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OLD TESTAMENT LIFE 
 AND LITERATURE 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
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 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
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 MELBOURNE 
 
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 TORONTO 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2019 with funding from 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 https://archive.org/details/oldtestamentlifeOOmatt 
 
OLD TESTAMENT LIFE 
 AND LITERATURE 
 
 I. G. MATTHEWS 
 
 PBOFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT UTERATITRE AND EXEGESIS, 
 CROZEE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 
 jSeSn gotfi 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1923 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
FEINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 Copyright, 1923, 
 
 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1923. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Preface . xiii 
 
 I. Ancient Civilization . 1 
 
 Earlier than Hebrew people or 0. T. 
 writers; Babylonia and Egypt attained 
 high development before 2000 b.c. 
 
 Palestine settled in prehistoric times; 
 Amorit© migrations followed later. In¬ 
 fluence of Babylonia, Egypt and Hittites; 
 the Habiri. 
 
 II. Geography of Palestine .11 
 
 The maritime plain; Shephelah; high¬ 
 lands; east-Jordan; influences, geographic 
 and international. 
 
 III. Ancient Literary Methods .15 
 
 (A) General facts; Literature is world¬ 
 
 wide, preceded by development of 
 language and civilization, the prod¬ 
 uct of civilization, the scribe the 
 result of the demand for a record. 
 
 (B) The Old Testament; like all litera¬ 
 
 ture it has suffered from translation, 
 transcription, and interpolation. 
 
 (C) Sources for history of Israel. 
 
 1. Theory of Mosaic authorship of 
 
 Pentateuch, etc., difficulties. 
 Biblical claims. 
 
 2. The modern theory of origin of 
 
 historical literature. Material, 
 
 V 
 
VI 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER ^ page 
 
 pre-Mosaic, Mosaic, hero sto¬ 
 ries, J. and E. documents, their 
 union; Deuteronomic school; 
 Priestly school. 
 
 IV. The Patriarchs .33 
 
 Abraham, Jacob, Joseph; tribal tradi¬ 
 tions. 
 
 V. Egypt and the Exodus .37 
 
 Goshen; Egypt; Sinai; Oppression; Exo¬ 
 dus. 
 
 VI. Israel’s Experience in the Wilderness . 42 
 
 (A) Wilderness conditions; south, north, 
 
 population and life. 
 
 (B) Wilderness wanderings; journeyings, 
 
 covenant, Jethro. 
 
 (C) The struggle; physical difficulties, 
 
 war, food supply, organization, jus¬ 
 tice, religion. 
 
 (D) The achievement of Moses. 
 
 VII. Entrance into and Settlement in Canaan 59 
 
 (A) Preparation; south, north and east. 
 
 (B) Entrance; nucleus of the nation, 
 
 Jericho. 
 
 (C) Occupation; sources of history in 
 
 Joshua and Judges, analyses, con¬ 
 quest south, middle and north. 
 
 (D) Settlement; chronology, Canaanites, 
 
 eastern invaders, Philistines; devel¬ 
 opment in organization, industry, 
 morals and religion. 
 
 VIII. The Rise of the Monarchy .... 76 
 
 Literature analyzed. Eli and the Philis¬ 
 tines. Need of a king. Saul, victory over 
 Ammonites, crowned king; failure. The 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Vll 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XL 
 
 XII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 task; internal strife; death of Saul; 
 achievement. Progress, economic, social 
 and religious, prophecy; literature and art. 
 
 The United Kingdom under David ... 90 
 
 (A) The history of David; first appear¬ 
 
 ance, popularity, outlaw, natural 
 leader, crowned at Hebron, con¬ 
 quest of north, Jerusalem captured; 
 Philistines overthrown; kingdom 
 consolidated; rebellions of Absa¬ 
 lom, Shimei, Ephraim, Sheba, and 
 Adonijah quelled; the greatness of 
 David. 
 
 (B) The internal conditions; military, 
 
 government, cabinet, industry, 
 plague and famine, social, ethical, 
 and religious life; literature. 
 
 The United Kingdom under Solomon . . 108 
 
 Early executions; revolting nations; 
 growing commerce; international rela¬ 
 tions ; home policy; changing customs; 
 background; personal characteristics; 
 authorship of Proverbs. Song of Songs, 
 Ecclesiastes. Religious life. 
 
 The Divided Kingdom, First Period, 933- 
 887 . 120 
 
 (A) Analysis of literature; editorial re¬ 
 
 vision. 
 
 (B) Sketch of history; disruption, causes, 
 
 results, activities. 
 
 (C) National conditions; religious reac¬ 
 
 tion. Editor’s viewpoint. 
 
 The Divided Kingdom, Second Period, 887- 
 842 . 134 
 
 (A) Historical sketch; Omri, Ahab, Kar- 
 kar, Syria; economic growth. 
 
Vlll 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 (B) Religious influences, Canaan, Tyre, 
 
 Elijah, schools of the prophets, 
 Micaiah. 
 
 (C) Writing. 
 
 XIIL The Divided Kingdom, Third Period, 842- 
 740 . 
 
 (A) Historical sketch; revolution; trib¬ 
 
 ute to Assyria; raids by Syria; the 
 north gains strength, Judah a vassal. 
 
 (B) Internal conditions; economic, moral 
 
 and religious; ritual developed; 
 righteousness demanded by Amos 
 and Hosea; primitive ideas persist¬ 
 ing. 
 
 (C) Literature; civilization now demands 
 
 it; song books; J. document, analy¬ 
 sis of, and message; Elijah stories; 
 E. document, analysis of, and mes¬ 
 sage; Amos and Hosea. 
 
 XIV. The Last Days of Israel, 740-722 . . . 
 
 The Assyrian campaigns; the ^Ten 
 tribes”; the Samaritans. 
 
 XV. The Kingdom of Judah, Reigns of Ahaz 
 
 and Hezekiah, 735-686 . 
 
 (A) Historical sketch; Ahaz, at Damas¬ 
 
 cus; Hezekiah, rebellion and pun¬ 
 ishment; the Biblical narratives and 
 their interpretation. 
 
 (B) Internal conditions; social, economic, 
 
 ethical and religious. 
 
 (C) Literature; Psalms; Proverbs; Isaiah, 
 
 the book, its analysis and mes¬ 
 sage; Micah, the man, and his 
 message. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 143 
 
 161 
 
 166 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 IX 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XVI. The Kingdom of Judah, Manasseh to Jo- 
 
 siAH, 686-608 . 184 
 
 (A) The reigns of Manasseh and Amon. 
 
 Religious revolution; world-politics; 
 the Assyrian kings and their 
 achievements; a half-century of 
 prophetic silence. 
 
 (B) The reign of Josiah. The Scythians; 
 
 Pharaoh-Necho and the king’s 
 death. Zephaniah and Jeremiah. 
 The great reform and its chief fea¬ 
 tures, date and authorship of book 
 of the law; Jeremiah’s relation to it. 
 Union of J.E. Deuteronomic activ¬ 
 ity. Nahum. 
 
 XVII. The Last Days of Judah, 608-586 . . . 200 
 
 (A) The reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoi- 
 
 akim. The kings; Jeremiah and for¬ 
 mal religion; the fall of Assyria and 
 rise of Babylon. The new problem, 
 and the answer of Jeremiah and 
 Habakkuk; the first edition of Jere¬ 
 miah; Jehoiakim’s rebellion. 
 
 (B) The reigns of Jehoiakin and Zede- 
 
 kiah. Siege of city; Jeremiah’s 
 council; length of captivity; con¬ 
 spiracy of the king. Ezekiel in cap¬ 
 tivity. Revolt of Jerusalem; siege 
 and fall. Jeremiah, Gedaliah’s mur¬ 
 der and flight of princes. 
 
 (C) Reconstruction of the hope of Israel. 
 
 Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Fimdamen- 
 tal principles, religion a personal ex¬ 
 perience, the new covenant. Deu¬ 
 teronomic activity. Psalms and 
 Proverbs. 
 
X 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XVIII. The Period of the Exile, 586-539 . . . 218 
 
 (A) The early years of the exile. 
 
 Conditions in Palestine; immigra¬ 
 tion. Conditions in Egypt; colony 
 in Assuan. Colony in Babylonia. 
 Ezekiel, his early and later mes¬ 
 sages, the temple vision. Holiness 
 code, compared with Ezekiehs code. 
 Deuteronomic activity; Lamenta¬ 
 tions; Psalms. 
 
 (B) The closing years of the exile. 
 
 Conquests of Cyrus. Prophetic mes¬ 
 sages, additions to earlier books, 
 
 Isa. xl.-lv. 
 
 XIX. The Persian Period, 539-332 .... 244 
 
 (A) The opening decades under Persian 
 
 supremacy, 539-516. 
 
 Ezra-Nehemiah, the book a frag¬ 
 mentary compilation with uncertain 
 chronology. 
 
 Haggai and Zech. i-viii are first 
 sources for period. 
 
 History of Persia, Cyrus, Darius I. 
 
 The return, edict and result, Shesh- 
 bazzar, Zerubbabel. Second temple 
 built and dedicated; architecture. 
 Messianic hope; temple influence. 
 
 (B) The fifth century B.C. 
 
 History, Xerxes, Artaxerxes I, Da¬ 
 rius II and Artaxerxes II. 
 
 Nehemiah precedes Ezra, his re¬ 
 forms. Ezra and the law. 
 
 Contemporary literature. 
 
 Inner life of Jerusalem; Messianic 
 hope. 
 
 (C) The closing decades of Persian su¬ 
 
 premacy, 400-332. Historical back¬ 
 ground. Persia and Greece. Litera- 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 XI 
 
 ture from 400-330; Legalistic; lib¬ 
 eral; liturgical, Psalms, Bk. I. Wis¬ 
 dom, Job; Apocalyptic, Joel, Isa. 
 Ixiii. 7-lxvi. 21. 
 
 XX. The Greek Period, 332-135 . 
 
 (A) Historical sketch. 
 
 Alexander’s conquests; Empire di¬ 
 vided; Syria a buffer state; Egypt 
 controls from 280 to 198; Ptolemy 
 II; Joseph the tax gatherer; Ptolemy 
 III and IV. 
 
 The Seleucids control from 198 to 
 165. 
 
 The Maccabees, conquest and high- 
 priesthood, 165-135. 
 
 Influence of Greek culture. San¬ 
 hedrin, Synagogue. 
 
 (B) Religious and literary activity. 
 
 Legalism; priestly code; Chronicles; 
 Ezra-Nehemiah. 
 
 Folk-tales, non-canonical, Esther, 
 Dan. i. iii. -vi. 
 
 Liturgy, Psalms, Bks. ii.-v. 
 Apocalypticism, Isa. xxiv.-xxvii. 
 Zech. ix.-xiv. Dan. ii. vii.-xi. 
 
 Greek influence, Septuagint, Jonah, 
 Prov. i.-ix. Eccl., Song of Songs. 
 
 XXI. The Old Testament Canon. 
 
 Chronological Chart. 
 
 Selected Bibliography. 
 
 Index. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 281 
 
 314 
 
 317 
 
 319 
 
 321 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Those most familiar with the Old Testament realize 
 best that next to the New Testament, it is the most 
 inspiring treasury of religious experience that the world 
 possesses. Yet, it is well known that to many devout 
 people, even among religious leaders, it is almost en¬ 
 tirely a closed book. This is due, in part at least, to 
 the great difficulty in gaining an adequate knowledge 
 of the times and the conditions under which many of 
 its messages were delivered. 
 
 To meet this need, for those who are eager to follow 
 the story of the Old Testament revelation, this book 
 has been prepared. History and literature are here 
 considered together. Indeed, all phases of human ac¬ 
 tivity, economic, social, philosophic and religious, are 
 but varying expressions of the unitary life of a people ; 
 the parts of one whole. 
 
 So far as space has permitted, all those contacts, 
 national and international, that influenced the He¬ 
 brews, have been presented as the background of the 
 literature. It was in the midst of national travail, 
 with its frequent tragedy and occasional triumph, that 
 the great Old Testament leaders ever ministered, 
 directly to their fellow men, in the realm of morals 
 and religion. 
 
 The story of that past is a thrilling one, full of 
 grave crises, high hopes and noble heroisms, in a very 
 real world. The writer hopes that those ancient scenes 
 that are so vivid to himself and that message he deems 
 so worth-while to human life today, may become more 
 
 Kill 
 
XIV 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 intelligible and more inspiring to the student, through 
 the medium of the following pages. 
 
 I. G. Matthews. 
 
 Crozer Theological Seminary, 
 Chester, Pa, 
 
 Nov. I6th, 1922. 
 
OLD TESTAMENT LIFE 
 AND LITERATURE 
 
OLD TESTAMENT LIFE 
 AND LITERATURE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ANCIENT CIVILIZATION 
 
 The interest of the Old Testament writers in foreign 
 lands and peoples was very limited. Palestine, until 
 the time of the exile, was the circumference as well as 
 the center of their world. The smaller tribes that lay 
 along their borders and constantly crossed their path¬ 
 way, Philistia, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Amalek, Syria, 
 and Phoenicia, were well known. With these people 
 Israel lived very much as in a family of tribes. Their 
 boundary lines were never very distinct, and their con¬ 
 tacts were frequently close though not always happy. 
 On the wider horizon loomed up Egypt on the south, 
 Babylonia and Assyria on the northeast, and in the 
 later days Persia and Greece. China, with its civiliza¬ 
 tion highly developed from before the time of Abra¬ 
 ham, and India with its growing populations, were all 
 but unknown. The wider the horizon, and the more 
 distant the people, naturally the less was the interest 
 displayed by the Scripture writers, and the more in¬ 
 definite and hazy their information. This is notice¬ 
 ably true the farther we go back into the civilization 
 that preceded the time of the Hebrew writers 
 themselves. 
 
 No doubt Palestine was inhabited in very early 
 
 1 
 
2 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 times. But we have every reason to believe that the 
 garden of Eden, where the first parents of the human 
 family lived, was not located here. Nor was the earli¬ 
 est civilization developed in this part of the world. 
 Conditions in Palestine were not conducive to early 
 permanent settlements. The Biblical narratives do 
 not require it, while the evidences of science make it 
 an impossibility. 
 
 Development Sketched —Between the first family 
 and a settled, well-organized community, there must 
 have intervened long centuries of development. The 
 Old Testament does not tell the details of this story. 
 Only reminiscences of certain links in the process are 
 preserved in Genesis. Cain built a city; the sons of 
 Lamech, Tubal-Cain, who was a forger of brass and 
 iron, and Jubal, who was the inventor of musical in¬ 
 struments, were the accredited pioneers of civilization; 
 Noah built an ark; and his descendants constructed the 
 tower of Babel (Gen. iv. 17-22; vii.-xi). These sen¬ 
 tences are but late summaries of that which took 
 millennia of toil and struggle to accomplish, and leave 
 vast areas for the historian to fill out. 
 
 In the beginning, human life and its relationships 
 must have been very simple. Needs and customs were 
 very few and primitive. As man slowly learned to 
 master nature, his food supply increased and became 
 more assured. With this came the larger family, then 
 the more numerous clan, which expanded into the 
 tribe, which still later, if the process of growth con¬ 
 tinued, became the nation. At each onward stage of 
 growth new customs and new laws emerged, new 
 intellectual energies were awakened, new inventions 
 produced, and new ambitions stimulated. To recon¬ 
 struct this early history from the known laws of primi¬ 
 tive society, and from the glimpses ancient history has 
 preserved to us, would be a fascinating task. While it 
 would contribute much to our appreciation of the life 
 
ANCIENT CIVILIZATION 
 
 3 
 
 and the literature of the Old Testament people, most 
 of it must be omitted in this treatment. Only in the 
 most rapid way can we touch on some of the significant 
 features of two great ancient civilizations that fiour- 
 ished before the time of Abraham, and influenced in 
 no small measure the destinies of the Hebrew nation. 
 
 Early Babylonian History—Before the dawn of Pal¬ 
 estinian history, two great neighbor nations were ris¬ 
 ing rapidly to the zenith of their culture. Babylonia, 
 across the desert to the east, if not actually the earlier, 
 may here first claim our attention. Lying in the 
 southern part of the Tigris-Euphrates valley, its mild 
 climate, well-watered and fruitful soil, invited and 
 fostered the development of a large community. Here 
 cities like Eridu and Ur were founded very early, fol¬ 
 lowed later by others, as Larsa, Erech, and Nippur. A 
 system of cuneiform writing, i.e., various combinations 
 of wedge shapes impressed in clay tablets, representing 
 the various syllables of the language, was devised in 
 very early centuries. Temple inscriptions, which many 
 believe go back as early as 6000 b.c., have been found. 
 Only a few of the great mounds, which indicate the 
 location of ancient cities, have been excavated. These 
 have yielded the partial story of the existence of 
 thronged cities where there was the mingling of races, 
 and the growth of wealth and splendor, which be¬ 
 longed to a very complex life. 
 
 Sumerians (Shinar of the O.T.), a non-Semitic 
 people from the east, mingled with the Semites, who 
 poured in from the Arabian desert. Each made its 
 contribution to the amalgam, but which was the 
 earlier, and which made the richer contribution to the 
 later culture, is still a moot point. The Semitic in 
 time, at least, became the dominant race. It is a long 
 story, and somewhat clouded in obscurity. Rulers rose 
 and fell. The exercise of their authority was measured 
 only by their ability and ambition. The king of one 
 
4 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 city conquered others and imposed his rule upon them. 
 Gradually, out of the melee the city states arose. From 
 that emerged the nation. 
 
 The story of life in the southern part of this valley 
 can now be read in outline from before 4000 b.c. For 
 over a thousand years we follow the tangled skein of 
 growing empire till the time of Sargon I, about 2800 
 B.c. He extended his rule over all the Babylonian 
 valley and sent his armies to the Mediterranean Sea on 
 a three years' campaign. Naram-Sin, a successor, 
 celebrated his achievements and the extent of his em¬ 
 pire by claiming the title, ^‘king of the four corners of 
 the earth." For centuries, the course of empire, with 
 its tale of slow, painful upbuilding followed by sudden 
 collapses, took its way. 
 
 Perhaps the climax is found in the days of the Am- 
 orite king Hammurabi (2123-2081 b.c.) By this 
 time national development had a long history. It 
 possessed a vast inheritance of ancient custom, regu¬ 
 lating social, industrial, and religious life. It had its 
 hoary traditions, its legends, its myths, and philos¬ 
 ophies. It had its well-defined caste system, ranging 
 from the slave, who was a chattel, to the king. In¬ 
 scriptions from this period abound, but none is more 
 important than the famous code of laws found in 
 Persia in 1901 by the French ambassador, DeMorgan. 
 The startling resemblance of at least a score of the 
 laws of this code to laws found in Exodus xxi.-xxiii. 
 has illuminated the whole question of Old Testament 
 legislation. Frequently after this period, Babylon 
 played a very significant role in world history, but 
 never had she greater luster or more importance than 
 during this reign. 
 
 Early Egyptian History—Egypt was the home of 
 the other ancient civilization. Here again a great 
 stream, the Nile, was the fertilizing source of national 
 development. Again the mild climate and the naturally 
 
ANCIENT CIVILIZATION 
 
 5 
 
 rich soil contributed the elements needed for its nur¬ 
 ture. In some respects the growth of civilization in 
 the Nile valley paralleled that of the Tigris-Euphrates. 
 Progress in the arts and sciences was slow and toilsome, 
 but the struggle through long centuries brought vic¬ 
 tory. Rude flint implements gave way to polished 
 stone. Stone was supplemented in the course of time 
 by copper and iron. Sparse populations were super¬ 
 seded by vast throngs. Group was united to group, 
 and two nations, Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt, came 
 into being. These two were welded into one in the 
 time of Menes (cir. 3400 b.c.). Then followed the 
 growing splendor of ancient tyrannies, the landmarks 
 of which we know so well. The early tombs, the rem¬ 
 nants of early masonry, the precious stones quarried 
 in far-distant mines, the obelisks, the pyramids, the 
 temples, the sphinx, the Tel-el-Amarna letters, and 
 the innumerable inscriptions that have been so care¬ 
 fully translated, all unite to tell the story of the pomp 
 and pride of an ancient people who played a leading, 
 if indeed not the chief, role in architecture, invention, 
 statecraft, law, letters, and religion during the two 
 millennia preceding the dawn of Hebrew history. 
 
 Religion —Two illustrations will suffice to indicate 
 their importance in the field of religion. The first is 
 the story of the prophet Ipuwer. This man, who to 
 us is but a ^Voice crying in the wilderness,” preached 
 up and down the country that destruction must fall 
 upon the land because of the sins and the vices of 
 the people. Called before the Pharaoh about 1800 
 B.c. he declared that ruin was inevitable because of 
 the social and political evils of the day, but that there 
 would ultimately arise a Savior who would be “the 
 shepherd of all the people.” We cannot fail to notice 
 the similarity of this fragment to the tone of some of 
 the Hebrew prophets. 
 
 Ikhnaton (1375-1358 b.c.), the heretic king, who 
 
6 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 reigned before the days of Moses, stands out as another 
 illustration of a peculiarly lofty ideal. He tried to 
 introduce the worship of the one God, “the God of 
 things as they are,” into his kingdom. Quotations 
 from one of the hymns written by this king will best 
 indicate the quality of his thought and devotion. 
 
 How manifold are all thy works: 
 
 They are hidden from before us, 
 
 0, thou sole God, whose power no other possesseth. 
 Thou didst create the heavens according to thy 
 desire. 
 
 While thou wast alone: 
 
 Men, all cattle large and small, 
 
 All that are upon the earth. 
 
 Thou art in my heart. 
 
 There is no other that knoweth thee 
 Save thy son Ikhnaton. 
 
 Thou madest him wise in thy designs 
 And in thy might. . . . 
 
 Many other illustrations might be used to indicate 
 the culture, the religion, and the glory which these two 
 ancient nations attained long before the days of the 
 patriarchs. But suffice it here for us to know that 
 in two widely separated valleys, quite independent of 
 each other, great nations with national ambitions and 
 hopes, with legislators and prophets, with highly de¬ 
 veloped arts and sciences, had come to maturity and 
 occupied the world stage long before those whom we 
 call the “elect people” had even the semblance of 
 nationhood. 
 
 Palestine, its Early Settlement —Palestine lay on 
 the highway between these two great civilizations, and 
 could scarcely fail to have had some settlers in early 
 days. Evidences of the existence of a race of cave- 
 dwellers are found in many parts of the land, particu- 
 
ANCIENT CIVILIZATION 
 
 7 
 
 larly towards the south. The name Horite, perhaps 
 meaning cave-dweller, and frequently found in the Old 
 Testament, may preserve a reference to these people. 
 The indications are that in far antiquity the country 
 was occupied. Human bones have been found buried 
 in the cave of Harajel, along with those of the woolly 
 rhinoceros, which has been extinct throughout Syria 
 for at least twelve thousand years. 
 
 Amofite Immigration —But we must come down to 
 about 3000 b.c. before we are able to see with any de¬ 
 gree of clearness the movements of the nations. About 
 this time, if not earlier, Babylonian influence touched 
 the country. This was for conquest and tribute. Later, 
 perhaps about 2500 b.c., a wave of Semitic folk poured 
 out of north Arabia as the result of over-population 
 followed by drought and famine. They pressed out in 
 two different directions. One stream flowed east down 
 into the Euphrates valley, and in the course of time 
 gave to Babylonia that ruling dynasty of which Ham¬ 
 murabi was the most renowned character. The other 
 stream perhaps skirted the valley northward, then 
 turning west and south, poured down into Palestine. 
 This stream, like all migratory movements, flowed in¬ 
 termittently for some centuries, coming to an end 
 perhaps about 1700 b.c. Amorite is the name that is 
 given to both of these streams, and in the Old Testa¬ 
 ment is varied with that of Canaanite and Phoenician, 
 according to the writer or the location. These in¬ 
 vaders conquered and gradually assimilated the 
 natives. The earliest wave seems to have penetrated 
 to the sea and settled between the mountains and the 
 Mediterranean. What race did they encounter here? 
 Were they highly civilized? Did they conquer them 
 or were they assimilated? Did sea-faring Cretans 
 possess these maritime cities. Tyre and Sidon, and did 
 their culture conquer the invader? We can only con¬ 
 jecture that this first wave of Amorites who settled on 
 
8 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 the coast, and later were known as Phoenicians, must 
 have been greatly influenced by their neighbors. They 
 adopted the maritime life, and became traders and 
 manufacturers. 
 
 Canaanite is the name that has been given to those 
 who remained in the hill-country and the valleys, and 
 became chiefly agriculturists. Their organization was 
 but an adaptation of the tribal system. The Sheik, or 
 petty king, ruled his own family. During the period 
 of settlement the family bonds were enlarged and 
 changed, so that the village or small city became the 
 unit of government. Each village or city maintained 
 its independence, and so strongly ingrained was the 
 primitive tribal ideal that seldom, even under the 
 pressure of the greatest danger, did these individual 
 units find it possible to form a larger confederacy. 
 Hence we are not surprised that Palestine was always 
 ruled by some outside nation. 
 
 Influence of Babylon —Babylonia made frequent in¬ 
 cursions to the Mediterranean for glory and the usual 
 tribute. While she had no organized control of the 
 land, and the tribute was more frequently neglected 
 than paid, nevertheless her culture was pervasive. She 
 was of kindred blood, had a common inheritance of 
 law and religion, and spoke a similar language. 
 Couriers and caravans on the highways were the pur¬ 
 veyors of tradition as well as of commerce. Not only 
 did the Canaanite occasionally possess a ^^goodly Baby¬ 
 lonian garment,’^ but some of the folk-lore and myth¬ 
 ology of the Babylonian philosophers must^ have 
 filtered through to these outskirts of Semitic culture. 
 
 Egypi—But Egyp^tlre hearer neighbor” geograph¬ 
 ically, though not genealogically, also had interests in 
 this narrow pathway between the desert and the sea. 
 The southern border was always more or less open to 
 her, and not infrequently did Egypt exact tribute of 
 her neighbor. When in 1580 b.c. Egypt was able to 
 
ANCIENT CIVILIZATION 
 
 9 
 
 free herself from the yoke of the Hyksos, that Semitic 
 invader who had ruled her for one hundred years, she 
 essayed the conquest of Palestine. With a strong 
 hand, by many triumphant campaigns, she proved her 
 lordship, and for two centuries she exercised sway over 
 practically all Syria. 
 
 Hittites —But a new enemy arose in the north. The 
 great Hittite power with its capital at Bogaz-Koi, 
 about 1500 B.c. became a menace to the Palestinian 
 outpost of Egypt. By 1350 b.c. they held the whole 
 country in subjection. By the end of the century the 
 tide turned, and Egypt again had the upper hand for 
 half a century, but by the beginning of the thirteenth 
 century she had lost her hold on the country practi¬ 
 cally forever. Palestinian conditions during these 
 three centuries were very bad indeed. She was the 
 field of confiict on which these two nations, Hittites 
 and Egyptians, fought out their bloody quarrels. Al¬ 
 ways the prize of the victor, she suffered at the hands 
 of both. 
 
 The Habiri —Further, nomadic tribes from the 
 desert were again pouring across her frontiers and 
 adding to the perplexity of the situation. The Tel-el- 
 Amarna tablets, letters discovered in Amarna in 1887 
 by Petrie^ written in cuneiform, containing correspond¬ 
 ence between the Egyptian kings Amenophis III 
 (1411-1375 B.c.) and IV (1375-1358 b.c.), and the 
 king of Mitanni, and petty kings of Palestinian cities, 
 reveal the wretched confusion to which the Canaanites 
 were subjected. Most significant is the information 
 that is contained in some of the letters, especially those 
 of Rib-Addi, king of Gebal, and of Abd-Hiba of Jeru¬ 
 salem, to the king of E^ypt. Both complain that in¬ 
 vaders are plundering the land and make it impossible 
 to pay the required tribute. All is in chaos, and they 
 ask for troops in order to restore peace and prosperity. 
 The letters belong approximately to 1400 b.c. or a little 
 
10 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 later, and speak of the invaders as Habiri. While this 
 word is strikingly like ‘‘Hebrews,” it is doubtful if 
 we should so translate it. At best they can be related 
 to Israel only in the most general way, and it is even 
 possible that they may have been bands of mercenary 
 soldiers sent in by foreign powers. 
 
 Excavations in all parts of Palestine show the same 
 general confusion. It was a time of chaos and loosely 
 organized life. Small tribes were roaming through 
 the land clashing with other similar tribes. Many 
 villages dotted the countryside, but they trembled 
 at the prospect of fire and sword, and were ever ready 
 to change their residence overnight. Only a few cities 
 were more or less proof against the ravages of raiders 
 and enemies. Such were the conditions down as late 
 as the end of the period of the judges. The population 
 of Palestine proper, a great medley of tribes, and even 
 a mixture of races, numbered perhaps considerably less 
 than a million. Not until some time after 1000 b.c., the 
 time of the beginning of the Hebrew monarchy, do 
 we find something of order emerging out of these 
 primitive, incoherent, group movements. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE 
 
 The Maritime Palestine is in itself a little 
 
 world which possesses every variety of material con¬ 
 dition needed to produce the greatest diversity of 
 life. Running north and south there are four well 
 defined areas. The maritime plain runs from Sidon 
 to the wady el-Arish in the south. It is very narrow 
 at the north, but widens gradually to about twenty 
 miles, reaching from the Mediterranean eastward to 
 the foothills of Samaria and Judah. Its alluvial soil, 
 long ages ago the bed of the ocean, and later covered 
 with a considerable forest, of which only a few scat¬ 
 tered groves remain, and now watered by the annual 
 rains and a few perennial streams, is very fertile. 
 Grain fields abound, particularly towards the south. 
 Wheat and barley are cultivated. Palm and orange 
 groves are numerous, especially in the middle section, 
 and beans and melons are found in gardens through¬ 
 out the entire plain. Its ports at Gaza and Acco 
 opened it up to maritime trafiic. Through it lay one 
 of the ancient highways down to Egypt. Gaza was 
 a center for the desert trade, from which it greatly 
 profited. The whole plain lay under the ridges of 
 Samaria and Judah. * 
 
 The Shephelah —Between this plain and Judah lie 
 the low lands, technically known as the Shephelah. 
 This was the buffer country between Judah and 
 Philistia. Rising somewhat rapidly from the plain, 
 the low hills are from 500 to 800 feet, with a few peaks 
 about 1500 feet, above sea level. This strip of terri- 
 
 11 
 
12 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 tory, not more than five miles wide, is intersected by 
 five important valleys, the Ajalon, Sorek, Elah, Afranj, 
 and Hesy, which run from east to west. Throughout 
 its whole course north and south, it lies about a thou¬ 
 sand feet below the table land of Judah, the result of an 
 ancient fracture of the underlying limestone strata. 
 Thus Judah was splendidly protected from invasion. 
 In the days of her strength she could contest the pos¬ 
 session of the lowlands with the Philistines, and often 
 did successfully. In the days of her weakness a few 
 men having the advantage of the highlands could 
 withstand a thousand. 
 
 The Mountain Highlands —The second general 
 division is the mountain ridge that runs from the 
 Lebanons to the south of Judah. Here are three clear- 
 cut areas, each with its own peculiar features. The 
 north, rugged and mountainous, with splendid, fertile 
 valleys, is completely cut off from the rest by the well- 
 watered valley of Esdraelon. South of this lies 
 Samaria, with its innumerable precipitous channels 
 which honeycomb its limestone sides. Still farther 
 south, below the Ajalon, which threatens to divide it 
 from Samaria, lies Judah. It is a comparatively 
 smooth and barren elevation, which south of Hebron 
 (cir. 3000 feet above sea level) rapidly slopes down 
 to the desert, becoming more and more unproductive 
 with each step of the descent. 
 
 The Jordan Valley —Then comes the third division, 
 the well-known Jordan valley, reaching from Banias 
 in the north, to south of the Dead sea. The marvelous 
 story of this valley’s history may yet be read by the 
 observant eye. Here is the residuum of a great inland 
 sea that once filled the valley from Lake Merom to a 
 point fifty miles below the present southern extremity 
 of the Dead sea. Earlier still, the evidence indicates, 
 land connections existed between Africa and this 
 country which is but part of the Arabian desert. Fish 
 
GEOGRAPHY OF PALESTINE 
 
 13 
 
 are still found in the waters of the Jordan, and flowers 
 bloom in this heated midsummer furnace, which are 
 found in no other place except tropical Africa. 
 
 The valley, which stretches between Lake Galilee 
 and the Dead sea, a distance of sixty-five miles, has a 
 width of from two and a half to fourteen miles. Its 
 descent is very rapid, and it is at its outlet 1292 feet 
 below sea level. Streams, that in the rainy season be¬ 
 come rushing torrents, flow into it from either side. 
 The vegetation is most luxuriant, while the tempera¬ 
 ture in the summer months is unbearably hot. Dates, 
 flax, and grain have been cultivated, and the villagers 
 from the hills have frequently had their gardens in 
 the fertile soil of the valley. Few cities have ever been 
 built here, Jericho being the chief exception. The few 
 Arabs who inhabit it are a degenerate race. It has 
 ever been the frontier of Palestine, acting as a bulwark 
 against the encroachments of the desert. There are 
 many fords, five of them important, which have served 
 from time immemorial for the traffic east and west. 
 
 East-Jordan Land —The fourth main division is that 
 that lies east of the Jordan. Here are three natural 
 subdivisions. North of the Yarmouk lies the land of 
 Bashan, which was the rich pasture land and the chief 
 granary of ancient populations. South of the Yar¬ 
 mouk, reaching below the Jabbok, is the table-land of 
 Gilead, and farther south, lying chiefly below the 
 Arnon, is the land of Moab. This whole area, broader 
 at the north owing to the plateau of the Hauran, which 
 is very fertile, gradually shades off eastward into the 
 desert. 
 
 Geographic Influences —Palestine then is a small 
 land, not more than one hundred and twenty-five 
 miles by sixty, but it possesses a great variety of soil 
 and scenery, flora and fauna, climate and environment. 
 It is of great importance that it lies between the desert 
 and the sea. Entirely opposite in their influences, both 
 
14 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 alike penetrated the life of Israel, and on her ground 
 met in conflict. The winds from the one were parching 
 and withering; those from the other moist and pro¬ 
 ductive. The peoples of the one lived meagerly, had 
 a monotonous outlook, and were necessarily puritan¬ 
 ical; those of the other came in contact with the 
 nations of the world, were cosmopolitan, and adopted 
 world culture with its morals and religion. 
 
 International Influences —Further, the land was the 
 highway for the international trafiic north and south. 
 Caravans were always on the move, along one or the 
 other of the great lines of travel. Egypt, Edom, and 
 Arabia sent their wares and spices north. Syria, Baby¬ 
 lonia, and Assyria were quite familiar with the advan¬ 
 tages of the southern trade. Greece and the Islands 
 of the sea, even in early centuries, interpenetrated the 
 whole land with their commerce. Palestine was also 
 in the pathway of great migrations. Out of the 
 Arabian desert, from the south and east, at different 
 times, the hungry nomads pressed towards the better 
 watered valleys for the needed sustenance. Great 
 hordes were also pushed out of the north and sought 
 grazing grounds in the Hauran, in Gilead, in the plains, 
 and even west of the Jordan. Armies, also, bent on 
 conquest in response to the ambition of some power¬ 
 ful monarch, were frequently on the march north or 
 south, past the hillsides of Samaria and Judah. 
 
 Thus the people of this land, however home-loving 
 they might be, were seldom far removed from the 
 sound of the tread of armies, the fear of the hungry 
 invader, and the moral and religious influence of every 
 quarter of the known earth. Palestine was thus the 
 theater of world forces. That which is born here 
 must meet many conflicting currents, must look in 
 the face of enemies, and will be put to the severest 
 test in morals and religion. Surely this is the land 
 of providence, and those who here can stand the test 
 are indeed an elect people. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 ANCIENT LITERARY METHODS 
 A— The General Facts 
 
 For any historical study, a correct appreciation of 
 the sources used is always essential. What is the 
 nature of the materials? Are they original documents? 
 Do they come from eye-witnesses? Are they con¬ 
 temporary records or are they the product of genera¬ 
 tions of story-telling? Were they written in order 
 to give the facts and all the facts of the case, or was 
 history as such but of secondary interest? Have the 
 documents passed through the hands of scribes and 
 interpreters for centuries? In other words, the ques¬ 
 tion must always be asked, what is the historical ac¬ 
 curacy, the actual value, of the documents? To neglect 
 such careful scrutiny of the sources used would land 
 us either in intellectual confusion, or make us blind 
 partisans. To provide a sure foundation for our 
 Biblical history, the material should pass the same 
 rigid examination as that in any other field of inquiry. 
 The higher the claim we make for any literature, the 
 more severe the test it ought to be able to stand. 
 
 Literature World-Wide —As a preparation for our 
 detailed study of the Old Testament history and litera¬ 
 ture, we need a broad outlook on some of the relations 
 existing between literature and life. We well know 
 that literature is a world-wide phenomenon. It has 
 been found wherever there has been a developed civili¬ 
 zation. We are able to read the history of Babylonia 
 
 15 
 
16 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 and Egypt from documents contemporary with the 
 events they record, and in each nation we are carried 
 back millennia before the time of Christ. Greek, 
 Chinese, and Indian literatures likewise come down to 
 us from the days when their city and national organi¬ 
 zations had been achieved. 
 
 Perhaps the first fact that is attested in all litera¬ 
 tures is this, that in every nation a long period of oral 
 expression preceded the invention of any method of 
 representing thought by the written sign. The oldest 
 literary remains of any country show a well-developed 
 language, with a considerable vocabulary, synonyms 
 more or less numerous, and varying forms of expres¬ 
 sion, all bearing testimony to a long tribal or racial 
 history. All early literature also indicates that the 
 people possess a rich heritage of social, national, and 
 religious tradition. The legends and the mythologies 
 had in preliterary days been handed down from father 
 to son, and had taken form through the play of many 
 minds, always long before they had been engraven on 
 the temples or the tombs. The oldest contract tablet 
 had for its background thousands of bargains orally 
 concluded man to man. The earliest written peace 
 treaty had for its ancestry hundreds of buried toma¬ 
 hawks, which in turn had been the descendants of a 
 multitude of mutual agreements between ancient 
 nation-builders. The oldest written code of laws was 
 the product of many decisions on various questions by 
 innumerable patriarchs and judges through long ages 
 of oral decisions. 
 
 Produced by Civilization—Fnriher, writing, or any 
 adequate method of representing speech to the eye, 
 has always been the invention of civilization. Primitive 
 life never had the need or the ability to convey ideas 
 to the mind through visible forms. True, we have 
 pictographs and grafl&ti which are acknowledged to be 
 the work of races of a comparatively low stage of 
 
ANCIENT LITERARY METHODS 
 
 17 
 
 culture. These do indeed give us information, but 
 they are not literature. The authors may have been 
 artists, but so far as the expression of ideas is con¬ 
 cerned they were but children. Writing in Egypt, in 
 Babylonia, in Phoenicia and Greece, in China and 
 India, in every case, originated at a time when there 
 was a highly developed community life on the part 
 of the nation in question. 
 
 Whenever new and larger groups of people were 
 brought together in any community, either by rapid 
 increase of population, or by the incoming of foreign 
 elements, new and grave problems of adjustment al¬ 
 ways arose. Divergent customs must be harmonized. 
 New regulations to meet the new conditions must be 
 devised. The old organization must be expanded, or 
 entirely new methods must be adopted. The meeting 
 and mingling of many minds has always resulted in 
 ferment and struggle, which in turn has usually re¬ 
 sulted in a quickening of intellect. The new social 
 complex, with its wealth of ancient custom, its varied 
 inheritance of story and tradition, its rapidly expand¬ 
 ing business life, its important contacts within and 
 without the group, sorely needs some method of put¬ 
 ting its business contracts, its intertribal statutes, its 
 treaties and alliances with friend and foe, its growing 
 traditions, and its recognized methods of worship into 
 permanent form. In the history of every growing 
 race or nation, the time came when the burdens of 
 tradition became too great, the transactions of the 
 present seemed too significant, and the throbbing vision 
 of the idealist seemed too akin to the divine to be 
 trusted entirely to the treacherous lips of man. This 
 demand for the preservation of records, of traditions, 
 and of ideas, rather than for communication, was the 
 primary incentive to writing. The complexity pro¬ 
 duced the need, but the very process in turn quickened 
 the mind to address itself to, and to solve, the imme- 
 
18 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 diate j)roblem. While later tradition always ascribed 
 writing to the gift of the gods, it was in fact always the 
 child of long, arduous, mental struggle. 
 
 The Scribe —The invention of writing has always 
 made necessary the professional scribe. To produce 
 the adept was a long, slow process, requiring genera¬ 
 tions. Only in a well-organized, highly differentiated, 
 and permanently settled society would conditions lend 
 themselves to the creation of such a class. Yet it is 
 well for us to keep in mind that this is the sine qua non 
 of national literature. 
 
 Literature the Product of Life —If writing be the 
 product of civilization, it is also true that literature 
 never runs before culture. The child of complex 
 society, it is ever an integral part of it. Societies must 
 be formed before ^'minutes’' are kept. Institutions 
 are organized before records are needed. Lands were 
 cultivated before deeds were registered. Industries 
 were developed, cities were built, communities were 
 established, and kings held sway before tablets and 
 histories were written. Literary achievement in any 
 form must be an integral part of the life of the 
 respective community. The social, industrial, political, 
 mental, moral, and religious life are all only different 
 expressions of the group life, and are inextricably 
 woven together. Literature, which is the flower of the 
 intellectual life, cannot fail to exhibit the colors of the 
 world from which it sprung. The vocabulary used, 
 the figures of speech, the forms of imagery, its under¬ 
 lying ideals, no less than its historical allusions belong 
 to the warp and woof of its own generation, and its 
 own people. The man of the desert will never use the 
 language of the city, nor will the shepherd write the 
 laws for an industrial community. 
 
ANCIENT LITERARY METHODS 
 
 19 
 
 B—The Old Testament as a Historical Source 
 
 When we come specifically to the Old Testament as 
 a source for history, we must carefully observe the 
 following facts. The book most of us use is a trans¬ 
 lation, and is thus subject to all the limitations of a 
 translation. Any translation of the Scripture, even 
 the poorest, is invaluable for devotional use, for morals, 
 and for religion. But for history and theology the 
 accuracy of our sources will measure the value of our 
 results. We are unfortunate, further, in that our 
 most used translation is over three hundred years old. 
 English has changed, and our historical information 
 has greatly increased during that time. Important 
 words have often a decidedly different cast of meaning 
 now than when the translators did their work. Infor¬ 
 mation, gained from many different sources, often 
 shows how inadequate was the knowledge of three' 
 hundred years ago. 
 
 The historian of the Old Testament times has to 
 face still more serious facts. We have no original 
 documents. Our Hebrew manuscripts are the work 
 of scribes, and our oldest extant Hebrew Bible was 
 written about 916 a.d., at least eighteen hundred years 
 after the time of some of the original writers. What 
 did eighteen centuries of copying at the hands of 
 scribes do to the original words of the books? Only 
 the student familiar with the Hebrew text or with 
 different recensions of an old work can fully appreciate 
 the result. Not a few passages in our Hebrew text 
 are quite unintelligible. Sometimes, indeed, a vers© 
 that reads beautifully in English (cf. Job xix. 25), is 
 far from certain in the original. It is quite clear that 
 our Old Testament suffered at the hands of copyists 
 the same as would any other literature under similar 
 circumstances. 
 
20 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 The scribe was not only a writer, he was an inter¬ 
 preter of Scripture. How often his interpretations 
 slipped into the text, would be hard to say. But when 
 we compare the Septuagint with the Hebrew, we 
 are convinced that there has been much interpola¬ 
 tion. The original Greek version of Job had almost 
 eight hundred lines less than the Hebrew, some long 
 and beautiful sections, as xxxix. 13-18, being entirely 
 absent. Jeremiah in the Septuagint has one-eighth 
 less than in the Hebrew, such a long historical passage 
 as Jeremiah xxxix. 4-13 being omitted. The Septua¬ 
 gint of I Samuel xvii. 1—xviii. 5 lacks most of xvii. 
 12-31, 41, 50, 55—xviii. 5. So we might continue in¬ 
 definitely, all proving that the original manuscript 
 must at some time have received additions or suffered 
 loss at the hand of the scribes. 
 
 But the case is clearer still as we examine some of 
 the duplicates found within the Hebrew itself. These 
 may be studied in the English version, which is a 
 translation from the Hebrew. Duplicates frequently 
 occur. II Samuel xxii. is, so far as general content, the 
 same as Psahn xviii., but there are as many as 130 
 minor differences. Psalm xiv. is in general the same 
 as Psalm liii., but in the one, Yahweh is the name used 
 for God, in the other Elohim is used. In Ezra we are 
 furnished with what is spoken of as the decree of Cyrus 
 in two different places (Ezra i. 1-4 and Ezra vi. ^5), 
 but they bear little resemblance to each other. In I 
 Kings viii. 23-53, we have the prayer that Solomon 
 offered at the dedication of the temple, but when we 
 turn to II Chronicles vi. 14-42, where the chronicler 
 reports the same prayer, we find a number of signifi¬ 
 cant omissions as well as some additions that surely 
 smack of the late priest rather than the early king. 
 These examples warn the student that a process of 
 editorial or interpretative work was going on during 
 the long centuries of scribal activity. 
 
ANCIENT LITERARY METHODS 
 
 21 
 
 In no place is this work more in evidence than in 
 the superscriptions and the historical notes to the 
 books. A comparison of the various versions shows 
 this very clearly. For example, the Hebrew text of 
 Jeremiah has five such historical notes (ii. 1; xxv. 1; 
 xxvii. 1; xlvii. 1; 1. 1) that are lacking in the Greek, 
 while the Syriac has innumerable that are lacking in 
 both the Greek and the Hebrew. 
 
 Most of the books of the Old Testament are anony¬ 
 mous. That is natural. Not until recent centuries 
 did men conceive that there might be such a thing as 
 property in literature, and not until last century was 
 there a copyright law. The stories and customs that 
 were first written were public property, so why should 
 the man who committed them to parchment attach 
 his name to them? Later centuries, however, looked 
 on early writings, and particularly those of a religious 
 nature, quite differently. They loved to add the au¬ 
 thority of a great name to that in which they had 
 found religious value. This desire furnished the names 
 of Enoch, Baruch, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Moses, Daniel, 
 Adam, the twelve patriarchs, and Solomon to a vast 
 literature written from 200 b.c. to 100 a.d. The same 
 spirit, in the same period, credited to Ezra, to Solomon, 
 to David, and to Moses a place in Old Testament 
 literature that lacks any substantial foundation. 
 Those familiar with the traditions of this period know 
 well the slight historical value of many of them. 
 
 There are some evidences that the same attitude of 
 hero-worship was at work even before the close of the 
 Old Testament canon. We can use only one illustra¬ 
 tion here. In the Hebrew, David is credited with 73 
 psalms, while in the Greek he is assigned 84. Further, 
 only 69 of these agree. That is, the Hebrew has a plus 
 4, and the Greek a plus 15. What does this mean? 
 Which is correct, the Hebrew 73 or the Greek 84, or is 
 the 69 that has the two witnesses, or is it the 69 plus 4 
 
22 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 plus 15? Does it not seem rather that scribes, both 
 of the Hebrew and the Greek, were gradually ascribing 
 more and more of the Psalms to one whom the later 
 ages loved to honor? A study of the contents of some 
 of the Davidic Psalms {e.g., those that speak of the 
 temple as existing, v. 7; xxvii. 4; xxviii. 2; Ixv. 4; 
 cxxxviii. 2; and those that speak of the ruins of Jerusa¬ 
 lem, li. 18-19; Ixix. 3-4) will readily convince us that 
 the old proverb, “to him that hath shall be given,’’ is 
 correct. 
 
 Thus as we approach our historical sources, we must 
 be ready to pay the price, if we are to arrive at reason¬ 
 ably sure conclusions. We must exercise every care to 
 get the facts. We must use the material discriminat¬ 
 ingly, and must reconstruct the ancient scenes and 
 national progress, not by using isolated texts or 
 phrases, but by the correlation of all the material, 
 biblical and secular, into a consistent picture of the 
 whole. 
 
 C—Sources for the History of the Beginnings 
 
 OF Israel 
 
 The sources from which we draw for the beginnings 
 of Hebrew history are found in the Pentateuch, or 
 better the Hexateuch. In reality, the first six books 
 belong together. The same problems and the same 
 literary types that are found in the first five are also 
 found in Joshua. 
 
 Theory of Mosaic Authorship —Our first task, 
 therefore, is to determine the date and the authorship 
 of these books. Previous to the middle of the 
 eighteenth century the answer seemed comparatively 
 simple. Christian tradition affirmed, though not with 
 unanimous voice, that Moses wrote the Pentateuch 
 and that Joshua wrote the book that now bears his 
 
ANCIENT LITERARY METHODS 
 
 23 
 
 name. This was simply accepted; there was no call 
 for argument or proof. From early days, however, 
 there had seemed to some to be many features that 
 required adjustment and interpretation. Theories 
 arose explaining the relation between Moses and Ezra 
 as lawgivers, as to how Moses wrote the account of 
 his own death, as to why some books were anonymous 
 and others were ascribed to definite authors. Ques¬ 
 tions were occasionally raised such as. How could 
 Moses give a list of ^The kings that reigned in the land 
 of Edom (Gen. xxxvi. 31-39), before there reigned any 
 king over the children of Israel”? How could he speak 
 of the east side of the Jordan as ^^beyond the Jordan” 
 (Gen. i. 10, 11; Josh. xvii. 5; Dt. i. 1, 5, etc.), when he 
 himself had never been across the river? How could 
 Moses say: “The Canaanite was then in the land”? 
 Little groups here and there, as the Nazarites, the 
 Gnostics, and the Manichseans, for different, and per¬ 
 haps not always well-founded, reasons, denied the gen¬ 
 eral tradition of Mosaic authorship. But Christian 
 scholarship, as a whole, which through the centuries 
 had been fighting her battles in the fields of apologetics 
 and dogmatics, had neither call nor training for histori¬ 
 cal investigation. Indeed it was not until the influence 
 of the new learning stirred in the religious leaders the 
 historical spirit, that questions of authorship assumed 
 importance. 
 
 As the interest in such questions increased, so also 
 did the data contributary to a solution. Mastery of 
 the Hebrew grew apace. At the beginning of the six¬ 
 teenth century much of the Hebrew lore was guess 
 work. By the middle of the nineteenth the growing 
 knowledge of the cognate languages, Arabic, Assyrian, 
 and Syriac, threw a flood of light on many a dark page 
 of the Old Testament. By the beginning of this cen¬ 
 tury revolutionary advances had been made. Archaeol¬ 
 ogy? by faithfully unearthing the ancient remains, had 
 
24 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 written the sketch of the cultural development of 
 Palestine from 2500 b.c. down to the Christian era. 
 The present days are rapidly filling in the details of 
 the story. The wealth of constantly accumulating 
 material at the disposal of the inquirer has made the 
 Old Testament an eminently living book. Many men 
 of the finest scholarship and character have made its 
 study their lifework. Achievements of the most signifi¬ 
 cant kind have resulted. 
 
 The question of the authorship of the Hexateuch 
 has been involved in the progress of knowledge. As 
 careful, comparative study of these six books con¬ 
 tinued, and as information from all sources accumu¬ 
 lated, the difiiculties of holding to the Mosaic author¬ 
 ship were correspondingly increased. It was found 
 that the books themselves made no such claim. In 
 two of the books. Genesis and Leviticus, nowhere is 
 there found any suggestion of authorship. In the 
 other books there are five places that suggest author¬ 
 ship, but in each case the claim at best is for a small 
 and well-defined section (Ex. xxiv. 4; xxxiv. 28; Nu. 
 xxxiii. 2; Dt. xxxi. 9, 24; cf. Ex. xvii. 14; Josh. xxiv. 26). 
 Further, it was realized that there was not in the whole 
 of Scripture a single passage that was written for the 
 purpose of asserting or defending Mosaic authorship. 
 Thus it was seen that the theory of Mosaic authorship 
 was largely the product of late Jewish tradition that 
 had been accepted by Christian writers, rather than 
 the direct claim in the books themselves. 
 
 The Modern Theory of the Literary Origin of the 
 Old Testament Histories —To follow this study over 
 a period of one hundred and fifty years would be out 
 of place here. Patiently and slowly the facts were 
 canvassed and theories suggested best to meet the 
 needs of the case. The substantial foundation of the 
 present theory was laid more than a century ago, and 
 about half a centurv aso it attained its present iorm. 
 
ANCIENT LITERARY METHODS 
 
 25 
 
 Not final in all its analyses, nor perfect in all its de¬ 
 tails, yet it has gained the assent of a great body of 
 Christian workers, and seems at the present the con¬ 
 clusion that most candidly meets all the facts. 
 
 For our work we are going to assume, not prove, this 
 the documentary theory of the origin of the Hexateuch. 
 However, the student will have ample opportunity at 
 every stage of the course, not only to use the results 
 of the theory in order to build up an intelligent pic¬ 
 ture of the progress of history, but also to put it to 
 the test, step by step. When he has come to the end 
 of the work, he should be prepared to evaluate it for 
 himself. Whether we accept it or not, we do well to 
 be familiar with it. Without a general knowledge of 
 the main lines of this hypothesis, the most important 
 literature on the Old Testament would be to us a closed 
 book. Most of the great Bible dictionaries, all the 
 important commentaries, the chief volumes on Biblical 
 theology and even the Hebrew lexicons accept it. 
 
 A summary is here presented in order that it may 
 serve as a background for later study. The pre- 
 Mosaic period of Israel’s life had its definite soSal and 
 religious customs, its songs, its stories of the patriarchs, 
 and its primitive philosophy which aimed at explain¬ 
 ing the mysteries which played upon and influenced 
 human life. These origina ted in the sinmle nomadic 
 or senu-nomadic life ol^eir ancestors. NothTng“was' 
 written, all passed from generation to generation 
 orally. This is still true of the nomad of the Arabian 
 desert. 
 
 The Mosaic period perpetuated all these and added 
 the stories of the new experiences. Morally and 
 religiously these were the days of great beginnings. 
 Tribe joined tribe, the group grew, new laws were 
 necessary^ and Israel by choice became the covenant 
 people of Yahweh. A decalogue, if not the whole as 
 we now have it, then in part, indicating rights and 
 
26 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 privileges of each within this new and larger unit, 
 became the basis of this tribal union and this allegiance 
 to Deity. Sti^ we j 9 ;re in the nomadic period, the 
 period of oral transmission. Moses may have~Vritten 
 M adncalpgue, or may even have go ne beynnd thaU^ut 
 fhewilderness experience was neither in its needs nor 
 its culture a literary period, and a Pentateuch written 
 by Moses is an assumption that neither the conditions 
 nor the Biblical material warrants. Such a supp osition 
 throws all the rest of the Old Testament mfp'cbhfusion. 
 
 "^TTEe day^~of~TEe judges were days of growing 
 national coherence, but they neither foster nor claim 
 literary activity. T^e stories of the heroes ^ nd the 
 battle songs were^ committed tUin5eJuture.^ by v^d oF 
 mouth . Thel,gurO oim dations of mitlmrs hip do not 
 appear^.till the days of th e mo narchy. Here, for the 
 first time, we find a stable life, an organized society, 
 and a class removed from the bread-and-butter line. 
 In the court of David we meet for the first time a 
 chronicler and a scribe (II Sam. viii. 16-17). It may 
 not be without significance that one of these, Sheva, 
 bears a Babylonian name (cf. II Sam. xx. 25). 
 
 We_are^_ however, on ^re _ ground when we state 
 that writii^ ^s "prac Uced among the H^rews 
 about iOQO^Ja TTwo inipbffanT^ohsidefalions sup¬ 
 port this conception. The first is that the Hebrews 
 were not the inv entors of wri ting. They borrowed the 
 alphabet frbih their~Phoenician neighbors. There is 
 no evidence anywhere that they ever used any other 
 script. We m^ further b e sur e that this borrowing 
 did imt take placWfilTsuch time~as~th^h acl both the 
 need aUT t he "oppo rtunity. Thus we can ^ar caly go 
 _ back^eaHIeE thanthe days o f tfienEL^dbrm The other 
 ilfact is that the archeologist li'^ presented us with a 
 number of important finds of ancient Hebrew, 
 Moabite, Syrian, and Phoenician inscriptions, but none 
 is earlier than about 900. b.c. The Old Testament and 
 
ANCIENT LITERARY METHODS 
 
 27 
 
 the monuments thus agree that previous to 1000 b.c. 
 t^ culture of Israel was that so circumstantially por- 
 traye3" in the hook of J uHgesi 
 
 J. Document —The theory holds that great literary 
 activity, resulting in much that we now have in the 
 Hexateuch, arose during the early days of the divided 
 monarchy. In the two centers, Judah and Ephraim, 
 there were groups of writers who reduced to written 
 form many of the old stories, the old songs, the laws, 
 and ideals of their people. These two groups had in 
 large measure the same historical background, but 
 each had also its own tribal history and its own view¬ 
 point. The result of this activity was that some time 
 between 900 and 800 b.c., 850 b.c. will serve as a suffi¬ 
 ciently definite date, the writers of the south country 
 had completed a considerable roll. It had, naturally, 
 certain marked characteristics. Judah, as a tribe, 
 naturally stood in the center of the stage. Southern 
 centers were of special interest. A brief law code was 
 incorporated (Ex. xxxiv. 10-27) and Yahweh was sup¬ 
 posed to have been worshiped by men from the begin¬ 
 ning (Gen. iv. 26). Hence this document, which, of 
 course, is not now existent in any independent form, 
 is called the Yah wist narrative and has been 
 designated J. 
 
 E. Document —A little later, perhaps 800 b.c., the 
 northern writers completed their roll. Here attention 
 was centered on Ephraim and Ephraimitic doings, a 
 law code (Ex. xx. 2^-xxiii. 22), now known as Covenant 
 Code, was included and the name Yahweh was con¬ 
 ceived to have been first introduced in the Mosaic 
 period (Ex. iii. 13-14). Previous to this time the name 
 Elohim is used with a great deal of consistency by these 
 writers. This is called the Elohist document and E. is 
 its symbol. 
 
 Many other features, some of them even more im¬ 
 portant than those referred to, all together making a 
 
28 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 strong case for the theory, distinguished these docu¬ 
 ments originally from each other. Many 'evident 
 duplicates, both of ancient story and religious custom, 
 are found. Compare carefully, if you will. Exodus 
 xxxiv. 10-27 from J. with Exodus xx. 23; xxii. 28-31; 
 xxiii. 10-19 from E. 
 
 The writers of J. and E. have been spoken of as 
 groups or schools rather than as individuals. The 
 fact appears to be that both of the so-called documents 
 were the result of a process. The earliest document in 
 each case seems to have been reworked by later mem¬ 
 bers of the same school. Sometimes the effort is made 
 to distinguish between the earliest and the later work 
 of each group, but, in many cases at least, the result 
 must be very precarious. 
 
 After the fall of Samaria, in 722 b.c., Judah stood 
 alone as the inheritor of Israel’s history and traditions, 
 and the perpetuator of all her moral and religious life. 
 She thus became the repository of the two important 
 literary documents, J. and E., each traversing in its 
 own way, with more or less completeness, the ancient 
 past. Fortunately, modern methods of history writing 
 were unknown in the Semitic world. Our Macaulays 
 and McMasters would have gone through all the 
 material, and would have selected that which suited 
 their purpose, and then would have consigned the rest 
 to the waste-paper basket. Tatian’s Diatessaron is 
 the type of work done by the Semite. He took the 
 synoptic gospels and dovetailed them into one another, 
 making a fairly readable whole. The Arab historian 
 of the Middle Ages did much the same. He gathered 
 all the traditions he could find, placed them side by 
 side, and thus, presenting the material, permits the 
 reader to draw his own conclusions. 
 
 Historians of Judah now had J. and E. What 
 should they do with them? The modern theory con¬ 
 cludes that they followed the current Semitic method 
 
ANCIENT LITERARY METHODS 
 
 29 
 
 of history writing, dovetailed the two together as best 
 they could, and passed them on to posterity. This 
 was done between 722 and 650 b.c. This offers an 
 explanation to many otherwise inexplicable features 
 that are found in the Pentateuch. While over a cen- 
 tury^s work in Hebrew has given us a remarkable con¬ 
 sensus of opinion as to the dividing lines of J. and E. 
 even in small details, yet no one considers it infallible, 
 or anything more than the best explanation to date 
 of all the facts. 
 
 Deuteronomy —Another religious movement reached 
 its earliest literary expression some time before the 
 reform of Josiah (II Kgs. xxii.-xxiii.), in 621 b.c., 
 when the ‘‘book of the law’’ was accepted by king and 
 people alike as authoritative. That this was Deuter¬ 
 onomy, or the nucleus of it (Dt. xii.-xix., xxviii.), has 
 long been accepted, with but few objectors. How long 
 before 621 b.c. this book was in written form it is im¬ 
 possible to say. It contains certain laws that in their 
 origin belong to antiquity. Most of the laws of Cove¬ 
 nant Code (Ex. XX. 22-xxiii. called C.C.) are here 
 found scattered throughout the book, but frequently in 
 a more or less altered form. While the enactments of 
 C.C. are suited for, and hence likely originated in, an 
 agricultural era, those of D. {i.e., Deuteronomy) meet 
 the requirements of advanced industrial conditions. A 
 careful comparison of the law for slaves, male and fe¬ 
 male, as found in Exodus xxi. 1-11 and Deuteronomy 
 XV. 12-18, respectively, will illustrate the difference in 
 the two codes. 
 
 The ruling idea in Deuteronomy is the command 
 that there shall be only one legitimate sanctuary 
 (xii. 13-16; xvi. 5-7). While we can easily follow the 
 influences whereby Jerusalem came to be recognized as 
 the only place where it was legitimate to offer sacrifice 
 or celebrate the feasts, by no stretch of' the imagina¬ 
 tion can we conceive of this becoming a dogma before 
 
30 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 the fall of Samaria in 722 b.c. The fall of the northern 
 country together with the repulse of the Assyrian 
 army in 701 b.c., and Isaiah’s message of the in¬ 
 violability of Jerusalem, alone made possible the first 
 demand of Deuteronomy. 
 
 This reform was the greatest that ever swept over 
 Judah. Its influence was literary as well as religious. 
 There sprang up what is known as the Deuteronomic 
 school of writers, who collected and edited many of 
 the existent stories and documents. The JE. history 
 was an important part of their inheritance. That part 
 that carried the story of the ancestors down to the 
 time of the judges, they brought up to date theologi¬ 
 cally, about 600 B.C., by adding an occasional phrase or 
 paragraph. To the ‘‘book of the law” (Dt. xii.-xix., 
 xxviii., or Dt. xii.-xxvi., xxviii.) were added miscellane¬ 
 ous regulations {e.g., Dt. iv. 41-43; v. 6-21), horta¬ 
 tory discourses {e.g., Dt. iv. 1-40; vi. 1—ix. 6; xxvii., 
 xxix.-xxxi.), two poems (Dt. xxxii., xxxiii.), and the 
 Deuteronomic summary of the journey from Sinai to 
 the Jordan (Dt. i. 6—hi. 29), which is based almost 
 wholly on E. This completed their work in the Penta¬ 
 teuch and gave to the world JED. 
 
 This school also possessed and used much other 
 literary material. Some of it came from JE., some 
 belonged to the archives of the temple and the royal 
 palace, and some of it was the result of the activities 
 of still other groups. Selecting the narratives that 
 best suited their end, they gave to posterity in the 
 closing years of the sixth century and the opening de¬ 
 cades of the fifth, that which we now have in the first 
 twelve chapters of Joshua and the final editions of our 
 Judges, Samuel and Kings. 
 
 Priestly Activity —In 597 b.c. and 586 b.c. occurred 
 the first and second captivities of Jerusalem. Ezekiel, 
 one of the captives in Babylon, was the leader of a new 
 movement which was largely dominated by priestly 
 
ANCIENT LITERARY METHODS 
 
 31 
 
 ideals. In 572 b.c. he wrote his vision (Ezk. xl.-xlviii.), 
 the new ritual requirement for the new Judaism. A 
 like-minded contemporary, perhaps about the same 
 time, collected, arranged, and perhaps revised a code 
 of ritual practices (Lev. xvii.-xxvi.), now called Holi¬ 
 ness Code (H.C.). This was the beginning of a long 
 development which, so far as our canon is concerned, 
 reached its completion in the books of Chronicles 
 about one hundred years after Ezra. So far as the 
 Hexateuch is concerned, Ezra and his school mark 
 the closing of an epoch and practically the closing of 
 the book. The literary product of this school, which 
 was included in the Hexateuch, was of a priestly cast, 
 and is designated by P. P. itself, which embodies the 
 activity of more than two centuries, contains within 
 itself different units of law and slightly different points 
 of view. Suffice it here to say that this school gathered 
 up, organized, interpreted, and reinterpreted the ritual 
 of ancient Israel, using all the oral and written sources 
 at their command. They also rewrote the early his¬ 
 tory of their people, beginning with the creation (Gen. 
 i.-ii. 4a), supplementing the JED. story where they 
 felt it necessary, inserting in what they believed to be 
 the proper places the story of priestly institutions and 
 the mass of ritual, of which they were the inheritors, 
 and arranging the whole according to an orderly, 
 priestly, chronological scheme. 
 
 This, in brief, is the modern theory of the origin of 
 the Hexateuch. It accepts it as the result of a literary 
 process which reached from the early settlement in 
 Canaan till after the time of Ezra. It finds many hands 
 and many minds each struggling with the needs of its 
 own generation, and each contributing its quota to 
 the whole. Stories are here that may not agree with 
 each other in all points, but these are not the contra¬ 
 dictions of one author, but are the different view¬ 
 points of independent witnesses. Laws are here that 
 
32 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 have passed through as many as four recensions, but 
 these are not the confusions of an individual mind, 
 but are the evidences of religious progress through cen¬ 
 turies of national experience. The progress indicated 
 in this rearrangement of the material of the Hexateuch 
 corresponds even in matters of detail with the develop¬ 
 ment that is clearly indicated in the historical and 
 prophetic books. In this progress there is indeed a 
 unity, not that which comes from one human mind, 
 rather it is that which comes through the one divine 
 spirit that is ever moving forward to the light through 
 the imperfect human media. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 THE PATRIARCHS 
 
 Genesis xii.-l 
 
 The chapters of Genesis (Gen. xii.-l) in which we 
 find the stories of the patriarchs, come chiefly from the 
 combined JE. document. The analysis into the original 
 documents may be followed in any modern com¬ 
 mentary, and is indicated in most Bible dictionaries, 
 but it is not essential to our work. 
 
 Abraham —The Old Testament story of Abraham is 
 in large part from J., and fits in naturally with the 
 Amorite migration, with which we are already familiar 
 (Gen. xii.-xxv.). His name, his possible date, and his 
 homeland, quite conclusively relate him to these 
 people. Perhaps midway in the time of this migration, 
 with a group of his followers, he trekked from Haran, 
 along the well-known caravan route, to grazing lands 
 already occupied, in part, by kith and kin. The weight 
 of the tradition makes him a dweller chiefly in the 
 south-land, Hebron and Beersheba being most closely 
 connected with his sojourn and his name. His migra¬ 
 tions from one place to another in the south and even 
 into Egyptian territory were at that time the common¬ 
 places of nomadic life. 
 
 Jacob —The story of Isaac, which duplicates some of 
 the incidents in his father’s experiences (Gen. xxvi. 
 1-11; cf. xxi. 1-18), is only a link between the ^‘Father 
 of the Faithful” and the father of the patriarchs. Jacob 
 fits admirably into the picture (Gen. xxvii.-xxxvi.). In 
 
 33 
 
34 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 the Old Testament tradition he is called an Aramean 
 (Dt. xxvi. 5), which may help to place him in an Ara¬ 
 mean migration which pushed west from the Eu¬ 
 phrates valley about 1300 b.c. In the Bible narrative 
 he occupies a large place as the father of the twelve 
 patriarchs. The four mothers, however, hold the real 
 places of honor in history, if not in the later interpre¬ 
 tation (Gen. xxix. 31—xxx. 23). Through them we 
 have the four main divisions of the Israelitish tribes. 
 The story seems more informing concerning national 
 origins than a first reading might suggest. 
 
 Woven into the charming picture is very much that 
 reads more intelligently as tribal tradition than as 
 personal biography. Groups have been personified, 
 and when we seek to literalize all the expressions we do 
 grave injustice to those who handed on to the succeed¬ 
 ing generation the wealth of family characteristics. 
 Personification is one of the most familiar features of 
 Oriental literature. With the passing of the centuries 
 some loss of perspective was inevitable. .To the story¬ 
 teller the individ ual easily blended wit h.-the_ tribe, in¬ 
 significant links m descent '^^re easily lost sight of, 
 and even relationships may have been obscured. 
 Hence, we need not be surprised that some of our 
 stories are more significant when interpreted in the 
 1ight_of tribfll expeid ences rath er^ than as incidentgjn 
 the life of the in divid ual. By way of illustration, the 
 reTations bSween Jacob and Esau, while delightfully 
 told and vividly appealing to us in our childhood days, 
 present very serious difficulties when we try to read 
 them merely as personal history. The hungry hunter 
 selling his most loved privilege for a mess of pottage? 
 No other tent close by to which he might crawl? Jacob 
 deceived by the hairy gloves after his suspicion had 
 been aroused? Many such features cause us to ques¬ 
 tion whether in many of these stories we may not have 
 the perfectly legitimate literary form^ommon in the 
 
THE PATRIARCHS 
 
 35 
 
 east, in which great m ovements are, _uictures(iuely. pe^^^ 
 sonified. Israel was always ready to drive a hard bar¬ 
 gain, even to overreach, but at the same time was 
 jealous of her religious privileges. Edom was always 
 on the alert for the mess of pottage. The two nations 
 as well as their ideals were always in confiict. This 
 story, and the same is true of many others, conveys a 
 profound lesson which is none the less important, if in 
 part it should be tribal rather than individual. 
 
 Joseph —We are led into another field in the story of 
 Joseph (Gen. xxxvii.-l.). Nowhere in literature have 
 we a more ideal character. That a person worthy of 
 this laudation by posterity lived we need not question, 
 but the moral quality of the narrative is its chief glory. 
 Historically the Israelites are here linked up with 
 Goshen, that part of Egypt that lay towards the desert 
 of Sinai, and had long been a favorite haunt for the 
 nomads in the time of drought. The origin of Ephraim 
 and Manasseh is placed here. Through their mother 
 they are related to the Egyptians more closely than 
 were any of the other tribes. 
 
 Tribal Traditions —The lives of the patriarchs then 
 do not, strictly speaking, present u s with national his¬ 
 tory. They show us the stuff out of which the nation 
 grew. They indicate in general the relationship of the 
 Hebrews to the Edomites, the Moabites, the Ammon¬ 
 ites, and the Syrians. They help us to understand their 
 mixture of blood and the primitive conditions out of 
 which they had sprung. These narratives are the 
 a ncient memorie s w hich succe eding generations carried 
 forward until thev_werej &na lly re du ced to their present 
 wfflten_fqfm. The achievements of their ancestors, 
 their high devotion to duty, their valor, their religious 
 loyalties, their racial hopes, no doubt, lost nothing as 
 the stories were passed from father to son. Legendary, 
 perhaps in part, yet they are, in their most significant 
 features, hl^ric^illy_^rrect. The portrayal of life 
 
36 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 and custom, the consciousness of migratory move¬ 
 ments, the actual intertribal relationships are all 
 illuminating. But as the bearers of a national confi¬ 
 dence and a national ideal, the beauty and worth of 
 which is never dimmed, they render us a still greater 
 service. 
 
 It is true that evMences^ of pri mitive religion and 
 primitive morals, which have ffie sanc^ 
 
 Gen. xxviii. 18; xxvi. <^I7), are found in the stories. 
 OpnORhinage was the practice. Slaves were held. 
 Abraham practiced tribal ethics when he denied his 
 wife. Idols were foundln the tents. A stone was oiled, 
 and worsliip was instituted where something in¬ 
 explicable had happened, as did the Semitic peoples 
 generally, and Abraham went at least part way in 
 offering the ,npljLnusiialj3hil d sacrifi ce. In all these 
 things they were but following the common practices 
 of ancestors and neighbors. 
 
 The noteworthy feature in these narratives is, how¬ 
 ever, the a ct and the tone which separate t hem froni 
 the pagan ism around the m. TheTiafibn was to be a 
 blessing. The child sacrifice was not performed; Abra¬ 
 ham learned a better way. The honor that came to 
 Joseph delighted his descendants, but the quality of 
 his virtue and the nobility of his character place him 
 on a loftier pinnacle than mere achievement. While 
 these narratives are told with charming simplicity, and 
 have all the picturesqueness that makes them good 
 stories, they possess ^thAUmoraL^flavoiL ^(i.religious 
 insight thM^make them theJ)est_ Qf sermons . 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 
 EGYPT AND THE EXODUS 
 Exodus i.-xiv. 
 
 Goshen, the section of the country occupied by 
 Israel, was a small district, lying north and south of 
 the wady Tumilat, with boundaries which to-day can¬ 
 not, with any degree of exactness, be defined (Gen. 
 xlv. 10; xlvi. 28-34; xlvii. 1-6; Ex. i. 11). Its charac¬ 
 teristics were quite similar to those of the desert and 
 on the whole it was more closely related to Sinai than 
 to Egypt proper. 
 
 The date of the Israelitish entrance into Egypt is 
 uncertain. Josephus held that they were identical 
 with the Hyksos, those shepherd people who overran 
 and conquered Egypt about 1700 b.c. and who were 
 driven out about 1580 b.c. This identification is quite 
 improbable, though it is possible that these almost un¬ 
 known people may have paved the way for the Israel¬ 
 ites, and some reminiscences of them may have colored 
 the Hebrew tradition. The connection of the Israel¬ 
 ites with Goshen is likely to have been one of long 
 standing. Abraham sojourned there. Joseph made his 
 home there. The Hyksos belonged to the same general 
 family. This pasture land had always been attractive 
 to the dwellers in the peninsula. It was in fact the 
 border land of their own territory. 
 
 The main settlement of the Hebrews in this pasture 
 land was most likely at a time considerably later than 
 the expulsion of the Hyksos. Nomads in Goshen would 
 
 37 
 
38 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 rarely be molested by the Egyptians. The customs of 
 the two communities were widely divergent. They 
 had little business with each other, and for each other 
 still less love. The shepherd would not live in the 
 cities, and disdained the drudge at manual labor. The 
 Egyptian despised as beneath contempt the sheep- 
 raiser. 
 
 The relation of Israel to the shepherds of the Sinaitic 
 peninsula, and even with Palestine, would always be 
 much closer than with Egypt. The type of life was 
 the same. The people were of the same blood and 
 speech. The habits of the shepherd led him to travel 
 over wide areas, which gave him familiarity with out¬ 
 lying regions. So it is more than probable that during 
 the period in Goshen many individuals, and even 
 groups of considerable size, may have been in more 
 or less close contact with the Sinaitic peninsula and 
 southern Palestine (Ex. ii. 15-iv. IT; Gen. 1. 7-9). 
 The bondage was not, in fact could not be, closely 
 supervised for any length of time. 
 
 It is now quite generally agreed that the Pharaoh 
 of the oppression was Ramses II (1290-1226 b.c.). He 
 was a great potentate, ruled with a strong hand, con¬ 
 quered far lands, engaged in many building enterprises, 
 and employed much slave labor. During his reign the 
 cities of Pithom and Ramses were built by slave labor 
 as frontier storehouses. This is the most assured point 
 of contact in this early period. It seems to locate the 
 time of the oppression (Ex. i. 11). 
 
 The exodus is one of the outstanding landmarks in 
 Old Testament literature. The historical background 
 is clear. For generations the nomads had occupied 
 the fertile grounds of Goshen without molestation. An 
 aggressive Pharaoh, with ambitious fortification 
 schemes for his eastern frontier, pressed these desert 
 people into slavery. The ordinary methods of the 
 time, the hard manual labor, the taskmaster with his 
 
EGYPT AND THE EXODUS 
 
 39 
 
 lash and his disregard for life, were used. The 
 freedom-loving spirit of this people rebelled against 
 conditions so new and so intolerable to them. 
 
 The story quite correctly pictures this as extending 
 over a considerable time (Ex. ii. 1-15). If we wished 
 to read it all literally, it would cover at least eighty 
 years; that is, from the birth of Moses up to his 
 eightieth year. This might be placing undue weight 
 on round numbers and on what appears to have been 
 oral tradition. Surely less than eighty years would 
 have rid Goshen of the last Israelite. The drastic 
 measures reported in Exodus i. 15-22, at best could 
 not have been more than local and temporary. Even 
 apart from such severity, the shepherds would not long 
 endure the lash of the taskmaster. The desert was 
 close by, escape to it was easy; tribes there were not 
 unfriendly, and many of its spaces were quite beyond 
 the reach of the arm of Egypt. 
 
