, ix. 22; 2 Chron. viii. 9. (Omitted in the LXX.) - -[249] 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 sorrow. - -[250] Professor Williams, _Prolus. Architectonicae_. - -[251] Professor Hoskins (_Enc. Brit._); Canina, _Jewish Antiquities_; -Thrupp, _Ancient Jerusalem_; Count de Voguee, _Le Temple de Jerusalem_. - -[252] Fergusson, _Temples of the Jews_; E. Robbins, _Temple of Solomon_. - -[253] Eupolemos (Euseb., _Praep. Evang._, ix. 30) and Alex. Polyhistor -(Clem. Alex., _Strom._, i. 21) idly talk of help furnished to Solomon -in building the Temple by an Egyptian King Vaphres, and of letters -interchanged between them. Vaphres seems to be a mere anachronism for -Hophra. - -[254] The Phoenician style may, however, have been borrowed in part -from Egypt. - -[255] I have spoken of the Temple in _Solomon and his Times_ (Men of -the Bible), and have there furnished some illustrations. The following -special authorities may be referred to. Stade, i. 311-57, Friederich, -_Tempel und Palast Salomo's_ (Innsbruck, 1887); Chipiez et Perrot, _Le -Temple de Jerusalem_ (Paris, 1889); Warren, _Underground Jerusalem_; -Wilson and Warren, _Recov. of Jerusalem_ (1871). - -[256] _Parbarim_ (2 Kings xxiii. 11). Comp. 1 Chron. xxvi. 18 (A.V., -"suburbs"; R.V., "precincts" and "Parbar"). Descriptions of the Temple, -imperfect, and not always accordant with each other, are found in 1 -Kings v.-vii.; 2 Chron. ii.-v.; Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. iii. 7, 8. - -[257] As we infer from Psalms lii. 8, lxxxiv. 3, lxxvi. 2 (where -"tabernacle" should be "covert"). Eupolemos (_ap._ Euseb., _Praep. -Evang._, etc.). Scattered passages of the Talmud which refer mainly -to Herod's Temple are full of extravagances. - -[258] Jer. xxxvi. 10. - -[259] 2 Chron. iv. 1. This could not have been the brazen altar of -the wilderness, the fate of which we do not know. It was far larger, -but probably on the same model, except that steps were forbidden as -an approach to the altar of the Tabernacle (Exod. xx. 24-26). It is -difficult to reconcile the description of the brazen altar with the -distinct prohibition of that passage. Comp. Ezek. xliii. 17. - -[260] The huge stone vase of Amathus was borne on a bull (Duncker, -ii. 184). Josephus says that in making these oxen Solomon broke the -law (_Antt._, VIII. vii. 5), as well as by the lions on his throne. -The Romans called huge vases _lacus_. - -[261] The descriptions of these lavers, whether in the Hebrew, the -LXX., or Josephus, are not intelligible, and are wholly unimportant. - -[262] Like the palace of Ecbatana (Polyb., x. 27, 10; Herod., i. -98), and possibly the upper stories of the great temple of Bel at -Birs-Nimrud (Borsippa). - -[263] In 1 Kings x. 12 "pillars" should be "a rail" or "balustrade." -Heb., [Hebrew: mis'ad]; LXX., [Greek: hyposterigmata]; Vulg., _fulcra_. - -[264] Lilies symbolised beauty and innocence; pomegranates good -works (so the Chaldee in Cant. iv. 13, vi. 11, Baehr, _Symbol._, ii. -122). Raphael crowns his Theology with pomegranates, Giotto places a -pomegranate in the hand of his youthful Dante, and Giovanni Bellini -in the hand of the Virgin Mary. - -[265] Some suppose that the words imply "He will establish" (Jachin) -"in strength" (Boaz). "After some favourite persons of the time, -perhaps young sons of Solomon," says Ewald, very improbably. LXX. -(2 Chron. iii. 17), [Greek: Katorthosis] and [Greek: Ischys]. See a -description of these pillars in Jer. lii. 21-23. - -[266] Some writers have supplied the Temple with a porch 180 feet -high, misled by the astounding method of the chronicler of adding the -four sides into the total. Thus, he tells us that the wings of the -cherubim were 30 feet long, meaning that each single wing was 7-1/2 -feet long (2 Chron. iii. 11). Josephus does the same in telling us -the height of the Temple wall. - -[267] The ground plans of most ancient temples were alike. - -[268] 2 Sam. viii. 7; 1 Chron. xviii. 7. - -[269] So 2 Chron. iv. 8. But it would seem from 1 Kings vii. 48; 2 -Chron. xiii. 11, xxix. 18 that only one table and one candlestick -were ordinarily used. - -[270] St. Jerome rendered _debir_ by _oraculum_, but some derive -it from the Arabic root _dabar_, "to be behind," not from [Hebrew: -davar], "to speak" (Munk, p. 290). - -[271] In Zerubbabel's and Herod's Temples there was a curtain -(_Parocheth_) before the Holiest; but we read of no such curtain -in Solomon's, except in 2 Chron. iii. 14. The fact that the staves -of the Ark were _visible_ seems to show that there was not one. -The chronicler speaks of "_the_ vail" (2 Chron. iii. 14), showing, -apparently, that there was only one; and does not mention the -_Masak_, which hung between the Porch and the Holy Place. Except in 2 -Chron. iii. 14, the only mention of either is in the "Priestly Code." -Since the Oracle had a door, one hardly sees why there should also -have been a curtain. But the whole subject is obscure, and perhaps -the chronicler is sometimes thinking of the second Temple. - -[272] We read nothing, however, of any observance of the Day of -Atonement till centuries later. - -[273] 2 Sam. xxiv. 25 (LXX.); 1 Chron. xxii. 1; 2 Chron. iii. 1; -Josephus, _Antt._, I. xiii. 1, VII. xiii. 4; Targum of Onkelos on -Gen. xii. - -[274] "The Ark of the Lord," or "of the Testimony," or "of the -Covenant," was an oblong chest of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, -surmounted by a border of gold, and resting on four feet, to which -(A.V. corners) were attached golden rings. - -[275] 1 Kings viii. 9. The pot of manna and the budded rod of Aaron -were placed before it (Exod. xvi. 34; Numb. xvii. 10), and the Book -of the Law beside it (Deut. xxxi. 26). The Mercy-seat above was -more sacred than the Ark itself (Lev. xvi. 2). It was the cover -(_Kapporeth_, [Greek: epithema]) of the Ark, and was partly formed of -two winged cherubim which gazed down upon it and faced each other. - -[276] Stanley, ii. 203. - -[277] The Tyrian adornments; the steps to the altar; the ten -candlesticks, and tables; the lions and oxen. - -[278] The Temple was finished in the eighth month of Solomon's eleventh -year, and dedicated in the seventh month (_Ethanim_, or Tisri) of the -twelfth year. The first eight days (8th to 15th) were devoted to the -Feast of Dedication, and then from the 15th to the 22nd they kept the -Feast of Tabernacles. On the 23rd (the eighth day from the beginning -of the Feast of Tabernacles, called _'atsereth_, 2 Chron. 10) Solomon -dismissed the people. The [Hebrew: 'atzeret], "solemn assembly," is not -mentioned in Exodus or Deuteronomy, but in Lev. xxiii. 36. - -[279] It was perhaps stored away in one of the Temple chambers (2 -Macc. ii. 4). The Gibeonites (_Nethinim_) were at the same time -transferred to Jerusalem. The chronicler (2 Chron. v. 6) says that -_the Levites_ took the Ark, according to the Levitic rule; but 1 -Kings viii. 3 says that _the priests_ bore it, as in Deut. xxxi. 9, -and in all the prae-exilic histories (Josh. iii. 3, vi. 6; 2 Sam. xv. -24-29, etc.). W. Robertson Smith, p. 144. - -[280] The sheykhs are heads of clans; the emirs of tribes (Reuss, i. -444). - -[281] The Greek [Greek: Epiphaneia]. Solomon seems to have had some -jurisdiction there (2 Chron. viii. 6). - -[282] The torrent (_nachal_) of Egypt. - -[283] The Holiest, being an unlighted cube, must always have been -dim; but, as we have seen, we have no proof that in Solomon's Temple -the entrance to it was shrouded by a curtain. In 1 Kings viii. 12, -for "The Lord said that He would dwell _in the thick darkness_," the -Targum had "_In Jerusalem_." - -[284] In 1 Kings viii. 4 we read that "the priests and the Levites" -brought up to Jerusalem "the Tabernacle of the congregation." -But the LXX. only has [Greek: hoi hiereis]. In 2 Chron. v. 5 the -Hebrew text has "the Levites" in some MSS., or "the priests, the -Levites"--_i.e._, the Levitic priests. For "the priests took up the -ark" (1 Kings viii. 3) the chronicler has "the Levites" (comp. Numb. -iii. 31, iv. 15). It is at least doubtful whether the distinction -between priests and Levites is older than the Priestly Code and the -days of Ezekiel. Also, the LXX. in 1 Kings viii. 4 puts "witness" -for "congregation," and some critics maintain that "congregation" -(_'edah_) is post-exilic. (See Robertson Smith, Enc. Brit., s.v. -Kings). See _infra_, pp. 189, 190. - -[285] Some psalm, like Psalm cxxxvi., was probably sung by alternate -choirs, but hardly in the attitude of prostration which followed the -sudden blaze of glory (2 Chron. vii. 3). - -[286] "The prayer" is of extreme beauty, but it belongs by its ideas to -the seventh and not to the eleventh or tenth centuries B.C. (Ewald). -It is probably added by a later editor who took the Deuteronomic -standpoint. It is found, sometimes almost word for word, in Lev. xxvi. -and Deut. xxviii.; but there are many variations between the Hebrew -and the LXX., and Kings and Chronicles. Looking only at actual facts, -not at _a priori_ theories, we see that, as Professor Driver says -(_Contemporary Review_, Feb. 1890), "the Hebrew historians used some -freedom in attributing speeches to historical characters." Thus, both -the syntax and vocabulary, to say nothing of the thoughts of various -speeches attributed to David by the chronicler, are sometimes such as -mark the latest period in the history of the language, and are often -quite without precedent in prae-exilic literature. Some feelings which -gathered round the Temple find expression in Psalms xxiv., xxvii., -xlii., lxxii., lxxxiv., cxxii., and in more extravagant and less -spiritual forms throughout the Talmud. _Soteh_, f. 48; _Berachoth_, f. -591; _Moed Qaton_, f. 261, etc. - -[287] The Khalif Moktader sacrificed at Mecca 40,000 camels and -50,000 sheep (Burton's _Pilgrimage_, i. 318). Solomon offered burnt -offerings (_oloth_) and thank offerings (_shellamim_). No mention is -made of sin offerings; and it may be doubted whether they had any -separate existence till the days of the Exile. - -[288] 1 Kings viii. 66, "went unto their _tents_," is a reminiscence -of earlier days. The chronicler (1) extends the feast to fourteen -days, according to which there is an interpolation, "and seven days, -even fourteen days," in verse 65; (2) he says that the sacrifices -were consumed by fire from heaven. - -[289] 1 Kings ix. 25. The Hebrew text seems to have been tampered -with, and the allusions significantly disappear from 2 Chron. viii. -12, 13. The commentators assiduously try to clear away the difficulty. - - - - - CHAPTER XV. - - _THE IDEAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TEMPLE._ - - 1 KINGS vii. 13-51, viii. 12-61. - - "The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet - at Jerusalem, worship the Father.... But the hour cometh, and now - is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit - and in truth."--JOHN iv. 21, 23. - - -Five long chapters of the First Book of Kings are devoted to the -description of Solomon's Temple, which occupies a still larger space -in the Books of Chronicles. The Temple was regarded as the permanent -form of the ancient Tabernacle,[290] which is described with lengthy -and minute detail in Exodus. It might seem, therefore, that there -must be some clear explanation of the idea which this sacred building -was intended to embody. Yet it is by no means easy to ascertain what -this idea was, and those who have deeply studied the question have in -age after age been led to widely different views. - -1. Philo and Josephus,[291] with certain variations of detail, regard -it as a symbol of the universe--the world of idea and the world of -sense. Thus the seven-branched candlestick represents the seven -planets; the twelve cakes of shewbread are the twelve signs of the -Zodiac; the court is the earth; the sanctuary the sea; and the oracle -the heavens. The theory derives no importance from its authorship. -Neither Philo nor Josephus, nor the Rabbis, nor the Fathers who adopted -their views,[292] have the least authority in such matters; and Philo, -who led the way in mystical interpretation, abounds in fantasies which -are ludicrously impossible, and are now universally rejected. - -2. The Talmudists held that the Tabernacle was the exact copy of -one in heaven,[293] and that its services reflected those of the -heavenly hierarchy. This view went into the extreme of literalism, as -the other did into the extreme of spiritualisation. It was based on -the text, "Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was -showed thee in the mount."[294] 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 details, together with the -entire priestly and Levitic organisation of its services. "All this," -says David to Solomon, "the Lord made me to understand _in writing_, -by His hand upon me, even all the works in the pattern." - -3. Christian writers have seen in the Temple an emblem of the visible, -the invisible, and the triumphant Church. Such symbolic interpretation -depends on the most arbitrary combinations, and does not rise higher -than an exercise of fancy. It has not the smallest exegetic importance. - -4. Luther thought that the Tabernacle and Temple were emblems of -human nature:--the court, the sanctuary, and the oracle corresponding -to the body, the soul, and the spirit. Later writers have pushed this -opinion, already sufficiently baseless, into the absurdest detail. - -5. The much simpler view of Maimonides[295] who is followed by our -learned Spencer, is that the Temple was simply the palace of Jehovah, -with its vestibule, its audience hall, its Presence-chamber, its -attendant courtiers, its throne, and its offerings of food and wine -and sacrifice. The simplicity of this conception seems to be in -accordance with what we know of ancient forms of worship, and it -is certain that in many heathen temples the offerings of food and -wine were supposed to be consumed by the god. The name "palace" is, -however, only given to the Temple in one chapter (1 Chron. xxix. 1, -19); and the Hebrew, or rather the Persian,[296] word so rendered -(_birah_) may also be rendered "fortress." - -6. In truth we cannot be sure that the idea of the Temple remained -single and definite through so many ages. It was probably a composite -and varying emblem, of which the original significance had become -mingled with many later elements. It is, however, certain that many -numbers and details were symbolical, 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 service. - -The book in which its symbolism is most thoroughly worked out is -Baehr's _Symbolik_. He elaborates, in a simpler form, the opinion -of Philo, that the Temple represented "the structure which God has -erected, the house in which God lives." So far the fact cannot be -disputed for, in Exod. xxix. 45 we are told that the Tabernacle is -called the "House of God" because "I will dwell in the midst of the -children of Israel, and will be their God." But Baehr takes a great -leap when he proceeds to explain the house of God as "the creation -of heaven and earth." If his views were true _as a whole_, it would -indeed be strange that they are not indicated in a single passage -either of the Old or New Testaments. - -The Tabernacle was called "the Tabernacle of the Testimony" because -its two tables of stone were a witness of the covenant between -God and man. It was also called "the Tabernacle of Meeting," by -which is not meant the place where Israel assembled, but the place -where God met Moses and the children of Israel.[297] "For there -will I meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the -mercy-seat," says Jehovah to Moses;[298] and "at the entrance of -the tent of meeting I will meet with you to speak there unto thee, -and there I will meet with the children of Israel."[299] Thus, -in its broadest idea, the Temple brought before the soul of every -thoughtful Israelite the three great beliefs, (1) that God deigned -to dwell in the midst of His people; (2) that, in His infinite mercy -and condescension, He admitted a reciprocity between Himself and His -human children; and (3) that the most absolute expression of His will -was the moral law, obedience to which was the condition of heavenly -favour and earthly happiness. - -"In the Porch," says Bishop Hall, "we may see the regenerate soul -entering into the blessed society of the Church; in the Holy Place -we may see a figure of the Communion of the true visible Church on -earth; in the Holy of Holies the glories of Heaven opened to us by -our true High Priest Christ Jesus, who entered once for all to make -an Atonement betwixt God and man." - -FOOTNOTES: - -[290] The scepticism of modern critics, who doubt whether there ever -was a Tabernacle in the wilderness at all, seems to be insufficiently -grounded. - -[291] _Vit. Mos._, iii.; _Antt._, III. vi. 4, vii. 7; _B. J._, VII. -v. 5. - -[292] _E.g._, Origen (_Hom._, ix.), Clement of Alexandria (_Strom._, -v.), Theodoret (_Qu._, xl. _in Exod._), Jerome (_Ep._, lxiv.), and -others. See Kalisch, _Exodus_, p. 495. - -[293] Wisdom ix. 8: "A copy of the holy tabernacle which Thou didst -prepare from the beginning." - -[294] Exod. xxv. 40, xxvi. 30; Acts vii. 44; Heb. viii. 5. - -[295] _More Nebochim_, iii, 45-49; Kalisch, _Exodus_, p. 497. - -[296] The three names given to the Tabernacle are _Ohel_ ("tent"), -_Mishkan_ ("tabernacle," "habitation," or "dwelling-place"), and -_Baith_ ("house"). It is undoubted that the Tabernacle followed the -ordinary construction of the Oriental tent, with its two divisions, -of which the interior could not be entered by strangers. - -[297] Numb. xvii. 7, xviii. 2; 2 Chron. xxiv. 6; Acts vii. 44; Exod. -xxix. 10, etc.; 1 Kings viii. 4; 2 Chron. viii. 13. The phrase "Tent -of Meeting" in the R.V. removes the complete obscuring of the meaning -involved by the A.V. rendering of "Tabernacle of the Congregation." - -[298] Exod. xxv. 22. - -[299] Exod. xxix. 42, 43. - - - - - CHAPTER XVI. - - _THE ARK AND THE CHERUBIM._ - - 1 KINGS vi. 23-30, viii. 6-11. - - "Jehovah, thundering out of Sion, throned - Between the cherubim." - MILTON. - - -The inculcation of truths so deep as the unity, the presence, and -the mercy of God would alone have sufficed to give preciousness to -the national sanctuary, and to justify the lavish expenditure with -which it was carried to completion. But as in the Tabernacle, so in -the Temple, which was only a more rich and permanent structure, the -numbers, the colours, and many details had a real significance. The -unity of the Temple shadowed forth the unity of the Godhead; while -the concrete and perfect unity, resulting from the reconciliation -of unity with difference and opposition (1 + 2), is "the signature -of the Deity." Hence, as in our English cathedrals, three was the -predominant number. There were three divisions,--Porch, Holy Place, -Oracle. Each main division contained three expiatory objects. Three -times its width (which was 3 x 10) was the measure of its length. The -number ten is also prominent in the measurements. It includes all the -cardinal numbers, and, as the completion of multiplicity, is used to -indicate a perfect whole. The seven pillars which supported the house, -and the seven branches of the candlestick, recalled the sacredness -of the seventh day hallowed by the Sabbath, by circumcision, and by -the Passover. The number of the cakes of shewbread was twelve, "the -signature of the people of Israel, a whole in the midst of which -God resides, a body which moves after Divine laws." Of the colours -predominant in the Temple, _blue_, the colour of heaven, symbolises -revelation; _white_ is the colour of light and innocence; _purple_, -of majesty and royal power; _crimson_, of life, being the colour of -fire and blood. Every gem on the high priest's pectoral had its mystic -significance, and the bells and pomegranates which fringed the edge of -his ephod were emblems of devotion and good works. - -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 people, and to which Solomon, whether with full -consciousness or not, gave permanence in the Temple. - -1. Consider, first, _the Ark_. - -Every step towards the Holiest was a step of deepening reverence. -The Holy Land was sacred, but Jerusalem was more sacred than all the -rest. The Temple was the most sacred part of the city; the Oracle was -the most sacred part of the Temple; the Ark was the most sacred thing -in the Oracle; yet the Ark was only sacred because of that which it -contained. - -And what did it contain? What was it which enshrined in itself this -quintessence of all sanctitude? When we pierce to the inmost recesses -of a pyramid, we find there only the ashes of a dead man, or even -of an animal. Within the adytum of an Egyptian temple we might have -found "an ox wallowing on purple tapestry." The Egyptians, too, had -their arks, as the Greeks had the cyst of Cybele, and the _vannus_ -of Iacchus. What did _they_ contain? At the best phallic emblems, -the emblems of prolific nature. But the Ark of Jehovah contained -nothing but the stone tablets on which were carved the Ten Words of -the Covenant, the briefest possible form of the moral law of God. In -the inmost heart of the Temple was its most inestimable treasure,--a -protest against all idolatry; a protest against all polytheism, or -ditheism, or atheism; a protest, too, against the formalism which -the Temple itself and its services might tend to produce in its -least spiritually minded worshippers. Thus the entire Temple was -a glorification of the truth that "the fear of the Lord is the -beginning of wisdom," and that the one end to be produced by the fear -of the Lord is obedience to His commandments. 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 laws:--Be obedient; be -kind; be pure; be honest; be truthful; be contented; and that this -obedience can only spring from faith in the one God whom all real -worshippers must worship in spirit and truth. - -Obvious as this lesson might seem to be, it was entirely missed by -the Jews in general. The Ark, too, was degraded into a fetish, and -Jeremiah says (iii. 16) of the exiles, "They shall say no more, The -ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind: -neither shall they miss it: neither shall it be made any more" -(Heb.). When a symbol has been perverted into a source of materialism -and superstition, it becomes not only useless but positively -dangerous. No religions have fallen so absolutely dead as those which -have sunk into petty formalism. The Ark, for all its quintessential -sacredness, had been suffered to fall into the hands of uncircumcised -Philistines, and to be placed in their Dagon temple, to show that -it was no mere idolatrous amulet. Ultimately it was carried away to -Babylon, to adorn the palace of a heathen tyrant, and probably to -perish by fire in his captured city. In the second Temple there was -no ark. Nothing remained but the rock of Araunah's threshing-floor, -on which it once had stood. - -2. Consider, next, the meaning of _the Cherubim_. - -(1) The infinite sanctity given to the conception of the moral law -was enhanced by the introduction of these overshadowing figures. We -are never told in the entire books of Scripture what was the form of -these cherubim; nor is their function anywhere specially defined; nor, -again, can we be at all certain of the derivation of the name. That the -cherubim over the Ark were not identical with the fourfold-visaged four -of Ezekiel's cherub-chariot we know, because they certainly had but one -face. But we now know that among the Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians, -and other nations nothing was more common than these cherubic emblems, -which were introduced into their palaces and temples under the forms -of winged lions, oxen, men, and eagle-headed human figures. We see -also that in the Tabernacle,[300] and to a still greater extent in the -Temple, a tacit exception to the stringency of the Second Commandment -seems to have been made in favour of the component parts of these -cherubic figures. If Solomon was aware (as he surely must have been) -of the existence of the law, "_Thou shalt not make to thyself any -graven image_," he must either have laid stress on the words "_to -thyself_," and have excused the brazen oxen which supported his great -laver on the ground that they could not be turned into objects of -worship, or he must have held, as Ezekiel apparently did, that the ox -was the predominant form in the cherubic emblem.[301] From the Vision -of Ezekiel we see that the cherubim--like the "Immortalities" ([Greek: -zoa]) of the Apocalypse, which had faces of the ox, the eagle, the -lion, and the man--were conceived of as "living creatures" upholding -the sapphire Throne of God. They had wings, and the similitude of -hands under their wings. They flashed to and fro like lightning in the -midst of a great cloud, and an enfolding fire, and a rolling mass of -amber-coloured flame. Of the form of this "changeable hieroglyphic" we -need say no more. Perhaps originally suggested by the wreathing fires -and rolling stormclouds, which were regarded as immediate signs of -the Divine proximity, the cherubim came to be regarded as the genius -of the created universe in its richest perfection and energy, at once -revealing and shrouding the Presence of God.[302] Their eyes represent -His omniscience, for "the eyes of the Lord are in every place"; their -wings and straight feet represent the speed and fiery gliding of His -omnipresence;[303] each element of their fourfold shape indicates His -love, His patience, His power, His sublimity. Their wheels imply that -"the dread magnificence of the unintelligent creation" is under His -entire control; and, as a whole, they symbolise the dazzling beauty of -the universe, alike conscious and material. 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 works. Their -function, when they are first introduced in the Book of Genesis, is at -once vengeful and protective; vengeful of the violated law, protective -of the treasure of life.[304] They are here the Erinnyes of the Dawn, -revealing and avenging the works of darkness. Their "dreadful faces -and fiery arms" at the gate of Eden typify guilty awakenment, realised -retribution, conscious alienation from God, the universe siding with -His awakened anger. - -(2) But when next they are mentioned, God says to Moses, "Thou shalt -make a mercy-seat of pure gold, and thou shalt make two cherubim of -gold at the two ends of the mercy-seat." But for their presence on -the mercy-seat how terrible would have been the symbolism of the -Holy of Holies--God's darkness, man's crime, a broken law! It would -have represented Him who hath clouds and darkness round about Him, -and dwelleth in darkness which no man can approach unto; and the Ark -would only have treasured up, as a witness against man's apostasy, -the shattered slabs of the words of Sinai.[305] But over that Ark, -and its saddening because dishallowed treasure, bent once more these -mystic figures, these "cherubim of glory." They bent down as though -at once to protect with outspread wings, and to regard with awful -contemplation, that mystic gift of a law promulgated to all nations -as their moral heritage and as the revealed will of God. These are -no longer cherubim of vengeance or awakened wrath, for they stand on -the _Capporeth_, the "covering," or "propitiatory" of the Ark.[306] -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 shrouded; and even by him they were but dimly discerned through -the ascending wreaths of fragrant incense. But he stood before them, -where, on their spreading wings, the light of the Divine presence -was deemed to dwell; and with the blood of expiation he sprinkled -seven times the mercy-seat over which these adoring figures leaned. -The wrathful cherubim of the lost Eden had driven man from a -treasure which he had forfeited; but these, though they guard the -ten words of a law which man had broken, were cherubim of mercy and -reconciliation. Those of Eden were armed with swords of flame; those -of the Temple were reddened with the blood of forgiveness. Those -typified a covenant destroyed and ended; these a covenant broken yet -renewed. Those spoke of awakened wrath; these of covenanted mercy. -Those kept men back from the Tree of Life; these guarded that which -is a Tree of Life to them that love it. - -Could the whole covenant of the law and the gospel have been -symbolised more simply, yet with Diviner force? The Temple itself, -with all its sacrifices, with all its service and ceremonial and -all the gorgeous vestments of Aaron's vestry, served but to teach -the infinite worth of simple righteousness. The heart of the Mosaic -legislation was nothing so poor, so paltry, so material as the -promotion of liturgical Levitism, and the pomp of ritual, and the -organisation of priestly functions--as though these in themselves had -any value in the sight of God. It lay in the lesson that "Obedience -is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." The -law of Moses--the ten words which constituted the inmost preciousness -of his legislation--was, alas! a violated law. For the disobedient it -had no message but the wrathful menace of death. But to show that God -has not abandoned His disobedient children, but would still enable -them to keep that law, and to repent for its transgression, the -cherubim are there. Their presence on the propitiatory was meant to -reveal the glory of the gospel. The high priest, who alone saw them -on the Great Day of Israel, was a type of Him who, not with the blood -of bulls and goats, but in His own blood (_i.e._, in the glory of the -life outpoured for man), entered into God's presence within the veil. - -(3) In the dazzling living creatures before the throne in the -Revelation of St. John, we see once more these cherubim of Eden, who, -having indicated at the Fall an awful warning, and represented in the -Tabernacle a blessed hope, symbolise, in the last book of the Bible, -a Divine fulfilment. They are there no longer with fiery swords, in -wrathful aspect, in repellent silence; but, gracious and beautiful, -they join in the new song of the redeemed multitude under the shadow -of the Tree of Life, to which all have free access in that recovered -Eden. In the Temple--glimmering through the rising fumes of incense, -which were the type of accepted prayer, their golden plumage sprinkled -with the blood of the atoning sacrifice--they became a type both of -all creation, up to its most celestial beings, gazing in adoration on -the will of God, and of all creation, in its groaning and travailing, -restored through the precious blood that speaketh better things than -the blood of Abel. Not all, of course, of these deep meanings were -present to the souls of Israel's worshippers; 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 Scripture: first, the Primaeval Dispensation, "_In the day that -thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die_"; next, in the wilderness, -"_This do, and thou shalt live_"; last of all, in the Gospel -Dispensation, "_Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy -blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast -made us unto our God kings and priests._" - -FOOTNOTES: - -[300] Kuenen's notion that the cherubim had come to the Jews through -the Phoenicians from the Assyrians is quite improbable. The symbol was -common throughout the East, whatever be the derivation of the word. - -[301] Compare Ezek. i. 10 with x. 14, where "the face of an ox" is -identical with "the face of a cherub." Perhaps this gave rise to -the pagan calumnies that the Jews worshipped an ass. Josephus says -(insincerely) that no man could tell or even conjecture the shape of -the cherubim. - -[302] Baehr, whose profound studies on symbolism command respect, says -that "as standing on the highest step of created life, and uniting in -themselves the most perfect created life, they are the most perfect -revelation of God and the Divine" (_Symbolik_, i. 340). - -[303] Compare the Homeric epithet [Greek: nepodes], and Milton's -"smooth-gliding, without step." - -[304] One of the Scriptural functions of the cherubim was _to guard -treasure_ (Ezek. xxviii. 13-15). This conception, too, was widely -diffused throughout the East:-- - - "As when a Gryphon through the wilderness - Pursues the Arimaspian, who, by stealth, - Has from his watchful custody purloined - The guarded gold." - MILTON. - -[305] I follow the Rabbis in saying that the first broken slabs were -in the Ark. - -[306] Like the Greek images of the gods, they were made of olive, the -least corruptible kind of wood, and overlaid with the purest gold. - - - - - CHAPTER XVII. - - _THE GRADUAL GROWTH OF THE LEVITIC RITUAL._ - - 1 KINGS viii. 1-66. - - "Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice."--1 SAM. xv. 22. - - -Before we enter on the subject of the Temple worship, 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 People: 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 Pentateuch. - -1. Take, for instance, the law of a central sanctuary. It is strongly -laid down, and incessantly insisted on, throughout the Book of -Deuteronomy.[307] Yet that law does not seem to have been so much -as noticed by any of the earlier prophets or judges, or by Saul, or -by David. The judges and early kings offer sacrifices at any place -which they regard as sacred--Bochim, Ophrah, Mizpeh, Gilgal, Bethel, -Bethlehem, etc.[308] The rule of one place for sacrifice was not -regarded for a moment by the kings of the Northern Kingdom. The -transgression of it was not made a subject of complaint by Elijah, -Elisha, or any of the earlier prophets. Not one of the kings, even -of the most pious kings--Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah, -Jotham--rigidly enforced it until the reign of Josiah. The law seems -to have remained an absolutely dead letter for hundreds of years. 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 -Exile; for in "the Book of the Covenant" (Exod. xxiv. 7), which is -the most ancient part of these codes, and comprises Exod. xx.-xxviii. -33, and is briefly repeated in Exod. xxxiv. 10-28, there is not only -no insistence on a central shrine, but many of the regulations would -have been rendered impossible had such a shrine existed (_e.g._, -Exod. xxi. 6, xxii. 7, 8, where "the judges" should be "God," as in -the R.V.). Indeed, so far from insistence on one Temple, we expressly -read (Exod. xx. 24), "An altar of earth shalt thou make Me, and shalt -sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy -sheep and thine oxen, _in all places where I record My name_, and I -will come unto thee and bless thee." - -2. Again, the Book of Leviticus lays down a singularly developed -code of ritual, "extending to the minutest details of worship and of -life." Yet there is scarcely the shadow of a trace of the observance -of even its most reiterated and important provisions during centuries -of Israelitish history. It is emphatically a priestly book; yet from -the days of David down to those of Josiah, the priests, with few -exceptions, are almost ignored in the national records. They took the -colour of their opinions from the reigning kings, even in matters -which were contrary to the whole extent and spirit of the Mosaic Code. -Samuel, who was not a priest, nor even a Levite, performed every -function of a priest, and of a high priest, all his life long. - -3. Again, as we have seen, in spite of the positive distinctness of the -Second Commandment, not only is the "calf-worship" established, with -scarcely a protest, throughout the Northern Kingdom; but Solomon even -ventures, without question or reproof, to place twelve oxen under his -brazen sea, and to adorn the steps of his throne with golden lions. - -4. Again, no ceremony was more awful, or more strikingly symbolical, -in the later religion of Israel, than that of the Great Day of -Atonement. It was the _only_ appointed fast in the Jewish year,[309] -a day so sacred that it acquired the name of _Yoma_, "the Day." Yet -the Day of Atonement, with its arresting ceremonies and intense -significance, is not so much as once mentioned outside the Levitical -Code by a single prophet, or priest, or king. It is not even -mentioned--which is exceedingly strange--in the post-exilic Books of -Chronicles. Between the Book of Leviticus (with its supposed date -of 1491 B.C.), down to the days of Philo, Josephus, and the New -Testament, there is not so much as a hint of the observance of this -central ceremony of the whole Levitic law! What is more perplexing -is, that, in the ideal legislation of Ezekiel, where alone anything -distantly resembling the Day of Atonement is alluded to (Ezek. -xlv. 18-20), the time, manner, and circumstances are as absolutely -different as if Ezekiel had never read the Levitic law at all. How -would any prophet have dared to ignore or alter, without a word -of reference or apology, a rite of Divine origin and immemorial -sanctity, if he had been aware of its existence? - -5. Nor is this only the case with the Day of Atonement. It seems -certain that at Jerusalem there was not for centuries anything -distantly resembling the due Levitic observance of the three great -yearly feasts. Nehemiah, for instance, tells us in so many words that -since the days of Joshua the son of Nun down to B.C. 445--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 -booths.[310] - -6. Again, although there are slight allusions in some of the Prophets -to "laws" and "statutes" and "commandments," their silence about, if -not their absolute ignorance of, anything which resembles the Levitic -legislation as a whole is a startling problem. Thus, even a late -prophet like Jeremiah alludes, without a word of reprobation, to men -cutting and making themselves bald for the dead (Jer. xvi. 6; comp. -xli. 5) in a way which the Levitic law (Lev. xix. 28; Deut. xiv. 1) -strenuously forbids. - -7. Again, as is well known, there is a fundamental difference between -the three codes as to the relative position of the priests and -Levites. (i) In Exod. xix. 6 all Israel is regarded as "a kingdom of -priests and an holy nation," and in Exod. xxiv. 5 the young men of -the children of Israel "offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace -offerings." (ii) In Numb. iii. 44-51 the Levites are set aside -for the service of the Tabernacle in place of the firstborn. But -neither in "the Book of the Covenant" nor in Deuteronomy is there any -_distinction_ between the services of the priests and the Levites. -(iii) In Deut. x. 8 every Levite may become a priest. All priestly -functions are open to the Levites, and the arrangements for the -Levites are wholly different from those of Numbers. (iv) But in the -Priestly Code only the sons of Aaron are to be priests (Numb. vi. -22-27, xviii. 1-7; Lev. i. 5, 8). The Levites are to minister to them -in more or less menial functions, and are permitted a share in the -tithes, but not (as in Deut. xviii. 1) in the firstfruits. We have -first identity of priests and Levites, then partial, then absolute -separation.[311] The earliest trace of this degradation of the -Levites is propounded as something quite new in Ezek. xliv. 10-16, -which distinctly implies (see verse 13) that up to that time the -Levites had enjoyed full priestly rites. - -It must be admitted that these facts are not capable of easy -explanation, nor is it strange that they have led the way to -unexpected conclusions. We have to face the certainty that, for -ages together, the Levitic law was not only a dead letter among the -people for whom it was intended, but that its very existence does -not seem to have been known. "For long periods," says Professor -Robertson, "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 -Ages."[312] But the problem, were we to pursue it into its details, -is far more perplexing than can be accounted for by the very partial -and misleading parallel which Professor Robertson adduces. The -parallel would be nearer if, throughout the Dark Ages for a thousand -years together, scarcely a single trace were to be found, even under -the best popes and the most pious kings, and even in theologic and -sacred literature, of so much as the existence of a New Testament, or -of any observance of the most distinctive festivals and sacraments of -Christianity. And this, as Professor Robertson knows, is infinitely -far from being the case. It is true that an argument _ex silentio_ -may easily be pushed too far; but we cannot ignore it when it is -so striking as this, and when it is also strengthened by so many -positive and corroborative facts. - -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 Criticism," because it is historic and -constructive, and rises above purely verbal elements. That solution -is that the Pentateuch is not only a composite structure (which all -would concede), but that it was written in very different ages, and -that much of it is of very late origin. Critics of the latest school -believe that it consists of three well-marked and entirely different -codes of laws--namely, "the Book of the Covenant" (Exod. xx. -23-xxiii.); the "Deuteronomic Code," first brought into prominence in -the reign of Josiah, and written shortly before that reign; and the -"Levitical" or "Priestly Code," which comprises most of Exodus, and -nearly all Leviticus, and was not introduced till after the Exile. -This would be indeed a radical conclusion, and cannot yet be regarded -as having been conclusively established. But so remarkable has been -the rapidity with which the opinion of religious critics has advanced -on the subject, that now even the strongest opponents of this extreme -view admit that _the existence of the three separate codes_ has been -demonstrated, although they still think that all three may belong to -the Mosaic age.[313] It is obvious, however, that this view leaves -many of the difficulties entirely untouched. Criticism has not yet -spoken her last word upon the subject, but we ought to take her views -into account in considering the judgments pronounced by the historian -of the Kings. They were judgments which, in their details, though not -as regards broad moral principles, were based on the standpoint of a -later age. 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 ignorant. That they _were_ thus ignorant -of them is not only implied throughout, but appears from the direct -statements of the sacred historians.[314] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[307] See, especially, Deut. xii. 5-19. In the later Priestly Code -the centralisation of worship is not inculcated, but supposed to be -already established. In the original Book of the Covenant it is not -required at all. - -[308] Judg. ii. 5, vi. 24, viii. 27, xx. 1, xxi. 2, 4; 1 Sam. vii. 9, -x. 8, xi. 15, xiii. 9, xvi. 5, etc. - -[309] [Greek: he nesteia] (Acts xxvii. 9); Philo, _Lib. de Septenariis_. - -[310] Neh. viii. 17. - -[311] Canon Cook in the _Speaker's Commentary_ (Leviticus, p. 496) -admits: "It is by no means unlikely there are insertions of a later -date, which were written and sanctioned by the prophets and holy men -who _after the captivity_ arranged and edited the Scriptures of the -Old Testament." - -[312] _Book by Book_, p. 7. - -[313] See Professor Robertson, _Book by Book_, p. 56. I quote Professor -Robertson as one of the ablest and most competent opponents of extreme -conclusions; but it does not seem to me that he touches on some of the -arguments which constitute the main strength of the case against him. - -[314] See 2 Kings xxii. 11; Ezra ix. 1, 7; Neh. ix. 3. - - - - - CHAPTER XVIII. - - _THE TEMPLE WORSHIP._ - - 1 KINGS viii. 1-11. - - "Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the - temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these.... Behold, - ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit."--JER. vii. 4, 8. - - -The actual Temple building, apart from its spacious courts, was -neither for worshippers nor for priests, neither for sacrifice -nor for prayer. It existed only for symbolism and, at least in -later days, for expiation. No prayer was offered in the sanctuary. -The propitiatory was the symbol of expiation, but even after the -introduction of the Day of Atonement the atoning blood was only -carried into it once a year. - -All the worship was in the outer court, and consisted mainly, (1) of -praise, and (2) of offerings. Both were prominent in the Dedication -Festival. - -"It is written," said our Lord, "My house shall be called a House -of Prayer, but ye have made it a den of robbers." The quotation is -from the later Isaiah, and represents a happy advance in spiritual -religion. Among the details of the Levitic Tabernacle no mention is -made of prayer, though it was symbolised both in the incense and -in the sacrifices which have been called "unspoken prayers."[315] -"_Let my prayer be set forth as incense_," says the Psalmist, -"_and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice_." In the -New Testament we read that "the whole multitude of the people were -praying without at the time of incense." But during the whole history -of the first Temple we only hear--and that very incidentally--of -_private_ prayer in the Temple. Solomon's prayer was public, and -combined prayer with praises and benedictions. But no fragments -of Jewish liturgies have come down to us which we can with any -probability refer to the days of the kings. The Psalms which most -clearly belong to the Temple service are mainly services of praise. - -In the mind of the people the _sacrifices_ were undoubtedly the main -part of the Temple ritual. This fact was specially emphasised by the -scene which marked the Festival of the Dedication. - -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 Dedication. As a rule the daily -sacrifices, exclusively of such as might be brought by private -worshippers, were the lambs slain at morning and evening. Yet -Maimonides gives us the very material and unpoetic suggestion that the -incense used was to obviate the effluvium of animal sacrifice. The -suggestion is unworthy of the great Rabbi's ability, and is wholly -incorrect; but it reminds us of the almost terrible fact that, often -and often, the Temple must have been converted into one huge and -abhorrent _abattoir_, swimming with the blood of slaughtered victims, -and rendered intolerably repulsive by heaps of bloody skins and masses -of offal. The smell of burning flesh, the swift putrescence caused by -the tropic heat, the unlovely accompaniments of swarms of flies, 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 Rabbis, who declare that no fly was -ever seen in the Temple, and no flesh ever grew corrupt.[316] No doubt -the brazen sea and the movable caldrons were in incessant requisition, -and there were provisions for vast storages of water. 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 multitude." - -Had such spectacles been frequent, we should surely have had to -say of the people of Jerusalem as Sir Monier Williams says of the -ancient Hindus, "The land was saturated with blood, and people became -wearied and disgusted with slaughtered sacrifices and sacrificing -priests."[317] What infinite, and what revolting labour, must have -been involved in the right burning of "the two kidneys and the fat," -and the due disposition of the "inwards" of all these holocausts! -The groaning brazen altar, vast as it was, failed to meet the -requirements of the service, and apparently a multitude of other -altars were extemporised for the occasion. - -When the festival was over God appeared to Solomon in vision, as He -had done at Gibeon. So far Solomon had not gravely or consciously -deflected from the ideal of a theocratic king. Anything which had -been worldly or mistaken in his policy--the oppression into which he -had been led, the heathen alliances which he had formed, his crowded -harem, his evident fondness for material splendour which carried with -it the peril of selfish pride--were only signs of partial knowledge -and human frailty. His heart was still, on the whole, right with -God. He was once more assured in nightly vision that his prayer and -supplication were accepted. The promise was renewed that if he would -walk in integrity and uprightness his throne should be established -for ever; but that if he or his children swerved into apostasy Israel -should be driven into exile, and, as a warning to all lands, "this -house, which I have hallowed for My name, will I cast out of My -sight, and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people." - -Here, then, we are brought face to face with problems which arise -from the whole system of worship in the Old Dispensation. Whatever it -was, to whatever extent it was really carried out and was not merely -theoretical, at whatever date its separate elements originated, and -however clear it is that it has utterly passed away, there must have -been certain ideas underlying it which are worthy of our study. - -1. Of the element of praise, supported by music, we need say but -little. It is a natural mode of expressing the joy and gratitude -which fill the heart of man in contemplating the manifold mercies of -God. For this reason the pages of Scripture ring with religious music -from the earliest to the latest age. We are told in the Chronicles -that triumphant praise was largely introduced into the great festival -services, and that the Temple possessed a great organisation for -vocal and orchestral music. David was not only a poet, but an -inventor of musical instruments.[318] Fifteen musical instruments -are mentioned in the Bible, and five of them in the Pentateuch. Most -important among them are cymbals, flutes, silver trumpets, rams' -horns, the harp (_Kinnor_) and the ten-stringed lute (_Nevel_).[319] -The remark of Josephus that Solomon provided 40,000 harps and lutes -and 200,000 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 past. There -can, however, be no doubt that the orchestra was amply supplied, and -that there was a very numerous and well-trained choir.[320] We read -in the Psalms and elsewhere of tunes which they were trained to sing. -Such tunes were "The Well," and "The Bow," and "The Gazelle of the -morning," and "All my fresh springs shall be in Thee," and "Die for -the son" (_Muth-labben_).[321] In the second Temple female singers -were admitted;[322] in Herod's Temple Levite choir-boys took their -place.[323] The singing was often antiphonal. Some of the music -still used in the synagogue must date from these times, 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 -Temple. This element of ancient worship calls for no remark. It is a -religious instinct to use music in the service of God; and perhaps -the imagination of St. John in the Revelation, when he describes the -rapture of the heavenly host pouring forth the chant "Alleluia, for -the Lord God omnipotent reigneth," was coloured by reminiscences of -gorgeous functions in which he had taken part on the "Mountain of the -House." - -2. When we proceed to speak of _the Priesthood_ we are met by -difficulties, to which we have already alluded, as to the date of the -varying regulations respecting it. "It would be difficult," says Dr. -Edersheim, "to conceive arrangements more thoroughly or consistently -opposed to what are commonly called 'priestly pretensions' than those -of the Old Testament."[324] According to the true ideal, Israel -was to be "a kingdom of priests and an holy nation";[325] but the -institution of _ministering_ priests was of course a necessity, -and the Jewish priesthood, which is now utterly abrogated, was, -or gradually became, representative. Representatively they had to -mediate between God and Israel, and typically to symbolise the -"holiness," _i.e._, the consecration of the Chosen People. Hence -they were required to be free from every bodily blemish. It was -regarded as a deadly offence for any one of them to officiate without -scrupulous safeguard against every ceremonial defilement, and they -were specially adorned and anointed for their office. They were an -extremely numerous body, and from the days of David are said to have -been divided into twenty-four courses. They were assisted by an army -of attendant Levites, also divided into twenty-four courses, who -acted as the cleansers and keepers of the Temple. But the distinction -of priests and Levites does not seem to be older than "the Priestly -Code," and criticism has all but demonstrated that the sections of -the Pentateuch known by that name belong, in their present form, not -to the age of Moses, but to the age of the successors of Ezekiel. The -elaborate priestly and Levitic arrangements ascribed to the days of -Aaron by the chronicler, who wrote six hundred years after David's -day, are unknown to the writers of the Book of Kings. - -In daily life they wore no distinctive dress. In the Temple service, -all the year round, their vestments were of the simplest. They were -of white _byssus_ to typify innocence,[326] and four in number to -indicate completeness. They consisted of a turban, breeches, and -seamless coat of white linen, together with a girdle, symbolic of zeal -and activity, which was assumed during actual ministrations.[327] The -only magnificent vestments were those worn for a few hours by the -high priest once a year on the Great Day of Atonement. These "golden -vestments" were eight in number. To the ordinary robes were added the -robe of the ephod (_Meil_) of dark blue, with seventy-two golden -bells, and pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet; a jewelled -pectoral containing the Urim and Thummim; the mitre; and the golden -frontlet (_Ziz_), with its inscription of "Holiness to the Lord." The -ideal type was fulfilled, and the poor shadows abolished for ever, by -Him of whom it is said, "Such an high priest became us, who is holy, -harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." - -The priests were poor; they were very often entirely unlettered; they -seem to have had for many centuries but little influence on the moral -and spiritual life of the people. Hardly any good is recorded of them -as a body throughout the four hundred and ten years during which the -first Temple stood, as very little good had been recorded of them -in the earlier ages, and not much in the ages which were to follow. -We read of scarcely a single moral protest or spiritual awakenment -which had its origin in the priestly body. Their temptation was to -be absorbed in their elaborate ceremonials. As these differed but -little from the ritual functions of surrounding heathendom they seem -to have relapsed into apostasy with shameful readiness, and to have -submitted without opposition to the idolatrous aberrations of king -after king, even to the extent of admitting the most monstrous idols -and the most abhorrent pollutions into the sacred precincts of the -Temple, which it was their work to guard. When a prophet arose out of -their own supine and torpid ranks he invariably counted his brethren -amongst his deadliest antagonists. They ridiculed him as they ridiculed -Isaiah; they smote him on the cheek as they smote Jeremiah. The only -thing which roused them was the spirit of revolt against their vapid -ceremonialism, and their abject obedience to kings. The Presbyterate -could have no worse ideal, and could follow no more pernicious -example, than that of the Jewish priesthood. The days of their most -rigid ritualism were the days also of their most desperate moral -blindness. The crimes of their order culminated when they combined, as -one man, under their high priest Caiaphas and their sagan Annas[328] -to reject Christ for Barabbas, and to hand over to the Gentiles for -crucifixion the Messiah of their nation, the Lord of Life. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[315] "Sacrificia symbolicae preces" (Outram, _De Sacrif._, p. 108). - -[316] _Yoma_, f. 21, _a_. - -[317] On vast ancient holocausts, see Athen., _Deipnos._, i. 5; -Diod. Sic., xi. 72; Porph., _De abstin._, ii. 60; Suet., _Calig._, -14; Sen., _De Benef._, iii. 27; Ammian. Marcel., xxii. 4, xxv. 4; -and other passages collected by the diligence of commentators. See, -too, Josephus (_B. J._, VI. ix. 3) who reckons that at a passover in -Nero's time 256,000 sacrifices were offered. - -[318] Amos vi. 5; 1 Chron. xxiii. 5. - -[319] Edersheim, _The Temple and its Services_, p. 54. - -[320] The chronicler says that there were 38,000 Levites, of which -24,000 were "to oversee the work of the house of the Lord; and 6000 -were officers and judges, and 4000 door-keepers; and 4000 praised the -Lord with the instruments which I made," _said David_, "to praise -therewith." - -[321] Some of these titles of the Psalms are, however, very uncertain. -Gesenius thinks that this last title (Psalm ix.) means that the Psalm -"was to be sung by boys with virgins' voices." It is, to say the least, -a very curious coincidence, that in 1 Chron. xxv. 4 the names of the -sons of Heman, Giddalti and Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, -Hothir, Mahazioth, mean (omitting the strange Joshbekashah, for which -the LXX. Cod. Alex. reads [Greek: Sebakaitan]), consecutively, "I have -given | great and high help: | I have spoken | visions | in abundance." -Had the names any reference to tunes? - -[322] Ezra ii. 65; Neh. vii. 67; Psalm lxxxvii. 7. - -[323] Of these, perhaps, were "the children" who shouted their -hosannas to Jesus in the Temple (Matt. xxi. 15). - -[324] _The Temple and its Services_, p. 67. - -[325] Exod. xix. 5, 6. - -[326] Rev. xv. 6. - -[327] Comp. Rev. i. 13, xv. 6. - -[328] On this sagan, the later title for the "second priest," see 2 -Kings xxv. 18; Jer. lii. 24. - - - - - CHAPTER XIX. - - _THE TEMPLE SACRIFICES._ - - 1 KINGS viii. 62-66, ix. 25. - - "I have chosen this house to Myself for an house of - sacrifice."--2 Chron. vii. 12. - - "Gifts and sacrifices, that cannot, as touching the conscience, - make the worshipper perfect, being only ... carnal ordinances, - imposed until a time of reformation."--Heb. ix. 9, 10. - - -The whole sacrificial system with which our thoughts of Judaism are -perhaps erroneously, and much too exclusively identified, furnishes -us with many problems. - -Whether it was originally of Divine origin, or whether it was only an -instinctive expression, now of the gratitude, and now of the guilt -and fear, of the human heart, we are not told. Nor is the basal idea -on which it was founded ever explained to us. Were the ideas of -"atonement" or propitiation (_Kippurim_) really connected with those -of substitution and vicarious punishment? Or was the main conception -that of _self_-sacrifice, which was certainly most prominent in the -burnt offerings? Doubtless the views alike of priests and worshippers -were to a great extent indefinite. We are not told what led Cain and -Abel to present their sacrifices to God; nor did Moses--if he were its -founder--furnish any theories to explain the elaborate system laid -down in the Book of Leviticus. The large majority of the Jews probably -sacrificed simply because to do so had become a part of their religious -observances, and because in doing so they believed themselves to be -obeying a Divine command. Others, doubtless, had as many divergent -theories as Christians have when they attempt to explain the Atonement. -The "_substitution_" theory of the "sin offering" finds little or no -support from the Old Testament; not only is it never stated, but there -is not a single clear allusion to it. It is emphatically asserted by -later Jewish authorities, such as Rashi, Aben Ezra, Moses ben-Nachman, -and Maimonides, and is enshrined in the Jewish liturgy. Yet Dr. -Edersheim writes: "The common idea that the burning, either of part or -the whole of the sacrifice, pointed to its destruction, and symbolised -the wrath of God and the punishment due to sin, does not seem to accord -with the statements of Scripture."[329] - -Sacrifices were of two kinds, bloody (_Zebach_; LXX., [Greek: -thysia]), or unbloody (_minchah_, _korban_; LXX., [Greek: doron], -[Greek: prosphora]). The latter were oblations. Such were the cakes -of shewbread, the meal and drink offerings, the first sheaf at -Passover, the two loaves at Pentecost. In almost every instance the -_minchah_ accompanied the offering of a sacrificial victim. - -The two general rules about all victims for sacrifice were, (1) -that they should be without blemish and without spot, as types of -perfectness; and (2) that every sacrifice should be salted with salt, -as an antiseptic, and therefore a type of incorruption.[330] - -Sacrificial victims could only be chosen from oxen, sheep, goats, -turtle doves, and young pigeons--the latter being the offering of the -poor who could not afford the costlier victims. - -Sacrifices were also divided generally (1) into free, or obligatory; -(2) public, or private; and (3) most holy or less holy, of which the -latter were slain at the north and the former at the east side of -the altar.[331] The offerer, according to the Rabbis, had to do five -things--to lay on hands, slay, skin, dissect, and wash the inwards. -The priest had also to do five things at the altar itself--to catch -the blood, sprinkle it, light the fire, bring up the pieces, and -complete the sacrifices. - -Sacrifices are chiefly dwelt upon in the Priestly Code; but nowhere -in the Old Testament is their significance formally explained, nor -for many centuries was the Levitic ritual much regarded.[332] - -The sacrifices commanded in the Pentateuch fall under four heads. (1) -The burnt offering (_Olah_, _Kalil_),[333] which typified complete -self-dedication, and which even the heathen might offer; (2) the sin -offering (_Chattath_),[334] which made atonement for the offender; (3) -the trespass offering (_Asham_),[335] which atones for some special -offence, whether doubtful or certain, committed through ignorance; and -(4) the thank offering, eucharistic peace offering (_Shelem_),[336] or -"offering of completion," which followed the other sacrifices, and of -which the flesh was eaten by the priest and the worshippers.[337] - -The oldest practice seems only to have known of burnt offerings and -thank offerings, and the former seem only to have been offered at -great sacrificial feasts. Even in Deuteronomy a common phrase for -sacrifices is "eating before the Lord," which is almost ignored -in the Priestly Code. Of the sin offering, which in that code has -acquired such enormous importance, there is scarcely a trace--unless -Hosea iv. 8 be one, which is doubtful--before Ezekiel, in whom the -_Asham_ and _Chattath_ occur in place of the old pecuniary fines (2 -Kings xii. 16). Originally sacrifice was a glad meal, and even in the -oldest part of the code (Lev. xvii.-xxvi.) sacrifices are comprised -under the _Olam_ and _Zebach_. The turning-point of the history of -the sacrificial system is Josiah's reformation, of which the Priestly -Code is the matured result.[338] - -It is easy to see that sacrifices in general were eucharistic, -dedicatory, and expiatory. - -The eucharistic sacrifices (the meal and peace offerings) and the -burnt offerings, which indicated the entire sacrifice of self, were -the offerings of those who were in communion with God. They were -recognitions of His absolute supremacy. The sin and trespass offerings -were intended to recover a lost communion with God. And thus the -sacrifices were, or ultimately came to be, the expression of the great -ideas of thanksgiving, of self-dedication, and of propitiation. But -the Israelites, "while they seem always to have retained the idea -of propitiation and of eucharistic offering, constantly ignored the -self-dedication, which is the link between the two, and which the -regular burnt offering should have impressed upon them as their daily -thought and duty." 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 blessing. The expiatory -conception, which was probably the latest of the three, expelled the -others, and was perverted into the notion that God was a God of wrath, -whose fury could be averted by gifts and His favour won by bribes. -There was this truth in the notion of propitiation--that God hates, -and is alienated by, and will punish, sin; and yet that in His mercy -He has provided an Atonement for us. But in trying to imagine _how -the sacrifice affected God_, the Israelites lost sight of the truth -that _this_ is an inexplicable mystery, and that all which we can know -is the effect which _it can produce on the souls of man_. If they had -interpreted the sacrifices as a whole to mean this only--that man is -guilty and that God is merciful; and that though man's guilt separates -him from God, reunion with Him can be gained by confession, penitence, -and self-sacrifice, by virtue of an Atonement which He had revealed -and would accept--then the effect of them would have been spiritually -wholesome and ennobling. But when they came to think that sacrifices -were presents to God, which might be put in the place of amendment and -moral obedience, and that the punishment due to their offences might be -thus mechanically diverted upon the heads of innocent victims, then the -sacrificial system was rendered not only nugatory but pernicious. Nor -have Christians been exempt from a similar corruption of the doctrine -of the Atonement. In treating it as vicarious and expiatory they have -forgotten that it is unavailing unless it be also representative. 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_ sin. They have tacitly and practically acted on the notion, -which in the days of St. Paul some even avowed, that "we may continue -in sin that grace may abound." But in the great work of redemption -the will of man cannot be otiose. He must himself die with Christ. As -Christ was sacrificed for him he, too, must offer his body a living -sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. "Without the sin offering of the -Cross," says Bishop Barry, "our burnt offering (of self-dedication) -would be impossible; so also without the burnt offering the sin -offering will, to us, be unavailing."[339] - -Many of the crudities, and even horrors, which, alike in Jewish and -Christian times, have been mixed up with the idea of bloody sacrifices, -would have been removed if more attention had been paid to the -prominence and real significance of _blood_ in the entire ritual. As -taught by some revivalists the doctrine of the blood adds the most -revolting touches to theories which assimulate God to Moloch; but the -true significance of the phrase and of the symbol elevates the entire -doctrine of sacrifice into a purer and more spiritual atmosphere. - -The central significance of the whole doctrine lies in the ancient -opinion that "the blood" of the sacrifice was "its life." This -was why an expiatory power was ascribed to the blood. There was -certainly no transfer of guilt to the animal, _for its blood remained -clean and cleansing_. Nor was the animal supposed to undergo the -transgressor's punishment; first, because this is nowhere stated, and -next, because had that been the case, fine flour would certainly not -have been permitted (as it was) as a sin offering.[340] Moreover, -no wilful offence, no offence "with uplifted hand," _i.e._, with -evil premeditation, _could_ be atoned for either by sin or trespass -offerings;--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 responsibility. The sin offering was further offered for some -purely accidental and ceremonial offences, which could not involve -any real consciousness of guilt.