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KEIL, D.D., AND F. DELITZSCH, D.D., PROFESSORS OF THEOLOGT. THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS. BY C. F. KEIL. TRANSLATED FROJI THE GERMAN BY THE EEV. JAMES MARTIN, B.A. EDINBÜEGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET. LONDON: HAMILTON ADAMS, & CO. DUBLIN: JOHN KOBEETSON & CO. MDCCCLXXII. i'^^ CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. PAGE Contents and Character, Origin and Sources, of the Books op THE Kings, ....... 1 FIEST BOOK OF THE KINGS. I. History of Solomon's Eeign (Chaps, i.-xi.), . . . 15 Anointing and Accession of Solomon (Chap, i.), . . 16 David's Last Instructions and Death. Solomon ascends the Throne and fortifies his Government (Chap, ii.), . . 26 Solomon's Marriage ; Worship and Sacrifice at Gibeon ; and Wise Judicial Sentence (Chap, iii.), ... 37 Solomon's Ministers of State. His Regal Splendour and Wis- dom (Chap, iv.-v. 14), ..... 43 Preparations for Building the Temple (Chap. v. 15-32), . 57 Building of the Temple (Chap, vi.), .... 65 Solomon's Palace and the Furniture of the Temple (Chap. VÜ.), ....... 88 Dedication of the Temple (Chap, viii.), . . . 117 The Answer to Solomon's Prayer. The Means employed for the Erection of his Buildings (Chap, ix.), . . . 138 The Queen of Saba. Solomon's Wealth and Splendour (Chap. X.), 158 Solomon's Polygamy and Idolatry. His Opponents and his Death (Chap, xi.), ....... 166 VI CONTENTS. PAGB II. History of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah to the De- struction OF THE FORMER (Chap. xii.-2 Kings xvii.), . 183 1. From the Division of the Kingdom to the Ascent of the Throne by Ahab in the 38<ä year of Asa King of Judah, . . 190 Secession of the Ten Tribes from the House of David, and Founding of the Kingdom of Israel (Chap, xii.), . . 191 Testimony of God against the Calf -worship of Jeroboam (Chap, xiii.), 201 Reign and Death of Jeroboam and Rehoboam (Chap, xiv.), . 209 Reigns of the Two Kings Abijam and Asa of Judah (Chap, XV. 1-24), 217 Reigns of the Kings of Israel, Nadab, Baasha, Elah, Zimri, and Omri (Chap. xv. 25-xvi. 28), . . . . 222 2. From AhaVs Ascent of the Throne to the Death ofJoram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah, ..... 227 The Reign of Aliab of Israel (Chap. xvi. 29-34), . . 228 First Appearance of Elijah (Chap, xvii.), . . . 233 Elijah's Meeting with Ahab, and Victory over the Prophets of Baal (Chap, xvüi.), ...... 240 Elijah's Flight into the Desert, the Revelation of God at Horeb, and Elisha's Call to be a Prophet (Chap, xix.), . 252 Ahab's Double Victory over Benhadad of Syria (Chap, xx.), . 2C1 The Murder and Robbery of Naboth (Chap, xxi.), . . 2G9 War of Ahab and Jehoshaphat against the Syrians, and Death of Ahab. Reigns ^f Jehoshaphat of Judah and Ahaziah of Israel (Chap, xxii.), ...... 273 SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. Ahaziah's lUness. His Death announced by Elijah (Chap, i.), 284 Elijah's Ascension to Heaven. Elisha's First Miracles (Chap. iL), 290 Joram of Israel, and the Expedition against Moab which he undertook in company with Jehoshaphat (Chap, iii.), . 300 Elisha works several Miracles (Chap, iv.), . . . 307 Curing of the Leprosy of Naaman the Syrian, and Punishment of Gchazi (Chap, v.), . . . . .316 CONTENTS. Vll PAGB The Floating Iron. The Syrians smitten with Blindness (Chap. vi. 1-23), 323 Elisha's Action during a Famine in Samaria (Chap. vi. 24-vii. 20), ........ 327 Elisha helps the Shunammite to her Property through the Honour in which he was held ; and predicts to Hazael his Possession of the Throne. Reigns of Joram and Ahaziah, Kings of Judah (Chap, viii.), .... 833 Jehu anointed King. His Conspiracy against Joram. Joram, Ahaziah, and Jezebel slain (Chap, ix.), . . . 339 Extermination of the other Sons of Ahab, of the Brethren of Ahaziah of Judah, and of the Prophets of Baal (Chap. x. 1-27), 346 3. From the Commencement of the Reigns of Jehu in Israel, and Athaliah in Judah, to the Destruction of the Kingdom of Israel, 352 Reign of Jehu of Israel (Chap. x. 28-36), . . .354 Tyranny and Overthrow of Athaliah, and Coronation of Joash (Chap, xi.), ....... 355 Reign of King Joash of Judah, and Repairing of the Temple (Chap, xii.), ....... 365 Reigns of Jehoahaz and Joash, Kings of Israel. Death of Elisha (Chap, xiii.), ...... 373 Reigns of Amaziah of Judah, and Jeroboam ii. of Israel (Chap, xiv.), ...... 379 Reigns of Azariah of Judah, Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah of Israel, and Jotham of Judah (Chap. XV.), ....... 386 Reign of King Ahaz of Judah (Chap, xvi.), . . . 397 Reign of Hoshea and Destruction of the Kingdom of Israel. The People carried away to Assyria and Media. Transpor- tation of Heathen Colonists to Samaria (Chap, xvii.), . 409 III. History of the Kingdom of Judah from the Destruction of THE Kingdom of the Ten Tribes to the Babylonian Cap- tivity (Chaps, xviii.-xxv.), ..... 428 Reign of King Hezekiah. Sennacherib invades Judah and threatens Jerusalem (Chap, xvüi.), .... 430 Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE Jerusalem delivered. Destruction of the Assyrian Army and Death of Sennacherib (Chap, xix.), .... 442 Hezekiah's Illness and Eecovery. Merodach Baladan's Em- bassy. Death of Hezekiah (Chap, xx.), . . . 460 Reigns of Manasseh and Amon (Chap, xxi.), , . . 468 Reign of King Josiah (Chap, xxii, 1-xxiii. 30), . . 473 Reigns of the Kings Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin (Chap, xxiii. 31-xxiv. 17), ..... 496 Reign of Zedekiah, Destruction of Jerusalem and the Kingdom of Judah, and Fate of the People left behind, and of King Jehoiachin (Chap. xxiv. 18-xxv. 30), , . . 509 BIBLICAL COMMENTARY ON THE OLD TESTAMENT. THE BOOKS OF KINGS. INTRODUCTION. CONTENTS AND CHAEACTER, ORIGIN AND SOURCES, OF THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS. HE books of the Kings, which vreve but one book originally like the books of Samuel, and which, like the latter, were divided into two books by the Alexandrian translators (see the Introduction to the books of Samuel), contain, in accordance with their name (Q"'3/')D), the history of the Israelitish theocracy under the kings, from the accession of Solomon to the extinction of the monarchy on the overthrow of the kingdom of Judah, when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Chaldseans and the people were carried away into exile in Babylon. They embrace a period of 455 years, from 1015 to 560 b.c., that is to say, to the reign of the Babylonian king Evil-merodach. And as every kingdom cul- minates in its king, and the government of the kings determines the fate of the kingdom, the contents of the books before us, which are named after the kings of Israel, consist for the most part of a history of those kings ; inasmuch as, whilst on the one hand the reigns of the several kings form the historical and chronological framework for the description of the historical development of the people and kingdom, on the other hand the leading phases which the monarchy assumed furnish the basis of the three periods, into which the history of this epoch and the contents of our books are divided. The^?'s^ period (1015-975 B.c.) embraces the forty years of A 2 THE BOOKS OF KINGS. Solomon's le'Kin over the undivided kin2;dom of the twelve tribes of Israel, wlien the Israelitish kingdom of God stood at the sum- mit of its earthly power and glory ; though towards the end of this period it began to decline, inasmuch as the rebellion of Solomon against the Lord in the closing years of his reign pre- pared the way for the rebellion of the ten tribes against the house of David. — The second period commences with the divi- sion of the one kingdom into the two kingdoms, Israel (or the ten tribes) and Judah, and stretches over the whole period during which these two kingdoms existed side by side, termi- nating with the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes by the Assyrians, i.e. from 975 to 722 b.c. — The third period em- braces the still remaining years of the continuance of the king- dom of Judah, until its eventual dissolution by the Chaldoeans and the carrying away of the people into exile in Babylon, viz. from 722 to 560 b.c. The first part of our books (1 Kings i.-xi.) therefore contains a description of the reign of Solomon, (a) in its commencement, viz. his ascent of the throne and the consolidation of his power (eh. i. and ii.) ; (&) in the gradual development of the strength and glory of his government, by his marriage, his sacrifice and prayer at Gibeon, his judicial wisdom, and his court (iii. 1-v. 14), — also by the building of the temple and royal palace and the dedication of the temple (v. 1 5-ix. 9), by the erection of his other edifices and the introduction of navigation and commerce (ix. 10-28), by the spreading abroad of the fame of his wisdom, and by the increase of his wealth (ch. x.) ; and (c) in its eventual decline in consequence of the sin into which the aged monarch fell through his polygamy and idolatry (ch. xi.). The second part opens with an account of the falling away of the ten tribes from the royal family of David, and relates in a synchronistic narra- tive the history of the two kingdoms in the three stages of their development : viz. (a) the early enmity between the two, from Jeroboam to Omri of Israel (xii. 1-xvi. 28); (h) the establish- ment of friendship and intermarriage between the two royal houses under Ahab and his sons, do^vm to the destruction of the two kings Joram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah by Jehu (xvi. 2 9-2 Kings x.) ; (c) the renewal of hostilities between the two kinadoms, from Jehu's ascent of the throne in Israel and Atha- liah's usurpation of the throne in Judah to the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel in the sixth year of Hezekiah's reign in Judah INTRODUCTION. 3 (xi.-xvü.). And, lastly, the third part contains the history of the Idngdom of Judah from Hezekiah to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldseans, and carries it down to the thirty-seventh year of the imprisonment of king Jehoiachin in exile (ch. xviii.-xxv.). Now, although the history of the kings, or the account of both the duration and character of their reigns, and also of their various enterprises, so far as they promoted or hindered the progress of the kingdom of God, forms the principal substance of these books, they do not consist of a mere chronicle of the deeds and fortunes of the several kings, but describe at the same time the ministry of the prophets in the two kingdoms, and that to some extent in so elaborate a manner, that whilst some have discovered in this a peculiarly " prophetico-didactic purpose" (Hävernick, De Wette, etc.), others regard it as ah endeavour " to set forth the history of the Israelitish and Jewish kings in its relation to the demands, the doings, the procla- mations, and the predictions of the prophets, from Solomon to the Babylonian exile" (Kern). But however unmistakeable the prophetico-didactic character may be, which the books of Kings have in common with the whole of the historical writings of the Old Testament, a closer investigation of their character will show that there is no ground for the assertion that there is any prophetico-didactic purpose in the mode in which the history is written. For the account of the ministry of the prophets is introduced into the history of the kings as the spiritual leaven which pervaded the Israelitish monarchy from the beginning to the end, and stamped upon its development the character of the theocracy or divine rule in Israel. Jehovah, as the invisible but yet real King of the covenant nation, had created the peculiar instruments of His Spirit in the prophets who maintained His law and right before the kings, standing by their side to advise and direct, or to warn and punish, and, wherever it was necessary, proving their utterances to be words of God by signs and wonders which they did before the people. Thus the Lord directed the prophet Samuel to anoint Saul and David princes over His people, and the prophet Nathan to com- municate to David the promise of the everlasting endurance of his throne (2 Sam. vii.). But when at a later period David sinned (2 Sam. xi. and xxiv.), it was the prophets Nathan and Gad who threatened him with punishment from God, and on his confession of sin and repentance announced the forgiveness and 4 THE BOOKS OF KINGS. favour of God (2 Sam. xii. 1-15, xxiv. 11-19). Through the medium of the prophet Nathan, Solomon was also appointed the successor of David upon the throne (2 Sam. xii. 25), and not only anointed king, but installed in defiance of the machinations of Adonijah (1 Kings i.). But since the monarchy w^s trans- mitted from Solomon in a direct line through his descendants by virtue of the divine promise in 2 Sam. vii., it is only in con- nection with important enterprises, or when the kingdom is involved in difficulties, that we find the prophets coming for- ward in after times to help or advise those kings who walked in the Avays of the Lord ; whereas under the idolatrous and godless rulers they offer, in the power of God, such energetic resistance to idolatry and to everything evil and ungodly, that princes and people are compelled to bow before them and succumb to their divine words. In this way the prophets accompanied the monarchy in all its course from Solomon to the captivity as guardians of the rights of the God-King, and as interpreters of His counsel and will. Under Solomon, indeed, there was apparently a long period, during which prophecy I'ell into the background ; since the Lord Himself not only appeared to this king in a dream at Gibeon shortly after he ascended the throne, but also appeared to him a second time after the dedi- cation of the temple, and promised him the fulfilment of his prayers, and the glorification and eternal continuance of his kingdom, on condition of his faithful observance of the divine commands (1 Kings iii. 5 sqq., ix. 1 sqq.). But towards the end of his reign it rose up again in all the more threaten- ing attitude, against the king who was then disposed to fall away from Jehovah. It was no doubt a prophet who announced to him the separation of ten parts of his Idngdom (1 Kings xi. 11 sqq.), — possibly the same Ahijah who promised Jeroboam the government over ten tribes (xi. 29 sqq.). But after the division of the kingdom, when Jeroboam proceeded, in order to fortify his throne, to make the political division into a religious one, and to this end exalted the image-worship into the state religion, the prophets continued to denounce this apostasy and proclaim to the sinful kings the destruction of their dynasties. And when at a still later period Ahab the son of Omri, and his wife Jezebel, endeavoured to make the Phoenician worship of Baal and Asherah into the national re- ligion in Israel, Elijah the Tishbite, " the prophet as fire, whose INTRODUCTION. Ö words burned as a torch " (Ecclus. xlviii. 1), came forward with the irresistible power of God and maintained a victorious con- flict against the prophets and servants of Baal, warding off the utter apostasy of the nation by uniting the prophets into societies, in which the worship of God was maintained, and the godly in Israel were supplied with a substitute for that legal worship in the temple which was enjoyed by the godly in Judah. And in the kingdom of Judah also there were never wanting prophets to announce the judgments of the Lord to idolatrous kings, and to afford a vigorous support to the pious and God-fearing rulers in their endeavours to promote the religious life of the nation, and to exalt the public worship of God in the temple. But since the kingdom of Judah possessed the true sanctuary, with the legal worship and an influential body of priests and Levites ; and since, moreover, the monarchy of the house of David was firmly estab- lished by divine promises resting upon that house, and among the kings who sat upon the throne, from Eehoboam onwards, there were many godly rulers who were distinguished for their lofty virtues as governors ; the labours of the prophets did not assume the same prominent importance here as they did in the king- dom of the ten tribes, where they had to fight against idolatry from the beginning to the end. Tliis explains the fact that the ministry of the prophets assumes so prominent a position in the books of the Kings, whereas the history of the kings appears sometimes to fall into the background in comparison. JSTevertheless the historical development of the monarchy, or, to express it more correctly, of the kingdom of God under the kings, forms the true subject- matter of our books. It was not a prophetico-didactic purpose, but the prophetico-historical point of view, which prevailed throughout the whole work, and determined the reception as well as the treatment of the historical materials. The progres- sive development of the kingdom was predicted and described by the Lord Himself in the promise communicated to David by the prophet Nathan : " And when thy days shall be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed' after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name ; and I wiU stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be his Father, and he shall be my son, that if he go astray, I may chasten him with man's rod, and with stripes of the children of b THE BOOKS OF KINGS. men ; but my mercy will not depart from him, as I caused it to depart from Said, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be for ever before thee, thy throne will be established for ever" (2 Sam. viL 12-16). This thoroughly glorious promise forms the red thread which runs through the history of the kings from Solomon to the Babylonian captivity, and constitutes the leading idea in the record of this history in our books. The author's intention is to show in the history of the kings how the Lord fulfilled this gracious word, how He first of all chastised the seed of David for its transgressions, and then cast it off, though not for ever. To this end he shows in the history of Solomon, how, notwithstanding the usurpation of the throne attempted by Adonijah, Solomon received the whole of his father's kingdom, as the seed of David promised by the Lord, and established his power; how the Lord at the very beginning of his reign renewed to him at Gibeon the promise made to his father on the condition of his faithful observance of His law, and in answer to liis prayer gave him not only a wise and understanding heart, but also riches and honour, so that his equal was not to be found among all the kings of the earth (1 Kings i. 1-v. 14); how Solomon then carried out the work of building the temple, entrusted to him by Ms father according to the will of the Lord ; and how, after it was finished, the Lord again assured him of the fulfilment of that promise (ch. v. 15- ix. 9) ; and, lastly, how Solomon, having attained to the highest earthly glory, through the completion of the rest of his build- ings, through the great renown of his wisdom, which had reached to nations afar o&, and through his great riches, acquired partly by marine commerce and trade, and partly from tributes and presents, forgot his God, who had bestowed this glory upon him, and in his old age was led astray into unfaithfulness towards the Lord through his numerous foreign wives, and had at last to listen to this sentence from God : " Because thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and give it to thy servant : notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it, for David thy father's sake ; but I wiU rend it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit I will not rend away all thy kingdom ; but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen" (ch. ix. 10-xi. 13). Thus, because God had promised to the seed of David the INTRODUCTION. 7 eternal possession of the throne (2 Sam. vii. 12 sqq.), one por- tion of the kingdom was to be left to the son of Solomon, with the chosen city of Jerusalem, and his servant (Jeroboam, ch. xi. 26-40) was only to obtain dominion over ten tribes. The his- torical realization of this prophecy is shown in the history of the two divided kingdoms. In the synchronistic account of these kingdoms, according to the principle already adopted in the book of Genesis, of dispos- ing of the subordinate lines of the patriarchs before proceeding with the main line (see Comm. on Pent. vol. i. p. 3 7), the reigns of the kings of Israel are described before those of the contem- poraneous kings of Judah, and to some extent in a more ela- liorate manner. The reason of this, however, is, that the history of the kingdom of Israel, in which one dynasty overthrew another, whilst all the rulers walked in the sin of Jeroboam, and Ahab even added the worship of Baal to that sin, supplied the author with more materials for the execution of his plan than that of the kingdom of Judah, which had a much quieter development under the rule of the hou.se of David, and of which, therefore, there was less to relate. Apart from this, aU the events of the kingdom of Judah which are of any importance in relation to the progress of the kingdom of God, are just as elaborately described as those connected with the kingdom of Israel ; and the author does equal justice to both kingdoms, show- ing how the Lord manifested Himself equally to both, and bore with them with divine long-suffering and grace. But the proof of this necessarily assumed different forms, according to the different attitudes which they assumed towards the Lord. Jero- boam, the founder of the kingdom of Israel, when told that he would be king over the ten tribes, had received the promise that Jehovah would be with him, and build him a lasting house as He built for David, and give Israel to him, on condition that he would walk in the ways of God (1 Kings xi. 37, 38). This implied that his descendants would rule over Israel (of the ten tribes) so long as this kingdom should stand ; for it was not to last for ever, but the separation would come to an end, and therefore he is not promised the everlasting continuance of his kingdom (see at 1 Kings xi. 38). But Jeroboam did not fulfil this condition, nor did any of the rulers of Israel who succeeded him. Nevertheless the Lord had patience with the kings and tribes who were unfaithful to His law, and not only warned 8 THE BOOKS OF KINGS. them contmiially by His prophets, and chastised them by threats of punishment and by tlie fulfihuent of tliose threats upon the kings and all the people, but repeatedly manifested His favour towards them for the sake of His covenant with Abraham (2 Kings xiii. 23), to lead them to repentance — until the time of grace had expired, when the sinful kingdom fell and the ten tribes were carried away to Media and Assyria. — In the kingdom of David, on the contrary, the succession to the throne was pro- mised to the house of David for all time : therefore, although the Lord caused those who were rebellious to be chastised by hostile nations, yet, for His servant David's sake. He left a light shining to the royal house, since He did not punish the kings who were addicted to idolatry with the extermination of their family (1 Kings xv. 4; 2 Kings viii. 19); and even when the wicked Athaliah destroyed all the royal seed. He caused Joash, the infant son of Ahaziah, to be saved and raised to the throne of his fathers (2 Kings xi.). Consequently this kingdom was able to survive that of the ten tribes for an entire period, just because it possessed a firm political basis in the uninterrupted succession of the Davidic house, as it also possessed a spiritual basis of no less firmness in the temple which the Lord had sanctified as the place where His name was revealed. After it had been brought to the verge of destruction by the godless Ahaz, it received in Hezekiah a king who did what was right in the eyes of Jehovah, as his father David had done, and in the severe oppression which he suffered at the hands of the powerful army of the proud Sennacherib, took refuge in the Lord, who protected and saved Jerusalem, " for His own and His servant David's sake," at the prayer of the pious king of Jerusalem (2 Kings xix. 34, xx. 6). But when at length, throughout the long reign of Manasseh the idolater, apostasy and moral corruption prevailed to such an extent in Judah also, that even the pious Josiah, Avith the reformation ol" religion which he carried out with the greatest zeal, could only put down the out- ward worship of idols, and was unable to effect any thorough conversion of the people to the Lord their God, and the Lord as the Holy One of Israel was obliged to declare His purpose of rejecting Judah from before His face on account of the sins of Manasseh, and to cause that pvirpose to be executed by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxiii. 26, 27, xxiv. 3, 4) ; Jehoiachin was led away captive to Babylon, and under Zedekiah the INTRODUCTION, 9 kingdom was destroyed with the burning of Jerusalem and the temple. Yet the Lord did not suffer the light to be altogether extinfniished to His servant David : but when Jehoiachin had pined in captivity at Babylon for thirty-seven years, expiating his own and his fathers' sins, he was liberated from his captivity by Nebuchadnezzar's son, and raised to honour once more (2 Kings XXV. 27-30). — The account of this joyful change in the condition of Jehoiachin, with which the books of the Kings close, forms so essential a part of their author's plan, that without this information the true conclusion to his work would be alto- gether wanting. For this event shed upon the dark night of the captivity the first ray of a better future, which was to dawn upon the seed of David, and with it upon the whole nation in its eventual redemption from Babylon, and was also a pledge of the certain fulfilment of the promise that the Lord would not for ever withdraw His favour from the seed of David.^ Thus the books of the Kings bring down the history of the Old Testament kingdom of God, according to the divine plan of the kingdom indicated in 2 Sam. vii., from the close of David's reign to the captivity ; and the fact that in 1 Kings i. 1 they are formally attached to the books of Samuel is an indication that they are a continuation of those books. Never- theless there is no doubt that they formed from the very first a separate work, the independence and internal unity of which are apparent from the uniformity of the treatment of the his- tory as well as from the unity of the language. From begin- ning to end the author quotes from his original sources, for the ^ Stähelin makes the following remark in his Einleitung (p. 122) : " The books of the Kings form an antithesis to the history of David. As the latter shows how obedience to God and to the utterances of His prophets is re- warded, and how, even when Jehovah is obliged to punish, He makes known His grace again in answer to repentance ; so do the books of the Kings, which relate the overthrow of both the Hebrew states, teach, through the history of these two kingdoms, how glorious promises are thrown back and dynasties fall in consequence of the conduct of individual men (compare 1 Kings xi. 38 with xiv. 10, and still more with 2 Kings xxi. 10 sqq. and xxiii. 27). The sins of one man like Manasseh are sufficient to neutralize all the promises that have been given to the house of David." There is no need to refute this erroneous statement, since it only rests upon a misinter- pretation of 2 Kings xxi. 10 sqq., and completely misses the idea which runs through both books of the Kings ; and, moreover, there is no contradiction between the manifestation of divine mercy towards penitent sinners and the punishment of men according to their deeds. 10 THE BOOKS OF KINGS. most part with certain standing formulas ; in all important events he gives the chronology carefully (1 Kings vi. 1, 37, 38, vii. 1, ix. 10, xi. 42, xiv. 20, 21, 25, xv. 1, 2, 9, 10, etc.) ; he judges the conduct of the kings throughout according to the standard of the law of Moses (1 Kings ii. 3, iii. 14 ; 2 Kings X. 31, xi. 12, xiv. 6, xvii. 37, xviii. 6, xxi. 8, xxiL 8 sqq., xxiii. 3, 21, etc.) ; and he nearly always employs the same expressions when describing the commencement, the character, and the close of each reign, as well as the death and burial of the kings (compare 1 Kings xi. 43, xiv. 20, 31, xv. 8, 24, xxü. 51 ; 2 Kings viii. 24, xiii. 9, xiv. 29 ; and for the characteristics of the several kings of Judah, 1 Kings xv. 3, 11, xxii. 43 ; 2 Kings xii. 3, xiv. 3, xv. 3, etc. ; and for those of the kings of Israel, 1 Kings xiv. 8, xv. 26, 34, xvi. 19, 26, 30, xxii. 53 ; 2 Kings iii. 2, 3, X. 29, 31, xiii. 2. 11, etc.). And so, again, the lan- guage of the books remains uniform in every part of the work, if we except certain variations occasioned by the differences in the sources employed ; since we find throughout isolated ex- pressions and forms of a later date, and words traceable to the Assyrian and Chaldsean epoch, such as lb for "löH in 1 Kings v. 2, 25 ; p'^V in 1 Kings xi. 33 ; P^") in 2 Kings xi. 13 ; nirnn in 1 Kings xx. 14, 15, 17, 19 ; \p in 2 Kings xv. lO'; ^'^'Üp ':V in 1 Kings xv. 20, 2 Kings 'xxv. 23, 26 ; D^nap nn in 2 Kings xxv. 8 ; nna in 1 Kings x. 15, xx. 24, 2 Kings xviii. 24 ; and many others, wliich do not occur in the earlier historical books. — The books of the Kings are essentially dis- tinguished from the books of Samuel through these characteristic peculiarities ; but not so much through the quotations which are so prominent in the historical narrative, for these are com- mon to all the historical books of the Old Testament, and are only more conspicuous in these books, especially in the history of the Idngs of the two kingdoms, because in the case of all the kings, even of those in relation to whom there was nothing to record of any importance to the kingdom of God except the length and general characteristics of their reign, there are notices of the writings which contain further information concerning their reigns. — The unity of authorship is therefore generally admitted, since, as De Wette himself acknowledges, " you can- not anywhere clearly detect the interpolation or combination of different accounts." The direct and indirect contradictions, how- ever, which Thenius imagines that he has discovered, prove to INTKODUCTION. 11 be utterly fallacious on a closer inspection of the passages cited as proofs, and could only have been obtained through misinterpretations occasioned by erroneous assumptions. (See, on the other hand, my LcJirhuch der Einleitung in das A. T. p. 184 sqq.) All that can be determined with certainty in relation to the origin of the books of Kings is, that they were composed in the second half of the Babylonian captivity, and before its close, since they bring the history down to that time, and yet contain no allusion to the deliverance of the people out of Babylon. The author was a prophet living in the Babylonian exile, though not the prophet Jeremiah, as the earlier theologians down to Havernick have assumed from the notice in the Talmud {Baba hathra, f. 15, 1) : Jeremias scripsit lihrum sicum et librum Regum et Threnos. Tor even apart from the fact that Jeremiah ended his days in Egypt, he could hardly have survived the last event recorded in our books, namely, the liberation of Jehoiachin from prison, and his exaltation to royal honours by Evil-merodach. Eor inasmuch as this event occurred sixty-six years after his call to be a prophet, in the thirteenth year of Josiah, he would have been eighty-six years old in the thirty-seventh year after Jehoiachin had been carried away into exile, even if he had commenced his prophetic career when only a young man of twenty years of age. Now, even if he had reached this great age, he would surely not have composed our books at a later period still. Moreover, all that has been adduced in support of this is seen to be inconclusive on closer inspection. The simi- larity in the linguistic character of om' books and that of the writings of Jeremiah, the sombre view of history which is com- mon to the two, the preference apparent in both for phrases taken from the Pentateuch, and the allusions to earlier prophe- cies,— all these peculiarities may be explained, so far as they really exist, partly from the fact that they were written in the same age, since all the writers of the time of the captivity and afterwards cling very closely to the Pentateuch and frequently refer to the law of Moses, and partly also from the circum- stance that, whilst Jeremiah was well acquainted with the ori- ginal sources of our books, viz. the annals of the kingdom of Judah, the author of our books was also well acquainted with the prophecies of Jeremiah. But the relation between 2 Kings xxiv. 18 sqq. and Jer. lii. is not of such a nature, that these 12 THE BOOKS OF KINGS. two accounts of the destruction of Jerusalem and the carrying away of the remnant of the people could have emanated from the hand of Jeremiah; on the contrary, a closer inspection clearly shows that they are extracts from a more elaborate description of this catastrophe (see at 2 Kings xxiv. 18 sqq.). As sources from which the author has obtained his accounts, there are mentioned, for the history of Solomon, a ivy?'^ '''}2'i ")Sp, or book of the acts (affairs) of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 41); for the history of the kings of Judah, ni^n^ '^b^^ D^p>ri ^nn^ iDp^ book of the daily occurrences of the kings of Judah (1 Kings xiv. 29, XV. 7, 23, xxii. 46 ; 2 Kings viii. 23, xii. 20, etc.) ; and for that of the kings of Israel, ^^f ^. '^^o^' ^'^l^ '^-^"^ ^??, hook of the daily occurrences of the kings of Israel (1 Kings xiv. 19, XV. 31, xvi. 5, 14, 20, 27, xxii. 39 ; 2 Kings i. 18). These are quoted as writings in which more is written concerning the life, the deeds, and the particular undertakings, buildings and so forth, of the several kings. The two last-named works were evidently general annals of the kingdoms : not, indeed, the national archives of the two kingdoms, or official records made by the C"!''??'? of the reigns and acts of the kings, as Jahn, Movers, Stähelin, and others suppose ; but annals composed by prophets, and compiled partly from the j)ublic year-books of the kingdom or the national archives, and partly from prophetic monographs and collections of prophecies, which reached in the kingdom of Israel down to the time of Pekah (2 Kings xv. 31), and in that of Judah to the time of Jehoiakim (2 Kings xxiv. 5). Moreover, they were not written successively by different prophets, who followed one another, and so carried on the work in uninterrupted succession from the rise of the two kingdoms to the death of the two kings mentioned ; but they had been worked out into a "Boole of the liistory of the times of the Kings" for each of the two kingdoms, a short time before the over- throw of the kingdom of Judah, by collecting together the most important things that had been written both concerning the reigns of the several kings by annalists and other historians who were contemporaneous with the events, and also concerning the labours of the prophets, which were deeply interwoven with the course of public affairs, whether composed by themselves or by their contemporaries. And in this finished form they lay before the author of our work. This view of the annals of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel follows unquestionably from the INTRODUCTION. 1 3 agreement which exists between our books of the Kings and the second book of the Chronicles, in the accounts common to both, and which can only be explained from the fact that they were drawn from one and the same source. But in the Chronicles there are different writings of individual prophets quoted, beside the day-books of the kings of Judah and Israel ; and it is expressly stated in relation to some of them that they were received into the annals of the kings (compare 2 Chron. XX. 34 and xxxii. 32, and the Introduction to the books of the Chronicles). Moreover, there are no historical traces of public annalists to be found in the kingdom of the ten tribes, and their existence is by no means probable, on account of the constant change of dynasties. The fact, however, that the frequently recurring formula "to this day" (1 Kings ix. 13, x. 12 ; 2 Kings ii. 22, X. 27, xiv. 7, xvi. 6, [xvii. 23, 34, 41,] xx. 17, xxi. 15) never refers to the time of the captivity, except in the passages enclosed in brackets, but always to the time of the existing kingdom of Judah, and that it cannot therefore have emanated from the author of our books of the Kings, but can only have been taken from the sources employed, is a proof that these annals of the kingdom were composed towards the close of the kingdom of Judah ; and this is placed beyond all doubt, by the fact that this formula is also found in many passages of the books of the Chronicles (compare 1 Kings viii. 8 with 2 Chron. V. 9 ; 1 Kings ix. 2 1 with 2 Chron. viii. 8 ; 1 Kings xii. 1 9 with 2 Chron. x. 19 ; and 2 Kings viii. 22 with 2 Chron. xxi. 10). — In a similar manner to this must we explain the origin of the nb'bt^ nnn "iQp^ since three j)rophetic writings are quoted in 1 Chron. xxix. 29 in connection with Solomon's reign, and their account agrees in all essential points with the account in the books of the Kings. Nevertheless this " history of Solomon " never formed a component part of the annals of the two kingdoms, and was certainly written much earlier. — The assumption that there were other sources still, is not only sustained by no historical evidence, but has no certain support in the character or contents of the writings before us. If the annals quoted were works composed by prophets, the elaborate accounts of the working of the prophets Elijah and Elisha might also have been included in them. — Again, in the constant allusion to these annals we have a sure pledge of the historical fidelity of the accounts that have been taken from them. If in his work 14 THE BOOKS OF KINGS. the author followed writings which were composed by prophets, and also referred his readers to these writings, which were known and accessible to his contemporaries, for further infor- mation, he must have been conscious of the faithful and con- scientious employment of them. And this natural conclusion is in harmony with the contents of our books. The life and actions of the kings are judged with unfettered candour and impartiality, according to the standard of the law of God ; and there is no more concealment of the idolatry to which the highly renowned Solomon was led astray by his foreign wives, than of that which was right in the eyes of God, when performed by the kings of the ten tribes, which had fallen away from the house of David. Even in the case of the gTeatest prophet of all, namely Elijah, the weakness of his faith in being afraid of the vain threats of the wicked Jezebel is related just as openly as his courageous resistance, in the strength of the Lord, to Ahab and the prophets of Baal. — Compare my Einleitung in das Alte Test. |§ 56-60, where adverse views are examined and the commentaries are also noticed. EXPOSITION. FIRST BOOK OF THE KINGS. 1 T^^R L— HISTORY OF SOLOMON'S REIGN. Chaps, i.-xi. AVID had not only established the monarchy npon a firm basis, but had also exalted the Old Testament kingdom of God to such a height of power, that all the kingdoms round about were obliged to bow before it. This kingdom was transmitted by divine appointment to his son Solomon, in whose reign Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand by the sea-shore, and dwelt in security, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree (ch. iv. 20, V. 5). The history of this reign commences with the account of the manner in which Solomon had received the kingdom from his father, and had established his own rule by the fulfilment of liis last will and by strict righteousness (ch. i. and ii.). Then follows in ch. iii.-x. the description of the glory of his kingdom, how the Lord, in answer to his prayer at Gibeon, not only gave him an imderstanding heart to judge his people, but also wisdom, riches, and honour, so that his equal was not to be found among the kings of the earth ; and through his wise rule, more especially through the erection of the house of Jehovah and of a splendid royal palace, he developed the glory of the kingdom of God to such an extent that his fame penetrated to remote nations. The conclusion, in ch. xi., consists of the accoimt of Solomon's sin in his old age, viz. his falling into idolatry, whereby he brought about the decay of the kingdom, which manifested itself during the closing years of his reign in the rising up of oppo- nents, and at his death in the falling away of ten tribes from his son Eehoboam. But notwithstanding this speedy decay, the 15 16 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. glory of Solomon's kingdom is elaborately depicted on acconnt of the typical significance which it possessed in relation to the kingdom of God. Just as, for example, the successful wars of David with all the enemies of Israel were a prelude to the eventual victory of the kingdom of God over all the kingdoms of this world; so was the peaceful rule of Solomon to shadow forth the glory and blessedness which awaited the people of God, after a period of strife and conflict, under the rule of Shiloh the Prince of peace, whom Jacob saw in spirit, and who would increase government and peace without end upon the throne of David and in his kingdom (Isa. ix. 5, 6 ; Ps. Ixxii.). CHAP. I. ANOINTING AND ACCESSION OF SOLOMON. The attempt of Adonijah to seize upon the throne when David's strength was failing (vers. 1-10), induced the aged king, as soon as it was announced to him by Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan, to order Solomon to be anointed king, and to have the anointing carried out (vers. 11—40); whereupon Adonijah fled to the altar, and received pardon from Solomon on condition that he would keep himself quiet (vers. 41-53). Vers. 1-4. When king David had become so old that they could no longer warm him by covering him with clothes, his servants advised him to increase his vitality by lying with a young and robust virgin, and selected the beautiful Abishag of Shunem to perform this service. This circumstance, which is a trivial one in itself, is only mentioned on account of what follows, — first, because it shows that David had become too weak from age, and too destitute of energy, to be able to carry on the government any longer ; and, secondly, because Adonijah the pre- tender afterwards forfeited his life through asking for Abishag in marriage. — The opening of our book, '^?}^'>]\ {and the King), may be explained from the fact that the account which follows has been taken from a writing containing the earlier history of David, and that the author of these books retained the Vav CO]), which he found there, for the purpose of showing at the outset that his work was a continuation of the books of Samuel D''ö>3 5^3 jpr as in Josh. xiii. 1, xxiii. 1, Gen. xxiv. 1, etc. " They covered him with clothes, and he did not get warm." It foUows from this that the king was bedridden, or at least that when lying down he could no longer be kept warm with bed- CHAP. I. 5-10. 17 clotlies. ö''1J3 does not mean clotlies to wear here, but large cloths, which were used as bed-clothes, as in 1 Sam. xix. 13 and Num. iv. 6 sqq. on'; is used impersonally, and derived from Don, cf. Ewald, ^193, &, and 138, &. As David was then in his seventieth year, this decrepitude was not the natural result of extreme old age, but the consequence of a sickly constitution, arising out of the hardships which he had endured in his agitated and restless life. The proposal of his servants, to restore the vital warmth which he had lost by bringing a virgin to lie with him, is recommended as an experiment by Galen (Method. medic, viii. 7). And it has been an acknowledged fact with physicians of all ages, that departing vitality may be preserved and strengthened by communicating the vital warmth of strong and youthful persons (compare Trusen, Sitten Gchrcmche u. Krank- heiten der Hebräer, p. 257 sqq.). The singular suffix in ^P^2 is to be explained on the ground that one person spoke, npinn nnj;:, a maid who is a virgin, "".^sp ^oy, to stand before a person as servant = to serve (cf. Deut. i. 3 8 with Ex. xxiv. 1 3). ^}/p, an attendant or nurse, from i^D = pK', to live with a person, ihen to be helpful or useful to him. With the words " that she may lie in thy bosom," the passage passes, as is frequently the case, from the third person to a direct address. — Vers. 3, 4. They then looked about for a beautiful girl for this purpose, and found Ahishag of Shunem, the present Sidem or Solenn, at the south- eastern foot of the Didiy or Little Hermon (see at Josh. xix. 18), who became the king's nurse and waited upon him. The further remark, " and the king knew her not," is not introduced either to indicate the impotence of David or to show that she did not become David's concubine, but simply to explain how it was that it could possibly occur to Adonijah (ch. ii. 17) to ask for her as his wife. Moreover, the whole affair is to be judged according to the circumstances of the times, when there was nothing offensive in polygamy. Vers. 5-10. Adonijah seized the opportunity of David's de- crepitude to make himself king. Although he was David's fourth son (2 Sam. iii. 4), yet after the death of Ammon and Absalom he was probably the eldest, as Ghileab, David's second son, had most likely died when a child, since he is never men- tioned again, Adonijah therefore thought that he had a claim to the throne (cf, ch, ii. 1 5), and wanted to secure it before his father's death. But in Israel, Jehovah, the God-King of His B 18 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. people, had reserved to Himself the choice of the earthly king (Deut. xvii. 15), and this right He exercised not only in the case of Saul and David, but in that of Solomon also. When He gave to David the promise that his seed should rule for ever (2 Sam. vii. 1 2—1 6), He did not ensure the establishment of the throne to any one of his existing sons, but to him that would come out of his loins (i.e. to Solomon, who was not yet born) ; and after his birth He designated him through the prophet Nathan as the beloved of Jehovah (2 Sam. xii. 24, 25). David discerned from this that the Lord had chosen Solomon to be his successor, and he gave to Bathsheba a promise on oath that Solomon should sit upon the throne (vers. 13 and 30). This promise was also acknowledged in the presence of Nathan (vers. 11 sqq.), and certainly came to Adonijah's ears, Adonijah said, " I will be king," and procured chariots and horsemen and fifty runners, as Absalom had done before (2 Sam. xv. 1). 33"i^ in a collective sense, does not mean fighting or war chariots, but state carriages, like ^??"!^ in 2 Sam. xv. 1 ; and D''^'nQ are neither riding nor carriage horses, but riders to form an escort whenever he drove out. — Ver. 6. " And ( = for) his father had never troubled him in his life 0^^\^, Ob diebus ejus, i.e. his whole life long), saying. Why hast thou done this ?" Such weak oversight on the part of his father encouraged him to make the present attempt. Moreover, he " was very beautiful," like Absalom (see at 2 Sam. xiv. 2 5), and born after Absalom, so that after his death he appeared to have the nearest claim to the throne. The subject to nnb^ is left indefinite, because it is implied in the idea of the verb itself: ''she bare," i.e. his mother, as in Num. xxvi. 59 {viel. Ewald, § 294, l). There was no reason for mentioning the mother expressly by name, as there was nothing depending upon the name here, and it had already been given in ver. 5. — Ver. 7. He conferred (for the expression, compare 2 Sam. iii. 17) with Joab and Abiathar the priest, who supported him. ity '^ ""ÜH^, to lend a helping hand to a person, i.e. to support him by either actually joining him or taking his jiart. Joab joined the pretender, because he had fallen out with David for a con- siderable tmie (cf. ii. 5, 6), and hoped to secure his influence with the new king if he helped him to obtain possession of the throne. But what induced Abiathar the high priest (see ät 2 Sam. viii. 17) to join in conspiracy with Adonijah, we do not know. Possibly jealousy of Zadok, and the fear that under CHAP. I. 11-31. 19 Solomon lie might be tlirown still more into the shade. For although Zadok was only high priest at the tabernacle at Gibeon, he appears to have taken the lead ; as we may infer from the fact that he is always mentioned before Abiathar (cf. 2 Sam. viii. 17, XX. 25, and xv. 24 sqq.). For we cannot imagine that Joab and Abiathar had supported Adonijah as having right on his side (Thenius), for the simple reason that Joab did not trouble himself about right, and for his own part shrank from no crime, when he thought that he had lost favour with the king. — Ver. 8. If Adonijah had powerful supporters in Joab the commander-in-chief and the high priest Abiathar, the rest of the leading officers of state, viz. Zadok the liigh priest (see at 2 Sam. viii. 17), Benaiah, captain of the king's body-guard (see at 2 Sam. viii. 18 and xxiii. 20, 21), the prophet Nathan, Shimei (probably the son of Elah mentioned in ch. iv. 18), and Eei (unknown), and the Gibborim of David (see at 2 Sam. xxiii. 8 sqq.), were not with him. — ^Vers. 9 sqq. Adonijah com- menced his usurpation, like Absalom (2 Sam. xv. 2), with a solemn sacrificial meal, at which he was proclaimed king, " at the stone of Zoclielcth by the side of the fountain of Rogel" i.e. the spy's fountain, or, according to the Chaldee and Syriac, the fuller's foun- tain, the present fountain of Job or Nehemiah, below the junc- tion of the valley of Hinnom with the valley of Jehoshaphat (see at 2 Sam. vii. 17 and Josh. xv. 7). E. G. Schultz {Jeruscdem, eine Vorlesung, p. 79) supposes the stone or rock of Zocheleth to be " the steep, rocky corner of the southern slope of the valley of Hinnom, which casts so deep a shade." " This neighbour- hood (Wady el Buhdh) is still a place of recreation for the in- habitants of Jerusalem." To this festal meal Adonijah invited all his brethren except Solomon, and " all the men of Judah, the king's servants," i.e. all the Judaeans who were in the king's ser- vice, i.e. were serving at court as being members of his own tribe, with the exception of Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, and the Gibborim. The fact that Solomon and the others men- tioned were not included in the invitation, showed very clearly that Adonijah was informed of Solomon's election as successor to the throne, and was also aware of the feelings of Nathan and Benaiah. Vers. 11-31. Adonijah's attempt was frustrated by the vigi- lance of the prophet Nathan. — ^Vers. 11 sqq. Nathan informed Solomon's mother, Bathsheba (see at 2 Sam. xi. 3), that Adonijah 20 TUE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. was making himself king C^po '^3, that he had become [as good as] king : Thenius), and advised her, in order to save her life and that of her son Solomon Q^?^^, and save = so that thou mayest save ; of. Ewald, § 347, a), to go to the king and remind him of his promise on oath, that her son Solomon should be king after him, and to inquire why Adonijah had become king. If Adonijah had really got possession of the throne, he would probably have put Solomon and his mother out of the way, according to the barbarous custom of the East, as his political opponents. — Ver. 1 4. While she was still talking to the king, he (Nathan) would come in after her and confirm her words. "i^T N?Q^ to make a word full, i.e. not to supply what is wanting, but to make full, like 'TfXrjpovv, either to fill by accomplishing, or (as in this case) to confirm it by similar assertion. — Vers. 15—21. Bathsheba fol- lowed this advice, and went to the Idng into the inner chamber (•^7100), since the very aged king, who was waited upon by Abishag, could not leave his room (ri'l^'p for nn"i^p ; cf Ewald, ^ 188, &, p. 490), and, bowing low before him, communicated to him what Adonijah had taken in hand in opposition to his will and without his knowledge. The second nnyi is not to be altered into nnxi^ inasmuch as it is supported by the oldest codices and the Masora,^ although about two himdred codd. contain the latter reading. The repetition of nriyi (" And noiv, behold, Ado- nijah has become king ; and noiv, my lord king, thou knowest it not") may be explained from the energy with which Bath- sheba speaks. " And Solomon thy servant he hath not invited " (ver. 19). Bathsheba added this, not because she felt herself injured, but as a sign of Adonijah's feelings towards Solomon, wliich showed that he had reason to fear the worst if Adonijah should succeed in his usurj^ation of the throne. In ver. 20, again, many codd. have nrij?"i in the place of nnsi ; and Thenius, after his usual fashion, pronounces the former the " only correct" reading, because it is apparently a better one. But here also the appearance is deceptive. The antithesis to what Adonijah has already done is brought out quite suitably by nnxi : Adonijah has made himself king, etc. ; but thou my lord king must decide in the matter. " The eyes of all Israel are turned towards thee, ^ Kimclii says : " Plures scrihx errant in hoc verbo, scribcntes nnxi cum Alep\, quia sensid Jioc conformius est; sed constat nobis ex corrcctis JISS. et masora, scribcndum esse nnyi cum Ain.^^ Hence both Norzi and Bruns have taken nnyi under their protection. Compare de Kossi, varix lectt. ad h. I. CHAP. I. 11-31. 21 to tell them who (whether Adonijah or Solomon) is to sit upon the throne after thee." " The decision of this question is in thy hand, for the people have not yet attached themselves to Ado- nijah, hut are looldng to thee, to see what thou wilt do ; and they will follow thy judgment, if thou only hastenest to make Solo- mon king." — Seb. Schmidt. To secure this decision, Bathsheha refers again, in ver. 21, to the fate which would await both her- self and her son Solomon after the death of the king. They would be ^'''ii^n, i.e. guilty of a capital crime. " We should be punished as though guilty of high treason" (Clericus). — Vers. 22 sqq. While Bathsheha was still speaking, Nathan came. When he was announced to the king, Bathsheha retired, just as afterwards ÜSTathan went away when the king had Bathsheha called in again (cf. ver. 28 with ver. 32). This was done, not to avoid the appearance of a mutual arrangement (Cler., Then., etc.), hut for reasons of propriety, inasmuch as, in audiences granted by the king to his wife or one of his counsellors, no third person ought to be present unless the king required his attendance. Nathan confirmed Bathsheba's statement, com- mencing thus : " My lord king, thou hast really said, Adonijah shall be king after me . . . ? for he has gone down to-day, and has prepared a feast, . . . and they are eating and drinking before him, and saying, Long live king Adonijah ! " And he then closed by asking, " Has this taken place on the part of my lord the king, and thou hast not shown thy servants (Nathan, Zadok, Benaiah, and Solomon) who is to sit upon the throne of my lord the king after him ? " The indirect question intro- duced with Qi< is not merely an expression of modesty, but also of doubt, whether what had occurred had emanated from the king and he had not shown it to his servants. — Vers. 28-30. The king then sent for Bathsheha again, and gave her this pro- mise on oath : " As truly as Jehovah liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of all distress (as in 2 Sam. iv. 9), yea, as I swore to thee by Jehovah, the God of Israel, saying, Solomon thy son shall be king after me, . . . yea, so shall I do this day." The first and third ^3 serve to give emphasis to the assertion, like imo, yea (cf. Ewald, § 330, &). The' second merely serves as an introduction to the words. — Ver. 31. Bathsheha then left the king with the deepest prostration and the utterance of a blessing, as an expression of her inmost gratitude. The benedictory formula, " May the king live for ever," was only 22 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. used by tlie Israelites on occasions of special importance ; whereas the Babylonians and ancient Persians constantly ad-, dressed their kings in this way (cf. Dan. ü. 4, iii. 9, v. 1 0, vi. 22 ; Neh. ii. 3. Aeliani var. hist. i. 32, and Curtius de gestis Alex. vi. 5). Vers. 32-40. David then sent for Zadok, Nathan, and Be- naiah, and directed them to fetch the servants of their lord (D3''3ix, a pluralis majestatis, referring to David alone), and to conduct Solomon to Gihon riding upon the royal mule, and there to anoint him and solemnly proclaim him king. The servants of your lord (Q?''.?''^^ '^I.'^V) are the Crethi and Pletlii, and not the Gibhorim also (Thenius), as ver. 3 8 clearly shows, where we jSnd that these alone went down with him to Gihon as the royal body-guard, v ">^^<. '^'^"!?D"''y, upon the mule which belongs to me, i.e. upon my (the king's) mule. When the king let any one ride upon the animal on which he generally rode himself, this was a sign that he was his successor upon the throne. Among the ancient Persians riding upon the king's horse was a public honour, which the king confeiTed upon persons of great merit in the eyes of all the people (c£ Esth. vi. 8, 9). n"nT3^ the female mule, which in Kahira is still preferred to the male for riding (see Eosenmüller, hibl. AUhJc. iv. 2, p. 56). Gihon (pnji) was the name given, according to 2 Chron. xxxii. 3 0 and xxxiii. 14, to a spring on the western side of Zion, which supplied two basins or pools, viz. the upper watercourse of Gihon (2 Chron. xxxii. 30) or upper pool (2 Kings xviii. 17 ; Isa. vii. 3, xxxvi. 2), and the lower pool (Isa. xxii. 9). The upper Gihon still exists as a large reservoir built up with hewn stones, though somewhat fallen to decay, which is called by the monks Gihon, by the natives Blrket el Mamilla, about 700 yards W.KW. from the Joppa gate, in the basin which opens into the valley of Hinnom. The lower pool is probably the present Birket es Sultan, on the south-western side of Zion (see Eobinson, Pales- tine, i. p. 485 sqq., 512 sqq., and Biblical Researches, p. 142 sqq.). The vaUey between the two was certainly the place where Solomon was anointed, as it is not stated that this took place at the fountain of Gihon. And even the expression onnnin Jina hv ink (take him down to Gihon) agrees with this. For if you go from Zion to Gihon towards the west, you first of all have to descend a slope, and then ascend by a gradual rise ; and this slope was probably a more considerable one in ancient CHAP. I. 32-40. 23 times (Eob. Pal. i. p. 514, note).^ — Ver. 34. The blowing of the trumpet and the cry " Long live the king" (cf. 1 Sam. x. 24) were to serve as a solemn proclamation after the anointing had taken place. — Ver. 35. After the anointing they were to conduct Solomon up to Zion again ; Solomon was then to ascend the throne, as David was about to appoint him prince over Israel and Judah in his own stead. Both the anointing and the ap- pointment of Solomon as prince over the whole of the covenant nation were necessary, because the succession to the throne had been rendered doubtful through Adonijah's attempt, and the aged king was stiU alive. In cases where there was no question, and the son followed the father after his death, the unanimous opinion of the Eabbins is, that there was no anointing at all Israel and Judah are mentioned, because David had been the first to unite aU the tribes under his sceptre, and after the death of Solomon Israel fell away from the house of David. — Vers. 36, 37. Benaiah responded to the utterance of the royal will with a confirmatory " Amen, thus saith Jehovah the God of my lord the king ;" i.e. may the word of the king become a word of Jehovah his God, who fulfils what He promises (Ps. xxxiii. 9) ; and added the pious wish, " May Jehovah be with Solomon, as He was with David, and glorify his throne above the throne of David," — a wish which was not merely " flattery of his paternal vanity" (Thenius), but which had in view the prosperity of the monarchy, and was also fulfilled by God (cf iii. 11 sqq.). — ^Vers. 38—40. The anointing of Solomon was carried out immediately, as the king had commanded. On the Crethi and Plethi see at 2 Sam. viii. 18. " The oil-horn out of the tent" {i.e. a vessel made of horn and containing oil) was no doubt one which held the holy anointing oil, with which the priests and the vessels of the sanctuary were anointed (see Ex. XXX. 22 sqq.). The tent (''i}^0)j however, is not the tabernacle ^ The conjecture of Thenius, that jiPip should be altered into }i];23, is hardly worth mentioning ; for, apart from the fact that all the ancient versions confirm the corectness of |ina the objections which Thenius brings against it amount to mere conjectures or groundless assumptions, such as that Zadok took the oil-horn out of the tabernacle at Gibeon, which is not stated in ver. 39. Moreover, Gibeon was a three hours' journey from Jerusalem, so that it would have been absolutely impossible for the anointing, which was not commanded by David till after Adonijah's feast had commenced, to be finished so quickly that the procession could return to Jerusalem before it was ended, as is distinctly recorded in ver. 41. 24 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. at Gibeon, but the tent set up by David for the ark of the covenant upon Mount Zion (2 Sam. vi. 17). For even though Zadok was appointed high priest at the tabernacle at Gibeon, and Abiatliar, who held with Adonijah, at the ark of the cove- nant, the two high priests were not so unfriendly towards one another, that Zadok could not have obtained admission to the arlc of the covenant in Abiathar's absence to fetch away the anointing oil. — Yer. 40. All the people, i.e. the crowd which was present at the anointing, went up after him, i.e. accom- panied Solomon to the citadel of Zion, with flutes and loud acclamation, so that the earth nearly burst with their shouting. J'i??^, " to burst in pieces" (as in 2 Chron. xxv. 12), is a hyper- bolical expression for quaking. Vers. 41-53. The noise of this shouting reached the ears of Adonijah and his guests, when the feast was just drawing to a close. The music, therefore, and the joyful acclamations of the people must have been heard as far off as the fountain of Eogel. When Joab observed the sound of the trumpet, knowing what these tones must signify, he asked " wherefore the sound of the city in an uproar " {i. e. what does it mean) ? At that moment Jonathan the son of Abiathar arrived (see 2 Sam. xv. 2 7, xvii. 1 7 sqq.). Adonijah called out to him : " Come, for thou art a brave man and bringest good tidings;" suppressing all anxiety with these words, as he knew his father's will with regard to the suc- cession to the throne, and the powerful and influential friends of Solomon (see vers. 5, 19, 26). — Vers. 43 sqq. Jonathan replied: 73X, "yea but," corresponding to the Latin imo vcro, an expression of assurance with a slight doubt, and then related that Solomon had been anointed king by David's command, and the city was in a joyous state of excitement in consequence (Q"nn as in Euth i. 19), and that he had even ascended the throne, that the servants of the king had blessed David for it, and that David himself had worshipped and praised Jehovah the God of Israel that he had lived to see his son ascend the throne. The repeti- tion of D?"! three times (vers. 46-48) gives emphasis to the words, since every new point which is introduced with DJ1 raises the thing higher and higher towards absolute certainty. The fact re- lated in ver. 47 refers to the words of Benaiah in vers. 36 and 37. The Chethih T'v!'^^ is the correct reading, and the Keri D^■^P^? an unnecessary emendation. The prayer to God, with thanksgiving for the favour granted to him, was offered by David after the CHAP. I. 41-53. 2 5 return of liis anointed son Solomon to the royal palace ; go that it ought strictly to have been mentioned after ver. 40. The worship of the grey-headed David upon the bed recalls to mind the worship of the patriarch Jacob after making known his last will (Gen. xlvii. 31). — Vers. 49, 50. The news spread terror. All the guests of Adonijah lied, every man his way. Adonijah himself sought refuge from Solomon at the horns of the altar. The altar was regarded from time immemorial and among all nations as a place of refuge for criminals deserving of death ; but, according to Ex. xxi. 14, in Israel it was only allowed to afford protection in cases of unintentional slaying, and for these special cities of refuge were afterwards provided (Num. xxxv.). In the horns of the altar, as symbols of power and strength, there was concentrated the true significance of the altar as a divine place, from which there emanated both life and health (see at Ex. xxvii. 19). By grasping the horns of the altar the culprit placed himself under the protection of the saving and helping grace of God, which wipes away sin, and thereby abolishes punishment (see Bahr, Symholik des Mos. Cult. i. p. 474). The question to what altar Adonijah fled, whether to the altar at the ark of the covenant in Zion, or to the one at the tabernacle at Gibeon, or to the one built by David on the threshing-floor of Araunah, cannot be determined with certainty. It was probably to the first of these, however, as nothing is said about a flight to Gibeon, and with regard to the altar of Araunah it is not certain that it was provided with horns like the altars of the two sanc- tuaries.— Vers. 51, 52. When this was reported to Solomon, to- gether with the prayer of Adonijah that the king would swear to him that he would not put him to death with the sword (QN before JT'p^^ a particle used in an oath), he promised him con- ditional impunity : " If he shall be brave (''ID"!?, vir probus), none of his hair shall fall to the earth," equivalent to not a hair of his head shall be injured (cf. 1 Sam. xiv. 45) ; " but if evil be found in him," i.e. if he render himself guilty of a fresh crime, " he shall die." — Ver. 53. He then had him fetched down from the altar ("'''"lii^, inasmuch as the altar stood upon an eminence) ; and when he fell down before the king, i.e. did homage to him as king, he gave him his life and freedom in the words, " Go to thy house." The expression '^n"'?? '=l!? does not imply his banishment from the court (compare ch. ii. 13 and 2 Sam. xiv. 24). Solomon did not wish to commence his own ascent of the throne by 2 6 THE FIRST BOOK OP KINGS. infliction of punishment, and therefore presented the usurper with his life on the condition that he kept himseK quiet. CHAP. II. David's last instructions and death, solomon ASCENDS THE THRONE AND FORTIFIES HIS GOVERNMENT. The anointing of Solomon as king, which was effected by David's command (ch. i.), is only briefly mentioned in 1 Chron. xxiii. 1 in the words, " When David was old and full of days, he made his son Solomon king over Israel ;" which serve as an introduction to the account of the arrangements made by David during the closing days of his life. After these arrangements have been described, there follow in 1 Chron. xxviii. and xxix. his last instructions and his death. The aged king gathered together the tribe-princes and the rest of the dignitaries and superior officers to a diet at Jerusalem, and having introduced Solomon to them as the successor chosen by God, exhorted them to keep the commandments of God, and urged upon Solo- mon and the whole assembly the building of the temple, gave his son the model of the temple and all the materials which he had collected towards its erection, called upon the great men of the kingdom to contribute to this work, which they willingly agreed to, and closed this last act of his reign with praise and thanksgiving to God and a great sacrificial festival, at which the assembled states of the realm made Solomon king a second time, and anointed him prince in the presence of Jehovah (1 Chron. xxix. 22). — A repetition of the anointing of the new king at the instigation of the states of the realm, accompanied by their solemn homage, had also taken place in the case of both Saul (1 Sam. xi.) and David (2 Sam. ii. 4 and v. 3), and appears to have been an essential requirement to secure the general recognition of the king on the part of the nation, at any rate in those cases in which the succession to the throne was not undisputed. In order, therefore, to preclude any rebellion after his death, David summoned this national assembly again after Solomon's first anointing and ascent of the throne, that the representatives of the whole nation might pay the requisite homage to king Solomon, who had been installed as his suc- cessor according to the will of God. — To this national assembly, which is only reported in the Chronicles, there are appended the last instructions which David gave, according to vers. 1-9 of our CHAP. II. 1-11, 27 chapter, to his successor Solomon immediately before his death. Just as in the Chronicles, according to the peculiar plan of that work, there is no detailed description of the installation of David on the throne ; so here the author of our books has omitted the account of this national diet, and the homage paid by the estates of the realm to the new king, as not being required by the purpose of his work, and has communicated the last personal admonitions and instructions of the dying king David instead.-^ Vers. 1-11. David's Last Instructions and Death. — Vers. 1-4. When David saw that his life was drawing to a close, he first of all admonished his son Solomon to be valiant in the ob- servance of the commandments of God. " I go the way of all the world" (as in Josh, xxiii. 14), i.e. the way of death; "be strong and be a man," — not "bear my departure bravely," as Thenius supposes, but prove thyself brave (cf. 1 Sam. iv. 9) to keep the commandments of the Lord. Just as in 1 Sam iv. 9 the object in which the bravery is to show itself is appended simply by the copula Vdv ; so is it here also with 'IJI JJi'l'^K'i. The phrase "'^ nnoK'p-nx no^, to keep the keeping of Jehovah, which so frequently occurs in the Thorali, i.e. to observe or obey whatever is to be observed in relation to Jehovah (cf. Gen. xxvi. 5, Lev. viii, 35, xviii. 30, etc.), always receives its more pre- cise definition from the context, and is used here, as in Gen. xxvi. 5, to denote obedience to the law of God in all its extent, or, according to the first definition, to walk in the ways of Jeho- vah. This is afterwards more fully expanded in the expression 'W1 vripn "ibK^p, to keep the ordinances, commandments, rights, and * To refute the assertion of De TVette, Gramberg, and Thenius, that this account of the Chronicles arises from a free mode of deahng with the history, and an intention to suppress everything that did not contribute to the honour of David and his house, — an assertion which can only be attributed to their completely overlooking, not to say studiously ignoring, the different plans of the two works (the books of Kings on the one hand, and those of Chronicles on the other), — it will be sufficient to quote the unprejudiced and thoughtful decision of Bertheau, who says, in bis Comm. on 1 Chron. xxiii. 1 : " These few words (1 Chron. xxiii. 1) give in a condensed form the substance of the account in 1 Kings i., which is intimately bound up with the account of the family affairs of David in the books of Samuel and Kings, and therefore, according to the whole plan of our historical work, would have been out of place in the Chronicles." 28 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. testimonies of Jehovah. These four words were applied to the different precepts of the law, the first three of which are con- nected together in Gen. xxvi. 5, Deut. v. 28, viii. 11, and served to individualize the rich and manifold substance of the demands of the Lord to His people as laid down in the Tlwrah. \V)p)> p"'3b>n, that thou mayest act wisely and execute well, as in Deut. xxix. 8, Josh. i. 7. — Ver. 4. Solomon would then experience still further this blessing of walldng in the ways of the Lord, since the Lord would fulfil to him His promise of the everlast- ing possession of the throne. '131 D''ip^^ \Vty? is grammatically sub- ordinate to ?"'3^iii lyo? in ver. 3, The word which Jehovah has spoken concerning David (vy "i3"n) is the promise in 2 Sam. vii. 12 sqq., the substance of which is quoted here by David with a negative turn, '131 0^3"; i^^ and with express allusion to the condition on which God would assuredly fulfil His promise, viz. if the descendants of David preserve their ways, to walk before the Lord in truth. riOK3 is more precisely defined by CC'M . . . ^33. For the fact itself see Deut. v. 5, xi. 13, 18. The formula '131 nns^ N7 is formed after 1 Sam. ii, 33 (compare also 2 Sam. iii. 2 9 and Josh. ix. 2 3). " There shall not be cut off to thee a man from upon the throne of Israel," i.e. there shall never be wanting to thee a descendant to take the throne ; in other words, the sovereignty shall always remain in thy family. This promise, which reads thus in 2 Sam. vii. 16, "Thy house and thy kingdom shall be continual for ever before thee, and thy throne stand fast for ever," and which was confirmed to Solomon by the Lord Himself after his prayer at the consecra- tion of the temple (ch. viii. 25, ix. 5), is not to be understood as implying that no king of the Davidic house would be thrust away from the throne, but simply affirms that the posterity of David was not to be cut off, so as to leave no offshoot which could take possession of the throne. Its ultimate fulfilment it received in Christ (see at 2 Sam. vii. 12 sqq.). The second "ibx!? in ver. 4 is not to be erased as suspicious, as being merely a repetition of the first in consequence of the long conditional clause, even though it is wanting in the Vulgate, the Arabic, and a Hebrew codex. After a general admonition David communicated to his suc- cessor a few more special instructions ; viz., first of all (vers. 5, 6), to punish Joah for his wickedness. " What Joab did to me : " — of this David mentions only the two principal crimes of Joab, CHAP. II. 1-11. 29 by which he had already twice deserved death, namely, his kill- ing the two generals, Abner (2 Sam. iii. 2 7) and Amasa the son of Jether (2 Sam. xx. 10). The name 1J[1^. is written ^"in^ in 2 Sam. xvii. 25. Joab had murdered both of them out of jealousy in a treacherous and malicious manner ; and thereby he had not only grievously displeased David and bidden defiance to his royal authority, but by the murder of Abner had exposed the king to the suspicion in the eyes of the people of having instigated the crime (see at 2 Sam. iii. 28, 37). 'i^'mnm^ " and he made war-blood in peace," i.e. he shed in the time of peace blood that ought only to flow in war (D''^ in the sense of making, as in Dent. xiv. 1, Ex. x. 2, etc.), "and brought war- blood upon his girdle which was about his loins, and upon his shoes under his feet," sc. in the time of peace. This was the crime therefore : that Joab had murdered the two generals in a time of peace, as one ought only to slay his opponent in time of war. Girdle and shoes, the principal features in oriental attire when a man is preparing himself for any business, were covered with blood, since Joab, while saluting them, had treacherously stabbed both of them with the sword. David ought to have punished these two crimes ; but when Abner was murdered, he felt himself too weak to visit a man like Joab with the punish- ment he deserved, as he had only just been anointed king, and consequently he did nothing more than invoke divine retribution upon his head (2 Sam. iii. 29). And when Amasa was slain, the rebellions of Absalom and Sheba had crippled the power of David too much, for him to visit the deed with the punishment that was due. But as king of the nation of God, it was not right for him to allow such crimes to pass unpunished : he therefore transferred the punishment, for which he had wanted the requisite power, to his son and successor. — Ver. 6. "Do according to thy wisdom ("mark the proper opportunity of punishing him" — Seb. Schmidt), and let not his grey hair go down into hell (the region of the dead) in peace {i.e. unpunished)." The punishment of so powerful a man as Joab the commander- in-chief was, required great wisdom, to avoid occasioning a re- bellion in the army, which was devoted to- him. — Ver. 7. If the demands of justice required that Joab should be punished, the duty of gratitude was no less holy to the dying king. And Solomon was to show this to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite, and make them companions of his table ; because Barzillai had 30 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. supplied David with provisions on his flight from Absalom (2 Sam. xvii. 27 sqq., xix. 32 sqq.). ^Jn^'iJ' ^S^asn vni, "let them be among those eating of thy table ; " i.e. not, " let them draw their food from the royal table," — for there was no par- ticular distinction in this, as all the royal attendants at the court received their food from the royal kitchen, as an equivalent for the pay that was owing, — but, " let them join in the meals at the royal table." The fact that in 2 Sam. ix. 10, 11, 13, we have \rh&'7V p^k to express this, makes no material difference. According to 2 Sam. xix. 38, Barzillai had, it is true, allowed only one son to follow the king to his court. " For so they drew near to me," i.e. they showed the kindness to me of supplying me with food ; compare 2 Sam. xvii. 2 7, where Barzillai alone is named, though, as he was a man of eighty years old, he was certainly supported by his sons. — ^Ver. 8. On the other hand, Shimei the Benjamite had shown great hostility to David (cf 2 Sam. xvi. 5-8). He had cursed him . with a vehement curse as he fled from Absalom (nv"i;p3^ vehement, violent, not ill, heillos, from the primary meaning to be sick or ill, as Thenius supposes, since it cannot be shown that p.o has any such mean- ing) ; and when David returned to Jerusalem and Shimei fell at his feet, he had promised to spare his life, because he did not want to mar the joy at his reinstatement in his kingdom by an act of punishment (2 Sam. xix. 19-24), and therefore had per- sonally forgiven him. But the insult whicli Shimei had offered in his person to the anointed of the Lord, as king and represen- tative of the rights of God, he could not forgive. The instruction given to his successor (^ni;53n~?x^ let him not be guiltless) did not spring from personal revenge, but was the duty of the king as judge and administrator of the divine right.-^ It follows from the expression ^öV^ with thee, i.e. in thy neighbourhood, that Shimei was living at that time in Jerusalem (cf ver. 36). — Vers. 10, 11. After these instructions David died, and was buried in the * " Shimei is and remains rather a proof of David's magnanimity than of ven- geance. It was not a little thing to tolerate the miscreant in his immediate neighbourhood for his whole life long (not even banishment being thought of). And if under the following reign also he had been allowed to end Ms days in peace (which had never been promised him), this Avould have been a kindue5S which would have furnished an example of unpunished crimes that might easily have been abused." This is the verdict of J. J. Hess in his Geschichte Davids, ii. p. 221. CHAP. II. 13-25. 31 city of David, i.e. upon Mount Zion, where tlie sepulchre of David still existed in the time of Christ (Acts ii. 29).^ On the length of his reign see 2 Sam. v. 5. Vers. 12-46. Accession of Solomon and Establishment OF his Government. — Ver. 12 is a heading embracing the sub- stance of what follows, and is more fully expanded in 1 Chron. xxix. 23-25. Solomon established his monarchy first of all by punishing the rebels, Adonijah (vers. 13-25) and his adherents (vers. 2 6-3 5), and by carrying out the final instructions of his father (vers. 36-46). Vers. 13-25. Adonijah forfeits his life. — ^Vers. 13-18. Adoni- jah came to Bathsheba with the request that she would apply to king Solomon to give him Abishag of Shuuem as his wife. Bath- sheba asked him, " Is peace thy coming ?" i.e. comest thou with a peaceable intention ? (as in 1 Sam. xvi. 4), because after what had occurred (ch. i. 5 sqq.) she suspected an evil intention. He introduced his petition with these words : " Thou knowest that the kingdom was mine, and all Israel had set its face upon me that I should be king, then the kins-dom turned about and became my brother's ; for it became his from the Lord." The throne was his, not because he had usurped it, but because it belonged to him as the eldest son at that time, according to the right of primo- geniture. Moreover it might have been the case that many of the people wished him to be king, and the fact that he had found adherents in Joab, Abiathar, and others, confirms this ; but his assertion, that all Israel had set its eyes upon him as the future king, went beyond the bounds of truth. At the same time, he knew how to cover over the dangerous sentiment implied in his words in a very skilful manner by adding the further remark, that the transfer of the king-dom to his brother had come from Jehovah ; so that Bathsheba did not detect the artifice, and pro- ^ The situation of the tombs of the kings of Judah upon Zion, Thenius has attempted to trace minutely in a separate article in lUgen's Zeitsclirift für die histor. Tkeol. 1844, i. p. 1 sqq., and more especially to show that the entrance to these tombs must have been on the eastern slope of Mount Zion, which falls into the valley of Tyropceon., and obliquely opposit-e to the spring of Siloah. This is in harmony vi^ith the statement of Theodoret (quxst. 