XVIII. THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AS A WHOLE…

XVIII. THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT AS A WHOLE

1. The province of Particular Introduction is to consider the books of the Bible separately, in respect to their authorship, date, contents, and the place which each of them holds in the system of divine truth. Here it is above all things important that we begin with the idea of the unity of divine revelation--that all the parts of the Bible constitute a gloriously perfect whole, of which God and not man is the author. No amount of study devoted to a given book or section of the Old Testament, with all the help that modern scholarship can furnish, will give a true comprehension of it, until we understand it in its relations to the rest of Scripture, We cannot, for example, understand the book of Genesis out of connection with the four books that follow, nor the book of Deuteronomy separated from the four that precede. Nor can we fully understand the Pentateuch as a whole except in the light of the historical and prophetical books which follow; for these unfold the divine purpose in the establishment of the Theocracy as recorded in the Pentateuch. The Pentateuch itself gives us only the constitution of the Theocracy. The books that follow, taken in connection with, the New Testament, reveal its office in the plan of redemption; and not till we know this can we be said to have an intelligent comprehension of the theocratic system. The same is true of every other part of revelation.

The words of the apostle: "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 3:7), apply to many learned commentaries. Their authors have brought to them much accurate scholarship and research; but they have not seen the unity of divine truth. They have written mainly in an antiquarian spirit and interest, regarding the work under consideration simply as an ancient and venerable record. They have diligently sought for connections in philology, in antiquities, and in history. In these respects they have thrown much light on the sacred text. But they have never once thought of inquiring what place the book which they have undertaken to interpret holds in the divine system of revelation--perhaps have had no faith in such a system. Consequently they cannot unfold to others that which they do not themselves apprehend. On a hundred particulars they may give valuable information, but that which constitutes the very life and substance of the book remains hidden from their view.

2. It is necessary that we understand, first of all, the relation of the Old Testament as a whole to the system of revealed truth. It is a preparatory revelation introductory to one that is final. This the New Testament teaches in explicit terms. "When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son." Gal. 4:4. Christ could not have come in the days of Enoch before the flood, nor of Abraham after the flood, because "the fulness of the time" had not yet arrived. Nor was the way for his advent prepared in the age of Moses, or David, or Isaiah, or Ezra. The gospel everywhere assumes that when the Saviour appeared, men had attained to a state of comparative maturity in respect to both the knowledge of God and the progress of human society. The attentive reader of the New Testament cannot fail to notice how fully its writers avail themselves of all the revelations which God had made in the Old Testament of himself, of the course of his providence, and of his purposes towards the human family. The unity of God, especially, is assumed as a truth so firmly established in the national faith of the Jews, that the doctrine of our Lord's deity, and that of the Holy Spirit, can be taught without the danger of its being misunderstood in a polytheistic sense--as if the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were three gods. It is certain that this could not have been done any time before the Babylonish captivity. The idea of vicarious sacrifice, moreover--that great fundamental idea of the gospel that "without shedding of blood there is no remission"--the writers of the New Testament found ready at hand, and in its light they interpreted the mission of Christ. Upon his very first appearance, John the Baptist, his forerunner, exclaimed to the assembled multitudes: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." To the Jew, with his training under the Mosaic system of sacrifices, how significant were these words! Without such a previous training, how meaningless to him and to the world for which Christ died! Then again the gospel, in strong contrast with the Mosaic law, deals in general principles. Herein it assumes a comparative maturity of human thought--a capacity to include many particulars under one general idea. A beautiful illustration of this is our Lord's summary of social duties; "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." Matt. 7:12. We may add (what is indeed implied in the preceding remark) that the gospel required for its introduction a well-developed state of civilization and culture, as contrasted with one of rude barbarism. Now the Hebrews were introduced, in the beginning of their national existence, to the civilization of Egypt; which, with all its defects, was perhaps as good a type as then existed in the world. Afterwards they were brought successively into intimate connection with Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman civilization; particularly with the last two. This was, moreover, at a time when their national training under the Mosaic institutions had given them such maturity of religious character that they were not in danger of being seduced into the idolatrous worship of these nations. Dispersed throughout all the provinces of the Roman empire, they still maintained firmly the religion of their fathers; and their synagogues everywhere constituted central points for the introduction of the gospel, and its diffusion through the Gentile world. Such are some of the many ways in which the world was prepared for the Redeemer's advent. This is a vast theme, on which volumes could be written. The plan of the present work will only admit of the above brief hints.

Our Lord's command is: "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." The history of missions shows that the gospel can be preached with success to the most degraded tribes--to the Hottentots of South Africa and the cannibals of the South sea islands, and that this is the only remedy for their barbarism. But the gospel did not begin among savages, nor does it have its centres of power and influence among them. Christ came at the culminating point of ancient civilization and culture; not that he might conform his gospel to existing institutions and ideas, but that he might through his gospel infuse into them (as far as they contained elements of truth) the purifying and transforming leaven of divine truth. As the gospel began in the midst of civilization, so does its introduction among barbarous tribes always bring civilization in its train.

3. When we have learned to regard the revelation of which we have a record in the Old Testament as preparatory to the gospel, we see it in its true light. This view furnishes both the key to its character and the answer to the objections commonly urged against it. It is not a revelation of abstract truths. These would neither have excited the interest of the people, nor have been apprehended by them. God made known to the covenant people his character and the duties which he required of them by a series of mighty acts and a system of positive laws. The Old Testament, is, therefore, in an eminent degree documentary--a record not simply of opinions, but rather of actions and institutions. Of these actions and institutions we are to judge from the character of the people and the age in connection with the great end proposed by God. This end was not the material prosperity of Israel, but the preparation of the nation for its high office as the medium through which the gospel should afterwards be given to the world. The people were rebellious and stiff-necked, and surrounded by polytheism and idolatry. Their training required severity, and all the severity employed by God brought forth at last its appropriate fruits. The laws imposed upon them were stern and burdensome from their multiplicity. But no one can show that in either of these respects they could have been wisely modified; for the nation was then in its childhood and pupilage (Gal. 4:1-3), and needed to be treated accordingly.

An objection much insisted on by some is the exclusive character of the Mosaic institutions--a religion, it is alleged, for only one nation, while all the other nations were left in ignorance. To this a summary answer can be given. In selecting Israel as his covenant people, God had in view the salvation of the whole world: "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 12:3)--such was the tenor of the covenant from the beginning. His plan was to bring one nation into special relation to himself, establish in it the true religion, prepare it for the advent of Christ, and then propagate the gospel from it as a centre throughout all nations. If men are to be dealt with in a moral way, as free, responsible subjects of law (and this is the only way in which God deals with men under a system of either natural or revealed religion), can the objector propose any better way? He might as well object to the procedure of a military commander that, instead of spreading his army over a whole province, he concentrates it on one strong point. Let him wait patiently, and he will find that in gaining this point the commander gains the whole country.

4. Having seen the relation of the Old Testament as a whole to the system of divine revelation, we are now prepared to consider the place occupied by its several divisions.

(1.) To prepare the way for our Lord's advent, one nation was to be selected and trained up under a system of divine laws and ordinances--the theocracy established under Moses. The Pentateuch records the establishment of the theocracy, with the previous steps that led to it, and the historical events immediately connected with. it. Hence the five books of Moses are called emphatically the Law; and as such, their province in the Old Testament is clear and well defined.

(2.) The end of the Mosaic law being the preparation of the Israelitish people, and through them the world, for Christ's advent, it was not the purpose of God that it should be hidden as a dead letter beside the ark in the inner sanctuary. It was a code for practice, not for theory. It contained the constitution of the state, civil as well as religious; and God's almighty power and faithfulness were pledged that it should accomplish in a thorough way the office assigned to it. The theocracy must therefore have a history; and with the record of this the historical books are occupied.

(3.) God did not leave the development of this history to itself. He watched over it from the beginning, and directed its course, interposing from time to time, not only in a providential way, but also by direct revelation. Sometimes, for specific ends, he revealed himself immediately to particular individuals, as to Gideon, and Manoah and his wife. But more commonly his revelations were made to the rulers or people at large through persons selected as the organs of his Spirit; that is, through prophets. The prophet held his commission immediately from God. Since God is the author, not of confusion, but of order, he came to the people under the Law, not above it; and his messages were to be tried by the Law. Deut. 13:1-5. No prophet after Moses enjoyed the same fulness of access to God which was vouchsafed to him, or received the same extent of revelation. Numb. 12:6-8; Deut. 34:10-12. Nevertheless, the prophet came to rulers and people, like Moses, with an authority derived immediately from God, introducing his messages with the words: "Thus saith the Lord." In God's name he rebuked the people for their sins; explained to them the true cause of the calamities that befell them; recalled them to God's service as ordained in the Law, unfolding to them at the same time its true nature as consisting in the spirit, and not in the letter only--1 Sam. 15:22; Isa. 1:11-20; 57:15; 66:2; Jer. 4:4; Ezek. 18:31; Hosea 10:12; 14:2; Joel 2:12, 13; Amos 5: 21-24; Micah 6: 6-8--denounced upon them the awful judgments of God as the punishment of continued disobedience; and promised them the restoration of his favor upon condition of hearty repentance. In the decline of the Theocracy, it was the special province of the prophets to comfort the pious remnant of God's people by unfolding to them the future glory of Zion--the true "Israel of God," and her dominion over all the earth. From about the reign of Uzziah and onward, as already remarked (ch. 15. 12), the prophets began, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to reduce their prophecies to writing, and thus arose the series of prophetical books that form a prominent part of the Old Testament canon. Their office is at once recognized by every reader as distinct from that of either the Pentateuch or the historical books; although these latter were, as a general rule, written by prophets also.

(4.) There is a class, more miscellaneous in character, that may be described in general terms as the poetical books, in which the elements of meditation and reflection predominate. It includes the book of Job, which has for its theme divine providence, as viewed from the position of the Old Testament; the book of Psalms, that wonderful treasury of holy thought and feeling embodied in sacred song for the use of God's people in all ages; the book of Proverbs, with its inexhaustible treasures of practical wisdom; the book of Ecclesiastes, having for its theme the vanity of this world when sought as a satisfying good; and the book of Canticles, which the church has always regarded as a mystical song having for its ground-idea, under the Old Testament, that God is the husband of Zion, and under the New, that the church is the bride of Christ. How high a place this division of the canon holds in the system of divine revelation every pious heart feels instinctively. Without it, the revelation of the Old Testament could not have been complete for the work assigned to it.

5. We have seen the relation of the Old Testament as a whole to the entire system of revelation, and also the place occupied by its several divisions. It will further appear, as we proceed, that each particular book in these divisions contributes its share to the perfection of the whole.

6. Although the revelation contained in the Old Testament was preparatory to the fuller revelation of the New, we must guard against the error of supposing that it had not a proper significance and use for the men of its own time. "Unto us," says the apostle, "was the gospel preached, as well as unto them." Heb. 4:2. And again: "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better tiling for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Heb. 11:13, 39, 40. They had a part of the truth, but not its fulness; and the measure of revelation vouchsafed to them was given for their personal salvation, as well as to prepare the way for further revelations. The promise made to Abraham--"In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed"--was fulfilled in Christ. In this respect Abraham "received not the promise." Nevertheless, it was a promise made for his benefit, as well as for that of future ages. Into the bosom of the patriarch it brought light and joy and salvation. "Your father Abraham," said Jesus, "rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad." John 8:56. "He believed in the Lord," says the inspired record, "and he counted it to him for righteousness." Gen. 15:6. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt typified the redemption of Christ; and it was, moreover, one of the grand movements that prepared the way for his advent. But it was neither all type nor all preparation. To the covenant people of that day it was a true deliverance; and to the believing portion of them, a deliverance of soul as well as of body. "The law," says Paul, "was our school-master to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith." Gal. 3:24. But while it had this preparatory office, it was to the Israelitish nation a true rule of life; and under it many, through faith, anticipated its end. The prophets prophesied for the men of their own age, as well as for distant generations. The sweet psalmist of Israel, while he foreshadowed the Messiah's reign, sung for the comfort and edification of himself and his contemporaries; and Solomon gave rules of practical wisdom as valid for his day as for ours. The revelation of the Old Testament was not complete, like that which we now possess; but it was sufficient for the salvation of every sincere inquirer after truth. When the rich man in hell besought Abraham that Lazarus might be sent to warn his five brethren on the ground that, if one went to them from the dead they would repent, Abraham answered: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead."

7. There is another practical error against which Christians of the present day need to be warned. It is the idea that the full revelation of the New Testament supersedes in a great measure the necessity of studying the previous revelation contained in the Old Testament. Few will openly avow this, but too many inwardly cherish the delusion in a vague and undefined form; and it exerts a pernicious influence upon them, leading them to undervalue and neglect the Old Testament Scriptures. Even if the idea under consideration were in accordance with truth, it would still be to every earnest Christian a matter of deep historical interest to study the way by which God prepared the world for the full light of the gospel. But it is not true. It rests on a foundation of error and delusion. For, (1.) The system of divine revelation constitutes a whole, all the parts of which are connected, from beginning to end, so that no single part can be truly understood without a knowledge of all the rest. The impenetrable darkness that rests on some portions of Scripture has its ground in the fact that the plan of redemption is not yet completed. The mighty disclosures of the future can alone dissipate this darkness.

"God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain."

(2.) We know that the writers of the New Testament constantly refer to the Old for arguments and illustrations. A knowledge of the Old Testament is necessary, therefore, for a full comprehension of their meaning. How can the reader, for example, understand the epistles to the Romans and Galatians, or that to the Hebrews, without a thorough acquaintance with "Moses and the prophets," to which these epistles have such constant reference? (3.) The Old Testament is occupied with the record of God's dealings with men. Such a record must be a perpetual revelation of God's infinite attributes, and of human character also, and the course of human society, every part of which is luminous with instruction. (4.) Although the old theocracy, with its particular laws and forms of worship, has passed away, yet the principles on which it rested, which interpenetrated it in every part, and which shone forth with a clear light throughout its whole history--these principles are eternal verities, as valid for us as for the ancient patriarchs. Some of these principles--for example, God's unity, personality, and infinite perfections; his universal providence; his supremacy over all nations; the tendency of nations to degeneracy, and the stern judgments employed by God to reclaim them--are so fully unfolded in the Old Testament that they needed no repetition in the New. There they became axioms rather than doctrines. (5.) "The manifold wisdom of God" in adapting his dealings with men to the different stages of human progress cannot be seen without a diligent study of the Old Testament as well as the New. Whoever neglects the former, will want breadth and comprehensiveness of Christian culture. All profound Christian writers have been well versed in "the whole instrument of each Testament," as Tertullian calls the two parts of revelation. Chap. 13, No. 2.

Modern skepticism begins with disparaging the Old Testament, and ends with denying the divine authority of both the Old and the New. In this work it often unites a vast amount of learning in regard to particulars with principles that are superficial and false.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XIX. THE PENTATEUCH

1. The unity of the Pentateuch has already been considered (Ch. 9, No. 12), and will appear more fully as we proceed with the examination of the separate books included in it. Even if we leave out of view the authority of the New Testament, this unity is too deep and fundamental to allow of the idea that it is a patchwork of later ages. Under divine guidance the writer goes steadily forward from beginning to end, and his work when finished is a symmetrical whole. Even its apparent incongruities, like the interweaving of historical notices with the laws, are marks of its genuineness; for they prove that, in those parts at least, events were recorded as they transpired. Such a blending of history with revelation does not impair the unity of the work; for it is a unity which has its ground not in severe logical arrangement and classification, but in a divine plan historically developed. Whether the division of the Pentateuch into five books (whence its Greek name Pentateuchos, fivefold book) was original, proceeding from the author himself, or the work of a later age, is a question on which biblical scholars are not agreed. It is admitted by all that the division is natural and appropriate. The Hebrew titles of the several books are taken from prominent words standing at or near the beginning of each. The Greek names are expressive of their prominent contents; and these are followed in the Latin Vulgate and in our English version, only that the name of the fourth book is translated.

I. GENESIS.

2. The Hebrews name this book Bereshith, in the beginning, from the first word. Its Greek name Genesis signifies generation, genealogy. As the genealogical records with which the book abounds contain historical notices, and are, in truth, the earliest form of history, the word is applied to the history of the creation, and of the ancient patriarchs, as well as to the genealogical lists of their families. Gen. 2:4; 25:19; 37:2 etc. In the same wide sense is it applied to the book itself.