[341] "The blood of the covenant" -(Exod. xxiv. 4-8) was not of the _sin_ offering, but of peace and -burnt offerings; and though, as Canon Cook says, we read of blood in -paganism as a propitiation to a hostile demon, "we seem to seek in vain -for an instance in which the blood, as a natural symbol for the soul, -was offered as an atoning sacrifice."[342] "The atoning virtue of the -blood lies not in its material substance, but in the life of which it -is the vehicle," says Bishop Westcott. "The blood always includes the -thought of the life preserved and active beyond death. It is not simply -the price by which the redeemed were purchased, but the power by which -they were quickened so as to be capable of belonging to God." "To drink -the blood of Christ," says Clement of Alexandria, "is to partake of the -Lord's incorruption."[343] - -Besides the points to which we have alluded, there is a further -difficulty created by the singular silence _respecting sin offerings -of any kind_, except in that part of the Old Testament which has -recently acquired the name of the Priestly Code.[344] - -The word _Chattath_, in the sense of sin offering, occurs in Exod. -xxix., xxx., and many times in Leviticus and Numbers, and six times -in Ezekiel. Otherwise in the Old Testament it is barely mentioned, -except in the post-exilic Books of Chronicles (2 Chron. xxix. 24) and -Ezra (viii. 25).[345] It is not mentioned in any other historic book; -nor in any prophet except Ezekiel. Again, as we have seen, the Day of -Atonement leaves not a trace in any of the earlier historic records -of Scripture, and is found only in the authorities above mentioned. -Through all the rest of Scripture the scape-goat is unmentioned, and -Azazel is ignored. Dr. 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 -Aaron.[346] For even in Ezekiel, who wrote B.C. 574, there is no Day -of Atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month, but on the first -and seventh of the first month (Abib, Nisan)." He thinks it utterly -impossible that, had it existed in his time, Ezekiel could have blotted -out the holiest day of the year, and substituted two of his own -arbitrary choice.[347] The rites, moreover, which he describes differ -wholly from those laid down in Leviticus. Even in Nehemiah there is -no notice of the Day of Atonement, though a day was observed on the -twenty-fourth of the month. Hence this learned writer infers that even -in B.C. 440 the Great Day of Atonement was not yet recognised, and that -the pagan element of sending the scape-goat to Azazel, the demon of the -wilderness, proves the late date of the ceremony. - -It is interesting to observe how utterly the sacrificial priestly -system, in the abuses which not only became involved in it, but -seemed to be almost inseparable from it, is condemned by the loftier -spiritual intuition which belongs to phases of revelation higher than -the external and the typical. - -Thus in the Old Testament no series of inspired utterances is more -interesting, more eloquent, more impassioned and ennobling, than -those which insist upon the utter nullity of all sacrifices in -themselves, and their absolute insignificance in comparison with the -lightest element of the moral law. On this subject the Prophets and -the Psalmists use language so sweeping and exceptionless as almost to -repudiate the desirability of sacrifices altogether. They speak of them -with a depreciation akin to scorn. It may be doubted whether they had -the Mosaic system with all its details, as we know it, before them. -They do not enter into those final elaborations which it assumed, and -not one of them so much as alludes to any service which resembles the -powerfully symbolic ceremonial of the Great Day of Atonement. But they -speak of the ceremonial law in such fragments and aspects of it as -were known to them. They deal with it as priests practised it, and as -priests taught--if they ever taught anything--respecting it. They speak -of it as it presented itself to the minds of the people around them, -with whom it had become rather a substitute for moral efforts and an -obstacle in the path of righteousness, than an aid to true religion. -And this is what they say:-- - -"Hath the Lord as great delight in sacrifice," asks the indignant -SAMUEL, "as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is -better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."[348] - -"I hate, I despise your feasts," says Jehovah by Amos, "and I will -take no delight in your solemn assemblies. Yea, though ye offer Me -your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them: -neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Turn -thou away from Me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the -melody of thy viols. But let judgment roll down as waters, and -righteousness as a mighty stream."[349] - -"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord," asks MICAH, "and bow -myself before the most high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt -offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with -thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I -give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the -sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good: and what -doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, -and to walk humbly with thy God?"[350] - -HOSEA again in a message of Jehovah, twice quoted on different -occasions by our Lord, says: "I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and -the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."[351] - -ISAIAH also, in the word of the Lord, gives burning expression -to the same conviction: "To what purpose is the multitude of your -sacrifices unto Me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings -of lambs, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood -of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. When ye come to appear -before Me, who hath required this at your hands, to trample My -courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination -unto Me; new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies,--I cannot -away with iniquity and the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your -appointed feasts My soul hateth: they are a cumbrance unto Me; I am -weary to bear them.... Wash you, make you clean!"[352] - -The language of JEREMIAH'S message is even more startling: "_I -spake not unto your fathers_, nor commanded them in the day that I -brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or -sacrifices: but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey My voice." -And again--in the version of the LXX., given in the margin of the -Revised Version for the unintelligible rendering of the Authorised -Version--he asks: "Why hath the beloved wrought abomination in My -house? Shall vows and holy flesh take away from thee thy wickedness, -or shalt thou escape by these?"[353] - -Jeremiah is, in fact, the most anti-ritualistic of the prophets. So -far from having hid and saved the Ark, he regarded it as entirely -obsolete (iii. 16). He cares only for the spiritual covenant written -on the heart, and very little, if at all, for Temple services and -Levitic scrupulosities (vii. 4-15, xxxi. 31-34).[354] - -THE PSALMISTS are no less clear and emphatic in putting sacrifices -nowhere in comparison with righteousness:-- - - "I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; - Nor for thy burnt offerings which are continually before Me. - I will take no bullock out of thine house, - Nor he-goats out of thy folds. - - * * * * * - - Will I eat the flesh of bulls, - Or drink the blood of goats? - Offer unto God thanksgiving; - And pay thy vows unto the Most High."[355] - -And again:-- - - "For Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it Thee: - Thou delightest not in burnt offering. - The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: - A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not - despise."[356] - -And again:-- - - "Sacrifice and offering Thou hast no delight in; - Mine ears hast thou opened: - Burnt offering and sin offering hast Thou not required."[357] - -And again:-- - - "To do justice and judgment - Is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice."[358] - -And again:-- - - "I will praise the name of God with a song, - And magnify it with thanksgiving. - This also shall please the Lord - Rather than a bullock that hath horns and hoofs."[359] - -Surely the most careless and conventional reader cannot fail to -see that there is a wide difference between the standpoint of the -prophets, which is so purely spiritual, and that of the writers and -redactors of the Priestly Code, whose whole interest centred in the -sacrificial and ceremonial observances. - -Nor is the intrinsic nullity of the sacrificial system less -distinctly pointed out in the New Testament. The better-instructed -Jews, enlightened by Christ's teaching, could give emphatic testimony -to the immeasurable superiority of the moral to the ceremonial. The -candid scribe, hearing from Christ's lips the two great commandments, -answers, "Of a truth, Master, Thou hast well said that He is one; and -there is none other but He: and to love Him with all the heart, ... -and to love his neighbour as himself, is much more than all whole -burnt offerings and sacrifices."[360] - -And our Lord quoted Hosea with the emphatic commendation, "Go ye and -learn what that meaneth, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice."[361] -And on another occasion: "But if ye had known what this meaneth, I -desire mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the -guiltless."[362] - -The presenting of our bodies, says St. Paul, as a living sacrifice -is our reasonable service; and St. Peter calls all Christians a holy -priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice.[363] - -"It is impossible," says the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, -"that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins;" and he -speaks of the priests "daily offering the same sacrifice, the which -can never take away sins."[364] - -And again:-- - -"To do good and to distribute forget not: for with _such_ sacrifices -God is well pleased."[365] - -The wisest fathers of Jewish thought in the post-exilic epoch held -the same views. Thus the son of Sirach says: "He that keepeth the law -bringeth offerings enough."[366] And Philo, echoing an opinion common -among the best heathen moralists from Socrates to Marcus Aurelius,[367] -writes, "The mind, when without blemish, is itself the most holy -sacrifice, being entirely and in all respects pleasing to God."[368] - -And what is very remarkable, modern Judaism now emphasises its belief -that "neither sacrifices nor a Levitical system belong to the essence -of the Old Testament."[369] Such was the view of the ancient Essenes, -no less than of Maimonides or Abarbanel. Modern Rabbis even go so far -as to argue that the whole system of Levitical sacrifice was an alien -element, introduced into Judaism from without, tolerated indeed by -Moses, but only as a concession to the immaturity of his people and -their hardness of heart.[370] - -Such, too, was the opinion of the ancient Fathers,--of the author of -the Epistle of Barnabas, of Justin Martyr, Origen, Tertullian, Jerome, -Chrysostom, Epiphanius, Cyril, and Theodoret, who are followed by such -Roman Catholic theologians as Petavius and Bellarmine.[371] - -This at any rate is certain:--that the Judaic system is not only -abrogated, but rendered impossible. Whatever were its functions, God -has stamped with absolute disapproval any attempt to continue them. -They are utterly annulled and obliterated for ever. - -"I am come to repeal the sacrifices." Such is the [Greek: agraphon -dogma] ascribed to Christ; "and unless ye desist from sacrificing, -the wrath of God will not desist from you."[372] The argument of St. -Paul in the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, and of the writer -of the Epistle to the Hebrews, show us why this was inevitable; and -they were but following the initiative of Christ and the teaching -of His Spirit. It is a mistake to imagine that our Lord merely -repudiated the inane pettinesses of Pharisaic formalism. He went -much further. There is not the slightest trace that He personally -observed the requirements of the ceremonial law. It is certain that -He broke them when He touched the leper and the dead youth's bier. -The law insisted on the centralisation of worship, but Jesus said, -"The day cometh, and now is, when neither in Jerusalem, nor yet in -this mountain, shall men worship the Father. God is a Spirit, and -they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." The -law insisted, with extreme emphasis, on the burdensome distinctions -between clean and unclean meats. Jesus said that it is not that -which cometh from without, but that which cometh from within which -defileth a man, and this He said "_making all meats clean_."[373] -St. Paul, when the types of Mosaism had been for ever fulfilled in -Christ, and the antitype had thus become obsolete and pernicious, -went further still. Taking circumcision, the most ancient and most -distinctive rite of the Old Dispensation, he called it "concision" -or mere mutilation, and said thrice over, "Circumcision is nothing, -and uncircumcision is nothing, but 'a new creature'"; "but faith -working by love," "but the keeping of the commandment of God." The -whole system of Judaism was local, was external, was minute, was -inferior, was transient, was a concession to infirmity, was a yoke of -bondage: the whole system of Christianity is universal, is spiritual, -is simple, is unsacrificial, is unsacerdotal, is perfect freedom. -Judaism was a religion of a temple, of sacrifices, of a sacrificial -priesthood: Christianity is a religion in which the Spirit of God - - "Doth prefer - Before all temples the upright heart and pure." - -It is a religion in which there is no more sacrifice for sin, because -the one perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction, -has been consummated for ever. It is a religion in which there is no -altar but the Cross; in which there is no priest but Christ, except -so far as _every_ Christian is by metaphor a priest to offer up -spiritual sacrifices which alone are acceptable to God. - - * * * * * - -The Temple of Solomon lasted only four centuries, and they were for -the most part years of dishonour, disgrace, and decadence.[374] -Solomon was scarcely in his grave before it was plundered by Shishak. -During its four centuries of existence it was again stripped of -its precious possessions at least six times, sometimes by foreign -oppressors, sometimes by distressed kings. It was despoiled of its -treasure by Asa, by Jehoash of Judah, by Jehoash of Israel, by Ahaz, -by Hezekiah, and lastly by Nebuchadnezzar. After such plunderings it -must have completely lost its pristine splendour. But the plunder of -its treasures was nothing to the pollutions of its sanctity. They -began as early as the reigns of Rehoboam and Abijah. Ahaz gave it a -Syrian altar, Manasseh stained it with impurities, and Ezekiel in its -secret chambers surveyed "the dark idolatries of alienated Judah." - -And in the days when Judaism most prized itself on ritual faithfulness, -the Lord of the Temple was insulted in the Temple of the Lord, and its -courts were turned by greedy priests and Sadducees into a cowshed, and -a dovecot, and a fair, and a usurer's mart, and a robber's den. - -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 environments. 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 shrines. Judaism, as the -prophets so often complain, tended to become too much a matter of -officialism and function, of rubric and technique, which always tend -to substitute external service for true devotion, and to leave the -shell of religion without its soul.[375] - -Even when it had been purified by Josiah's reformation, the Temple -proved to be a source of danger and false security. It was regarded as -a sort of Palladium. The formalists began to talk and act as though it -furnished a mechanical protection, and gave them licence to transgress -the moral law. Jeremiah had sternly to warn his countrymen against this -trust in an idle formalism. "Amend your ways and your doings," he said. -"Behold, ye trust in lying words which cannot profit. Will ye steal, -murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto -Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye have not known, and come and -stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We -are delivered; that ye may do all these abominations?" - -The Temple of Solomon was defaced and destroyed and polluted by -the Babylonians, but not until it had been polluted by the Jews -themselves with the blood of prophets, by idolatries, by chambers of -unclean imagery. It was rebuilt by a poor band of disheartened exiles -to be again polluted by Antiochus Epiphanes, and ultimately to become -the headquarters of a narrow, arrogant, and intriguing Pharisaism. -It was rebuilt once more by Herod, the brutal Idumean usurper, and -its splendour inspired such passionate enthusiasm that when it was -wrapped in flames by Titus, it witnessed the carnage of thousands of -maddened and despairing combatants. - - "As 'mid the cedar courts and gates of gold - The trampled ranks in miry carnage rolled - To save their Temple every hand essayed, - And with cold fingers grasp'd the feeble blade; - Through their torn veins reviving fury ran - And life's last anger warm'd the dying man." - -Yet that last Temple had been defiled by a worse crime than the other -two. It had witnessed the priestly idols and the priestly machinations -which ended in the murder of the Son of God. From the Temple sprang -little or nothing of spiritual importance. Intended to teach the -supremacy of righteousness, it became the stronghold of mere ritual. -For the development of true holiness, as apart from ceremonial -scrupulosity, its official protectors rendered it valueless. - -We are not surprised that Christianity knows no temple but the hearts -of all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth; and -that the characteristic of the New Jerusalem, which descends out of -heaven like a bride adorned for her husband, is:-- - -"And I saw no temple therein."[376] - -Abundantly was the menace fulfilled in which Jehovah warned Solomon -after the Feast of Dedication that if Israel swerved into immorality -and idolatry, that house should be an awful warning--that its -blessing should be exchanged into a curse, and that every one who -passed by it should be astonished and should hiss.[377] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[329] He refers to Wuensche, _Die Leiden des Messias_. - -[330] Mark ix. 49. - -[331] Lev. vi. 17, vii. 1, xiv. 13. On this whole subject see -Edersheim, pp. 79-111. - -[332] See Judg. vi. 19-21; 1 Sam. ii. 13, xiv. 35; 1 Kings xix. 21; 2 -Kings v. 17. - -[333] LXX., [Greek: holokautoma]. - -[334] LXX., [Greek: peri hamartias]. _Chattath_ and _Asham_ both imply -guilt, debt, sin. "The trespass offering affected rights of property, -but no precise definition of the two kinds of expiatory offerings can -be based upon the statements made in the Pentateuch in respect to -them. Perhaps they cannot all be referred to the same time and to one -author; for they prescribe both sin and trespass offerings in cases of -Levitical impurity, and also for moral offences. All Levites attempting -to establish palpable distinctions between them must inevitably fail." -(Kalisch, _Leviticus_, part ii., p. 272). The general scheme of -sacrifices, as they now stand in the Pentateuch, is as follows:-- - - Sacrifice (_Zebach_, _Minchah_). - | - +----------------+----------------+-------------+ - | | | | - Burnt offering. Peace offering. Expiatory Offering of - | offering. Purification. - | | | - | | +-----+--+----------+ - | | | | | - | | Child Leprosy. Issue. - | | birth. - | +----+----------+------------+ - | | | | - | Sin offering Trespass Offering - | (_Chattath_). offering Jealousy. - | (_Asham_). - | - +--------+---------+-+--------+--------------+ - | | | | | - Thank Praise. Paschal Firstborn Firstfruits. - offerings. Lamb. of animals. - -[335] LXX., [Greek: plemmeleia]. - -[336] LXX., [Greek: thysia soterion]. - -[337] The phrase "wave offering" indicates the ceremony used by the -priests in presenting peace offerings to God. - -[338] For the full development of these views, see Wellhausen's -_Prolegomena_. - -[339] See Bishop Barry's article on Sacrifice in Smith's _Dictionary -of the Bible_, to which, in this paragraph, I am much indebted. - -[340] Lev. v. 11-13. - -[341] See Kuenen, _Rel. of Israel_, ii. pp. 259-76. - -[342] _Speaker's Commentary_, Leviticus, p. 508. In Lev. xvii. 11--"For -the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and _I have ordained it for you -upon the altar_ to make atonement for your souls; for the blood it is -which makes atonement by means of the soul"--Kurtz points out that the -blood is simply _chosen as a symbol_, and the superstition that there -is any atoning virtue in the blood itself is excluded. - -[343] _Paed._, ii. 2, Sec. 19. - -[344] The Priestly Code is that part of the Pentateuch which is -occupied with public worship and the function of priests--viz., most -of Leviticus; Exod. xxv.-xl.; Numb. i.-x., xv.-xx., xxv.-xxxvi. (with -inconsiderable exceptions) - -[345] In Psalm xl. 6, "Sin offering hast Thou not required." The -Psalm is perhaps of the age of Jeremiah. - -[346] He argues that even in Chronicles it is not mentioned; and that -there was no curtain (_Parocheth_) before the Holiest in Solomon's -Temple (1 Kings vi. 31, 32. Comp. Ezek. xli. 23, 24; 1 Kings viii. 8). -He considers that 2 Chron. iii. 14 (the only place in the Old Testament -where _Parocheth_ occurs except in the P.C.) cannot overthrow 1 Kings -vi. 21, which speaks only of chains of gold between the Holy and the -Holiest. (There was a curtain in Herod's Temple, Matt. xxvii. 51; Heb. -ix. 3). But if there was no _Parocheth_ in Solomon's Temple, the rule -of Lev. xvi. 2, 12, 15 could not have been observed. - -[347] This caused immense perplexity to the Rabbis. _Shabbath_, xiii. -2; _Chagigah_, xiii. 1; _Menachoth_, xlv. 1. - -[348] 1 Sam. xv. 22. - -[349] Amos v. 21-23. - -[350] Micah vi. 6-8. Some suppose that the words are attributed to -Balaam (see verse 5). - -[351] Hosea vi. 6. - -[352] Isa. i. 11-16. - -[353] Jer. vii. 22, xi. 15. - -[354] Jer. xxxiii. 14-26 seems to speak in a different tone, but is -probably an interpolation. It is not found in the LXX. - -[355] Psalm l. 8-14. - -[356] Psalm li. 16, 17. It is difficult to believe that the two last -verses of the Psalm are not a later addition. - -[357] Psalm xl. 6. - -[358] Prov. xxi. 3. - -[359] Psalm lxix. 30, 31. - -[360] Mark xii. 32, 33. So in the Talmud: "Acts of justice are more -meritorious than all sacrifices" (_Succoth._, lxix. 2). - -[361] Matt. ix. 13. - -[362] Matt. xii. 7. - -[363] Rom. xii. 1; 1 Peter ii. 5. - -[364] Heb. x. 4, 11. - -[365] Heb. xiii. 16. - -[366] Ecclus. xxxv. 1-15. - -[367] Comp. Ov., _Trist._, ii. 1, 75; Ep. xx. 81; Persius, ii. 45; -Varro, _ap._ Arnob., _c. Natt._, vii. 1. "Dii veri neque desiderant -ea, neque deposcunt." - -[368] Philo, _De Victimis_, 5. - -[369] A. Geiger, _Judenthum und seine Geschichte_, Sect. 5. - -[370] Vajikra R., 22 and 34 _b_. They got over Jer. xxxiii. 18 (in -Yalkuth, on the passage) by saying, "He that doeth repentance it is -counted to him as if he offered all the sacrifices of the land." They -held that the place of sacrifices was taken by prayer, penitence, and -good works. See Edersheim, _Jesus the Messiah_, i. 275. - -[371] See Spencer, _De Legg. Ritual._, iii.; _Dissert._, ii., chap. 1. - -[372] Evang. Ebion, _ap._ Epiph., _Haer._, xxx. 16. - -[373] Mark vii. 19. - -[374] It was twice repaired--about B.C. 856 in the reign of Joash, -and about two centuries later under Josiah. - -[375] See Isa. xxix. 13, 14; Ezek. xxxiii. 31; Matt. xv. 7-9; Col. i. -20-22, etc. Comp. Wellhausen, pp. 77-79. - -[376] Rev. xxi. 22. - -[377] 1 Kings ix. 6-9. The phrase "at this house which is high" is -uncertain. The Vulgate has "domus haec erit in exemplum"; the Peshito -and Arabic have "and this house shall be destroyed." - - - - - CHAPTER XX. - - _SOLOMON IN ALL HIS GLORY._ - - 1 KINGS x. 1-29. - - "O Luxury! thou curs'd by Heaven's decree! - How do thy potions with insidious joy - Diffuse their pleasures only to destroy! - Kingdoms by thee to sickly greatness grown - Boast of a florid vigour not their own." - GOLDSMITH, _Deserted Village_. - - "The Queen of the South shall rise up in judgment against this - generation, and shall condemn it. For she came from the uttermost - parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon."--MATT. xii. 42. - - -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 king. It is for this reason that I have dwelt upon -its significance, and on the many interesting questions which its -worship naturally suggests. Solomon gave an impulse to outward -service, not to spiritual life. His religion was mainly that form of -externalism which rose but little above the - - "Gay religions full of pomp and gold" - -of the surrounding heathens. The other fragments of his story which -have been preserved for us are mainly of a political character. They -point us to Solomon in his wealth and ostentation, and contain nothing -specially edifying. Our Lord thought less of all this splendour than -of the flower of the field. "Consider the lilies of the field, how they -grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: yet I say unto you, that -Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." - -Princes who have once begun to build find a certain fascination -in the task. After the seven years devoted to the Temple, Solomon -occupied thirteen more in building "halls of Lebanoniac cedar" for -himself, for his audience-chamber, and for Pharaoh's daughter. - -Chief of these were:-- - -1. The house of the forest of Lebanon, a sort of arsenal so called from -its triple rows of cedar pillars, on which hung the golden shields for -the king's guards when they attended his great visits to the Temple. - -2. The justice hall, the "Sublime Porte" of Jerusalem, built of gold -and cedar. It contained the famous Lion Throne of gold and ivory, with -two lions on each of its six steps.[378] It is not known whether these -buildings formed part of the palace and harem of Solomon, nor is it -worth while to waste time on the impossible attempt to reconstruct them. - -Solomon also built the fortification of Jerusalem known as the "Millo," -and the wall of Jerusalem, and repaired the breaches of the city of -David,[379] as well as the fortresses and treasure cities to which we -have already alluded, and the summer palaces in the region of Lebanon -known as "the delights of Solomon."[380] Amid these records of palatial -architecture we hear next to nothing of the religious life. - -He further dazzled his people by an extensive system of foreign -commerce. His land-traffic with Arabia familiarised them with spicery -(_necoth_), gum tragacanth, frankincense, myrrh, aloes, and cassia -and with precious stones of all kinds. From Egypt he obtained horses -and chariots. They were brought from Tekoa, by his merchants, and -kept by Solomon, or sold at a profit.[381] - -He found a ready market for them among the Hittite and Aramaean kings. -Emulating the Phoenicians, and apparently invading the monopoly of -Tyre, he had--if we may take the chronicler literally--a fleet of -"ships of Tarshish" which sailed along the coasts of Spain.[382] -Above all, he made the daring attempt to establish a fleet of -Tarshish-ships at Ezion-Geber, the port of Elath, at the north of the -Gulf of Akaba. This fleet sailed down the Red Sea to Ophir--perhaps -Abhira, at the mouth of the Indus--and amazed the simple Hebrews with -the sight of gorgeous iridescent peacocks, wrinkled chattering apes, -the red and richly scented sandal wood of India, and the large tusks -of elephants from which cunning artificers carved the smooth ivory to -inlay furniture, thrones, and ultimately even houses, with lustrous -ornamentation. Cinnamon came to him from Ceylon, and "sapphires" -(_lapis lazuli_) from Babylon.[383] Other services which he rendered -to his capital and kingdom were more real and permanent. - -1. Jerusalem may have been in part indebted to Solomon for its supply -of water. The magnificent springs of pure gushing water at Etam are -still called "Solomon's fountains," and it is believed that he used -their rocky basins as reservoirs from which to irrigate his garden -in the Wady Urtas (Lat., _Hortus_). Etam is two hours distant from -Jerusalem, and if Solomon built the aqueduct which once conveyed its -water supply to the city he proved himself a genuine benefactor.[384] -There was immense need of the "fons perennis aquae" of which Tacitus -speaks for the purifications of the Temple, soiled by the reek and -offal of so many holocausts. - -2. Maritime allusions now began to appear in Hebrew literature;[385] -and maritime enterprise produced the marvellous effect it always -produces on the character and progress of the nation. 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 visitors, not only merchantmen and itinerant traffickers, -but governors of provinces, and vassal or allied princes. The -isolated and stationary tribes of Palestine suddenly found themselves -face to face with a new and splendid civilisation. Admiring visitors -flocked to see the great king's magnificence and to admire his -foreign curiosities, bringing with them presents of gold and silver, -armour[386] and spicery, horses and mules, the broidered garments of -Babylon, and robes rich with the crimson, purple, and scarlet dyes -of Tyre.[387] Instead of riding like his predecessors on a humble -mule, the king made his royal progress to his watered garden at Etam -drawn by steeds magnificently caparisoned. He reclined in "Pharaoh's -chariot" richly chased and brilliantly coloured. He was followed by -a train of archers riding on war-horses and clothed in purple, and -was escorted by a body-guard of youths tall and beautiful, whose dark -and flowing locks glittered with gold dust. In the heat of summer, -if we may accept the poetic picture of the Song of Songs, he would -be luxuriously carried to some delicious retreat amid the hills of -myrrh and leopard-haunted woods of Lebanon, in a palanquin of cedar -wood with silver pillars, purple cushions, and richly embroidered -curtains, wearing the jewelled crown which his mother placed on his -head on the day of his espousals.[388] Or he would sit to do justice -on his throne of ivory and gold,[389] with its steps guarded by -golded lions leaning upon the golden bull of Ephraim which formed its -back,[390] in all his princely beauty, "anointed with the oil of -gladness," his lips full of grace, his garments breathing of perfume. -On great occasions of state his Queen, and the virgins that bore -her company, would stand among the crowd of inferior princesses, in -garments of the wrought gold of Ophir, in which she had been carried -from the inner palace upon tapestries of needlework. In the pomp of -such ceremonials, amid bursts of rejoicing melody, the people began -to believe that not even the Pharaohs of Egypt, or the Tyrian kings -with "every precious stone as their covering," could show a more -glorious pageant of royal state.[391] - -This career of magnificence culminated in the visit of Balkis, the -Queen of Sheba,[392] who came to him across the desert with "a very -great train of her camels, bearing spices and very much gold and -precious stones." She saw his abounding prosperity, his peaceful -people, his houses, his vineyards at Beth-Haccerem, his parks and -gardens, his pools and fruit trees, his herds of cattle, his horses, -chariots, and palanquins, and all the delight of the sons of men. -She saw his men singers and women singers with their harps of red -sandal wood and gold. She saw him at the banquet at his golden table -covered in boundless profusion with delicacies brought from every -land. She saw his hosts of beautiful and richly dressed slaves with -lavers, dishes, and goblets all made of the gold of Uphaz. She saw -him dispensing justice in his pillared hall of cedar, seated on his -lion-throne. She saw the golden shields and targets[393] carried before -him as he went in state to the Temple over the Mount, across the -valley, and mounted from the palace to the sacred courts by the gilded -staircase with its balustrades of aromatic sandal wood.[394] Perhaps -she was present as a spectator at some great Temple festival. And when -she had tested his wisdom by communing with him of all that was in her -heart, "there was no more spirit in her." She confessed that the half -of his wisdom and glory had not been reported to her. Happy were his -servants, happy the courtiers who stood by him and heard his words! -Blessed was the Lord his God who delighted in him, and who, out of -love for Israel, had given them such a king to do justice and judgment -among them. The visit ended with an interchange of royal presents.[395] -Solomon, we are vaguely told, "gave unto her all her desire, whatsoever -she asked," and sent her away glad-hearted to her native land, leaving -behind her a trail of legends. Before her departure she opened her -treasures, and gave him vast stores of spicery and gold.[396] - -And to sum up the accounts, which read like a page of the story of -Haroun al Raschid, the king made silver to be as stones in Jerusalem, -so that it was nothing accounted of in the day of Solomon,[397] and -the cedars made he to be as the sycomores which are in the "Shefelah" -for multitude. - -It is around this epoch of Solomon's career that the legends of the -East mainly cluster. They have received a larger development from the -allusions to Mohammed in the Qur'an.[398] They take the place of the -personal incidents of which so few are recorded, although Solomon -occupies so large a space in sacred history. "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 'shadow.' -Yet in later Jewish records he is scarcely mentioned. Of all the -characters in the sacred history he is the most purely secular; and -merely secular magnificence was an excrescence, not a native growth -of the chosen people."[399] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[378] To form some notion of these buildings, see the excellent -illustrations in Stade, i. 318-25. - -[379] The hill of Zion, the city of David, had become overcrowded, -and the hill which lay to the north, which was called Millo, or "the -border," had to be included in it. A narrow valley lay between them. -"Mount Moriah, and its offshoot Ophel, remained outside the city, and -the latter was inhabited by the remnant of the Jebusites" (Graetz, -_Hist. of the Jews_, E. T., i. 121); Millo, LXX., [Greek: he akra]. -See 1 Macc. iv. 41, xiii. 49-52; Josephus, _Antt._, XIII. vi. 7. - -[380] 1 Kings ix. 19. - -[381] The "linen yarn" of 1 Kings x. 28 seems to be an error. The -Hebrew is [Hebrew: mikveh]; LXX., [Greek: ek Thekoue]; Vulg., _de -Coa_; R.V., "in droves." - -[382] 2 Chron. ix. 21. - -[383] See Max Mueller, _Lectures on Language_, i. 191. The names _Shen -Habbim_, "ivory" (Sanskr. _ibhas_, "elephant"), _Kophim_, "apes" -(Sanskr. _kapi_), _Tukkyim_, "peacocks" (Tamil, _togei_), "algum -trees" (Sanskr. _Valgaka_, LXX. [Greek: peleketa], Alex. [Greek: -apeleketa], Vulg. _thyina_), all point to India. Aloes (_ahalim_, -Psalm xlv. 8) are a fragrant tree of Malacca; cassia (Ind. _koost_), -cinnamon (_cacyn-nama_) come from Ceylon. See Stanley, ii. 185. -European history here first comes into contact with Sanskrit. - -[384] See Eccles. ii. 4-6. See on the extensive water-works, Ewald, -iii. 252-57. - -[385] 2 Chron. ix. 21. - -[386] [Hebrew: neshek]; LXX., [Greek: stakte], "oil of myrrh." - -[387] 1 Kings x. 25. - -[388] See Cant. i. 9, iii. 6-11, iv. 8; 2 Chron. xi. 6; Josephus, -_Antt._, VIII. vii. 3; Psalm xlv. - -[389] The great statue of Athene by Phidias was of this -"Chryselephantine" work. Comp. "ivory palaces" (Psalm xlv. 8; 1 Kings -xxii. 39; Amos iii. 15) and "ivory couches" (Amos vi. 4). - -[390] Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. v. 2; Hosea iv. 16; Jer. xxxi. 18, etc. - -[391] Ezek. xxvii., xxviii.; Zech. ix. 3. - -[392] The Abyssinian, confusing Sheba (Arabia Felix) with Seba (as do -Origen and Augustine), call her Makeda, Queen of Abyssinia, and say -that she had a son by Solomon named Melinek (Ludolphus, _AEthiop._, -ii. 3), from whom all their emperors down to Theodore were descended. -The legend of the Queen of Sheba is related in the Qur'an, _Sura_ -xxvii. 20-40 (chapter of the Ant). The Arabs call her Balkis, whose -legends are narrated by D'Herbelot (_Bibl. Or._, s.v. Balki). -Josephus identifies her with Nicaule (the Nitocris of Herod., ii. -100), Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. vi. 2. In the New Testament she is -called "the Queen of the South" (Matt. xii. 42). - -[393] He had made two hundred large shields (_tzinnim_, [Greek: -thyreoi], _scuta_) and three hundred targets (_maginnim_, [Greek: -aspides], _clypei_) of gold at fabulous cost (1 Kings x. 16). They -were all plundered by Shishak. - -[394] 1 Kings x. 5, but "ascent" should perhaps be "burnt offering," -as in margin of R.V. and in all the versions. Comp. 2 Chron. ix. -4 (LXX.). A special seat or platform of brass seems to have been -assigned to Solomon in the Temple court (2 Kings xi. 14, xvi. 18, -xxiii. 3; 2 Chron. vi. 13). - -[395] Josephus says that she introduced the balsam plant into -Palestine, which, in later years at Jericho, became a great source of -revenue. Jer. viii. 22, xlvi. 11; Ezek. xxvii. 17; Josephus, _Antt._; -VIII. vi. 6, XIV. iv. 1, XV. iv. 2; Pliny, _H. N._, xii. 54, xiii. 9 -(but see Gen. xliii. 11). - -[396] Psalm lxxii. 15. Spices, Herod., iii. 107-113. For one hundred -and twenty talents we should probably read twenty (comp. Josephus, -_Antt._, VIII. vi. 6), _i.e._, twelve thousand pounds. Into the riddles -of Balkis (1 Kings x. 1, "hard questions"; LXX., [Greek: ainigmata]), -and all the strange Talmudic and Arabian legends which have gathered -round her visit, we need not enter. I may perhaps refer to my little -monograph on Solomon (pp. 134-37), in the Men of the Bible series. - -[397] The 666 gold talents of his revenue are estimated at -L3,613,500, and this is described as _his own_ revenue, exclusive -of tolls, tributes, etc. (1 Kings x. 15). Presents reached him from -"kings of the mingled people" (Jer. xxv. 24), Pachas of the country -([Hebrew: fechah] Ezra v. 6; Neh. v. 14). - -[398] See Weil, _Biblische Legenden_; D'Herbelot, _Bibl. Oriental_, -s.v. Soliman ben-Daoud; Qur'an, _Suras_ xxii., xxvii., xxviii., -xxxiv. "Suleyman" means "Little Solomon," a term of affection. - -[399] Stanley, _Lectures_, ii. 166, 167. - - - - - CHAPTER XXI. - - _HOLLOW PROSPERITY._ - - 1 KINGS xi. - - "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all - is vanity."--ECCLES. i. 2. - - "At every draught more large and large they grow - A bloated mass of rank unwieldy woe, - Till, sapp'd their strength, and every part unsound, - Down, down they sink, and spread a ruin round." - GOLDSMITH. - - -There was a _ver rongeur_ at the root of all Solomon's prosperity. His -home was afflicted with the curse of his polygamy, his kingdom with the -curse of his despotism. Failure is stamped upon the issues of his life. - -1. His Temple was a wonder of the world; 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 trusted. -Under later kings its secret chambers were sometimes desecrated, -sometimes deserted. It failed to exercise the unique influence in -support of the worship of Jehovah for which it had been designed. -Some of Solomon's successors confronted it with a rival temple, and a -rival high priest, of Baal, and suffered atrocious emblems of heathen -nature-worship to profane its courts. He himself became an apostate -from the high theocratic ideal which had inspired its origin. - -2. His long alliance and friendship with Hiram ended, to all -appearance, in coolness and disgust, even if it be true that a -daughter of Hiram was one of the princesses of his harem.[400] For -his immense buildings had so greatly embarrassed his resources -that, when the day for payment came, the only way in which he could -discharge his obligations was by alienating a part of his dominions. -He gave Hiram "twenty cities in the land of Galilee." The kings -of Judah, down to the days of Hezekiah, and even of Josiah, show -few traces of any consciousness that there was such a book as the -Pentateuch and such a code as the Levitic law. Solomon may have -been unaware that Phoenicia itself was part of the land which God -had promised to His people. If that gift had lapsed through their -inertness,[401] the law still remained, which said, "The land shall -not be sold for ever; for the land is Mine, for ye are strangers -and sojourners with Me." It was a strong measure to resign any part -of the soil of Judaea, even to discharge building debts, much more -to pay for mercenaries and courtly ostentation. The transaction, -dubious in every particular, was the evident cause of deep-seated -dissatisfaction. Hiram thought himself ill-paid and unworthily -treated. He found, by a personal visit, that these inland Galilaean -towns, which were probably inhabited in great measure by a wretched -and dwindling remnant of Canaanites,[402] were useless to him, -whereas he had probably hoped to receive part, at least, of the Bay -of Acco (Ptolemais).[403] They added so little to his resources, that -he complained to Solomon. He called the cities by the obscure, but -evidently contemptuous name "_Cabul_," and gave them back to Solomon -in disgust as not worth having.[404] What significance lies in the -strange and laconic addition, "And Hiram sent to the king six-score -talents of gold," it is impossible for us to understand. If the -Tyrian king gave as a present to Solomon a sum which was so vast as -at least to equal L720,000--"apparently," as Canon Rawlinson thinks, -"to show that, although disappointed, he was not offended!"--he must -have been an angel in human form. - -3. Solomon's palatial buildings, while they flattered his pride -and ministered to his luxury, tended directly, as we shall see, -to undermine his power. They represented the ill-requited toil of -hopeless bondmen, and oppressed freedmen, whose sighs rose, not in -vain, into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth. - -4. His commerce, showy as it was, turned out to be transitory and -useless. If for a time it enriched the king, it did not enrich his -people. At Solomon's death, if not earlier, it not only languished -but expired. Horses and chariots might give a pompous aspect to -stately pageants, but they were practically useless in the endless -hills of which Palestine is mainly composed. Apes, peacocks, and -sandal wood were curious and interesting, but they certainly did -not repay the expense incurred in their importation. No subsequent -sovereign took the trouble to acquire these wonders, nor are they -once mentioned in the later Scriptures. Precious stones might -gleam on the necks of the concubine, or adorn the housings of the -steed, but nothing was gained from their barren splendour. At one -time the king's annual revenue is stated to have been six hundred -and sixty-six talents of gold; but the story of Hiram, and the -impoverishment to which Rehoboam succeeded, show that even this -exchequer had been exhausted by the sumptuous prodigalities of a too -luxurious court. And, indeed, the commerce of Solomon gave a new -and untheocratic bias to Hebrew development. The ideal of the old -Semitic life was the pastoral and agricultural ideal. No other is -contemplated in Exod. xxi.-xxix. Commerce was left to the Phoenicians -and other races, so that the word for "merchant" was "Canaanite." But -after the days of Solomon in Judah, and Ahab in Israel, the Hebrews -followed eagerly in the steps of Canaan, and trade and commerce -acting on minds materialised into worldliness brought their natural -consequences. "He is a merchant," says Hosea (xii. 7); "the balances -of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to defraud." Here the words "he -is a merchant" may equally well be rendered "as for Canaan"; and -by Canaan is here meant Canaanised or commercial Ephraim. And the -prophet continues, "And Ephraim said, Surely I am become rich, I -have found me wealth: in all my labour they shall find in me none -iniquity that were sin." In other words, these influences of foreign -trade had destroyed the moral sense of Israel altogether: "Howl, ye -inhabitants of Maktesh"--_i.e._, "The Mortar," a bazaar of that name -in Jerusalem--"for all the people of Canaan" (_i.e._, the merchants) -"are brought to silence." But the hypnotising influence of wealth -became more and more a potent factor in the development of the -people. By an absolute reversal of their ancient characteristics they -learnt, in the days of the Rabbis, utterly to despise agriculture and -extravagantly to laud the gains of commerce. Of too many of them it -became true, that they - - "With dumb despair their country's wrongs behold, - And dead to glory, only burn for gold." - -It was the mighty hand of Solomon which first gave them an impulse in -this direction, though he seems to have managed all his commerce with -exclusive reference to his own revenues. - -In the wake of commerce, and the inevitable intercourse with foreign -nations which it involves, came as a matter of course the fondness -for luxuries; the taste for magnificence; the fraternisation with -neighbouring kings; the use of cavalry; the development of a military -caste; the attempts at distant navigation; the total disappearance of -the antique simplicity. 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 market; -the formation of large estates; the frequency of mortgages; the -misery of peasant proprietorship, unable to hold its own against the -accumulations of wealth; the increase of the wage-receiving class; -and the fluctuations of the labour market. These changes caused, -by way of consequence, so much distress and starvation that even -freeborn Hebrews were sometimes compelled to sell themselves into -slavery as the only way to keep themselves alive. - -So that the age of Solomon can in no respect be regarded as an age of -gold. Rather, it resembled that grim Colossus of Dante's vision, which -not only rested on a right foot of brittle clay, but was cracked and -fissured through and through, while the wretchedness and torment which -lay behind the outward splendour ever dripped and trickled downward -till its bitter streams swelled the rivers of hell:-- - - "Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate, - Sad Acheron of sorrow black and deep, - Corytus named of lamentation loud - Heard on its rueful stream, fierce Phlegethon, - Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage." - -But there was something worse even than this. The Book of Proverbs -shows us that, as in Rome, so in Jerusalem, foreign immoralities -became fatal to the growing youth. The _picta lupa barbara mitra_, -with her fatal fascinations, and her banquets of which the guests -were in the depths of Hades, 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 slaughter, as a fool to the correction of the stocks. - -5. Even were there no disastrous sequel to Solomon's story--if we saw -him only in the flush of his early promise, 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 Ecclesiastes. The human pathos, the fresh and -varied interest, which meet us at every page of the annals of David, -are entirely lacking in the magnificent monotony of the annals of -Solomon. The splendours of materialism, which are mainly dwelt upon, -could never satisfy the poorest of human souls. There are but two broad -gleams of religious interest in his entire story--the narrative of his -prayer for wisdom, and the prayer, in its present form of later origin, -attributed to him at the Dedication Festival. All the rest is a story -of gorgeous despotism, which gradually paled into - - "The dim grey life and apathetic end." - -"There was no king like Solomon: he exceeded all the kings of the -earth," we are told, "for riches and for wisdom." 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 happiness. -The autocrats who have been most conspicuous for unchecked power and -limitless resources have also been the most conspicuous in misery. -We have but to recall Tiberius "_tristissimus ut constat hominum_," -who, from the enchanted isle which he had degraded into the stye of -his infamies, wrote to his servile senate that "all the gods and -goddesses were daily destroying him"; or Septimius Severus, who, -rising step by step from a Dalmatian peasant and common soldier to be -emperor of the world, remarked with pathetic conviction, "_Omnia fui -et nihil expedit_"; or Abderrahman the Magnificent, who, in all his -life of success and prosperity, could only count fourteen happy days; -or Charles V., over-eating himself in his monastic retreat at San -Yuste in Estremadura; or Alexander,[405] dying "as a fool dieth"; or -Louis XIV., surrounded by a darkening horizon, and disillusioned into -infinite _ennui_ and chagrin; or Napoleon I., saying, "I regard life -with horror," and contrasting his "abject misery" with the adored and -beloved dominion of Christ, who was meek and lowly of heart. Napoleon -confessed that, even in the zenith of his empire, and the fullest flush -of his endless victories, his days were consumed in vanity and his -years in trouble. The cry of one and all, finding that the soul, which -is infinite, cannot be satisfied with the transient and hollow boons of -earth, is, and ever must be, "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, -vanity of vanities; all is vanity." And this is one main lesson of -the life of Solomon. Nothing is more certain than that, if earthly -happiness is to be found at all, it can only be found in righteousness -and truth; and if even these do not bring earthly _happiness_ they -securely give us a _blessedness_ which is deeper and more eternal. - -If the Book of Ecclesiastes, even traditionally, is the reflection -and echo of Solomon's disenchantment, we see that in later years his -soul had been sullied, his faith had grown dim, his fervour cold. -All was emptiness. He stood horribly alone. His one son was not a -wise man, but a fool. Gewgaws could no longer satisfy him. His wealth -exhausted, his fame tarnished, his dominions reduced to insignificance, -himself insulted by contemptible adversaries whom he could neither -control nor punish, he entered on the long course of years "_plus -pales et moins couronnees_." The peaceful is harried by petty raids; -the magnificent is laden with debts; the builder of the Temple has -sanctioned polytheism; the favourite of the nation has become a tyrant, -scourging with whips an impatient people; the "darling of the Lord" has -built shrines for Moloch and Astarte. The glamour of youth, of empire, -of gorgeous tyranny was dispelled, and the splendid boy-king is the -weary and lonely old man. Hiram of Tyre has turned in disgust from an -ungenerous recompense. A new Pharaoh has dispossessed his Egyptian -father-in-law and shelters his rebel servant. His shameful harem has -given him neither a real home nor a true love; his commerce has proved -to be an expensive failure; his politic alliances a hollow sham. In -another and direr sense than after his youthful vision, "Solomon awoke, -and behold it was a dream."[406] - -The Talmudists show some insight amid their fantasies when they -write: "At first, before he married strange wives, Solomon reigned -over the angels (1 Chron. xxix. 23); then only over all kingdoms (1 -Kings iv. 21); then only over Israel (Eccles. i. 12); then only over -Jerusalem (Eccles. i. 1). At last he reigned only over his staff--as -it is said, 'And this was the portion of my labour'; for by the word -'_this_,'" says Rav, "he meant that the only possession left to him -was the staff which he held in his hand." The staff was not "the rod -and staff" of the Good Shepherd, but the earthly staff of pride and -pomp, and (as in the Arabian legend) the worm of selfishness and -sensuality was gnawing at its base. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[400] See Euseb., _Praep. Evang._, x. 11. - -[401] Lev. xxv. 23, 24. See Judg. i. 31, 32. - -[402] Hence, perhaps, the name "Galilee of the nations" (Isa. ix. 1). -Comp. "Harosheth of the nations" (Judg. iv. 2, 13). Hazor was in this -district. - -[403] Milman, _Hist. of the Jews_, i. 321. - -[404] 1 Kings ix. 10-13. There was a place called Cabul in Asher -(Josh. xix. 27). Ewald thinks that Cabul was a sort of witticism -meaning "as nothing." Josephus (_Antt._, VIII. v. 3) says that in -Phoenician [Greek: chabalon] means "not pleasing," and that Hiram -would not take the cities. Nothing can be made of the allusion to -this transaction in 2 Chron. viii. 1, 2. Why did Solomon re-occupy -these cities? and why did Hiram give him one hundred and twenty -talents of gold? 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 territory. - -[405] The later Jews chose the name "Alexander" as the Western -equivalent for Solomon: hence the names "_Alexander_ Jannaeus," etc. - -[406] 1 Kings iii. 15. See Ecclus. xlvii. 12-21. - - - - - CHAPTER XXII. - - _THE OLD AGE OF SOLOMON._ - - 1 KINGS xi. 1-13. - - "That uxorious king, whose heart, though large, - Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell - To idols foul." - MILTON, _Paradise Lost_. - - "Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things?"--NEH. - xiii. 26. - - "That they might know, that wherewithal a man sinneth, by the - same also shall he be punished."--WISDOM xi. 16. - - -Solomon had endeavoured to give a one-sided development to -Israelitish nationality, and a development little in accord with the -highest and purest traditions of the people. What he did with one -hand by building the Temple he undid with the other by endowing and -patronising the worship of heathen deities.[407] In point of fact, -Solomon was hardly a genuine off-shoot of the stem of Jesse. It is -at least doubtful whether Bathsheba was of Hebrew race, and from her -he may have derived an alien strain. It is at all events a striking -fact that, so far from being regarded as an ideal Hebrew king, he -was rather the reverse. The chronicler, indeed, exalts him as the -supporter and redintegrator of the Priestly-Levitic system, which -it is the main object of that writer to glorify; but this picture -of theocratic purity, even if it be not altogether an anachronism, -is only obtained by the total suppression of every incident in the -story of Solomon which militates against it. In the Book of Kings we -are faithfully told of the disgust of Hiram at the reward offered to -him; of the alienation of a fertile district of the promised land; of -the apostasy, the idolatries, and the reverses which disgraced and -darkened his later years. The Book of Chronicles ignores every one of -these disturbing particulars. It does not tell us of the depths to -which Solomon fell, 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 Ark. -Yet, if we understand in their simple sense the statements of the -editor of the Book of Kings, and the documents on which he based -his narrative, Solomon, even at the Dedication Festival, ignored -all distinction between the priesthood and the laity. Nay, more -than this, he seems to have offered, with his own hands, both burnt -offerings and peace offerings three times a year,[408] and, unchecked -by priestly opposition or remonstrance, to have "burnt incense -before the altar that was before the Lord," though, according to the -chronicler, it was for daring to attempt this that Uzziah was smitten -with the horrible scourge of leprosy. - -The ideal of a good and great king is set before us in the Book of -Proverbs, and in many respects Solomon fell very far short of it. -Further than this, there are in Scripture two warning sketches of -everything which a good king should _not_ be and should _not_ do, and -these sketches exactly describe the very things which Solomon was and -did. Those who take the view that the books of Scripture have undergone -large later revision, see in each of these passages an unfavourable -allusion to the king who raised Israel highest amongst the nations, -only to precipitate her disintegration and ruin, 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 world. - -1. The first of these pictures of selfish autocrats is found in 1 -Sam. viii. 10-18:-- - -"And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked -of Him a king. And he said, This will be the manner of the king that -shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for -himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run -before his chariots. And he will appoint his captains over thousands, -and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to -reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments -of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be perfumers, and -to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your -vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them -to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your -vineyards, and give to his courtiers, and to his servants. And he will -take your menservants and your maidservants, and your goodliest oxen, -and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of -your sheep, and you shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that -day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord -will not hear you in that day." - -2. The other, which is still more detailed and significant, was -perhaps written with the express intention of warning Solomon's -descendants from the example which Solomon had set.[409] It is found -in Deut. xvii. 14-20. Thus, speaking of a king, the writer says:-- - -"Only he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people -to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: -forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return -no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself; that -his heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself -silver and gold. And it shall be that when he sitteth upon the throne -of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book -... that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, ... that his heart -be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from -the commandment, ... to the end that he may prolong his days in his -kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel." - -If Deuteronomy be of no older date than the days of Josiah, it is -difficult not to see in this passage a distinct polemic against -Solomon; for he did not do what he is here commanded, and he most -conspicuously did every one of the things which is here forbidden. - -It is quite clear that in his foreign alliances, in his commerce, -in his cavalry, in his standing army, in his extravagant polygamy, -in his exaggerated and exhausting magnificence, in his despotic -autocracy, in his palatial architecture, and in his patronage of -alien art, in his system of enforced labour, in his perilous -religious syncretism, Solomon was by no means a king after the hearts -of the old faithful and simple Israelites. 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 prophets. His ideal differed entirely -from that of the older patriarchs. He gave to the life of his people -an alien development; he obliterated some of their best national -characteristics; and the example which he set was at least as -powerful for evil as for good. - -When we read the lofty sentiments expressed by Solomon in his -dedication prayer, we may well be amazed to hear that one who had -aspirations so sublime could sink into idolatry so deplorable. If -it was the object of the chronicler to present Solomon in unsullied -splendour, he might well omit the deadly circumstance that when he -was old, and prematurely old, "he loved many strange women, and _went -after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the -abomination of the Ammonites_.[410] _And Solomon did evil in the -sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord as did David -his father. Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh the -abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for -Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon._[411] _And likewise -did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed -unto their gods._"[412] - -The sacred historian not only records the shameful fact, but records -its cause and origin. The heart of Solomon was perverted, his will -was weakened, his ideal was dragged into the mire by the "strange -wives" who crowded his seraglio. He went the way that destroys -kings.[413] The polygamy of Solomon sprang naturally from the false -position which he had created for himself. 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 isolation. He may -have favourites, he may have flatterers, but he can have no friends. -A thronged harem becomes to him not only a matter of ostentation and -luxury, but a necessary resource from the vacuity and _ennui_ of a -desolate heart. Tiberius was driven to the orgies of Capreae by the -intolerableness of his isolation. The weariness of the king who used -to take his courtiers by the button-hole and say, "_Ennuyons-nous -ensemble_," drove him to fill up his degraded leisure in the _Parc -aux Cerfs_. Yet even Louis XV. had more possibilities of rational -intercourse with human beings than a Solomon or a Xerxes. It was in -the nature of things that Solomon, when he had imitated all the other -surroundings of an Oriental despot, should sink, like other Oriental -despots, from sensuousness into sensualism, from sensualism into -religious degeneracy and dishonourable enervation. - -Two facts, both full of warning, are indicated as the sources of his -ruin: (1) the number of his wives; and (2) their heathen extraction. - -1. "He had," we are told, "seven hundred wives, princesses, and three -hundred concubines."[414] - -The numbers make up a thousand, and are almost incredible. We are -told indeed that in the monstrosities of Indian absolutism the -Great Mogul had a thousand wives; but even Darius, "the king" _par -excellence_, the awful autocrat of Persia, had only one wife and -thirty-two concubines.[415] 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 Jerusalem. Moreover, -there is, on every ground, reason to correct the statement. Saul, -so far as we know, had only one wife, and one concubine; David, -though he put so little restraint on himself, had only sixteen; no -subsequent king of Israel or Judah appears to have had even a small -fraction of the number which is here assigned to Solomon, either -by the disease of exaggeration or by some corruption of the text. -More probably we should read seventy wives, which at least partially -assimilates the number to the "threescore queens" of whom we read in -the Canticles.[416] Even then we have a household which must have -led to miserable complications. The seraglio at Jerusalem must have -been a burning fiery furnace of feuds, intrigues, jealousies, and -discontent. It is this fact which gives additional meaning to the -Song of Songs. That unique book of Scripture is a sweet idyll in -honour of pure and holy love. It sets before us in glowing imagery -and tender rhythms how the lovely maiden of Shunem, undazzled by all -the splendours and luxuries of the great king's court, unseduced by -his gifts and his persistence, remained absolutely faithful to her -humble shepherd lover, and, amid the gold and purple of the palace -at Jerusalem, sighed for her simple home amid the groves of Lebanon. -Surely she was as wise as fair, and her chances of happiness would be -a thousandfold greater, her immunities from intolerable conditions -a thousandfold more certain, as she wandered hand in hand with her -shepherd youth amid pure scenes and in the vernal air, than amid the -heavy exotic perfumes of a sensual and pampered court. - -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 Solomon. It may have been worldly policy which originally -led him to multiply his wives. The alliance with Pharaoh was secured -by a marriage with his daughter, and possibly that with Hiram by the -espousal of a Tyrian princess. The friendliness of Edom on the south, -of Moab and Ammon on the east, of Sidon and the Hittites and Syria on -the north, might be enhanced by matrimonial connexions from which the -greater potentates might profit and of which the smaller sheykhs were -proud.[417] Yet if this were so, the policy, like all other worldly -policy unsanctioned by the law of God, was very unsuccessful. Egypt as -usual proved herself to be a broken reed. The Hittites only preserved -a dream and legend of their olden power. Edom and Moab neither forgot -nor abandoned their implacable and immemorial hatred. Syria became a -dangerous rival awaiting the day of future triumphs. "It is better to -trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in man; it is better to -trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in princes." - -2. But the heathen religion of these strange women from so many -nations "turned away the heart of Solomon after other gods." 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 Pentateuch. If so he broke them, for the Hittites and the -Phoenicians were Canaanites. Marriages with Egyptians, Moabites, and -Edomites had not been, in so many words, forbidden, but the feeling of -later ages applied the rule analogously to them. The result proved how -necessary the law was. When Solomon was old his heart was no longer -proof against feminine wiles. He was not old in years, for this was -some time before his death, and when he died he was little more than -sixty. But a polygamous despot gets old before his time. - -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 history. Tolerance for harmless divergences of opinion there -should always be, though it is only a growth of modern days; but -tolerance for iniquity is a wrong to holiness. - -The worship of these devils adored for deities was stained with the -worst passions which degrade human nature. They were themselves the -personification of perverted instincts. The main facts respecting -them are collected in Selden's famous _De Dis Syris Syntagma_, and -Milton has enshrined them in his stateliest verse:-- - - "First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood - Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears: ... - Next, Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons, - Peor his other name, when he enticed - Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile, - To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. - Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged - Even to that hill of scandal, by the Grove - Of Moloch homicide; lust, hard by hate: - Till good Josiah drove them thence to hell. - ... With these in troop - Came Ashtoreth, whom the Phoenicians call - Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns; - To whose bright image nightly by the moon - Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs; - In Sion also not unsung, where stood - Her temple on the offensive mountain, built - By that uxorious king, whose heart, though large, - Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell - To idols foul." - -What tolerance should there be for idols whose service was horrible -infanticide and shameless lust? "What fellowship hath righteousness -with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? -and what concord hath Christ with an infidel? and what agreement hath -the temple of God with idols?" How vile the worship of Chemosh was, -Israel had already experienced in the wilderness where he was called -Peor.