 Oppression did become unbearable. General revolt 
 was stimulated and guided by Moses, bne of the re¬ 
 markable characters of olden times (Ex. ii. 11-15). It 
 is true that the lines are often dim because of the dis¬ 
 tance between the achievement and the record. Often 
 because of hero worship any close resemblance to 
 actual history is practically lost. While we have long 
 pages presenting the life and doings of this great leader 
 in Egypt and in the desert, those earmarks, which a 
 writer contemporary with the events would have left, 
 are all but lacking. The whole background is very 
 vague. Who was the princess who rescued the babe? 
 Where was she bathing? In what part of the land 
 were the scenes enacted? Who was Pharaoh? Is the 
 general name used loosely for the ruler of one of the 
 districts? Or does the tradition lift a local experience 
 up into national significance? Where did the Israel¬ 
 ites cross the Red sea? Where is Mount Sinai, or 
 Horeb? So might we continue to ask questions, but 
 
40 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 definite information is not to be had, and reconstruc¬ 
 tion is all but impossible, save in large outline. 
 
 However, the main movement seems quite certain. 
 Moses, a man of great native gift and special training 
 in Egypt and, more particularly, in Midian, inspired 
 his kinsmen to a revolt, and led them out of bondage 
 into the freedom of the desert. The migration had 
 racial, economic, and religious incentives. Later days 
 accentuated the religious motive. The first request to 
 Pharaoh was that they might be permitted to go three 
 days' journey into the wilderness to celebrate a feast 
 (Ex. V. 2-3). Pharaoh finally relented only because 
 of divine manifestations (Ex. vii. 14—xi. 10). The 
 fearful and unwilling people were inspired for the 
 journey by the wonder-working God. Yet, no doubt, 
 natural causes-were at work. The people were tired 
 of the locality that now, under the military policy of 
 Ramses II, was more than previously under the direct 
 rule of Egypt. They longed for the ancient freedom 
 of the well-known desert. The plagues, all of them 
 more or less common to the Nile valley, added to their 
 eagerness to withdraw (Ex. vii.—xi.). Escape was 
 never difficult. Roads led from Egypt into the desert 
 in at least three different places. Their flight appar¬ 
 ently led them down the wady Tumilat a few miles, 
 then they seem to have turned southward into the 
 Egyptian desert to avoid the pursuing army (Ex. xiii. 
 37—xiv.). As they hesitated, perhaps at the southern 
 end of the Bitter lakes, the spring wind blowing from 
 the south or southeast greatly aided them, and likewise 
 impeded the chariots of Egypt. Thus, most probably 
 in the early years of the reign of Merneptah (1225- 
 1215 B.C.), in a marvelous way they escaped from a 
 hated and feared foe to a new-found liberty. 
 
 Many glimpses of natural motives and the natural¬ 
 ness of the deliverance have been preserved in the 
 documents, but that was not the main thought of 
 
EGYPT AND THE EXODUS 
 
 41 
 
 the story-tellers. They found a deeper and richer 
 meaning in all the experiences of their founders. To 
 them those were no ordinary days. Yahweh was in 
 the burning bush and in the plague experiences. He 
 delivered them from Pharaoh, and rolled back the 
 waters of the Red sea. They conceived, and rightly 
 so, that the chief glory of their national birthday was 
 the manifestation and the guidance of their God. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 ISRAELIS EXPERIENCES IN THE WILDERNESS 
 Exodus xv.-xviii., xix.-xl.; Numbers x. 11—xx. 3 
 A— The Wilderness Conditions 
 
 The conditions of life in the wilderness into which 
 the refugees fled are well known. For the last three 
 thousand years or more there can have been little 
 change of climate, rainfall, or consequent productivity. 
 Many little glimpses in the Old Testament assure us 
 that the life of the Hebrews, during their sojourn, 
 was parallel in most respects if not all to that of those 
 who now inhabit this peninsula. There are two dis¬ 
 tinct divisions to the country. The flrst is the south¬ 
 ern apex, with the splendid mountain peaks, Serbal, 
 Musa, and Katrina, in the Sinaitic range, its valleys, 
 wadies, and streams, one of which is very important 
 for its water supply. Here are the famous mines, of 
 which Maghareb and Serabit are the most noted, where 
 the Egyptians as early as 3500 b.c. quarried turquoise 
 and lapis lazuli. Inscriptions are also here, some of 
 which are comparatively modern, and have been de¬ 
 ciphered; others are more ancient, and until recently 
 have challenged the ingenuity of scholarship. 
 
 Since the third century after Christ tradition has 
 accepted this as the region of the early experiences of 
 Israel and of the giving of the law. With its winding 
 wadies, its widening plateaus, its supply of water, and 
 its splendid pinnacles it has appealed to the imagina- 
 
 42 
 
ISRAEL’S EXPERIENCES 
 
 43 
 
 tion of the traveler and the religious historian. Some 
 modem scholars, as well as the guide who has been 
 schooled in Christian lore, locate most of the forty sta¬ 
 tions of the journey along or near the coast of this 
 apex (Nu. xxxiii. 5-36). 
 
 North of the V-shaped mountain range lies the dry, 
 sandy plateau, broken by short mountain ridges run¬ 
 ning north and south, which slowly slopes up to the 
 Negeb, and thence to the southern border of Palestine. 
 It has scant vegetation, save around its borders dur¬ 
 ing the spring freshets, a sparse and migratory popu¬ 
 lation, generally occupying its borders, and a few roads 
 of travel, which are used only occasionally by the 
 bedouin. This is the desert Et Tih, known in the 
 Old Testament under various names: Shur in the 
 east, Zin in the north, and one writer uses Paran as 
 a general designation. 
 
 Kadesh-Barnea lies, in the midst of a complex of 
 valleys, in a wild, and almost inaccessible country in 
 the northern part of this desert. It is abundantly sup¬ 
 plied with water from a spring that issues from the 
 limestone rock formation, and creates the most im¬ 
 portant oasis in all the desert. 
 
 The whole peninsula contains about 11,200 square 
 miles, and is a rugged, savage country. Agriculture 
 in the true sense of the word has never at any time 
 existed in any part of it. 
 
 Indeed ‘dt is no place of seed or of figs or of vines 
 or of pomegranates’’ (Nu. xx. 5). Haphazard cultiva¬ 
 tion, a few square yards here and there of vegetables 
 and grain, such as are occasionally planted by bedouin, 
 was possible. It is pasture land, and that of a poor 
 sort. Dates grow around many of the springs, and 
 such small shrubs as the thyme are scattered over most 
 of the desert areas. Trees such as the tamarisk, which 
 is noted for its manna, and flowers often abound on the 
 mountain hillsides. A few wild animals, as the hyena, 
 
44 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 and occasionally the panther, are found, and quail is 
 still common throughout the peninsula. 
 
 The present population, bedouin, who live on their 
 sheep and their goats, probably on the average as 
 numerous and as intelligent as they have ever been, 
 numbers between four and six thousand. The life is 
 simple and meager. The required food and clothing 
 are supplied mostly by the flock. Fighting for im¬ 
 portant springs, and raiding their border neighbors 
 are the extremes of their activity. Touched occasion¬ 
 ally by the outside world, east and west, they are not 
 of it. Civilization with its foibles and ambitions, its 
 immoralities and its learning has always been far 
 removed from them. A traveler last century testified 
 that he had been unable to find in the whole country 
 even a Sheik who could either read or write. Such 
 unnecessary accomplishments are beyond the ken of 
 the desert man. Such was essentially the condition 
 of the desert and of the people, when the Israelites 
 spent something like a generation within its borders. 
 
 B— The Wilderness Wanderings 
 
 Moses, the man of God, gained leadership over his 
 people by the force of his personality, as well as by 
 his unselfish devotion to their interests. As we have 
 seen, he encouraged them in their wish to leave Egyp¬ 
 tian servitude, and thus he came into conflict with 
 Pharaoh, likely through a subordinate official or a 
 petty ruler of Goshen, rather than directly. He 
 gathered the slaves into an orderly caravan in the 
 wady Tumilat, and after the simple and appropriate 
 religious ceremonies, which were carried out in the 
 middle of the night secretly, they left the land of 
 their oppressors (Ex. xii. 29-35). Fearing the fron¬ 
 tier guards, they seem to have turned south, and may 
 
ISRAEL’S EXPERIENCES 
 
 45 
 
 have marched as far as forty miles from the eastern 
 end of the wady. Then, taking advantage of the 
 shallow waters between the southern end of the Bitter 
 lakes and the north of the Red Sea, which were driven 
 back by a providential wind, he triumphantly led 
 the little group of wanderers out into the desert. Here 
 they were finally separated from the hated service 
 under the taskmaster, and the dreaded military guards 
 who were in hot pursuit. Before them stretched the 
 freedom of broad spaces, the verdure and protections 
 of ravines, and the craggy fastnesses of rugged granite 
 ranges. Well might the host of Israel sing: 
 
 Sing ye to the Lord, 
 
 For he hath triumphed gloriously; 
 
 The horse and the rider hath 
 He thrown into the Sea (Ex. xv. 21). 
 
 Well might after-generations celebrate this as the 
 birthday of the nation. 
 
 Significant as this was, it was only the beginning. 
 Moses led them out into the wilderness of Shur, and 
 they went three days into the wilderness (Ex. xv. 22). 
 This may perhaps give us a hint that they struck 
 straight eastward across the desert towards Midian. 
 Here there must have existed from very ancient times 
 an old caravan route, which, because of the shorter 
 passage to the Arabian desert, compensated for the 
 hardships of the possible sand storm and the lack of 
 water. The springs of Nakhl lie about halfway be¬ 
 tween the Bitter lakes and Akaba. It is along this 
 pathway that the annual Moslem pilgrimage has 
 passed for many centuries on its way to Mecca. 
 
 However, what is known as the traditional route, 
 runs southward, skirting more or less closely the coast 
 line, down as far as the wady Feiran. Thence it 
 passes eastward along this wady until it reaches the 
 foot of Mount Serbal, which the most ancient tradi- 
 
46 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 tion claims as the Mount of the Law. Arguments 
 both from Scripture and from geography can be ar¬ 
 rayed for each of these routes, and for various loca¬ 
 tions for the Mount of the Law, but certainty has not 
 yet crowned knowledge. 
 
 Sinai-Horeb, wherever it was, in the Sinaitic range, 
 or in the mountains of Seir, or near Kadesh-Barnea, 
 or in the land of Midian east of the Gulf of Akaba, 
 was a mile-post in the religious history of Israel. It 
 was here that they as a people entered into covenant 
 relationship with Yahweh (Ex. xix. 5; xxxiv. 10, 27; 
 Dt. xix. 1). Much of the actual course of history has 
 been obscured by the traditions. Some of the features 
 are far from certain to any one. The origin of the 
 name of Yahweh, and its introduction into Israel is 
 not undisputed. The Old Testament narratives are 
 not in agreement. The J. document traced the name 
 back to primeval days, while E. and P. assert it is 
 a new name given to Moses during his experience in 
 Midian (Gen. iv. 26; cf. Ex. iii. 14 and vi. 3). The 
 traditions perhaps throw light on the historic facts. 
 It may be that Judah, from whom the J. school came, 
 had worshiped Yahweh from very early times, but 
 that the northern tribes, who were in large part re¬ 
 lated to Joseph and hence to Egypt, may not have 
 been very closely connected with Judah or with Yah¬ 
 weh before the time of the exodus. Thus both the 
 J. and the E. narratives may have preserved a reminis¬ 
 cence of their tribal past. 
 
 Nor can we disregard the part played in these forma¬ 
 tive days by the Kenites (Ex. xviii. 1-12). Jethro, 
 the father-in-law of Moses, rejoiced in all the good¬ 
 ness of Yahweh, and proclaimed his supremacy over 
 all gods. He offered burned offering and sacrifice, 
 and with Moses and Aaron celebrated a religious 
 meal. The later union of the Kenites with Israel, and 
 their splendid loyalty to Yahweh, hints at a very 
 
ISRAELIS EXPERIENCES 47 
 
 close religious relationship (Nu. x. 29-32; Jg. i. 16; 
 iv. 11). 
 
 Not only does this supposition, that we have here 
 the enlargement of the group worshiping a deity al¬ 
 ready known to part of the people, fit most adequately 
 into all the facts, but likewise it would seem that the 
 covenant had a long history. These tribes, quite 
 heterogeneous, quite dissimilar in the details of their 
 history, were nevertheless one in their ancestry. They 
 linked themselves with the Amoritic migration from 
 the north. Abraham was their father (Gen. xv. 18, 
 xvii. 2-21). Those Semitic pioneers were not without 
 religious aspiration and guidance. Hopes became 
 promises, and promises partly realized have always 
 gained divine sanctions. A strain of faith had motived 
 the actions of these people from the beginning. Now 
 under Moses they faced a new venture, truly a ven¬ 
 ture of faith. Only under such an incentive could 
 they have crossed the Red sea and gone out into the 
 wilderness; only thus could they have been held to¬ 
 gether and have survived amidst the difficulties that 
 they encountered. Surely, Yahweh led and fed, de¬ 
 fended and upheld them. 
 
 But in the wilderness there were new experiences. 
 Their hardships were many. Food was sometimes 
 scarce, and water lacking. Local tribes warred upon 
 them, and internal friction was a constant worry. They 
 were restless and rebellious. But Moses was equal to 
 all occasions. He led them to good waters. He drove 
 back the attackers. He settled the petty disputes of 
 individuals, and crushed incipient rebellion against his 
 own authority. He led them to the Mountain of God, 
 and amidst startling physical manifestations, such as 
 were unknown in Egypt, we can well believe that he 
 established a covenant between Israel and Yahweh 
 (Ex. xix. 5-8, xxxiv. 10-27). 
 
 Old and well-known forms would, no doubt, be ob- • 
 
48 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 served. An animal would be slain and the contracting 
 parties, or their representatives, would pass between 
 the separated halves of the slain beast, each would 
 pledge himself to keep his part of the obligation, and 
 the sacrifice would be offered. Here the pledge of 
 Israel was loyalty to Yahweh as their God and to his 
 known commandments. His pledge would be the care 
 and protection of them as his people. The symbol 
 of this covenant, which would perpetually remind his 
 people of his presence, and which finally became 
 identified with himself, was the ark of the covenant 
 (Nu. X. 33, 35; xiv. 44; Dt. x. 1-6). 
 
 The terms of the covenant that Israel was to observe 
 are not certain. Loyalty to Yahweh, their deity, was, 
 of course, a primary requirement, but the exact limit 
 of the commandments that were to be observed is 
 largely a matter of speculation. J. in a very circum¬ 
 stantial way makes the ritual decalogue Exodus xxxiv. 
 14-28, the words of the covenant which were written 
 on the tables of stone (Ex. xxxiv. 27-28). E., on the 
 other hand, has a very much enlarged body of law, 
 called the Covenant Code (Ex. xx. 18-xxiii.), which is 
 likewise made the basis of the same covenant (Ex. 
 xxiv. 3-8). These in turn do not agree with the record 
 in Deuteronomy, where the ethical decalogue is the 
 law which was written on the two tables of stone when 
 Yahweh made the covenant with Israel in Horeb (Dt. 
 V. 2-22). It is evident that we have scattered 
 throughout Covenant Code a recension of the ritual 
 decalogue. Two witnesses might seem to establish 
 this as the original body of law which Israel cove¬ 
 nanted to keep. But a glance at the contents, which 
 are framed for an agricultural community {e.g., the 
 harvest festivals), puts that out of the question. Turn¬ 
 ing to the ethical decalogue, we find here also two 
 recensions (Dt. v. 6-21 and Ex. xx. 1-17) with con¬ 
 siderable variations. It is evident that behind the 
 
ISRAEL’S EXPERIENCES 
 
 49 
 
 present forms there lay a decalogue, or a small group 
 of laws, which contained the prohibitions in their 
 simplest forms. Such a simple body of laws, ten more 
 or less, emphasizing those principles that must be 
 observed between the tribes, if there is to be any unity, 
 and recognizing Yahweh as their only God, may well 
 have been made the bond of the new community life 
 under Moses. If this was the case, these command¬ 
 ments would be obligations only within the tribes, 
 and would hardly have the universal significance which 
 we now find in them. Such seems the best hypothesis 
 to meet all the Biblical and historical facts. 
 
 C— Struggle and Development 
 
 Life in the wilderness was beset by many grave 
 difficulties even to those who were more or less familiar 
 with its conditions of livelihood. While the Hexateuch 
 does not claim to give the minutiae of all the movement 
 of the forty years, many of the fragments give us a 
 lifelike picture of the actual situation. Itineraries and 
 detailed movements we neither can nor care to follow. 
 The general conditions, however, are writ large. 
 
 It was a period of struggle and of growth. Domestic 
 troubles were brewing for Moses. Miriam did not 
 take kindly to the Egyptian sister-in-law. Aaron also 
 may have been moved by jealousy (Nu. xii. 1-15). 
 But family quarrels were perhaps the least signifi¬ 
 cant. 
 
 Physical difficulties and dangers abounded on every 
 part of the way. Their habitat for the major part of 
 the time was the northern division of the peninsula, 
 running from the desert up into the southern part of 
 Palestine. Egypt was the western boundary, and 
 Edom the eastern. Kadesh Barnea, which is fifty 
 miles south of Beersheba, with its famous spring, was 
 
50 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 the center. Excursions were made by groups north 
 into Judah, as far as Eschol, and on the east they 
 came into conflict with Edom (Nu. xiii. 23). No 
 doubt, like the modern Arab, they roamed at will over 
 the whole of the peninsula, parties at times ranging 
 southeast into Midian, and north and east as far as 
 Gilead. 
 
 Though centers were very definite, boundary lines 
 were neither well guarded nor firmly fixed in those 
 days of mobile, migratory groups. Other tribes were 
 in the country. The Hebrews came more or less closely 
 in contact with Amalekites, Midianites, Kenites, 
 Amorites and Canaanites. Conflict was inevitable. 
 Sometimes the Israelites suffered defeat, but more 
 frequently they were successful. They met the Amale¬ 
 kites in battle, and defeated them (Ex. xvii. 8-16). 
 
 Looking for territory which would be more adequate 
 for their growing needs, their advance agents pene¬ 
 trated into Judah (Nu. xiii—xiv. 10). But the people 
 feared to seek an entrance into the land flowing with 
 milk and honey. There was undoubtedly a real reason 
 for this hesitancy. A body of Israelites met the 
 Canaanites at Hormah, and some of their number were 
 taken captive (Nu. xxi. 1-3). This may only be a 
 reminiscence of those encounters which made it neces¬ 
 sary for Israel to remain longer in the less fertile land 
 of the wilderness. 
 
 Their food supply, milk, fruit, and at rare intervals 
 meat, was that which was customary to the bedouin. 
 Agriculture was lacking (Ex. xvii. 3; Nu. xvi. 13; xxi. 
 5; XX. 5). Great was their joy when in the springtime 
 a flock of quail was driven by the westward wind 
 across their pathway, and the exhausted birds easily 
 became their prey (Nu. xi. 31-35). Naturally, the 
 consequence of the unusual gorge of flesh, neither 
 properly killed nor cooked, was an immediate plague. 
 No less thankful were they when the manna— 
 
ISRAEL’S EXPERIENCES 
 
 51 
 
 literally ^What is it?”—fell (Nu. xi. 7-8). Whether 
 this was the exudation of the tamarisk tree, which 
 the monks of Sinai still gather and sell, or an edible 
 lichen found in the desert, matters not. The people 
 rejoiced in what they believed to be a wonder wrought 
 by Yahweh, their God. 
 
 Water, likewise in a moment of great need, was 
 unexpectedly provided them by their leader (Nu. xx. 
 2-13). Whether the sweetening of the bitter waters, or 
 the bringing of the water from the rock was the un¬ 
 covering of an old spring, the discovery of a fountain 
 hitherto unknown to the tribes, or the releasing of a 
 new current of water, the thirsty nomads neither 
 judged nor cared. Singing their usual incantation 
 song. 
 
 Spring up 0 Well; sing ye unto it; 
 
 The well which the princes digged; 
 
 Which the nobles of the people delved. 
 
 With the scepter and with their staves. 
 
 (Nu. xxi. 17-18.) 
 
 new light came into their eyes as they drank the long- 
 looked-for waters; religious people as they were, they 
 rejoiced in the miracle of life, and acknowledged the 
 power and the goodness of their God. Later, devout 
 interpreters easily turned the staves and the scepter 
 into the rod of Moses, and duly exalted him against 
 whom their fathers had so often rebelled (cf. Nu. xx. 
 2-13; Ex. xvii. 1-7). Serpents also met them by the 
 way (Nu. xxi. 4-9). In later history we find a record 
 from the Assyrian monuments from the time of Esar- 
 haddon, in which the Assyrian army going through 
 the land south of Edom—the same territory that is 
 here indicated—is said to ^‘have passed through one 
 hundred and twenty double leagues of wilderness, and 
 twenty double leagues of serpents and scorpions.” 
 Thus the Old Testament narrative gives us a glimpse 
 
52 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 of the real experiences of the people of Yahweh in the 
 wilderness. These were days of danger and suffering, 
 yet later generations were sure they were always re¬ 
 lieved in the time of need by the good hand of the 
 wonder-working God. 
 
 But the greatest difficulty experienced was not from 
 without but from within. During these days there 
 was in process of formation a new community. A 
 number of tribes, usually spoken of as twelve, now 
 for the first time began to move and live together. 
 Our picture of the situation, however, cannot be too 
 rigid. The various tribes that later formed the Israel- 
 itish nation must at this period have had very wide 
 latitude. Yet because of the union of a number of 
 tribes in the exodus, and the common needs of the 
 wilderness, there was a growing coherence. But just 
 in proportion to the number of the tribes that were 
 now brought together in a confederacy, so would be 
 the difficulties. Each tribe had its own history, hence 
 its own customs, both civil and religious. True, there 
 must have been a common inheritance, but there 
 would also be much that was peculiar to each tribe. 
 This would necessitate very delicate adjustment. New 
 ritual and new laws would be required for the new 
 alliance. This, while rooted in the history of the 
 tribes concerned, must also grow out of their pressing 
 present needs. 
 
 New methods for the administration of justice, and 
 a more adequate organization for this incipient nation 
 would be required. The story of part of this is 
 graphically told in Exodus (xviii. 1-27). Jethro, the 
 Midianite, the father-in-law of Moses, during a visit 
 to the camp of Israel, advised Moses to adopt the 
 practice long in use by the Midianites. This seemed 
 good to Moses, and he appointed petty judges who 
 should settle all cases of minor importance in accord¬ 
 ance with well-known custom, while he himself should 
 
ISRAEL’S EXPERIENCES 53 
 
 take over all the difficult cases, and act as supreme 
 judge. 
 
 Departure from old customs always leads to conflict. 
 The authority of Moses did not go unquestioned. He 
 was an innovator, and some looked on him as an up¬ 
 start. Dathan and Abiram, leaders of the Reubenites, 
 opposed his authority in civil affairs (Nu. xvi. lb, 
 12-15, 25-26). While the whole story is not told, we 
 are assured that in the ensuing conflict Moses was 
 vindicated. 
 
 Nor does he as a religious leader fare any better. 
 The story of Korah and his company has, by the editor 
 of Numbers xvi., been interlocked with the entirely 
 different episode of Dathan and Abiram. It is easy to 
 disentangle the two narratives. Korah led the re¬ 
 bellion against the innovations of Moses in affairs of 
 religion (Nu. xvi. la, 2-11, 16-23). In this narrative, 
 which comes from P., Korah claims that the whole 
 congregation is holy, and asserts that Moses and Aaron 
 are assuming too much. This is the conflict between 
 the old equality of the petty princes of the tribes, and 
 the new authority of the leader of the larger unit. 
 This seems to have been the beginning of the special¬ 
 ization of the priesthood. The new order of the 
 Levitical priesthood, which is represented here as hav¬ 
 ing its inception in the wilderness, faced long cen¬ 
 turies of comparatively slow development before it 
 became fully recognized. The final result, however, 
 was its complete justification and legalization. To 
 the same movement belongs the account of the strange 
 incense offered by Nadab and Abihu (Lev. x. 1-5). 
 No doubt in those days, when order was slowly emerg¬ 
 ing out of tribal chaos, religious customs of some of 
 the tribes would not be acceptable to the whole. The 
 most approved methods of worship were being slowly 
 put to the test by the whole group. Painfully did the 
 ritual of ancient Israel come to birth and grow to 
 
54 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 maturity. The undesirable was sloughed off, and 
 the more approved accepted. This is one of the 
 illustrations in which the new religion purified 
 itself from that which was unnecessary to the new 
 regime. 
 
 Golden Calf —No less illuminating is the story of 
 the golden calf (Ex. xxxii.). Here in the hour of ex¬ 
 tremity is what seems to be a reversion to type. The 
 nomad always had a veneration for the ox. As essen¬ 
 tial to his life, we do not wonder that it occupied a 
 central place in his worship. But new days were at 
 hand. A new spirit was stirring in the midst of the 
 tribes. A more spiritual worship was demanded. Just 
 how early there was a propaganda against images in 
 Israel is uncertain. In the middle of the eighth cen¬ 
 tury B.c. we have the definite attack by Hosea. But 
 it is most likely that the roots of his dogma sink deep 
 into the past. That the germ of this should lie in the 
 desert experience, is not only comprehensible, but is 
 the most obvious explanation for the later growth. 
 The desert infiuence tended towards a very meager 
 symbolism in religion. 
 
 The Old Testament picture of this period is reason¬ 
 ably complete. It gives us glimpses of that stress and 
 strain which always accompanies national and religious 
 growth. There were conflicts with environment and 
 antagonisms within. A number of tribes, with varied 
 histories, could not unite into one group without clash 
 of leadership and ideas. A foreign group, like the 
 Kenites, could not be assimilated without irritations 
 within the body politic. A new emphasis could not 
 be demanded in religion without serious heart-burn¬ 
 ings and grave fears on the part of many. A new 
 covenant could not be consummated apart from 
 criticism and dissension. Nor could a new symbolism 
 in worship be introduced without some sincere souls 
 showing a preference for the good old ways. 
 
ISRAEL’S EXPERIENCES 
 
 55 
 
 D—The Achievements of Moses 
 
 That, during this period, such achievements were 
 brought well under way, is nothing short of miraculous. 
 That later religious interpreters should conclude the 
 story of each struggle with a picture of divine inter¬ 
 vention in some supernatural form, is not strange. To 
 have failed to have seen the mark of divine approval, 
 or to have neglected to express it in terms that were 
 appreciated by their early readers, would have been 
 unwarranted. No man could lay foundations in the 
 life of a nation, ancient or modern, such as Moses 
 did, without being led by God, and without having 
 on his actions the seal and approval of God as well 
 as the historian. 
 
 Such achievement gives Moses a unique place as 
 statesman and religious leader in Israel. We do not 
 wonder that later centuries placed a halo upon his 
 brow, or that Michelangelo chiseled the sprouting 
 horns on his forehead. Legend alone, though at times 
 it sadly distorts history, can place on its proper pin¬ 
 nacle the spirit and personality of the hero. 
 
 Part of the halo with which the ancients invested 
 him was that of authorship. In rabbinical tradition, 
 he is credited with spending forty days in heaven, 
 during which time, like the angels, he ate nothing, 
 while God instructed him in the daytime in the law 
 and in the nighttime in the Mishna. It is said ‘‘God 
 taught him everything which every student should 
 discover in the course of time.” In fact, he is reputed 
 to have taught the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the 
 Phoenicians all of their respective cultures. 
 
 The student, of course, does not take all of this 
 seriously. From what already has been indicated, it 
 may be questioned whether any considerable part of 
 the tradition has the warrant either of Scripture or 
 of historic probability. Nomadic peoples living amidst 
 
56 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 such conditions as are found in the wilderness neither 
 possess a high civilization, nor produce literature. 
 These were days of simple wants and simple outlook, 
 rather than of complex culture. It was the time when 
 the simple stone monuments at Gilgal were better 
 understood by the Israelites than could have been an 
 elaborate code of laws, or a volume of ancient religious 
 interpretation. 
 
 But this was a formative period. There was a 
 wealth of experience which was handed down to later 
 writers. The struggles, the conquests, the deliverances, 
 the decisions, civil and religious, by the judges, all 
 became the property of oral tradition, and were passed 
 on to succeeding generations. It was the day of 
 national beginnings, and was the seed-bed of law and 
 religion. Though our earliest sources neither encour¬ 
 age us to believe that Israel began her career with 
 civil and religious codes that were complete for all 
 time, nor to give Moses the chief seat among the 
 scribes, yet later tradition, though with very imperfect 
 perspective, has scarcely done more than justice to 
 the importance of the experiences and the character of 
 Moses. This means, not that we should resolve all 
 the narratives into bald prose, which was neither 
 the intention of the earliest story-tellers, nor profit¬ 
 able to us, but that we should find here the impulse 
 which separated Israel from their past and from their 
 neighbors, and the leader, who, under God, was the 
 pioneer in the national, the moral, and the religious 
 life of this people. If Moses gave a few regulative 
 principles for the new intertribal observance, if he 
 gained their united, intelligent consent thereto, if 
 he brought this people into covenant relation to Yah- 
 weh by their own choice, then he laid the foundations 
 of all the later religious development of the nation. 
 Such achievement may well assure to his name a place 
 of honor among the world’s great religious leaders. 
 
f *r 
 
 
TERRITOKIAL DIVISION OF CANAAN AFTER THE 
 FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE HEBJ^SW^ ^TRIBES 
 
 68 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 ENTRANCE INTO AND SETTLEMENT 
 
 IN CANAAN 
 
 Joshua i.— xii.; Judges i.— xxi. 
 
 A —Preparation 
 
 The eagerness of the Israelites to enter Canaan 
 from the south had been frustrated at least in part. 
 It is quite probable that some infiltration had, how¬ 
 ever, taken place (Nu. xxi. 1-3; Jgs. i. 17). The fact 
 that the Kenites and the Calebites, ancient clans that 
 seem to have long roamed the borders of the desert, 
 occupy so important a place in the history of Judah, 
 may be an indication that small groups, that later 
 attached themselves to Israel, at an early date, had 
 gained a foothold in the south country (Gen. xxxvi. 
 11, 15, 42; Josh. xiv. 14). 
 
 Some of the northern and eastern tribes, which al¬ 
 ways were but loosely connected with the main body 
 of the nation, may likewise have had early, partial 
 possession of their own districts. As children of con¬ 
 cubines, Dan, Naphthali, Gad, and Asher are related 
 only in a secondary way to the main stock. Informa¬ 
 tion from Egyptian sources indicates that some Israel- 
 itish groups were in Palestine before the time of the 
 exodus. The Tel-el-Amarna tablets mention a strong 
 clan by the name of the Bene-Abd-Ashirti—sons 
 of the servant of Asher—and a little later we learn, 
 from the inscriptions in the time of Seti I, that 
 
 59 
 
60 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 there existed in west Galilee an important state 
 by the name of Asher. Later still, in 1215 b.c., the 
 aged Merneptah celebrated his triumph over the 
 peoples of Palestine, and recorded amongst others the 
 now famous line, ‘Tsrael is desolated, her seed is not.’’ 
 The simplest explanation of these facts is that small 
 tribes which were more or less closely related to Israel 
 had penetrated into Palestine, and had taken root in 
 different parts of the country. Asher and some of the 
 other concubine tribes may have been in the north, 
 the Habiri—or the Confederates?—may have been in 
 the center, and Kenites may have penetrated the south. 
 Even a group known as Israel was in the land perhaps 
 a short time before the main exodus. Thus we can 
 see how such early occupation of kindly disposed clans 
 would later facilitate Israel’s conquest of the older 
 Canaanites. 
 
 It is also probable that east of the Jordan was not 
 entirely strange to the kin of Israel. Quite similar 
 conditions existed here to those in the wilderness. At 
 various times wandering herdsmen might seek pastur¬ 
 age for their cattle east of Moab and as far north as 
 Gilead. The Old Testament has preserved an inter¬ 
 esting sidelight. It is said that Reuben and Gad were 
 awarded the east side of the Jordan because they had 
 much cattle (Dt. iii. 19; Nu. xxxii. 1). This assures 
 us that they had lived apart from the main body, and 
 had had the advantage of good pasturage. What 
 more likely than that at some early time these clans 
 had wandered over this territory, and thus laid claim 
 to their later possession. We have also the story, 
 which is very hard to evaluate, of Israel’s conflict in 
 the east with Moab and Midian (Nu. xxii.-xxiv.). It 
 is possible that here we may find the echo of an early 
 struggle which extended far up into the territory of 
 Bashan, and reduced some of the important cities to 
 vassalage to Israel. By conquest and alliance Israel 
 
SETTLEMENT IN CANAAN 61 
 
 seems at an early period to have gained a vantage 
 ground east of the Jordan. 
 
 Such seem to be the underlying currents of these 
 early days. The tribal developments, the assimilation 
 of outside elements, the frequent change of clans and 
 tribes from one location to another, the petty skir¬ 
 mishes and the more important raids, the rise and fall 
 of the dominant elements within the tribe, all were 
 such as to prevent any complete chronicle, or even 
 preserve in clear outline, the most significant move¬ 
 ments. But for centuries preceding the conquest, as 
 well as for centuries following, the life of Palestine was 
 in flux. Tribes were loosely anchored to their pos¬ 
 sessions. Life was a restless melee of heterogeneous 
 Semitic clans, the newer and the older in constant 
 conflict. Slowly, indeed, did the flux give place to 
 settlement, and only gradually did the lines of organi¬ 
 zation appear. 
 
 B —Entrance into Canaan 
 
 The nucleus of the new nation, when it left Kadesh- 
 Barnea, moved eastward. They encountered the 
 Edomite, and had to avoid his territory (Nu. xx. 
 14^21). Skirting south, then eastward, they then 
 passed north along the eastern border of Moab (Nu. 
 xxi. 4-9; 10-20; xxv. 1-5). They came into con¬ 
 flict with these, their nearest kin, and were long 
 enough east of the Jordan, not only to clash with the 
 Amorite, the Moabite, and perhaps the Midianite 
 army, but also to gain a strong foothold in the land 
 east of the Jordan (Nu. xxii.-xxiv.). 
 
 With such a preparation we can the better under¬ 
 stand their entrance into the promised land. For a 
 generation they had been skirting the country and 
 looking longingly into its rich territory. Two expedi¬ 
 tions, one from the south and the other from the east. 
 
62 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 had entered the land and brought back their re¬ 
 ports (Nu. xiii.-xiv.; Josh. ii. 1-24). Many similar 
 incursions may have been made. Intercourse then 
 as now was unquestionably a common occurrence. 
 Invasion of Palestine from the east was the constant 
 course of history, and now all was in readiness. 
 
 Israel on the east side of the Jordan was eager, and 
 only awaited the proper opportunity to follow the 
 pathway of preceding invaders. At length the climax, 
 the crystallizing of the insurgent demands, arrived. 
 The approved leader, the encouraging report of the 
 outrunners, the high confidence of the waiting throng, 
 the essential religious ceremonies, without which no 
 people would undertake any great endeavor, and a 
 passable ford of the Jordan, all in conjunction, pro¬ 
 claimed the divine will. The sturdy worshipers of 
 Yahweh, bound into a federacy by the experiences of 
 the past and the hopes of the present, were impelled 
 forward to the new task, the entrance into, and the 
 conquest of, the land. The main features of the story 
 are clear. The ford opposite Jericho was the natural 
 approach. Here a considerable body of invaders, the 
 nucleus of the future nation, entered the land, 
 unitedly under the leadership of Joshua the Ephra- 
 imite, about 1200 b.c. (Jg. i. 1; Josh, iii.-iv.). 
 
 The city of Jericho, a well-walled city, about five- 
 eighths of a mile in outer circumference, always the 
 prize of the invader, was captured after a prolonged 
 siege (Josh. iv.~vi.). The narratives give in vivid color 
 the results rather than the process, and celebrate the 
 power and the glory of Yahweh, the conquering God 
 of Israel, rather than the prowess of the soldiers, and 
 the long, weary struggle of the people. Only a few 
 stray words hint at the severity of the conflict and 
 the valor which ultimately gained this key to the land. 
 The armed men were in the forefront of the procession, 
 surely for obvious reasons, and the record further states 
 
SETTLEMENT IN CANAAN 
 
 63 
 
 ‘‘the men of Jericho fought against you’^ (Josh. vi. 9; 
 xxiv. 11). Then followed the capture of the little 
 village of Ai, which required military strategy, as well 
 as a purification of the tribe and a renewed dedication 
 to Yahweh (Josh, vii.-viii.). Later days glorified the 
 power of Yahweh in their every forward step, and 
 rightly looked on this experience as epochal in their 
 history. 
 
 C—Occupation of Canaan 
 
 Our sources for the settlement of Palestine are two¬ 
 fold. The archaeologist furnishes us with little that 
 has direct bearing on the subject. Egypt and Baby¬ 
 lonia were either too weak or too busy with internal 
 affairs to go beyond their own borders. Excavations 
 in Palestine have given us no inscription for the period 
 from 1200 to 1000 b.c. But the general social and 
 industrial condition of the country is amply illustrated 
 by the debris and pottery from ruined cities. 
 
 The Old Testament, Joshua and Judges chiefly, is 
 then the only source for any detail. Joshua is the 
 continuation of the first five books of the Old Testa¬ 
 ment. It has preserved no writing that was contem¬ 
 porary with the settlement. The stories were repeated 
 from generation to generation, not for the sake of 
 history, but because of personal interest. It is no 
 wonder that few names, as Joshua, Rahab, and Achan, 
 have been preserved. Apart from these we meet only 
 shadow figures, ofiicers, spies, Levites, priests, and 
 kings, in the place of men who once loved and hated, 
 fought and conquered. Hence, any reconstruction of 
 the history of these early days must leave wide gaps 
 and can treat only of general conditions of life and 
 growth. 
 
 Joshua falls into three parts: chapters i.-xii., the 
 conquest, xiii.-xxi., the division of the land, and 
 
64 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 xxii.-xxiv., the settlement of the two and a half tribes, 
 and the farewell speeches of Joshua. Our chief con¬ 
 cern is with i.~xii. and a few fragments in sections two 
 and three. JE. constitute the larger part of the first 
 section, and, as they lie nearest to the events in point 
 of time, are the most important historical sources. 
 D. adds i., ii. 10, 11; hi. 2-4, 5-9; iv. lib, 12, 14, 21-24; 
 V. 1, 4-7; ix. 1, 2, 9b, 10, 24, 25, 27b; x. 8, 12a, 14b, 
 25, 28-43; xi. 10-23; xii.—which contributes nothing 
 of historical knowledge, but gives the Deuteronomic 
 summaries and viewpoint. P. inserts a few chron¬ 
 ological and theological notes, iv. 13, 19; v. 10-12; 
 vii. 1; ix. 15b, 17-21. 
 
 The second division, xiii.-xxi., comes chiefly from P., 
 and carries out the priestly theory of how the twelve 
 tribes should have proceeded to divide up their in¬ 
 heritance. In the third section, xxii.-xxiv., only xxii. 
 1-8 (D), which touches the settlement of the two and 
 a half tribes, has an historical bearing. 
 
 Judges, in its present form, is the result of D. using 
 material from a collection of hero-stories that had 
 been gathered probably by JE. Chapter i.-ii. 5 is part 
 of an early history of the conquest preserved by J., 
 and has been untouched by later hands. Chapters 
 xvii.-xxi. are two appendices telling of the origin of 
 the sanctuary at Dan (xvii.-xix.), and the reason for 
 the smallness of the tribe of Benjamin (xx.-xxi.), 
 which likewise belong probably to the early book. 
 Apart from a few notes {e.g., xvii. 1; xviii. 1; xix. 1; 
 xxi. 25) these chapters also have not suffered from the 
 editor. 
 
 The body of the book, ii. 6—xvi. 31, stands quite by 
 itself. The Deuteronomic editor took those selections 
 that best suited his purpose from the original JE. 
 book of Judges, and put them into his chronological 
 and theological framework. The chronology, with its 
 recurrent twenty and forty, is quite artificial, and 
 
SETTLEMENT IN CANAAN 
 
 65 
 
 one wonders if it should be used at all to determine 
 dates. The theology is that common to Deuteronomy 
 (cf. Dt. xxviii. 1-68 and Jgs. ii. 6—hi. 6; iv. 1-3; v. 
 31b; vi. 1; viii. 27b, 28b, etc.). So long as the nation 
 served Yahweh they prospered and were triumphant; 
 whenever they sinned the invader rushed in and pun¬ 
 ished them. When they repented, Yahweh sent a 
 deliverer, and they had rest for a number of years. 
 This was the Deuteronomist’s religious interpretation 
 of history. The evil must be punished in material 
 things, and the good must enjoy temporal blessings. 
 The writer selected twelve heroes from this earlier 
 book of Judges, and used them as illustrations to press 
 home his thesis. To this he added an introduction 
 (ii. 6—iii. 6), which is his resume of the period. 
 
 To follow the progress of the settlement is not with¬ 
 out difficulty. Our records do not always agree in 
 particulars (cf. Jgs. i. 11-21 and Josh. x. 38-42). But 
 the preponderating evidence shows that the course of 
 conquest is divided into three streams. Judah, accom¬ 
 panied by Simeon, that is, the Leah tribes, went into 
 the south country, and in due time conquered the chief 
 hill cities, Hebron, Bethlehem, and Debir (Jgs. i. 2-21; 
 Josh. XV. 14-19). Here, later, the Calebites, the 
 Kenites, and the Jerahmeelites joined forces with them. 
 (These clans were independent units as late as the time 
 of Saul, cf. I Sam. xxvii. 10; xxx. 14.) The narrative 
 gives no suggestion as to the duration of the struggle 
 or the process of settlement. It even fails to dis¬ 
 tinguish between raids and conquest. Jerusalem may 
 have been raided, but surely was not captured (cf. 
 Jgs. i. 8) and Gaza, Askelon, Ekron, and their borders 
 did not in those days, in reality, pass out of the hands 
 of the Philistines (cf. Jgs. i. 18). The historical 
 perspective is still further lost when we turn to the 
 Priestly narrative {e.g., Josh. xv. 1-13). His boundary 
 lines are purely theoretical, and represent the ideal 
 
66 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 extent of Judah, which was probably never controlled 
 in its entirety. The actual fact is stated in Judges i. 
 19, “He drove out the inhabitants of the hill-country, 
 for he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley 
 because they had chariots of iron.’^ Even the com¬ 
 plete mastery of the hill-country was a matter of dec¬ 
 ades, rather than days. Armies were not drawn up in 
 modern battle array. Raids, sorties, and guerrilla war¬ 
 fare were the approved methods. Tribes camped in 
 protected spots, and intermittently carried fire and 
 sword into adjacent villages. Many of the defeated 
 escaped, only to return and wreak vengeance on their 
 assailants, and to build again their broken houses. 
 Important cities like Hebron, Bethlehem, and Debir 
 would not easily be relinquished. Only after long 
 struggle and much assimilation were such strategic 
 places likely to become the undisputed possessions of 
 Judah. 
 
 The second stream was composed of the Rachel 
 tribes. Whether it was contemporaneous with that 
 of Judah is quite uncertain. Led by Joshua, they 
 attempted to gain the great central plateau (Jgs. i. 
 22-29; Josh. vii.—x. 25). Repulsed at Ai, by resort 
 to strategy they overthrew the village. Bethel, the 
 next place in line, was taken. The Gibeonites, a 
 Canaanite tribe, by a ruse, gained an alliance with 
 the conquerors. Later, Bethoron was the scene of a 
 decisive battle, fought and won by Joshua against a 
 combined host of Canaanites. Thus, by victory and 
 alliance, the Rachel tribes, Joseph and Benjamin, ob¬ 
 tained possession of their inheritance. 
 
 One striking difference between Ephraim and Judah, 
 owing to the contour of the land, ought to be noted. 
 Judah is a comparatively smooth table-land, easily 
 guarded because of the precipitous decline to the 
 table-land of the Shephelah. The highlands of Eph¬ 
 raim are intersected by innumerable wadies, and the 
 
SETTLEMENT IN CANAAN 
 
 67 
 
 slope down to the plain is gradual. Raiding here was 
 not only more profitable, but was much easier than in 
 Judah. Decisive victory was not so easy. Hence, as 
 isolation from the Canaanite and the Philistine was 
 impossible, assimilation and alliance went on more 
 rapidly and more thoroughly in the north than in the 
 south. This difference in the topography of the two 
 countries contributed much to the marked divergence 
 in their respective economic and religious histories. 
 
 The third division in Israel embraced the concubine 
 clans. They were on the outskirts to the north, and 
 always were the least significant part of Israel. It 
 is only considerably later than 1200 b.c. that we find 
 any vital bond between these and Joseph and Judah. 
 An early fragment tells how Joshua put four Kings 
 of the north to rout, by the waters of Merom (Josh, 
 xi. 1-9). But it is strange that Joshua the Ephra- 
 imite should be so far from his own territory, and 
 curious that in Judges iv. we have again the story of 
 a battle against King Jabin. It is also improbable, to 
 say the least, that the defeated army was scattered to 
 Sidon and Mizpah. That there were conflicts in the 
 north in the early days, is quite probable, but it is 
 quite likely that here oral tradition, innocently enough, 
 has intermingled stories from different parts of the 
 country, and perhaps even from different periods. 
 
 Two lines of important fortresses situated in the 
 two valleys running from east to west long remained 
 in the hands of the Canaanites, and split Israel into 
 these three groups. Between Judah and Ephraim lay 
 the valley of Aijalon, with the cities of Gezer, Aijalon, 
 and Bethshemesh, which along with Jerusalem, were 
 held by the Canaanites. Still more effectively were 
 the northern tribes, Asher, Dan, Naphthali, and 
 Zebulun, separated from their kinsmen by the valley 
 of Esdraelon (Jgs. i. 27-33). The bridging of these 
 gulfs belongs to the period of the judges. 
 
68 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 D— The Settlement 
 
 A graphic portrayal of the struggles and growth of 
 Israel during the process of settlement is preserved 
 in Judges ii. 6—xvi. 31. This part of the book is a 
 sermon, but the illustrations that are used to drive 
 home the text are the hero-stories that had been 
 handed down from the early days. The arbitrariness 
 of the chronological scheme, the twenties and forties, 
 forbids us to use it statistically. The editor may have 
 intended to suggest that the period extended over four 
 hundred years, but trying to manipulate his figures 
 does not prove satisfactory. All depends on the point 
 from which we start. Perhaps two hundred years, or 
 less, may approximately cover the period from the fall 
 of Jericho down to Saul. If we reach back, and esti¬ 
 mate the time from those days in which stray groups 
 of Hebrews under various names, as Asher or Israel, 
 wandered through the country, we might well speak 
 of it as four hundred. But chronology fails us. 
 
 The life of the nation is, however, adequately de¬ 
 scribed. It is the story of the difficulties of settlement. 
 They met foes from three different quarters. The 
 Canaanites were still to the fore. Until these were 
 subdued, Israel could have neither ability nor interest 
 to meet others. How long petty warfare and assimi¬ 
 lation continued after the heights were securely held, 
 before the final crisis came, we do not know. As Israel 
 grew in numbers, formed alliances, and gained strength, 
 she must needs turn her eyes, for material resources, 
 as well as for strategic purposes, to the Esdraelon plain. 
 Many seemed willing to leave well enough alone, but 
 in Israel there arose a woman who saw that national 
 unity, national strength, and national religion, all alike 
 cried out for the possession of this valley. Deborah 
 rallied the flagging energies of the tribes bordering on 
 this territory. Barak was her henchman. Together 
 
SETTLEMENT IN CANAAN 
 
 69 
 
 they roused to the standard six tribes against Sisera, 
 perhaps a Hittite captain, and Jabin, king of Hazor, 
 who held the valley. The story of the victory, so 
 essential to the national future, was long the worthy 
 theme of bard and fireside story-teller. Two accounts, 
 one in prose, the other in poetry, differing somewhat 
 in detail, but both corroborating the essential fact, 
 have been preserved (Jgs. iv.-v.). The poem, evi¬ 
 dently one of the earliest of the nation’s war songs, 
 breathes the spirit of the time. Yahweh is the war 
 God from Sinai, who leads his people, who delights in 
 the intrigues and the valor of battle, rather than in 
 the milder ways of peace or in the loftier conceptions 
 of morals. Yet we know that military virtues and 
 loyalties have ever been the disciplines that have 
 paved the way for the higher morals and religion. 
 
 The battle of Megiddo enabled the northern and 
 the middle tribes to unite, and thus not only did they 
 possess the wonderfully fertile valley, but the confed¬ 
 eracy was enlarged and strengthened. Once firmly 
 established in the land, Israel must next defend her¬ 
 self from outside attacks. The same pasture land, 
 the same grain to be had for the raiding, which had 
 attracted the Hebrews, always lured others over the 
 same Jordan fords. Two invasions from the east are 
 mentioned. The Moabites crossed the Jordan, took 
 Jericho, and put the Benjamites to tribute (Jgs. iii. 
 12-17). The prowess of a single individual, Ehud of 
 Benjamin, gained freedom from Eglon. 
 
 More serious was the Midianite invasion, up the 
 wady Ferah, into the very heart of the Ephraimite 
 country (Jgs. vi. 1—viii. 35). Israelites at this time 
 were turning from their early nomadic habits to the 
 more substantial but more arduous life of agriculture. 
 At best, bending the back to such toil is difficult. To 
 the nomad it was a transition that was only slowly and 
 painfully made. If the desert people should continue 
 
70 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 to raid the harvest fields, how long would these new 
 farmers pay the price agriculture demanded? Easy 
 indeed would it have been to have slipped back into 
 the old lazy life of sitting 
 
 . . . among the sheepfolds 
 To hear the pipings of the flock. 
 
 But such a spirit would never have produced a 
 nation, a literature, or a worthy religion. The man was 
 ready for the hour, a man whose own labors were 
 greatly endangered, and on whom had fallen the duty of 
 blood revenge (Jgs. viii. 18-21). Gideon had the grace 
 of humility and the gift of strategy. Under the severity 
 of his tests the loose rabble melted away, and three 
 hundred men, who had but one passion, stood by him 
 ready for the fray. The raiders already possessed a 
 wholesome fear, perhaps with good reason, of this son 
 of Manasseh (Jgs. vii. 13-14). In the middle of the 
 night, with a blast of trumpets and a flare of torches, 
 with the old war slogan, “the sword of Yahweh and 
 of Gideon”, Gideon and his band burst on the amazed, 
 terror-stricken pillagers. The rout was complete. The 
 enemy was chased out of the country, and the severest 
 penalties were exacted from them and their accom¬ 
 plices. What a theme for the hero-worshiper, and how 
 well it has been told (Jgs. vi.-vii.)! 
 
 The Ammonites likewise disputed the territory with 
 Israel (Jgs. x. 7-11). While they seem to have made 
 an effort to gain possession of the hill country of Eph¬ 
 raim and Judah, they made it unpleasant chiefly for 
 those on the east side of the river, with Gilead as their 
 fortress. Jephthah, an outlaw Gileadite, was called 
 to the leadership, and in time reduced the enemies to 
 terms (Jgs. xi.). 
 
 If the military prowess of this young nation was 
 tested and strengthened by constant conflict with 
 
SETTLEMENT IN CANAAN 
 
 71 
 
 Canaan and with invaders from the desert, their 
 villages in the west were not free from encroaching 
 enemies. Along the Mediterranean coast, almost from 
 Carmel to the wady El-Arish, often called the river of 
 Egypt, extending towards the low-lying foothills of 
 Judah, were the Philistines. These people, of Aryian 
 origin, coming from Crete and the near-by territory 
 of Asia Minor proper, forced out of their homes by in¬ 
 vaders from the east and north, had made their way 
 into the southwest of Palestine, some coming by land 
 and others by water, shortly before 1200 b.c. While 
 they preserved some of their ancient customs, and re¬ 
 fused circumcision, they readily adopted the language 
 and many of the ways of life of the Canaanites. With 
 more of a genius for organization than their Semitic 
 neighbors, they formed a strong confederacy of five 
 cities, Askelon, Ekron, Ashdod, Gaza, and Gath, all 
 situated in the south. 
 
 Both peoples, Judah and the Philistines, needed to 
 expand. For both the Shephelah offered the natural 
 outlet. In the early days, the Philistines, because of 
 their experience in military affairs and their freedom 
 from other conflicts, gained considerable advantage. 
 Judah, however, possessed the vantage ground. From 
 her hills she could watch the approach of the enemy, 
 ambush her forces, and circumvent her attacks. At 
 times there was comparative peace, yet the cause of 
 conflict always remained, and at any moment old 
 feuds might flame out anew. 
 
 The story of Shamgar, probably the name of a 
 Hittite, is unconnected with its present context, and in 
 an exaggerated way commemorates the exploits of 
 some individual otherwise unknown (Jgs. iii. 31). 
 Samson, though scarcely worthy of the rank of judge, 
 or deliverer, is of more real interest (Jgs. xiii.-xvi.). 
 He was a Danite, perhaps one of those left behind 
 when the six hundred valiant men of the tribe moved 
 
72 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 from Zorah and Eshtaol northward to find some more 
 acceptable possession (Jgs. xviii.). He was the strong 
 man of the countryside, who in the rivalry of con¬ 
 tending groups became the heroic figure around which 
 there easily accumulated numerous tales of individual 
 prowess. No doubt for these there was a real basis 
 in fact, but the exploits of Samson do not seem either 
 to have strengthened Judah or weakened the Philis¬ 
 tines. In the early days of the Kingdom we find them 
 still formidable rivals of Israel. 
 
 The picture of the social and the religious life in 
 these stories shows conditions as they were. The 
 social customs, particularly those of the marriage 
 celebrations, the eating and drinking, the songs and 
 riddles, the rude contests and ruder merriment, all 
 ring true to life. National relations are accurately set 
 forth. The two nations were on sufiiciently friendly 
 terms to permit of intermarriage, though it was not 
 considered by all to be in the best taste. Race inter¬ 
 est and hatred ran deeply enough for a Philistine 
 maiden to betray her lover into the hands of her own 
 people. Private quarrels such as these were likely to 
 be of frequent occurrence. 
 
 The religious picture perhaps fairly represents the 
 average Israelite of the day. The moral status was 
 not high. The bonds of sex morality were loose. 
 Pagan religious ideas were prevalent. The vow of 
 the Nazarite was a religious act of seeming importance, 
 though Samson observed only one of the later require¬ 
 ments (Nu. vi. 1-6). The whole story has been re¬ 
 solved by some into a piece of well-wrought-out solar 
 mythology. But there seems no adequate basis for 
 this. It reads more like an early folk-tale that cele¬ 
 brated these feats of physical ability, which always so 
 much delight the child mind. In its social and religious 
 atmosphere it fits perfectly into the condition of the 
 time. 
 
SETTLEMENT IN CANAAN 
 
 73 
 
 Developments —The book of Judges also gives us 
 a good view of the inner life of the people. With the 
 constant warfare there was continual development, 
 a growing tribal coherence, and an increasing com¬ 
 plexity in their civilization. At the beginning of the 
 period we found three groups with very slight bonds 
 of sympathy. The tribal sense was strong. Ephraim 
 was jealous of Manasseh and of Gilead (Jgs. viii. 1; xii. 
 1). Dan had little consideration for the clans of 
 Ephraim, and Benjamin suffered severely at the hands 
 of the other tribes (Jgs. xvii., xviii., xxi.). Judah had 
 no call and apparently no interest in the battle of 
 Megiddo. The old tribal law of blood revenge was 
 the rule of the day (Jgs. viii. 19). They were indeed 
 days of confusion, ‘Vhen every man did that which 
 was right in his own eyes.’’ 
 
 Still, we note the signs of growing unity. Deborah 
 marshaled six tribes to battle, and thus bridged the 
 gap between the north and the middle. Gideon united 
 the forces of Manasseh and Ephraim, and Jephthah 
 numbered in his army men from west Jordan as well 
 as from Gilead. The movement towards unification 
 is also illustrated in the abortive attempt of Abimelech, 
 whose mother was a Canaanite, to hold the Kingship 
 (Jgs. ix. 38-39). 
 
 Progress had likewise been made in their industrial 
 life. They entered the country as bedouin. Sheep 
 and cattle were their source of supply. In the begin¬ 
 ning they had supplemented this with the grain they 
 had taken in raids (Josh. v. 12, P.). Slowly, under 
 the tutelage of their neighbors, they had learned the 
 processes of agriculture (Jgs. vi. 4; xvi. 18; xv. 1). 
 Their wealth must have increased rapidly. The record 
 of three of the minor judges reflects the growing 
 splendor of these days. Jair, for example, “had thirty 
 sons that rode on thirty ass colts, and they had thirty 
 cities” (Jgs. X. 4). Along with the agricultural dis- 
 
74 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 cipline came a more vigorous life, a greater wealth, a 
 wider range of interests, a greater mental alertness, 
 and changing social and religious customs to suit the 
 changed economic conditions. 
 
 Bound up with the cultivation of the soil were 
 Canaanitish rites which were believed to be inseparable 
 from its fertility. All of these, incantations and 
 symbolism, springtime and autumn festivals, religious 
 dances and sacrifices, linked the farmer to Baal wor¬ 
 ship. The Hebrews necessarily learned agriculture 
 and the religious rites together. But the rites, even 
 as the land, they appropriated in the name of their 
 God, Yahweh. Thus the Baal altars on every hillside 
 throughout the land were dedicated to the conquering 
 God, and Yahweh became the Baal, that is, master 
 of the land. Loyal Israelites found no reason why 
 they should not call their children by this ancient 
 Canaanitish name for deity, as Jerubaal, Ishbaal, and 
 Meribaal indicate. It is quite true that there were 
 those, as the Nazarites and the Rechabites, who from 
 early days were opposed to this assimilation. 
 
 Morals could not escape the influences of the transi¬ 
 tion period. The new civilization had many a pitfall 
 for the unwary. The new luxury meant new revelry 
 and new license. The wars of conquest fed the fires 
 of passion and of brutality. The changing times con¬ 
 tributed to the lawlessness so ^That every man did that 
 which was right in his own eyes.’^ In the concluding 
 chapters of the book, we have a glimpse of the moral 
 conditions at their worst (Jgs. xix.-xxi.). This is one 
 of the earliest parts of the book. The story is told of 
 the shameful abuse of the Levite’s concubine by the 
 Benjamites of Gibeah. The new life with its 
 abundance had nurtured the physical powers, devel¬ 
 oped the nerve centers, and hence intensified the sexual 
 passions, and the beast within had broken loose in a 
 wild orgy of lust. But the narrative has for us even 
 
SETTLEMENT IN CANAAN 
 
 75 
 
 greater significance than this. It is to be noted that 
 the Levite and again the Israelites were enraged at 
 the offending city, not for any breach of the moral 
 law or for the violation of a woman’s honor. That 
 was too delicate a point for their consciences. But the 
 disregard of the ancient law of hospitality, and the 
 violation of a man’s property rights in his concubine 
 appealed to them as outrages. In their anger they 
 decimated the Benjamites to whom amends were made 
 later. 
 
 New laws, likewise, to meet new conditions were 
 either borrowed from their neighbors or devised by 
 their judges to meet the requirements of the case. 
 These were the days of building foundations for the 
 national life, and the book of Judges affords us a very 
 complete picture of the forward movement from the 
 simple to the complex, from the primitive to the 
 civilized. 
 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE RISE OF THE MONARCHY 
 Saul (?—cm. 1013 b.c.) 
 
 I Samuel i.— xv. 
 
 The Rise of the Monarchy 
 
 Literature —In order to reconstruct the story of the 
 beginnings of the monarchy, we must go to I and II 
 Samuel for our materials. Again we have a com¬ 
 pilation, and the fragments, often disconnected, were 
 written from different viewpoints. There are various 
 duplicates of the same event (cf. I Sam. ii. 27-36 and 
 iii. 11-12 or xiii. 7-15 and xv. 1-35 or xxiii. 19-21 and 
 xxvi. 1-3 or I Sam. xvii. and II Sam. xxi. 19, etc.), and 
 different interpretations of the same fact (cf. I Sam. 
 viii. 1-22 and ix. 1-10, 16). Some stories read like 
 the descriptions of eye-witnesses, others are the con¬ 
 clusions of moralists. 
 
 The analysis and evaluation of the sources which 
 have been carefully worked out may be found in any 
 good commentary or Bible dictionary. For our pur¬ 
 pose it must suffice to note that the oldest documents 
 used, and these constitute a large part of the book, 
 were written from sometime between 900 and 800 b.c. 
 That places them within a century or so after the 
 events described. These, because of content and style, 
 are easily divided into five groups, in which there are 
 
 76 
 
THE RISE OF THE MONARCHY 
 
 77 
 
 only occasional annotations, (a)—The early life of 
 Samuel (I Sam. i., ii. 11-26; hi. 1—iv. la; xv.). (h )— 
 The history of the ark (I Sam. iv. lb—^vii. 1). (c)— 
 The history of Saul (I Sam. ix. 1—x. 16; xi., xiii. 2-7a; 
 xiii. 15b—xiv. 46). (d )—The early life of David (I 
 
 Sam. xvi. 14-23; xvii. 1-11, 32-54; xviii. 6-16, 20-29a; 
 xix. 1—xxi. 9; xxii., xxiii., xxv.-xxxi.). (e )—The his¬ 
 tory of David as king (II Sam. i.-vi., ix.-xx.). The 
 realistic pictures of these early stories carry the con¬ 
 viction of their essential accuracy. 
 
 Later, perhaps during the exile, the Deuteronomic 
 school, as with our previous sources, edited these early 
 documents. They introduced material handed to them 
 by tradition, touching such features as the ark, the 
 kingship, and the proposed temple, here and there by 
 phrase or paragraph, added their religious conviction, 
 incorporated general summaries and other important 
 material, and in a general way brought ancient history 
 up to date (e.g., I Sam. ii. 1-10, 27-36; vii., viii., x. 
 17-27; xi. 12-13; xii., xiii. 7b-15a; xiv. 47-51; II Sam. 
 vii., viii., etc.). The final arrangement of the material 
 was not always chronological {e.g., II Sam. xxi.-xxiv., 
 most of the events of which belong to a period earlier 
 than those in II Sam. ix.-xx.). While the boundary 
 lines of some of the original records and the contribu¬ 
 tion of the editors are often very well defined, the whole 
 presents a very lifelike picture of the struggles and 
 the progress of those formative days. 
 
 Transition Brought Responsibilities —The transition 
 from the rule of the petty judge to that of the king was 
 quite natural. The forces at work throughout the 
 period of the judges were now coming to their own. 
 Agriculture had become more general; possession of 
 the conquered villages and their environs was more 
 secure; social life had grown richer and more complex; 
 the Canaanites were more completely assimilated; and 
 the tribes more united. Therefore by virtue of their 
 
78 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 growing civilization, greater responsibilities must be 
 assumed. 
 
 Samuel, the king-maker, was the last of the judges. 
 Eli serves chiefly as a background for this more heroic 
 figure. The story chronicles a stage of decided ad¬ 
 vance. Shiloh was a prominent sanctuary. Not only 
 were the feasts celebrated there, but there the ark 
 and its acolyte remained (I Sam. i. 3, 9, 24; hi. 1-9). 
 Eli of the house of Ithamar, the fourth son of Aaron, 
 was the priest in charge of the sanctuary. He also 
 combined with that, as in the patriarchial days, the 
 function of judge. Naturally enough, his sons were 
 anxious to hold these privileges for themselves. These 
 youths also had sufficient initiative to suggest what 
 seemed to them a juster method of provision for the 
 priesthood than the haphazard custom of the time 
 (I Sam. ii. 13-17). Such changes, to say nothing of 
 other evils attributed to them, were quite distasteful 
 to the people at large, and the story records the signs 
 of Yahweh’s displeasure against them for their sins 
 (I. Sam. ii. 13-17, 22; iv. 1-22). 
 
 The Philistine Victory —At this time the Philistines 
 became a serious menace. Each group was expanding 
 and reaching out for more territory. Their armies 
 finally met at Aphek, and the lords of the Philistines 
 repulsed the hosts of Israel. The sons of Eli, who 
 were the guardians of the ark, were slain, and the ark, 
 the symbol of victory, was carried in triumph back 
 to the cities of the conquerors (I Sam. iv. 1-22). Shiloh 
 was probably destroyed, as we hear no more of it in 
 history. Tribute was exacted from Israel, and much 
 of their land was occupied by the victors. 
 
 These were sore experiences for Israel. Their servi¬ 
 tude to the Philistines was humiliating. Smithies in 
 which could be forged the weapons of warfare were 
 prohibited throughout the land (I Sam. xiii, 19-20). 
 
THE RISE OF THE MONARCHY 
 
 79 
 
 Garrisons were situated in strategic places, as Gibeah 
 of Benjamin, in the midst of the conquered territory 
 (I Sam. xiii. 3). Some of the Hebrews sought to escape 
 trouble by crossing the Jordan (I Sam. xiii. 7). Others 
 scattered northward beyond the reach of the enemy 
 (I Sam. xiv. 22), while still others with weaker race 
 prejudices and milder national hopes threw in their 
 lot with the conquerors (I Sam, xiv. 21). 
 
 The Kingship and Saul —The need of the hour was 
 a united people, and that could be secured only through 
 competent leadership. But even leadership would fail 
 ultimately unless provision were made for its perpetua¬ 
 tion by organization. Kingship alone could save Israel. 
 This was the cry of many people. Samuel, the seer, 
 was one of the farsighted men of the time. One of the 
 oldest narratives of the book has preserved the story 
 of an interview he had with Saul which most likely 
 helped to shape public opinion (I Sam. ix. 1—x. 16). 
 The young Benjamite, on a tour to round up the 
 strayed asses of his father, as a last resort, called on 
 Samuel for assistance. The prophet had more urgent' 
 business. He, however, privately interviewed the 
 young man, publicly honored him at the feast, and 
 then in the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, dedi¬ 
 cated him to the exalted task of the kingship. 
 
 Shortly afterward Saul had the opportunity of prov¬ 
 ing his ability. The Ammonites, besieging the city of 
 Jabesh-Gilead, demanded capitulation on the most 
 atrocious terms (I Sam. xi. 1, 2). In despair the be¬ 
 sieged sent out a call for help. The men of Gibeah, 
 Benjamites, perhaps closely related to the Gileadites 
 (cf. Jgs. xxi. 8-15), were deeply sympathetic. Saul, 
 a plowboy, in intense indignation aroused the slumber-, 
 ing ire of the tribes. Hastily he gathered a consider¬ 
 able army, by forced marches reached the camp of the 
 overconfident Ammonites, by strategy attacked them 
 
80 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 in the early morning from three sides, and with great 
 slaughter drove them back to their own villages (I 
 Sam. xi. 1-15). 
 
 Were there already whisperings that this youth of 
 such princely carriage and such burning passion would 
 make an ideal leader? Had his previous life been a 
 preparation for a great venture? Was SamueFs judg¬ 
 ment in the matter widely known? However, the re¬ 
 lief of Jabesh-Gilead acclaimed the hero, and the need 
 and the man of the hour came together. In a solemn 
 conclave, with the approved rites, sanctioned by 
 Samuel, the patriot and prophet of Yahweh, amidst 
 great rejoicing, Saul was crowned king at Gilgal (I 
 Sam. xi. 14-15). At the beginning this meant the alle¬ 
 giance of perhaps few beyond his own tribe, Benjamin. 
 It was only a development from the judgeship. Like 
 his predecessors he held court at Ramah (I Sam. xxii. 
 6-7), but he soon enlarged the boundaries of his sway 
 through the achievements of his arms. 
 
 But another attitude has been expressed towards the 
 kingship. This comes from the Deuteronomic pen, and 
 is the reaction produced by the course of history. None 
 of the kings of either Israel or Judah were perfect, 
 many of them were sad failures; hence a group of re¬ 
 ligious leaders looked askance at the whole movement 
 (I Sam. viii. l-22a; x. 17-24; xii. 1-25; xiii. 7-15a). 
 This antagonism naturally arose quite early. It is 
 quite probable that before the death of Samuel there 
 was a growing cleavage between the prophet and the 
 king. This may have been the starting point for that 
 sentiment that later matured under the unfortunate 
 experiences with many of the occupants of the throne. 
 
 The task before Saul was no light one. His im¬ 
 mediate foes, the Philistines, were in the very heart 
 of the country. These he met at Micmash, a few miles 
 from his own home. The daring of Jonathan, his son, 
 broke the outpost of their guard, and so inspired the 
 
THE RISE OF THE MONARCHY 
 
 81 
 
 Hebrews that they routed their ancient oppressors, 
 and drove them down the valley of the Aijalon to their 
 lowland homes (I Sam. xiii. 23—xiv. 35). 
 
 The reign of Israel’s first king was filled with wars 
 (I Sam. xiii. 3; xiv. 52; xvii. 1). How long he reigned 
 is uncertain (cf. xiii. 1). The order of the conflicts 
 we have no means of determining. The general epit¬ 
 ome of his reign tells us he fought and worsted his 
 enemies on every side, Moabites, Ammonites, Edom¬ 
 ites, and the kings of Zobah, and the Amalekites (I 
 Sam. xiv. 47-48). 
 
 But he was not free from internal strife. There 
 were too many diverse elements to be harmoniously 
 reconciled in one short reign. His view of the king¬ 
 dom and kingly duty clashed sadly with that of Samuel 
 (I Sam. xiii. 8-15; xv. 1-35). In the country were 
 men who for one reason or another questioned the 
 wisdom of his election (I Sam. xi. 12; x. 27). The 
 Gibeonites proved to be such a thorn in the side of 
 the new king that he had to put some of them to 
 death (II Sam. xxi. 2-3). 
 
 But more serious still was the alienation of David, 
 a youth of Judah. That there was some apparent 
 occasion for Saul’s jealousy may be suspected. There 
 is no question but David appealed to the imagination 
 of his countrymen. 
 
 Saul hath slain his thousands. 
 
 And David his tens of thousands, 
 
 proclaimed the plaudits of the throng. Tribal jeal¬ 
 ousies do not die easily, and the yoke of Benjamin did 
 not lie comfortably on the neck of Judah. Personal 
 quarrels broke out, and David was compelled to leave 
 the court and become an exile. Naturally he returned 
 to his own territory, where the discontented joined his 
 banner, and soon a considerable bodyguard stood ready 
 
82 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 to obey his orders (I Sam. xxi.-xxiv.). He, with his 
 little army, policed parts of the southland, and col¬ 
 lected from those whom he protected the necessary 
 support for himself and his men (I Sam. xxv.). By 
 marriage he became the possessor of the rich lands of 
 Nabal, the herdsman. Then, deeming it wise to leave 
 Judah for a time, he subtly courted the favor of the 
 Philistines. He raided the caravans and the communi¬ 
 ties of the south, deceiving Achish, and ingratiating 
 himself into the good will of his fellow tribesmen (I 
 Sam. xxvii. 1~12). Saul could not be over-comfortable 
 with this campaign going on within his own borders. 
 
 However, his old-time enemies were the king’s final 
 undoing. The Philistines, a war-like people, did not 
 readily let slip their possibility of empire. Perhaps 
 after many minor conflicts in which they were more 
 and more driven from the Israelitish territory, they 
 rallied their v/arriors at Mount Gilboa in the eastern 
 extremity of Esdraelon (I Sam. xxviii. 4—^xxxi.). That 
 the two armies should meet here, so far from their 
 respective home bases, indicates that both nations 
 had been rapidly expanding and organizing their con¬ 
 trol over ever-increasing territory. Saul, moody and 
 hesitating because of his mental malady, his hosts 
 weakened by internal schism, was unable to lead to 
 victory. His army was scattered, and with his sons he 
 perished on the field of battle. Naturally, the Philis¬ 
 tines thus became the overlords of the Israelites, and, 
 while not interested in the internal administration of 
 the country, they may have exacted tribute as the 
 spoil that belonged to the victor. 
 
 While the character and the achievement of Saul 
 did not appeal to the imagination of the editor of the 
 books of Samuel, yet we can read the story of an heroic 
 struggle amidst grave difficulties. The first king must 
 bear the brunt of that adverse criticism that always 
 falls on a new institution. His first task, that of unit- 
 
[THE RISE OF THE MONARCHY 
 
 83 
 
 ing Israel, a freedom-loving people with sharp tribal 
 cleavages, was one that centuries failed to achieve. 
 The call for battle was constant, and with the passing 
 of the years, it grew more difficult to sustain the army 
 either by voluntary or impressed forces. Further, the 
 temper of the man, splendidly capable to rouse the 
 whole country to meet a great and pressing emergency, 
 as at Jabesh-Gilead or at Micmash, was such that he 
 could not patiently carry on through the decades, amid 
 the jealousies and the discords of the court, and the 
 wavering fortunes of war. A passionate man, easily 
 roused to great deeds or even swept away by the ecsta¬ 
 sies of the prophetic band, he suffered those mental 
 reactions that were very depressing. A modern psy¬ 
 chologist might attribute the failure of his later years 
 to an increasing melancholia. Tradition said he failed 
 because he made bold to offer the sacrifice (I Sam. xiii. 
 14), or because he neglected to put the ancient ban into 
 operation in the case of Agag (I Sam. xv. 28), or be¬ 
 cause he visited the witch of Endor (I Chr. x. 13-14), 
 or because he slew the priests at Nob (Jos. Ant. vi. 
 14. 9). An early writer summarized it all when he 
 said, ^^An evil spirit from Yahweh troubled him” (I 
 Sam. xvi. 14). Yet with all his faults and mistakes, he 
 laid the foundations of an army, widened and made 
 more secure than previously the boundaries of Israel, 
 united a larger number of tribes, and created more of 
 a national spirit than had existed heretofore. Apart 
 from the work of Saul, the kingdom of David would 
 scarcely have been possible. 
 
 Notwithstanding its chaos, this was a period of rapid 
 development. The farming class must have become a 
 considerable body, while the roving nomad was ever 
 finding less and less room for his movements (I Sam. 
 xi. 5; xiii. 19-21). Private property in land, in farm 
 produce, and in cattle was a great stimulus to ambition. 
 The old equality was passing, and a new caste system 
 
84 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 was developing. Division of labor was a growing 
 necessity. Some men became landowners, others 
 of necessity became servants. Some became profes¬ 
 sional soldiers, a few because of native gifts became 
 leaders (I Sam. xiv. 52). The small retinue that 
 formed the bodyguard of the king grew into the mili¬ 
 tary and the court aristocracy. All was in transition. 
 The farmer boy became a king, and the youthful shep¬ 
 herd a court musician and finally married the king^s 
 daughter. With the passing of the nomadic life the 
 tent gave place to the house of sun-dried brick, built, 
 no doubt, on the Canaanitish model. As a greater 
 number of utensils could be used, pottery came into 
 demand. The looms plied their trade faster to meet 
 the growing needs of a settled population, and life, on 
 the whole, became more and more complex. 
 
 Legislation grew apace with the demands. New 
 cases required new decisions. Canaanitish custom, 
 particularly in those things that pertained to agricul¬ 
 tural life, would often help the Hebrew judge in his 
 ruling. One decision made a precedent; a number 
 of precedents established a custom; and a custom in 
 due time acquired divine sanctions. The king was the 
 new chief-justice, and his authority was as wide as the 
 boundary of his kingdom, and as absolute as his mili¬ 
 tary strength. 
 
 Religion, likewise, was in a state of turmoil. Old 
 practices were still the order of the day. The tera- 
 phim, the use of the Urim and Thummin, oracle-giving, 
 necromancy, and soothsaying, still formed part of the 
 normal religious life. Taboos were considered hn- 
 portant, and there was insistence on the ban. Yet we 
 have a number of important departures. In the first 
 flush of victory over the Philistines, Saul laid a taboo 
 on the army (I Sam. xiv. 24). Refraining from food 
 was for the purpose of permitting the divine strength 
 to operate in man unhindered by contact with any 
 
THE RISE OF THE MONARCHY 
 
 85 
 
 common substance. The idea was quite pagan. Jon¬ 
 athan, not knowing the curse that had been uttered 
 by his father, ate a little honey and was refreshed. 
 When his act became known, his father insisted on 
 carrying out the curse to the letter. The people, how¬ 
 ever, whose affection for the young prince triumphed 
 over an age-long superstition, rescued Jonathan that 
 he died not (I Sam. xiv. 24-46). 
 
 In the same chapter we have the earliest record of 
 the taboo on eating blood (I Sam. xiv. 30-34). The 
 people in their hunger gorged themselves with the 
 spoil, unmindful of what was the primitive practice 
 of nomads, namely, that the animal must be offered 
 to deity before its flesh could be safely eaten. Saul 
 upbraided them, built an altar to Yahweh, and offered 
 thereon the blood of each animal that Yahweh might 
 have due recognition. This taboo is embodied in leg¬ 
 islation in Deuteronomy xii. 16, 23, 25 and Leviticus 
 xvii. 10-14. 
 