3. Genesis is the introductory book to the Pentateuch, without which our understanding of the following books would be incomplete. Let us suppose for a moment that we had not this book. We open the book of Exodus and read of "the children of Israel which came into Egypt;" that "Joseph was in Egypt already," and that "there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." Who were these children of Israel? we at once ask; and how did they come to be in Egypt? Who was Joseph? and what is the meaning of the notice that the new king knew not Joseph? All these particulars are explained in the book of Genesis, and without them we must remain in darkness. But the connection of this book with the following is not simply explanatory; it is organic also, entering into the very substance of the Pentateuch. We are told (Ex. 2:24, 25) that God heard the groaning of his people in Egypt, and "God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob; and God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them." The remembrance of his covenant with their fathers is specified as the ground of his interposition. Now the covenant made with Abraham, and afterwards renewed to Isaac and Jacob, was not a mere incidental event in the history of the patriarchs and their posterity. It constituted the very essence of God's peculiar relation to Israel; and, as such, it was the platform on which the whole theocracy was afterwards erected. The nation received the law at Sinai in pursuance of the original covenant made with their fathers; and unless we understand the nature of this covenant, we fail to understand the meaning and end of the law itself. The very information which we need is contained in Genesis; for from the twelfth chapter onward this book is occupied with an account of this covenant, and of God's dealings with the patriarchs in connection with it. The story of Joseph, which unites such perfect simplicity with such deep pathos, is not thrown in as a pleasing episode. Its end is to show how God accomplished his purpose, long before announced to Abraham (ch. 15:13), that the Israelites should be "a stranger in a land not theirs."

But the Abrahamic covenant itself finds its explanation in the previous history. For two thousand years God had administered the government of the world without a visible church. And what was the result? Before the flood the degeneracy of the human family was universal. God, therefore, swept them all away, and began anew with Noah and his family. But the terrible judgment of the deluge was not efficacious to prevent the new world from following the example of the old. In the days of Abraham the worship of God had been corrupted through polytheism and idolatry, and ignorance and wickedness were again universal. The time had manifestly come for the adoption of a new economy, in which God should, for the time being, concentrate his special labors upon a single nation but with ultimate reference to the salvation of the whole world. Thus we have in the book of Genesis in a certain measure (for we may not presume to speak of God's counsels as fully apprehended by us) an explanation of the Abrahamic covenant, and, in this, of the Mosaic economy also.

4. In accordance with the above view, the book of Genesis falls into two unequal, but natural divisions. The first part extends through eleven chapters, and is occupied with the history of the human family as a whole. It is the oldest record in existence, and its contents are perfectly unique. It describes in brief terms: the order of creation; the institution of the Sabbath and marriage; the probation to which man was subjected, with its disastrous result in his fall and expulsion from Eden; the murder of Abel by Cain, and, in connection with this, the division of mankind into two families; man's universal degeneracy; the deluge; the covenant made by God with the earth through Noah, and the law of murder; the confusion of tongues at Babel, and the consequent dispersion of the different families of men, a particular account of which is given by way of anticipation in the tenth chapter. In addition to these notices there are two genealogical tables; the first from Adam to Noah (ch. 5), the second from Shem to Abraham (ch. 11).

The second part comprises the remainder of the book. In this we have no longer a history of the whole race, but of Abraham's family, with only incidental notices of the nations into connection with whom Abraham and his posterity were brought. It opens with an account of the call of Abraham and the covenant made with him; notices the repeated renewal of this covenant to Abraham, with the institution of the rite of circumcision; its subsequent renewal to Isaac and Jacob; and the exclusion, first of Ishmael and afterwards of Esau, from a share in its privileges. In immediate connection with the covenant relation into which God took Abraham and his family, we have the history of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, sometimes with much detail, but always with reference to the peculiar prerogative conferred upon them. The book closes with an account of the wonderful train of providences by which Israel was brought into Egypt.

Though Ishmael and Esau were excluded from the covenant, yet, apparently in consequence of their near relation to the patriarchs, genealogical tables are devoted to them; to Ishmael, ch. 25:12-18; to Esau, the whole of ch. 36.

5. The Mosaic authorship of Genesis has already been considered; and, in connection with this, the question whether the Pentateuch, and especially Genesis, contains any clauses of a later date, Ch. 9, No. 11. Some, as Hengstenberg and his followers, deny the existence of such clauses; but others think that a few must be admitted, which were afterwards added, as needful explanations, by prophetical men. We are at liberty to decide either way concerning them according to the evidence before us. On the question whether Moses made use of earlier written documents, see Ch. 9, No. 11.

The clauses for which a later date can with any show of reason be claimed are few in number, and none of them enter essentially into the texture of the book. They are just such extraneous remarks as the necessities of a later age required; for example, Gen. 36:31; Ex. 16:35. On the last of these, Graves, who considers it "plainly a passage inserted by a later hand," says: "I contend that the insertion of such notes rather confirms than impeaches the integrity of the original narrative. If this were a compilation long subsequent to the events it records" (according to the false assumption of some respecting the origin of the Pentateuch), "such additions would not have been plainly distinguishable, as they now are, from the main substance of the original." On the Pentateuch, Appendix, sec. 1, No. 13.

6. The contents of the first part of this book are peculiar. It is not strange, therefore, that we should encounter difficulties in the attempt to interpret them. To consider these difficulties in detail would be to write a commentary on the first eleven chapters. Only some general remarks can here be offered. Some difficulties are imaginary, the inventions of special pleading. In these the commentaries of modern rationalists abound. They are to be set aside by fair interpretation. But other difficulties are real, and should not be denied or ignored by the honest expositor. If he can give a valid explanation of them, well and good; but if not, let him reverently wait for more light, in the calm assurance that the divine authority of the Pentateuch rests on a foundation that cannot be shaken. To deny a well-authenticated narrative of facts on the ground of unexplained difficulties connected with it is to build on a foundation of error.

(A.) Of the difficulties connected with the first part of Genesis some are scientific. Such is the narrative of the creation of the world in six days. Respecting this it has already been remarked (Ch. 10, No. 3) that with all who believe in the reality of divine revelation the question is not respecting the truth of this narrative, but respecting the interpretation of it. As long ago as the time of Augustine the question was raised whether these days are to be understood literally, or symbolically of long periods of time. The latter was his view, and it is strengthened by the analogy of the prophetic days of prophecy.

Another difficulty relates to the age of the antediluvian patriarchs, which was about tenfold the present term of life for robust and healthful men. According to the laws of physiology we must suppose that the period of childhood and youth was protracted in a corresponding manner; since in man, as in all the higher animals, the time of physical growth--physical growth in the widest sense, the process of arriving at physical maturity--has a fixed relation to the whole term of existence. After the deluge, in some way not understood by us, the whole course of human life began to be gradually quickened--to run its round in a shorter time--till the age of man was at last reduced to its present measure. All that we can say here is that we do not know how God accomplished this result. He accomplished it in a secret and invisible way, as he does so many other of his operations in nature. On the discrepancy between the Masoretic Hebrew text, the text of the Samaritan Pentateuch, and that of the Septuagint, in respect to the genealogical tables in Genesis, see below.

The unity of the human race is everywhere assumed in Scripture. Some modern scientific men have denied this, but their arguments for a diversity of origin do not amount to positive proof. They are theoretic rather than demonstrative, and the weight of evidence is against them. We must remember, moreover, that man lives under a supernatural dispensation. The narrative in the eleventh chapter of Genesis seems to imply that God interposed miraculously to confound human speech, in accordance with his plan to scatter men "abroad upon the face of all the earth." In like manner he may have interposed in a secret way to intensify the diversity in the different races of men. It does not appear certain, however, on physiological grounds, that any miraculous interposition was needed; and we may leave the question of the manner in which the present diversity among the children of Adam was produced among the secret things of which it is not necessary that we should have an explanation.

The question of the universality of the deluge is with believers in revelation one of words only, on which it is hardly necessary to waste time. The end of the deluge was the complete destruction of the human race, all but Noah and his family. This it accomplished, and why need we raise any further inquiries; as, for example, whether the polar lands, where no man has ever trod, were submerged also? "All the high hills under the whole heaven" doubtless included all the high hills where man lived, and which, therefore, were known to man.

(B.) Another class of difficulties is historical, consisting in alleged inconsistencies and disagreements between different parts of the narrative. For the details of these, the reader must be referred to the commentaries. One or two only can be noticed as specimens of the whole. It is said that the second account of the creation (Gen. 2:4-25) is inconsistent with the first; the order of creation in the first being animals, then man; in the second, man, then animals. But the answer is obvious. In the first account, the order of succession in the several parts of creation is one of the main features. It distinctly announces that, after God had finished the rest of his works, he made man in his own image. The second account, on the other hand, which is introductory to the narrative of man's sin and expulsion from Eden, takes no notice of the order of creation in its several parts. In this, man is the central object, and other things are mentioned incidentally in their relation to man. The writer has no occasion to speak of trees good for food till a home is sought for Adam; nor of beasts and birds till a companion is needed for him. Then each of these things is mentioned in connection with him. No candid interpreter can infer from this that the second account means to give, as the veritable order of creation--man, the garden of Eden, beasts and birds!

A difficulty has been alleged, also, in regard to Cain's wife. But this grows simply out of the brevity of the sacred narrative. The children of Adam must have intermarried, brothers and sisters. The fact that no daughter is mentioned as born to Adam before Seth, is no evidence against the birth of daughters long before. In the fourth chapter no individuals are mentioned except for special reasons--Cain and Abel, with a genealogical list of Cain's family to Lamech, because he was the head of one branch of the human race before the deluge. In the fifth chapter none are named but sons in the line of Noah, with the standing formula of "sons and daughters" born afterwards. We are not to infer from this that no sons or daughters were born before; otherwise we should exclude Cain and Abel themselves. At the time of the murder of Abel, the two brothers were adult men. What was their age we cannot tell. It may have been a hundred years or more; for our first parents were created not infants, but in the maturity of their powers, and Adam was one hundred and thirty years old when the next son after Abel's murder was born. Gen. 4:25. At all events, the interval between Abel's birth and death must have been long, and we cannot reasonably suppose that during this period no daughters were born to Adam.

(C.) The chronology of the book of Genesis involves, as is well known, some difficult questions. In the genealogical tables contained in the fifth and eleventh chapters, the texts of the Masoretic Hebrew (which is followed in our version), Hebrew-Samaritan, and Septuagint, differ in a remarkable manner.

(1.) Antediluvian Genealogy. According to the Septuagint, no patriarch has a son before the age of one hundred years. It adds to the age of each of the five patriarchs that preceded Jared, and also to the age of Enoch, one hundred years before the birth of his son, deducting the same from his life afterwards. To the age of Lamech it adds six years before the birth of Noah, deducting thirty years afterwards. In respect to the age of Methuselah when Lamech was born, there is a difference of twenty years between the Vatican and the Alexandrine manuscripts. The latter agrees with the Masoretic text: the former gives one hundred and sixty-seven instead of one hundred and eighty-seven. Thus the Septuagint makes the period from the creation to the deluge 2262 years (according to the Vatican manuscript 2242 years) against the 1656 of our Masoretic text.

The Samaritan-Hebrew text agrees with the Masoretic for the first five patriarchs and for Enoch. From the age of Jared it deducts one hundred years; from that of Methuselah one hundred and twenty (one hundred according to the Vatican manuscript of the Septuagint); and from that of Lamech, one hundred and twenty-nine--three hundred and forty-nine years in all--before the birth of their respective sons. This places the deluge in the year of the world 1307.

(2.) Genealogy from Noah to Abraham. Chap. 11. Here the Samaritan-Hebrew and the Septuagint (which Josephus follows with some variations) give a much longer period than the Masoretic text. They both add to the age of each of the six patriarchs after Shem one hundred years before the birth of his son. To the age of Nahor the Samaritan-Hebrew adds fifty, and the Septuagint one hundred and fifty years. The latter also inserts after Arphaxad a Cainan who was one hundred and thirty years old at the birth of Salah.

In respect to the variations in these two genealogical tables (chaps. 5 and 11) it is to be remarked: (1) that the authority of the Masoretic text is, on general grounds, higher than that of the Septuagint or Samaritan Pentateuch; (2) that in the present case there is reason to suspect systematic change in these two latter texts; strong external corroboration alone could warrant us in adopting the longer chronology of the Septuagint; (3) that any uncertainty which may rest on the details of numbers in the Pentateuch ought not to affect our confidence in the Mosaic record as a whole, for here, as it is well known, there is a peculiar liability to variations. With these brief remarks we must dismiss this subject. The reader will find the question of scriptural chronology discussed at large in the treatises devoted to the subject. For more compendious views, see in Alexander's Kitto and Smith's Dictionary of the Bible the articles entitled Chronology.

II. EXODUS.

7. The Hebrew name of this book is: Ve-elle shemoth, Now these [are] the names; or more briefly: Shemoth, names. The word Exodus (Greek Exodos, whence the Latin Exodus) signifies going forth, departure, namely, of Israel from Egypt. With the book of Exodus begins the history of Israel as a nation. It has perfect unity of plan and steady progress from beginning to end. The narrative of the golden calf is no exception; for this records in its true order an interruption of the divine legislation. The book consists of two parts essentially connected with each other. The contents of the first part (chaps. 1-18) are briefly the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and their journey to Sinai, as preparatory to their national covenant with God there. More particularly this part contains: (1) an account of the multiplication of the people in Egypt; their oppression by the Egyptians; the birth and education of Moses, his abortive attempt to interpose in behalf of his people, his flight to Midian, and his residence there forty years (chaps. 1, 2); (2) God's miraculous appearance to Moses at Horeb under the name JEHOVAH; his mission to Pharaoh for the release of Israel, in which Aaron his brother was associated with him; the execution of this mission, in the progress of which the Egyptians were visited with a succession of plagues, ending in the death of all the first-born of man and beast in Egypt; the final expulsion of the people, and in connection with this the establishment of the feast of the passover and the law respecting the first-born of man and beast (chaps. 3-13); (3) the journey of the Israelites to the Red sea under the guidance of a cloudy pillar; their passage through it, with the overthrow of Pharaoh's host; the miraculous supply of manna and of water; the fight with Amalek, and Jethro's visit to Moses.

The second part contains the establishment of the Mosaic economy with its tabernacle and priesthood. At Sinai God enters into a national covenant with the people, grounded on the preceding Abrahamic covenant; promulgates in awful majesty the ten commandments, which he afterwards writes on two tables of stone, and adds a code of civil regulations. Chaps. 19-23. The covenant is then written and solemnly ratified by the blood of sacrifices. Chap. 24. After this follows a direction which contains in itself the whole idea of the sanctuary: "Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them." Chap. 25:8. The remainder of the book is mainly occupied with the structure of the tabernacle and its furniture, and the establishment of the Levitical priesthood. Directions are given for the priestly garments, and the mode of inauguration is prescribed; but the inauguration itself belongs to the following book. The narrative is interrupted by the sin of the people in the matter of the golden calf, with the various incidents and precepts connected with it (chaps. 32-34), and a repetition of the law of the Sabbath is added. Chap. 31:12-17. The office, then, which the book of Exodus holds in the Pentateuch is definite and clear.

8. With regard to the time of the sojourn in Egypt, two opinions are held among biblical scholars. The words of God to Abraham: "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years," "but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again" (Gen. 15:13, 16); and also the statement of Moses: "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years" (Exod. 12:40), seem to imply that they spent four hundred and thirty years in Egypt (a round number being put in the former passage for the more exact specification of the latter). It has been thought, also, that the vast increase of the people in Egypt--to six hundred thousand men (Exod. 12:37), which shows that the whole number of souls was over two millions--required a sojourn of this length. On the other hand, the apostle Paul speaks of the law as given "four hundred and thirty years after" the promise to Abraham. Gal. 3:17. In this he follows the Jewish chronology, which is also that of the Septuagint and Samaritan Pentateuch, for they read in Exod. 12:40: "who dwelt in Egypt and in the land of Canaan." The words, "in the land of Canaan," are undoubtedly an added gloss; but the question still remains whether they are not a correct gloss. The genealogy of Levi's family (Exod. 6:16-20) decidedly favors the interpretation, which divides the period of four hundred and thirty years between Egypt and the land of Canaan. To make this table consistent with a sojourn of four hundred and thirty years in Egypt, it would be necessary to assume, with some, that it is an epitome, not a full list, which does not seem probable.