6 in iii. Reg.), to the effect that Josephus says, to le i/^vvj^^a (rvig rxip'/ii) -TTotpoi tv^v SAo«^ Uvui dvrpoitli; sxov to (tx^/^bi,, >t-cil t'^u ßcit.atT\t>c'},v SijAovj/ 'Tro'kVTi'hiict.v ; although this statement does not occur in any passage of his works as they have come down to us. 32 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. mised to fulfil his request (vers. IG sqq.) to intercede witli king Solomon for Abishag to be given him to wife, ''^^f''^"''^? "•JSTIN^ " do not turn back my face," i. e. do not refuse my request. — Ver. 19. "When Bathsheba came to Solomon, he re- ceived her with the reverence due to the queen-mother : " he rose up to meet her" (a pregnant expression for " he rose up and went to meet her "), made a low bow, then sat upon his throne again, and bade her sit upon a throne at his right hand. The seat at the right hand of the king was the place of honour among the Israel- ites (cf Ps. ex. 1), also with the ancient Arabian kings (cf Eich- horn, Monumenta Antiq. Hist. Arab. p. 220), as well as among the Greeks and Eomans. — Vers. 2 0 sqq. To her request, " Let Abi- shag of Shunem be given to Adonijah thy brother for a wife " (^^ I^"!., cf. Ges. § 143, 1, a), which she regarded in her womanly simplicity as a very small one ('""Jüip)^ he replied with indignation, detecting at once the intrigues of Adonijah: " And why dost thou ask Abishag of Shunem for Adonijah ? ask for him the kingdom, for he is my elder brother; and indeed for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah." The repetition of V in 'O) (ver. 22), for the purpose of linking on another clause, answers entirely to the emotional character of the words. " For him, and for Abiathar and Joab:" Solomon said this, because these two men of high rank had supported Adonijah's rebellion and wished to rule under his name. There is no ground for any such alterations of the text as Thenius proposes. — Although Abishag had been only David's nurse, in the eyes of the people she passed as his concubine ; and among the Israelites, just as with the ancient Persians (Herod, iii. 68), taking possession of the harem of a deceased king was equivalent to an establish- ment of the claim to the throne (see at 2 Sam. xii. 8 and iii. 7, 8). According to 2 Sam. xvi. 21, this cannot have been un- known even to Bathsheba ; but as Adonijah's wily words had disarmed all suspicion, she may not have thought of this, or may perhaps have thought that Abishag was not to be reckoned as one of David's concubines, because David had not known her (ch. i. 4). — Vers. 23 sqq. Solomon thereupon solemnly swore (the formula of an oath, and the ""^ introducing the oath, as in 1 Sam. xiv. 44, etc.), " Adonijah has spoken this word against his own life." iti'öia, at the cost of his life, as in 2 Sam. xxiii. 1 f , i.e. at the hazard of his life, or to his destruction. Ver. 24. " And now, as truly as Jehovah liveth, who hath established me CHAP. II. 2G, 27. 33 and set me on the throne of my father David, and hath made me a house, as He said (verbatim, 2 Sam. vii. 11) : yea, to-day shall Adonijaii be put to death." Jehovah established Solomon, or founded him firmly, by raising him to the throne in spite of Adonijah's usurpation. In ''^''T'ki'VI the central '' has got into the text through a copyist's error. ri^3 7 nb'y^ ^.c. He has bestowed upon me a family or posterity. Solomon had already one son, viz. Eehoboam, about a year old (compare xi. 42 with ch. xiv. 21 and 2 Chron. xii. 13).^ — Ver. 25. Solomon had this sentence immediately executed upon Adonijah by Benaiah, the chief of the body-guard, according to the oriental custom of both ancient and modern times. The king was perfectly just in doing this. For since Adonijah, even after his first attempt to seize upon the throne had been forgiven by Solomon, endeavoured to secure his end by fresh machinations, duty to God, who had exalted Solomon to the throne, demanded that the rebel should be punished with all the severity of the law, without regard to blood-relationship. Vers. 26, 27. Deposition of Abiathar. — The conduct of Solo- mon towards the high priest Abiathar is a proof how free his actions were from personal revenge or too great severity. Abia- thar had also forfeited his life through the part he took in Adonijah's conspiracy ; but Solomon simply sent him to Ana- tlioth {i.e. Anata ; see at Josh, xviii. 24), to his own fields, i.e. to his property there, telling him, " Thou art indeed a man of death," i.e. thou hast deserved to die, " but I will not put thee to death to-day, because thou hast borne the ark of Jehovah," namely, both on the occasion of its solemn conveyance to Jeru- salem (1 Chron. xv. 11 sqq.) and also on David's flight from Absalom (2 Sam. xv. 24, 29), that is to say, because of his high-priestly dignity, and because thou didst endure all that my father endured, i.e. thou didst share all his afflictions and suffer- ings, both in the period of Saul's persecution (1 Sam. xxii. 20 sqq., xxiii. 8 sqq.), and during the rebellion of Absalom (2 Sam. XV. 24 sqq.). i^^nn Di'3 (to-day) puts a limit upon the pardon, because Solomon could not foresee whether Abiathar would ^ "When Thenius denies this, and maintains that Eehoboam cannot have ■foeen 41 years old when he began to reign, referring to his discussion at ch. xiv. 21, he answers himself, inasmuch as at ch. xiv. 21 he demonstrates the fallacy of the objections which Cappellus has raised against the correctness of the reading " 41 years." C 34 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. always keep quiet, and not forfeit his life again by fresh crimes.-^ — Ver. 2 7. The banishment of Abiathar to his own private possession involved his deposition from the priesthood. And, as the historian adds, thus was the word of the Lord concerning the house of Eli fulfilled (1 Sam. ii. 30-33). N^^ corresponds to the New Testament Xva 'jrXrjpoüOf}. For further remarks on this prophecy and its fulfilment, see at 1 Sam. ii. 30 sqq.^ Thus was the high-priesthood of the house of Eli extinguished, and henceforth this dignity passed through Zadok into the sole pos- session of the line of Eleazar. Vers. 28—34. Execution of Joah. — Wlien the report (of the execution of Adonijah and the deposition of Abiathar) came to Joab, he fled to the tent of Jehovah (not to the tabernacle, but to the holy tent upon Zion) to seek protection at the altar (see at ch. i. 50). The words nD3 vh . ^ . 2^V ^3 are intro- duced as a parenthesis to explain Joab's flight : " for Joab had leaned after Adonijah," i.e. taken his side (''"in^ nD3, as in Ex. xxiii. 2, Judg. ix. 3), " but not after Absalom," ^ There is 1 There is no meaning in the objection of Theuius, that Abiathar did not carry the ark himself, since this was not the duty of the high priest. For, in tha first place, it is questionable whether Abiathar did not lend a helping hand at the removal of the ark during Absalom's conspiracy. And, secondly, the duty binding upon the high priest, to superintend and conduct the removal of the ark, might very well be called carrying the ark. The con- iecture, that for jiix we should read ^i2X, founders on the preterite rxL'O ; ' T *• T T T for Abiathar had not only worn the ephod once before, but he wore it till the very hour in which Solomon deposed him from his ofSce. ^ Nothiug is related concerning the subsequent fate of Abiathar, since the death of a high priest who had been deprived of his office was a matter of no importance to the history of the kingdom of God. At any rate, he would not survive his deposition very long, as he was certainly eighty years old already (sec Comm. on Sam. p. 2G7). — The inference which Ewald {Gesch. iii. pp. 2C9, 270) draws from 1 Sam. ii. 31-36 as to the manner of his death, namely, that he fell by the sword, is one of the numerous fictions founded upon naturalistic assumptions with which this scholar has ornamented the biblical history. 3 Instead of Dib"J^'3X the LXX. (Cod. Vat.), Vulgate, Syr., and Arab, have adopted the reading nbSi^S and both Thenius and Ewald propose to alter the text accordingly. But whatever plausibility this reading may have, especially if we alter the preterite riD3 into the participle ntij after the ?,!/ x.iKhtx.l>i of the LXX., as Thenius docs, it has no other foundation than an arbitrary rendering of the LXX., who thought, but quite erroneously, that the allusion to Absalom Avas inapplicable here. For -)nx nt33, to take a CHAP. IL 28-34. OÖ no foundation in the biblical text for the conjecture, that Joab had given Adonijah the advice to ask for Abishag as his wife, just as Ahithophel had given similar advice to Absalom (2 Sam. xvi. 21). Tor not only is there no intimation of anything of the kind, but Solomon punished Joab solely because of his crimes in the case of Abner and Amasa. Moreover, Abiathar was also deposed, without having any fresh machinations in favour of Adonijah laid to his charge. The punishment of Adonijah and Abiathar was quite sufficient to warn Joab of his approaching fate, and lead him to seek to save his life by fleeing to the altar. It is true that, according to Ex. xxi. 13, 14, the altar could afford no protection to a man who had com- mitted two murders. But' he probably thought no more of these crimes, which had been committed a long time before, but simply of his participation in Adonijah's usurpation ; and he might very well hope that religious awe would keep Solomon from putting him to death in a holy place for such a crime as that. And it is very evident that this hope was not altogether a visionary one, from the fact that, according to ver. 30, when Joab refused to leave the altar at the summons addressed to him in the name of the king, Benaiah did not give him the death- blow at once, but informed Solomon of the fact and received his further commands. Solomon, however, did not arrest tlie course of justice, but ordered him to be put to death there and afterwards buried. The burial of the persons executed was a matter of course, as, according to Deut. xxi. 23, even a person who had been hanged was to be buried before sunset. When, therefore, Solomon gives special orders for the burial of Joab, the meaning is that Benaiah is to provide for the burial with distinct reference to the services wliich Joab had rendered to his father. " And take away the blood, which Joab shed without cause, from me and my father's house." So long as Joab re- mained unpunished for the double murder, the blood-guiltiness rested upon the king and his house, on whom the duty of punishment devolved (cf Num. xxxv. 30, 31 ; Deut. xix. 13). D3n ''0"7^ blood without cause, i.e. blood shed in innocence. On the connection of the adverb with the substantive, at which Thenius takes offence, comp. Ges. § 151, 1, and Ewald, § 287, d. person's side, ■would suit very ■well in the case of Adonijah and Absalom, but not in that of Solomon, -whose claim to the throne -was not a party affair, but had been previously determined by God. 36 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. — For ver. 32, compare ver. 5. The words of Solomon in ver. 33a point back to the curse which David uttered upon Joab and his descendants after the murder of Abner (2 Sam. iii. 28, 29). " But to David, and his seed, and his house, and his throne, let there be salvation for ever from Jehovah." This wish sprang from a conviction, based upon 2 Sam. vii. 14, that the Lord would not fulfil His promise to David unless his suc- cessors upon the throne exercised right and justice according to the command of the Lord. — Ver. 34. Benaiah went up i/Vl]), in- asmuch as the altar by the ark of the covenant stood higher up Mount Zion than Solomon's house. Joab was buried " in his house " {i.e. in the tomb prepared in his house, either in the court or in the garden : cf. 1 Sam. xxv. 1), "in the desert," probably the wilderness of Judah, as Joab's mother was a step- sister of David, and therefore probably dwelt in the neighbour- hood of Bethlehem. — Ver. 35. Solomon appointed Benaiah commander-in-chief in the place of Joab, and put Zadok in Abiathar's place (cf. ch. i. 8, 9). Vers. 36—46. Punisliment of Shimci. — Solomon thereupon ordered Shimei to come, probably from Bahurim, where his home was (2 Sam. xvi. 5), and commanded him to build him- self a house in Jerusalem to dwell in, and not to leave the city "any whither" (p}'^'\ '^^^), threatening him with death if ever he should cross the brook Ividron. The valley of Kidron is mentioned as the eastern boundary of the city with an allusion to the fact, that Bahurim was to the east of Jerusalem towards the desert. — Ver. 38. Shimei vowed obedience, and that on oath, as is supplementarily observed in ver. 42, though it has been arbitrarily interpolated by the LXX. here ; and he kept his word a considerable time. — ^Vers. 39, 40. But after the lapse of three years, when two slaves fled to Gath to king Achish, with whom David had also sought and found refuge (1 Sam. xxvii. 2, compare ch. xxi. 1 1 sqq.), he started for Gath as soon as he knew this, and fetched them back. — Vers. 41 sqq. When this was reported to Solomon, he sent for Shimei and charged him with the breach of his command : " Did I not swear to thee by Jehovah, and testify to thee, etc. ? Why hast thou not kept the oath of Jehovah (the oath sworn by Jehovah) . ,?" — Ver. 44. He then reminded him of the evil which he had done to his father : " Thou knowest all the evil, which thy heart knowetli {i.e. which thy conscience must tell thee) ; and now Jehovah CHAP. III. 37 returns the evil upon thy head," namely, by decreeing the punishment of death, which he deserved for blaspheming the anointed of the Lord (2 Sam. xvi. 9). — Ver. 45. " And king Solomon will be blessed, and the throne of David be established before Jehovah for ever," namely, because the king does justice (compare the remark on ver. 33). — Ver. 46. Solomon then ordered him to be executed by Benaiah. This punishment was also just. As Solomon had put Shimei's life in his own hand by imposing upon him confinement in Jerusalem, and Shimei had promised on oath to obey the king's command, the breach of his oath was a crime for which he had no excuse. There is no force at all in the excuses which some commentators adduce in his favour, founded upon the money which his slaves had cost him, and the wish to recover possession of them, which was a right one in itself. If Shimei had wished to remain faithful to his oath, he might have informed the king of the flight of his slaves, have entreated the king that they might be brought back, and have awaited the king's decision ; but he had no right thus lightly to break the promise given on oath. By the breach of his oath he had forfeited his life. And this is the first thing with which Solomon charges him, without his being able to offer any excuse ; and it is not till afterwards that he adduces as a second fact in confirmation of the justice of his procedure, the wickedness that he practised towards his father. — The last clause, " and the kingdom was established by (T?) Solomon," is attached to the following chapter in the Cod. Al. of the LXX. (in the Cod. Vat. it is wanting, or rather its place is supplied by a long interpolation), in the Vulgate, and in the Syriac ; and indeed rightly so, as Thenius has shown, not merely be- cause of the PI in ch. iii. 2, but also because of its form as a circumstantial clause, to which the following account (ch. iii. 1 sqq.) is appended. CHAP. III. SOLOMON'S MAERIAGE ; WORSHIP AND SACKIFICE AT GIBEON ; AND WISE JUDICIAL SENTENCE. The establishment of the government in the hands of Solomon having been noticed in ch. ii., the history of his reign com- mences with an account of his marriage to an Egyptian princess, and with a remark concerning the state of the kingdom at the beginning of his reign (vers. 1-3). There then follows a de- 38 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. scription of the solemn sacrifice and prayer at Gibeon, by whicb. Solomon sougbt to give a religious consecration to bis govern- ment, and to secure the assistance of tbe Lord and His blessing upon it, and obtained tbe fulfilment of his desire (vers. 4-15). And then, as a practical proof of the spirit of his government, we have the sentence through which he displayed the wisdom of his judicial decisions in the sight of all the people (vers. 16-28). Vers. 1-3. Solomon's marriage and the religious state of the hingdom. — Ver. 1. When Solomon had well secured his posses- sion of the throne (ch. ii. 46), he entered into alliance with Pharaoh, by taking his daughter as his wife. This Pharaoh of Egypt is supposed by Winer, Ewald, and others to have been Psusennes, the last king of the twenty-first (Tanitic) dynasty, who reigned thirty-five years ; since the first king of the twenty- second (Bubastic) dynasty, Sesonchis or Sheshonk, was certainly the Shishak who conquered Jerusalem in the fifth year of Eehoboam's reign (ch. xiv. 25, 26). The alliance by marriage with the royal family of Egypt presupposes that EgyjDt was desirous of cultivating friendly relations with the kingdom of Israel, which had grown into a power to be dreaded ; although, as we know nothing more of the history of Egypt at that time than the mere names of the kings (as given by Manetho), it is impossible to determine what may have been the more precise grounds which led the reigning king of Egypt to seek the friendship of Israel. There is, at any rate, greater probability in this supposition than in that of Thenius, who conjectxu-es that Solomon contracted this marriage because he saw the necessity of entering into a closer relationship with this powerful neigh- bour, who had a perfectly free access to Palestine. The con- clusion of this marriage took place in the first year of Solomon's reign, though probably not at the very beginning of the reign, but not till after his buildings had been begun, as we may infer from the expression nijnp in?3 IV (until he had made an end of building). Moreover, Solomon had already married JSTaamah the Ammonitess before ascending the throne, and had had a son by her (compare ch. xiv. 21 with xi. 42, 43). — Marriage with an Egyptian princess was not a transgression of the law, as it vv^as only marriages with Canaanitish women that were expressly prohibited (Ex. xxxiv. 1 6 ; Deut. vii. 3), whereas it was allow- able to marry even foreign women taken in war (Deut. xxi. 10 CHAP, III. 1-3. 39 sqq,.). At the same time, it was only when the foreign wives renounced idolatry and confessed their faith in Jehovah, that such marriages were in accordance with the spirit of the law. And we may assume that this was the case even with Pharaoh's daughter; because Solomon adhered so faithfully to the Lord during the first years of his reign, that he would not have tole- rated any idolatry in his neighbourhood, and we cannot find any trace of Egyptian idolatry in Israel in the time of Solomon, and, lastly, the daughter of Pharaoh is expressly distinguished in ch. xi. 1 from the foreign wives who tempted Solomon to idolatry in his old age. The assertion of Seb. Schmidt and Thenius to the contrary rests upon a false interpretation of ch. xi. 1. — " And he brought her into the city of David, till he had finished the building of his palace," etc. Into the city of David : i.e. not into the palace in which his father had dwelt, as Thenius arbi- trarily interprets it in opposition to 2 Chron. viii. 11, but into a house in the city of David or Jerusalem, from which he brought her up into the house appointed for her after the building of his own palace w^as finished (ch. ix. 24). The building of the house of Jehovah is mentioned as well, because the sacred tent for the ark of the covenant was set up in the palace of David until the temple was finished, and the temple was not consecrated till after the completion of the building of the palace (see at ch. viii. 1). By the building of " the wall of Jerusalem" we are to understand a stronger fortification, and possibly also the extension of the city wall (see at ch. xi. 27). — ^Ver. 2. "Only the people sacrificed upon high places, because there was not yet a house built for the name of Jehovah until those days." The limiting PI, only, by which this general account of the existing condition of the religious worship is appended to what precedes, may be accounted for from the antithesis to the strens;theninff of the kingdom by Solomon mentioned in ch. ii. 46. The train of thought is the following : It is true that Solomon's authority was firmly established by the punishment of the rebels, so that he was able to ally himself by marriage with the king of Egypt ; but just as he was obliged to bring his Egyptian wife into the city of David, because the building of his palace was not yet finished, so the people, and (according to ver. 3) even Solomon liimself, were only able to sacrifice to the Lord at that time upon altars on the high places, because the temple was not yet built. The participle D'-narp denotes the continuation of this religious 40 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. condition (see Ewald, § 168, c). The rii03, or high places,-^ were places of sacrifice and prayer, which were built upon eminences or hills, because men thought they were nearer the Deity there, and which consisted in some cases probably of an altar only, though as a rule there was an altar with a sanctuary built by the side (niD3 n^3, ch. xiii. 32 ; 2 Kings xvii. 29, 32, xxiii. 19), so that nD3 frequently stands for no3 IT'S (e.g. ch. xi. 7, xiv. 23 ; 2 Kings xxi. 3, xxiii. 8), and the '"i^? is also dis- tinguished from the n^TO (2 Kings xxiii. 15; 2 Chron. xiv. 2). These high -plctccs were consecrated to the worship of Jehovah, and essentially different from the high places of the Canaanites which were consecrated to Baal. Nevertheless sacrificing upon these high places was opposed to the law, according to which the place which the Lord Himself had chosen for the revelation of His name was the only place where sacrifices were to be offered (Lev. xvii. 3 sqq.) ; and therefore it is excused here on the ground that no house (temple) had yet been built to the name of the Lord. — Ver. 3. Even Solomon, although he loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, i.e. accord- ing to ch. ii. 3, in the commandments of the Lord as they are written in the law of Moses, sacrificed and burnt incense upon high places. Before the building of the temple, more especially since the tabernacle had lost its significance as the central place of the gracious presence of God among His people, through the removal of the ark of the covenant, the worship of the high places was unavoidable ; although even afterwards it still con- tinued as a forbidden cultus, and could not be thoroughly ex- terminated even by the most rigliteous kings (ch. xxii. 24; 2 Kings xii. 4, xiv. 4, xv. 4, 35). ^ The opinion of Böttcher and Thenius, that n03 signifies a "sacred coppice," is only based upon untenable etymological combinations, and can- not be proved. And Ewald's view is equally unfounded, viz. that " high places were an old Canansean species of sanctuary, which at that time had become common in Israel also, and consisted of a tall stone of a conical shape, as the symbol of the Holy One, and of the real high place, viz. an altar, a sacred tree or grove, or even an image of the one God as Avell" (Gesch. iii. p. 390). For, on the one hand, it cannot be shown that the tall stone of a conical shape existed even in the case of the Canaanitish bamoth, and, on the other hand, it is impossible to adduce a shadow of a proof that the Israelitish' bamoth, which were dedicated to Jehovah, were constructed precisely after the pattern of the Ba,a.V s-bainoth of the Canaanites. CHAP. III. 4-15. 41 Vers. 4-15. Solomon's Sacrifice and Deeam at Gibeon (cf.' 2 Chron. i. 1-1 3). — To implore the divine blessing upon his reign, Solomon offered to the Lord at Gibeon a great sacri- fice—a thousand burnt-offerings ; and, according to 2 Chron. i. 2, the representatives of the whole nation took part in this sacri- ficial festival. At that time the great or principal hamah was at Gibeon (the present cl Jib ; see at Josh. ix. 3), namely, the Mosaic tabernacle (2 Chron. i. 3), which is called n^?'"^' because the ark of the covenant, with which Jehovah had bound up His gracious presence, was not there now. " Upon that altar," i.e. upon the altar of the great hamah at Gibeon, the brazen altar of burnt- offering in the tabernacle (2 Chron. i. 6). — Vers. 5 sqq. The one thing wanting in the place of sacrifice at Gibeon, viz, the ark of the covenant with the gracious presence of Jehovah, was supplied by the Lord in the case of this sacrifice by a direct revelation in a dream, which Solomon received in the night fol- lowing the sacrifice. There is a connection between the question which God addressed to Solomon in the dream, " What shall I give thee ?" and the object of the sacrifice, viz. to seek the help of God for his reign. Solomon commences his prayer in ver. 6 with an acknowledgment of the great favour which the Lord had shown to His father David, and had continued till now by raising his son to his throne (nin Di*3, as it is this day : cf 1 Sam. xxii. 8, Deut. viii. 18, etc.) ; and then, in vers. 7—9, in the consciousness of his incapacity for the right administra- tion of government over so numerous a people, he asks the Lord for an obedient heart and for wisdom to rule His people. nrij?1 introduces the petition, the reasons assigned for which are, (1) his youth and inexperience, and (2) the greatness or multitude of the nation to be governed. I am, says he, PP^ "iV^, i,c. an inexperienced youth (Solomon was only about twenty years old) ; " I know not to go out and in," i.e. how to behave my- self as king, or govern the people (for ^31 nxv compare the note on Num. xxvii. 17). At ver. 8 he describes the magnitude of the nation in words which recall to mind the divine promises in Gen. xiii. 16 and xxxii. 13, to indicate how gloriously the Lord has fulfilled the promises which He made to the patriarchs. — Ver. 9. rinJl, therefore give. The prayer (commencing with nrtyi in ver. 7) is appended in the form of an apodosis to the circumstantial clauses 'IJI ''3JX'! and '1^1 T\^V], which contain the grounds of the petition. VOb' 2^^ a hearing heart, i.e. a heart 42 THE FIRST BOOK OF KING?. giving heed to the law and right of God, " to judge Thy people, (namely) to distinguish between good and evil {i.e. right and wrong)." " For who could judge this Thy numerous people," sc. unless^ Thou gavest him intelligence ? ^33, heavy in multi- tude : in the Chronicles this is explained by Pi^3. — Vers. 1 0 sqq. This prayer pleased God well. " Because thou hast asked tliis, and hast not asked for thyself long life, nor riches, nor the life {i.e. the destruction) of thy foes," all of them good things, which the world seeks to obtain as the greatest prize, " but intelligence to hear judgment {i.e. to foster it, inasmuch as the administration of justice rests upon a conscientious hearing of the parties), behold I have done according to thy word" {i.e. ful- filled thy request : the perfect is used, inasmuch as the hearken- ing has already begun ; for nan in this connection compare Ewald, I 3 0 7, c), " and given thee a wise and understanding heart." The words which follow, " so that there has been none like thee before thee/' etc., are not to be restricted to the kings of Israel, as Clericus supposes, but are to be understood quite universally as applying to all mankind (cf ch. v. 9—11). — Vers. 13, 14. In addition to this, according to the promise that to him wdio seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness all other things shall be added (Matt. vi. 33), God will also give liim the earthly blessings, for which he has not asked, and that in great abundance, viz. riches and honour such as no king of the earth has had before him ; and if he adhere faithfully to God's com- mandments, long life also (''J??"!^^il1, in this case I have lengthened). This last promise was not fulfilled, because Solomon did not observe the condition (cf. ch. xi. 42). — Ver. 15. Then Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream; i.e. a dream produced by God, a revelation by dream, or a divine appearance in a dream. Ovn as in Num. xii. 6. — Solomon thanked the Lord again for this promise after his return to Jerusalem, by offering burnt-offerings and thank-offerings before the ark of the covenant, i.e. upon the altar at the tent erected for the ark upon Zion, and pre- pared a meal for all his servants (viz. his court-servants), i.e. a sacrificial meal of the ö'"'?^^. — This sacrificial festival upon Zion is omitted in the Chronicles, as well as the following account in vers. 16—28 ; not, however, because in the chroni- cler's opinion no sacrifices had any legal validity but such as were offered upon the altar of the Mosaic tabernacle, as Thenius fancies, though without observing the account in 1 Chron. xxi. CHAP. III. 16-28; IV.-V. 14. 4d 26 sqq., whicL. overthrows this assertion, but because this sacri- ficial festival had no essential significance in relation to Solo- mon's reign. Vers. 16-28. Solomon's Judicial Wisdom. — As a proof that the Lord had bestowed upon Solomon unusual judicial wisdom, there is appended a decision of his in a very difficult case, in which Solomon had shown extraordinary intelligence. Two harlots living together in one house had each given birth to a child, and one of them had " overlaid" her child in the night while asleep (V^y ^??'^ "'f ^', because she had lain upon it), and had then placed her dead child in the other one's bosom and taken her living child away. When the other woman looked the next morning at the child lying in her bosom, she saw that it was not her own but the other woman's child, whereas the latter maintained the opposite. As they eventually referred the matter in dispute to the king, and each one declared that the living child was her own, the king ordered a sword to be brought, and the living child to be cut in two, and a half given to each. Then the mother of the living child, " because her bowels yearned upon her son," i.e. her maternal love was ex- cited, cried out, " Give her (the other) the living child, but do not slay it ;" whereas the latter said, " It shall be neither mine nor thine, cut it in pieces." — Ver. 27. Solomon saw from this which was the mother of the living child, and handed it over to her.^ — Ver. 28. This judicial decision convinced all the people that Solomon was endowed with divine wisdom for the admini- stration of justice. CHAP. IV.- V. 14. Solomon's ministers of state, his eegal SPLENDOUR AND WISDOM. Ch. iv. contains a list of the chief ministers of state (vers. 2-6), and of the twelve officers placed over the land (vers. 7-20), which is inserted here to give an idea of the might and glory of 1 Grotius observes on this : " The äy^ivoiei of Solomon was shown by this to be very great. There is a certain similarity in the account of Ariopharnis, king of the Thracians, -who, when three persons claimed to be the sons of the king of the Cimmerii, decided that he was the son who would not obey the command to cast javelins at his father's corpse. The account is given by Diodorus Siculus.'.' 44 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. the kingdom of Israel vmder Solomon's reign. So far as the contents are concerned, this list belongs to the middle portion of the reign of Solomon, as we may see from the fact that two of the officers named had daughters of Solomon for their wives (vers. 11, 15), whom they could not possibly have married till the later years of Solomon's life. Vers. 1-6. The Chief Ministers of State. — The list is intro- duced in ver. 1 by the general remark, that " king Solomon was king over all Israel." — ^Ver. 2. The first of the Q''"!^, princes, i.e. chief ministers of state or dignitaries, mentioned here is not the commander-in-chief, as under the warlike reign of David (2 Sam. viii. 16, xx. 23), but, in accordance with the peaceful rule of Solomon, the administrator of the kingdom (or prime minister) : " Azariah the son of Zadok was ii]3ri/' i,e. not the priest, but the administrator of the kingdom, the representative of the king before the people ; like 1^3 in ver. 5, where this word is interpreted by 'n??^L' ^T}., with this difference, however, arising from the article before ii?'3, that Azariah was the Kohen par excellence, that is to say, held the first place among the confidential counsellors of the king, so that his dignity was such as befitted the office of an administrator of the kingdom. Compare tlie explanation of \\i'^ at 2 Sam. viii. 1 8. The view of the Vulgate, Luther, and others, which has been revived by Thenius, namely, that p'3 is to be connected as a genitive with pi*i^'"t? in oppo- sition to the accents, "Azariah the son of Zadok the priest," is incorrect, and does not even yield any sense, since the connection of these words with the following Elicliorcjjh, etc., is precluded by the absence of the copula Vav, which would be indispensable if Azariah had held the same office as the two brothers Elichoreph and Achijali.^ Moreover, Azariah the son of Zadok cannot be a grandson of Zadok the high priest, i.e. a son of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, as many infer from 1 Chron. v, 34, 35 (vi. 8, 9) ; for, apart from the fact that Zadok's grandson can hardly have been old enough at the time for Solomon to invest him witli 1 The objection by Avhich Thenius tries to set aside this argument, which has been already advanced by Houhigant, viz. that "if the first (Azariah) was not also a state scribe, the copula would be inserted, as it is everywhere else from ver. 4 onwards when a new office is mentioned," proves nothing at all, because the copula is also omitted in ver. 3, where the new office of "T'STD is introduced. CHAP. IV. 1-6. 45 the chief dignity in the kingdom, which would surely be con- ferred upon none but men of mature years, we can see no reason why the Azariah mentioned here should not be called the son of Ahimaaz. If the Zadok referred to here was the high priest of that name, Azariah can only have been a brother of Ahimaaz. And there is no real difficulty in the way, since the name Azariah occurs three times in the line of high priests (1 Chron. v. 36, 39), and therefore was by no means rare. — Ver. 3. ElicJwrcj^h and Achijah, sons of Shisha, who had held the same office under David, were secretaries of state (D"'"!öb: see at 2 Sam. viii. 17 and xx. 25, where the different names i^^''^ = ^''ty and '"^n^ are also discussed). — JchosJiajjJiat the son of Aliilud was the chancellor, as he had already been in the time of David (2 Sam. viii. 17 and xx. 24). The rendering of Thenius, "whilst Jehoshaphat was chancellor," is grammatically impossible. — Ver. 4. On Benaiali, compare ch. ii. 35 and the Commentary on 2 Sam. xxiii. 20. On Zadok and Ahiathar, see at 2 Sam. viii. 17. It appears strange that Abiathar should be named as priest, i.e. as high priest, along with Zadok, since Solomon had deposed him from the priestly office (ch. ii. 27, 35), and we cannot imagine any subsequent pardon. The only possible explanation is that proposed by Theodoret, namely, that Solo- mon had only deprived him of the apxn, 'i-C- of the priest's office, but not of the lepcoavvT) or priestly dignity, because this was hereditary.-' — Ver. 5. Azariah the son of Nathan was over the Ci^Di'J^ ix. the twelve officers named in vers. 7 sqq. Zahud the son of Nathan was tnb (not the son of " Nathan the priest," as Luther and many others render it), tnb is explained by the epithet appended, ^?'2n nyn : privy councillor, i.e. confidential adviser of the king. Nathan is not the prophet of that name, as Thenius supposes, but the son of David mentioned in 2 Sam. V. 14. Azariah and Zabud were therefore nephews of Solomon. — ^Ver. 6. AhisJiar was n)2n bv, over the palace, i.e. governor of the palace, or minister of the king's household (compare ch. xvi. 9, 2 Kings xviii. 18, and Isa. xxii. 15), an office met with for the first time imder Solomon. Adoniram, probably the same person as Adoram in 2 Sam. xx. 24, was chief over- seer of the tributary service. He was so in the time of David also. oi/K ey. ;^£/|0(/TOjD see also Lev. ii. 1) and sixty cors of nojp^ ordinary meal, ten fattened oxen, twenty pasture oxen, which were brought directly from the pasture and slaughtered, and a hundred sheep, beside different kinds of game, lb, Kopo^, the later name for lon^ the largest dry and also liquid (ch. v. 1 1) measure of capa- city, contained ten ephahs or baths, i.e., according to the calcula- tion made by Thenius, 15,300 cubic inches (Dresden) = about 52 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 1-|- sclicffd ;^ so that ninety cors wonld amount to l7l schcffel, from which 28,000 lbs. of bread could be baked [Tluol. Stud. und Krit. 1846, pp. 132, 133). And "if we reckon 2 lbs. of bread to each person, there would be 14,000 persons in Solomon's court." The consumption of flesh would be quite in proportion to that of bread ; for ten fattened oxen, twenty oxen from the pasture, and a hundred sheep, yield more than 21,000 lbs. of meat, that is to say, a pound and a half for each person, " assuming, according to the statements of those who are acquainted with the matter, that the edible meat of a fat ox amounts to 600 lbs., that of an ox from the pasture to 400 lbs., and that of a sheep to 70 lbs." (Thenius ut sup). This daily consumption of Solomon's court will not appear too great, if, on the one hand, we compare it with the quantity consumed at other oriental courts both of ancient and modern times,^ and if, on the other hand, w^e bear in mind that not only the numerous attendants upon the king and his harem, but also the royal adjutants and the large num- ber of officers employed about the court, were supplied from the king's table, and that their families had also to be fed, inas- much as the wages in oriental courts are all paid in land. In addition to this, game was also supplied to the king's table : viz. ^*^ stags, '3V gazelles, iion^ fallow-deer, and Q'D'i^n; D^iann " fattened fowl." The meaning of Q''"!^')? is doubtful. The earlier translators render it birds or fowl. Kimchi adopts the render- ing "capons;" Tancli. Hieros. "geese," so called from their pure ("ina) white feathers ; and both Gesenius and Dietrich {Lex) decide in favour of the latter. The word must denote some special kind of fowl, since edible birds in general were called Dnsy (Neh. V. 18). — Vers. 24, 25. Solomon was able to appro- priate all this to his court, because C"?) he had dominion, etc.; . . . and (ver. 25) Israel and Judah enjoyed the blessings of peace during the whole of his reign. "in3n nny^PDB " over all the other side of the river (Euphrates)," i.e. not the land on the east, but that on the west of the river. This usage of speech is to be explained from the fact that the author of our books, who was living in exile on the other side of the Euphrates, describes the ^ The scheffel is about an English sack (yid. Fliigel's Diet.). — Tr. 2 According to Athen. Deipnos. iv. 10, the kings of Persia required a thou- sand oxen a day ; and according to Tavernier, in Rosenmiiller's .1. it. N. Mor- genland, iii. pp. 166, 167, five hundred sheep and lambs were slaughtered daily for the Sultan's court. CHAP. IV. 21-28. Do extent of Solomon's kingdom taking that as his starting-point. Solomon's power only extended to the Euphrates, from Tiphsach in the north-east to Gaza in the south-west, npsn (crossing, from npa) is Thapsacus, a large and wealthy city on the western bank of the Euphrates, at which the armies of the younger Cyrus and Alexander crossed the river (Xen. Anah. i. 4 ; Arrian, Uxped. Alex. iii. 7). Gaza, the southernmost city of the Philis- tines, the present Guzzch ; see at Josh. xiii. 3. The i?y ''??^ "inan are the kings of Syria who were subjugated by David (2 Sam. viii. 6 and x. 19), and of the Philistines (2 Sam. viii. 1). "And he had peace on all sides round about." This statement does not "most decidedly contradict ch. xi. 23 sqq.," as Thenius maintains ; for it cannot be proved that according to this passage the revolt of Damascus had taken place before Solomon's reign (Ewald and others; see at ch. xi. 23 sqq.). — Ver. 25, " Judah and Israel sat in safety, every one under his vine and his fig-tree." This expresses the undisturbed enjoy- ment of the costly productions of the land (2 Kings xviii. 31), and is therefore used by the prophets as a figure denoting the happiness of the Messianic age (Mic. iv. 4 ; Zech. iii. 1 0). "From Dan to Beersheba," as in Judg. xx. 1, etc. — 'Ver. 26. This verse is not to be regarded " as a parenthesis according to the intention of the editor," but gives a further proof of the peace and prosperity which the kingdom and people enjoyed under Solomon. Solomon had a strong force of war chariots and cavalry, that he might be able to suppress every attempt on the part of the tributary kings of Syria and Philistia to revolt and disturb the peace. "Solomon had 4000 racks of horses for his chariots, and 12,000 riding horses," which were kept partly in Jerusalem and partly in cities specially built for the purpose (ch. ix. 19, x. 26; 2 Chron. i. 14, ix. 25). DWX (40) is an old copyist's error for nyins (4), which we find in the parallel passage 2 Chron. ix. 25, and as we may also infer from ch. X. 26 and 2 Chron. i. 14, since according to these pas- sages Solomon had 1400 ^an or war chariots. For 4000 horses are a very suitable number for 1400 chariots, though not 40,000, since two draught horses were required for every war chariot, and one horse may have been kept as a reserve, ninx does not mean a team (Ges.), but a rack or box in a stable, from n"iK, earpere. According to Vegetius, i. 56, in Bochart (Hieroz. i. p. 112, ed. Eos.), even in ancient times every horse had its own 54 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. crib in the stable just as it has now. Böttcher {n. ex. Krit. Achrcnl. ii. p. 27) is wrong in supposing that there were several horses, say at least ten, to one rack. 23"i?^ is used collectively for "chariots." — Ver. 27. "And" = a still further proof of the blessings of peace — "those prefects (vers. 7 sqq.) provided for king Solomon, and all Avho came to the king's table, i.e. who were fed from the royal table, every one his month (see at ver. 7), so that nothing was wanting (ver. 28), and conveyed the barley (the ordinary food of cattle in Palestine and the southern lands, where oats are not cultivated) and the straw for the horses and coursers to the place where it ought to be. To "i??'X DK' iTni the LXX., Vulg., and others supply ^?ön as the subject : wherever the king might stay. This is certainly more in har- mony with the imperfect n\T than it would be to supply ^^y^, as Bochart and others propose ; still it is hardly correct. For in that case ^^J^) ö''plBc' could only be understood as referring to the chariot horses and riding horses, which Solomon kept for the necessities of his court, and not to the whole of the cavalry; since we cannot possibly assume that even if Solomon changed his residence according to the season and to suit his pleasure, or on political grounds, as Thenius supposes, though this cannot by any means be inferred from ch. ix. 18 and 19, he took 16,000 horses about with him. But this limitation of the clause is evidently at variance with the context, since D"'p^Dp ^?"!1^'! too plainly refer back to ver. 6. IMoreover, " if the king were intended, he would certainly have been mentioned by name, as so many other subjects and objects have come be- tween." For these reasons we agree with Böttcher in taking n;'!!"; indefinitely : "where it (barley and straw) was wanted, accord- ing to the distribution of the horses." tJ'^l probably denotes a very superior kind of horse, like the German Ecnncr (a courser or race-horse). iüQlJ'ba ^''^^ every one according to his right, i.e. whatever was appointed for him as right. Vers. 29-34. Solomon's Wisdom. — Ver. 29. According to His promise in ch. iii. 12, God gave Solomon wisdom and very much insight and 3^ 3nn, "breadth of heart," i.e. a compre- hensive understanding, as sand by the sea-shore, — a proverbial expression for an innumerable multitude, or great abundance (cf. ch. iv. 20, Gen. xli. 49, Josh. xi. 4, etc.). HMH signifies rather practical wisdom, ability to decide what is the judicious CHAP. IV. 29-34. 55 and useful course to pursue ; 'IJI^J!!, rather keenness of under- standing to arrive at the correct solution of difiicult and com- plicated problems ; 2? 3nn, mental capacity to embrace the most diverse departments of knowledge. — Ver. 30. His wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the sons of the East, and all the wisdom of the Egyptians. Qlp ''J3 (sons of the East) are gene- rally the Arabian tribes dwelling in the east of Canaan, who spread as far as to the Euphrates (cf Judg. vi. 3, 33, vii. 12, viii. 10, Job i. 3, Isa. xi. 14, etc.). Hence we find D'l.i^ Yl^^ used in Gen. xxv. 6 to denote Arabia in the widest sense, on the east and south-east of Palestine ; whereas in Gen. xxix. 1 Dli^ ''J3 f}^ signifies the land beyond the Euphrates, viz. Meso- ]3otamia, and in ISTum. xxiii. 7, Q"7P ^lin, the mountains of Meso- potamia. Consequently by " the sons of the East " we are to understand here primarily the Arabians, who were celebrated for their gnomic wisdom, more especially the Sabseans (see at ch. x.), including the Idumaeans, particularly the Temanites (Jer. xlix. 7 ; Obad. 8) ; but also, as bb requires, the Chaldseans, who were celebrated both for their astronomy and astrology. "All the wisdom of the Egyptians," because the wisdom of the Egyptians, which was so greatly renowned as almost to have become proverbial (c£ Isa. xix. 11, xxxi. 2, and Acts vii. 22 ; Joseph. Ant. viii. 2, 5 ; Herod, ii. 160), extended over the most diverse branches of knowledge, such as geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and astrology (Diod. Sic. i. 73 and 81), and as their skill in the preparation of ointments from vegetable and animal sources, and their extensive acquaintance with medicine, clearly prove, em- braced natural science as well, in which Solomon, according to ver. 33, was very learned. — Ver. 31. "He was wiser than all men (of his time), than Ethan the Ezrachite and Heinan, Chal- col and Darda, the sons of Machol." These four persons are most probably the same as the " sons of Zerach" (Ethan, Heman, Calcol, and Dara) mentioned in 1 Chron. ii. 6, since the names perfectly agree, with the exception of Wl for VT]\ where the difference is no doubt attributable to a copyist's error ; although, as the name does not occur again, it cannot be decided whether Dara or Darda is the correct form. ITeman and Ethan are also called Ezrachites (''Olt^^C') i^ ^^- Ixxxviii. 1 and Ixxxix. 1 ; and "■O"!!^ is another form of "TilT, the name of the family of Zerach the son of Judah (Num. xxvi. 13, 20), lengthened by n prosthct. But they were both Levites — Hcman a Korahite of the line of 56 THE FIRST COOK OF KINGS. Kohath and a grandson of Samuel (1 Chron. vi. 18, 19), and Ethan a Merarite (1 Chron. vi. 29-32, xv. 17) and the presi- dent of the Levitical vocal choirs in the time of David (1 Chron. XV. 1 9) ; and Heman was also " the king's seer in the words of God" (1 Chron. xxv. 5). Their Levitical descent is not at variance with the epithet Ezrachite. For as the Levite in Judg. xvii. 7 is spoken of as belonging to the family of Judah, because he dwelt in Bethlehem of Judah, and as Samuel's father, Elkanah the Levite, is called an Ephraimite in 1 Sam. i. 1, because in his civil capacity he was incorporated into the tribe of Ephraim, so Heman and Ethan are called Ezrachites because they were incorporated into the Judsean family of Zerach. It by no means follows from 1 Chron. ii. 6 that they were lineal descendants of Zerach. The whole character of the genealogical fragment contained in 1 Chron. ii. 6 sqq. shows very clearly that it does not give the lineal posterity of Zerach with genealogical exactness, but that certain persons and households of that family who had gained historical renown are grouped together without any more precise account of their lineal descent. Calcol and Darda (or Dara) are never met with ac^ain. It is no doubt to these two that the expression ^'ino "«Ja refers, though it cannot be determined whether ?Sno is a proj)er name or an appellative noun. In support of the appellative meaning, " sons of the dance," in the sense of sacras choreas ducendi 'periti, Hiller (in the Onomast. p. 872) appeals to Eccles. xii. 4, "daughters of song." — " And his name was," i.e. he was celebrated, " among all the nations round about" (cf. ch. x. 1, 23, 24). — Ver. 32. " He spoke three thousand proverbs, and there were a thousand and five of his songs." Of these proverbs we possess a comparatively small portion in the book of Proverbs, probably a selection of the best of his proverbs ; but of the songs, besides the Song of Songs, we have only two psalms, viz. Ps. Lxxii. and cxxvii., which have his name, and justly bear it. — Ver. 33. "And he spoke of trees, from the cedar on Lebanon to the hyssop which grows upon the wall." The cedar and hyssop are placed in antitliesis, the former as the largest and most glorious of trees, the latter as the smallest and most insignificant of plants, to embrace the whole of the vegetable kingdom. Thenius maintains that by 3iTN we are not to understand the true hyssop?, nor the Woht- gemuth or Dosten {oplr/avov), according to the ordinary view (see at Ex. xii. 22), because they are neither of them such small CHAP. V. 57 plants as we should expect in antithesis to the cedar, Ijut " one of the wall-mosses growing in tufts, more especially the ortho- trichum saxatile (Oken), which forms a miniature hyssop with its lancet-shaped leaves, and from its extreme minuteness furnishes a perfect antithesis to the cedar." There is much to favour this view, since we can easily imagine that the Hebrews may have reckoned a moss, which resembled the hyssop in its leaves, as being itself a species of hyssop. — " And of beasts and birds, of creeping things and fishes ; " the four principal classes into which the Hebrews divided the animal kingdom. Speaking of plants and animals presupposes observations and researches in natural science, or botanical and zoological studies. — Ver. 34. The wide- spread fame of his wisdom brought many strangers to Jerusalem, and all the more because of its rarity at that time, especially among princes. The coming of the queen of Sheba to Jerusalem (ch. X.) furnishes a historical proof of this.^ CHAP. V. (v. 15-32). PREPAPvATIONS FOR BUILDING THE TEMPLE. Immediately after the consolidation of his kingdom, Solomon commenced the preparations for the building of a temple, first of all by entering into negotiations with king Hiram of Tyre, to procure from him not only the building materials requisite, viz. cedars, cypresses, and hewn stones, but also a skilled work- man for the artistic work of the temple (vers. 1—12); and, secondly, by causing the number of workmen required for this great work to be raised out of his own kingdom, and sending them to Lebanon to prepare the materials for the building in connection with the Tyrian builders . (vers. 13-18). — We have 1 Greatly as the fame of Solomon's wisdom is extolled in tbese verses, it was far outdone in subsequent times. Even Josephus has considerably adorned the biblical accounts in his Antiqq. viii. 2, 5. He makes Solomon the author not only of 1005 ßtß'hioe. Tripl uouu kxI /u.s'kZv, and 800 ßißXov; Tra.pcißo'kuv kciI stKouiJv, but also of magical books with marvellous contents. Compare the extracts from Eupolcmus in Eusebii prxp. Ev. ix. 31 sqq., the remnants of Solomon's apocryphal writings in Fabricii Cod. apocr. V. T. i. pp. 914 sqq. and 1014 sq., the collection of the Talmudical Sagas in Othonis Lex. rahh. pldlol. pp. 6G8 sq., and G. Weil, hihl. Legenden der Mussulmünner, pp. 225-279. According to the Koran (^Siirc xxvii. vers. 17 sqq.), Solomon understood the languages not only of men and demons, but also of birds and ants. The Turkish literature contains a " Book of Solomon," Suleimanname, consisting of seventy volumes, from which v. Hammer (^Rosenöl, i. p. 147 sqq.) has given extracts. 58 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. a parallel passage to this in 2 Chron. ii., wliicli agrees witli the account before ns in all the leading points, but differs in many of the details, omitting several things which were not essential to the main fact, and communicating others which are passed over in our account, e.g. Solomon's request that a Tyrian workman might be sent. This shows that the two accounts are extracts from a common and more elaborate source, the historical materials being worked up in a free and independent manner according to the particular plan adopted by each of the two authors. (For further remarks on the mutual relation of the two narratives, see my apologetischer Versuch über die Bücher der Chronik, pp. 216 sqq.) Vers. 1-12. Solor)ion'snegotiationswith Hiram of Tyre. — Ver. 1. When king Hiram of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king in the place of David, he sent his servants, i.e. an embassage, to Solomon, to congratulate him (as the Syriac cor- rectly explains) on his ascent of the throne, because he had been a friend of David the whole time (D''p^n-?3^ ix. as long as both of them (David and Hiram) were kings). On Hiram and the length of his reign, see the remarks on 2 Sam. v. 11. This is passed over in the Chronicles as having no essential bearing upon the building of the temple. — Vers. 2-6. Solomon thereupon com- municated to Hiram, by means of an embassy, his intention to carry out the building of the temple which his father projected, and asked him for building wood from Lebanon for the purpose. From the words, " Thou knowest that my father David could not build," etc., it is evident that David had not only been busily occupied for a long time with the plan for building a temple, but that he had already commenced negotiations with Hiram on the matter ; and with this 1 Chron. xxii. 4 agrees. " To the name of Jehovah : " this expression is based upon Deut. xii. 5 and 11:" the place which the Lord shall choose to put His name there, or that His name may dwell there." The name of Jehovah is the manifestation of the divine nature in a visible sign as a real pledge of His presence (see at xii. 5), and not merely numcn Java; quatenus ah hominihus cognoscitur, colifur, cclebratur (Winer, Thenius). Hence in 2 Sam. vii., to which Solomon refers, ^''.'^ y '""^^ (vers. 5 and 7) alternates with ^öB'^n^nnia (ver. 13). On the obstacle which prevented it, " because of the war, Avith which they (the enemies) had sur- rounded me," see at 2 Sam. vii. 9 sqq. On the construction, CHAP. V. 1-12. 59 33D with a double accusative, compare the very similar passage, Ps. cix. 3, which fully establishes the rendering we have given, so that there is no necessity to assume that nronpo^ war, stands for enemies (Ewald, § 317, &). — Ver. 4. " And now Jehovah my God has given me rest round about," such as David never enjoyed for a permanency (c£ 2 Sam. vii. 1). " No adversary is there." This is not at variance with ch. xi. 14, for Hadad's enterprise belonged to a later period (see the comm. on that passage). " And no evil occurrence :" such as the rebellions of Absalom and Sheba, the pestilence at the numbering of the people, and other events which took place in David's reign. — Ver. 5. " Behold, I intend to build." i'P^5 followed by an infini- tive, as in Ex. ii. 14, 2 Sam. xxi, 16. " As Jehovah spake to David;" viz. 2 Sam. vü. 12 and 13. — ^Ver. 6. "And now command that they fell me cedars from Lebanon." We may see from ver. 8 that Solomon had also asked for cypresses ; and according to the parallel passage 2 Chron. ii. 6 sqq., he had asked for a skilful artist, which is passed over here, so that it is only in ch. vii. 13, 14 that we find a supplementary notice that Hiram had sent one. It is evident from this request, that that portion of Lebanon on which the cedars suitable for building wood grew, belonged to the kingdom of Hiram. The cedar forest, which has been celebrated from very ancient times, was situated at least two days' journey to the north of Beirut, near the northernmost and loftiest summits of the range, by the village of Bjerrch, to the north of the road which leads to Baalbek and not far to the east of the convent of CanoMn, the seat of the patriarch of the Maronites, although Seetzen, the American missionaries, and Professor Ehrenberg found cedars and cedar groves in other places on northern Lebanon (see Eob. Pal. iii. 440, 441, and Bill. Bes. pp. 588 sqq.). The northern frontier of Canaan did not reach as far as Bjcrreh (see at Num. xxxiv. 8, 9). " My servants shall be with thy servants," i. e. shall help them in the felling of the wood (see at vers. 28, 29). "And the wages of thy servants will I give to thee altogether as thou sayest " (see at vers. 25, 26). " For thou knowest that no one among us is skilful in felling trees like the Sidonians." This refers to the knowledge of the most suitable trees, of the right time for felling, and of the proper treatment of the wood. The expression Sidonians stands for Phoenicians generally, since Sidon was formerly more powerful than Tyre, and that portion of Lebanon 60 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. wliich produced the cedars belonged to the district of Sidon. The inhabitants of Sidon were celebrated from time immemorial as skilful builders, and well versed in mechanical arts (compare Eob. Pal. iii. 421 sqq., and Movers, Phcenizier, ii. 1, pp. 86 sqq.). Hiram rejoiced exceedingly at this proposal on the part of Solomon, and praised Jehovah for having given David so wise a son as his successor (ver. 21). It must have been a matter of great importance to the king of Tyre to remain on good terms with Israel, because the land of Israel was a granary for the Phoenicians, and friendship with such a neighbour would neces- sarily tend greatly to promote the interests of the Phoenician commerce. The praise of Jehovah on the part of Hiram does not presuppose a full recognition of Jehovah as the only true God, but simply that Hiram regarded the God of Israel as being as real a God as his own deities. Hiram expresses a fuller acknowledgment of Jehovah in 2 Chron, ii. 11, where he calls Jehovah the Creator of heaven and earth; which may be explained, however, from Hiram's entering into the religious notions of the Israelites, and does not necessarily involve his own personal belief in the true deity of Jehovah. — Vers. 8, 9. Hiram then sent to Solomon, and promised in writing (^^33, 2 Chron. ii. 1 0) to comply with his wishes. ')n* ^n'?i^ i^\x riN " that which thou hast sent to me," i.e. hast asked of me by messenger. D'^^'iia are not firs, but cypresses. " My servants shall bring down (the trees) from Lebanon to the sea, and I will make them into rafts (i.e. bind them into rafts and have them floated) upon the sea to the place which thou shalt send (word) to me, and will take them (the rafts) to pieces there, and thou wilt take (i.e. fetch them thence)." The Chronicles give Yafo, i.e. Joppa, Jaffa, the nearest harbour to Jerusalem on the Medi- terranean Sea, as the landing-place (see at Josh. xix. 46). " And thou wilt do all my desire to give bread for my house," i.e. provisions to supply tlie wants of the king's court. " The "i3i^ mentioned in ver. 6 was also to be paid " (Thenius). This is quite correct ; but Thenius is wrong when he proceeds stiU further to assert, that the chronicler erroneously supposed this to refer to the servants of Hiram who were employed in work- ing the wood. There is not a word of this kind in the Chronicles ; but simply Solomon's promise to Hiram (ver. 9) : " with regard to the hewers (the fellers of the trees), I give thy servants wheat 20,000 cors, and barley 20,000 cors, and wine CHAP. V. 1-12, 61 20,000 baths, and oil 20,000 baths." This is omitted in our account, in which the wages promised in ver. 6 to the Sidonian fellers of wood are not more minutely defined. On the other hand, the payment for the wood delivered by Solomon to Hiram, which is not mentioned in the Chronicles, is stated here in ver. 1 1. "Solomon gave Hiram 20,000 cors of wheat as food (n?3^^ a contraction of npbXD^ from ^^^ ; cf. Ewald, § 79, &) for his house (the maintenance of his royal court), and 20 cors of beaten oil ; this gave Solomon to Hiram year by year," probably as long as the delivery of the wood or the erection of Solomon's buildings lasted. These two accounts -are so clear, that Jac. Capp., Gramb., Mov., Thenius, and Bertheau, who have been led by critical pre- judices to confound them with one another, and therefore to attempt to emend the one from the other, are left quite alone. For the circumstance that the quantity of wheat, which Solomon supplied to Hiram for his court, was just the same as that which he gave to the Sidonian workmen, does not warrant our identi- fying the two accounts. The fellers of the trees also received barley, wine, and oil in considerable quantities ; whereas the only other thing which Hiram received for his court was oil, and that not common oil, but the finest olive oil, namely 20 cors of IT'ria |J3^, ic. beaten oil, the finest kind of oil, which was obtained from the olives when not quite ripe by pounding them in mortars, and which had not only a whiter colour, but also a purer flavour than the common oil obtained by pressing from the ripe olives (cf. Celsii Hicrdbot. ii. pp. 349 sq., and Bahr, Symholih, i. p. 419). Twenty cors were 200 baths, i.e., according to the calculations of Thenius, about ten casks (1 cask = 6 pails ; 1 pail = 72 cans). If we bear in mind that this was the finest kind of oil, we cannot speak of disproportion to the quantity of wheat delivered. Thenius reckons that 20,000 cors of wheat were' about 38,250 Dresden scheffeln (? sacks). — Ver. 12. The remark that " the Lord gave Solomon wisdom" refers not merely to the treaty which Solomon made with Hiram, through which he obtained materials and skilled workmen for the erection of the house of God (Thenius), but also to the wise use which he made of the capacities of his own subjects for this work. For this verse not only brings to a close the section relating to Solomon's negotiations with Hiram, but it also forms an intro- duction to the following verses, in which the intimation given by Solomon in ver. 6, concerning the labourers who were to fell 62 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. wood upon Lebanon in company with Hiram's men, is more minutely defined. Vers. 13—18. Tlie tributary labourers out of Israel. — Vers. 13, 14. Solomon raised a tribute (DO, tribute-labourers, as in cb. iv. 6) out of all Israel, i.e. out of the whole nation (not " out of the whole territory of Israel," as Ewald supposes), 30,000 men, and sent them up to Lebanon, 10,000 a month in rota- tion ; one month they were on Lebanon (doing tribute work), two months at home (looking after the cultivation of their own ground). ^V'^X from '^^VJ}, does not mean in tdbulas refcrre, in support of which appeal is made to 1 Chron. xxvii. 24, though on insufficient ground, but ascendere fecit, corresponding to the German ausheben (to raise). He raised them out of the nation, to send them up Lebanon (cf ch. ix. 25). These 30,000 Israelitish labourers must be distino-aished from the remnants of the Canaanites who were made into tribute-slaves (ver. 15 and ch. ix. 20). The latter are called "i?'y on, tribute-slaves, in ch. ix. 21 as in Josh. xvi. 10. That the Israelites were not to render the service of bondsmen is evident from the fact, that they only rendered tribute for four months of the year, and were at home for eight months ; and the use of the epithet Do is not at variance with this. For even if this word is applied elsewhere to the Canaanitish bondsmen {e.g. Josh. xvii. 13, Judg. i. 28, 30, and 2 Chron. viii. 8), a distinction is decidedly made in our account of Solomon betv/een Dp and *i2y DO, inas- much as in ch. ix. 22, after the Canaanitish bondsmen have been mentioned, it is expressly stated that " of Israel Solomon made no one a slave" ("^^J/). The 30,000 Israelitish tribute- servants are " to be thought of as free Israelites, who simply performed the less severe work of felling trees in fellowship with and under the direction of the subjects of Hiram (see at ver. 6), according to the command of the Idng, and probably not even that without remuneration" (Thenius). For Adoniram see at ch. iv. 6. — Ver. 15. And Solomon had 70,000 bearers of burdens and 80,000 hewers of stone on the mountains (of Lebanon). 2vn is understood by the older translators as refer- ring simply to hewers of stone. This is favoured both by the context, since ver. 18 speaks of stone-mason's work, and also by the usage of the language, inasmuch as 3^n is mostly applied to the quarrying and cutting of stones (Deut. vi. 11; Isa. v. 2 ; Prov. ix. 1 ; 2 Kings xii. 1 3), and only occurs in Isa. x. 1 5 in CHAP. V. 13-18. 63 connection with the cutting of wood. The hewing and prepar- ing of the wood were amply provided for by 30,000 Israelites. That the 150,000 bearers of burdens and hewers of stone were not taken from the Israelites, is evident from the fact that they are distinguished from the latter, or at all events are not described as Israelites. We obtain certainty on this point from the parallel passages, ch. ix. 20, 21, 2 Chron. ii, 16, 17, and 2 Chron. viii. 1—9, according to which Solomon pressed the Canaanites who were left in the land to this bond-service. — Ver. 16. "Beside C^p), i.e. without reckoning, the princes, Solo- mon's officers, who were over the work (i.e.. the chiefs appointed by Solomon as overlookers of the work), 3300, who ruled over the people who laboured at the work." ö"'3^3ri ''nt:^^ as Thenius correctly observes, cannot be the chief of the overlookers, i.e. the head inspectors, as there is no allusion made to subordinate inspectors, and the number given is much too large for head inspectors. Q""?^?, which is governed by ''"?.^ in the construct state, is to be taken as defining the substantive : principes qui prcefecti er ant (Vatabl. ; cf. Ewald, § 287, a). Moreover, at the close of the account of the whole of Solomon's buildings (ch. ix. 23), 550 more C:''3^*3n '•nb' are mentioned as presiding over the people who did the work. The accounts in the Chronicles differ from these in a very peculiar manner, the number of over- seers being given in 2 Chron. ii. 17 as 3600, and in 2 Chron. viii. 10 as 250. Now, however natural it may be, with the multiplicity of errors occurring in numerical statements, to assume that these differences have arisen from copyists' errors through the confounding together of numerical letters resem- bling one another, this explanation is overthrown as an im- probable one, by the fact that the sum-total of the overseers is the same in both accounts (3300-}-550 = 3850 in the books of Kings, and 3600 4-250 = 3850 in the Chronicles); and we must therefore follow J. H. Michaelis, and explain the diffe- rences as resulting from a different method of classification, namely, from the fact that in the Chronicles the Canaanitish overseers are distinguished from the Israelitish (viz. 3600 Canaanites and 250 Israelites), whereas in the books of Kings the inferiores et siqjeriores po-cefecti are distinguished. Conse- quently Solomon had 3300 inferior overseers and 550 superior (or superintendents), of whom 250 were selected from the Israelites and 300 from the Canaanites. In 2 Chron. ii. 16, 17, 64 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. it is expressly stated that the 3C00 were taken from the Ci''"]?., i.e. the Canaanites who were left in the land of Israel. And it is equally certain that the number given in ch. ix. 23 and 2 Chron. viii. 10 (550 and 250) simply comprises the super- intendents over the whole body of builders, notwithstanding the fact that in both passages (ch. v. 16 and ch. ix. 23) the same epithet Ci''2s:3n """li^ is used. If, then, the number of over- seers is given in ch. ix. 23 as 550, i.e. 300 more than in the parallel passage of the Chronicles, there can hardly be any doubt that the number 550 includes the 300, in which the number given in our chapter falls short of that in the Chronicles, and that in the 3300 of our chapter the superintendents of Canaan- itish descent are not included.^ — Ver. 17. And the king had large, costly stones broken, " to lay the foundation of the house with hewn stones." niij?"; does not mean heavy (Thenius), for this would be a perfectly superfluous remark, inasmuch as large stones are always heavy, but costly, valuable stones, q^ci multa 'pecunia constabant (Cler.) ; compare ch. x. 2, where the word stands for precious stones. *IDÜ^, i.e. to lay the foundation for the temple, by which we are to understand not merely the foundation for the temple-house, but the magnificent substruc- tions for the whole of the temple area, even though the strong- walls which surrounded the temple mountain, and which Jose- phus describes in his Antiquities, viii. 3, 9, and xv. 11, 3, and in his clc Bell. Jucl. v. 5, 1, may not have been all completed by Solomon, but may have been a work of centuries. For further remarks on this subject, see at ch.. vi. 38. JT'TJ "'J3N are squared stones, according to ch. vii. 1 0, of ten and eight cubits. "With ver. 18 the account of the preparations for the build- ing of the temple, which were the object of Solomon's negotia- tions with Hiram, is brought to a close. " Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders, even the Giblites, hewed and prepared the wood and the stones for the building of the house." The object to vDS'; is not the square stones mentioned before, but the trees ^ Ewald {Gesell, iii. p. 292) assumes that " by the 550 (1 Kings ix. 23) we • are to understand the actual superintendents, whereas the 3300 (1 Kings v. 30) include inferior inspectors as well ; and of the 550 superintendents, 300 were taken from the Cananaeans, so that only 250 (2 Chron. viii. 10) were native Hebrews ;" though he pronounces the number 3600 (2 Chron. ii. 17) erroneous. Bertheau, on the other hand, in his notes on 2 Chron. viii. 10, has rather complicated than elucidated the relation in which the two accounts stand to one another. CHAP. VI. 65 (beams) and stones mentioned after ^3''3*i. Q^733n^_ is to be taken as explanatory, " even the Giblites," giving a more precise defini- tion of " Hiram's builders." The GibKtes are the inhabitants of the town of Gcbal, called Byblos by the Greeks, to the north of Beirut (see at Josh. xiii. 5), which was the nearest to the celebrated cedar forest of the larger Phoenician towns. Accord- ing to Ezek. xxvii. 9, the Giblites (Byblians) were experienced in the art of shipbuilding, and therefore were probably skilful builders generally, and as such the most suitable of Hiram's subjects to superintend the working of the wood and stone for Solomon's buildings. For it was in the very nature of the case that the number of the Phoenician builders was only a small one, and that they were merely the foremen ; and this may also be inferred from the large number of his own subjects whom Solomon appointed to the work. ^ CHAP. VI. BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE. The account of the building of the temple commences with a statement of the date of the building (ver. 1) ; and this is fol- lowed by a description of the plan and size of the temple-house (vers. 2-1 0), to which there is also appended the divine promise made to Solomon during the erection of the building (vers. 1 1-1 3). After this we have a further account of the internal fittings and ^ Without any satisfactory ground Thenius has taken offence at the word D v32nv and on the strength of the critically unattested scul s/SaAo» uvTovg of the LXX. and the paraphrastic äpf^öcuvra.; x.xi avi/l'yicavrx; of Josephus, ■which is only introduced to fill in the picture, has altered it into Dv''33*1j " they bordered them (the stones)." This he explains as relating to the " bevelling" of the stones, upon the erroneous assumption that the grooving of the stones in the old walls encircling the temple area, which Robinson (Pol. i. 423) was the first tc notice and describe, " occurs nowhere else in pre- cisely the same form ; " whereas Robinson found them in the ancient remains of the foundations of walls in different places throughout the land, not only in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, viz. at Bethany, but also at Carmel on the mountains of Judah, at Hebron, Semua (Esthemoa), Beit Nusib (Nezib), on Tabor, and especially in the north, in the old remains of the walls of the fortifications es ShuJcif, Hiinhi, Banias, Tyrus, Jehail (Byblus), Baalbek, on the island of Ruivad (the ancient Aradiis), and in different temples on Lebanon (see Rob. Pal. ii. 101, 198, 434, 627 ; iii. 12, 213, 214 ; and Bibl. Researches, p. 229). Böttcher (n. ex. Krit. Aelirenl. ii. p. 32) has therefore properly rejected this conjecture as " ill-founded," though only to put in its place another which is altogether unfounded, namely, that before D''l73!in"l the word 66 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. decorations of the sanctuary (vers. 14-36), and in ch, vii. 1-12 a description of the royal palace which was built after the temple ; and, finally, a description of the pillars of the court which were executed in metal by the Tyrian artist, and of the different vessels of the temple (ch. vii. 13-51).-^ We have a parallel to this in 2 Chron. iii. and iv., though here the description is differently arranged. In the Chronicles the external building of the temple- house is not separated from the internal decoration and furnishing; but after the period of erection and the size of the temple-house have been given in ch. iii. 1-3, there follows a description, a. of the court (ver. 4); l. of the Holy Place with its internal decorations (vers. 5-V); c. of the Most Holy Place, with special reference to its size and decorations, also of the colossal cherubim placed therein and the curtain in front of it, which is not mentioned in our account (vers. 8-14) ; d. of the brazen pillars in front of the court (vers. 15-17); e. of the altar of burnt-offering (ch. iv. 1), which is passed over in the account before us ; /. of the brazen sea (vers. 2-5) ; g. of the brazen lavers, the golden candlesticks, the-tables of shew- bread, and the golden basons (vers. 6-8) ; and li. of the courts (ver. 9). The account is then closed with a summary enumera- tion of the different vessels of the temple (vers. 10-22), which agrees almost word for word with 1 lungs vii. 40-50. Vers. 1-10. The Outside of the Building. — Ver. 1. The building of the temple, a fixed and splendid house of Jehovah as D''"l'i*n (" the Tyrians ") has dropped out. For this has nothing further iu its favour than the most improbable assumption, that king Hiram gathered together the subjects of his whole kingdom to take part in Solomon's build- ings.— The addition of t/x« iT/i, which is added by the LXX. at the end of the verse, does not warrant the assumption of Thenius and Böttcher, that Di:K> ti'l^tJ' has dropped out of the text. For it is obvious that the LXX. have merely made their addition e coiijectura, and indeed have concluded that, as the foundation for the temple was laid in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, the preliminary work must have occupied the first three years of his reign. ^ Of the special works on the subject of the temple, see my pamphlet, Der Tempel Salo7no''s, eine arcMoIogiscJie Untcrsucliung (Dorp. 1839) ; and Carl Chr. "W. F. Bahr, Der Salomonisclie Tempel mit BerüchsicMigunfj seines Ver- Idiltnisses zur heil. Arcliitectur uberliaiipt (Karlsr. 18-48). In both of these there are critical notices of the earlier investigations and monographs on this subject, which have now simply a historical interest. See also the short description of the temple in my Bill. ArcMologie, i. § 23 sqq., with sketches of the temple building and the principal vessels on Plates 2 and 3, and the most recent notice by H. Merz in Herzog's Cyclopedia (Art. Temple). CHAP, VI. 1-10. 67 the dwelling-place of His name in the midst of His people, formed an important epoch so far as the Old Testament kingdom of God was concerned, inasmuch as, according to the declaration of God made through the prophet Nathan, an end would thereby be put to the provisional condition of the people of Israel in the land of Canaan, since the temple was to become a substantial pledge of the permanent possession of the inheritance promised by the Lord. The importance of this epoch is indicated by the fact, that the time when the temple was built is defined not merely in relation to the year of Solomon's reign, but also in rela- tion to the exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt. " In the 480th year after the exodus of the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, in the second month of the year, Solomon built the house of the Lord." The correctness of the number 480, as contrasted with the 440th year of the LXX. and the different statements made by Josephus, is now pretty generally admitted ; and we have already proved at Judg. iii. 7 that it agrees with the duration of the period of the Judges when rightly estimated.^ The name of the month Ziv, brilliancy, splendour, probably so called from the splendour of the flowers, is explained by the clause, "that is, the second month," because the months had no fixed names before the cap- tivity, and received different names after the captivity. The second month was called Jyar after the captivity. — The place where the temple was built is not given in our account, as having been sufficiently well known; though it is given in the parallel ^ In opposition to the hypothesis of Böttcher, which has been repeated by Bertheau, viz. that the number 480 merely rests upon the computation of 12 X 40 years, or twelve generations of forty years each, Thenius himself has observed with perfect justice, that "where both the year and the month of the reign of the king in question are given, the principal number will cer- tainly rest upon something more than mere computation ; and if this had not been the case, the person making such a computation, if only for the purpose of obtaining the appearance of an exact statement, would have made a parti- cular calculation of the years of Solomon's reign, and would have added them to the round number obtained, and written ' in the year 484.' Moreover, the introduction to our chapter has something annalistic in its tone ; and at this early period it would be undoubtedly well known, and in a case like the pre- sent a careful calculation would be made, how long a time had elapsed since the most memorable period of the Israelitish nation had passed by." Compare with this Ed. Preuss {Die Zeitrechmmg der LXX., p. 74 sqq.), who has endea- voured with much greater probability to show that the alteration made by the LXX. into 440 rests upon nothing more than a genealogical combination. 68 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. text, 2 Chron. iii. 1, namely, " Mount Moriah, where tlie Lord had appeared to David " at the time of the pestilence, and where David had built an altar of burnt-offering by divine command (see at 2 Sam. xxiv. 25). Vers. 2-4. Plan and dimensions of the tcmpMioiise. — The measures of the temple-house and its several subdivisions are all given in the clear, i.e. as the spaces were seen. The liouse, i.e. the main building of the temple (lit. as for the house, or shell of the building), its length was sixty cubits, its breadth twenty cubits, and its height thirty cubits, and that, according to 2 Chron. iii. 3, " after the earlier measure," i.e. after the old Mosaic or sacred cubit, which was a hand-breadth longer, according to Ezek. xl. 5 and xliii. 13, than the civil cubit of the time of the captivity. The Mosaic cubit, according to the investigations of Thenius, was 214,512 Parisian lines long, i.e. 20^ Dresden inches, or 18-|^ Ehenish inches (see at Gen. vi. 10). — Ver. 3. The ^orch (lit. hall) in the face of (^?S"?y, i.e. before) the Holy Place of the house was twenty cubits long, before CP.S'^V) the breadth of the house, i.e. it was just the same breadth as the house. The longer line, which ran parallel to the breadth of the house, is called here T)}^, the length, though from our point of view we should call it the width. And ten cubits was its breadth, i.e. its depth in front of the house. The height of the court is not given in our text ; but in 2 Chron. iii. 4 it is said to have been 120 cubits. This is certainly an error, although Ewald {Gesch. iii. p. 300) still joins with Stieglitz {Baukunst, p. 126, and Beitrr. zur Gesch. der BauJc. i. p. 70) in defending its correctness. Por an erection of such a height as this could not p)0ssibly have been designated as D^iK (a hall or porch), but would have been called ?"=i^ö, a toiver. But even a tower of 120 cubits in height in front of a temple which was only thirty cubits high, would have shown a greater disproportion than our loftiest church towers ; ^ and such a funnel-like erection with a base of only ten 1 In the Strasburg cathedral and that at Freiburg in Breisgau the pro- portion between the height of the tower and that of the church, together witli the roof, is about 3| to 1 ; it is only in the cathedral at Eoueu that the pro- portion would have been almost 4 to 1 if it had been carried out to the very- top. At the same time, in making this comparison it must be borne in mind that these Gothic towers taper off into slender points, whereas in the case of Solomon's temple we must assume that if the porch was carried up to the height supposed, it finished in a flat truncated tower ; and it is this which would chiefly occasion the disproportion. CHAP. VI. 5-S. ' 69 cubits in breadth or depth, would hardly have possessed sufficient stability. We cannot certainly think of an intentional exag- geration of the height in the Chronicles, since the other measures agree with the account before us ; but the assumption that there has been a corruption of the text is rendered natural enough by many other errors in the numerical statements. This still leaves it undecided whether the true height was twenty or thirty cubits ; for whereas the Syriac, Arabic, and LXX. (Cod. Al.) have twenty cubits, the height of thirty cubits is favoured partly by the omission of any statement of the height from our text, which is much easier to explain if the porch was of the same height as the temple-house than if the heights were different, and partly by the circumstance that the side building had an external height of twenty cubits, and therefore the porch would not have stood out with any especial prominence if its elevation had been just the same. — Ver. 4. After the account of the proportionate spaces in the temple-house, the windows through which it received light and air are mentioned. Q"''?