[418] What Moloch was they were to learn thereafter by many a -horrible experience. Had Solomon never heard that the Lord God was a -jealous God, and would not tolerate the rivalries of gods of fire and -of lust? At least he was not afraid to desecrate one, if not two, of -the summits of the Mount of Olives with shrines to these monstrous -images, which seem to have been left "on that opprobrious mount" for -many an age, so that they "durst abide" - - "Jehovah, thundering out of Sion, throned - Between the cherubim; yea, often placed - Within His sanctuary itself their shrines, - Abominations, and with cursed things - His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, - And with their darkness durst affront His light." - -And, to crown all, Solomon not only showed this guilty complaisance -to _all_ his strange wives, but even, sinking into the lowest abyss -of apostasy, "burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods." - -"He that built a temple for himself and for Israel in Sion," says -Bishop Hall, "built a temple for Chemoch in the Mount of Scandal for -his mistresses in the very face of God's house. Because Solomon feeds -them in their superstition, he draws the sin home to himself, and is -branded for what he should have forbidden." - -FOOTNOTES: - -[407] "L'amour du luxe et de la nouveaute le conduira peu a peu a -defaire l'oeuvre de son pere, a ruiner le peuple dont il pouvait -faire le bonheur, a detruire les institutions, et a dedaigner le -culte national, auquel il avait d'abord cherche a donner le plus -grand eclat."--Munk, _Palestine_, p. 285. - -[408] 1 Kings ix. 25. - -[409] Modern criticism generally regards the Book of Deuteronomy, or -some elements of it, as "the Book of the Law" which was found in the -Temple by the high priest Hilkiah in the reign of Josiah. We shall -speak of this in the following volume (in 2 Kings). See Deut. xvii. 18. - -[410] LXX., [Greek: en philogyngs]. Vulg., _adamavit mulieres -alienigenus_. - -[411] Some suppose that this clause about Milcom is an interpolation -from 2 Kings xxiii. 13. - -[412] See Exod. xxxiv. 11-17; Deut. vii. 1-4. The Talmud makes one of -its dishonest attempts to get rid of the fact; Shabbath, p. 56, _b_. -Sanhedrin, _ff._ 55, 56. Justin Martyr preserves a tradition (_Dial. -c. Tryph._, 34) that Solomon in taking a Sidonian wife worshipped -idols at Sidon. Muslim tradition attributes Solomon's idolatry to the -tricks of demons who assumed his form (Qur'an, _Sura_ ii. 99; but see -_Sura_ xxxviii. 30). - -[413] Prov. xxxi. 3. - -[414] The Song of Solomon (vi. 8) gives him, besides the _'alamoth_ -("damsels") "without number," the sixty wives (_saroth_), and the -eighty concubines, who were partly perhaps their slaves. - -[415] Parmen. _ap._ Athen., _Deipnos._, iii. 3. Comp. Quint. Curt., -_Vit. Alex._, iii. 3. Amehhate of Egypt had more than three hundred -and seventeen wives (Brugsch, _Egypt_, iii. 607, E.T.). Rehoboam, who -had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, left twenty-eight sons and -sixty daughters. Solomon, so far as we know, had only one son and two -daughters. - -[416] Cant. vi. 8. - -[417] The Vatican MS. of the LXX. adds Syrian and Amorite princesses -to the number. Marriages with Sidonians and Hittites are expressly -forbidden in Exod. xxxiv. 12-16, and with Canaanites in Deut. vii. 3 -(comp. Ezra ix. 2 and Neh. xiii. 23). - -[418] Numb. xxv. 3. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIII. - - _THE WIND AND THE WHIRLWIND._ - - 1 KINGS xi. 14-41. - - "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap - corruption."--GAL. vi. 8. - - -Such degeneracy could not show itself in the king without danger to his -people. "_Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi._" In the disintegration -of Solomon's power and the general disenchantment from the glamour of -his magnificence, the land became full of corruption and discontent. -The wisdom and experience of the aged were contemptuously hissed -off the seat of judgment by the irreverent folly of the young. The -existence of a corrupt aristocracy is always a bad symptom of national -disease. These "lisping hawthorn-buds" of fashion only bourgeon in -tainted soil. 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 condition. Violence, oppression, and commercial -dishonesty, as we see in the Book of Proverbs, had been bred by the mad -desire for gain; and even in the streets of holy Jerusalem, and under -the shadow of its Temple, "strange women," introduced by the commerce -with heathen countries and the attendants on heathen princesses, -lured to their destruction the souls of simple and God-forgetting -youths.[419] 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 competition. And amid all these evils the voices of the -courtly priests were silent, and for a long time, under the menacing -and irresponsible dominance of an oracular royalty, there was no -prophet more. - -Early in Solomon's reign two adversaries had declared their -existence, but only became of much account in the darker and later -days of its decline.[420] - -One of these was Hadad, Prince of Edom. Upon the Edomites in the -days of David the prowess of Joab had inflicted an overwhelming and -all but exterminating reverse. Joab had remained six months in the -conquered district to bury his comrades who had been slain in the -terrible encounter, and to extirpate as far as possible the detested -race. But the king's servants had been able to save Hadad, then -but a little child, from the indiscriminate massacre, as the sole -survivor of his house.[421] The young Edomite prince was conveyed by -them through Midian and the desert of Paran into Egypt, and there, -for political reasons, had been kindly received by the Pharaoh of -the day, probably Pinotem I. of the Tanite dynasty, the father of -Psinaces whose alliance Solomon had secured by marriage with his -daughter. Pinotem not only welcomed the fugitive Edomite as the last -scion of a kingly race, but even deigned to bestow on him the hand -of the sister of Tahpenes, his own _Gebira_ or queen-mother.[422] -Their son Genubath was brought up among the Egyptian princes. 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 race. The names of David and Joab inspired a terror which -made rebellion impossible for a time; but when Hadad heard, with grim -satisfaction, of Joab's judicial murder, and that David had been -succeeded by a peaceful son, no charm of an Egyptian palace and royal -bride could weigh in the balance against the fierce passion of an -avenger of blood. Better the wild freedom of Idumea than the sluggish -ease of Egypt. He asked the Pharaoh's leave to return to his own -country, and, braving the reproach of ingratitude, made his way back -to the desolated fields and cities of his unfortunate people.[423] -He developed their resources, and nursed their hopes of the coming -day of vengeance. If he could do nothing else he could at least act -as a desperate marauder, and prove himself a "satan" to the successor -of his foe.[424] Solomon was strong enough to keep open the road to -Ezion-Gebir, but Hadad was probably master of Sela and Maon.[425] - -Another enemy was Rezon, of whom but little is known. David had won -a great victory, the most remarkable of all his successes, over -Hadadezer, King of Zobah, and had then signalised his conquest by -placing garrisons in Syria of Damascus. On this occasion Rezon, the -son of Eli, who is perhaps identical with Hezion, the grandfather of -Benhadad, King of Syria in the days of Asa, fled from the host of -Hadadezer with some of the Syrian forces. With these and all whom -he could collect about him, he became a guerilla captain. After -a successful period of predatory warfare he found himself strong -enough to seize Damascus, where, to all appearance, he founded -a powerful hereditary kingdom. Thus with Hadad in the south to -plunder his commercial caravans, and Rezon on the north to threaten -his communication with Tiphsah, and alarm his excursions to his -pleasances in Lebanon, Solomon was made keenly to feel that his power -was rather an unsubstantial pageant than a solid dominion. - -The enmity of these powerful Emirs of Edom and Syria was an hereditary -legacy from the wars of David and the ruthless savagery of Joab. A -third adversary was far more terrible, and he was called into existence -by the conduct of Solomon himself. This was Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. -In himself he was of no account, being a man of isolated position and -obscure origin. He was the son of a widow named Zeruah,[426] who lived -at Zarthan in the Jordan valley. The position of a widow in the ancient -world was one of feebleness and difficulty; and if we may trust the -apocryphal additions to the Septuagint, Zeruah was not only a widow but -a harlot. But Jeroboam, whose name perhaps indicates that he was born -in the golden days of Solomon's prosperity, was a youth of vigour and -capacity. He made his way from the wretched clay fields of Zeredah to -Jerusalem, and there became one of the vast undistinguished gang who -were known as "slaves of Solomon." The _corvee_ 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 Moriah, which -was afterwards known as the Valley of the Cheesemongers (_Tyropoeon_). -Here the unknown youth distinguished himself by his strenuousness, and -by the influence which he rapidly acquired. Solomon knew the value of -a man "diligent in his business," and therefore worthy to stand before -kings. Untrammelled by any rules of seniority, and able to make and -unmake as he thought fit, Solomon promoted him while still young, and -at one bound, to a position of great rank and influence. Jeroboam was -an Ephraimite, and Solomon therefore "gave him charge over all the -compulsory levies (_Mas_) of the tribe of the house of Joseph"--that -is, of the proud and powerful tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, who -practically represented all Israel except Judah, Benjamin, and the -almost nominal Simeon. - -The spark of ambition was now kindled in the youth's heart, 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 use. One was that a deep undercurrent of -tribal jealousy was setting in with the force of a tide. Solomon -had unduly favoured his own tribe by exemptions from the general -requisition, and Ephraim fretted under a sense of wrong. That proud -tribe, the heir of Joseph's pre-eminence, had never acquiesced in -the loss of the hegemony which it so long had held. From Ephraim -had sprung Joshua, the mighty successor of Moses, the conqueror -of the Promised Land, and his sepulchre was still among them at -Timnath-Serah. From their kith had sprung the princely Gideon, the -greatest of the judges, who might, had he so chosen, have anticipated -the foundation of royalty in Israel. Shiloh, which God had chosen for -His inheritance, was in their domains. It required very little at any -time to make the Ephraimites second the cry of the insurgents who -followed Sheba, the son of Bichri,-- - - "We have no part in David, - Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. - Every man to his tents, O Israel." - -Jeroboam, who was now by Solomon's favour a chief ruler over his -fellow-tribesmen, had many opportunities to foment this jealousy, -and to win for himself by personal graciousness the popularity of -Solomon which had so long begun to wane. - -But a yet deeper feeling was at work against Solomon. The men of -Ephraim and all the northern tribes had not only begun to ask why -Judah was to monopolise the king's partiality, but the much more -dangerous question, What right has the king to enforce on us these -dreary and interminable labours, in making a city of palaces and an -impregnable fortress of a capital which is to overshadow our glory -and command our subjection? With consummate astuteness, by a word -here and a word there, Jeroboam was able to pose before Solomon as -the enforcer of a stern yoke, and before his countrymen as one who -hated the hard necessity and would fain be their deliverer from it. - -And while he was already in heart a rebel against the House of David, -he received what he regarded as a Divine sanction to his career of -ambition. - -The prophets, as we have seen, 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 kings." No special inspiration seemed to -be needed either to correct or to corroborate so infallible a wisdom. -But the heaven-enkindled spark of inspiration can never be permanently -suffocated. Priests as a body have often proved amenable to royal -seductions, but individual prophets are irrepressible. - -What were the priests doing in the face of so fearful an apostasy? -Apparently nothing. They seem to have sunk into comfortable -acquiescence, satisfied with the augmentation of rank and revenue -which the Temple and its offerings brought to them. They offered no -opposition to the extravagances of the king, his violations of the -theocratic ideal, or even his monstrous tolerance for the worship -of idols. That prophets as a body existed in Judah during the early -years of this reign there is no proof. The atmosphere was ill-suited -to their vocation. Nathan probably had died long before Solomon -reached his zenith.[427] Of Iddo we know almost nothing. Two prophets -are mentioned, but only towards the close of the reign--Ahijah of -Shiloh,[428] and Shemaiah; and there seems to have been some confusion -in the _roles_ respectively assigned to them[429] by later tradition. - -But the hour had now struck for a prophet to speak the word of the -Lord. If the king, surrounded by formidable guards and a glittering -court, was too exalted to be reached by a humble son of the people, -it was time for Ahijah to follow the precedent of Samuel. He obeyed -a divine intimation in selecting the successor who should punish the -great king's rebellion against God, and inaugurate a rule of purer -obedience than now existed under the upas-shadow of the throne. He -was the _Mazkir_, the annalist or historiographer of Solomon's court -(2 Chron. ix. 29); but loyalty to a backsliding king had come to -mean disloyalty to God. There was but one man who seemed marked out -for the perilous honour of a throne. It was the brave, vigorous, -ambitious youth of Ephraim who had risen to high promotion and -had won the hearts of his people, though Solomon had made him the -task-master of their forced labour. On one occasion Jeroboam left -Jerusalem, perhaps to visit his native Zeredah and his widowed -mother.[430] Ahijah intentionally met him on the road. He drew him -aside from the public path into a solitary place. There, seen by -none, he took off his own shoulders the new stately _abba_[431] in -which he had clad himself, and proceeded to give to Jeroboam one of -those object-lessons in the form of an acted parable, which to the -Eastern mind are more effective than any words.[432] Rending the new -garment into twelve pieces, he gave ten to Jeroboam, telling him that -Jehovah would thus rend the kingdom from the hands of Solomon because -of his unfaithfulness, leaving his son but one tribe[433] that the -lamp of David might not be utterly extinguished. Jeroboam should -be king over Israel; to the House of David should be left but an -insignificant fragment. God would build a sure house for Jeroboam as -He had done for David, if he would keep His commandments, though the -House of David "should not be afflicted for ever."[434] - -A scene so memorable, a prophecy of such grave significance, -could hardly remain a secret. Ahijah may have hinted it among his -sympathisers. Jeroboam would hardly be able to conceal from his -friends the immense hopes which it excited; and as his position -probably gave him the command of troops he became dangerous. His -designs reached the ears of Solomon, and he sought to put Jeroboam to -death. The young man, who had probably betrayed his secret ambition, -and may even have attempted some premature and abortive insurrection, -escaped from Jerusalem, and took refuge in Egypt. There the Bubastite -dynasty had displaced the Tanite, and from Shishak I., the earliest -Pharaoh whose individuality eclipsed the common dynastic name, he -received so warm a welcome that, according to one story, Shishak -gave him in marriage Ano, the elder sister of his Queen Tahpanes -(or Thekemina, LXX.) and of Hadad's wife.[435] He stayed in Egypt -till the death of Solomon, and then returned to Zeredah, either in -consequence of the summons of his countrymen, or that he might be -ready for any turn of events. - -Under such melancholy circumstances the last great king of the -united kingdom passed away. Of the circumstances of his death we -are told nothing, but the clouds had gathered thickly round his -declining years. "The power to which he had elevated Israel," says -the Jewish historian Graetz, "resembled that of a magic world built -up by spirits. The spell was broken at his death." It must not, -however, be imagined that no abiding results had followed from so -remarkable a rule. The nation which he left behind him at his death -was very different from the nation to whose throne he had succeeded -as a youth. It had sprung from immature boyhood to the full-grown -stature of manhood. If the purity of its spiritual ideal had been -somewhat corrupted, its intellectual growth and its material power -had been immensely stimulated. It had tasted the sweets of commerce, -and never forgot the richness of that intoxicating draught which -was destined in later ages to transform its entire nature. Tribal -distinctions, if not obliterated, had been subordinated to a central -organisation. The knowledge of writing had been more widely spread, -and this had led to the dawn of that literature which saved Israel -from oblivion, and uplifted her to a place of supreme influence among -the nations. Manners had been considerably softened from their old -wild ferocity. The more childish forms of ancient superstition, such -as the use of ephods and teraphim, had fallen into desuetude. The -worship of Jehovah, and the sense of His unique supremacy over the -whole world, was fostered in many hearts, 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-god.[436] Amid many aberrations the -sense of religion was deepened among the faithful of Israel, 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 mankind.[437] - -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 doubt.[438] The discussion of such a question is, -indeed, wholly absurd and profitless, and is only here alluded to in -order to illustrate the completeness of Solomon's fall. As the book -of Ecclesiastes is certainly not by him it can throw no light on the -moods of his latter days, unless it be conceivable that it represents -some faint breath of olden tradition. The early commentators -acquitted or condemned him as though they sat on the judgment-seat of -the Almighty. They would have shown more wisdom if they had admitted -that such decisions are--fortunately for all men--beyond the scope of -human judges. Happily for us God, not man, is the judge, and He looks -down on earth - - "With larger other eyes than ours - To make allowance for us all." - -Orcagna was wiser when, in his great picture in the Campo Santo at Pisa -and in the Strozzi Chapel at Florence, he represented Solomon rising -out of his sepulchre in robe and crown at the trump of the archangel, -uncertain whether he is to turn to the right hand or to the left. - -And Dante, as all men know, joins Solomon in Paradise with the Four -Great Schoolmen. The great mediaeval poet of Latin Christianity did -not side with St. Augustine and the Latin Fathers against the wise -king, but with St. Chrysostom and the Greek Fathers for him. He did -so because he accepted St. Bernard's mystical interpretation of the -Song of Songs:-- - - "La quinta luce, ch'e tra noi piu bella - Spira di tale amor, che tutto il mondo - Laggiu ne gola di saver novella. - Entro v'e l'alta mente, u' si profondo - Saver fu messo, che si il vero e vero, - A veder tanto non surse il secondo."[439] - -There is a famous legend in the Qur'an about the death of Solomon.[440] - -"Work ye righteousness O ye family of David; for I see that which -ye do. And we made the wind subject unto Solomon.... And we made a -fountain of molten brass to flow for him. And some of the genii were -obliged to work in his presence by the will of his Lord. They made -for him whatever he pleased of palaces, and statues, and large dishes -like fishponds, and caldrons standing firm on their trivets; and we -said, Work righteousness, O family of David, with thanksgiving; for -few of my servants are thankful. And when we had decreed that Solomon -should die, nothing discovered his death unto them, except the -creeping thing of the earth that gnawed his staff. And when his body -fell down, the genii plainly perceived that if they had known that -which is secret they had not continued in a vile punishment."[441] - -The legend briefly alluded to was that Solomon employed the genii -to build his Temple, but, foreseeing that he would die before its -completion, he prayed God to conceal his death from them, so that -they might go on working. His prayer was heard, and the rest of the -legend may best be told in the words of a poet:[442]-- - - "King Solomon stood in his crown of gold, - Between the pillars, before the altar - In the House of the Lord. And the king was old, - And his strength began to falter, - So that he leaned on his ebony staff, - Sealed with the seal of the Pentegraph. - - * * * * * - - And the king stood still as a carven king, - The carven cedar beams below, - In his purple robe, with his signet-ring, - And his beard as white as snow. - And his face to the Oracle, where the hymn - Dies under the wings of the cherubim. - - * * * * * - - And it came to pass as the king stood there, - And looked on the House he had built with pride, - That the hand of the Lord came unaware - And touched him, so that he died - In his purple robe and his signet ring - And the crown wherewith they had crowned him king. - - And the stream of folk that came and went - To worship the Lord with prayer and praise, - Went softly ever in wonderment, - For the king stood there always; - And it was solemn and strange to behold - The dead king crowned with a crown of gold. - - * * * * * - - So King Solomon stood up dead in the House - Of the Lord, held there by the Pentegraph, - Until out from the pillar there ran a red mouse, - And gnawed through his ebony staff; - Then flat on his face the king fell down, - And they picked from the dust a golden crown." - -The legends of the East describe Solomon as tormented indeed, yet not -without hope. In the romance of Vathek he is described as listening -earnestly to the roar of a cataract, because when it ceases to roar -his anguish will be at an end. - -"The king so renowned for his wisdom was on the loftiest elevation, -and placed immediately beneath the Dome. 'The thunder,' he said, -'precipitated me hither, where, however, I do not remain totally -destitute of hope; for an angel of light hath revealed that, in -consideration of the piety of my early youth, my woes shall come -to an end. Till then I am in torments, ineffable torments; an -unrelenting fire preys on my heart.' The caliph was ready to sink -with terror when he heard the groans of Solomon. Having uttered this -exclamation, Solomon raised his hands towards heaven, in token of -supplication; and the caliph discerned through his bosom, which was -transparent as crystal, his heart enveloped in flames." - - * * * * * - -So Solomon passed away--the last king of all Palestine till another -king arose a thousand years later, like him in his fondness for -magnificence, like him in his tamperings with idolatry, like him in -being the builder of the Temple, but in all other respects a far more -grievous sinner and a far more inexcusable tyrant--Herod, falsely -called "The Great." - -And in the same age arose another King of Solomon's descendants, -whose palace was the shop of the carpenter and His throne the cross, -and whose mortal body was the true Temple of the Supreme--that King -whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and whose dominion endureth -throughout all ages. - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[419] See Prov. ii. 10-22, v. 1-14, vi. 24-35, etc. (contrast Psalm -cxliv. 12-15). - -[420] In 1 Kings xi. 9-25 the mischief inflicted by Rezon and Hadad -is represented as a punishment for Solomon's apostasy. It has been -said that here "the pragmatism belongs to the redactor," because -these enemies sprang into existence when he came to the throne. But, -as I have here represented it, nothing seems more probable than that -Rezon and Hadad were practically impotent to inflict much damage -before the period of Solomon's decline. (Verse 23 is omitted in some -MSS. of the LXX.) - -[421] An isolated anecdote of the exterminating war is preserved in 1 -Chron. xi. 22, 23, from which it would seem that Egypt had interfered -in favour of Edom. - -[422] Renan conjectures that the real Egyptian name is Ahotepnes. The -LXX. wrongly calls this Pharaoh Sheshonk ([Greek: Sousakeim]), who -came later, and whose queen's name was Karaaema (not Thekemina, as the -LXX. says). - -[423] Canon Rawlinson (_Speaker's Commentary_, _ad loc._) points -out that fugitives once received at Eastern courts found it very -difficult to get away, _e.g._, Democedes, Herod., iii. 132-37. -Histiaeus, in leaving the court of Persia, has expressly to say that -he had lacked nothing--[Greek: teu de endees on]; Herod., v. 106; -comp. 1 Kings xi. 22. - -[424] 1 Kings xi. 14: "The Lord stirred up an adversary" ([Hebrew: -satan]). - -[425] Stade, i. 302. In 1 Kings xi. 22, 25 the text is corrupt. Verse -25 should partly be transferred to the end of verse 22, and should -run, "And Hadad returned to his own land," _i.e._, to _Edom_. (Edom -has been confused with "Aram.") - -[426] The additions to the LXX. call her Sarira. But the names -"Sarira," "Enlamite," "Ano" are all suspicious; and possibly the LXX. -additions may be only part of some Alexandrian Haggadah. - -[427] In 2 Chron. ix. 29 the LXX. reads "Joel." He wrote "visions" -against Jeroboam, a life of Ahijah, and a book "on (or after the -manner of) genealogies" (2 Chron. ix. 29, xii. 15, xiii. 22). Jerome -(on 2 Chron. xv. 1) identifies him with Oded. - -[428] 2 Chron. ix. 29. Perhaps 1 Kings xi. may be borrowed from the -historic records of Ahijah. - -[429] For in the LXX. 1 Kings xi. 29-39 is absent in some MSS., as -well as 1 Kings xiv. (Ahijah and Abijah), which has been added from -the Greek version of Aquila. In verse 29, for "Ahijah the Shilonite" -we have in some MSS. of the LXX. "Shemaiah the Elamite" or "Eulamite." - -[430] 1 Kings xi. 29, addition of LXX. - -[431] The square cloth worn over the other dress, and now called -_abba_, seems to represent the _salemah_ ([Hebrew: salmah]) here -mentioned. - -[432] The story is usually made to apply to _Jeroboam's_ new robe; -but in the addition to the LXX., where the action is ascribed to -Shemaiah, the word of the Lord says to him, [Greek: labe seauto -himation kainon to ouk eiseleluthos eis hydor k. t. l.] The method -of "acted parables" was common among the Hebrew prophets (See Jer. -xiii., xix., xxvii.; Ezek. iii., iv., v., etc.); but this is the -earliest recorded instance of the kind. - -[433] Not "two tribes," as the LXX. says. But neither the number 1 -nor the number 2 are literally exact, for certainly Jeroboam did not -command the territory of Simeon, south of Judah. The adherence of -Benjamin, or part of Benjamin, to Judah was mainly a geographical -accident, due to the fact that Jerusalem lay in both tribes (Josh. xv. -8, xviii. 16; Jer. xx. 2). Late in David's reign a Benjamite (Sheba, -son of Bichri) had headed a revolt against David (2 Sam. xx. 1). - -[434] 1 Kings xi. 34-39. - -[435] The story occurs in the additions to the LXX., and is highly -improbable. Shishak came to the throne, according to R. S. Poole, -about B.C. 972; others date his accession in 975 or 988. No such name -as Tahpanes or Thekemina is found in the Egyptian records, and the -wife of Shishak was Karaaemat. - -[436] Compare the names Eshbaal, Meribaal, Jerubbaal, Baaljada, with -Ishjo (LXX. 1 Sam. xiv. 49, Heb.), Mephibosheth Eliada. In later -days Baal was changed into the nickname _Bosheth_, "shame": hence -Ishbosheth, Jerubesheth, Mephibosheth. See Kittel, ii. 87. - -[437] See Kittel, _Gesch. der Hebr._, ii. 169-76. - -[438] See Buddaeus, _Hist. Eccl._, ii. 237. - -[439] - - "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 sure. - Within it is the lofty mind, where so - Deep knowledge dwelt, that, if the truth be true, - Such insight ne'er a second rose to know." - _Parad._, x. 109-114, and Dean Plumtre's notes. - -[440] Qur'an, xxxiv. 10; Chapter of Seba (Palmer's translation, p. 151). - -[441] Sale's Koran, ii. 287; Palmer's Qur'an, ii. 152. - -[442] The Earl of Lytton. - - - - BOOK III. - - _THE DIVIDED KINGDOM._ - - B.C. 937-889. - - - - - - - CHAPTER XXIV. - - _A NEW REIGN._ - - 1 KINGS xii. 1-5. - - "A foolish son is the calamity of his father."--PROV. xix. 13. - - "He left behind him Roboam, even the foolishness of the people, - and one that had no understanding."--ECCLUS. xlvii. 23. - - -Rehoboam, who was Solomon's only son, succeeded in Jerusalem -without opposition, B.C. 937.[443] 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 Judah. David had won them -by his vivid personality; Solomon had dazzled them by his royal -magnificence. It did not follow that they were blindly to accept a -king who emerged for the first time from the shadow of the harem, -and was the son of an Ammonitess, who worshipped Chemosh. Instead of -going to Rehoboam at Jerusalem as the tribes had gone to David at -Hebron, they summoned an assembly at their ancient city of Shechem, -on the site of the modern Nablus, between Mount Ebal and Gerizim. -In this fortress-sanctuary they determined, as "men of Israel," to -bring their grievances under the notice of the new sovereign before -they formally ratified his succession. According to one view they -summoned Jeroboam, who had already returned to Zeredah, to be their -spokesman.[444] 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 them.[445] Rehoboam, taken by surprise, said that -they should receive his answer in "three days." In the interval he -consulted the aged counsellors of his father. Their answer was astute -in its insight into human nature. It resembled the "long promises, -short performance" which Guido da Montefeltro recommended to Pope -Boniface VIII. in the case of the town of Penestrino.[446] They well -understood the maxim of "_omnia serviliter pro imperio_," which has -paved the way to power of many a usurper from Otho to Bolingbroke. -"Give the people a civil answer," they said; "tell them that _you_ -are _their_ servant. Content with this they will be scattered to -their homes, and you will bind them to your yoke for ever." In an -answer so deceptive, but so immoral, 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 conceit. - -"Who knoweth whether his son will be a wise man or a fool?" asks -Solomon in the Book of Proverbs. Apparently he had done little -or nothing to save his only son from being the latter. Despots -in polygamous households, whether in Palestine or Zululand, live -in perpetual dread of their own sons, and generally keep them in -absolute subordination. If Rehoboam had received the least political -training, or had been possessed of the smallest common sense, he -would have been able to read the signs of the times sufficiently -well to know that everything might be lost by blustering arrogance, -and everything gained by temporising plausibility. Had Rehoboam been -a man like David, or even like Saul in his better day, he might -have grappled to himself the affections of his people as with hooks -of steel by seizing the opportunity of abating their burdens, and -offering them a sincere assurance that he would study their peace -and welfare above all. Had he been a man of ordinary intelligence, -he would have seen that the present was not the moment to exacerbate -a discontent which was already dangerous. But the worldly-wise -counsel of the "elders" of Solomon was utterly distasteful to a man -who, after long insignificance, had just begun to feel the vertigo -of autocracy. His sense of his right was strong in exact proportion -to his own worthlessness. He turned to the young men who had grown -up with him, and who stood before him--the _jeunesse doree_ of a -luxurious and hypocritical epoch, the aristocratic idlers in whom the -insolent self-indulgence of an enervated society had expelled the -old spirit of simple faithfulness.[447] Their answer was the sort of -answer which Buckingham and Sedley might have suggested to Charles -II. in face of the demands of the Puritans; and it was founded on -notions of inherent prerogative, and "the right Divine of kings to -govern wrong," such as the Bishops might have instilled into James I. -at the Hampton Court Conference, or Archbishop Laud into Charles I. -in the days of "Thorough." - -"Threaten this insolent canaille," they said, "with your royal -severity. Tell them that you do not intend to give up your sacred -right to enforced labour, such as your brother of Egypt has always -enjoyed.[448] Tell them that your little finger shall be thicker -than your father's loins,[449] and that instead of his whips you -will chastise them with leaded thongs.[450] That is the way to show -yourself every inch a king." - -The insensate advice of these youths proved itself attractive to the -empty and infatuated prince. He accepted it in the dementation which -is a presage of ruin; for, as the pious historian says, "the cause -was from the Lord." - -The announcement of this incredibly foolish reply woke in the men -of Israel an answering shout of rebellion. In the rhythmic war-cry -of Sheba, the son of Bichri, which had become proverbial,[451] they -cried:-- - - "What portion have we in David? - Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. - To your tents, O Israel: - Now see to thine own house, David!"[452] - -Unable to appease the wild tumult, 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 them. He sent "Adoram, -who was over the tribute"--the man who stood, before the Ephraimites -especially, as the representative of everything in monarchical -government which was to them most entirely odious. Josephus says -that he hoped to mollify the indignant people. But it was too late. -They stoned the aged _Al-ham-Mas_ with stones that he died; 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 safety. Apparently he had come with -no other escort than that of the men of Judah who formed a part of -the national militia. Of Cherethites, Pelethites, and Gittites we -hear no more. The princeling of a despoiled and humiliated kingdom -was perhaps in no condition to provide the pay of these foreign -mercenaries. The king found that the name of David was no longer -potent, and that royalty had lost its awful glamour. He made an -effort[453] to reach his chariot, and, barely succeeding, fled with -headlong speed to Jerusalem. From that day for ever the unity of -Israel was broken, and "the twelve tribes" became a name for two -mutually antagonistic powers.[454] The men of Israel at once chose -Jeroboam for their king, and an event was accomplished which had its -effect on the history of all succeeding times. The only Israelites -over whom the House of David continued to rule were those who, like -the scattered remnant of Simeon, dwelt in the cities of Judah.[455] - -Thus David's grandson found that his kingdom over a people had -shrunk to the headship of a tribe, with a sort of nominal suzerainty -over Edom and part of Philistia. He was reduced to the comparative -insignificance of David's own position during his first seven years, -when he was only king in Hebron. This disruption was the beginning of -endless material disasters to both kingdoms; but it was the necessary -condition of high spiritual blessings, for "it was of the Lord." - -Politically it is easy to see that one cause of the revolt lay in -the too great rapidity in which kings, who, as it was assumed, were -to be elective, or at least to depend on the willing obedience of -the people, had transformed themselves into hereditary despots. -Judah might still accept the sway of a king of her own tribe; but -the powerful and jealous Ephraimites, at the head of the Northern -Confederation, refused to regard themselves as the destined -footstool for a single family. As in the case of Saul and of David, -they determined once more to accept no king who did not owe his -sovereignty to their own free choice. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[443] "Rehoboam" means "enlarger of the people" (comp. Eurudemos); -Jeroboam, "whose people is many" (Poludemos; comp. Thiodric, -Thierry). But Cheyne makes it mean "the kingdom contendeth" -(Kleinert, _Volkstreiter_). - -[444] So we read in the LXX. Cod. Vat., and (partly) in the Vulgate -(see Robertson Smith, _The Old Testament_, p. 117). Unless Jeroboam had -spontaneously returned from Egypt on hearing of the death of Solomon, -there would hardly have been time to summon him thence. 2 Chron. x. 2 -represents the matter thus. Possibly his name has crept by error into 1 -Kings xii. 3. See Wellhausen-Bleek's _Einleitung_, p. 243. - -[445] In the LXX. the Ephraimites complain of the expensive provision -for Solomon's table. "Thy father made his yoke grievous upon us, -and made grievous to us the meats of his table." LXX. (Cod. Vat.), -[Greek: kai ebaryne ta bromata tes trapezes autou]. - -[446] Dante, _Inferno_, Cant. xxvii. - -[447] They are called _yeladim_, which surely cannot apply to men -of forty, so that Rehoboam was probably little more than a youth, -_na'ar_ (2 Chron. xiii. 7; comp. Gen. xxxiii. 13). - -[448] Herod., ii. 124-28. - -[449] "My little finger." Heb., "my littleness"; LXX., [Greek: he -mikrotes mou]. But the paraphrase is perfectly correct (Vulg., Pesh., -Josephus, and the Rabbis). - -[450] "Virga si est nodosa et aculeata scorpios vocatur, quia arcuato -vulnere in corpus infigitur" (Isodore., _Orig._, i. 175). - -[451] 2 Sam. xx. 1. - -[452] Or, "Now feed thine own house" (LXX., [Greek: boske], reading -[Hebrew: r'h] for [Hebrew: rh]); and the LXX. adds, "For this man is -not (fit) to be a ruler, nor to be a prince." Evidently the revolt was -the culmination of those jealousies which the haughty tribe of Ephraim -had already manifested in the lives of Gideon, Abimelech, and David. - -[453] Heb., "strengthened himself." - -[454] In fact, the [Greek: dodekaphylon] became more of a -reminiscence than anything else. Simeon, for instance, practically -disappeared (1 Chron. iv. 24-43). - -[455] 1 Kings xii. 17. - - - - - CHAPTER XXV. - - _THE DISRUPTION._ - - 1 KINGS xii. 6-20. - - -"_It was of the Lord._" 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 doing; for everything which happened in the four subsequent -centuries, alike in Judah and in Israel, seemed to belie this pious -conviction. We, in the light of later history, are now able to -see that the disseverance of Israel's unity worked out results of -eternal advantage to mankind; but in the sixth century before Christ -no event could have seemed to be so absolutely disastrous. It must -have worn the aspect of an extinction of the glory of the House of -Jacob. It involved the obliteration of the great majority of the -descendants of the patriarchs, and the reduction of the rest to -national insignificance and apparently hopeless servitude. Throughout -those centuries of troubled history, in the struggle for existence -which was the lot of both kingdoms alike, it was difficult to say -whether their antagonism or their friendship, their open wars or -their matrimonial alliances, were productive of the greater ruin. -Each section of the nation fatally hampered and counterpoised the -other with a perpetual rivalry and menace. Ephraim envied Judah, and -Judah vexed Ephraim. In extreme cases the south was ready to purchase -the intervention of Syria, or even of Assyria, to check and overwhelm -its northern rival, while the north could raise up Egypt or Edom to -harass the southern kingdom with intolerable raids. - -To us the Southern Kingdom, the kingdom of Judah, seems the more -important and the more interesting division of the people. It became -the heir of all the promises, the nurse of the Messianic hope, -the mother of the four greater prophets, the continuer of all the -subsequent history after the glory of Israel had been stamped out by -Assyria for ever. - -1. But such was not the aspect presented by the kingdom of Judah to -contemporary observers. On the contrary, Judah seemed to be a paltry -and accidental fragment--one tribe, dissevered from the magnificent -unity of Israel. Nothing redeemed it from impotence and obliteration -but the splendid possessions of Jerusalem and the Temple, which -guaranteed the often threatened perpetuity of the House of David. -The future seemed to be wholly with Israel when men compared the -relative size and population of the disunited tribes. Judah comprised -little more than the environs of Jerusalem. Except Jerusalem, Mizpeh, -Gibeon, and Hebron, it had no famous shrines and centres of national -traditions. It could not even claim the southern town of Beersheba as -a secure possession.[456] The tribe of Simeon had melted away into a -shadow, if not into non-existence, amid the surrounding populations, -and its territory was under the kings of Judah; but they did not even -possess the whole of Benjamin, and if that little tribe was nominally -reckoned with them, it was only because part of their capital city -was in Benjamite territory, to which belonged the valley of Hinnom. -To Israel, on the other hand, pertained all the old local sanctuaries -and scenes of great events. On the east of Jordan they held Mahanaim; -on the west Jericho, near as it was to Jerusalem, and Bethel with its -sacred stone of Jacob, and Gilgal with its memorial of the conquest, -and Shechem the national place of assembly, and Accho and Joppa on -the sea shore. Israel, too, inherited all the predominance over Moab -and Ammon, and the Philistines, which had been secured by conquest in -the reign of David.[457] - -2. Then, again, the greatest heroes of tradition had been sons of -the northern tribes. The fame of Joshua was theirs, of Deborah and -Barak, of fierce Jephthah, of kingly Gideon, and of bold Abimelech. -Holy Samuel, the leader of the prophets, and heroic Saul, the first -of the kings, had been of their kith and kin. Judah could only claim -the bright personality of David, and the already tarnished glories of -Solomon, which men did not yet see through the mirage of legend but -in the prosaic light of every day. - -3. Again, the Northern Kingdom was unhampered by the bad example and -erroneous development of the preceding royalty. Jeroboam had not -stained his career with crimes like David; nor had he sunk, as Solomon -had done, into polygamy and idolatry. It seemed unlikely that he, with -so fatal an example before his eyes, could be tempted into oppressive -tyranny, futile commerce, or luxurious ostentation. He could found a -new dynasty, free from the trammels of a bad commencement, and as fully -built on Divine command as that of the House of Jesse. - -4. 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 scenery. To it belonged the fertile plain of Jezreel, rolling with -harvests of golden grain. Its command of Accho gave it access to the -treasures of the shore and of the sea. To it belonged the purple -heights of Carmel, of which the very name meant "a garden of God"; -and the silver Lake of Galilee, with its inexhaustible swarms of -fish; and the fields of Gennesareth, which were a wonder of the world -for their tropical luxuriance. Theirs also were the lilied waters -and paper-reeds of Merom, and the soft, green, park-like scenery of -Gerizim, and the roses of Sharon, and the cedars of Lebanon, and -the vines and fig trees and ancient terebinths of all the land of -Ephraim, and the forest glades of Zebulon and Naphtali, and the wild -uplands beyond the Jordan--which were all far different from the -"awful barrenness" of Judah, with its monotony of rounded hills.[458] - -5. Under these favourable conditions three great advantages were -exceptionally developed in the Northern Kingdom. - -(1) It evidently enjoyed a larger freedom as well as a greater -prosperity. How gay and bright, how festive and musical, how worldly -and luxurious, was the life of the wealthy and the noble in the ivory -palaces and on the gorgeous divans of Samaria and Jezreel, as we -read of it in the pages of the contemporary prophets![459] Naboth -and Shemer show themselves as independent of tyranny as any sturdy -dalesman or feudal noble, and "the great lady of Shunem, on the slopes -of Esdraelom, in her well-known home, is a sample of Israelite life in -the north as true as that of the reaper Boaz in the south. She leaves -her home under the pressure of famine, and goes down to the plains of -Philistia. When she returns and finds a stranger in her corn-fields, -she insists on restitution, even at the hand of the king himself."[460] - -(2) The Ten Tribes also developed a more brilliant literature. Some of -the most glowing psalms are probably of northern origin, as well as -the Song of Deborah, and the work of the writer who is now generally -recognised by critics under the name of the Deuteronomist. The -loveliest poem produced by Jewish literature--the Song of Songs--bears -on every page the impress of the beautiful and imaginative north. The -fair girl of Shunem loves her leopard-haunted hills, and the vernal -freshness of her northern home, more than the perfumed chambers of -Solomon's seraglio; and her poet is more charmed with the lustre and -loveliness of Tirzah than with the palaces and Temple of Jerusalem. The -Book of Job may have originated in the Northern Kingdom, from which -also sprang the best historians of the Jewish race.[461] - -(3) But the main endowment of the new kingdom consisted in the -magnificent development and independence of the prophets. - -It was not till after the overthrow of the Ten Tribes that the glory -of prophecy migrated southwards, and Jerusalem produced the mighty -triad of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. For the two and a half -centuries that the Northern Kingdom lasted scarcely one prophet is -heard of in Judah except the scarcely known Hanani, and Eliezer, the -son of Mareshah,[462] who is little more than a _nominis umbra_. To -the north belongs the great herald-prophet of the Old Dispensation, -the mighty Elijah; the softer spirit of the statesman-prophet -Elisha; the undaunted Micaiah, son of Imlah; the picturesque Micah; -the historic Jonah; the plaintive Hosea; and that bold and burning -patriot, a fragment of whose prophecy now forms part of the Book of -Zechariah. Amos, indeed, belonged by birth to Tekoa, which was in -Judah, but his prophetic activity was confined to Bethel and Jezreel. -The Schools of the Prophets at Ramah, Bethel, Jericho, and Gilgal -were all in Israel. 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 north, and how -fearless their intervention. Even when they were most fiercely -persecuted, they were not afraid to beard the most powerful kings--an -Ahab and a Jeroboam II.--in all their pride.[463] Samaria and Galilee -were rich in prophetic lives; and they, too, were the destined scene -of the life of Him of whom all the prophets prophesied, and from -whose inspiration they drew their heavenly fire. - -Against these advantages, however, must be set two serious and -ultimately fatal drawbacks--germs of disease which lay in the very -constitution of the kingdom, and from the first doomed it to death. - -One of these was the image-worship, of which I shall speak in -a later section; the other was the lack of one predominant and -continuous dynasty. - -The royalty of the north did not spring up through long years of -gradual ascendency, and could not originally appeal to splendid -services and heroic memories. Jeroboam was a man of humble, and, if -tradition says truly, of tainted origin. He was not a usurper, for -he was called to the throne by the voice of prophecy and the free -spontaneous choice of his people; but in Solomon's days he had been -a potential if not an actual rebel. He set the example of successful -revolt, and it was eagerly followed by many a soldier and general of -similar antecedents. In the short space of two hundred and forty-five -years there were no less than nine changes of dynasty, of which those -of Jeroboam, Baasha, Kobolam,[464] Menahem, consisted only of a father -and son. There were at least four isolated or partial kings: Zimri, -Tibni, Pekah, and Hosea. Only two dynasties, those of Omri and Jehu, -succeeded in maintaining themselves for even four or five generations, -and they, like the others, were at last quenched in blood. The close of -the kingdom in its usurpations, massacres, and catastrophes reminds us -of nothing so much as the disastrous later days of the Roman Empire, -when the purple was so often rent by the dagger-thrust, and it was rare -for emperors to die a natural death. The kingdom which had risen from a -sea of blood set in the same red waves. - -On the other hand, whatever may have been the drawback of the small -and hampered Southern Kingdom, it had several conspicuous advantages. -It had a settled and incomparable capital, which could be rendered -impregnable against all ordinary assaults; while the capital of the -Northern Kingdom shifted from Shechem to Penuel[465] and Tirzah, and -from Tirzah to Samaria and Jezreel. It had the blessing of a loyal -people, and of the all-but-unbroken continuity of one loved and -cherished dynasty for nearly four centuries. It had the yet greater -blessing of producing not a few kings who more or less fully attained -to the purity of the theocratic ideal. Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, -Josiah, were good and high-minded kings, and the two latter were -religious reformers. 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 Samaria. All good men began to look to Jerusalem as the nursing -mother of the Promised Deliverer. "Out of Judah," said the later -Zechariah, "shall come forth the corner stone, out of him the nail, -out of him the battle bow, out of him every governor together."[466] -Amos was born in Judah; Hoshea took refuge there; the later Zechariah -laboured (ix., xi., xiii. 7-9) for the fusion of the two kingdoms. From -the unknown, or little known, seers who endeavoured to watch over the -infant destinies of Judah, to the mighty prophets who inspired her -early resistance to Assyria, or menaced her apostasy with ruin at the -hands of Babylon, she rarely lacked for any long period the inspired -guidance of moral teachers. If Judah was for many years behindhand -in power, in civilisation, in literature, even in the splendour of -prophetic inspiration, she still managed on the whole to uplift to the -nations the standard of righteousness. That standard was often fiercely -assaulted, but the standard-bearers did not faint. The torn remnants of -the old ideal were still upheld by faithful hands. Neither the heathen -tendencies of princes nor the vapid ceremonialism of priests were -allowed unchallenged to usurp the place of religion pure and undefiled. -The later Judaean prophets, and especially the greatest of them, rose to -a spirituality which had never yet been attained, and was never again -equalled till the rise of the Son of Righteousness with healing in His -wings. - -How clearly, then, do we see the truth of the prophetic announcement -that the disruption of the kingdom was "of the Lord"! Out of apparent -catastrophe was evolved infinite reparation. The abandonment of the -Davidic dynasty of the Ten Tribes looked like earthly ruin. It did -indeed hasten the final overthrow of all national autonomy; but that -would have come in any case, humanly speaking, from Assyria, or -Babylonia, Persia, or the Seleucids, or the Ptolemies, or Rome. On -the other hand, it fostered a religious power and concentration which -were of more value to the world than any other blessings. "On all the -past greatness and glory of Israel," says Ewald,[467] "Judah cast -its free and cheerful gaze. Before its kings floated the vision of -great ancestors; before its prophets examples like those of Nathan -and Gad; before the whole people the memory of its lofty days. And so -it affords us no unworthy example of the honourable part which may be -played for many centuries in the history of the world, and the rich -blessings which may be imparted, even by a little kingdom, provided -it adheres faithfully to the eternal truth. 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 states_." "The -people of Israel goes under," says Stade, "but the religion of Israel -triumphs over the powers of the world, while it changes its character -from the religion of a people into a religion of the world." This -development of religion, as he proceeds to point out, was mainly due -to the long, slow enfeeblement of the people through many centuries, -until at last it had acquired a force which enabled it to survive the -political annihilation of the nationality from which it sprang. - -In reality both kingdoms gained under the appearance of total loss. -"Every people called to high destinies," says Renan, "ought to be -a small complete world, enclosing opposed poles within its bosom. -Greece had at a few leagues from each other, Sparta and Athens, two -antipodes to a superficial observer, but in reality rival sisters, -necessary the one to the other. It was the same in Palestine." - -The high merit of the historian of the two kingdoms appears in this, -that, without entangling himself in details, and while he contents -himself with sweeping and summary judgments, he established a moral -view of history which has been ratified by the experience of the -world. He shows us how the tottering and insignificant kingdom of -Judah, secured by God's promise, and rising through many backslidings -into higher spirituality and faithfulness, not only out-lasted for a -century the overthrow of its far more powerful rival, but kept alive -the torch of faith, and handed it on to the nations of many centuries -across the dust and darkness of intervening generations. And in -drawing this picture he helped to secure the fulfilment of his own -ideal, for he inspired into many a patriot and many a reformer the -indomitable faith in God which has enabled men, in age after age, to -defy obloquy and opposition, to face the prison and the sword, secure -in the ultimate victory of God's truth and God's righteousness amidst -the most seemingly absolute failure, and against the most apparently -overwhelming odds. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[456] In 1 Kings xix. 3 it is reckoned as belonging to Judah (comp. -Josh. xv. 28), being really a town of Simeon (Josh. xix. 2); but from -Amos v. 5, viii. 14, we should infer that it was at any rate largely -frequented by Israelites. - -[457] 1 Kings xvi. 34; 2 Kings ii. 4. - -[458] See Stanley, _Lectures on the Jewish Church_, ii. 269-71. - -[459] Amos v. 11, vi. 4-6. - -[460] 2 Kings iv. 18, 22, viii. 1-6; Stanley, ii. 271. - -[461] See Ewald, iv. 9 (E. T.). - -[462] 2 Chron. xx. 37. - -[463] Zech. xi. 4-17, xiii. 7-9. - -[464] If we may regard Kobolam as a real person (2 Kings xv. 10, -LXX.). Thus, in the Northern Kingdom twenty kings belong to _nine_ -different dynasties in two hundred and forty-five years; and in the -Southern only nineteen kings of _one_ dynasty rule for three hundred -and forty-five years. - -[465] Jeroboam lived for a time at Penuel, on the east of the Jordan, -perhaps to escape all danger from Shishak's invasion. For Penuel, on -the eastern side of the Jabbok, see Gen. xxxii. 22, 30; Judg. viii. -8, 17. It was important as commanding the caravan route from Damascus -to Shechem. - -[466] Zech. x. 4 (R.V., "exactors"). - -[467] _Hist. of Isr._, iv. 12. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVI. - - "_JEROBOAM THE SON OF NEBAT, WHO MADE - ISRAEL TO SIN._" - - 1 KINGS xii. 21-23. - - "For from Israel is even this; the workman made it, and it is no - god: yea, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces."--HOSEA - viii. 6. - - -The condemnation of the first king of Israel sounds like a melancholy -and menacing refrain through the whole history of the Northern -Kingdom.[468] Let us consider the extent and nature of his crime; for -though the condemnation is most true if we judge merely by the issue -of Jeroboam's acts, a man's guilt cannot always be measured by the -immensity of its unforeseen consequences, nor can his actions and -intentions be always fairly judged after the lapse of centuries. 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 B.C. 623, not by that -which prevailed in B.C. 937, when Jeroboam came to the throne. It -seems clear that, even in the opinion of his contemporaries, Jeroboam -was unfaithful to the duties of the call which he had received from -God; but it would be an error to suppose that his sin was, in itself, -so heinous as those of which both Solomon and Rehoboam and other -kings of Judah were guilty. "Calf-worship," as it was contemptuously -called in later days, did not present itself as "calf-worship" -to Jeroboam or his people. 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 Tabernacle. 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 wilderness. Jeroboam's chief -sin was not that as a king he tolerated, or even set up, a sort of -idolatry, but that he induced the whole body of his subjects to share -in his evil innovations. - -The charge brought against him was threefold. First, he set up the -golden calves at Dan and Bethel. Secondly, he "made priests from -among all the people, which were not of the sons of Levi." Thirdly, -he established his "harvest feast" not on the fifteenth day of -the seventh month, which was the Feast of Tabernacles, but on the -fifteenth day of the eighth month. In estimating these sins let us -endeavour--for it is a sacred duty--to be just. - -1. We read in the Authorised Version that "he made priests of _the -lowest_ of the people,"[469] and this tends to increase the prejudice -against him. But to have done this wilfully would have been entirely -against his own interests. The more honourable his priests were, -the more was his new worship likely to succeed. The Hebrew only says -that "he made priests of all classes of the people," or, as the -Revised Version renders it, "from among all the people." No doubt -this would appear to have been a heinous innovation, judged from the -practice of later ages; it is not clear that it was equally so in -the days of Jeroboam. If David, unrebuked, made his sons priests; if -Ira the Ithrite was a priest; if Solomon, by his own fiat, altered -the succession of the priesthood; if Solomon (no less than Jeroboam) -arrogated to himself priestly functions on public occasions, the -opinion as to priestly rights may not have existed in the days of -Jeroboam, or may only have existed in an infinitely weaker form than -in the days of the post-exilic chronicler. An incidental notice in -another book shows us that in Dan, at any rate, he did _not_ disturb -the Levitic ministry. There the descendants of Jonathan, the son -of Gershom, the grandson of Moses,[470] 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 year, down to the day when the golden calf at Dan was -carried away by Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria. If the Levites -preferred to abide by the ministrations of Jerusalem, and migrated -in large numbers to the south, Jeroboam may have held that necessity -compelled him to appoint priests who were not of the House of Levi. -Neither for this, nor for his new feast of Tabernacles, nor for the -calf-worship, were the kings of Israel condemned (so far as is -recorded) even by such mighty prophets as Elijah and Elisha. - -In choosing Dan and Bethel as the seats for his new altars, the -king was not actuated by purely arbitrary considerations. They were -ancient and venerated shrines of pilgrimage and worship (Judg. xviii. -30, xx. 18, 26; 1 Sam. x. 3). He did not create any sacredness which -was not already attached to them in the popular imagination.[471] -In point of fact he would have served the ends of a worldly policy -much better if he had chosen Shechem; for Dan and Bethel were the -two farthest parts of his kingdom. Dan was in constant danger from -the Syrians, and Bethel, which is only twelve miles from Jerusalem, -more than once fell into the hands of the kings of Judah, though they -neither retained possession of it, nor disturbed the shrines, nor -threw down the "calf" of the new worship. Jeroboam could not have -created the "calf-worship" if he had not found everything prepared -for its acceptance. Dan had been, since the earliest days, the seat -of a chapelry and ephod served by the lineal descendants of Moses in -unbroken succession; Bethel was associated with some of the nation's -holiest memories since the days of their forefather Israel. - -2. Again, if in Jeroboam's day the Priestly Code was in existence, -he was clearly guilty of unjustifiable wilfulness in altering the -time for observing the Feast of Tabernacles from the seventh to the -eighth month. But if there be little or no contemporary trace of any -observation of the Feast of Tabernacles--if, as Nehemiah tells us, -it had not once been _properly_ observed from the days of Joshua to -his own, 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 Ingathering, which -may have seemed more suitable to the conditions of the northern and -western tribes. For in parts of that region the harvest ripens a -month earlier than in Judah, and the festival was meant to be kept at -the season of harvest.[472] - -3. These, however, were but incidental and subordinate matters -compared with the setting up of the golden calves. - -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 death. He wished to avoid the fate -of Ishbosheth.[473] 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 centralised. He determined, therefore, to furnish the Ten -Tribes with high places, and temples of high places, and objects -of worship which might rival the golden cherubim of Zion, and be -honoured with festal music and royal pomp. - -He never dreamed either of apostatising from Jehovah, or of -establishing the worship of idols. He broke the Second Commandment -under pretence of helping the people to keep the first. The images -which he set up were not meant to be _substitutes_ for the one God, -the God of their fathers, the God who had brought them from the -land of Egypt; they were regarded as figures of Jehovah under the -well understood and universally adopted emblem of a young bull, the -symbol of fertility and strength.[474] Some have fancied that he -was influenced by his Egyptian reminiscences, and perhaps by Ano, -his traditional Egyptian bride. That is an obvious error. In Egypt -_living_ bulls were worshipped under the names of Apis and Mnevis, -not idol-figures. Egyptian gods would have been strange reminders of -Him who delivered His people from Egyptian tyranny. It would have -been insensate, by quoting the very words of Aaron, to recall to the -minds of the people the disasters which had followed the worship -of the golden calf in the wilderness.[475] Beyond all question, -Jeroboam neither did nor would have dreamed of bidding his whole -people to abandon their faith and worship Egyptian idols, which never -found any favour among the Israelites. He only encouraged them to -worship Jehovah under the form of the cherubim.[476] Whatever may -have been the aspect of the cherubim in the Oracle of the Temple, -cherubic emblems appeared profusely amid its ornamentation, and the -most conspicuous object in its courts was the molten sea, supported -on the backs of twelve bulls. It is true that later prophets and -poets, like Hosea and the Psalmist, spoke in scorn of his images -as mere "calves," and spoke of him as likening his Maker to "an ox -that eateth hay."[477] They even came in due time to regard them as -figures of Baal and Astarte,[478] but this view is falsified by the -entire annals of the Northern Kingdom from its commencement to its -close. Jeroboam was, and always regarded himself as, a worshipper of -Jehovah. He named his son and destined successor Abijah ("Jehovah is -my Father"). Rehoboam himself was a far worse offender than he was, -so far as the sanction of idolatry was concerned. - -And yet he sinned, and yet he made Israel to sin. It is true that -he did not sin against the full extent of the light and knowledge -vouchsafed to men in later days. The sin of which he was guilty was -the sin of worldly policy. 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 spirituality. -Proclaiming as his motive the rights of the people, he accelerated -their religious degeneracy. "The means to strengthen or ruin the civil -power," says Lowth, "is either to establish or destroy the right -worship of God. The way to destroy religion is to embase the dispenser -of it.... This is to give the royal stamp to a piece of lead." If we -may trust to Jewish tradition, there were some families in Israel who, -though they clung to their old homes, and would not migrate to the -south, yet refused to worship what is, not quite justly, called "the -heifer Baal."[479] The legendary Tobit (i. 4-7) 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 feasts," and, -in general, observed the provisions of the Levitic law. - -There seems to have been but little religion in Jeroboam's -temperament. In every other great national gathering at Shechem and -other sacred places we read of religious rites.