 Progress is also suggested by Saul’s attitude towards 
 the ban (I Sam. xv. 20-21). The ban, that is, the 
 annihilation of the enemy and the destruction of all 
 his property, was the law of early tribal life. This 
 was often essential for the preservation of the tribe, 
 owing to the desert law of blood revenge. Samuel and 
 Saul came into sharp conflict over this ancient practice. 
 Saul had a glimpse of a more humane ideal, but Samuel 
 insisted on the well-known custom that had all the 
 religious sanctions of history. The prophet won for 
 the time being, and hewed Agag in pieces, and the king 
 was branded as a rebel against the faith of his fathers 
 (I Sam. XV. 22, 23, 32, 33). But later religious leaders 
 vindicated the principle towards which Saul seemed 
 to grope, and lawgiver and prophet agreed as to its 
 worth (Dt. xxiv. 16; Jer. xxxi. 30; Ezk. xviii. 4). 
 
 It is possible that the place of the ark in religious 
 thought, and the ritual surrounding it, also made some 
 
86 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 gain. It was well housed. Showbread was constantly 
 before it. An ephod, perhaps used chiefly for obtain¬ 
 ing an oracle, was part of the sacred equipment (I Sam. 
 xxiii. 2-15; xxx. 7-8; xiv. 18 LXX). To many the ark 
 was equated with Yahweh, and there were those who 
 seem to have regarded it as a fetish, possessing in 
 itself power to injure or to bless (I Sam. iv. 3-22; v. 
 1—vi. 21). 
 
 The process of assimilating Canaanitish religious 
 ideas must have gone on very rapidly in these days. 
 The people were familiar with the Baal worship that 
 was carried on on every hillside. This involved animal 
 sacriflces and various votive offerings, all performed 
 with the appropriate ceremonial. Spring and autumn 
 festivals were celebrated with great gayety. Not only 
 were the Israelites aware of all the phases of this 
 worship, but in so far as they were farmers they must 
 have participated in the agricultural and religious rites 
 of their tutors. Further, the ritual of Yahweh worship, 
 even where that differed from Baalism, would most 
 likely take on color from that of its long-established 
 neighbor. The construction of religious houses, as 
 those at Shiloh and at Nob, would of necessity be 
 under Canaanitish builders and ideals. That Canaan¬ 
 itish influence penetrated the Israelitish religious life, 
 is assured by the actual conditions we find in later 
 days. 
 
 Prophecy —Prophecy was emerging from little- 
 known origins, and was laying the foundations for later 
 religious leadership. While we assume that in respect 
 to prophecy the Hebrews were not the imitators of 
 other nations, we cannot forget that this was almost 
 a world-wide phenomenon. Egypt had her noted 
 prophet back as early as the nineteenth century b.c. 
 Ipuwer was a preacher of righteousness, and the pre¬ 
 dictor of the coming of a good shepherd who would 
 save a remnant of his people, as definitely as a Jere- 
 
THE RISE OF THE MONARCHY 
 
 87 
 
 miah, or an Ezekiel (Breasted, “History of Egypt’’, p. 
 
 168) (p. 5).^ 
 
 Or again, in the Phoenician city of Byblos shortly 
 after 1100 b.c. we have the record of a somewhat sim¬ 
 ilar event. A young Phoenician, who was an attendant 
 on the king, when suddenly seized with a divine frenzy, 
 rebuked the king for his treatment of an Egyptian 
 envoy named Wenamon, demanded in the name of the 
 God that he should be summoned, honorably treated, 
 and dismissed. The king, impressed by the prophetic 
 ecstasy of the young man, gave heed to his command. 
 Here on the soil of Palestine, a kinsman of the He¬ 
 brews uttered what he conceived to be the will of 
 God, like a Nathan or an Elijah (Breasted, History 
 of Egypt, p. 353). The Old Testament adds the 
 name of Balaam, a non-Israelite, who possessed gifts 
 that were often found in early prophecy (Nu. xxii.— 
 xxiv.). 
 
 In early Israel some striking characteristics are seen 
 in the prophets. Bands of prophets moved from place 
 to place, and, partly under the influence of music and 
 dancing, they developed a type of religious ecstasy that 
 is often found amongst primitive peoples (I Sam. x. 
 5, 10-13; xix. 23-24). In this overflow of emotion 
 they believed themselves, and no one questioned it, to 
 be possessed by the spirit of God. Saul was seized by 
 this spirit, and God gave him another heart (I Sam. 
 X. 9-10; xi. 16). But nowhere is there any indication 
 that moral results followed this possession. As in the 
 case of Samson, where the same phrase is used, it may 
 mean no more than the intensifying of the physical 
 energies so that heroic deeds may be performed. Per¬ 
 haps the main function of these prophets was to in¬ 
 spire the tribes to united, warlike effort for the defense 
 of the nation and its God (cf. Jgs. iv., v.). 
 
 Samuel was honored by these schools, if he was not 
 actually their leader. But he was greater than they. 
 
88 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 He was a seer, according to the old term, but a prophet 
 according to the later estimate (I Sam. ix. 9). He 
 had achieved no little reputation in his own commun¬ 
 ity as a clairvoyant (I. Sam. ix. 5-10). But as a voice 
 calling for unswerving loyalty to Yahweh, as a rebuker 
 of some of the prevalent evils of his day, and as a 
 shaper of national destiny, he was a worthy forerunner 
 of the later great writing prophets. 
 
 Literature and Art —No extended inquiry need be 
 made into the field of literature and art. The stage 
 of civilization reached precludes anything but the most 
 primitive. The excavator finds in the strata that be¬ 
 long to this period just what the book of Samuel pre¬ 
 supposes. The Israelites had scarcely emerged as yet 
 from the period of the judges, the period of confusion. 
 The practical tasks gave no time for leisure or luxury. 
 The oldest narratives of the books of Samuel give no 
 hint of writing. These were the days of the story¬ 
 teller and the singer. Tales were carried forward from 
 the past by word of mouth, and new tales were born out 
 of history. On the pilgrimages, at the festivals, and 
 particularly at important shrines would these tales and 
 songs be developed and perpetuated. Warlike activi¬ 
 ties would also invite the singer to celebrate the hero 
 and the victory. But the scribe was not yet in the 
 land, and literature must have been scant. A residuum 
 of our Old Testament literature certainly takes color 
 from this varied but primitive life. The riddks of 
 Samson, in epigrammatic, rhythmic form, certainly be¬ 
 long to days such as these. Jotham^s fable, brilliant 
 and pointed, bears all the marks of genuineness (Jgs. 
 ix). The Song of Deborah, so called because she was 
 the heroine rather than the composer, takes its place 
 amongst the most ancient Old Testament literature 
 (Jgs. V.). If not composed and sung on the occasion 
 of the battle, then it celebrated that victory at no dis¬ 
 tant date. Further, the fact that narratives and songs 
 
THE RISE OF THE MONARCHY 
 
 89 
 
 may have been handed down by oral tradition for a 
 century or more has not prevented us from gaining a 
 very realistic picture of the actual historical conditions 
 of the period. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 David, 1013—973 b.c. 
 
 I Samuel xvi. 1—I Kings ii. 11; I Chronicles ii. 
 
 9-16; III. 1-9; xi.—xxix. 30; Ruth iv. 18-22. 
 
 As in the case of the previous period, here again we 
 have historical material that gives good evidence of 
 coming approximately from the time of the events. 
 These must constitute our norm as they are self-evi¬ 
 dencing. With the establishment of the court at 
 Jerusalem, when a scribe was imported from Babylon, 
 there was a beginning of literary activity (cf. II Sam. 
 XX. 25, Sheva, is a Babylonian name). As there had 
 been little need of such services earlier, it is probable 
 a native caste of scribes had not arisen. Now, the 
 national organization with its established court and 
 capital, and its international relationships demands 
 scribal activity, and also some arrangement for the 
 preservation of important documents. From now on 
 we may expect a growing literature, much of which 
 will give us light on the history. 
 
 A— The History of David 
 
 David was a true son of Judah. The story of the 
 origin of the tribe suggests that it was about half 
 Canaanite, and that not of the noblest stock (Gen. 
 xxxviii.). Though not the oldest, Judah had slowly, 
 
 90 
 
THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 91 
 
 through a long series of mishaps to the older groups, 
 Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, gained the position of lead¬ 
 ership, and had finally absorbed their remnants (cf. 
 Gen. xxxiv., xlix. 4; xxxv. 22). Its geographic position 
 was such as to encourage infiltration of desert blood. 
 Hence often important foreign elements had become 
 incorporated into its life. Othnielites, Kenites, 
 Jerahmeelites, and, most important of all, Calebites, at 
 various times, perhaps some of them as late as the time 
 of David, had joined their fortunes with those of the 
 clans of the hill-country (Gen. xxxvi. 16-42; Jgs. i. 16; 
 I Sam. xxvii. 10; xxx. 14). 
 
 Like his tribe David was of mixed blood. Added to 
 the Canaanite strain, the genealogist records a strong 
 dash of Moabite in his ancestry (Ruth iv. 18-22). 
 Whatever the reason, this union of different races, the 
 superior advantages of his Bethlehemite home, or a 
 possible early association with Samuel and the school 
 of the prophets, we find in David those excellencies 
 that easily made him a leader, and gave him a name 
 with which after-generations did not fail to conjure. 
 
 We have three different accounts of his entry into 
 public life (I Sam. xvi. 1-3; xvi. 14-23; xvii: 1-58). 
 The first is an account of his anointing by Samuel; 
 the second, his appointment as musician to Saul; and 
 the third, his combat with Goliath. To reconstruct in 
 chronological order the course of his early history, 
 from these documents, is neither possible nor neces¬ 
 sary. 
 
 At the court he soon became a favorite with the 
 crowd, the blood-brother of Jonathan, the husband 
 of the king’s daughter, and the armor bearer of 
 Saul (I Sam. xviii. 2-4, 7, 16, 17; xvi. 21). Such popu¬ 
 larity could not long remain undisturbed in the pres¬ 
 ence of the moody king. Admiration turned to jeal¬ 
 ousy, which in turn gave way to hatred, and the life 
 of the young prince was in constant jeopardy. David, 
 
92 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 loath to leave friends and court behind,’ remained till 
 fully convinced that there was no hope of reconciliation 
 with the passionate monarch (I Sam. xx. 1-11, 42). 
 
 As an outlaw he was pursued by Saul from one 
 hiding-place to another. From Nob he went to Gath 
 of the Philistines (I Sam. xxi. 1-14). Recognized 
 here as a hero of Judah, he feigned madness, and es¬ 
 caped to the cave of Adullam (I Sam. xxii. 1). Dis¬ 
 contented fellows and outlaws from all quarters gath¬ 
 ered here, and made him their captain (I Sam. xxii. 2). 
 Sending his parents across to Moab for protection, he 
 then transferred his headquarters to the woods of 
 Hereth (I Sam. xxii. 3-5). Learning that the Philis¬ 
 tines were besieging Keilah, he hurried to the rescue 
 of the city, repulsed the enemy, and for a time made 
 the delivered city his headquarters (I Sam. xxiii. 1-6). 
 But Saul’s army was on his heels, and he had to flee 
 to the wilderness of the south (I Sam. xxiii. 7-14). 
 From place to place he was pursued. On one occasion 
 he generously spared the life of the king who had fallen 
 into his hands (I Sam. xxvi. 1-25; cf. xxiv. 1-22). On 
 another^ apparently during a cessation of hostilities, he 
 greatly strengthened his fortunes by marrying Abi¬ 
 gail, the widow of Nabal, the rich sheep-owner of 
 Carmel in the Maon desert, south of Hebron (I Sam. 
 XXV. 2-42). But Saul could not abide the man who 
 turned every opportunity to his own advantage, and 
 renewing his pursuit, drove him out of the borders of 
 the country. Ziklag, a little Philistine village, then, by 
 the grace of Achish, king of Gath, became the head¬ 
 quarters of David and his growing army for over a 
 year (I Sam. xxvii. 1-7). While here he cultivated 
 the friendship of the Philistine king, and supported 
 his men by raiding the tribes of the south in the 
 wilderness of Shur (I Sam. xxvii. 8-12). When the 
 Philistine confederacy joined battle with Saul at Gil- 
 boa, David was prevented from fighting in their ranks, 
 
THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 93 
 
 owing to the quite justifiable suspicion of his sincerity 
 (I Sam. xxix.). When, thus thrust out of the Philis¬ 
 tine army, he returned to Ziklag, he found the city 
 burned and pillaged by his ancient enemies the Amale- 
 kites. Hastily he followed the raiders, and completely 
 defeated them (I Sam. xxx.). Always mindful of his 
 own tribe, and perhaps with his eye to the future, he 
 immediately sent his portion of the spoil to the elders 
 of Judah and to those places that he and his men were 
 wont to haunt (I Sam. xxx. 26-31). 
 
 With Saul and Jonathan dead, the remaining leaders 
 of the house of Saul hiding east of the Jordan, and the 
 army of Israel scattered, David was the one person 
 to whom leadership belonged. He had proved himself 
 on the field of battle and in the court, and now had a 
 considerable army at his back. In a remarkable way 
 he gained the good will of all classes. Through one 
 of his wives he held important estates in the Calebite 
 district of Hebron, and through another he was the 
 son-in-law of the late king. He was no doubt the 
 favorite son of his own tribe which had been constantly 
 growing in importance. He had the support of the 
 most important prophet of the day, and most likely 
 this meant that the schools of the prophets were also 
 with him. Even his relationship with the Philistines, 
 who were now the masters of the land, could be made 
 to favor his cause. 
 
 Shortly after SauFs defeat, having paved his way 
 by his gifts, he marched to Hebron. Here, in this 
 ancient religious center, the largest city of the south, 
 he was proclaimed king (II Sam. ii. 1-4). Judah alone 
 acknowledged his sovereignty at first. The house of 
 Saul under Ishbosheth, Saul’s fourth son, asserted its 
 claim and set up its rule in Gilead. This weak king, 
 crowned in Mahanaim, held nominal sway over the 
 Gilead, Ephraim, Benjamin, Asher, and Jezreel, for a 
 period of two years (II Sam. ii. 8—iv. 12), while 
 
94 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Abner, the captain of the army, was the real director 
 of affairs. 
 
 But the ambition and the strength of David al¬ 
 lowed no place for a divided Israel (II Sam. ii. 8— 
 iv. 12). In fact, the leaders of each group were anxious 
 for complete conquest. Abner led the hosts of Saul, 
 and Joab, the sturdy, headstrong nephew of David, 
 marshaled the ranks of Judah. The contestants met in 
 Gibeon, halfway between their respective capitals. A 
 drawn battle was the result. But Abner soon tired of 
 being an instrument in the hands of a weakling, and 
 aimed at gaining the supreme power. His first move 
 was to take the concubine of the dead king for him¬ 
 self. Ishbosheth challenged the right of his first ofl&cer 
 thus to assume the privileges and the inheritance of the 
 former monarch. Abner hotly resented any inter¬ 
 ference, and pledged himself to transfer the whole 
 kingdom to the house of Judah. After having con¬ 
 cluded negotiations with David, this last considerable 
 pillar in the house of Saul was treacherously slain by 
 Joab. Shortly afterwards, his royal master was mur¬ 
 dered by two of his captains. 
 
 Our documents do not fill in the complete story. 
 Civil warfare continued for a period of seven and a 
 half years. The house of Saul grew weaker and 
 weaker, while the house of David rapidly grew 
 stronger. What skirmishes and raids occurred we are 
 not told. Gradually, most likely individually rather 
 than in concerted move, one after another of the tribes 
 of Israel offered their allegiance to the ruler in Hebron 
 (II Sam. V. 3). Finally all Israel was brought into a 
 closer national bond under David than it had hitherto 
 attained. 
 
 Military Tasks —The new king of united Israel had 
 before him three serious military tasks. The first was 
 the reduction of the Jebusite fortress, which separated 
 Judah from Benjamin and Ephraim, and thus made it 
 
THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 95 
 
 exceedingly difl&cult to hold the two parts of the coun¬ 
 try together as a political whole. The city was deemed 
 impregnable, and hence the task was considered well- 
 nigh impossible. Nevertheless, he easily captured it, 
 increased its fortifications, and wisely, because of its 
 strategic position as well as its neutrality in earlier 
 Hebrew history, made it his capital city (II Sam. v. 
 6-10). 
 
 The second task was to throw off the yoke of the 
 Philistines. As conquerers they no doubt had de¬ 
 manded the usual tribute. It is quite possible that 
 both Ishbosheth and David made some contribution 
 to their treasury during the early years. Beyond that, 
 the overlords would take little interest in the affairs of 
 the country. But national prosperity could never com© 
 to a subject people. It is possible that David made 
 some move to shake oft this foreign yoke. The Philis¬ 
 tines seem to have thought all was not going well for 
 their personal interest, for they brought their army up 
 the valley of Rephaim, which runs almost up to Jeru¬ 
 salem. Here in two battles, by the use of strategy, 
 Israel crushed the army of the uncircumcised, so that 
 they were never again a menace to their neighbors (II 
 Sam. V. 17-25). 
 
 The third duty was that of establishing the borders 
 of the land, and consolidating the various tribal ele¬ 
 ments. Moab, Edom, Ammon, Zobah, and Syria, as 
 well as the Philistines, each in turn felt the ruthless 
 power of his army and submitted to his tribute (II 
 Sam. viii. 2-8; xxi. 15-22). Yahweh gave to David 
 the victory whithersoever he turned. Garrisons were 
 placed in the outskirts of Syria and Edom, and the 
 kingdoms of Hamath and Tyre gladly formed alliances 
 with this vigorous, youthful nation. 
 
 Great indeed were the achievements of the king, but 
 inevitably there was the backwash from the tide. This 
 was felt most severely in the later years of his reign. 
 
96 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 His troubles were partly tribal, partly domestic. Absa¬ 
 lom’s rebellion was of all, the most trying (II Sam. 
 xiii.-xviii.). The lax hand of the loving father, notice¬ 
 able in all his family relations, was accessory through¬ 
 out all the revolt. The young traitor, by flattery, suc¬ 
 ceeded in starting the insurrection in Hebron, which 
 could scarcely forget that David had removed the 
 court from their city to Jerusalem. He then pushed on 
 hastily to the capital. The king, with his private body¬ 
 guard of six hundred, and a number of his servants, 
 fled from the palace across the Jordan to Mahanaim. 
 The two armies finally joined battle in the forest of 
 Ephraim, and what might have been the end, but for 
 the disobedience of Joab, is hard to say. Absalom the 
 handsome, subtle, and treacherous prince, contrary to 
 the command of the king, was slain by the less lenient, 
 but perhaps wiser captain of the army. 
 
 In passing, we have the story of Shimei’s ineffective 
 but most malign attack on the weary king as he fled 
 to the desert for safety (II Sam. xvi. 5-8). It is a 
 commentary on the smoldering resentment that still 
 burned in the heart of Benjamin against the tribe 
 that had gained the chief seat in the hegemony (II 
 Sam. xvi. 9-14; xix. 16-23). 
 
 The attitude of the other tribes, particularly that of 
 Ephraim, was likewise hostile. When David was re¬ 
 stored to Jerusalem, a deputation from the east of the 
 Jordan, and presumably from the highlands of 
 Ephraim, went with him, and at Gilgal laid complaint 
 against Judah. They charged the southern tribe with 
 assuming undue prestige in national affairs, but ^The 
 words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words 
 of the men of Israel” (II Sam. xix. 40-43). 
 
 Sheba, another Benjamite, deemed the time ripe for 
 a general uprising. There seemed to be disaffection 
 throughout the whole of the north country. He made 
 an effort to crystallize this into active rebellion, and 
 
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 to that end marched through the country northward. 
 He was followed by the army of Judah, led first by 
 Amasa, then by Joab, and was sieged in the far north 
 in Abel-beth-Maacah. Rather than suffer the conse¬ 
 quences of resistance, the inhabitants handed his head 
 over to Joab, and the rebellion was quelled (II Sam. xx. 
 1, 2, 4-22). 
 
 The final dissension was upon the question of the 
 succession. Adonijah, the oldest living son, and Solo¬ 
 mon, son of the favorite Bathsheba, were the claimants 
 (I Kgs. i. 1-53). Joab, the general of the army, and 
 Abiathar, the priest, allied themselves on the side of 
 the firstborn and the law of hereditary rights. Beniah, 
 a leader in the army, Zadok, the priest, and Nathan, 
 the prophet, ranged themselves along with Bathsheba, 
 and appealed to the king to appoint his own successor. 
 David, thus urged by a court faction, perhaps following 
 his own personal inclinations, proclaimed the younger 
 son king. Thus the mantle fell on Solomon, and in 
 due time he became the inheritor of the territorial 
 boundaries, the tribal aggregations, the autocratic 
 military organization, the economic wealth, the ritual¬ 
 istic aspirations, as well as the remnants of the domes¬ 
 tic and tribal feuds of his father. 
 
 The real greatness of David is hard to estimate. A 
 warrior of great personal prowess, he was also a leader 
 of amazing resourcefulness. He, who as an outlaw 
 controlled six hundred reckless fellows, and gained 
 a Philistine chief as a protector and patron, and as 
 king kept in check the turbulent spirit of Joab, may 
 well command the respect of after-generations. He 
 had sagacity as well as strength. The campaigns 
 planned and carried through successfully, the caravan 
 lines commanded, and the garrisons established, the 
 capital selected, and the cabinet organized, all indi¬ 
 cate the statesman with a broad outlook. 
 
 The charm and the gentleness of the truly great 
 
98 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 were his. At the court or in the camp, at home or 
 abroad, he behaved himself wisely. He refused to be 
 in any way party to the death of Saul or the murder 
 of Abner or Ishbaal. His kindness to the lame Mephib- 
 osheth, and his lament for the fallen great no doubt 
 won for him the hearts of many of his opponents. He 
 was religious as religion was understood by his peo¬ 
 ple. He sought to make the best possible provision 
 for the care of the ark, he took an active part in the 
 religious processions, he provided and offered the 
 sacrifices as required according to the custom of the 
 day, he was a friend of priest and prophet, and was 
 loyal to Yahweh according to the light he had. It is 
 no wonder that his opponents said he was ^^as an angel 
 of God” (II Sam. xix. 27), that his friends said he 
 was worth ten thousand of them (II Sam. xviii. 3), and 
 that tradition reported that ^Vhatever the king did 
 pleased all the people” (II Sam. iii. 36). 
 
 B— Internal Conditions 
 
 The internal conditions of the country were no less 
 significant than the feuds and battles. Continuous 
 military victories, such as those of David, which were 
 in turn built up on those of Saul, could not be achieved 
 apart from very definite internal changes that must 
 have affected the life of the people. All this necessi¬ 
 tated organization, and that must of necessity be of a 
 military type. Under David, the military machine 
 was perfected, and dominated every activity of na¬ 
 tional life. Central authority over all Israel now be¬ 
 came a very real fact. The king was the head of the 
 army. Joab, the general, was his appointee, responsi¬ 
 ble only to him. A bodyguard of six hundred men, 
 mercenary soldiers apparently, had long been attached 
 to the king’s person (II Sam. xv. 18; I Kgs. i. 8, 10, 
 38). This was the nucleus of a standing army that 
 
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 99 
 
 was ready at his beck and call. He had at least one 
 hundred chariots, which he had captured in war, to 
 grace his service (II Sam. viii. 4). That ample and 
 regular support for the army and court was arranged 
 for, is attested by the census (II Sam. xxiv. 1-9). 
 Detailed duties were definitely assigned to different 
 divisions and groups of the army (II Sam. xxiii. 13- 
 38; xviii. 1). 
 
 Further, in the government of the country, the king 
 was absolute. Assisted by petty judges throughout 
 the land, he himself was the supreme judge. Before 
 he came to the throne, when a dispute about the di¬ 
 vision of the spoil arose, he settled it, and “it became 
 a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day’’ 
 (I Sam. XXX. 24-25; cf. Nu. xxxi. 25). On more than 
 one occasion he placed himself on record as opposed 
 to old customs, and set in motion the current towards 
 juster principles of action (cf. II Sam. xiv. 4, 11; iii. 
 31, 32). Not only was he judge, but he was the chief 
 executive, and the army was his executive force. He 
 handed over the seven sons of the house of Saul to 
 the Gibeonites for their vengeance (II Sam. xxi. 1-9). 
 As need arose he executed, or authorized, what he be¬ 
 lieved to be justice (II Sam. viii. 15). As the abso¬ 
 lute monarch, his power was limited only by the 
 strength of his army. 
 
 Absolute, military monarch that he was, the state 
 was growing so rapidly, and there were so many in¬ 
 terests other than directly military, that it was neces¬ 
 sary for him to departmentalize the complex activities 
 of his kingdom. To care for these needs, he appointed, 
 as overseers, no doubt gradually as the demand arose, 
 men who had proved their fitness for such tasks, and 
 these became his private council or king’s cabinet (II 
 Sam. viii. 15-18; xx. 23-26). The functions of these 
 new dignitaries of state are instructive, and they 
 mirror the new range of national development. The 
 
100 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 captain or captains of the army stand first, and no 
 doubt were of first‘importance. Then are mentioned 
 a superintendent of taskwork, a chronicler, a secre¬ 
 tary, and a number of priests. Three of these offices 
 were new, the superintendent of taskwork, the chron¬ 
 icler or the keeper of the archives, and the secretary 
 of state. The offices are all self-interpretative and 
 are signs of the times. The fact that the name of 
 the scribe Sheva is Babylonian, throws light on the 
 lack of literary attainment in Israel that fits in per¬ 
 fectly with the well-known cultural conditions of the 
 time. This cabinet, all appointees of the king, were 
 responsible to him and him only. 
 
 However, not only were ‘the conquests and the or¬ 
 ganization military in their nature, but the whole life 
 of the nation was of necessity dominated by the same 
 spirit. The growth of economic resources, amazing in 
 its development, was due to the triumphs of the bat¬ 
 tlefield. The army raided the border territories and 
 that of revolting tribes, and reveled in the plunder 
 (II Sam. iii. 22). The great trade routes through and 
 round the country from north arid south and from 
 east and west with their rich traffic were all controlled 
 by the army of David. Thus did the commerce of the 
 neighbors pay tribute to Israel. 
 
 Hand in hand with conquest moved the industrial 
 activity. The building trades flourished. Garrisons 
 were established at the outposts, and palaces were 
 built in Jerusalem. Other industries must have kept 
 pace with the procession. Foreign architects and mas¬ 
 ter builders were required. Material from foreign 
 markets was needed for construction. Workmen from 
 neighboring countries found employment in the grow¬ 
 ing Israelitish cities. There was need of a more 
 efficient ordering of the man strength of the nation. 
 The poorer Canaanites, as well as some of the He¬ 
 brews, were pressed into taskwork and became virtually 
 
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 101 
 
 the slaves of the king. Some provision for the court 
 retinue, other than that which was derived from plun¬ 
 der, from the king’s lands, and from caravan tolls, seems 
 to have been necessary as the country became more 
 settled, and the retinue necessarily increased. Black¬ 
 mail on a small scale was no 'novelty (I Sam. xxv. 
 2-8). Taxation, or a regular levy on the whole coun¬ 
 try, in a regular and well ordered fashion by a central 
 authority was an innovation. A movement to effect 
 this seems to have been behind the census taken by 
 David (II Sam. xxiv.). To any such movement 
 there must have been serious dissent. Any disaster 
 occurring in the immediately succeeding years, could, 
 to a religious mind, bear only one interpretation. The 
 combined evidence of all our witnesses shows us a 
 rapidly increasing population, a developing industry, 
 a great growth of wealth, with a corresponding organi¬ 
 zation of the material resources of the country. 
 
 'With such a social‘conglomerate, having no knowl¬ 
 edge of the primary laws of sanitation, it would be a 
 surprise if physical disaster could long be escaped. 
 Palestine, though comparatively free from great epi¬ 
 demics, as it is open to the cleansing influences of 
 both the desert and the sea breezes, and has never 
 been able to sustain a very congested population, has, 
 nevertheless, periodically been subjected to pestilence. 
 We are then prepared to learn that plague, that ever 
 dogs the heels of war and seldom is absent from the 
 thronging metropolis, found in this new and motley 
 multitude a fertile seed-bed. One such plague is re¬ 
 ported to have swept the country from north to south, 
 decimating its inhabitants. The tradition, with good 
 religious intent, made it directly consequent on the 
 new reorganization of the country which is indicated 
 in the census (II Sam. xxiv. 15-16; cf. I Sam. vi. 19). 
 
 Another equally serious danger lay before this 
 rapidly increasing population. With poor methods 
 
102 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 of cultivation and no irrigation, all production de¬ 
 pended on the ^Tormer’^ and the ^‘latter” rains. Hence, 
 famine was no unusual occurrence. Now, with the 
 influx of workmen, the danger was doubly serious. 
 Once, at least, the people were faced with starvation, 
 and the leaders were driven to despair to cope with 
 the situation (II Sam. xxi. 1; cf. xxiv. 3). 
 
 Socially we are now at the opening of a new chapter 
 for the Israelites. Inside of a generation the whole 
 complexion of society must have been revolutionized. 
 Jerusalem, a Hebrew city for less than a generation, 
 had become a world-emporium. It lay on the high¬ 
 way from Egypt to Assyria, and sustained close diplo¬ 
 matic relations with Tyre and Hamath. It was the 
 center from which affairs from Dan to Beersheba, or 
 perhaps better from Damascus to Elath, were di¬ 
 rected. In dress and speech, in customs and peoples, 
 it was now an epitome of the Oriental world. A new 
 social milieu had arisen almost overnight. Here lived 
 the king, and in the palaces were his favorite wives. 
 The cabinet ministers and their families had their 
 residences in the city. Diplomats from foreign courts 
 were a common sight in the streets. Master merchants 
 from great centers of commerce were in the city 
 bazaars. A motley throng, master and slave, native- 
 born and foreigner, rich and poor, grave and gay, all 
 were there. In all this complexity the warrior king 
 was the first figure, and his military officers were his 
 chief courtiers. Whatever court functions there were, 
 the rattle of the sword and the tale of bloody deeds 
 had place along with the ^^singing men and women’^ 
 (II Sam. xix. 35). Important as industry and the 
 working man and his master were, even more impor¬ 
 tant were the soldier and his captain. They were the 
 pillars of state, and gave the norm to society. 
 
 The few glimpses the records give of the ethical 
 customs are rather indefinite and inadequate. Even 
 
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 103 
 
 here the king occupies the center of the stage, and 
 military ethics are the order of the day. No doubt 
 he was in this respect, as well as in others, the repre¬ 
 sentative of the people and of the age. If he was not 
 the best, he surely was not the worst, and he would 
 seem to have been far more noble than the average. 
 His sins, like his virtues, were those of a transition 
 period under military rule. He was a man of blood. 
 The barbarities he ordered cannot be condoned by a 
 later day (II Sam. viii. 2, 4; xii. 31). Yet when we 
 consider the brutalities that his neighbors practiced, 
 he was eminently humane. Joab repeatedly shows 
 more blood-lust than his uncle. The military life ren¬ 
 dered the soldiery callous, and no doubt shocking deeds 
 were of daily occurrence. Absalom patiently sought 
 the life of his brother, and for years planned the over¬ 
 throw of his father. Joab never let the life of a kins¬ 
 man stand between himself and the object of his 
 desire. A complete tale of the feuds and assassina¬ 
 tions of these years would be a grim reflection on the 
 price of national progress. 
 
 Sexual immorality was the second great sin of the 
 age. In this also David was not guiltless. He was 
 the first to introduce the Oriental harem into Israel, 
 and he was not careful how he obtained his wives. 
 Before he came to the throne he had at least three, 
 and before he arrived in Jerusalem, six (II Sam. hi. 
 2-5). Later many were added as the result of inter¬ 
 national alliances and personal desire (II Sam. v. 
 13-16). The number of his concubines is not stated, 
 though ten were left behind when he fled from Jerusa¬ 
 lem (II Sam. XV. 16). That which is deepest rooted 
 in our minds, however, is his intrigue with Bathsheba. 
 Here he is the absolute monarch who will have his 
 way. The few incidents that indicate the general 
 moral tone of the community are of a similar type. 
 Amnon forcing Tamar, and her protest, show that in 
 
104 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 this transition period the nation had fallen upon hard 
 days (II Sam. xiii. 1-19). In such a maelstrom of 
 changing life and custom, ruled by soldiers, many of 
 whom were foreign adventurers, in a land so near the 
 sea, so close to the desert, both of which were havens 
 for the criminal, we could not expect any great re¬ 
 gard for virtue. Immorality and barbarity always 
 accompany a military regime. Now, as has been well 
 said, ^The old morality based on tribal and family lines 
 was going out, and the new morality based on a sense 
 of national unity was not yet fully come.^’ 
 
 There were, however, bright spots in the morals of 
 those growing days. True, they may be called mili¬ 
 tary virtues, but, strange as it may seem, most virtues 
 find their basis in those qualities that make the sol¬ 
 dier: courage, endurance, devotion, strength, and 
 loyalty. No period is more lustrous of heroic deeds 
 than this. From the acceptance of the challenge of 
 Goliath to the enumeration of the thirty mighty men 
 of David we have a continuous display of these quali¬ 
 ties. Perhaps no story more adequately sketches the 
 virile characteristics of the times than that of the three 
 mighty men who broke through the Philistine encamp¬ 
 ment, to carry a drink of water to their thirsty master 
 from the spring he had known as a boy (II Sam. xxiii. 
 13-17). It is here we see David’s appreciation of 
 human life and valor, and his deep religious spirit 
 at greatest advantage. 
 
 But there is evidence that still nobler ideals were 
 held in some quarters. The one story that is best 
 known, but the ethical import of which is often mis¬ 
 understood, is that of Bathsheba-Uriah. Strange it 
 may seem to us, that which shocks us most, viz., the 
 social sin, is not the point of the story. The original 
 censure, as the parable of Nathan makes quite clear, 
 was directed chiefly, if not exclusively, at the king’s 
 high-handed seizure of the poor man’s property (II 
 
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 105 
 
 Sam. xii. 1-4, 9). It is that demand which we hear 
 so insistently throughout the eighth-century prophets, 
 the demand for the rights of the individual as against 
 the oppression of a privileged class. 
 
 Little need be said here concerning the religious 
 ideas of the time. They were inseparable from the 
 military achievements, and the social and economic 
 changes. Yahweh was never more of a war-god than 
 now. All the victories of the army were credited to 
 him (II Sam. viii. 6, 14). All the spoil of battle and 
 the slaughter of the enemy were dedicated to him 
 (II Sam. viii. 11, 12). He, like the military chief, 
 was harsh and arbitrary. The king did as he pleased, 
 unquestioned; then why should not Yahweh? Uzzah 
 dies. Why? He has broken no moral law, defied no 
 known ritual regulation. Then, why? Some one must 
 find the cause, and what more likely than Yahweh’s 
 wrath because of some unusual act of his (II Sam. vi. 
 6-11). The rains are restrained, and famine and suffer¬ 
 ing are the result. Why the famine? Somebody in some 
 way had displeased Yahweh (II Sam. xxi. 1-14). A 
 pestilence scourged the land. Why? Some one has 
 transgressed (II Sam. xxiv. 1-9). This early idea of a 
 God, arbitrary and irresponsible, flourished in the 
 atmosphere of an unquestioned military autocracy. 
 Later, in the great prophets, we shall find this concep¬ 
 tion very much softened, and other and nobler charac¬ 
 teristics take the place of first importance. 
 
 Religion on its formal side, built on old, well-estab¬ 
 lished customs. There were many sanctuaries, as 
 Hebron, Bethel, Gilgal, Bethlehem, and Mizpah 
 throughout the land, all of which were equally legiti¬ 
 mate for the devout worshiper. Tribes had their spe¬ 
 cial centers, and families their special altars on which 
 they offered the customary sacrifices with the simple 
 ritual which they had inherited from the past. The 
 patriarch still held the priestly privilege, though a 
 
106 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 class of experts was arising. Zadok and Abiathar, the 
 sons of Aaron, had become prominent figures (II Sam. 
 XX. 25). David’s sons were appointed to what would 
 seem to be a coveted position in the priesthood, and 
 a Jairite shared the honors with them (II Sam. viii. 
 18; XX. 25). The symbols of religion remained largely 
 as they had been earlier, the Urim and Thummim, 
 teraphim, the ephod, and the ark. Jerusalem, the chief 
 city and the capital, now began to assume the place 
 of first importance religiously. The ark was housed 
 there, and as the appointments of religion should cor¬ 
 respond to those of commerce and politics, all was 
 ready for an advance at least in the externals of 
 religion. 
 
 The question of the literature of the period is one 
 that is worthy of most careful inquiry. Tradition has 
 been kind to David. To sustain his great reputation 
 in later days, the rabbis found it necessary to ascribe 
 to him an immaculate conception (Targ. Ruth). To 
 describe fully his contribution to Israel’s life, and at 
 the same time to stay within the bounds of fact seemed 
 difficult. But the cultural background, as seen in the 
 Old Testament and as deduced from the excavations, 
 is quite conclusive. That the boy from the hills of 
 Judah was a fiute-player, a singer, and a composer of 
 songs, there need be no dispute. These were part of 
 the warp and woof of the time. The book of Samuel 
 ascribes to him a lament over Saul and Jonathan, a 
 lament over Abner, and a lament over Absalom (II 
 Sam. i. 19-27; iii. 33-34; xviii. 33). These are secular 
 songs, full of tenderness, imaginative in expression, and 
 quite in keeping with the times and the character of the 
 king. Our conviction is not so strong when we turn to 
 the sample Psalm which is incorporated in II Samuel 
 xxii. 2-51. Comparing this with Psalm xviii., we find 
 we have two editions of the same poem with some 133 
 minor differences. One or both editions have suffered 
 
THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 107 
 
 much from editors. In its present form it cannot in 
 its entirety go back to the early days of the kingdom. 
 The ideal expressed in II Samuel xxii. 21-24, 25-28, 
 and the historical background implied in vss. 44-46, 
 belong to conditions much later than the time of 
 David. If here we have a Davidic nucleus, it must 
 later have been adapted to public worship, and have 
 suffered as have most of our ancient hymns at the 
 hands of interpreters. The question of the Davidic 
 authorship of the 73 psalms ascribed to him in the 
 Hebrew, or the 69 in the Septuagint will be discussed 
 later. Suffice it here to say that, while few of these 
 breathe the atmosphere, or express the spirit in which 
 the David of the historical books lived, and moved, 
 and had his being, it would be quite unwarranted to 
 suggest that in the Psalms, as we now have them, 
 there might not be a residuum that was Davidic. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 Solomon, 973-933 b.c. 
 
 I Kings i-xi; II Chronicles i-ix. 
 
 Solomon, appointed to the throne by his father, 
 duly anointed by Zadok, and protected by the royal 
 mercenaries, was loudly proclaimed king by all the 
 people (I Kgs. i. 38-40). Immediately he faced Adoni- 
 jah and his supporters. His rival, placed on his good 
 behavior, in a short time made the request for Abishag, 
 the dead king’s concubine, and Benaiah, at the com¬ 
 mand of Solomon, slew him for this evidence of dis¬ 
 loyalty (I Kgs. i. 49-53; ii. 13-15). Joab, the old war¬ 
 rior, was not forgiven for his alliance with the usurper, 
 and was slain while seeking sanctuary at the altar 
 (I Kgs. ii. 28-35). Shimei, his father’s enemy, at the 
 end of three years was put to death for violating the 
 prescribed bounds (I Kgs. ii. 36-46). 
 
 The Deuteronomic editor made the execution of 
 Joab and Shimei David’s final charge to Solomon 
 (I Kgs. ii. 1-9). It is a strange interpretation. Why 
 did David suffer Joab to live more than thirty years 
 after the murder of Abner, if death was his due? What 
 was David’s oath of life to Shimei worth, if now he 
 lays this command on his successor (cf. II Sam. xix. 
 23)? Why should Solomon be the executioner for 
 his father? In another place we have the record of 
 David’s last words, and the purport is far different 
 from this his last will and testament (cf. II Sam. xxiii. 
 
 108 
 
THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 109 
 
 1-7). The editor no doubt had grounds that seemed 
 to him adequate, but all things considered, it looks like 
 interpretation rather than sober history. Was it that 
 the Deuteronomist, who loved the temple, thought 
 that none but a man of peace was worthy to be consid¬ 
 ered its builder? Did his conception of rewards and 
 punishments in this life compel him to believe that 
 Joab and Shimei must have suffered for their past 
 sins? It may be that this gruesome bequest of the 
 dying king is an apologetic for both the sanctity of the 
 temple and the stern justice of a righteous God. But 
 this in no real way removes the stain of blood from 
 the hands of Solomon. He must bear the responsi¬ 
 bility for the death of Adonijah, and the banishment 
 of Abiathar (I Kgs. ii. 27). Joab was also a conspira¬ 
 tor against his sovereignty, and his personal safety 
 alone would dictate the removal of such enemies. This, 
 the putting out of the way of all rivals, was the usual 
 policy of an Oriental despot. 
 
 Revolting Nations —Revolts of subject peoples oc¬ 
 curred most likely at the beginning of his reign 
 (I Kgs. xi. 14-25). Conquered Oriental nations almost 
 invariably tested the strength of every new monarch 
 upon his accession. Rebellion broke out both in Syria 
 and Edom, but the story is not complete. Our editor 
 was more interested in religion, and in the peace that 
 characterized the reign of Solomon than in warfare. 
 The port of Elath in the territory of Edom was used 
 by Israel as a harbor, and thus was probably tributary 
 to Solomon during the whole of his reign. Yet it is 
 quite possible that neither Edom nor Syria rendered 
 him the same allegiance that they had his father. The 
 boundary lines and the tale of tribute are given in 
 general terms, and may have something of an idealistic 
 touch (I Kgs. iv. 21-25). 
 
 Growing Commerce —If, however, he was not so com¬ 
 manding a military figure among the bordering princi- 
 
110 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 palities as his father had been, his world-renown far 
 surpassed that of his predecessors. Commercially his 
 reign proved nothing short of revolutionary. The king 
 was the master middleman, personally controlling and 
 benefiting from the land trafiic. The merchandise 
 passing along the caravan routes was better organized 
 than hitherto. From Mutzri, in Asia Minor, far- 
 famed for its fine horses, he brought horses by droves, 
 and from Egypt he brought chariots, and sold each in 
 the best markets (I Kgs. x. 28-29). He catered to the 
 needs of the Hittite and Syrian courts (I Kgs. x. 29). 
 He carried on an active spice trade with Arabia in 
 the south, and caravans from the north and the east 
 added their quota to his wealth (cf. I Kgs. x. 1-10; 
 iv. 24). With Phoenicia his trade relations were the 
 closest possible. Master workmen in brass and stone 
 and wood, builders of ships and of palaces had to be 
 brought from Tyre to beautify Jerusalem (I Kgs. vii. 
 13-14). A multitude of common laborers must have 
 accompanied their masters, and much of the material 
 for the building enterprises, fine wood, dyestuff, and 
 gold, no doubt came from Tyre and Sidon (I Kgs. v. 
 11; ix. 11). Payment to Hiram of Tyre was always 
 required (I Kgs. v. 6, 11; ix. 12). 
 
 Maritime traffic added still greater luster to his 
 reputation. The ancient traditions told of Solomon’s 
 ventures on the Mediterranean and on the Red sea, in 
 partnership with Hiram (I Kgs. ix. 26; x. 22). It is 
 possible that the seaport of Gaza may have been used 
 by Israel (I Kgs. iv. 24), and Joppa and Dor were 
 likely open to them. What distant havens these mer¬ 
 chantmen visited is not clear. Some have thought that 
 the Mediterranean fleet may have visited the shores 
 of Cornwall, England, for tin which was mined there 
 about that time. The Red sea navy may have had 
 contact with India. Ophir may be for Avira, an old 
 name for the district at the mouth of the Indus. Cross- 
 
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 111 
 
 country traffic, which for ages had been intermittent 
 between India and Asia Minor, about this time had 
 been penalized by Assyria and Persia. This perhaps 
 stimulated the master merchantman to open up a 
 water-way to obtain the apes, peacocks, and other com¬ 
 modities which were native to India. 
 
 International Relations —This world-wide commerce 
 brought Solomon into political contact with the great 
 nations of the day. His numerous marriage contracts 
 were the public evidence of international treaties. 
 Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and 
 Hittites were all linked up with Israel in such po¬ 
 litical bonds (I Kgs. xi. 1-3). But an alliance with 
 Egypt, the ancient world-power, was the crowning 
 glory of Solomon, and his Egyptian queen was the 
 undisputed mistress in the palace (I Kgs. vii. 8; xi. 1). 
 While the aggregate of the harem does not suggest the 
 report of a court statistician, in fact it has been sug¬ 
 gested that seventy instead of seven hundred may 
 have been the number of the wives, there is every 
 reason to believe that it has a substantial historical 
 background. 
 
 Home Policy —Such a foreign policy as above de¬ 
 scribed was closely integrated with the home policy., 
 It was a time of unwonted development and splendor. 
 In Jerusalem the king carried through building opera¬ 
 tions, the like of which had never been conceived by 
 Israel. On the eastern side of the city, by the aid of 
 foreign architects, he planned and completed by the 
 twenty-fourth year of his reign the great royal court 
 (I Kgs. ix. 10; cf. vi. 11). This consisted of a group 
 of buildings, six in all, only partly described in the 
 book of Kings. They formed a large rectangle, and 
 were completely surrounded by a substantial wall. 
 Beginning at the south, where we find one of the main 
 entrances, we pass into the house of the forest of 
 Lebanon (I Kgs. vii. 2-5). This was a large hall, in 
 
112 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 which, or over which, was provision for an arsenal 
 (I Kgs. X. 17). Its chief use in later days seems to 
 have been to accommodate those who gathered at the 
 court for justice (Jos. Ant. viii. 13, 3). Passing 
 through this, going northward, we enter the porch of 
 pillars (I Kgs. vii. 6), which was a waiting room to the 
 hall of justice (I Kgs. vii. 7). Here the king as the 
 supreme judge held his court. Next in order, north¬ 
 ward, stood the royal palace, and in the rear to the 
 west lay the palace of the favorite queen (I Kgs. yii. 
 8). These two palaces were enclosed by a stone wall. 
 North of this, connected by a door, lay the temple 
 court, with the altar and temple, all likewise within a 
 stone wall (I Kgs. vi. 14-37). All these six buildings 
 lay within the great wall which formed an irregular 
 quadrangle with perhaps two entrances, one from the 
 south and the other directly east of the temple area. 
 All this imposing pile, lying within the area of the 
 outer wall, constituted the royal buildings. 
 
 While no other part of the country profited as did 
 the capital, important outposts were fortified (I Kgs. 
 ix. 17). Cities for horsemen, and cities for chariots 
 were located at strategic points, and store cities were 
 built throughout the land (I Kgs. ix. 19; x. 26). Thus 
 was he able to control the caravan routes and defend 
 the outposts of the country. 
 
 To keep pace with the development at home and 
 abroad, the cabinet, which had been organized by 
 David, was enlarged, and the personnel was changed 
 (I Kgs. iv. 2-6). An extra scribe was added. A chief 
 of the oflacers, and a superintendent of the household 
 were also found necessary. The cabinet, still the ap¬ 
 pointees of the king, have now all attained the dignity 
 of princes. No better illustration of the growing 
 affluence and developing culture could have been pre¬ 
 served than this enumeration of the cabinet officers. 
 
 Changing Customs —Such prosperity, going hand in 
 
THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 113 
 
 hand with an increasing population, carried with it a 
 number of disturbing elements. Foreigners with their 
 foreign customs and religion flocked to the country as 
 never before. They seem to have dominated the in¬ 
 dustry of the land. They were the master builders 
 of cities and walls, of palaces and temple alike. They 
 were the designers of the royal palace, and the crafts¬ 
 men who were the experts in bronze and wood. One 
 of the chief palaces was occupied by a foreigner. For 
 more than a quarter of a century these foreigners must 
 have exercised a most subtle sway, so it is prob¬ 
 able that their influence was felt down to the most 
 minute details of the customs and thought of the 
 people. 
 
 Solomon loved pomp and pageantry. This strongly 
 appealed to the youthful, national pride. His horses 
 and chariots were the acme of his splendor. Many 
 of the youths of the land appreciated the new glory 
 because of the personal advantages they gained. But 
 it must have been distasteful to many of the others 
 who were peace-loving, peasant folk. 
 
 The vast wealth required to carry on all this show 
 must be found somewhere. The building program was 
 costly, and the daily outlay for his equipage helps us 
 to visualize the current expenditure (cf. I Kgs. iv. 
 22-23). He must have had considerable personal 
 holdings, but these would satisfy but a small part of 
 the demand. His control of commerce helped to fill 
 his coffers, but more was needed. Tribute still flowed 
 from conquered kingdoms (I Kgs. iv. 21). But the 
 demands of the kingdom were ever increasing. Tens 
 of thousands of Canaanites and the poorer Israelites 
 were reduced to taskwork to help meet the need 
 (I Kgs. V. 13-16; ix. 20-21; xi. 28; cf. ix. 22). But 
 the budget of the ambitious monarch lay still beyond 
 the income from these sources. A genius for organi¬ 
 zation, he divided the whole country into twelve parts, 
 
114 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 completely ignoring boundary lines, and omitting 
 Judah. He put a commanding officer in charge of each 
 division, and laid on each one the required victuals for 
 the king and his household for one month (I Kgs. iv. 
 7-19; cf. I Sam. viii. 11-17). Still the credit side of 
 the ledger exceeded the debit, and the resourceful king 
 handed over twenty of his Galilean cities to Hiram 
 of Tyre, who seems to have been his banker during 
 most of his reign (I Kgs. ix. 11-12). 
 
 Thus the splendor of his reign had a somber back¬ 
 ground. There was great wealth, which was shared 
 in by the king and his court, the officers, and the master 
 workmen of the realm. There was great poverty as 
 well. With more wealth in the country than ever 
 before, vast multitudes had to slave and toil as their 
 ancestors never had, under taskmasters who cared more 
 for the work done than for the workmen. Another 
 large group, the middle class, must have had to face 
 a continual grind with only a meager existence, in 
 order to meet the ever-increasing tax demands. To 
 generations far removed from the scene of conflict, 
 these were the golden days of Israel, but to many of 
 those who participated in them, and in whose toil and 
 blood the foundations were reared, there was a very 
 different emphasis. 
 
 Personal Characteristics —Solomon was an Oriental 
 monarch, and he established an Oriental kingdom. He 
 was born in the court, and knew not the life of the 
 common people as had his father before him. Though 
 he was a forceful personality, it is quite unlikely that 
 he possessed military skill. His was the gift of organi¬ 
 zation. Under his leadership the nation was equipped 
 for business at home and abroad, as well as for defense. 
 It is amazing that within a generation from the reign 
 of Saul, the plowboy, those days of agricultural begin¬ 
 nings and constant tribal feuds, we should And a well- 
 ordered realm, apparently united from Dan to Beer- 
 
THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 115 
 
 sheba, old tribal boundaries gone, commerce estab¬ 
 lished with great world centers, palaces, temples, and 
 cities that vie with those of ancient renown, a court, 
 a harem, and a king reveling in a magnificence that 
 might have been the product of a thousand years. 
 Yet such is the scene amidst which we move in our 
 study of Solomon. A wise king, yes, as that word was 
 then used: wise in the subtle mastery of intricate 
 problems, in riddles, in quick repartee, and in his con¬ 
 trol of men as well as situations. Wise in statesman¬ 
 ship? Scarcely! He built too rapidly, and his struc¬ 
 ture proved topheavy. Wise in morals, the funda¬ 
 mentals of personal character? He was perhaps as 
 good or better than most of his generation. But he 
 was overambitious and inconsiderate of his fellow men. 
 Wise in the domain of religion? Loyal to his light, he 
 no doubt was. A lover of ritual, his contribution to 
 that side of religion was of supreme value, but it is 
 possible that his conceptions of justice and kindness 
 and humility would not stand at the bar of the eighth- 
 century prophets. 
 
 Literature —From what has been said it is easy to 
 reconstruct the inner life of the nation. Nothing need 
 be added, touching the social and the industrial life 
 of the people. But what of their literature? In the 
 state we find that stable life, with those complex in¬ 
 terests and specialized group activities, with the or¬ 
 ganization of the industrial, military, and political life, 
 that creates at least a certain type of literature. No 
 doubt scribes were hard at work, owing to the de¬ 
 mands of business and politics. No fragment of such 
 writing has remained to us, at least in its original 
 form. But were there historians, part of whose efforts 
 may have been preserved to us? It is not unlikely 
 that much that refers to the early reign of David, as 
 II Samuel ix.-xx.; I Kings i.-ii. 12, may have taken 
 very largely its present form, if not in the time of 
 
116 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Solomon, then shortly after. Chronicles of the reign of 
 Solomon were undoubtedly kept, but what their rela¬ 
 tion may have been to our present memoirs, or again to 
 ^The acts of Solomon,” we cannot be absolutely certain 
 (I Kgs. xi. 41). It is quite likely, however, that they 
 contributed to the statistical and historical facts which 
 were later used to give us our picture of the great king. 
 Songs and hero-tales would very naturally grow up 
 during these days. Genesis xlix. 2-27; Exodus xv. 
 1-18; Numbers xxiii. 7—xxiv. 9 are among the songs 
 that because of content, language, and spirit are con¬ 
 sidered by many as belonging to this period. All cele¬ 
 brate some event in Israel’s past and, as most singers 
 do, the authors live over the old scenes, and even im¬ 
 personate the chief character. Only the careful study 
 of each poem in the light of history will enable us to 
 fix the date, and that only in the most general way. 
 But in these days of growing national consciousness 
 and developing culture we may expect that the great 
 facts of the past would be given permanent form. 
 
 Our interest is, however, specially directed to the 
 king himself. Was he a literary man, and if so what 
 have we from his pen? Tradition has magnified his 
 wisdom. First it made him a natural scientist (I Kgs. 
 iv. 33), and then it made him a legendary character by 
 asserting that he understood the language of trees and 
 birds, of beasts and creeping things. To find the 
 assured basis of this is the serious task of the student. 
 In the story of the dedication of the temple we have a 
 brief dedicatory poem, which in every way is suitable 
 to the occasion, and may well have been first uttered 
 at this time (I Kgs. viii. 12, 13). The Septuagint has 
 preserved the more complete form, and when recon¬ 
 structed reads as follows: 
 
 The sun has Yahweh placed in the heaven; 
 
 He, himself, he said, will dwell in darkness; 
 
THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 117 
 
 I have built thee a lofty house, 
 
 A dwelling place for thee for ever. 
 
 It is important to notice that the Septuagint also 
 adds, “is it not written in the book of the song.^’ This 
 suggests that at one time, this stood alone as the com¬ 
 plete prayer of the king at the time of the dedication 
 services. As such, it is quite appropriate. However, 
 when we seek further for the dedicatory prayer, we 
 find two editions (I Kgs. viii. 22-53 and II Chr. vi. 
 12-42). When we compare these two we note that 
 the editors, or at least one editor, took great liberties 
 with the text. The differences are as marked as the 
 similarities. When we look into the spirit as well as 
 the content of each, we find the first molded by the 
 phraseology and ideal of Deuteronomy, and the sec¬ 
 ond by that of the priestly school. We see further 
 that neither expression is quite appropriate in the 
 lips of Solomon. 
 
 From this we can readily pass to the question of 
 the Solomonic authorship of Proverbs, Song of Songs, 
 and Ecclesiastes. That Solomon was in one way or 
 another the source of that upon which later days en¬ 
 larged is probable. Some of the proverbs fit well with 
 his experiences and his outlook. Many of them contain 
 worldly wisdom that measures up to the range of his 
 life. Many of them are sharp sayings of the type in 
 which he most probably indulged. The Song of Songs 
 could be fitted into his experience, and he is the central 
 figure in at least one of the songs. The same in general 
 might be said about Ecclesiastes. But such facts do 
 not give evidence of authorship. These books will 
 each be studied later (cf. pp. 308-311), but the language 
 and the spirit of them as they now stand, is 
 largely foreign to the age and the outlook of Solomon 
 as it has been preserved in history. They are, in fact, 
 much closer to those interbiblical books that also bear 
 
118 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 his name: the Wisdom of Solomon, and the Psalms of 
 Solomon. The present title may have been attached 
 to them in exactly the same way as to the latter. 
 
 Religious Life —Those influences that made for 
 change and revolution in civil affairs played a no less 
 significant part in religious life and thought. Ushered 
 into official life by one prophet, and his downfall 
 predicted by another, we hear no prophetic voice dur¬ 
 ing the whole reign of Solomon. His conduct of 
 national affairs was so closely organized and so thor¬ 
 oughly dominated by himself that there was no place 
 for the dissenter. Nor would we be surprised if this 
 new, gorgeous civilization shocked the nomadic ideals 
 of the prophets into a temporary silence. But many 
 minds must have pondered the unequal economic con¬ 
 ditions that grew apace in the realm, and the inherent 
 injustice of these conditions formed a definite back¬ 
 ground for later messages. 
 
 The growing cosmopolitan type of population 
 directly affected the religion. Previously Yahwism 
 had rubbed up against Canaanitish Baalism, and had 
 assimilated some of its features. Now the doors were 
 opened to the world, and every little community with 
 its peculiar customs crossed the threshold. Sanctuaries 
 were erected for Chemosh, God of the Moabites, and 
 for Molech, God of the Ammonites, as well as for 
 others, in the city of Jerusalem (I Kgs. xi. 7). But 
 the influence of Egypt, through the favorite queen, and 
 of Tyre, through her numerous expert workmen, were 
 the most potent. Two types of religious thought re¬ 
 sulted from this ferment. One group grew tolerant, 
 adapted themselves to the situation as they found it, 
 absorbed somewhat of all they met, lost many of their 
 old convictions, and produced a new type of life and 
 thought. The other group reacted in the presence of 
 the strange and foreign, clung tenaciously to their 
 old methods, forms and names, and became propa- 
 
THE UNITED KINGDOM 
 
 119 
 
 gandists for the ways of their fathers. A clash be¬ 
 tween the old and the new was inevitable; in fact, it 
 had a real function to perform in the religious life of 
 Israel. 
 
 Of no less importance than the foregoing was the 
 building of the temple. Here was a new and far- 
 reaching development in Yahweh worship. Hitherto 
 Yahweh had not dwelt in a house, but had dwelt in 
 a tent and in a tabernacle (II Sam. vii. 6). With the 
 dedication of the temple, the days of the simplicity 
 of worship were numbered. Here an ornate ritual in 
 keeping with the new building must develop. Sacri¬ 
 fices must increase in number and in type. The 
 priesthood must become specialists, and their services 
 must keep pace with the environment. As the years 
 pass the Jerusalem sanctuary will attract worshipers 
 from all parts of the country, and the old sacred 
 shrines with their simple forms will suffer gradual 
 eclipse. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 The First Period, 933-887 b.c. 
 The Kings 
 
 Israel Judah 
 
 Jeroboam I 
 
 933 Rehoboam 
 
 933 
 
 
 Abijah 
 
 920 
 
 
 Asa 
 
 917 
 
 Nadab 
 
 915 
 
 
 Baasha 
 
 913 
 
 
 Elah 
 
 889 
 
 
 Zimri 
 
 887 
 
 
 I Kings xii.-xvi. 15; II Chronicles 
 
 X.-XVI. 
 
 A- 
 
 -Analysis of Literature 
 
 
 Five distinct sources were used for this and the sub¬ 
 sequent part of our history. (1) The book of the 
 chronicles of the kings of Israel, and (2) the book of 
 the chronicles of the kings of Judah were histories of 
 the north and the south, respectively, which drew 
 immediately upon the court annals that were kept in 
 the archives of each kingdom. The authors must have 
 had direct access to the original records. Whether 
 they copied them verbatim, what proportion of the 
 material they omitted, or what, if any, they added, we 
 do not know. That each book contained much more 
 than the compiler of our present book of Kings used, 
 
 120 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 123 
 
 and that each was a narrative of historical events of 
 its respective nation, is quite clear. That the book 
 of the chronicles of the kings of Israel was written 
 after the fall of Samaria, 722 b.c., and the book of the 
 chronicles of the kings of Judah was not concluded 
 much earlier than 600 b.c. is apparent, because of 
 events included in our quotations from the books. The 
 last appeal made to either book refers to the completed 
 reign of King Jehoiakim, who ruled from 608 to 
 597 B.c. (II Kgs. xxiv. 5). 
 
 The third source is the vivid, picturesque Elijah 
 and Elisha stories, consisting of Ej., I Kings xvii.- 
 xix., xxi.; II Kings i. 2-17, and Es., II Kings ii., iv. 
 1-vi. 23; viii. 1-15; xiii. 14-21, respectively. These 
 stories must have taken their present form somewhere 
 about 800 B.c. That is, they must have preceded Hosea 
 (cir. 750 B.c.) as they are quite unaware that any guilt 
 attaches to the worship at northern shrines. 
 
 Another source, closely related to Ej. and Es., con¬ 
 sists of a number of narratives that are interested 
 in military activities in Israel (I Kgs. xx., xxii. 1-38; 
 II Kgs. iii., vi. 24—vii. 20; ix., x.). They are more racy 
 than the usual official chronicle, less religious, and more 
 political than the Ej. and Es. stories. They are rather 
 a popular history of some of the critical episodes in 
 the life of Israel. Their vividness suggests an origin 
 near the events described, perhaps earlier than 800 b.c. 
 
 The fifth source, II Kings xi. 4-20; xii. 4-16; xvi. 
 10-18; xxii. 3—xxiii. 24, whose supreme interest is 
 in the temple, is supposed by some to come from the 
 temple archives, by others to belong to the book of 
 the chronicles of the kings of Judah. The common 
 interest of the four passages is unmistakable, the 
 exact origin at best can only be hypothetical, but in 
 any case they are source documents, and were con¬ 
 temporary or nearly so with the events. 
 
 These five sources, which indeed constitute the 
 
124 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 major part of the book, and the chief, if not the only, 
 source of our history, are all that have been preserved 
 from the original documents. No doubt the editor 
 had much more material of each of the types, but 
 these suited his purpose, which was religious rather 
 than historical. Who he was, what was his purpose, 
 and when he lived, are questions that are easily 
 answered. We are already familiar with the Deuter- 
 onomic school, and here again we find their phraseology 
 and their spirit (cf. I Kgs. xiv. 22, 23; xv. 14; xxii. 43, 
 with Dt. xii. 1-3). That an edition of the book was 
 completed before the exile, 597 b.c., is evident from 
 many passages (cf. I Kgs. ix. 3; xi. 36; xii. 19; II Kgs. 
 xviii. 19, 22; xvi. 6). The editor is responsible for the 
 condemnation of the kings (I Kgs. xiv. 22, 23; xii. 28, 
 et at.). He also introduced the present strange 
 chronological scheme which is now the framework 
 of the book (e.g., I Kgs. xv. 1, 2, 9-11, etc.). This 
 follows a regular system, the date of the accession of 
 a king is given by comparison with the years of the 
 reign of the contemporary king in the other nation. 
 Thus the editor zigzags from one kingdom to the other 
 on the crowning of each ruler. 
 
 There are some features that indicate a still later 
 revision, also by a Deuteronomist. A number of pas¬ 
 sages look on the exile as a certainty (II Kgs. xx. 
 17-18; xxi. 10-15; xxiii. 27), and others view it as al¬ 
 ready having taken place (I Kgs. ix. 7-9; II Kgs. 
 xvii. 19, 20; xxiii. 26; xxiv. 3). The two last chapters 
 deal with Nebuchadrezzar and his relation to Judah, 
 while the last one tells of the fall of the city and the 
 captivity in 586 b.c., and concludes with the privileges 
 that were granted Jehoiakin in Babylon in the year 
 561 B.c. The year 550 b.c. would then be the approxi¬ 
 mate date at which the final editor brought the book 
 up to date by occasional insertions throughout the 
 book and the concluding chapters. The book must 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 125 
 
 have passed through many scribal hands at later 
 periods, but it suffered very little by way of interpre¬ 
 tation or interpolation. One reason for this was that 
 the priestly school found it altogether inadequate for 
 their historical purposes, and while they used it freely 
 for their new history of Israel, viz., Chronicles, they 
 left it practically untouched. Hence our problem of 
 the historical value of the book is a comparatively 
 simple one. 
 
 B— Sketch of History 
 
 The disruption of the monarchy was not so sudden as 
 might appear. The causes lay far back in history. 
 The tribal divisions were ancient and deep-rooted. 
 Different origins, different racial elements assimilated, 
 different development because of environment, to¬ 
 gether with the Canaanitish settlement between the 
 north and the south, all aided in producing a perma¬ 
 nent cleavage. The official union under Saul and 
 David failed to prevent constant friction and jealousy. 
 The innovations of Solomon were felt severely by 
 Ephraim. There the burden of taxation fell, for in 
 the north was the greatest wealth. The new land 
 division disturbed old relationships, and left Judah, 
 the tribe of the king, exempt from the burdens of the 
 kingdom. An absolute monarch, ruling in true 
 Oriental fashion, could not satisfy the independent 
 Ephraimites, who had ever struggled for the place of 
 leadership. Nor did the religious innovations, the 
 new temple, and its ritual easily win the assent of the 
 democratic north. A prophetic outburst in the vicinity 
 of Shiloh, reported indeed by the Deuteronomic 
 editor, nevertheless, suggests that throughout the 
 country the spirit of revolt was rife (I Kgs. xi. 29-39 
 D.). Then Rehoboam’s arrogant response to the over¬ 
 tures of the Shechem council made the continuance 
 
126 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 of the union unthinkable (I Kgs. xii. 6-11). The 
 smoldering rebellion burst into flame. New indignities 
 added to old oppressions were intolerable. The slogan, 
 ^What portion have we in David? to your tents, O 
 Israel,’’ was raised (I Kgs. xii. 16). Adoram, an officer 
 over the taskwork, the messenger of the king, was 
 stoned. Rehoboam and his bodyguard fled posthaste 
 to Jerusalem. Jeroboam, already an approved leader 
 in the north, had been exiled in Egypt because Solo¬ 
 mon had feared an insurrection. He had been recalled, 
 and was now summoned to an assembly by the people, 
 and crowned king over Israel (I Kgs. xii. 20). 
 
 Two results immediately followed. All the tributary 
 nations, Syria, Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Philistia, 
 gained their independence, as Rehoboam was unable 
 to command them. Also the schism that opened with 
 bloodshed was continued by civil warfare. As no 
 battle is mentioned and no details are given, we may 
 assume that between Rehoboam and Jeroboam there 
 were only indecisive skirmishes (I Kgs. xiv. 30; xv. 7; 
 cf. xii. 21-24 P.). Later the hatred became so bitter, 
 and Judah so intrigued with foreign powers, that the 
 destruction of both nations was compassed. 
 
 Judah, which had absorbed the tribe of Simeon, as 
 well as Calebites, Kenites, and the Jerahmeelites, was 
 a small territory, with rocky, barren soil, and from 
 now on she lived under the shadow of her stronger, 
 wealthier neighbor, Israel. Her inheritance was the 
 memory of two great kings, who had laid the founda¬ 
 tion of her one ruling dynasty, the house of David, 
 and her possession of the one splendid city in all 
 Palestine. Yet her barren hillsides, her bleak ex¬ 
 posures, and her wide outlook, had also compensations 
 in their influence on the moral fiber and spiritual 
 fervor of her people. 
 
 Military activities, important to both nations, were 
 almost uninterrupted. Egypt had a strong ruler. 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 127 
 
 Shishak, or Sheshonk, not the father-in-law of Jero¬ 
 boam, but the first of a new dynasty, who was eager 
 for conquest in a territory that centuries before had 
 belonged to Egypt. A disunited Israel gave him his 
 opportunity, and he raided the country. Our narra¬ 
 tives tell us he conquered Jerusalem and robbed the 
 temple in the fifth year of Rehoboam, i.e., 927 b.c. (I 
 Kgs. xiv. 25, 26). But the Egyptian contemporary 
 records on the south wall of the temple at Karnak 
 add substantially to the story. Here is preserved a 
 list of the captured cities, and a number of these, as 
 Taanach, Shunem, Mahanaim, Gibeon, Bethhoron, 
 Aijalon, Megiddo, and Beth-Anoth, belong to the 
 north. We may conclude from this that the campaign 
 was not directed solely against Jerusalem by a power 
 friendly to Jeroboam, but was against the whole land, 
 and that for the sake of Egyptian prestige. However, 
 she did not again interfere with Palestine during this 
 period. 
 
 In 918 B.c. Abijah succeeded his father as king of 
 Judah, and continued the hostilities against Jeroboam, 
 but with little success (I Kgs. xv. 7). The account in 
 Chronicles of a great battle when Abijah took three 
 cities. Bethel, Jashanah, and Ephron, from Israel is 
 throughout in the editor’s own language, and has no 
 support in other sources. It is, at least, unquestion¬ 
 ably overdrawn (II Chr. xiii. 3-21). 
 
 Nadab, who succeeded Jeroboam in 915 b.c., had a 
 short and troubled reign (I Kgs. xv. 25-28). He at¬ 
 tacked the Philistines, who had a stronghold in Gib- 
 bethon on the west frontier of Ephraim. But trouble 
 was brewing in the camp of Israel. Jeroboam had 
 suffered inroads from Egypt. Hereditary monarchy 
 did not sit lightly on the congeries of the ten northern 
 tribes. Baasha of the tribe of Issachar, a general in the 
 army, slew his master, and was crowned king in 913 
 b.c. He then slew the whole house of Jeroboam, and 
 
128 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 proceeded to strengthen the kingdom. He began to 
 fortify Ramah, an important caravan intersection, 
 only six miles north of Jerusalem (I Kgs. xv. 16-21). 
 For both defensive and offensive purposes, this was 
 strategic for Israel, but it contained a threat to the 
 south. Asa, the third king in Judah, who began to rule 
 in 916 B.C., interpreted this in the most natural way 
 and, considering only his immediate need, made over¬ 
 tures to Benhadad of Syria to break his previous alli¬ 
 ance with Israel and come to the aid of Judah (I Kgs. 
 XV. 18-21). The king of Damascus readily assented, 
 sent his armies into northern Israel, captured Ijon, 
 Dan, Abel-beth-Macaah, the Galilee region, and all of 
 Naphthali, and thus opened up for himself a much- 
 coveted outlet to the sea. Thus there was lost to 
 Israel most important territory, and there began a 
 little before 900 b.c. what has been aptly termed “the 
 hundred years’ war between Syria and Israel.” 
 
 To meet this attack Baasha had to move his army 
 to the north, and this gave Asa an opportunity he 
 could not let slip. He rallied all his people, and carried 
 off the stone and timber his enemy had collected at 
 Ramah. Some of this material he reerected at Geba, 
 about a mile eastward of Ramah, where he commanded 
 the best approaches from both the north and the 
 south, and made it the northern outpost of Judah, 
 while the rest he transported to another fortification 
 at Mizpah on the northwest frontier (I Kgs. xv. 22). 
 
 Asa’s strength is further celebrated in Chronicles, 
 where in the usually glowing style of the author, he 
 is credited with having defeated Zerah, the Cushite, 
 with great slaughter (II Chr. xiv. 9-15). There is 
 good evidence of the existence of an Arabian tribe of 
 Cushites. This may be the memory of one of their 
 raids on the southland which was repulsed by the good 
 king. 
 
 Baasha, the usurper in Israel, was succeeded by his 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 129 
 
 son Elah in 889 b.c., who in the following year, with all 
 his house, fell by the hand of Zimri, who was captain 
 of half of the chariots (I Kgs. xvi. 8-14). Zimri, the 
 assassin, had short shrift, as Omri, captain of the host 
 that was then sieging Gibbethon, marched to the 
 palace, and burned it to the ground. Here Zimri, a 
 king for seven days, perished. 
 
 C—National Conditions 
 
 During this half century national conditions of both 
 kingdoms were a sorry picture. Economically the 
 eclipse had been immediate. Tribute gone, control 
 of merchandise lost, income from taxation reduced, 
 slave work greatly lessened, both north and south 
 alike had been reduced to straits. Shields of gold in 
 the south had been replaced by shields of copper, and 
 the tents of Israel now took the place of palaces. In 
 both countries they were again at the beginning of 
 things, and before each lay a long struggle for wealth 
 and authority. The social life had been reduced to 
 much simpler forms than in the preceding reign. The 
 north, particularly, had reverted almost to the early 
 peasant type. No permanent site was selected as 
 capital. Jeroboam at first settled in Shechem and 
 fortified it (I Kgs. xii. 25). Then he moved across 
 the Jordan, perhaps influenced by the presence of the 
 Egyptian army, to Penuel (I Kgs. xii. 25), and later 
 he returned to the west side of the river, and settled in 
 Tirzah (I Kgs. xiv. 17). He had no harem, and we 
 have no notice of anything approaching a cabinet. 
 The army was the power in the land, and in less than 
 half a century, three kings had been slain and the 
 throne occupied by army officers. It was a military 
 despotism without so commanding a figure as David 
 or Saul to direct the line of battle. 
 
 In religion there was reaction in both countries. 
 
130 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Jeroboam and the north did not forsake the worship 
 of Yahweh. The name Yahweh formed part of his 
 son’s name, Abijah. The prophets had selected him 
 as king before the disruption, and supported him 
 throughout his reign. The people, who, no doubt, 
 continued to be worshipers of Yahweh, maintained 
 their confidence in him to the end. But he led the 
 people in revolt against the new movements that had 
 developed in Jerusalem under Solomon. He estab¬ 
 lished a sacred festival for all the people (I Kgs. xii. 
 32, 33). He restored and dignified the worship at 
 ancient shrines that had been threatened with eclipse 
 by the innovations at Jerusalem (I Kgs. xii. 27-31). 
 At some of these sanctuaries, the sanctions of which 
 ran back to the time of the patriarchs, he constructed 
 some kind of temple (I Kgs. xii. 31). Two places, held 
 in peculiar reverence from early days, were singled 
 out for special honor, Dan and Bethel, and in each 
 one he erected a bull of gold (I Kgs. xii. 27-31). In 
 this he was following ancient custom. Worship under 
 such forms was almost universal among the Semitic 
 people. Indications show that Israel, in her early 
 nomadic days, used many of the same religious forms 
 as her kin. The twelve oxen bearing up the brazen 
 sea in front of the temple (I Kgs. vii. 25), the oxen 
 supporting the canopy in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezk. i., x.), 
 and the strange bull forms woven on the veil of the 
 Holy of Holies (Ex. xxvi. 31; cf. I Kgs. vi. 29, 23) 
 most likely were associated definitely with past forms 
 of worship. Indeed Yahweh himself was at one time 
 represented by and spoken of as a bull (Ex. xxxii. 5). 
 Whether Jeroboam was influenced by early Hebrew, 
 nomadic customs, or whether it was the immediate 
 influence of Canaanitish worship with which they had 
 been familiar for approximately three centuries, we 
 can scarcely question that the purpose of these sym¬ 
 bols, to his mind, was the worship of Yahweh. 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 131 
 
 He also made priests from among the common 
 people that were not of the tribe of Levi (I Kgs. xii. 
 31). This was democratic. It was the ancient prac¬ 
 tice from patriarchal days. Until after the days of 
 Solomon we find men from all the tribes acting as 
 priests, with a good conscience and without criticism. 
 In Jerusalem, Abiathar and Zadok, sons of Aaron, 
 had preeminence, and were the basis of a new order. 
 In this action Jeroboam, though criticized severely 
 by a later generation, but followed the way of the 
 fathers. An unnamed prophet is made the mouth¬ 
 piece of a Deuteronomic condemnation (I Kgs. xiii. 
 1-34), but if we blame him for his religious activity, 
 it must be on the score of his conservatism. 
 
 This was a time in which the prophets could breathe. 
 So we meet Ahijah, Jehu, and Shemiah, while a num¬ 
 ber of anonymous prophets are the bearers of im¬ 
 portant messages. A careful study of all these makes 
 it difficult to tell how far the prophets of his own day 
 were with the king at the close of his reign. We are, 
 however, not left in any uncertainty as to the judg¬ 
 ment of the compiler, who was the inheritor of the 
 later prophetic ideals. 
 
 In the south, the history of religion was different. 
 The splendor was gone, but the temple still remained. 
 The population to which it ministered was much 
 smaller than previously, hence it was more central to 
 its constituency. The population was cut off from 
 world-life, hence outside influences did not now play 
 on Jerusalem and the temple as of yore. Thus the 
 religious coordination of all of Judah was easily 
 possible. Further, as the temple was the one outstand¬ 
 ing feature in the life of Judah, their one glory, we 
 may expect the development of more intense religious 
 conceptions. Later we shall see that it was from 
 Judah, and usually from the temple itself, that there 
 sprung most of the reform movements of Old Testa- 
 
132 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 ment history. One such movement, perhaps the least 
 significant of all, but blazing the trail for others, was 
 fathered by Asa (I Kgs. xv. 12, 13). It is reported 
 that some of the most licentious rites that were asso¬ 
 ciated with worship were forbidden, and some of the 
 devotees were banished from the land. This was the 
 beginning of a long history of the purification of the 
 worship of Yahweh. 
 
