1. Chron. 29 :** 23 THEN Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father, and prospered; and all Israel obeyed him. And all the princes, and the mighty men, and all the sons likewise of king David, submitted themselves unto Solomon the king. And the LORD magnified Solomon exceedingly in the sight of all Israel, and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel. 2. Chron. 1 :** 1 And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the LORD his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly. And Solomon spake unto all Israel, to the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and to the judges, and to every prince in all Israel, the heads of the fathers’ houses. 2. Chron. 1 : 3** So Solomon, and all the congregation with him, went to the high place that was at Gibeon ; for there was the tent of meeting of God, which Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness. But the ark of God had David brought up from Kiriath-jearim to the place that David had prepared for it : for he had pitched a tent for it at Jerusalem. Moreover the brazen altar, that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made, was there before the tabernacle of the LORD : and Solomon and the congregation sought unto it. And Solomon went up thither to the brazen altar before the LORD, which was at the tent of meeting, and offered a thousand burnt-offerings upon it. In that night did God appear unto Solomon, and said unto him, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said unto God, Thou hast shewed great kindness unto David my father, and hast made me king in his stead. Now, O LORD God, let thy promise unto David my father be established : for thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people : for who can judge this thy people, that is so great ? And God said to Solomon, Because this was in thine heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honor, nor the life of them that hate thee, neither yet hast asked long life ; but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge my people, over whom I have made thee king : wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee ; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honor, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like. So Solomon came from his journey to the high place that was at Gibeon, from before the tent of meeting, unto Jerusalem ; and he reigned over Israel. 1. K. 3 : 4** And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there ; for that was the great high place : a thousand burnt-offerings did Solomon offer upon that altar. In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night : and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great kindness, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee ; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And now, O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father : and I am but a little child ; I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give thy servant therefore an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and evil ; for who is able to judge this thy great people ? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life ; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies ; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment ; behold, I have done according to thy word : lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart ; so that there hath been none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee, all thy days. And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days. And Solomon awoke, and, behold, it was a dream : and he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and offered up burnt-offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants. 1. K. 3 : 16** Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him. And the one woman said, Oh my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house ; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house. And it came to pass the third day after I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also ; and we were together ; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house. And this woman's child died in the night ; because she overlaid it. And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead : but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear. And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king. 23 Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and 24 the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living. And the king said, 25 Fetch me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, Divide the 26 living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other. Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, Oh my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, It shall be 27 neither mine nor thine; divide it. Then the king answered and said, Give her the living 28 child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof. And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment. The comparative scantiness of historical data for a life of Solomon is itself significant. While that of David occupies more than sixty chapters, that of Solomon fills only the first eleven chapters of 1 K. and the first nine of 2 Chron. The writers give extracts only from larger works which were before them, "The Book of the Acts of Solomon;" "the Book of Nathan the prophet, the Book of Ahijah the Shilonite, the visions of Iddo the seer." Some materials for the life of Solomon exist in the books that bear his name (Canticles; Ecclesiastes; Proverbs), and in the Psalms which are referred, on good grounds, to his time (Ps. 2, 45, 72, 127). Other materials are very scanty. The history of Josephus is, for the most part, only a loose and inaccurate paraphrase of the Old Testament narrative. Dic. B.—Perhaps the following is as probable as any cast of the events of Solomon's reign: first, three years during which affairs were becoming settled; then seven years of building the temple, and thirteen years while the king's house was being built, twenty years in all; then the remaining seventeen years. W. J. B. Solomon, the third king of Israel, is as unlike either of his predecessors as each of them is unlike the other. No person occupies so large a space in Sacred History of whom so few personal incidents are related. That stately and melancholy figure—in some respects the grandest and the saddest in the sacred volume—is, in detail, little more than a mighty shadow. But on the other hand, of his age, of his court, of his works, we know more than of any other. Now, for the first time since the Exodus, we find distinct traces of dates—years, months, days. Now at last we seem to come across monuments, which possibly remain to this day. Of the earlier ages of Jewish history, nothing has lasted to our time except it be the sepulchres and wells,—works of Nature rather than of men. But it is not beyond belief that the massive walls at the reservoirs near Bethlehem, the substructures of the temple at Jerusalem, and at Baalbec, are from the age of Solomon. Now also we come within distinctly noted signs of contemporary history in the outer world. In the reign of Solomon we meet with an Egyptian sovereign, designated by his proper name—Shishak—and in his still-existing portraiture on the walls of Karnac, we have thus the first distinct image of one who beyond question had communicated with the chosen people. Now also the date to which we have attained, the thousandth year before the Christian era, brings us to a level with the beginning of the well-known Classical History of Greece and Italy. But the epoch is remarkable not only for its distinctness, but for its splendor. It is characteristic indeed of the Jewish records that, clearly as Solomon's greatness is portrayed at the time, it is rarely noticed in them again. Of all the characters of the Sacred History, he is the most purely secular; and merely secular magnificence was an excrescence, not a native growth, of the chosen people. While Moses and David are often mentioned again in the sacred books, Solomon's name hardly occurs after the close of his reign. To have had many such characters in the Biblical History would have brought it down too nearly to the ordinary level. But to have one such is necessary to show that the interest which we inevitably feel in such events and such men has a place in the designs of Providence, and in the lessons of Revelation. Stanley. Solomon found himself by his father's death the sole occupant of the throne. The position to which he succeeded was unique. Never before, and never after, did the kingdom of Israel take its place among the great monarchies of the East. Large treasures accumulated through many years were at his disposal. The people, with the exception of the tolerated worship in high places, were true servants of Jehovah. Knowledge, art, music, poetry had received a new impulse, and were moving on, with rapid steps, to such perfection as the age and the race were capable of attaining. Dic. B. The epoch of Solomon's reign marks the climax of the Hebrew monarchy, and, according to the usual law of human greatness, the beginning of its decline. Starting from the vantage-ground on which the kingdom had been placed by the conquests of David, through the favor of Jehovah, he preserved its ascendency by a wisdom which has become proverbial, and prepared its downfall by his luxury and arrogance. Having achieved the greatest work done by any ruler of Israel since Moses, the building of the house of God upon Mount Moriah, and the settlement of His worship, he left to after times the name of "That uxorious king, whose heart, though large, Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell To idols foul." The author and compiler of the richest maxims of wisdom in the literature of the world, he so used up the resources of intellectual as well as sensual pleasure, as to end with the confession "Vanity of vanities! All is emptiness and vexation of spirit!" The life of Solomon presents a striking contrast to his father's in its uneventful character. His great work was the building of the House of God, commonly called the Temple, at Jerusalem. The rest of the history of his reign is chiefly occupied with the description of his magnificence and wealth, as the sovereign of what was then the greatest monarchy of Western Asia. P. S. The sacred historians were guided to the preservation of what was of permanent value for the history of the kingdom of God. Mere worldly opulence and splendor has little instructiveness about it. A prolonged narrative of Solomon's magnificence and power would have had no moral value. Enough is told us to enable us to appreciate God's bounty to the young man who deliberately preferred wisdom to wealth and power, and to see the powerlessness of mere wisdom and culture, even of the highest kind, when dissevered from the fear and love of God, against human passion and human pride. Under Solomon the star of Israel continues still to rise for a time, and under him the zenith of the nation is reached. Yet his reign is not on that account greater than his father's, which was a continual growth from first to last. On the contrary, it is the lamentable distinction of Solomon's reign that with him, and largely in consequence of his faults, begins a decline which was never really arrested and which in the end proved fatal. The lesson of his life is to a large extent that of Samson's and of Saul's combined: miraculous powers neutralized by self-indulgence; great natural gifts rendered baneful by desertion of God. Therefore a few scenes of splendor, the canker, and its consequences, are all that are needed to be told. The remainder, however flattering to himself and his age, has little instruction for us. Unlike his father, Solomon had never known the bracing influences of difficulty or adversity. Brought up in the expectation of a glorious crown, we can hardly wonder that his character does not bear the strain of the possession of enormous wealth and power. Plummer. 1. Chron. 29: 23-25. Solomon established and prospered in the kingdom by the favor of Jehovah. A brief summary of much of his reign of forty years. The wide domain conquered and possessed by the father was for a long period wisely governed by the son. The immense riches—in stores of material of every sort, as well as precious metals and stones—gathered by David, were applied in part to the building of God's house. Another part he put into various channels of commerce. By means of wise compacts with other nations, by the construction of fleets and of broad roadways centring at his capital and traversing all his great cities, he caused this wealth to flow back again with marvellous increase. Beside the Temple, Solomon enlarged and beautified Jerusalem, built many cities, and constructed pools and other useful public works, some of which remain to the present day. In all this outward magnificence, and in the sagacity and justness with which he administered the affairs of his kingdom, we trace the evidence that God "magnified him exceedingly." 2. Chron. 1: 2, 3; 1 K. 3: 2-6. With a retinue of the nation's representatives, Solomon offers a national sacrifice upon the altar of Moses, before the Tabernacle at Gibeon. Gibeon was a city of the Levites, situated six miles north of Jerusalem upon the summit of the central ridge running northward. It is called (1 K. 3: 4) the great high-place, since there the Tabernacle and sacrificial altar of Moses were finally placed. Why the Ark of the covenant, which belonged in the interior Holy Place of the Tabernacle, had been separated from the other sacred vessels, does not clearly appear. But, as we read here, David had deposited this in a temporary structure at Jerusalem. The old and now historic brazen altar, however, still remained in its place before the ancient Tabernacle of the wilderness. And to this, in a vast and solemn concourse of all the leaders, and princes, and prominent men of the tribes, Solomon goes to offer formal sacrifice for himself and the people, early (the second year) in his reign. Here, under the king's direction, with the participation of the nation's representatives, a thousand burnt-offerings were offered; in recognition of God's establishment of a new reign, in acknowledgment of need through infirmity and transgression, and in supplication for Divine favor and prosperity upon King and people. By this significant act of national worship the reign began. B. The situation of Gibeon is noble. Its hill is rounded and distinct, looking down on all sides on fruitful fields and orchards. The limestone rocks lie in horizontal strata, as if terraced by the hand of man, each step being clean cut and from six to ten feet high. Adjoining the village on the south is a broad surface, apparently artificially levelled, now planted with olive trees. We fancied that it was here that the tabernacle stood and the altar, when Solomon offered at a high festival a thousand burnt-offerings. Dulles. (For cut, see p. 92.) 1. K. 3:5.** The sacrificial festival, prolonged according to custom for seven days, was drawing toward the close, when—as we are here definitely told—“in Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream.” But the dream had all the elements of reality, for God spoke to the mind, and quickened the mind to true action. This we are assured, and this Solomon himself perfectly knew. Ask what I shall give thee! is the gracious word by which God presses his munificence upon the youthful monarch. B.—The Lord came to press His gifts upon the acceptance of David's son; asking him to make his choice of all the gifts his almightiness enabled him to offer—or rather, of all that the man was capable of receiving. Whatever we may think of it—and practically we every day deny most of the things we profess to believe—God daily makes as large and liberal offers to us—ay, offers more liberal by far; and quite as surely will He bestow upon us what we ask, and much more, if that which we seek be well pleasing in his sight. Kit. The call of God to his children is continually, “Ask what I shall give thee;” “Ask, and it shall be given you;” “All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.” And in response to this call of God, the true child of God is continually choosing, yet not choosing—choosing while he will not choose—in the matter of his heart longings, as he looks God-ward in prayer. He knows what he longs for, but he is not sure that he knows what is best for him; so, while his choice is naturally in the direction of his longings, he wants God to choose that which he himself would choose if he saw the case as God sees it. He chooses to take what he craves,—if God sees that it is best for him to have that object of his craving; but he is unwilling to make an absolute choice—however strong are his yearnings in a given direction—while God alone is competent to decide as to the real desirableness of the thing desired. And so the choices of the true-hearted Christian believer are ever by choosing, yet not choosing, as he makes known his requests unto God. S. S. Times. 7-9. Within the sacred city of Gibeon occurred one of those prophetic dreams which had already been the means of Divine communication in the time of Samuel. Thrice in Solomon's life—at the three epochs of his rise, of his climax, of his fall—is such a warning recorded. This was the first. It was the choice offered to the youthful King on the threshold of life,—the choice, so often imagined in fiction, and actually presented in real life,—“Ask what I shall give thee.” The answer is the ideal answer of such a Prince, burdened with the responsibility of his position. He remembered the high antecedents of his predecessor—“Thou hast showed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he walked before Thee in truth, and in uprightness, and in righteousness of heart with thee.” He remembered his own youth and weakness; “I am but a little child—I know not how to go out or to come in.” He remembered the vastness of his charge; “In the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen: a great people which cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude: and who is able to judge this thy people that is so great.” He made the demand for the gift which he of all the heroes of the ancient Church was the first to claim: “Give thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad.” Stanley. Solomon calls himself a child only in respect to his skill in the management of public affairs, as is signified in the last words, “I know not how to go out,” etc.—that is, how to govern so great a people, for want of experience. Thus Benjamin is called a child (Gen. 44:20), although he was then above thirty years old. Patrick.—Absalom, who was a fool, wished himself a judge; Solomon, who was a wise man, trembles at the undertaking, and suspects his own fitness for it. The more knowing and considerate men are, the better they are acquainted with their own weakness, and the more jealous of themselves. H. The special type of wisdom which Solomon asked—"an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad" (verse 9); "wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people" (2 Chron. 1 : 10)—was that sagacity, that intuitive apprehension of character and conduct, coupled with an unfailing sense of equity as between man which he needed as the supreme judge of Israel? H. C.—He does not ask that profound spiritual wisdom which would teach him to know God and his own heart : in this he was always far inferior to David. His prayer is for practical sagacity, clear intelligence, quick discernment, to see the right from the wrong amid the mazes of duplicity and doubt which beset the judge, especially among an Oriental people. And this gift he received. His aspirations, if not for the highest spiritual excellence, were for usefulness to his subjects and fellowmen, not for long life, riches, and victory for himself ; and because he had not selfishly asked these things, they were freely granted to him in addition to the gift he had chosen. P. S. Solomon asked for wisdom to discharge the responsibilities of his kingly office. For this specific and subordinate use he sought it. He did not ask for God's own indwelling, inworking, and personal fellowship. He did not ask for strength in the will to resist evil, or grace in the heart to walk with God. He did not even seek wisdom to know God and to serve Him, and so obey the charge of David and command of God. Only for his own and his people's advantage, he asked for the intellectual gift of clear comprehensive perception and of just discriminating judgment. And because his request was comparatively good, far better than the reigning desires in most men's hearts, God gave him marvellous discernment and judgment, and added also great wealth and power. But it deserves note that no recorded word or prayer of Solomon shows any yearning after inward godliness, any personal consecration to, or habitual communion with, God. In the significant absence of the spirit of piety, we find a distinctive difference in the character of Solomon as compared with that of David. And to this difference we trace the subsequent effects of Solomon's deeper, more protracted fall. B.—His prayer at Gibeon, high and noble as it was, and "pleasing to the Lord," was not the highest. It is the prayer of one who seeks to be self-sufficing rather than of one who feels that dependence on God is his only hope and stay. David would have asked, had he had the choice, to be delivered from his transgressions, to have a clean heart and a right spirit, to hold fast by God. The widest range of wisdom without that spirit was worthless, not only in God's eyes but for bringing peace to the heart. This truth Solomon, with all his varied knowledge, did not know ; and had to learn it through a dreary round of the bitterest disappointments. Plummer. To pray for a thinking and understanding mind is a most necessary and a most Christian prayer. The gift of wisdom is the subject of almost one whole book of the Bible, the Proverbs. Paul prays, and bids others pray, for an enlightened understanding, for the fulness of wisdom. James says, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given him." Without thoughtfulness there can be no goodness, nor any holiness. . . . By asking God to give us a wise and understanding heart, we confess to ourselves that our opinions and judgments are serious things, for we do not bring mere trifles before God's notice in our prayers ; and that, being serious things, they demand our own serious care ; that duty and sin belong to them ; that as our salvation depends on our lives, so our lives depend upon our thoughts and judgments : for if we act ill because we have judged ill, and have judged ill because we took no pains to judge well, then the sin is not taken away from our act but remains in it : and the act was an act of what Scripture calls folly, the folly which sees not and regards not God. Whatever be our business in life, if we make it a part of our daily prayers to God that He will give us understanding in it ; that He will assist our judgment, so that, seeing what is right and true, we may maintain and follow it both in word and deed ; I do not doubt that such prayers will be answered, and that where we now act blindly and carelessly, according to any prevailing feeling or fancy, there we shall act upon the full persuasion of our minds, and that persuasion will be in general according to the will of God. T. Arnold. 2. Chron. 1 : 11, 12.** Because Solomon hath asked what he should, he shall now receive both what he asked and what he asked not : riches and honor shall be given him into the match. So doth God love a good choice, that he recompenses it with overgiving. Could we but first seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these earthly things should be superadded to us. Had Solomon made wealth his boon, he had failed both of riches and wisdom ; now he asks the best, and speeds of all. They are in a fair way of happiness, that can pray well. Bp. H.—He who applies his heart to wisdom, does, at the same time, take the most proper method of gaining long life, riches, and reputation, which are very often not only the rewards, but the effects of wisdom. Addison. God gave Solomon wisdom. He fitted him for all that great work to which he had called him; gave him such a right understanding of the law which he was to judge by, and the cases he was to judge of, that he was unequalled, for a clear head, a solid judgment, and a piercing eye. Such an insight, and such a foresight, never was prince so blessed with. He gave him riches and honor over and above into the bargain, and it was promised that he should as much exceed his predecessors, his successors, and all his neighbors, in these, as in wisdom. These also are God's gift, and are promised to all that seek first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, as far as is good for them (Matt. 6: 23). H.—The wealth and magnificence of Solomon were almost as proverbial as his wisdom (1 K. 10: 23; Matt. 6: 29). God gave Solomon his riches and renown. And all who possess any form of earthly good have likewise received it from Him. These earthly gifts should be received with thankfulness, and used for the glory of their Giver. But when they are withheld from any one, this is no proof of the Divine displeasure; nor is their bestowment a proof that he who receives them is specially approved of God. W. H. G. 1. K. 3: 14. We may notice that while the promises of great wisdom and great wealth were absolute (without conditions), the promise of long life was made upon conditions—viz., of his steadfastness in the ways of his father David. In this point Solomon sadly failed, and consequently failed to realize the long life conditionally promised. He is supposed to have ascended the throne at an age not exceeding twenty. Having reigned forty, he died at the age of sixty—not by any means an old man. H. C. 15. Behold, it was a dream. The vivid impression, the indelible recollection he had of this dream, together with the new and increased energy communicated to his mind, and the flow of worldly prosperity that rushed upon him, gave him assurance that it came by Divine inspiration, and originated in the grace of God. The wisdom, however, that was asked and obtained was not so much of the heart as the head—it was wisdom not for himself personally, but for his office, such as would qualify him for the administration of justice, the government of a kingdom, and for the attainment of general scientific knowledge. Jamieson. Came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark, and offered. No marvel if Solomon, now returning from the tabernacle to the ark, testified his joy and thankfulness by burnt-offerings, and peace-offerings, and public feastings. The heart that hath found in itself the lively testimonies of God's presence and favor cannot contain itself from outward expressions. Bp. H. Two Mothers, with a Dead and a Living Child. An occasion soon arose to prove his Divine gift of sagacity. Two women appeared before his judgment-seat with a dead and a living infant. The one who appealed to the king for justice alleged that they had both been delivered in the same house, the other woman three days after herself; that the other had overlaid her child in the night, and had exchanged its corpse for the living child of the first while she slept. P. S.—A monarch's sagacity in the administration of justice was calculated to make the most marked impression upon the popular mind, and likely to be most generally talked about through the land. This quality also came more home to the personal concerns of his subjects than any other, and was for that reason alone the more carefully regarded. The administration of justice was in all ancient monarchies, as it is now in the East, a most important part of the royal duties and functions; and there is no quality more highly prized than that keen discernment in the royal judge which detects the clew of real evidence amid conflicting testimony, or that ready tact which devises a test of truth where the evidence affords not even the clew to any grounds of decision. It was an instance of this kind which supplied to the watchful people the first evidence of the marvellous judicial sagacity with which their king was endowed. Two mothers, one of whom had lost her son, contend for the possession of the living child; and the king, having to decide which of the two has the best claim to it, detects the real mother by the emotion she evinces when he orders the living child to be divided, and half given to each; and by her readiness to abandon her claim rather than see the child perish before her eyes. Kt. 20,22. The impossibility of proof makes the guilty more confident, more impudent. The true mother pleads that her child was taken away at midnight, by the other, but in her sleep; she saw it not; she felt it not; and if all her senses could have witnessed it, yet here was but the affirmation of the one against the denial of the other, which in persons alike credible do but counterpoise. 24, 25. Solomon well saw that when all outward proofs failed there was an inward affection, which, if it could be fetched out, would certainly beway the true mother. He knew that sorrow might more easily be dissembled than natural love: both sorrowed for their own; both could not love one, as theirs: to draw forth then this true proof of motherhood, Solomon calls for a sword, and commands, "Divide the living child in two." 26,27. This sword has already pierced the breast of the true mother, and divided her heart with fear and grief at so killing a sentence. There needs no other rack to discover nature; and now, while she thinks on the cruelty of such a sentence, she sues to that suspected mercy of her just judge, "O my lord, give her the living child, and in nowise slay it;" as thinking, "If he live, he will but change his mother; if he die, his mother loses a son: it is better he should live to a wrong mother than to neither." On the contrary, her envious competitor, as holding herself well satisfied that her neighbor should be as childless as herself, can say, "Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it." Well might Solomon and every hearer conclude that either she was no mother, or a monster that could be content with the murder of her child; and that if she could have been the true mother, and yet have desired the blood of her infant, she would have deserved as much to have been stripped of her child for her unnatural disposition, as the other would have deserved to possess him for her honest compassion. Not more justly, therefore, than wisely doth Solomon trace the true mother by the footsteps of love and pity, and adjudge the child to those bowels that had yearned at his danger. Bp. II. 27. The king was pondering the words of the two women. At last he broke forth in the language of the mother who had said, "Give her the living child, and in nowise slay it." And to that sentence, taken as representative of the person who had spoken it, he adds his own decision, "She is the mother thereof." Bernard. 28. Solomon's decision in its results was most important to him; for it evinced, in the judgment of the people, his fitness to fill worthily the high place to which he had been raised. Of this some doubt and misgiving appear to have been previously entertained, on account of his age—too young for experience, yet too old for a regency. But now all this was at an end. He had delivered a judgment which the most riripened experience could not surpass. "They saw that the wisdom of God was with him to do judgment;" and thenceforth they regarded him with the respect and veneration due to riper years. Kit. The response of Solomon, more fully given in First Kings, is to be studied in connection with the reply of God. The request was for wisdom and knowledge, and this in order to discharge the responsibilities of his kingly office. It was a wise request, and was approved of God. But the terms of His approval show exactly the character of the request and how far that approval went. Because Solomon had not asked riches, wealth, honor, long life, nor revenge upon his enemies, none of those desires which are foremost with men and universally cherished, God gave the desired wisdom, and added great wealth and honor. Yet, it should be carefully noted, that while asking for that which was comparatively excellent, far better than the things men commonly ask in their hearts, Solomon did not ask for the ever-present guidance and grace of the Spirit of God. He showed wisdom, good judgment, in asking for wisdom. But he did not evince the spirit of an inward godliness, or controlling piety, like that which life-long actuated the heart of David. This marked essential difference characterizes the two lives, and distinguishes the inspired writings of father and son. In these writings we trace this difference in the effect upon each of the transgressions of middle and later life. Throughout the Psalms there is an outpouring of the heart in trust and penitence, in love and aspiration. But the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes mainly reveal a sharpened conscience, and a clear, cold, sometimes almost feelingless intellect tracing the courses and effects of good and evil doing in actual life-experience. Were it not for a few Proverbs and for the richly wrought Allegory entitled the Song of Solomon, there would be little relief for our sadness in the retrospect of a life so endowed with all gifts outwardly attractive and intellectually beautiful. Let it be remembered, then, that the choice of Solomon, though comparatively far superior to ordinary human choices, was not the highest and best. Wisdom for his own use, to guide and control his action as ruler, to employ the best means in securing the most desirable ends in his government and care of the people, this was the wish of his heart that God approved and granted. But to the grant, God subjoins the conditional and warning words, "if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk; an intimation that strength in the will and grace in the heart must be Divinely added to wisdom of the understanding. That Solomon's wisdom did not suffice for this needed Divine grace, that his excelling wisdom did not help him to keep God's statutes and commandments, we read full plainly in his whole after history. B. When still in his youth, Solomon received from God the gift of wisdom, that he might judge Israel righteously. Is this sufficient reason for laying to God's account Solomon's entire life, his luxury, his excesses, even his idolatry? Are we not expressly told, "The Lord was angry with Solomon?" and do not facts confirm this declaration? Further, while the name of David often occurs in the writings of prophets and apostles, not once does the name of Solomon cross their lips. Are not these sufficiently striking signs of the Divine disapprobation of this reign, which was as morally disastrous as it was outwardly brilliant? Godet. Practically, in view of the youthful vigor normally accorded to virtuous young men, and the possibilities that lie within the grasp of earnest, persevering endeavor, God says to every young man as he said to Solomon—"Ask what I shall give thee!" Make choice of the ends you would accomplish in life. If they are worthy ends my blessing shall be upon you. According to your faith it shall be done. Any young man can choose as Solomon did to "serve his generation according to the will of God"—to do the very duties which God in providence lays before his hand, and to do those duties in the best manner possible to him with his powers and opportunities. This virtuous noble purpose is one of the first and best possibilities of every young man. He can be, in this highest sense, good. He can consecrate to the service of God in the line of labor for human well-being whatever powers God gives him. So doing he may be confident of two things: that his choice will please God, and that God will give him success—most surely of all, success in his endeavors to please God truly and serve him faithfully, than which no other success can be greater or better. Again, the case as presented here is good both for proof and for illustration of the principle that when men "covet earnestly" and supremely the best gifts, God loves not only to give these best things thus preferably and supremely sought, but to throw in the lesser things as unasked gratuities—in business phrase, "into the bargain." God gave Solomon not only the wise and understanding heart to rule well—that which he specially sought; but also great wisdom in other directions; immense riches, moreover, and unsurpassed honors. It seems to have been very easy for the Lord to throw in all these lesser things, and make no particular account of them. They were so much extra—a kind of bonus, which signifies the rich munificence of the Giver, and the gushing fulness of his heart toward that unselfish virtue which is so like God, and which he so naturally enjoys when he sees it in his creatures. Moreover, this case suggests the general law as propounded by Jesus in his great sermon: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things," food, raiment, these lower blessings, "shall be added unto you." They shall be thrown in, almost without your asking. Give your full heart and chief endeavor to seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and God will see to the filling of your cup with earthly good as may be best for you in his sight. Hence we may conclude that the principle on which God blessed Solomon was not exceptional but general. Anybody can have blessings from God on the same principle, good blessings, the Lord himself being judge as to what is really good for any one of us personally to have. "Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is," and in no trivial sense. H. C. 1. K. 5: 1** AND Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David. And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house for the name of the LORD his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet. But now the LORD my God hath given me rest on every side; there is neither adversary, nor evil or current. And, behold, I purpose to build an house for the name of the LORD my God, as the LORD spake unto David my father, saying, Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build the house for my name. Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy ser- 2. Chron. 2: 1** Now Solomon purposed to build an house for the name of the LORD, and an house for his kingdom. And Solomon sent to Hiram the king of Tyre, saying, As thou didst deal with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him an house to dwell therein, even so deal with me. Behold, I build an house for the name of the LORD my God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before him incense of sweet spices, and for the continual shewbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts of the LORD our God. This is an ordinance forever to Israel. And the house which I build is great: for great is our God above all gods. But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am I then, that I should build him an house, vants; and I will give thee hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt say: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Zidonians. And it came to pass, when Hiram heard the words of Solomon, that he rejoiced greatly, and said, Blessed be the LORD this day, which hath given unto David a wise son over this great people. And Hiram sent to Solomon, saying, I have heard the message which thou hast sent unto me: I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir. My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will make them into rafts to go by sea unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and thou shalt receive them: and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household. So Hiram gave Solomon timber of cedar and timber of fir according to all his desire. And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat for food to his household, and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year. And the LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and they two made a league together. And king Solomon raised a levy out of all Israel; and the levy was thirty thousand men. And he sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month by courses: a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home: and Adoniram was over the levy. And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore thousand that were hewers in the mountains; besides Solomon's chief officers that were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, which bare rule over the people that wrought in the work. And the king commanded, and they hewed out great stones, costly stones, to lay the foundation of the house with wrought stone. And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the Gebalites did fashion them, and prepared the timber and the stones to build the house. 7 save only to burn incense before him? Now therefore send me a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave all manner of gravings, to be with the cunning men that are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide. Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees, out of Lebanon: for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in Lebanon; and, behold, my servants shall be with thy servants, even to prepare me timber in abundance: for the house which I am about to build shall be wonderful great. And, behold, I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil. Then Hiram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, Because the LORD loveth his people, he hath made thee king over them. Hiram said moreover, Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, that made heaven and earth, who hath given to David the king a wise son, endued with discretion and understanding, that should build an house for the LORD, and an house for his kingdom. And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Hiram my father's, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to devise any device: that there may be a place appointed unto him with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy father. Now therefore the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine, which my lord hath spoken of, let him send unto his servants: and we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou shalt need: and we will bring it to thee in floats by sea to Joppa; and thou shalt carry it up to Jerusalem. And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found an hundred and fifty thousand and three thousand and six hundred. And he set threescore and ten thousand of them to bear burdens, and fourscore thousand that were hewers in the mountains, and three thousand and six hundred overseers to set the people a work. The correspondence between Solomon and Hiram of Tyre (given in 1 K. 5; but more fully 2 Chron. 2) sets forth, with delightful recognition of the true God, the plans of Solomon and his propositions to the king of Tyre; the occasion for a temple; the uses it should subserve; and his reasons for making it supremely magnificent. "The house which I build is great, for great is our God above all gods. But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him? Who am I that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?" Hiram's answer has some remarkable words for an idol-worshipping king. This is said to have been sent in writing: "Because the Lord [Jehovah] hath loved his people, he hath made thee king over them. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who made heaven and earth, who hath given unto David the king a wise son, endued with prudence and understanding, who might build an house for the Lord and an house for his kingdom." H. C. The friendship of this monarch was of the highest value in contributing to the great royal and national work, the building of the temple. The cedar timber could only be obtained from the forests of Lebanon: the Sidonian artisans, celebrated in the Homeric poems, were the most skilful workmen in every kind of manufacture, particularly in the precious metals. Solomon entered into a regular treaty, by which he bound himself to supply the Tyrians with large quantities of corn; receiving in return their timber, which was floated down to Joppa, and a large body of artificers. The timber was cut by his own subjects, of whom he raised a body of 30,000; 10,000 employed at a time, and relieving each other every month; so that to one month of labor they had two of rest. He raised two other corps, one of 70,000 porters of burdens; the other of 80,000 hewers of stone, who were employed in the quarries among the mountains. All these labors were thrown, not on the Israelites, but on the strangers, who, chiefly of Canaanitish descent, had been permitted to inhabit the country. Milman. The various works in brass executed for the Temple (1 K. 7: 13-45) imply a considerable advancement in art; and we also gather that the men of Tyre were skilled as wood-carvers and stone-masons, and were bold adventurous seamen. The wood for the Temple was floated down in great rafts to Jaffa (Joppa), and thence carried up to Jerusalem; this, of course, necessitated constant and close intercourse between the Tyrians and the Jews, and the relations at this period between Hiram and Solomon, and their respective peoples, appear to have been very intimate. Between four and five miles from Tyre there is a remarkable monument shown as the tomb of Hiram, which consists of a huge sarcophagus twelve feet long, eight feet wide, and six feet high, hewn out of a single block of limestone, with a lid of the same material five feet thick, the whole resting on a massive platform, ten feet high, built up of three courses of large stones. There is one point of contact between the Jews and Phœnicians which should not remain unnoticed—the similarity, perhaps identity, of the language used by the two peoples, and also by the surrounding tribes: this is perhaps indicated by the absence of any mention in the Bible of the employment of interpreters by the Jews in their intercourse with the original inhabitants, and by the special mention of Egypt in Ps. 81: 5 as being a country "where I heard a language that I understood not." The similarity between Hebrew and Phœnician was noticed by Jerome and Augustine, when the latter language was still spoken; and there are, besides, many Phœnician and Carthaginian names which are devoid of meaning except in Hebrew. The discovery of the celebrated Moabite stone proves the use of the Phœnician language in Moab in the time of King Mesha, and a small inscription found by Monsieur Ganneau, near Jerusalem, seems to point to its use in that city during the period of the kings. Wilson. The agreement between the character of the Phœnicians as drawn in Kings and Chronicles, and that which we know from other sources to have attached to them, is worthy of remark. The wealth, the enterprise, the maritime skill, and the eminence in the arts, which were the leading characteristics of the Phœnicians in Homer's time, are abundantly noted by the writers of Kings and Chronicles; who contrast the comparative ignorance and rudeness of their own nation with the science and "cunning" of their neighbors. It has been well remarked that "we discover the greatness of Tyre in this age, not so much from its own annals as from those of the Israelites, its neighbors." The scanty fragments of the Phœnician history which alone remain to us are filled out and illustrated by the more copious records of the Jews, with a simplicity and truthfulness that we rarely meet with in profane writers. G. R. 2. Chron. 2: 3-12.** The correspondence between Hiram and Solomon is given in the Chronicles with added points we are thankful to have preserved. The correspondence is very important and interesting. One point must not pass unnoticed. It is said that "Solomon sent to Hiram, saying,"—thus implying that the message was orally conveyed; but of Hiram's reply, it is remarked—doubtless with designed emphasis—that he "answered in writing"—being certainly the first recorded instance of this application of writing, in which it would seem the Phoenicians were beforehand with the Hebrews. Solomon's message was in every way creditable to him. He bore testimony to the truth he knew, apprehending that it became him to uphold the Lord's honor under all circumstances,—not wishing to displease Hiram, who was an idolater, but determined to pay no timid deference to heathen prejudices. He boldly asserted the very positions which a heathen was least of all likely to receive—the infinity of Jehovah, and his supreme dominion. "The house which I build is great; for great is our God above all gods. But who is able to build Him a house, seeing the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him?" The effect of this conscientious boldness in bearing testimony to the truth was such as invariably follows the same line of conduct. Hiram was not displeased, but spoke reverently of this high God, and expressed his earnest desire to co-operate in so good a work. Indeed, his language is stronger than that of Solomon himself, and may suggest that this declaration had made a serious impression upon his mind, or at least had strengthened some convictions made during his former intercourse with David, in whose mind the glory of God was so active a principle of thought, speech, and action, that it seems impossible for one to have been a "lover of David," without being also, in some measure, a lover of David's God. In Hiram's answer there remarkable words occur—"Because Jehovah hath loved his people, He hath made thee king over them." And again: "Blessed be Jehovah, God of Israel, that made heaven and earth." Here is a clear acknowledgment of Jehovah as the creator of the universe, of his government of the world, of his providence, and that by Him kings reign. As in the case of David, what Solomon requires is assistance in art, and certain kinds of wood for building from the mountains of Lebanon. The payment was also, in like manner, to be in agricultural produce,—corn, wine, and oil. Solomon does not want, as David did, carpenters and masons; so that there can be little doubt that David had retained in his employment, on various works, the men who had previously come to him from Tyre, and these had doubtless taught others. Indeed, there was probably great activity in building, particularly at Jerusalem, throughout the reign of David. In that city, the rapid increase of population, from its being made the metropolis of the kingdom, must have created a constant demand for new buildings. 2. Chron., verse 7.** What Solomon wanted most was a master of the works, able to carry out the plans left by David; and it was for such a man that Solomon applied to Hiram. The account of the attainments required is curious, as showing the very diverse qualifications sought in one man, in an age wherein labor and skill was much less subdivided than it afterward became. The qualifications, however, had respect to the furniture of the temple, and not to the construction of it, which leaves open the question whether Solomon had otherwise provided for this part of the undertaking—say by obtaining an architect from Egypt—or that the qualifications required for this purpose are to be regarded as included among those of the skilful person sought from the king of Tyre. The latter seems probable, as the qualifications enumerated are nearly the same found in Bezaleel, who, however, not only excelled in the matters specified, but superintended the whole construction of the tabernacle. The selection of Hiram fell in this instance on a person who bore the same name with himself, and who had the advantage of being the son of a Hebrew woman of the tribe of Naphtali, though his father was a man of Tyre. What Solomon demanded was, "a man cunning (skilful) to work in gold, in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave," etc. Josephus understood that Hiram was skilful in "all kinds of works," but in these particularly. And this is probable; for in the case of Bezaleel, after the enumeration of the like qualifications, it is added, that he was skilled "in all manner of workmanship." To skill in dyes, in colors, in textile fabrics, in brassfounding, in smithery, in gold and silver work, Hiram added the knowledge of "carving," probably wood-carving and modelling. Kit. In profane history, Phoenician civilization is represented as consisting especially in the possession of nautical skill, of extensive commerce, and of excellence in mechanical and ornamental arts and employments. None "can skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians" (1 K. 5 : 6). They are "cunning to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and in blue, and in crimson;" they "can skill to grave gravings." Hiram of Tyre casts for Solomon all his vessels for the Temple service, and especially the two huge pillars, Jachin and Boaz, which stood in front of the porch, and the great laver called "the molten sea." Closely in accordance with this is the character of Phoenician civilization, which we derive from the Greeks. Their early nautical skill and extensive trade are mentioned by Homer and Herodotus, the former of whom speaks especially of their beautifully embroidered robes and their bowls of silver. Their "skill to hew timber," even at this remote time, was attested by their own historians, as also was their practice of making large metal pillars. G. R. 2. Chron., verse 8. Timber of various kinds was what Solomon chiefly required of King Hiram. That it was needful to procure timber from so distant a quarter, and that through the intervention of foreigners, shows that, although trees of various kinds, and especially such as bear fruit, may have been abundant in Palestine, such as afforded wood suited for building purposes were not much more common in the country than they are at present. The cedar of Lebanon is a widespread tree, generally from fifty to eighty feet high, and where standing singly, often covering, with its branches, a space the diameter of which is much greater than its height. The horizontal branches, when the tree is exposed on all sides, are very large in proportion to the trunk, being often equal in bulk to the stem of the fir or the chestnut—a circumstance alluded to by the prophet Ezekiel, in his magnificent description of this noble tree (31 : 3-6). The cedar grove, which is regarded as the remnant of the forest which supplied the cedar-wood to Solomon, or rather as the principal existing site of these trees, lies far up among the higher mountains, at a spot which it takes above a day to reach from the coast at Tripoli. The grove is here found at the foot of a lofty mountain, in what may be regarded as the arena of a vast amphitheatre, shut in on all sides by high mountains, which form part of the upper ridge of Lebanon. Although it is imagined that this is the very grove from which the king obtained his cedars, there can be no question that the supply was drawn from parts of the mountain more accessible to the coast, and from which all traces of the cedar have long since disappeared. 2. Chron., verses 16-18. Since Solomon's people were not skilful to cut timber, "like the Zidonians," it was arranged that Hiram was to supply a certain number of workmen to direct the proceedings, and perform the more difficult parts of the work; for it is to be remembered, that all the timber was to be fully prepared and fitted for its final use on the spot, not only to facilitate the work at Jerusalem, but that no labor might be wasted in the transport of the superfluous parts. So small and busy a state as that of Tyre could not, however, supply the numerous hands required for the ruder labor, such as trimming the wood and dragging it down through the defiles of the mountains to the coast. For this Solomon undertook to find laborers among the remnants of the Canaanitish tribes whom David had spared on the condition of their being liable to be called out for service on any public works that might need their aid. They were now therefore numbered, and the adult males were found to amount to 153,600. Of these 70,000 were made hewers of wood, 80,000 bearers of burdens, and 3600 overseers of the others. A levy of 30,000 Israelites was also made for this service, and there were 550 Israelites as overseers of the whole work. They were not all employed at once, but in relays of one third at a time, so that every man spent four months at home and two in the mountains. This, and the great numbers employed, must have rendered the obligation less onerous than has been represented. These arrangements were continued for several years on a well-organized plan. The wood prepared by these multitudes was taken down to the sea, there made up into large rafts, and floated down along the shore to Joppa, whereby the land-carriage was reduced to about twenty-five miles to Jerusalem. To support these laborers, and to remunerate Hiram for the aid of his people, Solomon agreed to supply the king, year by year, with 20,000 measures of wheat, 20,000 baths of wine, and 20,000 baths of oil (verse 10). 1. K. 5 : 17, 18. Although the operations for the procurement of timber are chiefly described, great hewn stones for the foundation of the temple were also to be procured. It is stated that "The king commanded, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and hewed stones, to lay the foundation of the house. And Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders did hew them, and the stone-squarters; so they prepared timber and stones to build the house." As to the descriptive epithets, we may combine them into "great costly hewn stones." The previous squaring of the stones in the quarry not only facilitated their removal to the place of building, but produced the remarkable result that the house being "built of stone made ready before it was brought thither, there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building" (1 K. 7 : 7). The terms employed by the sacred historian will scarcely strike us in all their force, unless we bear in mind that stones of enormous size are known to have been employed in the ancient buildings of Syria. Thus, in the sub-basement of the great temple of Baalbek, which is probably much more ancient than the now ruined Roman structure which rests upon it, there is one stone sixty-six feet in length by twelve in breadth and thickness, with others of not greatly inferior size; while in a neighboring quarry, which tradition declares to be that from which Solomon obtained his "great stones," are stones of equal and greater dimensions, cut and ready for use, one of them being no less than seventy feet in length by fourteen feet five inches in thickness. This stone, therefore, contains 14,128 cubic feet, and would, if of Portland stone, weigh no less than 1135 tons. At Jerusalem, the immense size and obvious antiquity of much of the stone-work around the area which contains the mosque of Omar, and formerly contained the temple of the Lord, have led many to ascribe it to the age of Jewish magnificence,—some carrying it back to the time of Solomon, and others being content to refer it to the time of Herod the Great. This is found in the lower courses of masonry, and at the angles, the superstructure of the enclosing wall being of smaller and inferior masonry, comparatively modern, and doubtless of Saracenic workmanship. To these remains we incline to assign the higher antiquity, and to regard them as remains—the only remains—of the original work of Solomon. Along nearly the whole of the eastern side, upon the brow of the steep valley of Jehoshaphat, courses of ancient masonry may be traced in almost a continuous line. In some places the courses scarcely appear above the soil, while in others they rise nearly to the height of the modern walls, especially at the angles and projecting towers, which were built to a greater height with great stones, and of such firm masonry as could not easily be destroyed. The inequality may be in part accounted for by the irregularities of the ground, and the unequal accumulation of débris. At the northeast angle, for instance, several courses of ancient masonry form a corner tower, projecting slightly from the general face of the wall, along a length of eighty-one feet. Many of the stones here measure from seventeen to nineteen feet in length, while a few exceed twenty-four feet. They vary from three to four feet in depth, and from five to eight in width. But the southeast angle of the enclosing wall is perhaps the most imposing object in or near Jerusalem, consisting of enormous blocks of stone rising at the corner to the height of seventy feet. In the upper portions, however, the stones are so irregularly interlocated as to show that they belong to the restorations from old materials, upon the basis of the more ancient lower courses. At this place, and in the wall upon each face of this corner, in the three lower courses, stones are found measuring nearly thirty feet long, and of proportionate thickness and depth; and wherever such stones occur, at this and other spots, there is always observable more regularity than is found higher up—more of uniform intention—more indication of adequate means and leisurely construction. At the western wall, about thirty-nine feet from the southwest corner, several huge stones jut out,—as if, one is apt to think at the first sight, from the bursting of the wall by an earthquake. On closer inspection, it is seen that the three courses of these immense stones retain their original places. Their external surface is hewn to a regular curve; and being fitted one upon another, form the commencement or foot of an enormous arch, which once sprung from the western wall in a direction toward Mount Zion, across the valley which separated that mount from Mount Moriah. About a hundred yards northward of the arch we come to what is called the Jews' Wailing Place, where occur some of the finest and best-preserved masonry in this wall of enclosure. It derives its name from the fact that the Jews have purchased permission to assemble here every Friday, in the precincts of these ancients stones, to recite a set form of prayers, and to bewail the ruin of "the holy and beautiful house in which their fathers worshipped." At this spot we find five courses of bevelled stones, and over them three courses of smooth-faced stones, little, if at all, inferior in size. The lower courses of the masonry are beautifully fresh and polished in surface,—others, either by time, or more probably by external injury, are much decayed. Kit. 2. K., verse 18. Southward from Tripoli, along the sea-coast, is Batrun (Botrys), and Jebeil, the Gebal of the Bible, whose inhabitants were employed as stone-cutters in preparing the material for Solomon's Temple (1 K. 5 : 18), and are mentioned by Ezekiel as the "calkers" of the Tyrian ships (27 : 9). Wilson.