[480] No mention is -made of them, no allusion occurs respecting them, in the assembly -to which Jeroboam owed his throne. He might at least have consulted -Ahijah, who had given him, when he was still a subject, the Divine -promise and sanction of royalty. He might, had he chosen, have -followed a higher and purer guidance than that of his own personal -misgiving and his own arbitrary will. The error which he committed -was this--he trusted in policy, not in the Living God. "It was," -says Dean Stanley, "precisely the policy of Abder-Rahman, Caliph of -Spain, when he arrested the movement of his subjects to Mecca, by the -erection of a Holy Place of the Zeca at Cordova, and of Abd-el-Malik -when he built the Dome of the Rock at Jerusalem, because of his -quarrel with the authorities at Mecca." He was not guilty of revolt, -for he acted under prophetic sanction; nor of idolatry, for he did -not abandon the worship of Jehovah; but "he broke the unity and -tampered with the spiritual conception of the national worship. -From worshipping God under a gross material symbol, the Israelites -gradually learnt to worship other gods altogether; and the venerable -sanctuaries of Dan and Bethel prepared the way for the temples -of Ashtaroth and Bethel at Samaria and Jezreel. The religion of -the kingdom of Israel at last sank lower than that of the kingdom -of Judah against which it had revolted. 'The sin of Jeroboam the -son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin,' is the sin again and again -repeated in the policy, half-worldly, half-religious, which has -prevailed through large tracts of ecclesiastical history. Many are -the forms of worship which, with high pretensions, have been nothing -else but so many various and opposite ways of breaking the Second -Commandment. Many a time has the end been held to justify the means, -and the Divine character been degraded by the pretence, or even the -sincere intention, of upholding His cause, for the sake of secular -aggrandisement; for the sake of binding together good systems, -which it was feared would otherwise fall to pieces; for the sake of -supporting the faith of the multitude for fear they should otherwise -fall away to rival sects, or lest the enemy should come and take away -their place and nation. False arguments have been used in support -of religious truths, false miracles promulgated or tolerated, false -readings in the sacred text defended.... And so the faith of mankind -has been undermined by the very means intended to preserve it. The -whole subsequent history is a record of the mode by which, with the -best intentions, Church and nation may be corrupted." - -This view of Dean Stanley is confirmed by another wise teacher, -Professor F. D. Maurice. Jeroboam, he says, "did not trust the -Living God. He thought, not that his kingdom stood upon a Divine -_foundation_, but that it was to be upheld by certain Divine props -and _sanctions_. The two doctrines seem closely akin. Many regard -them as identical. In truth there is a whole heaven between them. The -king who believes that his kingdom has a Divine foundation confesses -his own subjection and responsibility to an actual living ruler. The -king who desires to surround himself with Divine sanctions would fain -make himself supreme, knows that he cannot, and would therefore seek -help from the fear men have of an invisible power in which they have -ceased to believe. He wants a God as the support of his authority. -_What_ God he cares very little." - -And thus, to quote once more, "the departure from spiritual -principles out of political motives surely leads to destruction, and -is here portrayed for all times."[481] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[468] It recurs twenty-three times: 1 Kings xiv. 16, xv. 26, 30, 34, -xvi. 2, 19, 26, 31, xxi. 22, xxii. 52; 2 Kings iii. 3, x. 29, 31, -xiii. 2, 6, xiv. 24, xv. 9, 18, 24, 28, xvii. 21, 22, xxiii, 15. - -[469] Literally, "_he filled the hand_," 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 (Exod. xxviii. 41, -xxix. 9-35; Lev. viii. 27). - -[470] Such is the true reading. The "Manasseh" of our existing -text is a Jewish falsification of the text timidly and tentatively -introduced to protect the memory of Moses (see Judg. xviii. 26 ff.). - -[471] For the sanctity of Bethel, "House of God," where God had twice -appeared to Jacob, see Gen. xxviii. 11-19, xxxv. 9-15. The Ark had -once rested there under Phinehas (Judg. xx. 26-28), and it had been -the home of Samuel (1 Sam. vii. 16). Dan, too, was "a holy city" -(Judg. xviii. 30, 31; Tobit i. 5, 6). In 1 Kings xii. 30 ("the people -went to worship before the one, even unto Dan") some words may have -dropped out. Klostermann adds, "and neglected Bethel"; but is that -the fact? The LXX. adds, [Greek: kai eiasan ton hakon Kyriou]. On the -other hand, the clause has been taken to imply the opposite--_i.e._, -that even as far as Dan some were found who went in preference to -Bethel, "the king's chapel" (Amos vii. 13). In 1 Kings xii. 28 the -fairer rendering would be, "These are thy _God_," not "gods." - -[472] Lev. xxiii. 39. There is no hint about the other two annual -feasts of Passover and Pentecost. Josephus implies that Jeroboam's -feast was in the _seventh_ month, as in Judah (_Antt._, VIII. viii. 5). - -[473] 2 Sam. iv. 7. - -[474] Conceivably there may have been a reference to the heraldic -sign of Ephraim (Deut. xxxiii. 17), as Klostermann supposes. - -[475] Exod. xx. 23, xxxii. 4, 8. See Professor Paul Cassel, _Koenig -Jeroboam_, p. 6. The identity of Jeroboam's words with Exod. xxxii. 4 -may be due to the narrator. - -[476] It has been considered probable that he found an additional -sanction for these material symbols in an ancient existing image at -Gilgal, to which there may be obscure allusion in the Prophet Hosea -(iv. 15, ix. 15). - -[477] See 2 Chron. xi. 15, where the chronicler in his flaming hatred -calls them devils (_i.e._, "satyrs," _Feldtaeufel_, Isa. xiii. 21; -comp. Hosea viii. 5, xiii. 2). They were probably two young bulls of -brass overlaid with gold (see Psalm cvi. 19; Isa. xl. 19). - -[478] Tobit i. 5. - -[479] [Greek: He damalis Baal.] If this be the right reading, not -[Greek: dynamis], the feminine implies special scorn, either implying -[Greek: he aischyne] (_Bosheth_), or pointing, as Baudissin thinks, -to an androgynous deity. Graetz thinks that "Bethel" may be the true -reading. - -[480] Josh. xxiv. 1; 1 Sam. x. 19; 2 Sam. v. 1-3; 1 Kings viii. 1-5, 62. - -[481] Vilmar. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVII. - - _JEROBOAM, AND THE MAN OF GOD._ - - 1 KINGS xiii. 1-34. - - "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether - they are of God."--1 JOHN iv. 1. - - "[Greek: Ou gar edei ton tes theias akekoota phones anthropine - pisteusai tanantia legouse.]"--THEODORET. - - -We are told that Jeroboam, whose position probably made him restless -and insecure, first built or fortified Shechem, and then went across -the Jordan and established another palace and stronghold at Penuel. -After this he shifted his residence once more to the beautiful town -of Tirzah,[482] where he built for himself the palace which Zimri -afterwards burnt over his own head. Although the prophet Shemaiah -forbade Rehoboam's attempt to crush him in a great war, Jeroboam -remained at war with him and Abijah all his life, till his reign of -two-and-twenty troubled years ended apparently by a sudden death--for -the chronicler says that "the Lord struck him, and he died." - -Nearly all that we know of Jeroboam apart from these incidental -notices is made up of two stories, both of which are believed by -critics to date from a long subsequent age, but which the compiler of -the Book of Kings introduced into his narrative from their intrinsic -force and religious instructiveness. - -The first of these stores tells us of the only spontaneous prophetic -protest against his proceedings of which we read. So ancient is this -curious narrative that tradition had entirely forgotten the names of -the two prophets concerned in it. It probably assumed shape from the -dim local reminiscences evoked in the days of Josiah's reformation, -when the grave of a forgotten prophet of Judah was discovered among -the tombs at Bethel, three hundred and twenty years after the events -described. - -A nameless man of God--Josephus calls him Jadon, and some have -identified him with Iddo[483]--came out of Judah to atone for the -silence of Israel, and to protest in God's name against the new -worship. His protest, however, is against "the altar." He does -not say a word about the golden calves. Jeroboam, perhaps, at his -dedication festival of the king's shrine at Bethel, was standing -on the altar-slope,[484] as Solomon had done in the Temple, to -burn incense. Suddenly the man of God appeared, and threatened to -the altar the destruction and desecration which subsequently fell -upon it. We cannot be sure that some of the details are not later -additions supplied from subsequent events. Josephus rationalises -the story very absurdly in the style of Paulus. The sign of the -destruction or rending of the altar, and the outpouring of the -ashes,[485] may have been first fulfilled in that memorable -earthquake which became a date in Israel.[486] The desecration which -it received at the hands of Josiah reminded men of the threat of -the unknown messenger.[487] Then we are told that Jeroboam raised -his hand in anger, with the order to secure the bold offender, but -that his arm at once "dried up," and was only restored by the man -of God[488] at the king's entreaty. The king invites the prophet to -go home and refresh himself and receive a reward; 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 Bethel. -An old Israelite prophet was living at Bethel, and his son told -him what had occurred. Struck with admiration by the faithfulness -of the southern man of God, he rode after him to bring him to his -house. He found him seated under "the terebinth"--evidently some aged -and famous tree. When he refused the renewed invitation, the old -man lyingly said to him that he too was a man of God, and had been -bidden by an angel to bring him back. Deceived, perhaps too easily -deceived, the man of God from Judah went back. It would have been -well for him if he had believed that even "an angel of God," or what -may seem to wear such a semblance, may preach a false message, and -may deserve nothing but an anathema.[489] With terrible swiftness -the delusion was dispelled. While he was eating in Bethel, the old -prophet, overcome by an impulse of inspiration, told him that for his -disobedience he should perish and lie in a strange grave. Accordingly -he had not gone far from Bethel when a lion met and killed him, not, -however, mangling or devouring him, but standing still with the ass -beside the carcase.[490] On hearing this the old prophet of Bethel -went and brought back the corpse. He mourned over his victim with the -cry, "Alas, my brother,"[491] and bade his sons that when he died -they should bury him in the same sepulchre with the man of God, for -all that he had prophesied should come to pass. - -Josephus adds many idle touches to this story. If in a tale which -assumed its present form so long after the events imaginative details -were introduced, the incident of the lion subserves the moral aim of -the narrative (2 Kings xvii. 25; Jer. xxv. 30, xlix. 19; Wisdom xi. -15-17, etc.). The significance of the story for us is happily neither -historic nor evidential, but it is profoundly moral. It is the lesson -not to linger in the neighbourhood of temptation, nor to be dilatory -in the completion of duty.[492] 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 wishes. Satan finds -it easy to secure our credence when he answers us according to our -idols, and can quote Scripture for our purpose as well as his own; and -God sometimes punishes men by granting them their own desires, and -sending leanness withal into their bones. The man of God from Judah -had received a distinct injunction from which the invitation of a king -had been insufficient to shake him. If the old prophet wilfully lied, -his victim was willingly seduced. We may think his sin venial, his -punishment excessive. It will not seem so unless we unduly extenuate -his sin and unduly exaggerate the nature of his penalty. - -His sin consisted in his ready acceptance of a sham inspiration -which came to him from a tainted source, and which he ought to have -suspected because it conceded what he desired. God's indisputable -intimations to our individual souls are not to be set aside except -by intimations no less indisputable. There had been an obvious reason -for the command which God had given. The reason still existed; the -prohibition had not been withdrawn. The sham revelation furnished -him with an excuse; it did not give him a justification. Doubtless -Jadon's first thought was that - - "He lied in every word, - That hoary prophet, with malicious eye, - Askance to watch the working of his lie." - -Why did he yield so readily? It was for the same reason which causes -so many to sin. "The tempting opportunity" did but meet, as sooner or -later it always _will_ meet, "the susceptible disposition." - -Yet his punishment does not justify us in branding him as a weak or a -vicious man. We must judge him and all men, at his best, not at his -worst; in his hours of faithfulness and splendid courage, not in his -moment of unworthy acquiescence. - -And his speedy punishment was his best blessing. Who knows what might -not have happened to him if the speck of conventionality and corruption -had been allowed to spread? Who can tell whether in due time he might -not have sunk into something no better than his miserable tempter? -Rather than that we should be in any respect false to our loftiest -ideals, or less noble than our better selves, let the lion meet us, -let the tower of Siloam fall on us, let our blood be mingled with our -sacrifices. Better physical death than spiritual degeneracy. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[482] Now Talura, six miles north of Nablus. - -[483] So, too, Jarchi. No doubt they were guided by the remark in 2 -Chron. ix. 29, "the visions of Iddo the seer against Jeroboam." But -it is not possible, for Iddo lived to a later date (2 Chron. xiii. -22). Ephrem Syrus and Tertullian suppose him to have been Shemaiah -(comp. 2 Chron. xii. 5). These are untenable guesses. Epiphanius -calls him Joas; Clement, Abd-adonai; Tertullian, Sameas. - -[484] Not "_by_ the altar," as in A.V. LXX., [Greek: epi to -thysiasterion]; Vulg., _super altare_. - -[485] The ashes of the animal offerings ([Hebrew: deshen]) used to be -carried away to a clean place (Lev. vi. 11). - -[486] Amos ix. 1. The Vatican LXX. distinctly makes the sign a -_future_ one (1 Kings xiii. 3), [Greek: kai dosei en te hemera ekeine -teras]. The narrative seems to _suppose_, but it does not assert that -the altar was rent _then and there_. Had these miracles immediately -followed, it is difficult to imagine that no deeper impression should -have been made. As it was the new cult does not seem to have been -interrupted for a single day. - -[487] The mention by name of a king three centuries before he was even -born is wholly alien from every characteristic of Jewish prophecy, -and, as in the case of Cyrus (Isa. xliv. 28), 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 redactor. 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 (1 Kings -xvi. 24). Keil's remark that "_Josiah_" is only used appellatively for -one whom Jehovah will support (!) is one of the miserable expedients of -reckless harmonists. Even Baehr, _ad loc._, admits that the narrative -is of later date, and has received a traditional colouring. In 2 Kings -xxiii. 15-18 there is no hint that Josiah had been prophesied of by -name. - -[488] 1 Kings xiii. 6, "Intreat now" (_lit._, "make soft") "the face -of the Lord." Klostermann, "Besaenftige noch das Angesicht Jahve's." - -[489] Gal. i. 8. - -[490] Klostermann, in his _Kurzgefasster Kommentar_, gets rid of the -lion altogether by one of his sweeping emendations of the text, p. -352. He considers that the whole story comes from a book of edifying -anecdotes for the use of young prophets in the schools; 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 (Amos -iii. 14, vii. 9). - -[491] Comp. Jer. xxii. 18. - -[492] The older expositors at any rate see in the prophet's rest -under the terebinth, so near Bethel, "peccati initium; moras utique -nectere non debuit." It was like Eve's lingering near the place where -temptation lay. - - - - - CHAPTER XXVIII. - - _DOOM OF THE HOUSE OF NEBAT._ - - 1 KINGS xiv. 1-20.[493] - - "Whom the gods love die young." - - [Greek: "To paidion apethanen; apedothe."]--EPICTET. - - -The other story about Jeroboam is full of pathos; and though here, -too, there are obvious signs that, in its present form, it could -hardly have come from a contemporary source, it doubtless records an -historic tradition. It is missing in the Septuagint, though in some -copies the blank is supplied from Aquila's version. - -Jeroboam was living with his queen at Tirzah when, as a judgment on -him for his neglect of the Divine warning, his eldest and much loved -son, Abijah, fell sick. Torn with anxiety the king asked his wife to -disguise herself that she might not be recognised on her journey, -and to go to Shiloh, where Ahijah the prophet lived,[494] to inquire -about the dear youth's fate. "Take with you," he said, "as a present -to the prophet ten loaves, and some little cakes for the prophet's -children,[495] and a cruse of honey." - -Jeroboam remembered that Ahijah's former prophecy had been fulfilled, -and believed that he would again be able to reveal the future, and -say whether the heir to the throne would recover. The queen obeyed; -and if she were indeed the Egyptian princess Ano, it must have been -for her a strange experience. Through the winding valley, she reached -the home of the aged prophet unrecognised. But he had received a -Divine intimation of her errand; and though his eyes were now blind -with the _gutta serena_,[496] he at once addressed her by name when -he heard the sound of her approaching footsteps. The message which -he was bidden to pronounce was utterly terrible; it was unrelieved -by a single gleam of mitigation or a single expression of pity. It -reproached and denounced Jeroboam for faithless ingratitude in that -he had cast God behind his back;[497] it threatened hopeless and -shameful extermination to all his house.[498] His dynasty should be -swept away like dung. The corpses of his children should be left -unburied and be devoured by vultures and wild dogs.[499] The moment -the feet of the queen reached her house the youth should die, and -this bereavement, heavy as it was, should be the sole act of mercy in -the tragedy, for it should take away Abijah from the dreadful days -to come, because in him alone of the House of Jeroboam had God seen -something good. The avenger should be a new king, and all this should -come to pass "even now."[500] - -This speech of the prophet is given in a rhythmical form, and has -probably been mingled with later touches. It falls into two strophes -(7-11, 12-16) of 3 + 2 and 2 + 3 verses.[501] The expressions "thou -hast done above _all that were before thee_, for thou hast gone -and made thee _other gods_" (verse 9) hardly suits the case of -Jeroboam; and the omission by the LXX. of the prophecy of Israel's -ultimate captivity, together with the treatment of the prophecy by -Josephus, throw some doubt on verses 9, 15, and 16.[502] They seem to -charge Jeroboam with sanctioning _Asherim_, or wooden images of the -Nature-goddess Asherah, of which we read in the history of Judah, -but which are never mentioned in the acts of Jeroboam, and do not -accord with his avowed policy. These may possibly be due to the forms -which the tradition assumed in later days. - -The awful prophecy was fulfilled. As the hapless mother set foot on the -threshold of her palace at beautiful Tirzah the young prince died, and -she heard the wail of the mourners for him.[503] He alone was buried in -the grave of his fathers, and Israel mourned for him. He was evidently -a prince of much hope and promise, and the deaths of such princes have -always peculiarly affected the sympathy of nations. We know in Roman -history the sigh which arose at the early death of Marcellus:-- - - "Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata neque ultra - Esse sinent. Nimium vobis, Romana propago, - Visa potens, superi, propria haec si dona fuissent, - Heu miserande puer, si qua fata aspera rumpas - Tu Marcellus eris."[504] - -We know the remark of Tacitus as he contemplates the deaths of -Germanicus, Caius, and Drusus, Piso Licinianus, Britannicus, and Titus, -"_breves atque infaustos Populi Romani amores_." We know how, when -Prince William was drowned in the _White Ship_, Henry of England never -smiled again; and how the nation mourned the deaths of Prince Alfonso, -of the Black Prince, of Prince Arthur, of Prince Henry, of the Princess -Charlotte, of the Duke of Clarence and Avondale. But these untimely -deaths of youths in their early bloom, before their day, - - "Impositique rogis juvenes ante ora parentum," - -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 them. When -Louis le _Bien-Aime_ lay ill of the fever at Metz which seemed likely -to be fatal, all France wept and prayed for him. He recovered, and -grew up to be that portent of selfish boredom and callous sensuality, -Louis XV. It was better that Abijah should die than that he should -live to be overwhelmed in the shameful ruin which soon overtook his -house. It was better far that he should die than that he should grow -up to frustrate the promise of his youth. He was beckoned by the -hand of God "because in him was found some good thing towards the -Lord God of Israel." We are not told wherein the goodness consisted, -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 Jerusalem. Such a king might indeed -have recovered the whole kingdom, and have dispossessed David's -degenerate line. But it was not to be. The fiat against Israel had -gone forth, though a long space was to intervene before it was -fulfilled. And God's fiats are irrevocable, because with Him there is -no changeableness neither shadow of turning. - - "The moving finger writes, and, having writ, - Moves on; nor all thy piety nor wit - Shall lure it back to cancel half a line, - Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it." - -But the passage about Abijah has a unique preciousness, because it -stands alone in Scripture as an expression of the truth that early -death is no sign at all of the Divine anger, and that the length or -brevity of life are matters of little significance to God, seeing -that, at the best, the longest life is but as one tick of the clock -in the eternal silence. The promise to filial obedience, "that thy -days may be long," in the Fifth Commandment is primarily national; -and although undoubtedly "length of days" then, as now, was regarded -as a blessing,[505] yet the blessing is purely relative, and wholly -incommensurate with others which affect the character and the life to -come. This passage may be the consolation of many thousands of hearts -that ache for some dear lost child. "Is it well with the child?" "It is -well!" 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 days. "Honourable -age," says the Book of Wisdom, "is not that which standeth in length of -time, nor that is measured by number of years. But wisdom is the grey -hair unto men, and an unspotted life is old age. He pleased God, and -was beloved of Him: so that living among sinners he was translated. -Yea, speedily was he taken away, lest that wickedness should alter his -understanding, or deceit beguile his soul.... He, being made perfect -in a short time, fulfilled a long time: for his soul pleased the Lord: -therefore He hastens to take him away from among the wicked."[506] It -is the truth so beautifully expressed by Seneca: "_Vita non quam diu -sed quam bene acta refert_"; by St. Ambrose: "_Perfecta est aetas, ubi -perfecta est virtus_"; by Shakspeare:-- - - "The good die early, - And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust - Burn to the socket;" - -and by Ben Jonson:-- - - "It is not growing like a tree - In bulk, doth make man better be: - Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, - To fall, a log at last, dry, bald, and sere: - A lily of a day - Is fairer far in May, - Although it fall and die that night-- - It was the plant and flower of Light. - In small proportions we just beauties see, - And in short measures life may perfect be." - -It is recorded also on the tomb of a gallant youth, in Westminster -Abbey, "Francis Holles, who died at eighteen years of age after noble -deeds":-- - - "Man's life is measured by the work, not days; - Not aged sloth, but active youth, hath praise." - -FOOTNOTES: - -[493] "'Whom the gods love die young' was said of yore" (Byron). It -was said by Menander: "[Greek: Hon gar theoi philousin apothneskei -neos]"; and by Plautus: "Quem dii diligunt, adolescens moritur" -(_Bacch._, iv. 7, 18). A similar thought is found in Plutarch, in St. -Chrysostom, and many others. - -[494] Ahijah had not followed the example of the Levites and pious -persons who, the chronicler says, went in numbers to the Southern -Kingdom. - -[495] Nikuddim (only elsewhere in Josh. ix. 5-12); LXX., [Greek: -kollyrides]; Vulg., _crustula_; A.V., "cracknels." They were some -sort of cakes. Presents to prophets were customary (see 1 Sam. ix. 7, -8; 1 Kings xiii. 7; 2 Kings v. 5, viii. 8, 9). - -[496] Heb., "His eyes stood" (comp. 1 Sam. iv. 15). It seems to imply -_amaurosis_. - -[497] This tremendous expression only occurs elsewhere in Ezek. -xxiii. 35; but comp. Psalm l. 17; Neh. ix. 26. - -[498] The coarse expression of 1 Kings xiv. 10 (1 Sam. xxv. 22; 2 -Kings ix. 8) means "every male." The phrase "him that is shut up -and him that is left in Israel" (Deut. xxxii. 36) is obscure and -alliterative. It has been variously explained to mean, (1) "bond and -free," (2) "imprisoned or released," (3) "kept in by legal impurity -or at large" (Jer. xxxvi. 5), (4) "under or over age," (5) "married -or unmarried." (Reuss renders the paronomasia, "qu'il soit cache ou -lache en Israel.") LXX. [Greek: echomenon kai egkataleleimmenon]; -Vulg. _clausum et novissimum_. - -[499] In ancient days this was regarded as the most terrible of -calamities. - - "[Greek: All' ara tonge kynes te kai oionoi katedapsan - Keimenon en pedio hekas asteos, oude ke tis min - Klausen Achaiiadon; mala gar mega mesato ergon.]" - Hom., _Od._, iii. 258. - -Comp. Deut. xxviii. 26; 1 Sam. xvii. 44, 45. And after in Jeremiah -(vii. 33, viii. 2, ix. 22, etc.) and Ezekiel (xxix. 5, xxxix. 17, etc.). - -[500] 1 Kings xiv. 14: "That day: but what? even now." - -[501] It is almost identical with the message of doom pronounced on -other kings, like Baasha (1 Kings xvi. 3-5) and Ahab (1 Kings xxi. -19-23). - -[502] Ewald pronounces them to be clearly an addition of the -Deuteronomist. - -[503] LXX., [Greek: eis gen Sarira]. The additions to the LXX. have the -touching incident, "[Greek: Kai egeneto hos eiselthen eis ten Sarira -kai to paidaeion apethanen, kai exelthen he krauge eis apanten]". - -[504] Verg., _AEn._, vi. 870. - -[505] See Job xii. 12; Psalm xxi. 4; Prov. iii. 2-16. - -[506] Wisdom iv. 8-14. - - - - - CHAPTER XXIX. - - _NADAB; BAASHA; ELAH._ - - 1 KINGS xv. 25-xvi. 10. - - "Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the vultures be gathered - together."--MATT. xxiv. 28. - - -Jeroboam slept with his fathers and went to his own place, leaving -behind him his dreadful epitaph upon the sacred page. His son Nadab -succeeded him. In his reign of twenty-two years the first king of -Israel had outlived Rehoboam and his son Abijah. Asa, the great -grandson of Solomon, was already on the throne of Judah. Of Nadab we -are told next to nothing. 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 Lord, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, -the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he caused Israel to sin. -In the second year of his reign Nadab was engaged in a wearisome -military expedition against Gibbethon in the Shephelah, which -belonged to the Philistines. It was a Levitical city in the tribe -of Dan, which had been assigned to the Kohathites, and its siege -continued for twenty-seven years with no apparent result.[507] That -the Philistines, who had been so utterly crushed by David and who -were an insignificant power, should have thus been able to assert -themselves once more, is a proof of the weakness to which Israel had -been reduced. While Nadab was thus occupied, an obscure conspirator, -Baasha, son of Ahijah, of the tribe of Issachar,[508] actuated -perhaps by tribal jealousy, or stirred up as Jeroboam had been before -him and as Jehu was after him by some prophetic message, conspired -against him, and slew him.[509] 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 Jeroboam. He absolutely -exterminated the family of Nebat, and left him neither kinsman nor -friend to avenge his death. He seems to have been a powerful soldier, -and he inflicted severe humiliation on the Southern Kingdom until -Asa bribed Benhadad to invade his territory. He reigned at Tirzah -for twenty-four years, of which nothing is recorded but the ordinary -formula. Towards the close of his reign he received from the prophet -Jehu, the son of Hanani, the message of his doom. Jehu must have -been at this time a young prophet. According to the Chronicles -his father Hanani rebuked Asa for the alliance which (as we shall -see) he made with the Syrian against Baasha;[510] and he himself -rebuked Jehoshaphat for his alliance with Ahab, and lived to be his -annalist.[511] Like Amos, he lived in Judah, but prophesied also -against a king of Israel. He told Baasha that God, who had exalted -him out of the dust to be king of Israel, should inflict on his -family the same terrible extirpation which He had inflicted on the -House of Jeroboam, whose sins he had, nevertheless, followed. - -Baasha "slept with his fathers," and his son Elah succeeded him. -Elah seems to have been an incapable drunkard, and reigned in Tirzah -for less than two years. While he was drinking himself drunk, not -even secretly in his own palace, but in the house of his chamberlain -Arza--a shamelessness which was regarded as an aggravation of his -offence[512]--he was murdered by Zimri, the captain of half of his -chariots, and the revolting tragedy of massacre was enacted once -again.[513] The fact that Baasha was a man of no distinction, but -"exalted _out of the dust_" (1 Kings xvi. 2), probably added to the -weakness of his dynasty. - -From such meagre records of horror there is not much to learn beyond -the general truth of the Nemesis which dogs the heels of crime; but -there is one significant clause which throws great light on the -judgment which we are asked to form of these events. The prophet Jehu -rebukes Baasha for showing himself false to the destiny to which -God had summoned him. He implies, therefore, that Baasha had some -Divine sanction for the revolution which he headed; and certainly -in his slaughter of the House of Jeroboam he was the instrument of -a Divine decree. Yet we are expressly told that "he provoked the -Lord to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the House of -Jeroboam, _and because he killed him_," or, as it is rendered in the -Revised Version margin, "_because he smote it_." This is not the only -place where we find that a man may be in _one sense_ commissioned -to do a deed of blood, yet in another sense may be held guilty for -fulfilment of the commission.[514] The prophecy of extirpation had -been passed, but the cruel agent of its accomplishment was not -thereby condoned. God's decrees are carried out as part of the vast -scheme of Providence, and He may use guilty hands to fulfil His -purposes. King Jehu is His minister of vengeance, but the tiger-like -ferocity with which he carried out his work awoke God's anger and -received God's punishment. The King of Babylon fulfils the purpose -for which he had been appointed, but his ruthlessness receives its -just recompense. The wrath of man may accomplish the decrees of God, -but it worketh not His righteousness. Herod and Pontius Pilate, Jews -and Gentiles, priests and Pharisees, rulers and the mob may rage -against Christ, but all they can accomplish is "whatsoever God's hand -and God's counsel determine before to be done." - -FOOTNOTES: - -[507] Josh. xix. 44, xxi. 23; 1 Kings xv. 27, xvi. 15. - -[508] His father therefore could not have been Ahijah the prophet, -who was an Ephraimite. He was the only ruler who came from slothful -Issachar (Gen. xlix. 14, 15) except the unknown Tola (Judg. x. 1). - -[509] For any other records of Nadab the writer refers to "the -Chronicles of the Kings of Israel." - -[510] 2 Chron. xvi. 7-10. - -[511] 2 Chron. xx. 34. - -[512] Comp. Hosea vii. 3-7. - -[513] If Zimri was a descendant of the House of Saul, as is possible -from the occurrence of the name in the number of Saul's descendants -(1 Chron. viii. 36), we perhaps see an excuse for his ill-considered -conspiracy. He acted, says Grotius, upon the principle, "[Greek: -Nepios hos patera kteinas yious kataleipei]." - -[514] Comp. 2 Kings ix. 7 with Hosea i. 4. Thus Babylon is at once -commissioned to punish, and condemned for ruthlessness: Isa. xlvii. 6. - - - - - CHAPTER XXX. - - _THE EARLIER KINGS OF JUDAH._ - - 1 KINGS xiv. 21-31, xv. 1-24. - - -The history of "_the Jews_" begins, properly speaking, from the reign -of Rehoboam, and for four centuries it is mainly the history of the -Davidic dynasty. - -The only records of the son of Solomon are meagre records of -disaster and disgrace. He reigned seventeen years, and his mother, -the Ammonitess Naamah, occupied the position of queen-mother.[515] -She was, doubtless, a worshipper in the shrine which Solomon had -built for her national god, Molech of Ammon, who was the same as the -Ashtar-Chemosh of the Moabite stone--the male form of Ashtoreth.[516] -Whether her son was twenty-one or forty-one when he succeeded to the -throne we do not know.[517] His attempted expedition against Jeroboam -was forbidden by Shemaiah;[518] but ineffectual and distressing -war smouldered on between the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. If -Jeroboam sinned by the erection in the old sanctuaries of the two -golden calves, Rehoboam surely sinned far more heinously. He not -only sanctioned the high places--which in him may have been very -venial, since they held their own unchallenged till the days of -Hezekiah--but he allowed stone obelisks (_Matstseboth_) in honour of -Baal, and pillars (_Chammanim_) of the Nature-goddess (_Asherah_) -to be set up on every high hill and under every green tree.[519] -Worse than this, and a proof of the abyss of corruption into which -the evil example of Solomon had beguiled the nation, there were -found in the land the _Kedeshim_, the infamous eunuch-ministers of -a most foul worship.[520] In spite of Temple and priesthood, "they -did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord -drave out before the children of Israel."[521] Since Rehoboam thus -sinned so much more heinously than his northern compeer we can hardly -admire the conduct of the Levites, who, according to the chronicler, -fled southward in swarms from the innovations of the son of Nebat. -The Scylla of calf-worship was incomparably less shameful than the -Charybdis of these heathen abominations. - -Such atrocities could not be left unpunished. Where the carcase is -the eagles will gather. In the fifth year of Rehoboam, Shishak, King -of Egypt,[522] put an end to the shortlived glories of the age of -Solomon. Of his reason for invading Palestine we know nothing. It -was probably mere ambition and the love of plunder, stimulated by -stories which Jeroboam may have brought to him about the inexhaustible -riches of Jerusalem. He is the first Pharaoh whose individuality was -so marked as to transcend and replace the common dynastic name.[523] -He was astute enough to seize the opportunity of self-aggrandisement -which offered itself when Jeroboam took refuge at his court; but -the conjecture that former friendly relations induced Jeroboam to -invite the services of Shishak for the destruction of his rival, 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 Karnak. There the most conspicuous figure is -the colossal likeness of the king. His right hand holds a sword;[524] -his left grasps by the hair a long line which passes round the necks -of a troop of thirty-eight mean and diminutive Jewish captives. The -smaller figure of the god Amon leads other strings of one hundred and -thirty-three captives, and the third king from his left hand bears a -name which Champollion deciphered _Yudeh-Malk_, which he took to mean -King of Judah.[525] If the interpretation were correct, we should -here have a picture of the son of Solomon. On the other figures are -the names of the cities of which they were kings or sheykhs. Among -these are not only the names of southern towns, like Ibleam, Gibeon, -Bethhoron, Ajalon, Mahanaim, but even of Canaanite and Levitic cities -in the Northern Kingdom, including Taanach and Megiddo.[526] Shashonq -(as the monuments call him) came with a huge and motley army of many -nationalities, among whom were Libyans, Troglodytes, and Ethiopians. -This host was composed of twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand -horsemen, and a numberless infantry of mercenaries. Such an invasion, -though it was little more than an insulting military parade and -predatory incursion, rendered resistance impossible, especially to a -people enervated by luxury. Shishak came, saw,--and plundered. His -chief spoil was taken from the poor dishonoured Temple and the king's -palace.[527] Judah specially grieved for the loss of the shields of -gold which hung on the cedar pillars of the house of the forest of -Lebanon,[528]--apparently both those which Solomon had made, and those -which David had consecrated from the spoils of Hadadezer, King of -Zobah.[529] Perhaps a great soul would hardly have been consoled by -putting mean substitutes in their place. Rehoboam, however, made bronze -imitations of them in the guard-room,[530] and marched in pomp to the -Temple preceded by his meanly armed runners,[531] "as though everything -was the same as before." "The bitter irony with which the sacred -historian records the parade of these counterfeits," says Stanley, "may -be considered as the keynote to this whole period. 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 them."[532] The age -of pinchbeck follows the age of gold, and a Louis XV. succeeds Le Grand -Monarque.[533] - -Rehoboam had many sons, and he "wisely" (2 Chron. xi. 23) gave them, -by way of maintenance, the governorship of his fenced cities. That "he -sought for them a multitude of wives" was perhaps a stroke of worldly -policy, but an unwise and unworthy one. But their little courts and -their little harems may have helped to keep them out of mischief. They -might otherwise have destroyed each other by mutual jealousies. - -Rehoboam was succeeded by his son Abijam. There is a little doubt -as to the exact name of this king. The Book of Chronicles calls him -Abijah,[534] but in 1 Kings xv. 1, 7, 8, he is called Abijam.[535] -As the curious form Abijam seems to be unmeaning, it has been -precariously conjectured that dislike to his idolatries led the Jews -to alter a name which means "Jehovah is my Father."[536] Some doubt -also rests on the name of his mother. She is here called "Maacha, the -daughter of Abishalom," but in Chronicles "Michaiah, the daughter -of Uriel of Gibeah." Maachah was perhaps the _granddaughter_ of -Absalom, whose beautiful daughter Tamar (named after his dishonoured -sister) may have been the wife of Uriel. In that case her name, -Maachah, was a name given her in reminiscence of her royal descent as -a great-granddaughter of the princess of Geshur, who was mother of -Absalom. All sorts of secrets, however, sometimes lie behind these -changes of names. She was the second, but favourite wife of Rehoboam; -and Abijam, who was not the eldest son, owed his throne to his -father's preference for her.[537] - -All that we are here told of Abijam is that "his heart was not -perfect with Jehovah his God," and that "he walked in all the -sins of his father"; though "for David's sake his God gave him a -lamp in Jerusalem";[538] and that, after a brief reign of three -years--_i.e._, of one year and parts of two others--he slept with -his fathers. For "the rest of his acts and all that he did," the -historian refers us to the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah: he does -not trouble himself with military details. The chronicler, referring -to the Commentary of Iddo,[539] adds a great deal more. Jeroboam, -he says, went out against him with eight hundred thousand men. -Abijam, who had only half the number, stood on Mount Zemaraim in -the hill country of Ephraim,[540] and made a speech to Jeroboam and -his army. He reproached him with rebellion against his father when -he was "young and tender-hearted," and with his golden calves, and -his non-Levitical priests. He vaunted the superiority of the Temple -priests with their holocausts and sweet incense and shewbread and -golden candlestick, which priests were now with the army. Jeroboam -sets an ambuscade, but at the shout of the men of Judah is routed -with a loss of five hundred thousand men, after which Abijah recovers -"Bethel with the towns thereof,"[541] and Jeshanah and Ephron (or -"Ephraim"), completely humbling the northern king until "the Lord -smote him and he died." After this Abijah waxes mighty, has fourteen -wives, twenty-two sons, and sixteen daughters. - -If we had read two accounts so different, and presenting such -insuperable difficulties to the harmonist, in secular historians, -we should have made no attempt to reconcile them, but merely have -endeavoured to find which record was the more trustworthy. If -the pious Levitical king of 2 Chron. xiii. be a true picture of -the idolater of 1 Kings xv. 3, it is clear that the accounts are -difficult to reconcile, unless we resort to incessant and arbitrary -hypotheses. But the earlier authority is clearly to be preferred when -the two obviously conflict with each other. As it is we can only -say that the kings of whom the chronicler approves are, as it were, -clericalised, and seen "through a cloud of incense," all their faults -being omitted. The edifying speech of Abijah, and his boast about -purity of worship, 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 idolatrous, including the toleration of -_Bamoth_, _Chammanim_, and _Asherim_ on every high hill and under -every green tree; and of all the abominations of the neighbouring -idolaters,[542]--a state of things infinitely worse than the symbolic -Jehovah-worship which Jeroboam had set up. Yet such was the strange -syncretism of religion in Jerusalem, of which Solomon had set the -fatal example, that (as we learn quite incidentally) Abijah seems to -have dedicated certain vessels--part of his warlike spoils--to the -service of the Temple.[543] They were perhaps intended to supply the -gaps left by the plundering raid of Shishak. - -After this brief and perplexing, but apparently eventful reign, -Abijah was succeeded by his son Asa, whose long reign of forty-one -years was contemporary with the reigns of no less than seven kings of -Israel--Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, Omri, Tibni, and Ahab. - -We are told that--aided perhaps by such prophets as Hanani and -Azariah, son of Oded[544] (or Iddo)--"he did that which was right -in the sight of the Lord." Of this he gave an early, decisive, and -courageous proof. - -When he succeeded to the throne at an early age his grandmother -Maachah still held the high position of queen-mother.[545] This great -lady inherited the fame and popularity of Absalom, and was a princess -both of the line of David and of Tolmai, King of Geshur. She was, and -always had been, an open idolatress.[546] Asa began his reign with a -reformation. He took away the contemptible idols (_Gilloolim_) which -his fathers had made, and suppressed the odious _Kedeshim_; or he at -least made a serious, if an unsuccessful, effort to do so.[547] As to -the high places we have a direct verbal contradiction. Here we are -told that "they were not removed," whereas the chronicler says that -"he took them away out of all the cities of Judah," but afterwards -that "the high places were not taken away out of Israel," in spite of -Asa's heart being perfect all his days. The explanation would seem -to be that he made a partial attempt to anticipate the subsequent -reformation of Hezekiah, but was defeated by the inveteracy of popular -custom. He did, however, take the great step of branding with infamy -the impure idolatry of the queen-mother, and he degraded her from her -rank. She had made an idol, which is significantly called "a fright" -or "a horror" (_Miphletzeth_),[548] to serve as an emblem of the -Nature-goddess. It was probably a phallic symbol which he indignantly -cut down, and burnt it, where all pollutions were destroyed, in the -dry wady of the Kidron.[549] In the fifteenth year of his reign he -dedicated in the Temple "silver and gold and vessels," consecrated by -his father and himself for this purpose. He also restored the great -altar in the porch of the Temple, which in the course of more than -sixty years had fallen into neglect and disrepair. - -For ten years the land had rest under this pious king, though war was -always smouldering between him and Baasha. In the eleventh year, -however, according to the chronicler, "Zerach the Ethiopian"[550] -attacked him with an army of _a million_ Sushim and Lubim and three -hundred chariots, and suffered an immense defeat in the valley of -Zephathah, "the watch-tower" at Mareshah.[551] It was the sole occasion -in sacred history in which an Israelite army met and defeated one of -the great world powers in open battle, and it was deemed so remarkable -a proof of Divine interposition that Asa, encouraged by the prophet -Azariah, invited his people to renew their covenant with God. - -More alarming to Asa was the action of Baasha in fortifying Ramah[552] -in the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign. This was a veritable [Greek: -epiteichismos] of the most dangerous kind, for Ramah, in the heart of -Benjamin, was only five miles north of Jerusalem. If Abijah's signal -defeat of Jeroboam and capture of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron be -historical, these towns must not only have been speedily recovered, but -Baasha had even pushed towards Jerusalem, five miles south of Bethel. -Had Ramah been left undisturbed it would have been a thorn in the side -of Judah, as Deceleia was in Attica, and Pylos in Messenia. Asa saw -that the demolition of this fortress was a positive necessity. Since -he was too weak to effect this, he stripped both his own palace and the -Temple of the treasures with which he had himself enriched them, and -sent them as a vast bribe to Benhadad I., King of Damascus, begging -him to renew the treaty which had existed between their fathers, and -to invade the kingdom of Baasha. This step shows to what a depth of -weakness Judah had fallen, for Benhadad was a son of Tabrimmon, the son -of Hezion (probably Rezon) of Damascus;[553] 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 freebooter, -whose whole present kingdom had once been a part of Solomon's -dominions! The policy was successful. It is easy for us now to condemn -it as unpatriotic and short-sighted, but to Asa it seemed a matter of -life or death. Benhadad invaded Israel, and mastered its territory in -the tribe of Naphtali, from Ijon and Abel-beth-maachah on the waters of -Merom[554] down to Chinnereth or the Lake of Gennesareth.[555] Baasha -in alarm abandoned his attempt to blockade Jerusalem, and retired to -Tirzah for the protection of his own kingdom. Thereupon Asa proclaimed -a levy of all Judah to seize and dismantle Ramah, and with the ample -materials which Baasha had amassed he fortified Geba to the north -of Ramah[556] and Mizpah (probably Neby Samwyl, to the north of the -Mount of Olives), where he also sank a deep well for the use of the -garrison.[557] He thus effectually protected the frontier of Benjamin. -He built, as Bossuet says, "the fortresses of Judah out of the ruins -of those of Samaria," and thus set us the example of making holy use -of hostile and heretical materials. We should have thought that the -invitation of Benhadad was, in a worldly point of view, brilliantly -successful, and that it saved the kingdom of Judah from utter ruin. It -involved, however, a dangerous precedent, and Hanani rebuked Asa for -having done foolishly. - -After a powerful and useful reign Asa was attacked with gout in his -feet two years before his death. The chronicler reproaches him for -seeking "not to Jehovah but to the physicians" in his "exceeding -great disease." If this was a sin, it is one of which we are unable -to estimate the sinfulness from this meagre notice. It has been -conjectured that it may have some reference to the name Asa, which, -if written Asjah, might mean "whom Jehovah heals."[558] It belongs, -however, to the theocratic standpoint of the chronicler, who condemns -everything which bears the aspect of a worldly policy. He slept with -his fathers in a tomb which he had built for himself, and was buried -with unusual magnificence, amid the burning of many spices. - -We are not surprised that the historian should not mention the -invasion of Zerah, since he refers us for the wars f Asa to the Judaean -annals. It is much more remarkable that he wholly omits all reference -to the prophetic activity of which the chronicler speaks as exercised -in this reign. He had evidently formed a very high estimate of Asa, -with none of the shadows and drawbacks which in the later annalist -seemed to point to a marked degeneracy of character in his later days. -On the favourable side the historian does not mention the high and -eulogistic encouragement which the king received from Azariah, the -son of Oded; nor the multitude which joined him out of Israel; nor -the cities which he took from the hill country of Ephraim; nor his -restoration of the altar. 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 year, at a festival celebrated with an -immense sacrifice, and with shouting and trumpets and cornets and a -great exultant oath.[559] 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 Jehovah; and that Asa "was in a rage because -of this thing, and shut up Hanani in the House of the Stocks," and -"oppressed some of the people at the same time," apparently because -they took part with the prophet.[560] For none of these events does the -chronicler refer us to any ancient authority. They came from separate -records, perhaps written in prophetic commentaries and unknown to the -compiler of the Kings. 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 Judah. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[515] According to the LXX. she was a daughter of Hanun, son of -Naash, King of Ammon (2 Sam. x. 1). - -[516] Canon Rawlinson, _Kings of Israel and Judah_. - -[517] 1 Kings xiv. 21. "A boy and faint-hearted" (2 Chron. xiii. 7). -The additions to the LXX. say that he was sixteen, and reigned twelve -years. - -[518] In the LXX. additions it was a little before this occasion -(after the revolt) that "Shemaiah the Enlamite" tore his new cloak -and gave ten parts to Jeroboam. - -[519] The _Chammanim_ were, according to some, pillars to -Baal-Hammon. For the _Asherim_, see Deut. xvi. 21; 2 Kings xxi. 3. -They were wooden pillars to Asherah, and were called _Asherim_ just -as statues of the Virgin are called "Virgins." _Asheroth_ seem to be -various forms of the Nature-goddess herself (2 Chron. xxxiii. 3). -Asherah = [Greek: Orthia]. Like the other kings of Judah, Rehoboam -had an exaggerated harem, and provided for the young princes by -settling them in separate cities as governors. - -[520] Jerome compares them to the horrible _Galli_ of the Syrian -goddess. LXX., [Greek: tetelesmenoi] ("initiated"); Aquila, [Greek: -enellagmenoi] ("changed"); Theodotion, [Greek: kechorismenoi] ("set -apart"); Symmachus, [Greek: hetairides]. They were also called "dogs" -(comp. Deut. xxiii. 18). - -[521] According to the chronicler Rehoboam's defection only began in -the fourth year of his reign. - -[522] He was the first king of the twenty-second dynasty of Bubastis -or Pibeseth, and succeeded about B.C. 988 in the fourteenth year of -Solomon. The Egyptians (Manetho) called him Shesonk (Sesonsochosis) -Sasychis, Herod., ii. 136; LXX., [Greek: Sousakim]; Vulg., _Sesac_. - -[523] He was of alien, perhaps of Assyrian, race. His family had -settled at Bubastis, and his grandfather had married the daughter of -the Pharaoh. His son Osorkhon also married the Princess Keramat, a -daughter of the last Tanite king. Imitating the example of Hir-hor, -he combined many offices, and then quietly seized the crown. - -[524] Brugsch, _Geogr. Inschriften altaegyptischer Denkmaeler_, ii. -58; Lepsius, _Denkmaeler_, iii. 252; _Story of the Nations: Egypt_, -pp. 228-307; Stade, i. 354 (who reproduces the sculptures). They -are carved on the wall of a Temple of Amon on the southern side of -a smaller temple (built by Rameses III.). Shishak is smiting with -his club a number of captive Jews, whom he grasps by the hair. The -names of the towns and districts are paraded in two long rows, each -name being enclosed in a shield. Amon is delivering them all to his -beloved son "Shashonq." These smitten people are described as "the -_Am_ of a distant land, and the Fenekh" (Phoenicians). - -[525] _Lit._, "Judah-king." Brugsch thinks it is the name of a town. -It cannot mean, as Champollion thought, "King of Judah." - -[526] See Shishak in _Bibl. Dict._ It is extremely difficult to -believe that these cities were taken by the Egyptian army in order to -help Jeroboam. - -[527] Josephus says that Shishak did all this [Greek: amacheti] -(_Antt._, VIII. x. 2, 3), but he confuses Shishak with Sesostris -(Herod., ii. 102, 106). - -[528] 1 Kings x. 17. - -[529] LXX., 2 Sam. viii. 7; 1 Kings x. 17. A timely humiliation saved -Rehoboam from extinction, but he practically became a vassal of Egypt -(2 Chron. xii. 5). - -[530] [Hebrew: ta] (Ezek. xl. 7). - -[531] Ratzim; comp. "_Celeres_," Liv., i. 14. We hear no more of -Cherethites and Pelethites. The later kings could not afford to keep -up these mercenaries. - -[532] _Jewish Church_, ii. 385. - -[533] Renan. - -[534] 2 Chron. xii. 16; comp. Abiel (1 Sam. ix. 1). - -[535] Abijam seems to mean "father of the sea"; _vir maritimus_, -Gesenius. - -[536] So perhaps, for the same reason, Jehoahaz was shortened into -Ahaz. See Canon Rawlinson on 2 Kings xv. 38 (_Speaker's Commentary_). -But Simonis, _Onomasticon_, regards the final _m_ as intensive. - -[537] 2 Chron. xi. 18-23. Rehoboam had eighteen wives, sixty -concubines, twenty-eight sons, and sixty daughters. A fragment of the -_Stemma Davidis_ may make things clearer to the reader:-- - - Jesse. - | - +----------+------------+ - Eliab. David. - | | - | +------+--------+ - Abihial. Solomon. Absalom. - | | - +--+ | - | | - Abihail = Rehoboam = Maachah. Tamar = Uriel. - | | - Abijah. Maachah. - -Thus on both sides, as a great-grandson and great-great-grandson, -Abijah was descended from David. - -[538] The lamp (LXX., [Greek: kataleimma]; in xi. 36, [Greek: -thesis]) is the sign of home (1 Kings xi. 36; 2 Kings viii. 19. Comp. -Psalm xviii. 28, cxxxii. 17). There was, as the chronicler boldly -expressed it, "a covenant of salt" between God and the House of David -(2 Chron. xiii. 5; comp. Numb. xviii. 19). - -[539] Chron. xiii. 22. - -[540] Zemaraim was in Benjamin near Bethel (Josh. xviii. 22), -apparently Kirbet _el-Szomer_ in the Jordan valley, four miles north -of Jericho. - -[541] 2 Chron. xiii. 3-19. So that the golden calf and its chapel and -its priests must, if the account be true, have fallen into his power. -But it does not seem to have made the least difference. It is certain -that "the calf" remained undisturbed till the days of the Assyrian -invasion. - -[542] How atrocious these "abominations were" may be seen from the -Pentateuch (Lev. xviii. 3-25, xx. 1-23; Deut. xviii. 6-12). - -[543] 1 Kings xv. 15. - -[544] Ewald, iv. 49. - -[545] Comp. the _Madame Mere_ in the French court. - -[546] The LXX. (Vat.) calls her Ana. - -[547] That it was not perfectly successful we see from 1 Kings xxii. 46. - -[548] The word is an [Greek: hapax legomenon]. It is only applied to -this grotesque and obscene figure (1 Kings xv. 13; 2 Chron. xv. 16). - -[549] 2 Kings xi. 16, xxiii. 4, 6, 12; 2 Chron. xxix. 16, xxx. 14. -Vulg., _in Sacris Priapi_. Jerome (_ad Hos._, i. 4) calls Maachah's -"horror" a _Simulacrum Priapi_ (see Selden, _De Dis Syris Syntagma_, -ii. 5). - -[550] 2 Chron. xvi. 8. Zarkh, perhaps Osorkhon I. (O-_serek_-on, -"Ammon's darling"), was the feebler successor of Shesonk, Maspero, -p. 362; Ewald, iii. 470. Shishak's army also consisted of Sushim and -Lubim (2 Chron. xii. 3). - -[551] The defeat had important consequences. Egypt did not again -attack Palestine till three centuries later, under Pharaoh Nechoh -(B.C. 609). The defeat weakened the Bubastite dynasty (Rawlinson, p. -36), though it continued to reign for two centuries. The "invasion" -may have been a mere raid. The Pharaohs always seem to have -degenerated from the founders of their dynasty, both in personal -beauty and intellectual force. - -[552] Josh. xviii. 25, now Er-Ram. No great importance can be -attached to the dates, which are often self-contradictory. - -[553] Ben-Hadad, "son of Hadad," the Sun-god (Macrob., _Saturn_, -i. 24). Tabrimmon, "Rimmon is good." According to Sayce (_Hibbert -Lectures_, p. 42), Rimmon--an Accadian name, which became, in -Semitic, Rammanu, "the exalted"--was identified by the Syrians with -the Sun-god Hadad, whom Shahmanaser called _Dada_. In Assyrian _Dadu_ -("dear child") is akin to David and to Dido. - -[554] Ijon is probably Merj Ayion, "the meadow of the House of -Maachah"; called also, Abel-maim, "the meadow of the waters"; "a city -and a mother in Israel" (2 Sam. xx. 19); now Abil in the Ard-el-Huleh. - -[555] See Numb. xxxiv. 11; Josh. xiii. 27. - -[556] Josh. xxi. 17; 2 Kings xxiii. 8. - -[557] LXX., [Greek: he skopia]. Jer. xli. 5-9. Into this well Ishmael -flung the corpses of the murdered adherents of Gedaliah. - -[558] Renan, _Hist. du Peuple Israel_, ii. 248. Comp. Rephaiah. - -[559] 2 Chron. xv. 1-15. - -[560] 2 Chron. xvi. 9, 10. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXI. - - _JEHOSHAPHAT._ - - 1 KINGS xxii. 41-50. - - -Before we leave the House of David we must speak of Jehoshaphat, -the last king of Judah whose reign is narrated in the First Book of -Kings. He was abler, more powerful, and more faithful to Jehovah than -any of his predecessors, and was alone counted worthy in later ages -to rank with Hezekiah and Josiah among the most pious rulers of the -Davidic line. The annals of his reign are found chiefly in the Second -Book of Chronicles, where his story occupies four long chapters. The -First Book of Kings compresses all record of him into nine verses, -except so far as his fortunes are commingled with the history of -Ahab. But both accounts show us a reign which contributed as greatly -to the prosperity of Judah as that of Jeroboam II. contributed to the -prosperity of Israel. - -He ascended the throne at the age of thirty-five. He was apparently -the only son of Asa, by Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi; for Asa, -greatly to his credit, seems to have been the first king of Judah who -set his face against the monstrous polygamy of his predecessors, and, -so far as we know, contented himself with a single wife. He received -the high eulogy that "he turned not aside from doing that which was -right in the eyes of the Lord," with the customary qualification -that, nevertheless, the people still burnt incense and offerings -at the _Bamoth_, which were not taken away. The chronicler says -that he _did_ take them away. This stock contradiction between the -two authorities must be accounted for either by a contrast between -the effort and its failure, 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 inspire. - -To the historians of the Book of Kings the central fact of -Jehoshaphat's history is that "he made peace with the King of -Israel." As a piece of ordinary statesmanship no step could have been -more praiseworthy. 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 exasperations. The kingdom of Israel -was now an established fact, and nothing had become more obvious -than that the past could not be undone. Meanwhile the threatening -spectre of Syria, under the dynasty of Benhadad, was beginning to -throw a dark shadow over both kingdoms. It had become certain that, -if they continued to destroy each other by internecine warfare, both -would succumb to the foreign invader. Wisely, therefore, and kindly -Jehoshaphat determined to make peace with Ahab, in about the eighth -year after his accession; and this policy he consistently maintained -to the close of his twenty-five years' reign. - -No one surely could blame him for putting an end to an exhaustive -civil war between brethren. Indeed, in so doing he was but carrying -out the policy which had been dictated to Rehoboam by the prophet -Shemaiah, when he forbade him to attempt the immense expedition -which he had prepared to annihilate Jeroboam. Peace was necessary to -the development and happiness of both kingdoms, but even more so to -the smaller and weaker, threatened as it was not only by the more -distant menace of Syria, but by the might of Egypt on the south and -the dangerous predatory warfare of Edom and Moab on the east. - -But Jehoshaphat went further than this. He cemented the new peace by -an alliance between his young son Jehoram and Athaliah, daughter of -Ahab and Jezebel, who was then perhaps under fifteen years of age. - -Later chroniclers formed their moral estimates by a standard which -did not exist so many centuries before the date at which they wrote. -If we are to judge the conduct of these kings truthfully we must -take an unbiassed view of their conduct. We adopt this principle -when we try to understand the characters of saints and patriarchs -like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, or judges and prophets like Gideon, -Deborah, and Samuel; and in general we must not sweepingly condemn -the holy men of old because they lacked the full illumination of the -gospel. 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 Christ. 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 be; indeed, the balance seems to be in favour of -Jeroboam as against Abijam, Rehoboam, or even Solomon. 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 us. Even in the Temple -they had cherubim and oxen. The _Bamoth_ to Chemosh, Milcom, and -Astarte glittered before them undisturbed on the summit of Olivet, -and abominations which they either tolerated or could not remove -sheltered themselves in the very precincts of the Temple, under -the shadows of its desecrated trees. 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-grandfather, -and the permission of _Asherim_ and _Chammanim_ by his grandfather, -to say nothing of the phallic horror openly patronised by the -queen-mother who was a granddaughter of David. 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 son, and the name of Ahaziah ("Jehovah -taketh hold") to the prince who was to be his heir. Jehoshaphat acted -from policy; but so has every king done who has ever reigned. He -could neither be expected to see these things with the illumination -of a prophet, 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 advantageous. - -At the time of the proposed alliance there seems to have been no -protest--at any rate, none of which we read. Micaiah alone among the -prophets uttered his stern warning when the expedition to Ramoth -Gilead was actually on foot, and Jehu, son of Hanani, went out to -rebuke Jehoshaphat at the close of that disastrous enterprise. It is -to the history attributed to this seer and embodied in the annals of -Israel that the chronicler refers. "Shouldst thou help the wicked," -asked the bold prophet, "and love them that hate the Lord? For this -thing wrath is upon thee from the Lord. Nevertheless, there are good -things found in thee, in that thou hast put away the Asheroth out of -the land, and hast set thy heart to seek God." - -The moral principle which Jehu, son of Hanani, here enunciated is -profoundly true. It was terribly emphasised by the subsequent events. -A just and wise forecast may have sanctioned the restoration of -peace, but Jehoshaphat might at least have learnt enough to avoid -affinity with a queen who, like Jezebel, had introduced frightful and -tyrannous iniquities into the House of Ahab. Faithful as the King of -Judah evidently intended to be to the law of Jehovah, he should have -hesitated before forming such close bonds of connexion with the cruel -daughter of the usurping Tyrian priest. His error hardly diminished the -warmth of that glowing eulogy which even the chronicler pronounces upon -him; but it brought upon his kingdom, and upon the whole family of his -grandchildren, overwhelming misery and all but total extermination. -The rules of God's moral government are written large on the story -of nations, and the consequences of our actions come upon us not -arbitrarily, but in accordance with universal laws. When we err, even -though our error be leniently judged and fully pardoned, the human -consequences of the deeds which we have done may still come flowing -over us with the resistless march of the ocean tides. - - "You little fancy what rude shocks apprise us. - We sin: God's intimations rather fail - In clearness than in energy." - -Jehoshaphat did not live to see the ultimate issues of massacre and -despotism which came in the train of his son Jehoram's marriage.[561] -Perhaps to him it wore the golden aspect which it wears in the -forty-fifth Psalm, which, as some have imagined, was composed on this -occasion. But he had abundant proof that close relationship for mutual -offence and defence with the kings of Israel brought no blessing in its -train. In the expedition against Ramoth Gilead when Ahab was slain, he -too very nearly lost his life. Even this did not disturb his alliance -with Ahab's son Ahaziah, with whom he joined in a maritime enterprise -which, like its predecessors, turned out to be a total failure. - -Jehoshaphat in his successful wars had established the supremacy -over Edom which had been all but lost in the days of Solomon. The -Edomite Hadad and his successors had not been able to hold their own, -and the present kings of Edom were deputies or vassals under the -suzerainty of Judaea.