^^ D'^Sp^' ""Jipn does not jaQdM fcncstrcc intus latcc, foris angustce (Chald., Ar., Eabb., Lvithei', and others), but windows with closed beams, i.e. windows the lattice-work of which could not be opened and closed at pleasure, as in ordinary dwelling-houses (2 Kings xiii. 17 ; Dan, vi. 11). For D''Si5^ signifies beams overlaid in ch. vii. 4, and ^\y^ beams in ch. vii. 5. The opening of the windows was probably narrower without than within, as in the older Egyptian buildings, as the walls were very strong; and in that case such windows would more thoroughly answer their purpose, viz. to admit light and air, and let out the smoke, so that the interpre- tation given by the Chaldee is most likely founded upon an ancient tradition, and is in accordance with the fact, though not with the words. It is a disputed point among the commentators where the windows were placed : whether merely in the front over the porch, provided, that is to say, that this was ten cubits lower than the temple-house, or on the side walls above the side stories, which were at the most about twenty cubits high, in which case the Most Holy Place, which was only twenty cubits high, remained quite dark, according to ch. viii. 12. We regard the latter view as the correct one, inasmuch as the objections to it rest upon assimiptions which can be proved to be false. Vers. 5-8. The side huilcling. — Ver. 5. " He built against the wall of the house an outwork round about {i.e. against the two 70 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. longer sides and against the hinder wall, and not against the front also, where the porch was built), against the walls of the house round about, against the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, and he made side chambers round about." V^^^ (written constantly V'^^l in the Keri) signifies literally stratum, here the lower building or outwork erected against the rooms mentioned. The word is goi. comm., but so construed that the masculine is used in a collective sense to denote the whole of the outworks, consisting as they did of three stories, whereas the feminine is used for one single story of the building (ver. 6). On this use of the masculine and feminine genders to distinguish the whole mass and the individual parts, wliich is very common in Arabic, though it is rare in Hebrew, in which the distinction is gene- rally expressed by a peculiar feminine form, as for example ""JK a fleet, and n^J5< a single ship, compare Ewald, Lchrhuch der liebr. Spr. § 175, d, and 176, a, and gramm. crit. ling. ardb. i. ^ 295. niT'ipTix does not mean cum parietihus (Seb. Schmidt and J. H. Michaelis), but nt;: is a sign of the accusative, " as for the walls," and introduces the more precise definition. TiW^ signifies, both here and in Ezek. xli. 6 sqq., side chambers or side stories, from V?^, to incline to one side, hence to limp, i.e. to lean constantly to one side. From this there were derived for V?"^ the meanings side, side piece or side wall, e.g. of the ark, Ex. xxv. 12, 14, etc., of the dwelling, Ex. xxvi. 20, 26, etc., of the altar, Ex. xxvii. 7, 30, etc., the side wall or slope of a mountain, 2 Sam. xvi. 13, the side portion of the human body, i.e. the rib, Gen. ii. 21, 22, the sides or leaves of a door in ver. 34 of the present chapter, and when used of buildings, the side pieces or portions built out which lean against the main build- ing ; and lastly, the idea of a piece which shows a large side, i.e. a broad plank (ch. vi. 15, 16). The meaning planks or beams, as it were ribs or rib-work, is unfounded. — Ver. 6. The (internal) breadth of the lower side story was five cubits, that of the middle one six, and that of the third seven cubits ; " for he (they) had made shortenings (i.e. rebates) against the house round about on the outside, that (there might be) no insertion into the walls of the (temple-) house." The meaning is that rebates were attached against the temple wall, at the point where the lower beams of the different side stories were to be placed, so that the heads of these beams rested upon the rebates and were not inserted in the actual wall of the temple- CHAP. VI. 5-8. 71 house. These rebates are called very descriptively J^iJ^'^^'^ö, de- ductions or contractions of the thickness of the wall. We may assume that there were four such rebates : three for the three floors of the side stories, and one for the roof It still remains doubtful, however, whether these rebates were merely laid along the temple wall, or along the outer wall of the side building as well, so as to ensure symmetry and make each of the two walls half a cubit thinner or weaker at every rebate. The former is the more probable. And accordingly the temple wall was one cubit weaker at each rebate, that is to say, in four places. If, therefore, it still remained two cubits thick at the top, it must have been six cubits thick below. This extraordinary thick- ness, however, would be quite in keeping with the remains of buildings of great antiquity, the walls of which have generally a colossal thickness, and also with the size of the square stones of which the wall was constructed, as described in ch. vii. 10. — Ver. 7 contains a circumstantial clause, inserted as an ex- planation of ver. 6 : " The house, (namely) when building, was built of perfectly finished stones of the quarry, and hammer and axe ; no kind of instrument whatever was heard at the house when it was building." ys?? '""p.<'^ 1?^ (on the construc- tion see Ges. § 114, 1, ErL, and Ewald, § 339,5) does not mean stones quite unhewn, which God had so caused to grow that they did not require to be hewn (Theodoret) ; for although Ci"'J3i^ niD7K' is used in Deut. xxvii. 6 (compare with Ex. xx. 25) to signify uninjured, i.e. unhewn stones, yet this meaning is pre- cluded here by the context (cf v. 32). Q?K' signifies finished here, that is to say, stones which were so perfectly tooled and prepared when first broken in the quarry, that when the temple walls were built no iron instruments were required to prepare them any further. IPS, an axe, here a stone-mason's cutting tool corresponding to the axe. — In ver. 8 the description of the sidfe building is continued. " A door (nriö^ an opening for the entrance) to the middle side chamber (of the lower story) was on the right side (the southern side) of the house, and a wind- ing staircase led up into the middle (room of the middle story) and out of the middle into the thhd rooms," i.e. the rooms of the third story. This is the rendering according to the Masoretic text ; and the only thing that appears strange is the use of •^5^"^'] first of all for the middle room of the lower story and then for the middle story ; and the conjecture is a very natural 72 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. one, that the first n3b''nn may have been an error of the pen for '"'^i^O'?'!', in which case P^n does not signify the side room, but is used in a collective sense for the row of side rooms in one story, as in Ezek. xli. 5, 9, 11. That this door was made from the outside, i.e. in the outer wall of the side building, and did not lead into the side rooms " from the interior of the Holy Place," would hardly need a remark, if Böttcher {Proben alttestl. Schrifterkl. p. 339) and Schnaase {GcscJi. der hildenden Künste, Bd. 1) had not really supported this view, which is so thoroughly irreconcilable with the dignity of the sanctuary.^ The only question is, whether it was made in the middle of the right side or in the front by the side of the porch. If the Masoretic text is correct, there is no doubt about the former. But if we read •ij'^'?'!''!', the text leaves the question undecided. The winding staircase was not constructed in the outer wall itself, because this was not thick enough for the purpose, and the text states pretty clearly that it led from the lower story into the middle one, and thence still higher, so that it was in the centre of the building. In vers. 9 and 10 the description of the exterior of the temple building is brought to a close. " So he built the house, and finished it, and covered the house with beams and boards of cedar." fsD*!! is not to be understood as relating to the internal panelling of the temple-house, for this is spoken of first in the section which follows (ver. 15), biit to the roofing ; ISD means to conceal (Deat. xxxiii. 21) and cover in all the other passages, even in Hag. i. 4 and Jer. xxii. 14, where pSD is generally, though incorrectly, translated " panelled." As a verb signifying clothing, it is construed with the accusative. ^''211 does not mean boards, but beams, though not " an arched covering " (Thenius), because beams cut in the form of an arch would have been too weak in the middle, nor yet rafters (Böttcher), because the roofs of oriental buildings are flat. Q"*!"}^? ri^lf', " rows, i. e. tablets (consisting) of cedars," i. e. cedar tablets, which were inserted in rows between the beams. This cedar-work was cer- tainly provided with a strong covering to protect the roof and the building itself against rain ; and at the sides it had no doubt a parapet, as in the case of dweUing-houses (Deut. xxii. 8). — ^ The perfectly groundless assumption of Thenius, that the outer building had most probably an inner door as well, which connected it with the temple, does just as much violence to the decorum of the Holy Place. CHAP. VI. 9, 10. 73 Ver. 1 0. " And lie built the outbuildings to the whole house {i.e. all round the temple-house, with the exception of the front : see ver. 5) ; five cubits was its height," i.e. the height of each story, the suffix in iriöip being made to agree with yi2i*n through an inaccuracy which has arisen from condensation, although, as in ver. 5, it denotes the whole of the side buildings, which consisted of three stories. The height given must also be understood as referring to the height within. Consequently the side buildings had an internal height of 3 X 5 cubits, and reckoning the floorings and the roof of the whole building an external height of 1 8 or 20 cubits ; so that the temple-house, which was thirty cubits high within and about thirty-two with- out, rose about twelve or fourteen cubits above the side building, and there was plenty of room for the windows in the side walls. 'iai rnx*1 : " and it (the side building) held to the house with cedar beams." The meaning is, that the building was fastened to the house by the joists of the cedar beams belonging to the different stories, which rested upon rebates of the temple w^all, so that it was firmly attached to the temple-house, without any injurious insertions into the sanctuary itself. This is apparently the only explanation, that can be grammatically sustained, of words that have received such different interpretations. For the translation given by Thenius, which coincides with this, — viz. " he fastened it (each separate story of the building) to the temple-house with cedar wood, namely, with the cedar beams which formed the flooring and roofing of the three stories," — is exposed to this grammatical objection, that the suffix is wanting in T'ntJ^^ and that T^^? is never followed by nx in the sense of with. All the other explanations are unsuitable. Thx;^ signifies neither " he covered the house " (Chald., Vulg., Luther), nor " he over- laid the house ; " moreover, the roofing of the house has been already mentioned in ver. 9, and there is no trace to be found of any overlaying or covering of the outside with cedar wood. If, therefore, we reckon the thickness of the temple wall at six cubits, and that of the outer wall of the side building and the front wall of the porch at three cubits each, the whole build- ing would be ninety-three cubits long (externally) and forty-eight cubits broad. The height of the temple-house was about thirty- two cubits externally, and that of the side stories from eighteen to twenty cubits, without the socle upon which the whole build- ing rested. This is not mentioned indeed, as being a subordinate 74 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. matter, but would certainly not be omitted.-^ The number of rooms in tlie side buildings is not given, but may be set down at thirty in each story, if their length corresponded to their breadth in the lower story. These rooms had of course win- dows, although they are not mentioned in the account, but each one would have only a small window sufficient to give it the requisite light. And as to the number of the temple windows also, we can simply make conjectures. We can hardly assume that there were more than six on each side, and there were probably none at the back. Vers. 11-13. Peomise of God during the Building of the Temple. — In what way this promise was communicated to Solo- mon is not more precisely stated. But the expression " And the word of Jehovah came" seems to point to a prophetic medium. And this is in harmony with ch. ix. 2, according to which Jehovah only revealed Himself to Solomon twice by an actual appearance. — ^Ver. 12. '1^1 ri^sn is placed at the head absolutely : " As for the house which thou art building (p^^, a participle), if thou walkest in my statutes, ... I will set up my word, which I spake to thy father David." The reference is to the promise in 2 Sam. vii. 1 2 sqq. of the everlasting establishment of his throne. God would fulfil this for Solomon if he would walk in the commandments of the Lord, as his father had already urged upon him when he handed over the kingdom (ch. ii. 3). The promise in ver. 13, " I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel," does not contain a second promise added to the one given in 2 Sam. vii. 1 2 sqq., but simply a special application of it to the building of the temple which had already been commenced. The eternal establishment 1 Thenius, on the other hand, reckons the length of the whole building at a hundred cubits and its breadth at fifty -two, because, on the unfounded as- sumption that the temple in Ezekiel's vision was simply a copy of Solomon's temple, he sets down the thickness of the temple wall in front and along the two sides at six cubits, and that of the hinder wall at seven. Moreover, he not only reckons the internal length of the house at sixty-two cubits, in opposition to the statement in the text, that the length of the house (which was divided into the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies) was sixty cubits ; but in opposition to ver. 16, according to which the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies were separated by boards of cedar, he assumes that there was a wall of two cubits in thickness between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies, ae- cording to Ezek. xli. 3 ; and, lastly, for no other reason than the wish to get the round number 100, he takes for granted that the hinder wall of the temple was a cubit thicker than that on the other sides. CHAP. VI. 14-22. 75 of the throne of David involved the dwelling of God among His people, or rather is founded upon it. This dwelling of God is now to receive a new and lasting realization. The temple is to be a pledge that the Lord will maintain for His people His covenant of grace and His gracious presence. In this respect the promise, " I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel, and not forsake my people Israel," is a confirmation of the word which Jehovah had spoken to David, although, so far as the actual words are con- cerned, it is more closely connected with Lev. xxvi. 11, when the highest blessing attendant upon the faithful observance of the commandments of God is summed up in the promise, '' I will make my abode among you, and my soul will not despise you." Vers. 14-35. The Internal Aerangements of the Temple- house. — Vers. 14—22. Internal covering of the house, and divi- sion into Holy and Most Holy. — Ver. 14 (cf. ver. 9) resumes the description of the building of the temple, which had been inter- rupted by the divine promise just communicated. — ^Ver. 1 5. " He built {i.e., so far as the sense is concerned, he covered) the walls of the house within with boards of cedar ; from the floor of the house to the walls of the ceiling he overlaid it with wood within, and overlaid the floor with cypress boards." The expression niT*!? |aDn, " walls of the ceiling," is very striking here, and renders it probable that niT'ip is only a copyist's error for nhip, " beams of the ceiling." The whole of the inside of the house was covered with wood, so that nothing was to be seen of the stone wall (ver. 18). On the other hand, the biblical text knows nothing of any covering of the outer walls also with wood, as many have assumed. — Vers. 16, 17. "And he built D'^'ici'yTiN ns^N, the twenty cubits {i.e. the space of twenty cubits), of the hindermost side of the house with boards of cedar," from the floor to the beams (of the roof). riiT'ipnn:!? is to be explained from |5Dn nii^p IV in ver. 15. "And built them for it (the house — \h pointing back to n^an) into the hinder room, into the Most Holy." T'^T is more precisely defined by the apposition Ji'lP D"'t^"ipn^ and therefore denotes the Most Holy Place. But there is a doubt as to its derivation and true meaning. Aquila and Symmachus render it -x^prjfiariaTijptov, Jerome XaXtjTijpiov, or in the Vulg. oraculum, so that they derive it from i?^, to speak ; and Hengstenberg adopts this derivation in Ps. xxviii. 2 : T'^'n, lit. that which is spoken, then the place where the speaking 76 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. takes place. Most of the more recent commentators, on the other hand, follow the example of C. B. Michaelis and J. Simonis, and render it, after the Arabic, the hinder portion or back room, which is favoured by the antithesis ''^p^ -'3"'^, the front sanctuary (ver. 1 7). The words of the text, moreover, are not to be under- stood as referring to a cedar wall in front of the Most Holy Place which rose to the height of twenty cubits, but to all four walls of the Most Holy Place, so that the wall which divided the hinder room from the Holy Place is not expressly mentioned, simply because it is self-evident. The words also imply that the whole of the hinder space of the house to the length of twenty cubits was cut off for the Most Holy Place, and therefore the party wall must also have filled the whole height of the house, which was as much as thirty cubits, and reached, as is expressly stated, from the floor to the roof. There remained therefore forty cubits of the house (in length) for ''^p? ^^^[}, the front palace, i.e. the Holy Place of the temple (ver. 1 7). ''^p?, anterior, formed from "•ps? (cf. Ewald, ^ 164, a). — In ver. 18 there is inserted in a circumstantial clause the statement as to the internal decoration of both rooms ; and the further description of the Most Holy Place is given in vers. 1 9 sqq. " And cedar wood was (placed) against the house inside, sculpture of gourds {colocynthidcs) and open buds." riypipjp is in apposition to HX, containing a more minute description of the nature of the covering of cedar, nypp» signifies sculpture, half-raised work (hasso relievo) ; not, however, " that kind of bas-relief in which the figures, instead of rising above the surface on which they are wrought, are simply sepa- rated from it by the chiselling out of their outlines, and their being then rounded off according to these outlines" (Thenius). For although the expression nipfpo "•niMSi (ver. 29) appears to favour this, yet "merely engraved work" does not harmonize with the decorations of the brazen stands in ch. vii. 31, which are also called riiybipp. D''yi?Q are figures resembling the ri'yips, or wild gourds (2 Kings iv. 39), i.e. oval ornaments, probably running in straight rows along the walls. D''5fy ''1^523 are open flower-buds ; not hangings or garlands of flowers (Thenius), for tliis meaning cannot be derived from "ips in the sense of loosen- ing or setting free, so as to signify flowers loosened or set free (= garlands), which would be a marvellous expression! The objection that, "according to Num. xvii. 23, flowers not yet opened, i.e. flower-buds, were not Q^'if» ^^t ^''n'la/' rests upon a CHAP. VI. 14-22. 77 false interpretation of the passage referred to. — Ver. 19. "And (= namely) he prepared a hinder room in the house within, to place the ark of the covenant of Jehovah there." "i^^}^ as eh. xvii. 1 4 shows, is not a future (ut repoQieres), but the infinitive nn with a repeated syllable in (see Ewald, § 238, c). — ^Ver. 20. " And the interior of the hinder room was twenty cubits the length, twenty cubits the breadth, and twenty cubits its height." The word ''P.p^ I agree with Kimchi in regarding as the construct state of the noun ö''Jö^, which occurs again in ver. 29 in the sense of the inner part or interior, as is evident from the antithesis P^"''?^ (on the outside). "And he overlaid it with fine gold." "»'iJD an: (= lijp in Job xxviii. 15) unquestionably signifies fine or costly gold, although the derivation of this meaning is still questionable ; viz. whether it is derived from "iJD in the sense of to shut up, i.e. gold shut up or carefully pre- served, after the analogy of 203 ; or is used in the sense of taking out or selecting, i.e. gold selected or pure ; or in the sense of closed, i.e. gold condensed or unadulterated (Fürst and Delitzsch on Job xxviii. 15). The Most Holy Place had therefore the form of a perfect cube in the temple as well as in the tabernacle, only on an enlarged scale. Now, as the internal elevation of the house, i.e. of the whole of the temple-house, the hinder portion of which formed the Most Holy Place, was thirty cubits, there was a space of about ten cubits in height above the Most Holy Place and below the roof of the temple-house for the upper rooms men- tioned in 2 Chron. iii. 9, on the nature and purpose of which nothing is said in the two accounts.^ " And he overlaid (clothed) the altar with cedar wood." There is something very striking in the allusion to the altar in this passage, since the verse itself treats simply of the Most Holy Place ; and still more striking is the expression "i''^'^^ '^^^. D?!'?'"', "the altar belonging to the Dehir," in ver. 22, since there was no altar in the Most Holy 1 This upper room does not presuppose, however, that the party wall, which follows as a matter of course from ver. 16, was not merely a cedar wall, but a wall two cubits thick. The supposed difficulty of setting up a cedar wall thirty cubits high is not so great as to necessitate assumptions opposed to the text. For we cannot possibly see why it could not have been made secure " without injuring the temple wall." The wood panelling must have been nailed firmly to the wall without injuring the wall itself ; and therefore this could be done just as well in the case of the cedar beams or boards of the |)arty wall. 78 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. Place. We cannot remove the strangeness of these sentences by such alterations as Thenius and Böttcher propose, because the alterations suggested are much too complicated to appear admissible. The allusion to the altar in both these verses is rather to be explained from the statements in the Pentateuch as to the position of the altar of incense ; viz. Ex. xxx. 6, " Thou shalt place it before the curtain, which is above the ark of the testimony before the capporeth over the testimony ; " and Ex, xl. 5, "before the ark of the testimony;" whereby this altar, although actually standing "before the inner curtain/' i.e. in the Holy Place, according to Ex. xl. 26, was placed in a closer rela- tion to the Most Holy Place than the other two things which were in the Holy Place. The clothing of the altar with cedar presupposes that it had a heart of stone ; and the omission of the article before il}j}''[^ may be explained on the ground that it is mentioned here for the first time, just as in ver. 16, where 1^21 was first mentioned, it had no article. — ^Ver. 21, To the gilding of the Most Holy Place, and the allusion to the altar of incense, which in a certain sense belonged to it, there is now appended in ver. 2 1 the gilding of the Holy Place. " Solomon overlaid the house from within with fine gold." noiJBp n^ari cannot be the party wall between the Holy Place and the Most Holy, as I formerly supposed, but is the Holy Place as distin- guished from the Most Holy. The following words '1J'> "^i^T} are very obscure. If we rendered them, " he caused to pass over in (with) golden chains before the hinder room," we could only think of an ornament consisting of golden chains, which ran along the wall in front of the hinder room and above the fold- ing doors. But this would be very singularly expressed. We must therefore take "i?V, as Gesenius, de Wette, and many of the earlier commentators do, according to the Chaldcean usage in the sense of bolting or fastening : " he bolted (fastened) with golden chains before the hinder room ; " and must assume with Merz and others that the doors into the Most Holy Place (exce^Dt on the day of atonement) were closed and fastened with golden chains, which were stretched across the whole breadth of the door and stood out against the wall.^ — The following expres- ^ The conjecture of Tlienius, that n3^5^"^^^ (the curtain) has dropped out of the text and should be restored ("he carried the curtain across with golden chains"), is very properly described by Merz as "certainly unten- able," since, apart from the fact that not one of the older versions contains CHAP. VI. 23-28. 79 sion, 3n| inav^l, " and he overlaid it with gold," can only refer to the altar mentioned in the previous verse, the gilding of which has not yet been noticed, however surprising the separation of these words from ver. 2 0 may be. — In ver. 2 2 what has already been stated with regard to the gilding is repeated once more in a comprehensive manner, which brings this subject to a close. The whole house (n^3ri"73) is the Holy Place and the Most Holy, but not the porch or hall, as this is expressely distinguished from the house. fliTBri, the whole altar, not merely a portion of it. Vers. 23—28. The large cherub-figures in the Most Holy Place. — Ver. 23. He made (caused to be made) in the hinder room two cherubs of olive wood, i.e. wood of the oleaster or wild olive- tree, which is very firm and durable, and, according to 2 Chron. iii. 10, ^''J'-^y^ '^5?'i!^, i.e., according to the Vulgate, opus statu- arium, a peculiar kind of sculpture, which cannot be more precisely defined, as the meaning of y^^ is uncertain. " Ten cubits was the height of it" {i.e. of the one and of the other). The figures had a human form, like the golden cherubs upon the ark of the covenant, and stood upright upon their feet (2 Chron. iii. 13), with extended wings of five cubits in length, so that one wing of the one reached to one wing of the other in the centre of the room, and the other wing of each reached to the opposite wall, and consequently the four extended wings filled the entire breadth of the Most Holy Place (a breadth of twenty cubits), and the two cherubs stood opposite to one another and ten cubits apart. The wings were evidently fastened to the back and placed close to one another upon the shoulder-blades, so that the small space between their starting-points is not taken into consideration in the calculation of their length. The figures were completely overlaid with gold. The ark of the covenant was placed between these cherubs, and under the wings which pointed towards one another. As they were made like those upon the ark, they had evidently the same meaning, and simply served to strengthen the idea which was symbol- ized in the cherub, and which we have expounded in the Com- the missing -words, chains would have impeded the moving of the curtain. It is true that, according to 2 Chron. iii. 14, there was a curtain before the Most Holy Place ; but as it is not mentioned so early as this even in the Chronicles, this would not be its proper position in the account before us, but it would be most suitably mentioned either in connection with or after the reference to the doors of the Most Holy Place in vers. 31 and 32. 8 0 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. mentaiy on Ex. xxv. 20 sqq. Only their faces were not turned towards one another and bent down towards the ark, as in the case of the golden cherubim of the ark ; but, according to 2 Chron. iii. 13, they were turned n^ap, towards the house, i.e. the Holy Place, so as to allow of the extension of the wings along the full length of the Most Holy Place. Vers. 29-35. Ornaments of the avails ; the floors and doors. — Ver. 29. All the walls of the house (the Holy Place and tlie Most Holy) round about (3D0, adverb) he made engraved work (carving) of cherubs, palms, and open flowers from within to the outside {i.e. in the Most Holy as well as in the Holy Place). i)l . . |0 = ^X . . }ö ; and D^JS^ as in ver. 20. This completes the account of the nature of the covering of wood. In addition to the oval figures and open flowers (ver. 1 8), there were also figures of cherubim and palm-trees carved in the wooden panels. Nothing is said as to the distribution of these figures. But a comparison with Ezek. xli. 18 shows at any rate so much, that the palm- trees alternated with the cherubs, so that there was always one cherub standing between two palm-trees. The gourd-shaped figures and the open flowers probably formed the upper and lower setting of the rows of palms and cherubs, the flowers hanging in the form of garlands above the palms and cherubs, and the rows of gourds arranged in bars constituting the boun- dary lines both above and below. It is a disputed question whether there was only one row of palms and cherubs running round the walls, or whether there were two, or possibly even three. There is more probability in the second or third of these assumptions than in the first, inasmuch as on the walls of the Egyptian temples there were often three or four rows of mythological characters in relief arranged one above another (compare my work on the Temple, pp. 70 sqq.). — Ver. 30. The floor of the house he overlaid with gold within and without, i.e. in the Most Holy Place and in the Holy Place also. — Vers. 31, 32. He made the entrance to the back room, doors {i.e. consist- ing of doors ; cf. Ewald, § 284, a, /S) of olive wood, which moved, according to ch. vii. 5 0, on golden hinges. 'IJI ^>^n^ " the pro- jection of the door-posts was a fifth " (ninro is construed freely as an explanatory apposition to ^\^^, to which it is really sub- ordinate; cf. Ewald, § 290, e). These obscure words, which have "been interpreted in very different ways (see Ges. Tlies. pp. 43 sq.), can hardly have any other meaning than this : the projecting CHAP. VI. 29-G5. 8 1 framework of the doors occupied the fifth part of the breadth of the wall. For the explanation given by Böttcher and Tlienius, " the entrance framework with posts of fifth strength," has no real support in Ezek. xli. 3. To justify the rendering given to J^''^'?n (fifth strength), ^^^y} is supplied, though not in the sense of pro- jection, but in the thoroughly unwarranted sense of strength or thickness of the wall ; and in addition to this, a wall two cubits thick is postulated between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, in direct contradiction to ver. 16. The further evidence, which Thenius finds in ch. viii. 8, in support of this explanation, has been already rejected by Böttcher as unsustained. It would indeed be extremely strange for the thickness of the door- posts which formed the setting of the entrance to be given, whereas nothing is said about the size of the doors. According to our explanation, " a fifth of the breadth of the wall," the entrance was four cubits broad including the projecting door- posts, and each of the two wings of the folding doors about a cubit and a half broad, if we reckon the projecting framework on either side at half a cubit in breadth. — Ver. 32. "And two doors (i.e. folding doors, sc. he made ; ''^^^ is also governed by n^y in ver. 31) of olive w^ood, and carved upon them carved work," etc., as upon the walls (ver. 2 9), " and overlaid them with gold, spreading the gold upon the cherubs and palms " (T^.l, JiipJiil of 111), ^'•^- ^^ spread gold-leaf upon them, so that, as Eashi observes, all the figures, the elevations and depressions of the carved work, were impressed upon the coating of gold-leaf, and were thus plainly seen. Thenius infers from this explanatory clause, that the gilding upon the walls and doors was most pro- bably confined to the figures engraved, and did not extend over the whole of the walls and doors, because, if the doors had been entirely overlaid with gold, the gilding of the carved work upon them would have followed as a matter of course. But this in- ference is a very doubtful one. For if it followed as a matter of course from the gilding of the entire doors that the carved work upon them was overlaid with gold, it would by no means follow that the overlaying was such as to leave the carved work visible or prominent, which this clause affirms. Moreover, a par- tial gilding of the walls would not coincide with the expression n"'Zin-?3 Dh-^i; in ver. 22, since these words, which are used with emphasis, evidently affirm more than " that such (partial) gilding was carried out everywhere throughout the temple proper." F 82 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. The doors in front of tlie JMost Holy Place did not render the curtain mentioned in 2 Chron. iii. 14 unnecessary, as many suppose. This curtain may very well have been suspended within the doors ; so that even when the doors were opened outwards on the entrance of the high priest, the curtain formed a second covering, which prevented the priests who were ministering in the Holy Place and court from looking in.-^ — Vers. 33, 34. "And thus he made upon the door of the Holy Place posts of olive wood from a fourth (of the wall)," i.e. a framework which occupied a fourth of the breadth of the wall, or was five cubits broad (see at ver. 3 1), " and two doors of cypress wood, two leaves each door turning," i.e. each of the folding doors consisting of two leaves, each of wliich was made to turn by itself, so that it could be opened and shut alone (mthout the other ; ^''J'/i? is probably only a copyist's error for ö''PV). Cypress wood was chosen for the folding doors of the Holy Place, and not olive wood, as in the case of the Most Holy Place, probably because it is lighter in weight, and there- fore less likely to sink. It is questionable here what idea we are to form of the division of each folding door into two leaves, each of which turned by itself : whether we are to think of each wing as divided lengthwise into two narrow leaves, or as divided half way up, so that the lower half could be opened without the upper. I agree with Merz in thinking the latter the more probable assumption ; for the objection made by Thenius, on the gTound that doors of this kind are only seen in the houses of the peasantry, is an idle assertion which cannot be proved. In a doorway of five cubits in breadth, after rec- koning the doorposts the width of the two wings could not be more than two cubits each. And if such a door had been divided into two halves, each half would have been only one cubit wide, so that when open it would not have furnished the requisite room for one man conveniently to pass through. On the other hand, we may assume that a folding door of four cubits in breadth, if made in just proportions, would be eight cubits high. And a door of such a height might easuy be ^ H. Merz (Herzog's Cycl) now admits this, whereas he formerly agreed with Ewald and others in denying the existence of the curtain in Solomon's temple, and regarded the curtain (veil) in Matt, xxvii. 51, 52 as an arbitrary addition made by Herod out of his princely caprice, thus overlooking the deep symbolical meaning which the veil or cui'tain possessed. CHAP. VI. 36. ■ 83 divided into two halves, so that only the lower half (of two cubits in breadth and about four in height) was opened for the daily entrance of the priests into the Holy Place. These doors probably opened outwards, like those in front of the IMost Holy Place. — ^Ver. 35. Carving and gilding : as upon the doors before the hinder room. The gold was levelled or smoothed over that which had been engraved, i.e. it was beaten out thin and laid upon the carving in such a manner that the gold plate fitted closely to the figures. Gilding was generally effected in ancient times by the laying on of gold plate, which was fas- tened with tacks (compare 2 Chron. iii. 9). Ver. 36. The courts. — " He built the inner court three rows of hewn stones and one row of hewn cedar beams." The epithet inner court applied to the "court of the priests" (2 Chron. iv. 9) presupposes an outer one, which is also mentioned in 2 Chron. iv. 9, and called " the great court." The inner one is called the WJJJ9C?' (higher) court in Jer. xxxvi. 10, from which it fol- lows that it was situated on a higher level than the outer one, which surrounded it on all sides. It was enclosed by a low wall, consisting of three rows of hewn stones, or square stones, laid one upon another, and a row of hewn cedar beams, which were either laid horizontally upon the stones, after the analogy of the panelling of the temple walls on the inside, or placed up- right so as to form a palisading, in order that the people might be able to see through into the court of the priests. According to 2 Chron. iv. 9, the outer court had gates lined with brass, so that it was also surrounded with a high wall. Around it there were chambers and cells (2 Kings xxiii. 11 ; Jer. xxxv. 4, xxxvi. 10) for the priests and Levites, the plans for which had already been made by David (1 Chron. xxviii. 12). The prin- cipal gate was the east gate (Ezek, xi. 1). Other gates are men- tioned in 2 Kings xi. 6, 2 Chron. xxiii. 5, Jer. xx. 2, 2 Kings xii. 10, 2 Chron. xxiv. 8. The size of these courts is not given. At the same time, following the analogy of the tabernacle, and with the reduplication of the rooms of the tabernacle which is adopted in other cases in the temple, we may set down the length of the court of the priests from east to west at 200 cubits, and the breadth from south to north at 1 0 0 cubits ; so that in front of the temple -building on the east there was a space of 100 cubits in length and breadth, or 10,000 square cubits, left free for the altar of burnt-offering and the other 84 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. vessels, in other -words, for the sacrificial worship. The outer or great court will therefore, no doubt, have been at least twice as large, namely, 400 cubits long and 200 cubits broad, i.e., in all, 80,000 square cubits ; so that the front space before the court of the priests (on the eastern side) was 150 cubits long from east to west, and 200 cubits broad from south to north, and 50 cubits in breadth or depth still remained for the other three sides. Vers. 37, 38. The time consumed in huilding. — The founda- tion was laid in the fourth year in the month Ziv (see ver. 1), and it was finished in the eleventh year in the month Bui, i.e. the eighth month, so that it was built in seven years, or, more precisely, seven years and a half, " according to all its matters and all its due." ha for p^^, signifies inovcntus ; ?^ii ^T.. is there- fore the fruit month, the month of tree fruits. The name pro- bably originated with the Phoenicians, with whom the fruit ripened later ; and it is said to be found upon the great Sidonian inscription (compare Dietrich on Ges. Lex. s.v.). For other expla- nations see Ges. Thcs. p. 560. In comparison with other large buildings of antiquity,^ and also of modern times, the work was executed in a very short time. But we must bear in mind that the building was not a very large one, notwithstanding all its splendour ; that an unusually large number of workmen were employed upon it ; and that the preparation of the materials, more especially the hewing of the stones, took place at Lebanon, and for the most part preceded the laying of the foundation of the temple, so that this is not to be included in the seven years and a half Moreover, the period mentioned probably refers to the building of the temple-house and court of the priests only, and to the general arrangement of the outer court, and does not include the completion of the underground works which were necessary to prepare the space required for them, and of M'hich only a portion may have been carried out by Solomon.^ 1 According to Pliny {H. N. 36, c. 14), all Asia was building at the cele- brated temple of Diana at Ephesits for 220 years. - The account given by Josephus of these substructures does not show very clearly how much originated with Solomon, and how much belongs to the following centuries. At the close of his description of Solomon's temjile (^Ant. viii. 3, 9), ho states that, in order to obtain the same level for the s^aidtv iipöv, i.e. the outer court of the temple, as that of the veto;, he had large valleys filled up, into which it was difficult to look down on account of their depth, by raising the ground to the height of 400 cubits, so as to make them CHAP, VI. 37, 38. 8 5 The importance of the temple is clearly expressed in cli. viii. 13, 27, ix. 3, 2 Chron. vi. 2, and other passages. It was to be a house built as the dwelling-place for Jehovah, a place for His seat for ever ; not indeed in any such sense as that the house could contain God within its space, when the heavens of heavens cannot contain Him (ch. viii. 27), but a house where the name of Jehovah is or dwells (ch. viii. 1 6 sqq. ; 2 Chron. vi. 5 ; cf 2 Sam. vii. 13, etc.), i.e. where God manifests His presence in level with the top of the mountain ; and in the de Bell. Jud. v. 5, 1, after describing the temple-mountain as a mighty hill, the summit of which hardly sufficed for the temple-house and altar when the building was com- menced, because it sloped off on all sides, he adds : " Solomon therefore caused a wall to be raised on the eastern side, and had a porch built upon the ground that was heaped up, and on the other sides the temple {v»6i) Avas naked (yt/,44v:';)-" But in the description of the temj)]e of Herod {Ant. xv. 11, 3) he says: "The temple was sui'rounded by enormous porticos {aroxi), which rested upon a large wall, and were the largest work of which men have ever heard. It was a steep rocky hill, rising gradually towards the eastern part of the city uj) to the highest point. This hill Solomon surrounded with a wall by very great works up to the very apex, and walled it round, com- mencing at the root, which is surrounded by a deep ravine, with stones which were fastened together with lead, . . . and continuing to the top, so that the size and height of the building, which was completed as a square, were immense," etc. The flat obtained in this manner is then described by Jose- phus as a Tnplßo'ho; of four stadia in circumference, namely, one stadium on each side. Now, although it was the outer court of the temple of Herod (the court of the Gentiles) which first had this circumference (see my hibl. Arcliäol. i. pp. 143, 144), and Josephus, de Bell. Jud. v. 5, 1, relates that subsequently (jolg k^Ti; uiuaiv) the levelling of the hill was carried out to even a greater extent, as the people still continued to heap up earth, it is quite conceivable that Solomon may have planned the area of the temple with this circumference. And this conjecture acquires great probability from the fact that, according to the researches of Robinson (^Pal. i. pp. 420 sqq. ; Recent Investigations concerning the Topography of Jerusalem, pp. 68 sqq.; and Later Biblical EesearcJies, pp. 173 sqq.), there are layers of enormous square stones in the lowest part of the south-western and south-eastern corners of the present Haram wall, the dimensions of which, apart from the fact that they are hewn with grooved edges, point to an early Israelitish origin, so that they might very well be relics of the Solomonian substructures of the temple- hill. There is also the remnant of the arch of a bridge of the same con- struction on the southern portion of the western wall of the Haram, which points to a bridge that led across from Moriah to Zion, and " appears to remove all the objections to tfie identity of this part of the enclosure of the mosque with that of the ancient temple" (Rob. Pal. i. p. 426). "Here then," adds Robinson (Pal. i. pp. 427, 428), " we have indisputable remains of Jewish antiquity, consisting of an important portion of the western wall of 86 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. a real manner to His people, and shows Himself to them as the covenant God, so that Israel may there worship Him and receive an answer to its prayers. The temple had therefore the same purpose as the tabernacle, whose x^lace it took, and which it re- sembled in its fundamental form, its proportions, divisions, and furniture. As the glory of the Lord entered into the tabernacle in the cloud, so did it into the temple also at its dedication, to sanctify it as the place of the gracious presence of God (ch. viii the ancient temple area. They are probably to be referred to a period long antecedent to the days of Herod ; for the labours of this splendour-loving tyrant appear to have been confined to the body of the temple and the porticos around the court. The magnitude of the stones also, and the work- manship, as comj)ared with other remaining monuments of Herod, seem to point to an earlier origin. In the accounts we have of the destruction of the temple by the Chaldseans, and its rebuilding by Zerubbabel under Darius, no mention is made of these exterior walls. The former temple was destroyed by fire, which would not affect these foundations ; nor is it probable that a feeble colony of returning exiles could have accomplished works like these. There seems, therefore, little room for hesitation in referring them back to the days of Solomon, or rather of his successors, who, according to Jose- phus, built up here immense walls, ' immoveable for all time.' " But however probable this assumption may be, the successors of Solomon cannot come into consideration at all, since Josephus says nothing of the kind, and the biblical accounts are not favourable to this conjecture. With the division of the kingdom after the death of Solomon the might of the kings of Judah was broken ; and the accounts of the new court which Jehoshaphat built, i.e. of the restoration of the inner court (2 Chron. xx. 5), and of the repairs of the temple by Joash (2 Kings xii. 5 sqq. ; 2 Chron. xxiv. 4 sqq.) and Josiah (2 Kings xxii. 5 sqq. ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 8 sqq.), do not produce the impression that walls so costly or so large could have been built at that time. The statement of Josephus (I.e. de Bell. Jud. v. 5, 1) concerning the gradual extension of the levelled hill, has reference to the enlargement of the temple area towards the north, inasmuch as he adds to the words already quoted : " and cutting through the north wall, they took in as much as was afterwards occupied by the circumference of the whole temple." — If, therefore, the remains of the ancient wall which have been mentioned, with their stones of grooved edges, are of early Israelitish origin, we must trace them to Solomon ; and this is favoured still further by the fact, that when Solomon had a mag- nificent palace built for himself opposite to the temj^lc (see ch. vii. 1-12), he would assuredly connect the temple-mountain with Ziou by a bridge. — Even J. Berggren (Bibel u. Josephus über Jems. u. d. heil. Grab.} thinks it probable that " the so-called remains of an arch in the western Haram wall may be, as Robinson at first indicated, a relic of that ancient and marvellous xystug ' bridge, with which the Davidic steps on the two steep sides of the valley of the Tyropocum, constructed for the purpose of going from Moriah to Zion or from Ziou to Moriah, were connected." CHAP. VI. 37, 38. 87 10; 2 Chron. v. 14). The temple thereby "became not only a visible pledge of the lasting duration of the covenant, by virtue of which God would dwell among His people, but also a copy of the kingdom of God, which received at its erection an embodi- ment answering to its existing condition at the time. As the tabernacle, with its resemblance to a nomad's tent, answered to the time when Israel had not yet found rest in the promised land of the Lord ; so was the temple, regarded as an immoveable house, a pledge that Israel had now acquired its lasting inheri- tance in Canaan, and that the kingdom of God on earth had obtained a firm foundation in the midst of it. — This relation between the temple and the tabernacle wiU serve to explain all the points of difference which present themselves between these two sanctuaries, notwithstanding their agreement in fundamental forms and in all essential particulars. As a house or palace of Jehovah, the temple was not only built of solid and costly materials, with massive walls of square stones, and with floors, ceilings, walls, and doors of cedar, cypress, and olive woods — these almost imperishable kinds of wood — but was also pro- vided with a hall like the palaces of earthly kings, and with side buildings in tlu'ee stories in which to keep the utensils requisite for a magnificent ceremonial, though care was taken that these adjoining and side buildings were not attached directly to the main building so as to violate the indestructibility and perfect- ness of the house of God, but merely helped to exalt it and ele- vate its dignity. And the increased size of the inner rooms, whilst the significant forms and measures of the tabernacle were preserved, was also essentially connected with this. Whereas the length and breadth of the dwelling were doubled, and the height of the whole house tripled, the form of a cube was still retained for the Most Holy Place as the stamp of the perfected kingdom of God (see Comm. on Pent. vol. ii. p. 184), and the space was fixed at twenty cubits in length, breadth, and height. On the other hand, in the case of the Holy Place the sameness of height and breadth were sacrificed to the harmonious proportions of the house or palace, as points of inferior importance ; and the measurements were thirty cubits in height, twenty cubits in breadth, and forty cubits in length ; so that ten as the number of perfectness was preserved as the standard even here. And in order to exhibit still further the perfectness and glory of the house of God, the walls were not constructed of ordinary quarry- 88 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. stone, but of large square stones prepared at the quarry, and the walls were panelled within with costly wood after the manner of the palaces of Hither Asia, the panelling being filled with carved work and overlaid with gold plate. And whereas the overlaying of the whole of the interior with gold shadowed forth the glory of the house as the residence of the heavenly King, the idea of this house of God was still more distinctly expressed in the carved work of the walls. In the tabernacle the walls were decorated with tapestries in costly colours and interwoven figures of cherubim; but in the temple they were ornamented with carved work of figures of cherubim, palms, and opening flowers. To the figures of cherubim, as representations of the heavenly spirits which surround the Lord of glory and set forth the psychical life at its highest stage, there are thus added flowers, and still more particularly palms, those " princes of the vegetable kingdom," which, with their fine majestic growth, and their large, fresh, evergreen leaves, iinite within themselves the whole of the fulness and glory of the vegetable life ; to set forth the sanctuary (probably with special reference to Canaan as the land of palms, and with an allusion to the glory of the King of peace, inasmuch as the palm is not only the sign of Palestine, but also the symbol of peace) " as a place that was ever verdant, abiding in all the freshness of strength, and enfolding within itself the fulness of life," and thereby to make it a scene of health and life, of peace and joy, a " paradise of God," where the righteous who are planted there flourish, and blossom, and bear fruit to old age (Ps. xcii. 13). And this idea of the house, as an immoveable dwelling- place of God, is in j)erfect harmony with the setting up of two colossal cherubim in the Most Holy Place, which filled the whole space with their outspread wings, and overshadowed the ark of the covenant, to show that the ark of the covenant with its small golden cherubim upon the Capporeth, which had journeyed with the people through the desert to Canaan, was henceforth to have there a permanent and unchangeable abode. CHAP. VII. SOLOMON'S PALACE AND THE FUKNITUKE OF THE TEMPLE. Vers. 1—12. Ercctio7i of the royal 2Mlace. — Ver. 1 is closely connected in form with ch. vi. 38, and contains a summary account of the building, which is more minutely described in CHAP. VII. 1-12. 89 vers. 2-12. " And Solomon built his house (his palace) in thirteen years, and finished (in that time) all his house." The thirteen years are to be reckoned after the completion of the temple in seven years, so that the two buildings were executed in twenty years (ch. ix. 10). The expression in''5~i'3 is used, because the palace consisted of several buildings connected to- gether ; namely, (1) the house of the forest of Lebanon (vers. 2-5) ; (2) the pillar-hall with the porch (ver. 6) ; (3) the throne- room and judgment-hall (ver. 7) ; (4) the king's dwelling-house and the house of Pharaoh's daughter (ver. 8). That all these buildings were only different portions of the one royal palace, and the house of the forest of Lebanon was not a summer resi- dence of Solomon erected on Lebanon itself, as many of the earlier commentators supposed, is indisputably evident, not only from the first verse when correctly interpreted, but also and still more clearly from the fact that when the buildings of Solo- mon are spoken of afterwards (see ch. ix. 1, 10, 15, and x. 12), we only read of the house of Jehovah and the house of the king, that is to say, of the temple and one palace. The description of the several portions of this palace is so very brief, that it is impossible to form a distinct idea of its character. The differ- ent divisions are given in vers. 1-8 in their natural order, com- mencing at the back and terminating with the front (ver. 8), and there then follows in vers. 9-12 the description of the stones that were used. — Vers. 2-5. The house of the forest of Lebanon. — This building — so named because it was built, so to speak, of a forest of cedar pillars — is called in the Arabic the " house of his arms," because, according to ch. x. 17, it also served as a keeping-place for arms : " it is hardly to be regarded, however, as simply an arsenal, but was probably intended for other pur- poses also. He built it "a hundred cubits its length, fifty cubits its breadth, and thirty cubits its height, on four rows of cedar pillars, and hewn cedar beams (were) over the pillars." As the building was not merely a hall of pillars, but, according to ver. 3, had side- rooms (n"ypy, cf. ch. vi. 5) above the pillars, the construction of it can hardly be represented in any other way than this, that the rooms were built upon four rows of pillars, which ran round all four sides of the building, which was 100 cubits long and fifty cubits broad in the inside, and thus surrounded the inner court- yard on all sides. Of course the building could not rest merely upon pillars, but was surrounded on the outside with a strong 9 0 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. wall of hewn square stones (ver. 9), so that the hewn beams which were laid upon the pillars had their outer ends built into the wall, and were supported by it, so as to give to the whole build- ing the requisite strength.-' — Ver. 3. " And roofing in (of) cedar was above over the side-rooms upon the pillars, five and forty ; fifteen the row." i^D is to be understood of the roofing, as in ch. vi 15. (compare |öp^ ch. vi. 15). The numbers "forty-five and fifteen the row " cannot refer to D'''i^öyn, but must refer, as Thenius assumes, to nybsn as the main idea, which is more pre- cisely defined by D''"i1ti)J?n bv. If we took it as referring to the pillars, as I myself have formerly done, we should have to assume that there were only galleries or pillar-halls above the lower rows of piUars, which is at variance with npsn. There were forty-five side-rooms, therefore, built upon the lower rows of pillars, in ranges of fifteen each. This could only be done by the ranges of rooms being built, not side by side, but one over the other, in other words, by the forty-five side-rooms forming three stories, as in the side buildings of the temple, so that each ^ Thenius tlieref ore supposes that " the lower part of the armoury formed a peristyle, a fourfold row of pillars running round inside its walls and enclosing a courtyard, so that the Vulgate alone gives the true sense, quatuor deambu- lacra inter cohimnas cedrinas ; " and he points to the court of the palace of Luxor ^ which has a double row of pillars round it. The number of pillars is not given in th^ text, but Thenius in his drawing of this building sets it down at 400, which would certainly present a forest-like aspect to any one entering the building. Nevertheless we cannot regard this assumption as correct, be- cause the pillars, which we cannot suppose to have been less than a cubit in thickness, would have been so close to one another that the four rows of pillars could not have formed four deamhulacra. As the whole building was only fifty cubits broad, and this breadth included the inner courtyard, we cannot suppose that the sides of the building were more than ten cubits deep, which would leave a breadth of thirty cubits for the court. If then four pillars, each of a cubit in thickness, stood side by side or one behind the other in a space of ten cubits in depth, the distance between the pillars would be only a cubit and a half, that is to say, would be only just enough for one man and no more to walk conveniently through. And what could have been the object of crowding pillars together in this way, so as to render the entire space almost useless ? It is on this ground, probably, that Hermann Weiss assumes that each side of the oblong building, which was half as broad as it was long, was supported by one row, and therefore all the sides together by four rows of cedar pillars, and the beams of the same material which rested upon them. But this view is hardly a correct one ; for it not only does not do justice ,to the words of the text, " four rows of pillars," but it is insufficient in itself, for the simple reason that one row of pillars on each side would not have afforded the requisite strength and stability to the three stories built upon them, even CHAP. VII. 1-12. 91 story had a " row" of fifteen side-rooms round it. This view- receives support from ver, 4 : " and beam-layers (^''^i;^^, beams, as in ch. vi. 4) were three rows, and outlook against outlook three times ; " i.e. the rows of side-rooms were built one over the other by means o'f layers of beams, so that the rooms had windows opposite to one another three times ; that is to say, the windows looking out upon the court were so arranged in the three stories that those on the one side were vis a vis to those on the opposite side of the building. The expression in ver. 5, nTno"?j< nrno h^vo^ "window over against window," compels us to take '^|n'?~''?? in the sense of " opposite to the window" (?N, versus), and not, as Thenius proposes, " outlook against outlook," according to which ^^ is supposed to indicate that the windows were only separated from one another by slender piers, "^lil?, Avhich only occurs here, is different from li?n^ the ordinary window, and probably denotes a large opening affording a wide outlook. — ^Ver. 5. "And all the doorways and mouldings were square of beams" (^[>^ is an accusative of free subordination, denoting the material or the mode of execution ; cf. Ewald, ^ 284, a, ß). " Square with a if we should not suppose the rooms in these stories to he very broad, since the further three rows of pillars, which Weiss assumes in addition, according to ver. 3, as the actual supporters of the upper building, have no foundation in the text. The words "four rows of cedar pillars " do not absolutely require the assumption that there were four rows side by side or one behind the other on every side of the building ; for the assertion that "i^iLD does not denote a row in the sense of a straight line, but generally signifies a row surrounding and enclosing a space, is refuted by Ex. xxviii. 17, where we read of the four D"'"11D of precious stones upon the breastplate of the high priest. — Is it not likely that the truth lies midway between these two views, and that the fol- lowing is the view most in accordance with the actual fact, namely, that there were four rows of pillars running along the full length of the building, but that they were distributed on the two sides, so that there were only two rows on each side ? In this case a person entering from the front would see four rows of piUars running the whole length of the building. In any case the rows of pillars would of necessity be broken in front by the entrance itself. The utter uncertainty as to the number and position of the four rows of pillars is sufficient in itself to render it quite impossible to draw any plan of the building that could in the slightest degree answer to the reality. More- over, there is no allusion at all in the description given in the text to either entrance or exit, orto staircases and other things, and the other buildings are still more scantily described, so that nothing certain can be determined with regard to their relative position or their probable connection with one another. For this reason, after studying the matter again and again, I have been obliged to relinquish the intention to illustrate the description in the text by drawings. 92 . THE FIKST BOOK OF KINGS. straight upper beam" (Thenius) cannot be the correct rendering of ^pt^ '^^V?'!- Thenius proposes to read rifnsni for rihrsn"!, after the reading al %co/Dat of the Seventy, who have also rendered HTno in ver. 4 by x^P"'> ^ broad space. It may be pleaded in support of this, that Q''V?1 is less applicable to the doorposts or mouldings than to the doorways and outlooks (windows), inas- much as, if the doorways were square, the square form of the moulding or framework would follow as a matter of course. Cnnsn are both the doors, through which the different rooms were connected with one another, and also those through which the building and its stories were reached, of course by stairs, probably winding staircases, as in the side stories of the temple. The stairs were placed, no doubt, at the front of the building. The height given is thirty cubits, corresponding to that of the whole building (ver. 2). If we reckon the height of the lower pillars at eight cubits, there were twenty-two cubits left for the stories ; and assuming that the roofing of each was one cubit in thickness, there remained eighteen cubits in all for the rooms of the three stories ; and this, if equally distributed, would give an internal height of six cubits for each story, or if arranged on a graduated scale, which would probably be more appropriate, a height of seven, six, and five cubits respectively. Vers. 6-8. The other luilclings. — Ver. 6. "And he made the ^oillar-hall, fifty cubits its length, and thirty cubits its breadth, and a hall in front of them, and pillars and a threshold in front of them." With regard to the situation of this hall in relation to the other parts of the building, which is not precisely defined, we may infer, from the fact that it is mentioned between the house of the forest of Lebanon and the throne and judgment halls, that it stood between these two. The length of this build- ing (fifty cubits) corresponds to the breadth of the house of the forest of Lebanon ; so that, according to the analogy of the temple- hall (ch. vi. 3), we might picture to ourselves the length given here as running parallel to the breadth of the house of the forest of Lebanon, and might therefore assume that the pillar-hall was fifty cubits broad and thirty cubits deep. But the statement that there was a hall in front of the pillar-hall is irreconcilable with this assumption. We must therefore understand the length in the natural way, as signifying the measurement from back to front, and regard the pillar-hall as a portico fifty cubits long and thirty cubits broad, in front of which there was also a porch as CHAP. VII. 1-12. 93 an entrance. 2'!}''.??"''^, in front of them, i.e. in front of the pillars which formed this portico. The last words, " and pillars and threshold in front of them," refer to the porch. This had also pillars, probably on both sides of the doorway, which carried the roof ; and in front of them was ^V, i.e., according to the Chaldee ^0?'?'?» ^^^ moulding or framework of the threshold, a threshold-like entrance, with steps. — Ver. 7. "And the throne-hall, where he judged, the judgment-hall, he made and (indeed) covered with cedar, from floor to floor." The throne-hall and the judg- ment-hall are therefore one and the same hall, which was both a court of judgment and an audience-chamber, and in which, no doubt, there stood the splendid throne described in ch. x. 18-20. But it is distinguished from the pillar-hall by the repetition of T\'^>V. It probably followed immediately upon this, but was clearly distinguished from it by the fact that it was covered with cedar J'i?']?'!' "IV S'iP'^.i^'I'O. These words are very obscure. The rendering given by Thenius, "panelled from the floor to the beams of the roof," is open to these objections : (1) that jöD gene- rally does not mean to ^^a^tc^, but simply to eovcr, and that |SD n^3 in particular cannot possibly be taken in a different sense here from that which it bears in ver. 3, where it denotes the roofing of the rooms built above the portico of pillars ; and (2) that the alteration of the second yp"ipn into riiiipn has no critical warrant in the rendering of the Syriac, a fundamcnto ad ecelum ejus usqiic, or in that of the Vulgate, a pavimento usque ad sum- mitatem, whereas the LXX. and Chald. both read ViPli^n 1]}, But even if we were to read ninipn, this would not of itself signify the roof beams, inasmuch as in ch, vi. 16 nh'ipn or nnipn receives its more precise definition from the expression |£)Bn r\\V\> (nnip) in ver. 15. The words in question cannot have any other meaning than this : " from the one floor to the other," i.e. either from the floor of the throne-hall to the floor of the pillar-hall (described in ver. 6), or more probably from the lower floor to the upper, inasmuch as there were rooms built over the throne-room, just as in the case of the house of the forest of Lebanon ; for VP"^? may denote not only the lower floor, but also the floor of upper rooms, which served at the same time as the ceiling of the lower rooms. So much, at any rate, may be gathered from these words, with all their obscurity, that the throne-hall was not an open pillar-hall, but was only open in front, and was shut in by solid walls on the other three sides. — 94 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. Ver. 8. After (behind) the throne and judgment hall then fol- lowed the king's own j^alace, the principal entrance to which was probably through the throne-hall, so that the king really- delivered judgment and granted audiences in the gate of his palace. "His house, Avhere he dwelt, in the other court inwards from the (throne) hall was like this work," i.e. was built like the throne-hall ; " and a (dwelling) house he made for the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Solomon had taken, like this hall." The con- struction of the dwelling-places of the king and queen cannot be ascertained from these words, because the hall with which its style is compared is not more minutely described. All that can be clearly inferred from the words, " in the other court inside the hall," is, that the abode of the king and his Egyptian wife had a court of its own, and when looked at from the entrance, formed the hinder court of the whole ]3alace. The house of Pharaoh's daughter was probably distinct from the dwelling-place of the king, so that the palace of the women formed a building by itself, most likely behind the dwelling-house of the king, since the women in the East generally occupy the inner portion of the house. The statement that the dwelling-place of the Idng and queen formed a court by itself within the complex of the palace, warrants the further inference, that the rest of the buudings (the house of the forest of Lebanon, the pillar-hall, and the throne-hall) were united together in one first or front court. Vers. 9-12. " All these (viz. the whole of the buudings de- scribed in vers. 2-8) were costly stones, after the measure of that which is hewn, sawn with the saw within and without (i.e. on the inner and outer side of the halls and buildings), and from the foundation to the corbels, and from without to the great court." niriDtpn, the corbels, upon which the beams of the roof rest. The Sept. renders it eaxj twv yeiacov. Thenius understands by this the battlements which protected the flat roofs, and therefore interprets HinSD as signifying the stone border of the roof of the palace. But !0 (ver. 8), and therefore refers to the court surrounding the king's CHAP. VII. 13, 11. 95 dwelling-house, pn is to be understood as relating to tlie court- yard or fore-court surrounding the front halls. — Vers. 10, 11. " And the foundation was laid with costly, large stones of ten and eight cubits (sc. in length, and of corresponding breadth and thickness). And above (the foundation, and therefore the visible walls, were) costly stones, after the measure of that which is hewn, and cedars." — ^Ver. 12. And (as for) the great court, there were round it three rows {i.e. it was formed of three rows) of hewn stones and a row of hewn cedar beams, as in the inner court of the house of Jehovah (see at ch. vi. 36) and the hall of the house, "li'nh siernifies " and so with the court," Vav serving as a comparison, as in Prov. xxv. 3, 20, and fre- quently in Proverbs (see Dietrich in Ges. Lex. s.v. 1, and Ewald, ^ 340, h), so that there is no necessity for the un-Hebraic con- jecture of Thenius, "iVrif.?. J^'I?l! uP^i'^^ in all probability refers not to the temple-hall, but to the pillar-hall of the palace, the surrounding wall of which was of the same nature as the wall of the great, i.e. the other or hinder, court.-^ Vers. 13-51. The Metallic Vessels of the Temple (com- pare 2 Chron. ii. 13, 14, and üi. 15-v. 1). — ^Vers. 13, 14. To ^ The situation of this palace in Jerusalem is not defined. Ewald supposes {Gesch. iii. p. 317) that it was probably built on the southern continuation of the temple-mountain, commonly called Opliel, i.e. Hill. But " nothing more is needed to convince us that it cannot have stood upon Ophel, than a single glance at any geographical outline of Ophel on one of the best of the modern maps, and a recollection of the fact that, according to Neh. iii. 26, 31, it was upon Ophel, where the king's palace is said to have stood, that the temple- socagers and shopkeepers had their places of abode after the captivity" (Thenius). The view held by earlier travellers and pilgrims to Zion, and defended by Berggren (p. 109 sqq.), namely, that the ancient Solomonian and Asmonaean palaces stood upon Moriah on the western side of the temple, is equally untenable. For the xystus, above which, according to Josephus, Bell. Jud. ii. 16, 3, the Asmonsean palace stood, was connected with the temple by a bridge, and therefore did not stand upon Moriah, but upon Zion or the ävi) xo7i;j, since this bridge, according to Josephus, Bell. Jud. vi. 6, 2, con- nected the temple with the upper city. Moreover, it clearly follows from the passages of Josephus akeady noticed (p. 84 sq.), in which he refers to the substructures of the temple area, that the temple occupied the whole of Moriah towards the west, and extended as far as the valley of the Tyropoeon, and consqueutly there was no room for a palace on that side. When Jose- phus affirms, therefore (Ant. viii. 5, 2), that Solomon's palace stood opposite to the temple {xvriKpvs £x,^v vudu), it can only have been built on the north- east side of Zion, as most of the modern writers assume (see W. Krafft, 96 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. make tliese vessels king Hiram had sent to Solomon, at liis request (2 Chron. ii. 6), a workman named Hiram of Tyre. Ver. 13 contains a supplementary remark, in -which l^?^'?} must he rendered in the pluperfect (compare the remarks on Gen, ii. 19). King Solomon had sent and fetched Hiram from Tyre. This artisan bore the same name as the king, Q">''n or nnNT (ver. 40), in 2 Chron. ii. 13 n"iin (Huram), with the e^Dithet ^3S*, ix. my father, 3X being a title of honour equiva- lent to master or counsellor, as in Gen. xlv. 8. He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was ••iV ^'''K, i.e. a Tyrian by birth. According to 2 Chron. ii. 13, his mother was '' of the daughters of Dan," i.e. of the tribe of Dan. Both statements may easily be united thus : she was a Danite by birth, and married into the tribe of NaphtaH. When her husband died, she was married again as the widow of a Naphtalite, and became the wife of a Tyrian, to whom she bore a son, Hiram. This explanation is also adopted by Bertheau (on the Chronicles) ; and the conjecture of Lundius, Thenius, and others, that the mother was an Israelitish widow of the city of Dan in the tribe of Naphtali, which was quite close to Tyre, is less in harmony with the expression " of the daughters of Dan." nty'nj tJ'nn^ " a brass-worker," refers to Xin (he), i.e. Hiram, and not to his father (Thenius). The skill of Hiram is described in almost the same terms as that of Bezaleel in Ex. xxxi. 3 sqq., with this exception, that Bezaleel's skill is attributed to his being filled with the Spirit of God, i.e. is described rather as a supernatural gift, whereas in the case of Hiram the more inde- finite expression, " he was filled with wisdom, etc.," is used, re- presenting it rather as a natural endowment. In the account given here, Hiram is merely described as a worker in brass, because he is only mentioned at the commencement of the section which treats of the preparation of the brazen vessels of the temple. According to 2 Chron. ii. 14, he was able to work in gold, silver, brass, iron, stone, wood, purple, etc. There is nothing improbable in this extension of his skill to wood and to Topographie Jems. p. 114 sqq., and Berggr. p. 110). This is sustained not only by the probability that the Asraonjeaus would hardly build their palace anywhere else than on the spot where the palace of the kings of Judah built by Solomon stood, but also by the account of the elevation of Joash to the throne in 2 Kings xi. and 2 Chron. xxiii., from which it is perfectly obvious that the royal palace stood upon Zion opposite to the temple. CHAP. VII. 15-22. 97 the art of weaving. Bezaleel also combined in himself all these talents. Of course Hiram was merely a foreman or leader of these different branches of art ; and he certainly did not come alone, but brought several assistants with him, who carried out the different works under his superintendence. — The enumera- tion of them commences with the pillars of the temple-hall. Vers. 15—22. The hrazcn pillars of the porch (compare 2 Chron. iii. 15-17). — He formed the two brazen pillars, which were erected, according to 2 Chron. iii. 1 5, " before the (temple) house, i.e. in front of the hall of the temple. One was eighteen cubits high, and a thread of twelve cubits sur- rounded (spanned) the other pillar." The statement of the height of the one pillar and that of the circumference of the other is to be understood as an abbreviated expression, signify- ing that the height and thickness mentioned applied to the one as well as to the other, or that they were alike in height and cir- cumference. According to the Chronicles, they were thirty-five cubits long ; which many expositors understand as signifying that the length of the two together was thirty-five cubits, so that each one was only 17:|- cubits long, for which the full number 18 is substituted in our text. But this mode of re- conciling the discrepancy is very improbable, and is hardly in harmony with the words of the Chronicles. The number 35 evidently arose from confounding the numeral letters n^ = 1 8 with ni3 = 35. The correctness of the number 18 is confirmed by 2 Kings xxv. 17 and Jer. Iii. 21. The pillars were hollow, the brass being four finger-breadths in thickness (Jer. Iii. 21) ; and they were cast in the Jordan valley (ver. 46). — Ver. 1 6. "And he made two capitals (niinb), to set them on the heads of the pillars, cast in brass, five cubits the height of the one and of the other capital." If, on the other hand, in 2 Kings xxv. 17 the height of the capital is said to have been three cubits, this dis- crepancy cannot be explained on the supposition that the capitals had been reduced two cubits in the course of time ; but the state- ment rests, like the parallel passage in Jer. Iii. 22, upon an error of the text, i.e. upon the substitution of y (3) for n (5). — Ver. 17. " Plait (i.e. ornaments of plait), plait-work and cords (twist, re- sembling) chain-work, were on the capitals, which were upon the heads of the pillars, seven on the one capital and seven on the other capital." Consequently this decoration consisted of seven twists arranged as festoons, which were hung round the capitals of the G 98 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. pillars. — ^Ver. 18. " And lie made pomegranates, and indeed two rows round about the one twist, to cover the capitals which were upon the head of the pillars; and so he did with the other capital" In the Masoretic text the words Q"'^^öy^ and D'^Jis'in are confused together, and we must read, as some of the Codd. do, in the first clause ^''^sinTii;; for D''1ißj;n-nx, and in the middle clause U'-^^^Vr} ti'Ni-^y for D^Jbnn u^i'bv. ' This is not only required by the sense, but sustained by a comparison with ver. 19. The relation between the two rows of pomegranates and the plaited work is indeed not precisely defined ; but it is generally and correctly assumed, that one row ran round the pillars below the plaited work and the other above, so that the plaited work, which was formed of seven cords plaited together in the form of festoons, was enclosed above and below by the rows of pomegranates. If we compare with this the further statements in vers. 41 and 42, 2 Chron. iii. 16 and iv. 12, 13, and Jer. lii. 23, nnnbn is there more precisely designated nnnbn ni?5, " bowls of the capitals," from which it is evident that the lower portion of the capitals, to which the braided work was fastened, was rounded in the form of a pitcher or caldron. The number of the jDomegranates on the two festoons is given at 400, so that there were 200 on each capital, and consequently each row contained 100 (2 Chron. iii. 16) ; and according to Jer. (I.e.) there were 96 nmn^ " wind- wards," and in all 100 on the braided work roimd about. '^[}''^'^, " windwards," can hardly be taken in any other sense than this : in the direction of the wind, i.e. facing the four quarters of the heavens. This meaning is indisputably sustained by the use of the word nii^ to denote the quarters of the heavens, in statements of the aspect of buildings (Ezek. xlii. 1 6-1 8), whereas there is no foundation whatever for such meanings as " airwards = un- covered" (Böttcher, Thenius), or hanging freely (Ewald).^ — In vers. 1 9 and 20a second decoration of the capitals of the pillars ^ It is hardly necessary to observe, that the expression nn Pl^^t^^ to gasp for air, in Jer. ii. 24, xiv. 6, does not warrant our giving to nnn the meaning open or uncovered, as Böttcher supposes. But when Thenius follows Böttcher (Proben, p. 335) in adducing in support of this the fact " that the tangent, wlüch is drawn to any circle divided into a hundred parts, covers exactly four of these parts," the fact rests upon a simple error, inasmuch as any drawing will sLow that a tangent only touches one point of a circle divided into a hundred parts. And the remark of Böttcher, " If you describe on the out- side of a circle of twelve cubits in circumference a hundred small circles of twelve-hundredths of a cubit in diameter, a tangent drawn thereupon will CHAP. VII. 15-22. 99 is mentioned, from which we may see that the rounding with the chain-like plaited work and the pomegranates enclosing it did not cover the capital to the very top, but only the lower portion of it. The decoration of the upper part is described in ver. 1 9 : " And capitals, which were upon the top of the pillars, were (or, Hiram made) lily- work after the manner of the hall, four cubits." The lily- work occupied, according to ver. 20, the upper portion of the capitals, which is here called nnrib^ as a crown set upon the lower portion. It was lily-work, i.e. sculpture in the form of flowering lilies. The words HiGX J?b"in D71N3 are obscure. Accord- ing to Böttcher and Thenius, DP1X3 is intended to indicate the position of the pillars within the hall, so that their capitals sustained the lintel of the doorway. But even if D?