 The work and the attitude of the editor of the 
 books of Kings needs a further word of explanation. 
 He condemned all the kings of Israel without excep¬ 
 tion, and that because of the worship that was carried 
 on outside of Jerusalem. All the kings of Judah until 
 Josiah are blamed for permitting the hillside worship 
 to remain. It is evident that this condemnation comes 
 from an idealist of a later day, and that it is not the 
 judgment of a contemporary. The point of view of 
 the editor is correct. It is the testimony of history. 
 The hillside worship, both north and south, as well 
 as the calf-worship at Dan and Bethel, did lead to 
 licentiousness. These places were open to all the cor¬ 
 rupting influences of Canaan and Phoenicia. Each 
 altar was independent, and its customs were developed 
 under the local priesthood. All this led to loose prac¬ 
 tices and to very imperfect views of deity. It is true 
 that these high places, as Bethel, Shiloh, Nob, Hebron, 
 and many others, had long been held sacred because of 
 the religious experiences and worship of their an¬ 
 cestors in these places. They had always been con¬ 
 sidered legitimate. But the days of Jeroboam were 
 new days. Changes had come, progress had been made, 
 and new dangers were present. Jeroboam, a national 
 leader, should have had broader vision than the early 
 patriarchs. He should have been a leader in spiritual 
 worship. But the old ways suited him. By clinging 
 to them he was able to hold his people. In so far as 
 he might have done better, marking a forward step 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 133 
 
 rather than beating time, he was blameworthy. But 
 that would be asking a king to be a prophet and a 
 martyr, and a man in the tenth century b.c. to have 
 the vision of a man in the seventh. The editor of 
 our documents was not interested in the kings or their 
 achievements in the light of the moral and religious 
 conceptions of their own age, but visited on them the 
 condemnation of his own age. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 The Second Period, the Omri-Ahab Dynasty, 
 
 887-842 B.c. 
 
 The Kings 
 
 Israel Judah 
 
 Zimri 887 Asa 917 
 
 Omri 887 
 
 Ahab 875 Jehoshaphat 876 
 
 Abijah 853 
 
 Jehoram 851-842 Ahaziah 843-842 
 
 I Kings xvi. 16—11 Kings ix. 28; II Chronicles 
 
 XVII.—XXII. 9 
 
 A —Historical Sketch 
 
 The half century preceding Omri was one of chaos 
 and loss. Omri, not only a soldier, but a statesman 
 as well, turned the tide (I Kgs. xvi. 17-28). The book 
 of Kings allots to him only thirteen verses, and only 
 one-third of this is drawn from the annals, yet so 
 great were his achievements that for a century the 
 Assyrians called all Palestine the ^dand of Omri.^^ 
 During his twelve years’ reign he at least laid the 
 basis for national strength. Early in his career he 
 suppressed a local uprising in favor of one Tibni, who 
 is otherwise unknown. He held the Philistines in 
 check. He strengthened his country by an alliance 
 
 134 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 135 
 
 with Tyre, marrying Ahab, his son, to Jezebel, daugh¬ 
 ter of Ithbaal, king of Tyre. He at least paved the 
 way for happy relationship with Judah. The testi¬ 
 mony comes from Moab that ‘‘Omri was king over 
 Israel, and oppressed Moab a long time, for Chemosh 
 was wrath with his land” (Moabite stone). The song 
 in Numbers xxi. 27-30 is thought by many to celebrate 
 this ancient victory, which is not referred to in the 
 historical books. But his genius is seen in his selection 
 and his fortification of the hill of Samaria, where he 
 built his capital city. Because of its central location 
 and its possibility of defense, it was the most strategic 
 place in the land. With all his strength, he was never¬ 
 theless unable to meet Syria on even terms, and was 
 compelled to grant her certain commercial privileges 
 in the city of Samaria (I Kgs. xx. 34). 
 
 Ahab, his son, was a man of the same spirit (I Kgs. 
 xvi. 29—xxii. 40). He prized the alliance with Tyre, 
 and entered into a similar compact with Judah, his 
 daughter Athaliah being given in marriage to Jehoram, 
 son of Jehoshaphat of Judah. In 856 b.c. the Syrians 
 penetrated the country as far as Samaria, but were 
 put to flight with great slaughter (I Kgs. xx. 1-25). 
 The next year they again attacked, but were met at 
 Aphek, perhaps east of the Sea of Galilee, and were 
 again routed by Ahab, Benhadad, the Syrian king 
 being captured (I Kgs. xx. 26-34). Ahab let the 
 enemy off lightly, too lightly indeed for some of the 
 fiery spirits of the country (I Kgs. xx. 35-43). The 
 immediately following events, however, suggest that 
 the king acted wisely. 
 
 Assyria had been rapidly gaining strength for a 
 half a century, and had been sending her conquering 
 hosts north and south and east. Between 860 and 
 855 B.C., in three great campaigns, she had reduced the 
 peoples lying between Nineveh and Damascus to sub¬ 
 jection. Some twenty years before this her armies 
 
136 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 had reached the Mediterranean, and she had exacted 
 tribute from all northern Syria. She was again ready 
 to claim her ancient territory, and in 854 b.c. her 
 armies were on the march. The little kingdoms of 
 Syria must have seen the gathering cloud for some 
 years, and now a hasty alliance was arranged. Ben- 
 hadad of Damascus, Ahab of Israel, who had ten thou¬ 
 sand soldiers and two thousand chariots, according to 
 the Assyrian statistics, and their allies, eleven Syrian 
 kings in all, with their armies marched north to inter¬ 
 cept the invader. They met the army of Shalmaneser 
 II at Karkar in 854 b.c., one of our earliest fixed dates, 
 and engaged in battle. The Assyrian annals claim a 
 complete victory, but it was probably rather indecisive, 
 as it was five years before they again risked a cam¬ 
 paign in the west. It was not hkely a Syrian victory, 
 for the Old Testament gives no hint of it. 
 
 In 853 B.c. we find Israel again at war with Syria, its 
 recent ally. Apparently Benhadad had not lived up 
 to the terms of the treaty of 856 b.c., for he still occu¬ 
 pied Ramoth-Gilead (I Kgs. xxii. 3). Ahab called his 
 ally Jehoshaphat of Judah to his assistance and, though 
 warned of disaster by Micaiah, the prophet, he laid 
 siege to the city (I Kgs. xxii. 1—xxiii.). Though dis¬ 
 guised, owing to his fear, the king of Israel was slain 
 by accident, and the day was lost. His sons, Ahaziah 
 and then Jehoram, in turn ruled, but neither was able 
 to stem the tide of defeat. Moab freed herself on 
 the death of Ahab, and an attempt to reduce her to 
 submission proved futile (II Kgs. i. 1; iii. 4-27; cf. 
 Moabite stone). Syria most likely overran the coun¬ 
 try from 853 until 849 b.c. From 849 until 839 b.c. 
 Shalmaneser II of Assyria hurled his army four times 
 against Damascus, and so crippled her power that for 
 a quarter of a century she did not molest Israel or 
 Judah. In Israel, however, partly because of the in¬ 
 efficiency of the rulers, partly owing to the religious 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 137 
 
 and the political cleavages, the house of Omri was 
 doomed. 
 
 Economic Growth —Economically, however, the 
 north had made considerable gain. The lavish tribute 
 exacted from Moab, one hundred thousand rams and 
 the wool of one hundred thousand lambs, must have 
 greatly assisted in the development of the country. 
 Omri did considerable building, Ahab did more. 
 Jericho was rebuilt, and thus Israel controlled and was 
 benefited by the traffic from the east of the Jordan 
 (I Kgs. xvi. 34). It was a time of increasing luxury, 
 and the king’s palace in Esdraelon (I Kgs. xxi. 1), 
 and the ivory palace of Ahab in Samaria (I Kgs. xxii. 
 39) were but signs of the times. The excavations 
 conducted by the University of Harvard, beginning 
 1908, actually uncovered what may be the founda¬ 
 tions of Ahab’s ivory palace, and in many ways cor¬ 
 roborate this picture. If Omri might be called the 
 David of Israel, then Ahab somewhat closely approxi¬ 
 mated the Solomon, and the glories of the earlier reign 
 were in part duplicated in Samaria. 
 
 Judah lived under the shadow of Israel, and shared 
 partly in her prosperity. Jehoshaphat planned to 
 emulate Solomon as a master of merchant marine, 
 but failed (I Kgs. xxii. 48). She also suffered the loss 
 of her chief tributary states, Edom and Libnah, after 
 the death of Jehoshaphat (I Kgs. xxii. 47; II Kgs. 
 viii. 22). A wave of prosperity was perhaps followed 
 by one of depression. 
 
 B— Religious Influences 
 
 But the religious struggle was the most significant 
 of the period. Our records preserve a wealth of de¬ 
 tail and interpretation. It was during these years 
 that there came the climax of a long period of associa¬ 
 tion with, and assimilation of, neighboring worship. 
 
138 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 The religion of Canaan was essentially a nature wor¬ 
 ship. Male and female deities, Baal and Baalath, the 
 givers of fertility were worshiped. The bull and the 
 cow were their symbols. At the chief agricultural 
 seasons, seeding time and harvest, religious festivals 
 were held. Sacrifices and agricultural products were 
 offered the gods, and many indulged in licentious rites. 
 This worship was part of the necessary agricultural 
 duties of the farmer. Hence it must have penetrated 
 most of the Israelitish life. 
 
 With Omri and Ahab we pass into another stage 
 of the struggle. Israel had seen Phoenician religion 
 at close quarters since the time when Solomon had so 
 many Tyrians in his employ. Now, Tyrian Baalism 
 was the religion of the one queen of the land. Jezebel, 
 a woman of purpose and strength, the daughter of 
 Ithbaal, the priest of Melkart, who had usurped the 
 throne of Tyre in 888 b.c., had brought her gods, Mel¬ 
 kart and Astarte, with her to Samaria. Altars must be 
 erected for them, and their priests must come to per¬ 
 form their ritual. It is possible that Ashera, the 
 symbol of the female deity, were erected beside all 
 the altars. Hence Tyrian Baalism occupied a place of 
 great prestige in the land. A further danger lay in 
 its resemblance to the Canaanitish worship, towards 
 which many were predisposed by long acquaintance. 
 In fact, the worship of Tyre was probably Canaanitish 
 agricultural worship, transformed under the cosmo¬ 
 politan conditions of the seaport town. It was there¬ 
 fore more ornate, more lavish in its ritual, more sensual 
 in its development, and on the whole more pretentious. 
 Hence it was more subtly attractive to the Israelites, 
 among whom it now carried on a missionary propa¬ 
 ganda. To the untainted worshiper of the Yahweh 
 of the early days, it was the essence of all that was 
 false and abhorrent. 
 
 The champion of the ancient religion did not come 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 139 
 
 from the cities of Israel or Judah, nor even from the 
 farms in the northern valleys. The desert alone was 
 likely to produce an Elijah, clear-eyed, passionate, and 
 uncompromising in his allegiance to Yahweh. Bred 
 in the desert, he had not been contaminated with the 
 soft ways of city culture. The simpler modes of the 
 desert worship alone were known to him. Yahweh 
 alone was his God. West of the Jordan, the Baal 
 were to him in form and fact usurping the place of 
 the nation’s God. His anger blazed forth. He must 
 many times have denounced the prevalent foreign 
 worship. A famine fell on the land. Surely this was 
 the sign of Yahweh’s wrath. The story does not per¬ 
 mit us to follow Elijah step by step, but he was in¬ 
 deed ^^a troubler of Israel.” He condemned the grow¬ 
 ing cult in the royal court, and challenged Baalism for 
 evidence of its worth. A splendid contest, the culmi¬ 
 nation of a long struggle, was staged on Mount Carmel. 
 Elijah, the heroic figure, stood alone. But Yahweh 
 was not only vindicated by famine, but also by fire 
 and by rain. Ahab was convinced, and the first 
 battle was won (I Kgs. xviii. 1-46). 
 
 His long sojourn on Horeb was preparatory to the 
 second and more thoroughgoing effort to overthrow 
 Baalism. Here he learned the lesson that what miracle 
 cannot do the slow-working forces of human history 
 may achieve. Yahweh was not in the earthquake, 
 nor in the fire, but was in the ^^sound of gentle still¬ 
 ness (I Kgs. xix. 12). Political intrigue can accomplish 
 what cataclysms of nature cannot. So the prophet, 
 using the methods of his day, set in motion those 
 forces that ultimately overthrew the ruling dynasties 
 in Damascus and Israel (I Kgs. xix. 15-17). These 
 seemed so tainted with disloyalty to Yahweh, and so 
 confirmed in their evil ways, that so long as they 
 ruled there could be no true worship. The work 
 Elijah thus conceived was carried out under the direc- 
 
140 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 tion of Elisha, his successor and the leader of the 
 prophetic bands, but a man much more kindly dis¬ 
 posed towards civilization than was his stern master. 
 
 The spirit of Elijah was further shown in his attack 
 on Ahab because of the appropriation of Naboth’s 
 vineyard (I Kgs. xxi. 1-27). In refusing to part with 
 his vineyard, Naboth was influenced by an early 
 religious idea that the family inheritance, having come 
 from God, could not be alienated from the descend¬ 
 ants. Such was the old Israelitish custom, but Tyre 
 had a different set of customs. Jezebel gained, as 
 would any Oriental monarch, by compulsion what 
 Ahab, because of his consideration for the people and 
 their prejudices, could not obtain. But Elijah was 
 incensed that an ancient custom that preserved the 
 rights of the common people should be trampled on 
 in so outrageous a manner by those who had so devi¬ 
 ated from the true worship. Such violations of ancient 
 rights and privileges could surely end in no other way 
 than the annihilation of the ruling house (I Kgs. 
 xxi. 17-24). 
 
 The Schools of the Prophets —Elijah’s relation to 
 the schools of the prophets is not certain. These were 
 small bands of patriotic-minded zealots. They were 
 Yahweh worshipers, and stimulated the interest in 
 national wars, and perhaps helped to inspire the 
 fighters (I Kgs. xviii. 13; xxii. 6; II Kgs. ii. 7). The 
 prophet usually appeared as a lone figure on the 
 horizon, though we do on occasion find him in the midst 
 of the oflicial group. He was at least a kindred spirit 
 with these as well as another group that had its origin 
 about this time. The Rechabites, a sect about which 
 we know very little, arose as a protest against the 
 conditions of the day. They were unalterably opposed 
 to the developing civilization. Their oath obliged 
 them to drink no wine, build no houses, sow no seed, 
 plant or own no vineyard, but to live perpetually in 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 141 
 
 tents (Jer. xxxv. 6-10). They were akin to the 
 Nazarites (cf. Nu. vi. 1-4), and were the exponents of 
 the simple, nomadic life. They believed that in this 
 type of life Yahweh had revealed himself to the 
 fathers, and that only in that type would he continue 
 with his people. They were the conservatives, and 
 failed to realize that a high type of religion might go 
 with a well-developed civilization. Elijah had the 
 same historical background as these, and in part ex¬ 
 pressed similar ideas. 
 
 The dramatic coloring of the Elijah stories makes it 
 difficult sometimes to discern the historic thread. But 
 through all there rises before us an ascetic figure from 
 the desert, who challenged an enemy who had gained 
 the protection of the court, a man who gave no quarter 
 to the foe, but single-handed waged a warfare and set 
 in motion those forces that ultimately purged the wor¬ 
 ship of Yahweh from the most insidious influences 
 that ever beset it. By his attack on Baalism he helped 
 to save the social and moral purity of his people. 
 Stories any less ornate would have poorly served to 
 preserve the true worth of this superbly imposing 
 antagonist of an encroaching paganism. 
 
 Along side of Elijah is another character, Micaiah- 
 ben-Imlah, who marks an epoch in Old Testament 
 religion (I Kgs. xxii. 5-28). He also stood alone. Only 
 once does he appear in our records, and then he is a 
 messenger of woe. The four hundred sons of the 
 prophets had assured Ahab and Jehoshaphat that Yah¬ 
 weh would deliver Ramoth-Gilead into their hands. 
 Micaiah could see no such happy ending for leaders 
 who were essentially disloyal to God. This is one 
 of the early notes in that great chorus in which we 
 hear, with varying intonation, that Yahweh is a God 
 of character and is no respecter of persons. 
 
142 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 C— Writing 
 
 The art of writing was perhaps more prevalent now 
 than in any previous period in Israel’s history. The 
 internal evidence, as well as the general fact that the 
 civilization of the nation was now a century old, would 
 support this conclusion. Excavations also assure us 
 of the fact. Here belongs the Moabite stone, with 
 its important historical inscription, written in the 
 characters of the old Phoenician alphabet. Potsherds 
 belonging to the same time were found in Samaria by 
 the Harvard University expedition, seventy-five of 
 which have letters or words using the same script. 
 These add proof chiefly to the fact that a conglomerate 
 of races lived in Palestine, and to the lively inter¬ 
 course commercially between one part of the country 
 and another. The references to the ^'statutes of 
 Omri” (Mic. vi. 16) and the law book of Jehoshaphat 
 (II Chr. xvii. 7-9), as well as to Elijah’s letter to 
 Jehoram (II Chr. xxi. 12-15), are not sufiiciently 
 definite to determine what, if any, important literary 
 activity they implied, but they do show that later 
 generations looked back on these days as days of 
 literary progress. 
 
 The evidence thus is cumulative that not only was 
 there a wealth of oral tradition, stories, songs, customs, 
 and national history, but that in this period there 
 were the conditions that would foster literary activity. 
 We may be reasonably certain that now the movement 
 was on that preserved to posterity much of the early 
 history of these people. As it was not completed be¬ 
 fore the next period, the consideration of it must be 
 left to another chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 The Third Period, The Jehu-Jeroboam Dynasty, 
 
 842-740 B.c. 
 
 The Kings 
 
 Israel 
 
 
 Judah 
 
 
 Jehu 
 
 842 
 
 Ahaziah 
 
 843 
 
 
 
 Athaliah 
 
 842 
 
 
 
 Joash 
 
 836 
 
 Jehoahaz 
 
 814 
 
 
 
 Jehoash 
 
 797 
 
 Amaziah 
 
 796 
 
 Jeroboam II 
 
 781 
 
 Azariah (Uzziah) 
 
 782 
 
 Zechariah 
 
 740 
 
 Jotham (regent) 
 
 751 
 
 II Kings viii. 16—xv. 12; II Chronicles xxi.- 
 XXVIII.; Amos; Hosea. 
 
 A —Historical Sketch 
 
 In Israel we again face the forces of revolution. 
 This time it is the outgrowth of religion, which in 
 order to accomplish its purpose, allied itself with in¬ 
 trepid military daring. The prophetic party, that had 
 been influenced by Elijah and his ideals, had been 
 adding to the ferment and awaiting its opportunity 
 through the reigns of Ahaziah and Jehoram. When 
 in 844 B.c. Benhadad II of Syria fell ill, the hour for the 
 first move had come. Elisha encouraged Hazael, a 
 
 143 
 
144 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Syrian army officer, to do away with his royal master, 
 and take the throne (II Kgs. viii. 7-15). He, accord¬ 
 ing to the narrative, was Elijah’s nominee for the 
 task of scourging Baalism out of Israel (I Kgs. xix. 15). 
 
 Two years later Jehoram of Israel, assisted by 
 Ahaziah of Judah, taking advantage of the Assyrian 
 campaigns against Syria, endeavored to reduce the 
 old frontier fortress of Ramoth-Gilead (II Kgs. viii. 
 20—ix. 13). In the siege Jehoram was wounded and 
 retired to the castle in Jezreel to regain his strength, 
 and a short time later Ahaziah left the encampment to 
 visit his wounded relative. To the waiting prophetic 
 group this seemed the most favorable moment to carry 
 out the full behest of Elijah. One of the prophets, 
 at the direction of Elisha, hastened to the army camp, 
 called Jehu aside, anointed him, and proclaimed him 
 king over Israel. The army officers, when apprised 
 of the action of the ^^mad man,” enthusiastically sym¬ 
 bolized their allegiance to the new king. 
 
 Jehu took hold with a firm hand. He drove to 
 Jezreel, and with his own hand slew Jehoram, while 
 some of his guard slew Ahaziah, king of Judah (II 
 Kgs. ix. 14r-28). Jezebel, the queen mother, defiant 
 to the last, was slain in Jezreel (II Kgs. ix. 30-37). 
 The seed of the house of Ahab was wiped out. Forty- 
 two of the royal seed of Judah were next murdered, 
 and a gathering of the prophets of Baal in their temple 
 was treacherously put to the sword (II Kgs. x. 1-28). 
 Thus did Jehu destroy Baal out of Israel. This revo¬ 
 lution, inspired by Elijah and his band, was the blood¬ 
 iest and most disastrous in the nation’s history. With 
 one stroke Israel cut herself off from her alliances 
 with Tyre and Judah, which had been cultivated dur¬ 
 ing the Omri-Ahab regime. 
 
 In Judah, Athaliah, the queen, showed her temper 
 and her capacity (II Kgs. xi. 1-3). Anticipating an 
 insurrection, she slew all the royal seed, seized the 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 145 
 
 supreme power, and ruled for six years, quite likely 
 by the aid of the palace mercenaries. One young boy, 
 Joash, of the ruling house, escaped the general slaugh¬ 
 ter through the alertness of his aunt, Jehosheba, the 
 wife of the chief priest. 
 
 The prophets believed that by cleansing the wor¬ 
 ship from Baalism they would gain the favor of Yah- 
 weh, and thus insure the prosperity of the nation. 
 History writes the commentary on their faith. Israel’s 
 international relationships were never more unfor¬ 
 tunate than now. Immediately at the beginning of 
 the reign of Jehu, 842 b.c., the Assyrian army, under 
 Shalmaneser II, came west and attacked Hazael. But 
 though Syria’s allies had mostly forsaken her, and 
 her country was ravaged by the enemy, yet the city 
 of Damascus, into which the king was driven, could 
 not be taken. The neighboring states, however, suf¬ 
 fered severely. Tribute was paid to Assyria by Tyre 
 and Sidon. ^Hehu, the son of Omri,” also sent his 
 quota to the Assyrian king, ^^silver, gold, bowls of 
 gold, chalices of gold, buckets of gold, bars of lead, a 
 royal scepter, balsam wood,” thereby expressing his 
 allegiance to Shalmaneser. Thus the new dynasty 
 brought the nation at once into Assyrian bondage. 
 
 After another unsuccessful attack on Damascus in 
 839 B.C., Assyria, owing to a vigorous but short-lived 
 Armenian dynasty which challenged her power, was 
 unable for thirty-six years either to send forces 
 against Damascus or assistance to Jehu. During this 
 period Syria recovered sufficiently to avenge herself 
 on Jehu for his alliance with Assyria by harrying the 
 land of Israel. East of the Jordan, the land of Gilead, 
 Gad, Reuben, and Manasseh suffered from this raid 
 (II Kgs. X. 32; cf. viii. 12, 13). A change of dynasty 
 and even a change of ritual had been followed by only 
 deeper disaster to the nation. 
 
 In 836 B.c. affairs in Judah came to a climax. The 
 
146 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATUHE 
 
 priestly party under Jehoiada, the chief priest, brought 
 the regime of Athaliah to a sudden end (II Kgs. xi. 
 4-20). Joash was now seven years of age. Athaliah, 
 a woman, and a foreigner by her mother, could not 
 have been entirely popular. The priestly party had 
 gained influence with the guard so that they cove¬ 
 nanted to protect the young king. On a Sabbath, 
 when all was ready, the soldiers were manipulated so 
 that all three divisions should be on duty, then the 
 boy was anointed, crowned, and proclaimed king. 
 Athaliah, who heard the tumult, came to the temple, 
 and saw the cause of the rejoicing. She was thrust 
 out and slain by the guard. 
 
 Jehu, after a violent and only partially successful 
 reign, died in 814 b.c., and his son, Jehoahaz, inherited 
 his throne and his adversaries, but not his energy. 
 Israel suffered continuously at the hand of Hazael and 
 that of his son, Benhadad III (II Kgs. xiii. 1-4). In 
 810 B.c. the forces of Hazael penetrated the country as 
 far as Gath, and laid siege to Jerusalem. Joash, the 
 good king of Judah, had to buy the invader off by 
 spoiling the temple of all its treasure (II Kgs. xii. 17— 
 xiii. 4). Both countries were in great straits because 
 of the enemy. The only respite came when, in 803 and 
 again in 797 b.c., the Assyrian having mastered her 
 nearer foes, again attacked Syria, and engaged all her 
 military resources. Then it was, in the form of the 
 Assyrian, that ^‘Yahweh gave Israel a Saviour so that 
 they went out from under the hand of the Syrians’’ 
 (II Kgs. xiii. 5). 
 
 In Israel, Jehoahaz was succeeded by his son, 
 Jehoash, in 797 b.c. Little is known of him as a man, 
 but in his days the tide of fortune turned. For fifty 
 years Syria had harried the outskirts of the country, 
 and had even invaded the chief cities; now for fifty 
 years Israel was the victor. A petty nation, the exist¬ 
 ence of which has only recently been discovered, the 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 147 
 
 kingdom of Hazark, in north Syria, seems to have made 
 serious inroads on Syria at this time. This may have 
 contributed to the three victories Jehoash gained over 
 his enemy, when he wrested from them the border 
 cities that had been taken from his father (II Kgs. 
 
 xiii. 25). 
 
 Meanwhile revolution was at work in Judah. Joash, 
 the child of the priestly party, was slain by con¬ 
 spirators, who were perhaps out of sympathy with the 
 reform movements in religion (II Kgs. xii. 20). 
 Amaziah, his son, was made king in his stead, and when 
 his rule was established he slew his father’s murderers. 
 He made war on Edom, gained an important victory, 
 and captured one of their important cities (II Kgs. 
 
 xiv. 1-7). Then he insolently attacked Jehoash, 
 either to throw off his vassalage, of which we have 
 no other hint, or to subdue the north, of which there 
 was not the remotest possibility (II Kgs. xiv. 7-14). 
 He was defeated at Beth-Shemesh, taken prisoner from 
 Lachish whither he had fled, two hundred yards of 
 the Jerusalem wall were breached, the temple and the 
 palace were plundered by the northern army, and 
 Judah was made tributary to Israel. Amaziah’s 
 failure was the precursor of his assassination. He 
 learned of a conspiracy in Jerusalem, and again fled 
 to Lachish, where he was slain, and his son reigned in 
 his stead (II Kgs. xiv. 17-21). 
 
 Brighter days, however, were on the horizon for 
 both countries. Syria, weakened and wasted by 
 Assyria and Hazark, was no longer a menace. The 
 north held the south apparently in an easy bondage. 
 Two able kings, Azariah (Uzziah) in Judah, 782 b.c., 
 and Jeroboam II in the north, 781 b.c., were on the 
 respective thrones. Peace within and freedom from 
 without made possible the development of the re¬ 
 sources as well as territorial expansion. 
 
 Our sources in Kings merely hint at this prosperity. 
 
148 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Azariah built Elath and restored it to Judah, and 
 Jeroboam restored the old border of Israel (II Kgs. 
 xiv. 22-27). It is quite possible that the chronicler, 
 in his extended account of Uzziah’s conquest of the 
 Philistines and Arabians, as well as of the building 
 operations, preserved a tradition that was founded on 
 important fact (II Chr. xxvi. 6-15). 
 
 B— Internal Conditions 
 
 Economic —Fortunately these were the days of the 
 beginning of written prophecy, and from these sources 
 we can, from this time on, easily reconstruct much 
 of the picture. They fill in the outline the history 
 suggests. It was the golden age of Israel. Shepherds 
 and farmers had given place to the middlemen and 
 the princes. Villages had grown to substantial cities, 
 and the simple ways of peasant life had merged into 
 the luxury as well as the license of the metropolis. 
 Palaces had replaced mud huts, and marble and ivory, 
 fine silk and rare wines, had become the conspicuous 
 symbols of high life. Peace and prosperity filled the 
 land as it had not since the time of Solomon, and 
 Samaria and Jerusalem had become the rendezvous 
 of the new rich. Of course, there was the other side. 
 Penury, slavery, and suffering were the under-side of 
 the picture. The poor were exploited. They suffered 
 much from graft, and the upkeep of royalty was a 
 heavy yoke upon them. 
 
 Morals —For the moral aspect of the national life 
 we have to go chiefly to the great prophets of the 
 eighth century, Amos, Hosea, Micah i-iii., and Isaiah 
 i.-xi. The information here is complete in all details, 
 and is a duplicate of that always found in similar 
 economic and national situations. The rapid accumu¬ 
 lation of wealth had been accompanied by graft, 
 bribery, and dishonesty. Oppression, in every form 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 149 
 
 that the intellect could devise and commerce sustain, 
 was grinding down the unfortunate poor. Luxury- 
 had become the handmaid of immorality, and women 
 were the leaders in the debauchery. Regicide was but 
 an indication of the lawlessness of the age. Religion 
 was a cloak for the grossest conduct. The moral con¬ 
 dition, particularly in the north, where the wealth 
 was greatest, was loathsome to the high-minded 
 peasant with nomadic blood in his veins. 
 
 Religion —Religiously the century opened with a 
 revolution of one type; it ended with one of another 
 type. For the formal worship of Yahweh, the revo¬ 
 lution of Jehu in 842 b.c. was most auspicious. In¬ 
 triguing Baalism, root and branch, was annihilated so 
 far as that could be done by force. Jonadab-ben- 
 Rechab, the patron of the nomadic ideal, riding with the 
 king, was a sign of the times (II Kgs. x. 15-17). 
 Loyalty to Yahweh, so far as formal allegiance was 
 concerned, was achieved. Reform was also at work in 
 the south. With the overthrow of Athaliah, the 
 priests of the temple became the power behind the 
 throne. The temple was repaired and beautified, the 
 worship was perfected, and all the people covenanted 
 to be loyal to Yahweh (II Kgs. xi. 4—xii. 6). 
 
 Hence, for a century the worship of Yahweh had 
 occupied the attention of the religious leaders. A 
 purified priesthood had given themselves with vigor 
 to their tasks. Sacrifices had naturally increased, the 
 niceties of ritual had been rounded out, altars in Israel 
 and the temple in Jerusalem had gradually assumed 
 new dignity, and the festivals commanded a patronage 
 hitherto unknown. Formally the religion of Yahweh 
 flourished. But with it all, Yahweh had not delivered 
 his people from the foreign tyranny. Hence, many 
 must have felt that, though the revolution had been 
 introduced by the prophet, and it had accentuated 
 the religious ritual, there was no adequate proof that 
 
150 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 their God favored the movement. Some early 
 theologian must surely have said Yahweh could not 
 be pleased with such a massacre as Jehu ordered in 
 the valley of Jezreel (cf. Hos. i. 4). 
 
 What, then, does Yahweh seek? That was now 
 the serious question. Whence will the answer 
 come? That democratic spirit of the desert, where 
 all men shared alike, was shocked beyond measure 
 at the broad chasm between the upper and the lower 
 classes, the luxury on the one hand and the poverty 
 on the other, as well as by the flagrant injustices, and 
 the lack of human sympathy that was part of this 
 new world of commerce. Outbursts against the abuse 
 of privilege, and demands for the rights of the indi¬ 
 vidual have been recorded earlier. But it is in the 
 eighth century that the growing indignation finds 
 definite and permanent expression. It is not strange 
 that the first voice should be that of a peasant farmer. 
 These were the people who often suffered most and 
 profited least. As a countryman and a Judean, he 
 saw clearly the trend of things in the north. As an 
 individual unrelated to the prophetic schools, he had 
 no prestige or position to lose. As a religious man, 
 he believed that God must have indignation against 
 those prevalent iniquities that stirred every right- 
 thinking man to the depth of his nature. So Amos, 
 towards the close of the reign of Jeroboam II (cir. 
 760 B.C.), could hold his peace no longer. At Bethel, 
 at one of the great religious festivals, he denounced the 
 prevalent injustices and railed at the religious con¬ 
 ceptions of the day. God was righteous, and cared 
 for righteousness more than he cared for ritual or for 
 race (Amos v. 4—9, 21-27; ix. 7-8). To a nation so 
 wholly abandoned to evil as was Israel nothing but de¬ 
 struction lay in the future (Amos i., ii., iii. 9—iv. 3; 
 V. 1-3, 16-20; vii. 14-17). 
 
 Hosea, a northerner, a few years later delivered a 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 151 
 
 similar message, adding out of his own experience a 
 note of very great tenderness. As he loved his erring 
 wife, surely God, who was kinder than man, loved 
 wayward Israel (Hos. i. iii.). Both prophets agreed 
 in attacking the reigning house as vigorously as their 
 predecessors of a century earlier had denounced the 
 house of Omri. But the point of attack was far differ¬ 
 ent. There it was ritual chiefly, here it is ethics 
 chiefly. These two prophets opened an epoch in re¬ 
 ligion by their emphasis on the true place of morality 
 with an intensity hitherto unknown. 
 
 Moral Consciousness Developing —^We have a 
 glimpse into a movement parallel with the prophets, 
 and no doubt influenced by the same spirit that 
 prompted them. When Amaziah of Judah came to the 
 throne we are told that he slew his servants, who 
 had slain the king, his father. Then follows the 
 arresting sentence, which shows the development of 
 the moral consciousness of the nation. ^‘But the 
 children of the murderers he put not to death” (II 
 Kgs. xiv. 5-6). This is a far advance from early 
 practice (cf. Josh. vii. 24-26; II Sam. xxL; II Kgs. ix. 
 26). It is, as our editor assures us, in accord with the 
 law of Deuteronomy (II Kgs. xiv. 6; cf. Dt. xxiv. 16). 
 The law, no doubt, grew out of precedent, and pre¬ 
 cedent was founded in the conscience of the age. This 
 is one of the straws that shows the trend of national 
 thought. 
 
 Primitive Ideas —^With all these indications of 
 progress we need not be surprised that many still re¬ 
 tained in their thinking some of the imperfect ideals 
 of the past. The limitation of Yahweh to the soil of 
 Palestine is one of these conceptions. Elijah agreed 
 with Naaman when he wished two cart loads of Pales¬ 
 tinian soil, so that he might worship Yahweh thereon 
 in Damascus (II Kgs. v. 15). This is the remnant of 
 an old idea that a deity belonged to a certain land, 
 
152 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 and only there was he at home. Early Semites had 
 gods of the hills and gods of the valleys (I Kgs. xx. 23), 
 as well as gods who were supposed to control the forces 
 of nature and rule over the various tribes (II Kgs. iii. 
 27; cf. Moabite stone). 
 
 C— Literature 
 
 When we try to estimate the literature of this period 
 we find that these were growing days both in the north 
 and the south. The civilization, though marked by 
 many retrogressive movements, was now two hundred 
 years, or six generations, out from nomadic life. The 
 scribe had long been in the land. Though education 
 was voluntary, there must have been those in a few 
 great centers, at least, who had learned the art of 
 writing. The need for writing had now been existent 
 for over a century. The pottery of Samaria and the 
 Moabite stone were inscribed towards the end of the 
 previous dynasty. Inscribed monuments, the Siloam 
 inscription in Hebrew, and the Zinjirli inscriptions in 
 Aramaic, that come from north Syria, and date from 
 the following period, have come to light during the 
 last century. Though all these inscriptions are simple 
 and are scarcely worthy of the name of literature, they 
 indicate that the peoples who wrote them were at 
 least technically prepared to be the founders of 
 literature. 
 
 Two national song books, the book of Jashar, i.e., 
 the upright one, which is Israel, and the book of the 
 wars of Yahweh, were collected now, if not earlier. 
 From the book of Jashar we have at least two songs, 
 viz.y Joshua x. 12-13 and II Samuel i. 19-27. It might 
 well be that such songs as Judges v. and II Samuel iii. 
 33, 34 were included in this early collection. Only one 
 fragment, a part of a geographical poem. Numbers xxi. 
 14-15, is credited to the book of the wars of Yahweh. 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 153 
 
 Numbers xxi. 27-30, which perhaps celebrated Omri’s 
 victory over Moab, and is often ascribed to this book, 
 was almost certainly taken by E. from oral tradition. 
 It is not improbable, however, that a song such as 
 Exodus XV. 1-18, which is a war song celebrating 
 ancient victories at the Red sea, in Moab, Edom, and 
 Canaan, was included in what must have been a popu¬ 
 lar book in those days of constant conflict. 
 
 Of still greater importance is what is generally 
 called the J. document. It is sufficiently definite 
 to place the writing of J. about 850 b.c., that is, 
 approximately the time of Elijah. The analysis of 
 J. is given in any modern commentary or introduc¬ 
 tion to the Old Testament, and is too lengthy to be 
 subscribed here. It has gathered up material that has 
 come from many ages and from many minds, and 
 runs back to the earliest life of the national ancestors. 
 It is now found throughout the Hexateuch, and in¬ 
 cludes the following five different types of literature. 
 
 1. A few ancient songs, chiefly of a secular nature, 
 as Genesis iv. 23, Lamech gloating over his brutality; 
 Genesis ix. 25, a curse, indicating the national hatred 
 against Canaan; Genesis xxv. 23, which celebrates the 
 age-long relation between Jacob and Edom. These 
 are the very natural expressions of individual and 
 national feeling, and with this as a background, we are 
 the better able to appreciate the heights of moral 
 grandeur to which the leaders of these people rose in 
 later days. 
 
 2. Traditions concerning the beginnings of human 
 life and progress were preserved and interpreted. A 
 few illustrations taken from the early chapters of 
 Genesis will be illuminating. Genesis ii. 4b—iii. 24 
 tells the story of the origin of man and of sin; iv. 1-25 
 concludes the story of the beginnings of agricultural 
 and industrial life with the boast of a murderer; fol¬ 
 lowing this development in civilization we find the 
 
154 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 earth so corrupt that Yahweh in his wrath sends the 
 flood, vi. 5-8; vii. 1-5, 7-10, 12; viii. 2, 3a, 6-12, 
 20-22; then comes the story of the cultivation of the 
 vine and sin, ix. 18-27; and this is followed by the 
 Babel builders and their punishment because of sin. 
 The relation throughout these stories between civili¬ 
 zation and sin seems to be too close to deny that the 
 writer thought the one was the cause of the other. 
 Surely he was a kindred spirit to Elijah, his well- 
 known contemporary. 
 
 3. The stories of the patriarchs, with their intimate 
 human touches, belong chiefly to J. The narrative of 
 the early life of Abraham, save a few short passages, 
 comes from this source (Gen. xii.-xvi.; xviii. 1—^xix. 
 38), as does also the bulk of his later life. J. also gives 
 a good picture of Jacob and Joseph. Much of tribal 
 history, often the most stirring episodes and telling 
 characterizations, are preserved in these tales of the 
 early ancestors. We have little in Scripture that is 
 more revealing of ancient life and ideals than these 
 wonderful narratives. 
 
 4. Early national history is also of great interest 
 to this writer. A continuous story is found through 
 Exodus i.-xxiv. and Numbers x. 29—xxv. 5, carrying 
 the history of the national movements from the ex¬ 
 periences in Egypt to the settlement in Canaan. This 
 is replete with graphic phrases, inherited from many 
 camp fires, and reproduces early conditions and atmos¬ 
 phere in a very remarkable way. 
 
 5. Many ancient customs, that to-day help us to 
 reconstruct a lifelike picture of the old situations, lie 
 imbedded in the story, and in the early law codes that 
 have been incorporated in the history. Exodus xxxiv. 
 10-26, as an ancient code of laws, deserves attention. 
 The context suggests it had been written before the 
 time of J. (cf. Ex. xxxiv. 27). It also is what it claims 
 to be, a decalogue, and is in the terms of a covenant 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 155 
 
 (Ex. xxxiv. 28). Its whole tone is ritualistic, and is 
 in strong contrast to Exodus xx. 1-16. The regula¬ 
 tions of at least seven of the ten words are for agri¬ 
 cultural life, while the point at issue in two or three 
 of them (cf. Ex. xxxiv. 25, 26) is so primitive that 
 they are not easily intelligible to the modern reader. 
 The origin and history of this code, like that of all 
 codes, would be hard to trace, but it seems probable 
 that a number of these regulations represent the re¬ 
 actions of priests and judges in Israel against certain 
 of the licentious rites and customs of their Canaanit- 
 ish neighbors {e.g., Ex. xxxiv. 26b). Others represent 
 old Hebrew customs, while still others may have been 
 adapted to Yahweh worship from certain Canaanitish 
 practices. Thus is it that law always develops, and 
 it is the result of such struggles as this between various 
 elements that assures us that this little nation was 
 the elect of God for a great mission. 
 
 All the J. document was woven together in a con¬ 
 tinuous story of the life and doings of the ancestors. 
 The religious life of the people, their worship of Yah¬ 
 weh, and their observance of a few rites from time 
 immemorial are assumed. The fine moral tone of 
 the author not only determined the selection of the 
 material, but also permeated the moral judgments 
 throughout. Few exercises are more illuminating than, 
 following the critical analysis of the Hexateuch, to 
 read the separated J. document from beginning to end. 
 This gives unity and coherence to what otherwise must 
 sometimes seem a veritable scrap-heap of verses. The 
 new unit presents a literary quality that is unexcelled, 
 and the moral and religious values are surpassed by 
 no contemporary writing. Vividly and beautifully 
 the ancient characters and national events are made 
 to stand out in the written page. Human in their 
 failures, part of the life of their generation, leaders 
 in laying foundations and in directing great move- 
 
156 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 ments, these men and their experiences are ably used 
 to teach the lessons of the noblest thought of the ninth 
 century b.c. 
 
 During the same period men in the north were like¬ 
 wise busy. The Elijah stories, I Kings xvii., xix., xxi.; 
 II Kings i. 2-17, and the Elisha stories, II Kings ii., 
 iv. 1—vi. 23; viii. 1-15; xiii. 14-21, that had now been 
 oral property for half a century were committed to 
 writing. From another northern source we are in¬ 
 debted to those prophetic narratives that have a 
 strongly political flavor, found in I Kings xx., xxii.; II 
 Kings iii. 4^27; vi. 24—vii. 20; ix., x. 
 
 A little later, but still before 750 b.c., there was 
 produced what has come to be known as the E. docu¬ 
 ment. It is the counterpart of J., only somewhat 
 smaller. It begins with Abraham, and follows espe¬ 
 cially the history of Israel. The literary gift of the 
 writer is not equal to that of J., but, as we might ex¬ 
 pect, in the later document the ethical and religious 
 ideas show development. Anthropomorphisms are 
 carefully avoided, and the religion of Yahweh is flrst 
 introduced in the wilderness (Ex. iii. 9-14). Hence 
 the early worship of the ancestors was idolatrous, and 
 the leaders, Abraham, Moses, and Joshua, have more 
 of an ofl&cial cast than in J. The ritual side of re¬ 
 ligion is of importance to the author, and Bethel is a 
 sanctuary of great historical signiflcance (Gen. xxviii. 
 11-12, 17, 18, 22; xxxv. 1-18, 16-20). 
 
 A code of laws, the Covenant Code, is also incorpo¬ 
 rated (Ex. XX. 23—^xxiii. 19; cf. Ex. xxiv. 7). In it 
 there are two definite divisions. The first is a civil 
 code, consisting of a number of judgments, which are 
 based on hypothetical cases (xxi. 1—^xxii. 17). These 
 are not commands, but are the results of decisions. 
 They are for a primitive agricultural society. Even 
 then, they meet the needs of such society in a very 
 inadequate way. Slavery and concubinage were the 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 157 
 
 practice. The slave and the woman were private prop¬ 
 erty, and their value was small. These judgments 
 have many points of contact with the code of 
 Hammurabi of 2100 b.c. So far as completeness is 
 concerned, the honor unquestionably goes to the 
 Babylonian law. So far as moral tone is concerned, 
 primitive though it is, the Covenant Code has in it 
 more of promise. It recognizes that certain rights be¬ 
 long to all individuals. 
 
 The second division of Covenant Code is a collec¬ 
 tion of commands, a ceremonial code (Ex. xx. 24—26; 
 xxii. 18—xxiii. 19). This parallels the ritual decalogue 
 of J. so closely that we must think of each as going 
 back to a common ceremonial practice in the days 
 before the division of the kingdom. 
 
 To the same days we may attribute the writing of 
 the original stories of the judges now found in Judges 
 in. 6—xvi. 31, and most of Judges xvii.-xxi. To this 
 also must be added the original records of those his¬ 
 torical events that the court historians of the north 
 and the south, respectively, thought worth while to 
 preserve. To these we are indebted for much of the 
 historical knowledge that later writers incorporated 
 in their religious writings. 
 
 These unknown writers paved the way for the 
 earliest of the writing prophets. Amos, of Tekoa, 
 preached at Bethel about 760 b.c., and shortly after 
 must have written the book that now bears his name. 
 The orderly arrangement of the material, which is 
 exemplary, does not dull the passion of the preacher. 
 The book naturally falls into three divisions: 
 
 (1) i.-ii. Curses on the nations, Israel included. 
 
 (2) iii.-vi. Sermons; condemnation of social evils. 
 
 (3) vii.-ix. 8a. Visions; complete destruction. 
 
 To this were added an appendix and a few brief 
 passages that do not correspond to the tone that is 
 uniformly found in the above sections of the book. 
 
158 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Chapter ix. 8b“15, the unconditional, hence (if 
 preached in 760 b.c.) unethical, promise of a glorious 
 future for both nations; iv. 13; v. 8-9; ix. 5-6, three 
 delightful, but antiquarian poems, and ii. 4-5, condem¬ 
 nation of Judah because of spiritual sins, are passages 
 that because of their linguistic peculiarities, their lack 
 of connection with the context, and their difference of 
 outlook from the rest of the book are very generally 
 regarded as interpolations in the original text of Amos. 
 We already have seen how naturally and how easily 
 interpolations and interpretations could creep into the 
 Scriptures during centuries of scribal activity. Hence 
 for the study of the teaching of the prophet it may be 
 better to omit these, owing to the uncertainty. The 
 value of their messages, however, is not thereby 
 lessened. In another age under other conditions, they 
 must have profoundly stirred and encouraged the 
 hearts of the wavering and the faithful. Their con¬ 
 tribution to life and thought will be taken up in what 
 seems a more appropriate background. 
 
 The central note of Amos is that God is righteous. 
 Hence He was supremely interested in ethics, in the 
 social, commercial, and political doings of the nation. 
 In fact He was more interested in this right relation 
 between men in the common affairs of life than He was 
 in any nation, even in Israel herself, or in any form 
 of worship, no matter how carefully observed. This 
 that sounds to us like a commonplace, was revolu¬ 
 tionary in the days of the prophet. Mercilessly this 
 fiery spirit from the south attacked the prevalent sins, 
 as dishonesty in business, bribery in the courts of 
 justice, wild revelry in the ladies quarters, brutality 
 on the battlefield, immorality at their festivals, 
 trafficking in human life, and violation of covenants. 
 Moving among them at one of their great festivals, 
 when they were dreaming that Yahweh must be look¬ 
 ing on them with great favor, he rudely scored their 
 
THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 
 
 159 
 
 religious practices, and declared that the lavish ritual 
 that was practiced at Bethel was without divine sanc¬ 
 tion (Amos V. 21-26). He declared it to be the word 
 of Yahweh, that a nation so morally corrupt had no 
 hope. The day of repentance had passed, and before 
 it there was nought but men slain by the swords, cities 
 burned and breached, and the women and children 
 carried into servitude and captivity by Assyria (Amos 
 V. 27; vi. 14; vii. 9; ii. 14-16). He was like a scorching 
 wind from the bare heights, heralding destruction in 
 his wake. It is no wonder that they drove him from 
 the country as one whom the authorities could not 
 tolerate. But his message is one of the ringing voices 
 that has lived on through the centuries, and the heart 
 of man acknowledges in it the voice of the divine. 
 
 Hosea, a northerner by birth, deeply loving his own 
 people, appeared on the scenes about ten years later. 
 From the tragic experience of an unfaithful wife, who 
 had gone off with her lover, he learned a profound, 
 spiritual truth. He still loved his erring wife; surely 
 then, Yahweh is as merciful as man at his best, and 
 still loves wayward Israel. The simplest analysis of 
 the book, which is not nearly so orderly as Amos, is: 
 
 (1) —i.-iii. The home wrecked because of the un¬ 
 faithful wife. 
 
 (2) —iv.-x. The nation wrecked because of unfaith¬ 
 ful leaders. 
 
 (3) —xi.-xiv. The redemptive love of God as father 
 and husband. 
 
 Passages that many have suspected of being later 
 than Hosea because of historical and theological fea¬ 
 tures are Hosea i. 7; 10-11; hi. 5; iv. 15a; viii. 14; 
 X. 12; xi. 10, 11; xiv. 9. 
 
 Hosea is as strenuous as Amos in demanding right 
 conduct as basal to religion. Sacrifice and burned 
 offering are not the important divine requirements 
 (Hos. iv. 2; vi. 6). But he declares that God loves 
 
160 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 his people as a husband or as a father, in spite of their 
 disloyalty. Thus the dominant note is one of great 
 tenderness. Personal experience pervades the pages 
 of the book and the tender mercy and long suffering of 
 Yahweh have rarely, if ever, been more effectively 
 expressed (cf. Hos. xi. 1-4; xiv. 4-8). But Hosea was 
 a pioneer in three other directions. He condemned 
 the revolution of Jehu, which a hundred years earlier 
 was at least stimulated by the prophets (Hos. i. 4). 
 He asserted that Yahweh was the God of the agricul¬ 
 tural processes, that had by many of the earlier leaders 
 been believed to be the domain of the Canaanitish 
 Baal (Hos. ii. 8,16). He attacked the hillside worship, 
 that earlier, so far as we know, had always been con¬ 
 sidered legitimate, because of the flagrant licentious¬ 
 ness and idolatry that was frequently associated with 
 it. These contributions to religious thought and life 
 were of the most permanent value. They help us to 
 see how far men such as these, led by the divine spirit, 
 traveled in a century; how the days of darkness were 
 fast passing; and how days of light and truth were 
 being ushered in. In so far as we are able to follow 
 the processes whereby this progress was attained, we 
 are following the working of the spirit of God. The 
 religious writings of the one hundred years of this 
 dynasty are of that quality that they would make 
 any age illustrious. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF ISRAEL 740-722 b.c. 
 
 Kings 
 
 Zechariah 
 
 740 
 
 Shallum 
 
 740 
 
 Menahem 
 
 738 
 
 Pekahiah 
 
 736 
 
 Pekah 
 
 734 
 
 Hoshea 
 
 732-722 
 
 II Kings xv. 8-31; xvii. 1-41; Isaiah vii. 1-9 
 
 At the very outset we have a chronological problem. 
 The four kings, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and 
 Hoshea are reported to have reigned over a period of 
 forty-one years. Menahem, however, paid tribute to 
 Assyria in 738 b.c. and Hoshea ceased reigning with the 
 fall of Samaria in 722 b.c., both of which dates are fixed 
 by the Assyrian lists and astronomical calculation. 
 Any rearrangement of dates is of course somewhat arbi¬ 
 trary, even though it is necessary. The length of reign 
 of the individual kings suggested here seems to be the 
 most likely. 
 
 Assyrian Campaigns —Five years before the death of 
 Jeroboam II, Tiglath-Pileser III, the Pul of II Kings 
 XV. 19, etc., a military genius and a statesman, had 
 seized the Assyrian throne. His early years were spent 
 in quelling rebellions in the east and in bringing the 
 Arameans, who had been pouring into Babylon, into 
 
 161 
 
162 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 subjection. Then for two years he engaged in success¬ 
 ful warfare against Aramean powers in the north at 
 Kummuh and in the west at Arpad. In 740 b.c. the 
 way to Syria lay open to him. Nothing but the most 
 careful husbanding of resources, and the most states¬ 
 manlike leadership throughout all Syria, Palestine in¬ 
 cluded, could stay this enemy. But for eighteen years, 
 Israel engaged in petty intrigue and sectional jeal¬ 
 ousies, all of which, with inane leadership, resulted in a 
 pitiable, national debacle (Hos. vii. 4-7). 
 
 Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam II, was slain after 
 a reign of six months (II Kgs. xiv. 29). Shallum, his 
 murderer, was in turn disposed of at the end of a 
 month by Menahem (II Kgs. xv. 8-32). During the 
 early part of Menahem’s reign, he ruthlessly butchered 
 the inhabitants of those villages that had opposed his 
 assumptions. 
 
 In 738 B.c. Tiglath-Pileser III invaded the country 
 and exacted an enormous tribute, about $2,000,000, or 
 the equivalent in present-day values of something like 
 $30,000,000, as the price for the recognition of his 
 claim to the throne (II Kgs. xv. 19-20). Menahem 
 raised this by a direct tax of about $35 apiece on all 
 the mighty men of wealth. This would require about 
 60,000 men who were deemed able to make such a con¬ 
 tribution, and gives us a fair estimate of the pros¬ 
 perity of the country at the close of the reign of Jero¬ 
 boam II. 
 
 Menahem, the most brutal king since the time of 
 Jehu, died a natural death, but his son Pekahiah, in¬ 
 herited the whirlwind. Insurrection was abroad be¬ 
 cause of the pro-Assyrian policy of his father. Pekah, 
 a Gileadite, a captain in the army, led the rebellion, 
 slew him, and seized the throne. Then, with Rezm 
 of Syria, he endeavored to unite all the country, Syria, 
 Israel, and Judah, in order to withstand the power of 
 Assyria. Judah, under Ahaz, not only held out against 
 
THE LAST DAYS OF ISRAEL, 740-722 B.C. 163 
 
 this proposal, but even formed an alliance with Tig- 
 lath-Pileser III in 734 b.c., with the object of gaining 
 his assistance (cf. Isa. vii. 1-9). The same year the 
 Assyrian army came west, took Gaza, and laid siege to 
 Damascus, which fell in 732 b.c., after a prolonged de¬ 
 fense. Northern Israel was at the same time attacked, 
 and four important cities in Naphthali were taken. 
 Gilead and Galilee were subjugated, and in accordance 
 with a new colonization policy, first devised in 740 b.c. 
 to punish the intractable Syrian state of Unqui, a part 
 of the population was deported (II Kgs. xv. 29). An 
 important Aramaic inscription belonging to these days 
 celebrates this policy in these words: ^‘The daughters 
 of the sunrise he carried to the sunset, and the daugh¬ 
 ters of the sunset he carried to the sunrise’’ (Zenjirli). 
 
 Hoshea, a pro-Assyrian, in 732 b.c. disposed of Pekah 
 in the way most approved by that age of anarchy, and 
 Samaria was saved the humiliation of defeat at the 
 hands of the Assyrian (II Kgs. xvii. 1-6). It is pos¬ 
 sible that tribute was paid by the new king to Tiglath- 
 Pileser III as a token of his allegiance. When in 727 
 B.c. a new king, Shalmaneser IV, ascended the Assyrian 
 throne, Hoshea withheld tribute and formed an alli¬ 
 ance with So, an unidentified king of Egypt, or per¬ 
 haps Mutzri. Such secession was always swiftly pun¬ 
 ished, when possible. In 724 b.c. the Assyrian army 
 was at the gates of Samaria, and towards the end of 
 722 B.C., shortly after Sargon II had succeeded Shal¬ 
 maneser IV as king, the city opened its gates to the 
 conqueror. According to Assyrian records, 27,290 of 
 the nobles were deported to three quite widely sep¬ 
 arated Assyrian provinces, and here they were assimi¬ 
 lated by the people and lost to national history. 
 
 The Ten Tribes —But Samaria was not depopulated. 
 Only a very small percentage of the people was ever 
 removed from the land. The ten tribes had passed 
 through many disasters, and many disturbances dur- 
 
164 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 ing almost three hundred years of empire. They had 
 been defeated and disabled time after time. Every 
 decade the cross-country traffic had scattered its seeds 
 by the wayside, and added its mixture of foreign cus¬ 
 tom and foreign blood. The winds from the eastern 
 desert, and the streams from the Lebanons had con¬ 
 tributed their quota of strange life and thought. 
 Phoenicia and the sea had added to the variegated 
 complexion of costume and custom of Galilee and 
 Samaria. Many foreign elements, Canaanite, Syrian, 
 Arabian, and Phoenician, had already been assimilated. 
 This conquest added only one more disaster, and that 
 was of chief moment because of the close of the king¬ 
 dom. Twenty-seven thousand deported and a group 
 of Arameans from Babylon imported to fill their places 
 in 721 B.C., did not make a very radical change in the 
 population (II Kgs. xvii. 24). 
 
 The Samaritans —The new colonists for a time suf¬ 
 fered from the depredations of wild animals, it was 
 thought, because they were unfamiliar with the re¬ 
 ligious charms that were necessary to win the favor 
 of the god of the land. They were therefore provided 
 with a Yah wist priest, and were initiated in the proper 
 religious rites. These people easily assimilated with 
 the Israelitish stock as they came from a branch of 
 the same family. 
 
 An Assyrian governor was placed over the land, and 
 the independent kingdom of the ten tribes was at an 
 end. Its history had been one long struggle with 
 varying successes. The product of many tribal affilia¬ 
 tions, and the victim of a geographical situation, it 
 failed to survive in the unequal combat. Some of 
 those who remained joined their fortunes to those of 
 Judah, the sister kingdom, where the religious condi¬ 
 tions must have made an appeal. Many remained in 
 their old homes, continuing in their old ways, gradu¬ 
 ally mixing with the colonists, as their ancestors before 
 
THE LAST DAYS OF ISRAEL, 740-722 B.C. 165 
 
 them had done with Canaanites and others, and ulti¬ 
 mately out of these grew the Samaritans, of whom a 
 small body of about one hundred and fifty still remain. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH 735-686 b.c. 
 
 Kings 
 
 Ahaz 735 
 
 Hezekiah 715-686 
 
 II Kings xviii. 1 —XX. 21; II Chronicles xxviii.-xxxi.; 
 Isaiah i.-xi. 9; xx., xxxvi.-xlix.; Micah i.-iii.; v. 1, 
 10-13; vi. 9-16; vii. 1-6. 
 
 A— Historical Sketch 
 
 UzziAH, the contemporary and subject of Jero¬ 
 boam II, lived peaceably with his master, developed 
 his resources, strengthened his defenses, and enlarged 
 his borders. During his declining years, owing to 
 leprosy, he shared his power with Jotham, his son, as 
 regent. With the death of Jeroboam II and the en¬ 
 suing feuds in the northern kingdom, Judah naturally 
 without a struggle became independent (II Kgs. xv. 
 32-38). Jotham’s reign, which closed in 735 b.c., was 
 but the continuation of his father’s. The only specific 
 act referred to in Kings is that he built the upper gate 
 of the house of Yahweh. 
 
 Ahaz, his son, a young man of twenty, succeeded to 
 the throne (II Kgs. xvi. 1-20; Isa. vii. 1—^ix. 7). In 
 the beginning of his reign, Rezin of Syria, and Pekah 
 of Israel, sought to form with him a triple alliance 
 against the almost certain invasion of Tiglath-Pileser 
 
 166 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUD.\H, 735-686 B.C. 167 
 
 III. Ahaz refused, and was attacked by the northern 
 coalition. Rezin took Elath. Judah’s port on the Gulf 
 of Akabah, and the allies set siege to Jerusalem. Ahaz, 
 most probably at this time, for it was the most serious 
 crisis of his reign, followed the ancient pagan custom, 
 and sacrificed his son in order to win the favor of 
 dein* < II Kgs. x\*i. 3). Isaiah endeavored to persuade 
 him to keep quiet, seek no material aid, only trust in 
 Yahweh. But the king, with a shortsighted policy, re¬ 
 jected the overtures of the prophet, sent an embass}* 
 to Ass^Tia with substantial gifts, pledged allegiance, 
 and sought assistance against his enemies. The As- 
 s^*rian forces reached Samaria in 734 b.c., and inside of 
 two vears the fortress was reduced. 
 
 An impressive reception was staged in Damascus by 
 the conquerors, which the tributan* powers, Ahaz in¬ 
 cluded, were commanded to attend. The young king 
 was much impressed by the t^-pe of altar, Ass}*rian 
 most likely, before which the ceremonies took place. 
 As a vassal prince, he ordered the priests to make a 
 duplicate, which was placed in front of the temple. 
 Other changes were made in the temple furniture and 
 ritual, presumably to be in keeping with the new altar 
 and with Ass^uian worship. 
 
 The death of Tiglath-Pileser III in 727 b.c., however, 
 was the signal for a general revolt in the west, which 
 was quickly quelled by Shahnaneser IV. Judah, per¬ 
 haps influenced by Isaiah, remained loyal to her al¬ 
 legiance. Samaria fell in 722 b.c., and twice in the next 
 decade AssjTian soldiers appeared on the frontiers of 
 Judah. In 720 b.c. rebellion in the north led by the 
 king of Hamath, supported by Arpad, Damascus, 
 Samaria, Gaza, and the Arabian Mutzri, was sup¬ 
 pressed, and the Ass^uian army marched as far south 
 as Raphia, where they met and defeated an Eg;>*ptian 
 army under Shabako. Again, in 711 b.c., a well-organ¬ 
 ized revolt led by Ashdod was put down by Sargon II. 
 
168 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Judah, adhering to the peace policy of Isaiah, seems 
 not to have been party tc the rebellion on either occa¬ 
 sion. She paid her tribute and was not molested. 
 
 With the death of Ahaz, Hezekiah, his son, came to 
 the throne (II Kgs. xviii. 1—xx. 14). The accession 
 year is uncertain. Our records in one place tell us that 
 Samaria fell in the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah, 
 which would place the new ruler on the throne in 728 
 B.c. (II Kgs. xviii. 10). A few verses later we have the 
 information that the campaign of Sennacherib, which 
 was in 701 b.c., was in the fourteenth year of his reign, 
 which would make the opening of his reign date from 
 715 B.c. This is the date we are using, though of course 
 it is arbitrary. 
 
 On the death of Sargon II and the succession of 
 Sennacherib to the Assyrian throne, in 705 b.c., Judah 
 threw in her lot with the rebels. She had grown strong 
 in the last decade. Hezekiah had widened her borders 
 towards the west, and had taken Gaza and her suburbs 
 from the Philistines (II Kgs. xviii. 8). The anti-As¬ 
 syrian coalition was now stronger than ever. Mero- 
 dach-baladan, an old time usurper, whom it had taken 
 Sargon II twelve years to drive out of Babylon into 
 exile, immediately on the death of Sargon II had seized 
 the Babylonian throne from the Assyrian lieutenant. 
 His intrigues had never ceased during his exile of five 
 years. Now many of the small Babylonian states 
 rallied to his banner. He had won his way into the 
 good graces of Hezekiah, and in the west all looked 
 favorable for independence. 
 
 The Philistines were eager for revolt. Tyre, now 
 of considerable military importance, joined them. 
 Egypt, ever willing to make trouble for her old time 
 enemy, promised assistance, and gained a following at 
 the court of Hezekiah (Isa. xx. 1-6; xxx. 1-5; 
 xxxi. 1-3). Moab, Edom, Ammon, and the Arabian 
 tribes, ever ready to escape tribute, threw their lot in 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 735-686 B.C. 169 
 
 with the alliance Hezekiah, the most resolute of the 
 leaders and commanding considerable wealth, thought 
 the time to strike for national liberty was ripe. Padi, 
 the Assyrian appointee to the throne of Ekron, was 
 taken by the princes of the city, and Hezekiah impris¬ 
 oned him in the city of Jerusalem. He encouraged the 
 Egyptian alliance, strengthened the defenses of Jeru¬ 
 salem, brought the water supply within the walls by 
 the Siloam tunnel, and prepared to meet the enemy. 
 
 Sennacherib’s movements were decisive. Within nine 
 months he had driven Merodach-baladan out of Baby¬ 
 lon, spoiled the great city, and had taken over 200,000 
 captives. Two years later he reached the Mediter¬ 
 ranean coast, captured and placed under tribute all the 
 important Phoenician cities save Tyre, and then 
 marched down the Philistine plain. Moab and Edom 
 hastily submitted, Askelon was overthrown, and many 
 were deported, and Ekron was besieged. Then the 
 Egyptian army on which all had been relying, came 
 out to give battle. Sennacherib met it at Eltekeh, in 
 the south of Palestine, and defeated it. Ekron was 
 reduced, and then he swept the Judean hillsides, cap¬ 
 turing by his own account forty-six walled cities, in¬ 
 numerable smaller ones, immense spoil, and 200,150 
 people. Whether all these were deported or not we 
 cannot say, as in the cylinder on which Sennacherib 
 enumerates the treasure Hezekiah sent to Nineveh, he 
 only mentions, a heavy treasure together with his 
 daughters and the women of his palace, and male and 
 female musicians.” But the submission of Hezekiah 
 was complete. He gave tribute of great value, spoiling 
 the treasury of the temple, and even stripping the 
 gold off the doors and pillars of the sanctuary (II Kgs. 
 xviii. 13-16). The Ass3n’ian records tell us that he had 
 to give up Padi, who was again placed on the throne 
 of Ekron, and that Sennacherib had “shut up Hezekiah 
 in Jerusalem like a bird in a cage.” 
 
170 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 It is not easy to arrange the details of the story 
 of Sennacherib’s attack on Judah as preserved in II 
 Kings xviii. 13—xix. 37 or Isaiah xxxvi.-xxxix. Nor 
 does the existence of a laudatory account from an As¬ 
 syrian eye-witness make it any easier. We seem to 
 have in the book of Kings three different sources 
 that have led to different interpretations. 
 
 II Kings xviii. 13-16 is in the editor’s phraseology, 
 and had its source in the court annals. It agrees es¬ 
 sentially with the Assyrian records. The Assyrian 
 monuments name the tribute as thirty talents of gold, 
 and eight hundred talents of silver, etc., while our 
 records mention thirty talents of gold and three hun¬ 
 dred talents of silver, etc. In the face of these two 
 witnesses, we may accept this as the general resume 
 of the results of the invasion. 
 
 II Kings xviii. 17—xix. 8 is a vivid picture of a 
 rather dramatic scene in front of Jerusalem. Officers 
 of the Assyrian army had been sent by the king from 
 Lachish with a considerable force to treat with Heze- 
 kiah concerning the capitulation of the city. These 
 officers took up their position at ^The conduit of the 
 upper pool,” under the city walls. Hezekiah sent a 
 commission of three of his important men to receive 
 their overtures. The chief spokesman for the enemy 
 very fluently and piously argued the advisability of 
 surrender. A delightful passage at arms took place 
 between this officer and Eliakim as to what language 
 should be used for their diplomatic conference. The 
 Assyrian insisted on using the Hebrew vernacular so 
 that all might understand. The demand was for capit¬ 
 ulation. In great distress the commission returned to 
 the waiting monarch and gave the report. Isaiah was 
 called in, and his council of refusal was adopted. The 
 Rabshakeh—an Assyrian official title—and his com¬ 
 panions then returned to the main army. 
 
 The third source is II Kings xix. 9-35. This relates 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 735-686 B.C. 171 
 
 that when Sennacherib heard that Tirhakah, king of 
 Ethiopia, was approaching, he sent a letter to Hezekiah 
 by royal post, demanding surrender. Hezekiah took 
 the letter to the temple, and in a very calm mood 
 uttered a very dignified prayer. Isaiah sent a message 
 to the king, telling him in eight lengthy, argumentative 
 verses, the word of Yahweh concerning Babylon, and 
 then in five concluding verses gave a sign for the as¬ 
 surance of the king. 
 
 Are the second and the third narratives partial de¬ 
 tails of two campaigns of Sennacherib against Judah, 
 the one in 701 b.c., and the other in 689 b.c.? We 
 know that Tirhakah was not on the throne of Egypt 
 until 691 B.C., also that Sennacherib sent an army 
 against the Arabians in 689 b.c., which perhaps reached 
 as far west as Egypt. Was he compelled to go back to 
 Babylon in 701 b.c. because of an insurrection which 
 that old mischief maker, Merodach-baladan, had 
 started? Might this be ‘The tidings” to which Isaiah 
 referred (cf. II Kgs. ix. 7)? Did his army in 689 b.c. 
 suffer from bubonic plague, which so often broke out 
 in ancient armies, so that he could not continue his 
 campaign, and did not care to chronicle all the facts? 
 
 Or are these only different versions of the overtures 
 made to Hezekiah in 701 b.c.? The facts of which we 
 can feel sure in the light of all the evidence are, the 
 humiliation, if not the capture, of Jerusalem, the 
 payment of a large tribute, and the hurried with¬ 
 drawal of the army of the conqueror because of im¬ 
 pending danger. 
 
 B —Internal Conditions 
 
 Hezekiah ruled thirteen years longer, and so far 
 as we know, they were years of peace, hence prosperity 
 and national growth. During his reign Judah attained 
 considerable wealth, and with that came the corre- 
 
172 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 spending social and religious tendencies. The temple 
 was again a splendid treasure house, as was also the 
 palace of the king. The Siloam tunnel, bored through 
 the solid rock a distance of over seventeen hundred 
 feet in order to bring the water from the virgin’s 
 spring within the city wall, hints at the resources of 
 the kingdom. The brief inscription found in this tun¬ 
 nel in 1880 is of paleographic interest only. 
 
 But the conditions now were not such that strong 
 men ruling petty kingdoms could figure advantage¬ 
 ously in international affairs. Assyria ruled, and that 
 with a strong hand, compelling large tribute, crushing 
 revolt swiftly, and suffering none to rival her. Hence 
 Judah was but a petty kingdom, subordinated to the 
 interests of a greater nation. 
 
 Morally it is the same old story. Wealth and foreign 
 associations induced a riotousness and immorality that 
 called down the ire of the prophets. Ahaz followed 
 foreign gods and introduced many foreign practices. 
 The princes devoured the people of the land. Those 
 in high places trampled the poor under their heel. 
 The wealthy joined land to land, and monopolized 
 the village commons. Judges sold their decisions to 
 the highest bidder. The priests were mercenary. Lust, 
 drunkenness, and debaucheiy defiled the whole land, 
 and idolatry, with all its corrupting influences, was in 
 every center. Such were the conditions that are de¬ 
 scribed most vividly by the prophets, and such were 
 the people to whom they ministered. 
 
 The religious conditions also had much of evil in 
 them. Ahaz sold himself deliberately to the Assyrian 
 for a material reward. Hence it was quite natural that 
 he should introduce Assyrian worship in all its glory. 
 These were the days in which the Assyrian altar was 
 introduced into the temple, the worship of the sun 
 was established, and horses and chariots were dedi¬ 
 cated to the sun (II. Kgs. xvi. 18; xxiii. 12). Not only 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 735-686 B.C. 173 
 
 did this new worship tend to displace the worship of 
 Yahweh, but old pagan practices, such as child sacri¬ 
 fices, were renewed. 
 
 When Hezekiah came to the throne there was a 
 change. The convictions of Isaiah, perhaps a kinsman 
 and tutor, guided the young king, who was more truly 
 religious than his father. He followed the prophet’s 
 policy of nonalliance with the revolting nations in 711 
 B.C. After the humiliation of 701 b.c. the prophet’s in¬ 
 fluence must have been greater than ever. The words 
 of Micah must also have contributed to a real search¬ 
 ing of heart, if not to repentance (Mic. iii. 12; cf. Jer. 
 xxvi. 18-19). How far reforms went in the beginning 
 of the reign we cannot say. But sometime during his 
 rule the temple was cleansed more thoroughly than 
 during that of any predecessor. The brazen serpent, 
 which claimed great antiquity and was probably re¬ 
 lated to the widespread serpent worship, was removed 
 (II Kgs. xviii. 4). The ancient high places through¬ 
 out the country were desecrated, and the sacred sym¬ 
 bols, the pillar and the ashera, were cut down (II Kgs. 
 xviii. 4). Thus the temple was cleansed, the worship 
 was made more spiritual, and it became for the first 
 time in history the only accredited place of worship. 
 Religious forms could thus be controlled as never be¬ 
 fore, and old social sins that had from Canaanitish 
 times been associated with the local worship would 
 henceforth lose much of their religious sanction. 
 
 C—Literature 
 
 The redeeming feature of the period is its literature. 
 This, with the spiritual insight of the prophets, is the 
 justification for calling it the golden age of Judah. 
 Isaiah was the dominating figure, and Micah was a 
 fearless contemporary. But there were other writers 
 
174 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 who did great service, whose names were not perpetu¬ 
 ated with the records. 
 
 There may have been much religious poetry that 
 expressed the fears, hopes, and ideals of the generation. 
 Some of our Psalms, e.g., hi., xx., xxi., xxviii. and others 
 as well, may easily be interpreted in the light of the 
 experience of 701 b.c., but confidently to assert that 
 therefore they were necessarily written at that time 
 would be going beyond the evidence. To say that 
 there were none written in these days would be still 
 more unwarranted. 
 
 A similar question is raised by the Book of Proverbs. 
 Proverbs xxv. 1 states: ^‘These also are the proverbs 
 of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, king of 
 Judah, copied out.’’ This preserves the tradition of 
 literary activity in this reign. It is the introduction 
 to Proverbs xxv.-xxix. There is every reason to accept 
 both the existence of proverbs and of editorial and 
 literary activity in Judah at this time. 
 
 Collections of proverbs, that is, terse epigrammatic 
 sentences that express a generally accepted truth, are 
 found among most peoples, ancient and modern. The 
 Old Testament writers were conscious that all nations 
 had their “wise men” (cf. Jer. xlix. 7; Ob. 8; Ezk. 
 xxviii. 3; Isa. xix. 11). People of very primitive cul¬ 
 ture may, and often do, coin these happy phrases of 
 homely philosophy. Samson was credited with more 
 than one such, but 
 
 If with my heifer thou did’st not plow 
 Thou would’st not have read my riddle now. 
 
 was his best (Jgs. xiv. 18). Solomon gained a great 
 reputation for discriminating judgment and witty re¬ 
 tort. No doubt the reputation was merited. 
 
 Like all literature, proverbs, though they deal with 
 human life, its foibles and fancies, its conclusions and 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 735-686 B.C. 175 
 
 ideals, and not with the march of events, always af¬ 
 ford some indication of the strata from which they 
 have come. Like the pebbles on the seashore, though 
 rounded off and small, they bear unmistakable marks 
 of the area out of which they have come. 
 
 Many of the proverbs in chapters xxv.-xxix. are quite 
 appropriate for the early days of Israel. They, in fact, 
 seem to be the earliest collection we have. It may 
 well be that a collection was made in the days of 
 Hezekiah. As we read this section, we observe that 
 only an occasional proverb has any bearing on nomadic 
 life. The earliest days of Israel may have produced 
 many pithy phrases, but few of them have survived. 
 A few of these have an agricultural background, but 
 it is rather curious that a greater number of such 
 have not been preserved. Commercial and city life 
 hold the place of prominence. Kings and judges, gos¬ 
 siping neighbors and wily temptresses, the sluggard 
 and the wicked are paraded throughout. 
 
 The moral tone is striking. Monogamy is taken for 
 granted. The verdict of the great prophets in the field 
 of ethics is assumed. They are nonritualistic. The 
 stress placed on the evil effects of the tongue, and the 
 call to avoid the temptress suggest evils that are pro¬ 
 nounced in well-developed society. The idea of mono¬ 
 theism seems unquestioned. 
 
 While there are indications that at least some of 
 the individual proverbs may have come from a later 
 period, it seems quite reasonable to believe that a 
 collection of wise sayings was collected in this period, 
 and that a nucleus of that has been preserved in our 
 present book. Other parts of the Book of Proverbs 
 will be treated later (cf. pp. 308-311). 
 
 It was the prophets, however, who stamped their 
 names indelibly on the age and its literary monuments. 
 Hosea apparently concluded his work in the north 
 not later than 735 b.c. Isaiah began his ministry in 
 
176 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Jerusalem a few years earlier. It is comparatively 
 easy to follow his life and his thought when we rear¬ 
 range the chronological order of the book that now 
 bears his name. 
 
 The book of Isaiah has been called a library rather 
 than the work of one mind. It has long been admitted 
 that Isaiah xl.-lxvi. belongs to a period later than the 
 time of Isaiah. Explanation for the present grouping 
 of these chapters is not far to seek. The capacity of 
 the average roll was about large enough to accommo¬ 
 date the present Isaiah, sixty-six chapters. The 
 “Twelve,” that is, the Minor prophets, evidently were 
 always written on one roll, and contain just sixty- 
 seven chapters. This is essentially the same size as 
 the other general divisions of the Old Testament, e.g., 
 Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 
 etc. Further, the last part of the book of Isaiah has 
 much that is complementary to the first part. There 
 are certain similarities in phrasing and vocabulary, and 
 still more important is the fact that the thought is 
 supplementary. The first preaches captivity, the sec¬ 
 ond heralds the return; both are parts of one divine 
 purpose. So though evidence suggests that at the 
 time of the writing of Chronicles, about 300 b.c., 
 Isaiah xl.-lxvi. was attributed to Jeremiah (cf. II Chr. 
 xxxvi. 23, and Isa. xliv. 24—xlv. 7), we can easily ap¬ 
 preciate the present companionship. 
 
 Even within chapters i.-xxxix. there are sections that 
 belong to other days than those of Isaiah. The most 
 important of these later additions are Isaiah xxxvi.— 
 xxxix., which form an historical appendix to the 
 prophecies, having been copied almost verbatim from 
 II Kings xviii. 13—xx. 19; Isaiah xxi. 1-10; xxiii. 1-14, 
 15-18; xxxiv., xxxv., xix. 16-25, which describe the 
 doom and predict the redemption of foreign nations or 
 of Israel, in terms that assume the exile; and Isaiah 
 xxiv.-xxvii., which is an apocalyptic vision. These 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 735-686 B.C. 177 
 
 important additions will be studied when we come to 
 the historical movements that were the occasion of 
 their utterance. In no case is the value of these and 
 other chapters less because we cannot assign them to 
 Isaiah. Though anonymous, we hear in them the 
 voice of the divine spirit, guiding and inspiring the 
 people of God in their hour of need. 
 