Before we can draw any certain argument from the increase of the people in Egypt, we must know the basis of calculation. It certainly includes not only the seventy male members of Jacob's family, with their wives and children, but also the families of their male-servants (circumcised according to the law, Gen. 17:12, 13, and therefore incorporated with the covenant people). From the notices contained in Genesis, we learn that the families of the patriarchs were very numerous. Gen. 14:14; 26:14; 32:10; 36:6, 7. If Abraham was able to arm three hundred and eighteen "trained servants born in his own house," how large an aggregate may we reasonably assume for the servants connected with Jacob's family, now increased to seventy male souls? We must not think of Jacob going into Egypt as a humble personage. He was a rich and prosperous emir, with his children and grandchildren, and a great train of servants. With the special blessing of God upon his children and all connected with them, we need find no insuperable difficulty in their increase to the number mentioned at the exodus.

Provision was made in a miraculous way for the sustenance of the Israelites in the wilderness. The question has been raised: How were their flocks and herds provided for? In answer to this, the following remarks are in point: (1.) We are not to understand the word "wilderness" of an absolutely desolate region. It affords pasturage in patches. Robinson describes Wady Feiran, northwest of Sinai, as well watered, with gardens of fruit and palm trees; and he was assured by the Arabs that in rainy seasons grass springs up over the whole face of the desert. The whole northeastern part of the wilderness, where the Israelites seem to have dwelt much of the thirty-eight years, is capable of cultivation, and is still cultivated by the Arabs in patches. (2.) The Israelites undoubtedly marched not in a direct line, but from pasture to pasture, as the modern Arabs do, and spreading themselves out over the adjacent region. When Moses besought his father-in-law not to leave him, but to go with him that he might be to the people instead of eyes (Numb. 10:31), we may well suppose that he had in view Hobab's knowledge of the places where water and pasturage were to be found. (3.) There is decisive evidence that this region was once better watered than it is now, and more fruitful. The planks of acacia-wood, the shittim-wood, which were employed in the construction of the tabernacle, were a cubit and a half in width; that is, in English measure, something more than two and a half feet. No acacia-trees of this size are now found in that region. The cutting away of the primitive forests seems to have been followed, as elsewhere, by a decrease in the amount of rain. But, however this may be, we know that, for some reason, this part of Arabia was once more fertile and populous. In its northeastern part are extensive ruins of former habitations, and enclosed fields. The same is true of the region around Beersheba and south of it. Here Robinson found ruins of former cities, as Eboda and Elusa. Of the latter place he says: "Once, as we judged upon the spot, this must have been a city of not less than twelve or fifteen thousand inhabitants. Now, it is a perfect field of ruins, a scene of unutterable desolation; across which the passing stranger can with difficulty find his way." Vol. 1, p. 197. And of Eboda, farther south: "The large church marks a numerous Christian population." "But the desert has resumed its rights; the intrusive hand of cultivation has been driven back; the race that dwelt here have perished; and their works now look abroad in loneliness and silence over the mighty waste." Vol. 1, p. 194. Ritter, the most accomplished of modern geographers, affirms that from the present number of the thin and negligent population, we can draw no certain conclusion respecting the former condition of the country. Erdkunde, vol. 14, p. 927.

Of the numerous objections urged by Colenso against the Pentateuch, and the book of Exodus in particular, many are imaginary, and vanish upon the fair interpretation of the passages in question. Others, again, rest on false assumptions in regard to facts. For the details, the reader is referred to the works written in reply.

III. LEVITICUS.

9. The Hebrews call this book Vayyikra, and [God] called. Later Jewish designations are, the law of priests, and the law of offerings. The Latin name Leviticus (from the Greek Leuitikon, Levitical, pertaining to the Levites) indicates that its contents relate to the duties of the Levites, in which body are included all the priests. The book of Leviticus is immediately connected with that which precedes, and follows in the most natural order. The tabernacle having been reared up and its furniture arranged, the services pertaining to it are next ordained, and in connection with these, various regulations, most of which come within the sphere of the priestly office. Hence we have (1) the law for the various offerings, followed by an account of the anointing of the tabernacle, and the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priestly office, with the death of Nadab and Abihu for offering strange fire before the Lord (chaps. 1-10); (2) precepts concerning clean and unclean beasts, and cleanness and uncleanness in men from whatever source, followed by directions for the annual hallowing of the sanctuary on the great day of atonement, and also in respect to the place where animals must be slain, and the disposition to be made of their blood (chaps. 11-17); (3) laws against sundry crimes, which admitted, in general, of no expiation, but must be visited with the penalty of the law (chaps. 18-20); (4) various ordinances pertaining to the purity of the priestly office, the character of the sacrifices, the yearly festivals, the arrangements for the sanctuary, etc., with the law for the sabbatical year and the year of jubilee (chaps. 22-26:2); (5) a wonderful prophetic chapter, announcing for all coming ages the blessings that should follow obedience, and the curses which disobedience should bring upon the people (chap. 26:3-46). There is added, as a sort of appendix, a chapter concerning vows and tithes. Chap. 27.

10. The priestly office, with its sacrifices, was the central part of the Mosaic economy, for it prefigured Christ our great High Priest, with his all-perfect sacrifice on Calvary for the sins of the world. On this great theme much remains to be said in another place. It is sufficient to remark here that the book of Leviticus gives the divine view of expiation. If the expiations of the Levitical law were typical, the types were true figures of the great Antitype, which is Jesus Christ, "the Lamb of God. which taketh away the sin of the world." No view of his death can be true which makes these types empty and unmeaning.

IV. NUMBERS.

11. Bemidhbar, in the wilderness, is the Hebrew name of this book, taken from the fifth word in the original. It is also called from the first word Vayyedhabber, and [God] spake. The English version, after the example of the Latin, translates the Greek name Arithmoi, numbers, a title derived from the numbering of the people at Sinai, with which the book opens, and which is repeated on the plains of Moab. Chap. 26. This book records the journeyings of the Israelites from Sinai to the borders of the promised land, and their sojourn in the wilderness of Arabia, with the various incidents that befell them, and the new ordinances that were from time to time added, as occasion required. It embraces a period of thirty-eight years, and its contents are necessarily of a very miscellaneous character. The unity of the book is chronological, history and legislation alternating with each other in the order of time. A full enumeration of the numerous incidents which it records, and of the new ordinances from time to time enacted, is not necessary. In the history of these thirty-eight years we notice three salient points or epochs. The first is that of the departure from Sinai. Of the preparations for this, with the order of the march and whatever pertained to it, a full account is given. Then follow the incidents of the journey to the wilderness of Paran, with some additional laws. Chaps. 1-12. The second epoch is that of the rebellion of the people upon the report of the twelve spies whom Moses had sent to search out the land, for which sin the whole generation that came out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, was rejected and doomed to perish in the wilderness. Chaps. 13, 14. This was in the second year of the exodus. Of the events that followed to the thirty-eighth year of the exodus, we have only a brief notice. With the exception of the punishment of the Sabbath-breaker, Korah's rebellion and the history connected with it, and also a few laws (chaps. 15-19), this period is passed by in silence. The nation was under the divine rebuke, and could fulfil its part in the plan of God only by dying for its sins with an unrecorded history. The third epoch begins with the second arrival of Israel at Kadesh, and this is crowded with great events--the death of Miriam, the exclusion of Moses and Aaron from the promised land, with the death of the latter at Mount Hor, the refusal of Edom to allow a passage through his territory, the wearisome journey of the people "to compass the land of Edom," with their sins and sufferings, the conquest of Arad, Sihon, and Og, and thus the arrival of the people at the plains of Moab opposite Jericho. Chaps. 20-22:1. Then follows the history of Balaam and his prophecies, the idolatry and punishment of the people, a second numbering of the people, the appointment of Joshua as the leader of the people, the conquest of the Midianites, the division of the region beyond Jordan to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and a review of the journeyings of the people. With all this are intermingled various additional ordinances.

V. DEUTERONOMY.

12. The Jewish name of this book is Elle haddebharim, these are the words. The Greek name Deuteronomion, whence the Latin Deuteronomium and the English Deuteronomy, signifies second law, or repetition of the law, as it is also called by the later Jews. The book consists of discourses delivered by Moses to Israel in the plains of Moab over against Jericho, in the eleventh month of the fortieth year of the exodus. Deut. 1:1, 3. The peculiar character of this book and its relation to the preceding books have been already considered in the first part of the present work (Chap. 9, No. 10), to which the reader is referred. It is generally divided into three parts. The first is mainly a recapitulation of the past history of Israel under Moses, with appropriate warnings and exhortations, followed by a notice of the appointment of three cities of refuge on the east side of Jordan. Chaps. 1-4. The second discourse begins with a restatement of the law given on Sinai. Exhortations to hearty obedience follow, which are full of fatherly love and tenderness. Various precepts of the law are then added, with some modifications and additions, such as the altered circumstances of the people required. Chaps. 5-26. In the third part the blessings and the curses of the law are prominently set forth as motives to obedience. Chaps. 27-30. The remainder of the book is occupied with Moses' charge to Joshua, his direction for depositing the law in the sanctuary by the side of the ark, his song written by divine direction, his blessing upon the twelve tribes, and the account of his death and burial on mount Nebo.

13. As the book of Genesis constitutes a suitable introduction to the Pentateuch, without which its very existence, as a part of the divine plan, would be unintelligible, so does the book of Deuteronomy bring it to a sublime close. From the goodness and faithfulness of God, from his special favor bestowed upon Israel, from the excellence of his service, from the glorious rewards of obedience and the terrible penalties of disobedience, it draws motives for a deep and evangelical obedience--an obedience of the spirit and not of the letter only. Thus it adds the corner-stone to the whole system of legislation, completing it on the side of the motives by which it challenges obedience, and investing it with radiant glory. The Pentateuch, then, is a whole. The first book is inseparable from it as an introduction; the last as a close. The three intermediate books contain the legislation itself, and in this each of them has its appropriate province.

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XX. THE HISTORICAL BOOKS

1. In the Pentateuch we have the establishment of the Theocracy, with the preparatory and accompanying history pertaining to it. The province of the historical books is to unfold its practiced working, and to show how, under the divine superintendence and guidance, it accomplished the end for which it was given. They contain, therefore, primarily, a history of God's dealings with the covenant people under the economy which he had imposed upon them. They look at the course of human events on the divine rather than the human side, and in this respect they differ widely from all other historical writings. Human histories abound with the endless details of court intrigues, of alliances and wars, of material civilization and progress, and whatever else pertains to the welfare of men considered simply as the inhabitants of this world. But the historical books of the Old Testament, written by prophetical men illumined by the Holy Spirit, unfold with wonderful clearness the mighty movements of God's providence, by which the divine plan proposed in the Mosaic economy was steadily carried forward, alike through outward prosperity and adversity, towards the fulfilment of its high office. After a long series of bloody struggles, the Theocracy attained to its zenith of outward power and splendor under David and Solomon. From that time onward the power of the Israelitish people declined, till they were at last deprived of their national independence, and subjected to the yoke of foreign conquerors. But in both the growth of the national power under the Theocracy, and its decline, the presence of God and his supremacy, as well over the covenant people as over the surrounding nations, were gloriously manifested, and their training for the future advent of the Messiah was steadily carried forward. Thus we have in these historical books a wonderful diversity of divine manifestations, which alike charm and instruct the pious mind.

2. It has already been shown (Chap. 15, No. 7) that the books of Kings and Chronicles contain only selections from a large mass of materials. The same is probably true of the books of Judges and Samuel. The sacred writers did not propose to give a detailed account of all the events belonging to the periods over which their histories extended, but only of those which were specially adapted to manifest God's presence and guidance in the affairs of the covenant people. The history of some persons is given very fully; of others with extreme brevity. But we may say, in general, that this divine history, extending over a period of a thousand years, is the most condensed in the world, as well as the most luminous with the divine glory. The student rises from the perusal of it with such clear views of God's presence and supremacy in the course of human affairs, as cannot be gained from all the ponderous tomes of secular history. Each book, moreover, presents some special phase of God's providential movements, and contains, therefore, its special lessons of instruction. With few exceptions, the authors of the historical books are unknown. We only know that they were prophetical men, who wrote under the illumination and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

I. JOSHUA.

3. This book records the conquest of the land of Canaan by the Israelites under Joshua, and its distribution by lot among the tribes that received their inheritance on the west side of the Jordan. It connects itself, therefore, immediately with the Pentateuch; for it shows how God fulfilled his promise to Abraham that he would give to his posterity the land of Canaan for an inheritance (Gen. 17:8), a promise often repeated afterwards, and kept constantly in view in the whole series of Mosaic legislation. The book naturally falls into two parts. The first twelve chapters contain the history of the conquest itself, with the movements preparatory thereto. Joshua, who had been previously designated as the leader of the people (Numb. 27:15-23), receives a solemn charge to pass over the Jordan and take possession of the promised land; the people prepare themselves accordingly; two spies are sent out to take a survey of Jericho; the Israelites pass over the Jordan dry-shod, its waters having been miraculously divided; they encamp at Gilgal, and are there subjected to the rite of circumcision. Chaps. 1-5. Then follows an account of the overthrow of Jericho, the trespass of Achan with the calamity which it brought upon the people, the conquest of Ai, the ratification of the law at mount Ebal with the erection of the stones on which the law was written, the artifice of the Gibeonites by which they saved their lives, the overthrow of the combined kings of the Canaanites at Gibeon, and the conquest, first of the southern and afterwards of the northern kings of Canaan. Chaps. 6-12.

The second part gives an account of the division of the land by lot among the several tribes. This work was begun as is described in chapters 13-17, and after an interruption through the dilatoriness of the people, for which Joshua rebuked them, was continued and completed at Shiloh. Chaps. 18, 19. Six cities of refuge were then appointed, three on each side of the Jordan; forty-eight cities were assigned by lot to the Levites; and the two and a half tribes that had received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan (Numb., chap. 32) were sent home. Chaps. 20-22. The twenty-third chapter contains Joshua's charge to the elders of Israel, and the twenty-fourth his final charge at Shechem to the assembled tribes, on which occasion there was a solemn renewal of the national covenant. The whole book is brought to a close by a brief notice of the death of Joshua and Eleazar, and the interment of the bones of Joseph in Shechem. This brief survey of the contents of the book reveals at once its unity, its orderly plan, and the place which it holds in the history of the Theocracy.

4. The authorship of the book cannot be determined from the title alone, any more than that of the two books which bear the name of Samuel. Jewish tradition ascribes it to Joshua himself, except the last five verses. But it records some transactions which, according to the most obvious interpretation of them, occurred after Joshua's death. Among these are the conquest of Hebron (chap. 15:16-19, compared with Judges 1:12-15), and especially the excursion of the Danites (chap. 19:47), which must be regarded as identical with that described in the eighteenth chapter of the book of Judges. Unless we assume that this notice of the Danites is an addition made by a later hand, we must suppose that the book was written by some unknown prophetical man after Joshua's death. He may well have been one of the elders who overlived Joshua, since at the time of his writing Rahab was yet living among the Israelites. Chap. 6:25.

The eighteenth chapter of the book of Judges, which records the invasion of the Danites, is evidently an appendix, introduced by the words: "In those days there was no king in Israel;" and that this invasion took place not long after the settlement of the people in Canaan, is manifest from the object proposed by it. Judges 18:1. At the time of the conquest, Rahab was a young woman, and may well have survived that event forty years or more. The only apparent indication of a still later composition of the book is that found in the reference to the book of Jasher, chap. 10:13. From 2 Sam. 1:18, we learn (according to the most approved interpretation of the passage) that David's elegy on the death of Saul and Jonathan was written in the book of Jasher. But we are not warranted in affirming that this title was applied to a book of definitely determined contents. It may have been a collection of national songs, enlarged from age to age.