[562] This once more opened the path to Elath and -Ezion-Geber on the gulf of Akaba. Jehoshaphat, in his prosperity, -felt a desire to revive the old costly commerce of Solomon with Ophir -for gold, sandal wood, and curious animals. For this purpose he built -"ships of Tarshish," _i.e._, merchant ships, like those used for the -Phoenician trade between Tyre and Tartessus, to go this long voyage. -The ships, however, were wrecked on the reefs of Ezion-Geber, for the -Jews were timid and inexperienced mariners. Hearing of this disaster, -according to the Book of Kings, Ahaziah made an offer to Jehoshaphat -to make the enterprise a joint one,--thinking, apparently, that the -Israelites, who, perhaps, held Joppa and some of the ports on the -coast, would bring more skill and knowledge to bear on the result. -But Jehoshaphat had had enough of an attempt which was so dangerous -and which offered no solid advantages. He declined Ahaziah's offer. -The story of these circumstances in the chronicler is different. He -speaks as if from the first it was a joint experiment of the two -kings, and says that, after the wreck of the fleet, a prophet of whom -we know nothing, "Eliezer, the son of Dodavahu of Mareshah,"[563] -prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, "Because thou hast joined -thyself with Ahaziah, Jehovah hath made a breach in thy works." The -passage shows that the word "prophesied" was constantly used in the -sense of "preached," and did not necessarily imply any prediction -of events yet future. The chronicler, however, apparently makes the -mistake of supposing that ships were built at Ezion-Geber on the -Red Sea to sail to Tartessus in Spain![564] The earlier and better -authority says correctly that these merchantmen were built to trade -with Ophir, in India, or Arabia. The chronicler seems to have been -unaware that "ships of Tarshish," like our "Indiamen," was a general -title for vessels of a special build.[565] - -We see enough in the Book of Kings to show the greatness and goodness -of Jehoshaphat, and later on we shall hear details of his military -expeditions.[566] The chronicler, glorifying him still more, says that -he sent princes and Levites and priests to teach the Book of the Law -throughout all the cities of Judah; that he received large presents -and tribute from neighbouring peoples; that he built castles and stone -cities; and that he had a stupendous army of 160,000 troops under four -great generals. He also narrates that when an immense host of Moabites, -Ammonites, and Meunim came against him to Hazezon-Tamar or Engedi, he -took his stand before the people in the Temple in front of the new -court and prayed. Thereupon the Spirit of the Lord came upon "Jahaziel -the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of -Mattaniah the Levite, of the sons of Asaph," who told them that the -next day they should go against the invader, but that they need not -strike a blow. The battle was God's, not theirs. All they had to do was -to stand still and see the salvation of Jehovah. On hearing this the -king and all his people prostrated themselves, and the Levites stood -up to praise God. Next morning Jehoshaphat told his people to believe -God and His prophets and they should prosper, and bade them chant the -verse, "Give thanks unto the Lord, for His mercy endureth for ever," -which now forms the refrain of Psalm cxxxvi.[567] On this Jehovah -"set liers in wait against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount -Seir." Intestine struggles arose among the invaders. The inhabitants -of Mount Seir were first destroyed, and the rest then turned their -swords against each other until they were all "dead bodies fallen to -the earth." The soldiers of Jehoshaphat despoiled these corpses for -three days, and on the fourth assembled themselves in the valley of -Beracah ("Blessing"), which received its name from their tumultuous -rejoicings.[568] After this they returned to Jerusalem with psalteries -and harps and trumpets, and God gave Jehoshaphat rest from all his -enemies round about. Of all this the historian of the Kings tells us -nothing. Jehoshaphat died full of years and honours, leaving seven -sons, of whom the eldest was Jehoram.[569] His reign marks a decisive -triumph of the prophetic party. The prophets not only felt a fiercely -just abhorrence of the abominations of Canaanite idolatry, but wished -to establish a theocracy to the exclusion on the one hand of all local -and symbolic worship, and on the other of all reliance on worldly -policy. Up to this time, as Dean Stanley says in his usual strikingly -picturesque manner, "if there was a 'holy city,' there was also an -'unholy city' within the walls of Sion. It was like a seething caldron -of blood and froth 'whose scum is therein and whose scum has not gone -out of it.' The Temple was hemmed in by dark idolatries on every -side. Mount Olivet was covered with heathen sanctuaries, monumental -stones, and pillars of Baal. Wooden images of Astarte under the sacred -trees, huge images of Molech appeared at every turn in the walks -around Jerusalem."[570] Jehoshaphat introduced a decisive improvement -into the conditions which prevailed under Rehoboam and Abijah, but -practically the conflict between light and darkness goes on for ever. -It was in days when Jerusalem had come to be regarded by herself and by -all nations as exceptionally holy, that she, who had been for centuries -the murderess of the prophets, became under her priestly religionists -the murderess of the Christ, 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 Egypt." - -FOOTNOTES: - -[561] Following the precedent set by Rehoboam, he established his six -younger sons in castles and fenced cities. Athaliah must have found -it difficult to exterminate their families if she attempted this. - -[562] The Nitzab or Praefect of Edom was allowed the barren title of -king. - -[563] 2 Chron. xx. 37. His name faintly recalls that of Eleazar, son -of Dodo (2 Sam. xxiii. 9). Dodavahu means "friend of God." - -[564] 2 Chron. xx. 36, 37. It would be monstrous to send ships to -circumnavigate Africa in order to reach Tartessus. The last resource of -the harmonists (_e.g._, Keil) to save the accuracy of the chronicler is -to suppose that Jehoshaphat meant to drag the whole fleet across the -Isthmus of Suez, and so to sail from one of the havens of Palestine! - -[565] "Cette version," says Munk (_Palestine_, p. 314), "a probablement -pris naissance dans l'esprit de rigorisme qui animait plus tard -les ecrivans Juifs." "This," says Dr. Robertson Smith, "is a mere -pragmatical inference from the story in Kings." See his further remarks -in _The Old Testament in the Jewish Church_, chap. ii., p. 146. He -regards parts of the Books of Chronicles as being, in fact, a Jewish -_Midrash_. "It is not History, but _Haggada_, moralising romance. And -the chronicler himself gives the name of _Midrash_ (R.V., 'story') to -two of the sources from which he drew (2 Chron. xiii. 22, xxiv. 27), so -that there is really no mystery as to the nature of the work when it -departs from the old canonical histories" (p. 148). - -[566] We shall have further glimpses of Jehoshaphat in the reigns of -Ahab and even of Jehoram. - -[567] See 1 Chron. xvi. 34; 2 Chron. v. 13, vii. 3, xx. 21; Psalms -cvi., cvii., cxviii., etc. The eighty-third Psalm may owe its origin -to this deliverance, and Hengstenberg thinks Psalms xlvii. and -xlviii. also. - -[568] The title "valley of Jehoshaphat" is thought also to have -derived its origin from these events. Comp. Joel iii. 2. - -[569] 2 Chron. xxi. 2, 3. - -[570] There is a little exaggeration here. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXII. - - _THE KINGS OF ISRAEL FROM ZIMRI TO AHAB._ - - B.C. 889-877. - - 1 KINGS xvi. 11-34. - - -As far as we can understand from our meagre authorities--and we -have no independent source of information--we infer that Elah, son -of the powerful Baasha, was a self-indulgent weakling. The army -of Israel was encamped against Gibbethon--originally a Levitical -town of the Kohathites, in the territory of Dan--which they hoped -to wrest from the Philistines. It was during the interminable and -intermittent siege of this town that Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, -had been murdered. Whatever may have been his sins, he was in his -proper place leading the armies of Israel. Elah was not there, but -in his beautiful palace at Tirzah. It was probably contempt for his -incapacity and the bad example of Baasha's successful revolt, that -tempted Zimri to murder him as he was drinking himself drunk in the -house of his chamberlain Arza. Zimri was a commander of half the -chariots, and probably thinking that he could secure the throne by a -_coup de main_ he slew not only Elah, but every male member of his -family. To extinguish any possibility of vengeance, he even massacred -all who were known to be friends of the royal house. - -It was a consummate crime, and it was followed by swift and condign -judgment. Through that sea of blood Zimri only succeeded in wading -to one week's royalty, followed by a shameful and agonising death. -We are told that he did evil in the sight of the Lord by following -the sin of Jeroboam's calf-worship. The phrase must be here something -of a formula, for in seven days he could hardly have achieved a -religious revolution, and every other king of Israel, some of whom -have long and prosperous reigns, maintained the unauthorised worship. -But Zimri's atrocious revolt had been so ill-considered that it -furnished a proverb of the terrible fate of rebels.[571] He had not -even attempted to secure the assent of the army at Gibbethon. No -sooner did the news reach the camp than the soldiers tumultuously -refused to accept Zimri as king, and elected Omri their captain. Omri -instantly broke up the camp, and led them to besiege the new king in -Tirzah. Zimri saw that his cause was hopeless, and took refuge in the -fortress (_birah_) attached to the palace.[572] When he saw that even -there he could not maintain himself, he preferred speedy death to -slow starvation or falling into the hands of his rival. He set fire -to the palace, and, like Sardanapalus, perished in the flames.[573] - -The swift suppression of his treason did not save the unhappy kingdom -from anarchy and civil war. However popular Omri might be with the -army, he was unacceptable to a large part of the people. They chose -as their king a certain Tibni, son of Ginath, who was supported by a -powerful brother named Joram. For four years the contest was continued. -At the end of that time Tibni and Joram were conquered and killed,[574] -and Omri began his sole reign, which lasted eight years longer. - -He founded the most conspicuous dynasty of Israel, and so completely -identified his name with the Northern Kingdom that it was known to -the Assyrians as Beit-Khumri, or "the House of Omri."[575] They even -speak of Jehu the destroyer of Omri's dynasty, as "the son of Omri." - -Incidental allusions in the annals of his son show that Omri was -engaged in incessant wars against Syria. He was unsuccessful, and -Benhadad robbed him of Ramoth Gilead and other cities, enforcing the -right of Syrians to have streets of their own even in his new capital -of Samaria.[576] On the other hand, he was greatly successful on the -south-east against the Moabites and their warrior-king Chemosh-Gad, -the father of Mesha. - -Few details of either war have come down to us.[577] We learn, however, -from the famous Moabite stone that he began his assault on Moab by the -capture of Mediba, several miles south of Heshbon, overran the country, -made the king a vassal, and imposed on Moab the enormous annual tribute -of 100,000 sheep and 100,000 rams.[578] Mesha in his inscription -records that Omri "oppressed Moab many days," and attributed this to -the fact that Chemosh was angry with his chosen people. - -He stamped his impress deep upon his subjects. It must have been to -him that the alliance with the Tyrians was due, which in his son's -reign produced consequences so momentous. He "did worse we are told -than all the kings that were before him."[579] Although he is only -charged with walking in the way of Jeroboam, the indignant manner in -which the prophet Micah speaks of "the statutes of Omri" as still -being kept,[580] seems to prove that his influence on religion was -condemned by the prophetic order on special grounds. 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 preserved; -indeed, for thirty-four years after his accession the history of the -Southern Kingdom becomes a mere appendix to that of the Northern. - -One conspicuous service he rendered to his subjects by providing -them with the city which became their permanent and famous capital. -This he did in the sixth year of his reign. The burning of the -fortress-palace of Tirzah, and the rapidity with which the town had -succumbed to its besiegers, may have led him to look out for a site, -which was central, strong, and beautiful. His choice was so prescient -that the new royal residence superseded not only Penuel and Tirzah, -but even Shechem. It was, says Dean Stanley, "as though Versailles -had taken the place of Paris, or Windsor of London." He fixed his eye -on an oblong hill, with long flat summit, which rose in the midst -of a wide valley encircled with hills, near the edge of the plain -of Sharon, and six miles north-west of Shechem. Its beauty is still -the admiration of the traveller in Palestine. It gave point to the -apostrophe of Isaiah: "Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards -of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is on -the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!... -The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under -foot: and the fading flower of his glorious adornment, which is on -the head of the fat valley, shall become as a fading flower and as an -early fig."[581] All around it the low hills and rich ravines were -clothed with fertility. They recall more nearly than any other scene -in Palestine the green fields and parks of England. - -It commanded a full view of the sea and the plain of Sharon on the -one hand, and of the vale of Shechem on the other. The town sloped -down from the summit of this hill; a broad wall with a terraced -top ran round it. "In front of the gates was a wide open space or -threshing floor, where the kings of Samaria sat on great occasions. -The inferior houses were built of white brick, with rafters of -sycomore, the grandeur of hewn stones and cedar (Isa. ix. 9, 10). -Its soft, rounded, oblong platform was, as it were, a vast luxurious -couch, in which the nobles securely rested, propped and cushioned up -on both sides, as in the cherished corner of a rich divan."[582] - -Far more important in the eyes of Omri than its beauty was the -natural strength of its position. It did not possess the impregnable -majesty of Jerusalem, but its height and isolation, permitting of -strong fortifications, enabled it to baffle the besieging hosts of -the Aramaeans in B.C. 901 and in B.C. 892. For three long years it -held out against the mighty Assyrians under Sargon and Shalmanezer. -Its capture in B.C. 721 involved the ruin of the whole kingdom in -its fall.[583] Nebuchadnezzar took it in B.C. 554, after a siege of -thirteen years. In later centuries it partially recovered. Alexander -the Great took it, and massacred many of its inhabitants, B.C. 332. -John Hyrcanus, who took it after a year's siege, tried to demolish -it in B.C. 129. After various fortunes it was splendidly rebuilt by -Herod the Great, who called it Sebaste, in honour of Augustus. It -still exists under the name of Sebastiyeh.[584] - -When Omri chose it for his residence it belonged to a certain Shemer, -who, according to Epiphanius, was a descendant of the ancient -Perizzites or Girgashites. The king paid for this hill the large -sum of two talents of silver,[585] and called it Shomeron. The name -means "a watch tower," and was appropriate both from its commanding -position and because it echoed the name of its old possessor.[586] - -The new capital marked a new epoch. It superseded as completely as -Jerusalem had done the old local shrines endeared by the immemorial -sanctity of their traditions; but as its origin was purely political -it acted unfavourably on the religion of the people. It became a city -of idolatry and of luxurious wealth; a city in which Baal-worship -with its ritual pomp threw into the shade the worship of Jehovah; a -city in which corrupted nobles, lolling at wine feasts on rich divans -in their palaces inlaid with ivory, sold the righteous for silver and -the needy for a pair of shoes. Of Omri we are told no more. After a -reign of twelve years he slept with his fathers, and was buried in -the city which was to be for so many centuries a memorial of his fame. - -The name of Omri marks a new epoch. He is the first Jewish king whose -name is alluded to in Assyrian inscriptions. Assyria had emerged into -importance in the twelfth century before Christ under Tiglath-Pileser -I., but during the eleventh and down to the middle of the tenth century -it had sunk into inactivity. Assurbanipal, the father of Shalmanezer -II. (884-860), enlarged his dominions to the Mediterranean westwards -and to Lebanon southwards. In 870, when Ahab was king, the Assyrian -warriors had exacted tribute from Tyre, Sidon, and Biblos.[587] It is -not impossible that Omri also had paid tribute, and it has even been -conjectured that it was to Assyrian help that he owed his throne. The -Book of Kings only alludes to the valour of this warrior-king in the -one word "his might";[588] but it is evident from other indications -that he had a stormy and chequered reign. - - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[571] 2 Kings ix. 31. - -[572] R.V., "the _castle_ of the king's house." - -[573] Justin, _Hist._, i. 3; cf. Herod., i. 176, vii. 107; Liv., xxi. -14. Ewald elaborates out of his own consciousness an extraordinary -romance about Zimri and the queen-mother. - -[574] Josephus (_Antt._, VIII. xii. 5) says that Tibni was -assassinated, as does the Rabbinic _Seder Olam Rabba_, chap. xvii. -LXX., [Greek: kai apethane Thabni kai Ioram ho adelphos autou]. - -[575] Athaliah is called "the daughter of Omri." - -[576] The Aramaeans have come to be incorrectly called Syrians because -the Greeks confused them with the Assyrians. - -[577] 1 Kings xx. 34. - -[578] 2 Kings iii. 4. - -[579] 1 Kings xvi. 25. - -[580] Micah vi. 16. - -[581] Isa. xxviii. 1-4. - -[582] Stanley, _Lectures_, ii. 242. - -[583] 1 Kings xx. 1; 2 Kings vi. 24. - -[584] Josephus, _Antt._, XV. vii. 7. One of the few instances in -Palestine where the ancient name has been superseded by a more modern -one. The early Assyrians call it Beth-Khumri, "House of Omri"; but -the name Sammerin occurs in the monument of Tiglath-Pileser II. - -[585] About L800 of our money. - -[586] LXX., [Greek: Skopia]; [Hebrew: shamar], "to watch." - -[587] Meyer, _Gesch. d. Alt._, 331; Kittel, ii. 221; Schrader, -_Keilinschr._, i. 165. - -[588] [Hebrew: nevuratov] (1 Kings xvi. 27). - - - - BOOK IV. - - _AHAB AND ELIJAH._ - - B.C. 877-855. - - - - - - - CHAPTER XXXIII. - - _KING AHAB AND QUEEN JEZEBEL._ - - "Besides what that grim wolf with privy paw - Daily devours apace, and nothing said." - LYCIDAS. - - 1 KINGS xvi. 29-34. - - -Omri was succeeded by his son Ahab, whose eventful reign of upwards -of twenty years[589] occupies so large a space even in these -fragmentary records. His name means "brother-father," and has -probably some sacred reference. He is stigmatised by the historians -as a king more wicked than his father, though Omri had "done worse -than all who were before him.". That he was a brave warrior, and -showed some great qualities during a long and on the whole prosperous -career; that he built cities, and added to Israel yet another -royal residence; that he advanced the wealth and prosperity of his -subjects; that he was highly successful in some of his wars against -Syria, and died in battle against those dangerous enemies of his -country; that he maintained unbroken, and strengthened by yet closer -affinity, the recent alliance with the Southern Kingdom,--all this -goes for nothing with the prophetic annalists. They have no word of -eulogy for the king who added Baal-worship to the sin of Jeroboam. -The prominence of Ahab in their record is only due to the fact that -he came into dreadful collision with the prophetic order, and with -Elijah, the greatest prophet who had yet arisen. 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 reformer. - -The historian traces all his ignominy and ruin to a disastrous -alliance. The kings of Judah had followed the bad example of David -and had been polygamists. Up to this time the kings of Israel seem to -have been contented with a single wife. The wealth and power of Ahab -led him to adopt the costly luxury of a harem, and he had seventy -sons.[590] This, however, would have been regarded in those days as -a venial offence, or as no offence at all; but just as the growing -power of Solomon had been enhanced by marriage with a princess of -Egypt, so Ahab was now of sufficient importance to wed a daughter -of the King of Tyre. "As though it had been a light thing for him -to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took to wife -Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, King of the Zidonians." - -It was an act of policy in which religious considerations went for -nothing. There is little doubt that it flattered his pride and the -pride of his people, and that Jezebel brought riches with her and pomp -and the prestige of luxurious royalty.[591] The Phoenicians were -of the old race of Canaan, with whom all affinity was so strongly -forbidden. Ethbaal--more accurately, perhaps, Itto-baal (Baal is with -him)[592]--though he ruled all Phoenicia, both Tyre and Sidon, was a -usurper, and had been the high priest of the great Temple of Ashtoreth -in Tyre. Hiram, the friend of Solomon, had now been dead for half a -century. The last king of his dynasty was the fratricide Phelles, -whom in his turn his brother Ethbaal slew. He reigned for thirty-two -years, and founded a dynasty which lasted for sixty-two years more. -He was the seventh successor to the throne of Tyre in the fifty years -which had elapsed since the death of Hiram. Menander of Ephesus, as -quoted by Josephus, shows us that in the history of this family we find -an interesting point of contact between sacred and classic history. -Jezebel was the aunt of Virgil's Belus, and great-aunt of Pygmalion, -and of Dido, the famous foundress of Carthage.[593] - -A king named after Baal, 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[594]--a king who had himself been at the -head of the cult of Ashtoreth, 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-law. Ahab, we are -told, "went and served Baal and worshipped him." We must discount by -recorded facts the impression which might _prima facie_ be left by -these sweeping denunciations. It is certain that to his death Ahab -continued to recognise Jehovah. He enshrined the name of Jehovah in the -names of his children.[595] He consulted the prophets of Jehovah, and -his continuance of the calf-worship met with no recorded reproof from -the many true prophets who were active during his reign. 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 offence. It is exceedingly probable that the permission of -Baal-worship had been one of the articles of the treaty between Tyre -and Israel, which, as we know from Amos, had been made at this time. -It had probably been the condition on which the fanatical Phoenician -usurper had conceded to his far less powerful neighbour the hand of his -daughter. It was, as we see, alike in sacred and secular history a time -of treaties. The menacing spectre of Assyria was beginning to terrify -the nations. Hamath, Syria, and the Hittites had formed a league of -defence against the northern power, and similar motives induced the -kings of Israel to seek alliance with Phoenicia. Perhaps neither Omri -nor Ahab grasped all the consequences of their concession to the -Sidonian princess.[596] But such compacts were against the very essence -of the religion of Israel, which was "Yahveh Israel's God, and Israel -Yahveh's people." - -The new queen inherited the fanaticism as she inherited the ferocity -of her father. She acquired from the first a paramount sway over -the weak and uxorious mind of her husband. Under her influence Ahab -built in Samaria a splendid temple and altar to Baal, in which no -less than four hundred orgiastic priests served the Phoenician idol -in splendid vestments, and with the same pompous ritual as in the -shrines at Tyre. In front of this temple, to the disgust and horror -of all faithful worshippers of Jehovah, stood an _Asherah_ in honour -of the Nature-goddess, and _Matstseboth_ pillars or obelisks which -represented either sunbeams or the reproductive powers of nature. -In these ways Ahab "did more to provoke the Lord God to anger than -all the kings of Israel that were before him."[597] When we learn -what Baal was, and how he was worshipped, we are not surprised at -so stern a condemnation. Half Sun-god, half Bacchus, half Hercules, -Baal was worshipped under the image of a bull, "the symbol of the -male power of generation." In the wantonness of his rites he was -akin to Peor; in their cruel atrocity to the kindred Moloch; in the -demand for victims to be sacrificed to the horrible consecration -of lust and blood he resembled the Minotaur, the wallowing "infamy -of Crete," with its yearly tribute of youths and maidens. 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 Apheka.[598] It -confirms what we are incidentally told of Jezebel's devotions. It -abounded in wealthy gifts, and its multitude of priests, women, and -mutilated ministers--of whom Lucian counted three hundred at one -sacrifice--were clad in splendid vestments. Children were sacrificed -by being put in a leathern bag and flung down from the top of the -temple, with the shocking expression that "they were calves, not -children." In the forecourt stood two gigantic phalli. The _Galli_ -were maddened into a tumult of excitement by the uproar of drums, -shrill pipes, and clanging cymbals, gashed themselves with knives and -potsherds, and often ran through the city in women's dress.[599] -Such was the new worship with which the dark murderess insulted the -faith in Jehovah. Could any condemnation be too stern for the folly -and faithlessness of the king who sanctioned it? - -A consequence of this tolerance of polluted forms of worship seems -to have shown itself in defiant contempt for sacred traditions. At -any rate, it is in this connexion that we are told how Hiel of Bethel -set at naught an ancient curse. After the fall of Jericho Joshua had -pronounced a curse upon the site of the city. It was never to be -rebuilt, but to remain under the ban of God. The site, indeed, had -not been absolutely uninhabited, for its importance near the fords -of Jordan necessitated the existence of some sort of caravanserai -in or near the spot.[600] At this time it belonged to the kingdom -of Israel, though it was in the district of Benjamin and afterwards -reverted to Judah.[601] Hiel, struck by the opportunities afforded by -its position, laughed the old _cherem_ to scorn, and determined to -rebuild Jericho into a fortified and important city. But men remarked -with a shudder that the curse had not been uttered in vain. The laying -of the foundation was marked by the death of his firstborn Abiram, the -completion of the gates by the death of Segub, his youngest son.[602] - - * * * * * - -The shadow of Queen Jezebel falls dark for many years over the -history of Israel and Judah. She was one of those masterful, -indomitable, implacable women who, when fate places them in exalted -power, leave a terrible mark on the annals of nations. What the -Empress Irene was in the history of Constantinople, or the "She-wolf -of France" in that of England, or Catherine de Medicis in that of -France, that Jezebel was in the history of Palestine. 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 -_Maultasch_; but the trace left by Jezebel was marked in blood in -the fortunes of the children born to her. Already three of the six -kings of Israel had been murdered, or had come to evil ends; but the -fate of Ahab and his house was most disastrous of all, and it became -so through the "whoredoms and witchcrafts" of his Sidonian wife. A -thousand years later the name of Jezebel was still ominous as that -of one who seduced others into fornication and idolatry.[603] If no -king so completely "sold himself to work wickedness" as Ahab, it was -because "Jezebel his wife stirred him up."[604] - -Yet, however guilty may have been the uxorious apostasies of Ahab, -he can hardly be held to be responsible for the marriage itself. The -dates and ages recorded for us show decisively that the alliance -must have been negotiated by Omri, for it took place in his reign -and when Ahab was too young to have much voice in the administration -of the kingdom. He is only responsible for abdicating his proper -authority over Jezebel, and for permitting her a free hand in the -corruption of worship, while he gave himself up to his schemes of -worldly aggrandisement. Absorbed in the strengthening of his cities -and the embellishment of his ivory palaces, he became neglectful of -the worship of Jehovah, and careless of the more solemn and sacred -duties of a theocratic king. - -The temple to Baal at Samaria was built; the hateful Asherah in -front of it offended the eyes of all whose hearts abhorred an impure -idolatry. Its priests and the priests of Astarte were the favourites -of the court. Eight hundred and fifty of them fed in splendour at -Jezebel's table, and the pomp of their sensuous cult threw wholly -into the shade the worship of the God of Israel. Hitherto there had -been no protest against, no interference with the course of evil. It -had been suffered to reach its meridian unchecked, and it seemed only -a question of time that the service of Jehovah would yield to that of -Baal, to whose favour the queen probably believed that her priestly -father had owed his throne. There are indications that Jezebel had -gone further still, and that Ahab, however much he may secretly have -disapproved, had not interfered to prevent her. For although we do -not know the exact period at which Jezebel began to exercise violence -against the worshippers of Jehovah, it is certain that she did so. -This crime took place before the great famine which was appointed -for its punishment, and which roused from cowardly torpor the supine -conscience of the king and of the nation. Jezebel stands out on -the page of sacred history as the first supporter of _religious -persecution_. We learn from incidental notices that, not content with -insulting the religion of the nation by the burdensome magnificence -of her idolatrous establishments, she made an attempt to crush -Jehovah-worship altogether. Such fanaticism is a frequent concomitant -of guilt. She is the authentic authoress of priestly inquisitions. - -The Borgian monster, Pope Alexander VI., who founded the Spanish -Inquisition, is the lineal inheritor of the traditions of Jezebel. -Had Ahab done no more than Solomon had done in Judah, the followers -of the true faith in Israel would have been as deeply offended as -those of the Southern Kingdom. They would have hated a toleration -which they regarded as wicked, because it involved moral corruption -as well as the danger of national apostasy. 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 -Maria, or saw Father Petre gliding about the corridors of Whitehall. -But their opposition was crushed with a hand of iron. Jezebel, -strong in her _entourage_ of no less than eight hundred and fifty -priests, to say nothing of her other attendants, 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 left. Those -who escaped her fury had to wander about in destitution, and to hide -in dens and caves of the earth. - -The apostasy of Churches always creeps on apace, when priests and -prophets, afraid of malediction, and afraid of imperilling their -worldly interests become cowards, opportunists, and time-servers, and -not daring to speak out the truth that is in them, suffer the cause of -spirituality and righteousness to go by default. But "when Iniquity -hath played her part, Vengeance, leaps upon the stage. The comedy is -short, but the tragedy is long. The black guard shall attend upon you: -you shall eat at the table of sorrow, and the crown of death shall be -upon your heads, many glittering faces looking upon you."[605] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[589] It is needless in each separate case to enter into the -chronological minutiae about which the historian is little solicitous. -A table of the chronology so far as it can be ascertained is -furnished, _infra_. - -[590] 1 Kings xx. 5; 2 Kings x. 7. - -[591] Hitzig thinks that Psalm xlv. was an epithalamium on this -occasion, from the mention of "ivory palaces" and "the daughter of -Tyre." Had it been composed for the marriage of Solomon, or Jehoram -and Athaliah, or any king of Judah, there would surely have been -an allusion to Jerusalem. Moreover, the queen is called [Hebrew: -shenal], which is a Chaldee (Dan. v. 2), or perhaps a North Palestine -word. The word in Judah was Gebira. - -[592] [Greek: Ithobalos], Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. xiii. 1; _c. Ap._, -I. 18 (quoting the heathen historian Menander of Ephesus). It may, -however, be "Man of Baal," like Saul's son Ishbaal (Ishbosheth). In -Tyre the high priest was only second to the king in power (Justin, -_Hist._, xviii. 4), and Ethbaal united both dignities. He died aged -sixty-eight. Another Ethbaal was on the throne during the siege of -Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar (Josephus, _Antt._, X. xi. I). - -[593] Josephus, _c. Ap._, I. 18. The genealogy is:-- - - +-----------------------+ - | | - Phelles Ethbaal. - (a usurper, whom his | - brother Ethbaal slew). | - | - +----------+------+ - | | - Badezon. Jezebel. - | - Matger (_Belus_). - | - +--------+------+ - | | - Pygmalion. Dido. - -See Canon Rawlinson, _Speaker's Commentary, ad loc._ - -[594] Plaut., _Paenul._, V. ii. 6, 7. Phoenician names abound in the -element "Baal." - -[595] Ahaziah ("Jehovah supports"), Jehoram ("Jehovah is exalted"), -Athaliah (?). The word Baal merely meant "Lord"; 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 people. Saul, -certainly no idolater, called his son Eshbaal ("the man of Baal"); -and it was only the hatred of the name Baal in later times which led -the Jews to alter Baal into Bosheth ("shame"), as in Ishbosheth, -Mephibosheth. David himself had a son named Beeliada ("known to -Baal"), which was altered into Eliada (1 Chron. xiv. 7, iii. 8; 2 -Sam. v. 16; comp. 2 Chron. xvii. 17). We even find the name Bealiah -("Baal is Jah") as one of David's men (1 Chron. xii. 5). Hoshea too -records that Baali ("my Lord") was used of Jehovah, but changed into -Ishi ("my husband") (Hosea ii. 16, 17). It is used simply for owner -("the baal of an ox") in "the Book of the Covenant" (Exod. xxi. 28). -See Robertson Smith, _Rel. of the Semites_, 92. - -[596] Ethbaal is called King of Sidon (1 Kings xvi. 31), and was also -King of Tyre (Menander _ap._ Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. xiii. 1). - -[597] 1 Kings xvi. 23; 2 Kings iii. 2, x. 27. - -[598] _Asherim_ seem to be upright wooden stocks of trees in honour -of the Nature-goddess Asheroth. The Temple of Baal at Tyre had no -image, only two _Matstseboth_, one of gold given by Hiram, one of -"emerald" (Dius and Menander _ap._ Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. v. 3; _c. -Ap._, I. 18; Herod., ii. 66). - -[599] Doellinger, _Judenth. u. Heidenthum_ (E. T.), i. 425-29. - -[600] 2 Sam. x. 5; Judg. iii. 28. - -[601] 2 Chron. xxviii. 15. - -[602] Comp. Josh. vi. 26; 2 Sam. x. 5. - -[603] Rev. ii. 20. - -[604] 1 Kings xxi. 25, 26. - -[605] Henry Smith, _The Trumpet of the Lord sounding to Judgment_. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXIV. - - _ELIJAH._ - - 1 KINGS xvii. 1-7. - - "And Elias the prophet stood up as fire, and his word was burning - as a torch."--ECCLUS. xlviii. 1. - - "But that two-handed engine at the door - Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." - _Lycidas._ - - -Many chapters are now occupied with narratives of the deeds of -two great prophets, Elijah and Elisha, remarkable for the blaze -and profusion of miracles and for similarity in many details. -For thirty-four years we hear but little of Judah, and the kings -of Israel are overshadowed by the "men of God." Both narratives, -of which the later in sequence seems to be the earlier in date, -originated in the Schools of the Prophets. Both are evidently drawn -from documentary sources apart from the ordinary annals of the Kings. - -Doubtless something of their fragmentariness is due to the -abbreviation of the prophetic annals by the historians. - -Suddenly, with abrupt impetuosity, the mighty figure of Elijah -the Prophet bursts upon the scene like lightning on the midnight. -So far as the sacred page is concerned, he, like Melchizedek, is -"without father, without mother, without descent." He appears -before us unannounced as "Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of -Gilead." Such a phenomenon as Jezebel explains and necessitates such -a phenomenon as Elijah. "The loftiest and sternest spirit of the -true faith is raised up," says Dean Stanley, "face to face with the -proudest and fiercest spirit of the old Asiatic Paganism." - -The name Elijah, or, in its fuller and more sonorous Hebrew form, -Elijahu, means "Jehovah is my God." Who he was is entirely unknown. -So completely is all previous trace of him lost in mystery that -Talmudic legends confounded him with Phinehas, the son of Aaron, the -avenging and fiercely zealous priest; and even identified him with -the angel or messenger of Jehovah who appeared to Gideon and ascended -in the altar flame. - -The name "Tishbite" tells us nothing. No town of Tishbi occurs in -Scripture, and though a Thisbe in the tribe of Naphtali is mentioned -as the birthplace of Tobit,[606] the existence of such a place is -as doubtful as that of "Thesbon of the Gileadite district" to which -Josephus assigns his birth.[607] The Hebrew may mean "the Tishbite -from Tishbi of Gilead," or "_The sojourner from the sojourners of -Gilead_"; and we know no more. Elijah's grandeur is in himself alone. -Perhaps he was by birth an Ishmaelite. When the wild Highlander -in Rob Roy says of himself "I am a man," "A man!" repeated Frank -Osbaldistone; "that is a very brief description." "It will serve," -answered the outlaw, "for one who has no other to give. He who is -without name, without friends, without coin, without country, is -still at least a man: and he that has all these is no more." So -Elijah stands alone in the towering height of his fearless manhood. - -Some clue to the swift mysterious movements, the rough asceticism, -the sheepskin robe, the unbending sternness of the Prophet may lie -in the notice that he was a Gileadite, or at any rate among the -sojourners of Gilead, and therefore akin to them. It might even be -conjectured that he was of Kenite origin, like Jonadab, the son of -Rechab, in the days of Jehu.[608] The Gileadites were the Highlanders -of Palestine, and the name of their land implies its barren -ruggedness.[609] They, like the modern Druses, were - - "Fierce, hardy, proud, in conscious freedom bold." - -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 Adullam, "whose faces were like -the faces of lions, and who were as swift as the roes upon the -mountains." Though of Israelitish origin they were closely akin to -the Bedawin, swift, strong, temperate, fond of the great solitudes of -nature, haters of cities, scorners of the softnesses of civilisation. -Elijah shared these characteristics. Like the forerunner of Christ, -in whom his spirit reappeared nine centuries later, he had lived -alone with God in the glowing deserts and the mountain fastnesses. He -found Jehovah's presence, not in the - - "Gay religions, full of pomp and gold," - -which he misdoubted and despised, but in the barren hills and wild -ravines and bleak uplands where only here and there roamed a shepherd -with his flock. In such hallowed loneliness he had learnt to fear man -little, because he feared God much, and to dwell familiarly on the -sterner aspects of religion and morality. The one conscious fact of his -mission, the sufficient authentication of his most imperious mandates, -was that "he stood before Jehovah." So unexpected were his appearances -and disappearances, that in the popular view he only seemed to flash -to and fro, or to be swept hither and thither, by the Spirit of the -Lord. We may say of him as was said of John the Baptist, that "in his -manifestation and agency he was like a burning torch; his public life -was quite an earthquake; the whole man was a sermon, the voice of one -crying in the wilderness." And, like the Baptist, he had been "in the -deserts, till the day of his showing unto Israel." - -Somewhere--perhaps at Samaria, perhaps in the lovely summer palace at -Jezreel--he suddenly strode into the presence of Ahab. 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 David. With scanted courtesy to one whom he does not respect -or dread--knowing that he is in God's hands, and has no time to waste -over courtly periphrases or personal fears--he comes before Ahab -unknown, unintroduced. What manner of man was it by whom the king -in his crown and Tyrian purple was thus rudely confronted? He was, -tradition tells us, a man of short stature, of rugged countenance. -He was "a lord of hair"--the thick black locks of the Nazarite (for -such he probably was) streamed over his shoulders like a lion's mane, -giving him a fierce and unkempt aspect. They that wear soft clothing -are in king's houses, and doubtless under a queen who, even in old -age, painted her face and tired her head, and was given to Sidonian -luxuries, Ahab was accustomed to see men about him in bright apparel. -But Elijah had not stooped to alter his ordinary dress, which was the -dress of the desert by which he was always known. His brown limbs, -otherwise bare, were covered with a heavy mantle, the skin of a camel -or a sheep worn with the rough wool outside, and tightened round his -loins by a leathern girdle. So unusual was his aspect in the cities -east of Jordan, accustomed since the days of Solomon to all the -refinements of Egyptian and Phoenician culture, that it impressed and -haunted the imagination of his own and of subsequent ages. The dress -of Elijah became so normally the dress of prophets who would fain -have assumed his authority without one spark of his inspiration, that -the later Zechariah has to warn his people against sham prophets who -appeared with hairy garments, and who wounded their own hands for no -other purpose than to deceive.[610] The robe of skin, after the long -interspace of centuries, was still the natural garb of "the glorious -eremite," who in his spirit and power made straight in the deserts a -highway for our God. - -Such was the man who delivered to Ahab in one sentence his tremendous -message: "As Jehovah, God of Israel, liveth, before whom I stand"--such -was the introductory formula, which became proverbial, and which -authenticated the prophecy--"There shall not be dew[611] nor rain -these years but according to my word." The phrase "to stand before -Jehovah" was used of priests: it was applicable to a prophet in a far -deeper and less external sense.[612] Drought was one of the recognised -Divine punishments for idolatrous apostasy. If Israel should fall -into disobedience, we read in Deuteronomy, "the Lord shall make the -rain of thy land powder and dust; from heaven shall it come down upon -thee--until thou be destroyed"; and in Leviticus we read, "If ye will -not hearken, I will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass." -The threat was too significant to need any explanation. The conscience -of Ahab could interpret only too readily that prophetic menace. - -The message of Elijah marked the beginning of a three, or three -and a half years' famine. This historic drought is also mentioned -by Menander of Tyre, who says that after a year, at the prayer of -Ethbaal, the priest and king, there came abundant thunder showers. -St. James represents the famine as well as its termination as having -been caused by Elijah's prayer.[613] But the expression of the -historian is general. Elijah might pray for rain, but no prophet -could, _proprio motu_, have offered up a prayer for so awful a -curse upon an entire country as a famine, in which thousands of -the innocent would suffer no less severely than the guilty. Three -years' famine was a recognised penalty for apostasy. It was one of -the sore plagues of God. It had befallen Judah "because of Saul and -his bloody house,"[614] and had been offered to guilty David as an -alternative for three days' pestilence, or three years' flight -before his enemies.[615] We are not here told that Elijah prayed for -it, but that he announced its commencement, and declared that only in -accordance with his announcement should it close. - -He delivered his message, and what followed we do not know. -Ahab's tolerance was great; and, however fierce may have been his -displeasure, he seems in most cases to have personally respected -the sacredness and dignity of the prophets. The king's wrath might -provoke an outburst of sullenness, but he contented himself with -menacing and reproachful words. It was otherwise with Jezebel. A -genuine idolatress, she hated the servants of Jehovah with implacable -hatred, and did her utmost to suppress them by violence. It was -probably to save Elijah from her fury that he was bidden to fly into -safe hiding, while her foiled rage expended itself in the endeavour -to extirpate the whole body of the prophets of the Lord. But, just -as the child Christ was saved when Herod massacred the infants of -Bethlehem, so Elijah, at whom Jezebel's blow was chiefly aimed, had -escaped beyond her reach. A hundred other imperilled prophets were -hidden in a cave by the faithfulness of Obadiah, the king's vizier. - -The word of the Lord bade Elijah to fly eastward and hide himself -"in the brook Cherith,[616] that is before Jordan." The site of this -ravine--which Josephus only calls "a certain torrent bed"--has not -been identified. It was doubtless one of the many wadies which run -into the deep Ghor or cleft of the Jordan on its eastern side. If -it belonged to his native Gilead, Elijah would be in little fear of -being discovered by the emissaries whom Ahab sent in every direction -to seek for him. Whether it was the Wady Kelt,[617] or the Wady el -Jabis,[618] or the Ain Fusail,[619] we know the exact characteristics -of the scene. On either side, deep, winding and precipitous, rise -the steep walls of rock, full of tropic foliage, among which are -conspicuous the small dark green leaves and stiff thorns of the nubk. -Far below the summit of the ravine, marking its almost imperceptible -thread of water by the brighter green of the herbage, and protected -by masses of dewy leaves from the fierce power of evaporation, the -hidden torrent preserves its life in all but the most long-continued -periods of drought. In such a scene Elijah was absolutely safe. -Whenever danger approached he could hide himself in some fissure or -cavern of the beetling crags where the wild birds have their nest, -or sit motionless under the dense screen of interlacing boughs. The -wildness and almost terror of his surroundings harmonised with his -stern and fearless spirit. A spirit like his would rejoice in the -unapproachable solitude, communing with God alike when the sun flamed -in the zenith and when the midnight hung over him with all its stars. - -The needs of an Oriental--particularly of an ascetic Bedawy -prophet--are small as those of the simplest hermit. Water and a few -dates often suffice him for days together. Elijah drank of the brook, -and God "had commanded the ravens to feed him there." The shy, wild, -unclean birds[620] "brought him"--so the old prophetic narrative -tells us--"bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in -the evening." We may remark in passing, that flesh twice a day or -even once a day, if with Josephus we read "bread in the morning and -flesh in the evening," is no part of an Arab's ordinary food. It is -regarded by him as wholly needless, and indeed as an exceptional -indulgence. The double meal of flesh does not resemble the simple -diet of bread and water on which the Prophet lived afterwards at -Sarepta. Are we or are we not to take this as a literal fact? Here -we are face to face with a plain question to which I should deem it -infamous to give a false or a prevaricating answer. - -Before giving it, let us clear the ground. First of all, it is a -question which can only be answered by serious criticism. Assertion -can add nothing to it, and is not worth the breath with which it is -uttered. 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 men. - -Some holy but uninstructed soul may say, "It stands on the sacred -page: why should you not understand it literally?" It might be -sufficient to answer, Because there are many utterances on the sacred -page which are purely poetic or metaphorical. "The eye that mocketh -at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the -brook shall pick it out, and the young vultures shall eat it."[621] -The statement looks prosaic and positive enough, but what human -being ever took it literally? "Curse not the king--for a bird of -the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell -the matter." Who does not see at once that the words are poetic and -metaphorical? "Where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not -quenched." How many educated Christians can assert that they believe -that the unredeemed will be eaten for ever by literal worms in -endless flames? 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 metaphor, only -shows himself incompetent to pronounce an opinion on subjects -connected with history, literature, or religious criticism. - -Is it then out of dislike to the supernatural, or disbelief in its -occurrence, that the best critics decline to take the statement -literally? - -Not at all. Most Christians have not the smallest difficulty in -accepting the supernatural. If they believe in the stupendous -miracles of the Incarnation and the Resurrection, what possible -difficulty could they have in accepting any other event merely on -the ground that it is miraculous? To many Christians all life seems -to be one incessant miracle. 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 life; believing that their -own life is supernatural, and that they are preserved as they were -created by endless cycles of ever-recurrent miracles; believing that -the whole spiritual life is supernatural in its every characteristic; -they have not the slightest unwillingness to believe a miracle when -any real evidence can be adduced for it. They accept, without the -smallest misgiving, the miracles of Jesus Christ our Lord, radiating -as ordinary works from His Divine nature, performed in the full blaze -of history, attested by hundredfold contemporary evidence, leading -to results of world-wide and eternal significance--miracles which -were, so to speak, natural, normal, and necessary, and of which each -revealed some deep moral or spiritual truth. But if miracles can only -rest on evidence, 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 footing. Taken apart from dogmatic -assertions which are themselves unproven or disproved, the evidence -that ravens daily fed Elijah is wholly inadequate to sustain the -burden laid upon it. - -In the first place, the story occurs in a book compiled some -centuries after the event which it attests; in a book solemn indeed -and sacred, but composite, and in some of its details not exempt from -the accidents which have always affected all human literature. - -And this incident is unattested by any other evidence. It is, so to -speak, isolated. It is quite separable from the historic features of -the narrative, and is out of accordance with what is truly called the -Divine economy of miracles. No miracle was wrought to supply Elijah -with water; and if a miracle was needed to supply him with bread -and flesh, 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 birds. It has been said that this -particular form of miracle was needed for its evidential value; but -there is nothing in the narrative to imply that it had the smallest -evidential value for any one of Elijah's contemporaries, or even that -they knew of it at all. - -Further, we find it, not in a plain prose narrative, 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 splendour. There is nothing to show that it was not -intended to be a touch of imaginative poetry and nothing more. Part -of the greatness of Hebrew literature lies in its power of conveying -eternal truth, as, for instance, in the Book of Job and in many -passages of the prophets, in the form of imaginative narration. The -stories of Elijah and Elisha come from the Schools of the Prophets. -If room was left in them for the touch of poetic fiction, or for the -embellishment of history with moral truth, conveyed in the form of -parable or apologue, we can at once account for the sudden multitude -of miracles. They were founded no doubt in many instances on actual -events, 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 Prophets. It is therefore uncertain whether the original -narrator believed, or meant his readers literally to believe, such -a statement as that Elijah was fed morning and evening by actual -ravens. It cannot be proved that he intended more than a touch of -poetry, 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 supernatural. God's feeding of the -ravens in their nest was often alluded to in Hebrew poetry; and if -the marvellous support of the Prophet in his lonely hiding-place was -to be represented in an imaginative form, this way of representing -it would naturally occur to the writer's thoughts. Similarly, when -Jerome wrote the purely fictitious life of Paul the Hermit, which was -taken for fact even by his contemporaries, he thinks it quite natural -to say that Paul and Antony saw a raven sitting on a tree, who flew -gently down to them and placed a loaf on the table before them. -Ravens haunt the lonely, inaccessible cliffs among which Elijah found -his place of refuge. It needed but a touch of metaphor to transform -them into ministers of Heaven's beneficence. - -But besides all this, the word rendered ravens (_Orebim_, [Hebrew: -'orevim]) only has that meaning if it be written with the vowel -points. But the vowel points are confessedly not "inspired" in -any sense, but are a late Massoretic invention. Without the -change of a letter the word may equally well mean people of the -city Orbo,[622] or of the rock Oreb (as was suggested even in the -Bereshith Rabba by Rabbi Judah); or "merchants," as in Ezek. xxvii. -27; or Arabians. No doubt difficulties might be suggested about any -of these interpretations; but which would be most reasonable, the -acceptance of such small difficulties, or the literal acceptance of a -stupendous miracle, unlike any other in the Bible, by which we are to -believe on the isolated authority of a nameless and long subsequent -writer, that, for months or weeks together, voracious and unclean -birds brought bread and flesh to the Prophet twice a day? The old -naturalistic attempts to explain the miracle are on the face of them -absurd; but it is as perfectly open to any one who chooses to say -that "Arabians," or "Orbites," or "merchants," or "people of the rock -Oreb" fed Elijah, as to say that the "ravens" did so. The explanation -now universally accepted by the Higher Criticism is different. It is -to accept the meaning "ravens," but not with wooden literalness to -interpret didactic and poetic symbolism as though it were bald and -matter-of-fact prose. The imagery of a grand religious _Haggada_ is -not to be understood, nor was it ever meant to be understood, like -the page of a dull annalist. Analogous stories are found abundantly -alike in early pagan and early Christian literature and in mediaeval -hagiology. They are true in essence though not in fact, and the -intention of them is often analogous to this; but no story is found -so noble as this in its pure and quiet simplicity. - -Let this then suffice and render it needless to recur to similar -discussions. If any think themselves bound to interpret this and all -the other facts in these narratives in their most literal sense; if -they hold that the mere mention of such things by unknown writers in -unknown time--possibly centuries afterwards, when the event may have -become magnified by the refraction of tradition--is sufficient to -substantiate them, let them hold their own opinion as long as it can -satisfy them. But _proof_ of such an opinion they neither have nor -can have; and let them beware of priding themselves on the vaunt of -their "faith," 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 test. A belief based on some _a priori_ -opinion about "verbal dictation" is not necessarily meritorious. It -may be quite the reverse. Such a dogma has never been laid down by the -Church in general. It has very rarely been insisted upon by any branch -of the Church in any age. A belief which prides itself on ignorance -of the vast horizon opened to us by the study of many forms of -literature, by the advance of criticism, by the science of comparative -religion--so far from being religious or spiritual may only be a sign -of ignorance, or of a defective love of truth. 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 pride.[623] _Abundet quisque in sensu suo._ But such -beliefs have not the smallest connexion with true faith or sincere -Christianity. God is a God of truth, and he who tries to force himself -into a view which history and literature, no less than the faithful -following of the Divine light within him, convince him to be untenable, -does not rise into faith, but sins and does mischief by feebleness and -_lack_ of faith.[624] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[606] Tobit i. 2. - -[607] Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. xiii. 2; Vat. (LXX.), [Greek: -Thesbites ho ek thesbon]. The Alex. LXX. omits [Greek: Thesbites]. -An immense amount has been written about Elijah. Among others, see -Knobel, _Der Prophetismus_, ii. 73; Koester, _Der Thesbiter_; Stanley, -ii., lect. xxx.; Maurice, _Prophets and Kings_, serm. viii.; F. W. -Robertson, ii., serm. vi.; Milligan, _Elijah_ (Men of the Bible). - -[608] See 1 Chron. ii. 55. - -[609] See Cheyne, _The Hallowing of Criticism_, p. 9. - -[610] Zech. xiii. 4. - -[611] The word also means "sea-mist" (Cheyne, p. 15). - -[612] Lev. xxvi. 19; Psalm cxxxiv. 1; Heb. x. 11. - -[613] So too Ecclus. xlviii. 2, "He _brought_ a sore famine upon -them, and by his zeal he diminished their number"; but the writer -adds, "_By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens._" Deut. -xxviii. 12; Amos iv. 7. - -[614] 2 Sam. xxi. 1. - -[615] 2 Sam. xxiv. 13. "Three," not "seven," is probably here the -true reading. - -[616] Not "by," as in the A.V. Cherith means "cut off" (1 Kings xvii. -3). "The Lord hid him" (Jer. xxxvi. 26). "In famine he shall redeem -thee from death.... At famine and destruction thou shalt laugh" (Job -v. 20-22). - -[617] Robinson. - -[618] Benjamin of Tudela. - -[619] Marinus Sanutus (1321). - -[620] The ravens were unclean birds (Deut. xiv. 14), and this -naturally startled and offended the Rabbis. - -[621] Prov. xxx. 17. - -[622] Orbo was a small town near the Jordan and Bethshan. - -[623] On the other side, Bunsen (_Bibelwerk_, v. 2, 540) speaks -too strongly when he says that "nothing but boundless ignorance, -or, where historical criticism has not died out, an hierarchical -dilettanti reaction, foolhardy hypocrisy, 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 -place." He regards the whole narrative as a "popular epic--the fruit -of an inspiration, which he, as it were some superhuman being, -awakened in his disciples." - -[624] I append the remarks of Professor Milligan, a theologian of -unimpeachable orthodoxy. "The miracle," he says, "is so remarkable, -so much out of keeping with most of the other miracles of Scripture, -that even pious and devout minds may well be perplexed by it, and -we can feel no surprise at the attempts made to explain it. Such -attempts are not inconsistent with the most devout reverence for -the word of God. They are rather, not unfrequently, the result of -a just persuasion that the Eastern mind did not express itself in -forms similar to those of the West" (_Elijah_, p. 22). 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 writer. He -regards it as perhaps a highly poetic and figurative representation -of the truth that the God of Nature was with Elijah. "The value of -the Prophet's experience is neither heightened by a literal, nor -diminished by a figurative, interpretation of what passed" (p. 24). - - - - - CHAPTER XXXV. - - _ELIJAH AT SAREPTA._ - - 1 KINGS xvii. 7, xviii. 19. - - "The rain is God's compassion."--MOHAMMED. - - -The fierce drought continued, and "at the end of days"[625] even the -thin trickling of the stream in the clefts of Cherith was dried up. In -the language of Job it felt the glare and vanished.[626] No miracle was -wrought to supply the Prophet with water, but once more the providence -of God intervened to save his life for the mighty work which still -awaited him. He was sent to the region where, nearly a millennium -later, the feet of his Lord followed him on a mission of mercy to those -other sheep of His flock who were not of the Judaean fold. - -The word of the Lord bade him make his way to the Sidonian city of -Zarephath. Zarephath, the Sarepta of St. Luke, the modern Surafend, -lay between Tyre and Sidon, and there the waters would not be wholly -dried up, for the fountains of Lebanon were not yet exhausted. The -drought had extended to Phoenicia,[627] but Elijah was told that -there a widow woman would sustain him. 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 people. He -is sent among these Baal-worshippers to do them kindness, to receive -kindness from them--perhaps to learn a wider tolerance, and to find -that idolaters also are human beings, children, like the orthodox, -of the same heavenly Father. He had been taught the lesson of -"dependence upon God": he was now to learn the lesson of "fellowship -with man." Travelling probably by night both for coolness and for -safety, Elijah went that long journey to the heathen district. He -arrived there faint with hunger and thirst. Seeing a woman gathering -sticks near the city gate he asked her for some water, and as she was -going to fetch it he called to her and asked her also to bring him a -morsel of bread. The answer revealed the condition of extreme want -to which she was reduced. Recognising that Elijah was an Israelite, -and therefore a worshipper of Jehovah, she said, "As Jehovah thy -God liveth, I have not a cake, but (only) a handful of meal in the -barrel, and a little oil in the cruse." She was gathering a couple of -sticks to make one last meal for herself and her son, and then to lie -down and die.[628] For drought did not only mean universal anguish, -but much actual starvation. It meant, as Joel says, speaking of the -desolation caused by locusts, that the cattle groan and perish, and -the corn withers, and the seeds rot under their clods. - -Strong in faith Elijah told her not to fear, but first to supply his -own more urgent needs, and then to make a meal for herself and her -son. Till Jehovah sent rain, the barrel of meal should not waste, nor -the cruse of oil fail. She believed the promise, and for many days, -perhaps for two whole years, the Prophet continued to be her guest. - -But after a time her boy fell grievously sick, and at last died, or -seemed to die.[629] So dread a calamity--the smiting of the stay -of her home, and the son of her widowhood--filled the woman with -terror. She longed to get rid of the presence of this terrible "man -of God."[630] He must have come, she thought, to bring her sin to -remembrance before God, and so to cause Him to slay her son. The -Prophet was touched by the pathos of her appeal, and could not bear -that she should look upon him as the cause of her bereavement. "Give -me thy son," he said. Taking the dead boy from her arms, he carried -him to the chamber which she had set apart for him, and laid him on -his own bed. Then, after an earnest cry to God, he stretched himself -three times over the body of the youth, as though to breathe into -his lungs and restore his vital warmth, at the same time praying -intensely that "his soul might come into him again."[631] His prayer -was heard; the boy revived. Carrying him down from the chamber, -Elijah had the happiness of restoring him to his widowed mother -with the words, "See, thy son liveth." So remarkable an event not -only convinced the woman that Elijah was indeed what she had called -him, "a man of God," but also that Jehovah was the true God. It was -not unnatural that tradition should interest itself in the boy thus -strangely snatched from the jaws of death. The Jews fancied that he -grew up to be servant of Elijah, and afterwards to be the prophet -Jonah. The tradition at least shows an insight into the fact that -Elijah was the first missionary sent from among the Jews to the -heathen, and that Jonah became the second. - -We are not to suppose that during his stay at Zarephath Elijah -remained immured in his chamber. Safe and unsuspected, he might, at -least by night, make his way to other places, and it is reasonable -to believe that he then began to haunt the glades and heights of -beautiful and deserted Carmel, which was at no great distance, and -where he could mourn over the ruined altar of Jehovah and take refuge -in any of its "more than two thousand tortuous caves." But what -was the object of his being sent to Zarephath? That it was not for -his own sake alone, that it had in it a purpose of conversion, is -distinctly implied by our Lord when He says that in those days there -were many widows in Israel, yet Elijah was not sent to them, but -to this Sidonian idolatress. The prophets and saints of God do not -always understand the meaning of Providence or the lessons of their -Divine training. 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 God, which he afterwards so gloriously -fulfilled. The thoughts of God are not as man's thoughts, nor His -ways as man's ways, nor does He make all His servants as it were -"fusile apostles," as He made St. Paul. The education of Elijah -was far from complete even long afterwards. To the very last, if -we are to accept the records of him as historically literal, amid -the revelations vouchsafed to him he had not grasped the truth that -the Elijah-spirit, however needful it may seem to be, differs very -widely from the Spirit of the Lord of Life. Yet may it not have -been that Elijah was sent to learn from the kind ministrations of a -Sidonian widow, to whose care his life was due, some inkling of those -truths which Christ revealed so many centuries afterwards, when He -visited the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, and extended His mercy to the -great faith of the Syro-Phoenician woman? 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 Uncircumcision, that not every -Baal-worshipper was necessarily corrupt or wholly insincere? St. -Peter was thus taught that God is no respecter of persons, and that -whether their religious belief be false or true, in every nation he -that feareth Him and doeth righteousness is accepted of Him. St. Paul -learnt at Damascus and taught at Athens that God made of one every -nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth, that they should -seek God if haply they might feel after Him and find Him, though He -be not far from every one of us. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[625] 1 Kings xvii. 7. Perhaps years (Lev. xxv. 29; 1 Sam. xxvii. 7). - -[626] Job vi. 17. - -[627] Menander, quoted by Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. xiii. 2. He says -it lasted for a year. - -[628] LXX., "My sons"--perhaps with reference to "her house" in verse -15. - -[629] Perhaps the language of the Hebrew is not actually decisive. -Josephus says, [Greek: ten psychen apheinai kai doxai nekron]. In any -case his recovery was due to Elijah's prayer. - -[630] The phrase "man of God" is characteristic of the Book of Kings, -in which it occurs fifty-three times. It became a normal description -of Elijah and Elisha. "What have I to do with thee?" Comp. 2 Sam. -xvi. 10; Luke v. 8. It was a common superstition that death always -followed the appearance of superhuman beings. - -[631] Compare the similar revivals of life wrought by Elisha (2 Kings -iv. 34), and by St. Paul (Acts xx. 10). - - - - - CHAPTER XXXVI. - - _ELIJAH AND AHAB._ - - 1 KINGS, xviii. 1-19. - - "Return, oh backsliding children, and I will heal your - backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for Thou art Jehovah our - God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the tumult (of - votaries) upon the mountains. Truly in Jehovah our God is the - salvation of Israel. And the Shame (_i.e._, Baal) hath devoured - the labour of our fathers."--JER. iii. 22-24. - - -Elijah stayed long with the Sidonian widow, safe in that obscure -concealment, and with his simple wants supplied. 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 people, and that the time was come for some immense and decisive -demonstration against the prevalent apostasy. All his sudden movements, -all his stern incisive utterances were swayed by his allegiance to -Jehovah before whom he stood, and he now received the command, "Go, -show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth." - -To obey such a mandate showed the strength of his faith. It is -clear that even before the menace of the thought he had been known, -and unfavourably known, to Ahab. The king saw in him a prophet who -fearlessly opposed all the idolatrous tendencies into which he had -led his easy and faithless people. How terribly must Ahab's hatred -have been now intensified! We see from all the books of the prophets -that they were personally identified with their predictions; that -they were held responsible for them, were even regarded in popular -apprehension as having actually brought about the things which they -predicted. "See," says Jehovah to the timid boy Jeremiah, "I have -this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root -out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, -and to plant." The Prophet is addressed as though he personally -effected the ruin he denounced. Elijah, then, would be regarded by -Ahab as in one sense the author of the three years' famine. It would -be held--not indeed with perfect accuracy, 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 multitudes. With -what wrath would a great and powerful king like Ahab look on this -bold intruder, this skin-clad alien of Gilead, who had frustrated his -policy, defied his power, and stamped his reign with so overwhelming -a disaster. Yet he is bidden, "Go, show thyself unto Ahab"; and -perhaps his immediate safety was only secured by the additional -message, "and I will send rain upon the earth." - -Things had, indeed, come to their worst. The "sore famine" in Samaria -had reached a point which, if it had not been alleviated, would have -led to the utter ruin of the miserable kingdom. - -In this crisis Ahab did all that a king could do. Most of the cattle -had perished, but it was essential to save if possible some of the -horses and mules. 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 sky. To these places it -was necessary to drive such a remnant of the cattle as it might be -still possible to preserve alive. But who could be trusted to rise -entirely superior to individual selfishness in such a search? Ahab -thought it best to trust no one but himself and his vizier Obadiah. -The very name of this high official, Obadjahu, like the common -Mohammedan names Abdallah, Abderrahnan, and others, implied that he -was "a servant of Jehovah." His conduct answered to his name, for -on Jezebel's persecuting attempt to exterminate Jehovah's prophets -in their schools or communities, he, "the Sebastian of the Jewish -Diocletian," had, at the peril of his own life, taken a hundred -of them, concealed them in two of the great limestone caves of -Palestine--perhaps in the recesses of Mount Carmel,[632] and fed them -with bread and water. It is to Ahab's credit that he retained such a -man in office, though the touch of timidity which we trace in Obadiah -may have concealed the full faithfulness of his personal allegiance -to the old worship. Yet that such a man should still hold the post of -chamberlain (_al-hab-baith_) furnishes a fresh proof that Ahab was -not himself a worshipper of Baal. - -The king and his vizier went in opposite directions, each of them -unaccompanied, and Obadiah was on his way when he was startled by -the sudden appearance of Elijah. He had not previously seen him, -but recognising him by his shaggy locks, his robe of skin, and the -awful sternness of his swarthy countenance, he was almost abjectly -terrified. Apart from the awe-inspiring aspect and manner of the -Prophet, this seemed no mere man who stood before him, but the -representative of the Eternal, and the wielder of His power. To his -contemporaries he appeared like the incarnate vengeance of Jehovah -against guilty times, a flash as it were of God's consuming fire. To -the Moslim of to-day he is still _El Khudr_, "the eternal wanderer." -Springing from his chariot, Obadiah fell flat on his face and cried, -"Is it thou, my lord Elijah?" "It is I," answered the Prophet, not -wasting words over his terror and astonishment. "Go, tell thy lord, -Behold, Elijah is here." - -The message enhanced the vizier's alarm. Why had not Elijah showed -himself at once to Ahab? Did some terrible vindictive purpose lurk -behind his message? Did Elijah confuse the aims and deeds of the -minister with those of the king? Why did he despatch him on an errand -which might move Ahab to kill him? Was not Elijah aware, he asks, -with Eastern hyperbole, that Ahab had sent "to every nation and -kingdom" to ask if Elijah was there, and when told that he was not -there he made them confirm the statement by an oath?[633] What would -come of such a message if Obadiah conveyed it? No sooner would it -be delivered than the wind of the Lord would sweep Elijah away into -some new and unknown solitude,[634] and Ahab, thinking that he had -only been befooled, would in his angry disappointment, put Obadiah -to death. Had he deserved such a fate? Had not Elijah heard of his -reverence for Jehovah from his youth, and of his saving the hundred -prophets at the peril of his life? Why then send him on so dangerous -a mission? To these agitated appeals Elijah answered by his customary -oath, "As Jehovah of hosts liveth, before whom I stand,[635] I will -show myself unto him to-day." Then Obadiah went and told Ahab, and -Ahab with impetuous haste hastened to meet Elijah, knowing that on -him depended the fate of his kingdom. - -Yet when they met he could not check the burst of anger which sprang -to his lips. - -"Is it thou, thou troubler of Israel?" he fiercely exclaimed.[636] -Elijah was not the man to quail before the _vultus instantis tyranni_. -"I have not troubled Israel," was the undaunted answer, "but thou -and thy father's house." The cause of the drought was not the menace -of Elijah, but the apostasy to Baalim. It was time that the fatal -controversy should be decided. There must be an appeal to the people. -Elijah was in a position to dictate, and he did dictate. "Let all -Israel," he said, "be summoned to Mount Carmel;" and there he would -singly meet in their presence the four hundred and fifty prophets of -Baal, and the four hundred prophets of the Asherah, all of whom ate -at Jezebel's table.[637] Then and there a great challenge should take -place, and the question should be settled for ever, whether Baal or -Jehovah was to be the national god of Israel. What challenge could be -fairer, seeing that Baal was the Sun-god, the god of fire? - -FOOTNOTES: - -[632] Amos ix. 3: "And though they hide themselves in the top of -Carmel, I will search and take them out thence." The phrase shows the -security and seclusion of these caves and thickets, the haunt once of -lions and bears, and still of leopards and hyaenas. - -[633] The LXX. adds that he inflicted vengeance because Elijah was -not found: "[Greek: Kai eneprese ten basileian kai tas choras autes -hoti ouch eureke se]" (1 Kings xviii. 10). - -[634] Obadiah seems to have believed in miraculous transference of -the Prophet from place to place. Comp. Ezek. iii. 12-14 (where "the -spirit" may be rendered "a spirit," or "a wind"), viii. 3; 2 Kings -ii. 16; Acts viii. 39; and the Ebionite Gospel of St. Matthew. "My -mother, the Holy Ghost, took me by a hair of the head, and carried me -to Mount Tabor" (Orig. _in Joann._, ii., Sec. 6; and Jer. _in Mic._ vii. -6). So in Bel and the Dragon 33-36 (Abarbanel, _Comm. in Habakkuk_) -the prophet Habakkuk is said to have been taken invisibly to supply -food to Daniel in the den of lions. "Then the angel of the Lord took -him by the crown and bare him by the hair of his head, and through -the vehemency of his spirit" (_Midr. Robshik Rabba, "in the might of -the Holy Ghost"_) "set him in Babylon." - -[635] 1 Kings xviii. 15, LXX., "The Lord God of Israel" has now -become to him more prominently "the Lord God of Hosts." - -[636] The phrase had already been applied to Achan (Josh. vii. 25). - -[637] _I.e._, were maintained at Jezebel's expense. The subsequent -narration is silent as to the presence of the prophets of the Asherah, -and Wellhausen thinks that the words here are an interpolation. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXVII. - - _ELIJAH ON MOUNT CARMEL._ - - 1 KINGS xviii. 20-40. - - "O for a sculptor's hand, - That thou might'st take thy stand, - Thy wild hair floating in the eastern breeze!" - KEBLE. - - -It never occurred to Ahab to refuse the challenge, or to arrest the -hated messenger. The hermit and the dervish are sacrosanct; they -stand before kings and are not ashamed. Having nothing to desire, -they have nothing to fear. So Antony stalked into the streets of -Alexandria to denounce its prefect; so Athanasius fearlessly seized -the bridle of Constantine in his new city; 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 Thedosius, and bade them go back and rebuke the fury of their -Emperor,--and so far from punishing him they alighted, and fell on -their knees, and begged his blessing. - -The vast assembly was gathered by royal proclamation. There could -have been no scene in the land of Israel more strikingly suitable for -the purpose than Mount Carmel. It is a ridge of upper oolite, or Jura -limestone, which at the eastern extremity rises more than sixteen -hundred feet above the sea, sinking down to six hundred feet at the -western extremity. The "excellency of Carmel" of which the prophet -speaks[638] consists in the fruitfulness which to this day makes it -rich in flowers of all hues, and clothes it with the impenetrable -foliage of oak, pine, walnut, olive, laurel, dense brushwood, and -evergreen shrubberies thicker than in any other part in Central -Palestine. The name means "Garden of God," and travellers, delighted -with the rocky dells and blossoming glades, describe Carmel as "still -the fragrant lovely mountain that it was of old."[639] It "forms the -southern extremity of the Gulf of Khaifa, and separates the great -western plain of Philistia from the plain of Esdraelon, and the plain -of Phoenicia." "It is difficult," says Sir G. Grove, "to find another -site in which every particular is so minutely fulfilled as in this." -The whole mountain is now called _Mar Elias_ from the Prophet's name. - -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 ridge. It is "a terrace of natural rock," -which commands a fine view of the plains and lakes and the hills of -Galilee, and the windings of the Kishon, with Jezreel glimmering in -the far distance under the heights of Gilboa. The remains of an old -and massive square structure are here visible, called _El-Muhrakkah_, -"the burning," or "the sacrifice," perhaps the site of Elijah's altar. -Under the ancient olives still remains the round well of perennial -water from which, even in the drought, the Prophet could fill the -barrels which he poured over his sacrifice. Elijah's grotto is pointed -out in the Church of the Convent, and another near the sea. In the -region known as "the garden of Elijah" are found the _geodes_ and -_septaria_--stones and fossils which assume the aspect, sometimes -of loaves of bread, sometimes of water-melons and olives, and are -still known as "Elijah's fruits." The whole mountain murmurs with his -name.[640] He became in local legend the oracular god Carmelus, whose -"altar and devotion" drew visitors no less illustrious than Pythagoras -and Vespasian to visit the sacred hill.[641] - -Here, then, at early dawn the Prophet of Jehovah, in his solitary -grandeur, 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 people. He presented the oft-repeated -type of God's servant alone against the world.[642] Most rarely is -it otherwise. They who speak smooth things and prophesy deceits -may always live at ease in amicable compromise with the world, the -flesh, and the devil. But the Prophet has ever to set his face as a -flint against tyrants, and mobs and false prophets, and intriguing -priests, and all who daub tottering walls with untempered mortar, -and all who, in days smooth and perilous, softly murmur, "Peace, -peace, when there is no peace." So it was with Noah in the days of -the deluge; so with Amos and Hosea and the later Zechariah; so with -Micaiah, the son of Imlah; so with Isaiah, mocked as a babbler by the -priests at Jerusalem, and at last sawn asunder; so with Jeremiah, -struck in the face by the priest Pashur, and thrust into the miry -dungeon, and at last murdered in exile; so with Zechariah, the son -of Jehoiada, whom they slew between the porch and the altar. Nor has -it been less so since the earliest dawn of the New Dispensation. Of -John the Baptist the priests and Pharisees said, "He has a devil," -and Herod slew him in prison. All, perhaps, of the twelve Apostles -were martyred. Paul, like the rest, was intrigued against, thwarted, -hated, mobbed, imprisoned, hunted from place to place by the world, -the Jews, and the false Christians. Treated as the offscouring of all -things, he was at last contemptuously beheaded in utter obscurity. -Similar fates befell many of the best and greatest of the Fathers. -Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, were slain by wild beasts and by fire. -Origen's life was one long martyrdom, mostly at the hands of his -fellow-Christians. Did not Athanasius stand against the world? What -needs it to summon from the prison or the stake the mighty shades -of Savonarola, of Huss, of Jerome of Prague, of the Albigenses -and Waldenses, of the myriad victims of the Inquisition, of those -who were burnt at Smithfield and Oxford, of Luther, of Whitfield? -Did Christ mean nothing when he said, among His first beatitudes, -"Blessed are ye when all men shall revile you, and persecute you, -and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake and the -gospel's"? Was it mere accident and metaphor when He said, "Ye are -of the world, and therefore the world cannot hate you; but Me it -hateth"; and, "If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, -much more them of His household"? Which of His best and purest sons, -from the first Good Friday down to this day, has ever passed through -life unpersecuted of slanderous tongues? Has the nominal Church ever -shown any more mercy to saints than the sneering and furious world? -What has sustained Christ's hated ones? What but that confidence -towards God which lives among those whose heart condemns them not? -What but the fact that "they could turn from the storm without to the -approving sunshine within"? "See," it has been said, "he who builds -on the general esteem of the world builds, not on the sand, but, -which is worse, upon the wind, and writes the title-deeds of his hope -upon the face of a river." But when a man knows that "one with God -is always in a majority," then his loneliness is changed into the -confidence that all the ten thousand times ten thousand of Heaven -are with him. "His banishment becomes his preferment, his rags his -trophies, his nakedness his ornament; and, so long as his innocence -is his repast, he feasts and banquets upon bread and water." - -And so, - - "Among the faithless, faithful only he; - Among innumerable false, unmoved, - Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified," - -Elijah fearlessly stood alone, while all the world confronted him with -frowning menace. The coward sympathies of the neutrals who face both -ways may have been with him, but the multitude of such Laodiceans -wink at wrong, and from love of their own ease do not, and dare not, -speak. God only was the protector of Elijah, and in himself alone was -all his state, as in his garment of hair he approached the people and -confronted the idolatrous priests in all the gorgeousness of Baal's -vestry. He, like his great predecessor Moses, was the champion of moral -purity, of the national faith, of religious freedom and simplicity, -of the immediate access of man to God; they were the champions of -fanatical and unhallowed religionism, of usurping priestcraft, of -unnatural self-abasements, of persecuting despotism, of licentious and -cruel rites. Elijah was the deliverer of his people from a hideous -and polluted apostasy which, had he not prevailed that day, would -have obliterated their name and their memory from the annals of the -nations. That he was a genuine historic character--a prophet of Divine -commission and marvellous power--cannot for a moment be doubted, -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 schools. Throughout the great scene which followed, his -spirit was that of the Psalmist: "Though an host of men should encamp -against me, yet will not my heart be afraid"; that of the "servant of -the Lord" in Isaiah: "He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, and in -His quiver hath He hid me."[643] - -His first challenge was to the people. "How long," he asked, "do ye -totter between two opinions?[644] If Jehovah be God, follow Him; but -if Baal, follow him." - -Awestruck and ashamed the multitude kept unbroken silence. Doubtless -it was, in part, the silence of guilt. They knew that they had -followed Jezebel into the cruelties of Baal-worship, and the -forbidden lusts which polluted the temples of the Asherah. Puritanism -simplicity, spirituality of worship involves a strain too great and -too lofty for the multitude. Like all Orientals, like the negroes of -America, like most weak minds, they loved to rely on a pompous ritual -and a sensuous worship. It is so easy to let these stand for the -deeper requirements which lie in the truth that "God is a Spirit, and -they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." - -Receiving no answer to his stern question, Elijah laid down the -conditions of the contest. "The prophets of Baal," he said, "are -four hundred and fifty: I stand alone as a prophet of Jehovah. Let -two bullocks be provided for us; they shall slay and dress one, -and lay it on wood, but--for there shall be no priestly trickeries -to-day--they shall put no fire under. I, though I be no priest, will -slay and dress the other, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under. -Then let all of you, Baal-priests and people if you will, cry to your -idols; I will call on the name of Jehovah. The god that answereth by -fire let _him_ be God." - -No challenge could be fairer, for Baal was the Sun-god; and what god -could be more likely to answer by fire from that blazing sky? The deep -murmur of the people expressed their assent. The Baal priests were -caught as in a snare. Their hearts must have sunk within them; his did -not. Perhaps some of them believed sufficiently in their idol to hope -that, were he demon or deity, he might save himself and his votaries -from humiliation and defeat; but most of them must have been seized -with terrible misgiving, as they saw the assembled people prepared to -wait with Oriental patience, seated on their abbas on the sides of that -natural amphitheatre, till the descending flame should prove that Baal -had heard the weird invocation of his worshippers. But, since they -could not escape the proposed ordeal, they chose, and slew, and dressed -their victim. From morning till noon--many of them with wildly waving -arms, others with their foreheads in the dust--they upraised the wild -chant of their monotonous invocation, "Baal, hear us! Baal, hear us!" -In vain the cry rose and fell, now uttered in soft appealing murmurs, -now rising into passionate entreaties. All was silent. There lay the -dead bullock putrescing under the burning orb which was at once their -deity and the visible sign of his presence. No consuming lightning -fell, even when the sun flamed in the zenith of that cloudless sky. -There was no voice nor any that answered. - -Then they tried still more potent incantations. They began to circle -round the altar they had made in one of their solemn dances to the -shrill strains of pipe and flute. The rhythmic movements ended in -giddy whirls and orgiastic leapings which were a common feature of -sensuous heathen worship; dances in which, like modern dervishes, -they bounded and yelled and spun round and round till they fell -foaming and senseless to the ground.[645] The people looked on -expectant, but it was all in vain. - -Hitherto the Prophet had remained silent, but now when noon came, and -still no fire descended, he mocked them. Now, surely, if ever, was -their time! They had been crying for six long hours in their vain -repetitions and incantations. Surely they had not shouted loud enough! -Baal was a god; some strange accident must have prevented him from -hearing the prayer of his miserable priests. Perhaps he was in deep -meditation, so that he did not notice those frantic appeals; perhaps -he was too busy talking to some one else,[646] or was on a journey -somewhere; or was asleep and must be awaked; or, he added with yet -more mordant sarcasm, and in a gibe which would have sounded coarse to -modern ears, perhaps he has gone aside for a private purpose. He must -be called, he must be aroused; he must be made to hear.[647] - -Such taunts, addressed to this multitude of priests in the hearing of -the people, whom they desired to dupe or to convince, drove them to -fiercer frenzy. Already the westering sun began to warn them that -their hour was past, and failure imminent. They would not succumb -without trying the darker sorceries of blood and self-mutilation, -which were only resorted to at the most dread extremities. With -renewed and redoubled yells they offered on their altar the blood -of human sacrifice, stabbing and gashing themselves with swords and -lances, till they presented a horrid spectacle. Their vestments and -their naked bodies were besmeared with gore[648] as they whirled -round and round with shriller and more frenzied screams.[649] -They raved in vain. The shadows began to lengthen. The hour for -the evening _Minchah_, the evening meal-offering, and oblation -of flour and meal, salt and frankincense, drew near.[650] It was -already "between the two evenings." They had continued their weird -invocations all through the burning day, but there was not any that -regarded. There lay the dead bullock on the still fireless altar; and -now their Tyrian Sun-god, like the fabled "Hercules," was but burning -himself to death on the flaming pyre of sunset amid the unavailing -agony of his worshippers. - -Then Elijah bade the sullen and baffled fanatics to stand aside, -and summoned the people to throng round him. There was nothing -tumultuous or orgiastic in his proceedings. In striking contrast with -the four hundred and fifty frantic sun-worshippers, he proceeded in -the calmest and most deliberate way. First, in the name of Jehovah, -he repaired the old _bamah_--the mountain-altar, which probably -Jezebel had broken down. This he did with twelve stones, one for -each of the tribes of Israel. Then he dug a broad trench.[651] Then, -when he had prepared his bullock, in order to show the people the -impossibility of any deception, such as are common among priests, he -bade them drench it three times over with four barrels of water,[652] -from the still-existent spring, and, not content with that, he filled -the trench also with water.[653] 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 He, not Baal, was -the Elohim of Israel. He used no "much speaking"; he did not adopt -the dervish yells and dances and gashings which were abhorrent to -God, though they appealed so powerfully to the sensuous imaginations -of the multitude. He only raised his eyes to heaven,[654] and cried -aloud in the hush of expectant stillness:-- - - "Jehovah, God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, - Let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, - And that I am Thy servant, - And that I have done all these things at Thy word. - Hear me, Jehovah, hear me. - That this people may know that Thou, Jehovah, art God, - And that Thou hast turned their heart back again." - -The prayer, with its triple invocation of Jehovah's name, and its -seven rhythmic lines, was no sooner ended than down streamed the -lightning, and consumed the bullock and the wood, and shattered -the stones, and burnt up the dust, and licked up the water in -the trenches;[655] and, with one terror-stricken impulse, the -people all prostrated themselves on their faces with the cry, -"_Yahweh--hoo--ha--Elohim, Yahweh--hoo--ha--Elohim!_" "The Lord, He -is God; the Lord, He is God!"--a cry which was almost identical with -the name of the victorious prophet Elijahu--"Yah, He is my God."[656] - -The magnificent narrative in which the interest has been wound up to -so high a pitch, and expressed in so lofty a strain of imaginative -and dramatic force, ends in a deed of blood. According to Josephus, -the people, by a spontaneous movement, "seized and slew the prophets -of Baal, Elijah exhorting them to do so." According to the earlier -narrative, Elijah said to the people: "Take the prophets of Baal; let -not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them -down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there with the sword."[657] -It is not necessarily meant that he slew them with his own hand, -though indeed he may have done so, as Phinehas sacrificed Jephthah's -daughter, and Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord. His moral -responsibility was precisely the same in either case. We are not told -that he had any commission from Jehovah to do this, or was bidden -thereto by any voice of the Lord. Yet in those wild days--days of -ungovernable passions and imperfect laws, days of ignorance which -God winked at--it is not only perfectly probable that Elijah would -have acted thus, but most unlikely that his conscience reproached -him for doing so, or that it otherwise than approved the sanguinary -vengeance. It was the frightful _lex talionis_, which was spoken -"to them of old time," and which inflicted on the defeated what -they would certainly have inflicted on Elijah had he not been the -conqueror. The prophets of Baal indirectly, if not directly, had -been the cause of Jezebel's persecution of the prophets of the -Lord. The thought of pity would not occur to Elijah any more than -it did to the writer, or writers, of Deuteronomy, perhaps, long -afterwards, who commanded the stoning of idolaters, whether men or -women (Deut. xiii. 6-9, xvii. 2-4). The massacre of the priests -accorded with the whole spirit of those half-anarchic times. It -accords with that Elijah-spirit of orthodox fanaticism, which, as -Christ Himself had to teach to the sons of thunder, is not His -spirit, but utterly alien from it. If, perhaps two centuries later, -the savage deed could be recorded, and recorded with approval, -by this narrator from the School of the Prophets in these superb -eulogies of his hero; if so many centuries later the disciple whom -Jesus loved, and the first martyr-apostle could deem it an exemplary -deed; if, centuries later, it could be appealed to as a precedent -by Inquisitors with hearts made hard as the nether millstone by -bigoted and hateful superstition; if even Puritans could be animated -by the same false hallowing of ferocity; how can we judge Elijah -if, in dark, unilluminated early days, he had not learnt to rise -to a purer standpoint? To this day the names about Carmel shudder, -as it were, with reminiscence of this religious massacre. There is -_El-Muhrakkah_, "the place of burning"; there is _Tel-el-Kusis_, -"the hill of the priests"; and that ancient river, the river Kishon, -which had once been choked with the corpses of the host of Sisera, -and has since then been incarnadined by the slain of many a battle, -is--perhaps in memory of this bloodshed most of all--still known as -the _Nahr-el-Mokatta_, or "the stream of slaughter." What wonder that -the Eastern Christians in their pictures of Elijah still surround -him with the decapitated heads of these his enemies? To this day the -Moslim regard him as one who terrifies and slays.[658] - -But though the deed of vengeance stands recorded, and recorded -with no censure, in the sacred history, we must--without condemning -Elijah, 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 Christianity, and say, as said the early -Fathers, [Greek: Bia echthron Theo]. Violence is a thing hateful to -the God of love. - -Even Christians, and that down to our own day, have abused the -example of Elijah, and asked, "Did not Elijah slaughter the -priests of Baal?" as a proof that it is always the duty of States -to suppress false religion by violence. Stahl asked that question -when he preached before the Prussian court at the Evangelical -Conference at Berlin in 1855, adding the dreadful misrepresentation -that "Christianity is the religion of intolerance, and its kernel -is exclusiveness." Did these hard spirits never consider Christ's -own warning? Did they wholly forget the prophecy that "He shall not -strive nor cry, neither shall His voice be heard in the streets. -A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not -quench, till He send forth judgment unto victory, and in His name -shall the Gentiles hope"?[659] Calvin reproved Rene, Duchess of -Ferrara, for not approving of the spirit of the imprecatory psalms. -He said that this was "to set ourselves up as superior to Christ -in sweetness and humility"; and that "David even in his hatreds -is an example and type of Christ." When Cartwright argued for the -execution of the heretics he said: "If this be thought savage and -intolerant, I am content to be so with the Holy Ghost." Far wiser is -the humble minister in _Old Mortality_, when he withstood Balfour of -Burleigh, in the decision to put to the sword all the inhabitants -of Tillietudlem Castle. "By what law," asks Henry Morton, "would you -justify the atrocity you would commit?" "If thou art ignorant of it," -said Balfour, "thy companion is well aware of the law which gave -the men of Jericho to the sword of Joshua, the son of Nun." "Yes," -answered the divine, "but we live under a better dispensation, which -instructeth us to return good for evil, and to pray for those who -despitefully use us and persecute us." - -FOOTNOTES: - -[638] Isa. xxxiii. 9, xxxv. 2; Micah vii. 14. Its beauty and -fruitfulness are alluded to in Jer. xlvi. 18, l. 19; Amos i. 2, ix. -3; Nahum i. 4; Cant. vii. 5. - -[639] Sir George Grove, to whose excellent article in Smith's -_Dict. of Bible_ (i. 279) I am indebted, quotes Martineau (i. 317), -Porter's _Handbook_, Van de Velde, etc. See, too, Stanley, _Sinai and -Palestine_, pp. 353-56. - -[640] On these _Lapides judaici_, see my _Life of Christ_, i. 129. -Illustrations are given in the illustrated edition. - -[641] Jambl., _Vit. Pythag._, iii.; Suet., _Vesp._, 5; Tac., _Hist._, -ii. 78; Reland, _Palest._, pp. 327-30. - -[642] Megiddo lies in the plain below, and this scene of conflict -between good and the powers of evil was an anticipated Armageddon. - -[643] Isa. xlix. 2; Cheyne, p. 16. - -[644] LXX., 1 Kings xviii. 21, [Greek: heos pote hymeis cholaneite -ep' amphoterais tais ignyais]. Vulg., _usquequo claudicatis in -duas partes?_ Cheyne renders it: "How long will ye go lame upon -tottering knees?" In Psalm cxix. 113, [Hebrew: se'afim] are "the -double-minded." In Ezek. xxxi. 6, [Hebrew: se'appot], "diverging -branches." In Isa. ii. 21, [Hebrew: se'ifei], "clefts of rocks" (Baehr). - -[645] Herodian (_Hist._, v. 3) describes the dance of Heliogabalus -round the altar of the Emesene Sun-god, and Apuleius describes -at length the fanatic leapings and gashings of the execrable -_Galli_--the eunuch-mendicant priests of the Syrian goddess. From -these sources and from allusions in Seneca, Lucian, Statius, -Arnobius, etc., Movers (_Phoeniz._, i. 682) derives his description -(quoted by Keil, _ad loc._, E.T., p. 281): "A discordant howling -opens the scene. Now they fly wildly through one another, with the -head sunk down to the ground, but turning round in circles, so that -the loose flowing hair drags through the mire. Thereupon they first -bite themselves on the arm, and at last cut themselves with two-edged -swords, which they are wont to carry. Then begins a new scene. One of -them who surpasses all the rest in frenzy, begins to prophesy with -sighs and groans, openly accuses himself of past sins, which he now -wishes to punish by the mortifying of the flesh, takes the knotted -whip which the Galli are wont to bear, lashes his back, cuts himself -with swords, till the blood trickles down from his mangled body." - -[646] Verse 27. Others render it "meditating" (De Wette Thenius) or -"peevish" (Baehr). Comp. Hom., _Il._, i. 423; _Od._, i. 22, etc. - -[647] This instance of "grim sarcastic humour" is almost unique in -Scripture. It was made more mordant by the paronomasia [Hebrew: -ki-siach lov vechi-sig] (2 Sam. i. 22). - -[648] Plutarch (_De Superstit._, p. 170) says: "The priests of -Bellona offered their own blood, which was deemed powerful to move -their gods." Comp. Herod., ii. 61; Lucian, _De Dea Syra_, 50; Apul., -_Metam._, viii. 28. - -[649] [Hebrew: hamminchah la'alot 'ad], "till towards (Numb. xxviii. -4) the offering of the Minchah." LXX., [Greek: thysia]; Vulg., -_sacrificium_ and _holocaustum_. In verse 39 it is omitted in the -LXX. "There is a great concurrence of evidence that the evening -sacrifice of the first Temple was not a holocaust, but a cereal -oblation" (Robertson Smith, p. 143, quoting 1 Kings xviii. 34; 2 -Kings xvi. 15; Ezek. ix. 4, Heb). - -[650] Heb., [Hebrew: vayitnabbe'u]; LXX., [Greek: dietrechon]; Vulg., -_transiliebant_. Literally, they acted like frantic prophets (1 Sam. -xviii. 10; Jer. xxix. 26). - -[651] LXX., [Greek: thalassan], or "sea"--the name given to Solomon's -molten laver; but the description, "as great as would contain two -_seahs_ of seed," is curious, for a seah was only the third of an ephah. - -[652] Blunt (_Undesigned Coincidences_, II. xxxii.) thinks that as -the drought had been so intense the water must have been sea-water. -But Josephus says it was drawn [Greek: apo tes krenes] (_Antt._, -VIII. xiii. 5); and the well still exists. - -[653] Priests, both pagan and mediaeval, have been adepts at -deception. At the Reformation the mechanism of winking Madonnas, -etc., was exposed to the people. At Pompeii may still be seen the -secret staircase behind the altar, and the pipes let into the head -of Isis from behind, through which the priests spoke her pretended -oracles. St. Chrysostom (_Orat. in. Petr. et Eliam_, which is of -uncertain genuineness) tells us that he had himself seen ([Greek: -theates autos genomenos]) altars with concealed hollows in the -middle, into which the unsuspected operator crept, and blew up a fire -which the people were assured was self-kindled (see Keil, p. 282). -One legend says that on this occasion a man was suffocated, who had -been concealed by the Baal priests inside their altar. - -[654] 1 Kings xviii. 36. - -[655] Comp. Lev. ix. 24. Analogous stories existed among pagans -(Hom., _Il._, ii. 305; _Od._, ii. 143; Verg., _Ecl._, viii. 105). -Pliny says that annals recorded the eliciting of lightning by prayers -and incantations (_H. N._, ii. 54; Winer, _Realwoerterb._ 371). - -[656] It is after Elijah's time, and probably from his influence, -that from this time proper names compounded with Jehovah become -almost the rule--as in Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, Joash, -Pekahiah, etc. - -[657] 1 Kings xix. 1, [Hebrew: becharev]; LXX., [Greek: en rhomphaia]. - -[658] Renan, _Vie de Jesus_, 100. - -[659] Matt. xii. 19, 20; Isa. xlii. 2, 3; Ezek. xxxiv. 16. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXVIII. - - _THE RAIN._ - - 1 KINGS xviii. 41-46. - - "Are there any of the vanities of the nations that can cause - rain?"--JER. xiv. 22. - - -But the terrible excitement of the day was not yet over, nor was the -victory completely won. The fire had flashed from heaven, but the -long-desired rain on which depended the salvation of land and people -still showed no signs of falling. And Elijah was pledged to this -result. Not until the drought ended could he reach the culmination of -his victory over the Sun-god of Jezebel's worship. - -But his faith did not fail him. "Get thee up," he said to Ahab, "eat -and drink, for there is a sound of the feet of the rain-storm."[660] -Doubtless through all that day of feverish anxiety, neither king, -nor people, nor prophet had eaten. As for the Prophet, but little -sufficed him at any time, and the slaughter of the defeated priests -would not prevent either king or people from breaking their long -fast. Doubtless the king's tent was pitched on one of the slopes -over the plain. But Elijah did not join him. He heard, indeed, -with prophetic ear the rush of the coming rain, but he had still to -wrestle in prayer with Jehovah for the fulfilment of His promise. So -he ascended towards the summit of the promontory where the purple -peak of Carmel--still called Jebel Mar Elias ("the hill of Lord -Elijah")--overlooks the sea, and there he crouched low on the ground -in intense prayer, putting his face between his knees. After his -first intensity of supplication had spent itself, he said to his boy -attendant,[661] traditionally believed to have been the son of the -widow of Zarephath whom he had plucked from death:-- - -"Go up now, look towards the sea." - -The youth went up, and gazed out long and intently, for he well -knew that if rain came it would sweep inland from the waters of the -Mediterranean, and to an experienced eye the signals of coming storm -are patent long before they are noticed by others. But all was as it -had been for so many weary and dreadful months. The sea a sheet of -unruffled gold glared under the setting sun, which still sank through -an unclouded sky. Can we not imagine the accent of misgiving and -disappointment with which he brought back the one word:-- - -"Nothing." - -Once more the Prophet bowed his face between his knees in prayer, and -sent the youth; and again, and yet again, seven times. And each time -had come to him the chilling answer, "Nothing." But the seventh time -he called out from the mountain summit his joyous cry: "Behold, there -ariseth a cloud out of the sea, as small as a man's hand." - -And now, indeed, Elijah knew that his triumph was completed. He bade -his servant fly with winged speed to Ahab, and tell him to make ready -his chariot at once, lest the burst of the coming rain should flood -the river and the road, and prevent him from getting over the rough -ground which lay between him and his palace at Jezreel. - -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 comprehend. And Ahab mounted his chariot. He had not driven -far before the heaven, which had for so long been like brass over -an iron globe, was one black mass of clouds driven by the wind, and -the drenching rain poured down in sheets. And through the storm -the chariot swept, and Elijah girded up his loins, and, filled -with a Divine impulse of exultation, ran before it, keeping pace -with the king's steeds for all those fifteen miles, even after the -overwhelming strain of all he had gone through, apparently without -food, that day. And as through the rifts of rain the king saw his -wild dark figure outrunning his swift steeds, and seeming "to dilate -and conspire" with the rushing storm, can we wonder that the tears of -remorse and gratitude streamed down his face?[662] - -The chariot reached Jezreel, and at the city gate Elijah stopped. -Like his antitype, the great forerunner, Elijah was a voice in the -wilderness; like his Lord that was to be, he loved not cities. The -instinct of the Bedawin kept him far from the abodes of men, and his -home was never among them. He needed no roof to shelter him, nor -change of raiment. The hollows of Mount Gilboa were his sufficient -resting-place, and he could find a sleeping-place in the caves near -its abundant Eastern spring. Nor was he secure of safety. He knew, in -spite of his superhuman victory, that a dark hour awaited Ahab when he -would have to tell Jezebel that the people had repudiated her idol, -and that Elijah had slain her four hundred and fifty priests. He knew -"that axe-like edge unturnable" which always smote and feared not. Ahab -was but as plastic clay in the strong hands of his queen, and for her -there existed neither mystery nor miracle except in the worship of the -insulted Baal. Was not Baal, she said, the real sender of the rain, on -whose priests this fanatic from rude Gilead had wrought his dreadful -sacrifice? Oh that she could have been for one hour on Carmel in the -place of her vacillating and easily daunted husband! For was she not -convinced, and did not the pagan historian afterwards relate, that the -ending of the drought was due to the prayers and sacrifices, not of -Elijah, but of her own father who was Baal's priest and king?[663] Yet, -for all her spirit of defiance, we can hardly doubt that the feelings -of Jezebel towards Elijah had much of dread mingled with her hatred. -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 men.[664] - -"May we really venture," asks Canon Cheyne, "to _look_ out for answer -to prayer? Did not Elijah live in the _heroic_ ages of faith? No; -God still works miracles. Take an instance from the early history of -Christian Europe. You know the terror excited by the Huns, who in the -sixth century after Christ penetrated into the very heart of Christian -France. Already they had occupied the suburbs of Orleans, and the -people who were incapable of bearing arms lay prostrate in prayer. The -governor sent a message to observe from the ramparts. Twice he looked -in vain, but the third time he reported a small cloud on the horizon. -'It is the aid of God,' cried the Bishop of Orleans. It was the dust -raised by the advancing squadrons of Christian troops."[665] - -A much nearer parallel, and that a very remarkable one, may be -quoted.[666] It records--and the fact itself, explain it how men will, -seems to be unquestionable--how a storm of rain came to answer the -prayer of a good leader of the Evangelical Revival--Grimshaw, rector -of Haworth. Distressed at the horrible immoralities introduced among -his parishioners by some local races, and wholly failing to get them -stopped, he went to the racecourse, and, flinging himself on his knees -in an agony of supplication, entreated God to interpose and save his -people from their moral danger. He had scarcely ceased his prayer when -down rushed a storm of rain so violent as to turn the racecourse into a -swamp, and render the projected races a matter of impossibility. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[660] LXX., [Greek: hoti phone ton podon tou hyetou]. Perhaps, with -reference to this reading, Josephus afterwards describes "the little -cloud" as "no bigger than a human footstep" ([Greek: ou pleon ichnous -anthropinou]). - -[661] LXX., [Greek: to paidario autou]. - -[662] LXX., 1 Kings xviii. 45, [Greek: Kai eklaie kai eporeueto -Achaab heos Iezrael]. - -[663] Menander of Ephesus (Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. xiii. 2). - -[664] Eisenlohr, _Das Volk Israel_, p. 162. - -[665] He refers to Gibbon, iv. 232. - -[666] See Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Broente_. - - - - - CHAPTER XXXIX. - - _ELIJAH'S FLIGHT._ - - 1 KINGS xix. 1-4. - - "A still small voice comes through the wild, - Like a father consoling his fretful child, - Which banisheth bitterness, wrath and fear, - Saying, 'Man is distant, but God is near.'" - TEMPLE. - - -The misgiving which, joined to his ascetic dislike of cities, made -Elijah stop his swift race at the entrance of Jezreel was more -than justified. Ahab's narrative of the splendid contest at Carmel -produced no effect upon Jezebel whatever, 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 fanatic, aided by a rebellious people. -Had _she_ been there all should have been otherwise! In contemptuous -defiance of Ahab's fears or wishes, she then and there--and it -must now have been after nightfall--despatched a messenger to find -Elijah, wherever he might be hiding himself, and say to him in her -name: "As sure as thou art Elijah, and I am Jezebel,[667] 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 priests." In the -furious impetuosity of the message we see the determination of the -sorceress-queen. In her way she was as much in deadly earnest as -Elijah was. Whether Baal had been defeated or not, _she_ was not -defeated, and Elijah should not escape her vengeance. The oath shows -the intensity of her rage, like that of the forty Jews who bound -themselves by the _cherem_ that they would not eat or drink till -they had slain Paul; and the fixity of her purpose as when Richard -III. declared that he would not dine till the head of Buckingham -had fallen on the block. We cannot but notice the insignificance -to which she reduced her husband, and the contempt with which she -treated the voice of her people. She presents the spectacle, so often -reproduced in history and reflected in literature, of a strong fierce -woman--a Clytemnestra, a Brunhault, a Lady Macbeth, an Isabella -of France, a Margaret of Anjou, a Joan of Naples, a Catherine de -Medicis--completely dominating a feebler consort. - -The burst of rage which led her to send the message defeated her own -object. The awfulness which invested Elijah, and the supernatural -powers on which he relied, when he was engaged in the battles of the -Lord, belonged to him only in his public and prophetic capacity. -As a man he was but a poor, feeble, lonely subject, whose blood -might be shed at any moment. He knew that God works no miracles for -the supersession of ordinary human precautions. It was no part of -his duty to throw away his life, and give a counter triumph to the -Baal-worshippers whom he had so signally humiliated. He fled, and -went for his life. - -Swift flight was easy to that hardy frame and that trained endurance, -even after the fearful day on Carmel and the wild race of fifteen -miles from Carmel to Jezreel. It was still night, and cool, and -the haunts and byways of the land were known to the solitary and -hunted wanderer. "He feared, and he rose, and he went for his life," -ninety-five miles to Beersheba, once a town of Simeon, now the -southern limit of the kingdom of Judah, thirty-one miles south of -Hebron.[668] But in the tumult of his feelings and the peril of his -position he could not stay in any town. At Beersheba he left his -servant--perhaps, as legend says, the boy of Zarephath, who became -the prophet Jonah--but, in any case, not so much a servant as a youth -in training for the prophetic office. It was necessary for him to -spend his dark hour alone; for, if there are hours in which human -sympathy is all but indispensable, there are also hours in which the -soul can tolerate no communion save that with God.[669] So, leaving -all civilisation behind him, he plunged a day's journey into that -great and terrible wilderness of Paran, where he too was alone with -the wild beasts. And then, utterly worn out, he flung himself down -under the woody stem of a solitary rhotem plant.[670] 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 land, -and beneath the slight but grateful shade of which the Arab to this -day is glad to pitch his tent. And there the pent-up emotions of his -spirit, which had gone through so tremendous a strain, broke up as in -one terrible sob, when the strong man, like a tired child, "requested -for himself that he might die."[671] - -Of what use was life any longer? He had fought for Jehovah, and -won, and after all been humiliatingly defeated. He had prophesied -the drought, and it had withered and scorched up the erring, -afflicted land. He had prayed for the rain, and it had come in a -rush of blessing on the reviving fields. In the Wady Cherith, in -the house of the Phoenician widow, he had been divinely supported -and sheltered from hot pursuit. He had snatched her boy from death. -He had stood before kings, and not been ashamed. He had stretched -forth his hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people, and not in -vain. He had confounded the rich-vested and royally maintained band -of Baal's priests, and in spite of their orgiastic leapings and -self-mutilations had put to shame their Sun-god under his own burning -sun. He had kept pace with Ahab's chariot-steeds as he conducted -him, as it were in triumph, through the streaming downpour of that -sweeping storm, to his summer capital. Of what use was it all? Was it -anything but a splendid and deplorable failure? And he said: "It is -enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my -fathers." He could have cried with the poet:-- - - "Let the heavens burst, and drown with deluging rain - The feeble vassals of lust, and anger, and wine, - The little hearts that know not how to forgive; - Arise, O God, and strike, for we count Thee just,-- - We are not worthy to live." - -Who does not know something of this feeling of utter overwhelming -despondency, of bitter disillusionment concerning life and our -fellow-men? Some great writer has said, with truth, "that there is -probably no man with a soul above that of the brutes that perish, -to whom a time has not come in his life, when, were you to tell him -that he would not wake to see another day, he would receive the -message with something like gladness." There are some whose lives -have been so saddened by some special calamity that for long years -together they have not valued them. F. W. Robertson, troubled by -various sorrows, and worried (as the best men are sure to be) by the -petty ecclesiastical persecutions of priests and formalists, wrote -in a letter on a friend's death: "How often have I thought of the -evening when he left Tours, when, in our boyish friendship, we set -our little silver watches exactly together, and made a compact to -look at the moon exactly at the same moment that night and think -of each other. _I do not remember a single hour in life since then -which I would have arrested, and said, 'Let this stay.'_" Melancholy -so deep as this is morbid and unnatural, and he himself wrote in a -brighter mood: "Positively I will not walk with any one in these -tenebrous avenues of cypress and yew. I like sunny rooms and sunny -truth. When I had more of spring and warmth I could afford to be -prodigal of happiness; but now I want sunlight and sunshine. I desire -to enter into those regions where cheerfulness and truth and health -of heart and mind reside." Life has its real happiness for those who -have deserved, and taken the right method to attain it; but it can -never escape its hours of impenetrable gloom, and they sometimes -seem to be darkest for the noblest souls. Petty souls are irritated -by little annoyances, and the purely selfish disappointments which -avenge the exaggerated claims of our "shivering egotism." But while -little mean spirits are tormented by the insect-swarm of little mean -worries, great souls are liable to be beaten down by the waves and -storms of immense calamities--the calamities which affect nations and -churches, the "desperate currents" of whose sins and miseries seem -to be sometimes driven through the channels of their single hearts. -Only such a man as an Elijah can measure the colossal despondency of -an Elijah's heart. In the apparently absolute failure, the seemingly -final frustration of such men as these there is something nobler than -in the highest personal exaltations of ignobler souls. - -"_Now, O Lord, take away my life!_" The prayer, however natural, -however excusable, is never right. It is a sign of insufficient -faith, of human imperfection; but it is breathed by different persons -in a spirit so different that in some it almost rises to nobleness, -as in others it sinks quite beneath contempt. - -Scripture gives us several specimens of both moods. If Jonah was, -indeed, the servant-pupil of Elijah, the legendary story of that -meanest-minded of all the prophets--the meanest-minded and paltriest, -not perhaps as he was in reality--for of him, historically, 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 Elijah. Elijah flies only when he -has done the mighty work of God, and only when the life is in deadly -peril which he would fain save for future emergencies of service; Jonah -flies that he may escape, out of timid selfishness, the work of God. -Elijah wishes himself dead because he thinks that the glorious purpose -of his life has been thwarted, and that the effort undertaken for -the deliverance of his people has failed; Jonah wishes himself dead, -first, because he repines at God's mercy, 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 children; and then because the poor -little castor-oil plant has withered, which gave him shelter from the -noon. Considering the traditional connexion between them, 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 -broke," and the selfish splenetic Jonah wishing himself dead in pettish -vexation under his _palma Christi_ because Nineveh is forgiven and the -sun is hot. - -There are indeed times when humanity is tried beyond its capacity, -when the cry for restful death is wrung from souls crushed under -accumulations of quite intolerable anguish and calamity. In the -fret of long-continued sleeplessness, in sick and desolate and -half-starved age, in attacks of disease incurable, long-continued, -and full of torture, God will surely look with pardoning tenderness -on those whose faith is unequal to so terrible a strain. It was -pardonable surely of Job to curse the day of his birth when--smitten -with elephantiasis, a horror, a hissing, an astonishment, bereaved of -all his children, and vexed by the obtrusive orthodoxies of his petty -Pharisaic friends; unconscious, too, 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 cried: "Wherefore is light given to -him that is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul?" In those who -have no hope and are without God in the world, this mood--not when -expressed in passing passion as by the saintly man of Uz, but when -brooded on and indulged--leads to suicide, and in the one instance -recorded in each Testament, an Ahithophel and a Judas, the despairing -souls of the guilty:-- - - "Into the presence of their God - Rushed in with insult rude." - -But Elijah's mood, little as it was justifiable in this its extreme -form, was but the last infirmity of a noble mind. 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 soared. It is with them as with the lark which -floods the blue air with its passion of almost delirious rapture, -yet suddenly, as though exhausted, drops down silent into its lowly -nest in the brown furrows. There is but one man in the Old Testament -who, as a prophet, stands on the same level as Elijah,--he who -stood with Elijah on the snowy heights of Hermon when their Lord -was transfigured into celestial brightness, and they spake together -of His decease at Jerusalem. And Moses had passed through the same -dark hour as that through which Elijah was passing now, when he saw -the tears, and heard the murmurs of the greedy, selfish, ungrateful -people, who hated their heavenly manna, and lusted for the leeks and -fleshpots of their Egyptian bondage. Revolted by this obtrusion upon -him of human nature in its lowest meanness, he cried to God under -his intolerable burden: "Have I conceived all this people?... I am -not able to bear all this people alone.... And if Thou deal thus -with me, kill me, I pray Thee, out of hand; and let me not see my -wretchedness." In Moses, as doubtless in Elijah, so far from being -the clamour of whining selfishness, his anguish was part of the -same mood which made him offer his life for the redemption of the -people; which made St. Paul ready to wish himself anathema from Jesus -Christ if thereby he could save his brethren after the flesh. Danton -rose into heroism when he exclaimed, "_Que mon nom soit fletri, -pourvu que la France soit libre_"; and Whitefield, when he cried, -"Perish George Whitefield, so God's work be done"; and the Duke of -Wellington when--remonstrated with for joining in the last charge at -Waterloo, with the shot whistling round his head--he said, "Never -mind; the victory is won, and now my life is of no consequence." In -great souls the thought of others, completely dominating the base -man's concentration in self, may create a despondency which makes -them ready to give up their life, not because it is a burden to -themselves, but because it seems to them as if their work was over, -and it was beyond their power to do more for others. - -Tender natures as well as strong natures are liable to this inrush of -hopelessness; and if it sometimes kills them by its violence, this is -only a part of God's training of them into perfection. - - "So unaffected, so composed a mind, - So firm, yet soft, so strong, yet so refined, - Heaven, as its purest gold, by tortures tried:-- - The saint sustained it, but the woman died."![672] - -The cherubim of the sanctuary had to be made of the gold of Uphaz, -the finest and purest gold. It was only the purest gold which could -be tortured by workmanship into forms of exquisite beauty. The -mind of Jeremiah was as unlike that of Elijah's as can possibly -be conceived. He was a man of shrinking and delicate temperament, -and his life is the most pathetic tragedy among the biographies of -Scripture. The mind of Elijah, like those of Dante or Luther or -Milton, was all ardour and battle brunt; the mind of Jeremiah, like -that of Melancthon, was timid as that of a gentle boy. A man like -Dante or Milton, when he stands alone, hated by princes and priests -and people, retorts scorn for scorn, and refuses to change his voice -to hoarse or mute. Yet even Dante died of a broken heart, and in -Milton's mighty autobiographical wail of Samson Agonistes, amid all -its trumpet-blast of stern defiance, we read the sad notes:-- - - "Nor am I in the list of them that hope; - Hopeless all my evils, all remediless; - This one prayer yet remains, might I be heard, - No long petition, speedy death, - The close of all my miseries, and the balm." - -When the insolent priest Pashur smote Jeremiah in the face, and put him -for a night and a day in the common stocks, the prophet--after telling -Pashur that, for this awful insult to God's messenger, his name, which -meant "joy far and wide," should be changed into Magormissa-bib, -"terror on every side"--utterly broke down, and passionately cursed -the day of his birth.[673] And yet his trials were very far from ended -then. Homeless, wifeless, childless, slandered, intrigued against, -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 day, the lonely persecuted servant -of the Lord ended only in exile and martyrdom the long trouble of his -eternally blessed but seemingly unfruitful life. - -I dwell on this incident in the life of Elijah because it is full -of instructiveness. Scripture is not all on a dead level. There are -many pages of it which belong indeed to the connected history, and -therefore carry on the general lessons of the history, but which -are, in themselves, almost empty of any spiritual profit. Only a -fantastic and artificial method of sermonising can extract from them, -taken alone, any Divine lessons. In these Books of Kings many of the -records are simply historical, and in themselves, apart from their -place in the whole, have no more religious significance than any -other historic facts; but because these annals are the annals of a -chosen people, and because these books are written for our learning, -we find in them again and again, and particularly in their more -connected and elevated narratives, facts and incidents which place -Scripture incomparably above all secular literature, and are rich in -eternal truth for all time, and for a life beyond life. - -It is with such an experience that we are dealing here, and therefore -it is worth while, if we can, to see something of its meaning. We may, -therefore, be permitted to linger for a brief space over the causes of -Elijah's despair, and the method in which God dealt with it. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[667] LXX., 1 Kings xix. 2. - -[668] The touch "which belongeth to Judah" shows that the -Elijah-narrative emanated from some prophet in the northern schools. -In later days it was much visited by pilgrims from the Northern -Kingdom (Amos v. 5, viii. 14). - -[669] Matt. xxvi. 36. - -[670] 1 Kings xix. 4, 5, [Hebrew: 'echat rotem]; Vulg., _subter -unam juniperum_. The plant is the _Genista monosperma_, with -papilionaceous flowers. Not "juniper," as in Luther (_Wachholder_) -and the A.V. LXX., [Greek: rhathmen phyton]. See Robinson, -_Researches_, i. 203, 205. It gave its name to the station Rithmah -(Numb. xxxiii. 18) and the Wadies Retemit and Retamah. - -[671] Comp. Moses (Numb. xi. 15), Jonah (Jonah iv. 3). - -[672] Pope's epitaph on Mrs. Elizabeth Corbet, in St. Margaret's -Westminster. - -[673] Jer. xx. 1-18. - - - - - CHAPTER XL. - - _ELIJAH'S DESPAIR._ - - 1 KINGS xix. 4-8. - - "So much I feel my genial spirits droop, - My hopes all flat, nature within me seems - In all her functions weary of herself, - My race of glory run, and race of shame, - And I shall shortly be with them that rest." - _Samson Agonistes._ - - -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 -failure? - -1. Even the lowest element of such despair has its instructiveness. It -was due in part, doubtless, to mere physical exhaustion. Elijah had -just gone through the most tremendous conflict of his life. During -all that long and most exhausting day at Carmel he had had little or -no food, and at the close of it he had run across all the plain with -the king's chariot. In the dead of that night, with his life in his -hand, he had fled towards Beersheba, and now he had wandered for a -whole day in the glare of the famishing wilderness. It does not do to -despise the body. If we _are_ spirits, yet we _have_ bodies; and the -body wreaks a stern and humiliating vengeance on those who neglect or -despise it. The body reacts upon the mind. "If you rumple the jerkin, -you rumple the jerkin's lining." If we weaken the body too much, we do -not make it the slave of the spirit, but rather make the spirit its -slave. Even moderate fasting, as a simple physiological fact--if it be -_fasting_ at all, as distinguished from healthful moderation and wise -temperance--tends to increase, and not by any means to decrease, the -temptations which come to us from the appetites of the body. Extreme -self-maceration--as all ascetics have found from the days of St. Jerome -to those of Cardinal Newman--only adds new fury to the lusts of the -flesh. Many a hermit and stylite and fasting monk, many half-dazed, -hysterical, high-wrought men have found, sometimes without knowing the -reason of it, that by wilful and artificial devices of self-chosen -saintliness, they have made the path of purity and holiness not easier, -but more hard. The body is a temple, not a tomb. It is not permitted -us to think ourselves wiser than God who made it, nor to fancy that -we can mend His purposes by torturing and crushing it. By violating -the laws of physical righteousness we only make moral and spiritual -righteousness more difficult to attain. - -2. Elijah's dejection was also due to forced inactivity. "What -_doest_ thou here, Elijah?" said the voice of God to him in the -heart of man. Alas! he was doing nothing: there was nothing left for -him to do! It was different when he hid by the brook Cherith, or in -Zarephath, or in the glades of Carmel. Then a glorious endeavour lay -before him, and there was hope. But - - "Life without hope draws nectar in a sieve, - And hope without an object cannot live." - -The mighty vindication of Jehovah in which all the struggle of his -life culminated, had been crowned with triumph, and had failed. -It had blazed up like fire, and had sunk back into ashes. To such -a spirit as his nothing is so fatal as to have nothing to do and -nothing to hope for. "What did the Marechal die of?" asked a -distinguished Frenchman of one of his comrades. "He died of having -nothing to do." "Ah!" was the reply; "that is enough to kill the best -General of us all." - -3. Again, Elijah was suffering from mental reaction. The bow had been -bent too long, and was somewhat strained; the tense string needed to -have been relaxed before. It is a common experience that some great -duty or mastering emotion uplifts us for a time above ourselves, -makes us even forget the body and its needs. We remember Jeremy -Taylor's description of what he had noticed in the Civil Wars,--that -a wounded soldier, amid the heat and fury of the fight, was wholly -unconscious of his wounds, and only began to feel the smart of them -when the battle had ended and its fierce passion was entirely spent. - -Men, even strong men, after hours of terrible excitement, have been -known to break down and weep like children. Macaulay, in describing -the emotions which succeeded the announcement that the Reform Bill -had passed, says that not a few, after the first outburst of wild -enthusiasm, were bathed in tears. - -And any one who has seen some great orator after a supreme effort of -eloquence, when his strength seems drained away, and the passion is -exhausted, and the flame has sunk down into its embers, is aware how -painful a reaction often follows, and how differently the man looks and -feels if you see him when he has passed into his retirement, pale and -weak, and often very sad. After a time the mind can do no more. - -4. Further, Elijah felt his loneliness. At that moment indeed he could -not bear the presence of any one, but none the less his sense that none -sympathised with him, that all hated him, that no voice was raised to -cheer him, that no finger was uplifted to help him, weighed like lead -upon his spirit. "I only am left." There was awful desolation in that -thought. He was alone among an apostatising people. It is the same -kind of cry which we hear so often in the life of God's saints. It is -the Psalmist crying: "I am become like a pelican in the wilderness, -and like an owl that is in the desert. Mine enemies reproach me all -the day long, and they that are mad upon me are sworn together against -me";[674] or, "My lovers and my neighbours did stand looking upon my -trouble, and my kinsmen stood afar off. They also that sought after -my life laid snares for me."