 While this removes much of the present book from 
 the man under whose name we have always read it, 
 there still remains a body of literature of undisputed 
 authorship which places Isaiah well up in the forefront 
 among the great spiritual leaders. A careful study of 
 the book shows that we have a large number of poems 
 imbedded in historical narrative. The poetry is 
 marked by a rare gift of imagination, coupled with 
 happy, lucid phrasing, and expresses the highest moral 
 and spiritual ideals. Most of the poems are very brief, 
 ix. 8— X. 4 and v. 24-29, which seems to be a con¬ 
 tinuous poem in the order given, is the longest. It 
 seems likely that these poems formed a part of the 
 sermons of the prophet, for he was a preacher rather 
 than a writer. Or some of them may be the sermons 
 later reduced to poetic form. In the historical narra¬ 
 tives we have in part Isaiah’s autobiography (cf. vi., 
 viii. 1-18), and in part the report of a third party (cf. 
 vii., xxxvi.-xxxix.). The earliest edition of the book 
 was likely made by one of his disciples. Later addi¬ 
 tions were made, and as the centuries passed, the larger 
 additions and interpolations were added, until we 
 have the book as it now stands. 
 
 Fully to appreciate the message we must, so far 
 as possible, read it in its historical setting. The fol¬ 
 lowing chronological arrangement of part of the ma¬ 
 terial, which is intended as a working basis, will with 
 our knowledge of the times assist in following the ac¬ 
 tivities of the prophet. The suggested dates are not 
 so much those of the actual writing of the poem or 
 
178 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 prose narrative, as the period to which the material 
 refers. 
 
 Between 737 and 732 b.c. we may interpret the fol¬ 
 lowing passages: 
 
 vi. 1-13—Personal experience, couched in form of a 
 vision. 
 
 ii. 5-22—Idolatry of Jacob described, and punish¬ 
 ment threatened. 
 
 V. 1-7—Parable of the vineyard. Israel’s worthless¬ 
 ness. 
 
 hi. 1-—iv. 1 (iii. 19-24?) xxxii. 9-14—Corruption 
 among the rulers and women of Judah, hence 
 captivity inevitable. 
 
 vii. 1—viii. 18—The sign given to Ahaz. Damascus 
 and Samaria are to suffer within a few years. 
 
 viii. 19-22—Necromancy condemned. 
 
 xvii. 1-11—Ruin coming on Damascus. 
 
 ix. 8— X. 4; V. 24-29—A poem with three divisions, 
 each ending with the same refrain. ^‘Emmanuel,” 
 signifies destruction to the sinful nation. 
 
 These messages all seem to come from the time be¬ 
 tween the call of the prophet and the fall of Damascus. 
 A straightforward moral appeal is found in every one 
 of the above fragments. The character of Yahweh 
 is such that he can be absolutely trusted, and ought in 
 all crises to be relied on by the nation. The most insis¬ 
 tent, yet tender, appeal to repentance is everywhere 
 present. But for a people hard of heart and dull of 
 ear, only destruction lies ahead. 
 
 From 727 to 722 b.c., from the date of the death of 
 Tiglath-Pileser to the fall of Samaria, there is a small 
 body of literature: 
 
 xiv. 28-32—^A curse on Philistia. 
 
 xxviii. 1-4—A woe upon Ephraim. 
 
 xxiii. 1-14—The burden of Tyre. 
 
 In 711 B.C., or a little earlier, Isaiah began his spec¬ 
 tacular, symbolic ministry concerning the punishment 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 735-686 B.C. 179 
 
 of Egypt, Ethiopia, and the smaller allied states. The 
 figure of this aristocrat going around like a barefoot, 
 coatless peasant, must have appealed to the popular 
 imagination, and created a strong sentiment against 
 the alliance that was being formed with Egypt. 
 
 XX. 1-6—Isaiah goes around like the poorest slave. 
 
 xvii. 12-14—Uproar because of invasion. 
 
 xxi. 13-17—Dedanite caravans will be scattered. 
 
 xvi. 13-14—Moab will be crushed inside of three 
 
 years. 
 
 XV. xvi. 1-12—An old prophecy against Moab, used 
 by the prophet. 
 
 These seem to be the response of Isaiah to the 
 coalition of neighboring nations that was being formed 
 in those days against Assyria, under the wing of 
 Egypt. 
 
 Preceding and during the siege of Sennacherib in 
 701 B.C., we have much that enables us to reconstruct 
 the ancient scenes, and relive the ancient experiences. 
 
 xxviii. 7-20; xxx. 1-17; xxxi. 1-4; xviii. 1-6—All de¬ 
 nounce in no uncertain terms the alliance that 
 Judah has made with Egypt, and proclaim de¬ 
 struction. 
 
 xxix. 1-16—States that within a year, Jerusalem will 
 suffer siege by an immense army because the city 
 is full of debauchery and religious insincerity. 
 
 xxii. 15-25—Makes a virulent, personal attack on 
 Shebna, a high official, who was possibly con¬ 
 nected with the pro-Egyptian party that Isaiah so 
 thoroughly disliked. He predicts his dismissal 
 from office, and then proceeds to assist in the ful¬ 
 fillment of his own words (cf. xxxvi. 3). 
 
 X. 24-32—Urges the people of Zion to have no fear 
 of the Assyrian, who is already approaching in 
 the distance, and, 
 
 X. 5-19—Threatens the invader with punishment be¬ 
 cause of his arrogance. 
 
180 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Apparently, Jerusalem, immediately after her de¬ 
 liverance from Sennacherib, went wild with joy and 
 reckless revelry. Isaiah reproached them because they 
 had not learned their lesson: 
 
 xxii. 1-4—They had rejoiced in their own strength 
 rather than looking to him who purposed it. 
 i. 1-31—So appropriately called the great arraign¬ 
 ment, describes the actual conditions after 701 b.c. 
 All is spoiled and desolate, and the people who 
 have borne the rod of Yahweh’s anger, the As¬ 
 syrian siege, now turn to revelry on the one hand, 
 and to ritual on the other. They are as forgetful 
 and as unfaithful as they were before. 
 
 How many years Isaiah lived after this, we do not 
 know. Historical landmarks are gone. Already he 
 had been a central figure in the national life for forty 
 years, and his influence and his word must have con¬ 
 tinued. He may indeed have taken part in the reform 
 of Hezekiah, but whether he was then living or not, 
 his influence upon many leaders of that day must 
 have been permanent. History had in a very em¬ 
 phatic way vindicated his pronouncements, and the 
 centuries also have acknowledged his principles. 
 
 The importance of his message makes a summary 
 worth while. His life and thought were dominated by 
 his initial religious experience, his vision in the temple. 
 He was at that time pondering what to his age was 
 a vital theological question, why did good king Uzziah 
 die a leper, which according to the orthodoxy of the 
 day could only fall on the greatest sinners. A vision 
 of Yahweh, the Holy One, separated from humanity 
 chiefly by his moral nature, showed him the unclean¬ 
 ness of his own hps, and the corruption of all the 
 people, and in the new light the old problem was super¬ 
 seded by a much more serious and more practical one. 
 Hence he has a twofold message. 
 
 The whole nation is morally corrupt, every head is 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 735-686 B.C. 181 
 
 sick, and every heart is faint, hence there must be re¬ 
 pentance or punishment. No prophet more ade¬ 
 quately expressed the demands of social righteousness 
 than Isaiah, nor is any one more definite than he in 
 declaring that the visitation of God on such people 
 must bring destruction. 
 
 His second principle was that Yahweh, who is high 
 and lifted up, is quite able to control all the affairs of 
 state, and defend his own people, hence faith, trust 
 in him, was the first law of national life. This he 
 repeated in the two great crises of national history. In 
 734 B.C. he counseled Ahaz to ^Take heed and be quiet” 
 (vii. 4), and when he was persuaded that the king had 
 determined to call to his aid the material resources of 
 Assyria, he concluded: If ye will not believe neither 
 shall ye be relieved (vii. 9). 
 
 In 701 B.C., when Sennacherib came against Jerusa¬ 
 lem, his counsel was the same. He assured them their 
 affiliation with Egypt could only mean disaster, but, 
 returning and rest ye shall be saved, in quietness 
 and in confidence shall be your strength” (xxx. 15). 
 
 History affirms that Isaiah was confident that 
 Yahweh would preserve the city (xxxvii. 6-7, 21-35). 
 A passage that is often lifted quite out of its context, 
 belongs to this period, and indicates his very profound 
 conception of faith. When a party in Jerusalem 
 gloried in their alliance with Egypt, and flattered 
 themselves that the city would thereby be saved from 
 the ravages of Assyria, Isaiah declared that the corner 
 stone of Zion’s safety was not national resources, but 
 was faith: ^‘he that believeth shall not make haste” 
 (xxviii. 14-16). 
 
 Not only was his faith in Yahweh unshaken from 
 the beginning, but also from the beginning he had 
 faith in Israel’s destiny. Shear Yashub, ^^a remnant 
 shall return,” was the name of his oldest son. He was 
 a living witness, it is true, of a coming disaster, but 
 
182 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATUKE 
 
 even more so of a returning remnant (vii. 3; x. 20-23). 
 Just what the details of that deliverance would be, or 
 how the kingdom would be reestablished, does not 
 seem to have interested the prophet. He had a vital 
 message for most critical conditions, and in that there 
 was no uncertain sound. His own experience was the 
 foundation for his faith, which was strengthened by 
 the group of disciples who gathered around him, and 
 by the movements of history. The manifestation of 
 Yahweh to him had been in the temple in Jerusalem. 
 Hence it was no long step for him to believe in the 
 inviolability of the city (cf. viii. 18; xviii. 7; xxviii. 16, 
 17; xxxi. 5). History and religion both pointed in 
 that direction. 
 
 The city that was the hearth fire of Yahweh, could 
 be the capital of none but a holy land, and its king 
 could be nothing less than ideal. The splendid visions 
 of the messianic kingdom, in which nature would be 
 regenerated, and the ruler would be absolutely ideal, 
 fill out the complement to the prophet’s doctrine of 
 faith (ix. 1-6, xi. 1-8). Some, because of the lan¬ 
 guage and the isolation of these passages, feel that 
 they fit better into the life and the hopes of the people 
 of 550, or 500 b.c. or even centuries later, than they 
 do in the time of Hezekiah. However that may be, 
 they are the concrete expression apart from which 
 Isaiah’s faith would not be complete. They are the 
 very climax of the conception of a redeemed nation 
 and a redeeming God, both of which are related to 
 Isaiah’s doctrine of faith. 
 
 The book of Micah presents a somewhat similar, 
 critical problem to that of Isaiah. We have, more¬ 
 over, one sure landmark, we might say the surest in 
 Old Testament prophecy. Micah iii. 12 is quoted in 
 Jeremiah xxvi. 18, in 608 b.c., by Jeremiah’s defenders 
 as a precedent of a man who, in the reign of Hezekiah, 
 denounced the city and still did not suffer death. This 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 735-686 B.C. 183 
 
 vouches for both the date and the tone of Micah’s 
 message. 
 
 He was a country man, who, quite likely because of 
 the Assyrian campaigns, came to Jerusalem to live. 
 He saw city life with the clear eyes of an unsophisti¬ 
 cated, honest, democratic, rustic lad. He was a kin¬ 
 dred spirit to Amos, with a little more of an Elijah 
 in his make-up. Along with a good literary gift he 
 had a consuming passion for righteousness. The city 
 civilization, with its follies, its iniquities, and its in¬ 
 equalities, appalled him. Kings and princes, prophets 
 and priests, all were false, murderers, grafters, liars, 
 drunkards, covetous, unclean and immoral; so were 
 all the city-dwellers. The city itself was the cesspool 
 of civilization. Samaria was the sin of Jacob, Jerusa¬ 
 lem was the sin of Judah. Hence the city must be 
 wiped out. Such was the message that this man, in 
 stinging, scathing accents, poured out upon the corrupt 
 city shortly before 701 b.c., when he saw the Assyrian 
 army on the Palestinian horizon. Because of the moral 
 condition, the city will surely be wiped out (iii. 12). 
 Micah vi. 6-8, is the most comprehensive epitome of 
 true religion we have in the early prophets. There 
 are a number of sections in iv.-vii. that have the same 
 tone as i.-iii., and may reasonably be accepted as from 
 the same period (v. 10-14; vi. 9-16; vii. 1-6). The 
 remaining parts of iv.-vii. have a quite different mes¬ 
 sage, and seem to come from a very different atmos¬ 
 phere. In the above lies the assured contribution of 
 Micah. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 686-608 b.c. 
 The Reigns of Manasseh, Amon and Josiah 
 
 Kings 
 
 Manasseh 
 
 Amon 
 
 Josiah 
 
 686 
 
 641 
 
 639-608 
 
 II Kings xxi. 1—^xxiii. 30; II Chronicles xxxiii.-xxxv.; 
 Jeremiah i-xii.; Zephaniah i.-iii.; Nahum; Deu¬ 
 teronomy. 
 
 A—The Reigns of Manasseh and Amon 
 
 The close of the reign of Hezekiah reached the high- 
 water mark for spiritual religion in Judah up to that 
 time. Isaiah and men who were like-minded must 
 have been highly gratified. Religious reaction was, 
 however, inevitable. The country shrines, sacred from 
 the time of Abraham and honored by Jacob, Gideon, 
 Samuel, and David, torn down by the invading As¬ 
 syrian in 701 B.C., had also suffered indignities in the 
 reforms of Hezekiah. Ancient symbols of worship, hal¬ 
 lowed by centuries of religious experience, had been 
 destroyed. Jerusalem and the temple priests had pro¬ 
 fited at the expense of the village altars and the coun¬ 
 try priesthood. The religious and social feelings of 
 many people had been outraged by the prophets. 
 
 184 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 686-608 B.C. 185 
 
 Isaiah^s attack on the women (Isa. iii. 16-24), would 
 scarcely be forgiven by the court beauties. Lovers of 
 the pro-Assyrian policy of Ahaz were still living when 
 Hezekiah died. Indignation and jealousy because of 
 the past reforming and prophetic regime must have 
 been prevalent. 
 
 Then a boy of twelve, Manasseh came to the throne 
 (II Kgs. xxi. 1-18). Assyria’s sun was now at the 
 zenith. Judah and her neighbors were tributary to 
 this, the most commanding nation of the world, why 
 not be allied to her religiously? There must have 
 been dissension at court and throughout the land. 
 Civil warfare, most relentless because of religious mo¬ 
 tives, is a fair interpretation of the report: ^‘Manas- 
 seh shed innocent blood very much till he filled Jeru¬ 
 salem from one end to the other.” The individual 
 contestants, the length of time occupied, the part 
 Isaiah played, if any, cannot even be conjectured, but 
 the ultimate triumph of the pro-Assyrian, anti-reform 
 party is certain. 
 
 Our records are brief but definite. Manasseh, who 
 while he bears the brunt of condemnation, was sup¬ 
 ported by, perhaps was even the tool of the victorious 
 party, completely restored the worship of the old- 
 time religion. The high places again flourished. 
 Ashera and pillars were again erected. Sun worship 
 was reestablished in Jerusalem. Assyrian altars again 
 found a place in the temple. Altars to the queen of 
 heaven were built on many house tops. Divination 
 assumed an important place, and the old Semitic evi¬ 
 dences of devotion to deity, as child sacrifice, were re¬ 
 instated (II Kgs. xxi. 2-7). Such was the tenor of 
 his reign of fifty-five years according to the account 
 in Kings. The Assyrian chronicles adds little that 
 throws any light on the story. 
 
 Yet in world politics these were great days. Sen¬ 
 nacherib of Assyria came to an untimely end in 681 b.c. 
 
186 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 at the hand of two of his sons who fled the country 
 (II Kgs. xix. 37). Esarhaddon (681-668 b.c.), another 
 son, came to the throne and was in turn succeeded by 
 his son Ashurbanipal (668-626 b.c.). From 681 to 646 
 B.c. there were constant revolts of subject peoples, east, 
 west, and south, which were in every field promptly, 
 sometimes mercilessly, put down, Esarhaddon rebuilt 
 in a very generous way the rebel city Babylon which 
 his father in 689 b.c. had completely destroyed. He 
 conquered the revolting Medes, defeated northern 
 hordes in 677 b.c., subdued Sidon in the west, and 
 colonized Samaria in 674 and again in 673 b.c. (cf. 
 Ezra iv. 2). Then in 670 b.c. he sent his armies into 
 Egypt, and after severe fighting took Memphis, and 
 had himself crowned king of Egypt, while Tirhakah 
 had to take refuge in Thebes. 
 
 Manasseh was in these years a faithful subject of 
 Esarhaddon. In two early Assyrian records he is 
 numbered among the tributary states. ‘ He is reported 
 to have sent building material for the palace of the 
 king in Nineveh in 674 b.c., and in the Egyptian cam¬ 
 paign in 670 B.C., mention is made of a contingent of 
 soldiers that he furnished. 
 
 Ashurbanipal had to send his army twice into Egypt, 
 and the second time, in 600 b.c., he pushed up the 
 Nile as far as Thebes, which he conquered. Tyre was 
 sieged in the same campaign, and though not com¬ 
 pletely reduced, paid tribute to Assyria along with 
 neighboring states. Babylonia revolted in 652 b.c., and 
 drew together a strong alliance of neighboring states. 
 Almost seven years were taken to reduce the city, but 
 in 646 B.c. Assyria was free to punish Arabians 
 and others who had either been actively connected 
 with the Babylonian rebellion or had in the hour 
 of Assyria’s greatest difl&culty repudiated their 
 allegiance. 
 
 Nowhere in the Assyrian chronicles nor in Kings 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 686-608 B.C. 187 
 
 is there any mention of disloyalty on the part of 
 Manasseh. It is not impossible, however, that during 
 the Babylonian revolt he may have been lined up with 
 Moab, Edom, and Tyre, and that such may be the basis 
 of a story in Chronicles (II Chr. xxxiii. 11-13), which 
 was further enlarged in the booklet, the Prayer of 
 Manasseh. 
 
 The military activities of these two Assyrian mon- 
 archs were brilliant, though exhausting to a degree, 
 but a more worthy fame belongs to each. Esarhaddon 
 was a great builder, and his chief interest lay in temple 
 architecture. Nineveh was enriched, and Babylon was 
 restored. At least thirty temples, in various cities 
 throughout the land, and especially the great temple 
 to Ashur in Nineveh, were built or beautified by his 
 orders. His successor was likewise a builder, and to 
 him was due the chief glory of Nineveh. But his lit¬ 
 erary interest, as shown by his great palace library 
 in Nineveh, consisting of tens of thousands of clay 
 tablets was Ashurbanipal’s greatest contribution to 
 history. His scribes diligently copied the old records 
 of Assyria and Babylonia, and brought together the 
 greatest collection of history, poetry, theology, and 
 science ever collected in one place up to that time, so 
 far as is known. Such were the achievements and 
 interests of Manasseh’s overlords. 
 
 Amon reigned two years. He was slain by the court 
 servants, and the people of the land slew the regicides 
 (II Kgs. xxi. 19-24). No more is said. Was it an¬ 
 other religious revolution? Were the court servants 
 dissatisfied with the long Assyrian regime, or was the 
 new king influenced by another group of religious lead¬ 
 ers? Who knows? 
 
 A Half Century of Silence —During nearly half a 
 century, the time of the reign of these two kings, not 
 only are the historical records meager, but the Old 
 Testament literature fails to produce the name of a 
 
188 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 writer or a preacher who was proclaiming the word of 
 Yahweh. Where were the disciples of Isaiah or the suc¬ 
 cessors of Amos and Micah? Some think that parts 
 of Micah, iv.-vii., may have been written during the 
 early days of Manasseh. But the sons of the prophets, 
 where were they? Slain were many of them. Tradi¬ 
 tion says that Isaiah was sawn asunder, and this may 
 well be the fact, for the leading spirit of reform in 
 the days of Hezekiah would not long be tolerated under 
 the changed regime. 
 
 But thorough as the revolution was, many must 
 have escaped and fled to cover. Silent they may have 
 been, but not idle. Downcast, but not all of Isaiah’s 
 followers could have lost confidence in Yahweh. They 
 had a half a century in which to con over the experi¬ 
 ences of the nation and the religious contributions of 
 the prophets, to reinterpret in the light of wider knowl¬ 
 edge the ancient laws and customs, to put in writing 
 perhaps some of their noblest inspirations, and to pre¬ 
 pare, yes, perhaps to plot, for the hour that was sure 
 to come. It is scarcely safe to conjecture what part, 
 if any, the prophetic party had in the civil strife at 
 the end of Amon’s life, but there is no doubt that 
 they profited by the change. 
 
 B— The Reign of Josiah 
 
 Josiah’s reign (639-608 b.c.) has little significance in 
 world history. Jerusalem was now practically the 
 limit of his kingdom. A hundred years of Ass3n’ian 
 warfare and splendor had sapped her strength, and the 
 last half of the reign of Ashurbanipal showed many 
 signs of decay. Psamtik I (664-610 b.c.), the Egyptian 
 king, began his long siege of Ashdod in 639 b.c. In 
 626 B.c. on the death of Ashurbanipal, Babylonia de¬ 
 clared her independence. The next year Nineveh 
 was besieged by Umman Manda, but was saved by 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 686-608 B.C. 189 
 
 the approach of the Scythians, who were allies of 
 Assyria. 
 
 These Scythians, a barbarian people from the 
 steppes between the Don and the Danube, began pour¬ 
 ing down into Asia Minor and Mesopotamia about 
 650 B.C. In 630 b.c., having made a formal alliance 
 with Assyria, they came down through Syria, an unor¬ 
 ganized horde of swiftly-moving horsemen and wagons, 
 bent chiefly on plunder, bringing terror to the inhab¬ 
 itants, and finally menacing Egypt. They were easily 
 bought off and turned back at the frontier of Egypt, 
 and went back the way they had come, without inflict¬ 
 ing on Judah the disaster generally feared. Bethshean 
 in Esdraelon, according to tradition, was settled by a 
 group of these retiring marauders. 
 
 Necho II of Egypt (610-594 b.c.), in 608 b.c., aware 
 of the weakness of Nineveh, determined to share in the 
 spoils. He led his army along the highway of Philistia, 
 reduced Gaza and Askelon, and at Megiddo, perhaps 
 Migdol near the Philistine territory (so Herodotus), 
 was flanked by Josiah with a small Judean army. Why 
 the king of Jerusalem was so foolhardy we can scarcely 
 conjecture. He surely did not now consider himself 
 an ally of Assyria. Was he anxious to extend his 
 domain to the old-time Israelitish boundary? Could 
 he believe because of his reform of the worship, which 
 he had inaugurated in 621 b.c. that he and his army 
 must be invulnerable to the spear-thrust of the mighty 
 foe? Whatever the cause, he would listen to no reason, 
 obtruded his army in the pathway of Egypt, and, per¬ 
 haps the victim of his faith, died on the battlefield. 
 The good king was greatly mourned by the people, and 
 months after his death, Jeremiah rebuked them for 
 their long protracted lamentation (Jer. xxii. 10, 16), 
 and elegies were even centuries later sung over him 
 by the professional singers of Israel (II Chr. xxxv. 
 25). 
 
190 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 C— The Prophets and The Reform 
 
 Zephaniah —^The reformation of Josiah” was the 
 event of chief importance in his reign. It is not likely 
 that the boy of eight had any very definite personal 
 convictions when he came to the throne. But in his 
 early years there was a new spirit in the air. 
 Zephaniah, a young man, possibly a relative of the 
 king, born in the heyday of Manasseh’s power, as his 
 name, ^‘Yahweh hides,^’ would indicate, was so stirred 
 by events religious and political that he could not hold 
 his peace. 
 
 To this young prophet the city seemed ripe for de¬ 
 struction. Polluted, oppressing, and unjust so that she 
 was shameless; her judges a pack of wolves; her 
 prophets treacherous; her priests profane; all her lead¬ 
 ers practical atheists; how could a God of justice and 
 light tolerate her any longer? Add to this her Baal¬ 
 ism, her sun-worship, her horrible Moloch worship, and 
 her numerous foreign religious customs practiced in 
 the name of Yahweh, surely the last day had come! 
 
 How was Yahweh going to punish the city for this 
 moral and religious apostasy? The cloud of Scythians 
 on the distant horizon loomed up before the prophet. 
 Surely they were the guests consecrated by Yahweh 
 for his great banquet (Zeph. i. 7-13). Surely they 
 were bringing in the day of wrath, a day of distress 
 and desolation, of waste and darkness, a day of gloom 
 and of cloud, yea of thundercloud, a day of trumpet, 
 and of battle cry (Zeph. i. 15-16). 
 
 Perhaps about 630 b.c. his voice was raised aloud in 
 protest. He seized on an old popular conception, the 
 day of Yahweh, and transformed it to his purpose. 
 It was a phrase of ancient origin, used by those who 
 expected Yahweh, the God of battles, miraculously to 
 overthrow all enemies, and establish Israel as a nation 
 simply because he was their God. Amos had already 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 686-608 B.C. 191 
 
 given it moral content (Amos i. 2). Likewise Zeph- 
 aniah, striking out against the moral corruptions and 
 the prevailing foreign ritual, conceived that the day 
 of Yahweh was primarily ethical. He further declared 
 it to be disciplinary, that it would be immediate, and 
 would involve all the near neighbors of Judah (Zeph. 
 i. 14, 15; ii. 4-7, 12-14). In this we find some of the 
 features that are later developed in apocalyptic litera¬ 
 ture. The message in Zephaniah iii. 14-20 is univer¬ 
 sally admitted to be post-exilic. 
 
 Jeremiah —At the same time a young man of whom 
 we know much more than we do of Zephaniah ap¬ 
 peared on the scene. Jeremiah belonged to the family 
 of exiled priests who were in Anathoth, but he shows 
 none of the priestly characteristics (cf. I Kgs. ii. 26, 
 
 27) . In 626 b.c. he began his ministry with a bitter 
 tirade against the sins of the nation. The substance of 
 his message for the first five years of his preaching has 
 been preserved in Jeremiah ii.-vi. His diagnosis of the 
 situation was similar to that of his contemporary, 
 though he centered his attack on the moral apostasy 
 which he considered without parallel in religious his¬ 
 tory (ii. 9-13). The arguments and the figures used 
 are among the most scathing in literature (cf. ii. 20- 
 
 28) . Swift punishment at the hands of the dreaded 
 Scythian cavalry must be the coming punishment for 
 these flagrant sins (iv. 11—vi. 26). 
 
 The Reform Activity —That two prophets could ut¬ 
 ter words like these in Jerusalem and escape, shows 
 that the tide had already turned. Further, the nation 
 was in no fear of the Assyrian, for under a weak ruler, 
 who was beset by strong foes, she was already in her 
 death throes. If Assyria could not now harm, neither 
 could her gods help, would be the popular line of argu¬ 
 ment. Those who were eager for the reform of condi¬ 
 tions had now everything on their side. 
 
 In 621 B.C., King Josiah sent his ofiicers to repair cer- 
 
192 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 tain breaches in the temple, the origin of which we 
 know nothing (II Kgs. xxii. 2—xxiii.). In the work of 
 renovation a scroll was found and read by Hilkiah the 
 priest. He deemed it of suflicient value to pass it oh to 
 Shaphan, the king’s scribe, who read it to the king. 
 Its contents were startling. Its precepts, though sim¬ 
 ple, had never been observed. It called down the di¬ 
 vine wrath on all who varied from its statutes. The 
 king sent a committee to Huldah, an aged prophetess, 
 to obtain her judgment. She declared that it was a 
 true word of Yahweh, and ought to be obeyed. The 
 king called a convocation of the elders and all the 
 people of Jerusalem. The roll was read in their hear¬ 
 ing, and they accepted it as the will of Yahweh, and 
 pledged themselves to keep the statutes and the ^com¬ 
 mandments. 
 
 Then the work of reform began in earnest, and the 
 city and neighboring villages were cleansed of their 
 idolatry. The last vestiges of Baal worship, of sun 
 worship, of Moloch worship, together with their priests 
 and their attendants and the houses of the temple pros¬ 
 titutes were destroyed. Objects such as the Ashera, 
 that like the Nehushtan in Hezekiah’s time, had been 
 there beyond memory, were pulled down and burned 
 in the Kidron. The high places in the villages were 
 razed to the ground, and the reforming zeal did not 
 stop till it reached as far north as Bethel. Then a 
 great passover, an innovation in part, as it was ob¬ 
 served in Jerusalem instead of in the home of the indi¬ 
 vidual (cf. Ex. xii. 21-27, J.), was held, as the signal 
 celebration of the reform. 
 
 This reformation, described with so much minutiae 
 in Kings, had three important features. It was ritual¬ 
 istic, but the worship was purified as it had not been 
 even in the searching reforms of Hezekiah. It now was 
 cleansed from all objects of worship, and was made 
 imageless. Further, its keynote was the centralization 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 686-608 B.C. 193 
 
 of worship. The hillside altars were no longer legiti¬ 
 mate, and the sacrifice, the feasts, and the passover 
 must be observed only in the Jerusalem temple. The 
 third fact is, that it grew out of a book which Judah 
 formally accepted as its authority in matters of faith 
 and practice. Having fulfilled so zealously all the re¬ 
 quirements of this book, they might now expect all the 
 promised national blessing. 
 
 The Book of the Law —A most interesting and im¬ 
 portant question is, can we to-day identify the book 
 of the law? A law so vital could surely not be lost, 
 and one so fully described should not be difficult to 
 locate. Scholars for centuries, going back as early as 
 the time of Jerome, have conceded that Deuteronomy 
 xii.-xxvi., xxviii., or Deuteronomy xii.-xix., xxviii., or 
 all the book of Deuteronomy, fully meets all the re¬ 
 quirements of the reform as indicated in Kings. Strange 
 to say, the failure to enforce one of the regulations of 
 Deuteronomy, viz., that the priests at the high places 
 should be privileged to serve in the temple in Jeru¬ 
 salem, is acknowledged in a rather apologetic note (Dt. 
 xviii. 6-8; cf. II Kgs. xxiii. 9). Beyond this there are 
 many evidences that leave little room for doubt. It is 
 a book of cursings and blessings such as might strike 
 terror into the guilty (cf. Dt. xxviii.). It is ritualistic 
 in all its parts, and demands that sacrifice, festivals, 
 and passover should be observed at the central sanc¬ 
 tuary (Dt. xii. 2-5, 8, 13, 18, 26; xvi. 2, 5, 6, 11, 15, 16). 
 It bans all images (Dt. xvi. 21, 22; xii. 3), and the re¬ 
 ligious festivals are now made national rather than 
 domestic. In fact Deuteronomy xii.-xix., xxviii., is 
 adequate for all the requirements of the reform as re¬ 
 ported in Kings. 
 
 But this introduces another question that is of no 
 less vital interest to us. Who wrote this book of the 
 law? A few simple propositions will help us to a 
 conclusion. It must have been a comparatively small 
 
194 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 roll. The impression is that it could be read through 
 perhaps at one sitting. As we read the story we could 
 not think of it being equivalent to our Pentateuch, 
 which could not have been written on one of the old 
 rolls. Further, it was a roll that was unknown to the 
 religious leaders, and its most important provisions 
 had never been enforced or even referred to in religious 
 history. A central sanctuary had never been observed 
 previously. 
 
 Yet we can clearly see definite influences in the life 
 of the nation pointing towards all the principle regula¬ 
 tions that were adopted at this time. The divine finger 
 in history had for centuries been pointing very defi¬ 
 nitely towards centralization of worship. The temple 
 in Jerusalem, because of its splendor, had at once 
 gained a preeminence, and every century had added to 
 its dignity. The fall of Samaria in 722 b.c. left it with¬ 
 out any rival. The destruction of the village altars by 
 the army of Sennacherib in 701 b.c., and the escape of 
 Jerusalem again added to its prestige. The message of 
 Isaiah, and his indignant reply to the Assyrian ambas¬ 
 sadors, ^The virgin daughter of Zion hath laughed thee 
 to scorn,” climaxed the testimony of history, and was 
 sufiicient to convince all but the most skeptical that 
 the temple was Yahweh’s special care, and that his 
 abode was there as in no other place. 
 
 Hosea had attacked the idolatry and immorality car¬ 
 ried on at the high places, and all the religious-minded 
 men of Judah must have realized the social menace 
 involved in this licentious worship which never could 
 be supervised so long as there was a multitude of 
 shrines, each one independent of the other. It was 
 evident that one sanctuary, carefully guarded by a 
 purified priesthood, trained in a cleansed ritual, alone 
 could provide a pure worship, and prevent the license 
 and lust that was prevalent in other places. Thus, in 
 general, the movement towards Deuteronomy seems 
 
^ THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 686-608 B.C. 195 
 
 plain and points to the times following Hosea and 
 ^ ; Isaiah. 
 
 ( Many of the details of the book likewise bear the 
 earmarks of history. In fact, most of the laws in the 
 judgments of C.C. are again found here, but in a form 
 suited to the industrial rather than to the agricul¬ 
 tural life. When we compare, by way of illustration, 
 the law for the male slave Exodus xxi. 2-6 with Deu¬ 
 teronomy XV. 12-18 and of the female slave Exodus 
 I xxi. 7-11 with Deuteronomy xv. 17, we find that Deu- 
 teronomy is manifestly a reinterpretation of the earlier 
 ^ law, in order to meet more advanced industrial and 
 i ethical conditions. 
 
 The whole case then, which might be greatly elabo¬ 
 rated is that Deuteronomy is the crystallization of a 
 long process. Custom and law, some of which may 
 run back even to pre-Mosaic times, which through 
 long centuries had been interpreted and elaborated un¬ 
 der the divine spirit which moved in men who are 
 ! unnamed, in as marked a way as in those whose names 
 we revere, were reinterpreted in the spirit of the re- 
 : forming prophets of the eighth century long enough 
 
 before 621 b.c. that the book had been lost sight of 
 completely. The last influence required for the book 
 was in 701 b.c. 
 
 While we cannot be dogmatic, we are at least per¬ 
 mitted to wonder if some soul, deeply versed in the 
 custom and history of his people, a disciple of the great 
 prophets, a man waiting reverently on Yahweh, while 
 ; in forced retirement under the bloody Manasseh, fused 
 
 ' together with prophetic insight some of the honored 
 
 I customs of his fathers, interpreted them in the light 
 
 , of growing needs, wove them into a warp of precept 
 
 that was essentially prophetic and for private or public 
 i use inscribed them on a roll. The writer of this book 
 
 ! was both prophet and priest, and his literary work 
 
 might quite naturally be kept in some corner of one 
 
196 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 of the many store chambers around the temple. Did 
 he pass away peacefully without revealing to any one 
 the secret of his hidden treasure, or was he a passion¬ 
 ate propagandist who under Manasseh died a martyr 
 to his faith? We know not. But that he was a good 
 man, a lover of ritual, yet with undimmed prophetic 
 vision, a conserver of the best in the past, yet a fear¬ 
 less reformer, withal a man of God, this is witnessed 
 by his imperishable message. 
 
 Perhaps no book ever laid hold more completely on 
 any people than did Deuteronomy on the people of 
 Judah. It holds a remarkable poise between ritual 
 and righteousness; in fact, it institutionalized the mes¬ 
 sage of prophecy. It magnified the one people, who 
 must worship the one God, in one sanctuary, and 
 whose whole lives should be controlled by one motive, 
 love. It was heartily accepted by an enthusiastic 
 people as their law of life, and they speedily became 
 the ^‘people of the book.^^ 
 
 f Jeremiah and the Reform —Jeremiah was living dur¬ 
 ing these stirring days. What was his relation to this 
 reform movement? This is a live issue. Some have 
 held that he was too intense a moralist and too clear¬ 
 sighted spiritually to lend his assistance to a move¬ 
 ment that was essentially rituahstic and that made a 
 book rather than the living word the source of re¬ 
 ligious authority. While much may be said for this 
 side of the case, evidence seems to point the other 
 way. Jeremiah’s spiritual discernment had a history, 
 and shows evident development. Further, while the 
 reform was ritualistic, it likewise cut at the root of 
 social immorality and flagrant injustice. The absence 
 of his name from the group mentioned in Kings as 
 important in the organization of the reform is not 
 strange. Jeremiah was an individualist from the be¬ 
 ginning. He was never at any time popular, and to 
 have connected him in an official way with it might 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 686-608 B.C. 197 
 
 not have added to its kindly reception. What he did he 
 may have done independently. 
 
 The book of Jeremiah indicates that he made a 
 preaching tour through the villages of Judah declar¬ 
 ing ^The words of the covenant” (xi. 1-13). His mes¬ 
 sage was an attack on idolatry, multiplicity of gods, 
 and iniquity in general. The passage is Deuteronomic 
 in spirit and language, but there seems no adequate 
 reason to doubt its historicity. His attack on the local 
 conditions and the local shrines was naturally unac¬ 
 ceptable to the people, and he deemed them beyond 
 repentance. In his itinerary he came to his home vil¬ 
 lage, Anathoth (xi. 18-23). To the disinherited 
 priests, with the memory of lost priestly prestige of 
 three hundred years earlier, and with the local sanc¬ 
 tuary always overshadowed by the temple, the de¬ 
 mand for the centralization of all worship was un¬ 
 thinkable. That a native villager should advocate it 
 was unbearable. They determined to get rid of this 
 disturber of the peace, but he anticipated their plot 
 and escaped. 
 
 Then we find this conscientious man in the throes 
 of emotional reaction (xii. 1-5). Reverently he ques¬ 
 tions the divine providence. Why are people who are 
 so treacherous and so false, so prosperous? Here we 
 are at the parting of the ways in religious history. Or¬ 
 thodoxy said, wickedness brings calamity, goodness in¬ 
 sures prosperity (cf. Dt. xxviii. 1-24). But Jeremiah 
 had personal experience that did not run true to the 
 theory. Others, as Habakkuk and Job, took up the 
 theme later and developed it. In the case of Jeremiah 
 the answer is not academic but is experimental. The 
 attention is turned from the intellectual question to 
 the hard facts of life, and the summary of the answer 
 might be put, ^‘Jeremiah, there is worse ahead, brace 
 up and face life as it is” (xii. 5). 
 
 Union of J. E. Documents —During these years, prob- 
 
198 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 ably in the early part of the period, the field of litera¬ 
 ture was enriched by the union of the J.E. narratives. 
 With the fall of Ephraim in 722 b.c., the danger arose 
 of losing permanently all the northern literary docu¬ 
 ments. That many have perished is evident from the 
 number of books referred to, of which we have no 
 other record. Some of the Israelites, notwithstanding 
 the ancient feuds, felt their kinship with Judah, and 
 maintained some religious afiiliation. Some of these 
 people moved south after the fall of their own king¬ 
 dom. Their narrative of ancient history that we caU 
 E. was likely carried to the south shortly after 722 b.c. 
 There it was joined to J., the two placed side by side, 
 and woven together as is still the custom of certain 
 Oriental history writers (cf. p. 48). 
 
 Deuteronomic Activity —After 621 b.c. there was an 
 unusual literary renaissance. The law captured the 
 imagination of many people. If only a nucleus of the 
 book was used for the reform, it is quite certain it was 
 not long before Deuteronomy was practically in its 
 present shape. It also awakened an activity that con¬ 
 tinued throughout most of the next half century. 
 
 Nahum —The little book of Nahum, a poetic out¬ 
 burst, belongs to the closing years of Josiah. The 
 singer in two poems vindictively gloats over the de¬ 
 struction that is at the very gate of Nineveh (Nah. 
 ii. 3-13 and iii. 1-19). These, as well as i. 11, 14; ii. 
 1, are poetic and passionate, but express more of the 
 spirit we usually attribute to that group of patriots, 
 often called false prophets, who, apart from moral con¬ 
 siderations, were always ready to praise their own and 
 condemn all other nations, than the spirit of the great 
 prophets. The prophet, of whom we know nothing 
 but the name, may have had personal experience with 
 the brutal Assyrians, that stirred his ire. His mes¬ 
 sage is a lasting expression of the judgment that a 
 policy of ruthlessness and greed always merits disaster. 
 
THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH, 686-608 B.C. 199 
 
 It is a crude, or perhaps a very human, way of stating 
 the principle that unrighteousness cannot go unpun¬ 
 ished in a world that is righteously governed. 
 
 Nahum i. 2-10 is an acrostic poem, which has a 
 strongly eschatological flavor to it. It delights in the 
 confidence that Yahweh, a jealous God, will see his 
 vengeance on his foes. It, as well as i. 12, 13, 15, ii. 2, 
 comes from a later date than the above-mentioned 
 poems. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH, 608-586, b.c. 
 
 The Kings 
 
 Jehoiakim 
 
 Jehoiakin 
 
 Zedekiah 
 
 608 
 
 597 
 
 597-586 
 
 II Kings xxiii. 30—xxv. 30; II Chronicles xxxvi. 
 
 1-31; Jeremiah vii.-ix., xiii.-lii.; Habakkuk; 
 
 Ezekiel i.-xxxix. 
 
 A —The Reigns of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim 
 
 On the death of Josiah, the ^^people of the land’^ 
 again asserted themselves, and crowned Jehoahaz, the 
 second son of Josiah, king (II Kgs. xxiii. 30). It was 
 an act of rebellion against Egjrpt who was now master 
 of Judah. Necho, who after the defeat of Josiah had 
 gone forth to Riblah, sent for the new king, put him 
 in chains, and sent him a prisoner to Egypt, where he 
 remained till his death (II Kgs. xxiii. 30-34). 
 
 He then appointed Eliakim, the oldest son of Josiah, 
 as his local representative in Judah, and in honor of 
 Yahweh changed his name to Jehoiakim, that is, 
 “Yahweh will raise up” (II Kgs. xxiii. 34-35). Je¬ 
 hoiakim, most likely had been pro-Egyptian before his 
 appointment to the throne, and now, at the behest of 
 the Pharaoh, he taxed Judah for the required tribute. 
 Though the royal treasury must have been bankrupt, 
 he insisted on building a great palace and living in 
 
 200 
 
THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH, 608-586 B.C. 201 
 
 splendor at the public expense, and so brought down 
 the wrath of the prophets (cf. Jer. xxii. 13-19). 
 
 It was during the early days of this reign that Jere¬ 
 miah uttered one of his boldest messages (Jer. vii. 
 1—viii. 22). Thirteen years had now passed since the 
 inception of the great reform, and some of the ten¬ 
 dencies were already apparent. Morally, there had 
 been no lasting improvement on the part of the nation. 
 Religiously, they were hopelessly confident. The 
 prophet perceived that the reform had not gone deeply 
 enough, and that the gravest dangers had resulted. 
 The people now gloried that the temple of Yahweh was 
 in their midst, and quoted history to prove its invio¬ 
 lability. He pointed to the destruction of Shiloh, and 
 from the temple steps thundered his anathemas against 
 their insensibility to moral conditions (Jer. vii. 1-15; 
 cf. xxvi. 1-7). They pointed to their lavish sacrifice 
 and their whole burnt-offering, and concluded that 
 therefore they had the favor of Yahweh. He asserted 
 that the commands of Yahweh in the wilderness were 
 not in respect to burnt-offerings and sacrifices, but 
 were for a worthy manner of life (Jer. vii. 21-23). 
 They boasted that they had the book of the law and 
 hence they were wise; he retorted that their law was 
 the work of false scribes, for it prevented them listen¬ 
 ing to the living word of God (Jer. viii. 8-9). Passion¬ 
 ately he insisted that there was no security for Judah, 
 in altars, or sacrifices, or law book, but only, “if ye 
 thoroughly mend your ways and your doings, if ye 
 thoroughly execute justice between a man and his 
 neighbor, if ye oppress not the sojourner, the father¬ 
 less, and the widow, and shed no innocent blood, but 
 walk in the ways that I command you” (Jer. vii. 5, 6). 
 
 Because of this utterance it is no wonder that the 
 prophets and the priests took him to court where he 
 was tried for treason. He escaped because he had 
 powerful friends at court, and they were able to appeal 
 
202 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 to the case of Micah and his message (Jer. xxvi. 1-19). 
 The man who was bold enough to challenge and de¬ 
 nounce the ceremonial and religious customs of his 
 generation, was indeed an ^dron pillar and brazen walls 
 against the whole land.’^ 
 
 In the north, the great kingdom of Assyria, was 
 engaged in its death struggle. Exhausted by its scores 
 of victories, its strength depleted by the splendor of 
 palaces, libraries, and temples, now ruled by a weak¬ 
 ling, its capital was seized by the Medes, the allies of 
 the now independent Babylonians. Nineveh was cap¬ 
 tured in 606 B.C., and razed to the ground. If Nahum 
 was living at this time, he saw his heart’s desire accom¬ 
 plished. All the Assyrian territory to the west, that 
 is, Mesopotamia and Syria, went as spoil to Nabo- 
 polassar, king of Babylonia (626-605 b.c.). 
 
 Only by force, however, could the allegiance and 
 tribute of Syria be retained. In 605 b.c., Nebuchadrez¬ 
 zar led the Babylonian army west, and at Carchemish 
 met Necho with his Egyptian forces. The combat was 
 disastrous for Pharaoh who fled precipitately to the 
 home land. How far Nebuchadrezzar followed the 
 retreating host is uncertain, perhaps even as far as 
 the border of Egypt (Jer. xlvi. 1-26). His victory, 
 however, was complete, and all Syria acknowledged 
 the sway of this new world-power (II Kgs. xxiv. 7). 
 In 604 B.C., on the death of his royal father, the young 
 general was summoned back to Babylonia, and entered 
 on his long reign of forty-two years. Thus Jehoiakim 
 of Judah, by the fortunes of war, in which he was 
 perhaps only an interested onlooker, became, in 604 
 B.C., a vassal to Babylonia. 
 
 The New Problem —Such world convulsions must 
 have provided food for reflection to all serious-minded 
 men. Assyria, the ancient tyrant of the west, had 
 been crushed into the dust. Necho’s mighty army was 
 so cut to pieces that it never again ventured beyond 
 
THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH, 608-586 B.C. 203 
 
 its own border. An old and glorious nation, a rebel 
 for a century, with new blood in its veins and under 
 new leadership, had suddenly risen on the wreckage 
 of empire and attained the premier place in world 
 politics. What was the destiny, what the purpose of 
 this new empire? That was the question of the hour 
 to religious thinkers. Jeremiah was one of the men 
 who pondered the question. Where did Nebuchad¬ 
 rezzar belong in the development of the moral order, 
 what was his function? To the prophet the answer be¬ 
 came apparent. Yahweh had sent his prophets rebuk¬ 
 ing the injustice and the dishonesty of the leaders, but 
 they had not mended their ways. Severer methods 
 must be used. Hence, Nebuchadrezzar was called to 
 be the servant of Yahweh to punish Judah and the 
 surrounding nations for their sins (Jer. xxv. 1-11). 
 Such was the prophet’s interpretation of contemporary 
 movements. 
 
 Another virile mind became engrossed with the 
 great moral issues of the hour. Habakkuk, called the 
 great skeptic, had his eyes open to some of the out¬ 
 standing facts. He had known of, perhaps had taken 
 a part in, the reform of 621 b.c. By 605 b.c., when he 
 first writes, the results were patent. Strife and conten¬ 
 tion were everywhere, justice was a failure, the law was 
 a dead letter, and wickedness triumphed over right¬ 
 eousness. In the face of these facts, where was the 
 proof of the moral order, is his question. Why does 
 Yahweh permit this flagrant injustice (i. 2-4)? 
 
 The answer loomed up on the northern horizon. 
 That ancient nation, the Chaldean, (Babylonian) was 
 already on the move; swifter than leopards, fiercer 
 than the wolf pack, they were the messengers of terror 
 and destruction. Yet Yahweh through them would 
 accomplish a marvelous work, which must be the pun¬ 
 ishment of the guilty (i. 5-11). 
 
 Later, perhaps years after, when the prophet has 
 
204 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 had the opportunity of knowing from personal con¬ 
 tact the work of the Babylonian army, and has been 
 able to contrast them with the people of Judah, an¬ 
 other, an even more serious, question was raised. Why 
 is it that Yahweh uses a worse people to punish a 
 better, was the second plaint. ^^0 Yahweh, thou hast 
 ordained him for judgment, and thou, O Rock, hast 
 established him for correction. . . . Wherefore look- 
 est thou on them that deal treacherously, and boldest 
 thy peace when the wicked swalloweth up the man 
 that is more righteous than he . . (i. 12-17). 
 
 Habakkuk pondered this question, patiently went 
 on with his immediate duty ^^on his watch tower,’^ and 
 in due time came the answer. ^^His soul is puffed up, 
 it is not upright in him, but the just shall live in his 
 faithfulness’’ (ii. 1-4). Interpreted, it means: the 
 arrogancy of the Babylonian is fatal, the faithfulness 
 of Judah is its own reward. Character carries in itself 
 blessing or cursing. This prophet, of whom we have 
 no history, living in the midst of national calamities, 
 separated the shadow from the substance and gripped 
 realities. Character as its own reward, or the reign 
 of law in the moral realm is one of the most vital 
 conceptions of religion. It was a far reach from the 
 temporal prosperity of Deuteronomy as the sign of 
 goodness to the faith of this man that goodness in 
 itself was a blessing. The remaining part of chapter 
 ii. is occupied with illustrations showing how sin re¬ 
 turns boomerang-like on the head of the sinning 
 nation. The third chapter, which is a poem, closes 
 with the same idea. Though temporal prosperity, in 
 all its accustomed forms, which was the recognized 
 evidence of being in favor with God, should fail, 
 will I joy in the God of my salvation” (iii. 17-19). 
 
 In 604 B.c. Jeremiah was constrained to put his previ¬ 
 ous messages, reaching over twenty-two years, into 
 literary form (Jer. xxxvi. 1-32). Baruch wrote at his 
 
THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH, 608-586 B.C. 205 
 
 dictation, and then read the completed roll on a fast 
 day in December at the entry into the temple before 
 the assembled worshipers. Later it was read before the 
 princes, and they brought it to the king, before whom 
 it was again read. This son of Josiah showed his 
 complete disregard for the message by cutting up and 
 burning the parchment. His moral and religious atti¬ 
 tude are both revealed by this act, and we do not 
 wonder that Jeremiah’s words concerning him were 
 scathing. The prophet then rewrote his message and 
 ^‘added beside them many like words.” Most of this 
 edition of Jeremiah is to be found in Jeremiah i.-xii. 
 
 Jehoiakim Rebels—-In 601 b.c., after three years’ 
 vassalage to Babylonia, Jehoiakim, influenced by the 
 general world restlessness that followed the crash of 
 Assyria, as well as by the intrigues of Egypt to which 
 he was partial to the last, withheld tribute from his 
 overlord. Raiding bands of Babylonians, Syrians, 
 Moabites, and Ammonites, all allies of Babylonia, were 
 sent to reduce him to submission (II Kgs. xxiv. 2). But 
 he was obstinate, and was supported by many of his 
 leaders. Jeremiah met this shallow confidence with 
 his usual vigor (Jer. xviii. 1—xx. 18). But little heed 
 was given to him. The leaders were involved in the 
 petty revolt of the nations. The die was cast, there 
 was no repentance and no submission. In 598 b.c. 
 Nebuchadrezzar marched his troops against the city, 
 but before the city was invested Jehoiakim passed 
 from the scene and left the inheritance of his political 
 sins to his son, Jehoiakin (II Kgs. xxiv. 6-17). 
 
 The manner of the death of the king has been the 
 subject of difference of opinion. The book of Kings 
 tells us he died a natural death and was buried in the 
 royal cemetery (II Kgs. xxiv. 6). Jeremiah, in a 
 moment of indignation, predicted that he should be 
 ‘‘drawn and cast forth outside the city” on the refuse 
 heap, like any common carcass (Jer. xxii. 19). This 
 
206 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 was what ought to happen in a moral universe to a 
 man of such a character. The chronicler tells us 
 that he was bound in fetters by Nebuchadrezzar to 
 carry him to Babylon (II Chr. xxxvi. 6). This is, 
 no doubt, a tradition that was common in his day. 
 The writer of the Kings most likely gives us the his¬ 
 torical fact. 
 
 B— The Reigns of Jehoiakin and Zedekiah 
 
 Jehoiakin faced the siege for three months and 
 then capitulated (II Kgs. xxiv. 8-17). The temple 
 and the palaces were stripped of all their treasure. 
 Ten thousand of the flower of the land, princes and 
 officers, craftsmen and smiths, heads of families, were 
 deported and settled in waste territory of Babylonia. 
 The young king, his mother, and servants were among 
 the captives. He was imprisoned, to be released and 
 treated as a royal captive after thirty-seven years’ 
 conflnement in Babylonian dungeons (II Kgs. xxv. 
 27-30). Jeremiah broke out in two elegies, one on the 
 fallen nation, the other on the king and the queen 
 mother, who were involved in the national guilt (Jer. 
 xiii. 15-27; xxii. 24-30). Ezekiel also in his own figu¬ 
 rative way describes the tragic fate of the young prince 
 (Ezk. xix. 3-9). 
 
 Zedekiah (597-586 b.c.), a son of Josiah, was now 
 given charge of Judah, as a Babylonian state, under 
 Nebuchadrezzar (II Kgs. xxiv. 17-20; Jer. xxii.-xxiv., 
 xxvii.-xxix.). It was a gratuitous task. The province 
 was small and stripped to the bone. The best element, 
 industrially and religiously, had been transplanted to 
 Babylonia. The less conspicuous princes and artisans, 
 the poor and the oppressed, who were left behind, had 
 now attained unaccustomed responsibility. The 
 tribute to Babylon was a considerable item. Only 
 one policy could save Judah. But in this extremity. 
 
THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH, 608-586 B.C. 207 
 
 the only man sane enough to see it and strong enough 
 to announce it was a prophet who was held in bad 
 repute. 
 
 Jeremiah had the vision. He held a private inter¬ 
 view with the new king in the name of Yahweh, and 
 placed before him the alternatives, social reform or 
 national ruin (Jer. xxii. 1-9). He sent a letter to the 
 exiles assuring them that it was the will of God that 
 they should remain there for over a generation (Jer. 
 xxix. 1-32). Hence, they should build houses, marry 
 and rear children, seek the welfare of the land, and 
 pray for its prosperity. 
 
 But he stood almost alone. Self-seekers to whom 
 office was new, inferior minds that could not grasp 
 world-politics, blind patriots who could not see be¬ 
 yond the present moment, and worst of all, insolent 
 prophets, who had not yet learned the moral nature 
 of Yahweh, but thought of him as a tribal deity, 
 such were the leaders of the people. And the people, 
 the poor and the oppressed, for whose rights the 
 prophets had fought, did not they think the long 
 promised ruin had at last fallen on their tyrants, and 
 could they not with a degree of logic conclude that 
 they themselves were the remnant and had now en¬ 
 tered into their inheritance? Thus boasting them¬ 
 selves in their deliverance, they became more in¬ 
 iquitous than their old oppressors. Rotten figs was 
 the prophet’s contemptuous characterization of them 
 (Jer. xxiv. 1-10). 
 
 In 593 B.C. ambassadors from all the neighboring na¬ 
 tions gathered in Jerusalem, and decided to revolt from 
 Babylonia and form alliances with Egypt (Jer. xxvii. 
 2-6). Jeremiah was impressed by the seriousness of 
 the contemplated action. He registered his conviction 
 and sent it to the individual kings by their messengers, 
 who had come to Jerusalem to the conference, that 
 Babylonia was the servant of Yahweh to punish the 
 
208 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 nations for their sins, that loyalty to his yoke was 
 the only safety, and that the Babylonian lordship 
 would extend beyond the present generation (Jer. 
 xxvii.-xxix. 15). A local prophet named Hananiah 
 challenged his viewpoint, and Jerusalem was treated 
 to a wordy war between prophets, in which Jeremiah 
 seems to have had rather the better of the argument. 
 It was perhaps about this time that Jeremiah de¬ 
 livered himself, with breaking heart, it is true, but 
 nevertheless in terms that no one could misunder¬ 
 stand, on the corrupt practices of the prophets (Jer. 
 xxiii. 9-40). 
 
 It was also at this time and as the result of the 
 conspiracy that Zedekiah was called to Babylon, where 
 it is most likely he had to renew his covenant with 
 Nebuchadrezzar (Jer. li. 59-64; Ezk. xvii. 12-15). 
 The letter that Jeremiah sent on that occasion at the 
 hand of Seraiah, one of the officers of the expedition, 
 its attitude towards Babylon, and his injunctions about 
 its disposal reveals the interest of the prophet in the 
 group of exiles (Jer. li. 59-64). 
 
 The following year (592 b.c.) a young captive, living 
 at Kebar, a few miles southeast of the city of Babylon, 
 was moved by the divine spirit to utter himself 
 through strange symbols. For a number of years, in 
 various ways, he symbolized the coming siege of 
 Jerusalem, the hunger and thirst, the pestilence and 
 terror in the city (Ezk. iv. 1—v. 17; vi. 1-14). Judg¬ 
 ment was decreed because of the moral depravity and 
 the ritual abominations of her people. In 591 b.c. he 
 again declared the guilt of Jerusalem and her coming 
 punishment, and in the form of a vision he showed 
 some of the secret ritualistic practices of the priesthood 
 (viii. 1—xi. 12). As he was a priest we cannot doubt 
 but that here, he was presenting facts with which 
 he himself was familiar. They make our blood run 
 cold. Canaanitish, Egyptian, and Babylonian idolatry 
 
THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH, 608-586 B.C. 209 
 
 were practiced. Forms of reptiles and various abomi¬ 
 nable beasts were portrayed all around on the walls. 
 Totemism and nature worship were intermingled with 
 sun worship. The rites were licentious. Elders and 
 priests were the leaders. The morals of the people 
 were sadly corrupted by the worship, and Yahweh had 
 taken his departure from the temple. We cannot 
 wonder that Ezekiel, a priest, considered the abomi¬ 
 nable pagan ritual that appealed to superstition and 
 passion as the essential cause of the coming overthrow 
 (ix. 1; xi. 12). 
 
 Jeremiah by his insistent opposition to the Egyp¬ 
 tian alliance perhaps helped to stem the tide of re¬ 
 volt until 588 b.c., when Hophra came to the throne of 
 Egypt. The new king was ambitious, and stirred up 
 the pro-Egyptian party in Jerusalem by promises of 
 assistance in their struggle for independence. Judah, 
 thus encouraged, again rebelled, and swiftly the blow 
 fell. Nebuchadrezzar sent his army, in which were 
 troops from Moab, Ammon, and Edom, and closely 
 sieged the city. After eleven months the people, in 
 great straits, sought in some way to appease the wrath 
 of God. They put an old law, which had apparently 
 been a dead letter, into operation, made it a sabbatical 
 year, and released all the slaves (Jer. xxxiv. 8-10; cf. 
 Dt. XV. 12-15). Shortly after this, Hophra having 
 mustered his promised army in Egypt, the Babylonian 
 army raised the siege and marched to the south to meet 
 the new enemy (Jer. xxxvii. 5). Jerusalem was greatly 
 relieved and, no doubt, believed that Yahweh had in¬ 
 terfered because of their good works. But religion 
 that is the result of necessity is sometimes short-lived. 
 The slaves seemed an economic necessity, and as soon 
 as the danger seemed past they were pressed back 
 into their old service (Jer. xxxiv. 11-16). Jeremiah 
 was indignant, and predicted immediate ruin (Jer. 
 xxxiv. 1-5, 17-22; xxxvii. 1-10). The Egyptian army 
 
210 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 was put to flight, and again the Babylonian encamped 
 before the rebellious city. After a few months of 
 siege, in which the suffering was extreme (cf. Lam. 
 ii. iv.), the city walls were breached, the king was 
 captured in an effort to escape, the city was looted, and 
 the temple and palaces were burnt to the ground (II 
 Kgs. XXV. 1-12). 
 
 The king and his chief advisors were carried to the 
 army headquarters at Riblah where the advisors were 
 slain, the king’s sons were mercilessly put to death 
 before the face of the father, then his eyes were gouged 
 out, and he, a warning to all rebels, was carried to 
 Babylon (II Kgs. xxv. 6, 7, 18-21). The residue of 
 the city people were carried away, and only the poorest 
 of the land were left as vine dressers and husbandmen. 
 Thus with the fall of Jerusalem, August 586 b.c., the 
 date of the second captivity, passed away the little 
 kingdom of Judah and the house of David as a ruling 
 dynasty. 
 
 Jeremiah had understood the trend of events, and 
 the blind, who had refused his leadership, had indeed 
 fallen into the ditch. From 604 b.c. on, he had stood by 
 his convictions, that Nebuchadrezzar was the servant 
 of Yahweh, and that submission was the only way to 
 national safety. To the king and the people, this was 
 the way of life (Jer. xxi. 1-14; xxxiv. 1-7). Such 
 council was, no doubt, a source of worry to the de¬ 
 fenders of the city, and the prophet was looked on as 
 a traitor. His denunciation of the treachery of those 
 leaders, who pressed back their slaves into servitude, 
 won for him the enmity of those with whose economic 
 interests he had interfered. So when at this time he 
 attempted to go to Anathoth to complete a deal for 
 some ancestral lands, he was accused of being a de¬ 
 serter, taken prisoner, and cast into prison (Jer. xxxvii. 
 1-21). Thence he was flung into a fllthy pit from 
 which he was rescued by a colored slave (Jer. xxxviii. 
 
THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH, 608-586 B.C. 211 
 
 7-13). Visited a number of times by the king, and 
 also by the princes, he always insisted that capitula¬ 
 tion was the only door of hope, but to no avail (Jer. 
 xxxviii. 14-28). 
 
 When the city fell, the old man who had seen the 
 end so clearly and had suffered so continuously be¬ 
 cause he would not withhold his voice, was treated 
 with rare confidence by the conquering army (Jer. 
 xxxix. 11-14; xl. 1-4). He in turn, having the privi¬ 
 lege of going to Babylon as an honored captive, or 
 remaining in the broken city, chose the harder way, 
 and cast in his lot with those with whom, and for 
 whom, he had suffered, and continued to the end the 
 life of service and sacrifice. 
 
 Only one event in national history at this juncture 
 remains to be mentioned. Gedaliah was put in charge 
 of the desolated province, and, owing to the wreckage 
 of Jerusalem, had to remove headquarters to Mizpah 
 (II Kgs. XXV. 22-26; Jer. xl. 7 — xliii. 13). Two months 
 after the beginning of his regime he, along with cer¬ 
 tain of the Babylonian soldiers who were left with 
 him, was slain by Ishmael, a prince of royal blood, 
 who was supported in his insurrection by Baalis, king 
 of Ammon. A few of the remaining nobles, fearing 
 the Babylonian vengeance, hastily fled to Taphanes in 
 Egypt, bearing with them Jeremiah, though against 
 his council. Report tells us he continued his preach¬ 
 ing here, and was finally martyred by a people who 
 could no longer tolerate his rebukes. A third deporta¬ 
 tion, a small one, was made in 581 b.c., perhaps as the 
 result of IshmaeFs folly. 
 
 C— Reconstruction of the Hope of Israel 
 
 The necessity of the complete destruction of Jerusa¬ 
 lem was realized very early by some of the prophets. 
 Jeremiah had long understood that the day of grace 
 
212 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 had been sinned away, and hence the intercession of 
 no group of saints would save the city (Jer. xv. 1-4). 
 Ezekiel from a far land in 591 b.c., viewing the horrible 
 temple ritual, also knew that the end had come (Ezk. 
 viii. 1-18). But when these prophets, lovers of Yah- 
 weh and lovers of their people, viewed the devastated 
 land, the city breached and wrecked, temple and 
 palaces burned, and the people torn from their homes, 
 hiding in the rocks and the fastnesses of Judah or 
 over in Moab and Gilead, or fleeing to Egypt for a 
 precarious protection, or dragged away at the chariot 
 wheels of the captor to Babylonia, all as sheep with¬ 
 out a shepherd, then a new and serious problem had 
 to be faced. Would the religion of Yahweh be per¬ 
 petuated? Would Israel survive as a people? Where 
 was there any hope, any comfort for these distraught, 
 repentant people? 
 
 In part these leaders had history on which to build. 
 There was the ancient covenant between Yahweh and 
 Israel. Hosea had proclaimed punishment, but also 
 a wooing love that would follow a disloyal people to 
 the end, would heal their backslidings, and would love 
 them freely (Hos. xiv. 1-8). Isaiah from the begin¬ 
 ning of his ministry had, in the person of his son, de¬ 
 clared, ‘^a remnant shall return.’^ In the hour of most 
 apparent disaster his faith in the ultimate outcome 
 of the kingdom of God seemed to never waver. In 
 similar difficulties Habakkuk had struck deeper than 
 any of the others when he proclaimed a kingdom of 
 character. Ezekiel in his blackest hour, when he knew 
 all must perish, cried out in agony, “0, Yahweh, wilt 
 thou make an end of the remnant of Israel’^ (Ezk. xi. 
 13). Then was sounded a note, the beginning of a 
 chorus, which in increasing volume through the dec¬ 
 ades proclaimed to the distressed and sorrowing the 
 certainty of return to the home land and the favor 
 of their God. 
 
THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH, 608-586 B.C. 213 
 
 Ezekiel’s first definite note follows hard on his cry 
 of consternation. It is, ‘‘1 will gather them from the 
 peoples and assemble them from the countries where 
 they have been scattered, and I will give them the 
 land of Israel . . . and I will give them another heart, 
 and I will put a new spirit into them . . (Ezk. xi. 
 13-21). 
 
 In the following year there is again the assurance 
 that Yahweh will bring them out of the countries 
 where they have been scattered, and will bring them 
 to his ‘‘holy mountain” “for my name’s sake” (Ezk.' 
 XX. 39-44). 
 
 Jeremiah was in the very midst of the national 
 wreckage. But his faith in God forbade him accept¬ 
 ing the desolation as final. He was convinced that 
 the land would again be inhabited, and when his uncle 
 in Anathoth grew panicky, owing to the rapid deprecia¬ 
 tion of land values, he availed himself of his privilege 
 as kinsman, purchased the estate for about $175.00, 
 and buried the signed and sealed deed in a corner of 
 the lot as an evidence of his optimism (Jer. xxxii. 
 6-15). He was confident the Babylonian regime 
 would end in a couple of generations, and that Judah 
 would return, and that houses and fields and vineyards 
 would yet be bought and cultivated. 
 
 Important as the hope of the national return was, 
 the prophets were even more deeply interested in a 
 more vital problem, viz., the first principle of true 
 religion. With the collapse of the city, the nation 
 could no longer be treated as a unit as previously had 
 been done. Now all were individuals scattered 
 abroad, each moving for himself. It is true they 
 blamed the fathers for their plight, and quoted the old 
 adage, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the 
 children’s teeth have been set on edge” (Jer. xxxi. 29; 
 Ezk. xviii. 2), but the prophets had arrived at the 
 conception of individual responsibility. Jeremiah is 
 
214 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 very concise in his statement, ‘^every one shall die for 
 his own iniquity’’ (Jer. xxxi. 30). Ezekiel, his con¬ 
 temporary, influenced by the same disaster, went much 
 further in his expression of individualism. With some 
 of the gifts of a theologian, he pushed his convictions 
 to their logical conclusion. Perhaps not earlier than 
 586 B.c. did he formulate what is known as the dogma 
 of individualism (Ezk. xviii. 1-32; xxxiii. 1-20). Sur¬ 
 rounded by those who thought only in terms of 
 national life or solidarity, he exaggerated the inde¬ 
 pendence of the individual in order to drive home his 
 point. He compassed all the’cases at issue. If a man 
 be just ... he shall surely live. If this just man has 
 a son who does wickedness, his father’s righteousness 
 is of no avail, his blood shall be on his own head. If 
 this wicked son has a son who is just . . . his father’s 
 sin shall not be visited on him ... he shall live. Then 
 the prophet goes further. If the wicked man repent, 
 he shall live. If the just man sin, he shall die. Not 
 only is a man not blessed or cursed because of his 
 ancestry, but a man will not be punished or rewarded 
 because of his yesterdays. This was an appeal to an 
 audience whose whole thinking had prejudiced them 
 against the idea of individual responsibility. It dis¬ 
 regarded the law of heredity and the unity of life, 
 but the new truth was made to stand out in bold relief 
 so that it could be understood and appreciated. 
 
 If individualism was made clear to these two great 
 leaders through the national catastrophe, the corol¬ 
 lary, that religion is an inner, personal experience, also 
 came to expression. No man was better equipped 
 than Jeremiah to blaze the trail with this epoch mak¬ 
 ing conception. He was the most spiritual of the 
 prophets. He had had a personal religious experience 
 of a most vital type (cf. Jer. i. 9; compare with Isa. 
 vi. 6, 7). In early days he contended that circum¬ 
 cision should be of the heart (Jer. iv. 4). Later he 
 
THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH, 608-586 B.C. 215 
 
 learned that ritual reform, pledged in a great public 
 convention with high enthusiasm, and carried out 
 with gratifying thoroughness by interested officials, 
 healed the wound of the people too lightly. He, who 
 in the beginning had pled with the nation to return, 
 and to ^^ask for the old paths, where is the good way; 
 and walk therein and ye shall find rest for your souls” 
 (Jer. vi. 16), was taught by the hard facts of ex¬ 
 perience that national covenants would never save a 
 nation. Yet his confidence in Yahweh and the future 
 never wavered. What then does Yahweh demand, 
 and how may his favor be attained, this was his life 
 question. An answer came apparently towards the 
 end of his days. 
 
 That answer, the new covenant, was the crowning 
 glory of the messages of a prophet who, perhaps 
 more than any predecessor, experienced the fellowship 
 of which he sings. 
 
 ^‘Behold the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will 
 make a new covenant with the house of Israel and 
 the house of Judah . . . This is the covenant that 
 I will make ... I will put my law in their inward 
 parts, and in their heart will I write it; I will be their 
 God, and they will be my people . . . All shall know 
 me” (Jer. xxxi. 31-34). That this amazingly vital 
 ideal was frequently interpreted and enlarged, and 
 that some of those interpretations found their way 
 into our present text, is made evident by a comparison 
 of the Hebrew with the Septuagint text. But we can¬ 
 not doubt that Jeremiah was the herald of this ideal 
 (cf. Ezk. xxxvi. 26-27). 
 
 But other men of faith, unknown indeed by name, 
 but spokesmen for truth, lived and diligently wrought 
 amid the din and uproar of the falling civilization. 
 These were years of feverish activity for the Deuter- 
 onomic school. If the book of the law consisted only 
 of Deuteronomy xii.-xix., xxviii., it must before the 
 
216 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 end of this period have been enlarged to its present 
 size (cf. p. 198). Deuteronomy xix. 14—-xxv. is a 
 collection of miscellaneous laws, not definitely re¬ 
 lated to the law of central sanctuary, to the Cove¬ 
 nant Code, or to one another. They read like odds 
 and ends, gathered from the customs of the people 
 by a diligent scribe. Chapters i.~xi. contain two in¬ 
 troductions. The first, i.-iv. 40, has a Mosaic 
 discourse in the language of D., based on material 
 found in Exodus and Numbers. The second, Deu¬ 
 teronomy v.-xi., which indeed may have been part 
 of the original book, has exhortations from Moses, 
 touching the unity of Yahweh, which is thoroughly 
 Deuteronomic. 
 
 To the same group of men, or to a man of the same 
 spirit, we owe the second edition of our present book 
 of Kings. The five sources that he had at command 
 and his method of work have already been explained 
 (cf. pp. 120-125). His philosophy of history was, that 
 since the temple sanctuary was the only legitimate 
 place of worship, hence the existence of the high places 
 was the cause of the fall of the north, and was the chief 
 sin of the south. The kings were guilty in so far as 
 they had not taken away the high places. The narra¬ 
 tives that most conclusively proved this thesis were 
 selected, and these ideals were impressed on his readers 
 by every possible illustration. 
 
 Religious poems and individual proverbs were no 
 doubt called forth by the varied experiences of the 
 last century. The deliverance from Sennacherib, the 
 prestige gained by the temple, the revolution under 
 Manasseh with the severe suffering of the worshipers 
 of Yahweh, the reform of Josiah, and the turbulence 
 of the closing decades of the history of Judah, each 
 and all, awoke the religious emotions and demanded 
 manifold expression. As previously indicated, how¬ 
 ever, it would not be the task of wisdom to draw the 
 
THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAH, 608-586 B.C. 217 
 
 lines absolutely as to what psalms and what proverbs 
 did and what did not originate in this period. 
 
 Those psalms that have the king or the kingship as 
 the central theme, or speak of him as though he were 
 existing, were most likely written in the pre-exilic 
 days. Among such poems are Psalms xviii., Ixi., Ixiii., 
 Ixxii., xlvi., xlvii., xlviii. and xlv. If these did come 
 from the time before the fall of the kingdom, we are 
 able to see in each one of them evidences of reworking, 
 in order to suit the thoughts and ideals of later genera¬ 
 tions of worshipers. 
 
 The ‘Vise men” had certainly food for thought in 
 the midst of the crises of the century. The maker of 
 proverbs is always with us. Life, grave and gay alike, 
 gives him the opportunity, if he be so minded, to wing 
 his salted speech or stinging phrase down to posterity. 
 Yet it is a futile task to determine the origin of that 
 which because it is common sense may have originated 
 in many different centers at many different times. It 
 is to this period, however, that we must go for the 
 beginning of Hebrew speculation (cf. Hab. i., ii. and 
 Jer. xii. I). Later centuries were required to carry it 
 to its completion. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 
 
 586-539 B.c. 
 
 Ezekiel; Leviticus xvii.-xxvi.; Lamentations; 
 
 Isaiah xiii.-xiv., xxi., xl.-lv. ; Jeremiah i. 
 
 2— LI. 58. 
 
 A— Early Years of the Exile 
 
 Three groups of Israelites interest us in this period. 
 Those who were left in Palestine were by far the most 
 numerous. We have already seen the condition of 
 these people during the twenty years preceding the 
 second captivity, when all was riot and confusion. 
 Those who were deported in 586 b.c., numbering per¬ 
 haps as many or more than the first captivity, would 
 again naturally be from the best of the people. After 
 the murder of Gedaliah, a group fied to the kindly land 
 of Pharaoh, and later, in 581 b.c., a further deportation 
 from the Palestinian remnant was taken to Babylon 
 (Jer. lii. 30). Desolation surely reigned throughout 
 the land. The most savage words of the prophets 
 scarcely did justice to the situation (Ezk. v. 5—vi. 7; 
 Jer. xxiv. 8-10). Jerusalem was uninhabitable. The 
 towns were deserted. Before the continued ravages of 
 war people had fled in small groups to the most in¬ 
 accessible fastnesses of the hills or to the deserts of 
 the south and east. The responsible people, those 
 with wealth or culture, had mostly been removed, and 
 
 218 
 
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 '^l^nujlngisyliig 
 
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 ■''s;'‘:'' 
 
 .vvv 
 
 y* : T^sf 
 
 V' wm 
 
 
 lb ' -. ■' '■^'^1 
 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 586-539 B.C, 221 
 
 nothing but the dregs of society were left. Judah 
 suffered more than Israel ever had. Only slowly could 
 her scattered groups return and set to work rebuild¬ 
 ing here and there the ruins of home and city. 
 
 Immigrations —But in this difficult undertaking they 
 were not left quietly to themselves. Desert peoples 
 had always looked longingly towards Judea and 
 Samaria. Not for six centuries had the opportunity 
 for them been so favorable as now. The Ammonite, 
 the Moabite, and the Arabian were not slow to make 
 inroads into the ^land flowing with milk and honey.” 
 The spoils of war, as well as the wasted vineyards, 
 must have appealed to them. But of all these immi¬ 
 grants the Edomite was the most insistent. The 
 Nabatseans from the south were driving them out of 
 their ancient mountains, and thus they were forced 
 northward. Gradually they encroached on the terri¬ 
 tory of Judah until in the fourth century they held 
 Hebron and all the south. Here indeed was a medley, 
 and so far as religion or culture was concerned, little 
 could be expected from it. Ezekiel reports the iniqui¬ 
 ties that were common in the country about 586 b.c. 
 Idolatry and immorality of the worst types prevailed 
 among those religious leaders who boasted in their 
 newly acquired inheritance (Ezk. xxxiii. 23-29). In 
 the course of the subsequent years the conditions must 
 have grown worse, if possible, than when these judg¬ 
 ments were uttered (cf. Jer. xxiv. 1-4). The desola¬ 
 tion, when in 520 b.c. Haggai and Zechariah began 
 their work, seems to have been complete. 
 