—Gebal, as its ancient and extensive ruins prove, was a place of much importance, and lying as it did on the coast, and near the cedar forests, would naturally have an important share in the cutting and shipping of the timber. Indeed, it is not improbable that it was at this port that the land transport ended, and the rafts were made. A road ran anciently from Gebal to Baalbek, so that the transport was not impracticable. But as the forests were probably of great extent, there may have been two or three depots at which the timber was floated. Hammond. Relations of Tyre and Israel. Twice in the history of Israel were its relations with the neighboring kingdom of Tyre close and intimate. Twice did the Phœnician race exercise an important influence on the Hebrew people. In the days of Solomon the subjects of Hiram furnished men and materials to build a house to the name of the Lord. The Phœnicians were not only idolaters, but they belonged to the accursed races of Canaan; yet we see them here assisting the holy people, and furthering the interests of the true religion. But in the days of Ahab these relations were reversed. Then the kingdom of Ethbaal furnished Israel with a princess who destroyed the prophets of the Lord and sought to exterminate the religion of which the temple was the shrine and centre. In the first case, that is to say, we see Israel influencing Tyre for good; we hear from the lips of the Tyrian king an acknowledgment of the goodness of the Hebrew God; we see the two races combining to bring glory to God and to diffuse the blessings of peace and civilization among men. In the second case, we see Tyre influencing Israel for evil. No longer do the skilled artificers of Sidon prepare timber and stones for the Lord's house, but the prophets and votaries of Phœnician deities would fain break down the carved work thereof with axes and hammers. So far from rearing a sanctuary to Jehovah, they would root up His worship and enthrone a foul idol in the place of the Divine Presence. Such have been at different times the relations of Tyre and Sidon to the chosen race and the true religion. Hammond. Confirmation by Profane Historians and by Monumental Inscriptions. The fact of Solomon's rule over the Jews at the time which Scripture assigns to him, and the friendly relations in which he stood toward the Tyrian monarch, Hiram, were attested by the Tyrian historians, on whose works Dius and Menander based their histories. The Tyrian histories witnessed, moreover, to the construction of the Temple by Solomon, an event which they placed in the one hundred and forty fourth year before the foundation of Carthage, or B.C. 1007. They stated that several letters which had passed between Hiram and Solomon were preserved in the Tyrian archives; and they further related, as we learn from Menander, that Solomon took to wife one of Hiram's daughters. This last fact, though not distinctly mentioned in Scripture, is probably glanced at in the statement 1 K. 9 : 1. The Jewish history of even this obscure time has been found to present points of direct agreement with the Egyptian records (scanty as they are for it), with the Phœnician annals, with the traditions of the Syrians of Damascus, and with those of the early inhabitants of Northern Africa. The Hebrew account of the time is in complete harmony with all that we otherwise know of Western Asia at the period in question, of its political condition, its civilization, its arts and sciences, its manners and customs, its inhabitants. Illustrations of these points have been furnished by the Assyrian inscriptions, the Assyrian and Persian palaces, the Phœnician coins and histories, and the earliest Greek poetry. Nor is it possible to produce from authentic history any contradiction of this or any other portion of the Hebrew records. When such a contradiction has seemed to be found, it has invariably happened that in the progress of historical inquiry, the author from whom it proceeds has lost credit, and finally come to be regarded as an utterly untrustworthy authority. Internally consistent, externally resting upon contemporary or nearly contemporary documents, and both directly and indirectly confirmed by the records of neighboring nations, the Hebrew account of this time is entitled to be received as a true and authentic history on almost every ground upon which such a claim can be rested. It was then justly and with sufficient reason that the Proto-martyr in his last speech, and the great Apostle of the Gentiles, in his first public preaching as an Apostle, assumed as certain the simple, literal, and historic truth of this portion of the sacred narrative. Through God's good providence, there is no break in that historic chain which binds the present with the past, the new covenant with the old, Christ with Moses, the true Israel with Abraham. G. R. To Israel was specially entrusted the guardianship of that spiritual truth, which in the course of ages would develop in all its proportions, till finally it became the common property of the whole Gentile world. On the other hand, it was the task assigned to that world, to develop knowledge and thought so as to prepare a fitting reception for the truth, that thus it might be presented in all its aspects, and carried from land to land in a form adapted to every nation, meeting every want and aspiration. This was symbolically indicated even in the building of Solomon's Temple. For if that Temple had been exclusively the workmanship of Jewish hands, both the materials for it and their artistic preparation would have been sadly defective, as compared with what it actually became. But it was not so; and while in the co-operation of Gentiles with Israel in the rearing of the Temple we see a symbol of their higher union in the glorious architecture of that "spiritual house built up" of "lively stones," we also recognize the gracious Providence of God, which rendered it possible to employ in that work the best materials and the best artificers of the ancient world. A. E. The cedar is most useful when dead. There is no timber like it. Firm in the grain, and capable of the finest polish, the tooth of no insect will touch it, and Time himself can hardly destroy it. Diffusing a perpetual fragrance through the chamber which it coils, the worm will not corrode the book which it protects, nor the moth corrupt the garment which it guards. All but immortal itself it transfuses its amaranthine qualities to the objects around it; and however stately in the forest, or brave on the mountain's brow, it is more serviceable in Solomon's palace, and it receives an illustrious consecration when set up as pillars in the temple, and carved into doorposts and lintels for the house of the Lord. Every Christian is useful in his life, but the goodly cedars are most useful afterward. Joseph, while he lived, saved much people alive, and his own lofty goodness was an impressive and elevating pattern to his rerelenting and admiring brethren. But as an instance of special providence and an example of untarnished excellence amid terrible temptations, Joseph dead has spoken to more than Joseph living. The sweet singer of Israel, while he lived, taught many to handle the harp and infected not a few with his thankful adoring spirit. But David being dead yet singeth, and you can hardly name the psalm, or hymn, or spiritual song, of which the lesson was not learned from the son of Jesse. Paul, in his living day, preached many a sermon, and made many a convert to the faith of Jesus. But Paul being dead yet preacheth, and they were sermons from his sepulchre which converted Luther, and Zwingle, and most of our modern evangelists. And Luther is dead, but the Reformation lives. Calvin is dead, but his vindication of God's free and sovereign grace will never die. Knox, Melville, and Henderson are dead, but Scotland still retains a Sabbath and a Christian peasantry, a Bible in every house, and a school in every parish. Bunyan is dead, but his bright spirit still walks the earth in its "Pilgrim's Progress." Baxter is dead, but souls are still quickened by the "Saints' Rest" and the "Call to the Unconverted." Cowper is dead, but the "golden apples" are still as fresh as when newly gathered in the "silver basket" of the Olney Hymns. Eliot is dead, but the missionary enterprise is young. Henry Martyn is dead, but who can count the apostolic spirits, who, phœnix-wise, have started from his funeral pile? Howard is dead, but modern philanthropy is only commencing its career. Raikes is dead, but the Sabbath-schools go on. Wilberforce is dead, but the negro will find for ages a protector in his memory. Hamilton. 2. Chron. 3 : 1** THEN Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, which he made ready in the 2 place that David had appointed, in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign. 1. K. 6 : 1** And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD. 2. And the house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was threescore 3 cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits. And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house. 2. Chron. 3: 4 And the height an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with 5 pure gold. And the greater house he ceiled with fir tree, which he overlaid with fine gold, 6 and wrought thereon palm trees and chains. And he garnished the house with precious stones 7 for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim. He overlaid also the house, the beams, the thresholds, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubim of 8 the walls. And he made the most holy house; the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits: and he overlaid it 9 with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents. And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold. 1. K. 6: 4, 5 And for the house he made windows of fixed lattice-work. And against the wall of the house he built stories round about, against the walls of the house round about, both 6 of the temple and of the oracle: and he made side-chambers round about: the nethermost story was five cubits broad; and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for on the outside he made rebatements in the wall of the house round about, 7 that the beams should not have hold in the walls of the house. And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry: and there was neither hammer nor axe 8 nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. The door for the middle side-chambers was in the right side of the house: and they went up by winding stairs into the 9 middle chambers, and out of the middle into the third. So he built the house, and finished it; 10 and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar. And he built the stories against all the house, each five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar. 11,12. And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying, Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my com- mandments to walk in them; then will I establish my word with thee, which I spake unto David 13 thy father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel. 14,15. So Solomon built the house, and finished it. And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house unto the walls of the ceiling, he covered 16 them on the inside with wood: and he covered the floor of the house with boards of fir. And he built twenty cubits on the hinder part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor unto 17 the walls: he even built them for it within, for an oracle, even for the most holy place. And 18 the house, that is, the temple before the oracle, was forty cubits long. And there was cedar on the house within, carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen. 19 And he prepared an oracle in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark of the cov- 20 enant of the LORD. And within the oracle was a space of twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof; and he overlaid it with pure gold: 21 and he covered the altar with cedar. So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: 22 and he drew chains of gold across before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold. And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was finished: also the whole altar that 23 belonged to the oracle he overlaid with gold. And in the oracle he made two cherubim of 24 olive wood, each ten cubits high. And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the utter- 25 most part of the other were ten cubits. And the other cherub was ten cubits: both the cher- 26 ubim were of one measure and one form. The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and 27 so was it of the other cherub. And he set the cherubim within the inner house: and the wings of the cherubim were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another 28 in the midst of the house. And he overlaid the cherubim with gold. 2. Chron. 3: 14 And he made the veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and wrought cherubim thereon. 1. K. 6: 29 And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of 30 cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, within and without. And the floor of the house 31 he overlaid with gold, within and without. And for the entering of the oracle he made doors 32 of olive wood : the lintel and door posts were a fifth part of the wall. So he made two doors of olive wood ; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold ; and he spread the gold upon the cherubim, and upon the palm trees. So also made he for the entering of the temple door posts of olive wood, out of a fourth part of the wall ; and two doors of fir wood ; the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. And he carved thereon cherubim and palm trees and open flowers : and he overlaid them with gold fitted upon the graven work. And he built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone, and a row of cedar beams. 1. K. 7 : 13, 14 And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was the son of a widow woman of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass ; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and cunning, to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work. For he fashioned the two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece : and a line of twelve cubits compassed either of them about. And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars : the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits. There were nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars ; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter. So he made the pillars ; and there were two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars : and so did he for the other chapiter. And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily work, four cubits. And there were chapiters above also upon the two pillars, close by the belly which was beside the network : and the pomegranates were two hundred, in rows round about upon the other chapiter. And he set up the pillars at the porch of the temple : and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin : and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz. And upon the top of the pillars was lily work : so was the work of the pillars finished. 2. Chron. 4 : 1 Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof. 1. K. 7 : 23 And he made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and the height thereof was five cubits : and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about. And he made the ten bases of brass ; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits the height of it. After this manner he made the ten bases : all of them had one casting, one measure, and one form. And he made ten lavers of brass : one laver contained forty baths : and every laver was four cubits : and upon every one of the ten bases one laver. And he set the bases, five on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house : and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward, toward the south. And Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the basons. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he wrought for king Solomon in the house of the LORD : the two pillars, and the two bowls of the chapiters that were on the top of the pillars ; and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were on the top of the pillars ; and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks ; two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were upon the pillars ; and the ten bases, and the ten lavers on the bases ; and the one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea ; and the pots, and the shovels, and the basons : even all these vessels, which Hiram made for king Solomon, in the house of the LORD, were of burnished brass. In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan. And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many : the weight of the brass could not be found out. And Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of the LORD : the golden altar, and the table whereupon the shewbread was, of gold ; and the candlesticks, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the oracle, of pure gold ; and the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, of gold ; and the cups, and the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the firepans, of pure gold ; and the hinges, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, to wit, of the temple, of gold. 2. Chron. 4 : 8 He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. And he made an hundred basons of gold. Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great court, and doors for the court, and overlaid the doors of them with brass. I K. 7: 51 Thus all the work that king Solomon wrought in the house of the LORD was finished. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, even the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD. I K. 6: 37 In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the 38 month Ziv. And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it. [Some details omitted, vs. 24-26, 28-36.]  Rock Plan of Jerusalem. (Capt. Warren.) THE geographical position of Jerusalem may be indicated by saying that its latitude is that of the northern end of the Dead Sea, its distance from the Mediterranean thirty-one miles, and its distance from the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea fifteen miles. N. C. B.—It is exactly on the water-shed of the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, 2,650 feet above the level of the former. Built on the very backbone of the country—the summit of that long ridge which traverses the Holy Land from north to south, and only approachable by wild mountain roads—the position of the city was one of great natural strength. H. B. T.—The history of its many sieges and its capture by Titus confirm this statement. B.  PROFILE SECTION (EAST AND WEST) THROUGH JERUSALEM, TO THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. Showing the comparative elevations of Zion, Moriah, and the Temple Platform, and the Mount of Olives; and the Rock-bed of the Brook Cedron, where the water is still flowing. (See page 512.) The breadthwise distances are indicated (also in feet) on the bottom line. To the spectator down about the confluence of the valleys of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat is admirably revealed the elevated position of the city. From the depths of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat, Moriah appears truly a mountain, and Zion the acropolis and citadel of David. N. C. B. The great depth of the valleys on the west of Zion and the east of Moriah, the relative elevation of the northern and southern portions of the city, and the superior altitude of the Mount of Olives, will be better understood by the following statement of of these several points above the junction of the valleys of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat: To the summit of Moriah, 370 feet. To the summit of Zion, 520 feet. To the summit of the Mount of Olives, 670 feet. To the northeast corner of city, 470 feet. To the northwest corner of city, 570 feet. J. G. B. ONE city literally lies heaped upon another. For Jerusalem stood no fewer than twenty-seven sieges—from Jebusites and Israelites, Egyptians and Assyrians, Greeks and Romans, Mohammedans and Christians. The last and twenty-seventh siege took place in 1244 by the wild Kharzemian hordes. The Jerusalem of our day may be considered the eighth; for even before the time of David there was a city there. The second was the city of Solomon, from B. C. 1000 to B. C. 597, four hundred years; the third that of Nehemiah, three hundred years; at length came the magnificent city of Herod; then that Roman city on the ruin Titus had made; followed by the Mohammedan, and that by a Christian; and now, for six hundred years, the modern city has stood on the ruins of those that preceded it. If we examine the  South Wall, East Angle. Mount of Olives in the Distance. rubbish and débris, we have to determine, at every step, among the ruins of which city we are standing—Solomon, Nehemiah, Herod, Hadrian, Constantine, Omar, Godfrey, Saladin, Suleiman, each in turn represents a city. E. C. Gray. By the repeated sinking of shafts on the sloping face of Ophel, it is established that the south wall is buried for more than half its depth, and that, if bared to its foundation, this wall would present an unbroken front of solid masonry of nearly 1,000 feet long and 150 feet in height. The wall, as it now stands, with less than half that height emerging from the ground, has always been regarded as a marvel. What must it have been when entirely exposed to view, and the tall erections of the Temple towering over it! No wonder that prophets and psalmists should have rejoiced in the walls and bulwarks of the Temple, and that Tacitus should have described it as "built after the fashion of a citadel" (Ps. 48 : 13). H. B. T. All these buildings, porticos, columns, pinnacles, altar, and temple, have perished. The area alone remains, and the massive substructures that for 3,000 years have been sleeping in their courses. The preservation has been due to the ruin. Buildings so vast have been toppled down the slopes of the Moriah that the original defiles and valleys have been almost obliterated. What had been regarded as the original surface has been found to be débris from 70 to 90 feet deep. At the southwest corner of the area, débris has accumulated to a depth of not less than 125 feet—the accumulation of ages, made up of the ruins of successive Jerusalems; and here some of the most interesting discoveries have been made. Here is the famous arch of Robinson. It is inferred to be the remains of a bridge which crossed the valley on arches, and connected Mount Moriah with the mountain opposite—the modern Zion. It is the skewback or abutment that slopes to receive the end of the arch. Three courses remain. The stones are five or six feet thick, and 20 or 25 feet long. The valley here is 350 feet wide, and this must have been the length of the bridge, connecting the Temple with the royal palace on the other side. At a depth of 30 feet a worn pavement was found, worn by feet that passed over it in our Lord's time. Lying on this pavement were the voussoirs, or wedge-like stones, belonging to the arch. Breaking through this pavement, and through 24 feet of débris beneath, they found a still more ancient roadway, and resting upon this, the key-stones of a still more ancient bridge. The explanation is probably reached; Robinson's arch is the remains of the bridge that was standing at the siege of Jerusalem, upon which, at the eastern end of it, stood the Roman general Titus, holding a parley with the Jews, occupying the other end of the bridge. The older bridge, the remains of which were found beneath the pavement, belonged to the palmy days of Solomon. W. I. B.  Vicinity of Jerusalem. OUT of the valley of Jehoshaphat, or Cedron of the Bible, eastwardly rises the MOUNT OF OLIVES, three hundred feet higher than Moriah. N. C. B.—It is not so much a mount as a somewhat elevated mass, having three rounded eminences, the whole running north and south for more than a mile, on a line with the eastern wall of the city. Of these three eminences, the central one is the Mount of Olives. The eminence on the south is called the Mount of Offence, from its being the seat of Solomon's idol-worship. From the city to the summit of Olivet, approached by three paths, the distance is about half a mile. Across the valley of Hinnom, and directly south of Zion, is the Hill of Evil Counsel. J. G. B. The building of the temple forms a great epoch in the history of the theocracy. With it not only does the Mosaic worship gain an important accession in solidity and splendor, and the people itself a fixed central sanctuary, inasmuch as the Lord sanctions the temple on its consecration in the most solemn manner as the place chosen by him for his name; but also with it an end is first made to the provisional state of Israel in the promised land, and the Divine assurance that he will "appoint a place for his people Israel, that they might dwell in a place of their own and move no more" (2 S. 7 : 10), is completely fulfilled. The importance of this epoch is indicated by this, that the time of building is determined not only by the year of Solomon's reign, but also by the departure from Egypt. Four hundred and thirty years was Israel in Egypt (Ex. 12 : 40); four hundred and eighty years elapsed from the departure out of this land of bondage to the foundation of the temple. These two numbers form two fixed resting points for the chronology of the history of Israel in ancient times, for which the historical books of the Old Testament contain no uninterrupted era, while there is no solid ground either for shortening the four hundred and thirty years' residence of Israel in Egypt with some critics to two hundred and fifteen years, or for lengthening the four hundred and eighty years from the departure out of Egypt to the building of the temple. Keil. (See pp. 32, 33.) The erection of this splendid sanctuary was no doubt the greatest event, both in Jewish and Gentile eyes, in the history of the Holy City. It made Jerusalem what it had not been till then, the religious capital. The stronghold of the Jebusites now became the shrine and centre of the Jewish system. We find a sufficient indication of the profound importance which this undertaking assumed in Jewish eyes in the fact that four chapters of our history—and three of them of considerable length—are occupied with an account of the materials, proportions, arrangements, and consecration of this great sanctuary. To the historiographers of Israel it seemed meet that every measurement of the holy and beautiful house should be recorded with the greatest exactness, while the very vessels of service, "the pots and the shovels and the basins," were judged worthy of a place in the sacred page. But these careful and detailed dimensions are not only proofs of the tender veneration with which the Jew regarded the Temple and its appointments; they are also (as Bahr has well shown) indications and expressions of the belief that this house, so "exceeding magnifical," was for the Lord, and not for man. These exact measurements, these precise and symbolic numbers, all point to a place for the Divine Presence. At the same time it must be added here that, exact and detailed as is the description of this edifice, it is nevertheless so partial, and the account is, perhaps necessarily, so obscure as to leave us in considerable doubt as to what Solomon's Temple was really like. In fact, though "more has been written regarding the temple at Jerusalem than in respect to any other building in the known world" (Fergusson), the authorities are not agreed as to its broad features, while as to matters of detail they are hopelessly divided. And the difficulty is enhanced by the fact that the temple was purely Jewish, so that no information as to its structure and arrangements can be derived from the contemporary architecture of Egyptians or Assyrians. In the absence of all analogies restoration is hopeless. Hammond. #### Site of the Temple. Of all the buildings of the Jerusalem of the Bible, scarce a recognizable trace remains above ground outside of the Temple platform. Eleven sieges and destructions have utterly erased all that was visible of the city of the Maccabees and Nehemiah, still more of the city of the Jewish monarchy, of David and Solomon. The platform, now called Haram esh Sherif, is a vast artificial work, raising the area nearly to a level with the central rock, which we suppose to have been the site of Araunah's threshing floor and of the altar of burnt sacrifice in Solomon's Temple, now crowned with a magnificent dome, called the Kubbet es Sakhra, or Dome of the Rock. The platform is supported by stupendous walls, built up from the slope of the hill on three sides. The enclosure is oblong, measuring 926 feet on its south face and 1530 feet on its east side; the northern and western sides being respectively a little longer. It seems that Solomon's Palace originally stood at this south end of the platform, reaching about 600 feet from the east angle to the Double Gate; and that the tradition is right which calls this Triple Gate, consisting of three arches, each 25 feet high and 14 wide, the entrance to Solomon's Stables, the great vaulted crypts which extend from these underneath the platform. Herod appears to have added the western third of the wall toward the Tyropæon, and on the whole he erected the magnificent colonnade, called the Royal Portico, which ran the whole length, with its pinnacles, 150 feet high, so that the spectator looked down 300 feet into the valley beneath, The Temple of Solomon would appear then to have been an oblong of over 900 feet by 600, with his palace, 600 by 300 feet, to the south of it; and a square of about 300 feet was added by Herod to complete the rectangle at the southwest, when the whole platform, including the site of the palace, was thrown into the Temple area, thus making it co-extensive with the present Haram Area. H. B. T. The rugged top of the vast platform was levelled with immense labor; its sides, which to the east and south were precipitous, were faced with a wall of stone, built up perpendicular from the bottom of the valley, so as to appear to those who looked down of most terrific height; a work of prodigious skill and labor, as the immense stones were strongly mortised together and wedged into the rock. Around the whole area or esplanade, an irregular quadrangle, was a solid wall of considerable height and strength; within this was an open court, into which the Gentiles were either from the first or subsequently admitted. A second wall encompassed another quadrangle, called the court of the Israelites. Along this wall, on the inside, ran a portico or cloister, over which were chambers for different sacred purposes. Within this again another, probably a lower, wall, separated the court of the priests from that of the Israelites. To each court the ascent was by steps, so that the platform of the inner court was on a higher level than that of the outer. Milman. Among the works undertaken for the temple were also the drains and water-supply, matters of the highest importance in the elaborate ceremonial of the worship. The depths of Mount Moriah were pierced by Solomon's men, sometimes by shafts driven straight down or steeply sloping into the bowels of the mountain, sometimes by tunnels running from north to south not much above the level of the brook Kedron. One of these tunnels, leading from the Virgin's Fount to the Pool of Siloam, is 1708 feet long, and presents at its southern end an inscription in old Hebrew which is thought to be of the age of Solomon. The value of these shafts and tunnels and tanks was very great. By one set the blood of sacrifices, the refuse, and the filth could be at once hurried out of sight into the heart of the rock, whence drains conveyed the whole to the Kedron and the Dead Sea. By another a copious supply of water could be brought from a distance. So honeycombed is the mountain with cisterns, that one of them, known as the Great Sea, would contain two million gallons, while the total storage provided probably exceeded five times that quantity. Perhaps the pools of Solomon, six miles off on the hill-sides above Bethlehem, as the three great tanks in Wadi Urtas are called, were built by the king's orders for supplying the temple-hill. Although history is silent on the point, there is not known to have been any other king who had either power or wisdom sufficient to build these vast tanks; to lay a double set of pipes as far as Jerusalem, at a high level and a low level; and to tunnel the rocks, as they are found to be, even for miles in length. Sime. The general plan of the Temple was identical with that of the Tabernacle. God was the architect of both; giving "patterns" of the one to Moses in the Mount, and of the other to David by the Spirit (1 Chron. 28: 12, 19). The House surpassed the Tent in size, being of exactly double dimensions, and in richness and permanence both of material and construction. The locality of the sacred structure, and the time of its commencement. It was built upon the eminence of Moriah, northeastward of and somewhat lower than the hill of Zion. The ground had been purchased by David from Ornan the Jebusite, and was probably the identical place where Abraham would have offered Isaac as a sacrifice. The work of building was begun in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, three years having been occupied in preparation. The epoch was a remarkable one, it being the central point of human history, almost midway between the creation of man and the present time. The area, the parts, proportions, and material of the Temple and its courts. To gain needed ground for the structures and courts the original area was extended by building up walls and buttresses and filling in with earth. This necessitated the laying of deep and strong foundations for walls and buildings. The whole space enclosed by the outer walls formed an oblong of 600 feet by 900. The main building comprised four parts, of which the Temple proper included three: The Porch; the greater house or Holy Place; and the Holy of Holies. The fourth part was a three-storied appendage on either side containing chambers for the uses of the priests. The Temple proper was an oblong square 105 feet (estimating the cubit at half a yard) from east to west, and 30 feet from north to south. Of its three parts, the Porch or entrance was 15 feet in depth, the Holy Place 60 feet, and the Most Holy Place 30 feet. Each of these parts had the full breadth of the structure, or 30 feet. The height of the Holy Place was 45 feet. That of the Most Holy Place was 30 feet, so that this  inmost apartment was a perfect cube, with equal length and breadth and height. The fourth part, or remaining portion of the entire structure, consisted of three stories of chambers built against the sides, but having no communication with the Temple proper. These stories were so constructed, by the narrowing of the side walls, that the three floors and roof rested upon offsets; and thus the Temple walls were unpierced. Their entire height, too, was considerably less than that of the Temple, so as to admit of windows near the ceiling of the Holy Place from which the smoke of incense and the vapor of lamps might escape. Thus the whole structure externally resembled an ordinary-sized church, with nave and side aisles. It was distinguished, not by magnitude, but by beauty of workmanship and costliness of materials. The walls of the building were of white stone. The interior surfaces of both Holy places, sides, ceiling, and floor, were lined with cedar-wood, which was overlaid with pure gold; the side walls being enriched with chasing and with precious stones. A pair of immense folding doors, whose golden surfaces were embossed with figures of cherubim, of foliage and flowers, formed the entrance from the porch to the Holy Place. And similar doors of smaller dimensions opened into the Holy of Holies. These doors were always open, while before the opening, and wholly concealing the inner Sanctuary, hung a richly-bordered gorgeous veil. The Temple was placed on the westward side of the whole area, and on the same side of an inner Court, called the Court of the Priests, into which only servitors of the Temple were admitted. This Court was enclosed by a wall of cedar beams resting on a stone pediment. In it was the great sacrificial altar of brass, 30 feet square and 15 feet high, and the great circular laver, or "molten sea," 15 feet in diameter at the brim and 7½ feet high, standing upon twelve brazen oxen. There were also ten smaller lavers for the washing of the burnt-offerings; the sea being used "for the priests to wash in." Outside of this inner Court, covering the remainder of the enclosed area, was the "Great Court," called also the Court of the Lord's House, for all the people. One significant fact is carefully noted respecting the whole structure. The shaping, dressing, and fitting of a great part of the material, even to the setting of pins and bolts, was done in the Phœnician quarries or work shops, whence it was transported to Jerusalem by sea and land. Hence "there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building." Mainly the work of ornamentation was wrought in Jerusalem. This Temple, it may be added, was seven years in building; it remained more than four hundred years, and was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar B.C. 588. The second Temple was built under the superintendence of Zerubbabel, and completed B.C. 516. This building, having become greatly dilapidated, was almost wholly rebuilt by Herod the Great. And his magnificent structure was utterly destroyed by Titus, A.D. 70. (We reproduce the Ground-plan of Herod's Temple, and also various diagrams and statements bearing upon the topics of this and the preceding section, from New Testament, Vol. I. See pages 535-538 and 541.) B. 1. K. 6 : 5, 6, 8-10.** The temple was surrounded by three stories of chambers, each of which stories was five cubits high, so that there remained above ample space for introducing the windows, requisite more for ventilation than for the admission of light into the sanctuary. The lowest story of the chambers was five cubits, the middle six, and the third seven cubits wide. This difference of the width arose from the circumstance that the external walls of the Temple were so thick that they were made to recede one cubit after an elevation of five feet, so that the "rebatement" (or shoulder) in the wall of the temple gave a firm support to the beams which supported the second story, without being inserted into the wall of the sanctuary; which insertion was, perhaps, avoided not merely for architectural reasons, but also because it appeared to be irreverent. The third story was supported likewise by a similar rebatement, which afforded a still wider space for the chamber of the third story. These observations will render intelligible these biblical statements. Kit. Enc. 1. K. 6 : 7.** The historian here digresses for a moment to speak of the remarkable and, indeed, unprecedented way in which the temple was built. The stories were shaped and prepared beforehand in the quarry, so that there was nothing to do on their arrival in the temple area but to fit them into their place in the building. Where was this quarry? The general idea is that it was in the Lebanon. And it is not to be denied that the massive substructions and corner-stones of the temple may have been brought from the mountain, along with the wood; but the bulk of the stone, there can be no doubt, was found much nearer home. Some of it, according to the Mishna, came from Bethlehem; but we can hardly be mistaken in believing that for the most part it was quarried in Jerusalem itself, under the very temple rock, and out of the vast caverns recovered some years ago by Dr. Barclay (see his "City of the Great King"), the "Royal Caverns" of Josephus. See Quart. Journal, Pal. Explor. Fund (No. vii.), pp. 373, 374, and cf. p. 34. There are unmistakable evidences of these extensive caverns having served as a quarry. Not only are the walls cut straight, but rude masses are left here and there to support the roof, and, what is still more convincing, there are stones more or less cut out of the rock, and incisions are made where stones are to be quarried. There was no reason why the workmen should go far afield for stone when they had it, and of very excellent quality, at their own doors. Hammond. Neither hammer nor axe was heard in that holy structure. There was nothing in Sion but silence and peace. Whatever tumults are abroad, it is fit there should be all quietness and sweet concord in the Church. O God, that the axes of schism, or the hammers of furious contentions, should be heard within thy sanctuary! Thy house is not built with blows: with blows it is beaten down. Oh, knit the hearts of thy servants together "in the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace;" that we may mind and speak the same things; that thou, who art the God of peace, mayest take pleasure to dwell under the quiet roof of our hearts. Bp. II. The building up of the Church of God is a silent, hidden process. Outward visible agencies must be employed, but the real constructive forces are out of sight. Truth works secretly and silently in the souls of men. "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation." Noise and show are out of harmony with the sanctity of it. Clamor and violence only hinder the work. Let us not mistake a restless, busy, fussy zeal for the externalities of Church life for true spiritual service. This is often in inverse ratio to the amount of real edification. The best machinery works with least friction and noise. The quiet, thoughtful workers, who move on steadily by the inspiration of their holy purpose, without much public recognition, may after all be the most efficient builders of the temple of God. Waite. He may accomplish most whose useful results no man sees, who makes no noise, who resembles the silent forces of nature, and not he who will have everything finished up by a certain time or else consider nothing to be effected. The calmness and patience, the calculation on the distant future, the noiselessness, the unweariedness, which contribute largely to the success of some men's labors, are qualities in which contemplation schools the mind. The thoughtful Christian will, as far as in him lies, construct a solid, durable, substantial edifice, or nothing at all. T. D. Woolsey. 1. K. 6 : 11-13.** God's promise to Solomon and to the people of Israel. At this point the historian interrupts his description of the building to record the gracious promise made to the king during its erection. Hammond.—This word of the Lord Solomon received during the building of the temple. The Lord assures him that he will fulfil the promise made to David (2 S. 7) in regard to the building of the temple on condition that he will walk in his statutes, judgments, and commandments, which are enumerated in the law of Moses. This "word of the Lord" is a short Divine confirmation of that which his father David had impressed upon him in the transference of the kingdom with special reference to the building of the temple. Keil.—While these protracted works were progressing, the Lord in His mercy gave special encouragement alike to Solomon and to the people. The word of the Lord, which on this occasion came to the king no doubt through a prophet, not only fully confirmed the promise made to David, but also connected the "house" that was being built to the Lord with the ancient promise (Ex. 25 : 8 ; 29 : 45) that God would dwell in Israel as among His people. Thus it pointed king and people beyond that outward building which, rising in such magnificence, might have excited only national pride, to its spiritual meaning, and to the conditions under which alone it would fulfil its great purpose. A. E. God told Solomon, by the mouth of his prophet, that, notwithstanding the great splendor and magnificence wherewith he intended to adorn this temple, it was, in itself, but a mere external thing; and that the Divine presence in it, and God's acceptance of, and favor and protection bestowed upon its worshippers, should wholly depend upon the measures of their obedience to his Divine laws, agreeably to the conditional promise made to his father David. Pyle.—The temple was intended to be a solid and permanent dwelling-place for God in the midst of Israel, as distinguished from the frail and movable tent in which he had heretofore dwelt among them. If Solomon was faithful to God's service, and, as is implied, if Israel was faithful likewise, the reality should correspond with the symbol. God's dwelling in Israel should be as fixed and stable as this massive structure promised to be. W. H. G.—This was but the repetition of the ancient promise to Moses. And what are all these promises, with all the marvellous manifestations that verified them, but typical foreshadowings of the richer grace by virtue of which the Church becomes "the habitation of God through the Spirit"? "The Most High dwells not in temples made with hands;" His dwelling-place is the fellowship of redeemed souls. Waite. 19-28. The Holy of Holies ("oracle"), or inner sanctuary, was divided from the rest of the temple by a partition of cedar, in the centre of which was a pair of folding-doors of olive wood, very richly carved with palm-trees, and open flowers, and cherubim,—the whole overlaid with gold. A like pair of folding-doors, of grander dimensions, also overlaid with gold, embossed in rich patterns of cherubim, and knops, and open flowers, formed the outer entrance. The door forming the entrance to the most Holy Place was left open, and the space covered, as is usual in the East, by a magnificent veil or curtain. Kit. In the Holy of Holies were stood two colossal four winged cherubim of gold, facing each other, the twain inner wings of each meeting above the ark, and the twain outer wings of each reaching to the wall on either side. Curtained by the heavy, gorgeous veil (2 Chron. 3 : 14), this inner sanctuary, with its ark and cherubim, afterward its central refulgent glory symbolizing God's personal presence, was utterly closed against the vision even of the priests, save of the High-Priest on the great day of Atonement. B. Solomon not only preserved the original cherubim upon the ark, but the most holy place in the temple being much larger than the corresponding portion of the tabernacle, he made two colossal cherubim, which were placed, one on each side of the ark, with expanded wings, so that two wings touched each other over the ark, while the other two reached the opposite walls. Besides this, the figures of cherubim were multiplied in the golden enchasements which lined the temple. Not only so, but there were images of oxen supporting the brazen sea, and figures of lions designed upon the bases of the ten lavers in the court of the temple; while there were within, among the interior adornments of the fretted gold, figures of palm-trees, lilies, and pomegranates. Kit. 1. K. 7 : 15-22.** The Pillars before the House. The relative place and the uses of these lofty brazen shafts, with their rich capitals wreathed with adorning festoons, are not accurately determined. They seem to have been ornaments of the porch, which itself merely served as a fitting vestibule to the Temple. We may trace a significance in the names of these pillars, "Firmness" and "Stability," as applying to the entering into God's Spiritual House, since all that enter there are forever established in His strong and enduring Dwelling-place. B.—The meaning of the pillars evidently is, that God has here established His temple on a firm foundation, and that it is, therefore, to be no longer a travelling sanctuary like the tabernacle. It is just because Jehovah no longer dwells in a moving tent, but in a settled house, that the cherubim stand in the temple upon the floor of the Holy of Holies, and make the whole place the constant abode of the Divine presence. O.—Their significance is intimated in the names given them (verse 21), Jachin—He will establish; and Boaz—In him is strength. Spiritual strength and stability are to be had at the door of God's temple, where we must wait for the gifts of grace, in the use of the means of grace. It was a memorandum to them of the strength and establishment of the temple of God among them. Let them keep close to God and duty, and they should never lose their dignities and privileges, but the grant should be confirmed and perpetuated to them. The Gospel church God will establish, and he will strengthen. H. No features in Solomon's temple have given rise to so much controversy as these two famous pillars; the beauty of which Jewish writers are never tired of recounting. They were marvels of the glyptic skill for which the Phonician workmen were distinguished. That these were symbolic is evident from their names, which may be rendered, "Stability" and "Strength." The reference is not so much to the material building, but to the kingdom of God in Israel, which was embodied in the temple. They pointed then, and now, to the beauty and strength of the dwelling of God. The lilies and pomegranates adorning the pillars not only showed that there should be beauty in the worship of God, and that the noblest art should be consecrated to Him, but symbolized the truth declared in Ps. 96 : 6, "Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." Strength needs beauty to adorn it. Beauty needs strength to support it. Emblems of stability and strength, yet exquisite in their beauty, let Jachin and Boaz, in the porch of the temple, remind us of what God would see in the Christian Church and in the Christian character. Rowland. 2. Chron. 4 : 1.** The altar of burnt-offering appears to have undergone changes in its history. That of the tabernacle, in material, size, and the provision made for approaching it, differed considerably from this one. E. C. B. 1. K. 7 : 27-40. Besides the great "molten sea" (verses 23-26), there were ten bases, or stands, of brass, on which were put ten lavers, to be filled with water for the service of the temple, because there would not be room at the molten sea for all that had occasion to wash there. The bases on which the lavers were fixed are very largely described here. They were curiously adorned, and set upon wheels, that the lavers might be removed as there was occasion; but, ordinarily, they stood in two rows, five on one side of the court and five on the other (verse 39). Each laver contained forty baths—that is, about ten barrels (verse 38). They must be very clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Spiritual priests and spiritual sacrifices must be washed in the laver of Christ's blood, and of regeneration. We must wash often, for we daily contract pollution; cleanse our hands, and purify our hearts. Plentiful provision is made for our cleansing; so that if we have our lot forever among the unclean, it will be our own fault. H. 48,49. The outer sanctuary, where the priests ministered daily, contained the altar of incense, ten golden candlesticks, and ten tables, all richly wrought and overlaid. Thus it will be seen that, in the size and the number of the sacred utensils, as well as in the dimensions of the building and its parts, the Temple greatly surpassed the Tabernacle. B. 49. The number of candlesticks was multiplied to ten in Solomon's temple; and they seem to have remained at that number until carried away by the Babylonian conquerors (Jer. 52 : 19). E. C. B.—Whether all these lamps were fully lit up on great occasions is now unknown. But seventy lights in all—for there were seven bowls for olive oil in each lamp—would have filled the golden house with unmatched brilliance. Sime. 2. Chron. 4 : 9. Besides the table of shewbread, which was the only table in the tabernacle, there were here ten golden tables, besides others of silver, on which were laid out above a hundred golden vases of various patterns, with the different utensils—the censers, spoons, snuffers, etc.—all of gold, used in the service of the temple. Kit. 1. K. 6 : 38. So was he seven years in building it. As Bul was the eighth month, and Zif the second, the house was precisely seven and a half years in building—a short period, if we consider the magnitude of the undertaking, but long enough, if we remember the enormous number of hands employed upon it, the preparations made by David, and the modest dimensions of the edifice. Hammond. The temple itself was rather a monument of the wealth than the architectural skill and science of the people. It was a wonder of the world, from the splendor of its materials more than the grace, boldness, or majesty of its height and dimensions. It had neither the colossal magnitude of the Egyptian, the simple dignity and perfect proportional harmony of the Grecian, nor perhaps the fantastic grace and lightness of modern Oriental architecture. If the dimensions of the temple appear by no means imposing, it must be remembered that but a small part of the religious ceremonies took place within the walls. The Holy of Holies was entered only once a year, and that by the High-Priest alone. It was the secret and unapproachable shrine of the Divinity. The Holy Place, the body of the temple, admitted only the officiating priests. The open courts, called in popular language the temple, or rather the inner quadrangle, was in fact the great place of Divine worship. Here, under the open air, were celebrated the great public and national rites, the processions, the offerings, the sacrifices; here stood the great tank for ablution, and the high altar for burnt-offerings. But the costliness of the materials, the richness and variety of the details, amply compensated for the moderate dimensions of the building. It was such a sacred edifice as a traveller might have expected to find in El Dorado. The walls were of hewn stone, faced within with cedar which was richly carved with knops and flowers; the ceiling was of fir-tree. But in every part gold was lavished with the utmost profusion; within and without, the floor, the walls, the ceiling, in short, the whole house is described as overlaid with gold. The finest and purest—that of Parvaim, by some supposed to be Ceylon—was reserved for the sanctuary. Here the cherubim, which stood upon the covering of the ark, with their wings touching each wall, were entirely covered with gold. The sumptuous veil, of the richest materials and brightest colors, which divided the Holy of Holies from the holy place, was suspended on chains of gold. Cherubim, palm trees and flowers, the favorite ornaments, everywhere, covered with gilding, were wrought in almost all parts. The altar within the temple, and the table of shewbread, were likewise covered with the same precious metal. All the vessels, the ten candlesticks, five hundred basins, and all the rest of the sacrificial and other utensils, were of solid gold. M-lman. Everything connected with the building of this great temple was thus on a scale of exceeding magnificence. With unstinting hand, labor was bestowed on the costliest stones, the rarest woods, the most curious designs, the most precious oils and spices, the boldest engineering. From far and near came tribute and trade profits to be lavished on the lordly building. Of one thing, however, not a word is said. Egypt and Babylon and Northern Syria had seen grand public buildings for religious or royal use before Solomon's reign. But the builders did not scruple to inscribe on them long stories of their costly outlay, their piety, and their hopes. Or they erected pillars, on which were engraved boastful accounts of their greatness in peace and in war. Even on the great mosque built on the temple hill, and on that at Hebron, which is supposed to cover the Cave of Machpelah, inscriptions are found in abundance. But nothing of this boastfulness was allowed in the temple of Jerusalem. There were carvings of animals and flowers on the wood; there was no writing on the great, smooth stones. The silence of the historian on this head is most expressive. What the kings of other lands did in writing their names and greatness on the temples which they built, Solomon seems never to have thought of. He and his people were a book-writing, not a stone-writing people. "Memorial stones" appear at the beginning of Israel's history as a nation, engraven with the names of the tribes. But the great stones of the temple were not memorial stones, and bore no inscription. A place so holy allowed no praise of man to be written on its walls, and no carvings of priests, or symbols, or ceremonies, such as the temple faces of other nations show to illustrate their faith, even when their books are silent. Sime. THE GREAT ASSEMBLY CONVOKED. THE ARK BROUGHT FROM DAVID'S TENT. SACRIFICES OFFERED. THE ARK PLACED IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES. CONSECRATION OF THE TEMPLE BY THE GLORY CLOUD. ITS DEDICATION BY SOLOMON. HIS ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE. 2. Chron. 3 : 1** THEN Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, which he made ready in the 2 place that David had appointed, in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign. 1. K. 6 : 1** And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD. 2. And the house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was threescore 3 cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits. And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house. 