[675] It is Job so smitten and afflicted -that he is half tempted for the moment to curse God and die. It is -Isaiah saying of the hopeless wickedness of his people, "The whole -head is sick, and the whole heart faint." It is Jeremiah complaining, -"The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their -means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end -thereof?"[676] It is St. Paul wailing so sadly, "All they of Asia have -turned from me. Only Luke is with me." It is the pathos of desolation -which breathes through the sad sentence of the Gospels, "Then all the -disciples forsook Him, and fled." The anticipation of desertion had -wrung from the Lord Jesus the sad prophesy, "Behold, the hour cometh, -yea, is now come, when ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and -shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is -with Me."[677] And this heart-anguish of loneliness is, to this day, a -common experience of the best men. Any man whose duty has ever called -him to strike out against the stream of popular opinion, to rebuke -the pleasant vices of the world, to plead for causes too righteous to -be popular, to deny the existence of vested interests in the causes -of human ruin, to tell a corrupt society that it is corrupt, and a -lying Church that it lies;--any man who has had to defy mere plausible -conventions of veiled wrong-doing, to give bold utterance to forgotten -truths, to awake sodden and slumbering consciences, to annul agreements -with death and covenants with hell; every man who rises above the -trimmers and the facing-both-ways, and those who try to serve two -masters--they who swept away the rotting superstitions of a tyrannous -ecclesiasticism, they who purified prisons, they who struck the fetters -off the slave--every saint, reformer, philanthropist, and faithful -preacher in the past, and those now living saints, who, walking in -the shining steps of these, endeavour to rescue the miserable out of -the gutter, and to preach the gospel to the poor, know the anguish of -isolation, when, because they have been benefactors, they are cursed -as though they were felons, and when, for the efforts of their noble -self-sacrifice, the contempt of the world, and its pedantry, and its -malice can find for them no words too contemptuous or too bitterly -false. - -5. But there was even a deeper sorrow than these which made Elijah -long for death. It was the sense of utter and seemingly irretrievable -failure. It happens often to the worldling as well as to the saint. -Many a man, weary of life's inexorable emptiness, has exclaimed in -different ways:-- - - "Know that whatever thou hast been, - 'Tis something better not to be." - -That sentiment is not in the least peculiar to Byron. We find it -again and again in the Greek tragedians. We find it alike in the -legendary revelation of the god Pan, and in the Book of Ecclesiastes, -and in Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann. No true Christian, no believer -in the mercy and justice of God, can share that sentiment, but will -to the last thank God for His creation and preservation and all -the blessings of this life, as well as for the inestimable gift of -His redemption, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. -Nevertheless, it is part of God's discipline that He often requires -His saints as well as His sinners to face what looks like hopeless -discomfiture, and to perish, as it were, - - "In the lost battle - Borne down by the flying, - Where mingles war's rattle - With groans of the dying." - -Such was the fate of all the Prophets. They were tortured; they had -trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and -imprisonment; they were stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, were -slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, -they hid in caves and dens of the earth, being destitute, afflicted, -tormented, though of them the world was not worthy. Such, too, was -the fate of all the Apostles--set forth last of all as men doomed to -death; made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. They were -hungry, thirsty, naked, buffeted; they had no certain dwelling-place; -they were treated as fools and weak, were dishonoured, defamed, treated -as the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things. Such -was conspicuously the case of St. Paul in that death, so lonely and -forsaken, that the French sceptic thinks he must have awakened with -infinite regret from the disillusionment of a futile life. Nay, it was -the earthly lot of Him who was the prototype, and consolation, known -or unknown, of all these:--it was the lot of Him who, from that which -seemed the infinite collapse and immeasurable abandonment of His cross -of shame, cried out: "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He -warned His true followers that they, too, would have to face the same -finality of earthly catastrophes, to die without the knowledge, without -even the probable hope, that they have accomplished anything, in utter -forsakenment, in a monotony of execration, often in dejection and -apparent hiding of God's countenance. The olden saints who prepared -the way for Christ, and those who since His coming have followed His -footsteps, have had to learn that true life involves a bearing of the -cross. - -Take but one or two out of countless instances. Look at that humble -brown figure, kneeling drowned with tears to think of the disorders -which had already begun to creep into the holy order which he had -designed. It is sweet St. Francis of Assisi, to whom God said in -visions: "Poor little man: thinkest thou that I, who rule the -universe, cannot direct in My own way thy little order?" Look at that -monk in his friars' dress, racked, tortured, gibbeted in fetters -over the flaming pyre in the great square at Florence, stripped by -guilty priests of his priestly robe, degraded from a guilty Church -by its guilty representatives, pelted by wanton boys, dying amid -a roar of execration from the brutal and fickle multitude whose -hearts he once had moved. It is Savonarola, the prophet of Florence. -Look at that poor preacher dragged from his dungeon to the stake -at Basle, wearing the yellow cap and sanbenito painted with flames -and devils. It is John Huss, the preacher of Bohemia. Look at the -lion-hearted reformer feeling how much he had striven, not knowing -as yet how much he had achieved, appealing to God to govern His -world, saying that he was but a powerless man, and would be "the -veriest ass alive" if he thought that he could meddle with the -intricacies of Divine Providence. It is Luther. Look at the youth, -starving in an ink-stained garret, hunted through the streets by an -infuriated mob, thrust into the city prison as the only way to save -his life from those who hated his exposure of their iniquities. It is -William Lloyd Garrison. Look at that missionary, deserted, starving, -fever-stricken, in the midst of savages, dying on his knees, in daily -sufferings, amid frustrated hopes. It is David Livingstone, the -pioneer of Africa. They, and thousands like them, have borne squalors -and shames and tragedies, while they looked not at the things that -are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things that -are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. -Might not they all have said with the disappointed Apostles, "Master, -we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing"? Might not their -lives and deaths--the lives which fools thought madness, and their -end to be without honour--be described as one poet has described -that of his disenchanted king:-- - - "He walked with dreams and darkness, and he found - A doom that ever poised itself to fall, - An ever-moaning battle in the mist, - Death in all life, and lying in all love, - The meanest having power upon the highest, - And the high purpose broken by the worm." - -"Yes; the smelter of Israel had now to go down himself into the -crucible."[678] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[674] Psalm cii. 6, 8. - -[675] Psalm xxxviii. 11, 12. - -[676] Jer. v. 31, xxix. 9. - -[677] John xvi. 32. - -[678] Krummacher. - - - - - CHAPTER XLI. - - _HOW GOD DEALS WITH DESPONDENCY._ - - 1 KINGS xix. 5-8. - - "Why art thou so vexed, O my soul? and why art thou so disquieted - within me? O put thy trust in God; for I will yet praise Him who - is the health of my countenance, and my God."--PSALM xlii. 11. - - -"It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better -than my fathers." - -The despondency was deeper than personal. It was despair of the -world; despair of the fate of the true worship; despair about the -future of faith and righteousness; despair of everything. Elijah, in -his condition of pitiable weariness, felt himself reduced to entire -uncertainty about all God's dealings with him and with mankind. "I -am not better than my fathers": _they_ failed one by one, and died, -and entered the darkness; and I have failed likewise. To what end did -Moses lead this people through the wilderness? Why did the Judges -fight and deliver them? Of what use was the wise guidance of Samuel? -What has come of David's harp, and Solomon's temple and magnificence, -and Jeroboam's heaven-directed rebellion? It ends, and my work ends, -in the despotism of Jezebel, and a nation of apostates! - -God pitied His poor suffering servant, and gently led him back to -hope and happiness, and restored him to his true self, and to the -natural elasticity of his free spirit. - -1. First, he gave His beloved sleep. Elijah lay down and slept. -Perhaps this was what he needed most of all. When we lose that dear -oblivion of "nature's soft nurse, and sweet restorer, balmy sleep," -then nerve and brain give way. So God sent him - - "The innocent sleep, - Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care, - Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, - Chief nourisher in life's feast." - -And doubtless, while he slept, "his sleeping mind," as the Greek -tragedian says, "was bright with eyes," and He, who had thus "steeped -his senses in forgetfulness," spoke peace to his troubled heart, -or breathed into it the rest over which hope might brood with her -halcyon wings. - -2. Next, God provided him with food. When he awoke he saw that at -his head, under the rhotem-plant, God had spread him a table in the -wilderness. It was a provision, simple indeed, but for his moderate -wants more than sufficient--a cake baked on the coals[679] and a -cruse of water. A _Maleakh_--a "messenger"--"some one," as the -Septuagint and as Josephus both render it,[680] some one who was, to -him at any rate, an angel of God--touched him, and said, "Arise and -eat." He ate and drank, and thus refreshed lay down again to make -up, perhaps, for long arrears of unrest. And again God's messenger, -human or angelic, touched him, and bade him rise and eat once more, -or his strength would fail in the journey which lay before him. For -he meant to plunge yet farther into the wilderness. In the language -of the narrator, "He arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the -strength of that food forty days and forty nights." - -3. Next God sent him on a hallowed pilgrimage to bathe his weary -spirit in the memories of a brighter past. - -It does not require forty days and forty nights, nor anything like -so long a period, to get from one day's journey in the wilderness to -Horeb, the Mount of God, which was Elijah's destination. The distance -does not exceed one hundred and eighty miles even from Beersheba. -But, as in the case of Moses and of our Lord, "forty days"--a -number connected by many associations with the idea of penance -and temptation--symbolises the period of Elijah's retirement and -wanderings. No doubt, too, the number has an allusive significance, -pointing back to the forty years' wanderings of Israel in the -wilderness. The Septuagint omits the words "of God," 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 law. It is well known that the Mount of the -Commandments is as a rule called Sinai in Exodus, Leviticus, and -Numbers, though the name Horeb occurs in Exod. iii. 1, xxxiii. 6. To -account for the double usage there have been, since the Middle Ages, -two theories: (1) that Horeb is the name of the range, and Sinai of -the mountain; (2) that Horeb properly means the northern part of the -range, and Sinai the southern, especially Jebel Mousa. Horeb is the -prevalent name for the mountain in Deuteronomy; Sinai is the ordinary -name, and occurs thirty-one times in the Old Testament. - -After his wanderings Elijah reached Mount Sinai, and came to "the -cave," and took shelter there. The use of the article shows that a -particular cave is meant, 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 Elijah. Perhaps in the same cave the vision had been -granted to Moses, in the scene to which this narrative looks back. -It is not so much a cave as, what it is called in Exodus, a "cleft -of the rock."[681] From the foot of the mountain, the level space on -which now stands the monastery of Saint Katherine, a steep and narrow -pathway through the rocks leads up to Jebel Mousa, the southernmost -peak of Sinai, which is seven thousand feet high. Half-way up this -mountain is a little secluded plain in the inmost heart of the -granite precipice, in which is an enclosed garden, and a solitary -cypress, and a spring and pool of water, and a little chapel. Inside -the chapel is shown a hole, barely large enough to contain the body -of a man. "It is," says Dr. Allon, "a temple not made with hands, -into which, through a stupendous granite screen, which shuts out even -the Bedouin world, God's priests may enter to commune with Him."[682] - - * * * * * - -If, indeed, Elijah had heard by tradition the vision of Moses of which -this was the scene, he must have been filled with awful thoughts as he -rested in the same narrow fissure, and recalled what had been handed -down respecting the manifestation of Jehovah to his mighty predecessor. - -4. And as God had pointed out to him the way to restore his bodily -strength by sleep and food, so now He opened before the Prophet the -remedy of renewed activity. The question of the Lord came to him--it -was re-echoed by the voice of his own conscience--"What doest thou -here, Elijah?" - -"What doest thou?" He was doing nothing! He had, indeed, fled for his -life; but was all the rest of his life to be so different from its -beginning? Was there, indeed, no more work to be done in Israel or in -Judah, and was he tamely to allow Jezebel to be the final mistress of -the situation? Was one alien and idolatrous woman to overawe God's -people Israel, and to snatch from God's prophet all the fruits of -his righteous labours? "What doest _thou_ here, Elijah?" Is not the -very significance of thy name "Jehovah, He is my God"? Is He to be -the God but of one fugitive? "What doest thou _here_?" This is the -wilderness. There are no idolaters or murderers, or breakers of God's -commandments here; but are there not multitudes in the crowded cities -where Baal's temple towers over Samaria, and his sun-pillars cast -their offensive shadows? Are there not multitudes in Jezreel, where -the queen's Asherah-shrine amid its guilt-shrouding trees flings -its dark protection over unhallowed orgies committed in the name of -religion? Should there not have been inspiration as well as reproof -in the mere question? Should it not mean to him, "Why art thou cast -down, O my soul? and why art thou so disquieted within me? Put thy -trust in God, for I will yet praise Him, who is the health of my -countenance, and my God"? - -5. The question stirred the heart of Elijah, but did not yet dispel -his sense of hopelessness and frustration, nor did it restore his -confidence that God would govern the world aright. As yet it only -called forth the heavy murmur of his grief. "I have been very jealous -for Jehovah the God of Hosts": I, alone among my people; "for the -children of Israel"--not the wicked queen only, with her abominations -and witchcrafts, but the renegade people with her--"have forsaken -Thy covenant," which forbids them to have any God but Thee, and -have "thrown down Thine altars,[683] and slain Thy prophets with -the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to -take it away." It was as it were an appeal to Jehovah before whom he -stood, if not almost a reproach to Him. It was as though he said, -"I have done my utmost; I have failed: wilt not Thou put forth Thy -power and reign? I am but one poor hunted prophet alone against the -world. There is no prophet more: not one is there among them that -understandeth any more. I can do no more. Of what use is my life? -Carest Thou not that Thy people have revolted from Thee? Behold they -perish; they perish, they all perish! Of what use is my life? My work -has failed: let me die!" - -6. God dealt with this mood as He has done in all ages, as He had -done before to Jacob, as He did afterwards to David and to Hezekiah, -and to Isaiah and Jeremiah; and as the Son of God did to the antitype -of Elijah--the great forerunner--when his faith failed him. He let -the conviction steal into his mind that the ways of God are wider -than men, and His thoughts greater than men's. He unteaches His -prophet the delusion that everything depends on _him_. He shows him -that though He works for men by men, and though - - "God cannot make best man's best - Without best men to help Him," - -still no living man is necessary, nor can any man, however great, -either hasten or understand the purposes of God. - -Elijah had need to be taught that man is nothing--that God is all in -all. Instead of answering his complaint, the voice said to him: "Go -forth to-morrow, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. Behold, -the Lord is passing by."[684] - -FOOTNOTES: - -[679] The _coals_ (_reshaphim_) for the cake (LXX., [Greek: -enkryphias olyrites]; Vulg., _subcinericius panis_) were the dry -twigs of the broom plant, still sold for that purpose in the markets -of Cairo. Comp. Psalm cxx. 4; "_coals of juniper_." - -[680] 1 Kings xix. 5. [Hebrew: mal'ach] means "a messenger," and in -verse 2 is used of the messenger of Jezebel. - -[681] Exod. xxxiii. 22. - -[682] _Bible Educator_, iii. 135. - -[683] The use of the plural, and the absence of any objections to -an uncentralised worship, are proofs of the northern origin of the -Elijah-episode. - -[684] LXX., [Greek: aurion]; Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. xiii. 7; Comp. -Exod. xxxiv. 2. It is hardly likely that the stupendous vision would -follow instantly and without a moment's preparation. - - - - - CHAPTER XLII. - - _THE THEOPHANY AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE._ - - 1 KINGS xix. 9-15. - - "Who heardest the rebuke of the Lord in Sinai, and in Horeb the - judgment of vengeance."--ECCLUS. xlviii. 7. - - -Throughout the Scriptures infinite care is taken to preclude every -notion that the Most High God can be represented in visible form. He -manifested Himself at Sinai to the children of Israel, but though the -mount burned with fire, and there were clouds and thick darkness, -and the voice of a trumpet speaking long and loud, the people were -reminded with the utmost solemnity that "they saw no manner of -similitude."[685] Indeed, in later times, when there was a keener -jealousy of every anthropomorphic expression, the giving of the law -is rather represented as a part of the ministry of angels. The word -_Makom_, or "Place," is substituted for Jehovah, so that Moses and -the elders and the Israelites do not see God but only His _Makom_, -the space which He fills;[686] the delivery of the law is ascribed -to angelic ministers. 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 garments, the waving of -their robes"; for is it not written, "He that maketh the winds His -angels and the flaming fires His ministers"?[687] And in the daring -description of Jehovah's visible manifestation of Himself to Moses, -when He hid him in that fissure of the rock with the hollow of His -hand, Moses only observes as it were the fringe and evanishment of -His glory, "dark with excessive light." - -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 familiar. 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 -cliffs. Travellers have borne witness to the overwhelming violence -and majesty of the storms which rush and reverberate through -the granite gorges of those everlasting hills. It was in such -surroundings that Jehovah spoke to the heart of his servant. - -First "a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in -pieces the rocks, before the Lord."[688] The winds of God, which -blow where they list, and we know not whence they come nor whither -they go, have in them so awful and irresistible a strength, that man -and the works of man, are reduced to impotence before them. And when -they rush and roar through the gullies of innumerable hills in tropic -lands where the intense heat has rarefied the air, the sound of them -is beyond all comparison weird and terrific. We cannot wonder that -this roar of the hurricane was regarded as the trump of the archangel -and the voice of God at Sinai; or that the Lord answered Job out of -the whirlwind;[689] and appeared to Ezekiel in a great cloud and a -whirlwind out of the north;[690] or that Jeremiah compared His anger -to a whirling and sweeping storm;[691] or that the Psalmist describes -Him as bowing the heavens and coming down and casting darkness under -His feet, and flying upon a cherub, and walking upon the wings of -the wind;[692] or that Nahum says, "The Lord hath His way in the -whirlwind and the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet, ... -and the mountains quake at Him."[693] - -And Elijah felt the terror of the scene, as the storm dislodged huge -masses of the mountain granite, and sent them rolling and crashing -down the hills. But it did not speak to his inmost heart: for - -"The Lord was not in the wind." - -And after the wind an earthquake shook the solid bases of the -Sinaitic range. The mountain saw God and trembled. The Lord, in -the language of the Psalmist, shook the wilderness of Kadesh, -the mountains skipped like rams and the little hills like young -sheep.[694] And man never feels so abjectly helpless, he is never -reduced to such absolute insignificance, as when the solid earth -beneath him, the very emblem of stability, trembles as with a palsy, -and cleaves beneath his feet; and shakes his towers to the earth, and -swallows up his cities. Once more the soul of Elijah shuddered at the -terrific impression of this sign of Jehovah's power. But it had no -message for his inmost heart: for - -"The Lord was not in the earthquake." - -And after the earthquake a fire. 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 scenes, where travellers tell us that the burning air seems -transfused into sheets of flame. In that awful muttering and roar of -the lurid clouds, that millionfold reverberation of what the Psalmist -calls "the voice of the Lord," when the lightnings "light the world, -and run along the ground," and, in the language of Habakkuk, "God -sends abroad His arrows, and the light of His glittering spear, and -burning coals go forth under His feet, the lips of man quiver at -the voice, and his heart sinks, and he trembles where he stands." -And this, too, Elijah must have felt as "the hiding-place of God's -power:"[695] and yet it did not speak to his inmost heart; for - -"The Lord was not in the fire." - -"And after the fire a still small voice." - -However the rendering may be altered into "a gentle murmuring -sound," or, as in the Revised Version, "a sound of gentle stillness," -no expression is more full of the awe and mystery of the original -than the phrase "a still small voice."[696] It was the shock of awful -stillness which succeeded the sudden cessation of the earthquake and -hurricane and thunderstorm, and instantly, in it appalling hush and -gentleness, Elijah felt that God was there; and he no sooner heard -that voiceful silence speaking within him than he was filled with -fear and self-abasement. He wrapped his face in his mantle, even -as Moses "was afraid to look upon God." He came from the hollow of -the rock which had sheltered him amidst that turbulence of material -forces, and stood in the entering in of the cave. - -At once the silence became articulate to his conscience, and repeated -to him the reproachful question, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" - -Amazed and overwhelmed as he is, he has not yet grasped the meaning -of the vision. Something of it perhaps he saw and felt. It breathed -something of peace into the despair and tumult of his heart, but he -still can only answer as before:-- - -"I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the -children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine -altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, I only, am -left; and they seek my life, to take it away." - -Whatever that theophany had taught him, it had not yet fully removed -his perplexity. But now God, in tender forbearance, unfolds at any -rate the practical issue of the vision. Elijah is to be inactive no -longer. He is to find in faithfulness and work the removal of all -doubts, and is to learn that man may not abandon his duties, even -when they are irksome, even when they seem hopeless, even when they -have become intolerable and full of peril. He has to learn that it -is only when men have finished their day's work that God sends them -sleep, and that his own day's work was as yet unfinished. He is no -longer to linger in the wilderness apart from the ways of guilty and -suffering men. He is one with them: he may not separate his destiny -from theirs; he has to feel that God has no favourites and is no -respecter of persons, but that all men are His children, and that -each child of His must work for all. "Go," the Lord said unto him, -"return on thy way by the wilderness to Damascus." Did the return -involve unknown dangers? Still he must commit his way unto the Lord, -and simply be doing good, regardless of all consequences. The saints -of the Old Dispensation no less than of the New had to go forth -bearing their cross, and on their way to Golgotha. - -Three missions still awaited him. - -First, he is to supersede the old dynasty of Benhadad, King of Syria, -founded by Solomon's enemy, and to anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. - -Next, he is to abolish the dynasty of Omri, and to anoint Jehu, the -son of Nimshi, to be king over Israel.[697] - -Thirdly--and there was deep significance in this behest, and one -which must have humiliated to the dust the risings of pride and -the half-reproach, so to speak, for inadequate support which had -underlain his appeal to Jehovah--he is to anoint Elisha, the son of -Shaphat, of Abel-meholah, to be prophet in his room. - -Elijah had thought himself necessary--an indispensable agent for the -task of delivering Israel from the guilty and demoralising apostasy -of Baal-worship. God teaches him that there is no such thing as a -necessary man; that man at his best estate is altogether vanity; that -God is all in all; that "God buries His workmen, but continues His -work." - -And something of the meaning of these tasks is explained to him. The -people of Israel are not yet converted. They still needed the hand -of chastisement. The three years' drought had been ineffectual to -wean them from their backslidings, and turn their hearts again to -the Lord. On the royal house and on the worshippers of Baal should -fall the remorseless sword of Jehu. On the whole nation the ruthless -invasions of Hazael should press with terrible penalty. And him that -escaped from their avenging missions should Elisha slay. The last -clause is enigmatical. Elisha can hardly be said directly to have -slain any. He lived, on the whole, in friendship with the kings both -of Israel and of Aram, and in peace and honour in the cities. 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 nations, and that the famines, raids, and humiliations -which rendered his nation miserable under the sons of Ahab should be -elements of his sacred mission.[698] - -One more revelation remained to lift the Prophet above his lower -self. His cry had been, again and again: "I, I only, am left; and -they seek my life, to take it away." He must not indulge the mistaken -fancy that the worship of the true God would die with him, or that -God needed his advice, or that God was slack concerning His promise -as some men count slackness. He was not the only faithful person -left, nor would truth perish when he was called away. Nor is he to -judge only by outward appearances, nor to suppose that the arm of God -can be measured by the finger of man. A new prophet is soon to take -his place, but God has not been so neglectful as he supposes,--"Yet," -in spite of all thy murmurings of failure and a frustrated -purpose--"yet will I leave Me"--not _thee, thee only_--"but _seven -thousand_ in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, -and every mouth which has not kissed him."[699] - -It has been regarded as a difficulty that Elijah fulfilled but one -of the three behests. But Scripture does not narrate events with the -finical and pragmatic accuracy of modern annals. Elisha, directly -or indirectly, caused both Jehu to be anointed and Hazael to ascend -the throne of Syria, and we are left to infer that in these deeds he -carried out the instructions of his Master. - -It is a more serious question, What was the exact meaning of the -theophany granted to Elijah on the Mount of God? - -Here, too, we are left to large and liberal applications. The -greatest utterances of men, the loftiest works of human genius, often -admit of manifold interpretations, and lend themselves to "springing -and germinal developments." Far more is this the case in the -revelations of God to the spirit of man. We can see the main truths -which were involved in that mighty scene, even if the narrator of it -leaves unexplained its central significance. - -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 God. He was fresh from -the stern challenge of Carmel; his hands were yet red with the blood -of those four hundred and fifty priests. It was perhaps needful for -him to learn that God's gentler agencies are more effectual and more -expressive of His inmost nature, and that God is Love even though He -can by no means clear the guilty. Something of this lesson has been -at all times learnt from the narrative.[700] - - "The raging fire, the roaring wind, - Thy boundless power display; - But in the gentler breeze we find - Thy Spirit's viewless way. - - "The dew of heaven is like Thy grace, - It steals in silence down; - But where it lights, the favoured place - By richest fruits is known." - -Quite naturally men have always seen in the storm, the earthquake, -and the fire, the presence of God as manifested in His wrath. "Then -the earth shook and trembled," says the Psalmist; "the foundations -also of the hills moved and were shaken, because He was wroth. There -went up a smoke in His nostrils, and fire out of His mouth devoured: -coals burnt forth from it. He bowed the heavens also, and came -down: and darkness was under His feet. And He rode upon a cherub, -and swooped down: yea, He did fly upon the wings of the wind."[701] -"I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her -place, at the wrath of the Lord."[702] "Thou shalt be visited," says -Isaiah, "of the Lord of Hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, -and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring -fire."[703] On the other hand, in His mercy God "maketh the storm a -calm." When He reveals Himself in a vision of the night to Eliphaz -the Temanite "a wind passed before my face, so that the hair of my -head stood up, and there was silence, and I heard a voice saying, -Shall mortal man be great before God? shall a man be pure before his -Maker?" These passages in no small measure explain the symbolism of -Elijah's vision, and point to its essential significance. Who can -measure (asks Mr. Ruskin) the total effect produced upon the minds of -men by the phenomenon of a single thunderstorm?--"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 death?" Yet it is not -the thunderstorms nor the hurricanes that have been most powerful in -altering the face or moulding the structure of the world, but rather -the long continuance of Nature's most gentle influences. - -Viewing the vision thus, we may say that it pointed forward to that -transcendently greater than Elijah who did not strive, nor cry, nor was -His voice heard in the streets. "There is already a gospel of Elijah. -He, the farthest removed of all the Prophets from the evangelical -spirit and character, had yet enshrined in the heart of his story the -most forcible of all protests against the hardness of Judaism, the -noblest anticipation of the breadth and depth of Christianity." This -view of the passage is taken, with slight modifications, by many, from -Irenaeus down to Grotius and Calvin, and modern commentators. - -Similarly it is a universal law of history that, while some mighty -and tumultuous energy may be needed to initiate the first movement -or upheaval, the greatest work is done by gentler agencies. As in -the old fable, the quiet shining of the sun effects more than the -bluster of the storm. Love is stronger than force, and persuasion -than compulsion. Mr. J. S. Mill treats it not only as a platitude but -as a falsity to assert that truth cannot be suppressed by violence. -He says that (for instance) the truths brought into prominence by -the Reformation had been again and again suppressed by the brutal -tyrannies of the Papacy. But in all these instances has not the truth -ultimately prevailed? Is it not a fact of experience that - - "Truth, pressed to earth shall rise again, - The eternal years of God are hers; - But error, wounded, writhes in pain - And dies among her worshippers"? - -The truth prevails and the error dies under the slow light of -knowledge and by the long results of time. - -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 lesson, or of such a lesson having been deduced -from it by the narrator himself. Neither Elijah, it has been said, -nor the writer of the Book of Kings, felt the smallest regret for -the avenging deed of Carmel. Their consciences approved of it. -They looked on it with pride, not with compunction. This is shown -by the subsequently recorded story of Elijah's calling down fire -from heaven on the unfortunate captains and soldiers of Ahaziah, in -whatever light we regard that story which was evidently current in -the Schools of the Prophets. If the massacre of the priests cannot -be regarded as morally excusable, the destruction of these royal -emissaries by consuming fire was certainly much less so. The vision -may have had a deeper significance than Elijah or the Schools of the -Prophets understood, just as the words of Jesus often had a deeper -significance than was dreamt of even by the Apostles when they heard -them. The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of -God is stronger than men. Neither Elijah nor the sacred historian -may have grasped all that was meant by the wind, and earthquake, and -fire, and still small voice. - - "As little children sleep and dream of heaven, - So thoughts beyond their thoughts to those high bards were - given." - -It is scarcely more than another aspect of the many-sided truth -that love is more potent and more Divine than violence, if we also -see in this incident a foreshadowing of the truth, so necessary for -the impatient souls of men that God neither hasteth nor resteth; -that He is patient because Eternal; that a thousand years in His -sight are but as yesterday, seeing that it is past as a dream in the -night. Something of this we learn from the study of nature. 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 force. It has long been known that they -are due, on the contrary, to the inconceivably slow modifications -produced by the most insignificant causes. It is the age-long -accumulation of mica-flakes which has built up the mighty bastions -of the Alps. 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 - - "Which, like to rich and various gems, inlay - The unadorned bosom of the deep." - -It is the slow silting up of the rivers which has created vast -deltas for the home of man. It has required the calcareous deposit -of millions of animalculae to produce even one inch of the height -of the white cliffs along the shores. Even so the thoughts of -man have been made more merciful in the slow course of ages, and -quiet, incommensurable influences have caused all those advances -in civilisation and humanity which elevate our race. The "bright -invisible air" has produced effects incomparably more stupendous than -the wild tornadoes. "That air, so gentle, so imperceptible, is more -powerful, not only than all the creatures that breathe and live by -it, not only than all the oaks of the forest which it rears in an age -and shatters in a moment, not only than the monsters of the sea, but -than the sea itself, which it tosses up with foam and breaks upon -every rock in its vast circumference; for it carries in its bosom all -perfect calm, and compresses the incontrollable ocean and the peopled -earth, like an atom of a feather."[704] - -"Thus regarded," says Professor Van Oort, "the picture of Elijah -at Mount Horeb is full of consolation to all lovers of the truth. -Sometimes they cry, All is lost! and are ready to despair. But God -answers, Never lose heart. Storms in which God is not, in which the -power of darkness seems to sweep unbridled and unconquered o'er the -earth, come before the whispering of the cooling breeze, but the -kingdom of peace and blessedness is ever drawing nigh. Let all who -love God truly, work for its 'approach.'" - -Let us then cling to the lesson that mercy is better than sacrifice, -and is transcendently to be preferred to holocausts of human sacrifice, -even when the victims are polluted and cruel idolaters. Scripture never -hides from us the imperfections of its heroes, and St. James tells us -that Elijah was but a man of like passions with ourselves. The progress -of the generations, the slow shining of the light of God, has not been -in vain, and we can see truths and read the meaning of theophanies -by the experience of three subsequent millenniums, of which two have -followed the incarnation of the Son of God. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[685] Deut. iv. 12, 15, (comp. v. 4, 22, 23). Of Moses, on the other -hand, it is said, "the similitude of the Lord shall he behold" (Numb. -xii. 8; Exod. xxxiii. 11; Deut. xxxiv. 10). - -[686] [Hebrew: makom], [Greek: topos], "place," was a sort of -recognised euphemism for God in Rabbinic and Alexandrian exegesis. -Thus, in Exod. xxiv. 10, for "they saw _the God of Israel_," the LXX. -have [Greek: eidon ton topon ou heistekei ho theos]. Philo says, "God -Himself is called Place" (_De Somn._, i. 525). Rabbi Isaac says, "God -is not in Makom, but Makom is in God." See my Bampton Lectures on -_Hist. of Interpretation_, p. 120; _Early Days of Christianity_, i. 261. - -[687] Psalm civ. 4; Heb. i. 7. This intermediacy of angels is -prominently alluded to in Acts vii. 53; Gal. iii. 19; Heb. ii. 2, 3; -Deut. xxxiii. 2; Psalm lxviii. 17. - -[688] The anthropomorphism which the Targumists disliked vanishes in -the Chaldee: "And before Him was a host of angels of the wind rending -the mountains, and breaking the rocks, before the Lord but the -Shechinah was not in the hosts of the angels of the wind, and after -the hosts of the angels of the wind was the host of the angel of the -earthquake, etc." - -[689] Job xxxviii. 1, xl. 6. - -[690] Ezek. i. 4. - -[691] Jer. xxiii. 19, 20, xxv. 32, xxx. 23. - -[692] Psalms xviii. 10, civ. 3, 5. - -[693] Nahum i. 3, 5. - -[694] Psalm xviii. 7, lxxvii. 18, xcvii. 4; Judg. v. 4; 2 Sam. xxii. 8. - -[695] Hab. iii. 3-16. - -[696] 1 Kings xix. 12; LXX., [Greek: phone auras leptes]; Vulg., -_Sibilus aurae tenuis_; Chaldee, "a voice of angels singing in silence." - -[697] Jehu was the grandson of Nimshi, and was the son of Jehoshaphat -(2 Kings ix. 2). - -[698] Isa. xi. 4, xlix. 2; comp. Jer. i. 10, xviii. 7. - -[699] Comp. Rom. xii. 5. Kissing images was a sign of idolatry then -as it is now. The foot of the statue of St. Peter in Rome is worn -away with kisses. Hosea xiii. 2 tells us of the custom of kissing the -calves. Comp. Psalm ii. 12. 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 (in _Verr._, iv. 43). - -[700] Herder, who was a devout poet, and therefore a true imaginative -interpreter of devout poetry, says: "The vision was to show the fiery -zeal of the Prophet that would amend everything by the storm, the -mild process of God, and proclaim His longsuffering tender nature as -previously the voice did to Moses: hence the scene was so beautifully -changed." Long before him the wise Theodoret had said: [Greek: Dia de -touton edeixen hoti makrothymia kai philanthropia mone phile Theo.] -Irenaeus, still earlier (_c. Haer._, iv. 27), saw in the vision an -emblem of the difference between the law and the gospel; and Grotius, -following him, says, "Evangelii figuratio, quod non venit cum vento, -terrae motu, et fulminibus ut lex," Exod. xix. 16 (see Keil, _ad -loc._, whose illustrations are often valuable when his exegesis is -false and obsolete). - -[701] Psalm xviii. 7-9; comp. 2 Sam. xxii. 8-11. - -[702] Isa. xiii. 13. - -[703] Isa. xxix. 6; comp. Ecclus. xxxix. 28. - -[704] W. S. Landor. - - - - - CHAPTER XLIII. - - _THE CALL OF ELISHA._ - - 1 KINGS xix. 19-21. - - "The one remains, the many change and pass; - Heaven's light alone remains, earth's shadows flee." - SHELLEY. - - -Whether Elijah saw or saw not all that God had meant by the -revelation at Horeb, much at any rate was abundantly clear to him, -and the path of new duties lay straight before him. - -The first of those duties--the only one immediately possible--was -to anoint Elisha as prophet in his room, and so prepare for the -continuation of the task which he had been chosen to inaugurate. He -had been bidden to return across the wilderness in the direction of -Damascus. Whether he traversed the eastern side of Jordan among his -own familiar hills of Gilead, and then crossed over at Bethshean, -where there was a ford, or whether, braving an danger from Jezebel -and her emissaries, he passed through the territories of the western -tribes, it is certain that we find him next at Abel-meholah, "the -meadow of the dance," which was not far from Bethshean.[705] This, as -he knew, was the home of Elisha, his future successor. - -The position of Elisha was wholly unlike his own. He himself was a -homeless Bedawy, bound to earth by no ties of family, coming like the -wind and vanishing like the lightning. Elisha, on the other hand, whose -history was to be so different and so far less stormy--Elisha, whose -work and whose residence was mainly to be in cities--was a child of -civilisation. But the civilisation was still that of a society in which -anarchic forces were by no means tamed. Dean Stanley, in his sketch of -Elisha, seems to dwell too much on his gentleness of spirit. He, too, -had to carry out the anointing of Hazael and Jehu. "He was still less -capable than Elijah," says Ewald, "of inaugurating a purely benign and -constructive mode of action, since at that time the whole spirit of the -ancient religion was still unprepared for it." - -Elijah found him in the heritage of his fathers, ploughing the rich -level land with twelve yoke of oxen. Eleven were with his servants, -and he himself guided the twelfth.[706] Elijah must have felt -that the youth would have to make a great earthly sacrifice, if -he left all this--father and mother and home and lands--to become -the disciple and attendant of a wild, wandering, and persecuted -prophet. He would say nothing to him. He merely left the high road, -and "passed over unto him," as he plowed his fields.[707] Reaching -him he took off his shaggy garment of skin, which, in imitation of -him, became in after years the normal garb of prophets, and flung -it over Elisha's shoulders. This apparently was all the "anointing" -requisite, save such as came from the Spirit of God. The act had a -twofold symbolism: it meant the adoption of Elisha by Elijah to be -his "_mantelkind_," his spiritual son; and it meant a distinct call -to the prophetic office. - -At first Elisha seems to have stood still--amazed, almost stupefied, -by the sudden necessity for so tremendous a decision. The thought -of resigning all the hopes and comforts of ordinary life and of -severing so many dear and lifelong ties, could not be unmixed with -anguish. Again and again we see in the call of the prophets this -natural shrinking, the human reluctance born of humility, frailty, -and misgiving. It was so that Moses at the burning bush had at first -fought to the utmost against the conviction of his destiny. It was so -that Gideon had pleaded that he was but the least of the children of -Abiezer. It was thus that, in later days, Jonah fled from the face of -the Lord to Tarshish; and Isaiah cried, "Woe is me, for I am a man of -unclean lips"; and Jeremiah wailed, "Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot -speak, for I am a child!" And if we may allude to modern instances we -know the shrinking hesitations of Luther; and how Cromwell affirmed -that he had prayed to God not to put him to his terrible work; and -how Wesley hesitated long before he "made himself vile" by preaching -in the open air to the Kingswood colliers; and how Father Matthew -shrank from his great temperance efforts, till one day, rising from -long prayer, and at last convinced of his destined task, he uttered -the homely resolve, "In the name of God here goes!" - -Elisha did not hesitate long. The mysterious Prophet of Carmel--he -whose voice was believed to have shut up the heavens, he who had -confounded king and priest and people at Carmel--had spoken no word. He -had only flung over Elisha the garment of hair, and then stridden back -to the road, and gone on his way without once looking back. Soon he -would have vanished beyond recall. Elisha decided that he would obey -the call of God; that he would not make "the great refusal." He ran -after Elijah, and overtook him, and, accepting the position to which -he had been elevated, made but the one human natural request that he -might be suffered first to kiss--that is, to bid final farewell to--his -father and mother, and then he would follow Elijah. - -The request has often been compared to that of the young scribe who -said to Jesus, "Lord, suffer me first to bury my father"; to whom -Jesus replied, "Let the dead bury their dead: follow thou Me." But the -two petitions are not really analogous. The scribe practically asked -that he might stay at home till his father died; and as that was an -uncertain term, and the ministry of Christ was very brief, the delay -was incompatible with such discipleship as Christ then required. There -was no such indefinite postponement in Elisha's petition. It showed in -him a tender heart, not a reluctant purpose or a wavering will. - -"Go back again," answered Elijah; "for what have I done to thee?" - -The words are often explained as a veiled yet severe rebuke, as -though Elijah had meant to say with scorn, "Go back; perhaps you are -not fit for the high call; you do not understand the significance of -what I have done;" or, at any rate, "Go back; yet beware of being -softly led away from the path of duty; for consider how deep is the -meaning of what I have done to thee." - -The words involve no such disapprobation, nor does the context agree -with that view of them. I can detect no accent of reproof in the words. -Elijah, as is shown by several incidents in his career, had room for -tenderness and human affection in his rugged lonely heart. I understand -his reply to mean, "Go back; it is right, it is natural that thou -shouldst thus bid a last farewell before leaving thy home. Thy coming -to me must be purely voluntary; I have but cast my mantle over thee, -nothing more. Thine own conscience alone can interpret the full meaning -of the act, and God will make thy way clear before thy face." - -Such, I believe, was Elijah's free permission. He was no hard Stoic, -unnaturally trampling on the sweet affections of the soul. He was no -despotic spiritual guide full of gloomy superstition, like the grim -Spaniard, Ignatius Loyola, who seemed to hold that God liked even our -needless anguish, and our voluntary self-tortures as an acceptable -sacrifice to Himself. When St. Francis Xavier, on the journey of -the first Jesuits to Rome, passed quite near the castle of his -parents and ancestors, the teachings of Loyola would not suffer the -young noble to turn aside to print one last kiss upon his mother's -cheek. Such hard exactions belong to that sphere of will-worship -and voluntary humility which St. Paul condemns. Excessive violence -needlessly inflicted on our innocent affections finds no sanction -either in ancient Judaism or genuine Christianity. - -And it was thus that Elisha understood the Prophet. He went back, -and kissed his father and mother, and, like Matthew when he left his -toll-booth to follow Christ, he made a great feast to his dependents, -kinsfolk, and friends. To mark his complete severance from the happy -past he unyoked his pair of oxen, slew them, used the plough and goad -and wooden yokes as fuel, boiled the flesh of the oxen, and invited the -people to his farewell feast. Then he arose, and went after Elijah, -and ministered unto him. He was thenceforth recognised as a son of -the prophetic schools, and as their future head. For the present he -became known as "Elisha, who poured water on the hands of Elijah." His -subsequent career belongs entirely to the Second Book of Kings. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[705] 1 Kings iv. 12. It was in the north part of the Jordan valley. - -[706] 1 Kings xix. 19. - -[707] The Hebrew can hardly bear the meaning that he was finishing -the twelfth furrow in his field, ploughed by his single yoke of oxen. - - - - - CHAPTER XLIV. - - _AHAB AND BENHADAD._ - - 1 KINGS xx. 1-30. - - -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 vineyard, which occupies -the twenty-first chapter in our version. This order of events seems -the more probable, but no chronological data are given us in the -long but fragmentary details of Ahab's reign. They are, in fact, -composed of different sets of records, partly historical, partly -prophetic, and partly taken from some special monograph on the career -of Elijah. Here, too, we may observe that some most important details -are altogether omitted, and that we only learn them (1) from the -inscription of King Mesha, and (2) from the clay tablets of Assyria. - -1. As regards King Mesha, the monument containing his very -interesting annals is generally known as The Moabite Stone. It -is a stele of black basalt, 3 feet 10 inches high, 2 feet broad, -14-1/2 inches thick, rounded at the top and bottom almost into a -semicircle. The Phoenician inscription is of capital importance both -for philology and history. It was first discovered by Mr. Klein, the -German missionary of an English society at Dibon, east of the Dead -Sea, and it is now at the Louvre. Dibon is now Dibban. - -Mr. Klein in 1868, at Jerusalem, informed Professor Petermann of -Berlin of the existence of this ancient relic, and from a few letters -of the thirty-four lines which he had copied the Professor at once -pronounced that the language employed was Phoenician. When M. -Clermont Ganneau, the French consul at Jerusalem, endeavoured to get -possession of it, the Bedawin discovered that it was regarded with -deep interest by European scholars. They immediately began to quarrel -over its possession, and the Arab who had been sent to copy it barely -escaped with his life. In their greed and jealousy these modern -Moabites "sooner than give it up, put a fire under it, and threw cold -water on it, and so broke it, and then distributed the bits among -the different families to be placed in the granaries and to serve as -blessings upon the corn; for they said that without the stone (or -its equivalent in hard cash) a blight would fall upon their crops." -Squeezes had been previously taken from it by M. Ganneau and Captain -Warren, from which the text has been restored.[708] - -It records three great events in the reign of Mesha. - -(1) Lines 1-21. Wars of Mesha with Omri and his successors. - -(2) Lines 21-31. Public works of Mesha after his deliverance from his -Jewish oppressors. - -(3) Lines 31-34. His successful wars against the Edomites (or a -people of Horonaim), undertaken by command of his god Chemosh. The -date of the erection of the monolith is about B.C. 890. - -It begins thus:-- - -"(1) I, Mesha, am son of Chemosh-Gad,[709] King of Moab, (2) the -Dibonite. My father reigned over Moab 30 years, and I reigned (3) -after my father. And I erected this Stone to Chemosh (a stone of -salvation),[710] (4) for he saved me from all despoilers, and let me -see my desire upon all my enemies. (5) Now Omri, King of Israel, he -oppressed Moab many days, for Chemosh was angry with his (6) land. His -son succeeded him, and he also said, I will oppress Moab. In my days he -said (Let us go) (7) and I will see my desire on him and his house, and -Israel said, I shall destroy it for ever. Now Omri took the land (8) -Medeba, and (the enemy) occupied it (in his days and in) the days of -his sons, forty years. And Chemosh (had mercy) (9) on it in my days." - -He goes on to tell how he built Bael Meon and Kirjathaim; captured -Ataroth, and killed all its warriors, and devoted its spoil to Chemosh. -"And Chemosh said to me, Go take Nebo against Israel." He took it, slew -seven thousand men, devoted the women and maidens to Ashtar-Chemosh, -and offered Jehovah's vessels to Chemosh. Then he took Jahas which the -king of Israel had fortified, and annexed it to Dibon; built Korcha, -its palaces, prisons, etc., Aroer, Bethbamoth, and other towns which he -colonised with poor Moabites; and took Horonaim by assault. - -There the inscription ends, but not until it has given us some details -of a series of bloody wars about which the Scripture narrative is -almost entirely silent, though in 2 Kings iii. 4-27 it narrates Mesha's -desperate resistance of Israel, Judah, and Edom (B.C. 896). - -On this inscription we may briefly remark that for Chemosh-Gad, Dr. -Neubauer reads Chemosh-melech, and makes various other changes and -suggestions. - -2. From the annals of Assyria we learn the altogether unexpected fact -that _Ahabu Sirlai_, _i.e._, "Ahab of Israel," was acting as one of -the allies, or more probably as one of the vassals, of Syria in the -great battle fought at Karkar, B.C. 854, against Shalmanezer II., -by Hittites, Hamathites, and Syrians. Whether this was before the -invasion of Benhadad, or after his defeat, is uncertain. - -The twentieth chapter of the Book of Kings tells us that Benhadad, -the Aramaean king, accompanied by thirty-two feudatory princes of -Hittites, Hamathites, and others, gathered together all his host -with his horses and chariots, and proclaimed war against Israel. -Unable to meet this vast army in the field, Ahab shut himself up in -Samaria, and Benhadad went up and besieged it. We do not know which -Benhadad this was. It could not have been the grandson of Rezon, -whom, fourteen years earlier, King Asa had bribed to attack Baasha -in order to divert him from building Ramah.[711] It may have been -his son or grandson bearing the same religious dynastic name. In -any case the policy of attacking Israel was suicidal. 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 -power, which menaced them all with cruel extinction at the hands of -that atrocious people. Their true policy would have been to form an -offensive and defensive league, instead of coveting one another's -dominions. Although Assyria had not yet risen to the zenith of her -empire, 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 her. Instead of inflicting ruinous losses -and humiliations on the tribes of Israel, the dynasty of Rezon, if -it had been wise in its day, would have insured their friendly aid -against the horrible common enemy of the nations. - -When Benhadad had succeeded in reducing Ahab to hopeless straits, -he sent him a herald to demand the admission of ambassadors. Their -ultimatum was couched in language of the deadliest insult. Benhadad -laid insolent claim to everything which Ahab possessed--his silver, his -gold, his wives, and the fairest of his children. To save his people -from ruin, 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 submission. Tyre gave him no help, nor did Judah. He seems at -this time to have been entirely isolated and to have sunk to the nadir -of his degradation. "It is true," he said, "my lord, and king; I, and -all that I possess, is thine." The depth of humiliation involved in -such a concession is the measure of the utter straits to which Ahab was -reduced. When an Eastern king had to give up to his conqueror even his -seraglio--yes, even his queen--all his power must have been humbled -to the very dust. And at the head of Ahab's seraglio was Jezebel. How -frenzied must have been the thoughts of that terrible woman, when she -saw that her Baal, and the Astarte to whom her father was a priest, -in spite of the temple which she had built, and her eight hundred and -fifty priests of Baal and Asherah with all their vestments and pompous -ceremonies and blood-stained invocations, 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 shame! - -Encouraged by this abject demeanour into yet more outrageous -insolence, Benhadad sent back his ambassadors with the further menace -that he would himself send his messengers next day into Samaria, who -should search and rifle not only the palace of Ahab, but the houses -of all his servants, from which they should take away everything that -was pleasant in their eyes. - -The merciless demand kindled in the breast of the wretched king one -last spark of the courage of despair. Nothing could be worse than -such a pillage. Death itself seemed preferable. He summoned together -all the elders of the land to a great council, to which the people -also were invited, and he set the state of things before them. The -fact gives us an interesting glimpse into the constitution of the -kingdom of Israel. It greatly resembled that of the little Greek -states in the days of the _Iliad_. Under ordinary circumstances of -prosperity the king was within certain limits despotic; but he might -easily be reduced to the necessity of consulting a sort of senate -([Greek: gerousia]), composed of his greatest subjects,[712] and at -these open-air deliberations the people were present as assessors on -whose will depended the ultimate decision. - -Ahab put before his council the desperate condition to which he had -been reduced by the Syrian leaguer. He recounted the cruel terms to -which he had submitted in order to save his people from destruction. -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 siege, and delivering the city -to ravage and slaughter. Was it their will that the insolent foreign -tyrant should have his way, and be permitted without let or hindrance -to rifle their houses, and carry away their goodliest sons as eunuchs -and their fairest wives as concubines? He asked their advice how to -overcome this dire calamity; - - "What reinforcement we may gain from hope, - If not what resolution from despair." - -The elders saw that even massacre and pillage could hardly be worse -than a tame submission to such demands. They plucked up courage and -said to Ahab, "Hearken not to him, nor consent"; and the people -shouted their applause to the heroic refusal.[713] The king seems -in this instance to have been more despondent than his subjects, -perhaps because he was better able than they to gauge the immense -military superiority of his invader. Even his second message, though -it rejected Benhadad's demand, was almost pusillanimous in its -submission. With bated breath and whispering humbleness Ahab said to -the Syrian ambassadors, quite in the tone of a vassal: "Tell my lord -the king, I _will_ submit to his first demands; I _may_ not consent -to his final ones." - -The ambassadors went to Benhadad, and returned with the fierce menace -that in the name of his god[714] their king would shatter Samaria -into dust, of which the handfuls would not suffice for each of his -soldiers.[715] Ahab replied firmly in a happy proverb, "Let not -him that girdeth on his armour boast himself as he that putteth it -off."[716] - -The warning proverb was reported to the Aramaean king, whilst in the -insolent confidence of victory he was drinking himself drunk in -his war-booths.[717] It nettled him to fury. "Plant the engines," -he exclaimed. The catapults and battering-rams,[718] with all the -engines which constituted the siege-train of the day, were at once -set in motion, the scaling ladders brought up, and the archers set in -position, just as we see in the Assyrian Kouyunjik sculptures of the -siege of Lachish and other cities by Sennacherib.[719] - -Ahab's heart must have sunk within him, for he knew his impotence, and -he knew also the horrors which befell a city taken after desperate -resistance. But he was not left unencouraged. The characteristic of -the prophets was that dauntless confidence in Jehovah which so often -made a prophet the Tyrtaeus of his native land, unless the land had sunk -into utter apostasy. In this extreme of peril a nameless prophet--the -Rabbis, who always guess at a name when they can, say it was Micaiah -ben Imlah--came to Ahab. As though to emphasise the supernatural -character of his communication, he pointed to the chariots and archers -and the Syrian host--which, if the subsequent numbers be accurate, must -have reached the astounding total of one hundred and thirty thousand -men--and said, in the name of Jehovah:-- - - "Hast thou seen all this great multitude? - Lo! I will deliver it into thine hand to-day: - And thou shalt know that I am the Lord." - -"By whom?" was the astonished and half-despairing question of the -king; and the strange answer was:-- - -"By the young servants[720] of the provincial governors." - -It was to be made clear that this was a victory due to the intervention -of God, and not won by the power nor the might of man, lest the -warriors of Israel should be able to boast of the arm of flesh. - -"Who shall lead the assault?" asked the king. - -"Thou!" answered the prophet. - -Nothing could be wiser than this counsel, now that the nation was -brought to the extreme edge of hazard. The veterans, perhaps, were -intimidated. They would see more clearly the hopelessness of attempting -to cope with that colossal host under its five-and-thirty kings. -But now the nation, whose veterans had been driven back, evoked the -battle-brunt of its youths. The two hundred and thirty-two pages of the -district governors were ready to obey orders, ready, like an army of -Decii to devote their lives to the cause of their country. They were -put in the forefront of the battle, 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 undertaking.[721] - -Their plan was well laid. They went out at noon. At that burning -hour, 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 armour, or to sit on horseback, or -to endure the fierce heat of iron chariots. The first little army -which issued from the gates of Samaria might rely on the effects -of a surprise. Thousands of the Syrian soldiers expecting nothing -less than a battle would be unarmed, and taking their siesta. Their -chariots and war steeds would be unharnessed and unprepared. - -Benhadad was still continuing his heavy drinking bout with his vassal -princes, and not one of them was in a condition to give coherent -commands. A messenger announced to the band of royal drunkards that -"men" were come out of Samaria. They were too few to call them "an -army," and the notion of an attack from that poor handful seemed -ridiculous. Benhadad thought they were coming to sue for peace, but -whether peace or war were their object he gave the contemptuous order -to "take them alive." - -It was easier said than done. Led by the king at the head of his -valorous youths the little host clashed into the midst of the -unwieldly, unprepared, ill-handled Syrian host, and by their first -slaughter created one of those fearful panics which have often been -the destruction of Eastern hosts. The Syrians, whose army was -made up of heterogeneous forces, and which could not be managed by -thirty-four half-intoxicated feudatories of differing interests and -insecure allegiance, was doubtless afraid that internal treachery -must have been at work. Like the Midianites, like Zerah's Ethiopian -host, like the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, like the Ammonites and -Moabites in the wilderness of Tekoa, like the army of Sennacherib, -like the enormous and motley hosts of Persia at Marathon, at Plataea, -and at Arbela, they were instantly flung into irremediable confusion -which tended every moment to be more fatal to itself. The little band -of the youths and horses of Israel had nothing to do but to slay, -and slay, and slay.[722] No effective resistance was even attempted. -Long before evening the hundred and thirty thousand Syrians, with -the entangled mass of their chariots and horsemen, were in headlong -flight, while Ahab and the people of Israel slaughtered their flying -rear. The defeat became an absolute rout. Benhadad himself had a most -narrow escape. He could not even wait for his war chariot. He had -to fly with a few of his horsemen, and apparently, so the words may -imply, on an inferior horse.[723] - -What effect was produced on the national mind and on the social -religion by this immense deliverance we are not told. Never, certainly, -had any nation deeper cause for gratitude to its religious teachers, -who alone had not despaired of the commonwealth when everything seemed -lost. We would fain know where was Elijah at this crisis, and whether -he took any part in it. We cannot tell, but we know that as a rule -the sons of the prophets acted together under their chiefs, and that -individual impulses were rarely encouraged. 