^X|i were rendered, within the hall, as it is by Böttcher, it is impossible to see how this meaning could be obtained from the words " capitals upon the head of the pillars lily-work within the hall." In that case we must at least have " the pillars within the hall;" and obixa would be connected with D'''i^li)J^n, instead of being sepa- rated from it by 1^1^ ^^'"^J^- Even if we were to introduce a stop after \'^'^ and take oTi^'^ by itself, the expression " in (or at) the hall" would not in itself indicate the position of the pillars in the doorway, to say nothing of the fact that it is only in ver. 2 1 that anything is said concerning the position of the pillars. Again, the measurement " four cubits " cannot be understood, as it is by Thenius, as denoting the diameter of the capitals of the pillars ; it must rather indicate the measure of the lily-work, that is to say, it affirms that there were four cubits of lily-work on the capitals, which were five cubits high, — in other words, the lily- work covered the four upper cubits of the capitals ; from which it stiU further follows, that the plaited work which formed the decoration of the lower portion of the capitals was only one cubit broad or high. Consequently D?1N3 cannot be understood in any other sense than "in the manner of or according to the hall," and can only express the thought, that there was lily-work on the capitals of the pillars as there was on the haU. For the vindication of this use of 3 cover to the eye exactly four small circles, altliongli mathematically it touches only one of them in one point," is not correct according to any measurement. For if the tangent touches one of these smaller circles with mathematical exactness, to the eye there -will be covered either three or five half circles, or even seven, but never four. 100 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. see Ges. Lex. by Dietrich, s.v. 1^ There is no valid objection to the inference to which this leads, namely, that on the frontis- piece of the temple-hall there was a decoration of lily-work. Por since the construction of the hall is not more minutely de- scribed, we cannot expect a description of its decorations. — In ver. 20a more precise account is given of the position in which the crowns consisting of lily-work were placed on the capitals of the columns, so that this verse is to be regarded as an explana- tion of ver. 1 9 : namely, capitals upon the pillars (did he make) also above near the belly, which was on the other side of the plait-work." \^'rf), the belly, i.e. the belly-shaped rounding, can only be the rounding of the lower portion of the capitals, which is called ^\ in vers. 41,42. Hence r\yi^r\ nny^ {Kcri), " on the other side of the plaited work," can only mean behind or under the plait, since we cannot suppose that there was a belly-shaped rounding above the caldron-shaped rounding which was covered with plaited work, and between this and the lily- work. The belly-shaped rounding, above or upon which the plaited work lay round about, might, when looked at from without, be de- scribed as being on the other side of it, i.e. behind it. In the second half of the verse : " and the pomegranates two hundred in rows round about on the second capital," the number of the pomegranates placed upon the capitals, which was omitted in ver. 18, is introduced in a supplementary form.^ — Ver. 21. " And 1 This is the way in which the earlier translators appear to have under- stood it: f.^., LXX. SjOyoj/ xpivov x,eiToi to ctv'ha.y^ ncaotpuv -ky,-//,»/ ("lily-work according to the hall four cubits") ; Vulg. Capitella . . . quasi opere lilii fabricata eraut in porticu quatuor cubitorum ; Chald. J^ipp tsD^K'it^ H^iy p!3X y31N N?3/"1N!1 (opus liliaceum collectum in porticu quatuor cuhitoruni) \ Syr. opus liliaceum idem fecit {\q_^^\^ ^,^2ili^Q) in porticu quatuor cuhitis. These readings appear to be based upon the view supported by Rashi (D^^X3 for dSiNS) : lily-work as it was in the hall. 2 Hermann Weiss (Kostümkunde, i. p. 367) agrees in the main with the idea worked out in the text ; but he assumes, on the ground of monumental views, that the decoration was of a much simpler kind, and one by no means out of harmony with the well-known monumental remains of the East. In his opinion, the pillars consisted of "a shaft nineteen cubits in height, sur- rounded at the top, exactly after the fashion of the ornamentation of the Egyptian pillars, with seven bands decorated like plaited work, which unitedly covered a cubit, in addition to Avhich there was the lily-work of five cubits in height, i.e. a slender capital rising up in the form of the calyx of a lily, ornamented with pomegranates." Our reasons for dissenting from this opiuion are given in the exposition of the different verses. CHAr. VII. 15-22. 101 he set up the pillars at the hall of the Holy Place, and set up the right pillar, and called its name Jacliin, and . . . the left . . . Boaz." Instead of ^?''v!f!l ^{^^ we have in 2 Chron. iii. 15 '';)ö^ n^.?n and in ver. 17 ^i'\}\^. V.ä'^V, "before the house," "before the Holy Place." This unquestionably implies that the two brazen pillars stood unconnected in front of the hall, on the right and left sides of it, and not within the hall as supporters of the roof. Nevertheless many have decided in favour of the latter view. But of the four arguments used by Thenius in proof that this was the position of the pillars, there is no force whatever in the first, which is founded iipon Amos ix. 1, unless we assume, as Merz and others do, that the words of the pro- phet, " Smite the capital, that the thresholds may shake, and break them (the capitals of the pillars), that they may fall upon the head of all," refer to the temple at Jerusalem, and not, as Thenius and others suppose, to the temple erected at Bethel for the calf-worship. For even if the temple at Bethel had really had a portal supported by pillars, it would by no means follow that the pillars Jachin and Boaz in Solomon's temple supported the roof of the hall, as it is nowhere stated that the temple of Jeroboam at Bethel was an exact copy of that of Solomon. And even with the only correct interpretation, in which the words of Amos are made to refer to the temple at Jerusalem, the argument founded upon them in support of the position of the pillars as bearers of the hall rests upon the false idea, that the D''SD, which are shaken by the smiting of the capital, are the beams lying upon the top of the pillars, or the super- liminaria of the hall. It is impossible to prove that ^p has any such meaning. The beam over the entrance, or upon the door- posts, is called ^ipK'O in Ex. xii. 7, 22, 23, whereas ^^ denotes the threshold, i.e. the lower part of the framework of the door, as is evident from Judg. xix. 27. The words of the prophet are not to be interpreted architecturally, but to be taken in a rhetorical sense ; " so that by the blow, which strikes the capital, and causes the thresholds to tremble, such a blow is intended as shakes the temple in all its joints" (Baur on Amos ix. 1). " "»WMn^ a kind of ornament at the top of the pillars, and D^EBH, the thresholds, are opposed to one another, to express the thought that the building is to be shaken and destroyed a summo usque ad itnuin, a capite ad calccin " (Hengstenberg, Christal. i. p. 366 transl.). The other arguments derived from 102 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. Ezek. xl. 48 and 49, and from Joseplius, Aoif. viii. 3, 4, prove nothing at all. From the words of Josephus, rovrcov tcov klovwv Tov fji€v erepov Kara rrjv Be^iav earrjae tov irpoirvXalov TrapaardBa . . . TOV Be erepov, k.tX., it would only follow " that the pillars (according to the view of Josephus) must have stood in the doorway/' if it were the case that irapacrtd'^ had no other mean- ing than doorpost, and 'TrpoirvXaiov could be understood as referring to the temple-hall generally. But this is conclusively disproved by the fact that Josephus always calls the temple- hall Trpovaov (I.e., and viii. 3, 2 and 3), so that TrpoTrvkaiov can only denote the fore-court, and 7rapaaTd<; a pillar standing by itself. Consequently Josephus regarded the pillars Jachin and Boaz as 'propylcea erected in front of the hall. "We must therefore adhere to the view expressed by Bahr {d. Tempel, p. 35 sqq.), that these pillars did not support the roof of the temple-hall, but were set up in front of the hall on either side of the entrance. In addition to the words of the text, this conclusion is sustained (1) by the circumstance that the two pillars are not mentioned in connection with the building of the temple and the hall, but are referred to for the first time here in the enumeration of the sacred vessels of the court that were made of brass. " If the pillars had formed an essential part of the construction and had been supporters of the hall, they would certainly have been mentioned in the description of the building, and not have been placed among the articles of furni- ture " (Schnaase) ; and moreover they would not have been made of metal like the rest of the vessels, but would have been con- structed of the same building materials as the hall and the house, namely, of stone or wood (Bahr). And to this we may add (2) the monumental character of the pillars, which is evi- dent from the names given to them. No architectural portion of the building received a special name.-^ Jacliin (P?^) : " he establishes," stdbiliet tem'plum (Simonis Onom. p. 430) ; and Boaz (TJ)3), ex TJ? 13 in illo, sc. Domino, rolur (Sim. p. 460). Kimchi has correctly interpreted the first name thus : " Let this temple 1 Stieglitz (Gesell, der Baukunst, p. 127) aptly observes in relation to tliis : "The architect cannot subscribe to Meyer's view (that the pillars were sup- porters of the ball), since it was only through their independent position fhat the pillars received the solemn character intended to be given to them, and by their dignity subserved the end designed, of exalting the whole building and calling attention to the real purpose of the whole." CHAP. VII. 23-20. 103 stand for ever ;" and the second, " Solomon desired that God would give it strength and endurance." The pillars were sym- bols of the stability and strength, which not only the temple as an outward building, but the kingdom of God in Israel as embodied in the temple, received from the Lord, who had chosen the temple to be His dwelling-place in the midst of His people.^ — In ver. 22 it is stated again that there was lily-work upon the head of the pillars, — a repetition which may be explained from the significance of this emblem of the capitals of the pillars ; and then the words, " So was the work of the capitals finished," bring the account of this ornament of the temple to a close. Vers. 23-26. Th& Irazm sea (c£ 2 Chron. iv. 2-5). — " He made the molten sea — a water-basin called D^ {mare) on account of its size — ten cubits from one upper rim to the other," i.e. in diameter measured from the upper rim to the one opposite to it, " rounded all round, and five cubits its (external) height, and a line of thirty cubits encircled it round about," i.e. it was thirty cubits in circumference. The Chetlub nip is to be read ^)\l here and in Zech. i. 16 and Jer. xxxi. 39, for which the Keri has 1i^ in all these passages. ^)? or li^ means a line for measuring, which is expressed in ver. 15 by tDW. The relation of the diameter to the circumference is expressed in whole numbers which come very near to the mathematical proportions. The more exact proportions would be as 7 to 22, or 113 to 355. — Ver. 24. And colocynths (gourds) ran round it under its brim, ten to the cubit, surrounding the sea in two rows ; the colocynths " cast in its casting," i.e. cast at the same time as the vessel itself. Instead of ^^VP^^, gourds (see at ch. vi. 18), we find Tm^ ü''"}p3, figures of oxen, in the corresponding text of the Chronicles, and in the last clause merely "'i^?'], an evident error of the pen, Dnpn being substituted by mistake for D'':;p3, and afterwards interpreted nnp3 niDl. The assumption by which the early expositors removed the discrepancy, namely, that they were casts of bullocks' heads, is not to be thought of, for the simple reason that D''"ipn signifies oxen and not the heads of oxen. How far apart the two rows of gourd-like ornaments were, it is impossible 1 There is do necessity to refute the fanciful notion of Ewald, that these pillars, "■ when they were erected and consecrated, were certainly named after men who were held in estimation at that time, probably after the yoimger sons of Solomon," and that of Thenius, that tV3 r3% "He (the Lord) estab- lishes with strength," was engraved upon them as an inscription. 104 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. to decide. Their size may be estimated, from the fact that there were ten within the space of a cubit, at a little over two inches in diameter. — Ver. 25. This vessel stood (rested) upon twelve brazen oxen, three turning to the north, three to the west, three to the south, and three to the east, " and the sea above upon them, and all their backs (turned) inwards ;" i.e. they were so placed that three of their heads were directed towards each quarter of the heavens. The size of the oxen is not given ; but we must assume that it was in proportion to the size and height of the sea, and therefore about five cubits in height up to the back. These figures stood, no doubt, upon a metal plate, which gave them a fixed and immoveable position (see the engraving in my lihl. Ärchäol. Taf. iii. fig. 1). — Ver. 26. "And its thick- ness {i.e. the thickness of the metal) was a handbreadth" = four finger-breadths, as in the case of the brazen pillars (see at ver. 1 5), " and its upper rim like work of a goblet (or of a goblet- rim, i.e. bent outwards), lily-blossom," i.e. ornamented with lily- flowers. It held 2000 baths ; according to the Chronicles, 3000 baths. The latter statement has arisen from the confusion of 3 (3) with 3 (2) ; since, according to the calculation of Thenius, the capacity of the vessel, from the dimensions given, could not exceed 2000 baths. This vessel, which took the place of the laver in the tabernacle, was provided for the priests to wash themselves (2 Chron. iv. 6), that is to say, that a supply of water might be kept in readiness to enable the priests to wash their hands and feet when they approached the altar to officiate, or were about to enter the Holy Place (Ex. xxx. 1 8 sqq.). There were no doubt taps by which the water required for this purpose was drawn off from the sea.^ — The artistic form of the vessel corresponded to its sacred purpose. The rim of the basin, which rose upwards in the form of a lily, was intended to point to the holiness and loveliness of that life which issued from the sanc- tuary. The twelve oxen, on which it rested, pointed to the twelve tribes of Israel as a priestly nation, which cleansed itself 1 For the different conjectures on this subject, see Luudius, jiid. Heilig- thiimei; p. 356. Thenius supposes that there was also a provision for filling the vessel, since the height of it would have rendered it a work of great labour and time to fill it by hand, and that there was probably a pipe hidden behind the figures of the oxen, since, according to Aristeas, histor. LXX. Interp., Oxon. 1692, p. 32 (also Eusebii pr.vp. evancj. ix. 38), there were openings concealed at the foot of the altar, out of which water was allowed to run at certain seasons for the requisite cleansing of the pavement of the court from CHAP. VII. 27-G9. 105 here in the persons of its priests, to appear clean and holy before the Lord. Just as the number twelve unquestionably suggests the allusion to the twelve tribes of the covenant nation, so, in the choice of oxen or bullocks as supporters of the basin, it is impossible to overlook the significance of this selection of the first and highest of the sacrificial animals to represent the priestly service, especially if we compare the position of the lions on Solomon's throne (ch, x. 20). Vers. 27-39. The Brazen Stands and their Basins.-' — He made ten stands of brass, each four cubits long, four cubits broad, and three cubits high, rii^ba, stands or stools (Luther), is the name given to these vessels from their purpose, viz. to serve as supports to the basins which were used for washing the flesh of the sacrifices. They were square chests cast in brass, of the dimensions given. — Vers. 28, 29. Their work (their con- struction) was the following : they had ni"iaDp, lit. surroundings, i.e. panels or flat sides, and that between Q''37ti^, commissure, i.e. frames or borders, which enclosed the sides, and were connected together at the angles ; and upon the panels within the borders (there were figures of) lions, oxen, and cherubim. The state- ment in Josephus, that each centre was divided into three com- partments, has nothing to support it in the biblical text, nor is it at all probable in itself, inasmuch as a division of this kind would have rendered the figures placed upon them insignificantly small. " And upon the borders was a base above." 15 is a noun, and has been rendered correctly by the Chaldee ^^??, lasts. The meaning is, above, over the borders, there was a pedestal for the basin upon the chest, which is more fully described in ver. 31. To take|2 as an adverb does not give a suitable sense. For if we adopt the rendering, and upon the corner borders (or ledges) likewise above (De Wette and Ewald), — i.e. there were also figures of lions, oxen, and cherubim upon the corner borders, the blood of the sacrifices ; and there is still a fountain just in the neighbour- hood of the spot on which, according to ver. 89, the brazen sea must have stood (see Schultz's plan) ; and in the time of the Crusaders there was a large basin, covered by a dome supported by columns. (see Eobinson, Pal. i. 446). But even if the later temple was supplied with the water required by means of artificial water-pipes, the Solomonian origin of these arrangements or designs is by no means raised even to the rank of probability. 1 The description which follows will be more easily understood by comparing with it the sketch given in my hiblisclie Archäologie., Taf. iii. fig. 4. 106 THE FIEST BOOK OF KINGS. — it is impossible to tell what the meaning of bv'^p can be, to say- nothing of the fact that on the corner borders there could hardly be room for such figures as these. This last argument also tells against the rendering adopted by Thenius : " and upon the corner borders, above as well as below the lions and oxen, (there were) wreaths ; " in which, moreover, it is impossible to attach any sup- portable meaning to the 13. When, on the other hand, Thenius objects to our view that the pedestal in question is spoken of for the first time in ver. 31, and that the expression "above the corner borders (ledges) " would be extremely unsuitable, since the pedestal in question was above the whole stand ; the former remark is not quite correct, for ver. 3 1 merely contains a more minute description of the character of the pedestal, and the latter is answered by the fact that the pedestal derived its strength from the corner borders or ledges. " And below the lions and oxen were wreaths, pendant work." HV?^ here and at ver. 36, is to be explained from n;^p in Prov. i. 9 and iv. 9, and signifies twists or wreaths. Tjio '^^VJP is not "work of sinking," i.e. sunken work (Thenius), which never can be the meaning of Tiiü, but pendant work, festoons, by which, however, we cannot understand festoons hanging freely, or floating in the air. — Ver. 30. " Every stool had four brazen wheels and brazen axles, and the four feet thereof had shoulder-pieces ; below the basin were the shoulder-pieces cast, beyond each one (were) wreaths." The meaning is that the square chests stood upon axles with wheels of brass, after the style of ordinary carriage wheels (ver. 33), so that they could be driven or easily moved from one place to another ; and that they did not rest directly upon the axles, but stood upon four feet, which were fastened upon the axles. This raised the chest above the rim of the wheels, so that not only were the sides of the chest which were ornamented with figures left uncovered, but, according to ver. 32, the wheels stood below the panels, and not, as in ordinary carriages, at the side of the chest. With regard to the connection between the axles and the wheels, Gesenius (Thcs. p. 972) and Thenius sup- pose that the axles were fastened to the wheels, as in the Eoman jplaustra and at the present day in Italy, so as to turn with them ; and Thenius argues in support of this, that onp is to be connected not only with what immediately precedes, but also with ''Pp nc'nj. But this latter is unfounded ; and the idea is altogether irreconcilable with the fact that the wheels had naves (ü"'ipti'n^ CHAP. VII. 27-39. 107 ver. 33), from which we must infer that they revolved upon the axles. The words D^^ nbn| rnbya nyansi are ambiguous. They may either be rendered, " and its four feet had shoulder-pieces," or, as Thenius supposes, " and its four feet served as shoulder- pieces." ri'DVSi means stepping feet, feet bent out as if for step- ping (Ex. XXV. 12). The suffix attached to vnoya refers to n3i3ö, the masculine being often used indefinitely instead of the femi- nine, as in Cin^ in ver. 28. Thenius compares these feet to the ayttafoTToSe? of the Greeks, and imagines that they were divided below, like fork^shaped upright contrivances, in which, as in forks, the wheels turned with the axles, so that the axle-peg, which projected outwards, had a special apparatus, instead of the usual pin, in the form of a stirrup-like and on the lower side hand-shaped holder (1^), which was fastened to the lower rim of the '"i^i^P, and descended perpendicularly so as to cover the foot, and the general arrangement of the wheels themselves received greater strength in consequence. These feet, which were divided in the shape of forks, are supposed to be called nbn3 (shoulders), because they were not attached underneath at the edge of the stand, but being cast with the corner rims passed down in the inner angles, so that their uppermost portion was under the hasin, and the lowest portion was under the stand, which we are to picture to ourselves as without a bottom, and projecting as a split foot, held the wheel, and so formed its shoulder-pieces. But we cannot regard this representation as either in accordance with the text, or as really correct. Even if Dn? ribns could in any case be grammatically rendered, " they served them (the wheels and axles) as shoulders," although it would be a very questionable course to take on? in a different sense here from that which it bears in the perfectly similar construction in ver. 28, the feet which carried the stand could not possibly be called the shoulders of the wheels and their axles, since they did not carry the wheels, but the n^iao. Moreover, this idea is irreconcilable with the following words : " below the basin were the shoulder-pieces cast." If, for example, as Thenius assumes, the mccJionah had a cover which was arched like a dome, and had a neck in the centre into which the basin was inserted by its lower rim, the shoulder-pieces, supposing that they were cast upon the inner borders of the chest, would not be heloio the hasin, but simply below the corners of the lid of the chest, so that they would stand in no direct 108 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. relation whatever to the basin. We must therefore give the preference to the rendering, which is grammatically the most natural one, " and its feet had shoulder-pieces," and understand the words as signifying that from the feet, which descended of course from the four corner borders of the chest down to the axles, there ascended shoulder-pieces, which ran along the out- side of the chest and reached to the lower part of the basin which was upon the lid of the chest, and as shoulders either supported or helped to support it. According to ver. 34, these shoulder-pieces were so cast upon the four corners of the chest, that they sprang out of it as it were. r\vb &i^ "^^V.^, opposite to each one were wreaths. Where these festoons were attached, the various senses in which i^yo is used prevent our deciding with certainty. At any rate, we must reject the alteration pro- posed by Thenius, of nv"ij into ^ns^^ for the simple reason that nns^ ^""i^ in the sense of " one to the other" would not be Hebraic. — In ver. 3 1 we have a description of the upper portion of the mechonah, which formed the pedestal for the basin, and therewith an explanation of "i'3? nnno. " And the mouth of it (the basin) was within the crown and upwards with a cubit, and the mouth of it (the crown) was rounded, stand-work, a cubit and a half (wide), and on its mouth also there was en- graved work, and its panels were square, not round," To under- stand this verse, we must observe that, according to ver. 35, the mechonah chest was provided at the top with a dome-shaped covering, in the centre of which there was an elevation resem- bling the capital of a pillar (n^nbn^ the crown), supporting the basin, which was inserted into it by its lower rim. The suffix in ^n''S (its mouth) is supposed by Thenius to refer to the mechonah chest, and he questions the allusion to the basin, on the ground that this was so flat that a mo?//7i-like opening could not possibly be spoken of, and the basins were never within the mechonah. But however correct these two remarks may be in themselves, they by no means demonstrate the necessity of takinrr ^n''3 as referring to the mechonah chest. For ns (the mouth) is not necessarily to be understood as denoting a mouth- like opening to the basin; but just as ti'Ni "'S in Ex. xxviii. 32 signifies the opening of the clothes for the head, i.e. for putting the head through when putting on the clothes, so may =in"'3 (its m-outh) be the opening or mouth for the basin, i.e. the opening into which the basin fitted and was emptied, the water in the CHAP. VII. 27-39. 109 basin being let off into the meclwnah chest through the head- shaped neck by means of a tap or plug. The mouth was really the lower or contracted portion of the shell-shaped basin, which was about a cubit in height within the neck and upwards, that is to say, in all, inasmuch as it went partly into the neck and rose in part above it. The •^''3 (the mouth thereof) which follows is the (upper) opening of the crown-like neck of the lid of the meclwnali. This was rounded, |3"nt^l?0^ stand-work, i.e., according to De Wette's correct paraphrase, formed after the style of the foot of a pillar, a cubit and a half in diameter. "^ And also upon the mouth of it (the mecJwnah) was carved work." The D5 (also) refers to the fact that the sideS'Of the mecJwnaJi were already ornamented with carving. Dn''ri^2D0, the panels of the crown-like neck (n^j^i's) and its mouth (n''S) were square, like the panels of the sides of the mecJwnah chest. The fact that panels are spoken of in connection with this neck, may be explained on the assumption that with its height of one cubit and its circumference of almost five cubits (which follows from its having a diameter of a cubit and a half) it had stronger borders of brass to strengthen its bearing power, while between them it consisted of thinner plates, which are called fillings or panels. — In vers. 32, 33, the wheels are more minutely de- scribed. Every stool had four wheels under the panels, i.e. not against the sides of the chest, but under them, and HiT, hands or holders of the wheels, i.e. special contrivances for fastening the wheels to the axles, probably larger and more artistically worked than the linch-pins of ordinary carriages. These HIT were only required when the wheels turned upon the axles, and not when they were fastened to them. The height of the wheel was a cubit and a half, i.e. not half the height, but the whole. For with a half height of a cubit and a half the wheels would have been three cubits in diameter ; and as the chest was only four cubits long, the hinder wheels and front wheels would almost have touched one another. The work (construction) of the wheels resembled that of (ordinary) carriage wheels ; but everything about them (holders, felloes, spokes, and naves) was cast in brass. — In ver. 34 the description passes to the upper portion of the mechonah. " And he made four shoulder-pieces at the four corners of one {i.e. of every) stand ; out of the stand were its shoulder-pieces." nisri3 are the shoulder-pieces already mentioned in ver. 3 0, which were attached to the feet below, or 110 TPIE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. wliich terminated in feet. They were fastened to the corners in such, a way that they seemed to come out of them ; and they rose above the corners with a slight inclination (curve) towards the middle of the neck or capital, till they came under the outer rim of the basin which rested upon the capital of the lid of the chest, so as to support the basin, which turned considerably out- wards at the top. — Ver. 35. " And on the upper part of the stand (the mcdionah chest) half a cubit high was rounded all round, and on the upper part were its holders, and its panels out of it. njbian t^kSi is the upper portion of the square chest. This was not flat, but rounded, i.e. arched, so that the arching rose half a cubit high above the height of the sides. This arched covering (or lid) had riiT, holders, and panels, which were there- fore upon the upper part of the HJiap. The holders we take to be strong broad borders of brass, which gave the lid the neces- sary firmness ; and the fillings or panels are the thinner plates of brass between them. They Avere both '^^tsp^ " out of it," out of the upper part of the mecJionaJi, i.e. cast along with it. With regard to the decoration of it, ver. 36 states that " he cut out (engraved) upon the plates of its holders, and upon its panels, cherubim, lions, and palms, according to the empty space of every one, and wreaths all round." We cannot determine any- thing further with regard to the distribution of these figures. — Vers. 37, 38. " Thus he made the ten stools of one kind of casting, measure, and form, and also ten brazen basins (J^ii'^), each holding forty baths, and each basin four cubits." In a round vessel this can only be understood of the diameter, not of the height or depth, as the basins were set upon {yV) the stands. nJben'by ins "ii>3 is dependent upon '^V'^\ : he made ten basins, . . . one basin upon a stand for the ten stands, i.e. one basin for each stand. If then the basins were a cubit in diameter at the top, and therefore their size corresponded almost exactly to the length and breadth of the stand, whilst the crown-like neck, into which they were inserted, was only a cubit and a half in dia- meter (ver. 31), their shape must have resembled that of wide- spreading shells. And the form thus given to them required the shoulder-pieces described in vers. 30 and 34 as supports beneath the outer rim of the basins, to prevent their upsetting when the carriage was wheeled about.-^ — Ver. 39. And he put ^ The description wliicli Ewald has given of these stands in his GeschicJite, ilL pp. 311, 312, and still more elaborately in an article in the GöUingen CHAP. VII. 27-39. Ill the stands five on the right side of the house and five on the left ; and the (brazen) sea he put upon the right side eastwards, opposite to the south. The riglit side is the south side, and the left the north side. Consequently the stands were not placed on the right and left, i.e. on each side of the altar of burnt- offering, but on each side of the house, i.e. of the temple-hall ; while the brazen sea stood farther forward between the hall and the altar, only more towards the south, i.e. to the south-east of the hall and the south-west of the altar of burnt-offering. The basins upon the stands were for washing (according to 2 Chron. iv. 6), namely, " the work of the burnt-offering," that is to say, for cleansing the flesh and fat, which were to be consumed upon the altar of burnt-offering. By means of the stands on wheels, they could not only easily bring the water required near to the priests who were engaged in preparing the sacrifices, but could also let down the dirty water into the chest of the stand by means of a special contrivance introduced for the purpose, and afterwards take it away. As the introduction of carriages for the basins arose from the necessities of the altar-service, so the pre- paration of ten such stands, and the size of the basins, was occasioned by the greater extension of the sacrificial worship, in. which it often happened that a considerable number of sacrifices had to be made ready for the altar at the same time. The artistic work of these stands and their decoration with figures were intended to show that these vessels were set apart for the service of the sanctuary. The emblems are to some extent the same as those on the walls of the sanctuary, viz. cherubim, palms, and fl.owers, which had therefore naturally the same meaning here as they had there ; the only difi^erence being that they were executed there in gold, whereas here they were in brass, to correspond to the character of the court. Moreover, there were also figures of lions and oxen, pointing no doubt to the royal and priestly characters, which were combined, GeleJirten Nachr. 1859, pp. 131-146, is not only obscure, but almost entirely- erroneous, since he proposes in the most arbitrary way to make several alterations in the biblical text, on the assumption that the Solomonian stands were constructed just like the small bronze four-wheeled kettle-carriages (hardly a foot in size) which have been discovered in Mecklenburg, Steyer- mark, and other places of Europe. See on this subject G. C. F. Lisch, " über die ehernen Wagenbecken der Bronzezeit," in the Jahrhb. des Vereins f. Mecklenh. Geschichte, ix. pp. 373, 374, where a sketch of a small carriage of this kind is given.. 112 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. according to Ex. xix. 6, in the nation worshipping the Lord in this place. Vers. 40—51. Summary enumeration of the other vessels of the temple. — In ver. 40 the brazen vessels of the court are given. In vers. 41—47 the several portions of the brazen pillars, the stands and basins, the brazen sea and the smaller vessels of brass, are mentioned once more, together with notices of the nature, casting, and quantity of the metal used for making them. And in vers. 48-50 we have the golden vessels of the Holy Place. This section agrees almost word for word with 2 Chron. iv. 11— v. 1, where, moreover, not only is the arrange- ment observed in the previous description of the temple-build- ing a different one, but the making of the brazen altar of burnt- offering, of the golden candlesticks, and of the table of shew- bread, and the arrangement of the great court (2 Chron. iv. 7-9) are also described, to which there is no allusion whatever in the account before us ; so that these notices in the Chronicles fill up an actual gap in the description of the building of the temple which is given here. — Ver. 40 a. The smaller hrazen vessels. — Hiram made the pots, shovels, and bowls. ni"i*3n is a slip of the pen for niT'Dn^ pots, as we may see by comparing it with ver. 45 and the parallel passages 2 Chron. iv. 11 and 2 Kings XXV. 1 4. The pots were used for carrying away the ashes ; ^''Vl^}, the shovels, for clearing the ashes from the altar ; nip^Tisn were the bowls used for catching the blood, when the sacrificial animals were slaughtered : compare Ex. xxvii. 3 and Num. iv. 14, where forks and fire-basins or coal-pans are also mentioned. — Ver. 405 introduces the recapitulation of all the vessels made by Hiram, nin^ T)''^^ in the house of the Lord (cf. Ewald, § 3 0 0, &) ; in 2 Chron. iv. 1 1 more clearly, '''^ n''^3 ; we find it also in ver. 45, for which we have in 2 Chron. iv. 16 nin^ n^3b, for the house of Jehovah. The several objects enumerated in vers. 41-45 are accusatives governed by nib'i;p. — Vers. 41-44, the brazen pillars with the several portions of their capitals ; see at vers. 15-22. The inappropriate expression ^''^oy'^ ''?.f~^V (upon the face of the pillars) in ver. 42 is probably a mistake for 'yn V^"''^> " lipon the two pillars," for it could not properly be said of the capitals that they Avere upon the surface ol the pillars. — Ver. 43. The ten stands and their basins: see at vers. 27-37; ver. 44, the brazen sea: viel. vers. 23-26; lastly, ver. 45, the pots, etc., as at ver. 40. The Chdhib ?nNn is a CHAP. VII. 40-51. 113 mistake for nWn {Kco^y ü'ibo r\m^, of polished brass- accusative of the material governed by nb'y. — Ver. 46. " In the Jordan valley he cast them — in thickened earth between Snccoth and Zarthan/' where the ground, according to Burck- hardt, Sijr. ii. p. 593, is marly throughout. "O^^^O "?J^^3, " by thickening of the earth," the forms being made in the ground by stamping together the clayey soil. Snccoth was on the other side of the Jordan, — not, however, at the ford near Bethsean (Thenius), but on the south side of the Jabbok (see at Judg. viii. 5 and Gen. xxxiii. 17). Zarthan or Zcrcda was in the Jordan valley on this side, probably at Kum Sartdbeh (see at Judg. vii. 22 and Josh. iii. 16). The casting-place must have been on this side of the Jordan, as the (eastern) bank on the other side has scarcely any level ground at all. The circum- stance that a place on the other side is mentioned in connection with one on this side, may be explained from the fact that the two places were obliquely opposite to one another, and in the valley on this side there was no large place in the neighbour- hood above Zarthan which could be appropriately introduced to define the site of the casting-place. — Ver. 47. Solomon left all these vessels of excessive number unweighed. n3>l does not mean he laid them down (= set them up : Llovers), but he let them lie, i.e. unweighed, as the additional clause, " the weight of the brass was not ascertained," clearly shows. This large quantity of brass, according to 1 Chron. xviii. 8, David had taken from the cities of Hadadezer, adding also the brass pre- sented to him by Toi. — Vers. 48-50. The golden vessels of the Holy Place (cf. 2 Chron. iv. 19-22). The vessels enumerated here are divided, by the repetition of ">^JD 3nr in vers. 49 and 50, into two classes, which were made of fine gold ; and to this a third class is added in ver. 505 which was made of sold of inferior purity. As "I'lJD 2nr is governed in both instances by b'j;;^ as an accusative of the material, the 2nr (gold) attached to the separate vessels must be taken as an adjective. " Solomon made all the vessels in the house of Jehovah (i.e. had them 1 After n^NH D'^bsn-isa nS"! the LXX. have the interpolation, kxI ot arv'Aot r£a(ixpeix.ovT» xxl oktu tov oi'icov tow ßxat'hiag xxl Toy oi'nov Kvptov, which is proved to be apocryphal by the marvellous combination of the king's hoiise and the house of God, though it is nevertheless regarded by Thenius as genuine, and as an interesting notice respecting certain pillars in the enclosure of the inner court of the temple, and in the king's palace ! H 114 THE FIEST BOOK OF KINGS. made) : the golden altar, and tlie golden table on whicli was the shew-bread, and the candlesticks ... of costly gold ("iiJD : see at ch. vi. 20). Tlie house of JeJiovah is indeed here, as in ver. 40, the temple with its courts, and not merely the Holy Place, or the temple-honse in the stricter sense ; but it by no means follows from this that D73n"?3, " all the vessels," includes both the brazen vessels already enumerated and also the golden vessels mentioned afterwards. A decisive objection to our taking the ^3 (all) as referring to those already enumerated as well as those which follow, is to be found in the circumstance that the sentence commencing with '^Vll is only concluded with i^iJD anr in ver. 49. It is evident from this that D"'^3n-^3 is T TT . .. _ ^ particularized in the several vessels enumerated from nnro ri« onwards. These vessels no doubt belonged to the Holy Place or temple-house only ; though this is not involved in the ex- pression " the house of Jehovah," but is apparent from the con- text, or from the fact that all the vessels of the court have already been enumerated in vers. 40-46, and were made of brass, whereas the golden vessels follow here. That these were intended for the Holy Place is assumed as well known from the analogy of the tabernacle. nin^ n"'3 IB'N merely af&rms that the vessels mentioned afterwards belonged to the house of God, and were not prepared for the palace of Solomon or any other earthly purpose. We cannot infer from the expression " Solomon made " that the golden vessels were not made by Hiram the artist, as the brazen ones were (Thenius). Solomon is simply named as the builder of the temple, and the introduction of his name was primarily occasioned by ver. 47. The " golden altar " is the altar of incense in the Holy Place, which is called golden because it was overlaid with gold-plate ; for, according to ch. vi. 20, its sides were covered with cedar wood, after the analogy of the golden altar in the tabernacle (Ex. xxx. 1-5). "' And the table, upon which the shew-bread, of gold." ^nt be- longs to 1^}^'], to which it stands in free subjection (viel Ewald, ^287, li), signifying "the golden table." Instead of 1^?^!] we have ^i^f^^t^'i? in 2 -Chron. iv. 19 (the tables), because there it has already been stated in ver. 8 that ten tables were made, and put in the Holy Place. In our account that verse is omitted ; and hence there is only a notice of the table upon which the loaves of shew-bread generally lay, just as in 2 Chron. xxix. 18, in which the chronicler does not contradict CHAP. VII. 40-51. 115 himself, as Thenius fancies. The number ten, moreover, is re- quired and proved to be correct in the case of the tables, by the occurrence of the same number in connection with the candlesticks. In no single passage of the Old Testament is it stated that there was only one table of shew-bread in the Holy Place of Solomon's temple.^ The tables were certainly made of wood, like the Mosaic table of shew-bread, probably of cedar wood, and only overlaid with gold (see at Ex. xxv. 23-30). " And the candlesticks, five on the right and five on the left, before the back-room." These were also made in imitation of the Mosaic candlestick (see Ex. xxv. 31 sqq.), and were pro- bably placed not near to the party wall in a straight line to the right and left of the door leading into the Most Holy Place, but along the two longer sides of the Holy Place ;. and the same with the tables, except that they stood nearer to the side walls with the candlesticks in front of them, so that the whole space might be lighted more brilliantly. The altar of burnt- offering, on the contrary, stood in front of and very near to the entrance into the Most Holy Place (see at ch. vi. 20). — In the following clause (vers. 49& and 50a) the ornaments of the candlesticks are mentioned first, and then the rest of the smaller golden vessels are enumerated. ^']^[}, the flower- work, with which the candlesticks were ornamented (see Ex. xxv. 33). The word is evidently used collectively here, so that the ^'^T^^ mentioned along with them in the book of Exodus (I.e.) are included. ^'^?.^, the lamps, which were placed upon the shaft and arms of the candlestick (Ex. xxv. 3 7). CJ^'nppön^ the snuffers (Ex. XXV. 38). niap^ basins in Ex. xii. 22, here probably deep dishes (Schalen). riii^IP, loiives. J^ip^tP, bowls (Sehalen) or cans with spouts for the wine for the libations ; according to 2 Chron. iv. 8, there were a hundred of these made. Dis?, small flat vessels, 1 Nothing can be learned from 2 Chron. sxix. 18 concerning the number of the vessels in the Holy Place. If we were to conclude from this passage that there were no more vessels in the Holy Place than are mentioned there, we should also have to assume, if we would not fall into a most unscientific inconsistency, that there was neither a candlestick nor a golden altar of incense in the Holy Place. The correct meaning of this passage may be gathered from the words of king Abiam in 2 Chron. xiii. 11 : " "We lay the shew-bread upon the pure table, and light the golden candlestick eveiy even- ing ;" from which it is obvious that here and there only the table and the candlestick are mentioned, because usually only one table had shew-bread upon it, and only one candlestick was lighted. 116 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. probably for carrying the incense to the altar, ri^nrto^ extin- guishers ; see at Ex. xxv. 38. — Ver. 50&. The riins were also of gold, possibly of inferior quality. These were either the hinges of the doors, or more probably the sockets, in which the pegs of the doors turned. They were provided for the doors of the inner temple, viz. the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. We must supply Vdv before '^'^/i?. All the vessels mentioned in vers. 48 and 49 belonged to the Holy Place of the temple, and were the same as those in the tabernacle ; so that the remarks made in the Comm. on Ex. xxv. 30 and 39, and xxx. 1-10, as to their purpose and signifi- cation, apply to them as well. Only the number of the tables and candlesticks was ten times greater. If a multiplication of the number of these two vessels appeared appropriate on account of the increase in the size of the room, the number was fixed at ten, to express the idea of completeness by that number. No new vessel was made for the Most Holy Place, because the Mosaic ark of the covenant was placed therein (ch. viii. 4 : compare the remarks on this at Ex. xxv. 10-22). — The account of the vessels of the temple is brought to a close in ver. 51 : " So was ended all the work that king Solomon made in the house of the Lord ; and Solomon brought all that was conse- crated by his father, (namely) the silver and the gold (which were not wrought), and the vessels he placed in the treasuries of the house of Jehovah." As so much gold and brass had already been expended upon the building, it might appear strange that Solomon should not have used up all the treasures collected by his father, but should still be able to bring a large portion of it into the treasuries of the temple. But according to 1 Chron. xxii. 14, 16, and xxix. 2 sqq., David had collected together an almost incalculable amount of gold, silver, and brass, and had also added his own private treasure and the freewill offerings of the leading men of the nation (1 Chron. xxix. 7-9). Solo- mon was also able to devote to the building of the temple a considerable portion of his own very large revenues (cf. ch. x. 14), so that a respectable remnant might still be left of the treasure of the sanctuary, which was not first established by David, but had been commenced by Samuel and Saul, and in which David's generals, Joab and others, had deposited a por- tion of the gold and silver that they had taken as booty (1 Chron. xxvi. 20-28). For it is evident that not a little had found its CHAP. VIII. 117 way into this treasure through the successful wars of David, from the fact that golden shields were taken from the generals of Hadadezer, and that these were consecrated to the Lord along with the silver, golden, and brazen vessels offered as gifts of homage by king Toi of Hamath, in addition to the gold and silver which David had consecrated from the defeated Sjo-ians, Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, and Amalekites (2 Sam. viii. V, 11, 12; 1 Chron. xviii. 7, 10, 11).^ CHAP. VIII. DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE. This solemn transaction consisted of three parts, and the chapter arranges itself in three sections accordingly : viz. (a) the conveyance of the ark and the tabernacle, together with its vessels, into the temple, with the words spoken by Solomon on the occasion (vers. 1-21) ; (h) Solomon's dedicatory prayer (vers. 22-53) ; (c) the blessing of the congregation, and the offering of sacrifice and observance of a feast (vers. 54-66). — The parallel account to this in 2 Chron. v. 2-vii. 10, in addition to certain minor alterations of words and constructions, intro- ^ The amazing extent to which this booty may possibly have reached, may be inferred from the accounts we have concerning the quantity of the pre- cious metals in Syria in the Macedonian age. In the (/aza regia of Damascus, Alexander found 2600 talents of gold and 600 talents of uncoined silver (Curt. iii. 13, 16, of. Arrian, ii. 11, 10). In the temple of Jupiter at Antioch there was a statue of this god of solid silver fifteen cubits high (Justin, xxxix. 2, 5. 6) ; and in the temple at Hierapolis there was also a golden statue (Lucian, de Dea Syi-, § 31). According to Appian (Partli. 28, ed. Schweigh.), this temple was so full of wealth, that Crassus spent several days in weighing the vessels of silver and gold. And from the unanimous testimony of the ancients, the treasures of the palaces and temples of Asia in the earlier times were greater still. Of the many accounts which Bahr (Symholik, i. p. 258 sqq.) and Movers (Phönizier, ii. 3, p. 40 sqq.) have col- lected together on this subject, we will meuticn only a few here, the credi- bility of which cannot be disputed. According to Varro (in Plin. xxxiii. 16), Cyrus had taken 34,000 pounds of gold as booty after the conquest of Asia, beside the gold wrought into vessels and ornaments, and 500,000 talents of silver. In Susa, Alexander took 40,000, or, according to other accounts, 50,000, talents from the royal treasury; or, as it is still more definitely stated, 40,000 talents of uncoined gold and silver, and 9000 talents of coined dariks. Alexander had these brought to Ecbatana, where he accumulated 180,000 talents. Antigonus afterwards found in Susa 15,000 talents more in vessels and wrought gold and silver. In Persepolis, Alexander took 120,000 talents, and in Pasargada 6000 talents. For the proofs, see Movers, pp. 42, 43. 118 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. duced for the most part merely for the sake of elucidation, contains here and there, and more especially towards the end, a few deviations of greater extent, partly omissions and partly additions. But in other respects it agrees almost word for word with our account. With regard to the time of the dedication, it is merely stated in ver. 2 that the heads of the nation assembled at Jerusalem to this feast in the seventh month. The year in which this took place is not given. But as the building of the temple was finished, according to ch. vi. 38, in the eighth month of the eleventh year of Solomon's reign, the dedication which followed in the seventh month cannot have taken place in the same year as the completion of the building. Ewald's opinion, that Solo- mon dedicated the building a month before it was finished, is not only extremely improbable in itself, but is directly at vari- ance with ch. vii. 51. If we add to this, that according to ch. ix. 1-10 it was not till after the lapse of twenty years, during which he had built the two houses, the temple, and his palace, that the Lord appeared to Solomon at the dedication of the temple and jDromised to answer his prayer, we must decide in favour of the view held by Thenius, that the dedication of the temple did not take place till twenty years after the build- ing of it was begun, or thirteen years after it was finished, and when Solomon had also completed the building of the palace, which occupied thirteen years, as the LXX. have indicated at the commencement of ch. viii. 1 by the interpolation of the words, Kal ijivero d>3/' and still more to Ex. xx. 2 1 and Deut. iv. 11, V. 19, according to which God came down upon Sinai -'Snyii. Solomon took the word ^sny from these passages. That he meant by this the black, dark cloud which filled the temple, is perfectly obvious from the combination ''S'Ji'.i^^ i^yn in Deut. v. 1 9 and iv. 11.-^ Solomon saw this word of Jehovah realized in cloud which, hindered the priests from performing the service was, accord- ing to the distinct words of the text, the cloud which filled the house ; and the explanatory clause, " for the glory of the Lord filled the house of Jehovah," indicates in the most unmistakeable terms that it was the vehicle of the glory of God, and therefore was not a cloud of smoke formed by the burning sacrifices, but the cloud in which God manifested His invisible being to His people, — the very same cloud in which Jehovah was to appear above the Capporeth, when the high priest entered the Most Holy Place on the day of atonement, so that he vfas commanded not to enter it at all times, and, when he entered, to cover the Capporeth with the cloud of the burning incense (Lev. xvi. 2, 13). ^ Thenius, however, has built up all kinds of untenable conjectures as to alterations of the text, upon the erroneous assumption that py means the 124 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. the filling of the temple with the cloud, and learned therefrom that the Lord would dwell in this temple. Hence, being firmly convinced of the presence of Jehovah in the cloud which filled the sanctuary, he adds in ver. 13: "I have built Thee a house to dwell in, a place for Thy seat for ever." We are not to understand n"'???iy as signifying that Solomon believed that the temple built by him would stand for ever ; but it is to be explained partly from the contrast to the previous abode of God in the tabernacle, which from the very nature of the case could only be a temporary one, inasmuch as a tent, such as the tabernacle was, is not only a moveable and pro\dsional dwelling, but also a very perishable one, and partly from the promise given to David in 2 Sam vii. 14-16, that the Lord would establish the throne of his kingdom for his seed for ever. This promise involved the eternal duration of the gracious con- nection between God and Israel, which was embodied in the dwelling of God in the temple. This connection, from its very nature, was an eternal one ; even if the earthly form, from which Solomon at that moment abstracted himself, was tem- poral and perishable. — Solomon had spoken these words with his face turned to the Most Holy Place. He then (ver. 14) tiu?ned his face to the congregation, which was standing in the court, and blessed it. The word " blessed " Ol^"*) denotes the wish for a blessing with which the king greeted the assembled congregation, and introduced the praise of God which follows. — In vers. 15-21 he praises the Lord for having now fulfilled wdth His hand what He spake with His mouth to his father David (2 Sam. vii.). — Ver. 16. The promise of God, to choose Jerusalem as the place for the temple and David as prince, is taken freely from 2 Sam. vii. 7, 8. In 2 Chron. vi. 6, before " I chose David," we find " and I chose Jerusalem, that my name might be there ;" so that the affirmation answers more pre- cisely to the preceding negation, whereas in the account before us this middle term is omitted. — Vers. 17-19. David's inten- tion to buud the temple, and the answer of God that his son Avas to execute this work, are so far copied from 2 Sam. vii. 2, 12, 13, that God approves the intention of David as such. riTtpn, "Thou didst well that it was in thy mind."— Vers. 20, 21. light and radiant cloud, and cannot be synonymous with ?S"iy- Böttcher adopts the same opinion, without taking any notice of the striking remarks of Bertheau on 2 Chron. v. 14. CHAP. VIII. 22-53. 125 " And Jehovah has set up His word." '131 Di^*i. supplies the ex- planation of 11^3 s is a pregnant expression : to hear the prayer, which ascends to heaven. In the Chronicles we find throughout the explanatory 1». The last words, " hear and for- give," must be left in their general form, and not limited by anything to be supplied. Nothing but forgiveness of sin can remove the curse by which transgression is followed. This general prayer is then particularized from ver. 31 on- wards by the introduction of seven special petitions for an answer in the different cases in which, in future, prayers may be offered to God in the temple. The ßrst prayer (vers. 31,32) has reference to the oaths sworn in the temple, the sanctity of which God is asked to protect. " If a man sin against his neighbour, and an oath be laid upon him, to cause him to swear, and he come (and) swear before the altar in this house, then wilt Thou hear," etc. "i??'^ nt< does not mean either " granted that " (Thenius) or " just lohcn " (Ewald, § 533, a), although D^? is used in the Chronicles, and we might render it freely " when ; " but Ili? is simply an accusative particle, serving to introduce the following clause, in the sense of " as for," or " -with regard to (such a case as) that a man sins" {vid. Ewald, § 2 7 7, a). HPX K2n cannot be taken as anything but an asyndeton. For if npx were a substantive, it would have the article ('"'^^v') provided it were the subject, and the verb would be written nxn ; and if it were the object, we should have "^/^li, as in Neh. x. 30 (cf. Ezek. xvii. 13). The prayer refers to the cases mentioned in Ex. xxii. 6-12 and Lev. v. 21-24, Vt^hen property entrusted to any one had been lost or injured, or when a thing had been found and the finding was denied, or when an act of fraud had been committed ; in which cases the law required not only co'm- pensation with the addition of a fifth of its value, but also a trespass-offering as an expiation of the sin committed by taking CHAP. VIII. 33-40. 129 a false oath. But as this punishment could only be inflicted when the guilty person afterwards confessed his guilt, many false oaths might have been sworn in the cases in question and have remained unpunished, so far as men were concerned. Solomon therefore prays that the Lord will hear every such oath that shall have been sworn before the altar, and work (^''^i'), i.e. actively interpose, and judge His servants, to punish the guilty and justify the innocent. The construction D^p^n yoD-n (vers. 32, 34, 36, etc.) can be explained more simply from the adverbial use of the accusative (Ewald, § 300, &), than from hi^_ wmn in ver. 30. i:^'N^Zl ian'n nri, to give (bring) his way upon his head, i.e. to cause the merited punishment to fall upon him (cf. Ezek. ix. 10, xi. 21, etc.). V^'t T?'!'"? and P'"^V P'^yn recall Deut. xxv. 2. For in^nya Sb nn compare 2 Sam. xxii. 21, 25. — The following cases are all taken from Lev. xxvi. and Deut. xxviii. Vers. 33 and 34. The second petition, — " If Thy people Israel are smitten by the enemy, because they have sinned against Thee, and they turn to Thee and confess Thy name, . . . then hear . . , and bring them back into the land," — refers to the threatenings in Lev. xxvi. 17 and Deut. xxviii. 25, where the nation is threatened with defeat and subjugation on the part of enemies, who shall invade the land, in which case prisoners of war are carried away into foreign lands, but the mass of the people remain in the land, so that they who are beaten can pray to the Lord in the temple, that He will forgive them their sin, save them out of the power of the enemy, and bring back the captives and fugitives into their fatherland. Vers. 35 and 36, The third prayer refers to the remission of the punishment of drought threatened against the land, when the heaven is shut up, according to Lev. xxvi. 19, Deut. xi, 17, xxviii. 2 3. ^}Vn ""3^ because Thou humblest them (LXX., Vulg.) ; not "that Thou hearest them " (Chald. and others). Dlin '•3^ because Thou teachest them the good way. These words correspond to Dij?n ""D, and contain a motive for forgiveness. Because God teaches His people and seeks by means of chastisements to bring them back to the good way when they fail to keep His commandments, He must forgive when they recognise the punishment as a divine chastisement and come to Him with penitential prayer. Vers. 37-40. The fourth prayer relates to the removal of other land-plagues: famine (Lev. xxvi. 19, 20, and 26 ; Deut. xxviii. 23); pestilence (Lev. xxvi. 25); blight and mildew I 130 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. in the corn (Deut. xxviii. 22); locusts (^''P^, devourer, is con- nected with ^n■l^« without a copula, — in the Chronicles by Vdv, — to depict the plague of locusts more vividly before their eyes after Deut. xxviii. 38); oppression by enemies in their own land; lastly, plagues and diseases of all kinds, such as are threatened against the rebellious in Lev. xxvi. 16 and Deut. xxviii. 59-61. lifj is not the imperfect Kal of "i^^* (Ges., Dietr., Fürst, Olsh. Gramm, p. 524), but the imperfect Hiphiloi "i^n in Deut. xxviu. 52, as in Neh. ix. 27; and the difficult expression VW pX3 is probably to be altered into '^ Kl??, whilst 'i^'^V^ is either to be taken as a second object to IVJ, as Luther supposes, or as in apposition to P.^^^ in the land (in) his gates, as Bertheau assumes. The assertion of Thenius, that all the versions except the Vulgate are founded upon the reading vny rinxa^ is incorrect. 7\)T\\ "»a is omitted after n?no-73^ since Solomon dropped the construction with which he commenced, and therefore briefly summed up all the prayers, addressed to God under the various chastisements here named, in the expression nanrrba n?sri-73^ which is placed absolutely at the opening of ver. 38. i^">^ '131 |ij?"|1, " when they perceive each one the stroke of his heart," i.e. not dolor animi quern qicisque sentit (Vatab., C. a Lap.), but the plague regarded as a blow falling upon the heart, in other words, as a chastisement inflicted upon him by God. In aU these cases may God hear his prayer, and do and give to every one according to his way. ^^J!} "i^N*, " as Thou knowest his heart," i.e. as is profitable for every one according to the state of his heart or his disposition, God can do this, because He knows the hearts of all men (cf. Jer. xvii. 10). The purpose assigned for all this hearing of prayer (ver. 40), viz. " that they may fear Thee," etc., is the same as in Deut. iv. 1 0. Vers. 41-43. The ßftJi -pvajer has reference to the hearing of the prayers of foreigners, who shall pray in the temple. Solomon assumes as certain that foreigners will come and worship before Jehovah in His temple ; even Moses himself had allowed the foreigners living among the Israehtes to offer sacrifice at the temple (Num. xv. 14 sqq.), and the great name and the arm of the Lord, that had manifested itseK in deeds of omnipotence, had become known in the times of Moses to the surround- ing nations (Ex. xv. 14, xviii. 1 ; Josh. v. 1), and the report of this had reached Balaam even in INIesopotamia (see the Comm. on Num. xxii.). ''1^}'? ^^ does not mean " as for the CHAP. VIII. 44-50. 131 foreigners " (Thenius), for % is never used in this sense ; but it is to be connected with J"?fn in ver. 43, as ^^V^f fre- quently occurs (Bertheau). — Ver. 42 is a parenthesis inserted in explanation of '^''^P ]V^\ : " for they will hear," etc. The strong hand and the outstretched arm are connected together as a stand- ing expression for the wondrous manifestations of the divine omnipotence in the guidance of Israel, as in Deut. iv. 34, v. 15, etc. With b)>^^n\ sa^i the p.?^ ^?'' in ver. 41 is resumed, and the main thought continued. — Ver. 43. The reason for the hearing of the prayers of foreigners is " that all nations may know Thy name to fear Thee," etc., as in Deut. xxviii. 10. An examination of this original passage, from which K"Jp? 'l^K' "'S '1^1 '?^ is taken and transferred to the temple, shows that the common explanations of this phrase, viz. " that this house is called after Thy name," or " that Thy name is invoked over this temple (at its dedication)," are erroneous. The name of the Lord is always used in the Scriptures to denote the working of God among His people or in His kingdom (see at 2 Sam. vi. 2). The naming of this name over the nation, the temple, etc., pre- supposes the working of God within it, and denotes the con- fession and acknowledgment of that working. This is obvious from such passages as Jer. xiv. 9, where the expression " Thy name is called over us " is only a further explanation of the word " Thou art in the midst of us ;" and from Isa. Ixiii. 19, where "we are they over whom Thou hast not ruled from eternity " is equivalent to " over whom Thy name has not been called." The name of Jehovah will be named over the temple, when Jehovah manifests His gracious presence within it in such a manner, that the nations who pray towards it experience the working of the living God within His sanctuary. It is in this sense that it is stated in 2 Sam. vi. 2 that the name of Jehovah is named above the ark of the covenant (see the Comm. in loc). — There are no cases on record of the worship of foreigners in con- nection with Solomon's temple, though there are in connection with the temple built after the captivity (vid. Josephus, Ant. xi. 8, 5, that of Alexander the Great ; xii. 2, 5 sqq., that of Ptole- ma3us Phüadelphus ; and 2 Mace. iii. 2, 3, that of Seleucus). Finally, in vers, 44-50 Solomon also asks, that Avhen prayers are directed towards the temple by those who are far away both from Jerusalem and the temple, they may be heard. The sixth case, in vers. 44 and 45, is, if Israel should be engaged in war 132 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. "with an enemy by the appointment of God ; and the seventh, in vers. 46-50, is, if it should he carried away by enemies on account of its sins.^ By the expression in ver. 44, " in the way which Thou sendest them," the war is described as one undertaken by the direction of God, whether waged against an enemy who has invaded the land, or outside the land of Canaan for the chastisement of the heathen dwelling around them. " And shall pray 'W^ "'"'V'^ T}'!^. : " i-e. in the direction towards the chosen city and the temple, namely, in faith in the actual presence of the covenant God in the temple. nin;' b^, " to Jehovah," instead of " to Thee," is probably introduced for the sake of greater clearness. Df S'^'P '^''"^Vl ^"^^ secure them justice (cf. Deut. X. 18, Ps. ix. 5, etc.). — Vers. 46 sqq. In the seventh prayer, viz. if Israel should be given up to its enemies on account of its sins and carried away into the land of the enemy, Solomon had the threat in Lev. xxvi. 33 and 44 in his eye, though he does not confine his prayer to the exile of the whole nation foretold in that passage and in Deut. xxviii. 45 sqq., 64 sqq., and xxx. 1—5, but extends it to every case of trans- portation to an enemy's land. D^p 7S l3''5J'n'!, " and they take it to heart," compare Deut. iv. 39, and without the object, Deut. XXX. 1 ; not " they feel remorse," as Thenius supposes, because the Hiphil cannot have this reflective signification (Böttcher). The confession of sin in ver. 47, ^^V??'"! ^^''IV'!?"! ^^^^C^ "^^^ adopted by the Jews when in captivity as the most exhaustive ex- pression of their deep consciousness of guilt (Dan. ix. 5 ; Ps. cvi. 6). NüHj to slip, Idbi, depicts sin as a wandering from right ; ^ Bertheau (ou Chron.) has already proved that there is no force in the arguments by which Thenius attempts to show, ou doctrinal grounds, that vers. 44-51 are an interpolated addition. As he correctly observes, " it is, on the contrary, quite in harmony with the original plan, that the two cases are also anticipated, in which the prayers of Israelites who are at a distance from the seat of the sanctuary are directed towards the temple, since it is perfectly appropriate that the prayers of the Israelites at the place of the sanctuary are mentioned first, then the prayers of foreigners at the same i)lace, and lastly the prayers of Israelites, who, because they are not in Jerusalem, are obliged to content themselves with tuniing their faces towards the temple. We might also point to the fact that it is probably intentional that exactly seven cases are enumerated, inasmuch as in enumerations of this kind, which are not restricted by the nature of the case to any definite measure, sueh a number as seven easily furnishes an outward limit," — or more correctly : be- cause seven as a sacred or covenant number was more appropriate than any other to embrace all prayers addressed to God. CHAP. VIII. 54-Gl. 133 njyn to act perversely, as a conscious perversion of justice; and y^'T as a passionate rebellion against God (cf. Isa. Ivii. 20). — Ver. 50. Q^^Dlc' 2J^n^^ : literally, "and make (place) them for compassion before their captors, that they may have compassion upon them," i.e. cause them to meet with compassion from their enemies, who have carried them away. — In vers. 51-53 Solo- mon closes with general reasons, which should secure the hear- ing of his prayer on the part of God. Bertheau follows the earlier commentators in admitting that these reasons refer not merely to the last petitions, but to all the preceding ones.^ The plea "for they are Thy people," etc. (ver. 51), is taken from Deut. iv. 10 ; and that in ver. 53, "Thou didst separate them," etc., is taken from Lev. xx. 24, 26, compared with Ex. xix. 5. 'iJl ^''_:''y nvn^, " that Thine eyes may be opened," follows upon ^m^\ ("then hear Thou") in ver. 49; just as ver. 29 at the commencement of the prayer follows upon ri''3Si in ver. 2 8. The recurrence of the same expression shows that the prayer is drawing to a close, and is rounded off by a return to the thought with which it opened. " As Thou spakest by Moses" points back to Ex. xix. 5. — In 2 Chron. vi. 40-42 the con- clusion of the prayer is somewhat altered, and closes with the appeal to the Lord to cause salvation and grace to go forth from the temple over His people. Vers. 54-66. Concluding Act of the dedication of the temple. Vers. 54-61. Blessing the congregation. — After the conclusion of the prayer, Solomon rose up from his knees and blessed all the assembled congregation. riiCi'^13 VSpl is a cir- cumstantial clause, which must be connected with the previous words and rendered thus : " from lying upon his knees with his hands spread out towards heaven." " And he stood," i.e. he came from the altar and stood nearer to the. assembled congre- gation. The blessing begins with praise to the Lord for the fuljfilment of His promises (ver. 1 6), and consists in the petition that the Lord will always fulfil his (Solomon's) prayers, and ^ Seb. Schmidt has already given the following explanation : " These things which I have asked for myself and for my people do Thou, 0 Lord, because it is for Thy people that I have prayed, and I am their king : there- fore hear Thou the prayers of Thy servant and Thy people. For in ver. 52 he makes mention of his own case and of the cases of all the rest, in which they would call upon the Lord. 134 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. grant His people the promised salvation.-^ — Ver. 56. The praise of Jehovah rests, so far as the first part is concerned, upon the promise in Deut. xii. 9, 10, and upon its fulfilment in Josh, xxi. 44, 45 and xxiii. 14 ; and the second part is founded upon Lev. xxvi. 3—13 and Deut. xxviii. 1-14, where the "good word, which the Lord spake by Moses," is more precisely described as the blessing which the Lord had promised to His people and had hitherto bestowed upon them. He had already given Israel rest by means of Joshua when the land of Canaan was taken ; but since many parts of the land still remained in the hands of the Canaanites, this rest was only fully secured to them by David's victories over all their enemies. This glorious fulfilment warranted the hope that the Lord would also fulfil in the future what He had promised His servant David (2 Sam. vii. 10), if the people themselves would only faithfully adhere to their God. Solomon therefore sums up all his wishes for the good of the kingdom in vers. 57-61 in the words, " May Jehovah our God be with us, as He was with our fathers ; may He not leave us nor forsake us, to incline our heart to Himself, that we may walk in all His ways," etc. — that the evil word predicted by Moses in Lev. xxvi. 14 sqq., Deut. xxviii. 15, may not fall upon us. For ver. 57 compare Deut. xxxi. 6, 8, and Josh. i. 5. 'iJ^tpi 7N corresponds to ^ST. ?^ in these passages. In the Pentateuch ^i^^ is used but once of men who forsake the Lord, viz. Deut. xxxii. 15 ; in other cases it is only used in the general sense of casting away, letting alone, and other similar meanings. It is first used of God, in the sense of for- 1 This blessing is omitted from the Chronicles, because it is simply a re- capitulation of the longer prayer ; but instead of it we have a statement, in 2 Chron. vii. 1-4, to the effect that fire fell from heaven and consumed the burnt-offering upon the altar. This statement, which even Movers regards as a traditional, i.e. a legendary addition, according to his erroneous view of the sources of the Chronicles, is confirmed by the similar miracle which occurred at the dedication of the temple. It is omitted, like so many other things in the account before us, because all that was essential in this occur- rence was contained implicite in the filling of the temple with the glory of the Lord. Just as at the consecration of the Mosaic sanctuary the Lord did not merely manifest His gracious presence through the cloud which filled the tent, but also kindled the first sacrifice with fire from heaven (Lev. ix. 24), to sanctify the altar as the legitimate place of sacrifice ; so also at the temple the miraculous kindling of the first sacrifice with fire from heaven was the immediate and even necessary consequence of the filling of the temple with the cloud, in which the presence of Jehovah was embodied. CHAP. VIII. 62-66. 135 saking His people, in Ps. xxvii. 9 in connection with 2Ty ; and it frequently occurs afterwards in Jeremiah. — Ver. 59. May these my words, which I have prayed (vers. 25-43), be near to Jehovah our God day and night, that He may secure the right of His servant (the king) and of His people, as every day demands, i^ra nv ia^, as in Ex. v. 13, xvi. 4. — For ver. 60 compare ver. 43. — Ver. 61. Let your heart be '^ üy Dpt'^ wholly, tindividedly devoted to the Lord (cf ch. xi. 4, xv. 3, 14, etc.). Vers. 62-66. Sacrifices and feast. — Vers. 62, 63. The dedi- catory prayer was followed by a magnificent sacrifice offered by the king and all Israel. The thank-offering (^"'0?^ n^r) con- sisted, in accordance with the magnitude of the manifestation of divine grace, of 2 2,0 0 0 oxen and 120,000 sheep. This enormous number of sacrificial animals, in which J. D. Michaelis found serious difficulties, Thenius endeavours to set aside as too large, by calculating that as these sacrifices were offered in seven days, reckoning the sacrificial day at twelve full hours, there must have been about five oxen and about twenty-five sheep slaughtered and offered in sacrifice every minute for the king alone. This calculation would be conclusive, if there were any foundation for the three assumptions upon which it rests : namely, (1) that the number of sacrifices mentioned was offered for the king alone ; (2) that the slaughtering and preparation of the sacrificial animals could only be performed by the priests and Levites ; and (3) that tlie whole of the flesh of these sacrificial animals was to be consumed u23on the altar. But these three assumptions are all erroneous. There is nothing in the account about their being " for the king alone." For it is obvious that the words " and Solomon offered a sacrifice" are not to be understood as signifying that the king had these sacrifices offered for himself alone, but that the words refer to the sacrifices offered by the king and all Israel for the con- secration of the temple, from the simple fact that in ver. 62 " Solomon and all Israel " are expressly mentioned as offerino- sacrifice, and that after the statement of the number of the sacrifices we find these words in ver. 63: "so the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of Jehovah." More- over it is very evident from the law in Lev. i. and iii. that at the offering of sacrifice the slaughtering, flaying, and prepara- tion of the sacrificial animals were performed by any Israelite, and that it was only the sprinkling of the blood against the 136 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. altar and the burning of the sacrificial portions upon the altar which were the exclusive province of the priests. In order to form a correct idea of the enormous number of sacrifices which could be slaughtered on any one day, we will refer again to the notice in Josephus {Bell. Jud. vi. 9, 3) already mentioned in the Comm. on the Pentateuch, vol. iii. p. 51 (translation), that in the reign of the emperor Nero the procurator Ccstius directed the priests to count the number of the paschal lambs, and that they counted 250,000, which were slaughtered for the passover between the ninth and eleventh hours of the day, and of which the blood Avas sprinkled upon the altar. If then it was pos- sible at that time to slaughter more than 250,000 lambs in three hours of the afternoon, and to sprinkle the blood upon the altar, there can have been no difficulty in slaughtering and sacrificing 3000 oxen and 18,000 sheep at the dedication of the temple on each of the seven days of the festival. As all Israel from Hamath to the brook of Egypt came to Jerusalem to this festival, we shall not be above the mark if w-e estimate the number of the heads of houses present at 100,000. And with very little trouble they could have slaughtered 3000 oxen and 18,000 sheep a day and prepared them for sacrificing. How many priests took an active part in this, w^e do not indeed know, in fact we have no information as to the number of the priests in Solomon's time ; but we know that in the time of David the number of Levites qualified for service, reckoning from their thirtieth year, was 38,000, so that we may certainly assume that there were two or three thousand priests. Now if only the half of these Levites and priests had come to Jerusalem to tlie dedication of the temple, they alone could have slaughtered^ 3000 oxen and 18,000 sheep every day. And would not al thousand priests have been sufficient to sprinkle the blood of | so many animals upon the altar and to burn the fat between the morning and evening sacrifice ? If we divided these sacri- fices among a thousand priests, each one would only have had to attend to the sprinlding of the blood and burning of the fat of three oxen and eighteen sheep each day. — But the brazen altar of burnt-offering might not have been large enough fori the burning of so many sacrifices, notwithstanding the fact that only the fat portions of the thank-offerings were consumed, and they did not require much room ; since the morning and even-j hi" burnt-offerings were added daily, and as festal off'eringsl CHAP. VIII. C2-66. 137 they would certainly not consist of a lamb only, but at least of one bullock, and they were burned whole, although the altar of burnt- offering with a surface of 144 square yards (see my hihl. Archäol. i. p. 12 7) would hold a very large quantity of sacrificial flesh at once. In ver. 64, however, it is expressly stated that Solomon sanctified the middle of the court, which was before the house of Jehovah, to burn the burnt-offering and meat-offering and the fat portions of the thank-offerings there, because the brazen altar was too small to hold these sacrifices. " The middle of the court" ("lynn T]in) is the whole of the inner portion of the court of the priests, which was in front of the temple-house and formed the centre of the court surrounding the temple. Of course we have not to imagine that the sacrifices were offered upon the stone pavement of the court, but must assume that there were auxiliary altars erected in the inner court around the brazen altar. By the burnt-offering and the meat-offering (belonging to it: HpivnTii;! ^C'?'?'!'"'^?!?1) we are not to understand certain burnt-offerings, which were offered for a definite number of thank-offerings, as Thenius supposes. The singular and the definite article are both at variance with this. The reference is rather to the (well-known) daily morning and evening burnt-offerings with their meat-offering, and in this case, no doubt, to such a festal sacrifice as is prescribed in Num. xxviii. for the great yearly feasts. — Ver. 65. Thus Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly from the neighbourhood of Hamath to the brook of Eg}^pt, i.e. from the whole land in its fullest extent from north to south. " The district of Hamath," i.e. Epiphania on the Orontes, is mentioned as the northern boundary (cf. Num. xxxiv. 8, xiii. 21, Josh. xiii. 5, etc.) ; and " the brook of Egypt" (Q11VÖ 7n3), RMnocorura, as the southern boundary (cf. Num. xxxiv. 8, Josh. xv. 4). " The feast " (^^n)^ which Solomon held with the people " seven days and seven days, fourteen days," is not the feast of the dedication, but, as in ver. 2, the feast of tabernacles, which fell in the seventh month ; and the meaning of the verse is, that on that occasion the feast of the seventh month was kept for fourteen days, namely, seven days as the feast of the dedication, and seven days as the feast of tabernacles. We are obliged to take the words in this way, partly on account of the evident reference to 3n3 (at the feast) in ver. 2 in the expression ^nriTix (the feast) in this verse, and partly on account of the statement which follows in 138 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. ver. 66, "and on the eiglitli clay he sent the people away." The " eighth day" is not the first day of the feast of tabernacles (Thenius) ; but the eighth day, as the conclusion of the feast of tabernacles, r!"!.>*y (Lev. xxiii. 36). The correctness of this view is placed beyond all doubt by the context in the Chronicles, which states more clearly that " Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with hiin . . . and they kept ri"ivy (the closing feast) on the eighth day ; for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days and the feast seven days ; and on the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away." The feast of tabernacles lasted seven days, from the 15th to the 21st, with a closing festival on the eighth day, i.e. the 2 2d of the month (Lev. xxiii. 33-39). This festival was preceded by the dedication of the temple from the 8th to the 14th of the month. The statement in ver. QQ, " on the eighth day he sent the people away," if we take the words in their strict sense, is at variance with the statement in the Chronicles, "on the 23d day," since the eighth day of the feast of taber- nacles was the 2 2d day of the month; but it may easily be accounted for from want of precision in a well-known matter. Solomon sent the people away on the eighth day, i.e. on the afternoon or evening of the atzcrdh of the feast of tabernacles, so that on the morning of the next day, i.e. on the 23d of the month, the people took their journey home, "joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to His ser- vant David and to the people." David is mentioned, because the completion of the building of the temple was the fulfilment of the divine promise given to him. " Tents," for houses, as in 2 Sam. XX. 1, Judg. vii. 8, and other passages. CHAP. IX. THE ANSWER TO SOLOMON'S PKAYEE. THE MEANS E:MPL0YED FOR THE ERECTION OF HIS BUILDINGS. Vers. 1-9. The Answer of the Lord to Solomon's Dedica- tory Prayer (cf. 2 Chron. vii. 11-22). — Vers. 1, 2. When Solomon had finished the building of the temple, and of his palace, and of all that he had a desire to build, the Lord appeared to him the second time, as He had aj)peared to him^ at Gibeon, i.e. by night in a dream (see ch. iii 5), to promise him that his prayer should be answered. For the point of time, see at ch. viii. 1. P.^D"''?, all Solomon's desire or pleasure, is para- CHAP. IX. 1-9. 