2. Chron. 3: 4 And the height an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with 5 pure gold. And the greater house he ceiled with fir tree, which he overlaid with fine gold, 6 and wrought thereon palm trees and chains. And he garnished the house with precious stones 7 for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim. He overlaid also the house, the beams, the thresholds, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubim of 8 the walls. And he made the most holy house; the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits: and he overlaid it 9 with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents. And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold. 1. K. 6: 4, 5 And for the house he made windows of fixed lattice-work. And against the wall of the house he built stories round about, against the walls of the house round about, both 6 of the temple and of the oracle: and he made side-chambers round about: the nethermost story was five cubits broad; and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for on the outside he made rebatements in the wall of the house round about, 7 that the beams should not have hold in the walls of the house. And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry: and there was neither hammer nor axe 8 nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. The door for the middle side-chambers was in the right side of the house: and they went up by winding stairs into the 9 middle chambers, and out of the middle into the third. So he built the house, and finished it; 10 and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar. And he built the stories against all the house, each five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar. 11,12. And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying, Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my com- mandments to walk in them; then will I establish my word with thee, which I spake unto David 13 thy father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel. 14,15. So Solomon built the house, and finished it. And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house unto the walls of the ceiling, he covered 16 them on the inside with wood: and he covered the floor of the house with boards of fir. And he built twenty cubits on the hinder part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor unto 17 the walls: he even built them for it within, for an oracle, even for the most holy place. And 18 the house, that is, the temple before the oracle, was forty cubits long. And there was cedar on the house within, carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen. 19 And he prepared an oracle in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark of the cov- 20 enant of the LORD. And within the oracle was a space of twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof; and he overlaid it with pure gold: 21 and he covered the altar with cedar. So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: 22 and he drew chains of gold across before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold. And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was finished: also the whole altar that 23 belonged to the oracle he overlaid with gold. And in the oracle he made two cherubim of 24 olive wood, each ten cubits high. And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the utter- 25 most part of the other were ten cubits. And the other cherub was ten cubits: both the cher- 26 ubim were of one measure and one form. The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and 27 so was it of the other cherub. And he set the cherubim within the inner house: and the wings of the cherubim were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another 28 in the midst of the house. And he overlaid the cherubim with gold. 2. Chron. 3: 14 And he made the veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and wrought cherubim thereon. 1. K. 6: 29 And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of 30 cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, within and without. And the floor of the house 31 he overlaid with gold, within and without. And for the entering of the oracle he made doors 32 of olive wood : the lintel and door posts were a fifth part of the wall. So he made two doors of olive wood ; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold ; and he spread the gold upon the cherubim, and upon the palm trees. So also made he for the entering of the temple door posts of olive wood, out of a fourth part of the wall ; and two doors of fir wood ; the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. And he carved thereon cherubim and palm trees and open flowers : and he overlaid them with gold fitted upon the graven work. And he built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone, and a row of cedar beams. 1. K. 7 : 13, 14 And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was the son of a widow woman of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass ; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and cunning, to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work. For he fashioned the two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece : and a line of twelve cubits compassed either of them about. And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars : the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits. There were nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars ; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter. So he made the pillars ; and there were two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars : and so did he for the other chapiter. And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily work, four cubits. And there were chapiters above also upon the two pillars, close by the belly which was beside the network : and the pomegranates were two hundred, in rows round about upon the other chapiter. And he set up the pillars at the porch of the temple : and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin : and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz. And upon the top of the pillars was lily work : so was the work of the pillars finished. 2. Chron. 4 : 1 Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof. 1. K. 7 : 23 And he made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and the height thereof was five cubits : and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about. And he made the ten bases of brass ; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits the height of it. After this manner he made the ten bases : all of them had one casting, one measure, and one form. And he made ten lavers of brass : one laver contained forty baths : and every laver was four cubits : and upon every one of the ten bases one laver. And he set the bases, five on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house : and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward, toward the south. And Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the basons. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he wrought for king Solomon in the house of the LORD : the two pillars, and the two bowls of the chapiters that were on the top of the pillars ; and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were on the top of the pillars ; and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks ; two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were upon the pillars ; and the ten bases, and the ten lavers on the bases ; and the one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea ; and the pots, and the shovels, and the basons : even all these vessels, which Hiram made for king Solomon, in the house of the LORD, were of burnished brass. In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan. And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many : the weight of the brass could not be found out. And Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of the LORD : the golden altar, and the table whereupon the shewbread was, of gold ; and the candlesticks, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the oracle, of pure gold ; and the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, of gold ; and the cups, and the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the firepans, of pure gold ; and the hinges, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, to wit, of the temple, of gold. 2. Chron. 4 : 8 He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. And he made an hundred basons of gold. Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great court, and doors for the court, and overlaid the doors of them with brass. I K. 7: 51 Thus all the work that king Solomon wrought in the house of the LORD was finished. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, even the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD. I K. 6: 37 In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the 38 month Ziv. And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it. [Some details omitted, vs. 24-26, 28-36.]  Rock Plan of Jerusalem. (Capt. Warren.) THE geographical position of Jerusalem may be indicated by saying that its latitude is that of the northern end of the Dead Sea, its distance from the Mediterranean thirty-one miles, and its distance from the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea fifteen miles. N. C. B.—It is exactly on the water-shed of the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, 2,650 feet above the level of the former. Built on the very backbone of the country—the summit of that long ridge which traverses the Holy Land from north to south, and only approachable by wild mountain roads—the position of the city was one of great natural strength. H. B. T.—The history of its many sieges and its capture by Titus confirm this statement. B.  PROFILE SECTION (EAST AND WEST) THROUGH JERUSALEM, TO THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. Showing the comparative elevations of Zion, Moriah, and the Temple Platform, and the Mount of Olives; and the Rock-bed of the Brook Cedron, where the water is still flowing. (See page 512.) The breadthwise distances are indicated (also in feet) on the bottom line. To the spectator down about the confluence of the valleys of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat is admirably revealed the elevated position of the city. From the depths of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat, Moriah appears truly a mountain, and Zion the acropolis and citadel of David. N. C. B. The great depth of the valleys on the west of Zion and the east of Moriah, the relative elevation of the northern and southern portions of the city, and the superior altitude of the Mount of Olives, will be better understood by the following statement of of these several points above the junction of the valleys of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat: To the summit of Moriah, 370 feet. To the summit of Zion, 520 feet. To the summit of the Mount of Olives, 670 feet. To the northeast corner of city, 470 feet. To the northwest corner of city, 570 feet. J. G. B. ONE city literally lies heaped upon another. For Jerusalem stood no fewer than twenty-seven sieges—from Jebusites and Israelites, Egyptians and Assyrians, Greeks and Romans, Mohammedans and Christians. The last and twenty-seventh siege took place in 1244 by the wild Kharzemian hordes. The Jerusalem of our day may be considered the eighth; for even before the time of David there was a city there. The second was the city of Solomon, from B. C. 1000 to B. C. 597, four hundred years; the third that of Nehemiah, three hundred years; at length came the magnificent city of Herod; then that Roman city on the ruin Titus had made; followed by the Mohammedan, and that by a Christian; and now, for six hundred years, the modern city has stood on the ruins of those that preceded it. If we examine the  South Wall, East Angle. Mount of Olives in the Distance. rubbish and débris, we have to determine, at every step, among the ruins of which city we are standing—Solomon, Nehemiah, Herod, Hadrian, Constantine, Omar, Godfrey, Saladin, Suleiman, each in turn represents a city. E. C. Gray. By the repeated sinking of shafts on the sloping face of Ophel, it is established that the south wall is buried for more than half its depth, and that, if bared to its foundation, this wall would present an unbroken front of solid masonry of nearly 1,000 feet long and 150 feet in height. The wall, as it now stands, with less than half that height emerging from the ground, has always been regarded as a marvel. What must it have been when entirely exposed to view, and the tall erections of the Temple towering over it! No wonder that prophets and psalmists should have rejoiced in the walls and bulwarks of the Temple, and that Tacitus should have described it as "built after the fashion of a citadel" (Ps. 48 : 13). H. B. T. All these buildings, porticos, columns, pinnacles, altar, and temple, have perished. The area alone remains, and the massive substructures that for 3,000 years have been sleeping in their courses. The preservation has been due to the ruin. Buildings so vast have been toppled down the slopes of the Moriah that the original defiles and valleys have been almost obliterated. What had been regarded as the original surface has been found to be débris from 70 to 90 feet deep. At the southwest corner of the area, débris has accumulated to a depth of not less than 125 feet—the accumulation of ages, made up of the ruins of successive Jerusalems; and here some of the most interesting discoveries have been made. Here is the famous arch of Robinson. It is inferred to be the remains of a bridge which crossed the valley on arches, and connected Mount Moriah with the mountain opposite—the modern Zion. It is the skewback or abutment that slopes to receive the end of the arch. Three courses remain. The stones are five or six feet thick, and 20 or 25 feet long. The valley here is 350 feet wide, and this must have been the length of the bridge, connecting the Temple with the royal palace on the other side. At a depth of 30 feet a worn pavement was found, worn by feet that passed over it in our Lord's time. Lying on this pavement were the voussoirs, or wedge-like stones, belonging to the arch. Breaking through this pavement, and through 24 feet of débris beneath, they found a still more ancient roadway, and resting upon this, the key-stones of a still more ancient bridge. The explanation is probably reached; Robinson's arch is the remains of the bridge that was standing at the siege of Jerusalem, upon which, at the eastern end of it, stood the Roman general Titus, holding a parley with the Jews, occupying the other end of the bridge. The older bridge, the remains of which were found beneath the pavement, belonged to the palmy days of Solomon. W. I. B.  Vicinity of Jerusalem. OUT of the valley of Jehoshaphat, or Cedron of the Bible, eastwardly rises the MOUNT OF OLIVES, three hundred feet higher than Moriah. N. C. B.—It is not so much a mount as a somewhat elevated mass, having three rounded eminences, the whole running north and south for more than a mile, on a line with the eastern wall of the city. Of these three eminences, the central one is the Mount of Olives. The eminence on the south is called the Mount of Offence, from its being the seat of Solomon's idol-worship. From the city to the summit of Olivet, approached by three paths, the distance is about half a mile. Across the valley of Hinnom, and directly south of Zion, is the Hill of Evil Counsel. J. G. B. The building of the temple forms a great epoch in the history of the theocracy. With it not only does the Mosaic worship gain an important accession in solidity and splendor, and the people itself a fixed central sanctuary, inasmuch as the Lord sanctions the temple on its consecration in the most solemn manner as the place chosen by him for his name; but also with it an end is first made to the provisional state of Israel in the promised land, and the Divine assurance that he will "appoint a place for his people Israel, that they might dwell in a place of their own and move no more" (2 S. 7 : 10), is completely fulfilled. The importance of this epoch is indicated by this, that the time of building is determined not only by the year of Solomon's reign, but also by the departure from Egypt. Four hundred and thirty years was Israel in Egypt (Ex. 12 : 40); four hundred and eighty years elapsed from the departure out of this land of bondage to the foundation of the temple. These two numbers form two fixed resting points for the chronology of the history of Israel in ancient times, for which the historical books of the Old Testament contain no uninterrupted era, while there is no solid ground either for shortening the four hundred and thirty years' residence of Israel in Egypt with some critics to two hundred and fifteen years, or for lengthening the four hundred and eighty years from the departure out of Egypt to the building of the temple. Keil. (See pp. 32, 33.) The erection of this splendid sanctuary was no doubt the greatest event, both in Jewish and Gentile eyes, in the history of the Holy City. It made Jerusalem what it had not been till then, the religious capital. The stronghold of the Jebusites now became the shrine and centre of the Jewish system. We find a sufficient indication of the profound importance which this undertaking assumed in Jewish eyes in the fact that four chapters of our history—and three of them of considerable length—are occupied with an account of the materials, proportions, arrangements, and consecration of this great sanctuary. To the historiographers of Israel it seemed meet that every measurement of the holy and beautiful house should be recorded with the greatest exactness, while the very vessels of service, "the pots and the shovels and the basins," were judged worthy of a place in the sacred page. But these careful and detailed dimensions are not only proofs of the tender veneration with which the Jew regarded the Temple and its appointments; they are also (as Bahr has well shown) indications and expressions of the belief that this house, so "exceeding magnifical," was for the Lord, and not for man. These exact measurements, these precise and symbolic numbers, all point to a place for the Divine Presence. At the same time it must be added here that, exact and detailed as is the description of this edifice, it is nevertheless so partial, and the account is, perhaps necessarily, so obscure as to leave us in considerable doubt as to what Solomon's Temple was really like. In fact, though "more has been written regarding the temple at Jerusalem than in respect to any other building in the known world" (Fergusson), the authorities are not agreed as to its broad features, while as to matters of detail they are hopelessly divided. And the difficulty is enhanced by the fact that the temple was purely Jewish, so that no information as to its structure and arrangements can be derived from the contemporary architecture of Egyptians or Assyrians. In the absence of all analogies restoration is hopeless. Hammond. #### Site of the Temple. Of all the buildings of the Jerusalem of the Bible, scarce a recognizable trace remains above ground outside of the Temple platform. Eleven sieges and destructions have utterly erased all that was visible of the city of the Maccabees and Nehemiah, still more of the city of the Jewish monarchy, of David and Solomon. The platform, now called Haram esh Sherif, is a vast artificial work, raising the area nearly to a level with the central rock, which we suppose to have been the site of Araunah's threshing floor and of the altar of burnt sacrifice in Solomon's Temple, now crowned with a magnificent dome, called the Kubbet es Sakhra, or Dome of the Rock. The platform is supported by stupendous walls, built up from the slope of the hill on three sides. The enclosure is oblong, measuring 926 feet on its south face and 1530 feet on its east side; the northern and western sides being respectively a little longer. It seems that Solomon's Palace originally stood at this south end of the platform, reaching about 600 feet from the east angle to the Double Gate; and that the tradition is right which calls this Triple Gate, consisting of three arches, each 25 feet high and 14 wide, the entrance to Solomon's Stables, the great vaulted crypts which extend from these underneath the platform. Herod appears to have added the western third of the wall toward the Tyropæon, and on the whole he erected the magnificent colonnade, called the Royal Portico, which ran the whole length, with its pinnacles, 150 feet high, so that the spectator looked down 300 feet into the valley beneath, The Temple of Solomon would appear then to have been an oblong of over 900 feet by 600, with his palace, 600 by 300 feet, to the south of it; and a square of about 300 feet was added by Herod to complete the rectangle at the southwest, when the whole platform, including the site of the palace, was thrown into the Temple area, thus making it co-extensive with the present Haram Area. H. B. T. The rugged top of the vast platform was levelled with immense labor; its sides, which to the east and south were precipitous, were faced with a wall of stone, built up perpendicular from the bottom of the valley, so as to appear to those who looked down of most terrific height; a work of prodigious skill and labor, as the immense stones were strongly mortised together and wedged into the rock. Around the whole area or esplanade, an irregular quadrangle, was a solid wall of considerable height and strength; within this was an open court, into which the Gentiles were either from the first or subsequently admitted. A second wall encompassed another quadrangle, called the court of the Israelites. Along this wall, on the inside, ran a portico or cloister, over which were chambers for different sacred purposes. Within this again another, probably a lower, wall, separated the court of the priests from that of the Israelites. To each court the ascent was by steps, so that the platform of the inner court was on a higher level than that of the outer. Milman. Among the works undertaken for the temple were also the drains and water-supply, matters of the highest importance in the elaborate ceremonial of the worship. The depths of Mount Moriah were pierced by Solomon's men, sometimes by shafts driven straight down or steeply sloping into the bowels of the mountain, sometimes by tunnels running from north to south not much above the level of the brook Kedron. One of these tunnels, leading from the Virgin's Fount to the Pool of Siloam, is 1708 feet long, and presents at its southern end an inscription in old Hebrew which is thought to be of the age of Solomon. The value of these shafts and tunnels and tanks was very great. By one set the blood of sacrifices, the refuse, and the filth could be at once hurried out of sight into the heart of the rock, whence drains conveyed the whole to the Kedron and the Dead Sea. By another a copious supply of water could be brought from a distance. So honeycombed is the mountain with cisterns, that one of them, known as the Great Sea, would contain two million gallons, while the total storage provided probably exceeded five times that quantity. Perhaps the pools of Solomon, six miles off on the hill-sides above Bethlehem, as the three great tanks in Wadi Urtas are called, were built by the king's orders for supplying the temple-hill. Although history is silent on the point, there is not known to have been any other king who had either power or wisdom sufficient to build these vast tanks; to lay a double set of pipes as far as Jerusalem, at a high level and a low level; and to tunnel the rocks, as they are found to be, even for miles in length. Sime. The general plan of the Temple was identical with that of the Tabernacle. God was the architect of both; giving "patterns" of the one to Moses in the Mount, and of the other to David by the Spirit (1 Chron. 28: 12, 19). The House surpassed the Tent in size, being of exactly double dimensions, and in richness and permanence both of material and construction. The locality of the sacred structure, and the time of its commencement. It was built upon the eminence of Moriah, northeastward of and somewhat lower than the hill of Zion. The ground had been purchased by David from Ornan the Jebusite, and was probably the identical place where Abraham would have offered Isaac as a sacrifice. The work of building was begun in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, three years having been occupied in preparation. The epoch was a remarkable one, it being the central point of human history, almost midway between the creation of man and the present time. The area, the parts, proportions, and material of the Temple and its courts. To gain needed ground for the structures and courts the original area was extended by building up walls and buttresses and filling in with earth. This necessitated the laying of deep and strong foundations for walls and buildings. The whole space enclosed by the outer walls formed an oblong of 600 feet by 900. The main building comprised four parts, of which the Temple proper included three: The Porch; the greater house or Holy Place; and the Holy of Holies. The fourth part was a three-storied appendage on either side containing chambers for the uses of the priests. The Temple proper was an oblong square 105 feet (estimating the cubit at half a yard) from east to west, and 30 feet from north to south. Of its three parts, the Porch or entrance was 15 feet in depth, the Holy Place 60 feet, and the Most Holy Place 30 feet. Each of these parts had the full breadth of the structure, or 30 feet. The height of the Holy Place was 45 feet. That of the Most Holy Place was 30 feet, so that this  inmost apartment was a perfect cube, with equal length and breadth and height. The fourth part, or remaining portion of the entire structure, consisted of three stories of chambers built against the sides, but having no communication with the Temple proper. These stories were so constructed, by the narrowing of the side walls, that the three floors and roof rested upon offsets; and thus the Temple walls were unpierced. Their entire height, too, was considerably less than that of the Temple, so as to admit of windows near the ceiling of the Holy Place from which the smoke of incense and the vapor of lamps might escape. Thus the whole structure externally resembled an ordinary-sized church, with nave and side aisles. It was distinguished, not by magnitude, but by beauty of workmanship and costliness of materials. The walls of the building were of white stone. The interior surfaces of both Holy places, sides, ceiling, and floor, were lined with cedar-wood, which was overlaid with pure gold; the side walls being enriched with chasing and with precious stones. A pair of immense folding doors, whose golden surfaces were embossed with figures of cherubim, of foliage and flowers, formed the entrance from the porch to the Holy Place. And similar doors of smaller dimensions opened into the Holy of Holies. These doors were always open, while before the opening, and wholly concealing the inner Sanctuary, hung a richly-bordered gorgeous veil. The Temple was placed on the westward side of the whole area, and on the same side of an inner Court, called the Court of the Priests, into which only servitors of the Temple were admitted. This Court was enclosed by a wall of cedar beams resting on a stone pediment. In it was the great sacrificial altar of brass, 30 feet square and 15 feet high, and the great circular laver, or "molten sea," 15 feet in diameter at the brim and 7½ feet high, standing upon twelve brazen oxen. There were also ten smaller lavers for the washing of the burnt-offerings; the sea being used "for the priests to wash in." Outside of this inner Court, covering the remainder of the enclosed area, was the "Great Court," called also the Court of the Lord's House, for all the people. One significant fact is carefully noted respecting the whole structure. The shaping, dressing, and fitting of a great part of the material, even to the setting of pins and bolts, was done in the Phœnician quarries or work shops, whence it was transported to Jerusalem by sea and land. Hence "there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building." Mainly the work of ornamentation was wrought in Jerusalem. This Temple, it may be added, was seven years in building; it remained more than four hundred years, and was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar B.C. 588. The second Temple was built under the superintendence of Zerubbabel, and completed B.C. 516. This building, having become greatly dilapidated, was almost wholly rebuilt by Herod the Great. And his magnificent structure was utterly destroyed by Titus, A.D. 70. (We reproduce the Ground-plan of Herod's Temple, and also various diagrams and statements bearing upon the topics of this and the preceding section, from New Testament, Vol. I. See pages 535-538 and 541.) B. 1. K. 6 : 5, 6, 8-10.** The temple was surrounded by three stories of chambers, each of which stories was five cubits high, so that there remained above ample space for introducing the windows, requisite more for ventilation than for the admission of light into the sanctuary. The lowest story of the chambers was five cubits, the middle six, and the third seven cubits wide. This difference of the width arose from the circumstance that the external walls of the Temple were so thick that they were made to recede one cubit after an elevation of five feet, so that the "rebatement" (or shoulder) in the wall of the temple gave a firm support to the beams which supported the second story, without being inserted into the wall of the sanctuary; which insertion was, perhaps, avoided not merely for architectural reasons, but also because it appeared to be irreverent. The third story was supported likewise by a similar rebatement, which afforded a still wider space for the chamber of the third story. These observations will render intelligible these biblical statements. Kit. Enc. 1. K. 6 : 7.** The historian here digresses for a moment to speak of the remarkable and, indeed, unprecedented way in which the temple was built. The stories were shaped and prepared beforehand in the quarry, so that there was nothing to do on their arrival in the temple area but to fit them into their place in the building. Where was this quarry? The general idea is that it was in the Lebanon. And it is not to be denied that the massive substructions and corner-stones of the temple may have been brought from the mountain, along with the wood; but the bulk of the stone, there can be no doubt, was found much nearer home. Some of it, according to the Mishna, came from Bethlehem; but we can hardly be mistaken in believing that for the most part it was quarried in Jerusalem itself, under the very temple rock, and out of the vast caverns recovered some years ago by Dr. Barclay (see his "City of the Great King"), the "Royal Caverns" of Josephus. See Quart. Journal, Pal. Explor. Fund (No. vii.), pp. 373, 374, and cf. p. 34. There are unmistakable evidences of these extensive caverns having served as a quarry. Not only are the walls cut straight, but rude masses are left here and there to support the roof, and, what is still more convincing, there are stones more or less cut out of the rock, and incisions are made where stones are to be quarried. There was no reason why the workmen should go far afield for stone when they had it, and of very excellent quality, at their own doors. Hammond. Neither hammer nor axe was heard in that holy structure. There was nothing in Sion but silence and peace. Whatever tumults are abroad, it is fit there should be all quietness and sweet concord in the Church. O God, that the axes of schism, or the hammers of furious contentions, should be heard within thy sanctuary! Thy house is not built with blows: with blows it is beaten down. Oh, knit the hearts of thy servants together "in the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace;" that we may mind and speak the same things; that thou, who art the God of peace, mayest take pleasure to dwell under the quiet roof of our hearts. Bp. II. The building up of the Church of God is a silent, hidden process. Outward visible agencies must be employed, but the real constructive forces are out of sight. Truth works secretly and silently in the souls of men. "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation." Noise and show are out of harmony with the sanctity of it. Clamor and violence only hinder the work. Let us not mistake a restless, busy, fussy zeal for the externalities of Church life for true spiritual service. This is often in inverse ratio to the amount of real edification. The best machinery works with least friction and noise. The quiet, thoughtful workers, who move on steadily by the inspiration of their holy purpose, without much public recognition, may after all be the most efficient builders of the temple of God. Waite. He may accomplish most whose useful results no man sees, who makes no noise, who resembles the silent forces of nature, and not he who will have everything finished up by a certain time or else consider nothing to be effected. The calmness and patience, the calculation on the distant future, the noiselessness, the unweariedness, which contribute largely to the success of some men's labors, are qualities in which contemplation schools the mind. The thoughtful Christian will, as far as in him lies, construct a solid, durable, substantial edifice, or nothing at all. T. D. Woolsey. 1. K. 6 : 11-13.** God's promise to Solomon and to the people of Israel. At this point the historian interrupts his description of the building to record the gracious promise made to the king during its erection. Hammond.—This word of the Lord Solomon received during the building of the temple. The Lord assures him that he will fulfil the promise made to David (2 S. 7) in regard to the building of the temple on condition that he will walk in his statutes, judgments, and commandments, which are enumerated in the law of Moses. This "word of the Lord" is a short Divine confirmation of that which his father David had impressed upon him in the transference of the kingdom with special reference to the building of the temple. Keil.—While these protracted works were progressing, the Lord in His mercy gave special encouragement alike to Solomon and to the people. The word of the Lord, which on this occasion came to the king no doubt through a prophet, not only fully confirmed the promise made to David, but also connected the "house" that was being built to the Lord with the ancient promise (Ex. 25 : 8 ; 29 : 45) that God would dwell in Israel as among His people. Thus it pointed king and people beyond that outward building which, rising in such magnificence, might have excited only national pride, to its spiritual meaning, and to the conditions under which alone it would fulfil its great purpose. A. E. God told Solomon, by the mouth of his prophet, that, notwithstanding the great splendor and magnificence wherewith he intended to adorn this temple, it was, in itself, but a mere external thing; and that the Divine presence in it, and God's acceptance of, and favor and protection bestowed upon its worshippers, should wholly depend upon the measures of their obedience to his Divine laws, agreeably to the conditional promise made to his father David. Pyle.—The temple was intended to be a solid and permanent dwelling-place for God in the midst of Israel, as distinguished from the frail and movable tent in which he had heretofore dwelt among them. If Solomon was faithful to God's service, and, as is implied, if Israel was faithful likewise, the reality should correspond with the symbol. God's dwelling in Israel should be as fixed and stable as this massive structure promised to be. W. H. G.—This was but the repetition of the ancient promise to Moses. And what are all these promises, with all the marvellous manifestations that verified them, but typical foreshadowings of the richer grace by virtue of which the Church becomes "the habitation of God through the Spirit"? "The Most High dwells not in temples made with hands;" His dwelling-place is the fellowship of redeemed souls. Waite. 19-28. The Holy of Holies ("oracle"), or inner sanctuary, was divided from the rest of the temple by a partition of cedar, in the centre of which was a pair of folding-doors of olive wood, very richly carved with palm-trees, and open flowers, and cherubim,—the whole overlaid with gold. A like pair of folding-doors, of grander dimensions, also overlaid with gold, embossed in rich patterns of cherubim, and knops, and open flowers, formed the outer entrance. The door forming the entrance to the most Holy Place was left open, and the space covered, as is usual in the East, by a magnificent veil or curtain. Kit. In the Holy of Holies were stood two colossal four winged cherubim of gold, facing each other, the twain inner wings of each meeting above the ark, and the twain outer wings of each reaching to the wall on either side. Curtained by the heavy, gorgeous veil (2 Chron. 3 : 14), this inner sanctuary, with its ark and cherubim, afterward its central refulgent glory symbolizing God's personal presence, was utterly closed against the vision even of the priests, save of the High-Priest on the great day of Atonement. B. Solomon not only preserved the original cherubim upon the ark, but the most holy place in the temple being much larger than the corresponding portion of the tabernacle, he made two colossal cherubim, which were placed, one on each side of the ark, with expanded wings, so that two wings touched each other over the ark, while the other two reached the opposite walls. Besides this, the figures of cherubim were multiplied in the golden enchasements which lined the temple. Not only so, but there were images of oxen supporting the brazen sea, and figures of lions designed upon the bases of the ten lavers in the court of the temple; while there were within, among the interior adornments of the fretted gold, figures of palm-trees, lilies, and pomegranates. Kit. 1. K. 7 : 15-22.** The Pillars before the House. The relative place and the uses of these lofty brazen shafts, with their rich capitals wreathed with adorning festoons, are not accurately determined. They seem to have been ornaments of the porch, which itself merely served as a fitting vestibule to the Temple. We may trace a significance in the names of these pillars, "Firmness" and "Stability," as applying to the entering into God's Spiritual House, since all that enter there are forever established in His strong and enduring Dwelling-place. B.—The meaning of the pillars evidently is, that God has here established His temple on a firm foundation, and that it is, therefore, to be no longer a travelling sanctuary like the tabernacle. It is just because Jehovah no longer dwells in a moving tent, but in a settled house, that the cherubim stand in the temple upon the floor of the Holy of Holies, and make the whole place the constant abode of the Divine presence. O.—Their significance is intimated in the names given them (verse 21), Jachin—He will establish; and Boaz—In him is strength. Spiritual strength and stability are to be had at the door of God's temple, where we must wait for the gifts of grace, in the use of the means of grace. It was a memorandum to them of the strength and establishment of the temple of God among them. Let them keep close to God and duty, and they should never lose their dignities and privileges, but the grant should be confirmed and perpetuated to them. The Gospel church God will establish, and he will strengthen. H. No features in Solomon's temple have given rise to so much controversy as these two famous pillars; the beauty of which Jewish writers are never tired of recounting. They were marvels of the glyptic skill for which the Phonician workmen were distinguished. That these were symbolic is evident from their names, which may be rendered, "Stability" and "Strength." The reference is not so much to the material building, but to the kingdom of God in Israel, which was embodied in the temple. They pointed then, and now, to the beauty and strength of the dwelling of God. The lilies and pomegranates adorning the pillars not only showed that there should be beauty in the worship of God, and that the noblest art should be consecrated to Him, but symbolized the truth declared in Ps. 96 : 6, "Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." Strength needs beauty to adorn it. Beauty needs strength to support it. Emblems of stability and strength, yet exquisite in their beauty, let Jachin and Boaz, in the porch of the temple, remind us of what God would see in the Christian Church and in the Christian character. Rowland. 2. Chron. 4 : 1.** The altar of burnt-offering appears to have undergone changes in its history. That of the tabernacle, in material, size, and the provision made for approaching it, differed considerably from this one. E. C. B. 1. K. 7 : 27-40. Besides the great "molten sea" (verses 23-26), there were ten bases, or stands, of brass, on which were put ten lavers, to be filled with water for the service of the temple, because there would not be room at the molten sea for all that had occasion to wash there. The bases on which the lavers were fixed are very largely described here. They were curiously adorned, and set upon wheels, that the lavers might be removed as there was occasion; but, ordinarily, they stood in two rows, five on one side of the court and five on the other (verse 39). Each laver contained forty baths—that is, about ten barrels (verse 38). They must be very clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Spiritual priests and spiritual sacrifices must be washed in the laver of Christ's blood, and of regeneration. We must wash often, for we daily contract pollution; cleanse our hands, and purify our hearts. Plentiful provision is made for our cleansing; so that if we have our lot forever among the unclean, it will be our own fault. H. 48,49. The outer sanctuary, where the priests ministered daily, contained the altar of incense, ten golden candlesticks, and ten tables, all richly wrought and overlaid. Thus it will be seen that, in the size and the number of the sacred utensils, as well as in the dimensions of the building and its parts, the Temple greatly surpassed the Tabernacle. B. 49. The number of candlesticks was multiplied to ten in Solomon's temple; and they seem to have remained at that number until carried away by the Babylonian conquerors (Jer. 52 : 19). E. C. B.—Whether all these lamps were fully lit up on great occasions is now unknown. But seventy lights in all—for there were seven bowls for olive oil in each lamp—would have filled the golden house with unmatched brilliance. Sime. 2. Chron. 4 : 9. Besides the table of shewbread, which was the only table in the tabernacle, there were here ten golden tables, besides others of silver, on which were laid out above a hundred golden vases of various patterns, with the different utensils—the censers, spoons, snuffers, etc.—all of gold, used in the service of the temple. Kit. 1. K. 6 : 38. So was he seven years in building it. As Bul was the eighth month, and Zif the second, the house was precisely seven and a half years in building—a short period, if we consider the magnitude of the undertaking, but long enough, if we remember the enormous number of hands employed upon it, the preparations made by David, and the modest dimensions of the edifice. Hammond. The temple itself was rather a monument of the wealth than the architectural skill and science of the people. It was a wonder of the world, from the splendor of its materials more than the grace, boldness, or majesty of its height and dimensions. It had neither the colossal magnitude of the Egyptian, the simple dignity and perfect proportional harmony of the Grecian, nor perhaps the fantastic grace and lightness of modern Oriental architecture. If the dimensions of the temple appear by no means imposing, it must be remembered that but a small part of the religious ceremonies took place within the walls. The Holy of Holies was entered only once a year, and that by the High-Priest alone. It was the secret and unapproachable shrine of the Divinity. The Holy Place, the body of the temple, admitted only the officiating priests. The open courts, called in popular language the temple, or rather the inner quadrangle, was in fact the great place of Divine worship. Here, under the open air, were celebrated the great public and national rites, the processions, the offerings, the sacrifices; here stood the great tank for ablution, and the high altar for burnt-offerings. But the costliness of the materials, the richness and variety of the details, amply compensated for the moderate dimensions of the building. It was such a sacred edifice as a traveller might have expected to find in El Dorado. The walls were of hewn stone, faced within with cedar which was richly carved with knops and flowers; the ceiling was of fir-tree. But in every part gold was lavished with the utmost profusion; within and without, the floor, the walls, the ceiling, in short, the whole house is described as overlaid with gold. The finest and purest—that of Parvaim, by some supposed to be Ceylon—was reserved for the sanctuary. Here the cherubim, which stood upon the covering of the ark, with their wings touching each wall, were entirely covered with gold. The sumptuous veil, of the richest materials and brightest colors, which divided the Holy of Holies from the holy place, was suspended on chains of gold. Cherubim, palm trees and flowers, the favorite ornaments, everywhere, covered with gilding, were wrought in almost all parts. The altar within the temple, and the table of shewbread, were likewise covered with the same precious metal. All the vessels, the ten candlesticks, five hundred basins, and all the rest of the sacrificial and other utensils, were of solid gold. M-lman. Everything connected with the building of this great temple was thus on a scale of exceeding magnificence. With unstinting hand, labor was bestowed on the costliest stones, the rarest woods, the most curious designs, the most precious oils and spices, the boldest engineering. From far and near came tribute and trade profits to be lavished on the lordly building. Of one thing, however, not a word is said. Egypt and Babylon and Northern Syria had seen grand public buildings for religious or royal use before Solomon's reign. But the builders did not scruple to inscribe on them long stories of their costly outlay, their piety, and their hopes. Or they erected pillars, on which were engraved boastful accounts of their greatness in peace and in war. Even on the great mosque built on the temple hill, and on that at Hebron, which is supposed to cover the Cave of Machpelah, inscriptions are found in abundance. But nothing of this boastfulness was allowed in the temple of Jerusalem. There were carvings of animals and flowers on the wood; there was no writing on the great, smooth stones. The silence of the historian on this head is most expressive. What the kings of other lands did in writing their names and greatness on the temples which they built, Solomon seems never to have thought of. He and his people were a book-writing, not a stone-writing people. "Memorial stones" appear at the beginning of Israel's history as a nation, engraven with the names of the tribes. But the great stones of the temple were not memorial stones, and bore no inscription. A place so holy allowed no praise of man to be written on its walls, and no carvings of priests, or symbols, or ceremonies, such as the temple faces of other nations show to illustrate their faith, even when their books are silent. Sime. THE GREAT ASSEMBLY CONVOKED. THE ARK BROUGHT FROM DAVID'S TENT. SACRIFICES OFFERED. THE ARK PLACED IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES. CONSECRATION OF THE TEMPLE BY THE GLORY CLOUD. ITS DEDICATION BY SOLOMON. HIS ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE. 2. Chron. 3 : 1** THEN Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the LORD appeared unto David his father, which he made ready in the 2 place that David had appointed, in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And he began to build in the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign. 1. K. 6 : 1** And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD. 2. And the house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was threescore 3 cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits. And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house. 2. Chron. 3: 4 And the height an hundred and twenty: and he overlaid it within with 5 pure gold. And the greater house he ceiled with fir tree, which he overlaid with fine gold, 6 and wrought thereon palm trees and chains. And he garnished the house with precious stones 7 for beauty: and the gold was gold of Parvaim. He overlaid also the house, the beams, the thresholds, and the walls thereof, and the doors thereof, with gold; and graved cherubim of 8 the walls. And he made the most holy house; the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house, was twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits: and he overlaid it 9 with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents. And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold. 1. K. 6: 4, 5 And for the house he made windows of fixed lattice-work. And against the wall of the house he built stories round about, against the walls of the house round about, both 6 of the temple and of the oracle: and he made side-chambers round about: the nethermost story was five cubits broad; and the middle was six cubits broad, and the third was seven cubits broad: for on the outside he made rebatements in the wall of the house round about, 7 that the beams should not have hold in the walls of the house. And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready at the quarry: and there was neither hammer nor axe 8 nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building. The door for the middle side-chambers was in the right side of the house: and they went up by winding stairs into the 9 middle chambers, and out of the middle into the third. So he built the house, and finished it; 10 and he covered the house with beams and planks of cedar. And he built the stories against all the house, each five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar. 11,12. And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying, Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my com- mandments to walk in them; then will I establish my word with thee, which I spake unto David 13 thy father. And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel. 14,15. So Solomon built the house, and finished it. And he built the walls of the house within with boards of cedar; from the floor of the house unto the walls of the ceiling, he covered 16 them on the inside with wood: and he covered the floor of the house with boards of fir. And he built twenty cubits on the hinder part of the house with boards of cedar from the floor unto 17 the walls: he even built them for it within, for an oracle, even for the most holy place. And 18 the house, that is, the temple before the oracle, was forty cubits long. And there was cedar on the house within, carved with knops and open flowers: all was cedar; there was no stone seen. 19 And he prepared an oracle in the midst of the house within, to set there the ark of the cov- 20 enant of the LORD. And within the oracle was a space of twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof; and he overlaid it with pure gold: 21 and he covered the altar with cedar. So Solomon overlaid the house within with pure gold: 22 and he drew chains of gold across before the oracle; and he overlaid it with gold. And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was finished: also the whole altar that 23 belonged to the oracle he overlaid with gold. And in the oracle he made two cherubim of 24 olive wood, each ten cubits high. And five cubits was the one wing of the cherub, and five cubits the other wing of the cherub: from the uttermost part of the one wing unto the utter- 25 most part of the other were ten cubits. And the other cherub was ten cubits: both the cher- 26 ubim were of one measure and one form. The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and 27 so was it of the other cherub. And he set the cherubim within the inner house: and the wings of the cherubim were stretched forth, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall; and their wings touched one another 28 in the midst of the house. And he overlaid the cherubim with gold. 2. Chron. 3: 14 And he made the veil of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, and wrought cherubim thereon. 1. K. 6: 29 And he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of 30 cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, within and without. And the floor of the house 31 he overlaid with gold, within and without. And for the entering of the oracle he made doors 32 of olive wood : the lintel and door posts were a fifth part of the wall. So he made two doors of olive wood ; and he carved upon them carvings of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and overlaid them with gold ; and he spread the gold upon the cherubim, and upon the palm trees. So also made he for the entering of the temple door posts of olive wood, out of a fourth part of the wall ; and two doors of fir wood ; the two leaves of the one door were folding, and the two leaves of the other door were folding. And he carved thereon cherubim and palm trees and open flowers : and he overlaid them with gold fitted upon the graven work. And he built the inner court with three rows of hewn stone, and a row of cedar beams. 1. K. 7 : 13, 14 And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. He was the son of a widow woman of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass ; and he was filled with wisdom and understanding and cunning, to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work. For he fashioned the two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece : and a line of twelve cubits compassed either of them about. And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars : the height of the one chapiter was five cubits, and the height of the other chapiter was five cubits. There were nets of checker work, and wreaths of chain work, for the chapiters which were upon the top of the pillars ; seven for the one chapiter, and seven for the other chapiter. So he made the pillars ; and there were two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars : and so did he for the other chapiter. And the chapiters that were upon the top of the pillars in the porch were of lily work, four cubits. And there were chapiters above also upon the two pillars, close by the belly which was beside the network : and the pomegranates were two hundred, in rows round about upon the other chapiter. And he set up the pillars at the porch of the temple : and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin : and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz. And upon the top of the pillars was lily work : so was the work of the pillars finished. 2. Chron. 4 : 1 Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof. 1. K. 7 : 23 And he made the molten sea of ten cubits from brim to brim, round in compass, and the height thereof was five cubits : and a line of thirty cubits compassed it round about. And he made the ten bases of brass ; four cubits was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof, and three cubits the height of it. After this manner he made the ten bases : all of them had one casting, one measure, and one form. And he made ten lavers of brass : one laver contained forty baths : and every laver was four cubits : and upon every one of the ten bases one laver. And he set the bases, five on the right side of the house, and five on the left side of the house : and he set the sea on the right side of the house eastward, toward the south. And Hiram made the lavers, and the shovels, and the basons. So Hiram made an end of doing all the work that he wrought for king Solomon in the house of the LORD : the two pillars, and the two bowls of the chapiters that were on the top of the pillars ; and the two networks to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were on the top of the pillars ; and the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks ; two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the chapiters that were upon the pillars ; and the ten bases, and the ten lavers on the bases ; and the one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea ; and the pots, and the shovels, and the basons : even all these vessels, which Hiram made for king Solomon, in the house of the LORD, were of burnished brass. In the plain of Jordan did the king cast them, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarethan. And Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because they were exceeding many : the weight of the brass could not be found out. And Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of the LORD : the golden altar, and the table whereupon the shewbread was, of gold ; and the candlesticks, five on the right side, and five on the left, before the oracle, of pure gold ; and the flowers, and the lamps, and the tongs, of gold ; and the cups, and the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the firepans, of pure gold ; and the hinges, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, to wit, of the temple, of gold. 2. Chron. 4 : 8 He made also ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side, and five on the left. And he made an hundred basons of gold. Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great court, and doors for the court, and overlaid the doors of them with brass. I K. 7: 51 Thus all the work that king Solomon wrought in the house of the LORD was finished. And Solomon brought in the things which David his father had dedicated, even the silver, and the gold, and the vessels, and put them in the treasuries of the house of the LORD. I K. 6: 37 In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the 38 month Ziv. And in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof, and according to all the fashion of it. So was he seven years in building it. [Some details omitted, vs. 24-26, 28-36.]  Rock Plan of Jerusalem. (Capt. Warren.) THE geographical position of Jerusalem may be indicated by saying that its latitude is that of the northern end of the Dead Sea, its distance from the Mediterranean thirty-one miles, and its distance from the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea fifteen miles. N. C. B.—It is exactly on the water-shed of the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, 2,650 feet above the level of the former. Built on the very backbone of the country—the summit of that long ridge which traverses the Holy Land from north to south, and only approachable by wild mountain roads—the position of the city was one of great natural strength. H. B. T.—The history of its many sieges and its capture by Titus confirm this statement. B.  