Though Joshua does not appear to have been the author of the book in its present form, we may well suppose that the writer employed, in part at least, materials that came from Joshua's pen. When the land was divided by lot among the several tribes, the boundaries of each inheritance, with the cities pertaining to it, must have been carefully described in writing by Joshua himself, or by persons acting under his direction. It is probable that these descriptions were copied by the author of the book of Joshua; and this is sufficient to account for any diversity of diction that may exist in this part of the book as compared with the purely historic parts. Nothing in the style and diction of this book, or in that of the two following books of Judges and Ruth, indicates that they belong to a later age of Hebrew literature. Certain peculiarities of expression which occasionally appear in them may be naturally explained as provincialisms, or as belonging to the language of conversation and common life.

5. The book of Joshua bears every internal mark of authentícity and credibility. The main transaction which it records--the extirpation of the Canaanites by the immediate help of Jehovah, and the gift of their country to the Israelites--was contemplated from the very first by the Abrahamic covenant (Gen. 13:14, 15; 15:18-21; 17:8, etc.), and also by the entire body of the Mosaic laws. Why God chose to accomplish this by the sword of his covenant people, has been already sufficiently considered. Chap. 10, No. 7. The stupendous miracles recorded in the book of Joshua are in harmony with the entire plan of redemption, the great and decisive movements of which have been especially marked by signal manifestations of God's presence and power. The man who denies the credibility of this book on the ground of these miracles, must, for consistency's sake, go much farther, and deny altogether the supernatural manifestations of God recorded in the Bible, including the mission, miraculous works, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ himself.

In chap. 10:12-14 we read that, at the word of Joshua, the sun stood still and the moon stayed in the midst of heaven about a whole day, so that "there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man." Some have sought to explain the whole passage as a quotation from "the book of Jasher" expressed in the language of poetic hyperbole; and they have compared with it such poetic amplifications as those contained in Psa. 18:7-16; Hab., chap. 3, etc. But this interpretation is forced and unnatural; and besides this, there remains the analogous event of which we have a double record in 2 Kings 20:8-11; Isa. 38: 7, 8, and which is expressly ascribed to divine power: "Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the degrees, which is gone down in the sun-dial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward." Here it is manifest that to human vision the sun, and with it the shadow, went backward ten degrees. How this was accomplished we need not attempt to determine. We are not shut up to the supposition that the earth was turned back on her axis ten degrees, nor that the rays of the sun were miraculously deflected ten degrees (which would change his apparent position in the heavens ten degrees), nor to any other particular hypothesis. If God chose that the sun should to human vision go backward ten degrees, he could accomplish it by means inscrutable to us; and so also if he chose that it should stand still in the midst of heaven about a whole day.

II. JUDGES AND RUTH.

6. The book of Judges is so called because it is occupied with the history of the Israelites during the period when they were under the general administration of Judges. These men are not to be confounded with the ordinary judges under the Theocracy, of the appointment of which we have an account in Exodus, chap. 18. They were men specially raised up by God and endowed by him with extraordinary qualifications for their office, which was general and political rather than municipal. Many of them were military leaders, called to their work in times of national calamity. In times of peace they stood at the head of public affairs, although with regard to some of them it is generally thought that their jurisdiction extended to only a part of the Israelitish people. Thus Jephthah and the three succeeding judges seem to have exercised their office in northeastern Israel, while the scene of Samson's exploits was southwestern Israel, and he was, in the opinion of many, contemporary with Eli, who judged Israel at Shiloh. The condition of the nation during the period of the Judges is described as one in which "there was no king in Israel." Chap. 18:1; 19:1. There was no regularly organized central power which could give unity to the movements of the people. The tribes seem to have acted in a great measure independently of each other, as in the expedition of the Danites. Chap. 18. It was only on special occasions, like that of the sin and punishment of the Benjamites (chaps. 19-21), that there was a general concert among them. This state of affairs was not favorable to the development of the military power of the nation, but it was well suited to the high moral and religious ends which the Theocracy had in view; for it compelled the people to feel their constant dependence on God's presence and help for defence against their enemies. Sin, and oppression by the surrounding nations; repentance, and deliverance by God's immediate interposition--this is the oft-repeated story of the book of Judges. All this was in accordance with the promises and threatenings of the Law, and it illustrated alike the perverseness of the nation and God's faithfulness in the fulfilment of his covenant. The incidents recorded in this book are of a peculiarly checkered character, and many of them are full of romantic interest. In the history of redemption, the book of Judges has a well-defined place. It unfolds to our view the operation of the Theocracy in the first stage of the nation's existence, and under its first outward form of government.

7. As it respects the arrangement of materials, the book of Judges opens with a two-fold introduction, giving, first, a brief notice of the wars carried on against the Canaanites by certain tribes after Joshua's death, of the failure of the people to effect a complete extirpation of the Canaanites, and of the reproof administered to them by an angel of the Lord (chap. 1-2:5); secondly, a survey of the course of events during the time of the judges, with especial reference to God's faithfulness in the fulfilment of his promises and threatenings. Chap. 2:6-3:6. Then follows the body of the work, giving an account of the seven servitudes to which the people were subjected for their sins, and of the judges raised up by God for their deliverance, with some incidental notices, as the history of Abimelech, (chap. 9) and the quarrel of the men of Ephraim with Jephthah. Chap. 12:1-6. The book closes with a two-fold appendix, recording, first, the conquest of Laish by the Danites, and in connection with this the story of Micah and his idolatrous establishment (chaps. 17, 18); secondly, the punishment of the Benjamites for espousing the cause of the wicked men of Gibeah (chaps. 19-21). These events are not to be conceived of as subsequent to those recorded in the body of the book, but as contemporaneous with them.

8. The remark: "In those days there was no king in Israel" (chaps. 18:1; 19:1) plainly implies that the date of the book of Judges must be assigned to a period after the establishment of the kingdom. The statement, on the other hand, that the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites from Jerusalem, "but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day" (chap. 1:21), limits the time of its composition to the period before David's conquest of the city. 2 Sam. 5:6-9. The author of the book is unknown. Jewish tradition ascribes it to Samuel. It may well have been written during his life, and possibly under his supervision, though on this point we can affirm nothing positively. The writer must have availed himself of earlier written documents. See Chap. 15, No. 5.

9. The chronology of the book of Judges is a matter of debate among biblical scholars. Some contend for a longer period, in accordance with the reckoning of the apostle Paul, who says that after God had divided to the people the land of Canaan by lot, "he gave unto them judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet." Acts 13:20. Others seek to reduce the period so as to bring it into harmony with the statement in 1 Kings 6:1, that Solomon began to build the temple "in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt."

If we suppose that the oppression of the Israelites by the Philistines, described in the beginning of the first book of Samuel, is the same as the forty years' oppression mentioned in the book of Judges, and that the judgeship of Samson falls within the same period (Judges 15:20), it is easy to make out the four hundred and fifty years of the apostle's reckoning. From the beginning of the first servitude under Cushan-rishathaim to the close of the last under the Philistines, we have, reckoning the years of servitude and rest in succession, and allowing three years for the reign of Abimelech, three hundred and ninety years. For the remaining sixty years we have (1) the time from the division of the land by lot to the death of the elders who overlived Joshua; (2) the time from the close of the last servitude to the establishment of the kingdom; and possibly (3) a further period for Shamgar's judgeship, though it is more probable that this falls within the eighty years of rest after the oppression of the Moabites. Those who adopt a shorter chronology, assume that the forty years' dominion of the Philistines was contemporaneous with the oppression of the northeastern tribes by the Ammonites and the period during which Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon judged Israel; their jurisdiction being, as they suppose, restricted to the northeastern part of the land. For both the longer and shorter chronology, there are several variously modified schemes, the details of which the student can find in works devoted to the subject of biblical chronology.

10. The incidents of the book of Ruth belong to the period of the Judges, so that it may be regarded as in some sort an appendix to the book of Judges, though probably not written by the same author. It contains a beautiful sketch of domestic life in the early period of the Theocracy, written with charming simplicity and graphic vividness. Yet it is not on this ground alone or chiefly that it has a place in the sacred canon. It records also the sublime faith of Ruth the Moabitess, which led her to forsake her own country and kindred to trust under the wings of the Lord God of Israel (ch. 2:12), and which was rewarded by her being made the ancestress of David and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the book connects itself immediately with "the house and lineage of David," and may be regarded as supplementary to the history of his family. It was evidently written after David was established on the throne. Further than this we have no certain knowledge respecting its date; nor can its author be determined.

III. THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL.

11. The two books of Samuel constituted originally one work. The division was made by the Greek translators as a matter of convenience, so as to close the first book with the death of Saul, and begin the second with David's accession to the throne. This division was followed by the Vulgate, and was introduced by Daniel Bomberg into the printed Hebrew text. To the original whole work the name of Samuel was appropriately given; for he is not only the central personage in the history which it records to the establishment of the kingdom, but it was also through him, as the acknowledged prophet of the Theocracy, that both Saul and David were designated and anointed for the kingly office. The Greek Septuagint designates these books from their contents, First and Second of the Kingdoms, and the Vulgate, First and Second of Kings.

12. In the history of the plan of redemption these two books have a well-defined province. They are occupied with the establishment, under God's direction and guidance, of the kingly form of government in the Theocracy. All the events recorded before the inauguration of Saul were preparatory to that event and explanatory of it. Since, moreover, Saul was afterwards rejected with his family on account of his disobedience, and David and his family were chosen in his stead, it was in the person of David that the kingdom was first fully established, and with the close of his reign the work accordingly ends. The period included in this history, though comparatively brief, was most eventful. Samuel, himself one of the greatest of the prophets, established a school of the prophets, and from his day onward the prophetical order assumed an importance and permanency in the Theocracy that was before unknown. See above, Ch. 15, No. 11. The change to the kingly form of government constituted a new era in the Hebrew commonwealth. Although the motives which led the people to desire a king were low and unworthy, being grounded in worldliness and unbelief, yet God, for the accomplishment of his own purposes, was pleased to grant their request. The adumbration in the Theocracy of the kingly office of the future Messiah, not less than of his priestly and prophetical office, was originally contemplated in its establishment; and now the full time for this had come. While David and his successors on the throne were true civil and military leaders in a secular and earthly sense, their headship over God's people also shadowed forth the higher headship of the long promised Redeemer, the great Antitype in whom all the types contained in the Mosaic economy find at once their explanation and their fulfilment. Under David the Hebrew commonwealth was rescued from the oppression of the surrounding nations, and speedily attained to its zenith of outward power and splendor.

13. The contents of the books of Samuel naturally fall under three main divisions. The introductory part takes up the history of the commonwealth under Eli and continues it to the time when the people demanded of Samuel a king. 1 Sam. chaps. 1-7. This period properly belongs to that of the judges, but its history is given here because of its intimate connection with the events that follow. It describes the birth and education of Samuel; the disorders that prevailed under Eli's administration, for which God denounced upon his family severe judgments; the invasion of the land by the Philistines, with the capture and restoration of the ark; Samuel's administration, and the deliverance of the people under him from the oppression of the Philistines. The second part, extending through the remainder of the first book, opens with an account of the abuses which led the people to desire a king, and then gives an account of the selection, anointing, and inauguration of Saul as king of Israel, with a notice of his exploit in delivering the people of Jabesh-gilead from the Ammonites. Chaps 8-12. It then gives an account of his first sin at Gilgal, for which Samuel threatened him with the loss of his kingdom, and of his victory over the Philistines, with a general summary of the events of his reign. Chaps. 13, 14. For his second sin in the matter of the Amalekites Saul is rejected, and David is anointed by Samuel as his successor; the Spirit of the Lord forsakes Saul, and an evil spirit from God troubles him; David becomes his minstrel, is in high favor with him, slays Goliath in the presence of the two armies of Israel and the Philistines, returns in triumph to the camp of Saul, marries Michal his daughter, but becomes an object of his jealousy and hatred because he has supplanted him in the affections of the people. Chaps. 15-18:9. The remainder of the first book is mainly occupied with an account of the persecutions to which David was subjected on the part of Saul, and of the wonderful way in which God delivered him. It closes with an account of Saul's distress through the invasion of the Philistines, of his resort in trouble to a woman that had a familiar spirit, of the terrible message that he received at the lips of the risen Samuel, of the defeat of the armies of Israel by the Philistines, and of the death of Saul and his three sons on Mount Gilboa. The third part occupies the whole of the second book. It records the reign of David, first at Hebron over the tribe of Judah, with the accompanying war between the house of Saul and the house of David, and then, after Ishbosheth's death, over all Israel at Jerusalem. With the fidelity of truth the sacred historian describes not only David's many victories over the enemies of Israel, but also his grievous sin in the matter of Uriah, with the terrible chastisements that it brought upon him and his kingdom--Amnon's incest, the murder of Amnon by Absalom, Absalom's rebellion, pollution of his father's concubines, and death in battle. The closing years of David's reign were saddened also by David's sin in numbering the people, for which there fell in pestilence seventy thousand of his subjects.

14. For the evidence that the author of these books availed himself of the writings of the prophets contemporary with the events described, see above, Chap. 15, No. 6. In 1 Chron. 29:29 we read: "Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer." If, as some think, our present books of Samuel were composed shortly after David's death, the author may well have been one of the last two of the above-named prophets; but there are some indications that he lived after the division of the Israelitish people into the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

In 1 Sam. 27:6 we read that Achish gave Ziklag to David; "wheretofore," adds the sacred historian, "Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day." The only natural interpretation of these words is that the kings of Judah--not any particular king of Judah, but the kings of Judah as a line--are named in contrast with the kings of Israel. In several other passages, where he is speaking of events that occurred before the separation of the two kingdoms, he puts Judah and Israel together. 1 Sam. 11:8; 17:52; 18:16; 2 Sam. 3:10; 24:1. But this can, perhaps, be explained from the fact that during the seven years of David's reign at Hebron there was an actual separation of Judah from the other tribes. It is a remarkable fact that while the full term of David's reign is given (2 Sam. 5:4, 5), which implies that the writer lived after its close, no notice is taken of his death. The reason of this omission cannot be known. As the first book of Kings opens with an account of David's last days and death, some have conjectured that it was designedly omitted from the books of Samuel as superfluous, when the historical books were arranged in the sacred canon.

IV. THE BOOKS OF KINGS.

15. These two books, like the two of Samuel, originally constituted a single work. The division was first made by the Greek translators, was followed by the Vulgate, and was finally admitted by Daniel Bomberg into the printed Hebrew text. The Greek version of the Seventy and the Latin version, having called the books of Samuel, the former, First and Second of the Kingdoms, the latter, First and Second of the Kings, designate these books as Third and Fourth of the Kingdoms or Kings. Each of the historical books presents the covenant people under a new aspect, and imparts new lessons of instruction. In the book of Joshua we see them taking triumphant possession of the promised land through the mighty assistance of Jehovah; the book of Judges describes the course of affairs in the Hebrew commonwealth before the existence of a central kingly government; in the books of Samuel we learn how such a central government was established, and how under the reign of David the nation was raised from the deep degradation of servitude to the summit of worldly power. But the Theocracy was only a preparatory, and therefore a temporary form of God's visible earthly kingdom. From the days of David and Solomon it began to decline in outward power and splendor, and it is with the history of this decline that the books of Kings are occupied. In the view which they present of the divine plan they are in perfect harmony with the preceding books of Samuel; but in respect to the manner of execution they differ widely. The books of Samuel give the history of Samuel, Saul, and David, with great fulness of detail, and never refer the reader to other sources of information. The books of Kings, on the contrary, give professedly only certain portions of the history of the people under the successive kings, always adding, at the close of each monarch's reign after Solomon, that the rest of his acts may be found, for the kings of Judah, in "the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah;" and, for the kings of Israel, in "the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel." The Chronicles referred to are not our present books of Chronicles, as has been already shown, Chap. 15, No. 8, but a larger collection of writings, from which the authors both of the books of Kings and Chronicles drew materials, in part at least, for their respective works. The history contained in the books of Kings may be conveniently divided into three periods--(1) the reign of Solomon over all Israel; (2) the history of the coexisting kingdoms of Judah and Israel; (3) the history of the kingdom of Judah after the extinction of the kingdom of Israel.