139 phrased thus in the Chronicles : 3? ?y ^^l'"''!', " all that came into his mind/' and, in accordance with the context, is very properly restricted to these two principal buildings by the clause, " in the house of Jehovah and in his own house." — ^Vers. 3 sqq. The divine promise to Solomon, that his prayer should be answered, is closely connected with the substance of the prayer ; but in our account we have only a brief summary, whereas in the Chronicles it is given more elaborately {viel. 2 Chron. vii. 12-16). " I have sanctified this house which thou hast built, to put my name there." For the expression, see Deut. xii. 11. The sanc- tifying consisted in the fact, that Jehovah put His name in the temple ; i.e. that by filling the temple with the cloud which visibly displayed His presence. He consecrated it as the scene of the manifestation of His grace. To Solomon's prayer, " May Thine eyes stand open over this house" (ch. viii. 29), the Lord replies, giving always more than we ask, " My eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually." — Vers. 4 and 5 contain the special answer to ch. viii. 25 and 26. — Vers. 6-9 refer to the prayer for the turning away of the curse, to which the Lord replies : If ye and your children turn away from me, and do not keep my commandments, but worship other gods, this house will not protect you from the curses threatened in the law, but they will be fulfilled in all their terrible force upon you and upon this temple. This threat follows the Pentateuch exactly in the words in which it is expressed; ver. 7 being founded upon Deut. xxviii. 37, 45, and 63, and the curse pronounced upon Israel in Deut. xxix. 23-26 being transferred to the temple in vers. 8 and 9. — ''^Q ?y^? ^J^, to dismiss, i.e. to reject from before my face. " This house will be P vJ^," i.e. will stand high, or through its rejection will be a lofty example for all that pass by. The temple stood upon a high mountain, so that its ruins could not fail to attract the attention of all who went past. The expression li vV is selected with an implied allusion to Deut. xxvi. 19 and xxviii. 1. God there promises to make Israel P^V., high, exalted above all nations. This blessing will be turned into a curse. The temple, which was high and widely renowned, shall continue to be high, but in the opposite sense, as an example of the rejection of Israel from the presence of God.^ ^ The conjecture of Böttcher, Thenius, and Bertheau, that }i'>^j; should be altered into Di>y, has no support in Mic. iii. 12, Jer. xxvi. 18, and Ps. Ixxix. 1, 140 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. Vers. 10-28. The Means by which the Buildings were ERECTED. — In order that all which still remained to be said concerning Solomons buildings might be grouped together, different notices are introduced here, namely, as to his relation to Hiram, the erection of several fortresses, and the tributary labour, and also as to liis maritime expeditions ; and these hete- rosreneous materials are so arranged as to indicate the resources which enabled Solomon to erect so many and such magnificent buildings. These resources were : (1) his connection with king Hiram, who furnished him with building materials (vers. 10-14); (2) the tributary labour which he raised in his kingdom (vers. 15-25) ; (3) the maritime expedition to Ophir, which brought him great wealth (vers. 26-28). But these notices are very condensed, and, as a comparison with the parallel account in 2 Chron. viii. shows, are simjjly incomplete extracts from a more elaborate liistory. In the account of the tributary labour, the enumeration of the cities finished and fortified (vers. 15-19) is interpolated ; and the information concerning the support which was rendered to Solomon in the erection of his buildings by Hiram (vers. 11—14), is merely supplementary to the account already given in ch. v. Vers. 24 and 25 point still more clearly to an earlier account, since they would be other- wise unintelligible. — In 2 Chron. viii. the arrangement is a simpler one : the buildings are first of all enumerated in vers. 1-6, and the account of the tributary labour foUows in vers. 7-11. Vers. 10—14. The notices concerning Solomon's connection lüitli Hiram are very imperfect; for ver. 14 does not furnish a conclusion either in form or substance. The notice in 2 Chron. viii. 1, 2 is still shorter, but it supplies an important addition to the account before us. — Vers. 10 and 11 form one and has all the ancient versions against it ; for they all contain the Masoretic text, either in a verbal translation (LXX.), or in a paraphrase, as for example the Chaldee, " the house that was high shall be destroyed ;" the Syriac and Arabic, " this house will be destroyed ;" and the Vulgate, domus Jiiec erit in crcmplum. — In 2 Chron. vii. 21 the thought is somewhat varied bv the alteration of nTl"' into riTl ■^K'^<. For it would never enter the mind •' v: • TT V -: of any sober critic to attribute this variation to a misinterpretation of our text. Still less can it be an unsuccessful attempt to explain or rectify our text, as Böttcher imagines, since the assertion of this critic, that ji^^j; is only used to signify an exalted position, and never the exaltation of dignity or worth, is proved to be erroneous by Deut. xxvi. 19 and xxviii. 1. CHAP. IX. 10-14. 141 period. }J^1 TS (then he gave) in ver. 1 1 introduces the apodosis to 'PD "*>})] (and it came to pass, etc.) in ver. 1 0 ; and ver. 1 1 contains a circumstantial clause inserted as a parenthesis. Hiram had supported Solomon according to his desire with cedar wood and cypress wood, and with gold ; and Solomon gave him in return, after his buildings were completed, twenty cities in the land of Galil. But these cities did not please Hiram. When he went out to see them, he said, " What kind of cities are these ('"iD in a contemptuous sense) which thou hast given me, my brother?" ^ns as in ch. xx. 32, 1 Mace. X. 18, xi. 30, 2 Mace. xi. 22, as a conventional expression used by princes in their intercourse with one another. " And he called the land Cabid unto this day;" i.e. it retained this name even to later times. The land of Galil is a part of the country which was afterwards known as Galilcca, namely, the northern portion of it, as is evident from the fact that in Josh. XX. 7, xxi. 32, Kcdes in the mountains of Naphtali, to the north- west of Lake Huleh, is distinguished from the Kadesh in southern Palestine by the epithet -'yI?. It is still more evident from 2 Kings XV. 29 and Isa. viii. 23 that Galil embraced the northern part of the tribe of Naphtali; whilst the expression used by Isaiah, njiiin y?^, also shows that this district was for the most part inhabited by heathen {i.e. non-Israelites). The twenty cities in Galil, which Solomon gave to Hiram, certainly belonged therefore to the cities of the Canaanites mentioned in 2 Sam. xxiv. 7 ; that is to say, they were cities occupied chiefly by a heathen population, and in all probability they were in a very bad condition. Consequently they did not please Hiram, and he gave to the district the contemptuous name of the land of Cahul. Of the various interpretations given to the word Cahil (see Ges. TJics. p. 656), the one proposed by Hiller (Onomast. p. 435), and adopted by Eeland, Ges., Maurer, and others, viz. that it is a contraction of b=i3n3^ sictit id quod cvanuit tanquam oiihil, has the most to support it, since this is the mean- ing required by the context. At the same time it is possible, and even probable, that it had originally a different significa- tion, and is derived from ^33 = bin in the sense of to pawn, as Gesenius and Dietrich suppose. This is favoured by the occurrence of the name Cahd in Josh. xix. 27, where it is pro- bably derivable from ??3, to fetter, and signifies literally a for- tress or castle ; but in this instance it has no connection with 142 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. tlie land of Ccibid, since it is still preserved in the village of Cabul to the south-east of Acre (see the Comm. on Josh. l.c). The " land of Cabnl " would therefore mean the pawned land ; and in the mouths of the people this would be twisted into " good for nothing." In this case &5'^k'*l would have to be taken impersonally : " they called ;" and the notice respecting this name would be simply an explanation of the way in which the people interpreted it. Hiram, however, did not retain this dis- trict, but gave it back to Solomon, who then completed the cities (2 Chron. viii. 2.).^ The only way in which we can give to ver. 14 a meaning in harmony with the context, is by taking it as a supplementary explanation of ^njni . , . nE'j . . . ü^^n in ver. 11, and so rendering np'^'l as a pluperfect, as in ch. vii. 13:" Hiram had sent the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold." If we reckon the value of gold as being ten times the worth of silver, a hundred and twenty talents of gold would be 3,141,600 thalers (about £471,240 : Tr.). This is no doubt to be regarded as a loan, which Solomon obtained from Hiram to enable him to complete his buildings. Although David may have collected together the requisite amount of precious metals for the building of the temple, and Solomon had also very con- siderable yearly revenues, derived partly from tribute paid by subjugated nations and partly from trade, his buildings were so extensive, inasmuch as he erected a large number of cities beside the temple and his splendid palace (vers. 15—19), that his revenues might not suffice for the completion of these costly works ; and therefore, since he would not apply the conse- crated treasures of the temple to the erection of cities and palaces, he might find himself compelled to procure a loan from the wealthy king Hiram, which he probably intended to cover by ceding to him twenty cities on the border of the Phoenician territory. But as these cities did not please the king of Tyre and he gave them back to Solomon, the latter will no doubt have re- paid the amount borrowed during the last twenty years of his reign. ^ This simple method of reconciling the account before us with the appa- rently discrepant notice in the Chronicles, concerning which even Movers {die biblische Chronik, p. 159) observes, that the chronicler interpolated it from a second (?) source, is so natui'al, that it is difficult to conceive how Bertheau can object to it ; since he admits that the accounts in the books of Kings and Chronicles are incomplete extracts from common and more elaborate sources. CHAP. IX. 15-23. 143 Vers. 15—23. Solomon's tribute service, and the building of the cities. (Cf. 2 Chron. viii. 3-10.) The other means "by which Solomon made it possible to erect so many buildings, was by compelling the remnants of the Canaanitish population that were still in the land to perform tributary labour. Dsn "ini nr, " this is the case with regard to the tribute." Tor DD n?j;n^ compare ch. v. 27. To the announcement of the object which Solomon had in view in raising tributary labourers, namely, to build, etc., there is immediately appended a list of all the build- ings completed by him (vers. 15—19) ; and it is not till ver. 20 that we have more precise details concerning the tribute itself Millo, the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities enumerated, are for the most part not new buildings, but simply fortifications, or the completion of buildings already in existence. David had already built the castle of Millo and the wall of Jerusalem (2 Sam. v. 9); so that Solomon's building was in both cases merely fortifying more strongly. On Ifillo see the fuller remarks at 2 Sam. v. 9 ; and on the building of the wall, those at ch. iii. 1 and xi. 27. As Solomon thereby closed the breach of the city of David according to ch. xi. 27, he probably extended the city wall so as to enclose the temple mountain ; and he may possibly have also surrounded the lower city with a wall, since David had only built a fortification round about the upper city upon Zion (see at 2 Sam. v. 9). — Hazor : an old royal city of the Cauaan- ites above Lake Huleh, which has not yet been discovered (see at Josh. xi. 1). Mcgiddo ; i.e. Lcjun (see at ch. iv. 12). Gezer : also an old Canaanitish royal city, which stood close to the Philistian frontier, probably on the site of the present village of cl Kubab (see at Josh. x. 33). — Ver. 16. This city had been taken and burned down by the king of Egypt ; its Canaanitish inhabitants had been put to death ; and the city itself had been given as a marriage portion to his daughter who was married to Solomon. Nothing is known concerning the occasion and object of Pharaoh's warlike expedition against this city. The conjecture of Thenius, that the Canaanitish inhabitants of Gezer had drawn upon themselves the vengeance of Pharaoh, mentioned here, through a piratical raid upon the Egyptian coast, is open to this objection, that according to all accounts concerning its situation, Gezer was not situated near the sea-coast, but very far inland.' — Ver. 17. This city Solomon built: i.e. he not only rebuilt it, but also fortified it. He did the same also to Loiucr 14-4 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. £etJihoron, i.e. Bcit-Ur Tacliia, on the western slope of tlie mountains, four hours' journey from Gibeon. According to 2 Chron. viii. 5, Solomon also fortified Upper Bethhoron, which was separated by a deep wady from Lower Bethhoron, that lay to the west (see Comra. on Josh. x. 10 and xvi. 3). The two Bethhorons and Gezer were very important places for the pro- tection of the mountainous country of Benjamin, Ephraim, and Judah against hostile invasions from the Philistian plain. The situation of Megiddo on the southern edge of the plain of Jezreel, through which the high road from the western coast to the Jordan ran, was equally important ; and so also was Hazor as a border fortress against Syria in the northern part of the land. — Ver. 18. Solomon also built, i.e. fortified, Baalath and Tadmor in the desert. According to Josh. xix. 44, Baalath was a city of Dan, and therefore, as Josephus {Ant. viii. 6, 1) justly observes, was not far from Gezer ; and consequently is not to be identified with either Baalgad or Baalbek in Coele- syria (Iken, Mich. Eosenm. ; of. Eobinson, Bill. Res. p. 519). "ion (ChctJuh) is either to be read "i^n, or according to Ewald (Gesch. iii. p. 344) "I'sn^ palm, a palm-city. The Keri requires ibin (Tadmor, after 2 Chron. viii. 4), a pronunciation which may possibly have simply arisen from Aramrean expansion, but which is still the name for the city current among the Arabs •»1/ / even in the present day {^sji locus iMlmarum fcr ax). The Greeks and Eomans called it Palmyra. It was situated in what is certainly now a very desolate oasis of the Syrian desert, on the caravan road between Damascus and the Euphrates, — according to modern accounts, not more than seventeen hours' journey from that river ; and there are still magnificent ruins which attest the former glory of this wealthy and, under queen Zenobia, very powerful city (cf. Eitter, Erdk. xvii. 2, p. 1486 sqq., and E. Oslander in Herzog's Cycl.). The correctness of this explanation of the name is placed beyond all doubt by the words " in the wilderness ; " and consequently even Movers has given up his former opinion, viz. that it was the city of Thamar in southern Judah (Ezek. xlvii. 19, xlviii. 28), which Thenius has since adopted, and has decided in favour of Pahnyi'a, \vith- out being led astray by the attempt of Hitzig to explain the name from the Sanscrit {rid. Deutsche morgld. Ztschr. viii. p. 222 sqq.). The ex^^ression p.'J? appears superfluous, as all the cities CHAP. IX. 15-23. 145 named before were situated in the land or kingdom of Solomon, and Tadmor is sufficiently defined by "i|i']'?? (in the desert). The text is evidently faulty, and either the name of the land, namely Hamath (according to 2 Chron. viii. 4), has dropped out, or n?? is to be taken in connection with what follows (according to the Cod. Al. of the LXX.), and the cop. 1 before nj?"?!! ns* must be erased and inserted before ^^5a (" and in the land of all the magazine-cities"). — Ver. 19. The "magazine- cities " (ni^spsn ny) were fortified cities, in which the produce of the land was collected, partly for provisioning the army, and partly for the support of the rural population in times of dis- tress (2 Chron. xvii. 12, xxxii. 28), similar to those which Pharaoh had built in the land of Goshen (Ex. i. 1 1). If they were situated on the great commercial roads, they may also have served for storing provisions for the necessities of travellers and their beasts of burden. The cities for the war-chariots (^?"!1'!|}) and cavalry (D''K'i3n) were probably in part identical with the magazine-cities, and situated in different parts of the kingdom. There were no doubt some of these upon Lebanon, as we may on the one hand infer from the general importance of the northern frontier to the security of the whole kingdom, and still more from the fact that Solomon had an opponent at Damascus in the person of Eezin (ch. xi. 24), who could easily stir up rebellion in the northern provinces, which had only just been incorporated by David into the kingdom ; and as we may on the other hand clearly gather from 2 Chron. xvi. 4, according to which there Avere magazine-cities in the land of Naphtali. Finally, the words " and what Solomon had a desire to build " embrace all the rest of his buildings, which it would have occupied too much space to enumerate singly. That the words P^n ^^ are not to be so pressed as to be made to denote simply " the buildings undertaken for pure pleasure," like the works mentioned in Eccles. ii. 4 sqq., as Thenius and Bertheau sup- pose, is evident from a comparison of ver. 1, where all Solomon's buildings except the temple and palace, and therefore the forti- fications as well as others, are included in the expression " all his desire." — Fuller particiilars concerning the tributary work- men are given in ver. 20 sqq. The Canaanitish population that was left in the land were made use of for this purpose, — namely, the descendants of the Canaanites who had not been entirely exterminated by the Israelites. " Their children," K 146 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. etc., supplies a more precise definition of the expression " all the people/' etc., in ver. 20. (For the fact itself, see the com- mentaiy on ch. v. 27, 28.) — Ver, 22. Solomon did not make Israelites into tributary slaves ; but they were warriors, mini- sters, and civil and military officers. ^^I^V. are the king's ser- vants ; Q'''!^, the heads of the military and civil service ; ^''^7^, royal adjutants (see at 2 Sam. xxiil 8) ; 1''?'7?^ ^^^1 ''"?.^, cap- tains over the royal war-chariots and cavahy. — ^For ver. 23 compare ch. v. 30. Vers. 24 and 25 contain two notices, with which the account of Solomon's buildings is brought to a close. Both verses point back to ch. iii. 1-4 (viz. ver. 24 to ch. iii. 1, and ver. 25 to ch. iii. 2-4), and show how the incongruities which existed at the commencement of Solomon's reign were removed by his buildings. When Solomon married Pharaoh's daughter, he brought her into the city of David (ch. iii. 1), untu he should have finished his palace and built her a house of her own within it. After this building was completed, he had her brought up from the city of David into it. npy^ came up, inas- much as the jpalace stood upon the loftier summit of Zion. "i]>? is to be connected with 'N! which follows, in the sense of onli/ or just as : as soon as Pharaoh's daughter had gone up into the house built for her, Solomon built Millo.-^ — Ver. 25. After the building of the temple, the xDractice of sacrificing upon the altars of the high places could be brought to an end (ch. iii. 2). Solomon now offered burnt-offerings and thank-offerings three times a year upon the altar which he had built to the Lord, i.e. upon the altar of bui'nt-offering in the temple, or as 2 Chron. viii. 1 2 adds by way of explanation, " before the porch." " Three times in the year :" i.e. at the three great yearly feasts — passover, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tabernacles ^ Nothing certain can be gathered from this notice as to the situation of this castle. The remark made by Thenius, to the effect that it must have joined that portion of the palace in -which the harem was, rests ujDon the assumption that Millo was evidently intended to shelter the harem, — au assumption which cannot be raised into a probability, to say nothing of a certainty. The building of Millo immediately after the entrance of Pharaoh's daughter into the house erected for her, may have arisen from the fact that David (? Solomon — Tr.) could not undertake the fortification of Jerusalem by means of this castle till after his own palace was finished, because, he had not the requisite labour at command for carrying on all these buildings at the same time. CHAP. IX. 26-28. 147 (2 Chron. viii. 13). The words which follow, W^« "^Vi^^], "and indeed burning (the sacrifice) at the (altar) which was before Jehovah/' cannot be taken as parallel to the preceding clause, and understood as referring to the incense, which was offered along with the bleeding sacrifices, because "'''^k'Li is not a pre- terite, but an inf. absoL, which shows that this clause merely serves as an explanation of the preceding one, in the sense of, " namely, burning the sacrifices at the altar which was before Jehovah." "•'^i?'} is the technical expression here for the burning of the portions of the sacrificial flesh upon the altar, as in Ex. xxix. 18, Lev. i. 9, etc. On the use of 1^'^^ after inx, which Thenius and Böttcher could not understand, and on which they built up all kinds of conjectures, see Ewald, § 333, a, note. — ri^3n"nx D?K^i, " and made the house complete," i.e. he put the temple into a state of completion, by offering the yearl}^ sacrifices there from that time forward, or, as Böttcher explains it, gave it thereby its full worth as a house of God and place of worship. Qf'^l is to be taken grammatically as a continuation of the inf. abs.'^^tDpn. Vers. 26-28. Me sends ships to OpJiir. — Solomon built a fleet Q^^ is collective, ships or fleet ; the nom. unitatis is njjitpd or "Xov^ip, which is, according to the Coptic lexicographers, the name used by the Copts for India, and that Josephns {Ant. viii. 6, 4), who used the Old Test, in the Alexandrian version, has given India as the explanation of Ophir, as it does from this supposed resemblance in the names. For, according to the geographical ideas of the Alexandrians and later Greeks, India reached to Ethiopia, and Ethiopia to India, as Letronne has conclusively proved (see his Memoire sur tine mission arienne, etc., in 3fc)n. de VInstit. Acad, des Inscrij^t. ct Bell. Lettrcs, t. x. p. 220 sqq.). Greater stress has been laid upon the duration of the voyages to Ophir, — namely, that the Tarshish fleet came once in tliree years, according to ch. x. 22, and brought gold, etc. But even Lassen, who follows Heeren, observes quite truly, that " this expression need not be understood as signifying that three whole years intervened between the departure and return, but simply that the fleet returned once in the course of three years." More- over, the stay in Ophir is to be reckoned in as part of the time occupied in the voyage ; and that this is not to be estimated as a short one, is evident from the fact that, according to Homer, Odyss. XV. 454 sqq., a Phoenician merchantman lay for a whole year at one of the Cyclades before he had disposed of his wares of every description, in return for other articles of commerce, and filled his roomy vessel. If we add to this the slowness of the voyage, — considering that just as at the present day the Arabian coasters go but very slowly from port to port, so the combined fleet of Hiram and Solomon would not be able to pro- ceed with any greater rapidity, inasmuch as the Tyrians were not better acquainted with the dangerous Arabian Sea than the modern Arabians are, and that the necessary provisions for a lonof voyage, especially the water for drinking, could not be taken on board all at once, but would have to be taken in at the different landing-places, and that on these occasions some trade would be done, — we can easily understand how a voyage from Eziongeber to the strait of Bab el Mandeb and the return might occupy more than a year,^ so that the time occupied in ' It is no proof to the contrary, that, according to the testimony of ancient writers, as collected by Movers (Phüniz. ii. 3, p. 190 sqq.), the Phoenicians sailed almost as rapidly as the modern merchant ships ; for this evidence simply applies to the voyages on the Mediterranean Sea with which they were CHAP. IX. 26-28. 153 the voyage as given here cannot furnish any decisive proof that the fleet sailed beyond Southern Arabia to the East Indies. And lastly, the same remarks apply to the goods brought from Ophir, which many regard as decisive evidence in favour of India. The principal article for which Ophir became so cele- brated, viz. the gold, is not found either in Sitfara near Goa, or in the land of Ahhira. Even if India be much richer in gold than was formerly supposed (cf Lassen, ii. p. 592), the rich gold country lies to the north of Cashmir (see Lassen, ii. P23. 603-4). Moreover, not only is it impossible to conceive what goods the Phoenicians can have offered to the Indian merchants for their gold and the other articles named, since large sums of gold were sent to India every year in the Koman times to pay for the costly wares that were imported thence (see Eoscher, pp. 53, 54) ; but it is still less possible to com- prehend how the shepherd tribe of Abhira could have come into possession of so much gold as the Ophir fleet brought home. The conjecture of Eitter {Erdh xiv. p. 399) and Lassen (ii. p. 592), that this tribe had come to the coast not very long before from some country of their own where gold abounded, and that as an uncultivated shepherd tribe they attached but very little value to the gold, so that they parted with it to the Phoenicians for their purple cloths, their works in brass and glass, and for other things, has far too little probability to appear at all admissible. If the Abhira did not know the value of the gold, they would not have brought it in such quan- tities out of their original home into these new settlements. We should therefore be obliged to assume that they were a trading people, and this would be at variance with all the known accounts concerning this tribe. — As a rule, the gold treasures of Hither Asia were principally obtained from Arabia in the most ancient times. If we leave Havilah (Gen. ii. 11) out of the account, because its position cannot be determined familiar, and to the period when the Phoenician navigation had reached its fullest development, so that it has no bearing upon the time of Solomon and a voyage upon the Arabian Sea, with which the Phoenicians were hitherto quite unacquainted. — Again, the calculation made by Lassen (ii. pp. 590-1), according to which a voyage from Eziongeber to the mouth of the Indus could have been accomplished in a hundred days, is founded upon the assumption that the Phoenicians were already acquainted with the monsoon and knew what was the best time for the navigation of the Red Sea, — an assumption which can neither be proved nor shown to be probable. 154 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. with certainty, the only other place specially referred to in the Old Testament besides Ophir as being celebrated as a gold country is Saba, in the south-western portion of Yemen, . The Sabseans bring gold, precious stones, and incense (Isa. Ix. 6 ; Ezek. xxvii. 2 2) ; and the queen of Saba presented Solomon with 120 talents of gold, with perfumes and with precious stones (1 Kings X. 10). This agrees with the accounts of the classical writers, who describe Arabia as very rich in gold (cf Strabo, xvi. 777 sq. and 784 ; Diod. Sic. ii. 50, iii. 44; also Bochart, Phaleg, 1, ii. c. 27). These testimonies, which we have already given in part at Ex. xxxviii. 31, are far too distinct to be set aside by the remark that there is no gold to be found in Arabia at the present time. For whilst, on the one hand, the wealth of Arabia in gold may be exhausted, just as Spain no longer yields any silver, on the other hand we know far too little of the interior of Southern Arabia to be able distinctly to maintain that there is no gold in existence there. — Silver, the other metal brought from Ophir, was also found in the land of the Nabataeans, according to Strabo, xvi. p. 784, although the wealth of the ancient world in silver was chiefly derived from Tarshish or Tartessus in Spain (c£ Movers, Phöniz. ii. 3, p. 06 sqq., where the different places are enumerated in which silver was found). — That precious stones were to be found in Arabia is evident from the passages cited above concerning the Sabaeans. — On the other hand, however, it has been supposed that the remaining articles of Ophir could only have been brought from the East Indies. According to ch. x. 12, the Ophir ships brought a large quantity of D^aD^S* ^VJ? (almuggim wood : 2 Chron. ii. 7, Q''?J^^5). According to Kimchi (on 2 Chron. ii. 7), the J^O?X or D^i?X is arlor riibri colons, dicta lingua arabica aliaJcam (.jijj^, vulgo hrasilica. This tree, according to Abulfadl (Celsius, Hicrob. i. p. 176), is a native of India and Etliiopia ; and it is still a ques- tion in dispute, whether we are to understand by this the Ptero- carpus Santal., from which the true sandal-wood comes, and which is said to grow only in the East Indies on Malabar and Java, or the Cmsalpinia Sappan L., a tree which grows in the East Indies, more especially in Ceylon, and also in different parts of Africa, the red wood of which is used in Europe chiefly for dyeing. Moreover the true explanation of the Hebrew name CHAP. IX. 26-28. 155 is still undiscovered. The derivation of it from the Sanscrit Valgu, i.e. pulcJur (Lassen and Eitter), has been set aside by Gesenius as inappropriate, and mocha, mochdta, which is said to signify sandal-wood in Sanscrit, has been suggested instead. But no evidence has been adduced in its favour, nor is the word to be found in Wilson's Sanscrit Lexicon. If, however, this derivation were correct, ?^ would be the Arabic article, and the introduction of this article in connection with the word mocha would be a proof that the sandal- wood, together with its name, came to the Hebrews through merchants who spoke Arabic. — The other articles from Ophir mentioned in ch. x. 22 are D"'3n3{i^, oh6vTe<; iXecpavrivot (LXX.), denies cleijhantorum or ebur (Vulg.), ^''S'l \^, elephants' teeth (Targ.). But however certain the meaning of the word may thus appear, the justifica- tion of this meaning is quite as uncertain. In other cases ivory is designated by the simple term \^ (ch. x. 18, xxii. 39 ; Ps. xlv. 9 ; Amos iii. 15, etc.), whereas Ezekiel (xxvii. 15) caUs the whole tusk T^ nii"iip^ horns of the tooth. D''3n is said to signify elephants here ; and according to Benary it is contracted from 2''2sri^ the Sanscrit word ihha, elephant ; according to Ewald, from ö''3pn^ from the Sanscrit Kalahha ; and according to . Hitzig, from D''3n3 = L]''nn7^ Lilyi ; or else Q''?'!!?^ is a false read- ing for Q''J3i^"i W, ivory and ebony, according to Ezek. xxvii. 15 (see Ges. Thes. p. 1453), Of these four derivations the first two are decidedly wrong : the first, because ihha as a name for the elephant only occurs, according to Weber, in the later Indian writings, and is never used in the earlier writings in this sense {vid. Eoediger, Addenda' ad Ges. thes. p. 115); the second, because Kalahha does not signify the elephant, but catuhcm elephanti, before it possesses any teeth available for ivory. The third is a fancy which its originator himself has since given up; and the fourth a conjecture, which is not raised to a probability even by the attempt of Böttcher to show that 0''3n is a case of backward assimilation from Ci''J3n^ because the asyndeton D''2n \^ between two couples connected by 1 is without any analogy, and the passages adduced by Böttcher, viz. Deut. xxix. 22, Josh. xv. 54 sqq., and even Ezek. xxvii. 33, are to be taken in quite a different way. — The rendering of D'^SP by apes, and the connection of the name not only with the Sanscrit and Malabar ka'pi, but also with the Greek Kf]7ro<; and Kf]ßo<;, also Kelßo^, are much surer ; but, on the other hand, the assumption 156 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. that the Greeks, like tlie Semitic nations, received the word from the Indians along with the animals, is very improbable : for /c^tto? in Greek does not denote the ape (tt/Öi^/co?) generally, but simply a species of long-tailed apes, the native land of which, accord- ing to the testimony of ancient writers, was Ethiopia,^ and the Ethiopian apes are hardly likely to have sprung from India. — And lastly, even in the case of O''!^^, according to the ancient versions 'peacocks, the derivation from the ]\Ialabaric or Tamul togai or toghai (cf Roediger in Ges. Thcs. p. 1502) is not placed beyond the reach of doubt. If, in conclusion, we look through all the articles of commerce that were brought to Jerusalem from the Ophir voyages, apart from the gold and silver, which were not to be found in the land of Abhira, the ivory and ebony (supposing that we ought to read Xv! n'':3ni for Q'^^npt^') furnish no evidence in support of India, inas- much as both of them could have been brought from Ethiopia, as even Lassen admits (ii. p. 554). And even if the words Ähnuggim, Xophim, and TuccJiijim really came from India along with the objects to which they belonged, it Avould by no means follow with certainty from this alone that Ophir was situated in India. — For since, for example, there are indisputable traces of very early commercial intercourse between India and Hither Asia and Africa, especially Southern Arabia and Ethiopia, reaching far beyond the time of Solomon, the seamen of Hiram and Solo- mon may have obtained these articles either in Arabia or on the Ethiopian coast. For even if the statements of Herodotus and Strabo, to the effect that the Phoenicians emigrated from the islands of the Erythrrean Sea, Tylos (or Tyros ?) and Arados, to the Phoenician coast, do not prove that the Phcenicians had already extended their commercial enterprise as far as India even before the twelfth century, as Lassen (ii. 597 and 584-5) supposes; if the Tyrians and Aradians, who were related to them by tribe, still continued to dwell upon the islands of the Persian Gulf, from which they could much more easily find the way to ^ Compare Aristoteles, Jiist. animal, ii. 8 : ion Is 6 ^su Kv-ßo; ■:tiSyiko; sy^uv oiipüu. Strabo, xvii. p. 812 : san os c x.7i7ro; ro yAv TrpoauTrov ioiKu; "S.urvpu, t' aXXa oi x.vviig scctl öipx.rciv fisrec^C' ysvuÜTctt 3' en Aidio-.'». Plinius, h. v. viii. 19 (28) : liclem (tlie games of Pompey the Great) oxtenderunt ex jEthiopia quas vacant x,-/;7rov:, quariim pedes j)OSteriorcs pedihus humanis et cruribvs, priores manihus fuere similes. Soliuus Polyh. says the same (Bochart, Hieroz. i. lib. ill. c. 31). CHAP. IX. 26-28. 157 India by sea, — since the historical character of these statements has been disputed by Movers {Phönizier, ii. 1, p. 38 sqq.) on very weighty grounds ; yet it is evident that tliere was a very early intercourse between East India and Africa, reaching far beyond all historical testimony, from the following well-estab- lished facts : that the Egyptians made use of indigo in the dyeing of their stuffs, and this could only have been brought to them from India ; that muslins, which were likewise of Indian origin, are found among the materials in which the mummies are enveloped ; and that in the graves of the kings of the eighteenth dynasty, who ceased to reign in the year 1476 B.c., there have been discovered vases of Chinese porcelain (cf. Lassen, ii. p. 596). And the intercourse between the southern coast of Arabia and Hither India may have been quite as old, if not older ; so that Indian productions may have been brought to Hither Asia by the Sabaeans long before the time of Solomon {vid. Lassen, ii. pp. 593-4, and Movers, Pliöniz. ii. 3, pp. 247, 2 5 6). But the commercial intercourse between Arabia and the opposite coast of Ethiopia, by which African productions reached the trading inhabitants of Arabia, was unquestionably still older than the trade with India. If we weigh well all these points, there is no valid ground for looking outside Arabia for the situation of the Solomonian Ophir. But we shall no doubt be obliged to give up the hope of determining with any greater precision that particular part of the coast of Arabia in which Ophir was situated, inasmuch as hitherto neither the name Ophir nor the existence of gold-fields in Arabia has been established by modern accounts, and moreover the interior of the great Arabian peninsula is still for the most part a terra incognita} ^ If the notice of Eupoleraus contained in a fragment in Eusebiiis (^prxpar. ev. ix. 30), to the effect that David (a mistake for Solomon) sent miners to the island of Ovp(p^ (for which Gesenius conjectures that Ave should read Ov(pp^ or OvCp'/ip) in the Red Sea, which was rich in gold mines, and that they brought gold thence to Judsea, could be proved to be historical through any earlier testimony, Ophir would have been an island of the Eiythrgean Sea, either DaJdak inside Bab el Mandeb, or Diu Zokatara (the Sanscrit Dwipa Sukhatara, i.e. the happy island) by the present Cape Guardafui. But this notice is evidently simply a conjecture founded upon the Old Testa- ment, having no historical value. 158 THE FIRST BOOK OF KIXGS. CHAP. X. THE QUEEN OF SABA. SOLOMON'S WEALTH AND SPLENDOUR. Vers. 1-13. Visit of the Queen of Saba (cf. 2 Chron. ix. 1-12). — ^^Vhen the fame of Solomon's great wisdom came to the ears of the queen of Saba, probably through the Ophir voyages, she undertook a journey to Jerusalem, to convince herself of the truth of the report which had reached her, by putting it to the test by means of enigmas, i^^^, ^aßd, is not Ethiopia or Meroe, as Josephus (Ant. viii. 6, 5), who confounds ^^^ with N^p, and the Abyssinian Christians suppose {vid. Ludolfi hist. JEth. ii. 3), but the kingdom of the Sahceans, who were cele- brated for their trade in incense, gold, and precious stones, and who dwelt in Arabia Eelix, with the capital Saha, or the Mapidßa of the Greeks. This queen, who is called Balkis in the Arabian legend (cf Koran, Su7\ 2 7, and Pococke, Specim. hist. Arab. p. 60), heard the fame of Solomon nin^ DB^p j i.e. not " at the naming of the name of Jehovah " (Böttcher), nor " in re- spect of the glory of the Lord, with regard to that which Solomon had instituted for the glory of the Lord " (Thenius) ; nor even " serving to the glorification of God " (de Wette and Maurer) ; but literally, " belonging to the name of the Lord ; " in other words, the fame which Solomon had acquired through the name of the Lord, or throucfh the fact that the Lord had so glorified Himself in him (Ewald and Dietrich in Ges. Lex. s.v. ?). " She came to try him with riddles," i.e. to put his wisdom to the test by carrying on a conversation with him in riddles. The love of the Arabs for riddles, and their superiority in this jeu d! esprit, is sufficiently well known from the immense extent to which the Arabic literature abounds in Mcishals. We have only to think of the large collections of proverbs made by Ali ben Abi Taleb and Meidani, or the IfaJmmen of Hariri, which have been made accessible to all by F. Elickert's masterly translation into German, and which are distinguished by an amazing fulness of word-play and riddles. HT'n, a riddle, is a pointed saying which merely hints at the deeper truth and leaves it to be guessed. — Vers. 2, 3. As the queen of a wealthy country, she came with a very large retinue. ?]^ does not mean a military force or an armed escort (Thenius), but riches, property ; namely, her nume- rous retinue of men (QH^y, ver. 13), and camels laden with valuable treasures. The words nni^i . . . D^oa are an explana- tory circimistantial clause, both here and also in the Chronicles, CHAP. X. 1-13. 159 where the cop. Vav stands before 0702 (cf. Ewald, § 341, a, 6). " And spake to Solomon all that she had upon her heart," i.e. in this connection, whatever riddles she had it in her mind to lay before him ; " and Solomon told her all her sayings," i.e. was able to solve all her riddles. There is no ground for think- ing of sayings of a religious nature, as the earlier commentators supposed, but simply of sayings the meaning of which was con- cealed, and the understanding of which indicated very deep wisdom. — ^Vers. 4, 5. She saw n^nn^ i.e. Solomon's palace, not the temple, and " the food of his table," i.e. both the great variety of food that was placed upon the king's table (ch. v. 2, 3), and also the costly furniture of the table (ver. 21), and " the seat of his retainers and the standing of his servants," i.e. the places in the palace assigned to the ministers and servants of the king, which Avere contrived with wisdom and arranged in a splendid manner. ^''13^ are the chief officers of the Idng, viz. ministers, counsellors, and aides cle camp ; '^''rntyo, the court servants ; "^fvo, the rooms of the courtiers in attendance ; l^yo, the standing-place, i.e. the rooms of the inferior servants, " and their clothing," which they received from the king ; and Vi^E'a, not his cup-bearers (LXX., Vulg.), but as in Gen. xl. 21, the drink, i.e. probably the whole of the drinldng arrangements; inyp"!, and his ascent, by which he was accustomed to go into the house of Jehovah, np'y does not mean burnt-offering here, as the older translators have rendered it, but ascent, as in Ezek. xl. 26, and as the Chronicles have correctly explained it by iri*pi;. For burnt-offering is not to be thought of in this con- nection, because the queen had nothing to see or to be astonished at in the presentation of such an offering, iri^y is most likely " the king's outer entrance " into the temple, mentioned in 2 Kings xvi. 1 8 ; and the passage before us would lead us to suppose that this was a work of art, or an artistic arrangement. '131 iTH N'?i^ " and there was no more spirit in her:" she was beside herself with amazement, as in Josh. v. 1, ii. 11. — Vers. 6-9. She then said with astonishment to Solomon, that of what her eyes now saw she had not heard the half, through the report which had reached her of his affairs and of his wisdom, and which had hitherto appeared incredible to her; and not only con- gratulated his servants, who stood continually near him and could hear his wisdom, but also praised Jehovah his God, that out of His eternal love to His people Israel He had given them a king 1 G 0 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. to do justice and righteousness. The earlier theologians inferred from this praising of Jehovah, which involved faith in the true God, when taken in connection with Matt. xii. 42, that this queen had been converted to the true God, and conversed with Solomon on religious matters. But, as we have already observed at ch. V. 21, an acknowledgment of Jehovah as the God of Israel was reconcilable with polytheism. And the fact that nothing is said about her offering sacrifice in the temple, shows that the conversion of the queen is not to be thought of here. — Ver. 10. She thereupon presented to Solomon a hundred and twenty talents of gold (more than three million thalers [nearly half a million sterling — Te.]), and a very large quantity of spices and precious stones. The D''o|*3 probably included the genuine balsam of Arabia, even if D'^3 was not the specific name of the genuine balsam. " There never more came so much of such spices to Jerusalem." Instead of 2i7 liy . . . Nn N? we find in the Chronicles, ver. 9, simply n^n N/, " there was nothing like this balsam," which conveys the same meaning though expressed more indefinitely, since i^'^^'] ^^^P points back to the preceding words, " balsam (spices) in great quantity." ^ — Vers. 11, 12. The allusion to these costly presents leads the historian to introduce the remark here, that the Ophir fleet also brought, in addition to gold, a large quantity of Algummim wood (see at ch. ix. 28) and precious stones. Of this wood Solomon had IJ'P'? or ni?pp made for the temple and palace. ^^9'?, from ^Vp, signifies a support, and npDa may be a later form for ^^, a flight of steps or a staircase, so that Ave should have to think of steps with bannisters. This explanation is at any rate a safer one than that of " divans " (Thenius), which would have been quite out of place in the temple, or " narrow pannelled stripes on the floor" (Bertheau), which cannot in the smallest degree be de- duced from 'iVpo, or " support = moveables, viz. tables, benches, footstools, boxes, and drawers " (Böttcher), which neither har- monizes with the temple, where there was no such furniture, nor with the ni?pö of the Chronicles. " And guitars and harps for the singers," probably for the temple singers. 1133 and ^3?. are string instruments ; the former resembling our guitar ^ It was this which gave rise to the legend in Josephus {Ant. viii. 6, 6), that it was through this queen that the root of the true balsam (Opobalsamftm), which was afterwards cultivated in gardens at Jericho and Engedi, was first of all brought to Palestine (of. Movers, Phönizier, ii. 3, p. 226 sqq.). CHAP. X. 14-22. 161 rather than the harp, the strings being carried over the sound- ing-board lipon a bridge, the latter being of a pitcher shape with- out any sounding bridge, as in the case of the harps. — Ver. 13. Solomon gave the queen of Saba all that she wished and asked for, beside what he gave her " according to the hand," i.e. the might, of the king ; that is to say, in addition to the presents answering to his might and his wealth, which he was obliged to give as a king, according to the Oriental custom. In the Chro- nicles (ver. 12) we find "beside that which she had brought (HN'-an) to the king," which is an abbreviated expression for " be- side that which he gave her in return for what she had brought to him," or beside the return presents corresponding to her gifts to him, as it has been already correctly paraphrased by the Targum. Vers. 14-22. Solomon's Wealth and the Use he made of IT (cf. 2 Chron.ix. 13-21). — Ver. 14. The gold which Solomon received in one year amounted to 666 talents, — more than seventeen million thalers (two million and a half sterling — Te.). 666 is evidently a round number founded upon an approxima- tive valuation, nnx nj^a is rendered in the Vulg. ^cr annos sin- gulos ; but this is hardly correct, as the Ophir fleet, the produce of which is at any rate included, did not arrive every year, but once in three years. Thenius is wrong in supposing that this revenue merely applies to the direct taxes levied upon the Israelites. It includes all the branches of Solomon's revenue, whether derived from his commerce by sea and land (cf vers. 28, 29) or from the royal domains (1 Chron. xxvii. 26—31), or received in the form of presents from foreign princes, who either visited him like the queen of Saba or sent ambassadors to him (vers. 23, 24), excepting the duties and tribute from conquered kings, which are specially mentioned in ver. 15. 'nn ''ti'JXD nnb, beside what came in (T\^7Y? ^3) from the travelling traders and the commerce of the merchants, and from all the kings, etc. '^3X D''"irin (a combination resembling our merchantmen; cf Ewald, § 287, c, p. 721) are probably the tradesmen or smaller dealers who travelled about in the country, and D''^3h the wholesale dealers. This explanation of ti'^'m cannot be rendered doubtful by the objection that "iw only occurs elsewhere in connection with the wandering about of spies ; for hy] signified originally to go about, spy out, or retail scandal, and after that to trade, and go about as a tradesman, nnyn ""a^o are not Idngs of the auxiliary L 162 THE FIBST BOOK OF KINGS. and allied nations (Cliald., Ges.), but kings of the mixed popula- tion, and according to Jer. xxv. 24, more especially of the popu- lation of Arabia Deserta ("'3'^'?? ^''^r''^"'!?), which bordered upon Palestine ; for 3"}^ is a mixed crowd of all kinds of men, Avho either attach themselves to a nation (Ex, xii. 38), or live in the midst of it as foreigners (JSTeh. xiii. 3), hence a number of mer- cenaries (Jer. 1. 37). In 2 Chron. ix. 14, y^^^ is therefore cor- rectly explained by the term y]V_, which does not mean the whole of Arabia, but " only a tract of country not very extensive on the east and south of Palestine " (Gesenius), as these tribes were tributary to Solomon. KT'.^v' ^'^^^, the governors of the land, are probably the of&cers named in ch. iv. 7-19. As they col- lected the duties in the form of natural productions and delivered them in that form, so also did the tradesmen and merchants pay their duties, and the subjugated pastoral tribes of Arabia their tribute, in natura. This explains in a very simple manner why these revenues are separated from the revenue of Solomon which came in the form of money, nna is a foreign word, which first found its way into the Hebrew language after the times of the Assyrians, and sprang from the Sanscrit paksha, a companion or friend, which took the form oi paklcha in Prakrit, and probably of pctkha in the early Persian {viel. Benfey and Stern, die, Monats- namen, p. 195). — Vers. 16, 17. Solomon had 500 ornamental shields made, 200 larger ones (Q''3V, scuta, targets), and 300 smaller (2''?^'?, dijijei). These shields, like all the shields of the ancients, were made of wood or basket-work, and covered with gold plate instead of leather (see my tibi. Archäol. ii. pp. 296 sqq.). tiin*^ anr does not TRean aurum ßigulatum, i.e. gold mixed with metal of a different kind, but, as Kimchi has shown, auricm didudum, beaten gold, from tDi]*^, to stretch ; since Solomon would certainly use pure gold for these ornamental shields. " Six hun- dred shekels of gold he spread upon one target," that is to say, he used for gilding one target. Six hundred shekels would weigh about 1 7^ lbs., so that the value of the gold upon a target would be more than 5000 thalers (£750), supposing that the Mosaic shekel is meant. But this is rendered doubtful by the fact that the gold upon the small shields is estimated at three minse. If, for example, the three mince are equal to three hundred shekels, according to 2 Chron. ix. 16, as is generally assumed, a hundred shekel?, are reckoned as one mina ; and as the mina only contained fifty IMosaic shekels, according to Ezek. CHAP. X. 14-22. 163 xlv. 12, the reference must be to shekels after the king's weight (2 Sam. xiv. 26), which were only half the sacred shekel (see my libl. Archäol. ü. p. 135). Consequently the gold plate upon one target was not quite 9 lbs., and that upon a shield not quite 4^ lbs. These shields were intended for the body-guard to carry on state occasions (ch, xiv. 2 7, 2 8 ; 2 Chron. xii. 1 0), and were kept in the house of the forest of Lebanon (ch. vii. 2). — Vers. 18-20. Solomon had a great throne of ivory made, and had it overlaid with fine gold. I^"^B3 is not a throne made of ivory, but one merely ornamented with ivory ; and we are to imagine the gilding as effected by laying the gold simply upon the wood, and inserting the ivory within the gold plate. TS^O, a Iwplial participle of HQ; aurum depuratum, hence = "^inta in 2 Chron. ix. 1 7. The throne had six steps, and a " rounded head on the hinder part thereof," i.e. a back which was arched above or rounded off,^ and rilj, arms, i.e. arms on both sides of the Beat (n.HB'n Dipo)^ and two lions standing by the side of the arms. Beside this there were twelve lions upon the six steps, namely two upon each step, one on this side and one on that. Instead of Q''''."i5< (ver. 20) we find nvnx in ver. 19, just as we do in both verses of the Chronicles, not because the reference is to artificial, inanimate figures and not to natural lions, as Thenius supposes, but because the plural ending Q""? is an unusual one with this word ; and even where natural lions are spoken of, we always find ni''"]^ in other passages (cf Judg. xiv. 5; 2 Sam. i. 23 ; 2 Kings xvii. 25 ; Song of Sol. iv. 8, etc.). The lions were symbols of the ruler's authority ; and the twelve lions upon the steps may possibly have pointed to the rule over the twelve tribes of Israel, which was concentrated in the throne; not " watchers of the throne," as Thenius thinks. This throne was so splendid a work, that the historian observes that nothing of the kind had ever been made for any other kingdom. Upon the ^ Instead of VinXD nss^ hS^^ C'j^ll we have in tlie Clironicles tJ'aai DTnXD ND3^ nn-n, "and a footstool in gold fastened to the throne " (the plural D^tnXD refers to the footstool and the steps). Now, however easily Ü"'Tnt<0 may have been written by mistake for V"inX?D, DDT C'JD cannot have grown out of ^Jljy t*'"^") by any such mistake. The. quid-pro-quo of the LXX. for ^ijy ti'5^"l) ■^porofixl f/Ja-^oiv, in which pijy is certainly confounded with pjy, does not warrant the conjecture of Thenius, that the Chronicler found 7jy in his original and substituted ti'33 (lamb), whereupon b*33 (lamb) was changed by another hand into {i^as, footstep, and t»>xi was dropped altogether. 164 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. early Assyrian monuments we do indeed find high seats depicted, which are very artistically worked, and provided with backs and arms, and some with the arms supported by figures of animals (see Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii. p. 301), but none resembling Solomon's throne. It is not till a later age that the more splendid thrones appear {vid. Kosenmliller, Ä. u. N. 3Iorgen- land, iii. pp. 176 sqq.). — Vers. 21, 22. The drinking vessels of Solomon also were all of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon of costly gold ("ii3D : see at ch. vi. 20). Silver was counted as nothing, because the Tarshish fleet arrived once in three years, bringing gold, silver, etc. (see at ch. ix. 28). In vers. 23-29 everything that had to be stated concerning the wealth, wisdom, and revenue of Solomon is summed up as a conclusion (cf. 2 Chron. ix. 22-28 and i. 14-17).— Vers. 23 and 24 point back to ch. v. 9-14. ^^V).'- Solomon became greater, not was greater, on account of the Vav consec. n^V* , > all the world, corresponds to DVsjjn-pii in ch. v. 1 4. The foreign- ers out of all lands, who came on account of his wisdom, brought Solomon presents : gold and silver vessels, clothes (HiöP^, court dresses, which are still customary presents in the East), ?^?., armour, spices, horses and mules. — Ver. 26 is simply a repeti- tion of ch. V. 6 (compare also ch. ix. 19) ; and ver. 27 is merely a further extension of ver. 21. The words of ver. 27, " Solo- mon made silver like stones in Jerusalem, and cedars like the sycamores in the lowland for abundance," are a hyperbolical description of his collection of enormous quantities of precious metals and costly wood. ^'^^\^P, sycomori, mulberry fig-trees, are very rare in Palestine in its present desolate state (see Eob. Pal. iii. 27), and are only met in any abundance in Egypt; but in ancient times they abounded in the lowlands of Palestine to such an extent, that they were used as common building wood {vid. Isa. ix. 9, on which Theodoret observes, tovtwv (avKa/xlvcov) 7] UaXata-TLvr) ireTrX'^pcoTat,). According to 1 Chron. xxvii. 28, the sycamore forests in the lowland of Judah were royal do- mains.—Vers. 28, 29 (cf. 2 Chron. i. 16, 17). "And (as for) the going out of horses from Egypt for Solomon, a company of king's merchants fetched (horses) for a definite price." This is the only possible explanation of the verse according to the Masoretic punctuation ; but to obtain it, the first nij^p must be connected with ''■?.nb in opposition to the accents, and the second must be pointed nij^p. This is the rendering adopted by Ge- CHAP. X. 23-29. senilis in his Thesaurus and Lexicon (eel. Dietr. s. v. '"'^.p'?). meaning company or troop may certainly be justified from (jt. i. 10, Ex. vii. 19, and Lev. xi. 36, where the word signifies an accumulation of water. Still there is something very strange not only in the application of the word both to a company of traders and also to a troop of horses, but also in the omission of n''DiD (horses) after the second nipD. Hence the rendering of the LXX. and Vulgate deserves attention, and may possibly be the one to be preferred (as Michaelis, Bertheau on Chron., and Movers assume). The translators of these versions have taken mpö as the name of a place, e| 'EKove, or rather e/c Kovi, de Coa} According to this, the rendering would be : " And as for the going out of horses from Egypt and Koa (or Kawe) for Solomon, the king's traders fetched them from Koa (Kawe) for a fixed price." It is true that the situation of Koa cannot be more precisely defined ; but there seems to be very little doubt that it was a place for the collection of customs upon the frontier of Egypt. — Ver. 29. " And there came up and went out a chariot from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty shekels ; and so (in the same manner as for Solomon) they led them out for all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Aram through their hand." "^^aio, like ^^1 in 2 Sam. viii. 4, x. 18, and Ezek. xxxix. 20, denotes a chariot with the team of horses belonging to it, possibly three horses (see at ch. v. 6), not quadriga (Clericus and others), or two draught horses and two as a reserve (Thenius). For the infer- ence, that if a horse cost 150 shekels, a team of four would be obtained for 600, is not quite a certain one, since the chariot itself would certainly not be given in. A hundred and fifty shekels are a little more than 130 thalers (£19, 10s. — Tr.), and 600 would be 525 thalers (£78, 15s.). These amounts are sufficient to show how untenable the opinion of Movers is, that the sums mentioned are not the prices paid for horses and chariots, but the payment made for their exit, or the customs duty. And his other opinion is equally erroneous, namely that the chariots and horses were state carriages and horses of luxury intended for the king. — The merchants, are called the king's 1 That Kofi or Kui is the earliest reading of the LXX., aud not the Ik &ex,ovi of the Cod. Vat. and Alex., is very evident from the statement which we find in the Onomast. of Eusebius {ed. Larsow et Parth. p. 260), Kuh, -TrMalov A/yii^TToy ; for which Jerome has Coa^ qux estjuxta ^Er/yptum, after the Vulgate. THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. .s, not because a portion of their profits went into the royal .dsury as the tax upon trade (Bertheau), nor as the brokers who bought for the king (Thenius), but because they carried on their trade for the king's account. D^l^^ cannot be adduced as evidence to the contrary ; for linguists require no proof that this cannot mean " auf ihre Hand" as Thenius assumes. Böttcher's explanation is the right one, namely, " through their hand," in- asmuch as they brought the horses and chariots themselves even to those kings who lived at a greater distance, without employing intermediate agents. The kings of the C^n, the Hittites in the wider sense ( = Canaanites, as in Josh. i. 4, 2 Kings vii. 6, Ezek. xvi. 3), and of Aram, were in x^art Solomon's vassals, since his rule extended over all the Canaanites with the exception of the Phoenicians, and over several kingdoms of Aram. CHAP. XI. SOLOMON'S POLYGAMY AND IDOLATRY. HIS OPPONENTS, AND HIS DEATH. The idolatry into which Solomon fell in his old age appears so strange in a king so wise and God-fearing as Solomon showed himself to be at the dedication of the temple, that many have been quite unable to reconcile the two, and have endeavoured to show either that Solomon's worship of idols was psycholo- gically impossible, or that the knowledge of God and the piety attributed to him are unhistoricaL But great wisdom and a refined knowledge of God are not a defence against the folly of idolatry, since this has its roots in the heart, and springs from sensual desires and the lust of the flesh. The cause_assjgned -^ in the biblical account for Solomon's falling away from the" Lord, is that he loved many strange, i.e. foreign or heathen, wives, who turned his heart from Jehovah to their own gods in his old age. Consequently the falling away did not take place suddenly, but gradually, as Solomon got old, and was not a complete renunciation of the worship of Jehovah, to whom he offered solemn sacrifices three times a year, and that certainly to the day of his death (ch. ix. 25), but consisted simply in the fact that his heart was no longer thoroughly devoted to the Lord (ch. xi. 4), and that he inclined towards the idols of his foreign wives and built them altars (vers. 5-8) ; that is to «ay, it consisted merely in a syncretic mixture of Jehovah-worship and idolatry, by which the worship which should be paid solely CHAP. XI. ^x 167 and exclusively to the true God was not only injured, but was even turned into idolatry itself, Jehovah the only true God being placed on a level with the worthless gods of the heathen. — Love to foreign wives no doubt presupposed an inclination to foreign customs ; it was not, however, idolatry in itself, but was still reconcilable with that sincere worship of Jehovah which is attributed to Solomon in the earlier years of his reign. At the same time it was a rock on which living faith and true' adherence to the Lord might at last suffer shipwreck. And wei may even infer from the repeated warnings of God (ch. iii. 14^ vi. 12, ix. 4), that from the earliest years of his reign Solomon was in danger of falling into idolatry. This danger did, indeed, spring in his case from his inclination to foreign customs ; but this inclination was again influenced by many of the circum- stances of his reign, which we must regard as contributing more remotely to his eventual fall. And among the first of these we must place the splendour and glory of his reign. Through long and severe conflicts David had succeeded in conquering all the enemies of Israel, and had not only helped his people to peace and prosperity, but had also raised the kingdom to great power and glory. And Solomon inherited these fruits of his father's reign. Under the blessings of peace he was not only able to carry out the work of building a splendid temple, which his father had urged upon him, but was also able, by a wise use of the sources already existing and by opening new ones, still farther to increase the treasures which he had collected, and thereby to exalt the splendour of his kingdom. The treaty with Hiram of Tyre, which enabled him to execute the intended state buildings in Jerusalem, was followed by alliances for the establishment of a widespread commerce both by sea and land, through which ever increasing treasures of gold and silver, and other costly goods, were brought to the king. As this accumu- lation of riches helped to nourish his inclination to a love of show, and created a kind of luxury which was hardly reconcil- able with the simplicity of manners and the piety of a servant of God, so the foreign trade led to a toleration of heathen customs and religious views which could not fail to detract from the reverence paid to Jehovah, however little the trade with foreigners might be in itself at variance with the nature of the Old Testament kingdom of God. And ao-ain, even the great wisdom of kina; Solomon might also become a rock en- 168 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. dangering his life of faith, not so much in the manner suggested by J. J. Hess (Gcsch. Dav. u. Sal. ii. p. 413), namely, that an excessive thirst for inquiry might easily seduce him from the open and clearer regions of the kingdom of truth into the darker ones of the kingdom of lies, i.e. of magic, and so lead him to the paths of superstition ; as because the widespread fame of his wisdom brought distinguished and wise men from distant lands to Jerusalem and into alliance Avith the king, and their homage flattered the vanity of the human heart, and led to a greater and greater toleration of heathen ways. But these things are none of them blamed in the Scriptures, because they did not of necessity lead to idolatry, but might simply give an indirect impulse to it, by lessening the wall of partition between the worship of the true God and that of heathen deities, and making apostasy a possible thing. The Lord Himself had pro- mised and had given Solomon wisdom, riches, and glory above all other kings for the glorification of his Idngdom; and these gifts of God merely contributed to estrange his heart from the true God for the simple reason, that Solomon forgot the command- ments of the Lord and suffered himself to be besotted by the lusts of the flesh, not only so as to love many foreign wives, but so as also to take to himself wives from the nations with which Israel was not to enter into any close relationship whatever. Vers. 1-13. Solomon's Love of many "Wives and Idolatry. — Vers. 1, 2. " Solomon loved many foreign wives, and that along with the daughter of Pharaoh." '3 l^?'nxi, standing as it does between 'i riin^j n''K'J and ni'nxio, cannot mean " and espe- cially the daughter of P.," as Thenius follows the earlier com- mentators in supposing, but must mean, as in ver. 2 5, " and that with, or along with," i.e. actually beside the daughter of Pharaoh. She is thereby distinguished from the foreign wives who turned away Solomon's heart from the Lord, so that the blame pronounced upon those marriages does not apply to his marriage to the Egyptian princess (see at ch. iii. 1). AU that is blamed is that, in opposition to the command in Deut. xvii, 17, Solomon loved (1) 7na7nj foreign wives, and (2) Moabitish, Ammonitish, and other wives, of the nations with whom the Israelites were not to intermarry. All that the law expressly prohibited was marriage with Canaanitish women (Deut. vii. 1-3; Ex. xxxiv. 1 6) ; consequently the words " of the nations," etc., are CHAP. XI. 1-13. 169 not to be taken as referring merely to tlie Sidonian and Hittite women (J. D. Mich.) ; but this prohibition is extended here to all the tribes enumerated in ver. 2, just as in Ezra ix. 2 sqq., X. 3, Neb. xiii. 23 ; not from a rigour surpassing the law, but in accordance with the spirit of the law, namely, because the reason appended to the law, 7ic in idololatriam a supcrstiticsis mulicribus jpellicerentur (Clericus), applied to all these nations. The Moabites and Ammonites, moreover, were not to be received into the congregation at all, not even to the tenth generation, and of the Edomites only the children in the third generation were to be received (Deut. xxiii. 4, 8, 9). There was all the less reason, therefore, for permitting marriages with them, that is to say, so long as they retained their nationality or their heathen ways. The words 03? • • • ''^'^C"'^*'' are connected in form with Josh, xxiii. 12, but, like the latter, they really rest upon Ex. xxxiv. 16 and Deut. vii. 1—3. In the last clause D^i| is used with peculiar emphasis : Solomon clave to these nations, of which God had said such things, to love, i.e. to enter into the relation of love or into the marriage relation, with them. P3"i is used of the attachment of a man to his wife (Gen. ii. 4) and also to Jehovah (Deut. iv. 4, x. 20, etc.). — Vers. 3-8 carry out still further what has been already stated. In ver. 3 the taking of many wives is first explained. He had seven hundred rii"ib> D'p'J, women of the first rank, who were exalted into princesses, and three hundred concubines. These are in any case round numbers, that is to say, numbers which simply approximate to the reality, and are not to be understood as affirming that Solomon had all these wives and concubines at the same time, but as including all the women who were received into his harem during the whole of his reign, whereas the sixty queens and eighty concubines mentioned in Song of Sol. vi. 8 are to be understood as having been present in the court at one time. Even in this respect Solomon sought to equal the rulers of other nations, if not to surpass them.-^ — These women " inclined his heart," i.e. determined the inclina- ^ Nevertheless these numbers, especially that of the wives who were raised to the rank of princesses, appear sufficiently large to suggest the possibility of an error in the numeral letters, although Oriental rulers carried this custom to a very great length, as for example Darius Codomannus, of whom it is re- lated that he took with him 360 pellices on his expedition against Alexander (see Curtius, iii. 3, 24 ; Athen. Deipnos. iii. 1). 170 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. tion of his heart. Ver. 4. In the time of old ao;e, when the flesh gained the supremacy over the spirit, they turned his heart to other gods, so that it was no longer wholly with Jehovah, his God. Ci?^, integer, i.e. entirely devoted to the Lord (c£ ch. viii. 61), like the heart of David his father, who had indeed grievously sinned, but had not fallen into idolatry. — Vers. 5-8. He walked after the Ashtaroth, etc. According to ver. 7, the idolatry here condemned consisted in the fact that he built altars to the deities of all his foreign wives, upon which they offered incense and sacrifice to their idols. It is not stated that he himself also offered sacrifice to these idols. But even the building of altars for idols was a participation in idolatry which was irreconcilable with true fidelity to the Lord. JT?.J^t^y, Astarte, was the chief female deity of all the Canaanitish tribes ; her worship was also transplanted from Tyre to Carthage, where it flourished greatly. She was a moon- goddess, whom the Greeks and Eomans called sometimes Aphro- dite, sometimes Urania, Xekrjvair], Ccelestis, and Juno (see the Comm. on Judg. ii. 13). "^^pD, which is called "^?b (without the article) in ver. 7, and ö3pp in Jer. xlix. 1, 3, and Amos i. 15, the abomination of the Ammonites, must not be confounded with the Molech (^pj^n, always with the article) of the early Canaanites, to whom children were offered in sacrifice in the valley of Benhinnom from the time of Ahaz onwards (see the Comm. on Lev. xviii. 21), since they had both of them their separate places of worship in Jerusalem (cf 2 Kings xxiii. 10 and 13), and nothing is ever said about the offering of children in sacrifice to Milcom ; although the want of informa- tion prevents us from determining the precise distinction be- tween the two. Milcom was at any rate related to the Chemosh of the Moabites mentioned in ver. 7 ; for Chemosh is also de- scribed as a god of the Ammonites in Judg. xi. 24, whereas everywhere else he is called the god of the Moabites (Num. xxi. 29 ; Amos i. 15, etc.). Chemosh was a sun-god, who was wor- shipped as king of his people and as a god of war, and as such is depicted upon coins with a sword, lance, and shield in his hands, and with two torches by his side (see at Num. xxi. 29). The enumeration of the different idols is incomplete ; Chemosh being omitted in ver. 5, and Astarte, to whom Solomon also built an altar in Jerusalem, according to 2 Kings xxiii. 13, in ver. 7. Still this incompleteness does not warrant our filling CHAP. XI. 1-13. 171 up tlie supposed gaps by emendations of the text. '121 yin bv% as in Judg. ii. 11, iii. 7, etc. "''' ''ir]^? X.?P, a pregnant expres- sion for '^^'ns r\^9? N^o, as in Num. xiv. 24, xxxii. 11, 12, etc. — These places of sacrifice ('""??' ^^^ ^^ *^-^- ^i- 2) Solomon built upon the mountain in front, i.e. to the east, of Jerusalem, and, according to the more precise account in 2 Kings xxiii. 13, to the right, that is to say, on the southern side, of the Mount of Corruption, — in other words, upon the southern peak of the Mount of Olives ; and consequently this peak has been called in church tradition from the time of Brocardus onwards, either 3fons Offensionis, after the Vulgate rendering of rT'nt^^Gjn "in in 2 Kings xxiii. 13, or Mons Scandali, Mount of Offence {vid. Eob. Pal. i. 565 and 566).— Ver. 8. " So did he for all his foreign wives," viz. built altars for their gods ; for instance, in addition to those already named, he also built an altar for Astarte. These three altars, which are only mentioned in the complete account in 2 Kings xxiii. 13, were suf&cient for all the deities of the foreign wives. For the Hittites and Edomites do not appear to have had any deities of their own that were pecuKar to themselves. The Hittites no doubt worshipped Astarte in common with the Sidonians, and the Edomites pro- bably worshipped Milcom. In the whole of the Old Testament the only place in which gods of the Edomites are mentioned is 2 Chron. xxv. 20, and there no names are given. Of course we must except Pharaoh's daughter, according to ver. 1, and the remarks already made in connection with that verse ; for she brought no idolatrous worship to Jerusalem, and consequently even in later times we do not find the slightest trace of Egyptian idolatry in Jerusalem and Judah.-^ Burning incense (rii"!''t:i?0) is mentioned before sacrificing (nin3Tp)^ because vegetable offerings took precedence of animal sacrifices in the nature-worship of Hither Asia {vid. Bahr, Symbolik, ii. pp. 237 sqq.). — ^Vers. 9 sqq. Through this apostasy from the Lord his God, who had appeared ^ From the fact that these places of sacrifice still existed even in the time of Josiah, notwithstanding the reforms of Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, and Heze- kiah, which rooted out all public idolatry, at least in Jerusalem, Movers infers (PMniz. ii. 3, p. 207), and that not without reason, that there was an essential difference between these sacred places and the other seats of Israelitish idolatry which were exterminated, namely, that in their national character they were also the places of Avorship for the foreigners settled in and near Jerusalem, e.g. the Sidonian, Ammonitish, and Moabitish merchants, which were under the protection of treaties, since this is the only ground on which 172 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. to him twice (ch. iii. 5 sqq. and ix. 2 sqq.) an»? had warned liim against idolatry (nw is a continuation of the participle nN"ii)n), Solomon drew down upon himself the anger of Jehovah. The emphasis lies upon the fact that God had appeared to him Himself for the purpose of warning him, and had not merely caused him to he warned by prophets, as Theodoret has ex- plained. In consequence of this, the following announcement is made to him, no doubt through the medium of a prophet, pos- sibly Ahijah (ver. 29) : " Because this has come into thy mind, and thou hast not kept my covenant, ... I will tear the kingdom from thee and give it to thy servant ; nevertheless I will not do it in thy lifetime for thy father David's sake : howbeit I will not tear away the whole kingdom ; one tribe I will give to thy son." In this double limitation of the threatened forfeiture of the king- dom there is clearly manifested the goodness of God (BeUvva-o T7]v afierpov dyadoTTjTa — Theodoret) ; not, however, with reference to Solomon, who had forfeited the divine mercy through his idolatry, but with regard to David and the selection of Jerusalem: that is to say, not from any special preference for David and Jeru- salem, but in order that the promise made to David (2 Sam. vii.), and the choice of Jerusalem as the place where His name should be revealed which was connected with that promise, might stand immoveably as an act of grace, which no sin of men could over- turn (vid. ver. 36). For *in>J tD3B? see the Comm. on vers. 31, 32. Vers. 14-40. Solomon's Opponents. — Although the punish- ment with which Solomon was threatened for his apostasy was not to be inflicted tül after his death, the Lord raised up several adversaries even during his lifetime, who endangered the peace of his kingdom, and were to serve as constant re- minders that he owed his throne and liis peaceable rule over the whole of the kingdom inherited from his father solely to the mercy, the fidelity, and the long-suffering of God. — The rising up of Hadad and Eezon took place even before the com- ■we can satisfactorily explain their undisturbed continuance at Jerusalem. But this would not preclude their having been built by Solomon for the wor- ship of his foreign wives ; on the other hand, it is much easier to explain their being built in the front of Jerusalem, and opposite to the temple of Jehovah, if from the very first regard was had to the foreigners who visited Jerusalem. The objection offered by Thenius to this view, which Bcrtheau had already adopted (zur Gesch. der Isr. p. 323), has been shown by Böttcher {N. exeg. jElirenl. ii, p. 95) to be utterly untenable. CHAP. XI. 14-22. 173 mencement of Solomon's idolatry, but it is brought by nin^ ni5>i (ver. 14) into logical connection with the punishment with which he is threatened in consequence of that idolatry, because it was not tiU a later period that it produced any perceptible effect upon his government, yet it ought from the very first to have preserved him from self-security. Vers. 14-22. The first adversary was Hadad the Edomite, a man of royal birth. The name l^n 0'^^-. i^^ ver. IV, accord- ing to an interchange of n and N which is by no means rare) was also borne by a prse-Mosaic king of Edom (Gen. xxxvi. 35), from which we may see that it was not an uncommon name in the royal family of the Edomites. But the conjecture of Ewald and Thenius, that our Hadad was a grandson of Hadar, the last of the kings mentioned there, is quite a groundless one, since it rests upon the false assumption that Hadar (called Hadad in the Chronicles by mistake) reigned in the time of David (see the Comm. on Gen. xxxvi. 31 sqq.). Kin before Cini<3 stands in the place of the relative 1^'^: " of royal seed he = who was of the royal seed in Edom" (c£ Ewald, § 332, a). — Vers. 15 sqq. When David had to do with the Edomites, . . . Hadad fled, nx ^^"^ is analogous to oy n\n, to have to do with any one, though in a hostile sense, as in the phrase to go to war with (riK) a person, whereas DV ^^'^ generally means to be upon the side of any one. The correctness of the reading rirnn is confirmed by all the ancient versions, which have simply paraphrased the meaning in different ways. Eor Böttcher has already shown that the LXX. did not read riiSD?, as Thenius supposes. The words from Tibv^ to the end of ver. 16 form explanatory circum- stantial clauses. On the circumstance itself, compare 2 Sam. viii. 13, 14, with the explanation given there. "The slain," whom Joab went to bury, were probably not the Israelites who had fallen, in the battle in the Salt valley (2 Sam. viii. 13), but those who had been slain on the invasion of the land by the Edomites, and still remained unburied. After their burial Joab defeated the Edomites in the valley of Salt, and remained six months in Edom till he had cut off every male. " All Israel " is the whole of the Israelitish army. " Every male " is of course only the men capable of bearing arms, who fell into the hands of the Israelites ; for " Hadad and others fled, and the" whole of the Idumsean race was not extinct " (Clericus). Then Hadad fled, while yet a little boy, with some of his father's 174 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. Edomitisli servants, to go to Egypt, going first of all to Midian and thence to Paran. The country of Midian cannot be more precisely defined, inasmuch as we meet with Midianites some- times in the peninsula of Sinai on the eastern side of the Elanitic Gulf, where Edrisi and Abulfeda mention a city of Madian (see at Ex. ii. 15), and sometimes on the east of the Moabitish territory (see at Num. xxii. 4 and Judg. vi. 1). Here, at any rate, we must think of the neighbourhood of the Elanitic Gulf, though not necessarily of the city of Madian, five days' journey to the south of Aela ; and probably of the country to which Moses fled from Egypt. Paran is the desert of that name between the mountains of Sinai and the south of Canaan (see at ISTum. x. 12), through which the Haj route from Egypt by Elath to Mecca still runs. Hadad would be obliged to take the road by Elath in order to go to Egyx3t, even if he had taken refage with the Midianites on the east of Moab and Edom. — ^Vers. 18 sqq. Erom Paran they took men with them as guides through the desert. Thus Hadad came to Eg3^t, where Pharaoh received him hospitably, and gave them a house and maintenance (^n^), and also assigned him land (P.") **^ cultivate for the support of the fugitives who had come with him, and eventually, as he found great favour in his eyes, gave him for a wife the sister of his own wife, queen Taclijßcncs, who bare him a son, Genubath. This son was weaned by Tachpenes in the royal palace, and then brought up among (with) the children of Pharaoh, the royal princes. According to Eosellini and Wilkinson (Ges. Thes. p. 1500), Tachpenes was also the name of a female deity of Egypt. The wife of Pharaoh is called 'T[''??'^, i.e. the mistress among the king's wives, as being the principal consort. In the case of the kings of Judah this title is given to the king's mother, probably as the president in the harem, whose place was taken by the reigning queen after her death. The weaning, probably a family festival as among the Hebrews (Gen. xxi. 8) and other ancient nations (vid. Dougtsei Analcda ss. i. 2 2 sq.), was carried out by the queen in the palace, because the boy was to be thereby adopted among the royal children, to be brought up with them. — ^Vers. 21, 22. When Hadad heard in Egypt of ,the death of David and Joab, he asked permission of Pharaoh to return to his own country. Pharaoh replied, "What is there lacking to thee with me ?" This answer was a pure expression CHAP. XI. 23-25. 175 of love and attachment to Hadad, and involved the request that he would remain. But Hadad answered, " No, but let me go." We are not told that Pharaoh then let him go, but this must be supplied ; just as in Num. x, 32 we are not told what Hobab eventually did in consequence of Moses' request, but it has to be supplied from the context. The return of Hadad to his native land is clearly to be inferred from the fact that, according to vers. 14 and 25, he rose up as an adversary of Solomon.^ Vers. 23-25. A second adversary of Solomon was Rczon, the son of Eliadah (for the name see at ch. xv. 18), who had fled from liis lord Hadadezer, king of Zobah, and who became the captain of a warlike troop O^^?), when David smote them (ariis*), i.e. the troops of his lord (2 Sam. viii. 3, 4). Eezon pro- bably fled from his lord for some reason which is not assigned, ^ The LXX. have supplied what is missing e conjectura: xal dviarpiipeu " A'hsp (i.e. Hadad) dg t'^u yvjy xvrov' uvrvj ij x-ukicc tjv Izroimsu" A'^ip' x.x.\ Ißxpv- dvi^-fiaiy'lapa.'