PROFILE SECTION (EAST AND WEST) THROUGH JERUSALEM, TO THE HIGHEST POINT OF THE MOUNT OF OLIVES. Showing the comparative elevations of Zion, Moriah, and the Temple Platform, and the Mount of Olives; and the Rock-bed of the Brook Cedron, where the water is still flowing. (See page 512.) The breadthwise distances are indicated (also in feet) on the bottom line. To the spectator down about the confluence of the valleys of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat is admirably revealed the elevated position of the city. From the depths of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat, Moriah appears truly a mountain, and Zion the acropolis and citadel of David. N. C. B. The great depth of the valleys on the west of Zion and the east of Moriah, the relative elevation of the northern and southern portions of the city, and the superior altitude of the Mount of Olives, will be better understood by the following statement of of these several points above the junction of the valleys of Hinnom and Jehoshaphat: To the summit of Moriah, 370 feet. To the summit of Zion, 520 feet. To the summit of the Mount of Olives, 670 feet. To the northeast corner of city, 470 feet. To the northwest corner of city, 570 feet. J. G. B. ONE city literally lies heaped upon another. For Jerusalem stood no fewer than twenty-seven sieges—from Jebusites and Israelites, Egyptians and Assyrians, Greeks and Romans, Mohammedans and Christians. The last and twenty-seventh siege took place in 1244 by the wild Kharzemian hordes. The Jerusalem of our day may be considered the eighth; for even before the time of David there was a city there. The second was the city of Solomon, from B. C. 1000 to B. C. 597, four hundred years; the third that of Nehemiah, three hundred years; at length came the magnificent city of Herod; then that Roman city on the ruin Titus had made; followed by the Mohammedan, and that by a Christian; and now, for six hundred years, the modern city has stood on the ruins of those that preceded it. If we examine the  South Wall, East Angle. Mount of Olives in the Distance. rubbish and débris, we have to determine, at every step, among the ruins of which city we are standing—Solomon, Nehemiah, Herod, Hadrian, Constantine, Omar, Godfrey, Saladin, Suleiman, each in turn represents a city. E. C. Gray. By the repeated sinking of shafts on the sloping face of Ophel, it is established that the south wall is buried for more than half its depth, and that, if bared to its foundation, this wall would present an unbroken front of solid masonry of nearly 1,000 feet long and 150 feet in height. The wall, as it now stands, with less than half that height emerging from the ground, has always been regarded as a marvel. What must it have been when entirely exposed to view, and the tall erections of the Temple towering over it! No wonder that prophets and psalmists should have rejoiced in the walls and bulwarks of the Temple, and that Tacitus should have described it as "built after the fashion of a citadel" (Ps. 48 : 13). H. B. T. All these buildings, porticos, columns, pinnacles, altar, and temple, have perished. The area alone remains, and the massive substructures that for 3,000 years have been sleeping in their courses. The preservation has been due to the ruin. Buildings so vast have been toppled down the slopes of the Moriah that the original defiles and valleys have been almost obliterated. What had been regarded as the original surface has been found to be débris from 70 to 90 feet deep. At the southwest corner of the area, débris has accumulated to a depth of not less than 125 feet—the accumulation of ages, made up of the ruins of successive Jerusalems; and here some of the most interesting discoveries have been made. Here is the famous arch of Robinson. It is inferred to be the remains of a bridge which crossed the valley on arches, and connected Mount Moriah with the mountain opposite—the modern Zion. It is the skewback or abutment that slopes to receive the end of the arch. Three courses remain. The stones are five or six feet thick, and 20 or 25 feet long. The valley here is 350 feet wide, and this must have been the length of the bridge, connecting the Temple with the royal palace on the other side. At a depth of 30 feet a worn pavement was found, worn by feet that passed over it in our Lord's time. Lying on this pavement were the voussoirs, or wedge-like stones, belonging to the arch. Breaking through this pavement, and through 24 feet of débris beneath, they found a still more ancient roadway, and resting upon this, the key-stones of a still more ancient bridge. The explanation is probably reached; Robinson's arch is the remains of the bridge that was standing at the siege of Jerusalem, upon which, at the eastern end of it, stood the Roman general Titus, holding a parley with the Jews, occupying the other end of the bridge. The older bridge, the remains of which were found beneath the pavement, belonged to the palmy days of Solomon. W. I. B.  Vicinity of Jerusalem. OUT of the valley of Jehoshaphat, or Cedron of the Bible, eastwardly rises the MOUNT OF OLIVES, three hundred feet higher than Moriah. N. C. B.—It is not so much a mount as a somewhat elevated mass, having three rounded eminences, the whole running north and south for more than a mile, on a line with the eastern wall of the city. Of these three eminences, the central one is the Mount of Olives. The eminence on the south is called the Mount of Offence, from its being the seat of Solomon's idol-worship. From the city to the summit of Olivet, approached by three paths, the distance is about half a mile. Across the valley of Hinnom, and directly south of Zion, is the Hill of Evil Counsel. J. G. B. The building of the temple forms a great epoch in the history of the theocracy. With it not only does the Mosaic worship gain an important accession in solidity and splendor, and the people itself a fixed central sanctuary, inasmuch as the Lord sanctions the temple on its consecration in the most solemn manner as the place chosen by him for his name; but also with it an end is first made to the provisional state of Israel in the promised land, and the Divine assurance that he will "appoint a place for his people Israel, that they might dwell in a place of their own and move no more" (2 S. 7 : 10), is completely fulfilled. The importance of this epoch is indicated by this, that the time of building is determined not only by the year of Solomon's reign, but also by the departure from Egypt. Four hundred and thirty years was Israel in Egypt (Ex. 12 : 40); four hundred and eighty years elapsed from the departure out of this land of bondage to the foundation of the temple. These two numbers form two fixed resting points for the chronology of the history of Israel in ancient times, for which the historical books of the Old Testament contain no uninterrupted era, while there is no solid ground either for shortening the four hundred and thirty years' residence of Israel in Egypt with some critics to two hundred and fifteen years, or for lengthening the four hundred and eighty years from the departure out of Egypt to the building of the temple. Keil. (See pp. 32, 33.) The erection of this splendid sanctuary was no doubt the greatest event, both in Jewish and Gentile eyes, in the history of the Holy City. It made Jerusalem what it had not been till then, the religious capital. The stronghold of the Jebusites now became the shrine and centre of the Jewish system. We find a sufficient indication of the profound importance which this undertaking assumed in Jewish eyes in the fact that four chapters of our history—and three of them of considerable length—are occupied with an account of the materials, proportions, arrangements, and consecration of this great sanctuary. To the historiographers of Israel it seemed meet that every measurement of the holy and beautiful house should be recorded with the greatest exactness, while the very vessels of service, "the pots and the shovels and the basins," were judged worthy of a place in the sacred page. But these careful and detailed dimensions are not only proofs of the tender veneration with which the Jew regarded the Temple and its appointments; they are also (as Bahr has well shown) indications and expressions of the belief that this house, so "exceeding magnifical," was for the Lord, and not for man. These exact measurements, these precise and symbolic numbers, all point to a place for the Divine Presence. At the same time it must be added here that, exact and detailed as is the description of this edifice, it is nevertheless so partial, and the account is, perhaps necessarily, so obscure as to leave us in considerable doubt as to what Solomon's Temple was really like. In fact, though "more has been written regarding the temple at Jerusalem than in respect to any other building in the known world" (Fergusson), the authorities are not agreed as to its broad features, while as to matters of detail they are hopelessly divided. And the difficulty is enhanced by the fact that the temple was purely Jewish, so that no information as to its structure and arrangements can be derived from the contemporary architecture of Egyptians or Assyrians. In the absence of all analogies restoration is hopeless. Hammond. #### Site of the Temple. Of all the buildings of the Jerusalem of the Bible, scarce a recognizable trace remains above ground outside of the Temple platform. Eleven sieges and destructions have utterly erased all that was visible of the city of the Maccabees and Nehemiah, still more of the city of the Jewish monarchy, of David and Solomon. The platform, now called Haram esh Sherif, is a vast artificial work, raising the area nearly to a level with the central rock, which we suppose to have been the site of Araunah's threshing floor and of the altar of burnt sacrifice in Solomon's Temple, now crowned with a magnificent dome, called the Kubbet es Sakhra, or Dome of the Rock. The platform is supported by stupendous walls, built up from the slope of the hill on three sides. The enclosure is oblong, measuring 926 feet on its south face and 1530 feet on its east side; the northern and western sides being respectively a little longer. It seems that Solomon's Palace originally stood at this south end of the platform, reaching about 600 feet from the east angle to the Double Gate; and that the tradition is right which calls this Triple Gate, consisting of three arches, each 25 feet high and 14 wide, the entrance to Solomon's Stables, the great vaulted crypts which extend from these underneath the platform. Herod appears to have added the western third of the wall toward the Tyropæon, and on the whole he erected the magnificent colonnade, called the Royal Portico, which ran the whole length, with its pinnacles, 150 feet high, so that the spectator looked down 300 feet into the valley beneath, The Temple of Solomon would appear then to have been an oblong of over 900 feet by 600, with his palace, 600 by 300 feet, to the south of it; and a square of about 300 feet was added by Herod to complete the rectangle at the southwest, when the whole platform, including the site of the palace, was thrown into the Temple area, thus making it co-extensive with the present Haram Area. H. B. T. The rugged top of the vast platform was levelled with immense labor; its sides, which to the east and south were precipitous, were faced with a wall of stone, built up perpendicular from the bottom of the valley, so as to appear to those who looked down of most terrific height; a work of prodigious skill and labor, as the immense stones were strongly mortised together and wedged into the rock. Around the whole area or esplanade, an irregular quadrangle, was a solid wall of considerable height and strength; within this was an open court, into which the Gentiles were either from the first or subsequently admitted. A second wall encompassed another quadrangle, called the court of the Israelites. Along this wall, on the inside, ran a portico or cloister, over which were chambers for different sacred purposes. Within this again another, probably a lower, wall, separated the court of the priests from that of the Israelites. To each court the ascent was by steps, so that the platform of the inner court was on a higher level than that of the outer. Milman. Among the works undertaken for the temple were also the drains and water-supply, matters of the highest importance in the elaborate ceremonial of the worship. The depths of Mount Moriah were pierced by Solomon's men, sometimes by shafts driven straight down or steeply sloping into the bowels of the mountain, sometimes by tunnels running from north to south not much above the level of the brook Kedron. One of these tunnels, leading from the Virgin's Fount to the Pool of Siloam, is 1708 feet long, and presents at its southern end an inscription in old Hebrew which is thought to be of the age of Solomon. The value of these shafts and tunnels and tanks was very great. By one set the blood of sacrifices, the refuse, and the filth could be at once hurried out of sight into the heart of the rock, whence drains conveyed the whole to the Kedron and the Dead Sea. By another a copious supply of water could be brought from a distance. So honeycombed is the mountain with cisterns, that one of them, known as the Great Sea, would contain two million gallons, while the total storage provided probably exceeded five times that quantity. Perhaps the pools of Solomon, six miles off on the hill-sides above Bethlehem, as the three great tanks in Wadi Urtas are called, were built by the king's orders for supplying the temple-hill. Although history is silent on the point, there is not known to have been any other king who had either power or wisdom sufficient to build these vast tanks; to lay a double set of pipes as far as Jerusalem, at a high level and a low level; and to tunnel the rocks, as they are found to be, even for miles in length. Sime. The general plan of the Temple was identical with that of the Tabernacle. God was the architect of both; giving "patterns" of the one to Moses in the Mount, and of the other to David by the Spirit (1 Chron. 28: 12, 19). The House surpassed the Tent in size, being of exactly double dimensions, and in richness and permanence both of material and construction. The locality of the sacred structure, and the time of its commencement. It was built upon the eminence of Moriah, northeastward of and somewhat lower than the hill of Zion. The ground had been purchased by David from Ornan the Jebusite, and was probably the identical place where Abraham would have offered Isaac as a sacrifice. The work of building was begun in the fourth year of Solomon's reign, three years having been occupied in preparation. The epoch was a remarkable one, it being the central point of human history, almost midway between the creation of man and the present time. The area, the parts, proportions, and material of the Temple and its courts. To gain needed ground for the structures and courts the original area was extended by building up walls and buttresses and filling in with earth. This necessitated the laying of deep and strong foundations for walls and buildings. The whole space enclosed by the outer walls formed an oblong of 600 feet by 900. The main building comprised four parts, of which the Temple proper included three: The Porch; the greater house or Holy Place; and the Holy of Holies. The fourth part was a three-storied appendage on either side containing chambers for the uses of the priests. The Temple proper was an oblong square 105 feet (estimating the cubit at half a yard) from east to west, and 30 feet from north to south. Of its three parts, the Porch or entrance was 15 feet in depth, the Holy Place 60 feet, and the Most Holy Place 30 feet. Each of these parts had the full breadth of the structure, or 30 feet. The height of the Holy Place was 45 feet. That of the Most Holy Place was 30 feet, so that this  inmost apartment was a perfect cube, with equal length and breadth and height. The fourth part, or remaining portion of the entire structure, consisted of three stories of chambers built against the sides, but having no communication with the Temple proper. These stories were so constructed, by the narrowing of the side walls, that the three floors and roof rested upon offsets; and thus the Temple walls were unpierced. Their entire height, too, was considerably less than that of the Temple, so as to admit of windows near the ceiling of the Holy Place from which the smoke of incense and the vapor of lamps might escape. Thus the whole structure externally resembled an ordinary-sized church, with nave and side aisles. It was distinguished, not by magnitude, but by beauty of workmanship and costliness of materials. The walls of the building were of white stone. The interior surfaces of both Holy places, sides, ceiling, and floor, were lined with cedar-wood, which was overlaid with pure gold; the side walls being enriched with chasing and with precious stones. A pair of immense folding doors, whose golden surfaces were embossed with figures of cherubim, of foliage and flowers, formed the entrance from the porch to the Holy Place. And similar doors of smaller dimensions opened into the Holy of Holies. These doors were always open, while before the opening, and wholly concealing the inner Sanctuary, hung a richly-bordered gorgeous veil. The Temple was placed on the westward side of the whole area, and on the same side of an inner Court, called the Court of the Priests, into which only servitors of the Temple were admitted. This Court was enclosed by a wall of cedar beams resting on a stone pediment. In it was the great sacrificial altar of brass, 30 feet square and 15 feet high, and the great circular laver, or "molten sea," 15 feet in diameter at the brim and 7½ feet high, standing upon twelve brazen oxen. There were also ten smaller lavers for the washing of the burnt-offerings; the sea being used "for the priests to wash in." Outside of this inner Court, covering the remainder of the enclosed area, was the "Great Court," called also the Court of the Lord's House, for all the people. One significant fact is carefully noted respecting the whole structure. The shaping, dressing, and fitting of a great part of the material, even to the setting of pins and bolts, was done in the Phœnician quarries or work shops, whence it was transported to Jerusalem by sea and land. Hence "there was neither hammer nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building." Mainly the work of ornamentation was wrought in Jerusalem. This Temple, it may be added, was seven years in building; it remained more than four hundred years, and was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar B.C. 588. The second Temple was built under the superintendence of Zerubbabel, and completed B.C. 516. This building, having become greatly dilapidated, was almost wholly rebuilt by Herod the Great. And his magnificent structure was utterly destroyed by Titus, A.D. 70. (We reproduce the Ground-plan of Herod's Temple, and also various diagrams and statements bearing upon the topics of this and the preceding section, from New Testament, Vol. I. See pages 535-538 and 541.) B. 1. K. 6 : 5, 6, 8-10.** The temple was surrounded by three stories of chambers, each of which stories was five cubits high, so that there remained above ample space for introducing the windows, requisite more for ventilation than for the admission of light into the sanctuary. The lowest story of the chambers was five cubits, the middle six, and the third seven cubits wide. This difference of the width arose from the circumstance that the external walls of the Temple were so thick that they were made to recede one cubit after an elevation of five feet, so that the "rebatement" (or shoulder) in the wall of the temple gave a firm support to the beams which supported the second story, without being inserted into the wall of the sanctuary; which insertion was, perhaps, avoided not merely for architectural reasons, but also because it appeared to be irreverent. The third story was supported likewise by a similar rebatement, which afforded a still wider space for the chamber of the third story. These observations will render intelligible these biblical statements. Kit. Enc. 1. K. 6 : 7.** The historian here digresses for a moment to speak of the remarkable and, indeed, unprecedented way in which the temple was built. The stories were shaped and prepared beforehand in the quarry, so that there was nothing to do on their arrival in the temple area but to fit them into their place in the building. Where was this quarry? The general idea is that it was in the Lebanon. And it is not to be denied that the massive substructions and corner-stones of the temple may have been brought from the mountain, along with the wood; but the bulk of the stone, there can be no doubt, was found much nearer home. Some of it, according to the Mishna, came from Bethlehem; but we can hardly be mistaken in believing that for the most part it was quarried in Jerusalem itself, under the very temple rock, and out of the vast caverns recovered some years ago by Dr. Barclay (see his "City of the Great King"), the "Royal Caverns" of Josephus. See Quart. Journal, Pal. Explor. Fund (No. vii.), pp. 373, 374, and cf. p. 34. There are unmistakable evidences of these extensive caverns having served as a quarry. Not only are the walls cut straight, but rude masses are left here and there to support the roof, and, what is still more convincing, there are stones more or less cut out of the rock, and incisions are made where stones are to be quarried. There was no reason why the workmen should go far afield for stone when they had it, and of very excellent quality, at their own doors. Hammond. Neither hammer nor axe was heard in that holy structure. There was nothing in Sion but silence and peace. Whatever tumults are abroad, it is fit there should be all quietness and sweet concord in the Church. O God, that the axes of schism, or the hammers of furious contentions, should be heard within thy sanctuary! Thy house is not built with blows: with blows it is beaten down. Oh, knit the hearts of thy servants together "in the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace;" that we may mind and speak the same things; that thou, who art the God of peace, mayest take pleasure to dwell under the quiet roof of our hearts. Bp. II. The building up of the Church of God is a silent, hidden process. Outward visible agencies must be employed, but the real constructive forces are out of sight. Truth works secretly and silently in the souls of men. "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation." Noise and show are out of harmony with the sanctity of it. Clamor and violence only hinder the work. Let us not mistake a restless, busy, fussy zeal for the externalities of Church life for true spiritual service. This is often in inverse ratio to the amount of real edification. The best machinery works with least friction and noise. The quiet, thoughtful workers, who move on steadily by the inspiration of their holy purpose, without much public recognition, may after all be the most efficient builders of the temple of God. Waite. He may accomplish most whose useful results no man sees, who makes no noise, who resembles the silent forces of nature, and not he who will have everything finished up by a certain time or else consider nothing to be effected. The calmness and patience, the calculation on the distant future, the noiselessness, the unweariedness, which contribute largely to the success of some men's labors, are qualities in which contemplation schools the mind. The thoughtful Christian will, as far as in him lies, construct a solid, durable, substantial edifice, or nothing at all. T. D. Woolsey. 1. K. 6 : 11-13.** God's promise to Solomon and to the people of Israel. At this point the historian interrupts his description of the building to record the gracious promise made to the king during its erection. Hammond.—This word of the Lord Solomon received during the building of the temple. The Lord assures him that he will fulfil the promise made to David (2 S. 7) in regard to the building of the temple on condition that he will walk in his statutes, judgments, and commandments, which are enumerated in the law of Moses. This "word of the Lord" is a short Divine confirmation of that which his father David had impressed upon him in the transference of the kingdom with special reference to the building of the temple. Keil.—While these protracted works were progressing, the Lord in His mercy gave special encouragement alike to Solomon and to the people. The word of the Lord, which on this occasion came to the king no doubt through a prophet, not only fully confirmed the promise made to David, but also connected the "house" that was being built to the Lord with the ancient promise (Ex. 25 : 8 ; 29 : 45) that God would dwell in Israel as among His people. Thus it pointed king and people beyond that outward building which, rising in such magnificence, might have excited only national pride, to its spiritual meaning, and to the conditions under which alone it would fulfil its great purpose. A. E. God told Solomon, by the mouth of his prophet, that, notwithstanding the great splendor and magnificence wherewith he intended to adorn this temple, it was, in itself, but a mere external thing; and that the Divine presence in it, and God's acceptance of, and favor and protection bestowed upon its worshippers, should wholly depend upon the measures of their obedience to his Divine laws, agreeably to the conditional promise made to his father David. Pyle.—The temple was intended to be a solid and permanent dwelling-place for God in the midst of Israel, as distinguished from the frail and movable tent in which he had heretofore dwelt among them. If Solomon was faithful to God's service, and, as is implied, if Israel was faithful likewise, the reality should correspond with the symbol. God's dwelling in Israel should be as fixed and stable as this massive structure promised to be. W. H. G.—This was but the repetition of the ancient promise to Moses. And what are all these promises, with all the marvellous manifestations that verified them, but typical foreshadowings of the richer grace by virtue of which the Church becomes "the habitation of God through the Spirit"? "The Most High dwells not in temples made with hands;" His dwelling-place is the fellowship of redeemed souls. Waite. 19-28. The Holy of Holies ("oracle"), or inner sanctuary, was divided from the rest of the temple by a partition of cedar, in the centre of which was a pair of folding-doors of olive wood, very richly carved with palm-trees, and open flowers, and cherubim,—the whole overlaid with gold. A like pair of folding-doors, of grander dimensions, also overlaid with gold, embossed in rich patterns of cherubim, and knops, and open flowers, formed the outer entrance. The door forming the entrance to the most Holy Place was left open, and the space covered, as is usual in the East, by a magnificent veil or curtain. Kit. In the Holy of Holies were stood two colossal four winged cherubim of gold, facing each other, the twain inner wings of each meeting above the ark, and the twain outer wings of each reaching to the wall on either side. Curtained by the heavy, gorgeous veil (2 Chron. 3 : 14), this inner sanctuary, with its ark and cherubim, afterward its central refulgent glory symbolizing God's personal presence, was utterly closed against the vision even of the priests, save of the High-Priest on the great day of Atonement. B. Solomon not only preserved the original cherubim upon the ark, but the most holy place in the temple being much larger than the corresponding portion of the tabernacle, he made two colossal cherubim, which were placed, one on each side of the ark, with expanded wings, so that two wings touched each other over the ark, while the other two reached the opposite walls. Besides this, the figures of cherubim were multiplied in the golden enchasements which lined the temple. Not only so, but there were images of oxen supporting the brazen sea, and figures of lions designed upon the bases of the ten lavers in the court of the temple; while there were within, among the interior adornments of the fretted gold, figures of palm-trees, lilies, and pomegranates. Kit. 1. K. 7 : 15-22.** The Pillars before the House. The relative place and the uses of these lofty brazen shafts, with their rich capitals wreathed with adorning festoons, are not accurately determined. They seem to have been ornaments of the porch, which itself merely served as a fitting vestibule to the Temple. We may trace a significance in the names of these pillars, "Firmness" and "Stability," as applying to the entering into God's Spiritual House, since all that enter there are forever established in His strong and enduring Dwelling-place. B.—The meaning of the pillars evidently is, that God has here established His temple on a firm foundation, and that it is, therefore, to be no longer a travelling sanctuary like the tabernacle. It is just because Jehovah no longer dwells in a moving tent, but in a settled house, that the cherubim stand in the temple upon the floor of the Holy of Holies, and make the whole place the constant abode of the Divine presence. O.—Their significance is intimated in the names given them (verse 21), Jachin—He will establish; and Boaz—In him is strength. Spiritual strength and stability are to be had at the door of God's temple, where we must wait for the gifts of grace, in the use of the means of grace. It was a memorandum to them of the strength and establishment of the temple of God among them. Let them keep close to God and duty, and they should never lose their dignities and privileges, but the grant should be confirmed and perpetuated to them. The Gospel church God will establish, and he will strengthen. H. No features in Solomon's temple have given rise to so much controversy as these two famous pillars; the beauty of which Jewish writers are never tired of recounting. They were marvels of the glyptic skill for which the Phonician workmen were distinguished. That these were symbolic is evident from their names, which may be rendered, "Stability" and "Strength." The reference is not so much to the material building, but to the kingdom of God in Israel, which was embodied in the temple. They pointed then, and now, to the beauty and strength of the dwelling of God. The lilies and pomegranates adorning the pillars not only showed that there should be beauty in the worship of God, and that the noblest art should be consecrated to Him, but symbolized the truth declared in Ps. 96 : 6, "Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." Strength needs beauty to adorn it. Beauty needs strength to support it. Emblems of stability and strength, yet exquisite in their beauty, let Jachin and Boaz, in the porch of the temple, remind us of what God would see in the Christian Church and in the Christian character. Rowland. 2. Chron. 4 : 1.** The altar of burnt-offering appears to have undergone changes in its history. That of the tabernacle, in material, size, and the provision made for approaching it, differed considerably from this one. E. C. B. 1. K. 7 : 27-40. Besides the great "molten sea" (verses 23-26), there were ten bases, or stands, of brass, on which were put ten lavers, to be filled with water for the service of the temple, because there would not be room at the molten sea for all that had occasion to wash there. The bases on which the lavers were fixed are very largely described here. They were curiously adorned, and set upon wheels, that the lavers might be removed as there was occasion; but, ordinarily, they stood in two rows, five on one side of the court and five on the other (verse 39). Each laver contained forty baths—that is, about ten barrels (verse 38). They must be very clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Spiritual priests and spiritual sacrifices must be washed in the laver of Christ's blood, and of regeneration. We must wash often, for we daily contract pollution; cleanse our hands, and purify our hearts. Plentiful provision is made for our cleansing; so that if we have our lot forever among the unclean, it will be our own fault. H. 48,49. The outer sanctuary, where the priests ministered daily, contained the altar of incense, ten golden candlesticks, and ten tables, all richly wrought and overlaid. Thus it will be seen that, in the size and the number of the sacred utensils, as well as in the dimensions of the building and its parts, the Temple greatly surpassed the Tabernacle. B. 49. The number of candlesticks was multiplied to ten in Solomon's temple; and they seem to have remained at that number until carried away by the Babylonian conquerors (Jer. 52 : 19). E. C. B.—Whether all these lamps were fully lit up on great occasions is now unknown. But seventy lights in all—for there were seven bowls for olive oil in each lamp—would have filled the golden house with unmatched brilliance. Sime. 2. Chron. 4 : 9. Besides the table of shewbread, which was the only table in the tabernacle, there were here ten golden tables, besides others of silver, on which were laid out above a hundred golden vases of various patterns, with the different utensils—the censers, spoons, snuffers, etc.—all of gold, used in the service of the temple. Kit. 1. K. 6 : 38. So was he seven years in building it. As Bul was the eighth month, and Zif the second, the house was precisely seven and a half years in building—a short period, if we consider the magnitude of the undertaking, but long enough, if we remember the enormous number of hands employed upon it, the preparations made by David, and the modest dimensions of the edifice. Hammond. The temple itself was rather a monument of the wealth than the architectural skill and science of the people. It was a wonder of the world, from the splendor of its materials more than the grace, boldness, or majesty of its height and dimensions. It had neither the colossal magnitude of the Egyptian, the simple dignity and perfect proportional harmony of the Grecian, nor perhaps the fantastic grace and lightness of modern Oriental architecture. If the dimensions of the temple appear by no means imposing, it must be remembered that but a small part of the religious ceremonies took place within the walls. The Holy of Holies was entered only once a year, and that by the High-Priest alone. It was the secret and unapproachable shrine of the Divinity. The Holy Place, the body of the temple, admitted only the officiating priests. The open courts, called in popular language the temple, or rather the inner quadrangle, was in fact the great place of Divine worship. Here, under the open air, were celebrated the great public and national rites, the processions, the offerings, the sacrifices; here stood the great tank for ablution, and the high altar for burnt-offerings. But the costliness of the materials, the richness and variety of the details, amply compensated for the moderate dimensions of the building. It was such a sacred edifice as a traveller might have expected to find in El Dorado. The walls were of hewn stone, faced within with cedar which was richly carved with knops and flowers; the ceiling was of fir-tree. But in every part gold was lavished with the utmost profusion; within and without, the floor, the walls, the ceiling, in short, the whole house is described as overlaid with gold. The finest and purest—that of Parvaim, by some supposed to be Ceylon—was reserved for the sanctuary. Here the cherubim, which stood upon the covering of the ark, with their wings touching each wall, were entirely covered with gold. The sumptuous veil, of the richest materials and brightest colors, which divided the Holy of Holies from the holy place, was suspended on chains of gold. Cherubim, palm trees and flowers, the favorite ornaments, everywhere, covered with gilding, were wrought in almost all parts. The altar within the temple, and the table of shewbread, were likewise covered with the same precious metal. All the vessels, the ten candlesticks, five hundred basins, and all the rest of the sacrificial and other utensils, were of solid gold. M-lman. Everything connected with the building of this great temple was thus on a scale of exceeding magnificence. With unstinting hand, labor was bestowed on the costliest stones, the rarest woods, the most curious designs, the most precious oils and spices, the boldest engineering. From far and near came tribute and trade profits to be lavished on the lordly building. Of one thing, however, not a word is said. Egypt and Babylon and Northern Syria had seen grand public buildings for religious or royal use before Solomon's reign. But the builders did not scruple to inscribe on them long stories of their costly outlay, their piety, and their hopes. Or they erected pillars, on which were engraved boastful accounts of their greatness in peace and in war. Even on the great mosque built on the temple hill, and on that at Hebron, which is supposed to cover the Cave of Machpelah, inscriptions are found in abundance. But nothing of this boastfulness was allowed in the temple of Jerusalem. There were carvings of animals and flowers on the wood; there was no writing on the great, smooth stones. The silence of the historian on this head is most expressive. What the kings of other lands did in writing their names and greatness on the temples which they built, Solomon seems never to have thought of. He and his people were a book-writing, not a stone-writing people. "Memorial stones" appear at the beginning of Israel's history as a nation, engraven with the names of the tribes. But the great stones of the temple were not memorial stones, and bore no inscription. A place so holy allowed no praise of man to be written on its walls, and no carvings of priests, or symbols, or ceremonies, such as the temple faces of other nations show to illustrate their faith, even when their books are silent. Sime. THE GREAT ASSEMBLY CONVOKED. THE ARK BROUGHT FROM DAVID'S TENT. SACRIFICES OFFERED. THE ARK PLACED IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES. CONSECRATION OF THE TEMPLE BY THE GLORY CLOUD. ITS DEDICATION BY SOLOMON. HIS ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE. 1. K. 8 : 1** THEN Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers' houses of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion. And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. And they brought up the ark of the LORD, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent; even these did the priests and the Levites bring up. And king Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, that were assembled unto him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be told nor numbered for multitude. And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and the staves thereof above. And the staves were so long that the ends of the staves were seen from the holy place before the oracle; but they were not seen without: and there they are, unto this day. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. 2. Chron. 5 : 11** And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place (for all the priests that were present had sanctified themselves, and did not keep their courses; also the Levites which were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brethren, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with 13 trumpets) : it came even to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD ; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good ; for his mercy endureth for ever : that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud : for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God. 2. Chron. 6 : 1 Then spake Solomon, The LORD hath said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. But I have built thee an house of habitation, and a place for thee to dwell in forever. And the king turned his face, and blessed all the congregation of Israel : and all the congregation of Israel stood. And he said, Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hands fulfilled it, saying, Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there ; neither chose I any man to be prince over my people Israel : but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there ; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel. Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. But the LORD said unto David my father, Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart : nevertheless thou shalt not build the house ; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name. And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake ; for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. And there have I set the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. Eleven months after its completion, the formal dedication of the Temple took place. The delay gave time for thought and impression concerning its purpose, and so aided the fitting preparation for an occasion so intensely solemn, instructive, and joyful. According to Usher, this was the ninth Jubilee, or period of fifty years, opening the fourth thousand of the years since man's creation, or A.M. 3001. The festival of Dedication continued seven days, and occurred in late October, just before the feast of tabernacles. The elders, heads of tribes, and chiefs of families, were specially summoned by Solomon to take part with him, as representatives of the people. And an immense multitude of the congregation of Israel also joined in the service. The transaction is preceded and closed by the offering of sacrifices. This transaction (as recorded in the eighth chapter of 1 Kings) falls into three acts. The solemn removal of the ark and the other furniture of the old sanctuary into the newly-built temple forms the first act (verses 1-21). The noble prayer of Solomon, that the Lord would connect with the temple the fulfilment of all the promises made to his people, and thereby make it the true place of the revelation of his covenant grace and truth, forms the second (verses 22-61). The act of offering makes the third, which is described in verses 62-66. The first of these three acts [included in the present section] contains two elements : the transfer of the ark into the holy of holies, and of the old sanctuary and its furniture into the new temple ; and the words in which Solomon celebrated the entrance of the Lord into the new temple. Keil. A profound religious interest gathers about the scenes of the dedication of this temple. Both our authors (i.e., of Kings and of Chronicles) give the details of this service, and with little variation and in very considerable fulness, narrating the sacrifices that preceded and that followed ; the introductory address of Solomon to the assembled people (1 K. 8 : 12-21), and then the consecrating prayer (verses 22-53), and the closing benediction upon the people (verses 54-61). The service must have been in the highest degree impressive and sublime. Every word seems to be perfect in adaptation to the great purpose and the grand occasion. H. C. The temple and its courts being completed, the solemn dedication took place, with the greatest magnificence which the king and the nation could display. All the chieftains of the different tribes, and all of every order who could be brought together, assembled. David had already organized the priesthood and the Levites ; assigned to the 38,000 of the latter tribe, each his particular office. Twenty-four thousand were appointed for the common duties, 6000 as officers, 4000 as guards and porters, 4000 as singers and musicians. On this great occasion, the dedication of the temple, all the tribe of Levi, without regard to their courses, the whole priestly order of every class, attended. Around the great brazen altar, which rose in the court of the priests before the door of the temple, stood-in front the sacrificers, all around the whole choir, arrayed in white linen. One hundred and twenty of these were trumpeters, the rest had cymbals, harps, and psalteries. Solomon himself took his place on an elevated scaffold, or raised throne of brass. The whole assembled nation crowded the spacious courts beyond. The ceremony began with the preparation of burnt-offerings, so numerous that they could not be counted. At an appointed signal commenced the more important part of the scene, the removal of the ark, the installation of the God of Israel in his new and appropriate dwelling, to the sound of all the voices and all the instruments, chanting some of those splendid odes, the 47th, 97th, 98th, and 107th Psalms. The ark advanced, borne by the Levites, to the open portals of the temple. It can scarcely be doubted that the 24th Psalm, even if composed before, was adopted and used on this occasion. Milman. The temple courts could not have contained a tithe of the crowds who claimed admittance. Then, as in previous ages, representatives of the people stood for the whole nation. But the higher slopes of Olivet, only five or eight hundred yards off, furnished room for many myriads to see and almost to hear the grand proceedings as distinctly as the spectators in the courts. The whole congregation, crowning the hill-top in dense masses, looked down on king, priests, nobles, and Levites. Moriah thus became a stage, and Olivet a most magnificent amphitheatre for one of the grandest displays known in the history of mankind. Sime. The dedication of Solomon's Temple was the grandest ceremony ever performed under the Mosaic dispensation; for the giving of the law from Sinai was too solemn to be called a ceremony. Solomon appeared in that priestly character, which we have seen borne by his father, to perform this great act on behalf of the people, leaving to the priests and Levites the care of the ark and the details of the service, especially the psalmody. The time chosen was the most joyous festival of the Jews, the Feast of Tabernacles, in the seventh month (Tisri or Ethanim = September and October) of the sacred year. Having done the labors of the field, and gathered in the vintage, the people assembled at Jerusalem from all parts of Solomon's wide territories. The full body of the priests attended, the usual courses being suspended, and they brought the ark in a grand and joyous procession from the city of David to the rest prepared for it in the Holy of Holies. There they placed it beneath the spreading wings of the cherubim, and drew out the ends of the staves, that they might be seen as in the Tabernacle, behind the veil. Amid all the new splendors of its dwelling, the ark of the covenant was the same as of old; it contained nothing but the two tables of the law, which Moses had placed in it at Sinai. As the priests retired from within the veil, the Levites and their sons, arranged in their three courses of psalmody, with all instruments of music, and clad in white linen robes, burst forth with the sacred chorus praising Jehovah, "For He is good; for His mercy endureth forever." It was at this very moment, "just as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Jehovah," that He gave the sign of His coming to take possession of His house: "The house was filled with a cloud, even the house of Jehovah, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah." As that sacred cloud spread through the open doors over the sanctuary, the voice of Solomon was heard recognizing the presence of the God who had said that he would dwell in the thick darkness, and for whom he had now built a habitation forever. Then turning to the people from the great platform of brass, which he had erected in the midst of the court, in front of the brazen altar, the king blessed Jehovah the God of Israel, who had chosen Jerusalem as the place sacred to His name, and had performed His promises to David and fulfilled his desire to build him a house. P. S. I K. 8: 1-9. The transfer of the ark into its place in the Holy of Holies. They brought the ark from David's tent on Mount Zion. It is also added, that the priests and Levites brought up the old Tabernacle, with its holy vessels, from Gibeon. Before removing the ark, an immense sacrifice was offered before it in behalf of king and people. Then in solemn and glad procession, led by the king and followed by princes and people, the sacred symbol was reverently borne by the priests to the Temple. Entering the sacred courts, the king took his position upon an elevated brazen scaffold in the midst of the throng, while the priests bore the ark into the most holy place, and deposited it beneath the inner wings of the cherubim, in "the place of its rest." Then, as a sign that it was no more to go out, they drew forth the staves or handles on which they had borne it to and fro; leaving the ends protruding through the veil, in token that its long wanderings was over. The sacred furniture of the Holy Place, including the incense-altar, the tables, the candlesticks, and censers, were also set in their appointed position. B. The temple, though richly beautified, while without the ark was like a body without a soul, or a candlestick without a candle, or (to speak more properly) a house without an inhabitant. All the cost and pains bestowed on this stately structure are lost, if God do not accept them; and unless he please to own it as the place where he will record his name, it is, after all, but a ruinous heap; when therefore all the work is ended, the one thing needful is yet behind, and that is, the bringing in of the ark. This is the end which must crown the work, and which here we have an account of the doing of with great solemnity. Solomon presides in this service, as David did in the bringing up of the ark to Jerusalem. H. All the meaning and impressiveness of the dedication centred in the removal of the ark. "The elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, assembled unto King Solomon in Jerusalem," not to gaze upon and admire or even worship in the superb structure that he had reared, but "that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion." Before this ark on its sacred passage to its new abode "King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel that were assembled unto him were sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be told nor numbered for multitude" (verse 5). This ark, the symbol and pledge of the Divine presence, contained "the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt" (verse 9). And when this ark had been set in its proper place, "the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord" (verses 10, 11), as it had previously filled the tabernacle of Moses on its erection. No new ark was made to take the place of the old. This was impossible. Another chest might have been made of the same pattern and dimensions, and it could have been similarly overlaid with gold. Like figures of golden cherubim could have been set above it. It might have been exactly reproduced in material and form; but this newly-framed model would not have been the ark. It not only would have lacked the antiquity, the Mosaic origin, the venerated associations, but it would have been ababsolutely divested of that which gave the Ark its real significance and value, the identical tables of the law engraved by God's own finger, and the ineffable presence of God himself which ever attended it. Hence, while Solomon built his temple after an enlarged pattern of the tabernacle, reproducing its sacred apartments and furniture on a grander scale, with new altars and lavers and candlesticks and table of shewbread and figures of cherubim, the Ark remained the same. There was but this one ark, absolutely unique, throughout the whole of Israel's history from the time of their encampment at Sinai until its final destruction in the overthrow of Jerusalem and the temple by Nebuchadnezzar. Without this Ark, there could, in the strict Mosaic sense of the term, be no sanctuary, no house of God, where he actually dwelt in the midst of his people, and met with them. The unity of the Ark necessarily carried with it the unity of the sanctuary. It was with this one hallowed article alone that the presence of Jehovah was indissolubly bound. All the allegations that there were numerous sanctuaries in Israel which were held to be equally legitimate until the reign of King Josiah, under whom the law of a single central sanctuary was for the first time enacted and enforced, are proved to be futile by this one undeniable fact. There was but the one material symbol with which Jehovah's presence was believed to be constantly associated by his own appointment. This was the Ark. No spot and no building but that which contained the Ark was reckoned the dwelling-place of God. He might on extraordinary occasions manifest himself elsewhere. In the absence of a legitimate sanctuary, he might be invoked and worshipped elsewhere. But the existence of one, and only one, house of God, is a necessary corollary from the existence of but one ark of God; and if the Ark was Mosaic, which cannot be intelligently disputed, so must the law of the unity of the sanctuary be. This law may have been temporarily in abeyance, and it may have been sinfully disregarded, but the antiquity of the law and its Mosaic origin is by this single fact triumphantly established. W. H. G. I K. 8: 4. The tabernacle of Moses, for a long time at Gibeon, was now taken down, that the temple might be made from henceforth the centre of worship, as "the place" that God had chosen. B.—The Tabernacle of the wilderness hereafter disappears from history; the new Temple became the centre of the religious life of the nation. Jehovah by oracles declared that this was His rest, and that the seed of David would be established on the throne, though the promise was conditioned on their obedience. Thus upward of four hundred years after his death the prediction of Moses was fulfilled. It was the consequence of the essential work that had been accomplished, the establishment of the nation in Canaan. It was an expression of the union of Israel, of its worship of Jehovah. Robson. 9. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone.** Nothing else was ever in the ark, the articles mentioned (Heb. 9 : 4) being not in, but by it, being laid in the most holy place before the testimony (Ex. 16 : 33 ; Nu. 17 : 10). Jamieson. —These venerable fragments of the rock of Sinai, seen then, were seen, as far as we know, for the last time. They must have perished, or at least disappeared, when the Ark itself perished or disappeared in the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. But their contents have survived the wreck, not only of the Ark and Temple, but of the whole system of worship, of which they were the basis. The Ten Commandments delivered on Mount Sinai have become embedded in the heart of the religion which has succeeded. Stanley. If anything whatever is certainly known of the Mosaic age, it is indubitably established that the Mosaic Ark contained tables of stone on which were engraved the Ten Commandments. These were treasured in the most sacred apartment of the Sanctuary. They formed the basis of the covenant between Jehovah and Israel. They were the fundamental law of the commonwealth of Israel, by which all further enactments were regulated, and to which they were supplementary. They were believed to have emanated directly and even verbally from Jehovah Himself, and to have been by Him recorded in stone to indicate their perpetual, binding force. This sacred Ark, with its precious contents, was safely guarded until the time of Solomon, when it was transferred to the Temple. It is still spoken of in the time of Jeremiah (3 : 16), and the covenant on stone, which it contained, was only to be superseded by the law written on the heart (31 : 32, 33). Under these circumstances it is impossible that these commandments should not have been carefully and accurately preserved and transmitted. W. H. G. Now all had been done that king and priests could do. Complete and beautiful stood the Temple. Complete and beautiful in its place within the veil rested the ark with the two stone tables of the Law within, and the outspread wings of the cherubim above. But while the Temple and oracle awaited its Inhabitant, king and priest and people lifted up their voice, in unison with many instruments of music, and joined in praising and thanking the Lord. Then in sight of all occurred 2. Chron. 5 : 11-14.** The solemn consecration or taking possession of His House by Jehovah. Even as they sung : For He is good ; for His mercy endureth forever ! "Then the house was filled with a cloud," "for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord." The whole congregation saw the cloud descend and enter the Temple. And the ministering priests within saw it rest above the mercy-seat covering the ark and ascend between the cherubim. There it brightened into a shining light of such concentrated glow and lustre that they were constrained to retire from the holy place. This was the symbol of God's manifest personal presence. By this presence the Temple now, as the Tabernacle before, was consecrated. Not only from the time of Israel's wanderings, when the same symbol appeared above as well as within the Tabernacle, and was extended over the journeying and camping host as a pillar of cloud and fire, but throughout the Old Testament this lighted cloud appears as the visible token of the Divine presence. And John tells us (12 : 41) that Isaiah (6) directly associates this symbol as seen in the Temple with Christ, thus distinctly affirming that He is the Jehovah of Adam, of Abraham, of Moses, and of Israel. In harmony with this are the transcendent spectacles of the Transfiguration and the Ascension, in which this ancient symbol reappears. And in further confirmation of the whole this is the symbol, with the same beholding adoring cherubim or living creatures, wherewith the apocalyptic vision discloses the "Son of Man," the "Lamb that was slain," as the centre and source of all glory, dominion, and blessedness in heaven. This, then, is the meaning of the cloud-en-folding glory which rested between the cherubim in the first Temple. It was God, Jehovah Jesus, enthroned in light upon the mercy-seat beneath which was the Law, together testifying of grace and of judgment, God dwelling among His people ! Other purposes were here fulfilled : to put fresh honor upon the long-forsaken and oft-exposed ark, to reincarnate just reverence for the law it enshrined, and awaken new trust and joy in its inviting mercy-seat ; and to signify His acceptance of their work and House. But the chief purpose, let it be emphasized, was to intimate His fixed abiding presence thenceforth —His ever-active protection, guidance, and care over His people; that so the nation and its individual members might be effectually recalled and re-bound to Himself and His service. B. 13. When the singers and musicians praised God, then the house was filled with a cloud. This is very observable; it was not when they offered sacrifices, but when they sang the praises of God, that God gave them this token of favor. It was when they were, in their praises, celebrating the everlasting mercy and goodness of God. As there is no one saying oftener repeated in Scripture than this, His mercy endureth forever (twenty-six times in one psalm, Ps. 136, and oftener elsewhere), so there is none more signally owned from heaven; for it was when the priests were singing this plain song, He is good, and his mercy endureth forever. This should endear those words to us. God's goodness is his glory, and he is pleased when we give him the glory of it. H.—The praise of God is the choicest sacrifice and worship under a dispensation of redeeming grace: it is the prime and eternal part of worship under the Gospel. Charnock. It is not poetry simply, it is the plain sober truth, that a whole assembly praising God is "like a little heaven below." A congregation of human hearts, agreeing together to sing forth their living human affections to the One object of their love, is always "the house of God and the gate of heaven." Such a congregation powerfully attracts heaven to itself, as like to like. With a Diviner love, and greater unity in the Church, it might easily occur again that the joy would be too great, the glory too great, and the God of glory too fully present, for the ordinary service. Even as a flood carries away all signposts and barriers before it, and sweeps over all distinction of path and hedge, so would an unusual descent of the joy of God into His Church set at naught and suspend the mechanical order of the service, and bear away priest and people on the tide of one resistless impulse to praise and glorify God. Or the Presence might be too overwhelming, utterance might be choked, and priest and people might have to wait in awe and silence for the passing over, or the withdrawnment of the tide of glory. So it happened in the Hebrew Temple. "It came to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with their trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying—For He is good, for His mercy endureth forever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God." Make the Church full of praise, and it will also be full of God. God and His praise cannot be apart. "O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel!" Pulsford. Then the house was filled with a cloud. The Lord's acceptance of Solomon's temple, and of the dedication which he was now about to make of it, was shown, first, by "the glory of the Lord" filling the house, or inner temple, as here related; and, second, by the fire of the Lord coming down from heaven, as soon as Solomon had ended his prayer of dedication, and consuming the sacrifices. Hales.