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 body. - -The service rendered by this prophet, whose very name has been buried -in undeserved oblivion, did not end here. Perhaps he saw signs of -carelessness and undue exultation. He went again to the king, and -warned him that his victory, immense as it had been, was not final. -It was no time for him to settle on his lees. The Syrians would -assuredly return the following year,[724] probably with increased -resources, and with the burning determination to avenge their defeat. -Let Ahab look well to his army and his fortresses, and prepare -himself for the coming shock! - -FOOTNOTES: - -[708] For these particulars, and the following translations, see Dr. -Ginsburg in _Records of the Past_, xi. 163; and Dr. Neubauer, _id._, -New Series, ii. 194; _The Moabite Stone_, Second Edition (Reeves -& Turner), 1871; Dr. Schlottmann, _Die Sieggessauele Mesas_, 1870; -Noeldeke, _Die Inschrift der Koenig Mesa_, 1870; Stade, i. 534; Kittel, -ii. 198, etc. - -[709] Chemosh-Gad perhaps came to the throne in the fourth year of -Omri, about B.C. 926, and reigned till the close of Ahaziah's reign -(B.C. 896). - -[710] Comp. 1 Sam. vii. 12. - -[711] For it is indirectly mentioned that "_his father_" had taken -cities from Omri. - -[712] LXX., Exod. iii. 16. - -[713] Comp. Josh. ix. 18; Judg. xi. 11. - -[714] 1 Kings xx. 10. Elohim here, doubtless, means the false gods of -Benhadad. Vat. LXX., [Greek: ho theos]; but Chaldee, "the terrors." - -[715] "Fanfaronnade, qui veut dire; je reduirai cette bicoque -en poussiere; j'ai avee moi plus de monde qu'il ne faudra pour -l'emporter tout entiere" (Reuss). Comp. Herod., viii. 226, where -Dieneces answers the braggart vaunt of the Medes. - -[716] Reuss renders it, "Ceignant n'est pas encore gaignant." The -proverb resembles in different aspects the precept of Solon, [Greek: -terma horan biotoio], and "Praise a fair day at night"; and the -Italian, "Capo ha cosa fatta"; and the Latin, "Ne triumphum canas -ante victoriam"; and the French, "Il ne faut pas vendre le peau de -l'ours avant de l'avoir tue." - -[717] A.V., "pavilions"; but the word (_sukkoth_) implies that they -were temporary booths rather than tents. They resembled the birchwood -pavilions made for the Turkish pachas in campaigns (Keil). - -[718] A.V., "Set yourselves in array." LXX., [Greek: oikodomesate -charaka]; Vulg., _circumdate civitatem_. - -[719] Now in the British Museum. - -[720] 1 Kings xx. 14 ([Hebrew: na'arim]). - -[721] Jarchi--_more Rabbinico_--says that these were the seven -thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. - -[722] 1 Kings xx. 20, LXX., [Greek: kai edeuterosen ekastos ton par -autou]. - -[723] Or, "pell-mell." The Hebrew in 1 Kings xx. 20 is, [Hebrew: -ufarashim 'al-sus], "on a horse with (some) horsemen." Klostermann -would supply [Hebrew: hu]. Jonathan takes [Hebrew: ufarashim] as a -dual--"and two riders with him"; LXX., [Greek: eph' hippon hippeon]; -Vulg., _in equo cum equitibus suis_; Luther, "_sammt Rossen und -Reitern_." - -[724] See 2 Sam. xi. 1. The custom of all countries in the ancient -world was to devote the summer months only to campaigns. There were -few or no standing armies, and the citizen-conscripts had to look -after their farms, or the nation would have starved. The Assyrians, -Babylonians, and Persians introduced a gradual revolution in these -respects. - - - - - CHAPTER XLV. - - _AHAB'S INFATUATION._ - - 1 KINGS xx. 31-43. - - "Quem vult Deus perire dementat prius." - - -The courtiers of Benhadad found it easy to flatter his pride by -furnishing reasons to account for such an alarming overthrow. They -had attacked the Israelites on their hills, and the gods of Israel -were hill-gods. Next time they would take Israel at a disadvantage -by fighting only on the plain. Further, the vassal kings were only -an element of dissension and weakness. They prevented the handling -of the army as one strong machine worked by a single supreme will. -Let Benhadad depose from command these incapable weaklings, and put -in their place dependent civil officers (_pachoth_) who would have -no thought but to obey orders.[725] And so, with good heart, let the -king collect a fresh army with horses and chariots as powerful as the -last. The issue would be certain conquest and dear revenge. - -Benhadad followed this advice. The next year he went with his new -host and encamped near Aphek. There is an Aphek (now Fik) which lay -on the road between Damascus on the east of Jordan on a little plain -south-east of the Sea of Galilee. This may have been the town of -Issachar, in the valley of Jezreel, where Saul was defeated by the -Philistines (1 Sam. xxix. 1). Israel went out to meet them duly -provisioned.[726] The Syrian host spread over the whole country; the -Israelite army looked only like two little flocks of kids.[727] - -To strengthen the misgivings of the anxious king of Israel, another -nameless prophet--probably, like Elijah, a Gileadite--came to -promise him the victory. Jehovah would convince the Syrians that He -was something more than a mere local god of the hills as they had -blasphemously said, and Israel would once more be shown that He was -indeed the Lord. - -For seven days the vast army and the little band of patriots gazed at -each other, as the Israelites and Philistines had done in the days -of Saul and Goliath. On the seventh day they joined battle. In what -special way the aid of Jehovah seconded the desperate valour of His -people who were fighting for their all we do not know, but the result -was, once more, their stupendous victory. The army of the Syrians -was not only defeated, but practically annihilated. In round numbers -100,000 Syrians fell in the slaughter of that day, and when the -remnant took refuge in Aphek, which they had captured, they perished -in a sudden crash--perhaps of earthquake--which buried them in the -ruins of its fortifications.[728] Rescued, we know not how, from -this disaster, Benhadad fled from chamber to chamber[729] to hide -himself from the victors in some innermost recess. - -But it was impossible that he should not be discovered, and therefore -his servants persuaded him to throw himself on the mercy of his -conqueror. "The kings of Israel," they said, "are, as we have heard, -compassionate kings; let us go before the king with sackcloth on our -loins, and ropes round our necks, and ask if he will save thy life." - -So they went, as the burghers of Calais went before Edward I.; -and then Ahab heard from the ambassadors of the king who had once -dictated terms to him with such infinite contempt, the message: "Thy -slave Benhadad saith, I pray thee, let me live." - -The incident that followed is eminently characteristic of Eastern -customs. In _rencontres_ between Orientals everything depends on -the first words which are exchanged. It is believed that superior -powers wield the utterances of the tongue amid the chances which -are really destiny, so that the most casual expression is caught up -superstitiously as a sort of Bath Kol, or "the daughter of a voice," -which not only indicates but even helps to bring about the purposes -of Heaven. A chance friendly greeting may become the termination of a -blood feud, because something more than chance is supposed to be behind -it![730] Once when a group of doomed gladiators gathered themselves -under the Imperial _podium_ of the amphitheatre with their sublimely -monotonous chant, "_Ave Caesar, morituri te salutamus_," the half-dazed -emperor inadvertently answered, "_Avete vos!_" "He has bidden us, -'Hail!'" shouted the gladiators: "the contest is remitted; we are -free!" Had the Romans been Orientals the twenty thousand assembled -spectators would have felt the force of the appeal. Even as it was the -significance of the omen was felt to be so great that the gladiators -threw down their arms, and it was only by whips and violence that they -were finally driven to the combat in which they perished.[731] - -So with intense eagerness the ambassadors, in their sackcloth and -their halters, awaited the Bath Kol. It came far more favourably than -they had dared to hope. Surprised, and perhaps half-touched with pity -for so immense a reverse of misfortune, "Is he yet alive?" exclaimed -the careless king: "he is my brother!" - -The Syrians snatched at the expression as a decisive omen.[732] It -constituted an absolute end of the feud. It became an implicit promise -of that sacred _dakheel_, that "protection" to which the slightest -and most accidental expression constitutes a recognised claim.[733] -"Thy _brother_ Benhadad," they earnestly and emphatically repeated. In -accordance with Eastern custom and augury their whole end was gained. -As far as Benhadad was concerned he was now safe; as far as Ahab was -concerned, the mischief, if mischief it were, was irreparably done. - -Ahab could hardly have drawn back even if he wished to do so, -but perhaps he was swayed by a fellow feeling for a king. This -strange uxorious monarch, with his easily swayed impulses, his -fits of schoolboy sullenness and swift repentance, his want of -insight into existing conditions, his--if the expression may be -excused--happy-go-lucky way of letting questions settle themselves, -was, no doubt, a brave warrior, but he was a most incapable statesman. -His conduct was perfectly infatuated. Pity is one thing, but the -security of a nation has also to be considered. It would have been a -worse than insensate piece of pseudo-chivalry if the Congress of Vienna -had not sent Napoleon to Elba, and if England had not confined him in -St. Helena. To set free a man endowed with passionate hatred, with -immense ambitions, with boundless capacities for mischief--or only to -bind him with the packthread of insecure promises--was the conduct of -a fool.[734] If it was compassion which induced Ahab to give Benhadad -his life, it showed either gross incapacity or treachery against his -own nation not to clip his wings, and hamper him from the future -injuries which the burden of gratitude was little likely to prevent. -The sequel shows that Benhadad's resentment against his royal "brother" -only became more hopelessly implacable, and in all probability it was -largely mingled with contempt. - -And Ahab's conduct, besides being foolish, was guilty. It showed a -frivolous non-recognition of his duties as a theocratic king. It -flung away the national advantages, and even the national security, -which had not been vouchsafed to any power or worth of his, but only -to Jehovah's direct interposition to save the destinies of his people -from premature extinction. - -When Benhadad came out of his hiding-place, Ahab, not content with -sparing the life of this furious and merciless aggressor, took him -up into his chariot, which was the highest honour he could have paid -him, and accepted the excessively easy terms which Benhadad himself -proposed. The Syrians were not required to pay any indemnity for -the immense expenditure and unutterable misery which their wanton -invasions had inflicted upon Israel! They simply proposed to restore -the cities which Benhadad's father had taken from Omri, and to allow -the Israelites to have a protected bazaar in Damascus similar to -the one which the Syrians enjoyed in Samaria.[735] On this covenant -Benhadad was sent home scatheless, and with a supineness which was -not so much magnanimous as fatuous, Ahab neglected to take hostages -of any kind to secure the fulfilment even of these ridiculously -inadequate terms of peace. - -Benhadad was not likely to throw away the chance which gave him such -an easy-going and improvident adversary. It is certain that he did -not keep the covenant. He probably never even intended to keep it. If -he condescended to any excuse for breaking it, he would probably have -affected to regard it as extorted by violence, and therefore invalid, -as Francis I. defended the forfeiture of his parole after the battle -of Pavia. The recklessness with which Ahab had reposed in Benhadad a -confidence, not only undeserved, but rendered reckless by all the -antecedents of the Syrian king, cost him very dear. He had to pay the -penalty of his dementation three years later in a new and disastrous -war, in the loss of his life, and the overthrow of his dynasty. The -fact that, after so many exertions, and so much success in war, in -commerce, and in worldly policy, he and his house fell unpitied, and -no one raised a finger in his defence, 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 victories.[736] - -There was one aspect in which Ahab's conduct assumed an aspect more -supremely culpable. To whom had he owed the courage and inspiration -which had rescued him from ruin, and led to the triumphs which had -delivered him and his people from the depths of despair? Not in the -least to himself, or to Jezebel, or to Baal's priests, or to any of -his captains or counsellors. In both instances the heroism had been -inspired and the success promised by a prophet of Jehovah. What would -convince him, if this would not, that in God only was his strength? Did -not the most ordinary gratitude as well as the most ordinary wisdom -require that he should recognise the source of these unhoped-for -blessings? There is not the least trace that he did so. We read of no -word of gratitude to Jehovah, no desire to follow the guidance of the -prophets to whom he was so deeply indebted, and who had proved their -right to be regarded as interpreters of God's will. 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 destruction. - -He might ignore guidance, but he could not escape reproof. Again an -unknown monitor from the sons of the prophets was commissioned to -bring home to him his error. He did so by an acted parable, which gave -concrete force and vividness to the lesson which he desired to convey. -Speaking "by the word of the Lord"--_i.e._, 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 -prophets," and bade him to wound him. His comrade, not unnaturally, -shrank from obeying so strange a command. It must be borne in mind -that the mere appeal to an inspiration from Jehovah did not always -authenticate itself. Over and over again in the prophetic books, and -in these histories which the Jews call "the earlier prophets," we find -that men could profess to act in Jehovah's name, and even perhaps to -be sincere in so doing, who were mere dupes of their own wills and -fancies. It was, in fact, possible for them to become false prophets, -without always meaning to be so; and these chances of hallucination--of -being misled by a lying spirit--led to fierce contentions in the -prophetic communities. "Since you have not obeyed Jehovah's voice," -said the man, "the lion shall immediately slay you." "And as soon -as he was departed from him the lion found him and slew him." There -is nothing impossible in the incident, for in those days lions were -common in Palestine, and they multiplied when the country had been -depopulated by war. But we can never feel certain how far the ethical -and didactic and parabolic elements were allowed, for purposes of -edification, to play a part in these ancient yet not contemporaneous -_Acta Prophetarum_, and at any rate to dictate the interpretation of -things which may have actually occurred. - -The prophet then bade another comrade to smite him, and he did so -effectually, inflicting a serious wound.[737] This was a part of -the intended scene in which the prophet meant for a moment to play -the _role_ of a soldier who had been wounded in the Syrian war. So -he bound up his head with a bandage,[738] and waited for the king -to pass by. An Eastern king is liable at any time to be appealed to -by the humblest of his subjects, and the prophet stopped Ahab and -stated his imaginary case. "A captain," he said, "brought me one of -his war captives,[739] and ordered me to keep him safe. If I failed -to do so, I was to pay the forfeit of my life, or to pay as a fine a -silver talent.[740] But as I was looking here and there the captive -escaped." "Be it so," answered Ahab; "you are bound by your own -bargain." Thus Ahab, like David, was led to condemn himself out of -his own mouth. Then the prophet tore the bandage from his face, and -said to Ahab: "Thou art the man! Thus saith Jehovah, I entrusted to -thee the man under my ban (_cherem_),[741] and thou hast let him -escape. Thou shalt pay the forfeit. Thy life shall go for his life, -thy people for his people." - -Anger and indignation filled the heart of the king; he went to his -house "heavy and displeased." The phrase, twice applied to him and -never used of another, shows that he was liable to characteristic -moods of overwhelming sullenness, the result of an uneasy conscience, -and of a rage which was compelled to remain impotent. It is evident -that he did not dare to chastise the audacious offender, though the -Jews say that the prophet was Micaiah, the son of Imlah, and that he -was imprisoned for this offence.[742] As a rule the prophets--like -Samuel and Nathan, and Gad and Shemaiah, and Jehu the son of -Hanani--were protected by their sacrosanct position. Now and then an -Urijah, a Jeremiah, a Zechariah son of Berechiah, paid the penalty of -bold denunciation, not only by hatred and persecution, but with his -life. This, however, was the exception. As a rule the prophets felt -themselves safe under the wing of a Divine protector. Not only Elijah -in his sheepskin mantle, but even the humblest of his imitators in -the prophetic schools might fearlessly stride up to a king, seize his -steed by the bridle, as Athanasius did to Constantine, and compel him -to listen to his rebuke or his appeal. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[725] 1 Kings xx. 24. LXX., [Greek: satrapas]. - -[726] R.V., "and were victualled," not, as in A.V., "and were all -present." Alex. LXX., [Greek: dioikethesan]; Vulg., _acceptis cibariis_. - -[727] Why two? No explanation is given. It has been conjectured that -Judah had sent a separate contingent to help them in their distress. - -[728] Some have supposed that an earthquake occurred, and Canon -Rawlinson mentions (_Speaker's Commentary_) that the earthquake of -Lisbon is said to have destroyed sixty thousand persons in five minutes. - -[729] [Hebrew: becheder cheder]. Comp. for similar phrases, (Heb.) -Lev. xxv. 53; Deut. xv. 20; 1 Kings xxii. 25; 2 Chron. xxviii. 26. -Klostermann, with one of his amazing conjectures, reads "by the -spring Harod in Harod"! LXX., [Greek: eis ton oikon tou koitonos, -eis to tameion]; Vulg., _in cubiculum quod erat intra cubiculum_. -Josephus makes it a cellar ([Greek: eis hypogaion oikon ekrybe]), -"like the modern _serdaubs_ in which the inhabitants of many Eastern -cities live in the summer" (Rawlinson). - -[730] The accidental sigh of the engineer was sufficient to prevent -the colossal Egyptian statue of a Pharaoh from being moved to its -destination. Even Rome shared the immemorial superstition. - -[731] Suet., _Claud._ - -[732] xx. 33, [Hebrew: yanichashu], from [Hebrew: nachash], "an -augury"; LXX., [Greek: anelexanto ton logon (oionisanto)]; Vulg., -_quod acceperunt viri pro omine_. - -[733] Layard, _Nineveh_, 317-19. - -[734] The compact is vainly dignified with the name of a [Hebrew: -verit], or "covenant." - -[735] [Hebrew: chutzovt]. Compare the _Lombard_ Streets, and the -_Jewries_ in London and Paris. - -[736] Clericus says, rightly: "Factum Ahabi, quamvis clementiae -speciem prae se ferret, non erat verae clementiae, quae non est erga -latrones exercenda; qui si dimittantur multo magis nocebunt." - -[737] The object and necessity of this for his purpose is by no means -apparent. Perhaps it was to figure the wound which Ahab had by his -conduct wilfully inflicted on himself or on Israel. - -[738] Verse 38. This, and not "with ashes upon his face," is the -meaning of the Hebrew [Hebrew: 'afer]. LXX., [Greek: telamon], "a -headband"; Vulg., _aspersione pulveris_; and so, too, Peshito, -Aquila, and Symmachus. - -[739] 1 Kings xx. 39. [Hebrew: sar] in the sense of [Hebrew: sar], -according to Ewald's reading. - -[740] About L350. Evidently, therefore, the captive is supposed to be -a very important person. - -[741] [Hebrew: cheremi 'ish]. - -[742] [Hebrew: veza'ef sar]; Vulg., _indignans, et frendens_, a -phrase only used of Ahab (xxi. 4-5). Josephus (_Antt._, XIII. xv. 5) -says that Ahab imprisoned and punished the prophet, whom, with the -Rabbis, he identifies with Micaiah. - - - - - CHAPTER XLVI. - - _NABOTH'S VINEYARD._ - - 1 KINGS xxi. 1-29. - - "The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the - godless is but for a moment."--JOB xx. 5. - - "If weakness may excuse, - What murderer, what traitor, parricide, - Incestuous, sacrilegious, but may plead it? - All wickedness is weakness." - _Samson Agonistes._ - - -The chief glory of the institution of prophecy was that it rightly -estimated the supremacy of the moral law. The prophets saw that -the enforcement of one precept of righteousness involved more -true religion than hundreds of pages of Levitic ritual. It is the -temptation of priests and Pharisees to sink into formalism; to warp -the conceptions of the Almighty into that of a Deity who is jealous -about inconceivable pettinesses of ceremonial; to think that the -Eternal cares about niceties of rubric, rules of ablutions, varieties -of nomenclature or organisation. In their solicitude about these -nullities they often forget, as they did in the days of Christ, -the weightier matters of the law, mercy, judgment, and truth. When -religion has been dwarfed into these inanities the men who deem -themselves its only orthodox votaries, and scorn all others as "lax" -and "latitudinarian," are not only ready to persecute every genuine -teacher of righteousness, but even to murder the Christ Himself. They -come to think that falsehood and cruelty cease to be criminal when -practised in the cause of religious intolerance. - -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 remonstrants. It is true that -they also had their own special temptations; they, too, might become -the slaves of shibboleths; 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 formulae long after they had become -evacuated of their meaning.[743] They might distort the message "Thus -saith Jehovah" to serve their own ends.[744] They might yield to -the temptations both of individual and of corporate ambition. 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 -covetousness."[745] They might abuse their prestige to promote their -own party or their own interests. They were assailed by the same perils -to which in after days so many monks, hermits, and religious societies -succumbed. Many a man became a nominal prophet, as many a man became a -monk, because the office secured to him a maintenance-- - - "'Twas not for nothing the good belly-ful, - The warm serge and the rope that goes all round, - And day long blessed idleness besides;" - -and also because it surrounded him with a halo of imaginary -sanctity. The monks, we know, by their turbulence and partisanship, -became the terror of the fourth century after Christ, and no men -more emphatically denounce their mendicancy and their impostures -than the very fathers who, like St. Jerome and St. Augustine, were -most enamoured of their ideal.[746] As for the hermits, if one of -them securely established a reputation for abnormal austerities he -became in his way as powerful as a king. In the stories even of such -a man as St. Martin of Tours[747] we detect now and then a gleam of -hauteur, of which traces are not lacking in the stories of these -nameless or famous prophets in the Book of Kings. - -No human institution, even if it be avowedly religious, is safe from -the perilous seductions of the world, the flesh, and the devil. -Perpetually - - "The old order changeth, giving place to new, - And God fulfils Himself in many ways - Lest one good custom should corrupt the world." - -Mendicant brotherhoods and ascetic communities were soon able, by -legal fictions, to revel in opulence, to steep themselves in luxury, -and yet to wield a religious authority which princes envied. When -we read what the Benedictines and the Minorites and the Carthusians -often became, we are the less surprised to find that even the Schools -of the Prophets, while Elijah and Elisha yet lived, could abdicate -as a body their best functions, and, deceiving and deceived, could -learn to answer erring kings according to their idols. - -But the greatest and truest prophets rose superior to the influences -which tended to debase the vulgar herd of their followers, 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 tones. True prophecy cannot be made a matter of education, -or "tamed out of its splendid passion." The greatest prophets, like -Amos and Isaiah, did not come out of the Schools of the Prophets. -Inspiration cannot be cultivated, or trained to grow up a wall. -"Much learning," says Heraclitus very profoundly, "does not teach; -but the Sibyl with maddening lips, uttering things unbeautified, -unperfumed, and unadorned, reaches through myriads of years because -of God." The man whom God has summoned forth to speak the true word -or do the heroic deed, at the cost of all hatred, or of death itself, -has normally to protest not only against priests, but against his -fellow-prophets also when they immorally acquiesced in oppression -and wrong which custom sanctioned.[748] It was by such true prophets -that the Hebrews and through them the world were taught the ideal of -righteousness. Their greatest service was to uphold against idolatry, -formalism, and worldliness, the simple standard of the moral law. - -It was owing to such teaching that the Israelites formed a true -judgment of Ahab's culpability. The act which was held to have -outweighed all his other crimes, and to have precipitated his final -doom, was an isolated act of high-handed injustice to an ordinary -citizen. - -Ahab was a builder. He had built cities and palaces, and was -specially attached to his palace at Jezreel, which he wished to -make the most delightful of summer residences. It was unique in its -splendour as the first palace inlaid with ivory. The nation had -heard of Solomon's ivory throne, but never till this time of an -"ivory palace." But a palace is nothing without pleasant gardens. -The neighbourhood of Jezreel, as is still shown by the ancient -winepresses cut out of the rock in the neighbourhood of its ruins, -was enriched by vineyards, and one of these vineyards adjoining the -palace belonged to a citizen named Naboth.[749] It happened that no -other ground would so well have served the purpose of Ahab to make a -garden near his palace, and he made Naboth a fair offer for it. "I -will give you," he said, "a better vineyard for it, or I will pay you -its full value in ingots of silver."[750] - -Naboth, however, was perfectly within his rights[751] in rejecting -the offer. It was the inheritance of his fathers, 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 it. He sturdily refused the offer of -the king. His case was different from that of the Jebusite prince -Araunah, who had sold his threshing floor to David, and that of -Shemer, who sold the Hill of Samaria to Omri.[752] - -A sensible man would have accepted the inevitable, and done the best -he could to find a garden elsewhere. But Ahab, who could not bear -to be thwarted, came into his house "heavy and displeased." Like an -overgrown, sullen boy he flung himself on his divan, turned his face -to the wall, and would not eat. - -News came to Jezebel in her seraglio of her lord's ill-humour, and -she came to ask him, "What mutiny in his spirit made him decline to -take food?"[753] - -He told her the sturdy refusal of Naboth, and she broke into a -scornful laugh. "Are you King of Israel?" she asked. "Why this is -playing at kinghood![754] It is not the way we do things in Tyre. -Arise, eat bread, be merry. _I_ will give thee the vineyard of Naboth -the Jezreelite." - -Did he admire the mannish spirit of the Syrian princess, or did he -secretly shrink from it? At any rate he let Jezebel take her own -course. With intrepid insolence she at once wrote a letter in Ahab's -name from Samaria, and sent it sealed with his signet to the elders -of Jezreel.[755] She ordered them to proclaim a fast as though to -avert some public calamity, 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 assembly.[756] They were to get hold -of two "sons of worthlessness," professional perjurers, and to -accuse Naboth of blasphemy against God and the king.[757] His mode -of refusing the vineyard might give some colourable pretext to the -charge. On the testimony of those two false witnesses Naboth must be -condemned, and then they must drag him outside the city to the pool -or tank with his sons and stone them all. - -Everything was done by the subservient elders of Jezreel exactly as she -had directed. 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 Israel. On that very evening Jezebel -received the message, "Naboth is stoned and is dead." By the savage law -of those days his innocent sons were involved in his overthrow,[758] -and his property, left without heirs, reverted by confiscation to -the crown.[759] "Arise," said the triumphant sorceress, "and take -possession of the vineyard you wished for. I have given it to you as I -promised. Its owner and his sons have died the deaths of blasphemers, -and he crushed under the stones outside Jezreel." - -Caring only for the gratification of his wish, heedless of the means -employed, hastily and joyously at early dawn the king arose to seize -the coveted vineyard. The dark deed had been done at night, the king -was alert with the morning light.[760] He rode in his chariot from -Samaria to Jezreel, which is but seven miles distant, and he rode in -something of military state, for in separate chariots, or else riding -in the same chariot, behind him were two war-like youths, Jehu and -Bidkar, who were destined to remember the events of that day, and to -refer to them four years afterwards, when one had become king and the -other his chief commander.[761] - -But the king's joy was shortlived! - -News of the black crime had come to Elijah, probably in his lonely -retreat in some cave at Carmel. He was a man who, though he flamed -out on great occasions like a meteor portending ruin to the guilty, -yet lived in general a hidden life. Six years had elapsed since -the calling of Elisha, and we have not once been reminded of his -existence. But now he was instantly inspired to protest against the -atrocious act of robbery and oppression, and to denounce upon it an -awful retribution which not even Baal-worship had called forth. - -Ahab was at the summit of his hopes. He was about to complete his -summer palace and to grasp the fruits of the crime which he had -allowed the [Greek: androboulon kear] of his wife to commit. But at -the gate of Naboth's vineyard stood the swart figure of the Prophet -in his hairy garb. 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 vain. The advantage of his crime was snatched from him at -the instant of fruition. Half in anger, half in anguish, he cried, -"Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" - -"I have found thee," said the Prophet, speaking in Jehovah's name. -"Thou hast sold thyself to work evil before me, and I will requite it -and extinguish thee before me. Surely the Lord saw yesternight the -blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons.[762] Thy dynasty shall be -cut off to the last man, like that of Jeroboam, like that of Baasha. -Where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs shall lick thine. -The harlots shall wash themselves in the water which thy blood has -stained. Him that dieth of thee in the city the dogs shall eat, and -him that dieth in the field shall the vultures rend, and the dogs -shall eat Jezebel also in the moat of Jezreel."[763] - -It is the duty of prophets to stand before kings and not be ashamed. -So had Abraham stood before Nimrod, and Moses before Pharaoh, -and Samuel before Saul, and Nathan before David, and Iddo before -Jeroboam. So was Isaiah to stand hereafter before Ahaz, and Jeremiah -before Jehoiachin, and John the Baptist before Herod, and Paul -before Nero. Nor has it been at all otherwise in modern days. So -did St. Ignatius confront Trajan, and St. Ambrose brave the Empress -Justina, and St. Martin the Usurper Maximus, and St. Chrysostom the -fierce Eudoxia, and St. Basil the heretic Valens, and St. Columban -the savage Thierry, and St. Dunstan our half-barbarous Edgar. So, -too, in later days, Savonarola could speak the bare bold truth to -Lorenzo the Magnificent, and Knox to Mary Queen of Scots, and Bishop -Ken to Charles II. But never was any king confronted by so awful a -denunciation of doom. Probably the moment that Elijah had uttered -it he disappeared; but could not a swift arrow have reached him -from Jehu's or Bidkar's bow? We know how they remembered two reigns -later the thunder of those awful words, but they would hardly have -disobeyed the mandate of their king had he bidden them to seize or -slay the Prophet. Nothing was further from their thoughts. Elijah -had become to Ahab the incarnation of his own awakened conscience, -and it spoke to him in the thunders of Sinai. He quailed before the -tremendous imprecation. We may well doubt whether he even so much -as entered again the vineyard of Naboth; never certainly could he -have enjoyed it. He had indeed sold himself to do evil, and, as -always happens to such colossal criminals, he had sold himself for -naught--as Achan did for a buried robe and a useless ingot, and Judas -for the thirty pieces of silver which he could only dash down on the -Temple floor. Ahab turned away from the vineyard, which might well -seem to him haunted by the ghosts of his murdered victims and its -clusters full of blood. He rent his clothes, and clad himself in -sackcloth, and slept in sackcloth, and went about barefooted with -slow steps[764] and bent brow, a stricken man. Thenceforward as long -as he lived he kept in penitence and humiliation the anniversary of -Naboth's death,[765] as James IV. of Scotland kept the anniversary of -the death of the father against whom he had rebelled. - -This penitence, though it does not seem to have been lasting, was not -wholly in vain. Elijah received a Divine intimation that, because -the king troubled himself, the threatened evil should in part be -postponed to the days of his sons. The sun of the unfortunate and -miserable dynasty set in blood. But though it is recorded that, -incited by his Tyrian wife, he did very abominably in worshipping -"idol-blocks," and following the ways of the old Canaanite -inhabitants of the land, 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 sons. - -How adamantine, how irreversible is the law of retribution! With -what normal and natural development, apart from every arbitrary -infliction, is the irrevocable prophecy fulfilled: "Be sure your sin -will find you out." - - "Yea, he loved cursing, and it came unto him; - Yea, he delighted not in blessing, and it is far from him; - Yea, he clothed himself with cursing like as with his - garment, - And it came into his bowels like water, like oil into his - bones."[766] - -Ahab had to be taught by adversity since he refused the lesson of -prosperity. - - "Daughter of Jove, relentless power, - Thou tamer of the human breast, - Whose iron scourge and torturing hour - The bad affright, afflict the best, - Bound in thine adamantine chain - The proud are taught to taste of pain, - And purple tyrants vainly groan - With woes unfelt before, unpitied and alone." - -But as for Elijah himself, he once more vanished into the solitude of -his own life, and we do not hear of him again till four years later, -when he sent to Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, the message of his doom. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[743] Zech. xiii. 4. - -[744] On this defection and imposture of prophets, see Jer. xxiii. -21-40. Isa. xxx. 9, 10; Ezek. xiii. 7-9; Micah ii. 11; Deut. xviii. 20. - -[745] Jer. xxii. 17. - -[746] _De Gubernat. Dei._, viii.; Ambrose, _Ep._, xli.; Cassian, _De -Instit. Monastic. passim_. See chap. xvi. of my _Lives of the Fathers_ -(St. Jerome), and Zoeckler, _Gesch. der Askese_, for many authorities. - -[747] See my _Lives of the Fathers_, vol. i. (St. Martin of Tours). - -[748] See Jer. xxiii. 20-40. - -[749] The Alex. LXX. throughout calls Naboth "an Israelite," not "a -Jezreelite." - -[750] Both the Hebrew text of 1 Kings xxi. 1 and Josephus (_Antt._, -XIII. xv. 6) locate the vineyard of Naboth at Jezreel. The LXX., -however, place it apparently near the threshing-floor of Ahab in -Samaria ([Greek: para te halo Achaab basileos Samareias]), which is -the same as the "void place" of 1 Kings xxii. 10. At both cities -Ahab's palace was on the city wall, and on either supposition -Naboth's vineyard was close by the palace. - -[751] Lev. xxv. 23, "The land shall not be sold for ever, for the -land is Mine." Numb. xxxvi. 7; Ezek. xlvi. 18. - -[752] 2 Sam. xxiv. 24; 1 Kings xvi. 24. - -[753] The word rendered "sad" is rendered "mutinous" by Thenius. - -[754] LXX., 1 Kings xxi. 7, [Greek: Sy nyn hoytos poieis basilea epi -Israel;] - -[755] The signet was carved with the king's name. Rawlinson aptly -compares Lady Macbeth's "Infirm of purpose give me the daggers!" - -[756] Josephus calls it an [Greek: ekklesia]. "Set Naboth on high" -(Heb.) "at the head of the people"; LXX., [Greek: en arche tou laou]; -Vulg., _inter primos populi_. - -[757] The charge was that "he cursed God and the king." LXX. (by -euphemism), [Greek: eulogese]; Vulg., _Benedixit_. The Hebrew word -has both meanings (comp. Exod. xxii. 28, where some would render -_Elohim_ not "God," but "the judges." See marg. of R.V.). Stoning was -the punishment of blasphemy (Lev. xxiv. 16), and took place outside -the city (Acts vii. 58). - -[758] 2 Kings ix. 26. - -[759] 2 Sam. xvi. 4. - -[760] In 1 Kings xxi. 16 the LXX. curiously says, that "when Ahab -heard that Naboth was dead he rent his garments, and clothed himself -in sackcloth; and after this he also arose," etc. This mourning for -the _means_ but acceptance of the _fact_ would not be in disaccord -with Ahab's moral weakness. - -[761] 2 Kings ix. 25, 36. - -[762] LXX. - -[763] 2 Kings ix. 36. LXX., [Greek: en to proteichismati]. The -[Hebrew: chel] of an Eastern city is the desert space outside the -walls where the "pariah dogs prowl on the mounds." - -[764] [Hebrew: 'at], LXX., [Greek: klaion]; Josephus, Chaldee, and -Peshito, "shoeless." - -[765] 1 Kings xxi. 27. [Greek: kai periebaleto sakkon en te hemera he -epataxe Nabouthai]. - -[766] Psalm cix. 17, 18. - - - - - CHAPTER XLVII. - - _ALONE AGAINST THE WORLD._ - - 1 KINGS xxii. 1-40. - - "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken - to them, yet they prophesied.... I have heard what the prophets - said who prophesied lies in My name."--JER. xxiii. 21-25. - - "[Greek: Manti kakon ou popote moi to kreguon eipas - Aiei toi ta kak' esti phila phresi manteuesthai - Esthlon d' oude ti po eipas epos oud' etelessas.]" - HOM., _Iliad_, i. 106. - - -We now come to the last scene of Ahab's troubled and eventful life. -His two immense victories over the Syrians had secured for his -harassed kingdom three years of peace, 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 ratified. The town of Ramoth -in Gilead, which was one of great importance as a frontier town of -Israel, had, in express defiance of the covenant, been retained -by the Syrians, who still refused to give it up. A favourable -opportunity, he thought, had now occurred to demand its cession. - -This was the friendly visit of Jehoshaphat, King of Judah. It was -the first time that a king of Judah had visited the capital of the -kings who had revolted from the dynasty of David. It was the first -acknowledged close of the old blood-feuds, and the beginning of a -friendship and affinity which policy seemed to dictate. After all -Ephraim and Judah were brothers, though Ephraim had vexed Judah, and -Judah hated Ephraim. Jehoshaphat was rich, prosperous, successful -in war. No king since Solomon had attained to anything like his -greatness--the reward, it was believed, of his piety and faithfulness. -Ahab, too, had proved himself a successful warrior, and the valour -of Israel's hosts had, with Jehovah's blessing, extricated their -afflicted land from the terrible aggressions of Syria. But how could -the little kingdom of Israel hope to hold out against Syria, and -to keep Moab in subjection? 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 east? -Could anything but ruin be imminent, if these two nations of Israel and -Judah--one in land, one in blood, one in language, in tradition, and -in interests--were perpetually to destroy each other with internecine -strife? The kings determined to make a league with one another, and to -bind it by mutual affinity. It was proposed that Athaliah, daughter of -Ahab and Jezebel, should marry Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat. - -The dates are uncertain, but it was probably in connexion with the -marriage contract that Jehoshaphat now paid a ceremonial visit to -Ahab. The King of Israel received him with splendid entertainments to -all the people.[767] Ahab had already broached to his captains the -subject of recovering Ramoth Gilead, and he now took occasion of the -King of Judah's visit to invite his co-operation. What advantages and -compensations he offered are not stated. It may have been enough to -point out that, if Syria once succeeded in crushing Israel, the fate of -Judah would not be long postponed. Jehoshaphat, who seems to have been -too ready to yield to pressure, answered in a sort of set phrase: "I am -as thou art; my people as thy people; my horses as thy horses."[768] - -But it is probable that his heart misgave him. He was a truly pious -king. He had swept the Asherahs out of Judah, and endeavoured to -train his people in the principles of righteousness and the worship -of Jehovah. 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 Jehu, the son of Hanani, "Shouldst -thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore -is wrath upon thee from the Lord." 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 God. He therefore said to Ahab, "Inquire, I -pray thee, of the word of the Lord to-day." - -Ahab could not refuse, and apparently the professional prophets of -the schools had been pretty well cajoled or drilled into accordance -with his wishes. A great and solemn assembly was summoned. The kings -had clothed themselves in their royal robes striped with laticlaves -of Tyrian purple,[769] and sat on thrones in an open space before the -gate of Samaria. No less than four hundred prophets of Jehovah were -summoned to prophesy before them. Ahab propounded for their decision -the formal and important question, "Shall I go up to Ramoth Gilead to -battle, or shall I forbear?" - -With one voice the prophets "philippised." They answered the king -according to his idols. Had the gold of Ahab or of Jezebel been at -work among them? Had they been in king's houses, and succumbed to -courtly influences? Or were they carried away by the interested -enthusiasm of one or two of their leaders who saw their own account -in the matter? Certain it is that on this occasion they became false -prophets. They used their formula "Thus saith Jehovah" without -authority, and promised Jehovah's aid in vain.[770] Conspicuous in -his evil ardour was one of them named Zedekiah, son of Chenaanah. -To illustrate and emphasise his jubilant prophecies he had made and -affixed to his head a pair of iron horns; and as though to symbolise -the bull of the House of Ephraim, he said to Ahab, "Thus saith -Jehovah. With these shalt thou push the Assyrians until thou have -consumed them."[771] And all the prophets prophesied so. - -What could be more encouraging? Here was a patriot-king, the -hero-victor in great battles, bound by fresh ties of kinship and -league with the pious descendant of David, meditating a just -raid against a dangerous enemy to recover a frontier-fortress -which was his by right; and here were four hundred prophets--not -Asherah-prophets or Baal-prophets, but genuine prophets of -Jehovah--unanimous, and even enthusiastic, in approving his design -and promising him the victory! The Church and the world were--as -they so often have been--delightfully at one. - -"One with God" is the better majority. These loud-voiced majorities -and unanimities are rarely to be trusted. Truth and righteousness -are far more often to be found in the causes which they denounce -and at which they sneer. They silence opposition, but they produce -no conviction. They can torture, but they cannot refute. There -is something unmistakable in the accent of sincerity, and it was -lacking in the voice of these prophets on the popular side. If Ahab -was deceived and even carried away by the unwonted approval of so -many messengers of Jehovah, Jehoshaphat was not. These four hundred -prophets who seemed superfluously sufficient to Ahab by no means -satisfied the King of Judah. - -"Is there not," he asked, with uneasy misgiving, "one prophet of the -Lord besides, that we might inquire of him?" - -One prophet of the Lord besides?[772] Were not, then, _four hundred_ -prophets of the Lord enough? They must have felt themselves cruelly -slighted when they heard the pious king's inquiry, and doubtless a -murmur of disapproval arose amongst them. - -And the King of Israel said, "There is yet one man." Had Jehoshaphat -been secretly thinking of Elijah? Where was Elijah? He was living, -certainly, for he survived even into the reign (apparently) of -Jehoram. But where was Elijah? If Jehoshaphat had thought of him, -Ahab at any rate did not care to mention him. Perhaps he was -inaccessible, in some lonely unknown retreat of Carmel or of Gilead. -Since his fearful message to Ahab he had not been heard of; but why -did he not appear at a national crisis so tremendous as this? - -"There is yet one man," said Ahab. "Micaiah, the son of Imlah, -by whom we may inquire of the Lord; but"--such was the king's -most singular comment--"I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good -concerning me, but evil."[773] - -It was a weak confession that he was aware of one man who was -indisputably a true prophet of Jehovah, 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 king. Indeed, it seems probable that he was, at this -moment, in prison. 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 -promise. Till then he had been unknown. He was not like Elijah, and -might safely be suppressed. And Ahab, as was universally the case in -ancient days, thought that the prophet could practically prophesy -as he liked, and not merely prophesy, but bring about his own -vaticinations. Hence, if a prophet said anything which he disliked, -he regarded him as a personal enemy, and, if he dared, he punished -him--just as Agamemnon punished Calchas. - -Jehoshaphat, however, was still dissatisfied; he wanted further -confirmation. "Let not the king say so," he said. If he is a genuine -prophet, the king should not hate him, or fancy that he prophesies -evil out of malice prepense. Would it not be more satisfactory to -hear what he might have to say? - -However reluctantly, Ahab saw that he should have to send for -Micaiah, and he despatched a eunuch to hurry him to the scene with -all speed.[774] - -The mention of a eunuch as the messenger is significant. Ahab had -become the first polygamist among the kings of Israel, and a seraglio -so large as his[775] could never be maintained without the presence -of these degraded and odious officials, who here first appear in the -hardier annals of the Northern Kingdom. - -This eunuch, however, seems to have had a kindly disposition. He was -good-naturedly anxious that Micaiah should not get into trouble. He -advised him, with prudential regard for his own interest, to swim -with the stream. "See now," he said, "all the prophets with one mouth -are prophesying good to the king. Pray agree with them. Do not spoil -everything." - -How often has the same base advice been given! How often has it been -followed! How certain is its rejection to lead to bitter animosity! -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 world. Micaiah rose superior to the eunuch's temptation. "By -Jehovah," he said, "I will speak only what He bids me speak." - -He stood before the kings, the eager multitude, the unanimous and -passionate prophets; and there was deep silence when Ahab put to -him the question to which the four hundred had already shouted an -affirmative. - -His answer was precisely the same as theirs: "Go up to Ramoth Gilead -and prosper, for the Lord shall deliver it into the hand of the -king!" Every one must have been astonished. But Ahab detected the -tone of scorn which rang through the assenting words, and angrily -adjured Micaiah to give a true answer in Jehovah's name. "How many -times," he cried, "shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but -that which is true in Jehovah's name." The "how many times" shows how -faithfully Micaiah must have fulfilled his duty of speaking messages -of God to his erring king. - -So adjured, Micaiah could not be silent, however much the answer -might cost him, or however useless it might be. - -"I saw all Israel,"[776] he said, "scattered on the mountain like -sheep without a shepherd. And Jehovah said, These have no master, let -every man return to his house in peace." - -The vision seemed to hint at the death of the king, and Ahab turned -triumphantly to his ally, "Did I not tell you that he would prophesy -evil?" - -Micaiah justified himself by a daringly anthropomorphic apologue -which startles us, but would not at all have startled those who -regarded everything as coming from the immediate action of God, and -who could ask, "Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not -done it?"[777] The prophets were self-deceived, but this would be -expressed by saying that Jehovah deceived them. Pharaoh hardens his -heart, and God is said to have done it. - -He had seen Jehovah on His throne, he said, surrounded by the host -of heaven, and asking who would entice Ahab to his fall at Ramoth -Gilead. After various answers the spirit[778] said, "I will go and -be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets, and will entice -him." Then Jehovah sent him, so that they all spoke good to the king -though Jehovah had spoken evil. God had sent to them all--king, -people, prophets--strong delusion that they should believe a lie. - -This stern reproof to all the prophets was more than their coryphaeus -Zedekiah could endure. Having recourse to "the syllogism of violence" -he strode up to Micaiah and smote the defenceless, isolated, hated -man on the cheek,[779] with the contemptuous question, "Which way -went the spirit of the Lord from me, to speak unto thee?" - -"Behold thou shalt know," was the answer, "on the day when thou shalt -flee from chamber to chamber to hide thyself." If the hands of the -prophet were bound as he came from the prison, there would have been -an infinite dignity in that calm rebuke. - -But as though the case was self-evident, and Micaiah's opposition to -the four hundred prophets proved his guilt, Ahab sent him back to -prison. "Issue orders," he said, "to Amon, governor of the city, and -Joash, the king's son, to feed him scantily on bread and water till -the king's return in peace." - -"If thou return at all in peace," said Micaiah, "Jehovah hath not -spoken by me."[780] - -It is a sign of the extreme fragmentariness of the narrative that -of Micaiah and Zedekiah we hear nothing further, though the sequel -respecting them must have been told in the original record. But -the prophecy of Micaiah came true, and the unanimous four hundred -had prophesied lies. There are times when "the Catholic Church" -dwindles down to the one man and the small handful of those who -speak the truth. The expedition was altogether disastrous. Ahab, -perhaps knowing by spies how bitterly the Syrians were incensed -against him, told Jehoshaphat that he would disguise himself and go -into the battle, but begged his ally to wear his robes as was usual -with kings.[781] Benhadad, with the implacable hatred of one who -had received a benefit, was so eager to be avenged on Ahab that he -had told his thirty-two captains to make his capture their special -aim.[782] Seeing a king in his robes they made a fierce onset on -Jehoshaphat and surrounded his chariot. His cries for rescue showed -them that he was not Ahab, and they turned away.[783] But Ahab's -disguise did not save him. A Syrian--the Jews say that it was -Naaman[784]--drew a bow with no particular aim,[785] and the arrow -smote Ahab in the place between the upper and lower armour.[786] -Feeling that the wound was deadly he ordered his charioteer to turn -his hands and drive him out of the increasing roar of the _melee_. -But he would not wholly leave the fight, and with heroic fortitude -remained standing in his chariot in spite of agony. All day the -blood kept flowing down into the hollow of the chariot. At evening -the Syrians had to retire in defeat, but Ahab died. The news of the -king's death was proclaimed at sunset by the herald, and the cry was -raised which bade the host disband and return home.[787] - -They carried the king's body back to Samaria, and they buried it. They -washed the blood-stained chariot in the pool outside the city, and -there the dogs licked the king's blood, and the harlot-votaries of -Asherah bathed in the blood-dyed waters, as Elijah had prophesied.[788] - -So ended the reign of a king who built cities and ivory palaces,[789] -and fought like a hero against the foes of his country, but who -had never known how to rule his own house. He had winked at the -atrocities committed in his name by his Tyrian queen, had connived at -her idolatrous innovations, and put no obstacle in the way of her -persecutions. The people who might have forgotten or condoned all -else never forgot the stoning and spoliation of Naboth and his sons, -and his death was regarded as a retribution on this crime. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[767] 2 Chron. xviii. 2. - -[768] 2 Kings iii. 7. - -[769] 1 Kings xxii. 10 (Peshito). - -[770] The LXX. has, "The Lord shall deliver into thy hands _even the -king of Syria_." At first they all said, "_Adonai_ shall deliver -it"; but afterwards, perhaps stung by the doubts of Jehoshaphat, or -encouraged by the audacity of Zedekiah, they said, "_Jehovah_ shall -deliver it." - -[771] Deut. xxxiii. 17. "His glory is like the firstling of his -bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he -shall push the people altogether to the ends of the earth." - -[772] The LXX., omitting "besides," implies Jehoshaphat's opinion -that these were not true prophets of Jehovah. So, too, the Vulg., -"Non est hic _propheta Domini quispiam_?" - -[773] Compare Agamemnon's bitter complaint of Calchas. - -[774] 1 Kings xxii. 9. LXX., [Greek: eunouchon ena]. And this is -probably the meaning of [Hebrew: saris], not "officer," as in A.V. - -[775] For he had seventy sons, besides daughters (2 Kings x. 7) - -[776] The words implied that the king would fall, though the army -would escape (1 Kings xxii. 17, [Hebrew: beshalom]). Comp. Numb. -xxvii. 16, 17 "Let the Lord ... set a man over the congregation, ... -who may lead them out and in; that the _congregation of the Lord be -not as sheep which have no shepherd_." - -[777] Theodoret explains it as anthropomorphism, and condescension to -human modes of speech ([Greek: prosopopoiia tis esti didaskousa ten -theian synchoresin]). - -[778] 1 Kings xxii. 21. It is "the," not "a" spirit, _i.e._, the -unclean spirit of deception ([Greek: to pneuma tes planes], 1 John -iv. 6). Comp. Zech. xiii. 2, "Also I will cause _the prophets and the -unclean spirit_ to pass out of the land." St. Paul says in 2 Thess. -ii. 11: "God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe -the lie." - -[779] The worst of insults (Job xvi. 10; Lam. iii. 30). - -[780] The words (verse 28) "And he said, Hearken, O people, every one -of you," are believed by Noeldeke, Klostermann, and others to be an -interpolation from Micah i. 2, by some one who confused Micaiah with -Micah. They are omitted in the LXX. - -[781] We have no reason to accuse Ahab of any bad or selfish motives -here. No doubt Micaiah's prophecy of his approaching death had made -him anxious. If the LXX. reading, "but put thou on _my_ robes," were -right, the case would be different. - -[782] We see in this order a trace of the single combats which mark -the Homeric battles. - -[783] 2 Chron. xviii. 31: "And the Lord helped him, and God moved -them from him." - -[784] So Jarchi. Josephus calls him Aman. - -[785] 1 Kings xxii. 34. "At a venture"; marg., "in his simplicity"; -comp. 2 Sam. xv. 11. - -[786] What the French call _le defaut de la cuirasse_ (Keil). Luther -has, _zwischen den Panzer und Hengel_. - -[787] Josephus, _Antt._, VIII. xv. 6. - -[788] Koester thinks that there may be reference to the fact that the -name "dog" was given to the unchaste. - -[789] Amos iii. 15; Psalm xlv. 8; Hom., _Od._, iv. 72. - - - - - CHAPTER XLVIII. - - _CONCLUSION._ - - -It will have been seen that there are two main heroes of the -First Book of Kings--Solomon and Elijah. How vast is the gulf -which separates those two ideals! 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 fellows. -Everything that the earth can give him he possesses from earliest -youth, yet all turns to dust and ashes under his touch. Wealth, rank, -power, splendour cannot ever, or under any circumstances, satisfy the -soul. The soul can only be sustained by heavenly food, by the manna -which God sends it from heaven in the wilderness. Its divineness can -only be maintained by feeding on the Divine. If we think of Solomon, -even in his most dazzling hour, we see no element of happiness or of -reality in his lonely splendour or loveless home. It is nothing but a -miserable pageant. The Book of Ecclesiastes, though written centuries -after he had passed away, yet shows sufficiently, as the Eastern -legends also show, that mankind was not misled by the glamour which -surrounded him into the supposition that he was to be envied. It was -felt, whether he uttered it or not, that "Vanity of vanities, vanity -of vanities, all is vanity," is the real echo of his weariness. In -the famous fiction the Khaliph sees him with the other giant shades -on his golden throne at the banquet; but each and all have on their -faces an expression of solemn agony, and under the folds of their -purple a little flame is ever burning at their hearts. - -How different is the rough Prophet of Gilead, the ascetic, in his -sheepskin mantle and leathern girdle, who can live for months on a -little water and meal baked with oil![790] In him we see the grandeur -of manhood reduced to its simplest elements; we see the dignity of -man as simply man towering over all the adventitious circumstance -of royalty. One who, like Elijah, has no earthly desires, has no -real fears. If he flies from Jezebel to save his life, it is only -because he is not justified in flinging it away; otherwise he is as -dauntless before the _vultus instantis tyranni_ as before the _civium -ardor prava jubentium_. Hence, Elijah in his absolute poverty, in -his despised isolation--Elijah, hunted and persecuted, and living in -dens and caves of the earth--is immeasurably greater than Solomon, -because he is the messenger of the living God before whom he stands. -And his work is immeasurably more permanent and more valuable for -humanity than that of all the kings and great men among whom he -moved. He believed in God, he fought for righteousness, and therefore -he left behind him an unperishable memorial, showing that he who -would live for eternity rather than for time is he who best achieves -the high ends of his destiny. He may err as Elijah erred, but with -the blessing of the Lord he shall not miscarry. Though he go forth -weeping, he shall come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with -him. Solomon, after his death, almost vanished from the history of -Israel into the legends of Arabia. In the New Testament he is but -barely mentioned. But Elijah still lives in, and haunts, the memory -of his nation. A chair is placed for his invisible presence at every -circumcision. A cup is set aside for him at sacred banquets, and all -dubious questions are postponed for solution "until the day when -Elijah comes." He shone with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration; -and St. James, the Lord's brother, appeals to him as the most -striking example of the power of that prayer which - - "Moves the arm of Him who moves the world." - -FOOTNOTE: - -[790] It is supposed that Mohammed alludes to Elijah in the Qur'an, -_Sura_ xxi. 85: "And Ishmael, and Idris, and _Dhu'l Kifl_ ("he of the -portion")--all these were of the patient; and we made them enter into -our mercy; verily they were among the righteous" (Palmer's Qur'an, -ii. 53). - - - - - NOTE ON THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE - FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. - - -I have not thought it worth while to trouble the reader with -conjectures or corrections of the text, 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 reigns.[791] Many of them are removed or modified when we bear -in mind that, _e.g._, Nadab and Elah and Ahaziah are described as -reigning "two years" each (xv. 25, xvi. 8, xxii. 51), whereas the -reign of each may not have exceeded a year, or even a few months, -if these months came at the end of one year and the beginning of -another. Periods of anarchic interregnum, or of association of a son -with his father on the throne, may account for other confusions and -contradictions; but they are purely conjectural, and in some cases -far from probable. Jerome, as is well known, gave up all attempts to -harmonise the chronologic data as a hopeless problem. "Relege," he -says, "omnes et veteris et novi Testamenti libros, et tantam annorum -reperies dissonantiam _ut hujuscemodi haerere quaestionibus non tam -studiosi quam otiosi hominis esse videatur_." - -The Assyrians were, for the most part (though, as Schrader shows, not -_always_), as scrupulously exact in their chronological details as -the Jews were careless in theirs. The cuneiform inscriptions give us -the following data, which may be regarded as _points de repere_, and -which are not reconcilable with the received dates:-- - - B.C. - - Battle of Karkar, in which Ahab and Benhadad - were defeated 854 - Jehu pays tribute to Shalmanezer II. 842 - Menahem tributary to Assyria 738 - Fall of Samaria 722 - Sennacherib's Invasion 701 - -These dates do not accord with those which we should derive from the -Book of Kings in the ordinary system of chronology, which seem to fix -the Fall of Samaria in 737. - -The dates of the later Kings of Assyria seem to be as follows:-- - - B.C. - - Rimmon-Nirari III. 810 - Shalmanezer III. 781 - Assur-dan IV. 771 - Tiglath-Pileser III. (Pul, a usurper) 745 - Shalmanezer IV. 727 - Sargon 722 - Sennacherib 705 - Esar-haddon I. 681 - Assur-bani-pal 668 - - * * * * * - - Destruction of Nineveh 606 - -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 -days; and for the same period of the kings of Judah from Rehoboam to -Ahaziah we have ninety-five years. Supposing that some such errors -as we have indicated have crept into the computation, the dates of -the reigns may be, as reckoned by Kittel:-- - - B.C. - - Saul 1037-1017 - David 1017-977 - Solomon 977-937 - Jeroboam I. 937-915 - Nadab 915-914 - Baasha 914-890 - Elah 890-889 - Zimri 889 - Omri 889-877 - Ahab 877-855 - Ahaziah 855-854 - Jehoram 854-842 - - * * * * * - - Rehoboam 937-920 - Abijah 920-917 - Asa 917-876 - Jehoshaphat 876-851 - Joram 851-843 - Ahaziah 843-842 - -From Phoenician inscriptions (recorded in the _Corpus Inscriptionum -Semiticarum_) little of _historical_ importance has hitherto been -reaped. - -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 Rehoboam, of which I have given some account (p. 315). - -The Assyrian inscriptions, to which allusion is made in their place, -are of extreme importance and interest, and from the lists of kings -we have good details of chronology. The best book on their bearing -upon Hebrew history is that of Schrader, _Die Keilinschriften und d. -Alte Testament_, 1883. - -On the datum of four hundred and eighty years from the Exodus to the -building of the Temple, I have already touched. It does not agree -with Acts xiii. 20, nor with the Book of Judges. The LXX. reads "four -hundred and forty." It is almost certainly a late and erroneous -chronological gloss derived in very simple fashion, thus:--The -wanderings forty years, Joshua forty years, Othniel forty years, Ehud -eighty years, Jabin twenty years, Barak forty years, Gideon forty -years, the Philistines forty years, Samson twenty years, Samuel forty -years, Saul forty years, David forty years = four hundred and eighty, -or twelve generations of forty years. - -But the same result was arrived at with equal empiricism by omitting -the episodes of heathen dominations (Jabin and the Philistines), -and only adding up the years assigned to the Judges, and the four -years of Solomon's reign before he began to build the Temple, -thus:--Othniel forty years, Ehud eighty years, Barak forty years, -Gideon forty years, Tola twenty-three years, Jair twenty-two years, -Jephthah six years, Ibzan seven years, Elom ten years, Abdon eight -years, Samson twenty years = two hundred and ninety-six. - -Eli forty years, Samuel twenty years (1 Sam. vii. 15), David forty -years, Solomon four = one hundred and four. Add to the four hundred -the two generations of the wanderings and Joshua, and we again have -four hundred and eighty; but quite as arbitrarily, for the period of -Saul is omitted.[792] - -The problems of early Hebrew chronology cannot yet be regarded as -even approximately solved. - -FOOTNOTES: - -[791] See W. Robertson Smith, _Journ. of Philology_, x. 20. - -[792] See Reuss, _Hist. d'Israel_, i. 101-103. - - - - -Transcriber's Notes: - - -Obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout. - -Non-Latin characters have been replaced with the nearest Latin -equivalent for example oe (the oe ligature), was replaced with oe. - -Inconsistent hyphenation left as in the original text. - -Page 27: The reign of Josiah was listed as A.D. 621, this was -actually B.C. 621, corrected. - -Page 27: The sentence beginning "Thus from the Exodus..." originally -said "Thus from the Exile...". The sentence was changed to be -historically accurate. - -Footnote 13: There was a missing verse reference for 2 Kings xvi. -Corrected to be 2 Kings xvi. 2. - -Footnote 29: There was no anchor for this footnote. Left as in the -original text. - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Expositor's Bible: The First Book -of Kings, by F. W. Farrar - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE *** - -***** This file should be named 42891.txt or 42891.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/2/8/9/42891/ - -Produced by Douglas L. 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