/i'h, xxl ißxai'Kivasv iu yy\ 'ESw^. Thenius proposes to alter the Hebrew text accordingly, and draws this conclusion, that " shortly after the accession of Solomon, Hadad, having returned from Egypt, wrested from the power of the Israelites the greatest part of Edom, probably the true mountain- land of Edom, so that certain places situated in the plain, particularly Ezion- geber, remained in the hands of the Israelites, and intercourse could be main- tained with that port through the Arabah, even though not quite without disturbance." This conclusion, which is described as " historical," is indeed at variance with 1 Kings xxii, 48, according to which Edom had no king even in the time of Jehoshaphat, but only a vicegerent, and also with 2 Kings viii. 20, according to Avhich it was not till the reign of Jehoshaphat's son Joram that Edom fell away from Judah. But this discrepancy Thenius sets aside by the remark at 1 Kings xxii. 48, that in Jehoshaphat's time the family of Hadad had probably died out, and Jehoshaphat prudently availed himself of the disputes which arose concerning the succession to enforce Judah's right of supremacy over Edom, and to appoint first a vicegerent and then a new king, though perhaps one not absolutely dependent upon him. But this conjecture as to the relation in Avliich Jehoshaphat stood to Edom is proved to be an imaginary fiction by the fact that, although the history does indeed mention a revolt of the Edomites from Judah (2 Chron. xx. ; see at 1 Kings xxii. 48), it not only says nothing whatever about the dying out of the royal family of Hadad or about disputes concerning the succession, but it does not even hint at them, — But Avith regard to the additions made to this passage by the LXX., to which even Ewald {Gesch. iii. p. 276) attri- butes historical worth, though without building upon them such confident historical combinations as Thenius, Ave may easily convince ourselves of their critical worthlessness, if we only pass our eye over the whole section (vers. 14-25), instead of merely singling out those readings of the LXX. which support our preconceived opinions, and overlooking all the rest, after the thoroughly unscientific mode of criticism adopted by a Thenius or Böttcher. 176 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. when the latter was engaged in war with David, before his com- plete overthrow, and collected together a company from the fugitives, with which he afterwards marched to Damascus, and having taken possession of that city, made himself king over it. This probably did not take place till towards the close of David's reign, or even after his death, though it was at the very beginning of Solomon's reign ; for " he became an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon (i.e. during the whole of his reign), and that with (beside) the mischief which Hadad did, and he abhorred Israel (i.e. became disgusted with the Israelitish rule), and became king over Aram." T^H "i*^^ is an abbreviated expression, to which nb'y may easily be supplied, as it has been by the LXX. (vid. Ewald, § 292, h, Anm). It is impossible to gather from these few words in what the mischief done by Hadad to Solomon con- For example, the LXX. have connected together the two accoimts respecting the adversaries Hadad and Eezon who rose up against Solomon (ver. 14 and ver. 23), which are separated in the Hebrew text, and have interpolated what is stated concerning Eezon in vers. 23 and 24 after irp'lXil in ver. 14, and consequently have been obliged to alter 'lil \d^ '>r\'^\ in ver. 25 into xai yifjuy 2«T«i/, because they had previously cited Hadad and Eezon as adver- saries, whereas in the Hebrew text these words apply to Eezon alone. But the rest of ver. 25, namely the words from nyinTlXI onwards, they have not given till the close of ver. 22 (LXX.) ; and in order to connect this with what precedes, they have interpolated the words -Kal duiarpi-^vj "Ahp it; riv yviv avtov. The Alexandrians were induced to resort to this intertwining of the accoimts concerning Hadad and Eezon, which are kept separate in the Hebrew text, partly by the fact that Hadad and Eezon are introduced as adversaries of Solomon with the very same words (vers. 14 and 23), but more especially by the fact that in ver. 25 of the Hebrew text the injury done to Solomon by Hadad is merely referred to in a supplementary manner in con- nection with Eezon's enterprise, and indeed is inserted parenthetically within the account of the latter. The Alexandrian translators did not know what to make of this, because they did not understand nyiriTlXI and took DNI for nJ^Tj «-'^rn ■/] KUKici. With this reading ^'p>i which follows was necessarily understood as referring to Hadad ; and as Hadad was an Edomite, "il^jp^] DIN'Sy had to be altered into Ißxui'hivaiu h yfi "Eouy.. Consequently all the alterations of the LXX. in this section are simply the result of an arbitrary treatment of the Hebrew text, which they did not really understand, and consist of a collocation of all that is homogeneous, as every reader of this translation who is acquainted with the original text must see so clearly even at the very beginning of the chapter, where the number of Solomon's wives is taken from ver. 3 of the Hebrew text and interpolated into ver. 1, that, as Thenius observes, " the true state of the case can only be overlooked from ßupei-ficiality of observation or from preconceived opinion." CHAP. XI. 2G-40. 177 sisted.^ Eezon, on the other hand, really obtained possession of the rule over Damascus. Whether at the beginning or not till the end of Solomon's reign cannot be determined, since all that is clearly stated is that he was Solomon's adversary during the whole of his reign, and attempted to revolt from him from the very beginning. If, however, he made himself king of Damascus in the earliest years of his reign, he cannot have maintained his sway very long, since Solomon afterwards built or fortified Tadmor in the desert, which he could not have done if he had not been lord over Damascus, as the caravan road from Gilead to Tadmor (Palmyra) went past Damascus.^ Vers. 26—40. Attempted rebellion of Jcrohoam the Epiiraimitc. — Hadad and Eezon are simply described as adversaries (19^) of Solomon ; but in the case of Jeroboam it is stated that " he lifted up his hand against the king," i.e. he stirred up a tumult or rebellion. 3 1^ Dnn is synonymous with ? "IJ i<^>3 in 2 Sam. xviii. 28, XX. 21. It is not on account of this rebellion, which was quickly suppressed by Solomon, but on account of the later enterprise of Jeroboam, that his personal history is so minutely detailed. Jeroboam was an Ephraimite ('''?"If^, as in 1 Sam. i. 1, Judg. xii. 5) of Zereda, i.e. Zarthan, in the Jordan valley (see ch. vii. 46), son of a widow, and '^'^V., i.e. not a subject (Then.), but an officer, of Solomon. All that is related of his rebellion against the king is the circumstances under which it took place. "I'^'X nn'in nr^ this is how it stands with, as in Josh. v. 4. Solo- mon built Millo (ch. ix. 1 5), and closed the rent (the defile ? ) in the city of David. p3, ruptura, cannot be a rent or breach in the wall of the city of David, inasmuch as noin is not added, and since the fortification of the city by David (2 Sam. v. 9) no ^ What Josephus (^Anf. viii. 7, 6) relates concerning an alliance between Hadad and Rezon for the purpose of making hostile attacks upon Israel, is merely an inference drawn from the text of the LXX., and utterly worthless. 2 Compare Ewald, Gesch. iii. p. 276. It is true that more could be inferred from 2 Chron, viii. 3, if the conquest of the city of Hamath by Solomon were really recorded in that passage, as Bertheau supposes. But although py pjn, is used to signify the conquest of tribes or countries, we cannot infer the con- quest of the city of Hamath from the words, " Solomon went to Hamath Zobah n^'bv pIH'l and built Tadmor," etc., since all that n^'bx} pfn"" distinctly expresses is the establishment of his power over the land of Hamath Zobah. And this Solomon could have done by placing fortifications in that province, because he was afraid of rebellion, even if Hamath Zobah had .tiot actually fallen away from his power. M 178 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. hostile attack had ever been made upon Jerusalem ; but in all probability it denotes the ravine which separated Zion from Moriah and Ophel, the future Tyropoeon, through the closing of which the temple mountain was brought within the city wall, and the fortification of the city of David was completed (Thenius, Ewald, Gesch. iii. p. 330). Compare Tl^"^, a gap in the coast, a bay. On the occasion of this building, Jeroboam proved himself a ?1D "»i^^, i.e. a very able and energetic man ; so that when Solomon saw the young man, that he was doing work, i.e. urging it forward, he committed to him the oversight over all the heavy work of the house of Joseph. It must have been while occupying this post that he attempted a rebellion against Solomon. This is indicated by '1J1 "^y^J] nf in ver. 27. Accord- ing)- to ch. xii. 4, the reason for the rebellion is to be sought for in the appointment of the Ephraimites to heavy works. This awakened afresh the old antipathy of that tribe to Judah, and Jeroboam availed himself of this to instigate a rebellion. — Vers. 29 sqq. At that time the prophet Ahijah met him in the field and disclosed to him the word of the Lord, that he should be- come king over Israel. ^^''Ol! ^J^| : at that time, viz. the time when Jeroboam had become overseer over the heavy works, and not after he had abeady stirred up the rebellion. Eor the whole of the account in vers. 29-39 forms part of the explanation of •ri^s:! 1"' D"""):! which commences with ver. 27^, so that nyn ''Tpl ^""^^^ is closely connected with ink ^i;5a|;^ in ver. 28, and there is no such gap in the history as is supposed by Thenius, who builds upon this opinion most imtenable conjectures as to the intertwining of different sources. At that time, as Jeroboam was one day going out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah of Shilo (Seilun) met him by the way (JV!J]/^), with a new upper garment wrapped around him ; and when they were alone, he rent the new garment, that is to say, his own, not Jeroboam's, as Ewald {Gesch. iii. p. 388) erroneously supposes, into twelve pieces, and said to Jeroboam, " Take thee ten pieces, for Jehovah saith, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and give thee ten tribes ; and one tribe shall remain to him (Solomon) for David's sake," etc. The new ^'^^ was probably only a large four-cornered cloth, which was thrown over the shoulders like the* Heih of the Arabs, and enveloped the whole of the upper portion of the body (see my hihl. Ärchäol. ii. pp. 36, 37). By the tear- ing of the new garment into twelve pieces, of which Jeroboam CHAP. XL 26-40. 179 was to take ten for himself, the prophetic announcement was symbolized in a very emphatic manner. This symbolical action made the promise a completed fact. " As the garment was torn in pieces and lay before the eyes of Jeroboam, so had the division of the kingdom already taken place in the counsel of God " (0. V. Gerlach). There was something significant also in the cir- cumstance that it was a nau garment, which is stated twice, and indicates the newness, i.e. the still young and vigorous condition, of the kingdom (Thenius). In the word of God explaining the action it is striking that Jeroboam was to receive ten tribes, and the one tribe was to remain to Solomon (vers. 31, 32, 35, 36, as in ver. 13). The nation consisted of twelve tribes, and Ahijah had torn his garment into twelve pieces, of which Jeroboam was to take ten ; so that there were two remaining. It is evident at once from this, that the numbers are intended to be understood symbolically and not arithmetically. Ten as the number of completeness and totality is placed in contrast with one, to indicate that all Israel was to be torn away from the house of David, as is stated in ch. xii. 20, "they made Jeroboam king over all Israel," and only one single fragment was to be left to the house of Solomon out of divine compassion. This one tribe, however, is not Benjamin, the one tribe beside Judah, as Hupfeld (on Ps. Ixxx.), C. a Lap., Mich., and others suppose, but, according to the distinct state- ment in ch. xii. 20, ''the tribe of Judah only." Nevertheless Benjamin belonged to Judah; for, according to ch. xii. 21, Eehoboam gathered together the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin to fight against the house of Israel (which had fallen away), and to bring the kingdom again to himself. And so also in 2 Chron. xi. 3 and 23 Judah and Benjamin are reckoned as belonging to the kingdom of Ptehoboam. This dis- tinct prominence given to Benjamin by the side of Judah over- throws the explanation suggested by Seb. Schmidt and others, namely, that the description of the portion left to Eehoboam as one tribe is to be explained from the fact that Judah and Ben- jamin, on the border of which Jerusalem was situated, were regarded in a certain sense as one, and that the little Benjamin was hardly taken into consideration at all by the side of the great Judah. For if Ahijah had regarded Benjamin as one with Judah, he would not have torn his garment into twelve pieces, inasmuch as if Benjamin was to be merged in Judah, or was not 180 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. to be counted along with it as a distinct tribe, the whole nation could only be reckoned as eleven tribes. Moreover the twelve tribes did not so divide themselves, that Jeroboam really received ten tribes and Eehoboam only one or only two. In reality there were three tribes that fell to the kingdom of Judah, and only nine to the kingdom of Israel, Ephraim and Manasseh being reckoned as two tribes, since the tribe of Levi was not counted in the political classification. The kingdom of Judah included, beside the tribe of Judah, both the tribe of Benjamin and also the tribe of Simeon, the territory of which, according to Josh. xix. 1-9, was within the tribe-territory of Judah and completely surrounded by it, so that the Simeonites would have been obliged to emigrate and give up their tribe-land altogether, if they desired to attach themselves to the kingdom of Israel. But it cannot be inferred from 2 Chron. xv. 9 and xxxiv. 6 that an emigration of the whole tribe had taken place (see also at ch. xii. 17). On the other hand, whilst the northern border of the tribe of Benjamin, with the cities of Bethel, Eamah, and Jericho, fell to the kingdom of Jeroboam (ch. xii. 29, xv. 17, 21, xvi. 34), several of the cities of the tribe of Dan were included in the kingdom of Judah, namely, Ziklag, which Achish had presented to David, and also Zorea and Ajalon (2 Chron. xi. 10, xxviii. 18), in which Judah obtained compensation for the cities of Benjamin of which it had been deprived.^ Consequently there ^ On the other hand, the fact that in Ps. Ixxx. 2 Benjamm is placed between Ephraim and, Manasseh is no proof that it belonged to the kingdom of Israel ; nor can this be inferred from the fact that Benjamin, as the tribe to which Saul belonged, at the earlier split among the tribes took the side of those which were opposed to David, and that at a still later period a rebellion originated with Benjamin. For in Ps. Ixxx. 2 the exposition is disputed, and the jealousy of Benjamin towards Judah appears to have become extinct with the (lying out of the royal house of Saul. Again, the explanation suggested by Oehler (Hcrzog's Cyd.) of the repeated statement that the house of David was to receive only one tribe, namely, that tliere was not a single whole tribe belonging to the southern kingdom beside Judah, is by no means satisfactory. For it cannot be proved that any portion of the tribe of Simeon ever belonged to the kingdom of Israel, although the number ten was not complete Avithout it. And it cannot be inferred from 2 Chron. xv. 9 that Simeonites had settled outside their tribe-territory. And, as a rule, single families or house- holds that may have emigrated cannot be taken into consideration as having any bearing upon the question before us, since, according to the very same passage of the Chronicles, many members of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh had emigrated to the kingdom of Judah. CHAP. XI. 2C-40. 181 only remained nine tribes for the northern kingdom. For '131 '•'nny |yop see at ver. 13. For ver. 33 compare vers. 4-8. The plurals "'^^3Ty, ^inJil'^\ and ^3j'n are not open to critical ob- jection, but are used in accordance with the fact, since Solomon did not practise idolatry alone, but many in the nation forsook the Lord along with him. J''?1>*, with a Chaldaic ending (see Ges. § 87, 1, a). In vers. 34-36 there follows a more precise explanation : Solomon himself is not to lose the kingdom, but to remain prince all his life, and his son is to retain one tribe ; both out of regard to David (viel. vers. 12 and 13). t^^^J ''3 ^^0^'^*' " ^^^t I "^^ill ^'^^ h^^^^ fo^ prince," inasmuch as leaving him upon the throne was not merely a divine permission, but a divine act. " That there may be a light to my servant David always before me in Jerusalem." This phrase, which is repeated in ch. XV. 4, 2 Kings viii. 19, 2 Chron. xxi. 7, is to be ex- plained from 2 Sam. xxi. 17, where David's regal rule is called the light which God's grace had kindled for Israel, and affirms that David was never to want a successor upon the throne. — Vers, 37-39. The condition on which the kingdom of Jeroboam was to last was the same as that on which Solomon had also been promised the continuance of his throne in ch. iii. 14, vi. 12, ix. 4, namely, faithful observance of the command- ments of God. The expression, " be king over all that thy soul desireth," is explained in what follows by " all Israel." It is evident from this that Jeroboam had aspired after the throne. On the condition named, the Lord would build him a lasting house, as He had done for David (see at 2 Sam. vii. 16). In the case of Jeroboam, however, there is no allusion to a lasting- duration of the '^?^9'=^ (kingdom) such as had been ensured to David ; for the division of the kingdom was not to last for ever, but the seed of David was simply to be chastised. riNl \vipb^ for this, i.e. because of the apostasy already mentioned ; " only not all the days," i.e. not for ever. ^J1J;^^1 is explanatory so far as the sense is concerned : " for I will humble." Jeroboam did not fulfil this condition, and therefore his house was extirpated at the death of his son (ch. xv. 28 sqq.). — Ver. 40 is a con- tinuation of ^Sö3 1^ an*l in ver. 26; for vers. 27-39 contain simply an explanation of Jeroboam's lifting up his hand against Solomon. It is obvious from this that Jeroboam had organized a rebellion against Solomon ; and also, as ver. 2 9 is closely con- nected with ver. 28, that tliis did not take place till after the 182 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS, prophet had foretold his reigning over ten tribes after Solomon's death. But this did not justify Jeroboam's attempt ; nor was Ahijah's announcement an inducement or authority to rebel. Ahijah's conduct was perfectly analogous to that of Samuel in the case of Saul, and is no more to be attributed to selfish motives than his was, as though the prophetic order desired to exalt itself above the human sovereign (Ewald ; see, on the other hand, Oeliler's article in Herzogs Cyd.). For Ahijah expressly declared to Jeroboam that Jehovah would let Solomon remain prince over Israel during the remainder of his life. This deprived Jeroboam of every pretext for rebellion. Moreover the prophet's announcement, even without this restriction, gave him no right to seize with his own hand and by means of rebellion upon that throne which God intended to give to him. Jeroboam might have learned how he ought to act under these circumstances from the example of David, who had far more ground, according to human opinion, for rebelling against Saul, his persecutor and mortal foe, and who nevertheless, even when God had delivered his enemy into his hand, so that he might have slain him, did not venture to lay his hand upon the anointed of the Lord, but waited in pious submission to the leadings of his God, till the Lord opened the way to the throne through the death of Saul. By the side of David's behaviour towards Saul the attempt of Jeroboam has all the appearance of a criminal rebellion, so that Solomon would have been perfectly justified in putting him to death, if Jeroboam had not escaped from his hands by a flight into Egypt. — On Sliishak see at ch. xiv. 25. Vers. 41—43. Conclusion of the history of Solomon. — Notice of the original works, in which further information can be foiind concerning his acts and his wisdom (see the Introduction) ; the length of his reign, viz. forty years ; his death, burial, and suc- cessor. Solomon did not live to a very great age, since he was not more than twenty years old when he ascended the throne. — Whether Solomon turned to the Lord again with all his heart, a question widely discussed by the older commentators (see Pfeifferi Diibia vex. p. 435 ; Buddei hist. eccl. ii. p. 273 sqq.), cannot be ascertained from the Scriptures. If the Preacher Kohcldli) is traceable to Solomon so far as the leading thoughts are concerned, we should find in this fact an evidence of his con- version, or at least a proof that at the close of his life Solomon CHAP. XII. ETC. discovered the vanity of all earthly possessions and aims, and declared the fear of God to be the only abiding good, with which a man can stand before the judgment of God. II.— HISTORY OF THE KINGDOMS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORMER. Chap. xii.-2 Kings xvir. After the death of Solomon the Israelitish kingdom of God was rent asunder, through the renunciation of the Davidic sovereignty by the ten tribes, into the two kingdoms of Israel (the ten tribes) and Judah ; and through this division not only was the external political power of the Israelitish state weakened, but the internal spiritual power of the covenant nation was deeply shaken. And whilst the division itself gave rise to two small and weak kingdoms in the place of one strong nation, the power of both was still further shaken by their attitude towards each other. — The history of the two Idngdoms divides itself into three epochs. In the first epoch, i.e. the period from Jeroboam to Omri in Israel, and from Eehoboam to Asa in Judah (1 Kings xii.— xvi.), they maintained a hostile attitude towards each other, until Israel sustained a severe defeat in a great war with Judah ; and on the renewal of its attacks upon Judah, king Asa called the Syrians to his help, and thereby entangled Israel in long and severe conflicts with this powerful neighbouring state. The hostility termi- nated in the second epoch, under Ahab and his sons Ahaziah and Joram in Israel, and under Jehoshaphat, Joram, and Ahaziah of Judah, since the two royal families connected them- selves by marriage, and formed an alliance for the purpose of a joint attack upon their foreign foes, until the kings of both kingdoms, viz. Joram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah, were slain at the same time by Jehu (1 Kings xvii.-2 Kings x. 27). This period of union was followed in the third epoch, from Jehu in Israel and Joash in Judah onwards, by further estrangement and reciprocal attacks, which led eventually to the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians through the untheo- cratical policy of Ahaz. 184 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. If we take a survey of the attitude of the two kingdoms towards the Lord, the invisible God-King of His people, during these three epochs, to all appearance the idolatry was stronger in the kingdom of Judah than in the kingdom of Israel. For in the latter it is only under Ahab and his two sons, under whom the worship of Baal was raised into the state religion at the instigation of Jezebel the Phoenician wife of Ahab, that we meet with the actual worship of idols. Of the other kings both before and afterwards, all that is related is, that they walked in the ways of Jeroboam, and did not desist from his sin, the worship of the calves. In the kingdom of Judah, on the other hand, out of thirteen kings, only five were so truly devoted to the Lord that they promoted the worship of Jehovah and opposed idolatry (viz. Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, and Hezekiah). Of the others, it is true that Joash and Amaziah walked for a long time in the ways of the Lord, but in the closing years of their reign they forsook the God of their fathers to serve idols and worship them (2 Cliron. xxiv. 18 and xxv. 14 sqq.). Even Rehoboam was strengthened at the outset in the worship of Jehovah by the Levites who emigrated from the kingdom of the ten tribes to Judah ; but in the course of three years he forsook the law of the Lord, and Judah with him, so that altars of high places, Baal columns, and Asherah idols, were set up on every hill and under every green tree, and there were even male prostitutes in the land, and Judah practised all the abominations of the nations that were cut off before Israel (1 Kings xiv. 23, 24; 2 Chron. xi. 13-17, xii. 1). In all these sins of his father Abijam also walked (1 Kings xv. 3). At a later period, in the reign of Joram, the worship of Baal v\^as transplanted from Israel to Judah and Jerusalem, and was zealously maintained by Ahaziah and his mother Athaliah. It grew still worse under Ahaz, who even went so far as to set up an idolatrous altar in the court of the temple and to close the temple doors, for the purpose of abolishing altogether the legal worship of Jehovah. But notwithstanding this repeated spread of idolatry, the apostasy from the Lord was not so great and deep in the kingdom of Judah as in the kingdom of Israel. This is evident from the fact that idolatry could not strike a firm root there, inasmuch as the kings who were addicted to it were always followed by pious and God-fearing rulers, who abolished the idolatrous abominations, and nearly all of whom had long CHAP. XII. ETC. 185 reigns; so that during the 253 years which intervened between tlie division of the kingdom and the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes, idolatry did not prevail in Judah for much more than fifty-three years/ and for about 200 years the worship of the true God was maintained according to the commandment of the law. This constant renewal of a victorious reaction against the foreign deities shows very clearly that the law of God, with its ordinances and institutions for divine worship, had taken firm and deep root in the people and kingdom, and that the reason why idolatry constantly revived and lifted up its head afresh was, that the worship of Jehovah prescribed in the law made no concessions to the tendency to idolatry in hearts at enmity against God. It was different with the kingdom of the ten tribes. There the fact that idolatry only appeared in the reigns of Ahab and his sons and successors, is to be accounted for very simply from the attitude of that kingdom towards the Lord and His lawful worship. Although, for instance, the secession of the ten tribes from the house of David was threatened by God, as a punishment that would come upon Solomon and his kingdom on account of Solomon's idolatry ; on the part of the rebellious tribes themselves it was simply the ripe fruit of their evil longing for a less theocratic and more heathen kingdom, and nothing but the work of opposition to the royal house appointed by Jehovah, which had already shown itself more than once in the reign of David, though it had been suppressed again by the weight of his government, which was strong in the Lord. This opposition became open rebellion against the Lord, when Jeroboam, its head, gave the ten tribes a religious con- stitution opposed to the will of God for the purpose of estab- lishing his throne, and not only founded a special sanctuary for his subjects, somewhat after the model of the tabernacle or of the temple at Jerusalem, but also set up golden calves as symbols and images of Jehovah the invisible God, to whom no likeness can be made. This im age- worship met the wishes and religious cravings of the sensual and carnally -minded people, because it so far filled up the gap between the legal ^ Namely, fourteen years under Kelioboam, three under Abijah, six under Joram, one under Ahaziah, six under Athaliah, and sixteen under Ahaz, — in all forty-six years ; to which we have also to add the closing years of the reigns of Joash and Amaziah. 186 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. worship of Jeliovah and the worship of the nature-deities, that the contrast between Jehovah and the Baalim almost entirely disappeared, and the principal ground was thereby removed for the opposition on the part of the idolatrous nation to the stringent and exclusive worship of Jehovah. In this respect the worship of the calves worked more injuriously upon the religious and moral life of the nation than the open worship of idols. This sin of Jeroboam is therefore " the ground, the root and cause of the very sinful development of the kingdom of Israel, which soon brought down the punishment of God, since even fxom the earliest time one judgment after another fell openly upon the kingdom. For beside the sin of Jeroboam, that which was the ground of its isolation continued to increase, and gave rise to tumult, opposing aspirants to the throne, and revolutionary movements in the nation, so that the house of Israel was often split up within itself" (Ziegler). Therefore the judgment, with which even from the time of Moses the covenant nation had been threatened in case of obstinate rebel- lion against its God, namely the judgment of dispersion among the heathen, fell upon the ten tribes much earlier than upon Judah, because Israel had filled up the measure of sin earlier than Judah. The chronological computation of this period, both as a whole and in its separate details, is one of the more difdcult features connected with this portion of the history of the Israelitish kingdom. As our books give not only the length of time that every king both of Israel and Judah reigned, but also the time when every king of Israel ascended the throne, calculated according to the year of the reign of the contemporaneous Idng of Judah, and vice versa, these accounts unquestionably fur- nish us with very important help in determining the chronology of the separate data ; but this again is rendered difficult and uncertain by the fact, that the sum-total of the years of the several kings is greater, as a rule, than the number of years that they can possibly have reigned according to the synchro- nistic accounts of the contemporaneous sovereigns in the other kingdom. Chronologists have therefore sought from time immemorial to reconcile the discrepancies by assuming in- accuracies in the accounts, or regencies and interregna. The necessity for such assumptions is indisputable, from the fact that the discrepancies in the numbers of the years are absolutely CHAP. XII. ETC. 187 irreconcilable without them.^ But if the application of them in the several cases is not to be dependent upon mere caprice, the reconciliation of the sum-totals of the years that the differ- ent kincrs reio-ned with the differences which we obtain from the chronological data in the synchronistic accounts must be effected upon a fixed and well-founded historical principle, regencies and interregna being only assumed in cases where there are clear indications in the text. Most of the differences can be reconciled by consistently observing and applying the principle pointed out in the Talmud, viz. that the years of the kings are reckoned from Msan to Nisan, and that with such pre- cision, that even a single day before or after Msan is reckoned as equal to a year, — a mode of reckoning which is met with even in the New Testament, e.g. in the statement that Jesus rose from the dead after three days, or on the third day, and also in the writ- ings of Josephus, so that it is no doubt an early Jewish custom,^ — for, according to this, it is not necessary to assume a single in- terregnum in the kingdom of Judah, and only one regency (that ^ This is indirectly admitted even by 0. Wolff (in his Versuch die Wider- sprüche in den Jahrreihen der Könige Judo's und IsraeVs und andere Differenzen in der hibl. Chronologie auszugleichen ; Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1858, p. 625 sqq.), though for the most part he declares himself opposed to such assumptions as arbiti-ary loopholes, inasmuch as, with his fundamental principle to adhere firmly to the years of the reigns of the kings of Judah as normative, he is only able to effect a reconciliation by shortening at his pleasure the length of the reigns given in the text for the kings of Israel in the period extending from Eehoboam to the death of Ahaziah of Judah, and in the following period by arbitrarily interpolating a thirty-one years' interregnum of the Israelitish kings in the kingdom of Judah between Amaziah and Uzziah, - Compare Gemara hahyl. tract, n^^n ^UTi, c. i. fol. 3, p. 1, ed. Amstel. : |D"']?0 xbx D"'3?0? on? ]''^'\}:i pX, "720?^ numerant in regihus nisi a Nisano'''' (z.e. regiini annos nonnisi a Nisano numerant). After quoting certain passages, he says as a proof of this, bir\ii>^ '':hlob i6a ""Jti^ i6 ^^^D^ "l "IIDK, " dixit R. Chasda : hoc nan docent nisi de regihus Israelitarum.^^ — Ibid. fol. 2, p- 2 : r\y\^ y\^n n:^! im^ DVI D^a^ob ^y^i^n K^SI p'^:, " Msanus initium anni regibus, ac dies quideni unus in anno {yidcl. post calendas Nisani) instar anni computatur.''^ — Ibid.: njCJ' nitJTI nJEJ' fjIDa HflS DV, '''■ unus dies in fine anni pro anno computatur.^' For the examples of the use of this mode of calculation in Josephus, see TVieseler, cJironoL Synapse der vier Evangelien (Hamb. 1852), p. 52 sqq. They are sufficient of themselves to refute the assertion of Joach. Hartmann, Systema chronol. hibl., Eostoch. 1777, p. 253 sq., that this is a mere invention of the Rabbins and later commentators, even though the biblical writers may not have carried it out to such an extent as to reckon one single day before or after the commencement of Nisan as equal to a whole year, as is evident from 2 Kings xv. 17 and 23. 188 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. of Joram with his father JehoshajDhat), which is clearly indicated in the text (2 Kings viii. 16) ; and in the kingdom of Israel there is no necessity to assume a single regency, and only two interregna (the first after Jeroboam ii., the second between Pekah and Hoshea). — If, for example, we arrange the chronological data of the biblical text upon this principle, we obtain for the period between the division of the kingdom and the Babylonian captivity the following table, which only differs from the state- ments in the text in two instances,^ and has a guarantee of its correctness in the fact that it coincides with the well-established chronological data of the universal history of the ancient world." ^ Namely, in the fact that the commencement of the reign of Jehoahaz of Israel is placed in the twenty-second year of Joash of Judah, and not in the twenty-third, according to 2 Kings xiii. 1, and that that of Azariah or Uzziah of Judah is placed in the fifteenth year of Jeroboam of Israel, and not the twenty-seventh, according to 2 Kings xv. 1. The reasons for this will be given in connection with the passages themselves. - Not only with the ordinary chronological calculation as to the beginning and end of this entire period, which has been adopted in most text-books of the biblical history, and taken from Usserii Annales Vet. et Novi Test., but also with such data of ancient history as have been astronomically estab- lished. For the fourth year of Jchoiakim, with which the captivity or seventy years' servitude of the Jews in Babylon commences, coincides with the twenty-first year of the reign of Nabopolasar, in the fifth year of whose reign an eclipse of the moon, recorded in Almagest, was observed, which eclipse, according to the calculation of Ideler (in the Abhdll. der Berliner Academie der Wissensch. für liistor. Klasse of the year 1814, pp. 202 and 224), took place on April 22 of the year 621 B.C. Consequently the twenty-first year of Nabopolasar, in which he died, coincides with the year 605 B.c. ; and the first conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, which occurred before the death of Nabopolasar, took place in the year 606 B.c. — Compare with this Marc. Niebuhr's Geschichte Assurs und Babels, p. 47. Among other things, this scholar observes, at p. 5, note 1, that " the whole of the follow- ing investigation has given us no occasion whatever to cherish any doubts as to the correctness of the narratives and numbers in the Old Testament ;" and again, at p. 83 sqq., he has demonstrated the agreement of the chrono- logical data of the Old Testament from Azariah or uzziah to the captivity with the Canon of Ptolemy, and in so doing has only deviated two years from the numbers given in our chronological table, by assigning the battle at Carchemish to the year 143 lera Nahonas., i.e. 605 B.c., the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, 144 ler. Nah., or 604 B.c., and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple to the year 162 ^r. Nab., or 586 B.c., — a difference which arises chiefly from the fact that Niebuhr reckons the years of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar given in the Old Test, from the death of Nabopolasar in the year 605, and assumes that the first year of Nebuchadnezzar corresponded to the year 605 B.c. CHAP. XII. ETC. 189 Chronological View of the Principal Events from the Division of the Kingdom to the Babylonian CaiHivity. Kingdom of Judah. Rehoboam,reigned 17 years Abijam, r. 3 y. Asa, r. 41 y. Jehoshaphat, r. 25 years Joram, regent 2 y. Jehoshaphat +. Joram r. 6 y. more Ahaziah, r. 1 y. Athaliah, r. 6 y. Joash, r. 40 y. Amaziah, r. 29 y. Uzziah, r. 52 y. 26 27 27 31 3S 17 18 (23) 22? 37 15 (27) 38 39 39 50 52 Kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam, reigned 22 years Nadab, r. 2 y. Baasha, r. 24 y. Ela, r. 2 y. Simri, r. 7 days Tibni & Oniri, r. 4 years Omri alone, r. 8 y. Ahab, r. 22 y. Ahaziah, r. 2 y. Joram, r. 12 y. Jehu, r. 28 y. Jehoahaz, r. 17 y. Jehoash, r. 16 y. Jeroboam ii. r.41 j^ Jeroboam +. An- archy 11 j'ears Zechariah, r. 6 months Shallum, r. 1 mon. Menahem, r. 10 y. Pekahiah, r. 2 y. Pekah, r. 20 y. o o (7) 12 15? Kingdoms of the World. Shishak of Egypt, I^lunders Jeru- salem . Serah the Cushite Benhadad i. of Syria . . . Ithobal, king of Tyre and Sidon. Benhadad ii. in Syria. Hazael in Syria. Benhadad iii. in Syria. Pul, king of As- syria. 975 971 957 955 953 952 940 939 930 929 929 925 918 914 897 896 891 889 884 883 877 85G 840 838 824 jsio 1783 772 771 771 760 759 190 THE FIRST BOOK OF KIXGS. 9 c 5 S.S c 217 233 286 245 248 253 261 277 332 334 365 365 369 376 376 387 Kingdom of Jndab. Jütliam, r. 16 y. Ahaz, r. 16 y. Hezekiah, r. 29 y, Manasseh, r. 55 y. Amon, r. 2 y. Josiah, r. 31 y. Jelioahaz, r.Smon, Jelioiakim, r. 11 y Beginning of the Captivity Jehoiachin, r. 3 months Zedekiah, r. 11 y. Destruction of Jerusalem Jehoiachin's ele- vation End of the Cap tivity 4 12 6 Kingdom of Israel. 1 5 Pekah+. Anarchy 8| months Hoshea, r. 9 y. Destruction of the Kingdom 17 Kingdoms of the World. Building of Eome Nabonasar . . Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria So, king of Egypt Salman a sar, king of Assyria Sennacherib, king of Assyria, besieges Jerusalem Merodach-Baladan's embassy. Esarhaddon sends colonists to Samaria. Nabopolasar, king of Babylon . . . Battle at Megiddo with Pharaoh-Necho Battle at Carchemish and conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar Nabopolasar + Second conqi^est of Jerusalem and deportation Pharaoh-Hophra, king of Egypt, Evil-merodach . Cyrus sole ruler 05 -g ^3 758 753 747 742 739 730 727 722 714 698 643 641 626 610 610 606 605 599 599 588 562 536 1. From the Division of the Kingdom to the Ascent of THE Throne by Ahab in the 38 th yeak of Asa King OF Judah. Chap, xii.-xvi. 28. This epoch embraces only fifty-seven years, which are filled up in the kingdom of Judah by the reigns of three kings, and in the kingdom of Israel by six rulers from four different houses, Jeroboam's sin of rebellion against the ordinance and command- ment of God having produced repeated rebellions, so that one CHAP. XII. 191 dynasty was ever rising tip to overthrow and exterminate another. — Commencing with tlie secession of the ten tribes from Reho- boam, we have first of all an account of the founding of the kingdom of Israel (oh. xii.), and of the predictions of the prophets concerning the introduction of the calf-worship (ch. xiii.) and the rejection of Jeroboam and his house by God (ch. xiv. 1-20) ; and after this the most important facts connected with the reigns of Eehoboam, Abijam, and Asa are given (ch. xiv. 21-xv. 24) ; and, finally, a brief history of the kingdom of Israel from the ascent of the throne by ISTadab to the death of Omri (ch. xv. 25-xvi. 28). CHAP. XII. SECESSION OF THE TEN TKIBES FKOM THE HOUSE OF DAVID, AND FOUNDING- OF THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. The jealousy which had prevailed from time immemorial between Ephraim and Judah, the two most powerful tribes of the covenant nation, and had broken out on different occasions into open hostilities (Judg. viii. 1 sqq. ; 2 Sam. ii. 9, xix. 42 sqq.), issued, on the death of Solomon, in the division of the kingdom ; ten tribes, headed by Ephraim, refusing to do homage to Eehoboam, the son and successor of Solomon, and choosing Jeroboam the Ephraimite as their king. Now, although the secession of the ten tribes from the royal house of David had been ordained by God as a punishment for Solomon's idolatry, and not only had Solomon been threatened with this punishment, but the sovereignty over ten tribes had been promised to Jeroboam by the prophet Ahijah, whilst the secession itself was occasioned by Rehoboam's imprudence ; yet it was essentially a rebellion against the Lord and His anointed, a conspiracy on the part of these tribes against Judah and its king Eehoboam. Eor apart from the fact that the tribes had no right to choose at their pleasure a different king from the one who was the lawful heir to the throne of David, the very circumstance that the tribes who were discontented with Solomon's government did not come to Jerusalem to do homage to Eehoboam, but chose Sichem as the place of meeting, and had also sent for Jeroboam out of Egypt, showed clearly enough that it was their intention to sever themselves from the royal house of David ; so that the harsh reply given by Eehoboam to their petition that the service imposed upon them might be lightened, furnished them with the 1^2 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. desired opportunity for carrying out the secession upon which tliey had already resolved, and for which Jeroboam was the suitable man. And we have already shown at ch. xi. 40 that the promise of the throne, which Jeroboam had already received from God, neither warranted him in rebelling against Solomon, nor in wresting to himself the government over the tribes that were discontented with the house of David after Solomon's death. The usurpation of the throne was therefore Jeroboam's first sin (vers. 1-24), to which he added a second and much greater one immediately after his ascent of the throne, namely, the establishment of an unlawful worship, by which he turned the political division into a religious schism and a falling away from Jehovah the God-King of His people (vers. 25-33). Vers. 1-24. Secession of the Ten Tribes (cf. 2 Chron. X. 1— xi. 4). — Vers. 1-4. Eehoboam went to Shechem, because all Israel had come thither to make him king. " All Israel," according to what follows (cf. vers. 20 and 21), was the ten tribes beside Judah and Benjamin. The right of making king the prince whom God had chosen, i.e. of anointing him and doing homage to him (compare 1 Chron. xii. 38, where ^von alternates with ^^ob 'qti'b, 2 Sam. ii. 4, v. 3), was an old traditional right in Israel, and the tribes had exercised it not only in the case of Saul and David (1 Sam. xi. 15 ; 2 Sam. ii. 4, v. 3), but in that of Solomon also (1 Chron. xxix. 22). The ten tribes of Israel made use of this right on Eehoboam's ascent of the throne ; but instead of coming to Jerusalem, the residence of the king and capital of the kingdom, as they ought to have done, and doing homage there to the legitimate successor of Solomon, they had gone to Sichem, the present ISTabulus (see at Gen. xii. 6 and xxxiii. 18), the place where the ancient national gatherings were held in the tribe of Ephraim (Josh. xxiv. 1), and where Abimelech the son of Gideon had offered himself as Idng in the time of the Judges (Judg. ix. 1 sqq.). On the choice of Sichem as the place for doing homage Kimchi has quite correctly observed, that " they sought an opportunity for transferring the government to Jero- boam, and therefore were unwilling to come to Jerusalem, but came to Sichem, which belonged to Ephraim, whilst Jeroboam was an Ephraimite." If there could be any further doubt on the matter, it would be removed by the fact that they had sent for Jeroboam the son of Nebat to come from Egypt, whither he had CHAP. XII. 1-4. 193 fled from Solomon (ch. xi. 40), and attend this meeting, and that Jeroboam took the lead in the meeting, and no doubt suggested to those assembled the demand which they should lay before Eehoboam (ver. 4).-^ — The construction of vers. 2 and 3 is a complicated one, since it is only in 1X3^1 in ver. 3 that the apodosis occurs to the protasis '131 ybe'S \nn, and several cir- cumstantial clauses intervene. " And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of JSTebat heard, sc. that Solomon was dead and Eehoboam had been made king ... he was still in Egypt, however, whither he had fled from king Solomon ; and as Jero- boam was living in Egypt, they had sent and called him . . . that Jeroboam came and the whole congregation of Israel," etc. On the other hand, in 2 Chron. x. 2 the construction is very much simplified, and is rendered clearer by the alteration of '"i"* 3^^i D^_n>'p3, " and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt," into QnyrsD ''\> 2m, "that Jeroboam returned from Egypt." ^ — ^Ver. 4. The persons assembled desired that the burdens which Solomon had laid upon them should be l^htened, in which case they would serve Eehoboam, i.e. would yield obedience to him as their king. '?j"'3S nibyo S'?'^, " make light away from the service of thy father," 1 " This pretext was no doubt furnished to the people by Jeroboam, who, because he had formerly been placed above Ephraim as superintendent of the works, could most craftily suggest calumnies, from the things which he knew better than others."— (Seb. Schmidt.) ^ At the same time, neither this explanation in the Chronicles, nor the fact that the Vulgate has the same in our text also, warrants our making alterations in the text, for the simple reason that the deviation in the Chronicles and Vulgate is so obviously nothing but an elucidation of our account, which is more obscurely expressed. There is still less ground for the interpolation, which ■ Thenius has proposed, from the clauses contained in the Septuagint partly after ch. xi. 43, partly in ch. xii. between vers. 24 and 25, and in an abbrevi- ated form once more after ch. xiii. 34, so as to obtain the following more precise account of the course of the rebellion which Jeroboam instigated, and of which we have not a very minute description in ch. xi. 26 : " Solomon having appointed Jeroboam superintendent of the tributary labour in Ephraim, for the purpose of keeping in check the Sichemites, who were probably pre- eminently inclined to rebel, directed him to make a fortress, which already existed upon Mount Gerizim under the name of Ilillo, into a strong prison fn'T'lV') from which the whole district of Gerizim, the table-land, received the name of the land of Zerirah, and probably made him governor of it and in- vested him with great power. When holding this post, Jeroboam rebelled against Solomon, but was obliged to flee. Having now returned from Egypt, he assembled the members of his own tribe, and witli them he first of airbesieged this prison, for the purpose of making himself lord of the surrounding district. N 194 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. i.e. reduce what was imposed upon us by thy father. Solomon had undoubtedly demanded greater performances from the people than they had previously been accustomed to, not only to meet the cost of maintaining the splendour of his court, but also and principally to carry out his large and numerous buildings. But in return for this, he had secured for his people not only the blessings of undisturbed peace throughout his whole reign, but also great wealth from the trade and tribute of the subjugated nations, so that there cannot have been any well-grounded occa- sion for complaint. But when, as is too often the case, men overlooked the advantages and blessings which they owed to his government, and fixed their attention in a one-sided manner merely upon the performances which the king demanded, it might appear as though he had o^^pressed his people with excessive burdens. Vers. 5-24. In order that the request of the tribes might be maturely weighed, Eehoboam directed them to appear before him again in three days, and in the meantime discussed the matter with the older counsellors, who had served his father. — ^Ver. 7. These counsellors said (the singular "^i^T}. is Now this castle was the citadel of the city in which Jeroboam was born, to which he had just returned, and from which they fetched him to take part in the negotiations with Rehoboam. Its ruins are still in existence, according to Robinson (Pal iii. p. 99), and from all that has been said it was not called Zeredah (ch. xi. 26), but (after the castle) Zerira." This is what Thenius says. But if we read the two longer additions of the LXX. quite through, we shall easily see that the words uy.oQÖf^ms ru Ict'huy.uv tsji/ iv opu ^E(ppui'fi do not give any more precise historical information concerning the building of the Millo mentioned in ch. xi. 27, since this verse is repeated immediately afterwards in the following form : ovro; uKoo6f^-/iai T'/jy uKpa» Iv rxlg äipasaiv CIX.OV ^E(ppci'i'f/,, ovro; avi/iKhsias T'/iu vö'hiu A«/3/3, — but are nothing more than a legendary supplement made by an Alexandrian, which has no more value than the statement that Jeroboam's mother was named Sarira and was yvrh TTÖpun. The name of the city letptpü. is simply the Greek form of the Hebrew ni")^ which the LXX. have erroneously adopted in the place of rm^* as the reading in ch. xi. 26. But in the additional clauses in ques- tion in the Alexandrian version, Iccptp» is made into the residence of king Jeroboam and confounded with Thirza ; what took place at Thirza according to ch. xiv. 17 (of the Hebrew text) being transferred to Sarira, and the following account being introduced, viz. that Jeroboam's wife went Ik ^xpipd. to the prophet Ahijah to consult him concerning her sick sou, and on return- ing heard of the child's death as she was entering the city of Sarira. — these remarks will be quite sufficient to prove that the Alexandrian additions have not the least historical worth. CHAP. XII. 5-24. 195 used, tecaiise one of them spoke in the name of the whole), " If thou wilt be subservient to this people to-day (now), and servest them, and hearkenest to them, . . . they will serve thee for ever." — Vers. 8 sqq. But Eehoboam forsook this advice, and asked the younger ministers who had grown up with him. They advised him to overawe the people by harsh threats. "My little finger is stronger than my father's loins." ''^^.P[, from l^P, littleness, i.e. the little finger (for the form, see Ewald, ^255, h), — a figurative expression in the sense of, I possess much greater might than my father. " And now, my father laid a heavy yoke upon you, and I will still further add to your yoke (lay still more upon you) : my father chastised you with whips, I will chastise you with scorpions." Q''3"]|5i^, scorpiones, are whips with barbed points like the point of a scorpion's sting.-"- This advice was not only imprudent, " considering all the circumstances " (Seb. Schmidt), but it was unwise in itself, and could only accelerate the secession of the discontented. It was the language of a tjrant, and not of a ruler whom God had placed over His people. This is shown in vers. 13, 14 : " The king answered the people harshly, and forsook the counsel of the old men," i.e. the counsellors who were rich in experience, and spoke according to the counsels of the young men, who flattered his ambition. It is very doubtful, indeed, whether the advice of the old men would have been followed by so favour- able a result ; it might probably have been so for the moment, but not for a permanency. For the king could not become the 1?y of the people, serve the people, without prejudicing the authority entrusted to him by God ; though there is no doubt that if he had consented to such condescension, he would have deprived the discontented tribes of all pretext for rebellion, and not have shared in the sin of their seces- sion.— Ver. 15. "And the king hearkened not to the people (to their request for their burdens to be reduced), for it was niip nirr; nj?ö, a turning from the Lord, that He might establish His word" (ch. xi. 31 sqq.), i.e. by a divine decree, that Eehoboam ^ The Eabbins give this explanation: virgsi spinis instructie. Isidor. Hispal. Origg. v. c. 27, explains it in a similar manner : virga si est nodosa vel acu- leata, Scorpio vocatur. The Targ. and Syr., on the other hand, pjno, P-.vSd, i.e. the Greek f^äpayucx,, a whip. See the various explanations in Bochart, liieroz. iii. p. 554 sq. ed. Ros. 196 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. contributed to the fulfilment of the counsel of God through his own folly, and brought about the accomplishment of the sen- tence pronounced upon Solomon. — Ver. 16. The harsh word supplied the discontented with an apparently just occasion for saying, " What portion have we in David ? We have no in- heritance in the son of Jesse ! To thy tents, O Israel ! Now see to thy house, David ! " i.e. take care of thy house. David, the tribe-father, is mentioned in the place of his family. These words, with which Sheba had once preached rebellion in the time of David (2 Sam. xx. 1), give expression to the deep- rooted aversion which was cherished by these tribes towards the Davidic monarchy, and that in so distinct and unvarnished a manner, that we may clearly see that there were deeper causes for the secession than the pretended oppression of Solo- mon's government ; that its real foundation was the ancient jealousy of the tribes, which had been onl}'- suppressed for the time by David and Solomon, but had not been entirely eradi- cated, whilst this jealousy again had its roots in the estrange- ment of these tribes from the Lord, and from His law and righteousness. — Ver. 17. But the sons of Israel, who dwelt in the cities of Judah, over these Eehoboam became king. These " sons of Israel " are members of the ten tribes who had settled in Judah in the course of ages (cf. ver. 23) ; and the Simeonites especially are included, since they were obliged to remain in the kingdom of Judah from the very situation of their tribe- territory, and might very well be reckoned among the Israelites who dwelt in the cities of Judah, inasmuch as at first the whole of their territory was allotted to the tribe of Judah, from which they afterwards received a portion (Josh. xix. 1). The verse cannot possibly mean that " the tribe of Judah declared in favour of their countryman Rehoboam as Idng " (Ewald, Gesch. iii. p. 399). — Ver. 18. In order to appease the agitated tribes and commence negotiations with them, Eehoboam sent Adoram, the superintendent of the tribute, to them (see at ch. iv. 6). Eehoboam entrusted him with the negotiation, because the tribes had complained that the tribute burdens were too severe, and the kincr was no doubt serious in his wish to meet the demands of the people. But the very fact that he sent this man only increased the bitterness of feeling, so that ihey stoned him to death, and Eehoboam himself was obliged to summon up all his strength (j^'föNnn) to escape a similar fate by CHAP. XII. 25-33. 197 a speedy flight to his chariot. — Ver. 19. Thus Israel fell away from the house of David " unto this day " (for this formula, see p. 13). — Ver. 20. The secession was completed by the fact that all Israel (of the ten tribes) called Jeroboam to the assembly of the congregation and made him king " over all Israel," so that the tribe of Judah alone adhered to the house of David (see at ch. xi. 32). Ver. 20 commences in the same manner as ver. 2, to indicate that it closes the account com- menced in ver. 2. — Vers. 21-24. But after the return of Eeho- boam to Jerusalem he was still desirous of bringing back the seceders by force of arms, and raised for that purpose an army of 180,000 men out of all Judah, the tribe of Benjamin, and the rest of the people, i.e. the Israelites dwelling in the cities of Judah, — a number which does not appear too large according to 2 Sam. xxiv. 9. But the prophet Shemaiah, a prophet who is not mentioned again, received instructions from God to forbid the king to go to war with their brethren the Israelites, " for this thing was from the Lord." Hitn "i3^n^ " this thing, i.e. his being deprived of the sovereignty over ten tribes, but not their rebellion" (Seb. Schmidt). For the fact itself, see the remark on ver. 1 5. The king and the people hearkened to this word. I^IEJ'' ri3p?, " they turned to go," i.e. they gave up the intended expedi- tion and returned home. In 2 Chron. xi. 4 we have the explana- tory phrase fl3?p ^in^tJ'^. Vers. 25-33. Founding of the Kingdom of Iseael. — Ver. 25. When Jeroboam had become king, it was his first care to give a firmer basis to his sovereignty by the fortifica- tion of Sichern and Pnuel. n33^ to build, is used here in the sense of fortifying, because both cities had stood for a long time, and nothing is known of their having been destroyed under either Solomon or David, although the tower of Sichern had been burnt down by Abimelech (Judg. ix. 49), and the tower of Pnuel had been destroyed by Gideon (Judg. viii. 17). Sichern, a place well known from the time of Abraham downwards (Gen. xii. 6), was situated upon the mountains of Ephraim, between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, and, still exists under the name of Ndbulus or Nablus, a name corrupted from Flavia, Neapolis. Jeroboam dwelt therein, i.e. he chose it at first as his residence, though he afterwards resided in Thirza (see ch. xiv. 17). Pnuel was situated, according to Gen. xxxii. 31, on the 198 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. other side of the Jordan, on the northern bank of the Jabbok (not the southern side, as Thenius supposes) ; and judging from Gen. xxxii. 22 sqq. and Judg. viiL 8 sqq., it was on the cara- van road, which led through Gilead to Damascus, and thence past Palmyra and along the Euphrates to Mesopotamia. It was probably on account of its situation that Jeroboam fortified it, to defend his sovereignty over Gilead against hostile attacks from the north-east and east. — Vers. 26 sqq. In order also to give internal strength to his kingdom, Jeroboam resolved to provide for his subjects a substitute for the sacrificial worship in the temple by establishing new sacra, and thus to take away all occasion for making festal journeys to Jerusalem, from which he apprehended, and that probably not without reason, a return of the people to the house of David, and consequently further danger for his own life. " If this people go up to perform sacrifice in the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem, their heart will turn to their lord, king Eehoboam," etc. — Ver. 28. He there- fore consulted, sc. with his counsellors, or the heads of the nation, who had helped him to the throne, and made two calves of gold. 2^1 "^^ ^^^ yo^^o oxen, not of pure gold however, or cast in brass and gilded, but in all probability like the golden calf which Aaron had cast for the people at Sinai, made of a kernel of wood, which was then covered with gold plate (see the Comm. on Ex. xxxii. 4). That Jeroboam had in his mind not merely the Egyptian Apis-wovship generally, but more especially the image-worship which Aaron introduced for the people at Sinai, ""^ evident from the words borrowed from Ex. xxxii. 4, with which he studiously endeavoured to recommend his new form of worship to the people : " Behold, this is thy God, 0 Israel, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." ni^V^ 03 ^"^n, it is too much for you to go to Jerusalem ; not " let your going suf&ce," because p is not to be taken in a partitive sense here, as it is in Ex. ix. 28 and Ezek. xliv. 6. What Jeroboam meant to say by the words, " Behold thy God," etc., was, " this is no new religion, but this was the form of worship which our fathers used in the desert, with Aaron himself leading the way" (Seb, '^ Schmidt). And whilst the verbal allusion to that event at Sinai plainly shows that this worship was not actual idolatry, i.e. was not a worship of Egyptian idols, from which it is constantly distinguished in our books as well as in Hosea and Amos, but that Jehovah was worshipped under the image of the calves or CHAP. XII. 25-33. 199 young oxen; the choice of the places in which the golden calves were set up also shows that Jeroboam desired to adhere as closely as possible to ancient traditions. He did not select his own place of residence, but Bethel and Dan. Bethel, on the southern border of his kingdom, which properly belonged to the tribe of Benjamin (Josh, xviii. 13 and 22), the present Beitin, had already been consecrated as a divine seat by the vision of Jehovah which the patriarch Jacob received there in a dream (Gen. xxviii. 11, 19), and Jacob gave it the name of Bethel, house of God, and afterwards built an altar there to the Lord (Gen. XXXV. 7). And Jeroboam may easily have fancied, and have tried to persuade others, that Jehovah would reveal Him- self to the descendants of Jacob in this sacred place just as well as He had done to their forefather. — Ban, in the northern part of the kingdom, on the one source of the Jordan, formerly called Baish (Judg. xviii. 26 sqq.), was also consecrated as a place of worship by the image-worship established there by the Danites, at which even a grandson of Moses had officiated ; and regard may also have been had to the convenience of the people, namely, that the tribes living in the north would not have to go a long distance to perform their worship. — Ver. 30, But this institution became a sin to Jeroboam, because it violated the fundamental law of the Old Testament religion, since this not only prohibited all worship of Jehovah under images and symbols (Ex. XX. 4), but had not even left the choice of the place of wor- ship to the people themselves (Deut. xii. 5 sqq.). " And the people went before the one to Dan." The expression " to Dan" can only be suitably explained by connecting it with QJ'n : the people even to Dan, i.e. the people throughout the whole king- dom even to Dan. The southern boundary as the terminus a quo is not mentioned ; not because it was for a long time in dispute, but because it was already given in the allusion to Bethel. '^0 v t is neither the golden calf at Dan nor (as I formerly thought) that at Bethel, but is to be interpreted according to the preceding nnxri'DNl nnxrrnK : one of the two, or actually both the one and the other (Thenius). The sin of which Jeroboam was guilty consisted in the fact that he no longer allowed the people to go to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, but induced or com- pelled them to worship Jehovah before one or the other of the calves wliich he had set up, or (as it is expressed in ver. 31) made a house of high places, fiiöa n"'3 (see at ch. iii. 2), instead of the r 200 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. house of God, which the Lord had sanctified as the pLace of worship by filling it with His gracious presence. The singular 3 n''2 may be accounted for from the antithesis to i^y^''^ n"'3, upon which it rests. There was no necessity to say expressly that there was a house of high places at Bethel and Dan, i.e. in two places, because it followed as a matter of course that the golden calves could not stand in the open air, but were placed in a temple, by which the sacrificial altar stood. These places of worship were houses of high places, Bamoth, because the ark of the covenant was wanting, and therewith the gracious pre- sence of God, the Shcchincth, for which no symbol invented by men could be a substitute. Moreover Jeroboam made " priests from the mass of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi." nyn riivi?a, i,c. not of the poorest of the people (Luther and others), but from the last of the people onwards, that is to say, from the whole of the people any one without distinction even to the very last, instead of the priests chosen by God out of -< the tribe of Levi. For this meaning of nivipö see Gen. xix. 4 and Ezek. xxxiii. 2, also Lud. de Dieu on this passage. This innovation on the part of Jeroboam appears very surprising, if we consider how the Ephraimite Micah (Judg. xvii. 10 sqq.) rejoiced that he had obtained a Levite to act as priest for his image-worship, and can only be explained from the fact that the Levites did not consent to act as priests in the worship before the golden calves, but set their faces against it, and there- fore, as is stated in 2 Chron. xi. 13, 14, were obliged to leave their district towns and possessions and emigrate into the king- dom of Judah. — Ver. 32. Jeroboam also transferred t^the eighth mantlL-ths^ast which ought to have been kept in the seventh r'-'^month (the feast of tabernacles. Lev. xxiii. 34 sqq.). The pretext for this arbitrary alteration of the law, which repeatedly de- scribes the seventh month as the month appointed by the Lord (Lev. xxiii. 34, 39, and 41), he may have found in the fact that in the northern portion of the kingdom the corn ripened a month lafeer than in the more southern Judah (see my lihl. Archciol. ii. I 118, Anm. 3, and § 119, Anm. 2), since this feast of the in- gathering of the produce of the threshing-floor and wine-press (Ex. xxiii. 16 ; Lev. xxiii. 39 ; Deut. xvi. 13) was a feast of thanksgiving for the gathering in of all the fruits of the ground. But the true reason was to be found in his intention to make the separation in a religious point of view as complete as pos- CHAP. XIII. 201 sible, although Jeroboam retained the day of the month, the fifteenth, for the sake of the weak wlio took offence at his innovations. For we may see very clearly that many beside the Levites were very discontented with these illegal institu- tions, from the notice in 2 Chron. xi. 16, that out of all the tribes those who were devoted to the Lord from the heart went to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the God of the fathers there. " And he sacrificed upon the altar." This clause is connected with the preceding one, in the sense of : he instituted the feast and offered sacrifices thereat. In ver. 326 (from nbj; |3 on- wards) and ver. 33, what has already been related concerning Jeroboam's religious institutions is brought to a close by a comprehensive repetition of the leading points. " Thus did he in Bethel, (namely) to offer sacrifice to the calves ; and there he appointed the priests of the high places which he had made, and offered sacrifice upon the altar which he had made at Bethel, on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, which he himself had devised, and so made a feast for the children of Israel and sacri- ficed upon the altar to burn." 1??p signifies scorsum, by him- ^^.-i^giralone, i.e. in this connection, i.q. " from his own heart." The Kcri is?» is therefore a correct explanation as to the fact ; but it is a needless correction from Neh. vi. 8. The last clause, "CtJi^np , , . ?j?»i^ leads on to what follows, and it^would be' more correct to take it in connection with ch. xiii. 1 and render it thus : and when he was offering sacrifice upon the altar to burn, behold there came a man of God, etc. Thenius has rendered /'J?*! incorrectly, and he stood at the altar. This thought would have been expressed by 'or; py li^OJ^'l, as in ch. xiii. 1. By T'tpipn we are not to understand the burning or offering of incense, but the burning of the sacrificial portions of the flesh upon the altar, as in Lev. i. 9, 13, 17, etc. CHAP. XIII, TESTIMONY OF GOD AGAINST THE CALF-WOESHIP OF JEROBOAM. A prophet out of Judah announces to Jeroboam the eventual overthrow of the idolatrous worship, and attests his divine . mission by miraculous signs upon the altar at Bethel and the hardened king (vers. 1-10) ; but on the way back he allows himself to be enticed by an old prophet out of Bethel to go into his house, contrary to the express command of the Lord, and while 202 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. sitting at table with him has to hear from his mouth the divine tlireat, that on account of his transgression of the command of God he will not come into the sepulclu-e of his fathers. This threat was fulfilled on his way home ; and the marvellous "ful- filment made so deep an impres'sTon upon the old prophet, that he confirmed the testimony which he had given concerning the worship at the high places (vers. 11-32). These marvellous occurrences not only teach how Jeroboam brought about the overthrow of his dynasty by his thorough hardening against the word of God (vers. 33, 34), but they also show how false prophecy rose up from the very beginning in the kingdom of Israel and set itself against the true prophets of the Lord, and how it gained a victory, which merely displayed its own im- potence, however, and foreshadowed its eventual and certain overthrow. Vers. 1-10. PTO])lucy against tlu idolatrous ivorsliijp at Bethel. — ^Vers. 1, 2. Whilst Jeroboam was still occu^Died in sacrificing by the altar at Bethel, there came a prophet ('^''P''^ ^'''5) out of Judah " in the word of Jehovah " to Bethel, and pronounced upon the altar its eventual destruction. L'^^'"':^1t' does not mean " at the word of Jehovah " here, as it frec[uentlyLcloes,_ but " in the word of Jehovah," as vers. 9 and 17 more -espe- cially show;., so that the word of Jehovak. is regarded as a, power which comes upon the prophet and drives him to utter the divine revelation which he has received. It is the same in ^r/ch. XX. 35.,/1't:i5n^ is to be^taken as in ch. xii. 33. — " Behold a son will Toe bbrn' to the house of David, named Josiah ; he will offer upon thee (0 altar) the priests of the high places, who burn incense {i.e. kindle sacrifices) upon thee, and men's bones will they burn upon thee." According tOi2 Kings xxiii. 1^-20^ this prophecy was literally fulfilled. The older theologians found in this an evident proof of the divine inspiration of the prophets ; modern theology, on the other hand, which denies the supernatural inspiration of prophecy in accordance with its rationalistic or naturalistic principles, supposes that this pro- phecy was not more precisely defined tül after the event, and adduces in support of this the apparently just argument, that the prediction of particular historical events is without analogy, and generally that the introduction either of particular persons by name or of definite numbers is opposed to the very essence of prophecy, and turns prediction into soothsaying. The dis- CHAP. XIII. 1-10. 203 tinction between soothsaying and prediction, however, is not that the latter merely utters general ideas concerning the future, whilst the former announces special occurrences beforehand : but soothsaying is the foretelling of all kinds of accidental things; prophecy, on the contrary, the foretelling of the progres- sive development of the kingdom of God, not merely in general, but in its several details, according to the circumstances and necessities of each particular age, and that in such a manner that the several concrete details of the prophecy rest upon the general idea of the revelation of salvation, and are thereby entirely removed from the sphere of the accidental. It is true that perfectly concrete predictions of particular events, with the introduction of names and statement of times, are much more rare than the predictions of the progressive development of the kingdom of God according to its general features; but they are not altogether wanting, and we meet with them in every case where it was of importance to set before an ungodly generation in the most impressive manner the truth of the divine threaten- ings or promises. The allusion to Coresh in Isa. xliv. 28, xlv. 1, is analogous to the announcement before us. But in both cases the names are closely connected with the destination of the persons in the prophecy, and are simply a concrete de- scription of what God wiU accomplish through these men. Hence the name ^n*K^N'' occurs primarily according to its appella- tive meaning alone, viz. " he whom Jehovah supports," from nti'N, to support, and expresses this thought : there will be bom a son to the house of David, whom Jehovah will support or establish, so that he shall execute judgment upon the priests of the high places at Bethel. This prophecy was then afterwards so fulfilled by the special arrangement of God, that the king who executed this judgment bore the name of Josliiyaliu as his proper name. And so also 55'"J.i3 was originally an appellative in the sense of sun. The judgment which the prophet pronounced upon the altar was founded upon the/z^s talionis. On the very same altar on which the priests offer sacrifice to the Dvjy shall they themselves be offered, and the altar shall be defiled for ever by the burning of men's bones upon it. ^^^ niDyy^ " men's bones," does not stand for " their (the priests') bones," but is simply an epithet used to designate human corpses, which defile the j)lace where they lie (2 Kings xxiii. 16). — Ver. 3. In con- firmation of his word the prophet added a miracle (ri2iü, Tkpa\ 204 THE FIRST BOOK OF KIKGS. porfentum, see at Ex. iv. 21): " this is the sign that the Lord hath spoken (through me) : behold the altar will be rent in pieces, and the ashes upon it will be poured out." JKn is the ashes of the fat of the sacrificial animals. The pouring out of the sacrificial ashes in consequence of the breaking up of the altar was a penal sign, which indicated, along with the destruc- tion of the altar, the desecration of the sacrificial service per- formed upon it. — Ver. 4. The king, enraged at this announce- ment, stretched out his hand against the prophet with the words, " seize him" — and his hand dried up, so that he was not able to draw it back again. ^^), to dry up, i.e. to become rigid in consequence of a miraculous withdrawal of the vital energy. Thus Jeroboam experienced in the limbs of his own body the severity of the threatened judgment of God. — Vers. 5, 6. The penal miracle announced in the word of Jehovah, i.e. in the strength of the Lord, also took effect immediately upon the altar ; and the defiant king was now obliged to entreat the man of God, saying, " Soften, I pray, the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may return to me," i.e. that I may be able to draw it back again, to move it once more. And ^ this also took place at once at the intercession of the prophet. '^. '^^ '^?i"'"i^ '^f'?, lit. to stroke the face of God, i.e. to render it soft l2y_ intercession (see at Ex. xxxii. 11).^ — Ver. 7. As Jeroboam could do nothing by force against the prophet, he endeavoured to gain him over to his side by friendliness, that at least he might render his threat harmless in the eyes of the people. For this purpose, and not to do him honour or to make him some acknowledgment for the restoration of his hand, he in-. vited him to his house, to strengthen himself with food ^VO as in Gen. xviii. 5, Judg. ix. 5 ; for the form '"T^yP. see EwaWr § 41, c) and receive from him a present. — Vers. 8 sqq. But this design was also frustrated, and the rejection of his worship on the part of God was still more strongly declared. " If thou gavest me," the man of God replied, " the half of thy house, I shall not go in with thee, nor eat bread and drink water in this place; for thus hath Jehovah commanded me," etc. The subject, Jehovah, is easily supplied to ni^y from the context {vid. Ewald, § 294, Z*). God had forbidden the prophet to eat. and drink " to manifest His detestation of idolatry, and to show by that fact that the Bethelites were so detestable, and as it were ex- communicated by God, that He wished none of the faithfiü to CHAP. XIII. 11-32. 205 join with them in eating and drinking " (C. a Lap.). He was not to return by the way by which he came, that no one might look out for him, and force him to a delay which was irrecon- cilable with his commission, or "lest by chance being brought back by Jeroboam, he should do anything to please him which was unworthy of a prophet, or from which it might be inferred that idolaters might hope for some favour from the Deity" (Budd.). Vers. 11-32. Seduction of the man of God hy an old prophet, and his consequent j^unishment. — Vers. 1 1-1 9. The man of God had re- sisted the invitations of Jeroboam, and set out by a different road to return to Judah. An old prophet at Bethel heard from his sons what had taken place (the singular i33 t«i2J as compared with the plural C)i">SD''.!l may be explained on the supposition that first of all one son related the matter to his father, and that then the other sons supported the account given by the first) ; had his ass saddled ; hurried after him, and found him sitting under the tere- binth (the tree well known from that event) ; invited him to come into his house and eat with him ; and when the latter appealed to the divine prohibition, said to him (ver. 18), " I am a prophet also as thou art, and an angel has said to me in the word of the Lord : Bring him back with thee into thy house, that he may eat and drink," and lied to him (p CJ'na without a copula, because it is inserted as it were parenthetically, "simply as an explaha-^^'T; tion) — then he went back with him, and ate and drank in his house."— Vers. 20-22. As they were sitting at table the word of the Lord came to the old prophet, so that he cried out to the man of God from Judah : " Because thou hast been rebellious against the command of the Lord, and hast not kept the com- mandment, . . . thou wilt not come to the grave of thy fathers," i.e. thou wilt meet with a violent death by the way. This utterance was soon fulfilled. — Vers. 2 3 sqq. After he had eaten he saddled the ass for liim, i.e. for the prophet whom he had fetched back, and the latter (the prophet from Judah) departed upon it. On the road a lion met him and slew him ; " and his corpse was cast in the road, but the ass stood by it, and the lion stood by the corpse." The lion, contrary to its nature, had neither consumed the prophet whom it had slain, no^ torn in pieces and devoured the ass upon which he rode, but/ hfl.d remained standing by the corpse and by the ass, that the slaying of the prophet might not be "regarded as a misfortuilö' that "had- 206 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. befallen him by accident^ but that the hand of the Lord might be manifest therein^ so tliat passers-by saw this marvel and related it in Bethel. — Ver. 26. When the old prophet at Bethel heard of this, he said, " It is the man of God, who was disobedi- ent to the word of the Lord ; the Lord hath dehvered him to the lion, so that it hath torn him p?*^, frangere, confringere, used of a lion which tears its prey in pieces) and slain him according to the word of the Lord, which He spake to him." — Vers. 27-32. He thereupon had his ass saddled, and went and found the corpse and the ass standing by it, without the lion having eaten the corpse or torn the ass in pieces ; and he lifted the corpse upon his ass, and brought it into his own city, and laid the corpse in his grave with the customary lamentation: ''nN ''in^ alas, my brother ! (cf. Jer. xxii. 1 8), and then gave this com- mand to his sons : " When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God i^ buried, let my bones rest beside his bones ; for the word which he proclaimed in the word of Jehovah upon the altar at Bethel and upon all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria will take place " {i.e. will be fulfilled). The expression " cities of Samaria " belongs to the author of these books, and is used proleptically of the kingdom of the ten tribes, which did not receive tliis nam ejtill after the building of the city of Samaria as the capital of the kingdom and the resi- dence of the kings of Israel (ch. xvi. 24). There is a prophetic element in the words " upon all the houses of the high places," etc., inasmuch as the only other erection at that time beside the one at Bethel was a temple of the high places at Dan. But after such a beginning the multiplication of them might be foreseen with certainty, even without any higher illumination. The conduct of the old prophet at Bethel appears so strange, that Josephus and the Chald., and most of the Eabbins and of the earlier commentators both Catholic and Protestant, have regarded him 8,s a false prophet, who tried to lay a trap for the prophet from Judah, in order jtD counteract the effect of hisprob- phecy upon the king and the people. But this assumption cannot be reconciled with either "tlTe~"cfi.vine revelation which came to him at the table, announcing to the Judcean prophet the punish- ment of his transgression of the commandment of God, and was SO speedily fulfilled (vers. 20-24) ; or with the honour which he paid to the dead man after this punishment had fallen upon him, by burying him in his own grave \ and still less with his con- CHAP. XIII. 11-32. 