—Solomon, and the elders of Israel, had done what they could to grace the solemnity of the introduction of the ark; but God, by testifying his acceptance of what they did, put the greatest honor upon it. The cloud of glory that filled the house beautified it more than all the gold with which it was overlaid, or the precious stones with which it was garnished; and yet that was no glory, in comparison with the glory of the Gospel dispensation (2 Cor. 3: 8-10). H. The solemnities of the service, the procession of the sacred ark from the city of David into its resting-place, the robed priests, the rapturous multitude, the unnumbered sacrifices, the music and the songs, must have formed altogether a marvellous spectacle. But of all the incidents of the day none could be compared with that of the sudden appearance of the Shekinah—the glory-cloud. This introduced a new supernatural element. The rest was human—man's handiwork, man's worship, man's glory; this was Divine—the miraculous sign of the present and approving God. The appearance of the cloud set the seal of Divine acceptance on the temple and its service, linking it with all the glorious associations of the past—the climax and crown of a long series of miraculous Divine manifestations. Waite. 14. The priests could not stand to minister, by reason of the cloud, which, as it was an evidence that the law made men priests that had infirmity, so as (Bishop Patrick observes) it was a plain intimation that the Levitical priesthood should cease, and stand no longer to minister, when the Messiah should come, in whom the fulness of the Godhead should dwell bodily. In him the glory of God dwelt among us, but covered with a cloud. The Word was made flesh; and when he comes to his temple, like a refiner's fire, who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? (Mal. 3: 1, 2). H. 2. Chron. 6: 1.** Solomon's brief words of Dedication. The real consecration of the Temple has taken place. And now the king, turning toward the Most Holy Place, filled with the Sacred Presence, spake these words of dedication, brief as became the solemnity: "Jehovah hath said: to dwell in darkness—Building, I have built an house of habitation to Thee, and a settling-place for Thy dwelling ever!" In this reference to what Jehovah had said, it would not be any single utterance which presented itself to Solomon's mind. Rather would he think of them in their connection and totality—as it were, a golden chain of precious promises welded one to the other, of which the last link seemed riveted to the solemnity then enacting. Such sayings as Ex. 19: 9; 20: 21; Lev. 16: 2; De. 4: 11; 5: 22 would crowd upon his memory, and seem fully realized as he beheld the Cloudy Presence in the Holy House. A. E. God only can consecrate, but man may dedicate to God. One with the vast congregation, Solomon had worshipped and waited. And now he first recognizes God's entrance in the thick darkness of the cloud, and gratefully surrenders to Him the House he had prepared. Then turning his face to the people crowding the Great Outer Court, as a royal prophet, he blessed the host, and recited various occasions of special thankfulness to God which had grown out of the history of this building. The particulars of this address were designed to put the living and acting generation in fresh remembrance of events and truths connected with this juncture of the nation's history, when the Divine mercies, already culminated in number and richness, were crowned and hallowed by the return and abiding with them of God Himself. B.—If Solomon had built this temple in the pride of his heart, as Ahasuerus made his feast, only to show the riches of his kingdom, and the honor of his majesty, it would not have turned at all to his account. But he here declares upon what inducements he undertook it, and they are such as not only justify, but magnify, the undertaking. He did it for the glory and honor of God; this was his highest and ultimate end in it. It was for the name of the Lord God of Israel, to be a house of habitation for him. He has indeed, as to us, made darkness his pavilion, but let this house be the residence of that darkness; for it is in the upper world that he dwells in light, such as no eye can approach. And he did it in compliance with the choice God had been pleased to make of Jerusalem, to be the city in which he would record his name (verse 6); I have chosen Jerusalem. H. 2. Chron. 6:** 12 AND he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands: (for Solomon had made a brazen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven;) and he said, O LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in the heaven, or in the earth; who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants, that walk before thee with all their heart: who hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou didst promise him: yea, thou spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day. Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; if only thy children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as thou hast walked before me. Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, let thy word be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David. But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built! Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee: that thine eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there ; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall pray toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place : yea, hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven ; and when thou hearest, forgive. If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and he come and swear before thine altar in this house : then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, requiting the wicked, to bring his way upon his own head ; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. And if thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee ; and shall turn again and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house : then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers. When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee ; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them : then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk ; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting or mildew, locust or caterpillar ; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities ; whatsoever plague or whatsoever sickness there be ; what prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart and his own sorrow, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house : then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according to all his ways, whose heart thou knowest ; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of the children of men ;) that they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. Moreover concerning the stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, when he shall come from a far country for thy great name's sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm ; when they shall come and pray toward this house : then hear thou from heaven, even from thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for ; that all the peoples of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name. If thy people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatsoever way thou shalt send them, and they pray unto thee toward this city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name : then hear thou from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive unto a land far off or near ; yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly ; 1. K. 8 : 48** If they return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, which carried them captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name : then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause ; and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee ; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them : for they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron : that thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them whensoever they cry unto thee. For thou didst separate them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God. 2. Chron. 6 : 40** Now, O my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent, unto the prayer that is made in this place. Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength : let thy priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. O LORD God, turn not away the face of thine anointed : remember the mercies of David thy servant. God would have a permanent House for various reasons. He would show that He was abiding in the midst of His people. He would give them an always visible reminder of what He had been to them, and a palpable pledge of what He had promised them. And he would impress the duty of worship while tangibly instructing them, through symbols and ceremonials, in the methods and meaning of worship. So, to assure them that the newly-constructed Temple was His Home, and to excite their fitting reverence, He had consecrated it by the visible descent of His glory, symbolized in a cloud-enfolding flame. All these considerations are expressed or implied in Solomon's prayer of Dedication. B. The prayer was of unexampled sublimity: while it implored the perpetual presence of the Almighty, as the tutelar deity and sovereign of the Israelites, it recognized his spiritual and illimitable nature. "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built." It then recapitulated the principles of the Hebrew theocracy, the dependence of the natural prosperity and happiness on the national conformity to the civil and religious law. Milman. The text to this prayer is the law, especially the blessing and curse pronounced upon the people by Moses (Lev. 26 and De. 28.) Setting out from the blessing here promised, Solomon praises the Lord for its past fulfilment, after which follows the prayer for the averting of the curses alluded to. By the bestowment of the promised blessing the Lord had hitherto proved himself the only and true God in heaven and on earth, who keeps covenant and mercy with his servants who walk before him with all the heart. With this acknowledgment of God begins the prayer, for from this arises the right confidence for the petition, which is certain of being heard. Keil. At no other point of Solomon's recorded career save this, and in no other connection than this prayer, have we any clear manifestation of a genuine piety. While everywhere we trace indications of superior intellect, only here do we see evidence of heart. The prayer, as a whole, evinces greatness of conception and depth of feeling. A matchless, merciful, covenant-keeping God, who has fulfilled and will fulfil every promise; a God of infinite universal supremacy, who yet condescends to dwell manifestly among men; and one who is willing to meet every need in response to the call of a people or of every suppliant; these ideas, which comprise the spirit and substance of this prayer, show an equal grandeur of conception and justness of feeling respecting the revealed character of God and His relations to the nation and the race. Further, this prayer, in its form and particulars, is emphatically a nation's prayer. It recognizes God as the sovereign arbiter of a nation's experiences; the source alike of its prosperity and adversity. It traces the great forms of national loss and trouble—war, pestilence, famine (and, we may add, financial reverses)—to His interposition for good. And not only the prayer, but God's answering words (2 Chron. 7:14), clearly intimate the remedy for all national calamities. 2. Chron. 12:14. The attitude of Solomon and the invocation of his prayer. Upon a prepared brazen scaffold Solomon had stood while addressing the people. Now he "kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven." As a royal prophet, he had directed the offering of sacrifice, and probably himself officiated in the offering. Now, exercising the same office, and so far personating the greater Son of David, he intercedes for his people, only including his needs with theirs. The invocation of the prayer is peculiarly instructive and impressive. It is confined to two points, but these are all-comprehensive. Thou art the only God; and that which chiefly distinguishes thee as God, that which constitutes thy greatest glory, is this, that thou keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart. This is the one supreme truth of the whole Revelation, Old Testament and New. It is the one fact of every age and dispensation, upon which hangs the hope of man. God infinite, perfect, supreme, in wisdom, might, in holiness, truth, and grace; and God devising and executing a plan of mercy, whereby He might offer and carry out a covenant of eternal redemption in behalf of every one whose accepting, trusting, penitent heart responds with obedience. This is the reach and meaning of this grandly simple invocation. Had Solomon only acted upon it in his later life, as David did, his history had been without sadness and his end had been bright. B. 14. None like Him in heaven or in earth. All the creatures have their fellow-creatures, but the Creator has not his peer. He is infinitely above all, and over all, God blessed forever. He is and will be true to every word that he has spoken; and all that serve him in sincerity shall certainly find him both faithful and kind. Those that set God always before them and walk before him with all their hearts, shall find him as good as his word, and better; he will both keep covenant with them, and show mercy to them. H. 15-17. His acknowledgment of God's fulfilled promise to David, and prayer for its further fulfilment to himself. That which should go before request—viz., thankful acknowledgment for previous mercies, here precedes, and so is made the basis of the prayer. Precisely this is the New Testament rule, found in that golden "command with promise" (Philippians 4 : 6, 7). Here, then, we gather from the method of Solomon's request for himself another instructive and impressive truth. A further practical point worthy of note is the condition connected with God's promise, as cited by Solomon (verse 16). Assuredly Solomon knew that his "taking heed to his way" and walking with a true obedient heart before God, was essential to the continued favor of God. And these his words, elsewhere repeated, teach us plainly the same changeless truth respecting ourselves; while his subsequent disobediences and idolatries strongly emphasize the truth, and warn us of our weakness and peril, and need of the grace of Jehovah Jesus. B. The great burden of Solomon's impressive prayer is the faithfulness of God, as verified by the fulfilment of His promises to David his father, and on which he pleads for a like fulfilment of the promises made to himself, or rather made to David—but respecting himself. The promise does not supersede, but rather supplies ground for prayer on which the suppliant might rest, and which he might plead with God—and which if he do in faith, he will never miss the object because of any want of faithfulness in God. T. C. 17. O God of Israel, let thy word be verified. God's promises (as we have often observed) must be both the guide of our desires and the ground of our hopes and expectations in prayer. David had prayed (2 S. 7 : 25), Lord, do as thou hast said. The experiences we have of God's performing his promises should encourage us to depend upon them and plead them with God; and those who expect further mercies must be thankful for former mercies. H. 18-21. His prayer for the nation in its various needs. Thus far the prayer has been personal, and its suggested truths have applied to individuals. In the remaining verses he pleads in behalf of the nation. This general entreaty is prefaced with one of the sublimest human utterances of the Bible (verse 18). It is a conception of contrast between the illimitable universe overfilled with the presence of God and this limited fragmentary sphere which is too narrow and inconsiderable to be worthy of His personal manifestation upon it, and yet to himself and to us, this expression conveys no definite thought save this: God's infinite condescension in His personal manifestation to men. The immediate reference of Solomon's question was to the symbol, merely, of God's presence; but the reach of his thought, and the truth it brings home to us, is the blessed reality of that Divine presence in the person of Jesus Christ, "the man who is Jehovah's fellow," himself the Jehovah of the cloudy, shining symbol. Although in form a question, this is an expression of Solomon's faith that God will come, and will abide in this prepared sanctuary. For immediately follows the prayer which necessarily implies this faith, that God would hearken to him and to the supplication of Israel, when they should pray toward this place. He then proceeds to state the specific needs and calamities of the future, asking that those who should pray in the Temple or toward it (as expressive of dependence on its appointed ministries), might be supplied and relieved. Fifty and significantly pardon for the past was represented by the sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood. Fifty and beautifully grace for the future was exhibited in the incense-altar, the candlesticks and the tables of shewbread; intimating the threefold functions of the mediating Redeemer, who is the way, as the all-prevalent Intercessor, the truth, and the life. So understand we the spirit of this prayer, as the meaning of the Temple ministries is disclosed to us by Christ and in the Epistle to the Hebrews. B. 18. The first public recognition of Prayer as distinct from sacrifice—of the spiritual as distinct from the ceremonial mode of approaching God—is the Prayer of Solomon at the Dedication of the Temple. And further, in this moment of the extremest triumph of ritual and material worship, was uttered one of the most spiritual truths that the Old Testament contains. "Behold the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded." Stanley.—We have here a striking description of the immensity and omnipresence of God. We have frequent expressions in Scripture of God being "in heaven;" the meaning of which is, not that he who is in all places can be confined to any, or that any proper habitation can be ascribed to him, whom, as Solomon declares, the "heaven of heavens cannot contain;" but they are intended to represent his amazing height and dignity, not in place, but in power. Another reason of the expression of God's being "in heaven," is to signify that, though of his real, actual presence there is no confinement, yet of his glory and majesty there is in the heavens a particular manifestation. There it is that his glory is declared, and there the righteous shall see his face, and be blessed with the peculiar manifestation of his power and majesty. In like manner here upon earth; in those places where he has been pleased more particularly to manifest his glory, to place his name, and to receive the homage of his servants, there God, in Scripture phrase, is said to be. Thus in the temple at Jerusalem, he, whom the "heaven of heavens cannot contain," did at this time deign to dwell, having appointed there to receive his tribute of worship. Dr. S. Clarke. In the whole history of revelation we have answers to this question, "Will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" The Incarnation of Christ, His coming to be with men, was the greatest answer. He came to dwell upon our earth, to be a man among men. He should be called Emmanuel, it was said, which is, being interpreted, "God with us," God about us, God around us. And how beautifully was God revealed in Christ! He came with all the attributes of Divinity, came with all the powers of the Godhead, and yet identified Himself so with man as to be beside the lowliest, to throw no awe over the poorest! He came to identify himself with humanity in all its forms of weakness and sorrow, that He might take humanity and raise it up with Him to the very throne of God. He came to be with us, to be of us. He passed through all forms of suffering,—reproach, agony, torture, death,—that He might show us that He had sympathy with man in all his conditions. It is with us as individuals He comes, God with us, God with you, with me, in our homes, in our families, by morning, noon, and night. God in very deed comes and dwells with men on earth, just as Christ dwelt, and Christ loved, and Christ sympathized. He reveals to us the Father. The heart of God is seen in the heart of Christ; the affection of the great Father is manifested in the love of Christ. But, again, an answer was given, not only on the manifestation of Christ, but on that great day of Pentecost, in the gift of the Holy Spirit. By Him God comes to dwell with men forever, and His dwelling place is your heart and mine. M. Simpson. 22,23. Here the special or particular supplications begin. Like those of the Lord's prayer, they are seven in number. And the first of the seven concerns oaths. The king implores the covenant-keeping God to watch over the covenants of words made in the now consecrated sanctuary, and to protect their sanctity by punishing the false swearer. There were cases in which the Mosaic law provided that an oath should be administered to suspected persons (Ex. 22:11; Lev. 5:1, 4). And there were other cases in which men of their own accord, for "an end of all strife," would make oath. God is here entreated to take cognizance of the oaths sworn before His altar (verse 31), and to be a swift witness against the false swearers (Mal. 3:5). 24,25. The second special petition contemplates the case, which was morally certain to occur, of Hebrews taken captive in war and carried to a foreign land. To be separated from the commonwealth, the rites and the blessings of Israel, was one of the greatest calamities which could befall a Jew (De. 4:27, 28; Lev. 26:33; Ps. 137), and as such Solomon gives it a prominent place in his prayer. 26,27. The third petition concerns the plague of drought. Just as rain, in the thirsty and sunburnt East, has ever been accounted one of the best gifts of God, so was drought denounced as one of His severest scourges (Lev. 26:19; De. 11:17). This petition finds an illustration in the public supplications which are still offered in the East, and by men of all creeds, for rain. Reference is made to the withholding of rain; in verse 28 to "famine, pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, and caterpillar." Such troubles were sent in vain to bring the Egyptians to repentance. In the long run the violation of God's laws do bring disasters of the very kind specified here. If the law of industry be violated, the harvests fail; if the law of mutual dependence be ignored by nations, commerce is crippled, and impoverishment comes; if the laws against self-indulgence, pride, ambition, be defied the spendthrift has the result in poverty, the proud nation in the miseries of war. Even the disasters which are accounted "natural phenomena," then, should lead the wise-hearted to prayer, the sinful to penitence; and God will hear in heaven His dwelling-place, and answer and forgive. 28-31. The fourth petition refers to the various plagues mentioned in the law (Lev. 26; De. 28), as the punishment of apostasy or infidelity. Hammond. 29. There is here the recognition of something out of one's self as the ground of hope in circumstances of need. This essential element in true prayer is suggested by the words, "And shall stretch forth his hands toward this place." The temple was intended to be a witness to the unseen, a help to faith, an incentive to all holy thought and feeling. It stood through all the changes of time, the shifting lights and shadows of the world around it, as an impressive symbol of the "everlasting covenant." It enshrined the "sure mercies of David." Within its hallowed enclosure were gathered the sacred historic records and relics, and the types and shadows of "better things to come." It told both of what God had done and what He had promised—the monument of the glorious past, the prophecy of the brighter future. There was deep meaning, then, in the suppliant "stretching forth his hands toward that house," as expressive of the attitude of his soul toward that which it symbolized. When some lonely worshipper in a distant corner of the land, some patient sufferer, some soldier in his agony on the field of battle, some captive, like Daniel, in a strange country, directed his eyes toward the holy place, it was a sort of pathetic appeal to God's own faithfulness, a silent but eloquent plea that He would not forget His covenant, would fulfil the hopes that He Himself had awakened, and not for their sakes alone, but for His own truth and mercy's sake, would hear and save. In all this the temple was a type of something nobler, Diviner than itself. The cross of Christ, in which all the promises are confirmed and sealed; the cross, which is both the altar of the Redeemer's sacrifice and the throne of His sovereignty, is the shrine of "truth and grace" to men. It stands, the connecting link between heaven and earth, the meeting-place of God and man, the key to all human history, the basis of our immortal hope. Here, then, on this central object alike of Divine and human interest, must the eye of the suppliant be fixed. It is that pledge of Divine love and faithfulness, external to ourselves, embodied in the cross of Christ, that we must plead if we would find acceptance in our prayer. When God has thoroughly taught us what the "plague of our own heart" means, and has unveiled to us the blessed mystery of His mode of curing it, it will be the sustained habit of our life to stand as suppliants before Him "in the name of Jesus." Thus alone can we so link ourselves with the sanctities of a higher world as to make our common life Divine. Waite. 30. He, and he only, knows the hearts of the children of men. All men's thoughts, aims, and affections, are naked and open before him; and, however the imaginations and intents of our hearts may be concealed from men, angels, and devils, they cannot be hid from God, who knows not only what is in the heart, but the heart itself, and all the beatings of it. H. 32,33. The fifth petition contemplates the prayers which foreigners, attracted by the fame of Jerusalem, of its religion and sanctuary could offer toward the house. "It is quite in the spirit of the Mosaic law regarding strangers that Solomon, having first prayed God on behalf of his fellow-countrymen, should next go on to intercede for the strangers." The intercourse of the Hebrews at this period with foreign nations, and the influence they exercised on the Jewish thought and manners are also to be remembered. Hammond.—This prayer breathes a spirit of catholicity to foreigners which pure and original Judaism gets too little credit for. It seeks for an open door of privilege to all men, who are invited to look toward the temple, that all the people of the earth may recognize it as the house of God, and that they may know His name and fear Him. Besides prayer after defeat, there is also particularized here the case of prayer before battle. And, finally, there is the case of prayer on the event of captivity. Solomon entreats of God that He would have respect unto all such prayers, and pleads in argument the previous deliverances which had been wrought for Israel in virtue of their relationship to God. T. C. 34,35. So far the royal suppliant has spoken of prayers offered in or at the temple. He now mentions two cases where supplications will be offered by penitents far distant from the holy city or even from the Holy Land. And first, he speaks of the armies of Israel on a campaign. 36-39. The last petition—the second of those which speak of prayers addressed toward the temple, or the Holy Presence which dwelt there, from a foreign land—contemplates as possible the captivity of the Hebrew nation. It has hence been too readily inferred that this portion of the prayer, at least, if not the preceding petition also, has been interpolated by a post-captivity writer. But there is really no solid reason for doubting its genuineness. Not only is it inwoven in the body of the prayer, but the captivity of Israel had been denounced as the punishment of persistent disobedience long before by Moses, and in the chapters to which such constant reference is made (Lev. 26 : 33, 44 ; De. 28 : 25, 36, 64 ; cf. 4 : 27), a fact which is in itself an indirect proof of genuineness, as showing that this petition is of a piece with the rest of the prayer. And when to this we add that the carrying of a conquered and refractory race into captivity was an established custom of the East, we shall be inclined to agree with Bähr, that "it would have been more remarkable if Solomon had not mentioned it." Hammond. 36. It is the "plague of the heart," the burden of want or sadness in the secret soul, coupled with some kind of faith in Divine power, that moves men to pray. But this expression, "the plague of his own heart," has a deeper meaning. It opens to us all the dark, sad mystery of personal sinfulness, the moral disease that lurks within. There are times when the most careless, reckless spirit has glimpses of the unwelcome truth that this, after all, is the deepest cause of its disquietude. Waite.—Both Christ and His forerunner, when they began to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to the world, uttered one sharp, piercing call: "Repent!" They did not go into minute specifications of every shade of sin, for they knew that they had for a witness a conscience in every breast, each heart knowing its own plague. They knew that there is always one comprehensive iniquity lodged farther in and spreading wider than any particular offence,—the sin of separation from God. F. D. H. 1. K. 8 : 51-53. In the three following verses we have a sort of general conclusion to the dedication prayer. It is hardly correct to say that these last words apply to all the preceding petitions—the plea "they are thy people" manifestly cannot apply in the case of verses 41-43. On the other hand, as little are they to be limited to the persons last mentioned in verses 46-50, though it is highly probable they were suggested by the thought of the captives. They are manifestly in close connection with the preceding verses. Hammond. 2. Chron. 6 : 40-42. In a fervent and beautiful conclusion Solomon invokes the entrance of Jehovah with the ark of his strength; entreats that the priests may faithfully minister, and the people gratefully receive the salvation of God; and closes with the touching appeal, Turn not away the face of thine anointed, thy Messiah! Remember the mercies of David, thy covenant mercies promised in behalf of thy covenanting people! B.—We may plead, as Solomon does here, with an eye to Christ. We deserve that God should turn away his face, that he should reject us and our prayers; but we come in the name of the Lord Jesus, thine anointed, thy Messiah, so the word is; thy Christ, so the LXX. Him thou hearest always, and wilt never turn away his face. We have no righteousness of our own to plead, but, Lord, remember the mercies of David thy servant. Christ is God's Servant (Is. 42 : 1), and is called David (Hos 3 : 5). Lord, remember his mercies, and accept of us on account of them. Remember his tender concern for his Father's honor and man's salvation, and what he did and suffered from that principle. Remember the promises of the everlasting covenant which free grace has made to us in Christ, and which are called the sure mercies of David (Is. 55 : 3, and Acts 13 : 34). This must be all our desire, and all our hope, all our prayer, and all our plea, for it is all our salvation. H. From this prayer of Solomon we learn, that all events proceed from God; that war, pestilence, famine, and other judgments, are inflicted by his hand, when men provoke him by their sins; that to have recourse to God by prayer, confession of sins, and true repentance, is the way to remedy these evils; and that he is always ready to hear and to deliver those who call upon him in their necessities, and with all their hearts turn unto him. Ostervald. This outpouring of Solomon's heart embraces all the elements of true prayer. Adoration. God is recognized as the supreme God of the universe, who keeps covenant and shows mercy. Confession. The acknowledgment of unworthiness. Supplication and intercession. For himself, for those around him, for his people, for the stranger, Solomon pleads. He implores the blessings of preservation, of justice, of forgiveness, of the fruitful rain, of fertile fields, of health, of personal good, of victory in war, and restoration from captivity. Then he rises to the glorious heights of thanksgiving. God is merciful. He is good. His tender mercies are over all His works. He does hear prayer. He does bless. He does forgive. He does help. S. Fellows. # Additional Leading Truths and Lessons. 1. The character of the dedication indicates the main purpose of the temple, as also of the Christian Church, which has succeeded to its place and office. Not for its external richness or costliness, but for its internal use, this is the chief point of a true interest respecting it. Emphatically the church or house of God, it is essentially a house of prayer, of personal communion with God, of worship by praise, by confession, by supplication and intercession. The unfolding and impression by the Holy Ghost, of the covenanting word (to us in the Old and New Covenant) is God's part in the communion. This is His response of counsel and of promise to our worship, for counsel and promise include the substance of the read or spoken word of God. 2. In harmony with this, from first to last all true religion is a religion of promise. God's covenantal relation with us lies at the basis of all others. Before everything else we need to know, to believe and to realize, that He has made and offers to us a covenant of pardon and peace on the simple condition of our penitent confession and grateful, childlike trust. On His part only it is a covenant of meritorious work, of inestimable cost and sacrifice! 3. Further, if covenant and promise be the vital element in our religion, then the great and precious promises of God should be the theme of habitual, grateful thought, they should prompt to continuous prayer, and should be the guide of desire and the basis of our hope in prayer. And further still, the truth is taught that fulfilled promises, especially if they are answered prayers, should elicit special thanks for the fulfilment, and so quicken faith and enlarge our expectation in future pleading with God. "In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make known your requests unto God!" This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ 1. K. 8 : 1** THEN Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers' houses of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion. And all the men of Israel assembled themselves unto king Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. And all the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. And they brought up the ark of the LORD, and the tent of meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent; even these did the priests and the Levites bring up. And king Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, that were assembled unto him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen, that could not be told nor numbered for multitude. And the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD unto its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and the staves thereof above. And the staves were so long that the ends of the staves were seen from the holy place before the oracle; but they were not seen without: and there they are, unto this day. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. 2. Chron. 5 : 11** And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place (for all the priests that were present had sanctified themselves, and did not keep their courses; also the Levites which were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brethren, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with 13 trumpets) : it came even to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD ; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good ; for his mercy endureth for ever : that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud : for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God. 2. Chron. 6 : 1 Then spake Solomon, The LORD hath said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. But I have built thee an house of habitation, and a place for thee to dwell in forever. And the king turned his face, and blessed all the congregation of Israel : and all the congregation of Israel stood. And he said, Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father, and hath with his hands fulfilled it, saying, Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build an house in, that my name might be there ; neither chose I any man to be prince over my people Israel : but I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there ; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel. Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. But the LORD said unto David my father, Whereas it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart : nevertheless thou shalt not build the house ; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name. And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake ; for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD, the God of Israel. And there have I set the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. Eleven months after its completion, the formal dedication of the Temple took place. The delay gave time for thought and impression concerning its purpose, and so aided the fitting preparation for an occasion so intensely solemn, instructive, and joyful. According to Usher, this was the ninth Jubilee, or period of fifty years, opening the fourth thousand of the years since man's creation, or A.M. 3001. The festival of Dedication continued seven days, and occurred in late October, just before the feast of tabernacles. The elders, heads of tribes, and chiefs of families, were specially summoned by Solomon to take part with him, as representatives of the people. And an immense multitude of the congregation of Israel also joined in the service. The transaction is preceded and closed by the offering of sacrifices. This transaction (as recorded in the eighth chapter of 1 Kings) falls into three acts. The solemn removal of the ark and the other furniture of the old sanctuary into the newly-built temple forms the first act (verses 1-21). The noble prayer of Solomon, that the Lord would connect with the temple the fulfilment of all the promises made to his people, and thereby make it the true place of the revelation of his covenant grace and truth, forms the second (verses 22-61). The act of offering makes the third, which is described in verses 62-66. The first of these three acts [included in the present section] contains two elements : the transfer of the ark into the holy of holies, and of the old sanctuary and its furniture into the new temple ; and the words in which Solomon celebrated the entrance of the Lord into the new temple. Keil. A profound religious interest gathers about the scenes of the dedication of this temple. Both our authors (i.e., of Kings and of Chronicles) give the details of this service, and with little variation and in very considerable fulness, narrating the sacrifices that preceded and that followed ; the introductory address of Solomon to the assembled people (1 K. 8 : 12-21), and then the consecrating prayer (verses 22-53), and the closing benediction upon the people (verses 54-61). The service must have been in the highest degree impressive and sublime. Every word seems to be perfect in adaptation to the great purpose and the grand occasion. H. C. The temple and its courts being completed, the solemn dedication took place, with the greatest magnificence which the king and the nation could display. All the chieftains of the different tribes, and all of every order who could be brought together, assembled. David had already organized the priesthood and the Levites ; assigned to the 38,000 of the latter tribe, each his particular office. Twenty-four thousand were appointed for the common duties, 6000 as officers, 4000 as guards and porters, 4000 as singers and musicians. On this great occasion, the dedication of the temple, all the tribe of Levi, without regard to their courses, the whole priestly order of every class, attended. Around the great brazen altar, which rose in the court of the priests before the door of the temple, stood-in front the sacrificers, all around the whole choir, arrayed in white linen. One hundred and twenty of these were trumpeters, the rest had cymbals, harps, and psalteries. Solomon himself took his place on an elevated scaffold, or raised throne of brass. The whole assembled nation crowded the spacious courts beyond. The ceremony began with the preparation of burnt-offerings, so numerous that they could not be counted. At an appointed signal commenced the more important part of the scene, the removal of the ark, the installation of the God of Israel in his new and appropriate dwelling, to the sound of all the voices and all the instruments, chanting some of those splendid odes, the 47th, 97th, 98th, and 107th Psalms. The ark advanced, borne by the Levites, to the open portals of the temple. It can scarcely be doubted that the 24th Psalm, even if composed before, was adopted and used on this occasion. Milman. The temple courts could not have contained a tithe of the crowds who claimed admittance. Then, as in previous ages, representatives of the people stood for the whole nation. But the higher slopes of Olivet, only five or eight hundred yards off, furnished room for many myriads to see and almost to hear the grand proceedings as distinctly as the spectators in the courts. The whole congregation, crowning the hill-top in dense masses, looked down on king, priests, nobles, and Levites. Moriah thus became a stage, and Olivet a most magnificent amphitheatre for one of the grandest displays known in the history of mankind. Sime. The dedication of Solomon's Temple was the grandest ceremony ever performed under the Mosaic dispensation; for the giving of the law from Sinai was too solemn to be called a ceremony. Solomon appeared in that priestly character, which we have seen borne by his father, to perform this great act on behalf of the people, leaving to the priests and Levites the care of the ark and the details of the service, especially the psalmody. The time chosen was the most joyous festival of the Jews, the Feast of Tabernacles, in the seventh month (Tisri or Ethanim = September and October) of the sacred year. Having done the labors of the field, and gathered in the vintage, the people assembled at Jerusalem from all parts of Solomon's wide territories. The full body of the priests attended, the usual courses being suspended, and they brought the ark in a grand and joyous procession from the city of David to the rest prepared for it in the Holy of Holies. There they placed it beneath the spreading wings of the cherubim, and drew out the ends of the staves, that they might be seen as in the Tabernacle, behind the veil. Amid all the new splendors of its dwelling, the ark of the covenant was the same as of old; it contained nothing but the two tables of the law, which Moses had placed in it at Sinai. As the priests retired from within the veil, the Levites and their sons, arranged in their three courses of psalmody, with all instruments of music, and clad in white linen robes, burst forth with the sacred chorus praising Jehovah, "For He is good; for His mercy endureth forever." It was at this very moment, "just as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Jehovah," that He gave the sign of His coming to take possession of His house: "The house was filled with a cloud, even the house of Jehovah, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah." As that sacred cloud spread through the open doors over the sanctuary, the voice of Solomon was heard recognizing the presence of the God who had said that he would dwell in the thick darkness, and for whom he had now built a habitation forever. Then turning to the people from the great platform of brass, which he had erected in the midst of the court, in front of the brazen altar, the king blessed Jehovah the God of Israel, who had chosen Jerusalem as the place sacred to His name, and had performed His promises to David and fulfilled his desire to build him a house. P. S. I K. 8: 1-9. The transfer of the ark into its place in the Holy of Holies. They brought the ark from David's tent on Mount Zion. It is also added, that the priests and Levites brought up the old Tabernacle, with its holy vessels, from Gibeon. Before removing the ark, an immense sacrifice was offered before it in behalf of king and people. Then in solemn and glad procession, led by the king and followed by princes and people, the sacred symbol was reverently borne by the priests to the Temple. Entering the sacred courts, the king took his position upon an elevated brazen scaffold in the midst of the throng, while the priests bore the ark into the most holy place, and deposited it beneath the inner wings of the cherubim, in "the place of its rest." Then, as a sign that it was no more to go out, they drew forth the staves or handles on which they had borne it to and fro; leaving the ends protruding through the veil, in token that its long wanderings was over. The sacred furniture of the Holy Place, including the incense-altar, the tables, the candlesticks, and censers, were also set in their appointed position. B. The temple, though richly beautified, while without the ark was like a body without a soul, or a candlestick without a candle, or (to speak more properly) a house without an inhabitant. All the cost and pains bestowed on this stately structure are lost, if God do not accept them; and unless he please to own it as the place where he will record his name, it is, after all, but a ruinous heap; when therefore all the work is ended, the one thing needful is yet behind, and that is, the bringing in of the ark. This is the end which must crown the work, and which here we have an account of the doing of with great solemnity. Solomon presides in this service, as David did in the bringing up of the ark to Jerusalem. H. All the meaning and impressiveness of the dedication centred in the removal of the ark. "The elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, assembled unto King Solomon in Jerusalem," not to gaze upon and admire or even worship in the superb structure that he had reared, but "that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion." Before this ark on its sacred passage to its new abode "King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel that were assembled unto him were sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be told nor numbered for multitude" (verse 5). This ark, the symbol and pledge of the Divine presence, contained "the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt" (verse 9). And when this ark had been set in its proper place, "the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord" (verses 10, 11), as it had previously filled the tabernacle of Moses on its erection. No new ark was made to take the place of the old. This was impossible. Another chest might have been made of the same pattern and dimensions, and it could have been similarly overlaid with gold. Like figures of golden cherubim could have been set above it. It might have been exactly reproduced in material and form; but this newly-framed model would not have been the ark. It not only would have lacked the antiquity, the Mosaic origin, the venerated associations, but it would have been ababsolutely divested of that which gave the Ark its real significance and value, the identical tables of the law engraved by God's own finger, and the ineffable presence of God himself which ever attended it. Hence, while Solomon built his temple after an enlarged pattern of the tabernacle, reproducing its sacred apartments and furniture on a grander scale, with new altars and lavers and candlesticks and table of shewbread and figures of cherubim, the Ark remained the same. There was but this one ark, absolutely unique, throughout the whole of Israel's history from the time of their encampment at Sinai until its final destruction in the overthrow of Jerusalem and the temple by Nebuchadnezzar. Without this Ark, there could, in the strict Mosaic sense of the term, be no sanctuary, no house of God, where he actually dwelt in the midst of his people, and met with them. The unity of the Ark necessarily carried with it the unity of the sanctuary. It was with this one hallowed article alone that the presence of Jehovah was indissolubly bound. All the allegations that there were numerous sanctuaries in Israel which were held to be equally legitimate until the reign of King Josiah, under whom the law of a single central sanctuary was for the first time enacted and enforced, are proved to be futile by this one undeniable fact. There was but the one material symbol with which Jehovah's presence was believed to be constantly associated by his own appointment. This was the Ark. No spot and no building but that which contained the Ark was reckoned the dwelling-place of God. He might on extraordinary occasions manifest himself elsewhere. In the absence of a legitimate sanctuary, he might be invoked and worshipped elsewhere. But the existence of one, and only one, house of God, is a necessary corollary from the existence of but one ark of God; and if the Ark was Mosaic, which cannot be intelligently disputed, so must the law of the unity of the sanctuary be. This law may have been temporarily in abeyance, and it may have been sinfully disregarded, but the antiquity of the law and its Mosaic origin is by this single fact triumphantly established. W. H. G. I K. 8: 4. The tabernacle of Moses, for a long time at Gibeon, was now taken down, that the temple might be made from henceforth the centre of worship, as "the place" that God had chosen. B.—The Tabernacle of the wilderness hereafter disappears from history; the new Temple became the centre of the religious life of the nation. Jehovah by oracles declared that this was His rest, and that the seed of David would be established on the throne, though the promise was conditioned on their obedience. Thus upward of four hundred years after his death the prediction of Moses was fulfilled. It was the consequence of the essential work that had been accomplished, the establishment of the nation in Canaan. It was an expression of the union of Israel, of its worship of Jehovah. Robson. 9. There was nothing in the ark save the two tables of stone.** Nothing else was ever in the ark, the articles mentioned (Heb. 9 : 4) being not in, but by it, being laid in the most holy place before the testimony (Ex. 16 : 33 ; Nu. 17 : 10). Jamieson. —These venerable fragments of the rock of Sinai, seen then, were seen, as far as we know, for the last time. They must have perished, or at least disappeared, when the Ark itself perished or disappeared in the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. But their contents have survived the wreck, not only of the Ark and Temple, but of the whole system of worship, of which they were the basis. The Ten Commandments delivered on Mount Sinai have become embedded in the heart of the religion which has succeeded. Stanley. If anything whatever is certainly known of the Mosaic age, it is indubitably established that the Mosaic Ark contained tables of stone on which were engraved the Ten Commandments. These were treasured in the most sacred apartment of the Sanctuary. They formed the basis of the covenant between Jehovah and Israel. They were the fundamental law of the commonwealth of Israel, by which all further enactments were regulated, and to which they were supplementary. They were believed to have emanated directly and even verbally from Jehovah Himself, and to have been by Him recorded in stone to indicate their perpetual, binding force. This sacred Ark, with its precious contents, was safely guarded until the time of Solomon, when it was transferred to the Temple. It is still spoken of in the time of Jeremiah (3 : 16), and the covenant on stone, which it contained, was only to be superseded by the law written on the heart (31 : 32, 33). Under these circumstances it is impossible that these commandments should not have been carefully and accurately preserved and transmitted. W. H. G. Now all had been done that king and priests could do. Complete and beautiful stood the Temple. Complete and beautiful in its place within the veil rested the ark with the two stone tables of the Law within, and the outspread wings of the cherubim above. But while the Temple and oracle awaited its Inhabitant, king and priest and people lifted up their voice, in unison with many instruments of music, and joined in praising and thanking the Lord. Then in sight of all occurred 2. Chron. 5 : 11-14.** The solemn consecration or taking possession of His House by Jehovah. Even as they sung : For He is good ; for His mercy endureth forever ! "Then the house was filled with a cloud," "for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord." The whole congregation saw the cloud descend and enter the Temple. And the ministering priests within saw it rest above the mercy-seat covering the ark and ascend between the cherubim. There it brightened into a shining light of such concentrated glow and lustre that they were constrained to retire from the holy place. This was the symbol of God's manifest personal presence. By this presence the Temple now, as the Tabernacle before, was consecrated. Not only from the time of Israel's wanderings, when the same symbol appeared above as well as within the Tabernacle, and was extended over the journeying and camping host as a pillar of cloud and fire, but throughout the Old Testament this lighted cloud appears as the visible token of the Divine presence. And John tells us (12 : 41) that Isaiah (6) directly associates this symbol as seen in the Temple with Christ, thus distinctly affirming that He is the Jehovah of Adam, of Abraham, of Moses, and of Israel. In harmony with this are the transcendent spectacles of the Transfiguration and the Ascension, in which this ancient symbol reappears. And in further confirmation of the whole this is the symbol, with the same beholding adoring cherubim or living creatures, wherewith the apocalyptic vision discloses the "Son of Man," the "Lamb that was slain," as the centre and source of all glory, dominion, and blessedness in heaven. This, then, is the meaning of the cloud-en-folding glory which rested between the cherubim in the first Temple. It was God, Jehovah Jesus, enthroned in light upon the mercy-seat beneath which was the Law, together testifying of grace and of judgment, God dwelling among His people ! Other purposes were here fulfilled : to put fresh honor upon the long-forsaken and oft-exposed ark, to reincarnate just reverence for the law it enshrined, and awaken new trust and joy in its inviting mercy-seat ; and to signify His acceptance of their work and House. But the chief purpose, let it be emphasized, was to intimate His fixed abiding presence thenceforth —His ever-active protection, guidance, and care over His people; that so the nation and its individual members might be effectually recalled and re-bound to Himself and His service. B. 13. When the singers and musicians praised God, then the house was filled with a cloud. This is very observable; it was not when they offered sacrifices, but when they sang the praises of God, that God gave them this token of favor. It was when they were, in their praises, celebrating the everlasting mercy and goodness of God. As there is no one saying oftener repeated in Scripture than this, His mercy endureth forever (twenty-six times in one psalm, Ps. 136, and oftener elsewhere), so there is none more signally owned from heaven; for it was when the priests were singing this plain song, He is good, and his mercy endureth forever. This should endear those words to us. God's goodness is his glory, and he is pleased when we give him the glory of it. H.—The praise of God is the choicest sacrifice and worship under a dispensation of redeeming grace: it is the prime and eternal part of worship under the Gospel. Charnock. It is not poetry simply, it is the plain sober truth, that a whole assembly praising God is "like a little heaven below." A congregation of human hearts, agreeing together to sing forth their living human affections to the One object of their love, is always "the house of God and the gate of heaven." Such a congregation powerfully attracts heaven to itself, as like to like. With a Diviner love, and greater unity in the Church, it might easily occur again that the joy would be too great, the glory too great, and the God of glory too fully present, for the ordinary service. Even as a flood carries away all signposts and barriers before it, and sweeps over all distinction of path and hedge, so would an unusual descent of the joy of God into His Church set at naught and suspend the mechanical order of the service, and bear away priest and people on the tide of one resistless impulse to praise and glorify God. Or the Presence might be too overwhelming, utterance might be choked, and priest and people might have to wait in awe and silence for the passing over, or the withdrawnment of the tide of glory. So it happened in the Hebrew Temple. "It came to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with their trumpets, and cymbals, and instruments of music, and praised the Lord, saying—For He is good, for His mercy endureth forever; that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God." Make the Church full of praise, and it will also be full of God. God and His praise cannot be apart. "O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel!" Pulsford. Then the house was filled with a cloud. The Lord's acceptance of Solomon's temple, and of the dedication which he was now about to make of it, was shown, first, by "the glory of the Lord" filling the house, or inner temple, as here related; and, second, by the fire of the Lord coming down from heaven, as soon as Solomon had ended his prayer of dedication, and consuming the sacrifices. Hales.—Solomon, and the elders of Israel, had done what they could to grace the solemnity of the introduction of the ark; but God, by testifying his acceptance of what they did, put the greatest honor upon it. The cloud of glory that filled the house beautified it more than all the gold with which it was overlaid, or the precious stones with which it was garnished; and yet that was no glory, in comparison with the glory of the Gospel dispensation (2 Cor. 3: 8-10). H. The solemnities of the service, the procession of the sacred ark from the city of David into its resting-place, the robed priests, the rapturous multitude, the unnumbered sacrifices, the music and the songs, must have formed altogether a marvellous spectacle. But of all the incidents of the day none could be compared with that of the sudden appearance of the Shekinah—the glory-cloud. This introduced a new supernatural element. The rest was human—man's handiwork, man's worship, man's glory; this was Divine—the miraculous sign of the present and approving God. The appearance of the cloud set the seal of Divine acceptance on the temple and its service, linking it with all the glorious associations of the past—the climax and crown of a long series of miraculous Divine manifestations. Waite. 