 Conditions in Egypt —From Palestine we turn to 
 Egypt, where perhaps the next largest group of Jews 
 was to be found. From the time of Abraham on, the 
 land of the Nile had always offered to the dweller in 
 Palestine a haven from famine and from foe. During 
 the whole history of Judah there seems to have been 
 a pro-Egyptian party at court. Solomon had affilia- 
 
222 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 tions with Egypt. Hosea likened Israel to a silly dove 
 calling to Egypt, and Egyptian intrigues were the 
 chief bane of Judah during the days of Isaiah. From 
 the death of Josiah till the fall of the city there was 
 always a prominent group of Egyptian sympathizers. 
 Because of proximity and possible personal advantage 
 Israelites must have frequently crossed the borders, 
 and many must have become more or less at home 
 in the land of the Pharaohs. 
 
 Two such groups are of interest to us. The first 
 is that which carried Jeremiah with them, and settled 
 at Taphanes, Migdol, Memphis, and Pathros (Jer. 
 xhv. 1-3). Taphanes, lying on the caravan route 
 near the edge of the desert, had been recently built 
 and was an important business center. Excavations 
 show that at first it was occupied chiefly by foreigners. 
 Memphis was the capital of Lower Egypt, and Pathros 
 was a general term for Upper Egypt. In these places 
 the Jews were surrounded by wealth, and as they 
 availed themselves of the commercial opportunities 
 of the country many of them became prosperous. But 
 the prophets were not deluded by the possible pros¬ 
 perity. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel were convinced that 
 Egypt would fall before Nebuchadrezzar. Ezekiel in 
 587 B.C., perhaps for the encouragement of some of 
 the Jews in Egypt, predicted that the land from 
 Migdol would be so completely desolated that her 
 cities shall lie waste for forty years, and though later 
 the Egyptian kingdom shall be restored it wiU be con¬ 
 fined to Upper Egypt (Ezk. xxix. 1-16). Lower 
 Egypt, according to the latest paragraph of the book, 
 570 B.C., was to be the reward given to Nebuchadrezzar 
 for his services against Tyre (Ezk. xxix. 17-21). 
 
 Jeremiah, indignant that against his advice his kins¬ 
 folk fled to Egypt and carried him with them, at once 
 by symbol and speech declared the certainty of the 
 fall of the empire at the hand of Nebuchadrezzar (Jer. 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 586-539 B.C. 223 
 
 xliii. 8-13). Later, apparently at an assembly, he re¬ 
 buked his people for burning incense to the queen of 
 heaven, and predicted a coming ruin. They, influenced 
 chiefly by the women, indignantly refused to cease 
 the prevalent worship, and appealed to history in sup¬ 
 port of their actions. They drew attention to the 
 fact that since the time of the reform, apparently that 
 of 621 B.C., when they had left off burning incense to 
 the queen of heaven, they had been consumed by the 
 sword and by famine. Jeremiah retorted that they 
 were stubborn, and that such disaster would come on 
 them that few would return to Judah (Jer. xliv. 1-28). 
 
 History does not reveal the destiny of these colonies. 
 In 564 B.C. Amasis of Egypt withdrew all trading 
 privileges from foreigners, and we can only surmise 
 that these Jewish settlements scattered, some back to 
 their own home land, others perhaps to Upper Egypt. 
 
 Colony in Assuan —Greater interest, however, is 
 centered in a second colony, of which until quite 
 recently nothing was known. With the discovery of 
 the Assuan papyri in 1904, it was found that on the 
 island of Elephantine there had long existed a con¬ 
 siderable Jewish settlement. One letter written from 
 Elephantine in November, 408 b.c., to Baghoi, a Per¬ 
 sian officer in Judah, contains important information. 
 It is an appeal directed to the Jerusalem Jews for 
 assistance in the rebuilding of the Jewish temple, 
 which had recently been destroyed by a mob incited 
 by jealous Egyptian priests. This temple had been 
 a splendid structure, and frankincense and cereal and 
 burnt offerings had there been made to Yahu (cf. 
 Yahweh) the ‘‘God of Heaven.” It had been in exist¬ 
 ence when Cambyses had in 525 b.c. conquered Egypt, 
 and had been spared when he laid so many Egyptian 
 temples in ruins. How much earlier than this it had 
 been built, we do not know. It would seem, however, 
 that the idea of a central sanctuary as the only legiti- 
 
224 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 mate place of worship, which was the central feature 
 of the reform of 621 b.c., was not deeply rooted in the 
 religious consciousness of these people. They may 
 have left Judah before the days of the great reform, 
 and there is every reason to suspect that during the 
 bloody reign of Manasseh many refugees made their 
 way to the hospitable valley of the Nile. Such would 
 know no reason why in a foreign land they should 
 not build a temple for the worship of Yahu, their 
 God. If this be correct, we can understand how from 
 time to time such privileges would attract their kins¬ 
 men, so that ultimately they attained some degree of 
 international importance. Their later history, like 
 their earlier, is unwritten. 
 
 But their existence throws a light on a number of 
 facts. The Biblical ^^Seveneh’’ is quite evidently the 
 Egyptian s w n, modern Assuan or Syene, which many 
 of the old translators understood to mean China (Ezk. 
 xxix. 10; XXX. 6). More important still, it is possible 
 that the Jewish name for deity, which our translators 
 rendered incorrectly by Jehovah, and our modern 
 scholars insist on pronouncing Yahweh, may be pre¬ 
 served most accurately in these fifth century b.c. 
 documents. They are further evidence of the wide 
 extent of the early Jewish dispersion. But this group 
 so far as we know made no direct contribution to the 
 literature or the rehgion of Judaism. 
 
 Colony in Babylonia —The scene of our study now 
 shifts to the Tigris-Euphrates valley, a thousand miles 
 east of Palestine. Here lived the third group of Jews, 
 the smallest of all, but unquestionably the most 
 influential. 
 
 Here in 586 b.c. was the first military world-power 
 of the day, yet the constructive policy of its king was 
 its chief glory. Agriculture was developed by a well- 
 organized system of irrigation, and throughout the 
 country there was amazing productivity. Commerce 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 586-539 B.C. 225 
 
 was encouraged by a vast system of water-ways and 
 by a peace policy. Important defense works were 
 erected in strategic parts of the country. Building 
 operations surpassed those of any previous era in their 
 history. More than forty great temples were put in 
 order and beautified by the king. But the city of 
 Babylon was the apple of his eye. It enjoyed an un¬ 
 wonted splendor. Fortifications made it apparently 
 impregnable. Herodotus tells us that the eastern wall 
 was three hundred and seventy-five feet high, and 
 ninety feet wide on the top. Citadels and guard cham¬ 
 bers, bronze gates and impassable moats, provided for 
 the safety of the city. Boulevards adorned with the 
 rarest beauty from forest and plain, palaces glorious 
 in bronze and gold, resplendent with costly woods and 
 marbles from far distant mountains, the hanging gar¬ 
 dens which outshone the grandeur of the Median 
 mountains, and beyond all, the great temple of 
 Marduk, on which the devout king had lavishly 
 poured the treasure of his kingdom, made it not only 
 the greatest commercial center of the world, but the 
 most unique and beautiful city of history. 
 
 To the kingdom, of which this city was the center, 
 the captives of the two deportations, perhaps some 
 fifty thousand in all, were carried as the spoils of war. 
 The geographical distance from their old home was per¬ 
 haps the least significant change of all. The exiles 
 could not fail to compare Jerusalem, the city of David, 
 with the city of Nebuchadrezzar, or the rocky, isolated 
 waste of Judea with the fertile plains watered by the 
 Tigris and Euphrates. The temple of Marduk, 
 glorious to the eye, lavish in ritual, cared for by an 
 innumerable and well-organized priesthood, rose be¬ 
 fore their weary eyes an overwhelming contrast to the 
 revered but desolated temple in the homeland. 
 Alongside of the outward culture of the conqueror the 
 civilization of Palestine was very rustic indeed. Such 
 
226 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 vivid contrasts must have deeply impressed the minds 
 of the bewildered captives. 
 
 These Jews were scattered in various parts of the 
 state, in small colonies, where they were engaged in 
 profitable agricultural and commercial pursuits (Ezk. 
 hi. 15, 23; x. 22; Jer. xxix. 1-14). They had the 
 privilege of private ownership of land and houses. 
 They seem to have been responsible for their local 
 government, and their religious life was a matter of 
 their own concern. This new world impressed itself 
 on them all. They were the disciples of the Deuter- 
 onomic reform, and hence no sacrifice was valid out¬ 
 side of Jerusalem. Because of the distance from the 
 city which the Lord their God had chosen, some, in¬ 
 deed most, of the religious rites of their ancestors they 
 were unable to observe. Sacrifices and the feasts 
 were impossible. Hence, the observation of the sab¬ 
 bath, circumcision, fasting, and prayer, such functions 
 as they could observe anywhere, were likely to receive 
 stricter attention than hitherto. When they emerge 
 from the exile we find the first two, sabbath observ¬ 
 ance and circumcision, have an emphasis previously 
 unknown, and are the sine qua non of the true Jew 
 (Neh. xiii. 15-22; cf. Ezk. xx. 12-21; xxii. 26). Unable 
 to gather in the temple, they were not prevented from 
 meeting in small groups in private houses for religious 
 encouragement (Ezk. viii. 1; xiv. 1; xx. 1). The be¬ 
 ginnings of that which was later organized under the 
 name of synagogue may be found here. 
 
 The active influences of the environment could not 
 altogether be escaped. Many learned the business 
 methods of their masters, and in the lure of their new 
 found prosperity quite forgot the claims of their coun¬ 
 try and their religion. Many may have deemed the 
 religion of Marduk, the God of the conquerors more 
 worth while than that of Yahweh, and thus losing 
 their religious identity, easily became absorbed into 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 586-539 B.C. 227 
 
 the Babylonian civilization. Some may have lived 
 out their days in the midst of this new culture with¬ 
 out in any way adopting the customs or reflecting the 
 religious ideals of their neighbors. But there were 
 still others, and this is always an important ^oup, 
 who refused either to close their eyes to the virtues 
 in the new environment, or to be overwhelmed by 
 advantages that were only material. 
 
 Ezekiel —Ezekiel’s is the one name of this last group, 
 of whose work and ideal we are most certain. He 
 was a young priest, in good circumstances, who in 
 597 B.C. was carried away and settled by the canal 
 Khebar (cf. p. 206). For five years he was silent, 
 but we are sure he was not indolent. Was he drink¬ 
 ing in the wonders of the new culture? Did he make 
 occasional visits to Babylon, the near-by city, that 
 he might view the boulevards and the hanging gar¬ 
 dens? Did he study the activities of the priests, or 
 become familiar with the ancient ritual and law of 
 his masters? Did he become acquainted with the 
 histories, the hymnody, and the creation stories of his 
 captors, or was he devoting his time to the literature 
 of his own people? Was the problem of the fall of 
 Judah and the possibility of return perplexing him? 
 We can well believe that these were years of careful 
 thought in which all the material at hand made its 
 contribution to his final outlook. Of this we are con¬ 
 vinced when we read the first chapter of his book. 
 Here in strange weird symbolism, in 592 b.c., the 
 prophet presents the conclusion he has reached, viz., 
 that Yahweh was greater than all the Gods of Baby¬ 
 lon (Ezk. i. 1-28). The bull figures, called cherubim, 
 each with four heads, were the composite symbols 
 of Babylonian divinities that were seen in front of all 
 the palaces and temples of the land. But Yahweh is 
 sitting up over them, and it is he who with all seeing 
 eye sees, and with swiftly moving chariot visits all 
 
228 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 parts of the country. How wide a gulf separated 
 Ezekiel from those kinsmen of his who, captivated by 
 the commercial glamor of the day, forgot the religious 
 heritage of Israel. 
 
 From 592 to 586 b.c. he was occupied chiefly 
 with predictions of coming ruin on Jerusalem (Ezk. i.- 
 xxiv.). The ethical message of previous prophets he 
 had not forgotten (Ezk. vii., xxii. 6-12), but as a priest 
 he was most interested in ritual regulations. In this 
 he conceived the nation to have grievously sinned. 
 Her ancestry had been Amorite and Hittite, and from 
 the beginning she had been pagan, and had loved 
 idolatry (Ezk. xvi. 1-5). She had eaten on the moun¬ 
 tains, thereby violating the ideal of the reformation, 
 and in the temple she had accumulated the most 
 abominable religious forms imaginable (Ezk. viii.-xi.). 
 For sixteen years he rang the changes of coming doom 
 because of Israel’s unholy rites and life. He declared 
 Yahweh had left the temple and the city because of 
 her iniquity. By startling symbol he proclaimed siege 
 and sword, fire and pestilence as the only end of the 
 nation. Swiftly the fated day approached. The Baby¬ 
 lonian army closed in on the stricken city and patiently 
 waited. Grimly the besieged held out, but after a 
 year and a half of suffering they capitulated to their 
 foes. The actual fall of the city came to Ezekiel as 
 a great shock. So overwhelmed was he that he failed 
 to observe the usual mourning customs over his wife, 
 who had died the previous day (Ezk. xxiv. 15-18). 
 For all the exiles it was a sad day. Relatives in 
 Jerusalem had suffered. The temple and the city 
 were no more. National hope now seemed to have 
 nothing left to cling to, and the faith of many must 
 have been shattered. 
 
 Our prophet helped to save the situation. He had 
 predicted ruin, but he had also told the reason why. 
 History had vindicated his words and accredited him 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 586-539 B.C. 229 
 
 to the exiles. He had also paved the way for a new 
 beginning. As a priest he was naturally an individual¬ 
 ist. Conscious that the state was tumbling, he, like 
 Jeremiah, saw that each man stood by himself (p. 
 213-214). When he viewed the doomed city he in¬ 
 quired if the righteous were going to suffer with the 
 guilty, and was assured that they would be spared 
 (ix. 3-8). Noah, Daniel, and Job could deliver but 
 their own souls by their righteousness (xiv. 12-23). 
 This conviction he finally announced in the phrase, 
 “The soul that sinneth it shall die,’’ and this idea he 
 wrought out to the last logical detail in the doctrine 
 of individualism (Ezk. xviii. 1-28; xxxiii. 10-20). 
 Hope was held out on a new basis, viz., that of the 
 renewed heart in the individual, “I will give you a new 
 heart, and will put a new spirit within you . . . and 
 ye shall keep my statutes to do them” (Ezk. xxxvi. 
 26-27). Hence, a remnant of the faithful will be 
 gathered back, and Yahweh himself unable to trust 
 his flock to the care of shepherds, will be their shep¬ 
 herd, and “for his own sake” will deliver them from 
 those who prey on them (Ezk. xxxiv. 11-31). The 
 whole nation, scattered, unorganized, and apparently 
 lifeless, will be marvelously resurrected and brought 
 back to Palestine, where they will be the people of 
 God, and will serve him forevermore (xxxvi. 1— 
 xxxvii.). Later the hostile nations from afar, whoso¬ 
 ever they may be, who might in the future molest her 
 as had Assyria, Egypt, and Babylonia in the past, all 
 shall be overthrown in a final world catastrophe, 
 through earthquake, sword, and pestilence (xxxviii.- 
 xxxix.). The weapons of the overthrown armies will 
 suffice for seven years fuel for Israel, the carrion birds 
 will flock from all quarters and glut themselves on the 
 putrid flesh of Yahweh’s sacrifice, and seven months 
 will be required for the burial of the dead bodies. 
 Thus will the captivity of Jacob be restored, and they 
 
230 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 shall all know that Yahweh sent them into captivity, 
 that he gathered them to their own land, and that he 
 will not hide his face any more from them. 
 
 Chapters xxv.-xxxii. and xxxv. contain attacks on 
 nations bordering on Judah. It may be that when 
 the immediate fall of Jerusalem was certain, the 
 prophet turned his attention to the old-time enemies. 
 The punishment, described in each case with consid¬ 
 erable detail, is thoroughgoing, and in general is due 
 to the attitude of the respective nation towards 
 Jerusalem and the temple. Edom, the most contemp¬ 
 tuous enemy, receives the severest censure of all, while 
 Babylon for obvious reasons is never mentioned. 
 
 It was fourteen years later, towards the close of his 
 life, that Ezekiel wrote his temple vision (Ezk. xL- 
 xlviii.). This was his most important contribution 
 to the thought and the life of his people. In this he 
 prescribed the conditions under which a people might 
 themselves remain holy, and serve a holy God accept¬ 
 ably, and thus permanently occupy a holy land. Years 
 before, Ezekiel had seen Yahweh leave the temple be¬ 
 cause of ritual uncleanness. How could the sanctuary 
 be so purified and protected that it would be suitable 
 for the abode of the holy God, was his problem. The 
 temple vision, dated 572 b.c., which contains his 
 matured conception of true religion, is his answer 
 (Ezk. xl.-xlviii.). Religious life must be conserved by 
 rule and regulation is his prescription for national 
 salvation, and is the foundation of his hope for Israel. 
 The scheme is well ordered. All the tribes are to be 
 gathered into an organization that is essentially 
 ecclesiastical. The ^^sacred estate’’ is an era about 
 seven and one half miles square, which is to be situated 
 about the center of Palestine, some miles north of the 
 actual city of Jerusalem. Seven tribes are to lie on 
 the north and the remaining five on the south of this 
 estate. To the east and the west of it is to lie the 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 586-539 B.C. 231 
 
 property of the prince. This ‘^sacred estate’’ is to be 
 divided into three equal parts lying side by side from 
 east to west. The northern one-third is to be the 
 property of the Levites. Directly south of this is the 
 one-third which is to be the possession of the priests, 
 the Zadokites, and in the center of this is to lie the 
 temple. South of this again, lies the one-third in 
 which is to be the city, about one and one-third miles 
 square, with a boulevard two hundred and sixty-four 
 yards wide, running completely around it. On each 
 side of the city, east and west, lies a square about three 
 by two and one-third miles for community tillage. The 
 temple, which is to lie in the very center of the ‘^sacred 
 estate,” is to be built on a very high mountain, and the 
 altar is to be approached by three terraces. Walls sur¬ 
 round the whole enclosure, and the entrances are care¬ 
 fully guarded by officers. Nothing unclean may enter 
 the holy place. The last verse of the book discloses 
 the ideal in this most carefully guarded holy of holies. 
 ^‘Yahweh is there.” 
 
 Some important developments in the ritual are 
 found in this section of the book. The priesthood is 
 now separated into two classes, viz., the priests, the 
 sons of Zadok, and the Levites (Ezk. xliv. 10-27; xliii. 
 19; xlii. 13). In Deuteronomy all were the priests, 
 the Levites. Two courts now enclose the sanctuary 
 instead of one as heretofore. Two hitherto unknown 
 types of offering, the guilt and the sin offering, are 
 now added (Ezk. xliv. 29; xlv. 21-25). The temple 
 now must be completely separated from all secular 
 personages and from all secular buildings, which is a 
 radical departure from the past. The prince is now 
 to be a mere appendage to the priesthood with no func¬ 
 tion in the state. His palace and his private cemetery, 
 as well as all his property, cannot come within at least 
 four miles of the temple (xliii. 7-9; xlv. 7, 8). Quite 
 contrary to all early history, as well as to the require- 
 
232 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 ments of Deuteronomy, no foreigner who is among the 
 children of Israel may have entrance to the temple 
 (xliv. 7-9). 
 
 While it is easy to see how this was an interpretation 
 of earlier regulations by one who was familiar with 
 the priestly ritual of both Israel and Babylon, we do 
 not wonder that the Rabbis were long in doubt as to 
 its right to a place in the canon. Their theory of 
 Mosaic authorship of the law left no room for such 
 a code. It occupies an intermediate place in the Old 
 Testament ritual. It grew out of the earlier, and was 
 the stepping stone to the later. Ezekiel was of the 
 ^‘apostolic succession” of the priesthood. Most of 
 his distinctive features influenced the succeeding cen¬ 
 turies of Judaism. From now on ritual is given a very 
 important place even by the prophets. 
 
 The last word from Ezekiel is in part an apology. 
 In 586 B.C., when Nebuchadrezzar was besieging Tyre, 
 with great detail he predicted that “he shall enter 
 into thy gates, his horses shall tread down all thy 
 streets ... he shall break down thy walls, they shall 
 lay thy stones and thy timbers and thy dust in the 
 midst of the water . . . thou shalt be built no more 
 (Ezk. xxvi. 7-14). But history declares that after a 
 thirteen year siege the Babylonian army, unable to 
 reduce the obstinate city, gave up the attempt. 
 Ezekiel, aware of this, in 570 b.c., three years after the 
 withdrawal of the army, candidly acknowledged the 
 failure of the letter of his prediction, but is quite un¬ 
 disturbed, because the general principle of punish¬ 
 ment of evil has been in operation (Ezk. xxix. 17-20). 
 
 Holiness Code —A kindred spirit to Ezekiel perhaps 
 a few years later gathered together and interpreted in 
 harmony with the general conception of his contem¬ 
 porary some of the ritual and social customs of the 
 past. Leviticus xvii.-xxvi., which owing to the intro¬ 
 duction and the hortatory conclusion, may justly be 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 586-539 B.C. 233 
 
 called a code, was practically completed by at least the 
 close of the exile.^ 
 
 Owing to its general tone these chapters are now 
 designated as ^‘Holiness Code.” A careful study, which 
 shows a lack of order (cf. xviii. and xx., which treat the 
 same general topic, are separated by xix., which deals 
 with entirely different laws; and xxiv., which is un¬ 
 related either to what precedes or follows), and re¬ 
 veals duplicate laws (cf. xix. 3 with xix. 30 and xxvi. 
 2; xix. 26 with xvii. 10-14; xix. 4 with xxvi. 1 and xxiii. 
 22 with xix. 9), makes it evident that this code was 
 not the work of a single mind or the product of a 
 single century as was Ezekiel xl.-xlviii. It is appar¬ 
 ently a compilation of excerpts from two or more 
 earlier codes. 
 
 It demands that all sacrifice and the slaughter of all 
 animals should be before Yahweh (Lv. xvii.); that the 
 priests and all the offerings should be carefully guarded 
 from defilement (Lv. xxi.-xxii.); that a sacred calen¬ 
 dar, which shows traces of early agricultural conditions, 
 should be observed (Lv. xxiii., xxv.); and that laws 
 regulating certain sex and social conditions should be 
 executed (Lv. xviii.-xx. xxiv.). Many of the laws hark 
 back to early conditions, and parallels are found both 
 in C.C. and D. In its present form it assumes the 
 central sanctuary of D. (Lv. xvii. 3, 4, 9), and is 
 marked by much the same social spirit. Stealing, 
 lying, false swearing, holding back wages, and giving 
 false judgment are all condemned (Lv. xix. 11-18). 
 In fact, chapter xix. contains both tables of the deca¬ 
 logue. The people are enjoined to observe the sab¬ 
 batical year and the year of jubilee (Lv. xxv.), to 
 deal leniently with the slave (Lv. xix. 33), to oppress 
 
 ' It is to be noted in passing that a number of leading scholars are 
 inclined to place this code earlier than the time of Ezekiel, perhaps 
 as much as half a century. For our purpose the definite date is 
 immaterial. 
 
234 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 not the resident alien but to grant him the same priv¬ 
 ilege as the home-born in the civil court and before the 
 altar (Lv. xvii. 8, 10, 13; xxiv. 22). In fullest accord 
 with D. they are to love him as themselves (Lv. xix. 
 34). 
 
 While in some particulars, as the attitude towards 
 the foreigner, it differs from that of Ezekiel, on the 
 whole there is a marked agreement. Attacks were 
 made on the same social vices which were encouraged 
 by much of the religion of the day, and the holiness of 
 Yahweh was guarded by measures similar to those in 
 Ezekiel. It is ritualistic in its outlook. The keeping 
 of ancient taboos is on the same level as the observ¬ 
 ance of the moral law (Lv. xix. 11-18 cf. xix. 19-20 
 and xix. 29-30). Hence the ethical demands of the 
 eighth-century prophets are now to be observed be¬ 
 cause, ^T am Yahweh your God, who brought you up 
 out of the land of Egypt’^ (Lv. xix. 10, 12, 14, 16, 36). 
 The code closes as do the earlier ones with both 
 promise and threat (Lv. xxvi. 3-13, 14-33). The 
 chastisement suggested in the closing paragraph is as 
 definite as an historian could summarize the actual 
 history of Judah, and the closing words of the code 
 hold out the assurance of return to their own land 
 when they become humble and accept the due pun¬ 
 ishment for their sins. Then will Yahweh remember 
 his covenant with the fathers and will not utterly 
 abhor them in the land of their enemies. This code 
 has a rare combination of the prophetic and the 
 priestly, the ethical and the ritual, drawn together by 
 some zealous reformer. 
 
 It is quite probable that other similar laws, of which 
 Leviticus xi, 43-45 and Numbers xv. 37-41 may serve 
 as an illustration, were collected and written down in 
 this period. It was the early work of a school that 
 through the following two centuries adjusted ancient 
 religious customs to meet the spiritual needs of their 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 586-539 B.C. 235 
 
 age, and thus helped to conserve the best and the 
 holiest of the past. Later we shall find the full ripe 
 fruitage of which Ezekiel’s vision and Hohness Code 
 were but the promise. 
 
 Denteronomic Activity~The opportunities of the 
 exile called others than the priestly caste to the literary 
 task. The historians of the Deuteronomic school were 
 still busily at work (cf. pp. 215-216). Already the 
 earlier history from the time of David back through the 
 judges and the patriarchs to the beginning existed as a 
 connected story in written form. The religious inter¬ 
 pretation of this history was now essayed. Thus was 
 the JE. roll definitely linked up with Deuteronomy. 
 A large contribution was made to the present first 
 twelve chapters of Joshua, giving the JE. story of the 
 early conquest of Canaan a new and more religious 
 interpretation (e.g., Josh. i. 3-9; iv. 21-24; v. 4-7; viii. 
 1-12; xi. 10-xii. 24). The already ancient story book 
 of the Judges was reworked so that the story of each 
 judge was fitted into a framework (cf. Jgs. iii. 12-15; 
 iv. 1-3; V. 31; vi. 1, 7-10, etc.), and the ancient heroes 
 became the preachers of the doctrine of loyalty to 
 Yahweh. The books of Samuel which had been com¬ 
 piled some time before this bear very slight trace of 
 the Deuteronomic ideal. Probably I Samuel ii. 27-36; 
 iii. 11-14; vi. 5; viii. 1-22; x. 17-24; xii. 1-25; xiv. 47- 
 51; II Samuel viii. 1-6; xii. 7, 8, 10-12, show the most 
 decided features of this school. Thus with Kings com¬ 
 pleted they preserved to posterity a mass of the most 
 important historical material, but more important 
 still, they wrought the whole field of their ancient 
 history into a vivid, inspiring, religious message. 
 
 Lamentations —Poets, whose songs could not be re¬ 
 strained, were also in the land. The terrors of the 
 siege in 586 b.c. and the national catastrophe left an 
 indelible impress on the minds of many. The book of 
 Lamentations containing five independent poems in 
 
236 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 elegiac meter, each of the first four arranged as an 
 elegiac acrostic, depicts the suffering and mourns over 
 the ruined city. We are perhaps indebted to two or 
 more poets for these exquisite literary gems. The 
 Septuagint suggests that Jeremiah was the author, 
 but this is scarcely sustained by their form and con¬ 
 tent. Poems two and four, written in the same style 
 and likely by the same author, may have come from 
 a sufferer in the siege. They are laments that are 
 unutterably doleful. Because of Zion’s sin, Yahweh 
 became her enemy and brought the inhabitants to the 
 last stages of despair. The gold of the sanctuary was 
 dimmed, the stones were hurled down into the street, 
 the princes became emaciated, the women boiled and 
 ate their own babes, all because of the anger of Yah¬ 
 weh. Poems one and five have similarities, and may 
 be slightly later. Zion is desolated, and her people are 
 captive in Egypt and Assyria, but Yahweh is righteous. 
 Poem three, the most artificial of all, may be still 
 later. It lacks the pathos of the others, as well as the 
 clear historical background. It is an appeal to the 
 afflicted to wait patiently for the salvation of God, 
 who is good to all those who seek him, together with 
 a cry to the Lord to render the full recompense on 
 all the oppressors. 
 
 Psalms —Songs of a more religious tone were surely 
 not wanting among the faithful. Some of the psalms 
 give unmistakable evidence of exilic influence 
 (cxxxvii., Ixxvii., Ixxxix., Ixviii., xxii.). Many others 
 may have been composed and sung by the pious 
 worshipers of Yahweh both in and outside of Palestine. 
 The ^^Song of Moses” (Dt. xxxii. 1-43), which cele¬ 
 brates the justice and loving kindness of Yahweh, 
 and holds out the hope of vengeance on all the adver¬ 
 saries of the nation, was most likely composed before 
 the end of the exile. Its points of contact with the 
 literature of this period in phrase and idea are very 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 586-539 B.C. 237 
 
 marked. The days of the exodus lie in the dim past, 
 and the wilderness experience is idealized. Canaan 
 has been occupied, enemies have risen up against them, 
 ' and great has been the suffering, but deliverance is 
 near at hand. 
 
 B— Closing Years of.the Exile 
 
 Cyrus —The closing years of the exile witnessed one 
 of those amazing international upheavals such as has 
 only rarely occurred in human history. With the death 
 of Nebuchadrezzar, Babylon entered a period of rapid 
 decline. His son was murdered at the end of two 
 years. The murderer ruled four years and left the 
 throne to a son who, after nine months, was slain. 
 Thus Nabonidus, the fourth king after Nebuchad¬ 
 rezzar, a prince of an entirely different family, with 
 the interests of an archaeologist rather than those of a 
 soldier, came to the throne in 555 b.c. 
 
 A few years previous to this a young prince, Cyrus 
 by name, had been crowned king of the little moun¬ 
 tain principality of Anshan. His gifts enabled him 
 to rise rapidly to the very pinnacle of power. The 
 nations were poorly organized and still more poorly 
 ofl&cered. He was both warrior and statesman. In 
 550 B.c. he successfully revolted against Astyages, king 
 of Media, who was his overlord. The following year 
 all Media bowed before him. By 547 b.c. he was king 
 of Persia and had subjugated northern Mesopotamia. 
 In 546 B.c. he marched west to try conclusions with 
 Croesus, king of the Lydians, who had formed a de¬ 
 fensive alliance with the Egyptians and the Baby¬ 
 lonians. Before aid could come to him Cyrus forced 
 him to give battle and at Sinope defeated him, and 
 then marched to Sardis, the Lydian capital, which he 
 reduced in two months. The same year the Greeks 
 
238 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 of the iEgean coast acknowledged his supremacy. In 
 539 B.c. he approached Babylon. He defeated Bel¬ 
 shazzar, son of Nabonidus, the leader of the army at 
 Opis. From thence he marched against the city of 
 Babylon whither the king had fled. Entrance was 
 gained without siege, owing to treachery on the part 
 of priests who were dissatisfied with the king’s lack 
 of homage to the old Babylonian gods. Nabonidus 
 was captured, and the Persian rule was established in 
 October, 539 b.c. Contrary to the expectations of the 
 Hebrew prophets, the city and its deities suffered in 
 no way (Isa. xxi. 2-10; xiii. 1—xiv. 23; xlvi. 1, 2; xlvii. 
 1-15). 
 
 Thus, meteor-like, was established a new dynasty 
 which opened up the era of Aryian rule over the 
 western world. For more than two centuries Persian 
 authority held sway in the land in which our studies 
 lie. 
 
 Cyrus has given us his own report, which in part 
 is as follows: 
 
 “He searched through all lands; he saw him, and he 
 sought the righteous prince, after his own heart, whom he 
 took by the hand. Cyrus, king of Anshan, he called by 
 name; to sovereignty over the world he appointed him. . . . 
 Marduk, the great lord, the guardian of his people, looked 
 with joy on his pious works and his upright heart; he 
 commanded him to go to his city Babylon, and he caused 
 him to take the road to Babylon, going by his side as a 
 friend and companion . . . without skirmish or battle he 
 permitted him to enter Babylon. He spared his city in its 
 calamity. Nabonidus the king who did not reverence him 
 he delivered into his hand.” (Cyrus Cylinder.) 
 
 His policy was unquestionably one of toleration for 
 race and religion (cf. Ezra i. 1-4). 
 
 Isaiah xiii. 2 — xiv. 23 —This commanding military 
 genius and these momentous international convulsions 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 586-539 B.C. 239 
 
 could not fail to attract the gaze of many devout 
 thinkers among the captivity. His first great victory, 
 when Astyages was delivered into his hands by the 
 Median army, raised great hopes in the hearts of some 
 of the exiles. One of the greatest elegies in the Old 
 Testament expresses most vigorously the confidences 
 that were stimulated by this triumph (Isa. xiii. 2—xiv. 
 23). Calamities of the most terrible type are here 
 pronounced on Babylon. The multitude from the 
 mountains, the constellations of the heavens, the 
 forces of earthquake and storm shall be arrayed 
 against wicked and arrogant Babylon. The Medes 
 are to accomplish the terrible day of Yahweh on the 
 pride of the Chaldean, and Jacob and Israel shall re¬ 
 turn to their own land. Nowhere have we a more 
 vivid picture of the pomp and pride of Babylon, the 
 beautiful, nor so elaborate a picture of her certain 
 downfall. The author, like Nahum in his song over 
 Nineveh, delights in the thought that this city with 
 which he was so well acquainted is going down to the 
 deepest sheol, to the uttermost part of the pit. No 
 more weird scene is found anywhere in Scripture than 
 the welcome extended to the fallen king on his en¬ 
 trance to the underworld (xiv. 4-20). The passionate 
 hatred that runs throughout the closing ode speaks of 
 an author who had personally suffered grievously at 
 the hands of the ancient oppressor (xiv. 4b-23). 
 
 Isaiah xxi. 1-10; Jer. 1. 2 — li. 58 —After Cyrus in 547 
 B.C. became king of Persia, and thus united the Median 
 and Elamite armies, some poet saw this combination 
 as the whirlwind that was going to devastate Babylon 
 (Isa. xxi. 1-10). In like strain is much that is found 
 in Jeremiah 1. 2—li. 58, which fits into the above 
 history. Here, Jerusalem has fallen, the temple has 
 been violated, the people are in captivity, great nations 
 from the north, of whom the Medes are named, are 
 on the march to wreak vengeance on Babylon for her 
 
240 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 destruction of Jerusalem. Israel will then be brought 
 back to Carmel and Bashan, and Judah to her own 
 country, while in Zion the work of Yahweh will 
 be declared. The attitude and the style of this are 
 so different from Jeremiah that it can scarcely have 
 come from him (cf. Jer. xxv. 10, 27-29). This lengthy 
 repetitious tirade against the doomed city can scarcely 
 be earlier than 540 b.c., and its literary echoes of other 
 literature suggests an even later date {e.g., Jer. 1. 39- 
 40; cf. Isa. xiii. 19-22; Jer. li. 25; cf. Ezk. xxxv. 3). 
 
 Alongside of these voices that breathed out venge¬ 
 ance against the enemy were those that uttered con¬ 
 solation for the captives. Cyrus, as the day star on 
 the horizon, stirred a chorus of hope and faith. A 
 marked evidence of this is found in stray notes that 
 are imbedded in the earlier prophets. Nine small 
 books containing the prophetic oracles of almost two 
 centuries were by this time in the possession of the 
 religious leaders. Who kept them or where, we do not 
 know, but somehow during these disastrous days they 
 were preserved. No doubt they were considered the 
 private property of the individual or the group that 
 was fortunate enough to possess one or more of them. 
 To those who were acquainted with them they were 
 precious because of their contents, but by no one were 
 they deemed ‘‘canonical.’’ Study naturally accom¬ 
 panied ownership. Interpretation was necessarily a 
 part of study, and reapplication and enlargement be¬ 
 longed to the same process. Two centuries of such 
 activity must have left its impress. 
 
 Illuminating illustrations of this fact are frequent. 
 The book of Hosea had in this way been brought up 
 to date. He was a northerner preaching so far as we 
 know only to Israel. But in the present book there 
 are many peculiar asides which are in no way related 
 to the context, and would sound very strange in the 
 ears of Israel. Many phrases are but the application 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 586-539 B.C, 241 
 
 of Hosea’s sermons of 740 b.c., to Judah after 722 b.c. 
 {e.g.y Hos. i. 7; hi. 5; iv. 15; v. 5; vi. 11; viii. 14; x. 11). 
 Men such as Baruch had been at work arranging and 
 supplementing with the necessary historical detail the 
 legacies of their masters or friends {e.g., Jer. xxviii., 
 xxix., xxxii.-xxxiv., xxxvii.-xliv. 30; Isa. xxxvi.- 
 xxxix.). Historical superscriptions must have been 
 added from time to time by eager students of the 
 writings {e.g., Amos i. 1; Hos. i. 1; Mic. i. 1; Isa. i. 1). 
 
 Furthermore, worth-while contributions by un¬ 
 named prophets were carefully preserved and easily 
 became attached to those of well known kindred 
 spirits. Micah iv.-v. and vi.-vii. did not all come from 
 the days of Hezekiah, if internal evidence is of any 
 value. A nucleus from that prophet (Mic. v. 10-14; 
 vi. 9-16; vii. 1-6) may have at a later period attracted 
 to it a number of most important oracles. The third 
 chapter of Habakkuk, which is a Psalm, may have 
 been the result of the same process. Messages of hope 
 may in the days of great hope have been added here 
 and there to relieve the dark outlook of these early 
 preachers of righteousness {e.g., Hos. i. 10—ii. 1; 
 Zeph. ii. 8-11; hi. 8-20). That this process of inter¬ 
 pretation continued until even after the canonization 
 of the books, is well known, and we are profoundly 
 grateful to those unnamed men, who so carefully pre¬ 
 served the ancient documents, and at the same time 
 so conscientiously added or inserted the ideals and 
 visions vouchsafed to them for their own generation. 
 
 Isaiah xl.-lv .—The most important singer of all the 
 exile was the one who most confidently heralded the 
 coming dawn. His message in late centuries became 
 attached to that of Isaiah, and now we perforce must 
 call him Deutero-Isaiah (Isa. xl.-lv.). His language 
 and thought indeed shows some resemblance to that 
 of the earlier prophet, but still greater dissimilarity 
 (cf. pp. 176-177). He lived under the Babylonian 
 
242 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 regime. Jerusalem had fallen, and his people were 
 suffering. He was aware that Cyrus was approaching, 
 and was certain that the great city would fall and 
 that her gods would go into captivity (Isa. xlvi. 1, 2; 
 xlvii. 1-15). Isaiah lived when Assyria was the ruling 
 power, this prophet when Babylon was tottering to 
 her fall. Isaiah warns against idols; this man laughs 
 at them, describes how they are made and rates them 
 as nothing (Isa. xl. 18-20; xliv. 9-20). With this 
 book, monotheism reaches its dogmatic climax, “I 
 form light and create darkness, I make peace and 
 create evil, I am Yahweh that doeth all these things’’ 
 (Isa. xlv. 7). 
 
 The message throughout is one of comfort. It is 
 a vigorous appeal to the exiles to prepare for the home¬ 
 going which will be possible in the immediate future 
 owing to the conquest of Cyrus. It has, however, a 
 still deeper note. The book in its present form con¬ 
 tains four songs, called appropriately the ^‘Servant 
 Songs” (Isa. xlii. 1-4; xlix. 1-6; 1. 4-9; lii. 13—liii. 12). 
 These are in poetic form and are not closely knit to 
 their present contexts. In common with the rest of 
 the book they think of Israel or Jacob as the 
 '^Servant,” but their common theme separates them 
 from it. 
 
 The explanation of the captivity is the question 
 they seek to solve. This was a fertile theme for many 
 of the thinkers of the nation. Preceding prophets had 
 no hesitancy in declaring that it was coming owing to 
 the sins of the leaders, but when the flower of the land 
 was actually taken captive in 597 b.c. and again in 586 
 B.C., and the poor of the land gained the vacant ofl&ces 
 and properties, it was soon found that national morals 
 were in no way improved. The sins of those left were 
 as great as of those deported. It was later realized 
 that the conquerors were more wicked than either. 
 Under these circumstances many must have ques- 
 
THE PERIOD OF THE EXILE, 586-539 B.C. 243 
 
 tioned the meaning of this strange providence. When 
 they further found that this harsh experience led some 
 of the captives to a profound repentance and to a 
 more fervent and intelligent devotion to the religion 
 of Yahweh, they had still further food for thought. 
 
 The author of these songs has given us one of the 
 most fundamental religious conceptions of the Old 
 Testament. They give a profoundly spiritual ex¬ 
 planation of the great suffering of a good people. 
 Israel, or the nucleus of Israel, is conceived of as a 
 missionary to the Gentiles in order to teach them 
 quietly and wisely the moral law (Isa. xlii. 2-4). 
 Their suffering, marred and bruised as they are, is 
 the method Yahweh has used that through their mes¬ 
 sage and their life he might bring the nations to him¬ 
 self. Apart from this, a vicarious sacrifice, this great 
 achievement could not be accomplished. Thus they 
 were consoled that their exile, their suffering, had not 
 been in vain (Isa. lii. 13—liii. 12). 
 
 The importance of this was twofold. It presented 
 to the homeless Israelites a worth-while religious task 
 and an acceptable explanation of their Babylonian 
 experience. To become the missionaries of the true 
 God to those sitting in darkness and in the shadow of 
 death might well arouse the energies of all the devout. 
 On the other hand, here was expressed clearly for the 
 first time the eternal principle of vicarious sacrifice. 
 This belief on the part of the leaders of the stricken 
 people must have been the silver lining of an exceed¬ 
 ingly dark national cloud. In a much fuller and truer 
 sense than in the exile do we find this principle ex¬ 
 emplified in the life and death of our Lord. It is no 
 wonder that in later days the ‘‘Suffering Servant” 
 was identified only with the Messiah. But acquaint¬ 
 ance with the historical background and the genesis 
 of the ideal adds light and beauty to the conception 
 which is crowned by the sacrifice of the Christ. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 
 
 539-332 B.c. 
 
 Ezra-Nehemiah; Haggai; Zechariah i.-viii.; 
 
 Malachi; Isaiah xxxiv., xxxv., lvi.-lxvi.; 
 
 Obadiah; Ruth; Jonah; Job; Psalms; Joel. 
 
 A— The Opening Decades Under Persian 
 Supremacy, 539-516 b.c. 
 
 Ezra-Nehemiah —The editor of the books of Kings 
 continued no further than the year 561 b.c. A school 
 of historians that had for half a century been doing 
 yeoman service had accomplished its work, and now 
 passed from the stage of history. For the Persian 
 period, besides the prophetic writers and the singers, 
 we must turn to the ecclesiastical historian for guid¬ 
 ance. Ezra-Nehemiah, originally one book, is a con¬ 
 tinuation of Chronicles. It was written by a member 
 of the same priestly school, and that not earlier than 
 300 B.c. Priestly interests controlled him almost 
 wholly in his selection and interpretation of traditions 
 and documents. 
 
 We might expect, with a long cultural history be¬ 
 hind and fully developed literary processes at com¬ 
 mand, to have an ample and continuous story of these 
 two centuries. But far from it; the historical frag¬ 
 ments both in completeness and in arrangement are 
 as meager and as confused as was the life of the people 
 themselves. During this period there are only two 
 
 244 
 
245 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 occasions when well-known historic characters stand 
 before us, and it is only after the greatest pains that 
 the picture can be filled in, even in the most tentative 
 manner. 
 
 Like Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah is a compilation of 
 a compilation. The sources and their values are 
 easily distinguished because of style and thought: 
 
 (A) —The personal memoirs of Nehemiah are his¬ 
 torical sources of first quality. They are the ‘^1” 
 sections, viz., Nehemiah i.-vii. 5; xiii. 4-31, preserved 
 almost as they came from the pen of Nehemiah and 
 early records, viz., Nehemiah xi. 3-36; xii. 27-47; xiii. 
 1-3, which have been freely worked over by the editor. 
 
 (B) —A second group of material consists of the 
 memoirs of Ezra. Here we find the section, Ezra 
 vii. 27—ix. 15, which, though in the literary style of 
 the chronicler, we may accept as largely indebted to 
 an original document. In addition to this, Ezra i. 1-4; 
 ii. 68-70; vii. 1-10; x. 1-44; Nehemiah vii. 73—viii. 
 18; ix.-x., have perhaps memoirs of Ezra behind them, 
 but the ideal of the chronicler has been impressed on 
 them. (C)—The third source is the genealogical list, 
 likely taken from the temple archives, and is a priestly 
 compilation (Neh. vii. 6-69; cf. Ezra ii. 1-69; Neh. 
 xii. 1-26). (D)—The fourth element is the Aramaic 
 section, which comes from a source written about 450 
 B.C. (Ezra iv. 8—vi. 16). While in its present form 
 it is not free from editing, it need not be doubted to 
 be an interpretation of a temple document. (E)— 
 The remainder of the material and some brief inter¬ 
 polations in the above may be based on written or 
 oral sources, but are throughout in the style of the 
 chronicler, and require great care to determine their 
 historical bearing. 
 
 The editor had certain good sources with which to 
 work, but unfortunately he had no chronological chart 
 of Persian or even of Jewish history. How could the 
 
246 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 reading of a letter of Artaxerxes [the first king of 
 that name ruled from 464 to 424 b.c.] be the cause of 
 stopping the building of the temple till the second 
 year of Darius (522-485 b.c.; cf. Ezra iv. 6)? Ezra iv. 
 7-23 must be out of place with what precedes and 
 what follows. Amid the confusion, of which this is 
 only a conspicuous example, we must thread our way 
 as best we can, and occasionally we must acknowledge 
 the grave uncertainty of detail and order. 
 
 Prophets and the Monuments —^We are materially 
 aided by the prophets, especially Haggai and Zech- 
 ariah i.-viii., whose books are definitely dated, and 
 are of indisputable historical value. Persian and 
 Greek records give us the larger international move¬ 
 ments into which the life and letters of the Jews often 
 fit most intimately. In the reconstruction of the pic¬ 
 ture, space often prevents giving reasons for the 
 assigned order of material and events, and knowledge 
 of the difficulties forbids any dogmatism. Yet the 
 need for a connected story urges the fullest and most 
 careful use of all the literature in the effort to unite 
 the broken links in the chain of history. 
 
 For the first two decades of the Persian supremacy 
 (539-516 B.c.) we are fortunate in having excellent 
 sources of information. Haggai i.-ii. and Zechariah i.- 
 viii. are contemporary prophetic records. Ezra i.-vi., 
 when freed from later revisions, gives considerable in¬ 
 formation of undisputed value, while the Persian 
 records for these years are comparatively com¬ 
 plete. 
 
 The rise of the Persian power was, as we have seen, 
 spectacular. Her armies were the best disciplined and 
 the most heroic in a world of militarism. Her early 
 kings were among the most commanding figures of 
 history. Their policy towards conquered peoples and 
 their gift of organization introduced an epoch into 
 national government. Their religious tolerance was 
 
THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 247 
 
 commendable. Under such conditions the hopes of 
 Israel took on new life and vigor. 
 
 When Cyrus conquered Babylon he devoutly ack¬ 
 nowledged that Marduk, the king of the Babylonian 
 gods, had called him by name and appointed him 
 to the lordship of the whole land (cf. p. 238). 
 Nothing of further interest to the Jews is known from 
 Persian history during his reign. Cambyses II (529- 
 522 B.C.), his son, succeeded him. He secretly mur¬ 
 dered Bardys, his brother, whom he feared, and in 
 525 B.C. led his army into Egypt. Remaining here 
 for three years, he subdued the whole country. At 
 first his policy, like that of his father, was one of con¬ 
 ciliation, but suffering reverses in Upper Egypt, owing 
 to famine, he gave way to his temper, treated Psamtik, 
 the conquered Pharaoh, with great indignity, de¬ 
 stroyed many of the temples, and even slew Apis, the 
 sacred bull, with his own hand. Report came to him 
 in 522 B.C., in the midst of his outrages, that Gau- 
 mates, a Median, posed as the murdered Bardys, and 
 had seized the Persian throne. On the way back to 
 Persia, in despair at the dilemma he faced, he came to 
 his death, apparently by suicide. Gaumates was slain 
 after a usurpation of seven months, and Darius I 
 (522-486 B.C.), of royal blood, was placed on the 
 throne by the princes. 
 
 The new empire seemed now about to crumble to 
 the dust. Darius, in his Behistun inscription, cut in 
 the face of the rock of the Baghistana Mountains and 
 still perfectly preserved, named nine usurpers who 
 assumed authority in various parts of his wide do¬ 
 minion. In nineteen great battles he quelled all these 
 insurrections in less than seven years. These were 
 the days when Haggai (520 b.c.) and Zechariah (520- 
 518 B.c.) stirred up the people to rebuild the temple 
 and prepare for the long promised kingdom. Zerub- 
 babel, a young prince of the Davidic line, was governor 
 
248 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 in Jerusalem, and the times seemed most auspicious. 
 Later we shall follow their activity in detail. 
 
 When his enemies were silenced, Darius at once 
 faced the task of consolidating his vast empire. He 
 divided it into twenty satrapies, or provinces, and ap¬ 
 pointed over each a competent satrap, who was im¬ 
 mediately responsible to the throne. While he per¬ 
 mitted them large freedom in detail and method, he 
 definitely regulated their duties. He substituted taxa¬ 
 tion for pillage and blackmail, greatly to the security 
 and prosperity of the provinces. He built highways, 
 developed a network of waterways, even planned a 
 canal from the Nile to the Red sea, established a 
 notable postal system, and marvelously promoted 
 world commerce. 
 
 In 517 B.c. he visited Egypt, necessarily passing 
 through Syria, and soothed the injured feelings of the 
 people and the priests by repairing many of the ruins 
 left by Cambyses and by personally providing a sacred 
 bull. In 515 B.c. he cast his eye towards Europe, 
 bridged the Hellespont, and sought to establish Per¬ 
 sian rule in the west. Here his ambition overvaulted 
 his strength. The Greeks burned his western capital, 
 and at Thermopylae, in 490 b.c., he received a serious 
 check. But more serious still, in arousing the Greeks, 
 he had sown to the wind, and later his son reaped the 
 whirlwind. 
 
 The Actual Return —How did these world events 
 affect the captives in Babylon and the remnant in the 
 holy city? A hasty reading of Ezra i. 2-4 and ii. 1-69 
 seems to show that a very generous edict was passed 
 by Cyrus, and that a great host of exiles accepted the 
 privileges and returned to their homeland in 536 b.c. 
 But when we carefully compare the terms of Ezra i. 
 2-4 with those of Ezra vi. 3-5, which claims to be a 
 copy of the original decree, their differences convince 
 us that they cannot both be copies of the same decree. 
 
THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 249 
 
 It is possible that we have Jewish interpretations of 
 the general decree of Cyrus when he took the city 
 of Babylon (cf. p. 238). When we consider his official 
 tolerance in matters of religion and his consideration 
 shown towards conquered nations, we need not hesitate 
 to accept an historic basis for this document. That 
 those who wished to return to their own lands might 
 do so, is reasonably certain. 
 
 An entirely different question is, what response did 
 the Jews make to this privilege? Many of them, no 
 doubt, were comfortably situated. They profited 
 much both by agriculture and by commerce. Their 
 prosperity was greater than was ever known by their 
 ancestors in Palestine. Their social contacts were 
 more numerous, the prospects for their children 
 brighter, the opportunities for office and prestige 
 better in Babylonia or Persia than they could be in 
 Jerusalem. They had now been in the land a half a 
 century, and had taken root in the soil. To most of 
 them it was home, while Judea was but a memory. 
 And what a memory! Barren hillsides, wasted cities, 
 contemptuous, plundering neighbors, and desolating 
 armies must have bulked larger to most than the story 
 of the prophetic message and the temple ritual. The 
 ancient days were not days of prosperity, and few 
 seemed to covet the privilege of return. Good reasons 
 why they should not leave their adopted country 
 would be easily found. Business connections could 
 not be quickly severed. Even religion could be in¬ 
 terpreted in favor of remaining among the Gentiles. 
 Did not the ‘‘Servant Songs’’ declare that Yahweh had 
 a great missionary purpose in the captivity? By re¬ 
 maining would they not publish the salvation of their 
 God to the ends of the earth? We know, in fact, that 
 many, if not most, remained in the land of their 
 conquerors. As late as the eleventh century after 
 Christ, a flourishing, self-governing Jewish colony. 
 
250 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 with important schools of religion, existed in 
 Babylon. 
 
 Our oldest record, in Aramaic, tells that Shesh- 
 bazzar (perhaps Shanazzar, the son of Jehoiakin) (cf. 
 I Chr. iii. 18), was appointed governor of Judea by 
 Cyrus, and was commissioned to carry back to Jerusa¬ 
 lem the vessels of the temple (Ezra v. 14, 15). This 
 corresponds with what we know of Persian policy. 
 Quite probably early in 538 b.c. he returned, accom¬ 
 panied by a small band of the faithful escorted by 
 the usual military guard. Sacrifice would be offered 
 with the customary ritual on the natural rock in front 
 of the temple ruins. Beyond that we cannot trace 
 their movements with certainty. These facts gave to 
 later devotees of temple worship the opportunity to 
 fill in the details of the picture. The enumeration of 
 the sacred vessels (Ezra i. 5-11), the march of the 
 returning exiles (I Esdras iv. 47—v. 6), the register 
 of the faithful (Ezra ii. 2-69), and the interruption 
 of the building by adversaries (Ezra iv. 1-5), all save 
 the register, were written by the chronicler over two 
 hundred years after the events. 
 
 The consideration of all the internal evidence 
 materially alters the picture. Ezra ii. 2-69, again found 
 in Nehemiah vii. 6-69 and I Esdras v. 4-46, is a com¬ 
 plete register of all those who returned from the 
 captivity during two centuries under such leaders 
 as Zerubbabel, Joshua, Nehemiah, Ezra, Mordecai, 
 Bigvai, and others (cf. Neh. vii. 7). A surprising num¬ 
 ber of these names are the same as those who signed 
 the covenant in 432 b.c. (cf. Neh. x. 1-27). A tribe of 
 the pure Persian name, Bigvai, of over two thousand 
 persons, is at least suggestive of long contact \»fith that 
 nation (Ezra ii. 14). Further, the prophets Haggai 
 and Zechariah were not aware in 520 b.c. of any im¬ 
 portant number of returned exiles. They speak as 
 though the work must be begun at the very founda- 
 
251 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 tion (Hag. ii. 18; Zech. iv. 9), and must be carried 
 through by ^The remnant of the people of the land” 
 (Hag. i. 12, 14; ii. 3, 4; cf. Neh. i. 2). We must, there¬ 
 fore, content ourselves with a decree of Cyrus grant¬ 
 ing the Jews the privilege of return, with a Jewish 
 prince as governor of Jerusalem, and with a small 
 group of exiles, perhaps the poorest of the captivity, 
 who returned to the city that Yahweh, their God, 
 had chosen. 
 
 The city itself was indeed a sorry spectacle. The 
 walls were still breached. The debris of the temple 
 and the blackened moss-grown ruins of palaces still 
 preserved the memory of the ruthless Babylonian. 
 The population was comparatively small, perhaps less 
 than ten thousand, and was mongrel. The remnant 
 left after the captivities had intermingled with 
 Samaritan and Arabian, Ammonite and Moabite. An 
 absent singer could lament. 
 
 This is a people robbed and plundered, 
 
 They are all snared in holes. 
 
 And hidden in prison houses. 
 
 They have become a spoil. 
 
 With none to rescue. 
 
 An object of plunder. 
 
 With none to say, restore. 
 
 (Isa. xlii. 22.) 
 
 But this was in comparison with her former glory. 
 These people were not without resources. For half a 
 century they had had peace. In a small way they had 
 prospered. Now some of them lived in ceiled houses, 
 and the prophet believed they needed only to be 
 aroused to the task in order to accomplish it. 
 
 Building the Second Temple, 520-516 B.C .—In 520 
 B.C. the time was ripe for action. The Persian policy 
 of toleration towards all places of religion surely stirred 
 some loyal souls. A severe famine had for a number 
 of years impoverished Judea, and calamity is oft the 
 
252 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 forerunner of revival (Hag. i. 5-11). The insurrec¬ 
 tions in the nine chief provinces of Persia, which 
 threatened the rule of Darius, may have kindled na¬ 
 tional hopes in many hearts. Zerubbabel, born in 
 captivity, a promising youth of the Davidic line, be¬ 
 came the Persian governor of the city. Could condi¬ 
 tions ever be more favorable for an aggressive policy? 
 
 Haggai, perhaps a local layman, in August, 520 b.c., 
 began in most pointed language to urge the rebuild¬ 
 ing of the temple (Hag. i. 12-15; cf. Ezra v. 2). Owing 
 to his directness and energy twenty-three days later 
 they set to work. By rebuke and promise he continued 
 his oracles for three months. He was sure the world 
 upheaval, that was in the Persian empire, would pave 
 the way for the fulfillment of the promises of the 
 prophets (Hag. ii. 20-22). He grew bold and pre¬ 
 dicted that Zerubbabel, the signet ring on the finger 
 of the Most High, was chosen of Yahweh to succeed 
 his grandfather as king of Judah (Hag. ii. 23; cf. Jer. 
 xxii. 24). 
 
 Zechariah, of priestly family, a returned exile (cf. 
 Zech. i. 1, 7, with Neh. xii. 4), began to urge the same 
 task in October, 520 b.c. He had no less certainty 
 of the immediate coming of the kingdom than his con¬ 
 temporary, but his expression was much more pic¬ 
 turesque. Persian environment had molded his im¬ 
 agery. His horsemen are those of the royal post, his 
 court of heaven bears resemblance to the Persian 
 court, his angel messengers are adopted from the cur¬ 
 rent theology of his masters, and Yahweh performs 
 for his people the functions of a Persian monarch. 
 With suggestive symbolism he declares that Yahweh 
 still loves Zion, and will destroy all heathen nations 
 (Zech. i. 7-20). Jerusalem will be restored (Zech. 
 ii.), the religious and the civil leaders will be purified 
 (Zech. iii.), and unitedly will support the temple ser¬ 
 vice (Zech. iv.). Zerubbabel, who laid the foundation 
 
253 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 of the temple, will also complete it (Zech. iv. 9). Sin 
 will be punished (Zech v. 1-4), and the cause of sin 
 will be transported to the land of Shinar (Zech. v. 
 5-11). Yahweh will execute his judgment through¬ 
 out the world (Zech. vi. 1-8), and Zerubbabel will be 
 crowned (Zech. vi. 9-15). The moral demands of 
 Yahweh (Zech. vii. 1-14) and the assurance that he 
 will rescue his people from all quarters of the earth 
 and prosper them, that through them he may be uni¬ 
 versally worshiped (Zech. viii. 1-23), are the closing 
 messages of Zechariah, written in 518 b.c. 
 
 Under such inspiration the people worked with a 
 will. Indeed, a tradition has been preserved by the 
 chronicler, that the Samaritans caught up by the 
 enthusiasm offered their assistance, but were curtly 
 repulsed by Zerubbabel (Ezra iv. 1-3). Late Jewish 
 hatred for their neighbors may have added color to 
 the facts. The Aramaic document in Ezra had a tale 
 of a different kind (Ezra v. 3—vi. 16). Tattenai, the 
 Persian satrap of the province, heard of the build¬ 
 ing activity, questioned the elders concerning then- 
 authority, and commanded work to cease till a report 
 had been received from the king. In due time Darius 
 reported that the copy of the decree had been found, 
 and commanded the satrap to assist rather than hinder 
 the building of the house of God. While this docu¬ 
 ment seems not to have been written for three-quar¬ 
 ters of a century after the event, and there are some 
 serious anachronisms in it (cf. v. 5 with iv. 24 and 
 vi. 14 with the list of Persian kings), yet it is quite 
 conceivable that a Persian official might have been 
 hostile to the building of a Jewish temple under the 
 direction of a prince of the royal line. Whatever the 
 difficulties may have been, work was finished in March 
 of 516 B.c. A dedication service, followed by the Pass- 
 over celebration, was kept with great joy on the part 
 of both the returned and the remnant (Ezra vi. 16-22). 
 
254 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 This was surely one of the days full of significance for 
 the future of religion. 
 
 Our information concerning the structure of this 
 building is not very ample. From the literature of 
 later days we can, however, gather some important 
 facts. Unlike the temple of Solomon, it had no brazen 
 sea, no ark of the covenant, and no pillars in front. 
 It was not a royal temple as Solomon’s had been; it 
 was priestly, and was strongly influenced by Ezekiel’s 
 vision. It had an altar of incense which the first 
 seemed to lack. Like Ezekiel’s, it was isolated from 
 all civil contacts. No palace, no judgment hall, no 
 assembly room, no arsenal lay near it. It had two 
 courts, where the first had one. The holy of holies 
 was now separated from the holy place by a curtain. 
 Thus the ideal of the prophet, that of the separation 
 of Yahweh from all that was ritualistically common 
 or unclean, dominated many of the features of this 
 second temple. Many of the plans of Ezekiel’s vision, 
 however, could not be followed. The twelve tribes 
 were not arranged on either side of the city. The 
 temple was not built outside of the city limits, but 
 stood on the ancient site that had been hallowed by 
 centuries of sacred memories. The prince was not 
 to be a mere figure-head as in Ezekiel, but was to be 
 coequal with the priest. The temple entrances were 
 not arranged so that they could be guarded as Ezekiel 
 proposed, nevertheless the spirit of ritual holiness per¬ 
 vaded the whole scheme. 
 
 The Messianic Hope —Apparently this little group, 
 stimulated by Haggai and Zechariah, was unanimous. 
 They worked with a will, and cherished a hope that 
 came to them from the past. The seventy years of 
 Jeremiah were surely at hand (Zech. i. 12; cf. Jer. 
 xxix. 10). The Messianic kingdom seemed about to be 
 initiated. The union of priest and prophet, of church 
 and state was ready for consummation (Zech. iv. 2- 
 
255 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 14; iii. 1-9). The hopes for the prince of the house 
 of David blazed out anew in these intense days. 
 National life had long been centered in the only 
 dynasty Judah ever knew. The calamity of the exile 
 added urgency and color to the ideal. Ezekiel in the 
 hour of the city’s ruin held out the hope that Yahweh 
 himself would shepherd his people (Ezk. xxxiv. 11- 
 16), but later promised an ideal David as their ruler 
 (Ezk. xxxiv. 23-31; xxxvii. 21-28). Jeremiah under 
 the same strain predicted for the united and righteous 
 Israel a righteous sprout, even David, as king, who 
 should be called Yahweh, our righteousness (Jer. 
 xxiii. 3-8). 
 
 But the two most remarkable characterizations of 
 the Messianic king are found in Isaiah ix. 1-7 and xi. 
 1-10. He is the child with the four names, wonderful- 
 councilor, mighty-god, father of eternity, and prince 
 of peace. The last one reminds us of the Servant 
 Songs, and the second one of Ezekiel’s strange com¬ 
 bination. In the eleventh chapter we again meet the 
 teacher of Isaiah xlii. 1-6, and this time he is linked 
 up with the ^^sprout” of Jeremiah. These two great 
 poems, whether written before or during these days, 
 as some of the most careful scholars think owing to 
 what they have in common with Jeremiah and 
 Ezekiel, must have lightened the toil of the builders, 
 while they quickened the noblest ideals of race and 
 religion. 
 
 A similar hope is beautifully expressed in Micah 
 V. 2-9 (cf. Nah. i. 12, 13, 15; ii. 2). The village of 
 David is to be glorified in its descendant. The rem¬ 
 nant shall return, and he, the ruler, shall nurture them 
 in the strength of Yahweh. From very small begin¬ 
 nings they shall develop a great kingdom with power 
 to meet the greatest adversary, and they shall extend 
 their sway to the ends of the earth. From 520 to 516 
 B.C. a little group in Jerusalem was eagerly and expect- 
 
256 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 antly toiling for the opening of this Messianic king¬ 
 dom. 
 
 If we can interpret the ancient story aright, at the 
 completion of the second temple in 516 b.c., we stand 
 at the point of union of a number of great ideals 
 which had long and slowly been developing, and were 
 now held in a happy blend by a few zealous people. 
 Ritual and morals flowed together as part of one 
 whole. The religious and the civil were found in full 
 accord. The people and the prince were partners in 
 righteousness, and influenced by the spirit of the 
 ^^Servant of Yahweh,” even international enmity had 
 become a thing of the past. We may well believe that 
 the historian was quite restrained when he said, “they 
 kept the dedication of the house with great joy.” 
 
 But now we ask, what next? And the silence of 
 history has never been more tantalizing. We scan 
 the pages of ancient records and of Scripture for an 
 answer, and none is found. The conjecture that the 
 temple was destroyed and Zerubbabel slain, based on 
 an interpretation of an obscure verse from a later 
 writer, creates more difiiculties than it solves (Isa. 
 Ixiii. 18; liv. 10). All that we know is that the history 
 of the Jewish people for the next seventy years is a 
 blank, and when they again emerge, their condition 
 is more pitiable than ever. Zerubbabel passed from 
 the stage, and with him the hope of the Davidic 
 house, and so history decreed that even EzekieFs con¬ 
 sideration for the prince was greater than could be 
 realized. 
 
 Temple influence—li the light of the Jerusalem 
 colony went out in darkness, and a cloud hung over 
 the subsequent seventy years, we must not fail to 
 appreciate the part the temple played in this obscure 
 period. In splendor it may not have approached that 
 of Solomon; in function it was the leaven that per¬ 
 meated the whole of Judaism. Outwardly there may 
 
257 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 have been little that suggested vigorous life, but it 
 nourished forces that later dominated the religion of 
 many of the nation. It became the rallying point for 
 all the faithful. The annual festivals became increas¬ 
 ingly important both to those in the homeland and 
 to those scattered among the kingdoms. It kept alive 
 a sense of unity, and provided an outlet for religious 
 devotion. It was the home of the priesthood. The 
 ritual gradually was made more impressive. Details 
 were slowly worked out, and the services were beauti¬ 
 fied. Priests, drilled in their duties, naturally divided 
 the labors, and gradually divided into orders, higher 
 and lower. Processionals, with varied vestments, 
 swinging censors, and genuflections developed apace. 
 Calls to service, responses by the ofiicers or the wor¬ 
 shipers, passed imperceptibly over into chant and 
 song. It was the seed-bed of priest craft, and during 
 two centuries, through the natural development of 
 home talent and the influx of forms from foreign 
 climes, it flowered out into a well-ordered, stately, 
 helpful worship. 
 
 The Scribe —Alongside of the growing dignity and 
 usefulness of the priesthood, went the development of 
 the scribe. The temple became the center of literary 
 activity, where all those features that were the chief 
 interest of the sacerdotalist were carefully worked 
 over. Men interested in genealogy, in religious cus¬ 
 toms and institutions, and in the writings of the 
 fathers were, in these dark days, carefully copying, 
 elaborating, and interpreting. The fire of true devo¬ 
 tion to the God of the nation must have been kept 
 alive in many hearts by the varied ministry of the 
 temple. Hopes that were shattered by the experiences 
 following 516 b.c. were thus quietly undergoing re¬ 
 construction, and in due time would again bear fruit. 
 The scribe, often working in seclusion, was the inter¬ 
 preter and chronicler of those hopes. 
 
258 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 B— The Fifth Century b.c. 
 
 Persian History, 500-400 B.C .—A few facts in 
 Persian history need to be noted. For a century and 
 a half following Darius I, weak, base men occupied 
 the throne, and each in his own way contributed to 
 the downfall of his country. Xerxes (486-464 b.c.) 
 succeeded his father, but lacked the personality to 
 cope with the tasks that awaited him. Determined to 
 subdue Greece, he raised a great army and marched 
 west. Thermopylse and Salamis, Platsea and Mycalse 
 tell the story of broken fortune and shattered hopes. 
 It is possible that the Jewish people suffered consider¬ 
 ably during his reign. The book of Esther, though 
 written much later, gives a pretty shrewd sketch of 
 the character of this king under the name Ahasuerus. 
 It may also accurately reflect the general attitude to¬ 
 wards the Jews in captivity. Even in Palestine they 
 may have suffered petty persecution (Ezra iv. 6). 
 But, on the other hand, it is possible that the astound¬ 
 ing victories of the Greeks may have raised great 
 expectations in the hearts of hopeful Israelites. Did 
 weary eyes see in this a presage of a coming dawn, 
 such as their ancestors saw in the victories of Cyrus 
 and the insurrections against Darius? 
 
 Under Artaxerxes I (464-424 b.c.) Egypt gained in 
 460 B.c. a momentary freedom, and about the same 
 time it seems that the Edomites, pressed out of their 
 ancient citadel by the Nabataeans, were gradually en¬ 
 croaching on the territory of Judah and thus intensify¬ 
 ing the long-standing racial hatred. The prophetic 
 response to this catastrophe, that must have been felt 
 so keenly throughout Jewry, may perhaps be pre¬ 
 served in Malachi, Isaiah xxxiv., xxxv., Ivi.-lxii., Ixiii. 
 1-6, and Obadiah. It was in the twentieth year of this 
 reign that Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, 
 
259 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 and in his thirty-second year again visited the city. 
 This king was on the whole a kind man, though weak. 
 He cared more for his harem than for his world em¬ 
 pire, and w^as ruled by favorites rather than by 
 statesmen. 
 
 Xerxes II, his successor, who was murdered inside 
 of two months, was succeeded by Darius II (424-404 
 B.C.), who in turn left his throne to Artaxerxes II 
 (404-358 B.C.). These were days when the provinces 
 were left largely to themselves, particularly in the 
 reign of the mild and easy-going Artaxerxes. It seems 
 must plausible that it was in this reign that Ezra intro¬ 
 duced his reforms into Jerusalem. 
 
 Nehemiah precedes Ezra —From 516 b.c. on till the 
 middle of the fifth century b.c. all is silent concerning 
 the movements of the Jews. The building of the 
 temple seems to have been only an episode. No king¬ 
 dom had been established. What tragedies occurred, 
 what hopes were blasted, we do not know. But in 
 the middle of the Persian period we are again able to 
 follow the pathway of history. The memoirs of 
 Nehemiah (cf. p. 245) are contemporary sources 
 quoted almost verbatim, and the rest of the Ezra- 
 Nehemiah book has an historical basis. The chron¬ 
 ological arrangement, however, gives us a real diffi¬ 
 culty. For centur’.ps very naturally, Ezra was dated 
 in the seventh yeai of Artaxerxes I, and thus was sup¬ 
 posed to have arrived in Jerusalem in 458 b.c., about 
 fourteen years before Nehemiah. But it seems strange 
 that Nehemiah in all his activity did not come into 
 contact with Ezra. In his memoirs there is no men¬ 
 tion of his fellow kinsman. Further, when we note 
 that the wall is already built when Ezra appears 
 (Ezra ix. 9); that Eliashib was high priest in the time 
 of Nehemiah, but his grandson, Jehonahan, was an 
 important temple-officer, perhaps high priest, in the 
 time of Ezra (Neh. xiii. 4: cf. Ezra x. 6: Neh. xii. 23, 
 
260 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 11, 12); that Jehonahan was actually high priest in 
 411 B.C., according to the Assuan papyri (cf. G. A. 
 Smith, Jerus. ii. 360); that Nehemiah organized the 
 treasury and appointed four treasurers (Neh. xiii. 13), 
 while Ezra found four treasurers ready to receive his 
 gifts (Ezra viii. 33), we become suspicious of the 
 theory that makes Ezra precede Nehemiah. It further 
 looks very strange that the same Persian king should 
 send two missions to Jerusalem, for much the same 
 purpose, at practically the same time, with much the 
 same authority. It seems much more consistent with 
 all the facts of the case to place Ezra later than Nehe¬ 
 miah, perhaps even as late as the seventh year of 
 Artaxerxes II, that is, in 398 b.c. Thus he came more 
 than thirty years after the last recorded visit of Nehe¬ 
 miah, and this suits the conditions suggested in all 
 our documents. It is true that we find the names of 
 these two leaders placed side by side in a number of 
 lists, but these all come from the pen of the chronicler, 
 whose knowledge of chronological detail, as we have 
 seen, does not make him an infallible witness (Neh. 
 viii. 9; x. 1). 
 
 Nehemiah's Activity —Nehemiah, a layman, who had 
 attained high honors in the Persian court at Susa, 
 learning of the misfortune of his people in Jerusalem, 
 gained permission from Artaxerxes in 444 b.c. to make 
 a brief visit to the city of his father’s sepulcher, and 
 to rebuild the walls (Neh. i. 1-16). He came to 
 the city with a military guard, made a careful inspec¬ 
 tion of the walls, called a council, showed his authority, 
 and proceeded to organize the inhabitants and set 
 them to the task of building (Neh. i. 17-20). The 
 non-Jewish population of the neighborhood. Am¬ 
 monites, Arabians, Ashdodoties, and Samaritans of 
 whom Sanballat was governor, jeered at the workmen, 
 then objected, and then plotted to stop the work (Neh. 
 iv. 1-23). Difficulties arose within the city. The 
 
261 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 poor had in some cases, because of necessity, mort¬ 
 gaged land and children (Neh. v. 1-13). A council 
 was called, and Nehemiah by his appeal and his ex¬ 
 ample succeeded in persuading the rich to forego 
 usury and even to cancel the debts of the poor (Neh. 
 V. 6-13). The adversaries continued their opposition 
 throughout. Tobiah the Ammonite tried to stimulate 
 a faction of the Jewish nobility and put Nehemiah 
 in fear (Neh. vi. 17-19). Sanballat invited Nehemiah 
 to meet in council in one of the villages, but after four 
 such invitations had been refused, the schemer sent 
 him an open letter accusing him of conspiracy (Neh. 
 vi. 1-10). It is possible that Ezra iv. 8-23, which in¬ 
 dicates that the Samaritans wrote a letter to Artax- 
 erxes, stating that the walls of Jerusalem had been 
 rebuilt, and appealing to him to put an end to the 
 rebuilding of the city, may refer to some of the diffi¬ 
 culties that were faced by Nehemiah. The walls, how¬ 
 ever, were completed in fifty-two days (Neh. vi. 15); 
 the gates were set up later (Neh. vii. 1-4); the city 
 was officered, and guards appointed (Neh. vii. 2-A); 
 and the dedication ceremony was carried through in 
 due form (Neh. xii. 27-43). 
 
 How long Nehemiah remained on his first visit is 
 not certain. Nehemiah vi. 14, which considers him 
 resident governor for twelve years, is scarcely in accord 
 with other passages (cf. Neh. vii. 2; xiii. 6; ii. 6). 
 However, in 432 b.c. he again visited the city and 
 found conditions very unsatisfactory (Neh. xiii. 4-22). 
 He drove Tobiah out of the temple-chamber, ordered 
 adequate provision for the Levites, appointed treas¬ 
 urers, and demanded that there should be due observ¬ 
 ance of the sabbath. He made a violent attack on 
 some of the pro-foreign element, slapped their faces, 
 pulled their hair, and made them take an oath against 
 foreign intermarriages (Neh. xiii. 23-30). 
 
 Nehemiah was one of the great religious patriots 
 
262 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 of Judaism. He faced a situation well-nigh impossi¬ 
 ble. None but the most resolute and self-sacrificing 
 would have dared attempt it, and only the strongest 
 could have carried it through. He rallied the energies 
 of a weak and helpless folk, and put them to work at 
 a serious task. He stirred up the spirit of brotherhood, 
 and the usurer gave up his gains. He appealed to 
 the sanctions of religion, and the merchants closed 
 down on sabbath commerce. He found the foreigner 
 a source of weakness to his people, read them the riot 
 act, and cleansed the city of their influence. For 
 centuries he was the only representative of this period 
 to enter the hall of fame of Judaism. Ben Sirach 
 (xlix. 11-13) and II Maccabees (i. 18-23) alike crown 
 him and alike fail to mention the name of Ezra. 
 
 Ezra —The achievements of Ezra the scribe, pre¬ 
 served and interpreted by the priestly school, lost 
 nothing of glamour or ecclesiastical character by the 
 process. Beyond that, later tradition made him re¬ 
 sponsible for much activity that was the result of the 
 slow process of history, and in fact wove much of 
 legendary character around his name. That he was 
 idealized must be admitted, but that he had part in a 
 definite scribal and ritualistic movement need not here 
 be doubted. 
 
 He came from Babylon perhaps about 398 b.c. He 
 was the leader of a group of similarly-minded men, 
 provided with the necessary passports, and bearing 
 gifts to the temple (Ezra vii. 1—viii. 36). The statis¬ 
 tics of the chronicler are quite characteristic and 
 must be used with caution. 
 
 Some time later he had the privilege of reading 
 the law book to an assembly in Jerusalem while inter¬ 
 preters made plain the meaning (Neh. vii. 73—viii. 8). 
 On the second day they found the command to keep 
 the feast of booths, and as it was the seventh month 
 they straightway observed it (Neh. viii. 13-18). For 
 
263 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 seven days, day by day, they read the law and kept 
 the feast, followed on the eighth day by a solemn 
 assembly. 
 
 At another time, likely later, he was informed that 
 the priests, Levites, and princes had freely inter¬ 
 married with foreigners (Ezra ix. 1-2). In great dis¬ 
 tress he rent his mantle, tore his hair, and confessed 
 the sins of his people (Ezra ix. 3-15). The people 
 consented to a divorce court, which after sitting two 
 months found that 113, of whom four were priests, six 
 were Levites, and four were singers and porters, were 
 guilty (Ezra x. 18-44). A public fast was proclaimed, 
 the guilty parties put away their wives and families, 
 confessed their sins, and all entered into a covenant not 
 to marry foreigners, to observe the sabbath, and the 
 sabbatical year, to pay the temple poll-tax of one- 
 third of a shekel, to supply the wood for the sacrifices, 
 and to pay the tithe (Neh. x. 28-39). 
 