207 firmation of liis declaration concerning the altar at Bethel (vers. 29-32). We must therefore follow Ephr. Syr., Theodor., Heng- stenberg, and others, and regard the old prophet as a true prophet, who with good intentions, and not " under the influence of human envy " (Thenius), but impelled by the desire to enter into a closer relation to the man of God from Judah and to strengthen himself through his prophetic gifts, urged him to enter his house. The fact that he made use of sinful means in order to make more sure of securing the end desired, namely, of the false pretence that he had been directed by an angel to do this, may be explained, as Hengstenberg suggests {Dissert, vol. ii. p. 149), on the ground that when Jeroboam introduced his innova- tions, he had sinned by keeping silence, and that the appearance of the Judeean prophet had brought him to a consciousness of this sin, so that he had been seized with shame on account of his fall, and was anxious to restore himself to honour in his own eyes and those of others by intercourse with this witness to the truth. But however little the lie itself can be excused or justified, we must not attribute to him alone the consequences by which the lie was followed in the case of the Judsean prophet. For whilst he chose reprehensible means of accomplishing what appeared to be a good end, namely, to raise himself again by intercourse with a true prophet, and had no wish to injure the other in any way, the Judsean prophet allowed himself to be seduced to a transgression of the clear and definite prohibition of God simply by the sensual desire for bodily invigoration by meat and drink, and had failed to consider that the divine reve lation which he had received could not be repealed by a pretended revelation froiji an angel, because thewoKl of , God does not con tradict itself. He was therefore obliged to listen to a ime, revelation from God from the mouth of the man whose pretended revelation from an angel he had too carelessly believed, namely, to the announcement of punishment for his disobedience towards the commandment of God, which punishment he immediately afterwards endured, " for the destruction of the flesh, but for the preservation of the spirit : 1 Cor. xv. 5 " {Berleb. Bible). That the punishment fell upon him alone and not upon the old prophet of Bethel also, and that for apparently a smaller crime, may be accounted for " not so much from the fact that the old prophet had lied with a good intention (this might hold good of the other also), as from the fact that it was needful to deal strictly with 208 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. the man who had just received a great and holy commission from the Lord " (0. v. Gerlach). It is true that no bodily punish- ment fell upon the old prophet, hut this punishment he received instead, that with his lie he was put to shame, and that his ' conscience must have accused him of having occasioned the death of the man of God from Judah. He was thereby to be cured of his weakness, that he might give honour to the truth of the testimony of God. ■- " Thus did the wondrous providence of God know how to direct all things most gloriously, so that the bodily destruction of the one contributed to the spiritual and eternal preservation of the soul of the other" {Berleb. Bible). — Concern- ing the design of these marvellous events, H. Witsius has the following remarks in his Misccll. ss. i. p. 118 (ed. nov. 1736): " So many wondrous events all concurring in one result caused the prophecy against the altar at Bethel to be preserved in the mouths and memories of all, and the mission of this prophet to become far more illustrious. Thus, although the falsehood of the old man of Bethel brought disgrace upon himself, it injured no one but the man of God whose credulity was too great ; and, under the overruling providence of God, it contributed in the most signal manner to the confirmation and publication of the truth," ■"" The heaping up of the marvellous corresponded to the great object of the mission of the man of God out of Judah, through which the Lord would enter an energetic protest against the idolatrous worship of Jeroboam at its first introduction, to cuard those who feared God in Israel, of whom there were not a few (2 Chron. xi. 16 ; 2 Kings xviii. 3, xix. 18), from falling away from Him by joining in the worship of the calves, and to take away every excuse from the ungodly who participated therein. Vers. 33 and 34. But this did not lead Jeroboam to conver- sion. He turned not from his evil way, but continued to make high priests from the mass of the people. '^Vl\ 3'd'*l, " he re- 1 Compare -with this the remark of Theodoret in his qiwest. 43 in 3 Ubr. Reg. : " In my opinion this punishment served to confirm the declaration con- cerning the altar. For it was not possible for the statement of such a man to be concealed : and this was sufficient to fill with terror those who heard it ; for if partaking of food contrary to the command of God, and that not of his own accord, but uTltfer ti-deception, brought euch retribution upon a righteous man, to what punishments would they be exposed who liad for- saken the God who made them, and worshipped the likenesses of irrational creatures?" CHAP. XIV. 1-20. 209 turned and made," i.e. he made again or continued to make. For the fact itself compare ch. xii. 31. "Whoever had plea- sure (r??0"' cf- ^6^- § 1^^)' ^'^^ filled his hand, that he might become a priest of the high places." i"!!)'^? ^.PP, to fill the hand, is the technical expression for investing with the priest- hood, according to the rite prescribed for the consecration of the priests, namely, to place sacrificial gifts in the hands of the persons to be consecrated (see at Lev. vii. 37 and viii. 25 sqq.). The plural riioa ''^jrn is used with indefinite generality : that lie might be ranked among the priests of high places. — Ver. 34. " And it became in (with) this thing the sin of the. house of Jeroboam, and the destroying and cutting off from the earth;" that is to say, this obstinate persistence in ungodly con- duct was the guilt which had as its natural consequence the destroying of his house from the face of the earth. ^)J} "'?"^? is not a mistake for n-rn li^^n, but 3 is used, as in 1 Chron. ix. 33, vii. 23, to express the idea of being and persisting in a thing (for this use of 3 compare Ewald, § 295,/). CHAP. XIV. REIGN AND DEATH OF JEROBOAM AND EEHOBOAM. Vers. 1-20. Eeign of Jeroboam. — Vers. 1-18. Ahijalis prophecy against Jeroboam and the, kingdom of Israel. — As Jeroboam did not desist from his idolatry notwithstanding the threatened punishment, the Lord visited him with the illness of his son, and directed the prophet Ahijah, to whom his wife had gone to ask counsel concerning the result of the illness, to predict to him not only the cutting off of his house and the death of his sick son, but also the thrusting away of Israel out of the land of its fathers beyond the Euphrates, and in confirma- tion of this threat caused the sick son to die when the returnincr mother crossed the threshold of her house again. — Vers. 1—3. When his son fell sick, Jeroboam said to his wife : Disguise thy- self, that thou may est not be known as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh to the prophet Ahijah, who told me that I should be king over this people ; he will tell thee how it will fare with the boy. '"is^iitf'«?, from ^\^, to alter one's self, i.e. to disguise one's self She was to go to Shiloh disguised, so as not to be recognised, to deceive the old prophet, because otherwise Jeroboam did not promise himself any favourable answer, as he had contemptuously neglected Ahijah's admonition (ch. xi. 38, 39). But he turned 0 210 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. to this prophet because he had spoken concerning him 'H^p?, to be king, i.e. that he would become long, over this people. ^^)y? stands for '^?ö nvnp^ with which the infinitive esse can be omitted {vid. Ewald, § 336, 6). As this prophecy, which was so favour- able to Jeroboam, had come to pass (ch. xi. 29, 30), he hoped that he might also obtain from Ahijah a divine revelation con- cerning the result of his son's illness, provided that he did not know who it was who came to seek coimsel concerning her sick son. To complete the deception, she was to take with her as a present for the prophet (c£ 1 Sam. ix. 8) " ten loaves and crumbs" and a jar with honey, i.e. a trifling gift such as a simple citizen's wife might take. According to the early versions and the context, a kind of plain cake, KoXKvpßa (LXX.), crustulam (Vulg.). It is different in Josh. ix. 5. — Vers. 4, 5. Ahijah could no longer see, because his eyes were blinded with age. ^öj? VJ''y as in 1 Sam, iv. 15, an expression applied to the black cataract, amaurosis. It was therefore all the less possible for him to recognise in a natural manner the woman who was coming to him. But before her arrival the Lord had not only revealed to him her coming and her object, but had also told him what he was to say to her if she should disguise herself when she came, nni nf3 ; see at Judg. xviii. 4. "i^i nshD ^t\\ " let it be if she comes and disguises herself ;" i.e. if when she comes she should disguise herself — ^Ver. 6. When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet entering the door (the participle nK2, according to the number and gender, refers to the ritJ'X implied in v'Y^l, vid. Ewald, § 317, c), he addressed her by her name, charged her with her disguise of herself, and told her that he was entrusted with a hard saying to her. n^'i^ (cf. ch. xii. 13) is equivalent to n^i? n^iri; for the construction, compare Ewald, § 284, c. — Vers. 7 sqq. The saying was as follows : " Therefore, because thou hast exalted thyself from the people, and I have made thee prince over my people Israel (cf. ch. xi. 31), . . . but thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my command- ments . . . (cf. ch. xi. 34), and hast done worse than all who were before thee (judicea nimirum et duces Israelis — Cler.), and hast gone and hast made thyself other gods (contrary to tha express command in Ex. xx. 2, 3), . . . and hast cast me be- hind thy back : therefore I bring misfortune upon the house, of Jeroboam," etc. The expression, to cast God behind the back, which only occurs here and in Ezek, xxiii. 35, denotes the most CHAP. XIV. 1-20. 211 scornful contempt of God, tlie strict opposite of " keeping God before the eyes and in the heart." "i"'i?^ priK'O; every male per- son; see at 1 Sam. xxv. 22. A synonymous expression is "i^^J? ^^ti'i., the fettered {i.e. probably the married) and the free (or single); see at Deut. xxxii. 36. "In Israel," i.e. in the king- dom of the ten tribes. The threat is strengthened by the' clause in ver. 1 0, " and I will sweep out after the house of Jeroboam, as one sweepeth out dung, even to the end," which expresses shameful and utter extermination ; and this threat is stiU further strengthened in ver. 11 by the threat added from Deut. xxviii. 26, that of those cut off not one is to come to the grave, but their bodies are to be devoured by the dogs and birds of prey, — the worst disgrace that could befall the dead. Instead of wild beasts (Deut. xxviii. 26) the dogs are mentioned here, because in the East they wander out in the streets without owners, and are so wild and ravenous that they even devour corpses {vid. Harmar, Beobachtungen, i. p. 198). ^^Tif^ with P of relationship, equivalent to of those related to Jeroboam. It is the same in ver. 13. — Vers. 12, 13. After this announce- ment of the judgment upon the house of Jeroboam, Ahijah gave the Avife information concerning her sick son. He would die as soon as she entered the city, and of all the male mem- bers of the house of Jeroboam he only would receive the honour of a proper burial, because in him there was some good thing towards Jehovah found. Ewald (§247, 1) regards the form nxii3 as standing for i^Nba^ and refers the suf&x to the following word "i^j;n (vid. Ewald, § 309, c). But as this use of the sufidx would be very harsh, the question arises whether nxia is not to be regarded as a feminine form of the infinitive, after the analogy of nj?"n in Ex. ii. 4 and ^"f?, in 2 Kings xix. 3, etc. * From the fulfihnent of this declaration in vers. 17 and 18 Jeroboam was to learn that the threatened destruction of his royal house wouM also be just as certainly fulfilled. The sick son appears to have been the heir-presumptive to the throne. This may be inferred partly from the lamentation of all Israel at his death (ver. 18), and partly from what follows here in the next verse, nin'j-^s' means in his relation to Jehovah. — Ver. 14. "Jehovah wiU raise Himself up a king over Israel, who will cut off the house of Jeroboam this day ; but what (sc. do I say) ? even now," sc. has He raised him up. This appears to be the simplest explanation of the last words of the verse, of which 212 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. very various interpretations have been given, HT is placed before Qi'n^ to give it the stronger emphasis, as in Ex. xxxii. 1 (compare Josh. ix. 12, 13, and Ewald, § 293, 5; and for nny Da compare Delitzsch on Joh, i. p. 290, transL). — Vers. 15, 16. But in order that not only Jeroboam, but also the people who had joined in his idolatry, might perceive the severity of the divine judgment, Ahijah also announced to the nation its banishment into exile beyond the Euphrates. " Jehovah will smite Israel, as the reed shakes in the water," is an abbreviated phrase for : Jehovah will smite Israel in such a manner that it will sway to and fro like a reed in the water moved by a strong wind, which has not a sufficiently firm hold to resist the violence of the storm. " And will thrust them out of the good land," etc., as Moses threatened the transgressors of the law (Deut. xxix. 2 7), " and scatter them beyond the river (Euphrates)," i.e. banish them among the heathen, from w^hom God brought out and chose their forefather (Josh. xxiv. 3), " because they have made themselves Ashera-idols, to provoke Jehovah." D''']t^'^s is used for idols generally, among which the golden calves are reckoned. I^^l, that He may deliver up Israel, on account of the idolatrous forms of worship introduced by Jeroboam. For the fulfilment see 2 Kings xv. 29, xvii. 23, and xviii. 11. — In vers. IV and 18 the exact fulfilment of Ahijah's announcement concerning the death of Jeroboam's sick son is described. According to ver. 17, Jeroboam was then residing at Thirza, whereas he had at first resided at Shechem (ch. xii. 25). TJiirza is probably the present Talluza, on the north of Shechem (see at Josh. xii. 24). — ^Vers. 19 and 20. End of Jeroboam's reign. Of the wars, which were described in the annals of the kings (see p. 12), the war with Abijam of Judah is the only one of which we have any account (2 Chron. xiii. 2 sqq.). See also the Comm. on ver. 30. He was followed on the throne by his son Nadab. Vers. 21-31. Eeign of Eehoboam in Judah (compare 2 Chron. xi. 5— xii. 16). — Ver. 21. Eehoboam, who ascended the throne at the age of forty-one, was born a year before the accession of Solomon (see at ch. ii. 24). In the description of Jerusalem as the city chosen by the Lord (cf. ch. xi. 36) there is implied not so much an indirect condemnation of the falling away of the ten tribes, as the striking contrast to the idolatry CHAP. XIV. 21-31. 213 of Eehoboam referred to in vers. 23 sqq. The name of his mother is mentioned (here and in ver. 31), not because she seduced the king to idolatry (Ephr. Syr.), but generally on ac- count of the great influence which the queen-mother appears to have had both upon the king personally and upon his govern- ment, as we may infer from the fact that the mother's name is given in the case of every king of Judah {vid. ch. xv. 2, 13, xxii. 42, etc.). — ^Vers. 22-24. The general characteristics of Eehoboam's reign are supplied and more minutely defined in the account in the Chronicles. According to 2 Chron. xi. 5- xii. 1, he appears to have been brought to reflection by the an- nouncement of the prophet, that the falling away of the ten tribes had come from the Lord as a punishment for Solomon's idolatry (ch. xii. 23, 24; 2 Chron. xi. 2-4); and in the first years of his reign to have followed the law of God with earnestness, and to have been occupied in the establishment of his government partly by the fortification of different cities (2 Chron. xi. 5-12), and partly by setting in order his do- mestic affairs, placing his numerous sons, who were born of his many wives and concubines, in the fortified cities of the land, and thus providing for them, and naming Abijam as his successor (2 Chron. xi. 18-22); while his kingdom was still further strengthened by the priests, Levites, and pious Israelites who emigrated to Judah and Jerusalem from the ten tribes (2 Chron. xi. 13-17). But this good beginning only lasted three years (2 Chron. xi. 1 7). When he thought that he had sufficiently fortified his kingdom, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel {i.e. all the covenant nation) with him (2 Chron. xii. 1). " Judah did that which was displeasing in the sight of the Lord ; they provoked Him to jealousy more than all that their fathers {sc. under the Judges) had done with their sins." ^}J^, to provoke to jealousy (Num. v. 14), is to be explained, when it refers to God, from the fact that the relation in which God stood to His people was regarded under the figure of a marriage, in which Jehovah appears as the husband of the nation, who is angry at the unfaithfulness of his wife, i.e. at the idolatry of the nation. Compare the remarks on N3i? ^x in the Comm. on Ex. xx. 5. — Ver. 23. They also (the Judseans as well as the Israelites) built themselves hamoth, altars of high places (see at ch. iii. 3), monuments and Ashera- idols. rii32»;o are not actual images of gods, but stones set up as 214 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. memorials (Gen. xxxi. 13, xxxv. 20; Ex. xxiv. 4), more espe- cially stone monuments set up in commemoration of a divine revelation (Gen. xxviii. 18, 22, xxxv. 14). Like the hamoth, in connection with which they generally occur, they were originally dedicated to Jehovah ; hut even under the law they were forbidden, partly as places of divine worship of human invention which easily degenerated into idolatry, but chiefly because the Canaanites had erected such monuments to Baal by the side of his altars (Ex. xxiii. 24, xxxiv. 13 ; Deut. vii. 5, etc.), whereby the worship of Jehovah was unconsciously identi- fied with the worship of Baal, even when the mazzcbotli were not at first erected to the Canaanitish Baal. As the rii32fD of the Canaanites were dedicated to Baal, so were the Q''15^'^?. to Astarte, the female nature-deity of those tribes. ^"^S^., how- ever, does not mean a grove (see the Comm, on Deut. xvi. 21), but an idol of the Canaanitish nature-goddess, generally most likely a lofty wooden pillar, though sometimes perhaps a straight trunk of a tree, the branches and crown of Avhich were lopped off, and which was planted upon heights and in other places by the side of the altars of Baal. The name nnK't? was transferred from the idol to the goddess of nature (ch. xv. 13, xviii. 19 ; 2 Kings xxi. 7, etc.), and was used of the image or column of the Phoenician Astarte (ch. xvi. 33; 2 Kings xiii. 6, xvii. 16, etc.), just as nil'^'X in Judg. iii. 7 alternates with riiiriK'y in Judg. ii. 13. These idols the Israelites (? Judceans — Tr.) appear to have also associated with the worship of Jehovah; for the external worship of Jehovah was still maintained in the temple, and was performed by Ptchoboam himself with princely pomp (ver. 28). " On every high hill," etc.; see at Deut. xii. 2. — Ver. 2 4. " There were also prostitutes in the land." ^7.iJ is used collectively as a generic name, including both male and female hierodylpe, and is exchanged for the plural in ch. xv. 1 2. The male ^""PlP. had emasculated themselves in religious frenzy in honour of the Canaanitish goddess of nature, and were called Galli by the Eomans. They were Canaanites, who had found their way into the land of Judah' when idolatry gained the upper hand (as indicated by D.J]). '"' They appear here as strangers among the Israelites, and are those notorious Cinredi more espe- cially of the imperial age of Eome who travelled about in all directions, begging for the Syrian goddess, and even in the time of Auoiustine Avent about asking for alms in the streets of Car- CHAP. XIV. 21-31. 215 thage as a remnant of the Phoenician worship (de civ. Dei, vii. 26)." — Movers, p. 6 79. On the female niK'np see the Comm. on Gen. xxxviii. 21 and Deut. xxiii. 18. This sinking into heathen abominations was soon followed by the punishment, that Judah was given up to the power of the heathen. — Vers. 25—28. King ShishaJc of Egypt invaded the land with a powerful army, conquered all the fortified cities, penetrated to Jerusalem, and would probably have put an end to the kingdom of Judah, if God had not had compas- sion upon him, and saved him from destruction, in consequence of the humiliation of the king and of the chiefs of the nation, caused by the admonition of the prophet Shemaiah, so that after the conquest of Jerusalem Shishak contented himself with withdrawing, taking with him the treasures of the temple and of the royal palace. Compare the fuller account of this expe- dition in 2 Chron. xii. 2-9. Shishah (P^''^) was the first king of the twenty-second (or Bubastitic) dynasty, called Sesonchis in Jul. Afric, SesoncJiosis in Eusebius, and upon the monuments on which Champollion first deciphered his name, Sheslionk or ShesTunh Shishak has celebrated his expedition against Judah by a bas-relief on the outer wall of the pillar-hall erected by him in the first palace at Karnak, in which more than 130 figures are led in cords by Ammon and the goddess Muth with their hands bound upon their backs. The lower portion of the figures of this long row of prisoners is covered by escutcheons, the border of which being provided with battlements, shows that the prisoners are symbols of conquered cities. About a hundred of these escutcheons are still legible, and in the names upon them a large number of the names of cities in the king- dom of Judah have been deciphered with tolerable certainty.^ Shishak was probably bent chiefly upon the conquest and 1 Compare Max Duncker, Gesch. des Alterthuins, Bd. i. p. 909, ed. 3, and for the different copies of this bas-relief in the more recent works upon Egypt, Ruetschi in Herzog's Cycl. (art. Rchohoam). The latest attempts at deciphering are those by Brngsch, Geogr. Inschriften in den ägypt. Denk- mälern, ii. p. 56 sqq., and 0. Blau, Slsaqs Zug gegen Juda aus dem Denkmale hei Karnak erläutert^ in the Deutsch, morgenl. Ztschr. xv. p. 283 sqq. Cham- pollion's interpretation of one of these escutcheons, in his Precis du Systeme hierogl. p. 204, viz. Juda hammcdek, " the king of Judah," has been rejected by Lepsius and Brugsch as philologically inadmissible. Brugsch writes the name thus : Judh malk or Joud-hamalok, and identifies Judh with Jehudijeh, which Robinson (Pal. iii. p. 45) supposes to be the ancient Jehud (Josh. xix. 45). 216 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. plundering of the cities. But from Jerusalem, beside other treasures of the temple and palace, he also carried off the golden shields that had been made by Solomon (ch. x. 16), in the place of which Kehoboam had copper ones made for his body- o-uard. The guard, Q''V"i runners, are still further described as ■i]?an n"'3 nns Dnobn, " who kept the door of the king's house," i.e. supplied the sentinels for the gate of the royal palace. — Ver. 28. Whenever the king went into the house of Jehovah, the runners carried these shields ; from which we may see that the king was accustomed to go to the temple with solemn pomp. These shields were not kept in the state-house of the forest of Lebanon (ch. x. 17) as the golden shields were, but in the guard-chamber (NJ^ ; see at Ezek. xl. 7) of the runners. — Vers. 29-31. Further particulars are given in 2 Chron. xi. and xii. concerning the rest of the acts of Eehoboam. " There was war between Eehoboam and Jeroboam the whole time (of their reign)." As nothing is said about any open war between them, and the prophet Shemaiah prohibited the attack which Eehoboam was about to make upon the tribes who had fallen away (ch. xi. 23 sqq.), •^^'j'?^ can only denote the hostile feelings and atti- tude of the two rulers towards one another. — Yer. 31. Death and hurial of Bchoboam: as in the case of Solomon (ch. xi. 43). The name of the queen-motlier has already been given in ver. 21, and the repetition of it here may be explained on the sup- position that in the original sources employed by the author of our books it stood in this position. The son and successor of Eehoboam upon the throne is called Abijam (°'?^.) in the account before us ; whereas in the Chronicles he is always called Abijali (n^^x, 2 Chron. xii. 16, xiii. 1, etc., or =in^'ns;, 2 Chron. xiii. 21). 2*3X, i.e. father of the sea, is unquestion- ably the older form of the name, which was reduced to n>3X, This Jcluid in the tribe of Dan, Blau (p. 238) therefore also finds in the name ; and it will not mislead any one that this city is reckoned as belonging to the tribe of Dan, since in the very same chapter (Josh. xix. 42) Ajalon is assigned to Dan, though it was nevertheless a fortress of Kehoboam (2 Chron. xi. 10). But Blau has not given any explanation of the addition malk or maIol\ whereas Gust. Roesch takes it to be Tll?a, and supposes it to mean " Jehud of the king, namely, of Rehoboam or of Judah, on accoimt of its being situated in Dan, which belonged to the northern kingdom." But this is certainly in- correct. For where could the Egyptians have obtained this exact knowledge of the relation in which the tribes of the nation of Israel stood to one another ? CHAP. XV. 1-8. 217 and then identified with the formation from ""^x and n^=^n^ (from nin>). CHAP. XV. 1-24. KEIGNS OF THE TWO KINGS ABIJAM AND ASA OF JUDAH. Vers. 1-8. Eeign of Abijam (cf. 2 Chron. xiii.). — Abijam reigned three years, and his mother's name was Maacah, daughter {i.e. grand-daughter) of Absalom. We have the same in 2 Chron. xi. 20, 21 ; but in 2 Chron. xiii. 2 she is called Michajahu, daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. If Qi^'UN was without doubt Absalom, the well-known son of David, as we may infer from the fact that this name does not occur again in the Old Testament in connection with any other person, since Absalom had only one daughter, viz. Tliamar (2 Sam. xiv. 27), who was fifty years old when Solomon died, Maacah must have been a daughter of this Thamar, who had married Uriel of Gibeah, and therefore a grand-daughter of Absalom. This is sustained by Josephus (Ant. viii. 10, 1), The form of the name ^•^^^9'''? is probably an error in copying for ^^V)?, as the name is also written in 2 Chron. xi. 20 and 21, and not a different name, which Maacah assumed as queen, as Caspari supposes {Micha, p. 3, note 4). — Vers. 3, 4. Abijam walked as king in the foot- steps of his father. Although he made presents to the temple (ver. 15), his heart was not D/'^, wholly or undividedly given to the Lord, like the heart of David (cf. ch. xi. 4) ; but ("'S, after a previous negative) for David's sake Jehovah had left him a light in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him and to let Jeru- salem stand, because (^^!^) David had done right in the eyes of God, etc., i.e. so that it was only for David's sake that Jehovah did not reject him, and allowed the throne to pass to his son. For the fact itself compare ch. xi. 13 and 36 ; and for the words, " except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite," see 2 Sam. xi. and xii. — Ver. 6. " And there was war between Behoboam and Jeroboam all his life ;" i.e. the state of hostility which had already existed between Eehoboam and Jeroboam continued " all the days of his life," or so long as Abijam lived a,nd reigned. If we take V^n '•p.''"''? in this manner (not ^'T^r T ' "^®^- 1^)' ^^^ statement loses the strangeness which it has at first sight, and harmonizes very well with that in ver. 7, that there was also war between Abijam and Jeroboam. 218 THE FIRST BOOK OP KINGS. Under Abijam it assumed the form of a serious war, in which Jeroboam sustained a great defeat (see 2 Chron. xiii. 3-20). — The other notices concerning Abijam in vers. 7 and 8 are the same as in the case of Eehoboam in ch. xiv, 29 and 31. Vers. 9-24. Eeign of Asa (cf. 2 Chron. xiv.-xvi.). — As Asa ascended the throne in the twentieth year of the reign of Jero- boam, his father Abijam, who began to reign in the eigiiteenth year of Jeroboam (ver. 1), can only have reigned two years and a few months, and not three full years. — Ver, 10. Asa reigned forty-one years. " The name of his mother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom." This notice, which agrees verbatim with ver. 2, cannot mean that Abijam had his own mother for a wife ; though Tlienius finds this meaning in the passage, and then proceeds to build up conjectures concerning emendations of the text. We must rather explain it, as Ephr. Syr., the Eabbins, and others have done, as signifying that Maacah, the mother of Abijam, continued during Asa's reign to retain the post of queen-mother or i^i''??'!', i.e. sultana valide, till Asa de- posed her on account of her idolatry (ver. 13), probably because Asa's own mother had died at an early age. — Vers. 11 sqq. As ruler Asa walked in the ways of his j)ious ancestor David : he banished the male prostitutes out of the land, abolished all the abominations of idolatry, which his fathers (Abijam and Eeho- boam) had introduced, deposed his grandmother Maacah from the rank of a queen, because she had made herself an idol for the Ashera, and had the idol hewn in pieces and burned in the valley of the Kidron. Qv?? is a contemptuous epithet applied to idols (Lev, xxvi. 30); it does not mean stercorci, however, as the Eabbins af&rm, but logs, from b2\, to roll, or masses of stone, after the Chaldee ?/ii (Ezra v. 8, vi. 4), generally connected with ^'"'^W- It is so in Deut, xxix. 16. ^^-»^3?, formido, from ^73, tcrrcre, timere, hence an idol as an object of fear, and not imclcndum, a shameful image, as Movers {Plwniz. i. p. 571), who follows the Eabbins, explains it, understanding thereby a Phallus as a symbol of the generative and fructifying power of nature. With regard to the character of this idol, nothing further can be determined than that it was of wood, and possibly a wooden column like the Q''"lt^'X (see at ch. xiv. 23). " But the high places departed not," i.e. were not abolished. By the niD2 we are not to understand, according to ver. 12, CHAP. XV. 9-24. 219 altars of high places dedicated to idols, but unlawful altars to Jehovah. It is so in the other passages in which this formula recurs (ch. xxii. 24; 2 Kings xii. 4, xiv. 4, xv. 4; and the parallel passages 2 Chron. xv. 17, xx. 33). The apparent dis- crepancy between the last-mentioned passages and 2 Chron. xiv. 2, 4, and xvii. 6, may be solved very simply on the sup- position that the kings (Asa and Jehoshaphat) did indeed abolish the altars on the high places, but did not carry their reforms in the nation thoroughly out ; and not by distinguish- ing between the hamoth dedicated to Jehovah and those dedi- cated to idols, as Thenius, Bertheau, and Caspari, with many of the earlier commentators, suppose. For although 2 Chron. xiv. 2 is very favourable to this solution, since both niD2 and "i^an ninatp are mentioned there, it does not accord with 2 Chron. xvii. 6, where riioan cannot be merely idolatrous altars dedicated to the Canaanitish Baal, but unquestionably refer to the unlawful altars of Jehovah, or at any rate include them. Moreover, the next clause in the passage before us, " neverthe- less Asa's heart was wholly given to the Lord," shows that the expression ^ID iib does not mean that the king allowed the un- lawful J eliOYsh-hamoth to remain, but simply that, notwith- standing his fidelity to Jehovah, the hamoth did not depart, so that he was unable to carry the abolition of them thoroughly out. — Ver. 15. He brought the sacred offerings of his father and his own sacred offerings into the house of Jehovah ; pro- bably the booty, in silver, gold, and vessels, which his father Abijam had gathered in the war with Jeroboam (2 Chron. xiii. 16, 17), and he himself on the conquest of the Cushites (2 Chron. xiv. 12, 13). The Keri "'??'1i^"! is a bad emendation of the correct reading in the Chethib '1K'^P, i.e. V^np (lY'^p) ; for nin'' n''Zi is an accusative, and is to be connected with X3*\ — Vers. 16, 17. The state of hostility between Judah and Israel continued during the reign of Asa ; and Baasha the king of Israel advanced, etc. These statements are completed and elucidated by the Chronicles. After the great victory obtained by Abijam over Jeroboam, the kingdom of Judah enjoyed rest for ten years (2 Chron. xiii. 23). Asa employed this time in exterminating idolatry, fortifying different cities, and equipping his army (2 Chron. xiv. 1-7). Then the Cushite Zerali invaded the land of Judah with an innumerable army (in the eleventh year of Asa), but was totally defeated by the help of the Lord 220 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. (2 Chron. xiv. 8-14) ; whereupon Asa, encouraged by the prophet Azariah, the son of Oded, proceeded with fresh zeal to the extermination of such traces of idolatry as still remained in the kingdom, then renewed the altar of burnt-offering in front of the temple-hall, and in the fifteenth year of his reign held, with the whole nation, a great festival of thanksgiving and rejoicing to the Lord at Jerusalem (2 Chron. xv. 1-15). The next year, the sixteenth of his reign and the thirty-sixth from the division of the kingdom (2 Chron. xvi. 1), Baasha com- menced hostilities, by advancing against Judah, taking pos- session of Bamali, the present er Earn (see at Josh, xviii. 25), which was only two hours and a quarter from Jerusalem, and fortifying it. The occupation of Eamah is not expressly men- tioned indeed, but it is implied in Tn\r\\ py py^i^ which affirms the hostile invasion of Judah. Eor Eamah, from its very situa- tion in the heart of the tribe of Benjamin and the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem, can neither have been a border city nor have belonged to the kingdom of Israel. The inten- tion of Baasha, therefore, in fortifying Eamah cannot have been merely to restrain his own subjects from passing over into the kingdom of Judah, but was evidently to cut off from the king- dom of Judah all free communication with the north. ""^P?^ '131 nn^ " that they might not give one going out or one coming in to Asa ;" i.e. to cut off from the others all connection with Asa, and at the same time to cut off from those with Asa all connection with this side. The main road from Jerusalem to the north passed by Eamah, so that by shutting up this road the line of communication of the kingdom of Judah was of necessity greatly disturbed. Moreover, the fortification of Eamah by Baasha presupposes the reconquest of the cities which Abijam had taken from the kingdom of Israel (2 Chron. xiii. 19), and which, according to 2 Chron. xiii. 19, were still in the possession of Asa. — Vers. 18, 19. In order to avert the danger with which his kingdom was threatened, Asa endea- voured to induce the Syrian king, Benhadad of Damascus, to break the treaty which he had concluded with Baasha and to become his ally, by sending him such treasures as were left in the temple and palace.^ Dnnisn niay be explained from the ^ Asa had sought help from the Lord and obtained it, when the powerful army of the Cushites invaded the land ; but when an invasion of the Israel- ites took place, he sought help from the Syrians. This alteration in his con- CHAP. XV. 9-24, 221 fact that the temple and palace treasures had been plundered by Shishak in the reign of Rehoboam (ch. xiv. 26) ; and there- fore what Asa had replaced in the temple treasury (ver. 15), and had collected together for his palace, was only a remnant in comparison with the former state of these treasures. The name TuuTi?, i-C- son of Hadacl, the sun-god (according to Macrobius, i. 23 ; cf. Movers, PJiöniz. i. p. 196), was borne by three kings of Damascus : the one here named, his son in the time of Ahab (ch. xx. 1, 34), and the son of Hazael (2 Kings xiii. 24). The first was a son of Tahrinmion and grandson of Rczyon. According to ver. 19, his father Tahrimmon (good is Rimmon ; see at 2 Kings v. 1 8) had also been king, and was the contemporary of Abijam. But that his grandfather Hczyon was also king, and the same person as the Eczon mentioned in ch. xi. 23, cannot be shown to be even probable, since there is no ground for the assumption that Hezyon also bore the name Rezon, and is called by the latter name here and by the former in ch. xi. 23. — Ver. 20. Benhadad consented to Asa's request, and directed his captains to advance into the kingdom of Israel: they took several cities in the north of the land, whereby Baasha was compelled to give up fortifying Eamah and with- draw to Thirza. Ijon (i^'V) is to be sought for in all probability in Tell Dibhin, on the eastern border of Mcrj Äyun ; and in Ajun, although Ajun is written with Aleph, the name Ijon is probably preserved, since the situation of this Tell seems thoroughly adapted for a fortress on the northern border of Israel {vid. Ptobinson, Bill. Bcs. p. 375, and Van de Velde, Mem. p. 322). Dan is the present Tell el Kadi ; see at Josh. xix. 47. Ahel-Beth-Maacliah, the present AUl el Kamh, to the north-west of Lake Huleh (see at 2 Sam. xx. 1 4). " All Cliinneroth " is the district of Chinnereth, the tract of land on the western shore of the Lake of Gennesareth (see at Josh. xix. 3 5). 'J P.^"-'? "^V, together with all the land of N"aphtali (for this meaning of ?J^ compare the Comm. on Gen. xxxii. 12). The cities named were duct may probably be explained in part from the fact, that notwithstanding the victory, his army had been considerably weakened by the battle which he fought with the Cushites (2 Chron. xiv. 9), although this by no means justified his want of confidence in the power of the Lord, and still less his harsh and unjust treatment of the prophet Hanani, whom he caused to be put in the house of the stocks on account of his condemnation of the con- fidence which he placed in the Syrians instead of Jehovah (2 Chron. xvi. 7-10). 222 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. the principal fortresses of tlie land of Naplitali^ with which the whole of the country round was also smitten, i.e. laid waste. — Ver. 21. "^^JX and remained at Thirza, his place of residence (see at ch. xiv. 17). — Ver. 22. Asa thereupon summoned all Judah ''i?3 T^, nemine immuni, i.e. excepto, no one being free (cf Ewald, § 286, a), and had the stones and the wood carried away from Ramah, and Geha and Miz'pah in Benjamin built, i.e. fortified, with them. Gela must not be confounded with Gibeah of Benjamin or Saul, but is the present Jela, three-quarters of an hour to the north-east of Eamah (see at Josh, xyiii. 24). Mizjpali, the present Nehi Samivil, about three-quarters of a geo- graphical mile to the south-west of Eamah (see at Josh, xviii. 26). — ^Vers. 23, 24. Of the other acts of Asa, the building of cities refers to the building of fortifications mentioned in 2 Chron. xiv. 5, 6. The disease in his feet in the time of his old age commenced, according to 2 Chron. xvi. 12, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign ; and he sought help from the physicians, but not from the Lord ; from which we may see, that the longer he lived the more he turned his heart away from the Lord (compare 2 Chron. xvi. 10). CHAP. XV. 2 5 -XVI. 28. REIGNS OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL, NAD AB, BAASHA, ELAH, ZIMPJ, AND OMRI. Vers. 25-32. The Eeign of Nadab lasted not quite two years, as he ascended the throne in the second year of Asa, and was slain in his third year. — ^Ver. 6. He walked in the ways of his father (Jeroboam) and in his sin, i.e. in the calf- worship intro- duced by Jeroboam (ch. xii. 28). When Nadab in the second year of his reign besieged Gibbethon, which the Philistines had occupied, Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house, i.e. the family or tribe, of Issachar, conspired against him and slew him, and after he became king exterminated the whole house of Jero- boam, without leaving a single soul, whereby the prediction of the prophet Ahijah (ch. xiv. 10 sqq.) was fulfilled. GihbctJwn, which was allotted to the Danites (Josh. xix. 44), has not yet been discovered. It probably stood close to the Philistian border, and was taken by the Philistines, from whom the Israel- ites attempted to wrest it by siege under both Nadab and Baasha (ch. xvi. 16), though apparently without success, ii? no^j-^3 "^^^^'1 as in Josh. xi. 14 (see the Comm. on Deut. xx. CHAP. XV. SC-XVI. 7. 223 16). — Ver. 32 is simply a repetition of ver. 16 ; and the re- mark concerning Baasha's attitude towards Asa of Judah im- mediately after his entrance upon the government precedes the account of his reign, for the purpose of indicating at the very outset, that the overthrow of the dynasty of Jeroboam and the rise of a new dynasty did not alter the hostile relation between the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah. Ver. 33-ch. xvi. 7. The Eeign of Baasha. is described very briefly according to its duration (two years) and its spirit, namely, the attitude of Baasha towards the Lord (ver. 34) ; there then follow in ch. xvi. 1—4 the words of the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani (2 Chron. xvi. 7), concerning the ex- termination of the family of Baasha ; and lastly, in vers. 5-7, his death is related with the standing allusion to the annals of the kings. The words of Jehu concerning Baasha (ch. xvi. 1-4) coincide exactly mutatis mutandis with the words of Ahijah concerning Jeroboam.-^ The expression " exalted thee out of the dust," instead of " from among the people" (ch. xiv. 7), leads to the corjecture that Baasha had risen to be king from a very low position. STTKil (his might) in ver. 5 refers, as in the case of Asa (ch, xv. 23), less to brave warlike deeds, than generally to the manifestation of strength and energy in his government. — Ver. 7 adds a supplementary remark concern- ing the words of Jehu (vers. 2 sqq.), not to preclude an excuse that might be made, in which case DJ1 would have to be taken in the sense of nevertheless, or notwithstanding (Ewald, S 354, a), but to guard against a misinterpretation by adding a new fea- ture, or rather to preclude an erroneous inference that might be drawn from the words, " I (Jehovah) have made thee prince " ^ "There was something very strange in the perversity and stohdity of the kings of Israel, that when they saw that the families of preceding kings were evidently overthrown by the command of God on account of the worship of the calves, and they themselves had overturned them, they nevertheless worshipped the same calves, and placed them before the people for them to worship, that they might not return to the temple and to Asa, king of Jeru- salem ; though prophets denounced it and threatened their destruction. Truly the devil and the ambition of reigning blinded them and deprived them of their senses. Hence it came to pass, through the just judgment of God, that they all were executioners of one another in turn : Baasha was the executioner of the sons of Jeroboam ; Zambri was the executioner of the sons of Baasha ; and the executioner of Zambri was Omri." — C. a Lapide. 224 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. (ver. 2), as though Baasha had exterminated Nadab and his house by divine command (Thenius). Di"i simply means " and also" and is not to be connected specially with Xin^ i;;3, but to be taken as belonging to the whole sentence : " also the word of Jehovah had come to Baasha through Jehu, . , . not only because of the evil, etc., but also QV\ . . . ?V]) because he had slain him (Jeroboam)." With regard to this last reason, we mvist call to mind the remark made at ch. xi. 39, viz. that the prediction of the prophet to Baasha gave him no right to put himself forward arbitrarily as the fulfiUer of the prophecy. The very fact that Baasha continued Jeroboam's sin and caused the illegal worship to be perpetuated, showed clearly enough that in exterminating the family of Jeroboam he did not act under divine direction, but simply pursued his own selfish ends. Vers. 8-14. The Eeign of Elah. — As Baasha reigned frora the third to the twenty-sixth year of Asa, i.e. not quite twenty- four years, but only twenty-three years and a few months, so his son Elah reigned from the twenty-sixth to the twenty-seventh year of Asa, i.e. not quite two years. — Vers. 9, 10. Zimri, the com- mander of the half of his war-chariots, conspired against him, and not only slew him, when he was intoxicated (list?' nnt*') at a drinking bout in the house of Arza, the prefect of his palace, but after ascending the throne exterminated the whole family of Baasha to the very last man. The prefect of the palace was no doubt a party to the conspiracy, and had probably arranged the drinking bout in his house for the purpose of carrying it out. " He did not leave him yp.} PJ^f o (see at ch. xiv. 1 0), either his avengers (1/^3, blood-relations, who might have avenged his death) or his friends." These words simply serve to explain y\>2 pnti'O, and show that this phrase is to be understood as relating to males only. — Vers. 12, 13. " According to the word of the Lord ;" see at vers. 1 sqq. nist3n-^3 h^^ with regard to all, i.e. on account of all the sins (compare ver. 7, where ^V is used). Dn^nnn, through their notliingnesses, i.e. their idols, by which the golden calves are meant. Vers. 15-22. The PcEIGN of Zimei lasted only seven days. As soon as the people of war (pVT\), who were besieging Gib- bethon (see at ch. xv. 27), heard of his conspiracy, his usurpa- tion of the throne, and his murderous deeds, they proclaimed CHAP. XVr. 23-28, 225 Omri king in the camp of the military commanders, and he at once, with all Israel, i.e. all the army, raised the siege of Gib- bethon, to lay siege to Thirza. Now when Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the castle of the royal palace and burned the king's house over his own head, as Sardanapalus did, according to Justin {Hist. i. 3). |iö"is does not mean harem (Ewald), but the high castle (from Q"l^, to be high) ; here and in 2 Kings xv. 25, the citadel of the royal palace, which con- sisted of several buildings. — Ver. 19 is connected with rib'i in ver. 18: "and so died for his sins," i.e. as a punishment for them. — Vers. 21, 22. But Omri did not come into pos- session of an undisputed sovereignty immediately upon the death of Zimri. The nation divided itself into two halves ; one half was behind Tihii, the son of Ginath {i.e. declared in favour of Tibni), to make him king, the other adhered to Omri. Never- theless Omri's gained the upper hand over the party of Tibni, and the latter died, whereupon Omri became king after four years, as we may see from a comparison of vers. 15, 16 with ver. 23. The ''people of Israel" (ver. 21) are probably the lighting people, so that the succession to the throne was decided by the military, "'"inx n^n as in 2 Sam. ii. 10. p\^, with an accusative instead of with ^V, in the sense of to overpower, as in Jer. XX. 7. According to Josephus {Ant. viii. 12, 5), Tibni was slain by his opponent ; but this is not contained in the words ; on the contrary, all that is implied in the connection of nbM with 'IJI ptn'l is that he met with his death in the decisive en- gagement in which the opposing party triumphed. Vers. 23-28. The Eeign of Omei. — Ver. 23. Omri reigned twelve years, i.e., if we compare vers. 15 and 23 with ver. 29, reckoning from his rebellion against Zimri ; so that he only possessed the sole government for eight years (or, more exactly, seven years and a few months), viz. from the 31st to the 38th years of Asa, and the conflict with Tibni for the possession of the throne lasted about four years. " At Thirza he reigned six years," i.e. during the four years of the conflict with Tibni, and after his death two years more. — Ver. 24. As soon as he had obtained undisputed possession of the throne, he purchased the hill Shomron (Samaria) from Shemer {Semer) for two talents of silver, about 5200 thalers (£780 — Tr.), built houses upon it, and named the town which he built after the former owner of P 226 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. the hill liip't^', rendered by the LXX. l!e/u.7]pcov here, but every- where else ^afxdpeia (Samaria), after the Chaldee form P.P^ (Ezra iv. 10, 17). This city he made his seat {Residenz, place of residence, or capital), in which he resided for the last six years of his reign, and where he was buried after his death (ver. 28). Samaria continued to be the capital of the kingdom of the ten tribes from that time forward, and the residence of all succeed- ing kings of Israel until the destruction of this Idngdom after its conquest by Salmanasar (2 Kings xviii. 9, 10). The city was two hours and a half to the north-west of Sichem, upon a mountain or hill in a mountain-hollow {Bergkessel, lit. moun- tain-caldron) or basin of about two hours in diameter, sur- rounded on all sides by still higher mountains. " The mountains and valleys round about are still for the most part arable, and are alive with numerous villages and diligent cultivation." The mountain itself upon which Samaria stood is still cultivated to the very top, and about the middle of the slope is surrounded by a narrow terrace of level ground resembling a girdle. And even higher up there are marks of smaller terraces, where streets of the ancient city may possibly have run. After the captivity Samaria was retaken and demolished by John Hyrcanus, and lay in ruins till Gabinius the Eoman governor rebuilt it (Joseph. Ant. xiii. 19, 2, 3, and xiv. 5, 3). Herod the Great afterwards decorated it in a marvellous manner, built a temple there to the emperor Augustus, and named the city after him "Zeßaarrj, i.e. Augusta, from which arose the present name Sehuste or Scbustieh, borne by a village which is still standing on the ancient site : " a pitiable hamlet consisting of a few squalid houses, inhabited by a band of plunderers, notorious as thieves even among their lawless fellow-countrymen" (V. de Velde, i. p. 378). — But by the side of this there are magnificent ruins of an ancient Johan- nite church, with the reputed grave of John the Baptist and remains of limestone columns at the foot of the mountain (cf. Eobinson, Pal. iii. p. 136 sqq. ; Van de Velde, Sijria and Pal. i. p. 374 sqq. ; and C. v. Eaumer, Pal. pp. 159, 160). — Vers. 25, 26. Omri also walked in the ways of Jeroboam, and acted worse than his predecessors upon the throne. — For vers. 26 and 27, compare vers. 13 and 14. chap. xvi. 29, etc. 227 2. Feom Ahab's Ascent of the Throne to the Death of JoEAM of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah. Chap. xvi. 29-2 Kings x. 27. In this epoch, which embraces only thirty-four years, the history of the kings of Judah falls so far into the background behind the history of the kingdom of Israel, that it seems to form merely an appendix to it ; and the history of the monarchy is so controlled by the description of the labours of the prophets, that it seems to be entirely absorbed in them. These pheno- mena have their foundation in the development of the two Idng- doms during this period. Through the alliance and affinity of Jehoshaphat with the idolatrous Ahab, the kingdom of Judah not only lost the greatest part of the blessing which the long and righteous reign of this pious king had brought, but it became so entangled in the political and religious confusion of the king- dom of Israel in consequence of the participation of Jehosha- phat in the wars between Israel and the Syrians, and other foes, and the inclination of Joram and Ahaziah to the worship of Baal, -that its further development during this period was almost entirely dependent upon the history of Israel. In the latter kingdom the prophets maintained a fierce confhct with the ido- latry introduced by Ahab and Jezebel, in which the worship of Baal did indeed eventually succumb, but the pure lawful wor- ship of Jehovah did not attain to full supremacy, so that this great spiritual conflict was no more followed by a permanent blessing to the kingdom as such, than the single victories of Ahab and Joram over the Syrians by outward peace and rest from its oppressors. To guard against the spreading apostasy of the people from the living God through the exaltation of the worship of Baal into the ruling national religion in Israel, the Lord raised up the most powerful of all the prophets, Elijah the Tishbite, with his fiery zeal, who worked so mightily upon the formation of the spiritual life of the covenant nation and the fate of the kingdom, not only in his own person in the reigns of Ahab and Ahaziah (ch. xvii.-2 Kings ii.), but indi- rectly in the person of his successor Elisha under Joram (2 Kings iii.-ix.), and also under the succeeding kings of Israel, that the labours of these prophets and their disciples form the central and culminating point of the Old Testament kingdom of God during the period in question. 228 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. CHAP. XVI. 29-34. THE EEIGX OF AHAB OF ISIIAEL. The ascent of the throne of Israel by Ahab (ver. 29) formed a turning-point for the worse, though, as a comparison of ver. 30 with ver. 25 clearly shows, the way had already been pre- pared by his father Omri. — Vers. 30, 31. Whereas the former kings of Israel had only perpetuated the sin of Jeroboam, i.e. the calf-worship, or worship of Jehovah under the image of an ox, which he had introduced, Ahab was not satisfied with this. ^ inap 'Pip.Jn ''n^i^ " it came to pass, was it too little ?" i.e. because it was too little (cf. Ewald, § 362, a) to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, that he took as his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal the kinii of the Sidonians, and served Baal, and wor- shipped him. "^^X before *12I^!5, " he went and served," is a pic- torial description of what took place, to give greater prominence to the new turn of affairs, ^'i'^n? {i-c with Baal) is the EWcoßaXo^ (7yn inx or ^I66ßa\o^ : Jos. Ant. viii. 13, 1) mentioned by Menan- der in Josephus, c. Ap. i. 1 8, who was king of Tyre and Sidon, and priest of Astarte, and who usurped the throne after the murder of his brother, king Pheles, and reigned thirty-two years. Jeze- bel (^?r^, improbably without cohabitation, cf. Gen. xxx. 20,= untouched, chaste ; not a contraction of ''^.r-?^» ^'^ Ewald, ^ 273, Z/, supposes) was therefore, as tyrant and murderess of the prophets, a worthy daughter of her father, the idolatrous priest and regicide. Baal (always ^7^'^ with the article, the Baal, i.e. Lord Kar i^o'^yjv) was the principal male deity of the Phoenicians and Canaanites, and generally of the western Asiatics, called by the Babylonians 73 = Sys (Isa. xlvi. 1), BijjXo'i, and as the sun-god was worshipped as the supporter and first principle of psychical life and of the generative and reproductive power of nature (see at Judg. ii. 13). Ahab erected an altar to this deity pV2^ JT'a, in the house (temple) of Baal, which he had built at Samaria. The worship of Baal had its principal seat in Tyre, where Hiram, the contemporary of David and Solomon, had built for it a splendid temple and placed a golden pillar (■)(pvaovv Kiova) therein, according to Dius and Menander, in Joseph. Ant. viii. 5, 3, and c. A2J. i. 18. Ahab also erected a similar pillar ('">?■??) to Baal in his temple at Samaria (^cid. 2 Kings iii. 2, x. 27). For statues or images of Baal are not met with in the earlier times ; and the Q v^l are not statues of Baal, but different modifications of that deity. It was only in the later temple of Baal or Hercules at Tyre that there was, as CHAP. XVI. 29-34. 229 Cicero observes (Vcrr. iv. 43), ex cere simulacrum ipsius HercuUs, quo non facile quidquam dixcrivi mc vidissc 2^ulcrius. — Ver. 33. " And Ahab made '"'7^'^!^}"^^; ^-c- the Asherali belonging to the temple of Baal" (see at Judg. vi. 25 and Ex. xxxiv, 13), an idol of Astarte (see at ch. xiv. 23). — Ver. 34. In his time Hiiil the Bethelite C^xn n^3 ; compare Ges. § HI, 1 with § 86, 2. 5) built Jericho : " he laid the foundation of it with Abiram his first- born, and set up its gates with Segub his youngest, according to the word of Jehovah," etc. (for the explanation see the Comm. on. Josh. vi. 26). The restoration of this city as a fortification, upon which Joshua had pronounced the curse, is mentioned as a proof how far ungodliness had progressed in Israel ; whilst the fulfil- ment of the curse upon the builder shows how the Lord will not allow the word of His servants to be transgressed with impunity, Jericho, on the border of the tribe of Ephraim (Josh. xvi. 7), which was allotted to the Benjaminites (Josh, xviii. 21), had come into the possession of the kingdom of Israel on the falling away of the ten tribes from the royal house of David, and formed a border city of that kingdom, through the fortification of which Ahab hoped to secure to himself the passage across the Jordan. The proplicts Elijah and Elisha. When Ahab, who was not satisfied with the sin of Jeroboam, had introduced the worship of Baal as the national religion in the kingdom of the ten tribes, and had not only built a temple to Baal in his capital and place of residence, but had also appointed a very numerous priesthood to maintain the worship (see ch. xviii. 19); and when his godless wife Jezebel was perse- cuting the prophets of Jehovah, for the purpose of exterminat- ing the worship of the true God : the Lord God raised up the most powerful of all the prophets, namely Elijah the Tishbite, who by his deeds attested his name ^'"i*r^ or n'px^ ^.c. whose God is Jehovah. For however many prophets of Jehovah arose in the kingdom of the ten tribes from its very commencement and bore witness against the sin of Jeroboam in the power of the Spirit of God, and threatened the kings with the extermination of their house on account of this sin, no other prophet, either before or afterwards, strove and worked in the idolatrous king- dom for the honour of the Lord of Sabaoth with anything like the same mighty power of God as the prophet Elijah. And there was no other prophet whom the Lord so gloriously acknow- 230 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. leclged by signs and wonders as Elijah, although He fulfilled the words of all His servants by executing the judgments with which they had threatened the rebellious, and whenever it was necessary accredited them as His messengers by miraculous signs. — Although, in accordance with the plan of our books, which was to depict the leading features in the historical development of the kingdom, all that is related in detail of the life and labours of Elijah is the miracles which he performed in his conflict with the worshippers of Baal, and the miraculous display of the omni- potence and grace of God which he experienced therein ; yet we may see very clearly that these formed but one side of his prophetic labours from the passing notices of the schools of the prophets, which he visited once more before his departure from the earth (2 Kings ii.) ; from which it is obvious that this other side of his ministry, which was more hidden from the world, was not less important than his public ministry before the Idngs and magnates of the land. For these societies of " sons of the prophets," which we meet with at Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho (2 Kings ii. 3, 5, iv. 38), had no doubt been called into exist- ence by Elijah, by associating together those whose souls were fitted to receive the Spirit of God for mutual improvement in the knowledge and fear of Jehovah, in order to raise up witnesses to the truth and combatants for the cause of the Lord, and through these societies to provide the godly, who would not bow the loiee before Baal, with some compensation for the loss of the Levitical priesthood and the want of the temple-worship. Compare the remarks on the schools of the prophets at 1 Sam. xix. 24. — The more mightuy idolatry raised its head in the kingdom of Israel, the more powerfully did the Lord show to His people that He, Jehovah, and not Baal, was God and Lord in Israel. In the prophet Elijah there were combined in a marvellous manner a life of solitude spent in secret and contemplative intercourse with God, and an extraordinary power for action, which would suddenly burst forth, and by which he acted as a personal representative of God (see at ch. xvii. 1). In his person the spirit of Moses revived ; he was the restorer of the kingdom of God in Israel, of which Moses was the founder. His life recalls that of Moses in many of its features : namely, his flight into the desert, the ap- pearance of the Lord to him at Horeb, and the marvellous ter- mination of his life. Moses and Elijah are the Coryphaei of the Old Testament, in whose life and labours the nature and glory CHAP. XVII. 231 of this covenant are reflected. As the thnnder and lightning and the blast of trumpets and the smoking mountain bare witness to the devouring fire of the holiness of the God who had come down upon Sinai to give effect to the promises He had made to the fathers, and to make the children of Israel the people of His possession ; so does the fiery zeal of the law come out so power- fully in Moses and Elijah, that their words strike the ungodly like lightning and flames of fire, to avenge the honour of the Lord of Sabaoth and maintain His covenant of grace in Israel. Moses as lawgiver, and Elijah as prophet, are, as Ziegler has well said (p. 206), the two historical anticipations of those two future witnesses, which are " the two olive-trees and two torches stand- ing before the God of the earth. And if any one will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies ; and if any man will hurt them, he must therefore be slain. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy, and have power over waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with all kinds of plagues, as often as they will " (Eev. xi. 4 sqq.). Elijah was called to this office of witness to turn the heart of the fathers to the sons, and of the sons to their fathers (Mai. iii. 24), so that in his ministry the prophecy of the future of the kingdom of God falls quite into the back- ground. Nevertheless he was not only a forerunner but also a type of the Prophet promised by Moses, who was to fulfil both law and prophets (Matt. v. 1 7) ; and therefore he appeared as the representative of prophecy, along with Moses the representative of the law, upon the mount of the Transfiguration, to talk with Christ of the decease which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem (Luke ix. 31 ; Matt. xvii. 3). — To continue his work, Elijah, by command of God, called Elishct the son of Shaphat, of Abel- Meholah, who during the whole of his prophetic course carried on with power the restoration of the law in the kingdom of Israel, which his master had begun, by conducting schools of the pro- phets and acting as the counsellor of kings, and proved himself by many signs and wonders to be the heir of a double portion of the gifts of Elijah. Modern theology, which has its roots in naturalism, has taken offence at the many miracles occurring in the history of these two prophets, but it has overlooked the fact that these miracles were regulated by the extraordinary circumstances under which Elijah and Elisha worked. At a time when the i/ ^ 232 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. sovereignty of the living God in Israel was not only called in question, but was to be destroyed by the worship of Baal, it was necessary that Jehovah as the covenant God should interpose in a supernatural manner, and declare His eternal Godhead in extraordinary miracles. In the kingdom of the ten tribes there were no priestly or Levitical duties performed, nor was there the regular worship of God in a temple sanctified by. Jehovah Himself; whilst the whole order of life prescribed in the law was undermined by unrighteousness and ungodliness. But with all this, the kingdom was not yet ripe for the judg- ment of rejection, because there were still seven thousand in the land who had not bowed their knee before Baal. For the sake of these righteous men, the Lord had still patience with the sinful kingdom, and sent it prophets to call the rebellious to repentance. If, then, under the circumstances mentioned, the prophets were to fulfil the purpose of their mission and carry on the conflict against the priests of Baal with success, they needed a much greater support on the part of God, through the medium of miracles, than the prophets in the kingdom of Judah, who had powerful and venerable supports in the Levi- tical priesthood and the lawful worship.-^ It is only when we overlook the object of these miracles, therefore, that they can possibly appear strange. " If," as Kurtz has said,^ " we take the history of our prophet as one living organic link in the whole of the grand chain of the marvellous works of God, which stretches from Sinai to Golgotha and the Mount of Olives, and bear in mind the peculiarity of the position and circumstances of Elijah, the occurrence of a miracle in itself, and even the accumulation of them and their supposed externality, will 1 " Where the temple was wanting, and image-worship took its place, and the priesthood was an unlawful caste, it was only by extraordinary methods that the spreading evil could be met. The illegitimacy, Avhich was represented here by the monarchy and priesthood, was opposed by the prophetic order as the representative of the law, and therefore also as a peculiarly constituted and strong body divided up into societies of considerable scope, and having a firm organization. And this prophetic order, as the only accredited repre- sentative of the law, also took the place of the law, and was therefore en- dowed with the power and majesty of the law which had been manifested in wonders and signs. Not only was the spirit of Moses inherited by Elijah and others, but his miraculous power also." — Haevernick, Einl. in d. A. Test. ii. 1, pp. 16G, 167. Compare Hengstenberg, Dissertation, vol. i. p. 186 sqq. 2 Herzog's Cychpsßdia, Art. Elijah. CHAP. XVII. 233 appear to us in a very different light. — "Without miracle, with- out very striking, i.e. external miracles, their ministry would have been without basis, without a starting-point, and without hold." — The miracles are still more numerous in the history of Elisha, and to some extent bear such a resemblance to those of Elijah, that the attempt has been made to set them down as merely legendary imitations of the latter ; but considered as a whole, they are more of a helpful and healing nature, whereas those of Elijah are for the most part manifestations of judicial and punitive wrath. The agreement and the difference may both be explained from Elisha's position in relation to Elijah and his time. By the performance of similar and equal miracles (such as the division of the Jordan, 2 Kings ii. 8 and 14 ; the increase of the oil, 2 Kings iv. 3 sqq. compared with 1 Kings xvii. 14 sqq.; the raising of the dead, 2 Kings iv. 34 sqq. compared with 1 Kings xvii. 19 sqq.) Elisha proved him- self to be the divinely-appointed successor of Elijah, who was carrying forward his master's work (just as Joshua by the drying up of the Jordan proved himself to be the continuer of the work of Moses), and as such performed more miracles, so far as number is concerned, than even his master had done, though he was far inferior to him in spiritual power. But the difference does not prevail throughout. For whilst the helpful and healing side of Elijah's miraculous power is dis- played in his relation to the widow at Zarephath ; the judicial and punitive side of that of Elisha comes out in the case of the mocking boys at Bethel, of Gehazi, and of Joram's knight. But the predominance of strict judicial sternness in the case of Elijah, and of sparing and helpful mildness in that of Elisha, is to be accounted for not so much from any difference in the personality of the two, as from the altered circumstances. Elijah, with his fiery zeal, had broken the power of the Baal- worship, and had so far secured an acknowledgment of the authority of Jehovah over His people that Joram and the succeeding kings gave heed to the words of the prophets of the Lord ; so that Elisha had for the most part only to cherish and further the conversion of the people to their God, for which Elijah had prepared the way. CHAP. XVII. FIRST APPEARANCE OF ELIJAH. The prophet Elijah predicts to Ahab, as a punishment for his idolatry, the coming of a drought and famine. During their con- 234 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. tinuance he is miraculously preserved by God^ first of all at the brook Cherith, and then at the house of a widow at Zarephath (vers. 1-16), Avhose deceased son he calls to life again (vers. 17-24). Ver. 1. Elijah the Tishbite is introduced without the for- mula " The word of the Lord came to . . ./' with which the ap- pearance of the prophets is generally announced, proclaiming to king Ahab in the name of the Lord the punitive miracle of a drought that will last for years. This abrupt appearance of Elijah cannot be satisfactorily explained from the fact that we have not the real commencement of his history here ; it is rather a part of the character of this mightiest of all the prophets, and indicates that in him the divine power of the Spirit appeared as it were personified, and his life and acts were the direct effluence of the higher power by which he was impelled. His origin is also uncertain. The epithet ''3t^nn is generally derived from a place called Tishleh, since, according to Tobit i. 2, there existed in Upper Galilee a ©laßr] eK Se^ioov KvB[(o<;, " on the right, i.e. to the south of Kydios," probably Kedesli in the tribe of ISTaphtali, from which the elder Tobias was carried away captive, although this description of the place is omitted in the Hebrew version of the book of Tobit issued by Fagius and Münster, and in the Vuloate. And to this we must adhere, and as no other Thisbe occurs, must accept this Galilean town as the birthplace of Elijah ; in which case the expression " of the settlers of Gilead " indicates that Elijah did not live in his birthplace, but dwelt as a foreigner in Gilead. Eor 2^in in itself by no means denotes a non-Israelite, but, like i?, simply one who lived away from his home and tribe relations in the territory of a different tribe, without having been enrolled as a member of it, as is clearly shown by Lev. xxv. 40, and still more clearly by Judg. xvii. 7, where a Levite who was born in Bethlehem is described as "i3 in the tribe of Ephraim.-^ The expression " as truly as Jehovah 1 The supposition of Seb. Schmidt, with which I formerly agreed, namely, that Elijah was a foreigner, a Gentile by birth, after furtlier examination I can no longer uphold, though not from the a priori objection raised against it by Kurtz (in Herzog's Cycl), namely, that it would show a complete mis- apprehension of the significance of Israel in relation to sacred history and the history of the Avorld, and that neither at this nor any other time in the Old Testament history could a prophet for Israel be called from among the Gen- tiles,— an assertion of which it would bedifficult to find any proof, — but because we are not forced to this conclusion by either "»ac'nn or ny^j '2C''np. For CHAP. XVII. 1. 235 the God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand (i.e. whom I serve; see at ch. i. 2), there shall not fall dew and rain these years, except at my word/' was a special ajDplication of the threats of the law in Deut. xi. 16, 17, xxviii. 23, 24, and Lev. xxvi. 19, to the idolatrous kingdom, npxn D''JK'n, ''these (ensuing) years," does not fix any definite terminus. In ''"l^l "'S? there is involved an emphatic antithesis to others, and more especially to the prophets of Baal. " When I shall say this by divine authority and might, let others prate and lie as they may please " {Berleb. Bibel). Elijah thereby describes himself as one into whose power the God of Israel has given up the idolatrous king and his people. In Jas. v. 17, 18, this act of Elijah is even if the Thisbeh in Tob. i. 2 should not be Elijah's birthplace, it would not follow that there was no other place named Thisbeh in existence. How many- places in Canaan are there that are never mentioned in the Old Testament ! And such cases as that described in Judg. vii. 7, where the Levite is said to have left his birthplace and to have lived in another tribe as a foreigner or settler, may not have been of rare occurrence, since the Mosaic law itself refers to it in Lev. xxv. 41. — Again, the LXX. were unable to explain i^t^'no *7j;[?:i, and have paraphrased these words in an arbitrary manner by ö ix, Qsaßuv TT,; r«7ia««5, from which Thenius and Ewald conjecture that there was a Thisbeh in Gilead, and that it was probably the Tisieli (^AaaaJ^L) mentioned by Eobinson {Pal. iii. 153) to the south of Busra=Bostra. The five argu- ments by which Kurtz has attempted to establish the probability of this con- jecture are very weak. For (1) the defective writing i^tJ'riö ^J no means proves that the word which is written plene (3E>>in) in every other case must necessarily have been so written in the stat. constr. plur. ; and this is the only passage in the whole of the Old Testament in which it occurs in the stat. constr. plur. ; — (2) the precise description of the place given in Tobit i. 2 does not at all lead " to the assumption that the Galilean Thisbeh was not the only place of that name," but may be fully explained from the fact that Thisbeh was a small and insignificant place, the situation of which is defined by a reference to a larger town and one better known ; — (3) there is no doubt that " Gilead very frequently denotes the whole of the country to the east of the Jordan," but this does not in the least degree prove that there was a Thisbeh in the country to the east of the Jordan ; — (4) "that the distinction and dif- ference between a birthplace and a place of abode are improbable in themselves, and not to be expected in this connection," is a perfectly unfounded assump- tion, and has first of all to be proved ; — (5) the Tisieh mentioned by Robinson cannot be taken into consideration, for the simple reason that the assumption of a copyist's error, the confusion of a with a ( T'ls/e/i instead of Thisbeh), founders on the long i of the first syllable in Tisieh ; moreover the Arabic ij corresponds to the Hebrew L3 and not to n. 236 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. ascribed to the power of his prayers, since Elijah " was also a man such as we are," inasmuch as the prophets received their power to work solely through faith and intercourse with God in prayer, and faith gives power to remove mountains. Vers. 2-9. After the announcement of this judgment, Elijah had to hide himself, by the command of God, until the period of punishment came to an end, not so much that he might be safe from the wrath and pursuit of Ahab and Jezebel, as to preclude all earnest entreaties to remove the punishment. " For inasmuch as the prophet had said that the rain would come at his w^ord, how would they have urged him to order it to come ! " (Seb. Schm.) He was to turn '^^'^P.., eastward, i.e. from Samaria, where he had no doubt proclaimed the divine judgment to Aliab, to the Jordan, and to hide himself at the brook Chcrith, which is in front of the Jordan. The brook Cherith was in any case a brook emptying itself into the Jordan; but whether upon the eastern or the western side of that river, the ambiguity of ''^^'V, which means both " to the east of " (Gen. xxv. 1 8) and also " in the face of," i.e. before or towards (Gen. xvi. 1 2, xviii. 1 6), it is impossible to determine with certainty. That it must signify " to the east of the Jordan " here, does not follow from i^^lp. with anything like the certainty that Thenius supposes. An ancient tradition places the Cherith on this side of the Jordan, and identifies it Avith the spring Phasaelis, which takes its rise in the slope of the mountains into the Jordan valley above the city of Phasaelis, and empties itself into the Jordan (cf. Ges. tlics. p. 719, and V. de Velde, Eclsc, ii. pp. 273-4) ; whereas Eusebius,in the Onom. s.v. Chorat (Xoppd), places it on the other side of the Jordan, and Thenius thinks of the apparently deep Wady Eajih or Ajlun. All that can be affirmed with certainty is, that neither the brook Kanah (Josh. xvi. 8, xvii. 9), which flows into the JMediterranean, nor the Wady Kelt near Jericho, which Eobinson {Pal. ii. p. 288) suggests, can possibly come into consideration : the latter for the simple reason^ that the locality in the neighbourhood of Jericho was unsuitable for a hiding-place. Elijah was to drink of this brook, and the ravens by divine command were to provide him with bread and meat, which they brought him, according to ver. 6, both morning and evening. It is now generally admitted that L2''3")j?n does not mean either Arabs or Orebites (the inhabitants of an imaginary city named Oreb), but ravens. Through this miracle, which un- believers reject, because they do not acknowledge a living God, by CHAP. XVII. 10-1 G. 237 whom, as the Creator and Lord of all creatures, even the voracious ravens are made subservient to His plans of salvation, Elijah was not only cut off from intercourse with men, who might have betrayed his place of abode to the king, but was mightily strengthened himself, through the confidence inspired in the almighty assistance of his God, for his approaching contests with the worshippers of idols, and for the privations and sufferings which awaited him in the fulfilment of his vocation. — Vers. 7-9. After some time this brook dried up for want of rain. Then the Lord directed His servant to go to the Sidonian Zarcphath, and to live with a widow whom He had commanded to provide for him. D''»^ f Ipn does not mean i^ost annum, for D''D^ merely derives this meaning in certain passages from the context (cf. Lev. xxv. 29 ; 1 Sam. xxvii. 7 ; Judg. xvii. 10); whereas in this instance the con- text does not point to the space of a year, but to a longer period of indefinite duration, all that we know being that, according to ch. xviii. 1, the sojourn of Elijah at Cherith and Zarephath lasted at least two years. Zarephath (Xapeina, LXX.) was situated on the Mediterranean Sea between Tyre and Sidon, where a mise- rable Mohammedan village with ruins and a promontory. Sura- fend, still preserve the name of the former town (Eob, iii. p. 413 sqq., and V. de Velde, Syria and Palestine, i. pp. 101-3, transl.). Vers. 10—16. When Elijah arrived at the city gate, he met a widow engacred in gatherino- wood. To discover whether it was to her that the Lord had sent him, he asked her for something to drink and for a morsel of bread to eat ; whereupon she assured him, with an oath by Jehovah, that she had nothing baked (3ij?0=:n3y^ ijKpvcpia^, a cake baked in hot ashes), but only a handful of meal in the ^| (a pail or small vessel in which meal was kept) and a little oil in the pitcher, and that she was just gathering wood to dress this remnant for herself and her son, that they might eat it, and then die. From this statement of the Avidow it is evident, on the one hand, that the drought and famine had spread across the Phoenician frontier, as indeed Menander of Ephesus attests ;^ on the other hand, the widow shoAved by the oath, " as Jehovah thy God liveth," that she was a worshipper of the true God, who spoke of JcJiovah as his God, ^ Josephus gives this statement from his Phoenician history : dopoxla n tx' avrov {sc. ^löoßa.'Kov) syi'jSTO ktto rov 'T'77spßipiTUiov juyjuog 'iug rov ipy^oi/.iuoir iTovg 'TTTipßipiTo.iov {Ant. viii. 13, 2). Hyperhcretaius answers to Tishri of the Hebrews ; cf. Benfey and Stern, die Monatsnamen, p. 18. 238 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. because she recognised the prophet as an Israelite. — Vers. 13 sqq. In order, however, to determine with indisputable certainty whether this believing Gentile was the protectress assigned him by the Lord, Elijah comforted her, and at the same time desired her first of all to bake him a little cake ^f^, i.e. of the last of the meal in the Kad and of the oil in the pitcher, and then to bake for herself and her son, adding this promise : Jehovah the God of Israel wiU not let the meal in the ICad and the oil in the pitcher fail, till He sends rain upon the earth again. And the widow did according to his word. She gave up the certain for the uncertain, because she trusted the word of the Lord, and received the reward of her believing confidence in the fact that during the whole time of the drought she suffered from no want of either meal or oil. This act of the pious Gentile woman, who had welcomed with a simple heart the knowledge of the true God that had reached her from Israel, must have been the source of strong consolation to Elijah in the hour of conflict, when his faith was trembling because of the multitude of idolaters in Israel. If the Lord Himself had raised up true worshippers of His name among the Gentiles, his work in Israel could not be put to shame. The believing widow, however, received from the prophet not only a material blessing, but a spiritual blessing also. Eor, as Christ tells His unbelieving contemporaries to their shame (Luke iv. 25, 26), Elijah was not sent to this widow in order that he might be safely hidden at her house, although this object was better attained thereby than by his remaining longer in Israel ; but because of her faith, namely, to strengthen and to increase it, he was sent to her, and not to one of the many widows in Israel, many of whom would also have received the prophet if they had been rescued by him from the pressure of the famine. And the miraculous increase of the meal and oil did not merely subserve the purpose of keeping the prophet and the widow alive ; but the relief of her bodily need was also meant to be a preparatory means of quieting her spiritual need as well. On the Chdhib ]^^, see at ch. vi. 19. In ver. 15 the Keri nim N\n is an unnecessary emendation of the ChctMb N^'^^ Nin • the feminine form ?3Nni is occasioned primarily by the preceding verbs, and may be taken as an indefinite neuter : " and there ate he and she." The offence which Thenius has taken a't C'?^^ (days) has no foundation, if wq do not understand the sen- tence as referring merely to their eating once of the bread just CHAP. XVII. 17-24. 