14. The priests could not stand to minister, by reason of the cloud, which, as it was an evidence that the law made men priests that had infirmity, so as (Bishop Patrick observes) it was a plain intimation that the Levitical priesthood should cease, and stand no longer to minister, when the Messiah should come, in whom the fulness of the Godhead should dwell bodily. In him the glory of God dwelt among us, but covered with a cloud. The Word was made flesh; and when he comes to his temple, like a refiner's fire, who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? (Mal. 3: 1, 2). H. 2. Chron. 6: 1.** Solomon's brief words of Dedication. The real consecration of the Temple has taken place. And now the king, turning toward the Most Holy Place, filled with the Sacred Presence, spake these words of dedication, brief as became the solemnity: "Jehovah hath said: to dwell in darkness—Building, I have built an house of habitation to Thee, and a settling-place for Thy dwelling ever!" In this reference to what Jehovah had said, it would not be any single utterance which presented itself to Solomon's mind. Rather would he think of them in their connection and totality—as it were, a golden chain of precious promises welded one to the other, of which the last link seemed riveted to the solemnity then enacting. Such sayings as Ex. 19: 9; 20: 21; Lev. 16: 2; De. 4: 11; 5: 22 would crowd upon his memory, and seem fully realized as he beheld the Cloudy Presence in the Holy House. A. E. God only can consecrate, but man may dedicate to God. One with the vast congregation, Solomon had worshipped and waited. And now he first recognizes God's entrance in the thick darkness of the cloud, and gratefully surrenders to Him the House he had prepared. Then turning his face to the people crowding the Great Outer Court, as a royal prophet, he blessed the host, and recited various occasions of special thankfulness to God which had grown out of the history of this building. The particulars of this address were designed to put the living and acting generation in fresh remembrance of events and truths connected with this juncture of the nation's history, when the Divine mercies, already culminated in number and richness, were crowned and hallowed by the return and abiding with them of God Himself. B.—If Solomon had built this temple in the pride of his heart, as Ahasuerus made his feast, only to show the riches of his kingdom, and the honor of his majesty, it would not have turned at all to his account. But he here declares upon what inducements he undertook it, and they are such as not only justify, but magnify, the undertaking. He did it for the glory and honor of God; this was his highest and ultimate end in it. It was for the name of the Lord God of Israel, to be a house of habitation for him. He has indeed, as to us, made darkness his pavilion, but let this house be the residence of that darkness; for it is in the upper world that he dwells in light, such as no eye can approach. And he did it in compliance with the choice God had been pleased to make of Jerusalem, to be the city in which he would record his name (verse 6); I have chosen Jerusalem. H. 2. Chron. 6:** 12 AND he stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands: (for Solomon had made a brazen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and upon it he stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven;) and he said, O LORD, the God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in the heaven, or in the earth; who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants, that walk before thee with all their heart: who hast kept with thy servant David my father that which thou didst promise him: yea, thou spakest with thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with thine hand, as it is this day. Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that which thou hast promised him, saying, There shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel; if only thy children take heed to their way, to walk in my law as thou hast walked before me. Now therefore, O LORD, the God of Israel, let thy word be verified, which thou spakest unto thy servant David. But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built! Yet have thou respect unto the prayer of thy servant, and to his supplication, O LORD my God, to hearken unto the cry and to the prayer which thy servant prayeth before thee: that thine eyes may be open toward this house day and night, even toward the place whereof thou hast said that thou wouldest put thy name there ; to hearken unto the prayer which thy servant shall pray toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplications of thy servant, and of thy people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place : yea, hear thou from thy dwelling place, even from heaven ; and when thou hearest, forgive. If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear, and he come and swear before thine altar in this house : then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, requiting the wicked, to bring his way upon his own head ; and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness. And if thy people Israel be smitten down before the enemy, because they have sinned against thee ; and shall turn again and confess thy name, and pray and make supplication before thee in this house : then hear thou from heaven, and forgive the sin of thy people Israel, and bring them again unto the land which thou gavest to them and to their fathers. When the heaven is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against thee ; if they pray toward this place, and confess thy name, and turn from their sin, when thou dost afflict them : then hear thou in heaven, and forgive the sin of thy servants, and of thy people Israel, when thou teachest them the good way wherein they should walk ; and send rain upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people for an inheritance. If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, if there be blasting or mildew, locust or caterpillar ; if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities ; whatsoever plague or whatsoever sickness there be ; what prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart and his own sorrow, and shall spread forth his hands toward this house : then hear thou from heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and render unto every man according to all his ways, whose heart thou knowest ; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of the children of men ;) that they may fear thee, to walk in thy ways, so long as they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers. Moreover concerning the stranger, that is not of thy people Israel, when he shall come from a far country for thy great name's sake, and thy mighty hand, and thy stretched out arm ; when they shall come and pray toward this house : then hear thou from heaven, even from thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for ; that all the peoples of the earth may know thy name, and fear thee, as doth thy people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by thy name. If thy people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatsoever way thou shalt send them, and they pray unto thee toward this city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name : then hear thou from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive unto a land far off or near ; yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication unto thee in the land of their captivity, saying, We have sinned, we have done perversely, and have dealt wickedly ; 1. K. 8 : 48** If they return unto thee with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, which carried them captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name : then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause ; and forgive thy people which have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee ; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them : for they be thy people, and thine inheritance, which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron : that thine eyes may be open unto the supplication of thy servant, and unto the supplication of thy people Israel, to hearken unto them whensoever they cry unto thee. For thou didst separate them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be thine inheritance, as thou spakest by the hand of Moses thy servant, when thou broughtest our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord God. 2. Chron. 6 : 40** Now, O my God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let thine ears be attent, unto the prayer that is made in this place. Now therefore arise, O LORD God, into thy resting place, thou, and the ark of thy strength : let thy priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness. O LORD God, turn not away the face of thine anointed : remember the mercies of David thy servant. God would have a permanent House for various reasons. He would show that He was abiding in the midst of His people. He would give them an always visible reminder of what He had been to them, and a palpable pledge of what He had promised them. And he would impress the duty of worship while tangibly instructing them, through symbols and ceremonials, in the methods and meaning of worship. So, to assure them that the newly-constructed Temple was His Home, and to excite their fitting reverence, He had consecrated it by the visible descent of His glory, symbolized in a cloud-enfolding flame. All these considerations are expressed or implied in Solomon's prayer of Dedication. B. The prayer was of unexampled sublimity: while it implored the perpetual presence of the Almighty, as the tutelar deity and sovereign of the Israelites, it recognized his spiritual and illimitable nature. "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built." It then recapitulated the principles of the Hebrew theocracy, the dependence of the natural prosperity and happiness on the national conformity to the civil and religious law. Milman. The text to this prayer is the law, especially the blessing and curse pronounced upon the people by Moses (Lev. 26 and De. 28.) Setting out from the blessing here promised, Solomon praises the Lord for its past fulfilment, after which follows the prayer for the averting of the curses alluded to. By the bestowment of the promised blessing the Lord had hitherto proved himself the only and true God in heaven and on earth, who keeps covenant and mercy with his servants who walk before him with all the heart. With this acknowledgment of God begins the prayer, for from this arises the right confidence for the petition, which is certain of being heard. Keil. At no other point of Solomon's recorded career save this, and in no other connection than this prayer, have we any clear manifestation of a genuine piety. While everywhere we trace indications of superior intellect, only here do we see evidence of heart. The prayer, as a whole, evinces greatness of conception and depth of feeling. A matchless, merciful, covenant-keeping God, who has fulfilled and will fulfil every promise; a God of infinite universal supremacy, who yet condescends to dwell manifestly among men; and one who is willing to meet every need in response to the call of a people or of every suppliant; these ideas, which comprise the spirit and substance of this prayer, show an equal grandeur of conception and justness of feeling respecting the revealed character of God and His relations to the nation and the race. Further, this prayer, in its form and particulars, is emphatically a nation's prayer. It recognizes God as the sovereign arbiter of a nation's experiences; the source alike of its prosperity and adversity. It traces the great forms of national loss and trouble—war, pestilence, famine (and, we may add, financial reverses)—to His interposition for good. And not only the prayer, but God's answering words (2 Chron. 7:14), clearly intimate the remedy for all national calamities. 2. Chron. 12:14. The attitude of Solomon and the invocation of his prayer. Upon a prepared brazen scaffold Solomon had stood while addressing the people. Now he "kneeled down upon his knees before all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven." As a royal prophet, he had directed the offering of sacrifice, and probably himself officiated in the offering. Now, exercising the same office, and so far personating the greater Son of David, he intercedes for his people, only including his needs with theirs. The invocation of the prayer is peculiarly instructive and impressive. It is confined to two points, but these are all-comprehensive. Thou art the only God; and that which chiefly distinguishes thee as God, that which constitutes thy greatest glory, is this, that thou keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart. This is the one supreme truth of the whole Revelation, Old Testament and New. It is the one fact of every age and dispensation, upon which hangs the hope of man. God infinite, perfect, supreme, in wisdom, might, in holiness, truth, and grace; and God devising and executing a plan of mercy, whereby He might offer and carry out a covenant of eternal redemption in behalf of every one whose accepting, trusting, penitent heart responds with obedience. This is the reach and meaning of this grandly simple invocation. Had Solomon only acted upon it in his later life, as David did, his history had been without sadness and his end had been bright. B. 14. None like Him in heaven or in earth. All the creatures have their fellow-creatures, but the Creator has not his peer. He is infinitely above all, and over all, God blessed forever. He is and will be true to every word that he has spoken; and all that serve him in sincerity shall certainly find him both faithful and kind. Those that set God always before them and walk before him with all their hearts, shall find him as good as his word, and better; he will both keep covenant with them, and show mercy to them. H. 15-17. His acknowledgment of God's fulfilled promise to David, and prayer for its further fulfilment to himself. That which should go before request—viz., thankful acknowledgment for previous mercies, here precedes, and so is made the basis of the prayer. Precisely this is the New Testament rule, found in that golden "command with promise" (Philippians 4 : 6, 7). Here, then, we gather from the method of Solomon's request for himself another instructive and impressive truth. A further practical point worthy of note is the condition connected with God's promise, as cited by Solomon (verse 16). Assuredly Solomon knew that his "taking heed to his way" and walking with a true obedient heart before God, was essential to the continued favor of God. And these his words, elsewhere repeated, teach us plainly the same changeless truth respecting ourselves; while his subsequent disobediences and idolatries strongly emphasize the truth, and warn us of our weakness and peril, and need of the grace of Jehovah Jesus. B. The great burden of Solomon's impressive prayer is the faithfulness of God, as verified by the fulfilment of His promises to David his father, and on which he pleads for a like fulfilment of the promises made to himself, or rather made to David—but respecting himself. The promise does not supersede, but rather supplies ground for prayer on which the suppliant might rest, and which he might plead with God—and which if he do in faith, he will never miss the object because of any want of faithfulness in God. T. C. 17. O God of Israel, let thy word be verified. God's promises (as we have often observed) must be both the guide of our desires and the ground of our hopes and expectations in prayer. David had prayed (2 S. 7 : 25), Lord, do as thou hast said. The experiences we have of God's performing his promises should encourage us to depend upon them and plead them with God; and those who expect further mercies must be thankful for former mercies. H. 18-21. His prayer for the nation in its various needs. Thus far the prayer has been personal, and its suggested truths have applied to individuals. In the remaining verses he pleads in behalf of the nation. This general entreaty is prefaced with one of the sublimest human utterances of the Bible (verse 18). It is a conception of contrast between the illimitable universe overfilled with the presence of God and this limited fragmentary sphere which is too narrow and inconsiderable to be worthy of His personal manifestation upon it, and yet to himself and to us, this expression conveys no definite thought save this: God's infinite condescension in His personal manifestation to men. The immediate reference of Solomon's question was to the symbol, merely, of God's presence; but the reach of his thought, and the truth it brings home to us, is the blessed reality of that Divine presence in the person of Jesus Christ, "the man who is Jehovah's fellow," himself the Jehovah of the cloudy, shining symbol. Although in form a question, this is an expression of Solomon's faith that God will come, and will abide in this prepared sanctuary. For immediately follows the prayer which necessarily implies this faith, that God would hearken to him and to the supplication of Israel, when they should pray toward this place. He then proceeds to state the specific needs and calamities of the future, asking that those who should pray in the Temple or toward it (as expressive of dependence on its appointed ministries), might be supplied and relieved. Fifty and significantly pardon for the past was represented by the sacrifice and the sprinkling of blood. Fifty and beautifully grace for the future was exhibited in the incense-altar, the candlesticks and the tables of shewbread; intimating the threefold functions of the mediating Redeemer, who is the way, as the all-prevalent Intercessor, the truth, and the life. So understand we the spirit of this prayer, as the meaning of the Temple ministries is disclosed to us by Christ and in the Epistle to the Hebrews. B. 18. The first public recognition of Prayer as distinct from sacrifice—of the spiritual as distinct from the ceremonial mode of approaching God—is the Prayer of Solomon at the Dedication of the Temple. And further, in this moment of the extremest triumph of ritual and material worship, was uttered one of the most spiritual truths that the Old Testament contains. "Behold the Heaven and the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded." Stanley.—We have here a striking description of the immensity and omnipresence of God. We have frequent expressions in Scripture of God being "in heaven;" the meaning of which is, not that he who is in all places can be confined to any, or that any proper habitation can be ascribed to him, whom, as Solomon declares, the "heaven of heavens cannot contain;" but they are intended to represent his amazing height and dignity, not in place, but in power. Another reason of the expression of God's being "in heaven," is to signify that, though of his real, actual presence there is no confinement, yet of his glory and majesty there is in the heavens a particular manifestation. There it is that his glory is declared, and there the righteous shall see his face, and be blessed with the peculiar manifestation of his power and majesty. In like manner here upon earth; in those places where he has been pleased more particularly to manifest his glory, to place his name, and to receive the homage of his servants, there God, in Scripture phrase, is said to be. Thus in the temple at Jerusalem, he, whom the "heaven of heavens cannot contain," did at this time deign to dwell, having appointed there to receive his tribute of worship. Dr. S. Clarke. In the whole history of revelation we have answers to this question, "Will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" The Incarnation of Christ, His coming to be with men, was the greatest answer. He came to dwell upon our earth, to be a man among men. He should be called Emmanuel, it was said, which is, being interpreted, "God with us," God about us, God around us. And how beautifully was God revealed in Christ! He came with all the attributes of Divinity, came with all the powers of the Godhead, and yet identified Himself so with man as to be beside the lowliest, to throw no awe over the poorest! He came to identify himself with humanity in all its forms of weakness and sorrow, that He might take humanity and raise it up with Him to the very throne of God. He came to be with us, to be of us. He passed through all forms of suffering,—reproach, agony, torture, death,—that He might show us that He had sympathy with man in all his conditions. It is with us as individuals He comes, God with us, God with you, with me, in our homes, in our families, by morning, noon, and night. God in very deed comes and dwells with men on earth, just as Christ dwelt, and Christ loved, and Christ sympathized. He reveals to us the Father. The heart of God is seen in the heart of Christ; the affection of the great Father is manifested in the love of Christ. But, again, an answer was given, not only on the manifestation of Christ, but on that great day of Pentecost, in the gift of the Holy Spirit. By Him God comes to dwell with men forever, and His dwelling place is your heart and mine. M. Simpson. 22,23. Here the special or particular supplications begin. Like those of the Lord's prayer, they are seven in number. And the first of the seven concerns oaths. The king implores the covenant-keeping God to watch over the covenants of words made in the now consecrated sanctuary, and to protect their sanctity by punishing the false swearer. There were cases in which the Mosaic law provided that an oath should be administered to suspected persons (Ex. 22:11; Lev. 5:1, 4). And there were other cases in which men of their own accord, for "an end of all strife," would make oath. God is here entreated to take cognizance of the oaths sworn before His altar (verse 31), and to be a swift witness against the false swearers (Mal. 3:5). 24,25. The second special petition contemplates the case, which was morally certain to occur, of Hebrews taken captive in war and carried to a foreign land. To be separated from the commonwealth, the rites and the blessings of Israel, was one of the greatest calamities which could befall a Jew (De. 4:27, 28; Lev. 26:33; Ps. 137), and as such Solomon gives it a prominent place in his prayer. 26,27. The third petition concerns the plague of drought. Just as rain, in the thirsty and sunburnt East, has ever been accounted one of the best gifts of God, so was drought denounced as one of His severest scourges (Lev. 26:19; De. 11:17). This petition finds an illustration in the public supplications which are still offered in the East, and by men of all creeds, for rain. Reference is made to the withholding of rain; in verse 28 to "famine, pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, and caterpillar." Such troubles were sent in vain to bring the Egyptians to repentance. In the long run the violation of God's laws do bring disasters of the very kind specified here. If the law of industry be violated, the harvests fail; if the law of mutual dependence be ignored by nations, commerce is crippled, and impoverishment comes; if the laws against self-indulgence, pride, ambition, be defied the spendthrift has the result in poverty, the proud nation in the miseries of war. Even the disasters which are accounted "natural phenomena," then, should lead the wise-hearted to prayer, the sinful to penitence; and God will hear in heaven His dwelling-place, and answer and forgive. 28-31. The fourth petition refers to the various plagues mentioned in the law (Lev. 26; De. 28), as the punishment of apostasy or infidelity. Hammond. 29. There is here the recognition of something out of one's self as the ground of hope in circumstances of need. This essential element in true prayer is suggested by the words, "And shall stretch forth his hands toward this place." The temple was intended to be a witness to the unseen, a help to faith, an incentive to all holy thought and feeling. It stood through all the changes of time, the shifting lights and shadows of the world around it, as an impressive symbol of the "everlasting covenant." It enshrined the "sure mercies of David." Within its hallowed enclosure were gathered the sacred historic records and relics, and the types and shadows of "better things to come." It told both of what God had done and what He had promised—the monument of the glorious past, the prophecy of the brighter future. There was deep meaning, then, in the suppliant "stretching forth his hands toward that house," as expressive of the attitude of his soul toward that which it symbolized. When some lonely worshipper in a distant corner of the land, some patient sufferer, some soldier in his agony on the field of battle, some captive, like Daniel, in a strange country, directed his eyes toward the holy place, it was a sort of pathetic appeal to God's own faithfulness, a silent but eloquent plea that He would not forget His covenant, would fulfil the hopes that He Himself had awakened, and not for their sakes alone, but for His own truth and mercy's sake, would hear and save. In all this the temple was a type of something nobler, Diviner than itself. The cross of Christ, in which all the promises are confirmed and sealed; the cross, which is both the altar of the Redeemer's sacrifice and the throne of His sovereignty, is the shrine of "truth and grace" to men. It stands, the connecting link between heaven and earth, the meeting-place of God and man, the key to all human history, the basis of our immortal hope. Here, then, on this central object alike of Divine and human interest, must the eye of the suppliant be fixed. It is that pledge of Divine love and faithfulness, external to ourselves, embodied in the cross of Christ, that we must plead if we would find acceptance in our prayer. When God has thoroughly taught us what the "plague of our own heart" means, and has unveiled to us the blessed mystery of His mode of curing it, it will be the sustained habit of our life to stand as suppliants before Him "in the name of Jesus." Thus alone can we so link ourselves with the sanctities of a higher world as to make our common life Divine. Waite. 30. He, and he only, knows the hearts of the children of men. All men's thoughts, aims, and affections, are naked and open before him; and, however the imaginations and intents of our hearts may be concealed from men, angels, and devils, they cannot be hid from God, who knows not only what is in the heart, but the heart itself, and all the beatings of it. H. 32,33. The fifth petition contemplates the prayers which foreigners, attracted by the fame of Jerusalem, of its religion and sanctuary could offer toward the house. "It is quite in the spirit of the Mosaic law regarding strangers that Solomon, having first prayed God on behalf of his fellow-countrymen, should next go on to intercede for the strangers." The intercourse of the Hebrews at this period with foreign nations, and the influence they exercised on the Jewish thought and manners are also to be remembered. Hammond.—This prayer breathes a spirit of catholicity to foreigners which pure and original Judaism gets too little credit for. It seeks for an open door of privilege to all men, who are invited to look toward the temple, that all the people of the earth may recognize it as the house of God, and that they may know His name and fear Him. Besides prayer after defeat, there is also particularized here the case of prayer before battle. And, finally, there is the case of prayer on the event of captivity. Solomon entreats of God that He would have respect unto all such prayers, and pleads in argument the previous deliverances which had been wrought for Israel in virtue of their relationship to God. T. C. 34,35. So far the royal suppliant has spoken of prayers offered in or at the temple. He now mentions two cases where supplications will be offered by penitents far distant from the holy city or even from the Holy Land. And first, he speaks of the armies of Israel on a campaign. 36-39. The last petition—the second of those which speak of prayers addressed toward the temple, or the Holy Presence which dwelt there, from a foreign land—contemplates as possible the captivity of the Hebrew nation. It has hence been too readily inferred that this portion of the prayer, at least, if not the preceding petition also, has been interpolated by a post-captivity writer. But there is really no solid reason for doubting its genuineness. Not only is it inwoven in the body of the prayer, but the captivity of Israel had been denounced as the punishment of persistent disobedience long before by Moses, and in the chapters to which such constant reference is made (Lev. 26 : 33, 44 ; De. 28 : 25, 36, 64 ; cf. 4 : 27), a fact which is in itself an indirect proof of genuineness, as showing that this petition is of a piece with the rest of the prayer. And when to this we add that the carrying of a conquered and refractory race into captivity was an established custom of the East, we shall be inclined to agree with Bähr, that "it would have been more remarkable if Solomon had not mentioned it." Hammond. 36. It is the "plague of the heart," the burden of want or sadness in the secret soul, coupled with some kind of faith in Divine power, that moves men to pray. But this expression, "the plague of his own heart," has a deeper meaning. It opens to us all the dark, sad mystery of personal sinfulness, the moral disease that lurks within. There are times when the most careless, reckless spirit has glimpses of the unwelcome truth that this, after all, is the deepest cause of its disquietude. Waite.—Both Christ and His forerunner, when they began to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to the world, uttered one sharp, piercing call: "Repent!" They did not go into minute specifications of every shade of sin, for they knew that they had for a witness a conscience in every breast, each heart knowing its own plague. They knew that there is always one comprehensive iniquity lodged farther in and spreading wider than any particular offence,—the sin of separation from God. F. D. H. 1. K. 8 : 51-53. In the three following verses we have a sort of general conclusion to the dedication prayer. It is hardly correct to say that these last words apply to all the preceding petitions—the plea "they are thy people" manifestly cannot apply in the case of verses 41-43. On the other hand, as little are they to be limited to the persons last mentioned in verses 46-50, though it is highly probable they were suggested by the thought of the captives. They are manifestly in close connection with the preceding verses. Hammond. 2. Chron. 6 : 40-42. In a fervent and beautiful conclusion Solomon invokes the entrance of Jehovah with the ark of his strength; entreats that the priests may faithfully minister, and the people gratefully receive the salvation of God; and closes with the touching appeal, Turn not away the face of thine anointed, thy Messiah! Remember the mercies of David, thy covenant mercies promised in behalf of thy covenanting people! B.—We may plead, as Solomon does here, with an eye to Christ. We deserve that God should turn away his face, that he should reject us and our prayers; but we come in the name of the Lord Jesus, thine anointed, thy Messiah, so the word is; thy Christ, so the LXX. Him thou hearest always, and wilt never turn away his face. We have no righteousness of our own to plead, but, Lord, remember the mercies of David thy servant. Christ is God's Servant (Is. 42 : 1), and is called David (Hos 3 : 5). Lord, remember his mercies, and accept of us on account of them. Remember his tender concern for his Father's honor and man's salvation, and what he did and suffered from that principle. Remember the promises of the everlasting covenant which free grace has made to us in Christ, and which are called the sure mercies of David (Is. 55 : 3, and Acts 13 : 34). This must be all our desire, and all our hope, all our prayer, and all our plea, for it is all our salvation. H. From this prayer of Solomon we learn, that all events proceed from God; that war, pestilence, famine, and other judgments, are inflicted by his hand, when men provoke him by their sins; that to have recourse to God by prayer, confession of sins, and true repentance, is the way to remedy these evils; and that he is always ready to hear and to deliver those who call upon him in their necessities, and with all their hearts turn unto him. Ostervald. This outpouring of Solomon's heart embraces all the elements of true prayer. Adoration. God is recognized as the supreme God of the universe, who keeps covenant and shows mercy. Confession. The acknowledgment of unworthiness. Supplication and intercession. For himself, for those around him, for his people, for the stranger, Solomon pleads. He implores the blessings of preservation, of justice, of forgiveness, of the fruitful rain, of fertile fields, of health, of personal good, of victory in war, and restoration from captivity. Then he rises to the glorious heights of thanksgiving. God is merciful. He is good. His tender mercies are over all His works. He does hear prayer. He does bless. He does forgive. He does help. S. Fellows. # Additional Leading Truths and Lessons. 1. The character of the dedication indicates the main purpose of the temple, as also of the Christian Church, which has succeeded to its place and office. Not for its external richness or costliness, but for its internal use, this is the chief point of a true interest respecting it. Emphatically the church or house of God, it is essentially a house of prayer, of personal communion with God, of worship by praise, by confession, by supplication and intercession. The unfolding and impression by the Holy Ghost, of the covenanting word (to us in the Old and New Covenant) is God's part in the communion. This is His response of counsel and of promise to our worship, for counsel and promise include the substance of the read or spoken word of God. 2. In harmony with this, from first to last all true religion is a religion of promise. God's covenantal relation with us lies at the basis of all others. Before everything else we need to know, to believe and to realize, that He has made and offers to us a covenant of pardon and peace on the simple condition of our penitent confession and grateful, childlike trust. On His part only it is a covenant of meritorious work, of inestimable cost and sacrifice! 3. Further, if covenant and promise be the vital element in our religion, then the great and precious promises of God should be the theme of habitual, grateful thought, they should prompt to continuous prayer, and should be the guide of desire and the basis of our hope in prayer. And further still, the truth is taught that fulfilled promises, especially if they are answered prayers, should elicit special thanks for the fulfilment, and so quicken faith and enlarge our expectation in future pleading with God. "In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make known your requests unto God!" This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ 1. K. 7 : 1** And Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house. For he built the house of the forest of Lebanon ; the length thereof was an hundred cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits, upon four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams upon the pillars. And it was covered with cedar above over the forty and five beams, that were upon the pillars ; fifteen in a row. And there were prospects in three rows, and light was over against light in three ranks. And all the doors and posts were square in prospect : and light was over against light in three ranks. And he made the porch of pillars ; the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth thereof thirty cubits ; and a porch before them ; and pillars and thick beams before them. And he made the porch of the throne where he might judge, even the porch of judgment : and it was covered with cedar from floor to floor. And his house where he might dwell, the other court within the porch, was of the like work. He made also an house for Pharaoh's daughter, (whom Solomon had taken to wife,) like unto this porch. All these were of costly stones, even of hewn stone, according to measure, sawed with saws, within and without, even from the foundation unto the coping, and so on the outside unto the great court. And the foundation was of costly stones, even great stones, stones of ten cubits, and stones of eight cubits. And above were costly stones, even hewn stone, according to measure, and cedar wood. And the great court round about had three rows of hewn stone, and a row of cedar beams ; like as the inner court of the house of the LORD, and the porch of the house. 1. K. 3 : 1** And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about. Only the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was no house built for the name of the LORD until those days. And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father : only he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. 2. Chron. 8 : 11** And Solomon brought up the daughter of Pharaoh out of the city of David unto the house that he had built for her : for he said, My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places are holy, whereunto the ark of the LORD hath come. Then Solomon offered burnt-offerings unto the LORD on the altar of the LORD, which he had built before the porch, even as the duty of every day required, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the set feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles. And he appointed, according to the ordinance of David his father, the courses of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their charges, to praise, and to minister before the priests, as the duty of every day required : the doorkeepers also by their courses at every gate : for so had David the man of God commanded. And they departed not from the commandment of the king unto the priests and Levites concerning any matter, or concerning the treasures. Now all the work of Solomon was prepared unto the day of the foundation of the house of the LORD, and until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was perfected. 1. K. 9 : 25** Then did he build Millo. And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt-offerings and peace-offerings upon the altar which he built unto the LORD, burning incense therewith, upon the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the house. The order in Solomon's buildings is observable : God's house first, for religion ; then his own, for his own convenience ; then a house for his wife, to which she removed, as soon as it was ready for her (verse 24) ; then Millo, the Townhouse, or Guildhall ; then the wall of Jerusalem, the royal city ; then some cities of note and strength in the country, which were decayed and unfortified, Hazor, Megiddo, etc. H. Building of Solomon's House. 1. K. 7 : 1. The thirteen years, according to 9 : 10, are to be reckoned from the completion of the temple. With verse 2 begins the description of this building. In what follows several buildings, as the house of the forest of Lebanon (2-5), the portico of pillars with a porch (6), the porch of the throne and of judgment (7), the dwelling-house of the king, and the house of the daughter of Pharaoh, were erected one after another. The question arises, whether all these buildings were different parts of one royal palace, or different buildings from it. The forest house of Lebanon cannot be a building different from the royal palace mentioned (verse 1), for this reason, that afterward (9 : 1, 10, 15 ; comp. 10 : 12) only one palace is always named among the buildings executed by Solomon, and here so large an account is given of this Lebanon house, while it has no further mention in the following chapters. Still more decisive, however, is the relation of the first verse of the chapter to the following. Verse 1 is a mere superscription ; with verse 2 begins the account of the erection of the building mentioned in verse 1 ; to be rendered, "he built, namely." It necessarily follows from this that the collective buildings mentioned in verses 2-8 formed only the one royal palace, the several departments of which are described in succession, whereupon the section is concluded with a statement of the materials employed in the building (verses 9-12). But even after the unity of the building has been agreed upon, it is extremely difficult to draw an outline of the entire palace that will be intelligible and in conformity with the statements of the text. Keil. Location of the Palace. Without referring to the various buildings which Solomon reared, it may be safely asserted that the city must have rapidly increased in population. Indeed, during the prosperous reign of Solomon it probably attained as large, if not larger, proportions than at any time before the Exile. The wealthier part of the population occupied the western terraces of the west hill—the Upper City—the streets running north and south. The eastern slopes of the west hill were covered by "the middle city" (2 K. 20 : 4, marginal rendering). It will have been noticed, that as yet only the southern parts of both the eastern and western hills of Jerusalem had been built over. King Solomon reared the Temple on Mount Moriah, which formed the northern slope of the eastern hill, while the increase of the population soon led to building operations on the side of the western hill opposite to it. Here the city extended beyond the old wall, north of "the middle city," occupying the northern part of the Tyropœon. This was "the other" or "second part of the city" (2 K. 22 : 14 ; 2 Chron. 34 : 22 ; Neh. 11 : 9, the "maktesh" or "mortar" of Zeph. 1 : 11). Here was the real business quarter, with its markets, "fishgate," "sheepgate," and bazaars, such as the "Baker Street" (Jer. 37 : 21), the quarters of the goldsmiths and other merchants (Neh. 3 : 8, 32), the "valley of the cheesemongers," etc. This suburb must have been soon enclosed by a wall. We do not know when or by whom the latter was commenced, but we have notices of its partial destruction (2 K. 14 : 13 ; 2 Chron. 25 : 23), and of its repair (2 Chron. 32 : 5). The particulars thus described will sufficiently explain the location of the great palace which Solomon built during the thirteen years after the completion of the Temple. Its site was the eastern terrace of the western hill, probably the same as that afterward occupied by the palace of the Asmonæans (Maccabees) and of Agrippa II. The area covered by this magnificent building was four times that of the Holy House (not including its courts). It stood right over against the Temple. A descent led from the Palace into the Tyropœon, and thence a special magnificent "ascent" (2 Chron. 9 : 4) to the royal entrance (2 K. 16 : 18), probably at the southwestern angle of the Temple. The site was happily chosen—protected by Fort Milo, and looking out upon the Temple-Mount, while south of it stretched the wealthy quarter of the city. Ascending from the Tyropœon, one would pass through a kind of ante-building into a porch, and thence into a splendid colonnade. This colonnade connected "the house of the forest of Lebanon," so called from the costly cedars used in its construction, with "the porch for the throne," where Solomon pronounced judgment (1 K. 7 : 6, 7). Finally, there was in the inner court, still further west, "the house where Solomon dwelt," and "the house for Pharaoh's daughter," with, of course, the necessary side and outbuildings (1 K. 7 : 8). Thus, the royal palace really consisted of three separate buildings. Externally it was simply of "costly stones" (verse 9), the beauty of its design only appearing in its interior. Here the building extended along three sides. The ground-floor consisted of colonnades of costly cedar, the beams being fastened into the outer walls. These colonnades would be hung with tapestry, so as to be capable of being formed into apartments. Above these rose, on each side of the court, three tiers or chambers, fifteen on each tier, with large windows looking out upon each other. Here were the State apartments for court feasts, and in them were kept, among other precious things, the golden targets and shields (1 K. 10 : 16, 17). Passing through another colonnade, one would next reach the grand Judgment and Audience-halls, with the magnificent throne of ivory, described in 1 K. 10 : 18-20; 2 Chron. 9 : 17-19. And, lastly, the innermost court contained the royal dwellings themselves. A. E. 1. K. 7 : 1-12. The description is conformable to the arrangement of Eastern palaces. The building stood in the middle of a great oblong square, which was surrounded by an enclosing wall, against which the houses and offices of those attached to the court were built. The building itself was oblong, consisting of two square courts, flanking a large oblong hall which formed the centre, and which, being 100 cubits long, by 50 broad, was properly the house of the forest of Lebanon, being the part where were the cedar pillars of this hall. In front was the porch of judgment, which was appropriated to the transaction of public business. On the one side of this great hall was the king's house; and on the other the harem or royal apartments for Pharaoh's daughter (Esther 2 : 3, 9). This arrangement of the palace accords with the Oriental style of building, according to which a great mansion always consists of three divisions, or separate houses—all connected by doors and passages—the men dwelling at one extremity, the female portion of the family at the other, while public rooms occupy the central part of the building. Jamieson. The principal building situated within the Palace was, as in all Eastern palaces, the great hall of state and audience, here called the "House of the Forest of Lebanon." Its dimensions were 100 cubits, or 150 feet long, by half that, or 75 feet in width. Next in importance is the hall or porch of judgment, which Josephus distinctly tells us was situated opposite to the centre of the longer side of the great hall. Its dimensions were 50 cubits, or 75 feet square (Josephus says 30 in one direction, at least), and its disposition can easily be understood by comparing the descriptions we have with the remains of the Assyrian and Persian examples. It must have been supported by four pillars in the centre, and had three entrances—the principal opening from the street and facing the judgment-seat; a second from the court-yard of the Palace, by which the councillors and officers of state might come in; and a third from the Palace, reserved for the sole entrance of the king and his household. The third edifice is merely called "the Porch." Its dimensions were 50 by 30 cubits, or 75 feet by 45. It was an indispensable adjunct to an Eastern palace. It was the ordinary place of business of the palace, and the reception-room where the king received ordinary visitors, and sat, except on great state occasions, to transact the business of the kingdom. Behind this, we are told, was the inner court, adorned with gardens and fountains, and surrounded by cloisters for shade; and besides this were other courts for the residence of the attendants and guards, and in Solomon's case, for the three hundred women of his harem. Apart from this palace, but attached, as Josephus tells us, to the Hall of Judgment, was the palace of Pharaoh's daughter. The recent discoveries at Nineveh have enabled us to understand many of the architectural details of this palace, which were before almost wholly inexplicable. We are told—e.g., that the walls of the halls of the palace were wainscoted with three tiers of stone, apparently versicolored marbles, hewn and polished, and surmounted by a fourth course, elaborately carved with representations of leafage and flowers. Above this the walls were plastered and ornamented with colored arabesques. At Nineveh the walls were, like these, wainscoted to a height of about eight feet, but with alabaster, a peculiar product of the country, and these were separated from the painted space above by an architectural band; the real difference being that the Assyrians revelled in sculptural representations of men and animals. These modes of decoration were forbidden to the Jews by the Second Commandment. Dic. B. The new Palace was built on massive substructions of enormous stones, carefully hewn, and was enclosed within a large court. It included several edifices within itself. The chief was a long hall, which, like the Temple, was encased in cedar; whence, probably, its name, "the House of the Forest of Lebanon." In front of it ran a pillared portico. Between this portico and the palace itself was a cedar porch,—sometimes called the Tower of David. In this tower, apparently hung over the walls outside, were a thousand golden shields, which gave the whole palace the name of the Armory. With a splendor that outshone any like fortress, the tower with these golden targets glittered far off in the sunshine like the tall neck, as it was thought, of a beautiful bride, decked out after the manner of the East, with strings of golden coins. Five hundred of them were made by Solomon's orders for the royal guard, but the most interesting were the older five hundred, which David had carried off in his Syrian wars from the guard of Hadadezer, as trophies of arms and ornaments, in which the Syrians specially excelled. It was these which, being regarded as spoils won in a sacred cause, gave, in all probability, occasion to the expression: "The shields of the earth belong unto God" (Ps. 47 : 9). This porch was the gem and centre of the whole Empire; and was so much thought of that a smaller likeness to it was erected in another part of the royal precinct for the Queen. Within the porch itself was to be seen the King in state. On a throne of ivory, brought from Africa or India, the throne of many an Arabian legend, the Kings of Judah were solemnly seated on the day of their accession. From its lofty seat, and under that high gateway, Solomon and his successors after him delivered their solemn judgments. That "porch" or "gate of justice" still kept alive the likeness of the old patriarchal custom of sitting in judgment at the gate; exactly as the Gate of Justice still recalls it to us at Granada and the Sublime Porte—"the Lofty Gate" at Constantinople. He sat on the back of a golden bull, its head turned over its shoulder, probably the ox or bull of Ephraim; under his feet, on each side of the steps, were six golden lions, probably the lions of Judah. This was "the seat of judgment." This was "the throne of the House of David." Stanley. The appearance of this grand hall and of the Porch of the Throne, when the king dispensed justice or received ambassadors from his gold and ivory chair of state, must have been imposing. His 500 guards, standing round with their golden shields, inspired respect and awe, if litigants brought their suits before him, or tributary states presented their tokens of homage. Between two and three centuries after Solomon, Isaiah the prophet refers to the House of the Forest of Lebanon as the arsenal of the kingdom of Judah (Is. 22 : 8). Sime.—Even the imaginations of the Oriental romancers and poets have scarcely conceived a more splendid pageant than Solomon, seated on his throne of ivory, receiving the homage of distant princes who came to admire his magnificence, and put to the test his noted wisdom. This throne was of pure ivory, covered with gold; six steps led up to the seat, and on each side of the steps were twelve lions carved. All the vessels of his palace were of pure gold, silver was thought too mean: his armory was furnished with gold; 200 targets and 300 shields of beaten gold were suspended in the house of Lebanon. Milman. 1. K. 3 : 1. Pharaoh king of Egypt. This is the first notice since the Exodus of any connection of Israel with Egypt. It is impossible to decide with certainty which Pharaoh it was whose daughter Solomon took to wife. The twenty-second Egyptian dynasty commenced with Sheshonk I. (the Shishak of the Bible), about n.c. 990. This monarch did much to advance the Egyptian power, which under the previous Tanite sovereigns of the twenty-first dynasty had sunk very low. We shall find Shishak (1 K. 11 : 40) receiving Jeroboam when he fled from Solomon. The wife of Solomon must therefore have been a daughter of a king in the previous dynasty, the kings of which would be likely to welcome an alliance with so powerful a monarch. Pharaoh is used in the Bible as the royal title of the Egyptian kings, and not as the proper name of any single person. This wife of Solomon probably embraced Judaism, as we find no reproach against him for this marriage, nor is any Egyptian deity mentioned among those for whom Solomon at a later time built high places when strange women turned away his heart after other gods. Lumby.—This marriage of Solomon with the daughter of Pharaoh—to which, from its frequent mention, so much political importance seems to have been attached—took place in the first years of his reign, although some time after the building of the Temple and of his own palace had commenced. Such a union was not forbidden by the law, nor was the daughter of Pharaoh apparently implicated in the charge brought against Solomon's other foreign wives of having led him into idolatry (1 K. 11 : 1-7). In fact, according to Jewish tradition, the daughter of Pharaoh actually became a Jewish proselyte. Still, Solomon seems to have felt the incongruity of bringing her into the palace of David, within the bounds of which "the Ark of the Lord" appears to have been located (2 Chron. 8 : 11), and she occupied a temporary abode "in the City of David," till the new palace of Solomon was ready for her reception. A. E. 1. K. 3 : 3. Solomon began well. He "loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father," and almost his first care is to accomplish the desire, inherited from his father, of building "the house of the Lord," for which David had long since been collecting materials. But even at this early date, when all seems so fair, the germs of evil are not wanting. There is something astounding in finding that one of his first acts was to seek a wife out of Egypt, the house of bondage. Since the Israelites "spoiled the Egyptians" there had been no intercourse between the two nations. Solomon's marriage was probably a diplomatic one, to gain the aid of Pharaoh against Edom, or at least to withhold him from helping Edom. It was the beginning of those many unions with strange wives who in the end led him into abominable idolatries. But he is nowhere said to have built altars to any Egyptian god, so that we may conclude that Pharaoh's daughter became a proselyte, and that for this reason the marriage was not specially condemned. But the connection with Egypt, if it did not lead to idolatry, led to another violation of the law. In direct contravention of De. 17 : 17, Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt (1 K. 10 : 28). Plummer. 2. Chron. 8 : 12-15. After the building of the temple and of his own house, Solomon continued for a time faithful to the worship and legislation of his people. For the first twenty-four years of his reign there was no change in the principles with which he set out in public life. Sime. 1. K. 9 : 25. Three times in a year he offered burnt-offerings extraordinary : namely, at the three yearly feasts, the Passover, Pentecost, and Feast of Tabernacles, in honor of the Divine institution ; beside what he offered at other times, both statedly, and upon special occasions. With his sacrifices he burned incense, not himself (that was King Uzziah's crime), but the priest for him, at his charge, and for his particular use. It is said, he offered on the altar which he himself built. He took care to build it, and then himself made use of it. Many will assist the devotions of others that neglect their own. H. CITIES BUILT BY SOLOMON. HIS ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS, ECCLESIASTICAL, MILITARY, AND CIVIL. HIS CHARIOTS, HORSEMEN, AND HORSES. It is agreed by all writers, that the trade carried on under Solomon was the same as that which is now in the hands of our East India merchants; yet there are great disputes among learned men, in what parts of the eastern world Ophir and Tarshish, the two places of resort mentioned in Scripture, lay. But we have no certain means of information; we have no account in Scripture of the situation of Ophir, or of the length of the voyage to it, only we are told that there were brought from it "gold, almuq trees, and precious stones," therefore, any place in the Southern or Indian oceans which could furnish these may be supposed to be the Ophir of Scripture. This, however, should be remarked, that if the southern part of Arabia furnished the world in those times with the best gold, and in the greatest quantity, as many authors affirm, those who assert Ophir to have been there situated, seem to have the best reason for their conjecture. Dean Prideaux.