 The Law Book —The exact bound of Ezra’s law book 
 is not clear. The reforms mentioned can in part be 
 found in D. or in P. The poll-tax of one-third shekel 
 and the requirement of the wood offering are found 
 nowhere in the Pentateuch. The poll-tax mentioned 
 in Exodus xxx. 11-16 is one-half shekel. But the 
 general spirit of the law was ritualistic, and perhaps 
 we are not justified in saying more than that it was 
 the continuation of the ideal and the spirit of Ezekiel 
 and H. C. It conceived that the favor of a holy God 
 could not be gained apart from separation from all 
 that defiled. Punctilious observance of ceremonial 
 law was the pathway of life. With this covenant we 
 are on the trail to full-fledged pharisaism which prided 
 itself in its legalism. The nation was fast becoming 
 a church, and boasted in its exclusiveness. The prince 
 was no longer necessary; now the priest alone should 
 rule. 
 
 Contemporary Literature —Contemporary writers 
 
264 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 seem to have been numerous. The priestly influence 
 was very strong, but a body of literature that may 
 well be called prophetic bears the impress of these 
 days. Malachi, Isaiah xxxiv., xxxv., Ivi.-lxiii. 6; ii. 2- 
 4; Mic. iv. 1-5; vii. 7-20, and Obadiah minister to just 
 such a period as we know the beginning of the later 
 half of the fifth century to have been, better than to 
 any other time. 
 
 Edom figures in each of these sections, and in gen¬ 
 eral the attitude towards her is the same. Though 
 she was the closest of kin to Israel, there had always 
 been the deepest enmity between the two nations. 
 During the early history Israel had held Edom in 
 subjection, and her treatment of her was anything but 
 generous. With the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. 
 the tables were turned. Edomites were in the be¬ 
 sieging army, and they gloated over the fall of their 
 old oppressor. Now, when the Nabatsean is driving 
 her out of her rocky fortresses, it was Israel’s turn to 
 raise the taunt song. Malachi in his Socratic way 
 announced that Edom was beaten down and that 
 Jehovah had indignation against her forever (Mai. i. 
 2-5). Obadiah cried out against the same enemy. 
 ‘'Behold I have made thee small among the nations, 
 thou art greatly despised ... for the violence done 
 to thy brother Jacob . . . thou shalt be cast off for¬ 
 ever” (Ob. i. 1-14, 15b). 
 
 In a singularly striking poem arranged antiphonally 
 another writer published the doom of this people. 
 Jehovah is a warrior, who single-handed had gone to 
 the fray and trampled into the dust the ancient enemy 
 (Isa. Ixiii. 1-6). Edom, perhaps, became a symbol for 
 the nations, and the glimpse of apocalypticism that is 
 found in Isaiah lix. 16-21 and in Isaiah xxxiv. but 
 broadens out the above theme. We cannot read these 
 passages without feeling their kinship. Their pas¬ 
 sionate hatred to Edom is overflowing. The pressure 
 
265 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 of the enemy on the south of Judah, raiding and pil¬ 
 laging, taunting and acting in a high-handed manner 
 because of their superior brute force, is the explanation 
 of these outbursts. But the Nabatsean was on their 
 trail, and these writers are confident that Yahweh, the 
 God of righteousness, cannot tolerate the continued 
 prosperity of such a people. He will hurl them back 
 and will cause his people Israel to dwell in safety. 
 
 Jerusalem: Her Inner Life —The picture of the 
 social and religious life of Jerusalem found in the 
 above sections is in keeping with that which we know 
 to have existed in the fifth century b.c. The temple 
 had been built (Isa. Ivi. 7; lx. 7; Ixii. 9; Mai. iii. 10), 
 but the walls were breached (Isa. Iviii. 12; lx. 10; Ixi. 
 4). Jerusalem was in mourning and desolate (Isa. lix. 
 20; lx. 15; Ixi. 3; Ixii. 4); the villages were waste and 
 the people were dispersed (Isa. Ivi. 8; lix. 19; Ixi. 
 7). Many were quite indifferent to religious matters, 
 some were idolatrous (Isa. Ivii. 3-13), and others were 
 skeptical (Mai. i. 7; ii. 17, iii. 14-15). Even the 
 priests were negligent in their duties (Isa. Ivi. 10-12; 
 Mai. i. 6, 13; ii. 8, 9). Ritual was carelessly performed 
 (Mai. i. 7, 14), the tithe was neglected (Mai. iii. 8-10), 
 and shameful practices were common (Isa. Ivii. 3-10). 
 Intermarriage with foreigners was altogether too 
 prevalent, and, more shameful still, Jewish wives were 
 divorced in order that foreigners might be married 
 (Mai. ii. 10-16). Morally the corruption was great 
 (Isa. Ivii. 1, 2; Iviii. 1-4; lix. 2-15). The widows and 
 the poor were oppressed (Mai. hi. 5), and the foreigner 
 was by some held in high esteem (Isa. Ivi. 3-8). 
 Israel, scattered abroad without the privilege of tem¬ 
 ple worship, was often more acceptable to Yahweh 
 than those who were living in Jerusalem (Mai. i. 11; 
 Isa. lix. 19). Two classes existed at home, the right¬ 
 eous and the wicked, and the line of cleavage was 
 found both in morals and ritual (Isa. Ivii. 1, 3-13; 
 
266 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Mai. iii. 18; iv. 1-3). Yet the hope of the community 
 which was emphasized most, lay in the strict adher¬ 
 ence to the observation of ritual, the sabbath, and the 
 tithes (Isa. Ivi. 2, 6, 7; Iviii, 2; lx. 7; Ixi. 1-3, 6; Iviii. 
 9-14; lix. 2-4; Mai. iii. 10). The ethical require¬ 
 ments, though frequently referred to, did not hold the 
 prominent place they had in earlier prophecy (Mai. 
 
 iii. 5; Isa. Ivi. 1; Iviii. 6-11; Ivii. 17; lix. ^8). 
 
 Messianic Hope —Sombre as the picture is, there 
 
 was a heartening side to it. In the city there was a 
 little band of the faithful, who loved Yahweh, com- 
 panied together, prayed and planned together, to¬ 
 gether read the signs of the times, and believed that 
 Yahweh would purge the nation and thus deliver it 
 (Mai. iii. 10; cf. Isa. xxxiv. 16, 17; Ob. i. 17, 19-21). 
 
 This confidence took on various forms. Elijah is 
 going to return and turn the hearts of the fathers to 
 the children (Mai. iv. 5, 6); or the messenger of 
 Yahweh will comfort the nation by exercising his 
 teaching function (Isa. Ixi. 1-3; Mic. iv. 1-3); or 
 Yahweh himself, clothed in the mail of a warrior, will 
 take vengeance on all the enemies of Israel (Isa. lix. 
 16-20), and his name will be feared from the east to 
 the west (Isa. lx. 2, 16-20; Mic. iv. 1-3). Jerusalem, 
 the bride of Yahweh (Isa. Ixii. 4-5; Ixi. 10, 11), will be 
 gloriously established (Isa. lx. 10-22; Ixii. 1-5; Mic. 
 
 iv. 1-2); the exiles will return laden with treasure, 
 and will be borne by their previous masters (Isa. lix. 
 1; lx. 4; Ixi. 1, 4-7; Ixii. 10-12); obstacles will be re¬ 
 moved (Isa. XXXV., Ixii. 10); and all nations will flow 
 to the house of Yahweh (Isa. lx. 10-15; Mic. iv. 
 1-3). 
 
 Two viewpoints regarding the nations emerge in 
 this literature. One is that of the stricter school, by 
 which the heathen are banned from all worship, and 
 are doomed to be the hewers of wood and the drawers 
 of water for Israel (Isa. lx. 10-14; Ixi. 4-7; Mic. vii. 
 
267 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 15-17). The other ideal is that the nations may have 
 all the privileges, civil and religious, that belong to 
 Israel, if they are but obedient (Isa. Ivi. 1-8; Mic. 
 iv. 2-3). 
 
 In all this literature we miss the figure of a Mes¬ 
 sianic king. We have the ideal of a teacher and of 
 a conquering Yahweh, but there is no Cyrus or 
 Zerubbabel on the horizon. That hope seems to have 
 perished during the previous century. In its place is 
 a community, a holy people, a nation of priests who 
 cherish the word of Yahweh which was in written 
 form (Isa. xxxiv. 16; lix. 21; Mic. iv. 2), and whose 
 hope is in the covenant (Isa. Ivi. 6). Their trust seems 
 now to be less in the material and the national, and 
 more in those influences that touch the mind and 
 heart, and in the Holy One of Israel. 
 
 C—The Closing Decades of Persian Supremacy 
 
 400-332 B.C. 
 
 Historical Background —The fourth century wit¬ 
 nessed very little change in the external conditions 
 of the Jews. Their life in Jerusalem must have been 
 dull and drab. Always paying tribute, never populous 
 or affluent, the shades were sometimes darker, some¬ 
 times lighter. In the early decades of the century 
 they may have gained possession of a number of out¬ 
 lying villages and thus have widened their borders 
 (Neh. xi. 25-35; cf. Neh. iii.). 
 
 To this time also belongs the Samaritan schism. 
 The drastic divorce regulations of Ezra no doubt added 
 fuel to the long standing feud which had been intensi¬ 
 fied by Nehemiah. Josephus gives a story of the final 
 rupture which has the marks of trustworthiness. He 
 states that the elders at Jerusalem demanded that a 
 certain priest, Manasseh, who had married a daughter 
 
268 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 of Sanballat, should either divorce her or give up his 
 priestly privileges (cf. Neh. xiii. 28). His father-in- 
 law encouraged him to resist and promised him a 
 temple in Gerazim. Manasseh, thereupon, with a num¬ 
 ber of priests and Levites who had in like manner 
 sinned withdrew to Samaria, and later Alexander the 
 Great, after his conquest of Persia in 331 b.c., granted 
 them the privilege of building the required temple. 
 It was erected, and worship similar to that in Jerusa¬ 
 lem was instituted (Jos. Ant. xii., i. 1). The Samaritan 
 Bible is essentially the same as the Hebrew Penta¬ 
 teuch. The evidence indicates that while there was a 
 prolonged antagonism between the two cities (cf. Isa. 
 Ixv. 11; Ixvi. 1-5), they had much in common re¬ 
 ligiously till after the beginning of the fifth century, 
 and that probably the final break did not take place 
 till late in the Persian period. The intense hatred of 
 the chronicler about 300 b.c. towards the Samaritans 
 would lead us to conclude that the rupture was then 
 complete, but perhaps of recent date (II Ch. xxv. 
 7-13). 
 
 The later years of Persian rule must have been un¬ 
 favorable to the Jews. Artaxerxes II was succeeded 
 by his son Artaxerxes III (358-338 b.c.), a man of en¬ 
 tirely different mold. He was a despot, merciless and 
 cruel. Egypt, along with the Phoenician states, re¬ 
 volted in 353 B.C., and the Persian army proceeded to 
 break the rebellion. Her armies were in the country 
 for ten years, during which time Egypt was subdued 
 and severely punished. The Jews may have been 
 party to the revolt, for many of them were deported to 
 Hyrcania and Babylonia. According to Josephus, 
 Bagoas, the Persian general, enraged because Johanan 
 had murdered his own brother in the temple, defiled 
 the temple, and placed a heavy tax on the daily sacri¬ 
 fice for ten years (Jos. Ant. xi. 7). During the closing 
 years of the Persian supremacy the Jews seem to have 
 
THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 269 
 
 had every reason to welcome a change of sovereign 
 power. 
 
 Literature from 4 OO to 330 B.C.—During the last 
 seventy years of Persian rule there were at work in 
 Judaism a number of well-defined religious ideals, each 
 of which gained its adherents and made its contribu¬ 
 tion to the life of the little community and to the 
 world. The legal, the protestant, the liturgic, the 
 philosophic, and the apocalyptic were all in evidence. 
 
 Legalism —Legalism is not an inappropriate term 
 for that movement of which Ezra became the head. 
 With definite origins in 621 and 572 b.c., its develop¬ 
 ment continued long after the close of the canon. The 
 fourth century, however, marked the flood tide of its 
 activity. The covenant on the part of the community 
 to observe the law called for many interpreters, stimu¬ 
 lated the leaders to renewed effort, and added recruits 
 to the propaganda. 
 
 The law itself was collected and elaborated. It is 
 likely that shortly after 400 b.c., what is known as the 
 P. code, that mass of ceremonial detail scattered 
 throughout Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, was in 
 essentially its present form. Writers of ecclesiastical 
 history, saturated in the priestly outlook, must have 
 soon appeared. The early national history found in 
 JED. had for two centuries been the property of the re¬ 
 ligious leaders, and must have been widely known. To 
 all who knew it, it must have been a sacred oracle. 
 P., the new code, parallel to it in some of the laws and 
 more advanced in others, though covenanted to by 
 the people, could never displace the older law and his¬ 
 tory in the affection of the community. At best it 
 might lie side by side with it. But there were differ¬ 
 ences, sometimes most marked, between the two. Shall 
 they lie side by side and thus ultimately develop two 
 schools antagonistic one to the other? Or can they 
 be blended into a more or less harmonious whole? Of 
 
270 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 course JED. had not given all the facts of history, or 
 of institutions, and its general conclusions did not 
 quite satisfy this new school. To keep the sabbath, 
 to pay the tithe, to observe the feasts, to offer the 
 daily sacrifice, to remain separate from the heathen, in 
 a word to perform the works of the law, this was 
 essential to national prosperity. History had proved 
 that, to the priests, if it had proved anything. JED. 
 was far from definite on some of these points. Hence, 
 for the admonition of all future generations the priests 
 conceived that history must be rewritten. But much 
 of the early and important material was already in 
 JED. Thus there was in reality only one method for 
 the new historians to adopt. JED. must be incorpo¬ 
 rated in P. Genealogical tables, statistical enumera¬ 
 tions, stories of ancient religious institutions, together 
 with many ancient traditions, and a mass of time- 
 honored priestly custom were all in the possession of 
 the priestly writers. With their genealogical and 
 statistical tables as a framework, and their ritualistic 
 ideal as their philosophy of history they used the JED. 
 compilation almost in its entirety, and reworked the 
 whole into our present Hexateuch. No doubt it was a 
 long and slow process, which occupied many minds 
 and passed through more than one edition, each time 
 receiving some added material or interpretation which 
 brought the whole into more perfect conformity with 
 the religious principles of the editors. While we can¬ 
 not name these laborers and hence must use some 
 symbol such as P., their achievement was not there¬ 
 fore less important, nor do we honor the results less 
 because the authors are unknown. 
 
 The intense religious influence of this school cannot 
 here be detailed, but one illustration may suffice as a 
 symbol of their reforming zeal. The descendants of 
 those who in the days of Nehemiah and Ezra were 
 so lax about keeping the sabbath, in 321 b.c. suffered 
 
271 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 the capture of the holy city and wholesale slaughter, 
 rather than violate the letter of the law. The com¬ 
 pleted Hexateuch stands as their monument. From 
 them it received its present form and unity. By them 
 it was canonized, and by their influence it became the 
 “Holy of Holies’’ to later generations. 
 
 The Scribe —The scribe was the product, and in 
 turn the propagandist, of this ideal. His work was of 
 the greatest importance. He had a book, and that book 
 was the word of God. His duties were to transcribe, 
 to teach, and to interpret the law. Through him 
 prophecy seemed to be unnecessary, and by him 
 anonymity became the rule. The selection, as well as 
 the preservation of the canon was in his hands. If 
 his arrangement of sections, his historical notes, and 
 suggested authorship, as well as his interpretations 
 and interpolations sometimes perplex the most com¬ 
 petent student, the wealth of invaluable historical and 
 religious material that he gathered and preserved 
 through the most trying national crises places all the 
 world forever in his debt. 
 
 The Liberal Reaction —A propaganda so vigorous, 
 and we might say so radical, as that of legalism could 
 scarcely fail to arouse antagonism. Loyal Jews, who 
 had no personal ends to serve as had the Samaritans, 
 may also have looked askance at this thoroughgoing 
 regime. It was true the reformers invoked the evi¬ 
 dence of history, but the ancient past had also other 
 voices. The exclusive attitude had not always been 
 the law of Israel. The delightful story of Ruth, the 
 Moabitess, came to the minds of the more tolerant, and 
 some one gave it its present literary form about this 
 time. It was excellent counter-propaganda. No more 
 winsome character was known to Israel, and yet this 
 woman of alien blood was the great-grandmother of 
 David. This provided strong argument against the 
 decree of Ezra. Others no doubt remembered the 
 
272 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 wide sympathies of prophets such as Amos, who de¬ 
 clared that the Ethiopian, the Philistine, and the 
 Syrian were to Yahweh as were the children of Israel 
 (Amos ix. 7-8). The missionary spirit of the ‘^Ser¬ 
 vant Songs” would hardly coincide with this intoler¬ 
 ance. A writer already mentioned comforted some 
 who were disturbed by this puritanism by assuring 
 them that eunuchs might obtain a memorial in the 
 temple, and foreigners might minister to Yahweh, if 
 they kept the sabbath and held fast the covenant, for 
 ^^my house shall be called a house of prayer for all 
 peoples” (Isa. Ivi. 3-8). 
 
 Jonah —At a later date the book of Jonah helped 
 to stem the same tide, and may have been a piece of 
 real missionary propaganda. The message of the book 
 is that found in the last verses, and proclaims the love 
 and care of Yahweh even for those w^ho had been the 
 most brutal oppressors of Israel. How large and in¬ 
 fluential the body who opposed the narrow view of 
 Ezra and his successors was, we do not know, but the 
 fact that we have so many bold expressions against 
 racial intolerance in the literature that was preserved 
 by the priestly and hence the exclusive body, suggests 
 that they must have been no negligible quantity. 
 
 Temple Music —The temple was the home of the 
 law, but its ministrations were not limited to legalism. 
 The second temple, unlike the first, developed singing 
 as a part of its service. Ezra ii. 41 is our earliest refer¬ 
 ence to a class of singers for religious worship. This 
 was limited to responses, recitation in unison, and in¬ 
 tonation. Harmony is comparatively modern. The 
 development of the temple music no doubt was slow. 
 Singing, in social and military gatherings, had been 
 common before the exile (Amos v. 23). In Babylon 
 ‘The songs of Zion” became a part of their religious 
 exercises (cf. Ps. cxxxvii.) and by 300 b.c. an elaborate 
 musical service was in use in the temple (I Chr. xv. 
 
273 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 16-24). Later a pipe organ was built in the temple 
 by Herod, and still later we hear of boy choirs being 
 used. 
 
 The Psalms —Religious hymns had, as we have seen, 
 been composed before the exile. The captivity added 
 its quota, and still more came to birth after the exile. 
 Because of the revisions through which all songs pass, 
 it is a useless task to attempt to relate each and all 
 to the circumstances of their origin. It is altogether 
 likely that with the new emphasis on the temple wor¬ 
 ship many psalms came into being after the time of 
 Ezra. 
 
 The book of Psalms consists of a number of com¬ 
 pilations. Five books are definitely marked off by 
 doxologies. They are: I i.-xli.; II xlii.-lxxii.; III 
 Ixxiii.-lxxxix.; IV xc.-cvi.; V cvii.-cl. A study of the 
 titles shows that these were in turn built up out of 
 smaller collections. We notice that xlii.-xlix. all bear 
 the title ^^of the sons of Korah,^’ 1., Ixxiii.-lxxxiii. are 
 entitled ^^of Asaph,and cxx.-cxxxiv. are called ‘‘songs 
 of ascent.’^ We find repetition in the different books, 
 as xiv. and liii.; xl. 13-17 is repeated in Ixx.; xxxi. 1-3 
 is the same as Ixxi. 1-3; and Ivii. 8-13 is closely re¬ 
 lated to cviii. 
 
 Making a closer study, we find marked charac¬ 
 teristics separating the books from each other. Book 
 I has a decided preference for the name Yahweh 
 (found 272 times while God is found only 15 times), 
 while Book II has a preference for God (found 164 
 times and Yahweh is found only 40 times). Book 
 III has God 36 times and Yahweh only 13 times, but 
 Books IV and V have Yahweh 339 times and God is 
 found only in Psalms cviii. and cxliv. There is just as 
 marked a difference in the general tone of the different 
 books. Book I is largely personal. Books II and 
 III are more largely national, and IV and V are chiefly 
 ritualistic. The first books abound in confession of 
 
274 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 sin; the last ones never. Linguistic features which are 
 quite noticeable indicate origin in different periods. 
 
 There is every evidence that collections of hymns 
 had been made before the time of the writing of 
 Chronicles. The first collection, i.-xli., may perhaps 
 go back earlier than the time of Ezra, but could 
 scarcely precede the dedication of the second temple 
 in 516 B.c. That small collections of songs may have 
 been gathered and used on festival occasions at vari¬ 
 ous hillside sanctuaries much earlier than this, is quite 
 probable, but our present collections in their present 
 form seem to belong to the post-exilic community. 
 Books II and III, which contain the collections to the 
 Korahite and the Asaphite guilds, referred to in I 
 Chronicles vi. 31-48; xvi. 41; II Chronicles xxxv. 15, 
 were not likely compiled long before 300 b.c., as they 
 indicate a development in music that seems later than 
 the time of Ezra, when only one choir is mentioned 
 (Neh. xi. 17; xii. 24; Ezra ii. 41; x. 24; Neh. vii. 1, 4). 
 The last two books naturally were collected still later. 
 But even after the formation of a collection there was 
 nothing to hinder the insertion of individual psalms, 
 as for example, Maccabean psalms, as we shall see 
 later. 
 
 The earliest of these collections, Book I, must have 
 been used in worship during the century of legalistic 
 development following Ezra. It is full of the finest 
 spiritual conceptions and rich in the expression of a 
 vital personal faith in Yahweh. The moral tone leaves 
 nothing to be desired. Confession of sin, the cry of 
 penitence, and the joy of forgiveness, all blend with 
 exultant praise and glowing aspiration. The praises 
 of the law are sung but twice (i., xix. 7-14), and sacri¬ 
 fice is mentioned only once, and then the voice is that 
 of the prophet (xl. 6-8). The constant use of these 
 psalms surely nurtured a type of piety which must 
 have often tempered the rigors of legalism. 
 
275 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 Wisdom Literature —There was yet another com¬ 
 pany, who because of temperament and experience 
 faced their world from still another angle. These 
 were the ‘Vise men’’ of Israel. They had their repre¬ 
 sentatives in every generation, and by parable, prov¬ 
 erb, and problem, illumined and broadened the bor¬ 
 ders of thought. 
 
 Job. The Date —The greatest of their race gave to 
 posterity some time towards the close of the Persian 
 period one of the most sublime pieces of literature 
 found in any language. The book of Job sets forth 
 one of the most penetrating interpretations of human 
 suffering the world has ever seen. As the date or 
 author are not stated in the book we must learn what 
 we can from internal evidence. Clearly it is the prod¬ 
 uct of an age of reflection, and would seem to follow 
 Deuteronomy, Habakkuk, and Jeremiah. It has a 
 world outlook and is not specifically Hebrew, which 
 would indicate lateness of origin. Monotheism is an 
 axiom to the writer, which would place him later than 
 540 B.C., the date of Deutero-Isaiah. The parody of 
 Job vii. 17-18 on Psalm viii. 4, and the relation of this 
 Psalm to Genesis i. would point us towards the middle 
 of the fourth century as an approximate date for the 
 book. 
 
 The Prose —Job seems to have been an ancient well- 
 known character. The story of his suffering was a 
 part of the common tradition which in part has been 
 preserved in the prose sections of the book, i.-ii., xlii. 
 7-17. The teaching of this, a story that may have 
 been written any time after the end of the 
 seventh century, is plain. Job, a man of approved 
 piety, suffered because Yahweh wished to prove to 
 Satan that men served him for other than personal 
 interest. The author seems to have reacted against 
 the most natural interpretation of the Deuteronomic 
 idea of rewards and punishments. The scene is laid 
 
276 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 in heaven. The angelic beings are all gathered in 
 assembly. Yahweh rallies Satan on what seems to 
 have been his sore point. He doubts if there be disin¬ 
 terested goodness among men. He is given permission 
 to test Job. Sword, fire, hurricane, and terrible 
 disaster are the messengers he hurls on the head 
 of the innocent victim of this experiment. Job, 
 bereft but calm and philosophic, sins not, and even 
 heroically endures the second and more personal 
 test with unfaltering resignation to the will of God. 
 All ends well, and the prose story concludes that 
 the patient sufferer received a double reward. All 
 this savors of that type of popular story which 
 Oriental people love so well, quite fantastic and 
 impossible, yet the medium of important religious 
 truth. 
 
 The Poem —The poem, however, moves in quite a 
 different atmosphere. The stage setting and the dra¬ 
 matis personae belong to the real world. The problem 
 here is how to justify the ways of God to man. The¬ 
 ology has ever sought an answer to this question. 
 Job’s contemporaries had one that had become their 
 yard-stick for virtue. The orthodoxy of the day, based 
 on the preexilic prophets and Deuteronomy, held that 
 suffering was always proportionate to sin, and that 
 prosperity was the direct evidence of goodness. This 
 poet, like Habakkuk and Jeremiah before him, chal¬ 
 lenged such a proposition. The poignancy of the 
 mental agony felt in the early part of the poem sug¬ 
 gests some painful personal experience on the part of 
 the writer, deepened perhaps by the cumulative result 
 of national suffering. The author knew the popular 
 theory was not true universally. Calamity was not 
 fully explained, either as punishment or as chastise¬ 
 ment. His friends ably defended the theology of the 
 fathers, waxed warm and even bitter, but Job, the 
 symbol of suffering, maintained his innocence to the 
 
277 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 end. He had personal evidence. Rationally the ways 
 of God were not justified. 
 
 But religiously there came help. Job in his sixth 
 speech, after the paroxysm of his rage had worn off, 
 in a passage the Hebrew text of which is partly un¬ 
 intelligible affirms his confidence that he will be vin¬ 
 dicated, and that he for himself shall see God (Job 
 xix. 25-27). Faith is not sight, and unable to give a 
 logical explanation for human suffering, this man 
 voiced his confidence in a God of character. From 
 this on, his fury subsided. He was broken, he could 
 not understand, but his rebellion was gone. In 
 Yahweh’s answer there is a little help to faith. If 
 Yahweh was wise enough to create the earth, shut up 
 the sea within bounds, command the mornings, and 
 perform all the marvels of nature, if he cared enough 
 for the lion to provide him food, for the wild ass to 
 set him free, for the ostrich to hatch out its young, 
 or for the horse to give him his might and glory, was 
 it not likely that the wisdom and the care of such a 
 God for man would be such as to warrant the strong¬ 
 est personal confidence (Job xxxviii., xxxix.)? It is a 
 rhetorical question drawn from nature and indeed from 
 only one side of nature, but Job is humbled and 
 silenced. No rational solution has been formulated 
 for the question, but logic is not the measure of life. 
 There are ‘Reasons” that the head knows not of. 
 
 The speeches of Elihu (Job xxxii.-xxxvii.) stand 
 apart from the rest of the book. The speaker is un¬ 
 known by the friends and is unnoticed by either Job 
 or Yahweh. These chapters are an interjection by a 
 still later author, who was not satisfied with the way 
 the case had been handled. He shows some erudition 
 and much pious unction. He threshes the whole mat¬ 
 ter over again, and lays especial emphasis on the place 
 of discipline in suffering. But after carefully reading 
 it all over one does not feel that the impetuous youth 
 
278 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 has either added anything new or bettered the argu¬ 
 ments of the older counselors. 
 
 Apocalypticism —Apocalypticism, which is closely 
 related to prophecy and in some respects a continua¬ 
 tion of it, is another literary current that is found in 
 this century. Its distinguishing features are briefly: 
 (a) the use of symbols, figures, or numbers to convey 
 the meaning to the initiated; (b) its interest is chiefly 
 in ^flast things”; (c) it is prevailingly pessimistic; 
 (d) this world will be destroyed and the new age 
 introduced cataclysmically by God; (e) it is all 
 anonymous, and most of it pseudepigraphic; (/) it is 
 the product of periods of crisis, and has been justly 
 called ^Tracts for hard times.” In Zephaniah i. 14-17 
 and Ezekiel xxxvii. we find faint beginnings that easily 
 shade off into the prophetic message. Isaiah Ivi.-lxvi. 
 has a number of sections that are still more definitely 
 related to full-fledged apocalypticism (Isa. lx. 1-22; 
 Ixv. 17-25; Ixvi. 18-22). 
 
 Joel —By the middle of the fourth century, or per¬ 
 haps a little later, we have a booklet which is still 
 further on the way. Joel writes when Judah is alone 
 and her fortunes are at low ebb. He looks back on 
 the dispersion among the nations, and hence wrote 
 after the captivity (Joel iii. 1-3, 5). The temple and 
 the city walls are standing, hence he is later than 
 Nehemiah and Ezra (Joel i. 13; ii. 9, 17; iii. 17). The 
 Greeks are known through their trade relations, and 
 are expected by the prophet to invade the coast lands 
 of Syria (Joel iii. 6, 7). Tyre, Sidon, and Philistia 
 have been oppressing and scattering Judah (Joel iii. 
 2-5). A great locust plague bringing famine in its 
 trail had recently overwhelmed the land and added 
 terror and distress to the situation (Joel. i. 2-4, 9-12, 
 15-20; ii. 3-11, 15). When we add to these historical 
 references the fact that much of the book is a mosaic 
 from earlier writings, out of the seventy-three verses 
 
279 
 
 THE PERSIAN PERIOD, 539-332 B.C. 
 
 twenty-three phrases or clauses are quotations, and 
 when we note its interest in ritual, the conclusion that 
 the book comes from the time after Ezra is apparent. 
 
 To the author, the locust plague was but the fore¬ 
 runner of the day of Yahweh, which is strongly tinged 
 with apocalyptic coloring. He calls on the people to 
 fast and repent, to rend their hearts in order that 
 Yahweh, who is gracious and merciful, may repent him 
 of the evil that otherwise must come. Then the day 
 of Yahweh is proclaimed as a day of vengeance on all 
 the nations (Joel hi. 2-13, 19), but it is a day of refuge 
 for the people of Yahweh (Joel iu. 16), and a day of 
 great prosperity for the land (Joel ii. 18-27). It is to 
 be accompanied by an outpouring of the spirit of 
 prophecy on all classes, and Judah and Jerusalem shall 
 be established for ever (Joel ii. 28-32; iii. 20). 
 
 Isaiah Ixiii. 7 — Ixvi. 21 —Another collection of ora¬ 
 cles, Isaiah Ixiii. 7—Ixvi. 21, breathes the atmosphere 
 of these trying times. Some great disaster has over¬ 
 taken the community, the temple has been desecrated, 
 the country is waste, schismatists are in the land, and 
 idolatry is prevalent. They are all in poetic form and 
 may be grouped in three divisions. 
 
 1. Isaiah Ixiii. 7-14 is a psalm of thanksgiving. It 
 wistfully celebrates the deeds of renown that Yahweh 
 himself achieved of yore for his people, although they 
 resisted him and grieved his holy spirit. 
 
 2. Isaiah Ixiii. 15—Ixiv. 11 is an urgent cry for com¬ 
 passion and immediate help. Disaster has overtaken 
 the sanctuary, and the tribes of his inheritance are in 
 grave need. The confidence of the poet in the fatherly 
 care of Yahweh for his people is expressed very 
 tenderly and beautifully (Isa. Ixiv. 7-8). 
 
 3. The third section, Isaiah Ixv. 1—Ixvi. 21, consists 
 of eight brief poems. They indicate that there are 
 factions in the land. Apostasy and idolatry seem to 
 be prevalent, and the writer is greatly vexed at the 
 
280 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 evils of the day. But he is confident that the word of 
 Yahweh to all the wicked is one of destruction, but 
 the faithful are about to enjoy the best of everything. 
 
 If, as language and historical allusion would 
 strongly suggest, these chapters were written just be¬ 
 fore the downfall of Persia, between 346 and 332 b.c., 
 we can see how eagerly some of the religious leaders of 
 the Jewish community longed for a change of rulers, 
 and how confidently some of them believed those dark 
 days of the reign of Artaxerxes III were but the pre¬ 
 lude to the dawn. 
 
 The above literature indicates the variety and the 
 vitality of the movements in Judaism during this age. 
 If the national hopes rarely came to expression, and 
 the prince of the house of David was entirely absent 
 from the picture, there was an intensity of religious 
 activity and a depth of confidence in the future that 
 relieved it from all semblance of mediocrity. Though 
 the nation’s life must have been poorly organized and 
 comparatively insignificant, its genuine piety left a 
 rich heritage for succeeding generations. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 
 
 332-135 B.c. 
 
 I AND II Chronicles; I, II and III Maccabees; 
 Daniel; Esther; Psalms, Books ii.-v.; Isaiah 
 xxiv.-xvii.; Zechariah ix.-xiv.; Ecclesiastes; 
 Proverbs i.-ix., xxx.-xxxi.; Song of Solomon. 
 
 A —Historical Sketch 
 
 Alexander stands unquestioned at the head of 
 world conquerors. The facts of his rise and triumph 
 exceed the legends that have gathered around his 
 name. In 336 b.c. he succeeded his father as head of 
 the Greek confederacy. In 334 b.c., with a small, well- 
 seasoned army, he became master of the Greek colo¬ 
 nies in Asia Minor by the battle of Granicus. The vic¬ 
 tory of Issus in 333 b.c. laid Syria at his feet and 
 opened the approaches to Egypt. In July, 332 b.c., he 
 captured Tyre, received the homage of all Syria, and 
 later in the year took Gaza, and at the mouth of the 
 Nile laid the foundations of Alexandria. The battle of 
 Arbela, won in October, 331 b.c., made him the mas¬ 
 ter of Babylon and Persia. His authority touched the 
 boundary of India by 328 b.c., and by 325 b.c. he re¬ 
 ceived homage of the people as far east as the Indus. 
 
 A general he was in truth, but he was a man of 
 culture as well. Following the dream of his father, 
 Philip, and inspired by the glories of Greek art and 
 
 281 
 
282 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 the ideals of Greek philosophy, which he had gained 
 from his teacher, Aristotle, he planned that Greek 
 customs and ideas should leaven the whole of the 
 barbaric world. His program was well under way 
 when in 323 b.c. death closed his meteoric career. 
 
 He had no successor. His empire, the prize of his 
 generals, was ultimately divided amongst the four 
 most outstanding army leaders. To Seleucus fell the 
 eastern part of the empire, from Issus to India, while 
 Ptolemy held sway in Egypt. Syria was, as always, 
 the buffer state and again was the battle ground 
 between the two. Greek armies trampled the soil of 
 Palestine in one continuous armageddon. In the first 
 forty years this territory passed back and forth, the 
 booty of the spoiler no less than eight times. In 
 321 B.c. when Ptolemy I of Egypt captured Jerusalem 
 on the sabbath day, no resistance was offered by the 
 sabbath-keeping Jews, and he carried many of them 
 captive into Egypt. 
 
 Ptolemy II (285-246 b.c.) by 280 gained for Egypt 
 control over Palestine, which continued down to 198 
 B.c. with only insignificant breaks. He planted Greek 
 garrisons throughout the province and made it the 
 bulwark against encroachments from the north. Thus 
 for a hundred years the borders of Judea, Philistia, 
 and Galilee continued to be the battle ground for the 
 armies of the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids 
 of Syria. Ptolemy was kindly disposed towards the 
 Jews, as he found them capable and energetic. He 
 granted freedom to large numbers of those whom he 
 had held as slaves, and his liberality encouraged others 
 to flock to Egypt (Jos. Ant. xii. 1, 2). There seems 
 to be good evidence that in his reign, about 250 b.c., 
 the translation of the Pentateuch into Greek was com¬ 
 menced. It is quite possible that the beginning of the 
 translation was due to the felt need on the part of 
 many of the Jews to have their Scriptures in the 
 
283 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 Greek, which was now their native tongue. The 
 tradition that Josephus has preserved, carries us back 
 to the earliest possible date for such activity (Jos. 
 Ant. xii. 2, 1-2). 
 
 During the reign of Ptolemy III (246-221 b.c.) the 
 lust for gold showed itself in the family of the high 
 priest. Onias II, the high priest, greedy for his own 
 gain, let the tribute to Egypt fall into arrears. Ptol¬ 
 emy’s threats did not move the old man, and disaster 
 seemed imminent when his nephew, Joseph, with his 
 uncle’s consent, went to Egypt about 230 b.c. to right 
 matters. His lavish gifts to the king and his bid for 
 the privilege of taxgathering in Syria, which was 
 double that of his competitors, won the favor of Ptol¬ 
 emy (Jos. Ant. xii. 4, 1-6). Then opened a story of 
 twenty-two years of plundering the people, Gentile 
 cities as Askalon and Scythopolis particularly suffer¬ 
 ing, coupled with profligate and luxurious living on 
 the part of Joseph, the taxgatherer. Hyrcanus, an 
 illegitimate son, equally profligate, continued this 
 unscrupulous policy until his suicide in 175 
 B.c. 
 
 The affliction of the Jews was further added to by 
 Ptolemy IV (222-205 b.c.), one of the most reprobate 
 kings of Egypt, if the Jewish traditions are to be 
 credited. He is reported to have entered the temple, 
 polluted it, degraded many Jews to the condition of 
 slaves, and tortured and martyred many others of 
 them (III Mac. iii., iv.). Gladly did they in those days 
 turn to the Syrian kings, who were making war on 
 Egypt for the possession of Palestine. 
 
 From 198 b.c., the date of the battle of Banias, the 
 Seleucids became masters of the country (Jos. Ant. 
 xii. 3, 3). Antiochus III (224-187 b.c.) permitted the 
 Jews large freedom in civil and religious affairs (Jos. 
 Ant. xii. 3, 3-4). Seleucus IV (187-175 b.c.) was less 
 considerate. Antiochus IV (175-164 b.c.) determined 
 
284 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 to impose Greek culture on his subjects. Jason, a 
 Hellenized Jew, gained the office of the high priest¬ 
 hood through bribery, and his predecessor, the devout 
 Onias III, thus deprived of leadership in Jerusalem, 
 went to Leontopolis in Egypt, and there succeeded in 
 building and dedicating a temple to the worship of 
 Yahweh (Jos. “Jewish Wars’’ i. 1; cf. Isa. xix. 19-26). 
 A Greek gymnasium was built in Jerusalem, and Greek 
 games and customs began to undermine the Jewish 
 piety and banish its symbols. In 172 b.c. Menelaus 
 outbid Jason for the priesthood and sold himself com¬ 
 pletely to the Hellenizing party. Antiochus, soured by 
 a military repulse in Egypt in 170 b.c., made the broils 
 of the Jerusalem priests an excuse for plundering the 
 temple, and putting a thousand Jews to death. Again 
 in 168 B.C., because the Roman senate put a final check 
 on his ambitions in Egypt, he let loose the flood of 
 his rage on the Jews, whom he thought to be defense¬ 
 less (II Mac. vi. 12—vii. 42). He razed the walls of 
 Jerusalem, fortified and garrisoned the area of Solo¬ 
 mon’s palace, prohibited circumcision, sabbath observ¬ 
 ance and the possession of copies of the law, and 
 insisted that all Jews should eat swine’s flesh. He had 
 an altar erected to Zeus in the temple, and the climax 
 was reached when on December 25, 168 b.c., the sacri¬ 
 fice of swine was offered thereon (I Mac. i. 41-64). 
 This was the “abomination of desolation” (Dan. xi. 
 31; xii. 11). 
 
 Then came the crisis. Many Jews violated the edict 
 and suffered heroically for the forms of their faith. 
 Others were unyielding. Mattathias, an aged priest 
 at Modin, refused to offer swine’s flesh, and in in¬ 
 dignation slew an apostate Jew, who consented to do 
 so, along with the Syrian officer who was supervising 
 the worship. Blood had been spilled, and the standard 
 of revolt was raised (I Mac. ii. 1-28). Judas Macca¬ 
 beus, the third son of the intrepid patriot, became the 
 
285 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 military leader and fought with a dash and daring 
 that has seldom been equaled in history. The Cha¬ 
 sidim, those pious keepers of the law, who were the 
 strictest sect of their day, joined in the struggle with 
 the enthusiasm of despair. Battle after battle against 
 vastly superior forces was fought and won. Syrian 
 generals of renown, Apollonarius, Seron, and Lysias, 
 were outgeneraled, and armies hardened to the field of 
 conflict were put to flight. Jerusalem, except the 
 citadel, was finally captured, the temple was purified, 
 the pagan altar was torn down, and on December 25, 
 165 B.C., regular Jewish worship was fully restored (I 
 Mac. iii.-iv.). 
 
 For many, the goal had been reached when, in 163 
 B.C., they were granted freedom in religion by the 
 Syrian power. The Chasidim had no enthusiasm for 
 civil authority, and hence they were indifferent to 
 further military achievement. Not so the Maccabees. 
 Whether inspired by a literal interpretation of ancient 
 national prophecies, or intoxicated by their un¬ 
 paralleled victories, they now dreamed of a Jewish 
 kingdom. Judas, though his ranks were depleted, 
 gained small successes against Edom, Ammon, and 
 Gilead (I Mac. v. 1-5). Though sieged by a Syrian 
 army for a short time in 163 b.c. in Jerusalem, he 
 turned the tables by a brilliant victory over a Syrian 
 force under Nicanor in 161 b.c., but he himself per¬ 
 ished before the end of the year. 
 
 The struggle continued for decades with varying 
 successes (I Mac. ix., x.). Two of Judas’s brothers 
 were murdered, one of them, Jonathan, having been 
 high priest as well as leader from 153 b.c. to the time of 
 his death (I Mac. ix. 28-30; x. 21, 69). Simon (143- 
 135 B.C.), a third brother, was his successor to both 
 offices and continued both the military and political 
 policy of his predecessor (I Mac. xiii. 42—xvi. 18). 
 Two factions existed in Syria, and these were played 
 
286 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 against each other to the advantage of the Maccabees 
 (I Mac. X., xi., xiii. 34-40). 
 
 Political freedom was at last gained for the Jews 
 (I Mac. XV. 1-9). It seemed a new era for the little 
 nation. Simon was made ethnarch and high priest, 
 and the dual office was granted to him and his house 
 in perpetuity (I Mac. xiv. 41-49). For eight years 
 he wisely organized and developed his little kingdom. 
 The boundaries were extended to the west, and Gezer 
 and Joppa became Jewish cities. Rome, under the 
 consul Lucius, to whom Simon had sent an embassy, 
 decreed that nowhere should the Romans hurt or 
 fight against the Jews nor be confederates with those 
 who fought against them (I Mac. xv. 16-21). 
 
 These were glorious years, the years of small be¬ 
 ginnings, which seemed to be big with promise for 
 the fulfillment of ancient hopes. There were singers 
 and writers in those days, and traces of their joy and 
 hope may still be read in the Scriptures. Psalm cx. 
 is an acrostic poem with the Hebrew letters for the 
 name Simon as the initial letters of the verses, and in 
 thought bears a very close resemblance to the aspira¬ 
 tions of this time. But in 135 b.c. Simon was mur¬ 
 dered, and again the light of national hope was 
 quenched. The ensuing history and its literature, of 
 which there is much of very great importance to the 
 understanding of New Testament life and thought, 
 cannot here be followed, as it lies beyond the bounds 
 of the Old Testament canon. 
 
 Influence of Greek Culture —The fortunes of the 
 Jews during these two centuries were as varying and 
 as fruitful of religious ferment as in any period of 
 their experience. The Greek life with which they 
 were surrounded challenged them every day for weal 
 or for woe. This was a new and exhilarating ex¬ 
 perience. The tides of culture, the new customs, the 
 games, the hippodrome, the theater, the schools, the 
 
287 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 joy of living, the worship of the beautiful, the rever¬ 
 ence for philosophy, all came pouring through the 
 valleys of Syria, fostered by bands of eager missioners 
 who believed that Greek ideals should dominate the 
 world. Some were overwhelmed by the new life and 
 its temptations. Others under its impact became 
 legalists, sages, saints, or prophets. Sometimes the 
 atmosphere was fatal to idealism, at others old hopes 
 flamed out anew with a brilliancy and a confidence 
 never surpassed. It was a growing, creative period, 
 a time when there were many voices, and not as some¬ 
 times supposed a period of silence. 
 
 It was an era of growing cities. This was the sym¬ 
 bol of Greek culture, and was Alexander’s agent in 
 spreading Hellenism. He himself founded some sixty 
 cities and aided in the development of many others. 
 His successors added hundreds of others. Each, 
 colonized and governed by Greek free men, many of 
 whom were retired soldiers, was the apostle of Greek 
 ways and ideals. No place was more completely 
 evangelized than Syria, and the plains around Judea 
 gloried in the cities that flourished under this new 
 impulse. 
 
 A new commerce was stimulated, owing to the new 
 methods and the new concourse of nations. The new 
 learning was thus carried to the bounds of the empire. 
 Greek was the lingua franca of business, politics, and 
 philosophy. Aristotle, Socrates, and Euripides, the 
 philosophies of Zeno and Epicurus, were discussed in 
 the theaters and taught in the schools. The captivity 
 had loosened the Jew from his native soil and had 
 quickened his trading instincts. He had become a 
 citizen of the world, and now in plying his trade, he 
 found his way into every city of the new empire. 
 
 The organization of the Jewish community was 
 essential for its well-being. The sanhedrin was the 
 final product of their history as a subject province. 
 
288 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 The elders always occupied an important place in 
 Oriental society. In Deuteronomy they are charged 
 with judicial functions (Dt. xix. 12; xxi. 2). In the 
 exile we get a glimpse of them in what seems to have 
 been an advisory capacity (Ezk. viii. 1; xiv. 1; xx. 1). 
 In the book of Ezra they are a definitely recognized 
 institution (Ezra v. 5, 9; vi. 7, 14; x. 8). It was, how¬ 
 ever, so far as we know, not till the Greek period that 
 the sanhedrin was fully developed with its member¬ 
 ship of seventy-one selected from the princes, the 
 priests, and the Levites, with the high priest as its 
 head. It was thus aristocratic in its composition, and 
 in function was the supreme court of justice for the 
 Jews, exercising both legislative and executive powers. 
 
 But the major part of the Jewish nation wandered 
 far beyond the border of their own country, yet 
 wherever they settled they still remained in religion 
 and sympathies wonderfully loyal to their inheritance. 
 In no land was religion comparable to their own in 
 morals, in thought, in hope, or even in symbolism. 
 Whenever they could they visited Jerusalem and 
 participated in the great festivals. But long pil¬ 
 grimages could only be occasional, and were prohibi¬ 
 tive to many. Observance of the sabbath was in the 
 forefront of their law. In every city where they went 
 they naturally met together for social, commercial, 
 and religious ends. Copies of their law could easily 
 be obtained. Interpretation and instruction were 
 needed. Some regular place of meeting was required. 
 
 Thus developed the synagogue. Its roots run back 
 most likely to the meeting of the elders in Ezekiel's 
 home in Babylon, and other similar gatherings. The 
 reform of Ezra, with the law book and the sabbath 
 as central features, added to the necessity of some 
 regular gathering. The Greek conquest with the 
 opening up of many trade routes, the development of 
 cities, and the ensuing migrations of the Jews com- 
 
289 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 pelled the perfecting of this ancient school of religion. 
 Only one reference to the s^yTiagogue is found in the 
 Old Testament (Ps. Ixxiv. 4). Eg\^tian pap}Ti be¬ 
 longing to the reign of Ptolemy III refer a number of 
 times to such Jewish gatherings in Eg^^ptian cities. 
 Hence we may conclude that towards the middle of 
 the Greek period the synagogue took its final form. 
 
 The buildings were mostly of one t^^De, oblong with 
 a raised platform at one end, on which was a reading 
 desk. One of the important articles of furniture was 
 the box, or ark, in which the sacred roll was kept. 
 The reading and interpretation of Scripture, prayer, 
 and praise, formed the important part of the religious 
 service on the sabbath. It was also used as a social 
 center and as the assembly hall for judgment of cases 
 between Jews. We can easily see how the sjmagogue, 
 which was always surrounded by the Gentile world, 
 would tend to develop a liberal tyipe of Judaism. 
 
 B—Religious axd Literary Actryty 
 
 1. Legalism 
 
 Greek influence was very marked in all the religious 
 thought and activity of the age. It is probable that 
 the earliest and most definite result was a vigorous 
 reaction against all the new ideals. The law of Ezra 
 had leavened the lump. Rules and ritual had been 
 multiplied. Satisfactions were found by many in 
 following definitely prescribed tasks. The rising in¬ 
 cense, the vested priest, the temple response appealed 
 to the aesthetic and nourished the instinct of worship. 
 The ^‘book” with its intricacies and its elaborate pre¬ 
 scriptions, its narratives of human achievement and 
 divine wonders gave range to the highest activities 
 of mind and heart. It is no wonder that to many the 
 ^Taw” became the way of life. 
 
290 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 The first product of this legalistic reaction was the 
 writing of the ecclesiastical history, I and II Chron¬ 
 icles, Ezra and Nehemiah. The ^^school” or the writ¬ 
 ers who wrote this great book were the successors of 
 those who wrote P. and completed the Hexateuch. 
 They belong a century later, writing about 300 b.c., 
 and were thus the heirs of P. and of a hundred years 
 of priestly development. The singers had now at¬ 
 tained Levitical rank (I Chr. xxiii. 3-5; xxvi. 1-19; II 
 Chr. XX. 19), while earlier they were a lower order (cf. 
 Neh. vii. 44; Ezra ii. 41). The priesthood was now 
 organized into twenty-four courses, something that is 
 not suggested earlier (I Chr. xxiv. 7-19). Other sig¬ 
 nificant details resulted from the necessity of the case. 
 In the face of the menace of the Greek religion they 
 assume that the religious institutions of Israel had 
 existed from the beginning, and they assert their 
 divine origin, and show how they had been honored 
 by Yahweh throughout a long history. To them the 
 house of David, the Aaronic priesthood, and the wor¬ 
 ship in the temple were the only legitimate civil and 
 religious institutions. The kings of Israel are not 
 mentioned, and the priestly acts of others than the 
 Levites and in other places than in Jerusalem are 
 either passed over or strongly condemned. The good 
 kings were reputed to have observed the command¬ 
 ments of the late priestly code, and the calamities that 
 fell on the nation were the direct result of violation 
 of the ritual of the priests. 
 
 This history is invaluable. It can be accepted 
 as unquestioned evidence for the institutions, the 
 thought, and the ideals of the priestly group of its 
 own day and those immediately preceding. It is an 
 exponent of the legalism of the late Persian and the 
 early Greek period. Here we find Judaism with its 
 ardor and its hope. It was interested supremely in 
 the dress of the priest, the detail of the worship, and 
 
291 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 the keeping of the law. Its adherents tithed mint, rue, 
 anise, and cummin, and trembled in the presence of a 
 God who marvelously manifested himself to those 
 whose mode of worship was satisfactory, but with 
 plague and earthquake visited those who disregarded 
 his holiness. It is true the spirit was narrow and 
 legalistic, but it was a conserving force and kept Juda¬ 
 ism from being swept away in the new and strong 
 currents of Hellenism. It was formal, but within its 
 shell was a spirit that nurtured many of the most de¬ 
 vout and saintly spirits of the day. 
 
 It is difficult to follow many of the chronicler’s 
 accounts of early events. As we have already seen 
 in Ezra and Nehemiah (cf. pp. 245-246), he sometimes 
 lacked historical perspective. No doubt he inherited 
 numerous traditions that lay outside the book of 
 Kings, some in written, some in oral form. He had 
 at command, most probably, temple archives that gave 
 much supplementary material. Some of these neg¬ 
 lected stories charitably overlooked 'the failings of 
 heroes, or interpreted the past in the most favorable 
 light. Over all of these the editor placed the well- 
 wrought priestly mantle. He was further guided in 
 his selection and use of material, as was natural, by 
 his priestly interests, rather than by a demand for 
 rigid historical fact. Hence, this ecclesiastical history 
 is not only a work that teaches legalistic Judaism in 
 all its pages, but it presents this apparently without 
 any consciousness that that legalism was the result of 
 a long development. 
 
 2. Folk-Tales 
 
 But the chronicler was not the only one who gloried 
 in and idealized his racial inheritance. Slight his¬ 
 torical incident has always been the fertile seed for 
 later legend. The Jewish mind reveled in such during 
 
292 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 this period. Persecution made them more insistent 
 on their racial claims, and each worthy achievement 
 and mark of distinction was transfigured through the 
 art of the story-teller. Alexander offered obeisance to 
 the high priest at Jerusalem (Jos. Ant. xi., viii. 4-7); 
 Heliodorus was trampled on by a heavenly horseman 
 (II Mac. iii. 24-36); the Jews were marvelously de¬ 
 livered from the intoxicated elephants, while the sol¬ 
 diers were crushed to death (III Mac. v-vii.); and 
 so it goes. 
 
 A world of romance, peopled with loyal Jews among 
 whom God worked in ways that were marvelous, was 
 a real world to many Jews in days of heart-breaking 
 tragedy. It was their world of hope, the only world 
 of God they knew. These folk-tales may have been 
 born of a credulous faith which readily found in his¬ 
 tory the thing it sought, but they lightened their 
 sorrows and stirred many to deeds in real life that 
 were as noble as any ever dreamed in fiction. Of one 
 of these Luther exclaimed, ^Ts it fiction, then it is a 
 truly beautiful, wholesome, profitable fiction, the per¬ 
 formance of a gifted poet.^^ In the interbiblical 
 literature we have many such golden dreams. The 
 additions to Esther add many dramatic and super¬ 
 natural details to the canonical book. The history of 
 Susana, Judith, the Song of the Three Holy Children, 
 Bel and the Dragon, and Tobit, all come from the 
 Greek period, most of them strongly savor of legalism, 
 and all agree in glorifying the Jewish race and religion. 
 
 It is not strange that we find two selections in the 
 canon that have some similarities with the foregoing. 
 The book of Esther is the product of this period and 
 of this spirit. In it are many realistic touches. The 
 prominence of a Jew in a foreign court, the cruelty 
 and the insults suffered by many of this nation, the 
 immoral and irresponsible character of Xerxes, as 
 well as many minor features, ring true to history. 
 
293 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 But a Persian proclamation permitting the Jews to 
 slaughter the Persians? The permission to continue it 
 the second day? The results achieved by the hand¬ 
 ful of Jews in the Persian realm? Esther must not 
 be known as a Jewess, while a Jew was in high author¬ 
 ity in the court? A Jewess queen in Persia where 
 the enactments concerning royal marriages were most 
 rigid? Well, we can appreciate the purpose, but we 
 must be slow to read it all as history. It is a tale 
 with a purpose. It gives an adequate explanation of 
 the feast of Purim, which in the later days was one 
 of the important festivals of the Jewish people (Esther 
 ix. 17-19). It further opened up a world of heroic 
 achievement in which the distressed might for a time 
 forget the depth of their sorrow. When we consider 
 the spirit of the book, which, notwithstanding the 
 serio-comic vein running through it in the hanging of 
 the shortsighted, self-conceited courtier, is venomous 
 with racial hatred, and note that it is devoid of any 
 truly religious ideal, we are not surprised that it was 
 admitted to the Jewish canon only after a prolonged 
 struggle. 
 
 Daniel i. iii.-vi. has also much in common with this 
 literature. These chapters are so different in tone 
 from the rest of the book that they may be studied 
 alone. They consist of stories that may have been 
 very old and, no doubt, may have been related to 
 events in the life of Daniel or of his contemporaries. 
 But it is now generally conceded that the internal 
 evidence points to the years 167-165 b.c. as the date of 
 the composition of the present book. 
 
 Ritual is the main theme of these tales, and Yahweh 
 is proved superior to the Persian deities by working 
 marvels through his servants. Proof that he is with 
 them is found in their ability to interpret dreams, in 
 the marvels of the fiery furnace, of the lions^ den, the 
 physical beauty of the Jewish youths, and the writing 
 
294 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 on the wall. Yahweh’s interest in the race is assured 
 by the honors that came to Daniel and his companions 
 in the captivity. 
 
 Only such narratives could well cheer those who 
 were mercilessly persecuted during the days of Anti- 
 ochus Epiphanes and who then suffered the most ap¬ 
 palling martyrdom for faithfulness to their ritual. It 
 may be difficult for us to appreciate tales that are so 
 far removed from the happenings of everyday life, 
 yet when we pause to think, we remember not only 
 that similar narratives console every persecuted 
 people, but the stories themselves are usually the 
 product of abnormal and feverish conditions. It re¬ 
 quires only a little imagination to perceive that litera¬ 
 ture of this type helped to keep alive the faith and 
 the piety of many of the Israelites during the closing 
 centuries of the prechristian era. 
 
 3, Liturgy 
 
 The clash of arms here, as not infrequently, stirred 
 up the poets as well as the soldiers. We can well be¬ 
 lieve that in this virile age, when the temple was so 
 central to the life of all the people, when so many 
 Jews at home and abroad were so zealous in the affairs 
 of religion, many psalms may have been written. The 
 fact that we have a group of seventeen religious songs 
 in the Psalms of Solomon, written about 63 b.c., is 
 ample evidence that there was no dearth at this time 
 of sweet singers in Israel. Since the early Christian 
 centuries, however, it has been thought by many that 
 Psalms xliv., Ixxiv., Ixxix., at least, belong to the Mac- 
 cabean times. Many would add a very large number 
 to this, in fact, some find the second century b.c. the 
 time of a great outburst of religious song, which pro¬ 
 duced most of the psalms we now possess. This seems 
 to be going beyond the facts of the case. 
 
295 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 That these were days of editorial activity, however, 
 seems certain. Book I of the Psalms we have already 
 discussed (p. 274). Books II and III form another 
 unit exhibiting quite definite characteristics. It is 
 an Elohistic compilation and is nationalistic in its out¬ 
 look. It is composed of three units, li-lxxii, assigned 
 to David; xlii.-lxix., which are attributed to the sons 
 of Korah; 1., Ixxiii.-lxxxiii., which bear the title to 
 Asaph; and an appendix Ixxxiv.-lxxxix., in which the 
 name Yahweh is frequently used, and David, the sons 
 of Korah, and Ethan are referred to in the super¬ 
 scriptions. Here, as in Book I, it is evident that the 
 superscriptions are the work of editors, and they do 
 not always convince us of infallibility. The ^^sons of 
 Korah’^ cannot be taken as individual authorship. 
 Korah and Asaph were leaders of the temple singing 
 in the time of the chronicler (I Chr. xv. 16, 17; Ezra 
 ii. 41), and the title here perhaps gives us a suggestion 
 of the time when these two groups were compiled. 
 Certainly some of the psalms that here have the title 
 ^To David’^ have historical experiences in the back¬ 
 ground, and express religious ideals that belong to 
 centuries later than that of the great king (cf. Ps. li. 
 18-19; Ixix. 33-36). While psalms such as Ixxiv., Ixxix., 
 xliv. and others suggest authorship in the Maccabean 
 times, it is possible that the groups that compose these 
 two books were brought together in the early part of 
 the Greek period, though we have neither internal nor 
 external evidence that permits of any final judgment. 
 
 Books IV and V were the last collection and 
 naturally include most of the latest psalms. None of 
 them have musical terms attached, and most of them 
 are anonymous. It has made use of earlier collections 
 as cxx.-cxxxiv., which has been called the ^dittle Psal¬ 
 ter of the Pilgrims,’^ and has included, no doubt, some 
 that were centuries old (cf. cxxxvii., cxxvi.). Many 
 were written expressly for temple worship and are of 
 
296 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 a purely liturgical nature (cf. cxlvi.-cL). Some are 
 the outpouring of personal experience, which is 
 scarcely surpassed anywhere in the Psalter (cf. xc., 
 xci.). Most breathe an air of confidence that nothing 
 could quench, and are in the most vital sense Messi¬ 
 anic (cf. xciii., xcviii., xcix., cxxi., cxv., cx.). One 
 chants the glories of nature, which is a Grecian rather 
 than a Hebrew trait (civ.), while another rehearses the 
 marvels in national history (cv.). The law is magni¬ 
 fied as none but a spirit akin to the Chasidim could do, 
 (cf. cxix.) and again vengeance is called down on all 
 enemies (cf. cix., cxxix., xciv.). Yahweh alone is ex¬ 
 alted and idols are nothing (cxv., cxxxv.). He is 
 righteous, but also forgiving; everywhere, yet pecu¬ 
 liarly near his people, these are the oft reiterated 
 notes. It is not likely that these books were collected 
 in their present form earlier than the middle of the 
 second century b.c. 
 
 While they are more ritualistic and less personal 
 than Book I, we have here a rich collection of songs, 
 most of which are adapted to express the religious 
 emotions of a congregation. The fact that the five 
 books of psalms were used by the priestly party, of 
 which the Pharisees were the leaders, helps us to be¬ 
 lieve that a deep spirituality and a profound religious 
 experience was the possession of many who were most 
 earnest in obeying the injunctions of the law. 
 
 4 . Apocalypticism 
 
 Among the diverse literary products of this era 
 apocalypticism is assuredly one of the most important. 
 The weird, unreal world of Zephaniah i. 14-18, Ezekiel 
 xxxvii.-xxxix., and Isaiah lix., Iviii., takes on in a more 
 marked degree the apocalyptic coloring in Isaiah xxiv.- 
 xxvii. The feverishness that pervades this section is 
 apocalyptic, though not all the forms are yet fully 
 
297 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 developed. A terror of supernatural origin is about 
 to break forth on the nations (Isa. xxiv. 1, 19; xxv, 
 6 -8); symbols are used to conceal the meaning (Isa. 
 xxvii. 1); last things form an important part of the 
 hope (Isa. xxvi. 19-21); and Yahweh is about to cele¬ 
 brate his great sacrifice in Mount Zion (xxiv. 21-23; 
 xxv. 6-8). The angelology (Isa. xxiv. 21; xxv. 4) and 
 the idea of individual resurrection, which here appears 
 for the first time in the Old Testament, are conceptions 
 that belong most probably to the end of the Persian 
 period. Many of the people are scattered abroad (Isa. 
 xxvii. 12, 13), and those who are in Jerusalem are dis¬ 
 tressed and afflicted by strangers (Isa. xxv. 1-5; xxvi. 
 
 13) , and are ruled over by priests (Isa. xxiv. 2). The 
 idea of the resurrection of the individual Israelite is a 
 distinct advance in the solution of the moral order of 
 the world. Hitherto rewards and punishments be¬ 
 longed to this world. But many, as for example. Job, 
 found it hard to reconcile this theory with the facts 
 of experience. Sheol to the early Hebrews was but 
 a dim underworld in which there was but feeble con¬ 
 sciousness and no moral distinctions. Now comes some 
 light, though there is immortality for the Israelite 
 only and not for the heathen (Isa. xxvi. 19; cf. xxvi. 
 
 14) . 
 
 The wealth of historical, literary, and theological 
 material in this booklet points very definitely to an 
 origin at the beginning of the Greek period. The 
 sufferings of the people agree with the conditions in 
 the closing years of the Persian dominancy. The con¬ 
 vulsions that shook the world when Alexander 
 marched against the eastern world-lords in 333 b.c. are 
 reechoed in many parts of the book. The evidence 
 thus seems to point very definitely to the years 333- 
 331 B.c. as the time of the writing of this vision. 
 
 A careful study of these chapters shows us that we 
 have a lengthy apocalyptic poem, Isa. xxiv., xxv. 6-8; 
 
298 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 xxvi. 20-21; xxvii. 1, 12, 13, which is a unit and should 
 be read continuously. The remainder divides itself 
 easily into a number of poems, in different meters, on 
 different though somewhat related topics, xxv. 1-5, 
 9-21; xxvi. 1-19; xxvii. 2-5, 6-11. The message 
 of the apocalypse is very simple and very comforting 
 as well. Like all apocalyptic writing it was for people 
 in distress. In lurid terms it declares that the enemies 
 are going to be mercilessly destroyed and Israel, those 
 in Egypt and those beyond the Euphrates, will be 
 brought back so that they may worship in Jerusalem, 
 and they shall blossom and bud and fill the face 
 of the earth with fruit (Isa. xxvii. 12, 13). The 
 main thought of the poems is very similar. It was 
 voices such as these that steeled the hearts of the 
 faithful to still trust in God through centuries of 
 desolation. 
 
 Zechariah ix.-xiv. also is held by an ever-increasing 
 number of students to belong to the Greek period. 
 Language, thoughts, and historical allusion fit here as 
 no other place. The Jews now have no king and are 
 widely dispersed, though Egypt seems to be their chief 
 rendezvous (Zech. x. 2, 10; xiv. 18, 19). Foreign 
 rulers and heathen peoples have oppressed them 
 (Zech. X. 3). The Greeks are actually mentioned in 
 the present text and seem to be among the enemies 
 (Zech. ix. 13). Jewish prisoners have actually been 
 released, and further restoration is expected (Zech. 
 ix. 11-16). A narrow legalism, intensely interested in 
 feasts and sacrifices, pervades some of the sections 
 (Zech. xiii. 1; xiv. 1^21). Prophets are no longer 
 worthy spokesmen for Yahweh (Zech. xiii. 2). 
 Apocalypticism is considerably developed (xii., xiv.), 
 and no less determinative is the fact that the writers 
 reveal a familiarity with the older Scriptures as Amos, 
 Ezekiel, II Isaiah, Deuteronomy, and the Psalms. 
 These are so laid under tribute as to suggest that 
 
299 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 these chapters come from a period when Scripture was 
 eagerly studied. 
 
 It is possible we have here the work of more than 
 one author. We have two definite superscriptions, 
 one in ix. 1 and the other xii. 1. We find two quite 
 different outlooks, one hopeful, ix. 11—xi. 3, and the 
 other pessimistic, xi. 4-17; xiii. 7-9. We have two 
 types of literature, prophecy, ix. 1—xi. 17; xiii. 7-9, 
 and apocalypticism, xii. 1—xiii. 6; xiv. 1-21. How¬ 
 ever, most of it seems to have originated in the clos¬ 
 ing decades of the third century b.c. The clemency of 
 Ptolemy II to the Jews must have aroused great hopes 
 among them. His successor, Ptolemy III (247-222 
 B.C.), was likewise their friend and is reported to have 
 offered rich sacrifice at the Jerusalem temple. But 
 when Joseph, the taxgatherer, gained power in 230 
 B.C., and Ptolemy IV came to the throne in 222 b.c., 
 conditions changed, and the lot of the Jew was a most 
 unhappy one. It seems probable that it was between 
 240 and 210 b.c. that an optimist, a pessimist, and an 
 apocalypticist, each made an important contribution 
 to the Old Testament literature. 
 
 The first division of the book, ix.-xi., to which 
 should be added xiii. 7-9, which is foreign to its con¬ 
 text but forms a perfect conclusion to this section, is 
 easily interpreted. The neighboring nations are 
 threatened with coming destruction, but Yahweh will 
 encamp round about his house so that no oppressor 
 shall pass through. Then the long promised kingdom, 
 its center in Jerusalem, its boundaries those of ancient 
 dreams or perhaps those of the empire of Alexander, 
 its king, the teacher rather than the booted-warrior 
 with blood-stained garments, riding on an ass not on a 
 war charger, this, the hope of past centuries, is about 
 to be realized (ix. 1-10). These verses correspond to 
 the conditions and the hope that we have seen be¬ 
 longed to the days following the conquests of Alexan- 
 
300 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 der. Then follows the declaration that prisoners have 
 been liberated (cf. p. 282), others will soon gain their 
 freedom, and a great conquest awaits them, for Yah- 
 weh will make Zion as the sword of a mighty man, and 
 will punish those rulers that have been oppressive 
 (ix. 11—xi. 3). It is to be noticed that the ideal has 
 changed and now is that of the warrior and not that 
 of the teacher (cf. ix. 13-15; x. 3-5). Following this 
 optimistic outburst which we conceive to have been 
 written in the days immediately following the benign 
 policy of Ptolemy II and Ptolemy III, perhaps to¬ 
 wards the middle of Ptolemy Ill’s reign, we have one 
 of great pessimism (xi. 4-17; xiii. 7-9). Joseph, the 
 taxgatherer, and then his illegitimate son, Hyrcanus, 
 were the representatives of Egypt, and the real rulers 
 of Judea from 230 to 175 b.c., and Ptolemy IV had re¬ 
 versed the policy of his predecessors and had robbed, 
 insulted, and degraded the Jews. 
 
 These are two parables, in which under the guise 
 of a shepherd, the prophet plays the role of the king 
 of Egypt. The first is that of Ptolemy IV, the care¬ 
 less shepherd (xi. 4-14). The Egyptian king has 
 farmed out the fiock to Joseph, and considers himself 
 innocent as their own shepherds, Joseph and his 
 minions, show no pity. Indeed, Yahweh has handed 
 them over to slaughter, and no remedy seems to be in 
 sight. The worth of such a shepherd as is the king 
 of Egypt is but the price of a slave, is the cynical 
 estimate of the writer (xi. 12). The second parable 
 presents the same king as the worthless shepherd (xi. 
 15-17; xiii. 7-9). He does not look after the lost or 
 seek the scattered, he only devours and tramples, and 
 hence he shall be punished by sword and plague. The 
 sheep shall be scattered, and only a remnant shall be 
 saved. 
 
 The second section, xii. 1—-xiii. 6; xiv. 1-20, belongs 
 to approximately the same time as the last (210 b.c.). 
 
301 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 or a little later. In these years Judah turned joyously 
 to the Syrian kings, who were bearing down on Egj^t, 
 and who in 198 b.c. finally drove her out of Palestine. 
 The chief elements of apocalypticism are found here. 
 The nations are to be overthrown. Jerusalem will be 
 in the center of the battle and will suffer grievously, 
 but Yahweh himself will come with his host of angels, 
 and shall conquer and then completely transform the 
 city, and the whole earth shall be subject to him. He 
 shall reign as king, all the pomp of ritual shall be 
 established in the temple, and all the nations shall 
 come up to Jerusalem for feast and sacrifice, or shall 
 be annihilated. Surely this was a blaze of coming 
 glory that consoled many to whom the regime of 
 Joseph and his master, Ptolemy, permitted no com¬ 
 fort. Men and women, distraught by the merciless 
 methods used for the iniquitous extortion, and de¬ 
 graded to the position of the lowest menials—only 
 such could fail to shudder at the horrors this vision 
 visited on the people (Zech. xiv. 12-15). 
 
 Daniel ii., vii.-xii. is a still more perfect piece of pure 
 apocalyptic. It has, in fact, all the characteristics, and 
 belongs to a very important body of writings, most of 
 which have become accessible only during our own 
 generation. More than a dozen such treatises, all 
 pseudepigraphic, most of them narrating past history 
 but using the future tense, thus putting well-known 
 occurrences back into the lips of ancient worthies, all 
 of them eschatological, and all bearing a remarkable 
 resemblance to Daniel, were written after 200 b.c. We 
 need not hesitate to follow the evidence in the book 
 of Daniel, and believe that this book belongs to this 
 larger group and was written between 167 and 165 b.c. 
 
 It was a most compelling message. Written during 
 the Maccabean struggle, it gave in cryptic form a 
 sketch of international events since the time of 
 Nebuchadrezzar. In chapters ii., vii., viii. we have two 
 
302 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 visions that are parallel and are easy of interpretation. 
 The first kingdom symbolized by the golden head and 
 the lion with eagle’s wings is the Babylonian (Dan. ii. 
 36-38; vii. 4). The second, that symbolized by the 
 silver breast and arms, and the bear with three ribs 
 in its mouth, is the supposed kingdom of the Medes 
 (Dan. ii. 39; vii. 5). The third kingdom is Persia, and 
 is represented by the bronze belly and thighs, and the 
 leopard with wings (Dan. ii. 39; vii. 6), while the iron 
 legs and toes of the image, the beast with iron teeth 
 and ten horns, and the goat with one horn followed 
 by four others, out from which came the little horn, 
 represents the Greek kingdom (Dan. ii. 40-43; vii. 7, 
 8 ; viii. 5-8). 
 
 Chapter xi. of Daniel is one of the most interesting 
 as well as valuable in the book to the historian. In 
 it we find a wealth of detail, that without using names 
 or dates reveals a most intimate knowledge of much 
 of the Syrian and Egyptian history from 336 b.c. down 
 to 167 B.c. Only the careful study of this chapter 
 with the aid of the best commentary can do justice 
 to the writer, and convince us of the accuracy of his 
 information. These visions and this history are but 
 the prelude to the confidence that the author has in¬ 
 geniously deduced from Jeremiah’s seventy years, that 
 ‘The end” is at hand. It seems that the idea in II 
 Chronicles xxxvi. 21, “to fulfill the word of Jeremiah 
 until the land had enjoyed her sabbath,” gave the key 
 to the time of the end to the author. He concluded 
 that the years were “week years,” and that the end 
 was already on the horizon (Dan. ix. 24). From the 
 time of the cessation of the continual burnt offering 
 on December 15, 168 b.c., it is only a time and times 
 and a half time (vii. 25), or only 2300 evenings and 
 mornings, that is 1150 days (viii. 14), until the wor¬ 
 ship of the temple will be restored. It was actually 
 reinstated on December 25, 165 b.c. (cf. xii. 7, 11, 12). 
 
303 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 This was the beginning of the end. We may be unable 
 to locate the exact day on which the 1150, the 1290, 
 and the 1335 days (xii. 11, 12) were by the author 
 supposed to meet. The text may even have suffered 
 an addition, but we cannot escape the conviction that 
 the first readers expected the immediate realization 
 of the promised kingdom. 
 
 The story of the divine deliverances of Daniel and 
 his companions because of their loyalty to their re¬ 
 ligion, and this prediction of the coming kingdom, 
 coupled with the fact that Judas Maccabeus was 
 actually achieving triumphs more marvelous than 
 legend could picture, all together must have called for 
 a new loyalty and a more frenzied self-abandon in the 
 cause of Judaism. It is no wonder that with literature 
 like this read by eager people the armies of the Syrians 
 should be driven back by the fury of the onslaught, 
 the holy city should be taken from the enemy, the 
 temple purified, and the sacrifice reestablished. An 
 immediate end was achieved. Yahweh was proved 
 able and willing to deliver his people, and faith in 
 him was surely established in many a wavering mind. 
 
 A further purpose, however, was served by this book. 
 It is apocalyptic, but it is no less legalistic. The 
 author belonged also to that band of teachers who 
 sought to turn many to righteousness (Dan. xii. 3; 
 xi. 33). He was in sympathy with the ‘‘saints of the 
 Most High’^ (Dan. vii. 18, 22, 25, 27) and with the 
 holy people (Dan. xii. 7), and both of these terms hint 
 at the existence of a group of separatists. The purifi¬ 
 cation of the people (Dan. xii. 10), which could be 
 attained only through fasting, keeping the command¬ 
 ments, observing the law of Moses, all of which were 
 closely related to the temple worship (Dan. ix. 3-18), 
 was the only means of deliverance. Hence the temple 
 and the law were the summum honum of true religion. 
 
 Like so much literature of this period, it also sug- 
 
304 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 gested a solution for the sufferings of the holy people, 
 and a reason for the delay of the promised redemption. 
 The answer was twofold. The apostasy of the people, 
 the lack of loyalty to the law lay in the background 
 of the mind of the writer as in part the cause of the 
 national tragedy. But like Plato, perhaps influenced 
 by his philosophy which must have been widely 
 studied at this time, he believed that the destiny of 
 the nations of the earth was determined by forces in 
 the spiritual world such as their representative angels 
 (Dan. X. 13, 20, 21). Great warfare existed in heaven, 
 and the angel of Persia was in conflict with the angel of 
 the Jews, and delayed events on the earth; then the 
 angel of Greece interfered, and the delay was contin¬ 
 ued (Dan. X. 13, 20; xii. 1). 
 
 To this rather inadequate solution, though indeed 
 a logical deduction from its type of supernaturalism, 
 that the supernatural hierarchies are finally re¬ 
 sponsible for national movements and human responsi¬ 
 bility is shouldered off on the divine, was added the 
 idea of a blessed immortality for the saints (Dan. xii. 
 2, 3). The solution of the moral problem of rewards 
 and punishments, which had given so many earlier 
 religious leaders real dijficulty, producing practical 
 atheism on the one hand, and the most vital faith 
 on the other, was now pushed over into the next world, 
 and the idea of rewards and punishments in the future 
 life was accepted. From early days the Hebrews be¬ 
 lieved in a future existence, but it was shadowy, blood¬ 
 less, and non-moral, now it was transformed into a 
 moral world. The faith of those who were martyrs 
 for their religion helped to light up the dark beyond 
 to all generations (cf. II Mac. vi. 18—vii. 42). 
 