16. The history of the first period opens with the reign of Solomon, which excelled that of David in outward magnificence, as it did that of every succeeding king. 1 Kings 3:13. The great event of his reign, constituting an epoch in the history of the Theocracy, was the erection of the temple on Mount Moriah, which took the place of the ancient tabernacle constructed by divine direction in the wilderness. Thus Solomon added to the public services of the sanctuary an outward splendor and dignity corresponding with the increased wealth and glory of the nation. But in the case of his kingdom, as often elsewhere, the zenith of magnificence came after the zenith of true power. Had his profuse expenditures ceased with the erection of the temple and his own house, it would have been well; but the maintenance of such a household as his, embracing "seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines," corrupted his religion and that of the nation, burdened the people with heavy taxes, and thus prepared the way for the division of his kingdom that followed immediately after his death, as recorded in 1 Kings 12.

17. With the division of Solomon's kingdom under his son Rehoboam into two hostile nations begins the second period of the history. This division was brought about by God's appointment as a chastisement for Solomon's sins, and in it the national power received a blow from which it never recovered. The religious effect also was unspeakably calamitous so far as the kingdom of the ten tribes was concerned; for Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, established idolatry as a matter of state policy, thus corrupting the religion of his whole kingdom with a view to the establishment of his own power, a sin in which he was followed by every one of his successors. The sacred historian carries forward the history of these two kingdoms together with wonderful brevity and power. Sometimes, as in the days of Elijah and Elisha, the history of the ten tribes assumes the greater prominence, because it furnishes the fuller illustrations of God's presence and power; but as a general fact it is kept in subordination to that of Judah. It is a sad record of wicked dynasties, each established in blood and ending in blood, until the overthrow of the kingdom by the Assyrians about two hundred and fifty-four years after its establishment. Meanwhile there was in Judah an alternation of pious with idolatrous kings, and a corresponding struggle between the true religion and the idolatry of the surrounding nations, which the sacred writer also describes briefly but vividly.

18. It was during the reign of the good king Hezekiah that the extinction of the kingdom of Israel took place, and the third period of the history began. Hezekiah's efforts for the restoration of the true religion were vigorous and for the time successful. But after his death the nation relapsed again into idolatry and wickedness. The efforts of Josiah, the only pious monarch that occupied the throne after Hezekiah, could not avail to stay the progress of national degeneracy, and the kingdom of Judah was, in its turn, overthrown by the Chaldeans, and the people carried captive to Babylon.

19. The chronology of certain parts of the history embraced in the books of Kings is perplexed and uncertain. But the beginning of the Babylonish captivity is generally placed B.C. 588, three hundred and eighty-seven years after the beginning of Rehoboam's reign, and one hundred and thirty-three years after the extinction of the kingdom of Israel. Reckoning in the forty years of Solomon's reign, we have for the period included in the books of Kings to the beginning of the captivity four hundred and twenty-seven years. To this must be added twenty-six more years for the thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin's captivity (2 Kings 25:27), the last date given by the sacred historian. The author of the books of Kings is unknown. Jewish tradition ascribes them to Jeremiah, perhaps on the ground that the last chapter of Jeremiah is mostly a repetition of 2 Kings from chap. 24:18 to the end of the book. But Jeremiah and the author of these books may both have made use of common documents. We only know that the writer lived after the accession of Evil-merodach to the throne of Babylon (2 Kings 25:27), and during the full pressure of the Babylonish captivity, since he nowhere gives any intimation of its approaching close.

V. THE BOOKS OF CHRONICLES.

20. These books, which originally constituted a single work, are called by the Hebrews: Words of the Days; that is, History of the Events of the Times, or Chronicles, as they were first called by Jerome. The Greek name Paraleipomena, things omitted, has its ground in the false supposition that they were designed to be supplementary to the books of Kings, whereas they constitute an independent work having its own plan and end. The author of the books of Kings doubtless looked forward to the future restoration of his nation; but the time for that joyous event was yet distant, and he could have no immediate reference to the wants of the returning exiles. His aim was simply to set forth the course of events under the Theocracy from Solomon to the captivity as an illustration of God's faithfulness in the fulfilment of both his promises and his threatenings. But the author of the books of Chronicles wrote, as all agree, during the process of the restoration. In addition to the common aim of all the historical writers, he had a particular object in view, which was to furnish the restored captives with such information as would be especially interesting and important to them, engaged as they were in the reëstablishment of the commonwealth. Hence we may naturally explain the peculiarities of these books as compared with the books of Kings.

(1.) The writer gives particular attention to the matter of genealogy. The first nine chapters are occupied with genealogical tables interspersed with short historical notices, which the author took, for the most part at least, from documents that have long since perished. To the returning exiles the lineage of their ancestors must have been a matter of general interest. A knowledge of the descent of the families of the different tribes would greatly facilitate the people in regaining their former inheritances. To the priests and Levites, especially, it was of the highest importance that they should be able to show their lineage, since upon this depended their right to minister in holy things. Ezra 2:61-63.

(2.) The books of Chronicles are very full on all that pertains to the temple service. The writer devotes, for example, eight chapters to an account of David's preparations for the erection of the temple, and of his elaborate arrangements for all the different parts of the service pertaining to the sanctuary. 1 Chron. chaps. 22-29. He gives a particular description of the solemn covenant made by the people with Jehovah under Asa's direction, 2 Chron. 15:1-15; of the reformatory labors and faith of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. 19, 20; of Hezekiah, 2 Chron. chaps. 29-31; and he adds to the account of Josiah's efforts against the idolatrous practices of his day, a notice of his solemn observance of the passover, 2 Chron. 35:1-19.

(3.) He omits, on the other hand, the history of the kingdom of Israel, giving only a notice of its establishment, and of certain parts of its history which were connected with that of the kingdom of Judah. The apparent ground of this is, that the kingdom of the ten tribes furnished no example which could be available to the people in the work of reëstablishing the commonwealth. It is to be noticed, moreover, that he passes over in silence the adultery of David with its calamitous consequences, and the idolatry of Solomon. This is, perhaps, due to the brevity of the history before the division of the kingdom; for he does not spare the sins of the pious monarchs that followed. See 2 Chron. 16:7-12; 19:2; 32:25, 31; 35:21, 22.

21. In the Hebrew canon the books of Chronicles stand last in order. It is generally agreed that they were written, after the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, by Ezra, who had all the qualifications for such a work. Whatever use he may have made of the earlier books of Samuel and Kings, it is plain that these were not his chief sources, for he records many things not found in them. He and the author of the books of Kings had access to the same public records, and each of them made such selections from them as suited his purposes. Hence the matter contained in the two works agrees in part, and is partly different. See above, Chap. 15, Nos. 7, 8.

22. That there are some discrepancies between the books of Samuel and Kings and the books of Chronicles, arising from errors in transcribing, is generally admitted. These relate, however, mainly to dates, and do not affect the general integrity of the works. But most of the disagreements between the earlier and later histories are only apparent, arising from their brevity, and from the fact that their authors frequently select from the same reign different events, the one passing by in silence what the other records; or that, where they record the same events, various accompanying circumstances are omitted.

An example of apparent error in transcription is 2 Sam. 24:13 compared with 1 Chron. 21:12; the former passage specifying seven years of famine, the latter three years. For other examples see 2 Sam. 8:4 compared with 1 Chron. 18:4; 2 Sam. 23:8 with 1 Chron. 11:11; 1 Kings 4:26 with 2 Chron. 9:25. We are not to infer, however, that all cases of apparent disagreement involve error in one or the other of the records. When the events of a whole campaign, for example, are crowded into single sentences, it is not surprising that the different narratives should contain seeming discrepancies which a full knowledge of the details would enable us to reconcile. The separate discussion of the difficulties presented by the books of Chronicles, as compared with the earlier histories, belongs to the commentator. It is sufficient to remark here, that independent parallel histories always exhibit, with substantial agreement, minor diversities which it is sometimes not easy to harmonize. It has not pleased God that in this respect the sacred narratives of either the Old or the New Testament should constitute an exception to the general rule. The parallel narratives of our Lord's life contain as many and as great diversities as those of the old Hebrew commonwealth. Though we may not always be able to show how these are to be brought into harmony, they constitute no valid objection to the authenticity of the histories in the one case any more than in the other.

VI. EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.

23. In the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, which record the most important events connected with the restoration of the Hebrew commonwealth, we have unfolded to our view a new era in the history of the Theocracy. The contrast between the relation of the Israelitish people to the heathen world in the days of Joshua, and of Ezra and Nehemiah is as great as possible. Under Joshua the people marched, sword in hand, as invincible conquerors, to the possession of the promised land, while the hearts of their enemies melted before them. After the captivity they returned in weakness and fear, by the permission of their heathen rulers and under their patronage and protection. But in the latter case, not less than in the former, the Theocracy was steadily advancing under God's guidance towards the accomplishment of its high end, which was the preparation of the Jewish people, and through them the world, for the advent of the promised Messiah. In the beginning of the Mosaic economy, and during the earlier part of its course, it was altogether appropriate that God should make stupendous supernatural manifestations of his infinite perfections and of his supreme power over the nations of the world. Thus he revealed himself as the only living and true God in the sight of all men. But as the history of the covenant people went forward, there was a gradual return to the ordinary providential administration of the divine government. God's miraculous interventions were never made for mere display. They always had in view a high religious end. As that end approached its accomplishment, they were more and more withdrawn, and soon after the captivity they ceased altogether until the final and perfect manifestation of God in Christ. From Malachi to Christ was the last stage of the Theocracy, when, in the language of the New Testament, it was waxing old and ready to vanish away. Heb. 8:13. It was neither needful nor proper that its history should be dignified by such displays of God's miraculous power as marked its earlier periods.

24. But, although the age of miracles ceased after the Babylonish captivity, the Theocracy went steadily forward in the accomplishment of its divine mission. In truth it was now that it secured for the first time, as a permanent result, the high end proposed by it from the beginning, that of rescuing a whole nation from idolatrous practices and making it steadfast in the worship of the true God, at least so far as the outward life is concerned. By the permanent subjection of the Jewish people to heathen rulers, their national pride was humbled, and they were placed in such a relation to heathenism as inclined them to abhor rather than imitate its rites. The fulfilment of the terrible threatenings contained in the law of Moses in the complete overthrow, first of the kingdom of Israel, and afterwards of that of Judah, and their long and bitter bondage in Babylon, administered to them severe but salutary lessons of instruction, under the influence of which they were, by God's blessing, finally reclaimed from idolatrous practices. In connection with the restoration, the synagogue service was established, in which the law and the prophets were regularly read and expounded to the people throughout the land. To this, more than to any other human instrumentality, was due that steadfastness which the Jewish people ever afterwards manifested in the worship of the true God. Thus, while the outward glory of the Theocracy declined, it continued to accomplish the true spiritual end for which it was established.

25. The book of Ezra embraces a period of about seventy-nine years, from the accession of Cyrus to the throne of Persia to the close of Ezra's administration, or at least to the last transaction under it of which we have a record. The first six chapters give a brief sketch of the course of events among the restored captives before Ezra's arrival at Jerusalem, especially their activity in rebuilding the temple, the formidable opposition which they encountered from the neighboring people, and how that opposition was finally overcome. The last four chapters contain the history of Ezra's administration, the chief event of which was the putting away by the princes and people of the heathen wives whom they had married. That Ezra was the author of this book is generally acknowledged. The first three verses are a repetition, with some unessential variations, of the last two verses of Chronicles, of which he is also believed, on good grounds, to have been the author. In certain passages he speaks of himself in the third person; Ch. 7:1-26; ch. 10; but there is no reason to deny, on this ground, that he was their author. Jeremiah changes, in like manner, employing sometimes the first and sometimes the third person. Certain parts of this book, which are mainly occupied with public documents respecting the building of the temple and the orderly arrangement of its services, are written in the Chaldee language, namely: chaps. 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26.

In respect to the Persian monarchs mentioned in this and the two following books, there is not an entire agreement among biblical scholars. The following table, formed in accordance with the views that seem to be best supported, will be useful to the reader. It contains, arranged in three parallel columns, first the names of the Persian kings in their order of succession, as given by profane historians; secondly, their scriptural names; thirdly, the dates of their accession to the throne, according to the received chronology.

Cyrus, Cyrus, Ezra 1:1, etc., B.C. 536.

Cambyses, Ahasuerus, Ezra 4:6, " 529.

Smerdis,[1] Artaxerxes, Ezra 4:7-23, " 522.

Darius Hystaspis, Darius, Ezra 4:24-6:15,[2] " 521.

Xerxes, Ahasuerus, Esther throughout,[3] " 485.

Artaxerxes Longimanus, Artaxerxes, Ezra 7:1, etc.; Neh. 2:1, etc. " 464.

[Footnote 1: He was a usurper who reigned less than a year.]

[Footnote 2: But in Neh. 12:22, Darius Nothus or Darius Codomanus must be referred to.]

[Footnote 3: Some suppose Darius, others Artaxerxes, to have been the Ahasuerus of Esther.]

26. The book of Nehemiah continues the history of the Jewish people after the restoration, beginning with the commission which Nehemiah received from Artaxerxes Longimanus, king of Persia, in the twentieth year of his reign (B.C. 446), to go to Jerusalem in the capacity of Tirshatha, or civil governor, for the purpose of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem and setting in order the affairs of the commonwealth. The book naturally falls into three divisions. The first division contains the history of his labors in rebuilding the walls of the city and putting an end to the practice of usury, and of the violent opposition and intrigues of the surrounding people. Chaps. 1-7:4. To this is appended a genealogical list, which is the same for substance as that contained in the second chapter of Ezra. Ch. 7:5-73.

Upon a comparison of the two catalogues, we find various differences in respect to names and numbers. The differences of names may be explained from the fact that it was common for men to bear different titles, particularly if they were persons of distinction; as, for example, Daniel and Belteshazzar, Zerubbabel and Sheshbazzar. It is not certain upon what principle the differences in numbers are to be explained. The sum total of both catalogues is the same, namely, 42,360; from which it is plain that the lists are in both cases partial, since neither of them amounts to this sum. We add the following suggestion from Grey's Key as quoted by Scott: "The sum of the numbers, as separately detailed, will correspond, if to the 29,818 specified by Ezra, we add the 1,765 persons reckoned by Nehemiah which Ezra has omitted; and, on the other hand, to the 31,089 enumerated by Nehemiah, add the 494, which is an overplus in Ezra, not noticed by Nehemiah; both writers including in the sum total 10,777 of the mixed multitude, not particularized in the individual detail."

In the second division we have an account of the solemn public reading of the law of Moses at the feast of tabernacles, and, in connection with this, of the renewal of the national covenant with Jehovah through the signature and seal of the princes, Levites, and priests, in their own behalf and that of the people. Chaps. 8-10. In this religious and ecclesiastical transaction, Ezra the priest was the leader; Nehemiah, as the Tirshatha, or civil governor, simply taking the lead of the princes in the act of sealing.

The third division contains, along with some genealogical lists, an account of the measures taken by Nehemiah and the princes to increase the number of residents in Jerusalem, of the solemn dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, and of the rectification of various abuses which had crept in partly during Nehemiah's absence at the court of Persia. Chaps. 11-13.

The date of Nehemiah's commission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem is important on account of its connection with the seventy prophetic weeks of Daniel, which are reckoned "from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem." Dan. 9:25. It cannot be considered as exactly ascertained, but may be placed somewhere from B.C. 454 to B.C. 446. See the commentators on Dan. 9:24-27. How long Nehemiah's administration continued after his visit to the court of Persia, in the twelfth year of his rule, is not known.

27. The book, as its title testifies, was written by Nehemiah, not earlier than his return from the court of Persia (ch. 13:6; 5:14); how much later cannot be known. From the general character of style and diction which belongs to the second division (chaps. 8-10), as well as from the absence of Nehemiah's peculiar forms of speech, some have thought that Ezra, as the chief actor in the reading of the law and renewal of the national covenant, wrote the account of the transaction, and that Nehemiah incorporated it into his work. To this supposition there is no serious objection. We must remember, however, that arguments based on supposed differences of style cannot amount to much where the materials from which a conclusion is to be drawn are so scanty.

The genealogical notice in ch. 12:10, 11, which gives the lineage of the high priests from Joshua to Jaddua, who is apparently the high priest described by Josephus as having met Alexander the Great on his march to Jerusalem, is thought by many to be an addition made after Nehemiah's death as a matter of public interest. See above, Chap. 15, No. 17. The same judgment is passed by some on 1 Chron. 3:19-24. But the interpretation of this latter passage is very uncertain.