239 baked, but take it generally as signifying that in consequence of their acting according to the word of Jehovah, they (Elijah, the widow, and her family) ate for days, i.e. until God sent rain again (ver. 14). Vers. 17—24. The loicloid's deceased son raised to life again. — Ver. 17. After these events, when Elijah had taken up his abode in the upper room of her house, her son fell sick, so that he breathed out his life. '1J1 "»^'^^ ly, literally till no breath re- mained in him. That these words do not signify merely a death-like torpor, but an actual decease, is evident from what follows, where Elijah himself treats the boy as dead, and the Lord, in answer to his prayer, restores him to life again. — Ver. 18. The pious woman discerned in this death a punishment from God for her sin, and supposed that it had been drawn to- wards her by the presence of the man of God, so that she said to Elijah, " What have we to do wdth one another (^\ ^"'"ID ; of. Judg. xi. 12 ; 2 Sam. xvi. 10), thou man of God ? Hast thou come to me to bring ray sin to remembrance (with God), and to kill my son ? " In this half-heathenish belief there spoke at the same time a mind susceptible to divine truth and conscious of its sin, to which the Lord could not refuse His aid. Like the blindness in the case of the man born blind mentioned in John ix., the death of this widow's son was not sent as a punishment for particular sins, but was intended as a medium for the manifestation of the works of God in her (John ix. 3), in order that she might learn that the Lord was not merely the God of the Jews, but the God of the Gentiles also (Eom. iii. 29). — ^Vers. 19, 20. Elijah told her to carry the dead child up to the chamber in which he lived and lay it upon his bed, and then cried to the Lord, " Jehovah, my God ! hast Thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, to slay her son ? " These words, in which the word also refers to the other calamities occasioned by the drought, contain no reproach of God, but are expressive of the heartiest compassion for the suffering of his benefactress and the deepest lamentation, which, springing from living faith, pours out the whole heart before God in the hour of distress, that it may appeal to Him the more powerfully for His aid. The meaning is, " Thou, 0 Lord my God, according to Thy grace and righteousness, canst not possibly leave the son of this widow in death." Such confident belief carries within itself the certainty of being heard. The V 240 ^ THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. prophet therefore proceeds at once to action, to restore the boy to life. — Ver. 21. He stretched himself Ol'^^l) three times upon him, not to ascertain whether there was still any life left in him, as Paul did in Acts xx. 10, nor to warm the body of the child and set its blood in circulation, as Elisha did with a dead child (2 Kings iv. 34), — for the action of Elisha is described in a different manner, and the youth mentioned in Acts xx. 1 0 was only apparently dead, — but to bring down the vivifying power of God upon the dead body, and thereby support his own word and prayer.^ He then cried to the Lord, " Jehovah, my God, I pray Thee let the soul of this boy return within it." Sl^'yp'hv, inasmuch as the soul as the vital principle springs from above. — ^Vers. 22, 23. The Lord heard this prayer : the boy came to life again ; whereupon Elijah gave him back to his mother. — Ver. 24. Through this miracle, in which Elijah showed himself as the forerunner of Him who raiseth all the dead to life, the pious Gentile woman was mightily strengthened in her faith in the God of Israel. She now not only recognised Elijah as a man of God, as in ver. 18, but perceived that the word of Jehovah in his mouth was truth, by which she confessed implicite her faith in the God of Israel as the true God. CHAP. XVIII. ELIJAH'S MEETING AVITH AHAB, AND VICTOEY OVER THE PROPHETS OF BAAL. As the judgment of drought and famine did not bring king Ahab to his senses and lead him to turn from his ungodly ways, but only filled him with exasperation towards the pro- phet who had announced to him the coming judgment ; there was no other course left than to lay before the people with mighty and convincing force the proof that Jehovah was the only true God, and to execute judgment upon the priests of Baal as the seducers of the nation. Vers. 1-19. Elijalis meeting ivith Aliah. — Vers. 1 and 2a. In the third year of his sojourn at Zarephath the word of the Lord came to Elijah to show himself to Ahab ; since God was about to send rain upon the land again. The time given, " the third year," is not to be reckoned, as the Eabbins, Clericus, ^ " This was done, that the prophet's body might be the instrument of the miracle, just as in other cases of miracle there was an imposition of the hand." —See. Schmidt. CHAP. XVIII. 1-19. 241 TheniiTS, and others assume, from the commencement of the drought, but from the event last mentioned, namely, the so- journ of Elijah at Zarephath, This view merits the preference as the simplest and most natural one, and is shown to he the oldest by Luke iv. 25 and Jas. v. 17, where Christ and James both say, that in the time of Ahab it did not rain for three years and six months. And this length of time can only be obtained by allowing more than two years for Elijah's stay at Zarephath. — From ver. 2b to ver. 6 we have parenthetical remarks introduced, to explain the circumstances which led to Elijah's meeting with Ahab. The verbs t^^P*}, ^^;1, ">pN*l, and ^pbn]] (vers. 3, 4, 5, 6) carry on the circumstantial clauses: " and the famine was . . ." (ver. 2&), and " Obadiah feared . . ." (ver. 3&), and are therefore to be expressed by the pluperfect. When the famine had become very severe in Samaria (the capital), Ahab, with Obadiah the governor of his castle (P^^. ^^?'I' ''i?, see at cli. iv. 6), who was a God-fearing man, and on the persecution of the prophets of Jehovah by Jezebel had hidden a hundred prophets in caves and supplied them with food, had arranged for an expedition through the whole land to seek for hay for his horses and mules. And for this purpose they had divided the land between them, so that the one explored one district and the other another. We see from ver, 4 that Jezebel had resolved upon exterminating the worship of Jeho- vah, and sought to carry out this intention by destroying the prophets of the true God. The hundred prophets whom Oba- diah concealed were probably for the most part pupils (" sons ") of the prophets, ^''i^ Q''üpn must signify, according to the con- text and also according to ver. 13, "fifty each," so that D''tJ'pn must have fallen out through a copyist's error. I^ ^'''laj aSb\, that we may not be obliged to kill (a portion) of the cattle (r? partitive). The Kcri '"'O'l?']? is no doubt actually correct, but it is not absolutely necessary, as the ChetJuh "^^ -? ^^ ^^^7 ^^ taken as an indefinite phrase : " any head of cattle." — Vers. 7, 8. Elijah met Obadiah on this expedition, and told him to announce his coming to the king. — Vers. 9 sqq. Obadiah was afraid that the execution of this command might cost him his life, inasmuch as Ahab had sent in search of Elijah " to every kingdom and every nation," — a hyperbole suggested by inward excitement and fear, px ^"I05<1 is to be connected with what follows in spite of the accents: " and if they said he is not Q 242 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. here, he took an oath," etc. — Vers. 12, 13. "And if it comes to pass (that) I go away from thee, and the Spirit of Jehovah carries thee away whither I know not, and I come to tell Ahab (sc. that thou art here) and he findeth thee not, he will slay me, and thy servant feareth the Lord from his youth," etc. ; i.e. since I as a God-fearing man and a protector of the prophets cannot boast of any special favour from Ahab. ''1^0, from m]/ youth up : " thy servant " being equivalent to " I myself." From the fear expressed by Obadiah that the Spirit of Jehovah might suddenly carry the prophet to some unknown place, Seb. Schmidt and others have inferred that in the earlier history of Elijah there had occurred some cases of this Idnd of sudden transportation, though they have not been handed down ; but the anxiety ex- pressed by Obadiah might very well have sprung from the fact, that after Elijah had announced the coming drought to Ahab, he disappeared, and, notwithstanding all the inquiries instituted by the king, was nowhere to be found. And since he was not carried off miraculously then (compare the "Hr and ^.p*l, " get thee hence " and " he went," in ch. xvii. 3, 5), there is all the less ground for imagining cases of this kind in the intermediate time, when he was hidden from his enemies. The subsequent translation of Elijah to heaven (2 Kings ii. 11, 12), and the miraculous carrying away of Philip from the chamberlain of Mauritania (Acts viii. 39), do not warrant any such assumption ; and still less the passage which Clericus quotes from Ezekiel (iii. 12, 14), because the carrying of Ezekiel through the air, which is mentioned here, only happened in vision and not in external reality. If Obadiah had known of any actual occur- rence of this kind, he would certainly have stated it more clearly as a more striking vindication of his fear. — Vers. 15-19. But when Elijah assured him with an oath (J^i^?^ '^j'^l, see at 1 Sam. L 3) that he would show himself to Ahab that day, Obadiah went to announce it to the king; whereupon Ahab went to meet the prophet, and sought to overawe him with the imperious words, " Art thou here, thou troubler of Israel ?" (i?^, see at Gen. xxxiv. 3 0). But Elijah threw back this charge : " It is not I who have brought Israel into trouble, but thou and thy family, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of Jehovah, and thou goest after Baalim." He then called upon the king to gather together all Israel to him upon Carmel, to- gether with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of CHAP. XVIII. 1-10. 243 Asherah, who ate of Jezebel's table, i.e. who were maintained by the queen. Caemel, a mountain ridge " with many peaks, intersected by hundreds of larger and smaller ravines," which stands out as a promontory running in a north-westerly direction into the Mediterranean (see at Josh. xix. 26), and some of the loftiest peaks of which rise to the height of 1800 feet above the level of the sea, when seen from the northern or outer side shows only " bald, monotonous rocky ridges, scantily covered with short and thorny bushes ;" but in the interior it still preserves its ancient glory, which has procured for it the name of " fruit- field," the valleys being covered with the most beautiful flowers of every description, and the heights adorned with myrtles, laurels, oaks, and firs (c£ V. de Velde, i?. i. p. 292 sqq.). At the north-western extremity of the mountain there is a cele- brated Carmelite monastery, dedicated to Elijah, whom tradition represents as having lived in a grotto under the monastery ; but we are certainly not to look there for the scene of the con- test with the priests of Baal described in the verses which follow. The scene of Elijah's sacrifice is rather to be sought for on one of the south-eastern heights of Carmel ; and Van de Velde (i. p. 320 sqq.) has pointed it out with great probability in the ruins of el Mohraka, i.e. " the burned place," " a rocky level space of no great circumference, and covered with old gnarled trees with a dense entangled undergrowth of bushes." For " one can scarcely imagine a spot better adapted for the thousands of Israel to have stood drawn up on than the gentle slopes. The rock shoots up in an almost perpendicular wall of more than 200 feet in height on the side of the vale of Esdrae- lon. On this side, therefore, there was no room for the gazing multitude ; but, on the other hand, this wall made it visible over the whole plain, and from all the surrounding heights, so that even those left behind, who had not ascended Carmel, would still have been able to witness at no great distance the fire from heaven that descended upon the altar." — " There is not a more conspicuous spot on all Carmel than the abrupt rocky height of el Mohraka, shooting up so suddenly on the east." Moreover, the soil was thoroughly adapted for the erection of the altar described in vers. 3 1 and 32: "it showed a rocky surface, with a sufficiency of large fragments of rock lying all around, and, besides, well fitted for the rapid digging of a trench." 244 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. There is also water in the neiglibourhood, as is assumed in ver, 34. " Nowhere does the Kishon run so close to Mount Carmel as just beneath el Mohraka," which is "1635 feet above the sea, and perhaps 1000 feet above the Kishon. This height can be gone up and down in the short time allowed by the Scripture (vers. 40—44)." But it was possible to find water even nearer than this, to pour upon the burnt-offering in the manner described in vers. 34, 35. Close by the steep rocky wall of the height, just where you can descend to the Kishon through a steep ravine, you find, "250 feet it might be beneath the altar plateau, a vaulted and very abundant fountain built in the form of a tank, with a few steps leading down into it, just as one finds elsewhere in the old wells or springs of the Jewish times." — " From such a fountain alone could Elijah have procured so much water at that time. And as for the distance between this spring and the supposed site of the altar, it was every way possible for men to go thrice thither and back again to obtain the necessary supply." Lastly, el Mohraka is so situated, that the circumstances mentioned in vers. 42-44 also perfectly coincide (Van de Velde, pp. 322-325). Vers. 20-46. Elijah's contest with the prophets of Baal. — Ahab sent through all Israel and gathered the prophets (of Baal) together upon Mount Carmel. According to vers. 21, 22, and 39, a number of the people ("all the people") had also come with them. On the other hand, not only is there no further reference in what follows to the 400 prophets of Asherah (cf. vers. 25 and 40), but in ver. 22 it is very obvious that the presence of the 450 prophets of Baal alone is supposed. We must therefore assume that the Asherah prophets, foreboding nothing good, had found a Avay of evading the command of Ahab and securing the protection of Jezebel.^ King Ahab also appeared upon Carmel (cf ver. 41), as he had no idea of ^ It is true that in ver. 22 the LXX. have this clause, x.u.\ oi T7po(p-/iTxt rov ccTiaov; (i.e. mt^'XH) nrpocKOaioi, which Thenius regards as an original portion of the text, though without observing the character of the LXX. If the Asherah prophets had also been present, Elijah would not only have com- manded the prophets of Baal to be seized and slain (ver. 40), but the Asherah prophets also. From the principle a potiori ßt., etc., it may be po's- sible to explain the omission of the Asherah prophets in ver. 25, but not in ver. 40. CHAP. XVIII. 20-46. 245 Elijah's intention, which was by no means " to prove to the king that he (Ahab) and not Elijah h?"" brought Israel into trouble " (Vat., Seb. Schm.), but to put before the eyes of the whole nation a convincing practical proof of the sole deity of Jehovah and of the nothingness of the Baals, that were re- garded as gods, and by slaying the priests of Baal to give a death-blow to idolatry in Israel.— Ver. 21. Elijah addressed the assembled people as follows : " How long do ye limp upon both sides ? Is Jehovah God, then go after Him ; but if Baal be God, then go after him" — and the people answered him not a word. They wanted to combine the worship of Jehovah and Baal, and not to assume a hostile attitude towards Jehovah by the worship of Baal ; and were therefore obliged to keep silence under this charge of infatuated halving, since they knew very well from the law itself that Jehovah demanded worship with a whole and undivided heart (Deut. vi. 4, 5). This dividing of the heart between Jehovah and Baal Elijah called limping ^y a-'sysn ''riK', " upon the two parties (of Jehovah and Baal)." Eor ti'BVp the meaning " divided opinions, parties," is well established by the use of Q'SJ^? in Ps. cxix. 113; and the ren- dering of the LXX. lyvvai, the hollow of the knee, is only a paraphrase of the sense and not an interpretation of the word. — Vers. 22-25. As the people adhered to their undecided double-mindedness, Elijah proposed to let the Deity Himselt decide who was the true God, Jehovah or Baal. The prophets of Baal were to offer a sacrifice to Baal, and he (Elijah) would offer one to Jehovah. And the true God should make Himself known by kindling the burnt-offering presented to Him with fire from heaven, and in this way answering the invocation of His name. This proposal was based upon the account in Lev. ix. As Jehovah had there manifested Himself as the God of Israel by causing fire to fall from heaven upon the first sacrifice presented in front of the tabernacle and to consume it, Elijah hoped that in like manner Jehovah would even now reveal Himself as the living God. And the form of decision thus proposed would necessarily appear all the fairer, because Elijah, the prophet of Jehovah, stood alone in opposition to a whole crowd of Baal's prophets, numbering no less than 450 men. And for that very reason the latter could not draw back, with- out publicly renouncing their pretensions, whether they be- lieved that Baal would really do what was desired, or hoped 246 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. that they might be ahle to escape, through some accident or stratagem, from the difficult situation that had been prepared for them, or fancied that the God of Elijah would no more fur- nish the proof of His deity that was desired of Him than Baal would. In order, however, to cut off every subterfuge in the event of their attempt proving a failure, Elijah not only yielded the precedence to them on the occasion of this sacrifice, but gave them the choice of the two oxen brought to be offered ; which made the fairness of his proposal so much the more con- spicuous to every one, that the people willingly gave their consent. Vers. 26-29. The prophets of Baal then proceeded to the performance of the duty required. They prepared {^^'V]) the sacrifice, and called solemnly upon Baal from morning to noon : " O Baal, hear us," limping round the altar ; " but there was no voice, and no one to hear (to answer), and no attention." nss is a contemptuous epithet applied to the pantomimic sacrificial dance performed by these priests round about the altar,-*^ "i*^** nb'j? (" which one had made "). — Ver. 2 7. As no answer had been received before noon, Elijah cried out to them in deri- sion : " Call to him with a loud voice, for he is God (sc. accord- ing to your opinion), for he is meditating, or has gone aside ( ''K', secessio), or is on the journey (Jl'T}^, on the way) ; perhaps he is sleeping, that he may wake up." The ridicule lies more especially in the ^^^n ^''npx "'3 (for he is a god), when contrasted with the enumeration of the different possibilities which may have occasioned their obtaining no. answer, and is heightened by the earnest and threefold repetition of the ""S. With regard to these possibilities we may quote the words of Clericus : " Although these things when spoken of God are the most absurd things possible, yet idolaters could believe such things, as we may see from Homer." The priests of Baal did actually begin therefore to cry louder than before, and scratched them- selves with swords and lances, till the blood poured out, " according to their custom " (DDS'J'ps). Movers describes this as follows {Phönizier, i. pp. 682, 683), from statements made by ancient authors concerning the processions of the strolling ^ The following is the description which Herodian {hist. v. 3), among others, gives of Heliogabalus when dancing as chief priest of the Emesinian sun-god: ' Yspovpyovvrcc O'/i tovtou, Trspi n ro7s ßuf^oig xopivouToe, vÖ^m Bs«o- ßap!.>v, iiTTÖ Ti »i/'Kol:; x.cc\ avpcy^i ■jrxvroooCTrci'U t£ opyAvav ijxv- CHAP. XVIII. 30-39. 247 bands of the Syrian goddess : " A discordant howling opens the SQene. They then rush wildly about in perfect confusion, with their heads bowed down to the ground, but always re- volving in circles, so that the loosened hair drags through the mire ; they then begin to bite their arms, and end with cutting themselves with the two-edged swords which they are in the habit of carrying. A new scene then opens. One of them, who surpasses all the rest in frenzy, begins to prophesy with sighs and groans ; he openly accuses himself of the sins which he has committed, and which he is now about to punish by chastising the flesh, takes the knotted scourge, which the Gain generally carry, lashes his back, and then cuts himself with swords till the blood trickles down from his mangled body." The climax of the Bacchantic dance in the case of the priests of Baal also was the prophesying (K33rin)^ and it was for this reason, probably, that they were called prophets (D"'S''a:). This did not begin tul noon, and lasted till about the time of the evening sacrifice {p^'bvb ^V, not nipy iy, ver. 29). nmjsn niby, " the laying on (offering) of the meat-offering," refers to the daily evening sacrifice, which consisted of a burnt-offer- ing and a meat-offering (Ex. xxix. 38 sqq.; Num. xxviii. 3-8), and was then offered, according to the Eabbinical observance (see at Ex. xii. 6), in the closing hours of the afternoon, as is evident from the circumstances which are described in vers. 40 sqq. as having taken place on the same day and subsequently to Elijah's offering, which was presented at the time of the evening sacrifice (ver. 36). Vers. 30—39. ElijaKs sacrifice. — As no answer came from Baal, Elijah began to prepare for his own sacrifice. Ver. 30. He made the people come nearer, that he might have both eye- witnesses and ear-witnesses present at his sacrifice, and restored the altar of Jehovah which was broken down. Consequently there was already an altar of Jehovah upon Carmel, which either dated from the times anterior to the building of the temple, when altars of Jehovah were erected in different places throughout the land (see at ch. iii. 2), or, what is more probable, had been built by pious worshippers belonging to the ten tribes since the division of the kingdom (Hengstenberg, Dissertations on the Pentateuch, vol. i. p. 183, transl.), and judging from ch. xix. 10, had been destroyed during the reign of Ahab, when the worship of Baal gained the upper hand. — Vers. 31, 32. 248 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. Elijah took twelve stones, " according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come (Gen. xxxii. 29, xxxv. 10), Israel shall be thy name," and built these stones into an altar. The twelve stones were a practical declaration on the part of the prophet that the division of the nation into two kingdoms was at variance with the divine calling of Israel, inasmuch as according to the will of God the twelve tribes were to form one people of Jehovah, and to have a common sacrificial altar ; whilst the allusion to the fact that Jehovah had given to the forefather of the nation the name of Israel, directs attention to the wrong which the seceding ten tribes had done in claiming the name of Israel for themselves, whereas it really belonged to the whole nation, njn^ Dtt'S (in the name of Jehovah) belongs to n^a^_ (built), and signifies by the authority and for the glory of Jehovah. " And made a trench as the space of two seahs of seed (i.-c. so large that you could sow two seahs ^ of seed upon the ground which it covered) round about the altar," The trench must therefore have been of considerable breadth and depth, although it is impossible to determine the exact dimensions, as the kind of seed-corn is not defined. He then arranged the sacrifice upon the altar, and had four Kad (pails) of water poured three times in succession upon the burnt-offering which was laid upon the pieces of wood, so that the water flowed round about the altar, and then had the trench filled wüth water." Elijah adopted this course for the purpose of precluding all suspicion of even the possibility of fraud in connection with the miraculous burning of the sacrifice. For idolaters had carried their deceptions to such a length, that they would set fire to the wood of the sacrifices from 1 i.e. about two Dresden pecks (Metzeii). — Tiienius. 2 Thenius throws suspicion upon tlie historical character of this account, on the ground that " the author evidently forgot the terrible drought, by which the numerous sources of the Carmel and the Nachal Kishon must have been dried up ;" but Van de Velde has already answered this objection, which has been raised by others also, and has completely overthrown it by pointing out the covered well of el 3Iohraka, in relation to which he makes the following remark: "In such springs the water remains always cool, under the shade of a vaulted roof, and with no hot atmosphere to evaporate it. While all other fountains were dried up, I can well understand that there might have, been found here that superabundance of water which Elijah poured so pro- fusely over the altar" (vol. i. p. 325, transl.). But the drying up of the Kishon is a mere conjecture, which cannot be historically proved. CHAP. XVIir. 40-46. 249 hollow spaces concealed beneath the altars, in order to make the credulous people believe that the sacrifice had been mira- culously set on fire by the deity, Ephraem Syrus and Joh. Chrysostom both affirm this ; the latter in his Oratio in Fdrum Apost. et Eliam ;proph. t. ii. p. 737, ed. Montf., the genuineness of which, however, is sometimes called in question. — Vers. 36, 37. After these preparations at the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah drew near and prayed : " Lord God of Abra- ham, Isaac, and Israel (this name is used with deliberate pur- pose instead of Jacob : see at ver. 31), let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and I am Thy servant, and do all these things through Thy word. Hear me, Jehovah, hear me, that this people may know that Thou Jehovah art God, and turnest back their hearts !" {i.e. back from idols to Thyself.) This clearly expresses not only the object of the miracle which follows, but that of miracles universally. The perfects "^"^ybv and ri3pi!l are used to denote not only what has already occurred, but what will still take place and is as certain as if it had taken place already. ''Tf^V refers not merely to the predicted drought and to what Elijah has just been doing (Thenius), but to the miracle which was immediately about to be performed ; and ri'3?n to the conversion of the people to the Lord their God, for which Elijah's coming had already prepared the way, and which was still further advanced by the following miracle. — Ver. 38. Then fire of Jehovah fell and consumed the burnt- offering and the pieces of wood, etc. nin^ c'x^ the fire proceed- ing from Jehovah, was not a natural flash of lightning, which could not produce any such effect, but miraculous fire falling from heaven, as in 1 Chron. xxi. 26, 2 Chron. vii. 1 (see at Lev. ix. 24), the supernatural origin of which was manifested in the fact, that it not only consumed the sacrifice with the pile of wood upon the altar, but also burned up (in calcem rcdcgit — Cler.) the stones of the altar and the earth that was thrown up to form the trench, and licked up the water in the trench. Through this miracle Jehovah not only accredited Elijah as His servant and prophet, but proved Himself to be the living God, whom Israel was to serve ; so that all the people who were present fell down upon their faces in worship, as they had done once before, viz. at the consecration of the altar in Lev. ix. 24, and con- fessed " Jehovah is God :" Q''n^)p] "^-, the hand {i.e. the power) of the Lord, denotes the super- natural strength with which the Lord endowed him, to accom- plish superhuman feats. This formula is generally applied to the divine inspiration by which the prophets were prepared for their prophesying (cf. 2 Kings iii. 15 ; Ezek. i. 3, iii. 15, etc.). CHAP. XIX. Elijah's flight into the desert, the revelation OF GOD at HOREB, AND ELISHA'S CALL TO BE A PROPHET. The hope of completing his victory over the idolaters and overthrowing the worship of Baal, even in the capital of the kingdom, with which Elijah may have hastened to Jezreel, was frustrated by the malice of the queen, who was so far from dis- cerning any revelation of the almighty God in the account given her by Ahab of what had occurred on Carmel, and bending before His mighty hand, that, on the contrary, she was so full of ■wrath at the slaying of the prophets of Baal as to send to the prophet Elijah to threaten him with death. This apparent failure of his ministry was the occasion of a severe inward con- flict, in which Elijah was brought to a state of despondency and fled from the land. The Lord allowed His servant to pass through this conflict, that he might not exalt himself, but, being mindful of his own impotence, might rest content with the grace of his God, whose strength is mighty in the weak (2 Cor. xii. 8, 9), and who would refine and strengthen him for the further fulfil- ment of his calling. Vers. 1-8. ElijaTis flight into the desert and guidance to Horeb. — Vers. 1, 2. When " Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and all, how he had slain all the prophets (of Baal)," she sent a messenger to Elijah in her impotent wrath, with a threat, which she confirmed by an oath (see at ch. ii. 2 3), that in the morning she would have him slain like the prophets whom he had put to death. The early commentators detected in this threat the impotcniia mulichris iracundia:, and saw that all that CHAP. XIX. 1-S. 253 . Jezebel wanted was to get rid of the man wlio was so distressing and dangerous to her, because she felt herself unable to put him to death, partly on account of the people, who were enthusiastic in his favour, and partly on account of the king himself, upon whom the affair at Carmel had not remained without its salutary effect. — Vers. 3, 4. But when Elijah saw (^1!ü), sc. how things stood, or the audacity of Jezebel, from which the failure of his work was evident, he rose up and went to Beersheba in Judah, i.e. Bir-seba on the southern frontier of Canaan (see at Gen. xxi. 31). The expression niiri''^ nc'X, "which to Judah," i.e. which belonged to the kingdom of Judah, for Beersheba was really allotted to the tribe of Simeon (Josh. xix. 2), is appended not merely as a geographical indication that Elijah went outside the land, but to show that he meant to leave the kingdom of Israel, the scene of his previous labours, just as Jeremiah in a similar internal conflict gave utterance to the wish that he could leave his people, if he had but a lodging-place in the wilderness (Jer. ix. 2). N"!*? is not to be altered into N"^"**^, et timuit, after the LXX. and "Vulg., notwithstanding the fact that some Codd. have this reading, which only rests upon an erroneous conjecture. For it is obvious that Elijah did not flee from any fear of the vain threat of Jezebel, from the fact that he did not merely withdraw into the kingdom of Judah, where he would have been safe under Jehoshaphat from all the persecutions of Jezebel, but went to Beersheba, and thence onwards into the desert, there to pour out before the Lord God his weariness of life (ver. 4). ^tJ'DJ'bx '^}^, he went upon his soul, or his life, i.e. not to save his life (as I once •/ thought, with many other commentators), for his wish to die (ver. 4) is opposed to this ; but to care for his soul in the manner indicated in ver. 4, i.e. to commit his soul or his life to the Lord his God in the solitude of the desert, and see what He would determine concerning him.^ — He left his servant in Beer- sheba, while he himself went a day's journey farther into the desert (Paran), not merely because he was so filled with weari- ^ G. Menken (christl. Homil. ub. den Proph. Elias, p. 231) lias given the following admirable explanation of "itJ'SJ bi^ so far as the sense is concerned : " For conscience sake, from conviction, out of obligation, not from fear. After all his former experience, and from the entire relation in which Elijah stood to God, it was impossible that he should be afraid, and not be firmly convinced that the God who had shut up heaven at his word, who had supplied him with bread and flesh for a whole year in the desert through the medium of ravens, ■who had supported him miraculously for years in a foreign land through the 254 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. * ness of life in his dark oppression, that he thought he should have no further need of his servant, and therefore left him be- Mnd in Beersheba, but that he might pour out his heart before G-od alone in the desert and yield himself up to His guidance. For however unquestionabl}'' his lamentation in ver. 4, for example, expresses a weariness of life, this merely indicates the feeling which had taken possession of his soul after a day's journey in the barren desert. And even there he lays his wish to die before God in prayer ; so that this feeling is merely to be regarded as one result of the spiritual conflict, which his bodily exhaustion had now raised to a height that it cannot have reached when he was in Beersheba. If, therefore, he did not start with the inten- tion of making a pilgrimage to Horeb, he had certainly gone into the desert for the purpose of seeing whether the Lord would manifest His mercy to him, as He had formerly done to His people under Moses, or whether He would withdraw His hand entirely from him. After a day's journey he sat down under a DO'i (construed here as a feminine, in ver. 5 as a masculine), a species of broom {genista Retem in Forskal), which is the finest and most striking shrub of the Arabian desert, growing constantly in the beds of streams and in the valleys, where places of en- campment are frequently selected for the sake of the shelter which they afford by night from the wind and by day from the sun (Bob. Pal. i. 299). mo^, . . . ^^^^1: and wished that his soul might die (a kind of accusative with infinitive ; see Ewald, ^336, I), and said, nrij; nn^ "Enough now; take, Lord, my soul, for I am not better than my fathers ;" i.e. I have worked and en- dured enough, and deserve no longer life than my fathers. From this it appears that Elijah was already of a great age. — Vers. 5 sc|.q. In this disturbed state of mind he lay down and slept under a broom-tree. Then the Lord came with His power to the help of the despairing man. " An angel touched him (wakened him out of his sleep), and said to him : Arise, eat." And behold he saw at his head 0^2^*1 "^^V, a bread cake baked over red-hot stones, a savoury article of food which is still a great favourite with the Bedouins (see at Gen. xviii. 6, xix. 3), and a pitcher of water, medium of a poor widow, who had concealed and rescued him for three years and a half from the search of the king, who had accredited and honoured him in the sight of all the people as His servant, who had given an immediate answer to his prayer for rain, could also defend him in this extremity, and rescue him from this danger, if such should be His will." CHAP. XIX. 9-18. 257 his life, ^nnsro are altars, which pious Israelites in the kingdom of the ten tribes had built in different places for the worship of Jehovah (see at ch. xviii. 30). — Vers. 11 sqq. The Lord replied to the prophet's complaint first of all by the manifestation of His control of the phenomena of nature (vers. 11-13), and then by a verbal explanation of His design (vers. 15—18). In this divine revelation men have recognised from the very earliest times a repetition of the appearance of God which was granted to Moses upon Sinai. As God, in token of His grace, granted the prayer of Moses that he might see His glory, after he had striven zealously for the honour of the Lord when the people rebelled by worshipping the golden calf; so did He also display His glory upon Horeb to Elijah as a second Moses for the purpose of strengthening his faith, with this simple dif- ference, that He made all His goodness pass by Moses, and declared His name in the words, " Jehovah, a gracious and merciful God," etc. (Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7), whereas He caused Elijah first of all to behold the operation of His grace in certain phenomena of nature, and then afterwards made known to him His will with regard to Israel and to the work of His prophets. This difference in the form of the revelation, while the substance and design were essentially the same, may be explained from the difference not only in the historical cir- cumstances, but also in the state of mind of the two servants to whom He manifested His glory. In the case of Moses it was burning love for the welfare of his people which impelled him to offer the prayer that the Lord would let him see His glory, as a sign that He would not forsake His people ; and this prayer was granted him, so far as a man is ever able to see the glory of God, to strengthen him for the further discharge of the duties of his office. Hidden in the cleft of the rock and shielded by the hand of God, he saw the Lord pass by him, and heard Him utter in words His inmost being. Elijah, on the other hand, in his zeal for the honour of God, which was not quite free from human passion, had been led by the want of any visible fruit from his own labour to overlook the work of the Lord in the midst of His people ; so that he had fled into the desert and wished to be released from this world by death, and had not been brought out of his despair by the strengthen- ing with meat and drink which he had received from the angel, and which enabled him to travel for forty days to the mount of B 258 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. God witliout suffering from want, a fact whicli was intended to remind liim of the ancient God of the fathers, to whose omni- potence and goodness there is no end; so that it was in a most gloomy state of mind that he reached Horeb at last. And now the Lord designed not only to manifest His glory as the love in which grace and righteousness are united, but also to show him that his zeal for the honour of the Lord was not in harmony with the love and grace and long-suffering of God. " The design of the vision was to show to the fiery zeal of the prophet, who wanted to reform everything by means of the tempest, the gentle way which God pursues, and to proclaim the long-suffering and mildness of His nature, as the voice had already done to Moses on that very spot ; hence the beautiful change in the divine appearance " (Herder, Geist der heir. Poesie, 1788, ii. p. 52). — Vers. 11, 12. After God had commanded him to come out of the cave and stand upon the mountain (that part of the mountain which was in front of the cave) before Him, " behold Jehovah went by (the participle "^^V is used to give a more vivid representation of the scene) ; and a great and strong tempest, rending mountains and breaking rocks in pieces, before Jehovah — it was not in the tempest that Jehovah was ; and after the tempest an earthquake — it was not in the earth- quake that Jehovah was ; and after the earthquake fire — it was not in the fire that Jehovah was ; and after the fire a still, gentle rustling." Hi^l noOT bSp, literally the tone of a gentle blowing. On the change of gender in ptni. n^iia rrn^ see Ewald, § 174, c. — Temjpest, earthquake, and fire, which are even more terrible in the awful solitude of the Horeb mountains than in an inhabited land, are signs of the coming of the Lord to judg- ment (c£ Ps. xviii. 8 sqq.). It was in the midst of such terrible phenomena that the Lord had once come down upon Sinai, to inspire the people who were assembled at the foot of the moun- tain with a salutary dread of His terrible majesty, of the fiery zeal of His wrath and love, which consumes whatever opposes it (see at Ex. xix. 16 sqq.). But now the Lord was not in these terrible phenomena ; to signify to the prophet that He did not work in His earthly kingdom with the destroying zeal of wrath, or with the pitiless severity of judgment. It was in a soft, gentle rustling that He revealed Himself to him. — Vers. 13, 14. When Elijah heard this, he covered up his face in his cloak (n'J.'n« j see at 2 Kings i. 8) and went out to the entrance CHAP. XIX. 9-18. 259 to the cavv /i-nd behold he heard the question a second time, "What doest^ou here, Elijah?" and answered with a repeti- tion of his complaint (see vers. 9 and 10). — While the appear- ance of God, not in the tempest, the earthquake, and the fire, but in a gentle rustling, revealed the Lord to him as a merciful and gracious God, long-suffering, and of great goodness and truth (Ex. xxxiv. 6), the answer to his complaint showed him that He did not leave guilt unpunished (Ex. xxxiv. 7), since the Lord gave him the following command, vers. 15 sqq.: " Go back in thy way to the desert of Damascus, and anoint Hazael king over Aram (see 2 Kings viii. 12, 13), and Jehu the son of Nimshi king over Israel (see 2 Kings ix. 2), and Elisha the son of Shaphat prophet in thy stead " (see ver. 19) ; and then added this promise, which must have quieted his zeal, that was praiseworthy in the feelings from which it sprang, although it had assumed too passionate a form, and have given him courage to continue his prophetic work : " And it wiU come to pass, that whoever escapeth the sword of Hazael, him will Jehu slay, and whoever escapeth the sword of Jehu, him will Elisha slay." — Ver. 18. But in order that he might learn, to his shame, that the cause of the Lord in Israel appeared much more des- perate to his eye, which was clouded by his own dissatisfaction, than it really was in the eye of the God who knows His own by number and by name, the Lord added : " I have seven thou- sand left in Israel, all knees that have not bent before Baal, and every mouth that hath not kissed him." Pf »l nnsio, into the desert of Damascus (with the Ee loc. with the construct state as in Deut. iv. 41, Josh. xii. 1, etc. ; cf. Ewald, § 216, 5), i.e. the desert lying to the south and east of the city of Damascus, which is situated on the river Barady; not jjer desertum in Bamascum (Vulg., Luth., etc.) ; for although Elijah would neces- sarily pass through the Arabian desert to go from Horeb to Damascus, it was superfluous to teU him that he was to go that way, as there was no other road. The words " return by thy way . . . and anoint Hazael," etc., are not to be understood as signifying that Elijah was to go at once to Damascus and anoint Hazael there, but simply that he was to do this at a time which the Spirit would more precisely indicate. According to what follows, all that Elijah accomplished immediately was to call Elisha to be his successor ; whereas the other two commissions were fulfilled by Elisha after Elijah's ascension to heaven 260 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. _';li was (2 Kings viii. and ix.). The opinion that Elija.g ^.^oO anointed Hazael and Jehu immediately, but that this anoiiidng was kept secret, and was repeated by Elisha when the time for their public appearance arrived, has not only very little probability in itself, but is directly precluded by the account of the anointing of Jehu in 2 Kings ix. The anointing of Hazael and Jehu is mentioned first, because God had chosen these two kings to be the chief instruments of His judgments upon the royal family and people for their idolatry. It was only in the case of Jehu that a real anointing took place (2 Kings ix. 6) ; Hazael was merely told by Elisha that he would be king (2 Kings viii. 1 3), and Elisha was simply called by Elijah to the prophetic office by having the cloak of the latter thrown upon him. Moreover, the Messianic passage, Isa. Ixi. l,is the only one in which there is any allusion to the anointing of a prophet. Consequently nü'D must be taken figuratively here, as in Judg. ix, 8, as de- noting divine consecration to the regal and prophetic offices. And so, again, the statement that Elisha would slay those who escaped the sword of Jehu is not to be understood literally. Elisha slew by the word of the Lord, which brought judgments upon the ungodly, as we see from 2 Kings ii. 24 (cf, Jer. i. 10, xviii. 7). The " seven thousand," who had not bowed the knee before Baal, are a round number for the iKXoy^ of the godly, whom the Lord had preserved for Himself in the sinful Idngdom, which was really very large in itself, however small it might be in comparison with the whole nation. The number seven is the stamp of the works of God, so that seven thousand is the number of the " remnant according to the election of grace " (Eom. xi. 5), which had then been preserved by God. Kissing Baal was the most usual form in which this idol was worshipped, and consisted not merely in throwing kisses with the hand (cf Job xxxi. 27, and Plin. h. n. 28, 8), but also in kissing the images of Baal, probably on the feet (cf Cicero in Vcrr. 4, 43). Vers. 19-21. Call of Elisha to he a 'prophet. — Ver. 19. As he went thence (viz. away from Horeb), Elijah found Elisha the son of Shaphat at Abel-Meholah, in the Jordan valley (see at Judg. vii. 22), occupied in ploughing; "twelve yoke of oxen be- fore him, and he himself with the tweKth " (a very wealthy man therefore), and threw his cloak to him as he passed by. The prophet's cloak was a sign of the prophet's vocation, so that throwing it to him was a symbol of the call to the prophetic CHAP. XIX. 1-8. 255 and ate and drank^ and lay down again. — Ver. 7. But the angel wakened him a second time, and called upon him to eat with these words : " for the way is too far for thee " (!}/}}] "^^'P ^!!, iter est majus quam -pro viribus ticis — Vat.). — Ver. 8. " Then he arose, ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights to the mount of God at Horeb." As the angel did not tell him whither he was to go, and Elijah wandered to Horeb in consequence of this strengthening, it ajDpears to have been his intention from the very beginning to go into the desert, and see whether the Lord would still further acknowledge him and his work ; so that in the support and strength imparted by the angel he saw an indication that he was to follow the foot- steps of the divine grace still farther into the desert, and make a pilgrimage to Horeb, with the hope that there perhaps the Lord would reveal to him His counsel concerning the further guidance of the people of His covenant, as He had formerly done to His servant Moses, and give him the necessary instruction for the continuance of his prophetic service. Horeb is called the mount of God here, as it was proleptically in Ex. iii. 1, as the place where the Lord confirmed the covenant, already made with the patriarchs, to their descendants, and adopted the tribes of Israel as His people and made them into a kingdom of God. The distance from Beersheba to Horeb is about 200 miles. Conse- quently Elijah would not have required forty days to travel there, if the intention of God had been nothing more than to cause him to reach the mountain, or " to help him on his way " (Thenius). But in the strength of the food provided by the angel Elijah was not only to perform the journey to Horeb, but to wander in the desert for forty days and forty nights, i.e. forty whole days, as Moses had formerly wandered with all Israel for forty years ; that he might know that the Lord was still the same God who had nourished and sustained His whole nation in the desert with manna from heaven for forty years. And just as the forty years' sojourn in the desert had been to Moses a time for the trial of faith and for exercise in humility and meekness (Num. xii. 3), so was the strength of Elijah's faith to be tried by the forty days' wandering in the same desert, and to be puri- fied from all carnal zeal for the further fulfilment of His calling, in accordance with the divine wiU. What follows shows very clearly that this was the object of the divine guidance of Elijah (cf. Hengstenberg, Diss, on the Pentateuch, vol. i. 171, 172), 256 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. Vers. 9-18. Ajjpcarance of God at Rorcb. — Ver. 9. When Elijah arrived at Horeb, he went into the cave (the definite article in •"''JV'?'^» with the obvious connection between the ap- pearance of God, which follows here, and that described in Ex. xxxiii. 12 sqq., points back to the cleft in the rock, "ilSfD n"}i53) in which Moses had stood while the glory of Jehovah passed by (see at Ex. xxxiii. 22), and there he passed the night. And behold the word of the Lord came to him (in the night ): " What doest thou here, Elijah ? " This question did not involve a reproof, as though Elijah had nothing to do there, but was simply intended to lead him to give utterance to the thoughts and feelings of his heart. — Ver. 1 0. Elijah answered : " I have striven zealously for Jehovah the God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, destroyed Thine altars, and killed Thy prophets Avith the sword; and I only am left, and they seek my life." In these words there was not only the greatest despair expressed as to the existing condition of things, but also a carnal zeal which would gladly have called down the imme- diate vengeance of the Almighty upon all idolaters. The com- plaint contained, on the one hand, the tacit reproof that God had looked on quietly for so long a time at the conduct of the ungodly, and had suffered things to come to such an extremity, that he. His prophet, was the only one left of all the true worshippers of God, and, on the other hand, the indirect appeal that He would interpose at last with His penal judgments. Because Elijah had not seen the expected salutary fruits of his zeal for the Lord, he thought that all was lost, and in his gloomy state of mind overlooked what he had seen a short time before with his own eyes, that even in the neighbourhood of the king himself there lived a pious and faithful worshipper of Jehovah, viz. Obadiah, who had concealed a hundred prophets from the revenge of Jezebel, and that the whole of the people assembled upon Carmel had given glory to the Lord, and at his command had seized the prophets of Baal and put them to death, and therefore that the true worshippers of the Lord could not all have vanished out of Israel, nin^ ''0X3 jp N3ip recalls to mind the zeal of Phinehas (Num. xxv. 1 1 sqq.), which put an end to the whoredom of the sons of Israel with the daughters of Moab. But whereas Phinehas received the promise of an everlasting priesthood for his zeal, Elijah had seen so little fruit from his zeal against the worshippers of Baal, that they actually sought CHAP. XX. 1-22. 261 office. — Ver. 20. Elislia understanding the sign, left the oxen standing, ran after Elijah, and said to him, " Let me kiss my father and my mother," i.e. take leave of my parents, and then I will follow thee. For the form Hi^t^'x see Ewald, § 228, &. As he has ploughed his earthly field with his twelve pair of oxen, he was now to plough the spiritual field of the twelve tribes of Israel (Luke ix. 62). Elijah answered, " Go, return, for what have I done to thee ? " ^'^^ 'H.? belong together, as in ver. 1 5 ; so that Elijah thereby gave him permission to return to his father and mother. "'S signifies for, not yd (Thenius) ; for there is no antithesis here, according to which "'S might serve for a more emphatic assurance (Ewald, § 330, h). The words "what have I done to thee ? " can only mean, I have not wanted to put any constraint upon thee, but leave it to thy free will to decide in favour of the prophetic calling. — Ver. 21. Then Elisha returned, took the pair of oxen with which he had been ploughing, sacri- ficed, i.e. slaughtered them (nir used figuratively), boiled the flesh with the plough, gave a farewell meal to the people (of his place of abode), i.e. his friends and acquaintance, and then fol- lowed Elijah as his servant, i.e. his assistant. The suffix in Q^ti'a refers to ip3[? ^^v*' ^^^^ is more precisely defined by the apposi- tion "'i^'IC', " namely, the flesh of the oxen." CHAP. XX. AHAB'S double VICTORY OVER BEXHADAD OF SYRIA. Even if the impression which the miracle upon Carmel had made upon Ahab, who was v/eak rather than malevolent, remained without any lasting fruit, the Lord did very quickly manifest His mercy towards him, by sending a prophet with a promise of vic- tory when the Syrians invaded his kingdom, and by giving the Syrians into his power. This victory was a fruit of the seven thousand who had not bent their knee before Baal. Elijah was also to learn from this that the Lord of Sabaoth had not yet departed from the rebellious kingdom. Vers. 1-22. The First Victory. — Ver. 1. Benhadad, the son of that Benhadad who had conquered several cities of Galilee in the reign of Baasha (ch. xv. 20), came up with a great army — there were thirty-two kings with him, with horses and chariots — and besieged Samaria. The thirty-two kings with him (inx) were vassals of Benhadad, rulers of difi'erent cities and the terri- 262 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. tory belonging to them, just as in Joshua's time almost every city of Canaan had its king ; they were therefore hound to follow the army of Benhadad with their troops. — Vers. 2 sqq. During the siege Benhadad sent messengers into the city to Ahab with this demand : " Thy silver and thy gold are mine, and the best of thy wives and thy sons are mine ; " and Ahab answered with pusillanimity : " According to thy word, my lord king, I and all that is mine are thine." Benhadad was made still more audacious by this submissiveness, and sent messengers the second time with the following notice (ver. 6) : " Yea, if I send my servants to thee to-morrow at this time, and they search thy house and thy servants' houses, all that is the pleasure of thine eyes they will put into their hands and take." Cl^5 ""S does not mean " only = certainly " here (Ewald, ^356, h), for there is neither a negative clause nor an oath, but Q^ signifies if and "'S introduces the statement, as in ver. 5 ; so that it is only in the repetition of the "'S that the emphasis lies, which can be expressed by yea. The words of Ahab in ver. 9 show unquestionably that Benhadad demanded more the second time than the first. The words of the first demand, " Thy silver and thy gold," etc., were ambiguous. Ac- cording to ver. 5, Benhadad meant that Ahab should give him all this ; and Ahab had probably understood him as meaning that he was to give him what he required, in order to purchase peace ; but Benhadad had, no doubt, from the very first required an un- conditional surrender at discretion. He expresses this very clearly in the second demand, since he announces to Ahab the plunder of his palace and also of the palaces of his nobles. T'j''j; nonjo'ba, all thy costly treasures. It was from this second demand that Ahab first perceived what Benhadad's intention had been ; he therefore laid the matter before the elders of the land, i.e. the king's counsellors, ver. 7 : " Mark and see that this man seeketh evü," i.e. that he is aiming at our ruin, since he is not contented with the first demand, which I did not refuse him. — Ver. 8, The elders and all the people, i.e. the citizens of Samaria, advised that his demand should not be granted, nnxn iib) VOK^rrPN, " hearken not (to him), and thou wilt not be wuling " (Nvl is stronger than b^; yet compare Ewald, ^ 350, a) ; whereupon Ahab sent the messengers away with this answer, that he would sub- mit to the first demand, but that the second he could not grai^t. — Ver. 10. Benhadad then attempted to overawe the weak-minded Ahab by strong threats, sending fresh messengers to threaten him CHAP. XX. 1-22. 263 with the destruction of the city, and confirming it by a solemn oath : " The gods do so to me — if the dust of Samaria should suf- fice for the hollow hands of all the people that are in my train." The meaning of this threat was probably that he would reduce the city to a'shes, so that scarcely a handful of dust should be left ; for his army was so powerful and numerous, that the rub- bish of the city would not suffice for every one to fill his hand. Ver. 11. Ahab answered this loud boasting with the proverb : " Let not him that girdeth himself boast as he that looseneth the airdle," equivalent to the Latin, -Jit; trkcmpJmm cartas ante vidoriam. —Ver. 12. After this reply of Ahab, Benhadad gave command to attack the city, while he was drinking with his kings in the booths. ni2D are booths made of branches, twigs, and shrubs, such as are still erected in the East for kings and generals in the place of tents {vid. EosenmüUer, Ä. u. K Morgenl. iii. pp. 198-9). ^^''^: take your places against the city, sc. to storm it (for D''Jy in the sense of arranging the army for battle, see 1 Sam. xi. 11 and Job i. 17); not olKo^ofxijaare x^paKa (LXX.), or place the siege train.— Vers. 13, 14. While the Syrians were preparing for the attack, a prophet came to Ahab and told him that Jehovah would deliver this great multitude (of the enemy) into his hand that day, " that thou mayest know that I am Jehovah," and that through the retainers of the governors of the provinces (nii^lön "'-}b>, who had fled to Samaria), i.e. by a small and weak host. In the appearance of the prophet in Samaria mentioned here and in vers. 28 and 35 sqq. there is no such irreconcilable contradiction to ch. xviii. 4, 22, and xix. 10, as Thenius maintains ; it simply shows that the persecution of the prophets by Jezebel had somewhat abated, and therefore Elijah's labour had not remained Avithout fruit, '»n nbx^. ^o, who shall open the battle ? ids answers to the German cmf adeln (to string, unite; Eng. ^om battle — Te.) ; cf. 2 Chron. xiii. 3. — Vers. 15, 16. Ahab then mustered his fighting men: there were 232 servants of the provincial governors ; and the rest of the people, all the children of Israel, i.e. the whole of the Israelitish fighting men that were in Samaria (^^nn, ver. 19), amounted to 7000 men. And at noon, when Benhadad and his thirty-two auxiliary kings were intoxicated at a carousal in the booths ("li^K' nn'^ as in ch. xvi. 9), he ordered his men to advance, with the servants of the provincial governors taking the lead. The 7000 men are not to be regarded as the 7000 mentioned in ch. xix. 18, who had 264 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. not "bowed their knee "before Baal, as Easlii supposes, altlaongli the sameness in the numbers is apparently not accidental ; but in both cases the number of the covenant people existing in Israel is indicated, though in ch. xix. 18 the 7000 constitute the iKXoyi] of the true Israel, whereas in the verse before us they are merely the fighting men whom the Lord had left to Ahab for the defence of his kingdom. — Vers. 17, 18. When Benhadad was informed of the advance of these fighting men, in his drunken arrogance he ordered them to be taken alive, whether they came with peaceable or hostile intent. — Vers. 19, 20. But they — the servants of the governors at the head, and the rest of the army behind — smote every one his man, so that the Arampeans fled, and Benhadad, pursued by the Israelites, escaped on a horse with some of the cavalry. D''K'^ö=i is in apposition ta "^I'T!?, " he escaped, and horsemen," sc. escaped with him, i.e. some of the horsemen of his retinue, whilst the king of Israel, going out of the city, smote horses and chariots of the enemy, who were not prepared for this sally of the besieged, and com- pletely defeated them. — Ver. 22. After this victory the prophet came to Ahab again, warning him to be upon his guard, for at the turn of the year, i.e. the next spring (see at 2 Sam. xi. 1), the Syrian king would make war upon him once more. Vers. 23-34. The Second Victory. — ^Vers. 23, 24. The servants (ministers) of Benhadad persuaded their lord to enter upon a fresh campaign, attributing the defeat they had sustained to two causes, which could be set aside, viz. to the supposed nature of the gods of Israel, and to the position occupied by the vassal-kings in the army. The gods of Israel were moun- tain gods : when fighting with them upon the mountains, the Syrians had had to fight against and succumb to the power of these gods, whereas on the plain they would conquer, because the power of these gods did not reach so far. This notion con- cerning the God of Israel the Syrians drew, according to their ethnical religious ideas, from the fact that the sacred places of this God — not only the temple at Jerusalem upon Moriah, but also the altars of the high places — were erected upon moun- tains ; since heathenism really had its mountain deities, i.e. believed in gods who lived upon mountains and protected and conducted all that took place upon them (cf. Dougttei Analcct. ss. i. 178, 179; Deyling, Obscrvv. ss. iii. pp. 97 sqq.; Winer, CHAP. XX. 23-34. 265 hihi. R. W. i. p. 154), and in Syrophoenicia even mountains themselves had divine honours paid to them {viel. Movers, PlWniz. i. p. 667 sqq.). The servants of Benhadad were at any rate so far right, that they attributed their defeat to the assistance which God had given to His people Israel; and were only wrong in regarding the God of Israel as a local deity, whose power did not extend beyond the mountains. They also advised their lord (ver. 24) to remove the kings in his army from their position, and appoint governors in their stead (nins^ see ch. x. 15). The vassal-kings had most likely n,ot shown the desired self-sacrifice for the cause of their superior in the war. And, lastly (ver. 25), they advised the king to raise his army to its former strength, and then carry on the war in the plain. " Number thyself an army, like the army which has fallen from thee." "nC*^^^, " from with thee," rendered cor- rectly de tuis in the Vulgate, at least so far as the sense is con- cerned (for the form see Ewald, § 2 6 4, 6). But these prudently- devised measures Avere to be of no avail to the Syrians ; for they were to learn that the God of Israel was not a limited mountain-god. — Ver. 26. With the new year (see ver. 22) Ben- hadad advanced to Aphek again to fight against Israel. Äplick is neither the city of that name in the tribe of Asher (Josh. xix. 30 and xiii. 4), nor that on the mountains of Judah (Josh. XV. 53), but the city in the plain of Jezreel not far from Endor (1 Sam. xxix. 1 compared with xxviii. 4) ; since Benhadad had resolved that this time he would fight against Israel in the plain. — Ver. 27. The Israelites, mustered and provided for (i?3p3 : supplied with ammunition and provisions), marched to meet them, and encamped before them " like two little separate flocks of goats " {i.e. severed from the great herd of cattle). They had probably encamped upon slopes of the mountains by the plain of Jezreel, where they looked like two miserable flocks of goats in contrast with the Syrians who filled the land. — Ver. 28. Then the man of God (the prophet mentioned in vers. 13 and 22) came again to Ahab with the word of God : " Be- cause the Syrians have said Jehovah is a mountain-God and not a God of the valleys, I will give this great multitude into thy hand, that ye may know that I am Jehovah." — Vers. 29, 30. After seven days the battle was fought. The Israelites smote the Syrians, a hundred thousand men in one day ; and when the rest fled to Aphek, into the city, the wall fell upon twenty-seven 266 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. thousand men, iva Be KaKeivoi koI ovtoi fxaOcocriv, («9 BerjXaro'i ■q TrXTjy)] (Theocloret). The flying Syrians had probably some of them climbed the wall of the city to offer resistance to the Israelites in pursuit, and some of them sought to defend them- selves by taking shelter behind it. And during the conflict, through the special interposition of God, the wall fell and buried the Syrians who were there. The cause of the fall is not given. Thenius assumes that it was undermined, in order to remove all idea of any miraculous working of the omni- potence of God. Benhadad himself fled into the city " room to room," i.e. from one room to another (cf ch. xxii. 25, 2 Chron. xviii. 24). — Vers. 31, 32. In this extremity his servants made the proposal to him, that trusting in the generosity of the kings of Israel, they should go and entreat Ahab to show favour to him. They clothed themselves in mourning apparel, and put ropes on their necks, as a sign of absolute surrender, and went to Ahab, praying for the life of their king. And Ahab felt so flattered by the fact that his powerful opponent was obliged to come and entreat his favour in this humble manner, that he gave him his life, without considering how a similar act on the part of Saul had been blamed by the Lord (1 Sam. xv. 9 sqq.). " Is he still alive ? He is my brother ! " was his answer to Benhadad' s ser- vants.— Ver. 3 3. And they laid hold of these words of Ahab as a good omen O^l"',?'!), and hastened and bade him explain {i.e. bade him quickly explain) ; ^3:£iDn, whether (it had been u.ttered) from himself, i.e. whether he had said it with all his heart (Maurer), and said, " Benhadad is thy brother." The «tt. Xey. t^pH, related to Y^i^, exuere, signifies ahstraliere, nudare, then figura- tively, aliquid facer e nude, i.e. sine prcetcxtu, or aliquid oiude, i.e. sine fuco atqiie amhagihus testari, eovfirmare (cf Fürst, Concord. p. 398); then in the Talmud, to give an explanation {vid. Ges. thes. p. 476). This is perfectly applicable here, so that there is no necessity to alter the text, even if we thereby obtained a better meaning than Thenius with his explanation, " they tore it out of him," which he takes to be equivalent to " they laid hold of him by his word " (! !). Ahab thereupon ordered Benhadad to come and get up into his chariot. — Ver. 34. Benliadad, in order to keep Ahab in this favourable mood, promised to give him back at once the cities which his father had taken away from Ahab's father, and said, " Thou mayest make thyself roads in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria." There is no account CHAP. XX. 23-34. 267 of any war between Omri and Benhadad i.; it is simply stated in ch. XV. 20 that Benhadad i. had taken away several cities in Galilee from the Israelites during the reign of Baasha. This cannot be the war intended here, however, not indeed because of the expression T^i< rixo^ since ^^? might certainly be taken in a broader sense as referring to Baasha as an ancestor of Ahab, but chiefly on account of the statement that Benhadad had made himself roads in Samaria. This points to a war between Omri and Benhadad, after the building of Samaria into the capital of the kingdom, of which no account has been preserved. r? niifn D''B'^ " to make himself roads," cannot be understood as referring either to fortifications and military posts, or to roads for cattle and free pasturage in the Syrian kingdom, since Samaria and Damascus were cities ; nor can it signify the estab- lishment of custom-houses, but only the clearing of portions of the city for the purpose of trade and free intercourse (Cler., Ges., etc.), or for the establishment of bazaars, which would occupy a whole street (Böttcher, Thenius ; see also Movers, Fhönizier, ii. 3, p. 135). — "And I," said Ahab, "will let thee go upon a covenant " (a treaty on oath), and then made a covenant with him, giving him both life and liberty. Before ''^^'l we must sup- ply in thought ^^^^ ""P^'Ü. This thoroughly impolitic proceed- ing on the part of Ahab arose not merely from a natural and inconsiderate generosity and credulity of mind (G. L. Bauer, Thenius), but from an unprincipled weakness, vanity, and blind- ness. To let a cruel and faithless foe go unpunished, was not only the greatest harshness to his own subjects, but open opposition to God, who had announced to him the victory, and delivered the enemy of His people into his hand.-^ Even if Ahab had no express command from God to put Benhadad to death, as Saul had in 1 Sam. xv. 3, it was his duty to punish this bitter foe of Israel with death, if only to secure quiet for his own subjects ; as it was certainly to be foreseen that Ben- 1 Clericus is correct in the explanation winch he has given : " Although, therefore, this act of Ahab had all the appearance of clemency, it was not an act of true clemency, which ought not to be shown towards violent aggressors, who if released will do much more injury than before, as Ben- hadad really did. God had given the victory to Ahab, and delivered the guilty king into his hands, that he might inflict punishment upon him, not that he might treat him kindly. And Ahab, who had allowed so many prophets to be slain by his wife Jezebel, had no great clemency at other times." 268 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS, hadad would not keep the treaty which had been wrung from him by force, as was indeed very speedily proved (see ch. xxii. 1). Vers. 35-43. Tlic verdict of God upon AhaVs conduct toivards Benliadad. — Vers. 35, 36. A disciple of the prophets received instructions from God, to announce to the king that God would punish him for letting Benhadad go, and to do this, as Nathan had formerly done in the case of David (2 Sam. xii. 1 sqq.), by means of a symbolical action, whereby the king was led to pro- nounce sentence iipon himself The disciple of the prophets said to his companion, " in the word of Jehovah," i.e. by virtue of a revelation from God (see at ch. xiii. 2), " Smite me ;" and when the friend refused to smite him, he announced to him that because of this disobedience to the voice of the Lord, after his departure from him a lion would meet him and smite him, i.e. would kill him ; a threat which was immediately fulfilled. This occurrence shows with how severe a punishment all oppo- sition to the commandments of God to the prophets was followed, as a warning for others ; just as in the similar occurrence in ch. xiii. 24. — Ver. 27. The disciple of the prophets then asked another to smite him, and he smote him, " smiting and wound- ing," i.e. so that he not only smote, but also wounded him {vid. Ewald, § 280, a). He wished to be smitten and wounded, not to disguise himself, or that he might be able to appeal loudly to the king for help to obtain his rights, as though he had suffered some wrong (Ewald), nor merely to assume the decep- tive appearance of a warrior returning from the battle (Thenius), but to show to Ahab symbolically what he had to expect from Benhadad whom he had released (C. a Lap., Calm., etc.). — Ver. 38. With these wounds he placed himself in the king's path, and disguised himself (ti'snn"' as in 1 Sam. xxviii. 8) by a ban- dage over his eyes, "i??*^ does not mean ashes (Syi'., Vulg., Luth., etc.), but corresponds to the Chaldee *^'',^V^, head-band, reXaficov (LXX.), — Vers. 39, 40. When the king passed by, he cried out to him and related the following fictitious tale : He had gone to the war, and a man had come aside to him ("i^D as in Ex. iii. 3, Judg. xiv. 8, etc.), and had given a man (a prisoner) into his care with this command, that he was to watch him, and if he should be missing he was to answer for liis life with his own life, or to pay a talent of silver (as a punish- ment). The rest may be easily imagined, namely the request CHAP. XXI. 1-15. 269 to be saved from this punishment. Ahab answered (ver. 40), I? ?jt3Q^bj " thus thy sentence, thou hast decided," i.e. thou hast pronounced thine own sentence, and must endure the j)unish- ment stated. — Vers. 41, 42. Then the disciple of the prophets drew the bandage o[uickly from his eyes, so that the king recognised him as a prophet, and announced to him the word of the Lord : " Because thou hast let go out of thy hand the man of my ban {i.e. Benhadad, who has fallen under my ban), thy life shall stand for his life, and thy people for his people," i.e. the destruction to which Benhadad was devoted will fall upon thee and thy people. The expression ''p^n"tJ'''X (man of my ban) showed Ahab clearly enough what ought to have been done with Benhadad. A person on whom the ban was pro- nounced was to be put to death (Lev. xxvii. 29). — Ver 43. The king therefore went home, and returned sullen (iD, from lip) and morose to Samaria. CHAP. XXI. THE MUPvDER AND ROBBERY OF NABOTII. After these events Ahab was seized with such a desire for a vineyard which was situated near his palace at Jezreel, that when Naboth, the owner of the vineyard, refused to part with his paternal inheritance, he became thoroughly dejected, until his wife Jezebel paved the way for the forcible seizure of the desired possession by the shameful execution of Naboth (vers. 1—15). But when Ahab was preparing to take possession of the vineyard, Elijah came to meet him with the announcement, that both he and his wife would be visited by the Lord with a bloody death for this murder and robbery, and that his idolatry would be punished with the extermination of all his house (vers. 16-26). Aliab was so affected by this, that he humbled himself before God ; whereupon the Lord told Elijah, that the threatened judgment should not burst upon his house till after Ahab's death (vers. 27-29). Vers. 1—15. — Ahab wanted to obtain possession of the vine- yard of Naboth, which was in Jezreel (^^^. refers to 0"}!), near the palace of the king, either in exchange for another vineyard or for money, that he might make a vegetable garden of it. Erom the fact that Ahab is called the king of Samaria we may infer that Jezreel, the present Zerin (see at Josh. xix. 18), was only a summer residence of the king.^Ver. 3. Naboth refused 270 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. to part with the vineyard, because it was the inheritance of his fathers, that is to say, on religious grounds (nvT-o 7 np^n)^ be- cause the sale of a paternal inheritance was forbidden in the law (Lev. xxv. 23-28; Num. xxxvi. 7 sqq.). He was there- fore not merely at liberty as a personal right to refuse the king's proposal, but bound by the commandment of God. — Ver. 4. Instead of respecting this tender feeling of shrinking from the transgression of the law and desisting from his covet- ing, Ahab went home, i.e. to Samaria (c£ ver. 8), sullen and morose (^Vtl. "iD as in ch. xx. 43), lay down upon his bed, turned his face (viz. to the wall; c£ 2 Kings xx. 2) — " after the manner of sorrowful persons, who shrink from and refuse all conversa- tion, and even the sight of others " (Seb. Schmidt) — and did not eat. This childish mode of giving expression to his dis- pleasure at ISTaboth's refusal to comply with his wish, shows very clearly that Ahab was a man sold under sin (ver. 2 0), who only wanted the requisite energy to display the wickedness of his heart in vigorous action. — Vers. 5-7. When Jezebel learned the cause of Aliab's ill-humour, she said to him, " Thou, dost thou now exercise royal authority over Israel ? " nriK is placed first for the sake of emphasis, and the sentence is to be taken as an ironical question, as it has been by the LXX. " I (if thou hast not courage enough to act) wiU procure thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreehte." — ^Vers. 8, 9. The shameless woman then wrote a letter in the name of Ahab, sealed it below with the royal seal, which probably bore the king's signature and was stamped upon the writing instead of signing the name, as is done at the present day among Arabs, Turks, and Persians {vid. Paulsen, Beg. der Morgenl. p. 295 sqq.), to give it the character of a royal command (cf. Esther viii. 13, Dan. vi. 17), and sent this letter (the Chetlub DnSDn is correct, and the Keri has arisen from a misunderstanding) to the elders and nobles of his town {i.e. the members of the magistracy, Deut. xvi. 18), who lived near Naboth, and therefore had an opportunity to watch his mode of life, and appeared to be the most suitable persons to institute the charge that was to be brought against him. The letter ran thus : " Proclaim a fast, and set JSTaboth at the head of the people, and set two worthless men opposite to him, that they may give evidence against him: Thou hast blasphemed God and king ; and lead him out and stone him, that he may die." Jezebel ordered the fasting for a sign, as though some public CHAP. XXI. 16-26. 271 crime or lieavy load of guilt rested upon the city, for which it was necessary that it should humble itself before God (1 Sam. vii. 6). The intention was, that at the very outset the appear- ance of justice should be given to the legal process about to be instituted in the eyes of all the citizens, and the stamp of veracity impressed upon the crime of which N'aboth was to be accused, oyn i^^Nna . . . n^E^'in^ " seat him at the head of the people," i.e. bring him to the court of justice as a defendant before all the people. The expression may be explained from the fact, that a sitting of the elders was appointed for judicial business, in which Naboth and the witnesses who were to accuse him of blasphemy took part seated. To preserve the appearance of justice, two witnesses were appointed, according to the law in Deut. xvii. 6, 7, xix. 16, Num. xxxv. 30; but worthless men, as at the trial of Jesus (Matt. xxvi. 60). 'H']? '^^O-'M, to bless God, i.e. to bid Him farewell, to dismiss Him, as in Job ii. 9, equivalent to blaspheming God. God and king are mentioned together, like God and prince in Ex. xxii. 27, to make it possible to accuse Naboth of transgressing this law, and to put him to death as a blasphemer of God, according to Deut. xiii. 1 1 and xvii. 5, where the punishment of stoning is awarded to idolatry as a practical denial of God. Blaspheming the king is not to be taken as a second crime to be added to the blasphemy of God; but blaspheming the king, as the visible representative of God, was eo ipso also blaspheming God. — Vers. 11-13. The elders of Jezreel executed this command without delay ; a striking proof both of deep moral corruption and of slavish fear of the tyranny of the ruthless queen.- — Vers. 14, 15. When the report of Naboth's execution was brought to her, she called upon Ahab to take possession of his vineyard (^2 = ^1, Deut. ii. 24). As Naboth's sons were put to death at the same time, according to 2 Kings ix. 26, the king was able to confiscate his property ; not, indeed, on any rule laid down in the Mosaic law, but according to a principle involved in the very idea of high treason. Since, for example, in the case of blasphemy the property of the criminal was forfeited to the Lord as cJierem (Deut. xiii. 16), the property of traitors was regarded as forfeited to the king. Vers. 16-26. But when Ahab went down to Jezreel to take possession of the vineyard of Naboth, Elijah came to meet him by the command of God, with the word of the Lord, 272 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. " Hast thou murdered and also taken possession ? " The ques- tion served to sharpen his conscience, since Ahab was obliged to admit the fact, piob'ii nu'N means " who lives at Samaria," for when Elijah came to meet him, Ahab was in Jezreel. Elijah then said to him still further : " Thus saith the Lord : In the place where the dogs have licked the blood of Naboth, will they also lick thine, yea, thy blood." nnx Da serves as an emphatic repetition of the suffix (cf Ges. § 121, 3). This threat was only so far fulfilled upon Ahab, from the compassion of God, and in consequence of his humbling himself under the divine judgment (vers. 27—29), that dogs licked his blood at Samaria when the carriage was washed in which he had died (ch. xxii. 38) ; but it was literally fulfilled in the case of his son Joram, whose corpse was cast into Naboth's piece of ground (2 Kings ix. 25, 26). — Ver. 20. Ahab answered, '^ Hast thou found me (met with me), 0 mine enemy ? " (not, hast thou ever found me thine enemy ? — Vulg., Luth.) i.e. dost thou come to meet me again, mine enemy ? He calls Elijah his enemy, to take the sting from the prophet's threat as an utterance caused by personal enmity. But Elijah fearlessly replied, " I have found (thee), because thou seilest thyself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord." He then announced to him, in vers. 21, 22, the extermination of his house, and to Jezebel, as the principal sinner, the most ignominious end (ver. 23). V"iri nirj;? "izionn^ to sell one's self to do evil, i.e. to give one's self to evil so as to have no will of one's own, to make one's self the slave of evil (cf. ver. 25, 2 Kings xvii. 17). The consequence of this is ireirpaadaL viro ttjv ajxaprlav (Rom. vii. 14), sin exercising un- limited power over the man who gives himself up to it as a slave. Eorvers. 21, 22, see ch. xiv. 10, 11, xv. 29, 30, xvi. 3, 12, 13. The threat concerning Jezebel (ver. 23) was literally fulfilled, according to 2 Kings ix. 3 0 sqq. -'H, written defectively for ?''n, as in 2 Sam. xx, 15, is properly the open space by the town-wall, 2^omcerium. Instead of -'na we have P^ns in the repetition of this threat in 2 Kings ix. 10, 36, 37, and con- sequently Thenius and others propose to alter the ^'H here. But there is no necessity for this, as V?^"^, on the portion, i.e. the town-land, of Jezreel (not, in the field at Jezreel), is only a more general epithet denoting the locality, and *'[} is proved to be tlie original word by the LXX. — Vers. 25 and 26 contain a reflec- tion on the part of the historian concerning Ahab's ungodly CHAP. XXII. 1-14. 273 conduct, whereby he brought such an ignominious end upon himself and his house. '1^1 ^]^ ^^ PI, " only there has not been (one) like Ahab," i.e. there was no one else like Ahab, " who sold himself," etc. '"'^9[' for •^^''Dri, from tad, to entice, to seduce or lead astray (cf. Ewald, § 114, a, and Ges. § 72, Anm. 6). nyn*l, and he acted abominably. Amorites : for Canaanites, as in Gen. XV. 16, etc. Vers. 27-29. This terrible threat made such an impression upon Ahab, that he felt deep remorse, and for a time at least was sincerely penitent. Kending the clothes, putting on the mourning garment of hair (P'^), and fasting, are frequently mentioned as external signs of humiliation before God or of deep mourning on account of sin. t^i* ^\P., he walked about lightly (slowly), like one in deep trouble. This repentance was neither hypocritical, nor purely external ; but it was sincere even if it was not lasting and produced no real conversion. For the Lord Himself acknowledged it to be humiliation before Him (ver. 29), and said to Elijah, that because of it He would not bring the threatened calamity upon Ahab's house in his own lifetime, but only in the days of his son. ''3X for i^"'?^, as in ver. 21. CHAP. XXII. WAR OF AHAB AND JEHOSHAPHAT AGAINST THE SYRIANS, AND DEATH OF AHAB. REIGNS OF JEHOSHAPHAT OF JUDAH AND AHAZIAH OF ISRAEL. Vers. 1-40. Allied Campaign of Ahab and Jehoshaphat AGAINST THE SYRIANS AT EaMOTH, AND DeATH OF AhAB (com- pare 2 Chron. xviii. 2-34). — Ver. 1. " And they rested three years ; there was no war between Aram and Israel." 3K^) here is to keep quiet, to undertake nothing, as in Judg. v. 17, etc. The subject to i2'