 And ^The time of the end,'^ what of it? The writer 
 who knew events so accurately from 300 b.c. down to 
 167 B.c. finds his way forward with very faltering step. 
 The temple worship was restored, but not in the 1150 
 
305 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 days, or the 1290 days, or the 3% years predicted 
 (Dan. viii. 14; xii. 11; ix. 27). Antiochus, of course, 
 died, but neither how nor when the writer believed he 
 should (Dan. xi. 40-45). No doubt there were evi¬ 
 dences that Antiochus was gathering.a force by which 
 he might avenge himself on the Egyptians (Dan. xi. 
 40-43), but affairs in the east attracted him, and his¬ 
 tory knows of no attack on Egypt after 168 b.c. No 
 doubt it would have been the correct thing in a world 
 of law and order that Antiochus should have set up his 
 tent between the ^^sea and the glorious holy moun¬ 
 tain,” and that there, the center of his infamy, he 
 ‘^should come to his end.” Historical facts do not 
 always follow the pathway of theoretic justice, and in 
 this case we know that the culprit died in Tabae in the 
 land of Persia (I Mac. vi. 5-17). 
 
 Victories were gained by the Jews, but the price 
 was terrific, and neither was the enemy subdued, nor 
 did the kingdom come. The forty years of the high- 
 priesthood under Simon and John Hyrcanus (143- 
 105 B.c.) were the only possible approximation to it. 
 Then the fortunes of the Jews waned more and more 
 till their final eclipse in 70 a.d. These hopes, built on 
 a literal interpretation of the ancient, prophetic mes¬ 
 sages and looking for a material kingdom, never ma¬ 
 terialized, but a kingdom of justice and good will, of 
 peace and love, a world-wide kingdom is slowly ful¬ 
 filling the spirit of those ancient hopes. 
 
 5, The Relation to Greek Culture and Life 
 
 The narrow, legalistic group was perhaps the most 
 intense if not the largest in these days. There were 
 many, however, who were not apostates to the true 
 religion, who were most kindly disposed towards many 
 of the Greek people, as well as to some aspects of the 
 new culture. The diaspora, who had close social and 
 
306 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 business contacts with the Greeks, learned from ex¬ 
 perience that they were not all bad nor were their 
 ways all unrighteous. They had to concede that ^^a 
 good Greek was better than a bad Jew.’^ So, un¬ 
 consciously, much of the Greek thought must have 
 been absorbed by those who were in daily contact with 
 their masters. 
 
 Proselytizing —If knowledge of the Greek brought 
 with it a healthy respect for the man, knowledge of 
 his religion taught the Jew the value of his own. This 
 kindled anew the missionary flame in many hearts. 
 The Babylonian captivity had intensified an earlier 
 sense of obligation to other nations, and the writer 
 of the ^‘Servant Songs’’ had been the great exponent 
 of this ideal. During the Persian period we hear now 
 and then a voice that was conscious that ^^my house 
 shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” But 
 the logical outcome of the ideal, and the ability to 
 put it into practice, did not fully arrive till the wide 
 dispersion of Jews in the Greek era. Now a holy 
 enthusiasm stirred many to impart the sacred truths 
 of their religion to the Gentile. The response was 
 gratifying. The doctrine of the unity of God, the 
 practice of sabbath rest and assembly, the freedom 
 from ritual everywhere outside of Jerusalem, and the 
 appeal to the written word, together with the liberty 
 that was granted to proselytes, made a strong appeal 
 to many high-minded Greeks. 
 
 The Septuagint—T^o important works contributed 
 to this movement, and in part were the product of it. 
 The Septuagint stands first. This was the work of 
 Alexandrian Jews. The translation of the Pentateuch 
 was first undertaken and that not earlier than 250 b.c. 
 The other books were translated later, at different 
 times by various scholars. The whole was completed 
 perhaps not earlier than 100 b.c. It served a twofold 
 purpose. It gave many Jews, who by this time had 
 
307 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 lost the use of the Hebrew language, access to the 
 Scriptures in their vernacular. It is believed, how¬ 
 ever, that the missionary motive was not absent from 
 the scheme. Certain characteristic features, as the 
 omission of marked anthropomorphisms, would help 
 to make it attractive to the Greek mind. At any rate, 
 throughout much of the Greek domain, if not indeed 
 in Palestine itself, it must have been a most important 
 aUy in this propaganda. 
 
 Jonah —To this may be added that which is recog¬ 
 nized to be the most definitely missionary book in the 
 canon, the book of Jonah. The date of its writing is 
 difficult to determine, but as a call to a missionary 
 service it is worthy of a leading place in such an under¬ 
 taking. Indeed it does double duty, for as a protest 
 against an unwholesome racial intolerance it must 
 have ministered a rebuke to the growing Jewish 
 legalism. 
 
 The literary form is picturesque and imaginative, 
 but no more so than much of the Oriental literature. 
 In the form of a simple story, in which an element of 
 the marvelous adds to the fascination, a profound 
 religious truth is so told that none but the dullest can 
 fail to remember it and be impressed. To Judaism it 
 had an immediate application, hence the grip of the 
 theme it illustrated. In Jonah the nation was personi¬ 
 fied, and national history was interpreted in the guise 
 of his experiences. Yahweh, because of his revelation 
 to them, had called his people to a great missionary 
 service, but they had failed to respond. He had 
 punished them by the captivity. When they had 
 repented he had rescued them, and had again com¬ 
 missioned them to be the light to the Gentiles. This 
 they had most reluctantly undertaken, but even in 
 the most unexpected places many had repented and 
 accepted Yahweh. The two vital principles of religion 
 so pointedly stated in the book, viz., the world-wide 
 
308 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 missionary obligation of the people of God, and the 
 loving care of God over even the most hated alien, 
 have unfortunately often been obscured by our effort 
 to reduce poetry to prose and Oriental imagery to 
 history. The basis of the story lies in a religious con¬ 
 ception that is more valid than any mere historical 
 occurrence could be. 
 
 Greek ideas and outlook, however, captured some 
 of the Jews. The Greeks were the philosophers of 
 the world, and this was the age of reflection. The 
 Jews were more interested in morals than in abstract 
 thought, yet they could not all escape the atmosphere 
 in which they breathed. As their national hopes had 
 waned, the ideal of a religious community had gained 
 the ascendancy. They were fast becoming a nation 
 of teachers, and thus they could not ignore, even if 
 they wished to, the current thought of their masters. 
 Not only had they learned the language of their con¬ 
 querors, but not a few of their philosophic conclusions 
 had become their possession. Books such as Ec- 
 clesiasticus, the Wisdom of Solomon, the Psalms of 
 Solomon, and many of the apocalyptic visions written 
 by the Jews from 200 b.c. on, show decided traces of 
 the subtle influences of Greek speculation and ideals. 
 
 Proverhs—Th^ book of Proverbs, which in many 
 ways shows the influences of Greek age, belongs to 
 the ^Wisdom literature” of the Hebrews. This type 
 was very ancient, in the Old Testament going back at 
 least as early as Jotham and Samson. By the time of 
 Jeremiah there was a class of more or less importance 
 who, because of their use and mastery of this literary 
 method, were known as the ^Wise” (Jer. xviii. 18). 
 In the prophets we And not a few passages that may 
 be rightly called wisdom literature {e.g,, Mic. ii. l-A; 
 vi. 6”8; Isa. v. 1-5; xxviii. 23-29; Jer. xxxi. 21; Ezek. 
 xvi. 24; xix. 2-9, etc.). 
 
 But as we read the present collection, one of the 
 
309 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 first things we note is the exceedingly few references 
 we can find to nomadic, pastoral, or even agricultural 
 life (Prov. xi. 26; xii. 10; xxvii. 23-27). This is 
 strange, as agriculture remained the chief industry of 
 the majority of the people until the time of the captiv¬ 
 ity. Commerce is, however, the language of the book, 
 and apparently the large majority of the proverbs 
 originated when all the joys and sorrows, the rewards 
 as well as the accompanying evils of world trade, were 
 the commonplaces of the national life (Prov. x. 15; 
 xi. 28; xii. 2; xiv. 20; xiii. 22; xix. 1; xxii. 2, etc.). 
 This suggests a period long after the time of Solomon 
 for the completion of the book. 
 
 But the ethical and the religious assumptions are 
 even more startling. The ethical emphasis of the 
 eighth-century prophets has now become the axiom 
 of conduct. Monogamy is unquestioned. The mon¬ 
 otheism of II Isaiah is assumed. The individualism 
 of Jeremiah is an established principle, and the 
 peculiarly Jewish accent has been lost in the note of 
 the universal. The call to the pursuit of wisdom and 
 the implied existence of schools belongs essentially to 
 the days of Greek rule. Yet the ^Vise men’’ cling 
 tenaciously to the Deuteronomic orthodoxy that the 
 ^^good” must be the prosperous and the ^Vicked” must 
 suffer. 
 
 Even more conclusive in determining the date is 
 the fact of language. Hebrew vocabulary and struc¬ 
 ture are very similar to that of Ecclesiasticus (200 
 B.C.), and if language has a history it belongs to essen¬ 
 tially the same period. Thus all lines converge in one 
 direction, viz., that our present book has not only been 
 enriched by men who lived in the post-exile period, 
 but for the collection as a whole we are likely greatly 
 indebted to the Greek age. No doubt many had been 
 handed on from the ancient past {e.g., Prov. xiv. 35; 
 xvi. 10, 12-15; xx. 2, 8, 26, 28; xxii. 11, that refer to 
 
310 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 the king, most naturally come from the days of the 
 kings), but the bulk of proverbs as well as the collect¬ 
 ing of them would seem to come from post-exile, even 
 from Grecian days. 
 
 The book consists of a number of collections. 
 Proverbs xxv.-xxix. and x.-xxii. 16 seem to be the two 
 earliest books. Proverbs xxii. 17—xxiv. perhaps came 
 later, and xxiv. 23-34 is a still later appendix. 
 Proverbs xxx.-xxxi., along with i. 7—ix., shows stiU 
 more of the influence of Greek environment. 
 
 It thoroughly approves of the man who is energetic 
 in business and shrewd enough to drive a good bar¬ 
 gain. It is utilitarian rather than altruistic, and ex¬ 
 presses the commercial enterprise the Jew manifested 
 with his Greek neighbors. Yet it links good business 
 up with religion, ^The fear of Yahweh is the beginning 
 of knowledge.^ 
 
 Proverbs i.-ix .—The first division. Proverbs i.-ix., is 
 the introduction to the other collections, and is the 
 work of the Greek period. Schools of instruction were 
 prevalent throughout the land (Prov. ii. 1; hi. 1; iv. 1), 
 the call to reflection, or to seek wisdom was insistent 
 (Prov. i. 2-6; ii. 2; hi. 13; iv. 7-9), and the sins to be 
 avoided were those that the Jews met in their fiercest 
 forms during these years (cf. Prov. i. 13, 19; ii. 16; hi. 
 7, 25; iv. 24; v. 3, 4; vi. 1, 16-19, 23-26; vh. 5-23; ix. 
 13-18). It is an essay rather than a collection of prov¬ 
 erbs, and unites the old orthodoxy, that it pays to be 
 good (cf. Prov. ii. 20-22; hi. 1, 2, 9-10; iv. 10), with 
 the new ideal, that the search after wisdom, or the fear 
 of God, is the only thing worth while (Prov. ii. 1-11; 
 hi. 13-18; iv. 5-‘9). Its tone is universal rather than 
 racial, and ethical rather than legal. It is an admirable 
 efl’ort to put Jewish morals and religion into Greek 
 philosophy. 
 
 Wisdom —^Wisdom’’ is greatly honored by a number 
 of wise men. Four chapters should be compared. Job 
 
311 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 xxviii. concludes that wisdom is known to God alone. 
 Ecclesiasticus xxiv. says that wisdom took up her abode 
 in Israel alone. Proverbs viii. 1-31 presents wisdom 
 as the companion of God from the beginning, and as 
 appealing to mankind to receive her instruction, while 
 in the Wisdom of Solomon (Wisd. Sol. vii.-viii.), she 
 is “alone in kind,’’ “the breath of the power of God, 
 and the clear effulgence of his glory.” These chapters, 
 by an assimilation more or less complete of the Greek 
 logos idea have brought a transcendent God into a 
 living relation with the world, and have prepared 
 the way, in part at least, for the logos idea of the New 
 Testament. 
 
 Proverbs xxx. 1-4 —The “words of Agur” are those 
 of an agnostic (Prov. xxx. 1-4). He confesses he has 
 no knowledge, or wisdom, or understanding. He is 
 indeed brutish. Then he turns swiftly, and skeptically 
 asks, perhaps in the face of a good deal of dogmatism, 
 who is there who knows anything about the heavens, 
 or the wind, or the waters, or the earth? 
 
 This and i.-ix. seem to be the latest sections in the 
 book. It is very probable that all the present book 
 was brought together as a whole, about the same time 
 as the kindred work of Ecclesiasticus, that is, shortly 
 after the opening of the second century b.c. 
 
 Ecclesiastes —Ecclesiastes shows, if not something 
 of the Greek spirit, then something of the spirit of 
 the age. The “preacher,” if style and content indicate 
 the time of the composition, wrote in the Greek period, 
 perhaps about 200 b.c., what he conceived might have 
 been the judgment of a man with the broad experience 
 of Solomon (Ecc. i. 12). Yet the world on which the 
 author looked was far other than that of Solomon. 
 Injustice was prevalent (Ecc. iii. 16; iv. 1; v. 8), a boy 
 had become a king (Ecc. iv. 13-16; ix. 14; x. 16), and 
 a corrupt government ruled the land (Ecc. x. 20). It 
 was a blase old world in which there was nothing new, 
 
312 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 a world full of books that were very tedious and dry 
 (Ecc. xii. 12). 
 
 The substratum of the book has as its theme, ^dife 
 is scarcely worth while, yet as one must live, it is good 
 to live not overintensely; eat, drink, rejoice, get good, 
 but do all in moderation.’^ It is in spirit closely akin 
 to Stoicism, the noblest philosophy of Greece during 
 those centuries. 
 
 Throughout the book we find a series, or rather two 
 series, of brief passages that redeem it from its practi¬ 
 cal pessimism. The earliest and the least important 
 passages have apparently come from the pen of a 
 scribe interested in proverbial wisdom (Ecc. iv. 5; v. 
 3; vii. la, 3, 5, 6-9, 11, 12, 19; viii. 1; ix. 17, 18; x. 1-3, 
 8-14a, 15, 18, 19). The other passages, in the accents 
 of a pious lover of the law, challenge the reader to 
 ^Tear God and keep his commandments, for this is 
 the whole duty of man” (Ecc. ii. 26; iii. 17; vii. 18b, 
 26b, 29; viii. 5, 11-13; xi. 9b; xii. la. 13-14). 
 
 The earliest writer, a pessimist, it is true, was one 
 who was willing to face life at its worst, and play the 
 game, though not very strenuously. He sounded a 
 rather somber note, but it appealed to many as a true 
 interpretation of real life. He was a healthy proto¬ 
 type of Omar Khayyam. But to many his booklet 
 must have seemed open to the charge of irreligion. 
 It lacked both passion and faith. The later writers 
 redeemed it from any accusation of impiety or 
 irreligion. 
 
 Song of Solomon—The Song of Solomon may also 
 have found its way into the canon, as a concession to 
 the Greek spirit. This little book, which had the 
 greatest difficulties in gaining canonical standing, and 
 then was prohibited to all under thirty years of age, 
 was for long centuries interpreted by the Christian 
 church as an allegory of Christ and the church, his 
 bride. This treatment is now fast losing ground. 
 
313 
 
 THE GREEK PERIOD, 332-135 B.C. 
 
 Study of Syrian literature since 1873 has brought to 
 the western world a knowledge of Oriental marriage 
 customs and a number of Syrian love songs that throw 
 a new light on this collection. Syrian marriages usu¬ 
 ally took place in March, and the bridal couple cele¬ 
 brated their ^‘bridal week’^ as king and queen, re¬ 
 ceiving the homage of their friends and being the 
 center of the week’s festivities. Many are to-day con¬ 
 vinced that we have in the Song of Solomon a collec¬ 
 tion of pure love songs that were used on such occa¬ 
 sions. A similar theme is celebrated in Psalm xlv. 
 These love songs revel in the beauties of nature, in 
 the physical charms of the bride, in the strength of 
 the bridegroom, in the delights of the dance, and the 
 raptures of love. They offer us a glimpse of humanism 
 in the midst of puritanism. They show that the Jew 
 as well as the Greek could love the beautiful in the 
 physical form and in nature, but here, at least, he did 
 not let it sink to the lewd and the coarse. If some 
 phrases offend our ears, we should compare them with 
 other Oriental love songs to help us appreciate their 
 purity and delicacy. That human love, glorying in 
 monogamy and redeemed from lust, placing the 
 humble home of the peasant on a higher level than 
 the harem of Solomon, should be celebrated in our 
 Scriptures is not out of accord with the teachings of 
 the Master, who made the home the center of religion 
 and life. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 The Old Testament Canon 
 
 The Law or the Pentateuch —In our study we have 
 already seen how certain portions of our Old Testa¬ 
 ment became authoritative. In the time of Moses 
 there was a covenant relationship between Yahweh 
 and Israel. A decalogue, most likely found in the 
 ethical commands in Ex. xx. 1-17, may contain the pre¬ 
 scriptions which the nation bound itself to keep. In 
 621 B.c. the people pledged themselves to keep all the 
 words of the book of the covenant, and canonized Deu¬ 
 teronomy (II Kgs. xxii., xxiii.). In the time of Ezra 
 (cir. 398 b.c.) there was a further reform, and the peo¬ 
 ple deliberately accepted the nucleus of P. as their law. 
 General usage, apart from any demonstration on the 
 part of the people or formal decree of any ecclesiasti¬ 
 cal body, must by common consent have canonized the 
 whole of the Pentateuch sometime during the fourth 
 century b.c., perhaps before the beginning of the Greek 
 period. 
 
 The Prophets —The second division of the canon, 
 that is, the prophets, former prophets, Joshua, Judges 
 I and II Samuel, I and II Kings, and the latter 
 prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve, 
 must also have been the result of a gradual process. 
 Ezekiel, so far as we know, was the only book against 
 which objections were raised. This was due to the 
 fact that its legislation failed in a good many respects 
 to agree with the laws in the Pentateuch. How the 
 books were preserved, who collected them, and when 
 
 314 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON 
 
 315 
 
 they were collected, are historical questions to which 
 only very indefinite answers can be given. The in¬ 
 trinsic worth of the books is the best evidence of 
 their canonicity. This impelled the scribes and the 
 late teachers to preserve them and give them the place 
 of authority they merited. 
 
 In Ecclesiasticus mention is made of all the his¬ 
 torical characters who are outstanding in the ‘Tormer 
 prophets,’^ while Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the 
 Twelve prophets are also well known (Ecclus. xlvi.- 
 xlix.). This indicates that most, if not all, the books 
 of the second canon were in existence and were 
 held in general esteem by the religious leaders in 
 the early decades of the second century b.c. It is 
 quite unlikely that the collection was completed 
 much before this time, as parts of some of the books, 
 as Zechariah and Isaiah, had not long been written. 
 Nor is it likely that it was ^^open’’ much later than 
 this, or a book like Daniel, that must have been popu¬ 
 lar, would likely have gained an entrance thereto. We 
 cannot be more definite than to consider the decades 
 around 200 b.c. as the probable date of the close of the 
 canon of the prophets. 
 
 The Writings —The third division is known as the 
 ^Writings,” and includes Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, 
 I and II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Lamentations, 
 Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Esther, and Daniel. 
 This comes last, and is the most indefinite of all. 
 Esther, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes barely es¬ 
 caped being considered apocryphal. After the de¬ 
 struction of Jerusalem, the Rabbinical council, which 
 met at Jamnia in 90 a.d. and again in 118 a.d. re¬ 
 spectively, labored as to the boundaries between the 
 canonical and the apocryphal writings. All books 
 in the above list, were finally accepted officially 
 in 118 A.D. It seems curious, perhaps it is a com¬ 
 mentary on the attitude of the New Testament writers, 
 
316 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 that no one of these disputed books is referred to in 
 the New Testament. If this third canon was not 
 finally ‘^closed’^ until the end of the first century of 
 the Christian era, we may nevertheless be sure that 
 for all practical purposes, its bounds had been pretty 
 clearly defined by the beginning of the first century 
 B.c. Many Psalms had long been in use in the wor¬ 
 ship in the temple. Proverbs in many cases found 
 their roots in the soil of the ancient past, and were 
 the commonplaces of every-day speech long before 
 they found their way into the present compilation. 
 Job was a book that must have been appreciated when * 
 it first saw the light, and it is unthinkable that any 
 age should fail to give it a place of honor in its re¬ 
 ligious literature. Chronicles and Ezra and Nehemiah 
 were the repositories of priestly history and custom, 
 and must have been held as authoritative by all those 
 who were interested in the ritual from the time of 
 their composition. So with the other books, their 
 intrinsic value won for them a place in the minds and 
 the hearts of many people, and hence they were 
 grouped together in the third canon. 
 
 As we review these three divisions of the canon, we 
 cannot agree with a Rabbinical tradition that they 
 represent three different grades of inspiration, the Law 
 possessing a higher degree of inspiration than the 
 Prophets, which in turn possesses a higher quality 
 than the Writings. They represent, rather, different 
 stages of collecting and canonizing the individual di¬ 
 visions. Each group represents the crystallization of 
 a definite religious movement, and all together pre¬ 
 serve for us the story of those religious struggles and 
 ideals that, because of their universal and spiritual 
 appeal to the consciences of men, proclaim themselves 
 to be the word of God. 
 
Chronological Chart 
 
 FOR 
 
 Old Testament Life and Literature 
 
 The value of definite mile-posts in history is known 
 to all. The difficulties of setting these up in Old Testa¬ 
 ment literature is fully appreciated only by those who 
 make bold to achieve it. With such a wealth of ma¬ 
 terial, the product of so many centuries and of so 
 many schools of thought, and frequently with so much 
 ignorance concerning the minutiae of the various cur¬ 
 rents of life, no one would assert that it is possible to 
 arrange all the literature in its assured historical 
 setting. 
 
 Yet some order is better than none. Where the tra¬ 
 ditional dates are possible, which is so for a major 
 part of our literature, these have been followed. Where 
 the language, content and spirit of a passage or a 
 book are completely out of accord with such, then 
 what has seemed to be the preponderance of evidence 
 has been accepted. True, a good many messages may 
 be interpreted almost equally well in two or more, 
 sometimes widely separated periods. Hence, even 
 when guided by the balance of probabilities, there 
 sometimes remains a degree of uncertainty. It has not 
 been deemed wise to constantly indicate this, either by 
 the use of the interrogation mark or by repetition. It 
 is believed that most of the subdivisions of the litera¬ 
 ture can be interpreted adequately only in the period 
 to which they have been assigned. Also, even when 
 the date is problematic, all the material has a signifi¬ 
 cant message where placed. 
 
 317 
 
318 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 The writer is indebted to a vast host of interpreters 
 for the critical material on which the judgments are 
 based. In the chart there is nothing that is new. Most 
 of it follows the consensus of Christian scholarship. It 
 is here outlined only as a usable not as an infallible 
 guide. 
 
OLD TESTAMENT OF LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 CHRONOIOGICAL CHART 
 
OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Date 
 
 Hebrew Histort 
 
 Hebrew Literature 
 
 / 
 
 10000 Palestine inhabited before 10000 by non-Semitic 
 
 B.c. people of early stone age. These followed by men 
 of the late stone age. 
 
 4000 
 
 3000 
 
 2500 
 
 Amorite immigration gains the highlands, slowly 
 spreads through the valleys, down to the coast 
 cities. 
 
 2000 
 
 1900 
 
 Abraham a part of this movement. 
 
 1600 All Syria tributary to Egypt, 1580-1350. 
 
 1400 Habiri overrunning the land. 
 
 Asheru clan settled in the north. 
 
 Hittites conquer upper Syria, 1350. 
 
 1300 
 
 Hittites extend south and contend with Egypt. 
 Treaty in 1271 with Ramses, leaves most of Syria 
 in possession of the Hittites. 
 
 A clan called Israel reported in south of Palestine 
 in 1222 by Merneptah. 
 
 
 320 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL CHART 
 
 Small Nations 
 
 Contemporary History 
 
 Babylonia-A ssyria 
 
 Date 
 
 Egypt and Nile Valley 
 
 Arameana in north Mesopotamia. 
 Hittites in north Syria. 
 
 Civilization in Euphrates valley 
 running back, into far centuries. 
 
 10000 
 
 B.C. 
 
 City states in S. Babylonia preceding 
 5000. 
 
 Kingdom of Ur before 4000. 
 
 Rivalry between cities, Ur, Erech, 
 Kish from 4000-3000. 
 
 Sargon I, king of Summer and Ak¬ 
 kad, 2850. 
 
 Naram-Sin, 2700, king of the four 
 corners of the world. 
 
 Two great kingdoms, 
 upper and lower 
 Egypt before 4000. 
 Mining in Sinai. 
 
 Old kingdom, 2980- 
 2475. 
 
 Pyramid building. 
 
 Amorite immigration and conquest. 
 
 First Babylonian dynasty 2225- Middle kingdom, 
 1926. 2160-1788. 
 
 Hammurabi, 2123-2081, sixth king 
 of the dynasty. Code of laws 
 compiled. 
 
 Assyria an offshoot. City of Ashur 
 founded. 
 
 4000 
 
 3000 
 
 2500 
 
 2000 
 
 Assyria independent. Wars with 
 Babylon. 
 
 Oldest edition of 
 Book of the Dead. 
 
 Ipuwer, the 
 prophet of social 
 justice and the 
 “good shepherd.” 
 
 1900 
 
 Hittite kingdom at Boghaz-koi, 1500. 
 
 Hyksos, Semitic 1700 
 shepherd kings 
 rule Delta, 1675- 
 1575. Driven out 
 by Ahmose I, 
 founder of New 
 kingdom, 1680- 
 1150. 
 
 1600 
 
 Amarna tablets from 1400 
 the reigns of Am- 
 enophis III and 
 IV show upheaval 
 in Palestine. 
 
 Ikhnaton (Ameno- 
 phis IV) the here¬ 
 tic king, 1375-1358. 1300 
 
 Ramses II, 1292- 
 1225. Built the 
 border cities Ram¬ 
 ses and Pithom. 
 Pharaoh of op¬ 
 pression. 
 
 321 
 
322 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Date 
 
 Hebrew History 
 
 Hebrew Literature 
 
 Exodus of important body of Jacob clans from Egypt 
 in 1220. Moses the leader. 
 
 Stories of ancestors and clan experiences and 
 customs preserved orally. 
 
 1200 
 
 Hebrews in the wilderness. Sinai experiences. 
 E adesh-Barnea their chief center. 
 
 Enter Canaan from the e^t 1180. Leah tribes 
 occupy south. Rachel tribes under Joshua the 
 middle and the concubine clans the north. 
 
 Period of the judges, 1180-1040. Judges had local 
 influence. A number may have been contem¬ 
 porary, judging in different tribes. 
 
 Canaanites defeated. 
 
 1100 Canaanites gradually driven back. Much assimila¬ 
 tion of the two peoples going on. 
 
 Moabites, Midianites, Arnmonites defeated. 
 
 Gideon offered the kingship. 
 
 Abimelech king in Shechem three years. 
 
 Philistine conflict. 
 
 Saul, king in Benjamin, 1040-1013 ? Other tribes 
 united. Ammonites, Philistines, Amalekites de¬ 
 feated. Strife with David and Samuel. Defeated 
 finally by Philistines. 
 
 David King over Judah 1013-973 ? Tributary to 
 1000 Philistines. Conflict with the house of Saul. 
 
 Conquered. Jerusalem taken and made the cap¬ 
 ital. Philistines defeated. Boundaries extended. 
 Kingdom organized. Rebellions of closing years. 
 Solomon king, 973-933. 
 
 Executions. Commerce extended on land and sea. 
 Building program. Palaces and temple. Interna¬ 
 tional relations. Tyre and Egypt. 
 
 New decisions necessary. Ten words Ex. 
 XX. 1-17. ? 
 
 Songs, proverbs and tales perhaps all oral. 
 Jgs. V, ix, xiv. 14, 15. 
 
 Customs changing. Laws of the Canaanites 
 naturally coming unto use. 
 
 Schools of the prophets formed. Songs 
 martial and religious composed and simg. 
 
 Court records for first time after Jerusalem 
 capital. 
 
 David’s laments composed. II Sam. i. 19-27; 
 iii. 33-34; xviii.^ 3. Nucleus of religious 
 lyrics? Ps. xviii and others? _ 
 
 Nathan’s parable II Ram. xii. 1-4, oral. 
 Laws made I Sam. xxx. 24-25. 
 
 Solomon’s dedication hymn, I Kgs. viii. 12,13. 
 Gen. xlix. 1-27; Ex. xv. 1-18; Nu. xxiii. 
 7—xxiv. 19. 
 
 DIVIDED MONARCHY 
 
 Israel 
 
 Judah 
 
 Jeroboam I, 
 
 933-915. 
 
 Rehoboam, 
 
 Abijan. 
 
 933-920. 
 
 920-917. 
 
 Nadab, 
 
 Baasha, 
 
 Elah, 
 
 91&-913. 
 
 913-889. 
 
 889-887. 
 
 Asa, 
 
 917-876. 
 
 Warfare between the two kingdoms. 
 
 Sheshonk invaded both, pillaged Jerusalem in 929. 
 
 Syria invited by Asa, attacked the north, gained 
 northern cities, opened 100 years’ war about 890. 
 North returns to primitive religion. 
 
 South, reform under Asa. 
 
 Hero stories of judges, and Saul in circula¬ 
 tion. 
 
 Biographies of David and Solomon in process 
 of formation. 
 
 Judicial decisions of judges accumulating. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL CHART 
 
 323 
 
 Contemporary History 
 
 Small Nations 
 
 Babylonia-A ssyria 
 
 Date 
 
 Egypt and Nile Valley 
 
 Philistines in Palestine, 1170. Enter¬ 
 ing from the west. 
 
 Greece Syria 
 
 Merneptah, 1225- 
 1215. Campaign 
 in Palestine. “Is¬ 
 rael” among the 
 defeated clans. 
 Pharaoh of the 
 exodus? 
 
 Egypt rapidly de¬ 
 clines. 
 
 Trojan war, 1194- 
 1184. 
 
 In Greece, stories 
 of the Trojan 
 war and doings 
 of Achilles sung. 
 
 Branch of Ara- 
 means migrates, 
 to Syria. 
 
 Syrian kingdom 
 founded in Da¬ 
 mascus. Ben- 
 nadad I, king. 
 
 Nebuchadrezzar I of Babylon reaches 
 coast of Mediterranean, 1140-1123. 
 
 Egyptian decadence, 
 1150-663. 
 
 1200 
 
 Sheshonk, 945-924, 
 raided Palestine. 
 Spoiled the temple. 
 
 Beginnings of 
 the Iliad, 900. 
 
 Benhadad I captured cities in north 
 Israel, Ijon, Dan, Maaeah, Galilee 
 
 and Naphthali, 890. Assyrian chronological lists exact 
 
 from 893 to 666, still preserved 
 
 900 
 
324 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Date 
 
 Hebrew History 
 
 Hebrew Literature 
 
 887 
 
 842 
 
 740 
 
 722 
 
 701 
 
 Zimri, 
 
 Omri, 
 
 Ahab, 
 
 Ahaziab, 
 
 Jehoram, 
 
 887. 
 
 887-875. 
 
 875-853. 
 
 853-851. 
 
 851-842. 
 
 Jehoshaphat, 
 
 Ahaziab, 
 
 876-843. 
 
 843-842. 
 
 Omn developed the’ country. Peace between north 
 and south. T 3 Te, an ally of Israel. Samaria 
 made the capital. Moab tributary. Conflict wth 
 Syria. 
 
 Ahab continues same policy. Alliance with Judah. 
 Syria worsted in battle. Syria, Israel and alli^ 
 meet Assyrian army at Karkar in 854. Syria 
 worsted Israel, 853. 
 
 Jehu, 
 Jehoahaz, 
 Jehoash, 
 Jeroboam II, 
 
 842-814. 
 
 814-797. 
 
 797-781. 
 
 781-740. 
 
 Athaliah, 
 
 Joash, 
 
 Amaziah, 
 
 Azariah, 
 
 Jotham, 
 
 842-836. 
 
 836-796. 
 
 796-782. 
 
 782-751. 
 
 751-735. 
 
 Jehu opened a half century of national disaster. He 
 massacred the royal seed of both Israel and Judah, 
 and slaughtered the priests of Baal. Paid tribute 
 to Assyria in 842. Gilead and Gad were devastated 
 by Syria. Joash of Judah had to bribe Hazael of 
 Syria by temple treasure. 
 
 Jeshoash of Israel introduced a half-century of pros¬ 
 perity. Defeated Syria, 797. Defeated Amaziah 
 and breached walls of Jerusalem. 
 
 Jeroboam II drove Syria out of the land. 
 
 Peace between Judah and Israel. 
 
 Zechariah 
 
 Shallum, 
 
 Menahem, 
 
 Pekahiah, 
 
 Pekah, 
 
 Hoshea, 
 
 740. 
 
 740-738. 
 738-736. 
 736-734. 
 734 -732. 
 732-722. 
 
 Jotham, 
 
 Ahaz, 
 
 751-735. 
 
 735-715. 
 
 Days of anarchy. Four of these six kings of Israel 
 were murdered. 
 
 Menahem paid tribute to Assyria 738. 
 
 Israel and Syria combined against Ahaz of Judah in 
 ,.734. He called in Tiglath-Pileser, giving tribute. 
 Assyria came, took Damascus in 732 and spoiled 
 Gilead, deporting many. Ahaz reconstructed 
 temple on Assyrian model. 
 
 Samaria besieged by Assyria 724-722 and captured. 
 Deportation of 27,290. 
 
 Colonists introduced into Samaria. 
 
 Jvdah 
 
 Ahaz, 735-715. 
 
 Hezekiah, 715-686. 
 
 Hezekiah was a good king. Judah gained consider¬ 
 able strength. Siloam tunnel was constructed. 
 The temple was purified and a reform in religion 
 carri^ out. Assyrian and pagan idolatry banned. 
 Alliance with Egypt and the smaller states and 
 revolt against Assyria in 705. Merodach-baladin 
 usurper of Babylonia encouraged revolt. Jeru¬ 
 salem sieged in 701, heavy tribute paid, 46 cities 
 captured, deportatiom_ 
 
 Much literary activity. 
 
 Law codes being compiled. Ex. xxxiv. 14-26. 
 Ex. xxi-xxiii. 
 
 J. document, story of patriarchs and early 
 tribal history from beginning to entrance 
 mto Canaan, near completion, 850. 
 
 Book of Jashar, war songs. Josh. x. 12-13; 
 II Sam. i. 19-27; perhaps II Sam. iii. 33-34; 
 Jgs. V. 
 
 Wars of Yahweh. Nu. xxi. 14-15; perhaps 
 Nu. xxi. 27-30. Ex. xv. 1-18. 
 
 Early book of Judges, iii. 6—xvi. 31; xvii— 
 xxi. 
 
 E. document completed. 
 
 Ej. (Elijah stories). I Kgs. xvii-xix; xxi; 
 II Kgs. i. 2-17. 
 
 Es. (Elisha stories). II Kgs. ii; iv. 1 —vi. 23, 
 viii. 1-15, xiii. 14-21. 
 
 Political narratives. I Kgs. xx; xxii; II Kgs. 
 
 iii. ^27; vi. 24—vii. 20; ix, x. 
 
 Amos i-ix. 8. 
 
 Hosea i-xiv. completed before 735. 
 
 Isaiah began his ministry 737. 
 
 Sermons from 737-732. Isa. ii—iv. 1; v. 
 1-7; vi-viii, ix. 9—x. 4; v. 25-30; xvii. 
 1-11; V. 8-24. 
 
 Sermons from 727-722. 
 
 Isa. xiv. 28-32, xxviii. 1-4; xxiii. 1-14. 
 Sermons 711. 
 
 Isa. xv; xvi. 1-14; xvii. 12-14; xx. 1-6; 
 xxi. 13-37. 
 
 Sermons 701. 
 
 Isa. i. 1-31; x, 5-19, 24-32; xviii 1-6; 
 xxii. 1-4, 15-25; xxviii. 7-20; xxix. 1-16; 
 TTY 1—17* TTYl 1—4 
 
 Micahi i-iii. v. 10-14; vi. 9-16; vii. 1-6; 
 vi. 6-8. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL CHART 
 
 325 
 
 Contemporary History 
 
 Small Nations 
 
 Babylonia-A ssyria 
 
 Date 
 
 Egypt and Nile Valley 
 
 Mesha, king of Moab, gained freedom 
 from Ahab 850. Moabite stone 
 celebrates the victory. 
 
 887 
 
 Hazael king of Syria, 843-790 (?) 
 plunders northern Israel and east 
 of Jordan. 
 
 Suffers severely from Assyria in 803 
 and 797. 
 
 Defeated by Israel. 
 
 Greek history be^jins, writing of the 
 Od 3 rBsey beginning. 
 
 Benhadad king of Syria, 790-755 (?) 
 Defeated by Jeroboam II. 
 
 Rezon of Syria attacked Jerusalem 734 
 Damascus sieged by Tiglath-Pileser 
 734, captured 732, and kingdom 
 ceased. 
 
 Shalmaneser II, 860-825. Assyrian 
 king at Karkar, 854 met Syria and 
 her allies and claimed victory. 
 Between 849 and 839 launched 
 four great campaigns against Da¬ 
 mascus, thus interfering with her 
 attacks on Israel. 
 
 Adad-Nirari III, 812-783, king of 
 Assyria. Two campaigns a^inst 
 Damascus, 803, 797. 
 
 Ashur-Dan III, 773-755, king of 
 Assyria. Two campaigns against 
 Damascus, 773 and 765. 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser III, 745-727. Assyria 
 makes war on Damascus and Is¬ 
 rael in 738 and 734. 
 
 A 8 S 3 rria exacted tribute from Mena- 
 hem in 738. Captured Damascus, 
 732, conquered and deported from 
 north Israel and east of Jordan. 
 
 Shalmaneser IV, 727-722. Assyria. 
 Campaign against Syria and Pal¬ 
 estine 725. Samaria sieged 724, 
 captured 722 in beginning of Sar- 
 gon II (722-705) reign. 
 
 Sargon II deported Samaria and 
 colonized. Rebellion quelled in 
 Hamath, Arpad, Damascus, Sa¬ 
 maria, Gaza, Ashdod, and Egypt 
 defeated at Raphia in 720. 
 
 842 
 
 Rebellion of Ashdod and Philistine Sbabako (So ?) King 
 cities suppressed in 711. of Egypt, 712-700. 
 
 Sennacherib, 705-681. 
 
 Rebellion of Hezekiah, Phoenicia, 
 
 Moab, Ammon, Philistine cities 
 quelled. Jerusalem sieged. 
 
 Egypt defeated 701. 
 
 720 
 
 701 
 
326 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Date 
 
 689 
 
 Hebrew History 
 
 Sennacherib attack on JeruBalem? 
 
 Manasseh, 686-641. 
 
 Amon, 641-639. 
 
 Manasseh was a vassal of Assyria. He sent building 
 material to Nineveh for the royal palace and 
 soldiers with the Assyrian army invading Egypt. 
 Religiously he was pro-Assyrian and carried on a 
 vigorous persecution against Yahwism. 
 
 Hebrew LirEEATUEB 
 
 Psalms iii; xx; xxi; xxviii. 
 
 Proverbs, a nucleus of xxv.-xxix. collected? 
 J. E. documents united during the early dec¬ 
 ades of this century. 
 
 No prophets were speaking; no literature was 
 made public, so far as we know during this 
 reign. Possible that Dt. xii-xix. xxviii. 
 was written at this time, if not earlier. 
 
 639 
 
 Josiah, 639-608. 
 
 Good king Josiah came to the throne as a boy. 
 The kingdom was too small to play a part in world- 
 politics. 
 
 Zeph. i. about 630, the time of dread of the 
 approaching Scythians. 
 
 Jer. ii-vi (from 62&-621). Jer. xi-xii. 6 (621). 
 
 621 
 
 The Dt. reform in 621. 
 
 Temple cleansed. Made only place for worship. 
 High places destroyed. Dt. made authoritative. 
 
 608 
 
 Josiah slain by the Egyptians in the battle of 
 Megiddo. 
 
 Jehoahaz, 608. 
 
 Jehoiakim, 608-597. 
 
 Jehoiakin, 597. 
 
 Zedekiah, 597-586. 
 
 Judah was now a vassal to Eg 3 rpt. 
 
 Jehoahaz was deposed by Necho and Jehoiakim was 
 made king of Jerusalem. Heavy tribute was 
 levied. In 605 Judah again the spoil of war be¬ 
 came the vassal of Babylonia. 
 
 Zeph. ii. 1-7,12-15; iii. 1-7. (608). 
 
 Nah. i. 11,14; ii. 1, 3-13; iii. 1-19. 
 
 Jer. vii.-viii. 22. 
 
 First edition of book of Jeremiah (604). 
 Most likely included: Jer. i. 4—-ix. 26; 
 X. 17—xii. 6; xiv. 1—xvii. 18; xxii. 10-19. 
 Narratives referring to these times. Jer. xxv, 
 xxxvi, xlv. 
 
 Hab. i-ii. Chp. iii, a psalm later. 
 
 601 
 
 697 
 
 588 
 
 586 
 
 Tribute was withheld, and allies of Babylon raided 
 the country. 
 
 Nebuchadrezzar sieged the city, took it, spoiled the 
 temple and took 10,000 of the princes captive. 
 
 Revolt by Zedekiah, alliance with Egypt. Ne¬ 
 buchadrezzar came, city taken in 586, razed and 
 second captivity. 
 
 Jer. xviii. 1—xx. 18; xiii. 1-7 (601). 
 
 Book of Deuteronomy completed. 
 
 First edition of I, II Kings. 
 
 Jer. xxii. 24-50; xii. 7-17; xxiv. 1-10; xxvii, 
 xxix, xxxv; Mic. iv. 9-10 (597). Jer. xxiii. 
 9-40; xxviii, li. 59-64 (593); Ezek. i-xxiii 
 (592-1); Ezek. xxiv-xxLx. 16; Jer. xxi. 
 1-14; xxxii-xxxiv; xxxvii-xxxix (588-586). 
 Jer. xl-xhv; Ezek. xxx-xxxix (582). 
 
 Gedaliah, the new governor, murdered with some of 
 the Babylonian guard by Ishmael. Many fled to 
 Egypt. 
 
 Lam. ii, iv. 
 
 Ps. xviii, xxvii, Ixi, Ixiii, feii, xlv, xm, xlvii, 
 xlviii. Referring to a king who seems to be 
 historic and not a foreigner, belong before 
 the exile chiefly. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL CHART 
 
 327 
 
 Contemporary History 
 
 Date 
 
 Small Nations 
 
 Babylonia-A ssyria 
 
 Egypt and Nile Valley 
 
 
 City of Babylon completely de¬ 
 stroyed, 692. 
 
 Campaign against Arabians in 689. 
 Murdered by two sons, 681, 
 Esarhaddon, 681-668. 
 
 Great temple builder. Restorer of 
 Babylon. Renowned conqueror, 
 Egypt defeated, Memphis taken, 
 670. Crowned king of Egypt. 
 Palestine and Tyre submit and 
 pay tribute. Revolt in Egypt 
 quelled, 668-666. 
 
 Shabatako, 700-691. 
 Tirhakah, 691-665. 
 
 Tirhakah fled from 
 the capital 670. 
 
 700 
 
 
 Ashurbanipal, 668-626. 
 
 Subdued Egypt in 666 and again in 
 662. The golden age of Assyria. 
 Great _ library at Nineveh built 
 and inscriptions carefully col¬ 
 lected. 
 
 Ashurtilili, 626-606, and Sinsharish- 
 kun last kings of Assyria. 
 
 Thebes captured by 
 Assyria, 662. 
 Psamtik, 662-610. 
 Gains throne and 
 independence. 
 Scythians bought 
 off at the border. 
 
 630 
 
 
 Nabopolassar, 626-605. gained inde¬ 
 pendence of Babylon. Nineveh 
 attacked by Medes in 625 but 
 saved by the Scythians. 
 
 Necho, 610-694. 
 Megiddo. 
 Carchemish. 
 
 60S 
 
 605 
 
 
 Nineveh taken by the Medes, allies 
 of Babylonia in 606-605. Went 
 as spoil to Babylonia. 
 
 
 
 
 Nebuchadrezzar defeated Egyptians 
 at Carchemish, 605. King of 
 Babylon, 605-562. Syria and 
 AB837ria came under Babylonia. 
 Rebuilt Babylon. Jerusalem re¬ 
 belled and captured. 
 
 Psamtik II, 594-588. 
 
 697 
 
 
 Jerusalem again rebelled in 588. 
 Sieged, captured and razed in 586. 
 
 Hophra, 588-669. 
 Army of Egypt 
 sent to relief of 
 Jerusalem defeated. 
 
 586 
 
328 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Date 
 
 586 
 
 Hebrew History 
 
 Judah in Exile 
 
 Jerusalem was uninhabitable. The country desolate. 
 Peasants remaining. Inroads made by neighbors. 
 Edom, Arabs and others. 
 
 Hebrew Literature 
 
 Egyptian colonies. 
 
 1. Taphanes, Migdol and Memphis. Many at¬ 
 
 tracted by commerce. Jeremiah with these 
 exiles. In 560 all foreigners were expelled 
 from border cities. 
 
 2. Assuan. Here was a Jewish colony from be¬ 
 
 fore 525. A temple. Aramaic papyri. Re¬ 
 lations with Jerusalem in 400. 
 
 Babylonia. Colony in 597. 
 
 Great prosperity; splendid culture; considerable 
 freedom; self-government. 
 
 Ezek. xl-xlviii. Temple vision in 572. 
 Ezek. xxix. 17-20, appendix, 570. 
 
 Dt. xxxii. 1^3. “Song of Moses.” 
 
 Job. i-ii. xlii. 7-17. Prose story of Job. 
 
 570 
 
 Ezekiel prophesying 592-570. 
 
 550 
 
 547 
 
 to 
 
 540 
 
 Lev. xi, xvii-xxvi. H. C. Other similar 
 priestly regulations accumulated. 
 
 Edition of Jeremiah by Baruch. Historical 
 narratives and predictions included. 
 
 Edition of Isaiah, including historical ma¬ 
 terial; Isa. xxxvi-xxxix. 
 
 Deuteronomic activity. 
 
 Second and final edition of I, II Kings. 
 Deutoronomic edition of JE. of the Pen¬ 
 tateuch and Josh, i-xii. This united with 
 final edition of Deuteronomy. 
 Deutoronomic edition of Judges, I, II, 
 Samuel completed. 
 
 Lam. i. V. 
 
 Ps. xxii, Ixxvii, Ixxxix, cxxxvii, exilic. 
 
 Isa. xxi. 1-10, xiii-xiv. 23; Jer. i. 27 li. 58; 
 Isa. xl-lv; Hos. i. 10-ii. 1; Amos ix. 8b- 
 15; Mic. ii. 12,13, iv. 6-8; Zeph. ii. 8-11, 
 iii. 8-20. With much more editorial work 
 on the existing books. 
 
 539 
 
 The Jewish Community 
 
 Sheshbazzar local governor for Persia in Jerusalem. 
 Permission to return granted by Cyrus. Only 
 small groups at different times accepted. Total 
 in two centuries a little over 42,360. 
 
 520 
 
 516 
 
 Zerubbabel, a royal prince, local governor. Joshua, 
 the high priest. Haggai and Zechariah urge the 
 rebuilding of the temple. Second temple dedi¬ 
 cated in 516. 
 
 Seventy years of silence. 
 
 Edomites driven out of their possessions by Na¬ 
 bateans press up into the south of Judah. 
 Jerusalem community, small and mongrel. 
 
 Hag. i. ii. 
 
 Zech. i-viii. 
 
 Isa. ix. 1-7, xi. 1-10. 
 
 Nah. i. 12,13,15, ii. 2 (516). 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL CHART 
 
 329 
 
 Contemporary History 
 
 Small Nations 
 
 Baby Ionia-A ssyria 
 
 Egypt and Nile Valley 
 
 
 Babylonia 
 
 Persia 
 
 
 
 Evil- Marduk, 
 561-559. 
 
 Son of Neb- 
 buchadrezzar. 
 
 Nergalissar, 559- 
 555. 
 
 Brother-in-law 
 of predecessor, 
 whom he mur¬ 
 dered. 
 
 Cyrus, king of 
 Anshan, 559. 
 Successfully re¬ 
 volted against 
 Persia, 550. 
 Crowned king of 
 Persia. 547. 
 
 
 
 Labashi-Marduk, 
 
 555. 
 
 Ruled nine 
 months and 
 was removed 
 , by conspirators. 
 
 Conquered Lydia 
 and Aegean 
 Greeks 546. 
 
 
 
 Nabonidus, 555- 
 539. 
 
 One of the con¬ 
 spirators. A 
 new family. 
 The last king, 
 an antiquarian 
 rather than a 
 statesman. 
 
 Belshazzar, son 
 of Nabonidus, 
 was prince re¬ 
 gent under his 
 father; may 
 have bad an 
 official position 
 in Babylon. 
 
 Army of Cyrus. 
 Entered Baby¬ 
 lon, 539, under 
 Gobryas, his 
 general. Proc¬ 
 lamation. 
 
 
 
 Persia 
 
 Cyrus. Persia (559-529). 
 
 King of Babylon, 539-529. 
 
 
 
 Cambyses, 529-522. 
 
 Conquered Egypt, 525, destroyed 
 temples, slew the sacred bull. 
 Darius I, 522-486. 
 
 Insurrections throughout the king¬ 
 dom. In nineteen campaigns in 
 seven years he was victorious. 
 Reorganized all the empire. 
 Visited Egypt, rebuilt the temples, 
 provided a bull. Invaded Europe. 
 Battle of Marathon. 
 
 
 Date 
 
 586 
 
 523 
 
 517 
 
 515 
 
330 
 
 Date 
 
 444 
 
 432 
 
 398 
 
 380 
 
 346 
 
 332 
 
 321 
 
 320 
 
 315 
 
 280 
 
 264 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Hebrew History 
 
 Hebrew Literature 
 
 Nehemiah granted leave of absence by Artaxerxes, 
 goes to Jerusalem and builds the wall in 52 days. 
 Opposed by Ammonites, Arabians and Samaritans. 
 Organized the community. 
 
 Isa. xxxiv, XXXV, Ivi-lxii, Ixiii. 1-6. 
 
 Obadiah. 
 
 Malachi. 
 
 Isa. ii. 2-4, xix. 19-25. 
 
 Mic. iv. 1-5, vii. 7-20. 
 
 Nehemiah's second visit to the city. 
 
 Drove out the foreigners. Prohibited commerce 
 on the Sabbath. Rebuked marriages with foreign¬ 
 ers. Organized the treasury. Demanded that 
 the Levites receive their dues. 
 
 Neh. i—vii. 5; xiii, 4-31. Nehemiah’s mem¬ 
 oirs. 
 
 Ezra iv. 8—vi. 16. Aramaic document. 
 
 Ezra came to Jeiusalem in seventh year of Arta¬ 
 xerxes II. Law book read seven days. Feast of 
 booths observed. Covenant to keep the law; di¬ 
 vorce court established; 113 cases guilty. 
 
 Psalm book No. I (Ps. iii-xli collected). 
 Ezra’s law book, which was the nucleus of P. 
 
 Enlarged editions of the law code. 
 
 Samaritan schism between 400 and 350. 
 
 Priestly edition of JED. with P. 400-350. 
 P. material includes genealogies, statistics, 
 priestly traditions and_ institutions, e.g., 
 Lv. i-xvi; Ex. xxv-xxxi. 18; i^v-xl; vi. 
 2—vii. 13; xii. 1-20. Gen. i-ii. 4a, v. 1- 
 28, vi 9-22, ix. 1-7; x. 1-7. Nu. i-x. 28; 
 xv; xvii-xix; xxvi-xiai. Dt. xxxii. 48-52; 
 Josh. xiii. 15-32; ix. 17-21, xiv. 1-5; 
 XV. 1-13; 20-67; etc. Thus Hexateuch 
 completed before 350. 
 
 Job iii-xlii. 6. 
 
 Jewish deportation to Egypt. 
 
 Temple desecrated. Heavy tax. 
 
 Alexander conquers Syria. Generous to Palestine 
 and Samaria. 
 
 Ruth. Jonah? Isa. Ixiii. 7-lxvi. 21. _ 
 Many interpretative additions to existing 
 books during the century: e.g., Jer. x. 1-16, 
 xvii. 19-27. 
 
 Joel. 
 
 Isa. xxiv-xxvii. Apocalypse. 
 
 Nahum i. 2-10 an apocalyptic acrostic 
 psalm. 
 
 Judah in the next 40 years changed masters eight 
 times. 
 
 Ptolemy I captured the city on the Sabbath 321, and 
 carried Jews captive to Egypt. 
 
 
 Antigonus, a rival general took and held Judah until 
 i301. 
 
 Priestly history of the kingdom compiled. 
 I, II, Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, after 
 300. 
 
 Judah became an Egyptian province and remained 
 so until 198. 
 
 Ps. xlii-lxxxix. Collected in Psalm Books 
 II, III. 
 
 War between Egypt and Syria. 
 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL CHART 
 
 331 
 
 CONTEMFOEAHT HiSTOET 
 
 Small Nations 
 
 Greece 
 
 The age of Pericles in Athens. 461-431 
 
 Aeschylus, 525-446 
 
 Sophocles, 496-406 
 
 Euripides, 480-406 
 
 Socrates, 469-339 
 
 Plato 427-347 
 
 Persia 
 
 Xerxes I, 486-464. 
 
 Subdued revolt in Egypt 486. 
 Battles of Thermopylae and Sala- 
 mis. Plataea, 479. Persians driven 
 out of Europe. 
 
 Artaxerxes I, 464-424. 
 
 Kindly disposed. 
 
 Xerxes II, 424-423. 
 
 Darius II, 423-404. 
 
 Date 
 
 Egypt and Nile Valley 
 
 490 
 
 480 
 
 470 
 
 Aristotle 384-322. 
 
 Egypi- became inde- 
 penden* 
 
 410 
 
 Philip of Macedon, 359-336. 
 Conquered and organized all Greece 
 by 338 and laid basis for world 
 empire. 
 
 Alexander the Great, 336-323. 
 
 Battle of Issus, 333, Tyre and Syria 
 conquered, and Alexandria, Egypt, 
 founded, 332. Battle of Arbela, 
 Babylon and Persia conquered. 
 India conquered. Died in Babylon 
 323. Left vast empire to his gen¬ 
 erals. 
 
 Conflicts between the generals over 
 authority and boundary lines. Four 
 great divisions, two of interest to 
 Old Testament study 
 
 Artaxerxes II, 404-358. 
 
 Artaxerxes III, 358-337. 
 
 Egypt and Phoenicia revolted. 
 Jews defeated and deported to 
 Babylonia and Hyrcania. 
 
 Temple spoiled. 
 
 Arses, 337-335. 
 
 Darius III 335-331. 
 
 353 
 
 346 
 
 Syria 
 
 Seleucus I, 311-281. 
 Antiochus I, 281-261. 
 Antiochus II, 261-245, 
 
 Ptolemy I, 322-285. 
 
 322 
 
 Ptolemy II, 285-247. 
 
332 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Date 
 
 Hebrew History 
 
 Hebrew Literature 
 
 248 
 
 Judah suffered greatly 
 
 Septuagint beginning, Pentateuch into 
 Greek. 
 
 Job xxxii-xxxvii. Speeches of Elihu. 
 
 230 
 
 Joseph, the taxgatherer, was Egypt’s representative 
 until 208. Luxurious, oppressive. 
 
 Prov. x-xxiv. Collected. 
 
 Song of Songs. Jonah. 
 
 Zechariah ix.-xi. 3 (230). Lam. iii. 
 
 218 
 
 208 
 
 Syria conquered Palestine, but by battle of Raphia, 
 lost again to Egypt. Jerusalem temple defiled. 
 Jews enslaved. Great suffering. 
 
 Hyrcanus, illegitimate son of Joseph, successor to 
 his father until 175. 
 
 Zech. xi. 4-17, xiii. 7-9, xii. 1—xiii. 6, xiv. 
 1-20 (210). 
 
 H.BHKW 
 
 198 
 
 Battle of Banias. Syria gained Palestine. Very 
 lenient to Jews. 
 
 Ecclesiastes. 
 
 Job xxviii. 
 
 Prov. i-ix, XXX. 1-4, 
 XXX. 5—xxxi. 31. 
 Esther. 
 
 Ecclesiasticus. 
 
 175 
 
 Jason, a Hellenized Jew, bought the high-priesthood. 
 Onias III, thus deposed, went to Egypt and became 
 priest in a new temple built to Yahweh in Leon- 
 topolis. 
 
 
 
 172 
 
 Menelaus outbid Jason, and was ordained high 
 priest. Disregarded sanctity of the temple and 
 pro-Grecian. Jason raided the temple. 
 
 
 
 170 
 
 Antiochus plundered the temple and put a thousand 
 Jews to death. 
 
 
 Apoc. Enoch i.-xxxvi. 
 
 168 
 
 Prohibited circumcision, possessing a copy of the 
 Scriptures, Sabbath observance, and demanded 
 the eating and sacrifice of swines’ flesh by all Jews. 
 Altar to Zeus set up in temple. 
 
 
 
 167 
 
 Maccabean revolt led by Judas, assisted by tne Hasi- 
 dim successful. Syrian armies defeated, 167-165. 
 
 Daniel, 165. 
 
 
 165 
 
 Temple rededication Dec. 25, 165. 
 
 Hasidim secede from the war party. 
 
 Judas continues, gains victories from 163-161, when 
 he is slain. 
 
 Ps. Ixxiv; Ixxxix; xliv. 
 Maccabean. 
 
 Apoc. Enoch bmiii- 
 xc. 161. 
 
 161 
 
 Jonathan, his youngest brother, succeeds as leader, 
 161-143. 
 
 
 
 143 
 
 141 
 
 Simon, an older brother, succeeds and rules, 143-135. 
 Sends an embassy to Rome, and gains important 
 concessions. 
 
 Appointed king and high-priest of the Jewish com¬ 
 munity. 
 
 Ps. cx. 
 
 Ps. xc-cl. i. ii. col¬ 
 lected. Psalm books 
 IV. V. 
 
 Much editorial work 
 done during the 
 
 1 preceding century. 
 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL CHART 
 
 333 
 
 Contemporary History 
 
 Small Nations 
 
 Syria 
 
 Date 
 
 Egypt and Nile Valley 
 
 Seleucus II, 245-227. 
 
 248 
 
 Seleucus III, 227-224. 
 
 Ptolemy III, 247-222. 
 
 Antiochus III, 224-187. 
 
 Conquered Palestine and northern 
 
 Syria in 198. Crossed into Greece Ptolemy IV, 222-205. 
 
 but driven out by Roman army. 
 
 Then at Magnesia in 190, in Asia Ptolemy V, 205-181. 
 Minor, was defeated, and lost terri¬ 
 tory and prestige. 
 
 Antiochus IV, 187-164. 
 
 War against Egypt, 171-168, suc¬ 
 cessful. Romn senate interfered 
 with his activity. The victory at 
 Pydna in Macedonia in 168, had 
 made Rome the first power in the 
 world. 
 
 Ptolemy VI, 181. 
 Ptolemy VII, 181- 
 161. Weak kings, 
 now under tutelage 
 of Rome. 
 
 198 
 
 170 
 
 Antiochus V, 164-162. 
 Demetrius, 162-150. 
 
 165 
 
 Alexander Balas, 150-145. 
 
 143 
 
 Demetrius II, 145-136. 
 
 136 
 
334 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Datb 
 
 Hebrew Histort 
 
 Hebrew Literature 
 
 
 
 HEBREW literature 
 
 extra canonical : 
 
 JEWISH LITERATURE 
 
 
 John (Hyrcanua I), bis son, succeeded him in office, 
 
 
 
 135 
 
 135-105. 
 
 Old Testament canon 
 
 
 
 
 virtually closed by 
 
 Twelve Patriarchs. 
 
 
 
 100 B.C. 
 
 Tobit. 
 
 100 
 
 
 Greek translation 
 
 Sybilline Oracles, iii. 
 
 
 
 (Septuagint) of 
 most of them com- 
 
 97-818. 
 
 Apoc. Enoch. xci.-civ, 
 
 64 
 
 
 pleted. 
 
 
 
 I Maccabees. 
 
 Psalms of Solomon. 
 Apoc. Enoch, xxxvii.- 
 
 Ixx. 
 
 Judith. 
 
 II Maccabees. 
 Susanna, Bel and the 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Dragon. 
 
 The Three Holy Chil- 
 
 
 
 
 dren. 
 
 Wisdom of Solomon. 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 Jubilees. 
 
 Slavonic Enoch. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL CHART 
 
 335 
 
 SmaU Nations 
 
 CONTEMPOKARY HiSTOBT 
 
 Syria 
 
 Antiochus VI, 136-126. 
 
 Date 
 
 Egypt and Nile Valley 
 
 130 
 
 126 
 
 100 
 
 64 
 
 63 
 
 50 
 
 40 
 
SELECTED BOOKS OF REFERENCE 
 
 Archceology 
 
 Barton, George A. “Arcliseology and the Bible.’^ American 
 Sunday School Union, 1916. 
 
 Peters, John P. “Bible and Spade.” Charles Scribner’s Sons, 
 New York, 1922. 
 
 Ancient History 
 
 Breasted, James Henry. “A History of the Ancient Egyp¬ 
 tians.” Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1908. 
 
 Goodspeed, George Stephen. “A History of the Babylonians 
 and Assyrians.” Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1902. 
 
 Old Testament History 
 
 Smith, H. P. “Old Testament History.” Charles Scribner’s 
 Sons, New York, 1903. 
 
 Kent, C. F., and Riggs, J. S. “A History of the Hebrew and 
 Jewish Peoples.” Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. 
 
 Wade, G. W. “Old Testament History” (3d ed.). E. P. Dutton 
 and Company, New York, 1904. 
 
 Peritz, Ismar J. “Old Testament History.” The Abingdon 
 Press, New York, 1915. 
 
 Old Testament Religion 
 
 Peters, J. P. “The Religion of the Hebrews.” Ginn and Com¬ 
 pany, Boston. 
 
 Smith, H. P. “The Religion of Israel.” Charles Scribner’s 
 Sons, New York. 
 
 Ottley, R. L. “The Religion of Israel.” The Macmillan Com¬ 
 pany, New York. 
 
 Marti, K. “Religion of the Old Testament.” Putnam, New 
 York, 1907. 
 
 Barton, George A. “The Religion of Israel.” The Macmillan 
 Company, New York, 1918. 
 
 Kirkpatrick, A. F. “The Doctrine of the Prophets.” The Mac¬ 
 millan (Company, New York, 1901. 
 
 337 
 
338 OLD TESTAMENT LIFE AND LITERATURE 
 
 Old Testament Literature 
 
 Bewer, Julius A. “The Literature of the Old Testament in 
 Its Historical Development.” Columbia University Press, 
 1922. 
 
 Driver, S. R. “Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testa¬ 
 ment” (9th ed.). Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. 
 Kent, C. F. “The Student’s Old Testament.” In six volumes. 
 
 Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. 
 
 Fowler, H. T. “A History of the Literature of Ancient Israel.” 
 
 The Macmillan Company, New York. 
 
 Gray, G. B. “A Critical Introduction to the Old Testament.” 
 
 Duckworth and Company, London, 1913. 
 
 McFayden, J. E. “Introduction to the Old Testament.” A. C. 
 
 Armstrong and Son, New York. 
 
 Chapman, A. T. “An Introduction to the Pentateuch.” Cam¬ 
 bridge University Press. Cambridge Bible for Schools and 
 Colleges Series. 
 
 Old Testament Commentaries 
 
 “International Critical Commentary,” 25 volumes. Charles 
 ScribneFs Sons. 
 
 “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges.” Cambridge Uni¬ 
 versity Press; A. F. Kirkpatrick, general editor. 
 
 “The Century Bible.” Walter F. Adeney, general editor. T. C. 
 and E. C. Jack, Edinburgh. 
 
 “Bible for Home and School.” Shailer Mathews, general editor. 
 
 The Macmillan Company, New York. 
 
 Peake’s “Commentary of the Bible.” In one volume. Thomas 
 Nelson and Sons, New York, 1919. 
 
 Bible Dictionaries 
 
 “Dictionary of the Bible.” Complete in one volume. Edited 
 by James Hastings. Charles ScribneFs Sons, New York, 
 1909. 
 
 “Standard Bible Dictionary.” M. W. Jacobus, editor. Funk 
 and Wagnalls Company, New York, 1909. 
 
 “Dictionary of the Bible.” Four volumes with extra volume. 
 James Hastings, editor. Charles ScribneFs Sons, New 
 York. 
 
INDEX 
 
 A 
 
 Abiathar, 97 
 Abihu, 53 
 Abijah, 127 
 Abimeleck, 73 
 Abiram, 53 
 Abraham, 33-34, 154 
 Adonijah, 97, 109 
 Agag, 83, 85 
 
 Ahab, 135, 136, 137, 138 
 Ahaz, 166, 167, 168, 172 
 Alexander, 281, 282 
 Amarna Tablets, 5, 9, 59 
 Amaziah, 147 
 Ammonites, 70, 79 
 Amon, 187 
 Amorites, 7 
 
 Amos, 148, 150, 157, 158, 159, 191 
 Antiochus III, 283 
 Antiochus IV, 283, 284, 305 
 Apocalypticism, 278-290, 296-305 
 Ark, 85 
 
 Artaxerxes I, 258 
 Artaxerxes II, 259 
 Artaxerxes III, 268, 280 
 Asa, 128 
 .A-stiGr 00 
 
 Ashurbanipal, 186, 187, 188 
 Assuan, 223, 224 
 
 Assyria, 134, 135, 136, 145, 161, 
 162, 163, 164, 172, 184, 202 
 Athaliah, 135, 144, 145, 146 
 Authorship, 21, 22-31 
 Azariah (Uzziah), 144, 147, 148, 
 166 
 
 B 
 
 Baalism, 138, 139, 192 
 Baasha, 128, 129 
 Babylonia, 3, 8 
 New, 202, 203, 204 
 
 Babylonian Colony, 224, 225, 
 226 
 Ban, 85 
 Barak, 69 
 Baruch, 241 
 Belshazzar, 238 
 Benhadad I, 136 
 Benhadad II, 143 
 
 C 
 
 Calebites, 59 
 Calf-worship, 55, 130 
 Cambyses, 247 
 Canaan, 59, 60, 63, 65-69 
 Canaanite, 8, 86 
 Canon, 314-316 
 Captivity, Israel, 163, 164 
 Captivity, Judah, 206, 210, 218, 
 224-226, 238 
 Chasidim, 285 
 Chronicles, 290, 291 
 Concubine Clans, 67 
 Covenant, 47, 49, 215 
 Covenant Code, 49, 156, 157, 195, 
 233 
 
 Cyrus, 237-240, 242 
 
 D 
 
 Daniel, Message, 301, 302, 303, 
 304 
 
 Daniel i., iii.-vi., 293, 294 
 Daniel ii., vii.-xii,, 301, 302, 303, 
 304, 305 
 
 Darius I, 246-248 
 Dathan, 53 
 
 David, 21, 81, 82, 90-107 
 Dead Sea, 13 
 Deborah, 69, 73 
 Decalogue, 48, 154, 155 
 
340 INDEX 
 
 Deuteronomy, 29, 193-196, 215, 
 216, 233 
 Reform of, 191 
 
 School of, 108, 124, 125, 131, 
 133 
 
 E 
 
 E. Document, 27, 156, 157 
 Ecclesiastes, 117, 311, 312 
 Eden, 2 
 
 Edom, 221, 258, 264, 265 
 Egypt, 4, 5, 8, 169, 188, 221, 222 
 Elah, 129 
 Eli, 78 
 Elihu, 277 
 
 Elijah, 139, 140, 141, 143 
 Elijah Stories, 156 
 Elisha, 140 
 Elisha Stories, 156 
 Eltekeh, 170 
 Ephod, 86 
 
 Esarhaddon, 186, 187 
 Esther, 292, 293 
 Esther, book of, 258 
 Exile, 218, 224-226, 238, 248, 249 
 Exodus, 38-40 
 
 Ezekiel, 206, 208, 209, 212, 218, 
 221 227-2^2 
 
 Ezra, 244, 259, 260, 262, 263 
 Ezra-Nehemiah, book of, 245, 
 246 
 
 F 
 
 Folk Tales, 291-294 
 G 
 
 Gedaliah, 211, 218 
 Gideon, 70, 73 
 Gilead, 60 
 Goshen, 37 
 
 Greek culture, 286, 287 
 
 H 
 
 Habakkuk, 203, 204, 241 
 Habiri, 9, 60 
 Haggai, 246, 252, 253 
 Hammurabi, 4, 157 
 Hananiah, 208 
 Hazael, 143, 144 
 
 Hebrew Bible, 19 
 Hexateuch, 22-31, 270, 271 
 Hezekiah, 168-171, 173, 184 
 Hittites, 9 
 
 Holiness Code, 232-234 
 Hosea, book of, 148, 150, 151, 159, 
 160, 194, 212, 241 
 Hoshea, 161, 163 
 Hyksos, 37 
 Hyrcanus, 283 
 
 I 
 
 Ikhnaton, 5 
 Individualism, 213, 214 
 Ipuwer, 5 
 
 Isaiah, 167, 170, 173, 176, 184, 
 212 
 
 Isaiah, book of, 176-180 
 Isaiah xxiv.-xxvii., 296, 297 
 Isaiah, xl.-lv., 241, 242 
 Isaiah Ivi.-lxvii., 258, 264, 265 
 Isaiah Ixiii.-lxvi., 279, 280 
 Isaiah, message of, 180, 181, 182 
 
 J 
 
 J. Document, 27, 153, 154, 155, 
 156 
 
 JE. Document, 197 
 Jabesh-Gilead, 79, 80, 83 
 Jacob, 33 
 
 Jasher, book of, 152 
 Jason, 284 
 Jehoash, 146 
 Jehoahaz, 146 
 Jehoiakim, 200, 205 
 Jehoiakin, 205, 206 
 Jehoram, 144 
 Jehoshaphat, 137 
 Jehu, 145, 146 
 Jephthah, 70 
 
 Jeremiah, 53, 191, 196, 197, 201- 
 215, 222 
 
 Jericho, 62, 63, 69 
 Jeroboam, 126, 127, 129, 130 
 Jerusalem, 169, 170-171, 181, 218, 
 251, 265, 266 
 Jethro, 52 
 
 Jezebel, 135, 140, 144 
 Joab, 97, 109 
 
INDEX 
 
 341 
 
 Joash, 146, 147 
 Job, 275-277 
 Joel, 278 
 
 Jonah, 272, 307, 308 
 Jonathan, 91 
 
 Jonathan Maccabeus, 285 
 Jordan, 12, 62 
 Joseph, 35 
 
 Joseph the tax-gatherer, 283 
 Josiah, 188-192 
 Joshua, book of, 63, 64 
 Jotham, 166 
 Judah, 65, 66 
 Judges, 73, 157 
 Judges, book of, 64, 65 
 Judas Maccabeus, 284, 285 
 
 K 
 
 Kadesh-Barnea, 43, 46, 49, 50, 61 
 Kenites, 46, 55, 59 
 Kings, book of, 120-124 
 Korah, 53 
 
 L 
 
 Lamentations, 235, 236 
 Leah tribes, 66, 67 
 Legalism, 269, 289 
 Legislation, 84, 99, 105, 142, 269- 
 270 
 
 Levites, 131, 231 
 Leviticus xvii.-xxvi., 232-234 
 Literature, 88, 106, 115, 141, 152 
 Liturgy, 294, 295, 296 
 
 M 
 
 Maccabees, 284-286 
 Malachi, 258, 264, 265 
 Manasseh, 185, 186 
 Manna, 50, 51 
 Megiddo, 69 
 Menahem, 161, 162 
 Menelaus, 284 
 Merneptah, 60 
 Merodach-baladan, 169-171 
 Messiah, 255, 266, 267 
 Messianic hope, 254, 255, 266, 267 
 Micah, 173, 183, 241 
 book of, 182, 188, 264 
 message, 183 
 
 Micaiah, 141 
 
 Midian, 46, 60, 61, 69 
 
 Moab, 60, 61, 137 
 
 Moabite stone, 135, 136, 141, 152 
 
 Monarchy, 73, 77-79, 125 
 
 Moses, 22-31, 39, 44, 55^ 56 
 
 N 
 
 Nabataeans, 221, 258, 265 
 Naboth, 140 
 Nadab, 53, 127 
 Nahum, 198, 199 
 Nathan, 104 
 
 'NTq T*1 PQ 7^ 
 
 Nebuchadrezzar, 202, 205, 206, 
 232 
 
 Necho, 189, 200, 202 
 Nehemiah, 245, 259-262 
 
 0 
 
 Obadiah, 258, 264, 265 
 Omri, 134, 138 
 Onias II, 283 
 Onias III, 284 
 Ophir, 111 
 
 P 
 
 Padi, of Ekron, 169 
 Palestine, 1, 2, 6, 10, 14 
 Patriarchs, 33-35 
 Pekah, 161, 162 
 Pekahiah, 161, 162 
 Pentateuch, 22, 23, 282, 306, 314 
 Philistines, 71, 78, 80, 82, 95, 128, 
 134, 148, 168 
 
 Priests, 106, 131, 231, 290 
 Priestly activity, 30, 31, 263, 289 
 Priest code, 263, 269, 270 
 Prophecy, 86, 140, 314, 315 
 Proselytes, 306 
 Proverbs, 117, 174, 175 
 Proverbs, book of, 308-311 
 Psalms, 174, 217, 236, 237, 273, 
 274 
 
 Psalms, book of, 273, 274, 295, 
 296 
 
 Psalms, Maccabean, 294 
 Psalms of Solomon, 118, 294 
 Ptolemy I, 282 
 
342 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Ptolemy II, 282 
 Ptolemy III, 283 
 Ptolemy IV, 284, 285 
 
 R 
 
 Rachel tribes, 65, 66 
 Ramoth-Gilead, 135, 136, 141 
 Ramses II, 38 
 Rechabites, 140 
 Reformation, 191, 192 
 Rehoboam, 126, 127 
 Return from captivity, 248-251 
 Ruth, 271, 272 
 
 S 
 
 Samaritans, 164, 267 
 Samson, 71, 72 
 Samuel, 78, 87 
 Samuel, book of, 76, 77 
 Sanballat, 261 
 Sanhedrin, 287, 288 
 Sargon I, 3 
 Sargon II, 167, 168 
 Saul, 79-84 
 
 Scribes, 18,112,240, 241,257,271 
 Scythians, 189, 190 
 Seleucids, 283 
 Seleucus IV, 283 
 Sennacherib, 168-171, 179 
 Septuagint, 20, 21, 51, 117, 282, 
 306, 307 
 Serpents, 51 
 
 Servant-Songs, 242, 243, 249 
 Seventy years, 254, 302-305 
 Shabako, 167 
 Shalmaneser IV, 41, 163 
 Shamgar, 71 
 Sheba, 96, 97 
 Sheva, 100 
 Shechem, 129 
 Shephelah, 11 
 Sheshbazzar, 250 
 Shiloh, 78 
 Shimei, 96, 109 
 Shishak, 127 
 Siloam, 172 
 Simon Maccabeus, 286 
 Sinai, 42-44, 46 
 Solomon, 97, 108-115 
 
 Song of Solomon, 117, 312, 313 
 Superscriptions, 21, 107, 241 
 Sumerians, 3 
 Synagogue, 288, 289 
 Syria, 109, 128, 136, 162 
 
 T 
 
 Taboo, 84, 85 
 
 Temple, first, 110, 111, 116, 117, 
 130, 131 
 
 of Ezekiel, 230-232 
 second, 251, 253, 254, 256, 257, 
 272 
 
 Leontopolis, 284 
 Teraphim, 84 
 
 Tiglath-Pileser III, 161-163, 167, 
 178 
 
 Tribes of Israel, 34, 35, 52, 163, 
 164 
 
 U 
 
 Urim and Thummim, 84 
 Uzziah (Azariah), 144, 147, 148, 
 166 
 
 W 
 
 Wars of Yahweh, book of, 152, 
 153 
 
 Wilderness of Sinai, 42-45, 49 
 Writing, 15-19, 100, 152 
 Wisdom, 310, 311 
 Wisdom Literature, 257 
 
 X 
 
 Xerxes II, 258, 259 
 Y 
 
 Yahwism, 105, 118, 119, 130, 140, 
 141, 144, 149, 150, 173 
 
 Z 
 
 Zadok, 97, 231 
 Zechariah, 246, 252 
 Zechariah ix.-xiv., 298-301 
 Zedekiah, 206, 208, 210 
 Zephaniah, 190, 191, 241 
 Zerubbabel, 253, 256 
 Zimri, 129 
 
Date Due 
 
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