VII. ESTHER.

28. This book, the author of which is unknown, records the wonderful manner in which the plot of Haman the Agagite to destroy the Jews was not only overthrown, but turned to their enlargement and honor. It is remarkable that the author refrains throughout from mentioning the name of God, although he manifestly designs to represent this deliverance as effected by his providence, and that too in answer to the fervent prayers of the Jews in connection with a fast of three days' continuance. He prefers, as it would seem, to let the facts speak for themselves. The book closes with an account of the establishment, under the auspices of Mordecai and Esther, of the feast of Purim, in commemoration of the deliverance which it records; and we are perhaps warranted in saying that the immediate occasion of writing the book was to show the historic origin of that festival--a festival mentioned in the second book of Maccabees, under the title of Mordecai's day (chap. 15:36), and observed, according to Josephus, by the Jews throughout the whole world. Antiq., 11, 6. 13.

29. Among the various opinions respecting the Ahasuerus of this book, the best sustained is that which identifies him with the celebrated Xerxes of profane history. With this agrees all that is said of the splendor and extent of his dominions, extending "from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and seven and twenty provinces" (1:1), and of his passionate, capricious, and sensual character.

To us, who are accustomed to a government of law, in which the rulers are restrained from the exercise of arbitrary power, and are kept under constant restraint by popular opinion, the incidents recorded in this book seem very strange. But it gives a true and faithful portraiture of the course of affairs at the court of a Persian despot, where the monarch knows no law but his own arbitrary will, suddenly elevates his favorites to the highest places of power and trust, as suddenly consigns them to the hand of the executioner, and gives himself up to the unbridled indulgence of his passions. The history of Haman's sudden rise and fall is that of many an oriental courtier since his day. The Jews, we are told, "slew of their foes seventy and five thousand." This was a very great slaughter; but we must remember that it was distributed through all the provinces of the kingdom. Ch. 9:16. The permission which they had received was "in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life; to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey" (ch. 8:11); all which, except the last clause, seems to have been carried into execution. We are not required to vindicate the wisdom of this severe decree, or to deny that the Jews may have used to excess the terrible power thus conferred upon them. On the side of God's providence, the vengeance that fell upon the Jews' enemies was righteous; but on the side of the human instrumentalities employed by him, there may have been much imperfection, or even folly and wickedness. So it has ever been in the history of human affairs, and so it is at the present day.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

Chapter XXI

THE POETICAL BOOKS (INCLUDING ALSO ECCLESIASTES AND CANTICLES).

1. The Hebrews reckon but three books as poetical, namely: Job, Psalms, and Proverbs, which are distinguished from the rest by a stricter rhythm--the rhythm not of feet, but of clauses (see below, No. 3)--and a peculiar system of accentuation. It is obvious to every reader that the poetry of the Old Testament, in the usual sense of the word, is not restricted to these three books. But they are called poetical in a special and technical sense. In any natural classification of the books of the Old Testament, those of Ecclesiastes and Canticles will fall into the division which contains the books of Job, Psalms, and Proverbs.

The Hebrew system of accentuation is very subtle and complicated, and there is nothing corresponding to it in our western languages. These so-called accents are quite numerous, one of them resting, as a general rule, upon each word. Certain of them are peculiar to the poetical books, and are called poetical accents. They serve a threefold office. (1.) They guide the modulated flow of the voice in cantillation, thus serving, in a certain sense, as musical notes. Some think that this was their primary office. (2.) They indicate the logical relation to each other of the words and clauses, thus performing the office of marks of interpunction. (3.) They rest, with certain exceptions, on the tone syllable, and thus serve as accents in our restricted sense of the word.

In the first division of the present chapter, the characteristics of Hebrew poetry will be briefly considered in respect to its spirit, its form, and its offices. Then will follow, in the second division, a notice of the contents of the several books.

(A.) CHARACTERISTICS OF HEBREW POETRY.

2. As it respects the spirit of Hebrew poetry, we notice, first of all, its perfect harmony with the spirit of the Theocracy. It is, in truth, an outgrowth of the Theocracy in the souls of holy men educated under its influence and thoroughly imbued with its spirit. The God of Moses and Aaron is also the God of David, Asaph, and Solomon; of Hosea, Isaiah, and Habakkuk. In his boldest flights the Hebrew poet always remains loyal to the institutions of Moses, not in their letter alone, but much more in their spirit, of which he is the inspired interpreter. The same Jehovah who thundered from Sinai and spake to the people by Moses, speaks also by the sweet psalmist of Israel, by the wisdom of Solomon, and by the whole succession of the prophets. Hence the poetry of the Hebrews is radiant throughout with the pure monotheism of the Theocracy. It exhibits God in his infinite perfections, as the Creator and sovereign Ruler of the world, without a single taint of pantheism or polytheism, and that in an age when pantheism and polytheism were the reigning forms of religion without the pale of the covenant people.

Another distinguishing mark of Hebrew poetry is the vivid consciousness of God's presence by which it is pervaded. In this respect it runs entirely parallel with Hebrew history. It has already been remarked (Ch. 20, No. 1) that Hebrew history differs widely from all other historical writings in its habit of looking at the course of human events from the Divine side, rather than the human; that while secular history is mainly occupied with the endless details of human combinations and alliances, and the progress of material civilization, the historical books of the Old Testament unfold to us with wonderful clearness God's presence and power as shaping the course of human events in the interest of his great plan of redemption. Take, for example, that small section of Hebrew history comprehended under the title, Affinity with Ahab. No Christian can read it without feelings of holy awe, for it is radiant throughout with the presence of that righteous God who renders to every man according to his works, and visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation. In it the retributive justice of God shines forth, like the lightning, from one end of heaven to the other. Just so is Hebrew poetry also filled with the presence and glory of God. When the Hebrew bard sweeps his lyre, all nature gives signs of her Maker's presence. The heavens rejoice before him, the earth is glad, the sea roars, the mountains and hills break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field clap their hands. He looks on the earth, and it trembles; he touches the hills, and they smoke. Nor less conspicuous is his presence in providence and in the human soul. He is seen in awful majesty high above the tumult of the nations, directing their movements to the accomplishment of his own infinitely wise purposes; making the wrath of man to praise him, and restraining the remainder of it. Meanwhile his presence shines in the believer's soul, like the sun in his strength, filling it with strength, light, and gladness. In a word, over the whole domain of Hebrew poesy, whether its theme be God or nature or human society or the human spirit, is heard continually the solemn cry of the seraphim: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory."

Originality is another feature of Hebrew poetry. It cannot indeed be said that this quality belongs to all the Hebrew poets. With such divinely perfect models as the later writers had before them, models with which they had been familiar from childhood, it was natural that they should imitate them. The spirit of inspiration did not prevent this, for it was not necessary to the ends of revelation that it should be prevented. Set even among the later poets we have some striking examples of originality; and Hebrew poetry, taken as a whole, is original in the fullest sense of the word, borrowing nothing that we know of from any other nation. Not to anticipate the question of the age to which the book of Job belongs, and passing by some gems of poetry contained in the book of Genesis, we may say that the oldest recorded song of certain date which the world possesses is that of the Israelites upon their deliverance at the Red sea. Exod., ch. 15. Next in order (to pass by the poetic effusions of Balaam, and some other fragments, Numb., chaps. 21-24) come the song which Moses wrote for the children of Israel just before his death (Deut., ch. 32), and (according to the title, the genuineness of which there is no valid reason for doubting) "the prayer of Moses the man of God," contained in the ninetieth psalm. In the period of the judges we have only the song of Deborah and Barak. The perfect originality of all these primitive songs is acknowledged by all. It constitutes indeed one of their chief charms. With "the sweet psalmist of Israel" began the era of lyric song; with Solomon that of didactic, and with Hosea, Joel, Isaiah, and their contemporaries, that of prophetic poetry. The poets to whom, under the illumination of the Holy Ghost, these different forms of Hebrew poetry owe their origin, are all distinguished for their originality. So is also the book of Job, that great didactic song so perfectly unique in its character.

The wonderful freshness and simplicity of thought in Hebrew poetry is inseparably connected with its originality. A thought is fresh when it bursts forth directly from the inner fountain of the soul just as it was conceived there. But the moment the man pauses to remould it and shape it to some artificial standard of propriety, it loses its originality and its freshness together. It is no longer the living, glowing conception as it existed in his bosom, but rather what he thinks it ought to have been. In the process of working it over he has killed, if not its life, at least its power. But the Hebrew poet opens, so to speak, the floodgates of his heart, and pours forth the stream of his thoughts and emotions just as they have sprung into being there. Because he is under the sanctifying and illuminating influence of the divine Spirit, they are high and holy thoughts. Because they come forth in their primitive form, they are natural and fresh; and for this reason the lapse of ages does not diminish their power over the human spirit.

Intimately connected also with the originality of Hebrew poetry is its charming variety. The Hebrew poets are exceedingly unlike each other in native character, in training, in surrounding circumstances, and in the nature of the work laid upon them by the Spirit of inspiration. And as they all write in a natural and appropriate way, it follows that their writings must exhibit great diversities. No two writers can well be more unlike each other than Isaiah and the author of the book of Job. With Isaiah the central object of thought is always Zion, in whose interest he sees God governing the world, and whose future glory is revealed to him in prophetic vision. But Zion is not an individual. She is a divine organization which God has destined to universal victory, and around which revolve, under his almighty guidance, the great movements of the heathen nations. The prophet, accordingly, has to do not so much with particular persons, as with the destiny of society, which is involved in that of Zion. He describes her present conflicts and her future triumphs in his own peculiar and gorgeous imagery. But the problem before the author of the book of Job is God's providence towards individuals, as viewed from the position of the Old Testament before the fuller revelations of the New. He is occupied with the destiny of particular persons, rather than of nations or of human society at large. To the solution of the question of God's justice towards individual man he directs all his energy, and he discusses this great theme in a manner as effective as it is original. His imagery is as forcible as that of Isaiah, but how different, and how powerfully adapted to his end! A few passages from each of these great poets, set side by side, will exhibit the contrast between them in a striking manner.

JOB. ISAIAH

THE PROSPERITY OF THE RIGHTEOUS. THE PROSPERITY OF ZION.

He shall deliver thee in six Violence shall no more be heard in troubles: yea, in seven there shall thy land, wasting nor destruction no evil touch thee. In famine he within thy borders, but thou shalt shall redeem thee from death: and call thy walls Salvation, and thy in war from the power of the sword. gates Praise. The sun shall be no Thou shalt be hid from the scourge more thy light by day; neither for of the tongue: neither shalt thou brightness shall the moon give be afraid of destruction when it light unto thee; but the Lord shall cometh. At destruction and famine be unto thee an everlasting light, thou shalt laugh: neither shalt and thy God thy glory. Thy sun thou be afraid of the beasts of the shall no more go down; neither earth. For thou shalt be in league shall thy moon withdraw itself; for with the stones of the field: and the Lord shall be thine everlasting the beasts of the field shall be at light, and the days of thy mourning peace with thee. And thou shalt shall be ended. Thy people also know that thy tabernacle shall be shall be all righteous: they shall in peace; and thou shalt visit thy inherit the land forever, the habitation, and shalt not sin. Thou branch of my planting, the work of shalt know also that thy seed shall my hands, that I may be glorified. be great, and thine offspring as A little one shall become a the grass of the earth. Thou shalt thousand, and a small one a strong come to thy grave in a full age, nation: I the Lord will hasten it like as a shock of corn cometh in in his time. Ch. 60:18-22. in his season. Ch. 5:19-26.

JOB. ISAIAH.

THE OVERTHROW OF THE WICKED. THE OVERTHROW OF ZION'S ENEMIES.

He shall flee from the iron weapon, For he bringeth down them that and the bow of steel shall strike dwell on high; the lofty city, he him through. It is drawn, and layeth it low; he layeth it low, cometh out of the body; yea, the even to the ground; he bringeth it glittering sword cometh out of his: even to the dust. The foot shall gall: terrors are upon him. All tread it down, even the feet of the darkness shall be hid in his secret poor, and the steps of the needy. places: a fire not blown shall Ch. 26:5, 6. For I will contend consume him; it shall go ill with with him that contendeth with thee, him that is left in his tabernacle. and I will save thy children. And The heaven shall reveal his I will feed them that oppress thee iniquity; and the earth shall rise with their own flesh; and they up against him. The increase of shall be drunken with their own his house shall depart, and his blood, as with sweet wine: and all goods shall flow away in the day of flesh shall know that I the Lord his wrath. Ch. 20:24-28. am thy Savious and thy Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. Ch. 49:25, 26

If now we open the book of Psalms, we find ourselves in a new world of poetry, as different from that of Isaiah as it is from that of the book of Job. David was anointed by God to be the head and leader of Israel. As such he had a perpetual outward conflict with powerful, crafty, and malicious foes, who sought his life and his kingdom. This brought to him a perpetual inward conflict with doubts and fears. Under the pressure of this double conflict he penned those wonderful psalms, which are the embodiment of his whole religious life. And since heart answers to heart, as face to face in water, they are the embodiment of religious life in all ages. The songs of David and his illustrious collaborators, Asaph and the sons of Korah, are emphatically the poetry of religious experience. As such they can never grow old. They are as fresh to-day as when they were written. God has given them to his church as a rich treasury for "the service of song in the house of the Lord," in the family, and in the closet. If we turn from the book of Psalms to the book of Proverbs, we have still another type of poetry, unlike any one of the forms hitherto considered. It is the poetry of reflection on the course of human life, as seen in the light of God's law and God's providence. It is, therefore, didactic in the highest sense of the word--the poetry of practical life. The maxims of heavenly wisdom embodied in the book of Proverbs will make all who study them, believe them, and obey them, prosperous in this life and happy in the life to come. This contrast between the great Hebrew poets might be carried through the whole galaxy, but the above hints must suffice.

Diversity of themes often coincides with difference in the character of the poets. Where the theme is the same, each writer will still pursue his own peculiar method. If that theme be the vengeance of God on the wicked, the style will naturally be rugged and abrupt. Yet the ruggedness and abruptness of David will not be that of Hosea or Nahum. But where both the theme and the character of the poet differ, there the diversity of style becomes very striking. To illustrate this, take the two following passages:

DAVID. NAHUM

GOD'S FAVOR TO THE RIGHTEOUS. GOD'S VENGEANCE ON THE WICKED

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall The mountains quake at him, and not want. He maketh me to lie the hills mels, and the hearth is down in green pastures: he leadeth burned at his presence, yea, the me beside the still waters. He world, and all that dwell therein. restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in Who can stand before his the paths of righteousness for his indignation? and who can abide in name's sake. Yea, though I walk the fierceness of his anger? his through the valley of the shadow of fury is poured out like fire, and death, I will fear no evil: for the rocks are thrown down by him. thou art with me; thy rod and thy The Lord is good, a strong hold in staff they comfort me. Thou the day of trouble; and he knoweth preparest a table before me in the them that trust in him. But with presence of mine enemies: thou an overrunning flood he will make anointest my head with oil; my cup. an utter end of the place thereof, runneth over. Surely goodness and and darkness shall pursue his mercy shall follow me all the days enemies. Nahum 1:5-8 of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Psa. 23.

The passage from Nahum is like a pent-up mountain stream leaping from precipice to precipice. The psalm is like the same stream escaped to the plain, and winding its way gently and placidly through green meadows and shady groves vocal with the songs of birds. This subject might be pursued to an indefinite extent. Suffice it to say that Hebrew poetry has the charm of endless variety, always with graceful adaptation to the nature of the theme.