—Ophir is the name of the famous gold region, also known as Uphaz, the El Dorado of biblical geography, so well known to fame, so imperfectly ascertained in fact. Its position has been variously assigned to the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, the northwestern coast of India, the island of Ceylon, Malacca in the Malay Peninsula, and the eastern coast of Africa. On the whole, while the gold, and even, perhaps, the almuq-wood, may have been found in Arabia, as well as passed on therefrom in the way of commerce, the fact that the other objects mentioned were carried by the ships of Hiram and Solomon to Palestine does nothing to destroy the probability that the site of Ophir is to be placed on the sea-coast of that country, as they may have been brought there by sea, and embarked on board the ships, of which the chief freight consisted in its natural productions; nor does the statement that the "ships of Tarshish came once in three years" (verse 21) require us to believe that the voyage from Ezion-geber, Solomon's port on the Red Sea, to India occupied all that time (1 K. 9 : 26 ; 10 : 22). Herodotus, indeed, tells us that the fleet of discovery sent by Necho from the Red Sea occupied two years in sailing round Africa, but that the crews tarried on their voyage long enough in each year to sow the land and reap the crop. It is not likely that the trading voyage of Solomon's fleet, starting from nearly the same point, and bound to India, even if conducted on the most dilatory principle, could have occupied a whole year longer than the much longer one of Necho's scientific expedition. We may therefore receive the statement of the Book of Kings in its simply natural sense—viz., that, without inquiring into the length of each voyage, the fleets made their voyage to Ophir once in three years; probably they sailed farther than to Ophir, perhaps even as far as India or Ceylon; but the voyage derived its title from the place which was its principal station, Ophir, on the southeastern coast of the Arabian peninsula. Wilson. Tarshish, as appears from the Scriptural accounts and allusions, was an old, celebrated, opulent, cultivated, commercial city, which carried on trade in the Mediterranean and with the seaports of Syria, especially Tyre and Joppa, and that it most probably lay on the extreme west of that sea. Was there, then, in ancient times any city in these parts which corresponded with these clearly ascertained facts? There was. Such was Tartessus in Spain, said to have been a Phœnician colony, a fact which of itself would account for its intimate connection with Palestine and the Biblical narratives. As to the exact spot where Tartessis (so written originally) lay, authorities are not agreed, as the city had ceased to exist when geography began to receive attention; but it was not far from the Straits of Gibraltar, and near the mouth of the Guadalquivir, consequently at no great distance from the famous Granada of later days. The reader, however, must enlarge his notion beyond that of a mere city, which, how great so ever, would scarcely correspond with the ideas of magnitude, affluence, and power that the Scriptures suggest. The name, which is of Phœnician origin, seems to denote the district of Southwestern Spain, comprising the several colonies which Tyre planted in that country, and so being equivalent to what we might designate Phœnician Spain. We seem authorized by considerations, besides those which have been already elicited, in identifying the Hebrew Tarshish with the Spanish Tartessus, whatever may have been the extent of the neighboring country over which the latter held dominion, or possessed immediate influence. Among these considerations we mention, first, that the two names are similar, if they are not the same; a fact which would of itself seem to settle the question, in the absence of conflicting evidence and claims; second, Spain was one of the chief seats of Phœnician colonization; and if we unite therewith the northwest of Africa, we shall have some idea of the greatness of the power of Tyre in these parts, for Tyre is reported to have founded not fewer than three hundred cities on the western coast of Africa, and two hundred in Southwestern Spain (Strabo 2 : 82). Here, then, was found the chief object of the Phœnician sea trade. These countries were to Tyre what Peru was to Spain. Confining our remarks to Spain, we learn from Heeren that the Phœnician colonies on the European side of the sea were situated in the south of the present Andalusia. Here, with other important places, lay Tartessus, a name which is borne by a river, an island, a town, and a region. Heeren distinctly says that to Orientalists the word indicated the farthest west generally, comprising, of course, many places. In the commercial geography of the Phœnicians, he adds, the word obviously meant the entire of their colonial dependencies in Southern Spain. In the same general way we use the term West Indies; and thus arose the river, the town the district of Tartessus, since the country included them all. Third, it does much to confirm our view that all the articles reported in Jeremiah and Ezekiel to have been brought from Tarshish might have come from Southwestern Spain. Here there were mines of gold and silver, and Tartessus is expressly named as affording the latter mineral (Strabo, Diod. Sic.). Tin was brought by the Phœnicians from Britain into Spain, and thence carried to the Oriental markets. According to Diodorus Siculus, tin was procured in Spain also, as well as lead, according to Pliny. Pliny's words are forcible: "Nearly all Spain abounds in the metals—lead, iron, copper, silver, gold." We add one or two corroborations. Heeren translates Ezek. 27 : 25, "The ships of Tarshish," etc., by "Spanish ships were the chief object of thy merchandise; thou (Tyre) wast a full city, and wast honored on the seas." The Phœnicians were as eager in their quest of gold and gold countries as were the alchemists and the Europeans of the sixteenth century. The lust for gold urged them over the deserts of Arabia and the cliffs of the Red Sea as far as Yemen and Ethiopia; and the same passion carried them westwardly to the coasts of Spain and the pillars of Hercules. "Spain," says Heeren, "was once the richest land in the world for silver; gold was found there in great abundance, and the baser metals as well. The silver mountains were in those parts which the Phœnicians comprised under the general name of Tartessus or Tarshish. The immeasurable affluence of precious metals which on their first arrival they found here, so astounded them, and the sight thereof so wrought on the imagination of the people, that fact called fable to its aid, and the story gained currency, that the first Phœnician colonists not only filled their ships with gold, but made thereof their various implements, anchors not excepted." J. R. Beard. Commercial Relations of Solomon with Tyre and the Phœnician People. To his relations with Tyre the whole record testifies. These relations were definitely and intensely commercial—bread-stuffs in exchange for building materials and skilled labor; besides the co-operative trade which Solomon and Hiram carried on jointly through their commercial navies and seafaring men across the great Mediterranean with Northwestern Africa and Southwestern Europe—in Hebrew phrase, "with Tarshish" and "ships of Tarshish." The imports of this trade were gold and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks." Moreover, having built Ezion-geber on the eastern arm of the Red Sea for their port, they drove a very considerable trade with the southern coast region of Arabia and probably with India and Africa. The precise location of Ophir—the land of gold—is still an unsettled question, opinions being divided between Arabia and India, with much to be said for either theory. The products of this traffic were gold (principally), yet also "almug (or algum) trees and precious stones." H. C.—The first branch of commerce into which this enterprising people either admitted the Jews as regular partners, or at least permitted them to share in its advantages, was the traffic of the Mediterranean. To every part of that sea the Phœnicians had pursued their discoveries; they had planted colonies, and worked the mines. This was the trade to Tarshish, so celebrated, that ships of Tarshish seem to have become the common name for large merchant vessels. Tarshish was probably a name as indefinite as the West Indies in early European navigation; properly speaking, it was the south of Spain, then rich in mines of gold and silver, the Peru of Tyrian adventure. Whether or not as early as the days of Solomon,—without doubt in the more flourishing period of Phœnicia; before the city on the mainland was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and insular Tyre became the emporium—the Phœnician navies extended their voyages beyond the pillars of Hercules, where they founded Cadiz. Northward they sailed along the coast of France to the British isles: southward along the African shore; where the boundaries of their navigation are quite uncertain, yet probably extended to the Gold Coast. The second branch of commerce was the inland trade with Egypt. This was carried on entirely by the Jews. Egypt supplied horses in vast numbers. The third, and more important branch, was the maritime trade by the Red Sea. The conquests of David had already made the Jews masters of the eastern branch of this gulf. Solomon built or improved the towns and ports of Elath and Ezion-geber. Hence a fleet, manned by Tyrians, sailed for Ophir, their East Indies, as Tarshish was their West. They sailed along the eastern coast of Africa, in some part of which the real Ophir was probably situated. The whole maritime commerce, with Eastern Asia, the southern shores of the Arabian peninsula, the coasts of the Persian gulf, and without doubt some parts of India, entered, in the same manner, the Red Sea, and was brought to Elath and Ezion-geber. Yet even this line of commerce was scarcely more valuable than the inland trade of the Arabian peninsula. This was carried on by the caravans of the native tribes, who transported on camels the spices, the incense, the gold, the precious stones, the valuable woods, particularly the almug, thought to be the sandal—and all the other highly-prized productions of that country; perhaps also the foreign commodities which were transported across the Persian gulf, or which were landed, by less adventurous traders from the east, in the Arabian ports on that sea. Both these lines of commerce flowed directly into the dominions of Solomon. Another line of commerce was that of inland Asia, which crossed from Assyria and Babylonia to Tyre. In order to participate in this branch of traffic, Solomon subdued part of the Syrian tribes, and built two cities as stations between the Euphrates and the coast. These were Tadmor and Baalath, one the celebrated Palmyra, the other Baal-bee. Milman. 2. Chron. 9:13. Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year**—666 talents, equal to £3,996,000. The sources whence this was derived are not mentioned; nor was it the full amount of his revenue; for this was “besides that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffic of the spicemarchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country.” The great attention he gave to commerce was the means of enriching his royal exchequer. By the fortifications which he erected in various parts of his kingdom, and particularly at such places as Thapsacus, one of the passages of Euphrates, and at Tadmor, in the Syrian desert, he gave complete security to the caravan trade from the depredations of the Arab marauders; and it was reasonable that, in return for this protection, he should exact a certain toll or duty for the importation of foreign goods. A considerable revenue, too, would arise from the use of the store cities and khans he built; and it is not improbable that those cities were emporia, where the caravan merchants unloaded their bales of spices and other commodities, and sold them to the king’s factors, who, according to the modern practice in the East, retailed them in the Western markets at a profit. “The revenue derived from the tributary kings and from the governors of the country” must have consisted in the tribute which all inferior magistrates periodically bring to their sovereigns in the East, in the shape of presents of the produce of their respective provinces. 17-19. A great throne of ivory.** It seems to have been made not of solid ivory, but veneered. It was in the form of an arm-chair, with a carved back. The ascent to it was by six steps, on each of which stood lions, in place of a railing—while a lion, probably of gilt metal, stood at each side, which, we may suppose from the analogy of other Oriental thrones, supported a canopy. A golden footstool is mentioned as attached to this throne, whose magnificence is described as unrivalled. Jamieson. — We never read of ivory till about the time of Solomon, who, perhaps, brought elephants from India, or, at least, caused great quantities of ivory to be imported from thence. At this time it was as precious as gold: we must not suppose, therefore, that this throne of Solomon’s was entirely overlaid with gold, but only in particular places, that so the mixture of gold and ivory, which gave a lustre to each other, might make the throne look more beautiful. “There was not the like made in any kingdom” (verse 19), of course the sacred writer means in those days. In after ages, we read that the throne of the Parthian kings was of gold, encompassed with four golden pillars beset with precious stones, and that the Persian kings sat in judgment under a golden vine, the bunches of whose grapes were made of several sorts of precious stones. This serves to illustrate the splendor of eastern monarchs. Stackhouse. 19. And twelve lions stood.** An account is given by Sir Thomas Roe of a throne of the Mogul, much resembling this of Solomon: “He hath at Agra a most glorious throne within his palace, the ascent to which is by divers steps, covered with plates of silver; on the top of the ascent stand four lions, upon pedestals of marble, which lions are all of massy silver, in part gilt. These lions support a canopy of fine gold, under which the Mogul sits when he appears in his greatest state and glory.” Fragments to Calmet. #### Summary of the Sources of Solomon’s Wealth. The profound peace which the nation enjoyed as a fruit of David’s victories, stimulated the industry of all Israel. The tribes beyond the Jordan had become rich by the plunder of the Hagarenes, and had a wide district where their cattle might multiply to an indefinite extent. The agricultural tribes enjoyed a soil and climate in some parts eminently fruitful, and in all richly rewarding the toil of irrigation; so that, in the security of peace, nothing more was wanted to develop the resources of the nation than markets for its various produce. In food for men and cattle, in timber and fruit trees, in stone, and probably in the useful metals, the land supplied of itself all the first wants of its people in abundance. For exportation, it is distinctly stated, that wheat, barley, oil, and wine were in chief demand; to which we may conjecturally add, wool, hides, and other raw materials. The king undoubtedly had large districts and extensive herds of his own; but besides this, he received presents in kind from his own people and from the subject nations; and it was possible in this way to make demands upon them, without severe oppression, to an extent that is unbearable where taxes must be paid in gold or silver. He was himself at once monarch and merchant; and we may with much confidence infer, that no private merchant will be allowed to compete with a prince who has assumed the mercantile character. By his intimate commercial union with the Tyrians, he was put into the most favorable of all positions for disposing of his goods. That energetic nation, possessing so small a strip of territory, had much need of various raw produce for their own wants. Another large demand was made by them for the raw materials of manufactures, and for articles which they could with advantage sell again: and as they were able to furnish so many acceptable luxuries to the court of Solomon, a most active exchange soon commenced. Only second in importance to this, and superior in fame, was the commerce of the Red Sea, which could not have been successfully prosecuted without the aid of Tyrian enterprise and experience. The navigation to Sheba, and the districts beyond—whether of Eastern Arabia or of Africa—was highly lucrative, from the vast diversity of productions between the countries so exchanging; while, as it was a trade of monopoly, a very disproportionate share of the whole gain fell to the carriers of the merchandise. The Egyptians were the only nation who might have been rivals in the southern maritime traffic; but their religion and their exclusive principles did not favor sea-voyages; and there is some reason to think that at this early period they abstained from sending their own people abroad for commerce. The goods brought back from the south were chiefly gold, precious stones, spice, almuj or other scented woods, and ivory; all of which were probably so abundant in their native regions as to be parted with on easy terms; and, of course, were all admirably suited for re-exportation to Europe. The carrying trade, which was thus shared between Solomon and the Tyrians, was probably the most lucrative part of the southern and eastern commerce. How large a portion of it went on by caravans of camels, is wholly unknown; yet that this branch was considerable, is certain. From Egypt Solomon imported horses and chariots, which were sold again to the princes of Syria and of the Hittites; and were probably prized for the superior breed of the horses, and for the light, strong, and elegant structure of the chariots. Wine being abundant in Palestine, and wanting in Egypt, was no doubt a principal means of repayment. Moreover, Solomon's fortifying of Tadmor (or Palmyra), and retention of Thapsacus on the Euphrates, show that he had an important interest in the direct land and river trade to Babylon; although we have no details on this subject. F. W. Newman. We must not suffer our eyes to be so dazzled by the magnificence of Solomon's commercial operations as to preclude ourselves from discerning the unsoundness of their principles, and the hollowness of the prosperity which they appeared to create. Although it may be, that no cause so directly contributes to the material prosperity of a nation as commerce—to insure that result, the commerce must be national, not regal. It must be the effect of the natural development of the nation's resources, or of the direction given to its tastes and habits. It must be in the hands of the people, open to all who can command the needful capital, or possess the required commodities—and so diffusing by numerous channels throughout the land its enlivening influence. Without this, commerce can have no really beneficial existence, and although it may gild the head of the State, it can impart no quickening life to its frame. Solomon, with all his wisdom, did not discern this. Kit. It has been well observed (by Ewald) that there was a moment in Israel's history when it seemed possible that David might have laid the foundation of an empire like that of Rome, and another when Solomon might have led the way to a philosophy as sovereign as that of Greece. But it was an equally, if not more dangerous path on which to enter, and one even more opposed to the Divine purpose concerning Israel, when foreign trade, and with it foreign luxury, became the object of king and people. The danger was only too real, and the public display appeared in what the Queen of Sheba saw of Solomon's court, in the magnificence of his throne, and in the sumptuousness of all his appointments. Two hundred large targets and three hundred smaller shields, all covered with beaten gold, hung around the house of the forest of Lebanon; all the king's drinking vessels, and all the other appurtenances for State receptions were of pure gold; the merchants brought the spices of the East into the country; while traders, importers, and vassal chiefs swelled the immense revenue, which in one year rose to the almost incredible sum of 666 talents of gold, which at the lowest computation amounts to upward of two and a half millions of our money, or only one million less than that of the Persian kings. Add to this the number of Solomon's chariots and horsemen, the general wealth of the country, and the importation of horses from Egypt, which made Palestine almost an emporium for chariots and horses; and it will not be difficult to perceive on what a giddy height king and people stood during the later years of Solomon's reign. It was this scene of wealth and magnificence, unexampled even in the East, as well as the undisputed political influence and supremacy of the king, combined with the highest intellectual activity and civilization in the country, which so much astounded the Queen of Sheba on her visit to Solomon's dominions. A. E. From these and other details, summarized in these chapters of Solomon's career, we get certain impressions which are only deepened as we reach the conclusion of that career. The first respects the just estimate of Solomon's character and of the fruits of his life. Apart from his choice of wisdom in the comparison of other earthly gifts, and from his participation in occasional public worship, there is little indication of personal fellowship with God, or personal consecration to Him. So in the acts of his protracted reign, apart from his excellent work in the building of the Temple, there is no one of the manifold and notable products of his reign that seems to have been instigated by a higher consideration than personal or national glory. The burden of his sad strain in "The words of the Preacher," and the prevalent tone of the Proverbs, strongly confirm this impression of Solomon's character and life. Only in the faithful transcription of these wisest and deepest of practical truths, whose substance was inwrought into his experience and made clearer by a supernatural insight, only in this, his great work for God and man, do we find that which in some measure redeems an otherwise pre-eminently wasted though supremely gifted life. And this leads us to the second impression, perhaps the great lesson suggested by this life. It is the wonderful long-suffering and positive forbearance of God as shown in his dealing with Solomon. It is the same lesson disclosed in every previous life-history, but nowhere, perhaps, so signally as here. With Saul, God forbore only for a season, after his disobedience. With David's transgressions he dealt at once and sorely. But for long years, and even to the end, He forebore with Solomon. With no other human soul did the promises of Jehovah seem to have such force in holding back His hand from merited chastisement. And the lesson is deeply impressive, as illustrating God's tenderness of affection, His depth of patience, and His faithfulness to promise! B. Solomon got much by his merchandise, and yet has directed us to a better trade, within reach of the poorest, having assured us, from his own experience of both, that the merchandise of Wisdom is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold (Prov. 3 : 14). H. 1. AND Rehoboam went to Shechem : for all Israel were come to Shechem to make 2 him king. And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it, (for he was in Egypt, whither he had fled from the presence of king Solomon,) that Jeroboam 3 returned out of Egypt. And they sent and called him ; and Jeroboam and all Israel came, and they spake to Rehoboam, saying, 4 Thy father made our yoke grievous : now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve 5 thee. And he said unto them, Come again unto me after three days. And the people 6 departed. And king Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, that had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying, What counsel give ye me to return an- 7 swer to this people ? And they spake unto him, saying, If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for 8 ever. But he forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him, and took counsel with the young men that were grown up with him, that stood before him. 9 And he said unto them, What counsel give ye, that we may return answer to this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke that thy father did put upon us 10 lighter ? And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou say unto the people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us ; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger is thicker than my father's 11 loins. And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke : my father chastised you with whips, 12 but I will chastise you with scorpions. So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king bade, say- 13 ing, Come to me again the third day. And the king answered them roughly ; and king Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old 14 men, and spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add thereto : counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. So the king hearkened not unto the people; for it was a thing brought about of the LORD, that he might establish his word, which the LORD spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. And when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents. But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the levy; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. And king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel rebelled against the house of David, unto this day. And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was returned, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only. Historic Outline. After Moses and Joshua, for three hundred and fifty years God had maintained a special personal rule over the tribes that He had chosen as His people. During this period, as occasion demanded, from time to time He had raised up special deliverers, called Judges. Of these the number of recorded names is fifteen. Then, at the people's solicitation, God had given them, in Saul, the style of king they desired; a man of kingly presence and strong character, a brave, sagacious leader, but ruled as were the people by a selfish worldly spirit. To him succeeded David, who was God's own appointee; a complete warrior and organizer, always true to God's interests in his kingly administration, though sometimes false to his own through frailty of his passionate nature. Upon the death of Saul a spirit of hostility had arisen, between Judah and Benjamin on the south, and the other ten tribes of the north. Under the judicious, impartial and beneficent rule of David this hostile spirit wholly disappeared in a new feeling of national unity. But to sustain Solomon's more splendid and prosperous but self-seeking reign, many burdens had been laid upon the northern tribes. The old disaffection had sprung up again, and secretly extended among them all. my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. So the king hearkened not unto the people; for it was brought about of God, that the LORD might establish his word, which he spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. And when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So all Israel departed unto their tents. But as for the children of Israel that dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. Then king Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was over the levy; and the children of Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. And king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel rebelled against the house of David, unto this day. Now, at the critical moment of Solomon's death, and partly as a consequence of Rehoboam's infatuated folly, this disaffection breaks forth into successful revolt. And the kingdom of Saul, David, and Solomon, that had lasted one hundred and twenty years, is dismembered into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. Of these, the kingdom of Israel, or the ten tribes, continues two hundred and fifty-four years under nineteen or twenty kings of ten different families. Assyrian conquerors then (721 B.C.) carried away the ten tribes; and, as a distinct people, they disappeared from history. The kingdom of Judah lasted three hundred and eighty-eight years under nineteen or twenty kings of the family of David. Removed (587 B.C.) to Babylon, after a captivity of seventy years they were restored in considerable numbers to their own land. This historic outline should be carefully fixed in mind as a preparation for the intelligent study of these pages. B. The space of time from the separation of the two kingdoms to the completion of the captivity of Judah is about four centuries. These centuries constitute a period second in importance to none of equal length. They comprise the great development, the decadence and the fall of Assyria, the sudden growth of Media and Babylon, the Egyptian revival under the Psammetichl, the most glorious time of the Phœnician cities, the rise of Sparta and Athens to pre-eminence in Greece, the foundation of Carthage and of Rome, and the spread of civilization by means of the Greek and Phœnician colonies, from the Palus Maotis to the Pillars of Hercules. Moreover, they contain within them the transition time of most profane history, the space within which it passes from the dreamy cloud-land of myth and fable into the sober region of reality and fact, and assumes the character of authenticity and trustworthiness. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Phœnicia, Greece vie with each other in offering to us proofs that the Hebrew records, for this time, contain a true and authentic account of the fortunes of the race; and instead of finding merely a few points here and there to illustrate from profane sources, we shall now be able to produce confirmatory proof of almost every important event in the history. G. R. In the later years of David's reign, when the consciousness and the consequences of the great sin of his life had, so to speak, paralyzed the strong hand which held the reins of government, we are led to see how, in the Providence of God, the possibility of a great military world-monarchy in Israel—such as those of heathen antiquity—was forever frustrated. Another era began with Solomon: that of peaceful development of the internal resources of the country; of rapid increase of prosperity; of spread of culture; and, through friendly intercourse with other nations, of introduction of foreign ideas and foreign civilization. When it is remembered that the building of the Temple preceded the legislation of Lycurgus in Sparta by about one hundred and twenty years, that of Solon in Athens by more than four hundred years, and the building of Rome by about two hundred and fifty years, it will be perceived that the kingdom of Solomon presented the dim possibility of the intellectual, if not the political empire of the world. But, in the Providence of God, any such prospect passed away, when, after only eighty years' duration, the Davidic kingdom was rent into two rival and hostile states. A. E. The origin of this separation is declared to have been a Divine judgment on the house of David, in consequence of the idolatrous worship introduced by the foreign wives of Solomon, and criminally permitted or partaken of by that prince. Had this offence remained unpunished, so contagious an example would have probably infected the whole mass of the people, who would thus have irretrievably sunk into idolatry and vice; and does it not appear probable, that so long as the whole nation continued united under one sovereign this danger might frequently recur? Does not this division of the people under two monarchs appear, even to our short-sighted views, not only a just punishment for the crimes of Solomon, but the most probable method of preventing that universal apostasy caused by similar misconduct in future, which might have entirely defeated the design of the Jewish dispensation? Thus we must consider this revolution in its first origin as a providential dispensation. Yet it was not brought about by any resistless operation of Divine power; human passions and human agency were, in appearance, its only effective cause. The imprudent and tyrannical answer of Rehoboam to the demands of the Jewish people for a redress of grievances was its immediate occasion; but when the king of Judah made preparations to reduce the revolted tribes the Deity interposed to prevent the miseries of civil war, and commanded by His prophet: "Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren, for this thing is from me." Nor should it be forgotten that this schism and idolatry of the ten tribes gave occasion for the most signal displays of Divine power and the most emphatic denunciations and manifestations of Divine justice, in the correction and government of this perverse race and their guilty monarchs. The miraculous reproof and punishment of Jeroboam himself, the death of his favorite son, the utter destruction of the three royal houses of Jeroboam, of Baasha, and of Ahab, all foretold by the prophets, afforded awful examples of the Divine vengeance. Among these ten tribes, also, were exhibited the miracles of Elijah and Elisha; concerning them too and their kings were pronounced some of the most distinguished prophecies of Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah; and finally, after a series of striking and instructive chastisements, God executed His final judgment on this deluded and corrupted race, for He "removed Israel out of His sight" (2 K. 17: 18). Nor were corresponding effects wanting from this schism on the remaining two tribes; for it proved the most powerful means of preserving in them whatever degree of attention to the Divine law subsisted among them. It made it the obvious political interest of the kings of Judah to adhere with strictness to the law of Moses, and to promote its observance among their subjects; a line of conduct which became the boasted distinction of these kings, and the popular topic by which they maintained their superiority over the kings of Israel. Graves. The Books of Kings and Chronicles form the main source for the history of the kings of Israel and Judah. They require, however, to be supplemented, especially for the later kings, by a careful study of the prophetic Scriptures, particularly of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Micah, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. Local coloring, the life and manners of the time, and the feelings of those contemporary with the events described, are derivable almost wholly from this latter source, which furnishes them often in tolerable abundance. G. R.—The history contained in the Kings and Chronicles is not, by any means, a mere civil history, for it keeps always in view its position and purport as a part of Holy Scripture, and therefore dismisses with brevity long reigns, and important wars and conquests, in order to give prominence to the moral lessons and admonitions of the time, and to the religious characteristics and tendencies of kings, nobles, priests and people. D. F. The separate existence of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah is abundantly confirmed by the Assyrian inscriptions. Kings of each country occur in the accounts which the great Assyrian monarchs have left us of their conquests—the names being always capable of easy identification with those recorded in Scripture, and occurring in the chronological order which is there given. The Jewish monarch bears the title of “King of Judah,” while his Israelitish brother is designated after his capital city; which, though in the earlier times not called Samaria, is yet unmistakably indicated under the term Beth-Khumri, “the house or city of Omri,” that monarch having been the original founder of Samaria, according to Scripture. G. R. Here, at the outset of the separate history of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, it may be well to take a general view of the relation of these two divisions of the Jewish people to Jehovah, their King. That the sin of Israel was much deeper, and their apostasy from God much sooner and more fully developed than in the case of Judah, appears from the circumstance, that the Divine judgment in the banishment of the people from their land overtook Israel one hundred and twenty-three years earlier than Judah. Yet at first sight it seems almost strange that such should have been the case. Altogether, the period of the separate existence of the two kingdoms (to the deportation of the ten tribes under Shalmaneser, about 722. B.C.) extended over two hundred and fifty-three years. During that time, thirteen monarchs reigned over Judah, and twenty over Israel, besides two periods of anarchy in Israel. The religious history of the ten tribes during these two and a half centuries may be written in very brief compass. Of all the kings of Israel it is uniformly said, that they “walked in the ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat,” except of Ahab and his two sons (Ahaziah and Jehoram), under whose reigns the worship of Baal became the established religion of the country. It follows that there was not a single king in Israel who really served the Lord or worshipped in His Temple. On the other hand, there were at least five kings in Judah distinguished for their piety (Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, and Hezekiah), while of the other eight, two (Joash and Amaziah) continued for a considerable, and a third (Rehoboam) for a short period their profession of the religion of their fathers. Four of the other five kings acquired, indeed, a terrible notoriety for daring blasphemy. Abijam, the son and successor of Rehoboam, adopted all the practices of his father during the last fourteen years of that monarch’s reign. During the reign of Jehoram the worship of Baal was introduced into Judah; and we know with what terrible consistency it was continued under Ahaziah and Athaliah, the measure of iniquity being filled by Ahaz, who ascended the throne twenty years before the deportation of the ten tribes, when the doors of the Sanctuary were actually closed, and an idol-altar set up in the Temple court. But, despite all this, idolatry never struck its roots deeply among the people, and this for three reasons. There was, first, the continued influence for good of the Temple at Jerusalem; and in this we see at least one providential reason for the existence of a central Sanctuary, and for the stringency of the Law which confined all worship to its courts. Secondly, the idolatrous kings of Judah were always succeeded by monarchs distinguished for piety, who swept away the rites of their predecessors; while, lastly, and remarkably, the reign of the idolatrous kings was uniformly brief as compared with that of the God-fearing rulers. Thus, on a review of the whole period, we find that, of the two hundred and fifty-three years between the accession of Rehoboam and the deportation of the ten tribes, two hundred passed under the rule of monarchs who maintained the religion of Jehovah, while only during fifty-three years His worship was more or less discarded by the kings of Judah. A. E. The kingdom of Judah was preserved from the defection of the other tribes, expressly for the sake of God's covenant with David, and to maintain His worship at its chosen seat; and the immediate consequence of Jeroboam's religious revolt was to drive all the priests and Levites to Jerusalem. With the line of David remained God's promise of a permanent kingdom, made doubly sure by its ultimate reference to the Messiah; in that family the crown was handed on, generally from father to son, while in Israel the dynasty of Jeroboam ended with his son; and there followed a series of murders and usurpations, amid which the longest dynasties, those of Omri and Jehu, only numbered four and five kings each. From the disruption to the epoch at which Ahaziah, king of Judah, and Jehoram, king of Israel, were killed at the same time by Jehu, a period of ninety years (B.C. 975-884), Judah had only six kings (though Ahaziah reigned but one year), while Israel had nine; and in the whole period of two hundred and fifty-five years, from the disruption to the captivity of Israel, twelve kings of Judah occupy the same space as nineteen kings of Israel—a striking indication of the greater stability of the former dynasty. The moral superiority is equally striking, not only in the preservation of the worship of Jehovah at Jerusalem, while Israel was sunk in idolatry, but even on the comparatively weak ground of the personal character of the kings. It is true that the house of David was deeply corrupted, chiefly by its connection with the wicked house of Ahab; but it boasts the names of Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, the godly Hezekiah, the penitent Manasseh, the pure Josiah; while not one of the kings of Israel is free from the blot of foul wickedness, for even the fierce zeal of Jehu had no purity of motive. The two kingdoms were equally distinguished in their final fate. The sentence of captivity was executed upon Israel about one hundred and thirty years sooner than on Judah; and while only a remnant of the ten tribes shared the restoration of Judah, the latter became once more a small but powerful nation, not free from the faults of their fathers, but worshipping God with a purity and serving Him with a heroic zeal unequalled since the days of Joshua, and preparing for the restoration of the true spiritual kingdom under the last great son of David. P. S. In the kingdom of Israel we see a long succession of wicked kings; in that of Judah we find a few who were eminent for piety. In every page we behold the genuine character of man; and through the whole history we see the faithfulness and unchangeableness of God, His holiness and justice, His mercy and forbearance. Jos. Jones.—The Bible history describes, in action and exhibition, the perfections of Jehovah, as fully as the proclamation in which He declares Himself to be long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, and by no means clearing the guilty. It delineates the deceitfulness and desperate wickedness of the human heart as forcibly and distinctly as the annunciations of the prophets, when they "cry aloud and spare not." In the narratives of Scripture the dependent state, the perverseness, and the folly of man, and the secret motives by which he is actuated, as well as the power, the wisdom, the justice, and the goodness of God in His providential government, and above all in redemption, are vividly depicted. There is not a battle fought by the Israelites, nor a change in the administration of their government, the account of which is not designed for our instruction. There is not an incident recorded as taking place in a private family that has not a significant meaning . . . . And the history invariably keeps in view the agency of God in every occurrence, in events the most minute as well as the most considerable; and thus it furnishes a perpetual comment on the sublime description of the apostle, when, penetrated with admiration of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, he exclaims, "Of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen." Holdane. 1. K. 12:1-5.** In the conference Jeroboam appeared as leader of the ten tribes. The son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim, Solomon long before had appointed him as ruler over that tribe. An able and ambitious man, skilful and successful in the construction of various works, withal popular among his own and the other already disaffected tribes, he soon aspired to royal state. His aspirations were confirmed by the symbolic act and declaration of the prophet Ahijah, recorded in chap. 11:29-39. His designs being discovered by Solomon, he fled to Egypt, where he remained until the king's death. At the call of the disaffected tribes upon the death of Solomon he came and acted as their spokesman in the conference with Rehoboam. And soon these tribes will elect and establish him as king over Israel. 6-8. The wise counsel rejected. The spirit of true worship or piety had almost died out of the land during the latter half of Solomon's reign. Doubtless the charge which the ten tribes brought against Solomon (verse 4) was true. His selfish, lavish expenditure demanded the imposition of increasingly heavy taxes. These he would naturally exact in larger proportion from the more distant tribes. They received little or no direct benefit from the costly structures, cities and roads for commerce, upon which their tribute was expended. Naturally therefore, and not unreasonably, they asked for reduction of these onerous taxes. At first Rehoboam rightly seeks guidance from the experienced and trusted counsellors of Solomon his father. The advice him to comply with the people's request for help, and to turn away their wrath by gentle words. And no wiser, better counsel was ever given. No clearer, truer statement of a great principle bearing upon practical conduct was ever spoken. "Serve thou this people," they said, "by timely helpfulness in their needs, and speak kindly to them, so wilt thou make them willing servants and faithful subjects!" Helpful service and kindly dealing were essential conditions of a safe and successful rule, the real basis of a happy and useful kingship. And in nothing is the kingly and the Christ-like mind so much evinced as in costly personal service and kindly speech. Therefore He who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, declared that whosoever will be chiefest shall be servant of all. But Rehoboam "forsook the counsel of the old men" "that stood before Solomon his father." B. This was the kernel of the old men's advice: "You are the father of your people. You will command them best by serving them, for thus you will command their hearts. Consult their interest; bear with their petulance; entertain their grievances; deal considerably and tenderly with their burdens." The young king could not appreciate this lofty ideal of sovereignty. That a man could serve and be a king, that he could be most absolutely a king through service, was incomprehensible to him. Vincent. 8-11. The foolish counsel accepted. He consults with "the young men which stood before him," who were his preferred counsellors. They urged him to threaten the people with yet severer exactions and harsher treatment, and to use only scornful and contemptuous words in his reply. The advice they gave indicated their character as selfish, heartless, and cruel. And that such men were his chosen and trusted associates, that such advice commended itself to his own haughty nature and accorded with his own inclinations, shows that the young king was himself alike heartless and cruel. B.—It was the advice of youthful selfishness, conceit, inexperience and presumption. Its kernel was: "You have the power; use the power. Thus shalt thou say unto them, My father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." And he took this advice. Word for word, he spoke to the people after the counsel of the young men, abating not one cruel taunt, one brutal threat. He forsook the old men's counsel. There is nothing uncommon in that. Vincent. 12-14. In the final decision of Rehoboam we find no trace of counsel sought of Jehovah. He wilfully turns away from the God of his fathers and utterly disregards all just rights of the people. Acting upon the suggestions of his own proud and foolish heart, and of companions alike self-seeking and foolish, he rudely and scornfully denies the reasonable petition of the people, and declares his purpose to subject them to still greater tyranny and suffering. There is no instance in history wherein so vast and permanent issues have depended upon a single decision, as in this election of foolish counsellors and adoption of unworthy counsel by Solomon's most unwise son and successor. And yet what else could be expected of this son, neglected and uncounselled as he had been by Solomon, left to a natural unrestrained haughtiness and an unbalanced pride of power. 15. God's part in this dismemberment of David's kingdom. That "the cause was from the Lord," obviously does not mean that God put the fatal folly into Rehoboam's heart, or inspired his senseless utterance. It does not mean that God authorized or approved the rebellion of the ten tribes from the house of David. Nor did it imply any direct commission to Jeroboam, or endorsement of his new kingship over Israel. God had said that the kingdom of Solomon should be rent, and that Jeroboam should be king over the ten tribes. But concerning the manner in which His Word should be fulfilled, the human motives and actions through which His purposes should be accomplished, nothing is here asserted or implied that qualifies man's sole responsibility in the matter. As the fulfilment of God's purposes was not the motive, was not even in the thought, of the rebelling tribes and their leader, so it formed no possible excuse for their conduct. The simple key to any and every difficulty lies in the fact that God uses all human plans and acts, wise and unwise, good and evil, in the carrying out of His own only wise and good purposes. That God does thus interpose even the heathen mind has discerned, as we learn from the oft-quoted proverb: "Whom the gods would destroy they first infatuate." B. I see Jeroboam's plot, the people's insolence, the young men's misadvice, the prince's unreasonable austerity, meeting together, through the wise providence of the Almighty, unwittingly to accomplish His most just decree. All these might have done otherwise, for any force that was offered to their will; all would no more do otherwise, than if there had been no predetermination in heaven; that God may be magnified in His wisdom and justice, while man wittingly perisheth in his folly. Bp. H.—A stormy scene of passion, without thought of God, rages below, and above sits the Lord, working His great purpose by men's sin. That Divine control does not in the least affect the freedom or the guilt of the actors. Rehoboam's disregard of the people's terms was "a thing brought about of the Lord," but it was Rehoboam's sin none the less. That which, looked at from the mere human side, is the sinful result of the free play of wrong motives, is, when regarded from the Divine side, the determinate counsel of God. The greatest crime in the world's history was at the same time the accomplishment of God's most merciful purpose. Calvary is the highest example of the truth, which embraces all lesser instances of the wrath of man, which He makes to praise Him and effect His deep designs. A. M.—Had Rehoboam followed the old men's counsel he could at least have said, "I have done my best in the fear of God." But by his folly he brought the whole responsibility of the fatal crisis upon his own shoulders. Jeroboam and the tent tribes wanted an excuse indeed, but Rehoboam gave them one gratuitously. It needed but this to kindle the spark of rebellion into a flame. Vincent. 16,17. Separation and final severance of Israel from Judah. The proud contemptuous tone of Rehoboam prompts the same spirit in the answer of the people. In the identical words of the malcontents who followed Sheba in the time of David, they say in substance, "We owe nothing to David, and receive nothing from the son of Jesse. Henceforth we renounce all allegiance and connection with him and his house!" So slightingly they refer to David; and with the bold challenge, "See now to thine own house, David," they go homeward. 19,20. Then Rehoboam consummates his impolitic folly by sending a messenger, probably with some offer of compromise, to the exasperated tribes. B.—But with the wrong-headedness which characterized all his proceedings at this period of his life, he selected for envoy one of the persons most obnoxious to the malcontents—no other than his father's chief director of the forced labors which were so unpopular—Adoram or Adoniram. The rebels seem to have considered that this was adding insult to injury; and, without waiting to hear his message, they stoned him to death. G. R.—This would seem to have been done before his departure from Shechem. For the stoning of this man, Adoram, by the whole people terrified the king and led him to flee to Jerusalem. This act of Israel was their final severance from the house of David. B. Judah remained firm in his allegiance to the house of David; Benjamin, satisfied with the distinction accorded it by the emplacement of the capital within its borders, threw in its lot with Judah; Levi, thoroughly content with its grand position at the head of the religion of the kingdom, gave its sympathies to the Davidic cause, and ultimately gravitated to the southern kingdom. But Reuben, which claimed the right of the first-born; Ephraim, which had given to the nation Joshua, the conqueror, Deborah, the prophetess, and Samuel, the last and the greatest of the judges; Manasseh, which shared largely in the glories of its brother tribe, Ephraim (Gen. 48, 49; Deut. 33); Zebulun, which "sucked of the abundance of the seas;" Gad, which "dwelt as a lion;" Dan, the "lion's whelp;" Issachar, the "strong ass couching down between two burdens;" Naphtali, the "hind let loose;" and Asher, the dweller in the far north, threw off the Davidic yoke, declared themselves independent of Judah, and proclaimed their intention of placing themselves under a new king. G. R. It was an act of rebellion against God, not justified by the alleged provocation nor by the harsh words of Rehoboam. The real ground was jealousy against the tribe of Judah, which God had chosen to distinguish in establishing the throne of David, and in selecting Jerusalem as the seat of government and worship for the nation. As rebellion against Him, their secession was punished by their whole subsequent history and final extinction as a separate people. Yet, let it be remembered, this dismemberment of David's kingdom was also the act of God in fulfilment of his frequent solemn warning to David and Solomon, and as a consequence of Solomon's persistent disregard of the Divine commandments. We may add, that in the subsequent history of the two kingdoms can be traced God's fulfilled purpose in preserving true religion in the world, and preparing the way for the introduction of Christianity. For Israel acted as a bulwark to keep back from Judah the contagion of idolatry diffused by the adjacent nations. B.—To the worshippers at Jerusalem the early decline and fall of Israel was a solemn and impressive spectacle of judgment against idolatry. This prepared the hearts of Judah for the revivals under Hezekiah and Josiah, softened them into repentance during the Captivity, and strengthened them for their absolute renunciation of idolatry, when after seventy years they returned to Palestine to become the channel through which God's greatest gift was conveyed to mankind. Bullock. The rending of the kingdom was the punishment of sin, especially Solomon's sin of idolatry, which was closely connected with the extravagant expenditure which occasioned the separation. So the so-called natural consequences of transgression constitute its temporal punishment in part, and behind all these our eyes should be clear-sighted enough to behold the operative will of God. This one piercing beam of light, cast on that scene of insolence and rebellion, lights up all history, and gives the principle on which it must be interpreted, if it is not to be misread. Again, the punishment of sin, whether that of a community or of a single person, is sin. The separation was sin, on both sides; it led to much more. It was the consequence of previous departure. So ever the worst result of any sin is that it opens the door, like a thief who has crept in through a window, to a band of brethren. A. M. While the sin of Solomon is visited upon his son in the division of the kingdom, God's promised mercy to David is manifested in the continuance of his family upon the throne of Judah. Very touching and instructive is the record of this mercy: "For David My servant's sake will I give unto the son of Solomon one tribe, that David My servant may have a light alway before Me in Jerusalem." Herein impressively we learn the power with God that a truly consecrated man obtains, and the blessings he perpetuates; and the constancy of God to His covenant pledges of mercy. In every position and relation of life, it is a kingly spirit that habitually heeds and practises the double counsel of these ancient sages: to serve and help, and to deal kindly in word, as in deed. And in this helpful, gracious dealing, we find the secret of securing and retaining a beneficent power over others in every sphere. Kindly utterance added to personal ministry ever impart a healthful and blessed magnetism over all the lives with which they come into contact. Together they win and hold all hearts, and make all lives the more fruitful and happy. B. Rehoboam's trouble was not that he did not see the right; it was that he would not follow it. The counsel of the young men pleased him better than his father's counsellors. His own pleasure was sweeter to him than the profit of his people, and they must be trampled down that he might be lifted up. And has it not been so all through? It is not that men do not see the right; it is that they do not design to follow it, and so dimness of perception of truth comes over them, and men grow blind to the truth which they will not follow. It is just what the Master said: "Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." W. Newton. Counsel is good; any man that thinks he does not need it is a fool or worse. "Seest thou a man that is wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him." Counsel in order to be good must come from a reliable source, a source entitled to respect and confidence, where there is information, integrity, and honesty of purpose, where there is unselfish and unbiased regard to truth and to our real good. Such counsel may not always be palatable, not such as we like or hope for, but in the end we shall either be thankful that we followed it or wish that we had. When Rehoboam preferred the advice of the young men he took a step which he could never afterward retrace, whose mischief admitted of no remedy. Seventeen years he lived and reigned, but he did nothing toward retrieving his mistake. He could not get back his lost dominions, he could not recover his alienated people. He could never be king of Israel. Another bore that title. Jeroboam dwelt in Shechem, the beautiful home of his fathers, and from Bethel, almost in sight of his capital, the calf challenged its rival on Mount Zion, and all because of a determination formed perhaps in an instant, and of words which it took but a moment to utter. Hallam. Rehoboam's evil career is a comment on Solomon's word: "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed." The statement is strong. It asserts that association determines destiny. Other Scripture teaches the same. See Ps. 1; 1 Cor. 15:33. The popular proverb is profoundly true: "A man is known by the company he keeps." Only let us be sure and emphasize the last word, "the company he keeps." We keep only what we like. The social instinct which takes shape in friendships and intimacies furnishes an unerring index of character. Unerringly it draws like to like. The man who begins by walking in the counsel of the ungodly finds himself at home at last in the seat of the scornful. Rehoboam was unmade by his own folly, and his folly showed itself in nothing more than in the choice of his counsellors. Vincent.—God serves his own wise and righteous purposes by the imprudences and iniquities of men, and snares sinners in the work of their own hands. They that lose the kingdom of heaven throw it away, as Rehoboam did his, by their own wilfulness and folly. H. The wisest man had a fool for a son. Why? His mother was an idolatrous Ammonite: and the mother makes or mars the child. To her was built the Temple of Moloch, and there the son doubtless was instructed in bloody and licentious rites. He grew effeminate in the softness of a harem. The earnest exhortations "to my son," written in the Proverbs, would have no influence on such a young man, under such a father's example, and himself leading such a life. H. W. Warren. Again, we remind our readers that this entire history is a veritable Gospel of Providence. For our better understanding of the principles of God's dealings, He hath given us this record of His ways as made known unto Moses, and His acts as revealed unto the children of Israel. The events of the history only multiply illustrations of this great fact. B.—The Bible record of human history is as if a clock had a transparent face. Human historians see and write what the hands tell; the Bible shows the moving wheels, the hidden causes. God can see the hidden causes that will work out results a hundred years hence. He forces not human wills, but uses the result of those wills. The nation that will not serve Him shall perish. H. W. Warren. N. B.—To avoid confusion and to obtain a clear and well-defined conception of the history of both kingdoms, we propose to take each one through its entire career, noting all prominent points of its connection with the other. As covering the shorter period we begin with the KINGDOM OF ISRAEL. B. # Rehoboam and Abijah, in Judah. Capital Cities; Establishment of Idol-worship; Warning of a Prophet from Judah unheeded; Disobedience and Death of the Prophet; Sickness and Death of Jeroboam's Son; his Defeat by Abijah; his Evil Life, its Fruits and Lessons. 