The oriental imagery in which Hebrew poetry abounds imparts to it a peculiar and striking costume. Palestine was, in an emphatic sense, the Hebrew poet's world. It was the land given by God to his fathers for an everlasting possession; about which all his warm affections clustered; with whose peculiar scenery and climate, employments and associations, all his thoughts and feelings had been blended from childhood. It followed of necessity that these must all wear an oriental costume. As soon as he opens his mouth there comes forth a stream of eastern imagery, very natural and appropriate to him, but much of it very strange to us of these western regions. To understand the extent of this characteristic one has only to peruse the Song of Solomon. The bride is black but comely as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. She is a dove in the clefts of the rock; her hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from Mount Gilead; her teeth are like a flock of sheep which come from the washing; her lips are like a thread of scarlet; her temples are like a piece of a pomegranate; her stature is like a palm tree, and her breasts like clusters of grapes--all thoroughly oriental. So also the bridegroom is like a roe or a young hart leaping upon the mountains; his eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters; his cheeks are as a bed of spices; his lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh, and his countenance as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. So also if we open the book of Isaiah, we find the Messiah described as "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land"--a figure which could not well occur to an Englishman or an American, but was perfectly natural in the mouth of a Hebrew familiar with the terrible sun of the Asiatic deserts, where neither tree nor cloud offers a shelter to the thirsty and fainting traveller. Precisely here lies much of the obscurity of which the expounders of Hebrew poetry complain. True, there are other difficulties of a formidable character. The theme is often vast, stretching into the distant and dimly-revealed future; the language rugged with abrupt transitions, the historic allusions obscure, and the meaning of the terms employed doubtful. But aside from all these considerations the western scholar encounters a perpetual difficulty in the fact that he is not of oriental birth, and can enter but imperfectly into the spirit and force of oriental imagery. What costs him days of laborious investigation would open itself like a flash of lightning to his apprehension--all except that which remains dark from the nature of the prophetic themes--could he but have that perfect apprehension of the language, the historic allusions, the imagery employed, and the modes of thought, which was possessed by the contemporaries of the Hebrew poet.

It remains that we notice in the last place what may be called the theocratic imagery of the Hebrew poets; that is, imagery borrowed from the institutions of the Mosaic law. The intense loyalty of the Hebrew poets to the Mosaic law has already been noticed. They were its divinely-appointed expositors and defenders, and their whole religious life was moulded by it. No wonder, then, that their writings abound with allusions to its rites and usages. The sweet psalmist of Israel will abide in God's tabernacle for ever, and trust in the covert of his wings, the literal tabernacle on Zion representing God's spiritual presence here and his beatific presence hereafter (Psa. 61:4 and elsewhere); he will have his prayer set forth before God as incense, and the lifting up of his hands as the evening sacrifice (Psa. 141:2); he will be purged with hyssop that he may be clean, and washed that he may be whiter than snow (Psa. 51: 7); he will offer to God the sacrifice of a broken spirit (Psa. 51:17); the people promise to render to God the calves of their lips (Hosea 14:2); the vengeance of God upon Edom is described as "a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea," in which the Lord's sword shall be filled with the blood of lambs and goats and the fat of the kidneys of rams (Isa. 34: 6); with allusions to the Levitical sprinklings God promises that he will sprinkle upon his penitent and restored people clean water that they may be clean (Ezek. 36: 25); and with allusion to the sacrificial flocks assembled at Jerusalem on the occasion of her great festivals, that he will increase them with men like a flock--"as the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men" (Ezek. 36:37, 38). How full the book of Psalms is of allusions to the solemn songs of the sanctuary with their accompaniment of psaltery and harp, trumpet and cornet, every reader understands. This subject might be expanded indefinitely, but the above hints must suffice.

3. We come now to the form of Hebrew poetry. This is distinguished from the classic poetry of Greece and Rome, as well as from all modern poetry by the absence of metrical feet. Its rhythm is that of clauses which correspond to each other in a sort of free parallelism, as was long ago shown by Bishop Lowth in his Prelections on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews, the matter of which has been revised and expanded in later treatises. Herein, as elsewhere, Hebrew poetry asserts its originality and independence. Biblical scholars recognize three fundamental forms of parallelism in Hebrew poetry, which will be briefly considered, first separately, and then in their combinations.

The first is the antithetic form, where two parallel members are contrasted in meaning, a form peculiarly adapted to didactic poetry, and therefore occurring most abundantly in the book of Proverbs. The following are examples of it:

The memory of the just is blessed: But the name of the wicked shall rot (Prov. 10:7);

where, in the original Hebrew, each clause consists of three words. In such an antithetic parallelism the words of one couplet, at least, must correspond in meaning, as here memory and name; while the others are in contrast--just and wicked, is blessed and shall rot. Sometimes the two clauses are to be mutually supplied from each other, thus:

A wise son maketh a glad father: But a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother (Prov. 10:1);

where the reader understands that a wise son is the joy, and a foolish son the grief of both father and mother.

The second form is the synonymous, where the same general thought is repeated in two or more clauses. It is found abundantly in the whole range of Hebrew poetry, but is peculiarly adapted to that which is of a placid and contemplative character. Sometimes the parallel clauses simply repeat the same thought in different words; in other cases there is only a general resemblance. Examples are the following:

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: The Lord shall have them in derision. Psa. 2:4.

For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous: With favor wilt thou compass him as with a shield. Psa. 5:12.

Perish the day wherein I was born; And the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. Job 3:3.

Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom: Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. Isa. 1:10.

In the following example we have a compound synonymous couplet:

Give them according to their deeds, According to the wickedness of their endeavors: Give them after the work of their hands, Render to them their desert. Psa. 28:4

Sometimes three or more parallel clauses occur, thus:

When your fear cometh as desolation, And your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; When distress and anguish cometh upon you. Prov. 1:27.

Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies; Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; Thy youth is renewed like the eagle's. Psa. 103:3-5.

In the preceding example, synonymous parallelism passes into simple enumeration. So often with a succession of short clauses, or shorter and longer clauses, where the poetry of the Hebrews assumes the freedom of prose, thus:

Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath babbling? Who hath wounds without cause? Who hath redness of eyes? Prov. 23:39.

A sinful nation; A people laden with iniquity; A seed of evil-doers; Corrupt children: They have forsaken the Lord; They have despised the Holy One of Israel; They have gone away backward. Isa. 1:4.

The parallel clauses are frequently introduced or followed by a single clause, thus:

Blessed is the man Who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly; And standeth not in the way of sinners; And sitteth not in the seat of scorners. Psa. 1:1.

Hear, O heavens; Give ear, O earth; For the Lord hath spoken. Isa. 1:2.

The third form of parallelism is called synthetic (Greek synthesis, a putting together), where one clause is necessary to complete the sense of the other, as in the following examples:

Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, Than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. Prov. 15:16.

Every way of a man is right in his own eyes; But the Lord pondereth the hearts. Prov. 21:2.

Whoso curseth his father and his mother, His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. Prov. 20:20.

The connection between the two clauses may be that of comparison, cause, effect, etc. Sometimes it is not expressed, but simply implied, as in the following:

A whip for the horse, A bridle for the ass, And a rod for the fool's back. Prov. 26:3.

The combinations of the above forms in Hebrew poetry are exceedingly varied and graceful. Here are examples of two synonymous couplets that are antithetic to each other:

The ox knoweth his owner, And the ass his master's crib: Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider. Isa. 1:3.

The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to naught; He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever; The thoughts of his heart to all generations. Psa. 33:10, 11.

In the following example, two synonymous couplets constitute together a synthetic parallelism:

Because they regard not the works of the Lord, Nor the operation of his hands, He shall destroy them, And not build them up. Psa. 28:5.

In the following, three synthetic parallelisms make a synonymous triplet:

For as the heaven is high above the earth, So great is his mercy toward them that fear him: As far as the east is from the west, So far hath he removed our transgressions from us: Like as a father pitieth his children, So the Lord pitieth them that fear him. Psa. 103:11-13.

But our limits will not allow us to pursue this subject farther. The freedom of the Hebrew poet is one of his high prerogatives. He is not a slave to form, but uses form as it suits his purposes. He blends together the different kinds of parallelism as he pleases. Often he breaks through all parallelism to the freedom of prose. But he soon returns again, because this measured rhythm of clauses is to him the natural costume of poetic thought, which always seeks to embody itself in some form of rhythm.

To the form of Hebrew poetry belongs also its peculiar diction. To one who reads the Hebrew poets in the original, this is a striking characteristic. He meets with words, and sometimes with grammatical forms, that do not occur in the prose writers. Many of these peculiar words are Aramean; that is, they are words current in the Aramean branch of the Shemitic languages. Chap. 14, No. 1. They are to be regarded as archaisms--old words that were once common alike to the Hebrew and the kindred Aramean, but which have been dropped out of prose usage in Hebrew. They must not be confounded, as has too often been done, with true Aramaisms, that is, Aramean words and forms borrowed by later Hebrew writers from their intercourse with those who spoke Aramean.

4. As it respects the office of Hebrew poetry, it is throughout subservient to the interests of revealed religion. This is implied in what has been already said of the loyalty of the Hebrew poets to the institutions of the Theocracy. It follows that the poetry of the Bible is all sacred in its character. It contains no examples of purely secular poetry except here and there a short passage which comes in as a part of history; for example, the words of "those that speak in proverbs," Numb. 21:27-30; perhaps also the lament of David over Saul and Jonathan. 2 Sam. 1:19-27. It is certain that the song contained in the forty-fifth psalm and that of the Canticles were received into the canon solely on the ground that they celebrate the mutual love between God and the covenant people, considered as his bride; or, in New Testament language, between Christ and "the bride, the Lamb's wife."

But sacred poetry has various uses. One of its earliest offices was to celebrate the praises of God for his interposition in behalf of his covenant people, as in the song of the Israelites at the Red sea, and that of Deborah and Barak. But when David was raised to the throne of Israel, the time had now come for introducing lyric poetry as a permanent part of the sanctuary service. God accordingly bestowed upon this monarch the needful inward gifts, and placed him in the appropriate outward circumstances; when at once there gushed forth from his bosom, smit by the spirit of inspiration, that noble stream of lyric song, which the congregation of the faithful immediately consecrated to the public service of the sanctuary, and which, augmented by the contributions of Asaph, the sons of Korah, and other inspired poets, has been the rich inheritance of the church ever since. In the book of Job, sacred poetry occupies itself with the mighty problem of the justice of God's providential government over men. It is, therefore, essentially didactic in its character. In the Proverbs of Solomon, it becomes didactic in the fullest sense; for here it moves in the sphere of practical life and morals. The book of Ecclesiastes has for its theme the vanity of this world, considered as a satisfying portion of the soul; and this it discusses in a poetic form. Finally, the prophets of the Old Testament exhaust all the wealth of Hebrew poetry in rebuking the sins of the present time, foretelling the mighty judgments of God upon the wicked, lamenting the present sorrows of Zion, and portraying her future glories in connection with the advent of the promised Messiah. The Hebrew harp--whoever sweeps it, and whether its strains be jubilant or sad, didactic or emotional, is ever consecrated to God and the cause of righteousness.

(B.) THE SEVERAL POETICAL BOOKS.

I. JOB.

5. The design of the book of Job will best appear if we first take a brief survey of its plan. Job, a man eminent above all others for his piety and uprightness, is accused by Satan as serving God from mercenary motives. To show the falsehood of this charge, God permits Satan to take from the patriarch his property and his children, and afterwards to smite him with a loathsome and distressing disease. Thus stripped of every thing that could make life valuable, he still holds fast his integrity, and returns to his wife, who counsels him to "curse God and die," the discreet and pious answer: "Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil?" His three friends, who have come to comfort him, amazed and confounded at the greatness of his calamities, sit down with him in silence for seven days. At last Job opens his mouth with vehement expressions of grief and impatience, and curses the day of his birth. The three friends sharply rebuke him, and in a threefold round of addresses (only that the third time Zophar fails to speak), enter into an earnest controversy with him assuming the false ground that the administration of God's government over this world is strictly retributive, so that special calamity comes only as a punishment for special wickedness, and is therefore itself a proof of such wickedness. They accordingly exhort him to repent of his sins, and seek God's forgiveness, as the sure means of removing his present misfortunes. Conscious of his integrity, Job, with much warmth and asperity, repels their unjust charges, and refutes their false arguments by an appeal to facts. The ground he takes is that, by some inscrutable plan of God, calamity comes alike upon good and bad men. He passionately beseeches God to show him why he thus deals with him; and, according as faith or despondency prevails in his soul, he sometimes expresses the hope that he shall come out of his troubles like gold tried in the fire; and then, again, the fear that he shall speedily sink down to the grave under the weight of his sorrows, and nevermore see good. Having put to silence his three friends by an array of facts to which they can make no reply, he freely expresses the belief that the hypocrite's end shall be destruction (chap. 27); shows that the wisdom by which God governs the world is above man's comprehension, whose true wisdom lies in fearing and obeying his Maker (chap. 28); contrasts his present calamities with his former prosperity (chaps. 29, 30); and closes with a solemn protestation of his integrity (chap. 31).

Elihu, a young man who has hitherto been a silent witness of the controversy, now takes up the argument on the ground that trouble is sent by God upon men as a discipline, that by it they may be made aware of their errors and infirmities; and that, if they make a right improvement of it, by bearing it with patient submission and looking to God in penitence and prayer for its removal, it will end in renewed and higher prosperity. To show the unreasonableness of charging upon God injustice, he dwells at length upon his infinite majesty and greatness. The special ground of Job's trial, as given in the first two chapters, Elihu could not of course understand. But his general position in regard to human afflictions is right; and it should be carefully noticed that their issue as described by him in the case of a good man--an imperfectly good man under a system of grace--is precisely what happens to Job when he humbles himself before his Maker.

As Elihu's discourse was drawing towards a close, the signs of God's approach had already began to manifest themselves (chap. 37). Now he addresses Job out of the whirlwind, rebuking him for his presumptuous language, and setting before him His infinite perfections, manifested in the creation and government of the world, as a sufficient proof that to arraign His justice at the bar of human reason is folly and presumption. Job now humbles himself unconditionally before his Maker. Upon this God publicly justifies him to his three friends, while He condemns them, declaring that he has spoken of Him the thing which is right (42:8). This is to be understood as referring not to the spirit manifested by Job, which God had sharply rebuked, but rather to the ground taken by him in respect to God's dealings with men. By God's direction the three friends now offer sacrifices for their folly, which are accepted in answer to Job's prayer in their behalf, and his former prosperity is restored to him in double measure.

6. From the above sketch of the plan of the book its design is manifest. It unfolds the nature of God's providential government over men. It is not simply retributive, as the three friends had maintained, so that the measure of a man's outward sufferings is the measure of his sins; nor is it simply incomprehensible, so that there can be no reasoning about it; but it is disciplinary, in such a way that sorrow, though always the fruit of sin, comes upon good men as well as upon the wicked, being a fatherly chastisement intended for their benefit, and which, if properly improved, will in the end conduct them to a higher degree of holiness, and therefore of true prosperity and happiness. The three friends were right in maintaining God's justice; but with respect to the manner of its manifestation their error was fundamental. Job's view was right, but inadequate. A disciplinary government, administered over a world in which the wicked and the imperfectly good live together, must be incomprehensible as it respects the particular distribution of good and evil. Elihu was right in the main position, but he wanted authority. The question was settled by God's interposition not before the human discussion, nor without it, but after it; an interposition in which the three friends were condemned, Job approved, and the argument of Elihu left in its full force.

It has been the fashion with a certain class of critics to disparage Elihu as a self-conceited young man, and to deny the authenticity of his discourses. But thus the plan of the book is fatally broken, as must be evident from the account given of it above. It was not necessary that Elihu should be named in the prologue. It is enough that he is described when he takes a part in the argument. Why he is not named in the closing chapter has been already indicated. There was nothing in his argument to be censured. As to the attacks made on other parts of the book as not authentic, for example, what is said of Behemoth and Leviathan, they rest on no valid foundation. They are only judgments of modern critics as to how and what the author of the book before us ought to have written. The attempt to resolve into disconnected parts a book so perfect in its plan, and which has come down to us by the unanimous testimony of antiquity in its present form, is a most uncritical procedure.

7. Job plainly belonged to the patriarchal period. This appears from his longevity. He lived after his trial a hundred and forty years (42:16), and must have been then considerably advanced in life. This points to a period as early as that of Abraham. To the same conclusion we are brought by the fact that no form of idolatry is mentioned in the book, but only the worship of the heavenly bodies. The simplicity of the patriarchal age appears, moreover, in all its descriptions. But we need not from this infer that the book was written in the patriarchal age, for the author may have received from the past the facts which he records. The book is written in pure Hebrew, with all the freedom of an original work, and by one intimately acquainted with both Arabic and Egyptian scenery. Some have supposed Moses to be the author, but this is very uncertain. The prevailing opinion of the present day is that it was written not far from the age of Solomon.

8. There is no ground for denying that the book of Job has a foundation of true history. He is mentioned by Ezekiel with Noah and Daniel as a real person. Ezek. 14:14, 20. The apostle James also refers to the happy issue of his trials as a historic event calculated to encourage God's suffering children. Jas. 5:11. But we need not suppose that all the details of the book are historic. The inspired poet takes up the great facts of Job's history and the great arguments connected with them, and gives them in his own language; probably also, to a certain extent, according to his own arrangement. The scene of the first two chapters is laid in heaven. Undoubtedly they record a real transaction; but it may be a transaction revealed to the author in an allegorical form, like Micaiah's vision (1 Kings 22:19-22), that it might be thus made level to human apprehension.

II. THE PSALMS.

9. We have seen the office of the Book of Job in the system of divine revelation. Very different, but not less important, is that of the book of Psalms. It is a collection of sacred lyrics: that is, of poems expressive of religious feeling and adapted to the public worship of God. In respect to subjects, the Psalms exhibit a wonderful diversity. They cover the whole field of religious experience, and furnish to the churches an inexhaustible treasury of sacred song for all ages. Seventy-three of the psalms are ascribed to David in their titles, and the whole book, as referred to in the New Testament, bears his name. Of the remaining psalms, Asaph is named as the author of twelve; to the sons of Korah eleven are ascribed; to Solomon two (Psalms 72 and 127); to Moses one (Psalm 90); to Ethan one (Psalm 89). The remaining fifty are anonymous. Of these, some appear from their contents to have been written as late as the era of the captivity and restoration. Some writers have referred certain psalms to the Maccabean age. But there is nothing in the contents of these psalms which makes such a reference necessary, and we have decisive evidence that the Hebrew canon was closed long before this period. See below, Chap. 22, No. 21.

10. In regard to the external arrangement of the Psalms, which is generally ascribed to Ezra, and cannot be earlier than his day, they are divided in the Hebrew Bible into five books, each closing with a doxology except the last, to which, as well as to the whole collection, the final psalm serves as a doxology.

The first book contains Psalms 1-41. Of these forty-one psalms, thirty-seven bear the name of David. Of the remaining four, the second and tenth undoubtedly belong to him, and in all probability the first and thirty-third also. The psalms of this book are remarkable for the predominance of the name Jehovah over Elohim, God.

The second book includes Psalms 42-72. Of these, eighteen bear the name of David; the first eight (including Psa. 43, which is manifestly connected with the preceding psalm) are ascribed to the sons of Korah; one to Asaph (Psa. 50); one to Solomon (Psa. 72); and the remaining three are without titles. In this book the divine name Elohim, God, greatly predominates over the name Jehovah.

The third book includes Psalms 73-89, seventeen in all. Of these, the first eleven are ascribed to Asaph; four to the sons of Korah; one to David (Psa. 86); and one to Ethan the Ezrahite (Psa. 89). In the psalms of Asaph the divine name Elohim, God, predominates; in the remainder of the book the name Jehovah.

The fourth book includes Psalms 90-106. Of these seventeen psalms, only three bear titles; the ninetieth being referred to Moses, the hundred and first and hundred and third to David. This book is therefore emphatically one of anonymous psalms, which are for the most part of a very general character, being evidently arranged with reference to the service of song in the sanctuary. Throughout this book the divine name Jehovah prevails; the name Elohim, God, being rarely used except in connection with a pronoun or some epithet--my God, God of Jacob, etc.

The fifth book contains the remaining forty-four psalms. Of these, fifteen are ascribed to David; one to Solomon (Psa. 127); and twenty-eight are anonymous. In this book also the divine name Jehovah prevails almost exclusively.

It is probable that these five books were arranged not simultaneously but successively, with considerable intervals between some of them. The subscription appended to the second book: "The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended," may possibly be explained, upon this supposition. It may have been added as a subscription to the first two books, before the others were arranged for the temple service.

Although the psalms belonging to the respective books are not classified upon any strict principle, yet their arrangement is not altogether fortuitous. We find psalms with the same title grouped together--eleven psalms of Asaph. (73-83); eight of the sons of Korah (42-49); eight of David (139-145 separated from his other psalms); three psalms inscribed Al-taschith (57-59); the fifteen songs of degrees (120-134), etc. Also we find psalms of similar contents grouped together--Psa. 79, 80; 88, 89; 91-100; 105-107; etc.

Various attempts have been made to classify the psalms according to their subjects. But their very richness and variety makes this a very difficult undertaking. They cover the whole field of religious experience for both individual believers and the church at large. Many of them--the so-called Messianic psalms--are prophetic of the Saviour's offices and work. We need not wonder, therefore, that the Psalms are quoted in the New Testament oftener than any other book of the Old Testament, Isaiah not excepted.

11. Besides the names of the authors, or the occasion of their composition, many of the psalms bear other inscriptions. Of these the principal are the following:

(1.) The dedicatory title: To the chief musician, prefixed to fifty-three psalms, signifies that the psalm is assigned to him, as the leader of the choir at the tabernacle or temple, to be used in the public worship of God. The title rendered in our version: For the sons of Korah, is better translated, as in the margin: Of the sons of Korah; that is, written by one of their number.

(2.) Titles expressing the character of the composition. Here we have, as the most common and general, Psalm, a lyric poem to be sung; Song, a title borne by sixteen psalms, generally in connection with the word psalm, where the rendering should be: a psalm, a song; or, a song, a psalm. All the psalms thus designated except two (Psa. 83, 88) are of a joyous character, that is, songs of praise; Song of degrees, a title the meaning of which is disputed. Many render: A song of ascents, and suppose that the fifteen psalms which bear this title (120-134) were so called because they were arranged to be sung on the occasion of the ascent of the people to Jerusalem to keep the yearly festivals. For other explanations, the reader is referred to the commentaries. The titles: Prayer (Psa. 17, 90, 102, 142), and Praise (Psa. 145) need no explanation. Besides these titles, there are several others left untranslated in our version, as: Maschil, teaching, that is, a didactic psalm; Michtam (Psa. 16, 56-60) either a writing, that is, poem, or a golden psalm.

(3.) Titles relating to the musical performance. Of these, the most common is the much disputed word Selah. It is generally agreed that it signifies a rest, either in singing for the purpose of an instrumental interlude, or an entire rest in the performance. As a general rule, this title closes a division of a psalm. Of the titles supposed to indicate either musical instruments or modes of musical performance, the following are examples: Neginath (Psa. 61), elsewhere Neginoth, stringed instruments; Nehiloth, probably flutes (Psa. 5); Gittith (Psa. 8, 81, 84), from the word Gath, which denotes a Philistine city, and also a wine-press. Gittith has been accordingly interpreted to mean (1) a musical instrument or a melody brought from Gath; (2) a musical instrument in the form of a winepress, or a melody used in treading the wine-press; Shoshannim, lilies (Psa. 45, 69); Shushan-eduth, lily of the testimony (Psa. 60); Shoshannim-eduth, lilies of the testimony (Psa. 80), either a musical instrument so named from its shape, or a particular melody, or, as some think, an emblematic term referring to the contents of the psalm; Sheminith, the eighth, or octave, perhaps a musical key (Psa. 6, 12); Alamoth, virgins, probably denoting treble voices (Psa. 46); Al-taschith, destroy not (Psa. 57, 58, 59, 75), according to some, the name of an air taken from a well-known poem; according to others, an indication of the contents of the psalm. For other titles, occurring but once or twice, the reader must be referred to the commentaries.

Whether the titles constitute a part of the psalms; that is, whether they were prefixed by the writers themselves, is a question that has been much debated, and answered differently by different writers. That they are very ancient--so ancient that the meaning of the terms employed had passed into oblivion when the Alexandrine version was made--must be admitted. But it would be too much to affirm that they are a part of the inspired word. The correctness of some of them is doubtful. If we admit their general correctness, reserving for critical investigation the question of the historical validity of particular titles, it is as far as we need go.

III. THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.

12. The place of the book of Proverbs in the system of divine revelation is obvious at first sight. It contains a complete code of practical rules for the regulation of life--rules that have a divine breadth and fulness, and can make men wise not for time alone, but also for eternity. The principles embodied in them admit of endlessly varied applications, so that the study of a life cannot exhaust them. The more they are pondered, and prayed over, and reduced to practice, the more are their hidden treasures of wisdom brought to light. Solomon lived himself in the sphere of practical life. He had constantly to deal with men of all classes, and he knew men and the course of human events most thoroughly. His maxims are therefore adapted to the actual world, not to some imaginary state of things; and they contain those broad principles of action which meet the wants of all men in all circumstances and conditions of life. Whoever gives himself, in the fear of God, to the study of these proverbs, and conforms his life to the principles which they set forth, will be a truly happy and prosperous man. Whoever shapes his conduct by different principles will be compelled in the end to acknowledge his folly. To the young, for whose instruction they were especially intended, they are affectionately commended as their manual of action.

13. In respect to outward form, the book of Proverbs naturally falls into four parts. Of these, the first nine chapters, consisting of earnest and fatherly exhortations addressed to the young in a series of discourses, of which the parts are more or less connected with each other, constitute the first part. The title prefixed to this part, giving both the author's name and the end which he proposes (1:1-6) refers perhaps to the book considered as a whole. The second part, introduced by the title: "The proverbs of Solomon," extends to the end of the twenty-fourth chapter. Of this, the first section (chaps. 10-22:16) consists of proverbs properly so called, each verse constituting a separate maxim of heavenly wisdom for the regulation of the heart and life. Between the different verses there is either no connection, or one of a slight and casual character, consisting frequently in the common occurrence of the same word. In the remaining section (chap. 22:17-24:34) the method of exhortation in discourse more or less connected is resumed. To the third part (chaps. 25-29) is prefixed the superscription: "These are also the proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah copied out." The proverbs of this part are, in general, expressed in detached maxims, as in the first section of the second part; but occasionally there is a connection between adjacent verses. There is also an effort to bring together related proverbs, as those concerning rulers (25:1-8); concerning fools (26:1-12); concerning sluggards (26:13-16); concerning busybodies and tale-bearers (chap. 26:17-28). In this part also a number of proverbs are repeated that have occurred elsewhere. Finally, the fourth part, which may be considered as a sort of appendix, contains the words of Agur (chap. 30), and of King Lemuel (chap. 31).

According to the most natural interpretation of the words prefixed to chap. 24:23--"these [maxims] also belong to the wise"--the verses that follow to the end of the chapter contain also a short appendix of proverbs not belonging to Solomon.

14. From the above it is manifest that the book of Proverbs was arranged in its present form as late, at least, as the days of Hezekiah. It contains not the whole of the three thousand proverbs which Solomon spake (1 Kings 4:32), but only selections from them, such as the wisdom of God judged needful for the edification of his people. Whether the proverbs contained in the first and second parts were arranged in their present form by Solomon himself or by some other person, we do not know; but that all the proverbs of the book belong to him as their author, except those which are expressly ascribed to others, there is no valid reason for doubting.

IV. ECCLESIASTES.

15. The Hebrew name of this book is Koheleth, respecting the meaning of which there has been much discussion. The Alexandrine rendering of this word, Ecclesiastes, one who gathers or addresses an assembly, and the English rendering, Preacher, express for substance its probable meaning; or rather, since the form of the word is feminine, it is Wisdom as a preacher, Solomon being regarded as her impersonation. The uniform belief of the ancient church was that Solomon wrote this book in his old age, when brought to repentance for the idolatrous practices into which his heathen wives had seduced him. He had thoroughly tried the world in all its forms of honor, wealth, pleasure, and the pursuit of wisdom--speculative wisdom--and found it only "vanity and vexation of spirit," when sought as the supreme good. The conclusion to which he comes is that in such an empty and unsatisfying world, where disappointment and trouble cannot be avoided, the cheerful enjoyment of God's present gifts is the part of wisdom, for thus we make the best of things as we find them. But this enjoyment must be in the fear of God, who will bring all our works into judgment; and accompanied, moreover, by deeds of love and charity, as we have opportunity. He explicitly asserts a judgment to come; yet his general view of life is that expressed in the Saviour's words: "The night cometh, when no man can work;" words which imply that God's earthly service, as well as the enjoyment of his earthly gifts, will come to a close at death. This view of the Preacher is not a denial of the future life, as some have wrongly maintained, but implies rather a less full revelation of it than is given in the New Testament.

Many evangelical men, as Hengstenberg, Keil, and others, interpret the first verse of this book as meaning not that Solomon was himself the author, or that the writer meant to pass himself off as Solomon, but simply that he wrote in Solomon's name, as assuming his character; that monarch being to the ancient Hebrews the impersonation of wisdom. Their reasons for this view are chiefly two: First, that the state of things described in the book of Ecclesiastes does not suit Solomon's age, the picture being too dark and sombre for his reign; secondly, that the language differs widely from that of the book of Proverbs and of the Canticles. Whether we adopt this view, or that above given, the canonical authority of the book of Ecclesiastes remains as a well-established fact. It always held a place in the Hebrew canon, and existed there in its present form in the days of Christ and his apostles.

16. The following summary of the Preacher's argument is condensed from Scott. He had evidently two objects in view. First, to show where happiness could not be found; and secondly, where it might. The first six chapters are principally employed on the former part of the argument, yet with counsels interspersed tending to show how the vanity, or at least the vexation of earthly pursuits may be abated. The remaining six chapters gradually unfold the latter part of the argument, teaching us how to make the best of things as we find them, how to live comfortably and usefully in this evil world, and how to derive benefit from the changing events of life. In respect to outward things, the sacred writer inculcates a cheerful, liberal, and charitable use of them, without expecting from them permanent or satisfying delight. He counsels us to take the transient pleasure which agreeable circumstances can afford, as far as consists with the fear of God; to be patient under unavoidable evil; not to aim at impracticable results; to fill up our allotted station in a peaceable, equitable, and prudent manner; to be contented, meek, and affectionate; and to do good abundantly as we have opportunity, in the expectation of a gracious reward. These general rules are interspersed with warnings and counsels to princes and great men, and to subjects in respect to their rulers.

V. THE SONG OF SOLOMON.

17. The title of this book: The Song of songs, that is, the most excellent of songs, indicates its application to the heavenly Solomon, and his spouse the church. So the Jews from the most ancient times have interpreted it. Looking at this song from the position of the Old Testament, its ground-idea is: "Thy Maker is thy husband." Identical with this is the New Testament idea: "The bride, the Lamb's wife." The germ of this representation exists in the Pentateuch, where idolatry is regarded as spiritual adultery. Exod. 34:15; Deut. 31:16. We find it fully developed in the forty-fifth Psalm, which probably belongs to Solomon's age, and which is expressly quoted in the epistle to the Hebrews as a description of the Messiah. The same figure occurs in many passages of the prophets who lived after Solomon's day. Isa. 54:5; 62:5; Jer. 2:2; 3:14; Hos. 2:16, 19, 20. In the book of Revelation this imagery is repeated and amplified.

18. This song is not a dramatic representation, in which the action steadily advances to the end, but a series of descriptive pictures, the great theme of which is the separation of the bride from her beloved--the heavenly Bridegroom--for her sins, and her reunion with him by repentance. In the spiritual application of its rich and gorgeous imagery we should confine ourselves to the main scope, rather than dwell on particulars. Thus the fruitfulness of the church is set forth under the image of a garden filled with spices and precious fruits. But we are not to seek for a hidden meaning in each particular spice or fruit--the saffron, the spikenard, the myrrh, the pomegranate, the apple, the nut; and the same is true with respect to the descriptions of the bride and bridegroom with which the book abounds.

The book has always constituted a part of the Hebrew canon.

The language of this book is pure and elegant, with all the freshness and energy of the best age of Hebrew poetry. Its most striking peculiarity is the uniform use (except once in the title) of the abbreviated form of the relative pronoun as a prefix--shekkullam for asher kullam; shehammelek for asher hammelek, etc.--which is manifestly a dialectic peculiarity of the living Hebrew adopted by Solomon for the purpose of giving to his song a unique costume.

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