11 : 1 AND when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam. But the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, Speak unto Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren : return every man to his house ; for this thing is of me. So they hearkened unto the words of the LORD, and returned from going against Jeroboam. And Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem, and built cities for defence in Judah. He built even Beth-lehem, and Etam, and Tekoa, and Beth-zur, and Soco, and Adullam, and Gath, and Mareshah, and Ziph, and Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah, and Zorah, and Aijalon, and Hebron, which are in Judah and in Benjamin, fenced cities. And he fortified the strong holds, and put captains in them, and store of victual, and oil and wine. And in every several city he put shields and spears, and made them exceeding strong. And Judah and Benjamin belonged to him. And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their border. For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem : for Jeroboam and his sons cast them off, that they should not execute the priest's office unto the LORD : and he appointed him priests for the high places, and for the he-goats, and for the calves which he had made. And after them, out of all the 11 : 1 AND when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam. But the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, Speak unto Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren : return every man to his house ; for this thing is of me. So they hearkened unto the words of the LORD, and returned from going against Jeroboam. And Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem, and built cities for defence in Judah. He built even Beth-lehem, and Etam, and Tekoa, and Beth-zur, and Soco, and Adullam, and Gath, and Mareshah, and Ziph, and Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah, and Zorah, and Aijalon, and Hebron, which are in Judah and in Benjamin, fenced cities. And he fortified the strong holds, and put captains in them, and store of victual, and oil and wine. And in every several city he put shields and spears, and made them exceeding strong. And Judah and Benjamin belonged to him. And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their border. For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem : for Jeroboam and his sons cast them off, that they should not execute the priest's office unto the LORD : and he appointed him priests for the high places, and for the he-goats, and for the calves which he had made. And after them, out of all the 14: 1 So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David, and Asa his son reigned in his stead: in his 2 days the land was quiet ten years. And Asa did that which was good and right in 3 the eyes of the LORD his God; for he took away the strange altars, and the high places, and brake down the pillars, and hewed 4 down the Asherim; and commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. 5 Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. 6 And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land was quiet, and he had no war in those years; because the LORD had given him 7 rest. For he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars; the land is yet be- 14: 1 So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David, and Asa his son reigned in his stead: in his 2 days the land was quiet ten years. And Asa did that which was good and right in 3 the eyes of the LORD his God; for he took away the strange altars, and the high places, and brake down the pillars, and hewed 4 down the Asherim; and commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. 5 Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. 6 And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land was quiet, and he had no war in those years; because the LORD had given him 7 rest. For he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars; the land is yet be- 14: 1 So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David, and Asa his son reigned in his stead: in his 2 days the land was quiet ten years. And Asa did that which was good and right in 3 the eyes of the LORD his God; for he took away the strange altars, and the high places, and brake down the pillars, and hewed 4 down the Asherim; and commanded Judah to seek the LORD, the God of their fathers, and to do the law and the commandment. 5 Also he took away out of all the cities of Judah the high places and the sun-images: and the kingdom was quiet before him. 6 And he built fenced cities in Judah: for the land was quiet, and he had no war in those years; because the LORD had given him 7 rest. For he said unto Judah, Let us build these cities, and make about them walls, and towers, gates, and bars; the land is yet be- 17 : 1 AND Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead, and strengthened himself against Israel. And he placed forces in all the fenced cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken. 3 And the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto the 4 Baalim; but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, 5 and not after the doings of Israel. Therefore the LORD established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presents; and he had riches and honour 6 in abundance. And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the LORD: and furthermore he took away the high places and the 7 Asherim out of Judah. Also in the third year of his reign he sent his princes, even Ben-hail, and Obadiah, and Zechariah, and Netahnel, and Micaiah, to teach in the cities 8 of Judah; and with them the Levites, even Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asahel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and Tobadonijah, the Levites; and with them 9 Elishama and Jehoram, the priests. And they taught in Judah, having the book of the law of the LORD with them, and they went about throughout all the cities of 10 Judah, and taught among the people. And 18 : 1 Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance; and he joined affinity with Ahab. And after certain years he went down to Ahab to Samaria. And Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, and for the people that were with him, and moved him to go up with him to Ramoth-gilead. And Ahab king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat king of Judah, Wilt thou go with me to Ramoth-gilead? And he answered him, I am as thou art, and my people as thy people; and we will be with thee in the war. And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Inquire, I pray thee, at the word of the LORD to-day. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for God shall deliver it into the hand of the king. But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here besides a prophet of the LORD, that we might inquire of him? And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he never prophesieth good concerning me, but always evil: the same is Micaiah the son of Imla. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so. Then the king of Israel called an officer, and said, Fetch quickly Micaiah the son of Imla. Now the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, arrayed in their robes, and they sat in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them. And Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made him horns of iron, and said, Thus saith the LORD, With these shalt thou push the Syrians, until they be consumed. And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, Go up to Ramoth-gilead, and prosper: for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And the messenger that went to call Micaiah spake to him, saying, Behold, the words of the prophets declare good to the king with one mouth: let thy word therefore, I pray thee, be like one of theirs, and speak thou good. And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what my God saith, that will I speak. And when he was come to the king, the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall I forbear? LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And the messenger that went to call Micaiah spake unto him, saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word of one of them, and speak thou good. And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak. And when he was come to the king, the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go up, and prosper; and the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king. And the king said unto him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou speak unto me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD? And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil? And he said, Therefore hear thou the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the LORD said, Who shall entice Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner; and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will entice him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt entice him, and shalt prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets; and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee. Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and smote Micaiah on the cheek, and said, Which way went the spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee? And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see on that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. And the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son; and say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace. And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the LORD And he said, Go ye up, and prosper; and they shall be delivered into your hand. And the king said to him, How many times shall I adjure thee that thou speak unto me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD? And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd: and the LORD said, These have no master; let them return every man to his house in peace. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell thee that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil? And he said, Therefore hear ye the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And the LORD said, Who shall entice Ahab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one spake saying after this manner, and another saying after that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will entice him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt entice him, and shalt prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of these thy prophets; and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee. Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and smote Micaiah upon the cheek, and said, Which way went the spirit of the LORD from me to speak unto thee? And Micaiah said, Behold, thou shalt see on that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself. And the king of Israel said, Take ye Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son; and say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I return in peace. And Micaiah said, If thou return at all in peace, the LORD hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hear, ye peoples, all of you. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and go into the battle; but put thou on thy robes. So the king of Israel disguised himself; and they went into the battle. Now the king of Syria had commanded the captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, It is the king of Israel. Therefore they turned about to fight against him: but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him; and God moved them to depart from him. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. And a certain man drew his bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness: wherefore he said to the driver of the chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am sore wounded. And the hath not spoken by me. And he said, Hear, ye peoples, all of you. 29 So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead. 30 And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself, and go into the battle; but put thou on thy robes. And the king of Israel disguised himself, and went into the battle. Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty and two captains of his chariots, saying, Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, Surely it is the king of Israel; and they turned aside to fight against him: and Jehoshaphat cried out. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. And a certain man drew his bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the harness: wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, Turn thine hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am sore wounded. And the battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even: and the blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot. And there went a cry throughout the host about the going down of the sun, saying, Every man to his city, and every man to his country. So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria. And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; (now the harlots washed themselves there;) according unto the word of the LORD which he spake. Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house which he built, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Ahab slept with his fathers; and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead. 1. K. verses 1-40.** The Death of Ahab and the Defeat of Israel. This chapter is almost entirely occupied with an account of the death of Ahab, and of the circumstances which preceded and attended it. The earlier portion of the chapter, which contains the prophesyings of the false prophets and the vision of Micaiah, is only recorded because of its bearing on the death of the king, and the dispersion of his army. And the prominence accorded to Ahab's end only corresponds with the space assigned to his reign. That reign was so full of evil for Israel that it occupies a fourth part of this entire book. It was meet, therefore, that the death which avenged it should be recorded with proportionate detail. For the battle of Ramoth-Gilead was the final payment—so far as this world is concerned—for the sins of two and twenty years. And it is also to be considered here that Israel had gone hand in hand with him in his downward course. As the king's career had been one of steadily increasing demoralization, so had that of the people. The death of Naboth affords sufficient proof of this. The ready compliance of the elders, the alacrity with which they perpetrated that judicial murder, shows to what a moral depth the example of the court and the idolatry around them had plunged the holy nation. No; king and queen had not sinned alone, and justice required they should not suffer alone. Nations and their rulers receive a reckoning in this life; how much more the covenant people and the Lord's anointed? Placed as they were under a direct law of temporal punishments and rewards, it would have been strange, indeed, if such a reign as this had gone unrecompensed. But, so far from that, they have already received part reckoning for their sin. The three years' drought, the famine, the terrible Syrian invasions, have avenged a part of their idolatries and immoralities; but there still remains a long score of guilt to be expiated in shame and suffering and blood. And here it may be well to remind ourselves what were the sins which awaited a settlement under the walls of Ramoth-Gilead. They were five in number. (1) The calf-worship—the hereditary sin of the northern kingdom, the sin of Jeroboam; (2) the worship of Baal, with the prostitution which accompanied it—the sin primarily of Jezebel and her Phœnician following, but shared in by almost the entire nation; (3) the determined persecution of the prophets and the virtual proscription of the ancient faith; (4) the release of the Syrian king in disregard of God's will—the sin of Ahab and his captains; and (5) the murder of Naboth in defiance of all law—the sin of the rulers and elders. Hammond. We have, in the cuneiform annals of an Assyrian king, a very curious and valuable confirmation of the power of Damascus at this time—of its being under the rule of a monarch named Benhadad, who was at the head of a great confederacy of princes, and who was able to bring into the field year after year vast armies, with which he repeatedly engaged the whole force of Assyria. We have accounts of three campaigns between the Assyrians on the one side, and the Syrians, Hittites, Hamathites, and Phoenicians, united under the command of Benhadad, upon the other, in which the contest is maintained with spirit, the armies being of a large size, and their composition and character such as we find described in Scripture. G. R. 1,2. Though Ahab continued under guilt and wrath, and the dominion of the lusts to which he had sold himself, yet, as a reward for his professions of repentance and humiliation, though the time drew near when he should descend into battle and perish, yet we have him blessed with a three years' peace, and an honorable visit made him by Jehoshaphat king of Judah. H. 2. Here for the first time we find relations of alliance—political fraternity—between the usually rival kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The author of Chronicles indicates the particular form of this alliance; "Jehoshaphat joined affinity with Ahab," asking and taking Ahab's daughter for the wife of his son Jehoram, heir-apparent to his throne (2 Chron. 18:1 and 21:6). This affinity is the more astounding because Jehoshaphat was in the main a good man and a real reformer, while Ahab was wicked, and Jezebel notoriously and fearfully so. What Jehoshaphat's inducements were the record does not clearly indicate. The author of Chronicles puts things in this order: "Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab." This author not seldom gives indications of a philosophic turn of mind; so that we probably do no violence to his words if we introduce the logical connective—"And consequently" joined affinity with Ahab. It would not be the first or the last time in which riches and honor have opened the door and led the way to affinities which morally should have been revolting. The capital mistake of Jehoshaphat lay in leaving God out of the account. In his estimate of political forces and national strength, the God of his fathers seems to have been sadly, sinfully omitted. H. C.—It was in circumstances of marked prosperity that Jehoshaphat "joined affinity with Ahab." The sacred text specially notes this, partly to show that Jehoshaphat had not even an excuse for such a step, and partly, as we think, to indicate that this alliance must, in the first place, have been sought by Ahab. The motives which would influence the king of Israel are not difficult to understand. The power of the country had been greatly weakened by Syria during the reign of Omri. Not only had Benhadad possessed himself of a number of cities, both east (Ramoth-Gilead, for example) and west of the Jordan, but the country had become virtually subject to him, since he claimed even in the capital, Samaria, the right of having "streets," or rather "squares"—that is, Syrian quarters of the town—which owned his dominion (cf. 1 K. 20:34). And now Benhadad had been succeeded by a son of the same name, equally war-like and ambitious. In these circumstances it was of the utmost importance to Ahab to secure permanent peace on his southern or Judean frontier, and, if possible, to engage as an active ally so powerful and wealthy a monarch as Jehoshaphat. On the other hand, it is not so easy to perceive the reasons which influenced the king of Judah. Of course he could not have wished to see the power of Syria paramount so close to his borders. Did he, besides, desire to have the long-standing (seventy years') breach between Judah and Israel healed? Had he a dim hope that by the marriage of his son with the daughter of Ahab the two realms might again be joined, and an undivided kingdom once more established in the house of David? The sacred text affords no clew to this political riddle. A. E. 7,8. Jehoshaphat would not go forth until counsel had been sought at the mouth of the Lord. Then began a scene which the Scripture depicts with marvellous dramatic power. Four hundred false prophets, either worshippers of the golden calves, or fresh importations by Jezebel of Baalites, raised the cry, "Go up and prosper." Jehoshaphat was not satisfied. He would fain hear a prophet of the Lord; and Micaiah, the son of Imlah, was remembered by Ahab, though he added, "I hate him, for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil." It was he, according to Josephus, who had denounced Ahab for letting Benhadad escape (1 K. 20:35-43). Benham. 8. Matters of moment must be seriously dealt with. To tell a man of his sins as softly as Eli did his sons, reprove him as gently as Jehoshaphat did Ahab, "Let not the king say so," doth usually as much harm as good. I am persuaded the very manner of some men's reproof and exhortation hath hardened many a sinner in the way of destruction. To tell them of sin, or of heaven, or hell, in a dull, easy, careless language, doth make men think you are not in good sadness, nor do mean as you speak; but either you scarce think yourselves such things are true, or else you take them in such a slight and indifferent manner. Oh, sirs, deal with sin as sin, and speak of heaven and hell as they are, and not as if you were in jest! Baxter. 22. The scheme of false, lying prophets is agreed on and put in execution. In respect to the morality of this transaction as related to the Lord, it meets no other difficulty than is involved in every case of God's providential agency in the existence of sin—which agency is not a license for sinning—is never the employing of His moral subjects to do the sinning; but is simply leaving the wicked to commit sin of their own free will, His shaping hand being interposed only to turn it to best moral account. H. C. 23. What warning could be more awful and yet more plain than that of the text? Ahab was told that he was listening to a lie. He had free choice to follow that lie or not, and he did follow it. After having put Micaiah into prison for speaking the truth to him, he went up to Ramoth Gilead; and yet he felt he was not safe. He went into the battle and disguised himself, hoping that by this means he should keep himself safe from evil. But God's vengeance was not checked by his paltry cunning. This chapter tells us not merely how Ahab was tempted, but it tells us how we are tempted in these very days. By every wilful sin that we commit we give room to the devil. By every wrong step that we take knowingly we give a handle to some evil spirit to lead us seven steps further wrong. And yet in every temptation God gives us a fair chance. He sends His prophets to us, as He sent Micaiah to Ahab, to tell us that the wages of sin is death, to set before us at every turn good and evil, that we may choose between them, and live and die according to our choice. The Bible is a prophet to us. Every man is a prophet to himself. The still small voice in a man's heart is the voice of God within us; it is the Spirit of God striving with our spirits, whether we will hear or whether we will forbear, setting before us what is righteous, and noble, and pure, and Godlike, to see whether we will obey that voice, or whether we will obey our own selfish lusts, which tempt us to please ourselves. C. Kingsley. Ahab wished to be guided by false prophets, and the justice of God decreed that he should be guided by them to his ruin. Sin is punished by sin. "God proves His holiness most of all by this, that He punishes evil by evil, and destroys it by itself" (Bähr). Ahab had chosen lying instead of truth; by lying—according to the lex talionis—he should be destroyed. The difficulty, in fact, is that of the permission of evil in the world; of the use of existent evil by God to accomplish His purposes of good. Hammond. 28. "If thou return at all in peace" (responded Micaiah), "then the Lord hath not spoken by me;" and he cried aloud to call the attention of the whole people to his words. A stanch man is he, swerving never a hair's breadth from the rough line of duty as the Lord's prophet. No conciliating words has he to say, bearing never so little upon his personal liberty or his hardships in prison. H. C. The Bible is a book of texts because it is a book of types. It does not profess to give full histories, but refers to public records for these. Inspiration selects from histories typical or representative incidents to bring out the principles of the grace and truth of God. In the scene before us we have types of wickedness in Zedekiah and Ahab, the one ecclesiastical, the other civil, which may be profitably studied in the arguments they use contending with Micaiah, the representative of the truth of God. J. A. M. 29. We can hardly doubt that Jehoshaphat at least would have been well content to abandon the expedition. After the solicitude he had manifested for the sanction of one of the prophets of Jehovah, and after that the one who had been consulted had predicted the defeat of the army, the king of Judah must have had many misgivings. But it is not difficult to understand why, notwithstanding his fears, he did not draw back. For, in the first place, he had committed himself to the war by the rash and positive promise of verse 4. Moreover, he would have subjected himself to the imputation of cowardice had he deserted his ally because of a prophecy which threatened the latter with death. And, finally, we must remember that his own interests were threatened by Syria, and he may well have feared trouble from that quarter in case this war were abandoned. Hammond. 32. The author of Chronicles, with his eye on the history of Jehoshaphat and with a kindly view of his character, made the hand of God specially prominent here: "When the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat they said, It is the king of Israel, and they compassed about him to fight; but Jehoshaphat cried out and the Lord helped him, and God moved them to depart from him." H. C.—That it was a cry for Divine help is the most probable, because it is almost an instinct, especially with a pious soul like Jehoshaphat, to cry to God in the moment of danger. That he had doubts as to whether the course he was pursuing was pleasing to God, would make him all the more ready to cry aloud for mercy the moment he found himself in peril. Hammond. 33. His cries deliver him; his cries, not to his pursuers, but to his God, whose mercy takes not advantage of our infirmity, but rescues us from those evils which we wilfully provoke. It is Ahab against whom, not the Syrians only, but God Himself intends this quarrel. The enemy is taken off from Jehoshaphat. 34. Oh, the just and mighty hand of that Divine providence which directeth all our actions to His own ends; which takes order where every shaft shall light, and guides the arrow of the strong archer into the joints of Ahab's harness! It was shot at a venture; falls by a destiny; and there falls where it may carry death to a hidden debtor. In all actions, both voluntary and casual, thy will, O God, shall be done by us, with whatever intentions. Little did the Syrian know whom he had stricken; no more than the arrow wherewith he struck. An invisible hand disposed of both, to the punishment of Ahab, to the vindication of Micaiah. How worthily, O God, art thou to be adored in Thy justice and wisdom; to be feared in Thy judgments! Too late doth Ahab now think of the fair warnings of Micaiah which he unwisely contemned; of the painful flatteries of Zedekiah which he stubbornly believed. That guilty blood of his runs down out of his wound into the midst of his chariot, and pays Naboth his arrearages. Bp. H. 35. The arrow that pierced Ahab's corselet was shot "in simplicity," without deliberate aim, with no thought of striking the king. It was an unseen Hand that guided that chance shaft to its destination. It was truly "the arrow of the Lord's vengeance." It would be deeply instructive could we know the thoughts of that unhappy king, as with the arrow in his side, and the blood draining from his wound and forming a sickening pool in the well of the chariot, he was stayed up those wretched, weary hours until the sunset against the Syrians. Surely he knew at last that "the Lord was God." He would think, it may be, of Elijah's and Micaiah's prophecies; he would think of Naboth's bleeding and mangled corpse; he would think, above all, that his sin had found him out, and that Jehovah had conquered. He had fought all his life for Baal, but it was in vain; he had been wrestling not with flesh and blood, but with an invisible, irresistible, omnipotent God, and now he is thrown, cast down never to rise again. Hammond. 38. The hand of God also was seen in the sequel. The prophecies of Elijah and Micaiah seem to be in conflict. The one speaks of the dogs licking the blood of Ahab at "Samaria;" the other of Ahab falling at "Ramoth-Gilead." Who but God could so order events that there should be no conflict here? "The blood ran out of the wound into the midst of the chariot;" perhaps more correctly, "into the bosom of the charioteer," on which the king leaned. "And one washed the chariot;" or rather, "And the driver washed himself in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked his blood"—i.e., the blood of Ahab, which fell from the bosom of the driver. 39. The sacred history consists of selections from the secular under the guiding influence of Divine inspiration, with a view to illustrating the principles of the providence, truth, and grace of God. To illustrate such principles is the noblest end of writing. In these selections the notices of the wicked are generally brief. Perhaps no wicked man has a larger share of the sacred writings occupied with his acts than Ahab. Such acts are not agreeable to the Spirit of God. But in the hands of inspiration they are made an influence for good. They are recorded, apparently, because of their relation to the actions of prophets and good men. They are made to serve as a dark background to show up to admiration virtuous qualities, and to be made themselves odious in the contrast. The principles of the wicked should only be studied to be shunned. So God brings good out of evil. The sacred records have survived the secular. "The book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel" has long since perished. The sacred records have come down to our times. In these, after a lapse of nearly thirty centuries, Ahab survives. But for these his name would not be known. Note (a) the Providence which has preserved the Scriptures evinces their Divine authenticity. (b) Things are permanent as they stand related to the everlasting God. (c) The posthumous influence points to the immortality of man. J. A. M. We have here an awful commentary on such godless lives as his. His ivory palace and the cities which he built have passed away, together with that book of chronicles which contained their history; but what has remained, and will remain forevermore, is the fearful testimony that neither before nor since was there ever any king in Israel like Ahab, who gave himself up so completely and unreservedly to work evil in the sight of the Lord. We see here a commentary upon this truth, that the question of lasting importance to each man is this: whether he has set himself with all his heart to serve the Lord, or whether he has determined to be rebellious; and that lasting praise belongs, not to him who builds cities and ivory palaces, but to him who fears the Lord and walks in His ways. Bp. H. Goodwin. 40. Thus closed the life of Ahab, after a reign of twenty years in consummate wickedness. Of Jehoshaphat we shall see much more when we study him in his place in the line of Judah's kings. Yet this affinity with Ahab brought upon him the Divine rebuke, as the author of Chronicles is careful to say: "When he returned in peace to his house in Jerusalem, Jehu, son of Hanani the seer, went out to meet him, saying, Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? Therefore, is wrath upon thee from before the Lord. Nevertheless, there are good things found in thee in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God." H. C. Signally true of Jeroboam and Ahab is that word of Solomon: One sinner destroyeth much good. How wide, how mighty, how disastrous the power for evil exerted by these self-willed, self-seeking rulers! And such power is exerted by every godless soul in its sphere, with results far wider, mightier, and more disastrous than is known this side the day of final account. A fearful part, indeed, of that account is the making others to sin! The highest, all-inclusive form of sin is impiety. The course of impiety is, first the neglect, then the rejection, and then the defiance, of God; finally, the shameless substitution in His rightful place of another object of worship. These successive steps were partly taken by Jeroboam and completed by Omri and Ahab. And they are the steps, in part or whole, successively taken by every sinner through all time. Not indeed consciously taken. For as the soul becomes more self-asserting and seeking, the heart becomes more unbelieving, and the judgment and conscience lose their discernment and keenness. So, even unwittingly to himself, the man may reach the farthest stages of defiance toward God, an utter blinded self-idolatry. B. #### 17th to 18th of Jehoshaphat, of Judah. 17 : 1 AND Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead, and strengthened himself against Israel. And he placed forces in all the fenced cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken. 3 And the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and sought not unto the 4 Baalim; but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, 5 and not after the doings of Israel. Therefore the LORD established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presents; and he had riches and honour 6 in abundance. And his heart was lifted up in the ways of the LORD: and furthermore he took away the high places and the 7 Asherim out of Judah. Also in the third year of his reign he sent his princes, even Ben-hail, and Obadiah, and Zechariah, and Netahnel, and Micaiah, to teach in the cities 8 of Judah; and with them the Levites, even Shemaiah, and Nethaniah, and Zebadiah, and Asahel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehonathan, and Adonijah, and Tobijah, and Tobadonijah, the Levites; and with them 9 Elishama and Jehoram, the priests. And they taught in Judah, having the book of the law of the LORD with them, and they went about throughout all the cities of 10 Judah, and taught among the people. And 21: 1 AND Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Jehoram his son reigned in his stead. And he had brethren the sons of Jehoshaphat, Azariah, and Jehiel, and Zechariah, and Azariah, and Michael, and Shephatiah: all these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel. And their father gave them great gifts, of silver, and of gold, and of precious things, with fenced On the death of Jehoshaphat his son Jehoram succeeded, and thus we have a prince of the same name on each of the thrones. In the first measure of Jehoram, king of Judah, the fatal consequences of the connection with the sanguinary house of Ahab began to appear; all his brethren were put to death without remorse. The reign which began in blood proceeded in idolatry and defeat, till the fearful doom, denounced in a letter sent by the prophet Elisha, was entirely fulfilled. The kingdom suffered a fatal blow in the revolt of Edom, and the loss of their remaining seaport on the Red Sea. Nor was this the end of Jehoram's calamities; the Philistines and Arabians invaded the country, surprised his palace, captured his seraglio, and slew all his sons but one. Jehoram himself died of a painful and loathsome disease, so little honored that he was not buried in the sepulchre of the kings; Ahaziah, his son, succeeded. Milman. 2. Chron. 21:1.** Jehoshaphat's son and successor, Jehoram, was made king in conjunction with his father, before Jehoshaphat's death (2 K. 9:16). But this could only have been done just at the close of Jehoshaphat's reign. For it was in the fourth year of Ahab that Jehoshaphat began to reign. Ahab reigned twenty-two years. So that eighteen years of Jehoshaphat's reign were over when Ahab died. Ahaziah of Israel reigned two years, and it was in the fifth year of Joram, the brother and successor of Ahaziah in Israel, that Jehoshaphat joined his son with him in the kingdom. So that, unless the years are not complete years, it must have been in the closing years of his father's reign that Jehoram began his joint reign. Lumby.—Jehoram's sole reign now began. He had been previously associated in the kingdom by his father. His eight years (verse 5) must be counted from the time of his association, in his father's twenty-third year. 3. With fenced cities.** Jehoshaphat pursued the same policy as Rehoboam in the endowment and settlement of his sons (see chap. 11:23), but apparently went further by actually making over to them the "fenced cities" in which they dwelt. This, it is probable, provoked the jealousy of Jehoram, and induced him to put them to death. Athaliah's influence may also have been used to remove those who might have interfered with her ambitious projects. B. C. 4. Jehoshaphat had placed his six younger sons in fortified cities of Judah, besides giving them large presents in gold, silver, and jewels, while he gave the kingdom to Jehoram. But as soon as Jehoshaphat was dead, Jehoram murdered all his brothers—the first example of that abominable mode of avoiding a disputed succession. P. S. 6. Daughter of Ahab.** This marriage of Jehoshaphat's son, Jehoram, with Athaliah, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, must have been early enough so that Ahaziah, the son of it, could become twenty-two years old at the time of his accession (2 K. 8:18, 25, 26; 9:29, etc.); and late enough for Jehoram and Athaliah to be of sufficient age to marry; it cannot have been much earlier or later than the sixth or seventh year of Jehoshaphat. W. J. B. The introduction of idolatry into Israel, and its open establishment by Ahab and Jezebel, may be regarded as the turning-point in the destiny of that kingdom. It was the sin unto national death. And we may look upon the marriage of Jehoram of Judah with the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, followed by the establishment of idolatry in Judah, as a turning-point in its history. The idolatrous worship then publicly set up never afterward lost its hold upon a large part both of the chiefs and people. Heathen gods were worshipped by royal authority in both capitals, Samaria and Jerusalem; heathen priests and prophets were protected and honored; the priests and prophets of Jehovah were neglected, despised, and in some instances put to death. This was a crime against the majesty of Jehovah, both as their God and their King, which He did not pardon. From this national apostasy there was not, in either kingdom, any real recovery. Andrews. 10. The author of Chronicles adds nothing in the way of fact, but, on the contrary, is rather less full than his predecessor in Kings. He, however, in his favorite manner, appends the reflection that the calamities which he relates in verses 8-10 befell Jehoram "because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers." 11. Moreover he made high places.** The writer of Kings only tells us in general terms that Jehoram "did evil in the sight of the Lord," and "walked in the way of the house of Ahab." Here, in verses 11 and 13, we have particulars of his idolatry. Jehoram, it seems, seduced by the evil influence of his wife—Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab—introduced into Judah the Baal-worship which Ahab had introduced into Israel. Idolatrous altars were established in various high places—groves, images and pillars were no doubt set up—and the people were not only allowed, but compelled to take part in the new rites. “To commit fornication” is a common metaphor, signifying idolatry or spiritual unfaithfulness. B. C. 12. There came a writing to him from Elijah.** Nothing is more natural than to think that Elijah, as a prophet, anticipated the character of Jehoram and the nature of his reign; that, as the future rose before him in prophetic vision, he beheld the wickedness of that king, and the evil that he would do; and that thus he was led to address to him a warning which, preserved in the mean time among his prophetic writings, or among the other writings in the schools of the prophets, might be handed to him for whom it was intended when the fitting moment came. W. M. 12-15. No calamity can be thought of which did not befall this wicked prince; his kingdom being destroyed and depopulated by the fiercest nations, his treasures ransacked, his wives carried into captivity, his children slain, himself laboring for two years under a sore disease, and deprived at his death of the honor of royal sepulture (verse 19). All these calamities were denounced against him in the writing sent to him in the name of Elijah, that he might not think they came by chance, but by the special direction of Almighty God, as a punishment for his impieties. Bp. Patrick. The former part of the prophecy had its fulfilment at the time of the Philistine and Arab invasion (verse 17); and later on, after he had reigned six years and reached the age of thirty-eight (verse 19), “the Lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease,” and for two years he suffered grievously, dying at the age of forty, and “departing without being desired” (verse 20). He “was buried with his fathers in the city of David;” but, according to the writer of Chronicles, “not in the sepulchres of the kings.” The usual honor of a public funeral was also denied him—“his people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers” (verse 19). Altogether his reign was one of the darkest and most unfortunate in the entire course of Judean history, marked by disaster abroad, irreligion at home, and a combination of weakness and wickedness in the monarch. G. R.—He died in the twelfth year of Jehoram, king of Israel, and was succeeded by his son Ahaziah. P. S. ## 12th Year of Jehoram, of Israel. Outline of his Brief Career. The captivity and death (2 Chron. 22:1) of all his elder brothers gave the throne of Judah to Ahaziah, the youngest of the sons of Jehoram, who by some accident had escaped the danger of the Arab incursion. His age at his accession was no more than twenty-two. Naturally he fell, even more completely than his father, under the influence of the imperious Athaliah, in whom the spirit of her mother, Jezebel, seemed to live again, and who, as Queen-Mother, held a most important position at the Jewish court. “His mother,” we are expressly told (2 Chron. 22:3), “was his counsellor to do wickedly.” The Baal-worship, begun under Jehoram, was, by Athaliah’s influence, extended and advanced in honor; the Temple worship was suppressed, the Temple itself treated with violence (2 Chron. 24:7), and precious ornaments and offerings, once dedicated to Jehovah, and placed reverently within the Temple limits, were torn rudely from the sacred building, and transferred to the sanctuary of Baal, where the court worshipped, prostrating themselves before the images of the Baalim. The sanctuary was committed to the care of its own high-priest, Mattan, who probably took the place of the Aaronic high-priest in the court ceremonial and the national ceremonies. In political affairs Ahaziah allowed his uncle, Jehoram of Israel, his mother’s brother, to guide his conduct. At the request of Jehoram, he accompanied him in his expedition against Ramoth-Gilead, when the city was at last captured and reoccupied. From Ramoth-Gilead he returned to his capital; but subsequently, on the return of Jehoram to Jezreel to be healed of his wounds, Ahaziah made the journey from Jerusalem to Jezreel to visit his sick relative. He had prolonged his visit to the time when Jehu, freshly anointed by Elisha’s messenger, brought the news of his own rebellion to the Israelite court, and taking Jehoram unawares, slew him with his own hand (2 K. 9:24). Ahaziah had just time to turn and fly; but he was pursued by Jehu’s orders, overtaken, and wounded to the death. His servants conveyed the dead body to Jerusalem, where it was laid with all due honors in the sepulchre of the kings (ibid., verse 28). G. R. 2. Chron. 22:2.** Ahaziah, the sixth king of Judah, was twenty-two years old at his accession, and reigned only one year. Being the son of Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, he was nephew to Jehoram, king of Israel, a conjunction which threatened the establishment of idolatry in both kingdoms; for Ahaziah was addicted to all the evil practices of the house of Ahab. But, as if the presence of Ahab's grandson on the throne of David had filled up the measure of God's forbearance, both kings were cut off by one stroke. P. S. (See Reign of Jehoram of Israel, Section 17.) Forty and two years. This number is impossible, since Ahaziah's father, Jehoram, was but forty when he died. We must read twenty-two for forty-two, and thus bring the passage into agreement with 2 K. 8: 26. G. R. —Current opinion, as represented in the articles in Smith's Bible Dictionary, in the Lange commentaries, the Speaker's Commentary, etc., regards the chronological numerals given in this part of the Bible as very corrupt. My own studies lead me to a different conclusion. The forty-two of 2 Chron. 22: 2 should, of course, be twenty-two, as it is in Kings. To understand these numbers, the following points should be noted: 1. The year, in these narratives, is not properly a measure of time, but is the period between two spring equinoxes. A given number of years is the number of such periods wholly or partly covered by the event mentioned. It may or may not agree with the actual measure of the time. Jesus lay in the grave three days, though the whole time of His lying there was less than the length of two days. 2. When a king died during a year, the whole year was counted to his reign. Sometimes the same year was also counted to his successor. When it was not so counted, the successor might actually reign several months before his "first year" began. 3. When a king is said to have come to the throne in a certain year of another king, the beginning of his first year may coincide with either the beginning of the specified year of the other king, or with the close of that year. W. J. B. (See Section 3.) 6. Azariah.** The writer of Chronicles calls this prince indifferently Jehoahaz and Ahaziah. In this place the present text has Azariah; but this is probably a corruption. Jehoahaz and Ahaziah are equivalent names, composed of identically the same elements, the only difference being that the order of the two roots is inverted. A similar inversion is found later in the history, where the same king is called indifferently Jechon-iah and Jeho-iachin. Ahaziah is the only form of the name used by the writer of Kings. 7. The destruction of Ahaziah was of God.** It is not meant that there was anything supernatural in the circumstances of Ahaziah's death, but only that his untimely end was in fact a judgment upon him for his idolatry. Divine providence, working by natural causes, brought it about that his visit to Jehoram should fall exactly at the time of Jehu's revolt, whence it came to pass that he was involved in his uncle's destruction. B. C. 9. The fate of the king of Judah is variously related. According to the account in the Chronicles, he fled to Samaria when Joram was killed, was found hidden there, and was brought to Jehu, who put him to death, but granted him an honorable burial from respect to the memory of Jehoshaphat. The narrative in Kings certainly conveys the impression at first sight that Jehu, after mortally wounding Joram, turned to pursue the king of Judah (a step improbable in itself, and inconsistent with the rest of the same narrative), and that Ahaziah was mortally wounded at the pass of Gur, near Ibleam, and died when he reached Megiddo. This pursuit may have taken place in consequence of his being pointed out to Jehu while attempting to escape from Samaria, but we cannot expect to clear up every difficulty in such brief and ancient histories. This much is clear, that his body was carried to Jerusalem and buried in the sepulchre of the kings. P. S. # 1st to 7th of Jehu, of Israel. With the accession of Jehu and the destruction of the house of Ahab, and with the ill-fated alliance between the doomed race of Ahab and the descendants of David, the last period in the history of Israel and Judah's national decline had begun. The measure was not only full, but the Hand hitherto lifted in threatening was no longer stayed. We have reached a period of judgments when each follows the other with only brief intermission. Of the events in Israel connected with the rebellion of Jehu, of the character of the religious changes introduced by him, and of the troubles and difficulties of the military monarchy which he founded, we recall only these points: 1. The literal fulfilment of the prophetic predictions concerning the house of Ahab. 2. The reaction from Baal-worship to the calf-worship of Jeroboam. But the full import of these events will only be perceived as we mark their direct and indirect influence on the history of Judah. The union between Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, and Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel, had introduced apostasy, and brought calamity to the house of David. If the marriage had been planned from political motives, perhaps in the hope of an ultimate reunion of the two kingdoms, or at least with the expectation of a firm and close alliance between them, the result speedily showed the folly of attempting to achieve imaginary successes by subordinating principle to so-called policy. Indeed, this is one of the lessons which throughout make the history of Israel typical of that of the Church, and in a sense of all history, and which constitute its claim to the designation of "prophetic." In it events move, so to speak, in step with the utterances of the God of Israel. No direct or sudden interference seems necessary; but in the regular succession of events, each deviation from Divine order and rule, each attempt to compass results by departure from God's law and word, brings with it not success, but failure and ruin. From her entrance into her new home in Judah to her seizure of its throne Athaliah brought it only evil. She was her son's "counsellor to do wickedly," and her influence for evil must have commenced in the previous reign of her husband, Jehoram. To the influence of "the house of Ahab" are expressly traced, both in the reign of Jehoram and in that of Ahaziah, the revival of idolatry, the desecration of the Temple of Jehovah (2 Chron. 24: 7) and those evil counsellings (2 Chron. 22: 4) which brought such Divine judgments (2 Chron. 13, 14, 16, 17; 22: 7). To her, we cannot doubt, was due not only the slaughter of his "brethren," with which Jehoram stained the beginning of his reign (2 Chron. 21: 4), but the destruction by Jehu of so large a number of the remaining royal princes of Judah (2 Chron. 22: 7, 8). And if her murderous purpose on seizing the government had been wholly successful, the political union between the house of Ahab and that of Jehoshaphat would have ended in the extermination of the whole house of David. There is not a scene in Jewish history more vividly depicted than that of Athaliah's seizure of the Jewish crown, and of her miserable end. It seems more than likely that on his ill-fated expedition to the court of Israel Jehoram had entrusted the government of the kingdom to his mother, who had all along exercised such determining influence upon him. A. E. 2. Chron. 22: 10.** Athaliah had inherited the spirit of Jezebel, her mother. As wife of Jehoram and mother of Ahaziah she had guided both the internal and the external policy of the Jewish kingdom; she had procured the establishment of the worship of Baal in Judea (2 K. 8: 18, 27), and had maintained a close alliance with the sister kingdom (ibid., verse 29; 10: 13). The revolution effected by Jehu touched her nearly. It struck away from her the entire support which she derived from the power and grandeur of her relatives and their readiness to help her at need. It isolated her religious system, severing the communication with Phoenicia. Moreover, the death of Ahaziah deprived her of her legal status in Judea, which was that of Gebirah, or Queen-Mother, and transferred that position to the chief wife of her deceased son. Under these circumstances, which might well have daunted even a woman of more than ordinary courage, Athaliah's hereditary spirit and energy asserted itself. Instead of yielding to the storm, or merely standing on the defensive, she resolved to become the assailant, and before any plans could be formed against her, to strike. In the absence of her son, hers was probably the chief authority at Jerusalem. She used it to command the immediate destruction of all the seed royal—that is, of all Ahaziah's sons and nephews, thus (as she believed) entirely exterminating the family of David, which had been already thinned by previous massacres (2 Chron. 21: 4, 17; 2 K. 10: 14). She then seized the throne. 11,12. Jehoiada, the high-priest, was married to Jehosheba, a sister—probably a half-sister only—of Ahaziah, who in virtue of her near relationship had free access to the royal palace, and was there when Athaliah made her attempt to destroy the entire seed royal. Powerless to thwart the will of the Queen-Mother, Jehosheba nevertheless contrived to prevent its full accomplishment by secreting one of the children of the late king, an infant boy who had received the name of Joash. The child remained concealed in the sacred edifice for six entire years, without the queen having the slightest suspicion of his existence. 23: 1-15. On a certain Sabbath day, Jehoiada, having first made an arrangement with the captains of the royal body-guard, whom he secretly introduced into the Temple, showed the young prince, and bound by oath to espouse his cause, brought to the Temple a strong body of Levites (2 Chron. 23: 1-8), and at the same time concentrated on the spot four out of the five divisions of the body-guard, one being left to guard the palace. A stand or platform was prepared, on which the king was to take his place, so that he might be visible to all; and the soldiers, to whom Jehoiada distributed arms that had belonged to David out of the Temple armory, were ordered to kill any one who attempted to penetrate their ranks. Everything being prepared, the high-priest, amid general expectation, "brought forth the king's son" (2 K. 11:12), placed him on his pedestal, and then solemnly put upon his head "the crown and the Testimony." The crown, or diadem, was probably a gold band studded with jewels; the Testimony must have been a "Book of the Law"—probably that which was kept ordinarily in the Ark of the Covenant (De. 31:26). Finally, the holy oil was brought out, and the young prince anointed with it by Jehoiada and his sons, who at the same time raised the cry—"Long live the king"—which was taken up by the bystanders, guards, Levites and people, and swelled into a shout that rent the air and was heard afar. Meantime, the trumpets blared, the cymbals clashed, the singers raised hymns of praise; the entire multitude that filled the Temple courts joined in the celebration, and with loud acclaim hailed the Davidic king. Suddenly, in the midst of the deafening roar, Athaliah entered. At a glance she saw that all was lost, and rending her robes, she cried out, "Conspiracy! conspiracy!" and turned away. Jehoiada bade the soldiers let her retire, but follow her up, and as soon as she was outside the Temple, put her to death. His orders were executed, and Athaliah, escorted by the body-guard through the long array of armed Levites and exulting multitudes untouched and unharmed, passed out by the "horse gate" into the Tyropæon valley, and there met her death. Thus perished Athaliah, the last survivor of the house of Omri, so far as we know—a bold, bad woman, but one whose unblenching courage compels our respect. G. R. 14,15. There needs no formal seat of justice in so apparent offence. Jehoiada passes the sentence of death upon her: "Have her forth; let her not be slain in the house of the Lord; and him that followeth her kill with the sword." Had not this usurpation been palpable, Jehoiada would not have presumed to intermeddle; now, being both the priest of God and uncle and protector to the lawful king, he doth that out of the necessity of the state which his infant sovereign, if he could have been capable of those thoughts, would have desired. How like is Athaliah to her mother, Jezebel; as in conditions and carriage, so even in death: both killed violently; both killed under their own walls; both slain with treason in their mouths; both slain in the entrance of a changed government; one trod on by the horses, the other slain in the horse-gate! Both paid their own blood for the innocent blood of others. Bp. H. The two accounts supplement each other, the writer of Chronicles, as usually, telling the part which the priesthood sustained in the national rising, while the writer of the Book of Kings simply relates the part taken by the secular power. Thus the one narrates what was specially done by the Levites, the other what by the military; yet each also giving indications of the co-operation of the other actors. A. E. 23:16 AND Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, and all the people, and the king, that they should be the LORD's people. 17 And all the people went to the house of Baal, and brake it down, and brake his altars and his images in pieces, and slew Mattan 18 the priest of Baal before the altars. And JEHOIADA completed the second part of the royal installation by a twofold solemn act, of which the first consisted in a covenant by which the new king and the people bound themselves to renewed allegiance to Jehovah; while by the second the king similarly bound himself to the people, no doubt to rule in accordance with the law as laid down in the Book of Deuteronomy (2 K. 11:17). The ancient God-appointed constitution in Church and State having thus been re-established, the new king was conducted in state to the palace by the principal entrance, and formally enthroned. It was probably after this that the people proceeded to the house of Baal, wholly destroying it and its altars and images, and slaying Mattan, the priest of Baal. The religious reformation thus inaugurated was completed by the appointment of the officials required to superintend and carry on the orderly worship of the temple as we infer from 2 Chron. 23:18, 19, in accordance with the arrangements originally made by David, but which had since fallen into desuetude. And the whole account of this religious revolution concludes with this significant record: "And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet." A. E. After the coronation of Joash, described in the last section, Jehoiada, whose position seems to have given him the regency without any need of formal appointment, took the opportunity of the great gathering in the Temple, and the general exaltation of feeling produced by the events of the day, to bind the people afresh to God by a solemn league and covenant, so that "the joyous festival of homage to the young king became on this occasion identical with that of renewed allegiance to Jehovah." Such a solemn covenant had been first made by the nation at Sinai (Ex. 24:3-8); but there had been a repetition of it in the fifteenth year of Asa (2 Chron. 15:9-15) after the half apostasy of Rehoboam and Abijam; and Jehoiada now, either following this example, or moved by his own feeling of what was right and fitting, caused the nation for the third time to renew the sacred engagement. Later in the history, Hezekiah (2 Chron. 29:10) and Josiah (ibid., 34:41) did the same, regarding such solemn renewal of obligations as necessary, or at any rate appropriate, whenever the nation generally had fallen away from God and lapsed into idolatry. G. R. The reign of Joash, king of Judah, extended over the unusually long period of forty years. Acceding to the throne in the seventh year of Jehu, king of Israel, he survived not only that monarch and his son and successor, Jehoahaz, but also witnessed the accession of Jehoash of Israel. A. E. 2. All the days of Jehoiada. Jehoiada lived after the accession of Joash at least twenty-three years (2 K. 12:6), probably twenty-five or thirty. Thus the idolatries of Joash were confined to his last ten or fifteen years. 1. K. 12:2. All his days, wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. Nothing more is told us of the minority of Jehoash. But we may gather from this, that Jehoiada was, practically speaking, regent while it lasted. An increase of power to the priestly order was the natural consequence of this new position of the chief priest of the nation. We shall find Jehoiada shortly (see verse 10) bearing the revived and important title of "high priest;" and the Levitical order will be seen from this time to be more mixed up with public affairs and to have greater influence than previously. The title of "high" or "chief priest" is passed on to Jehoiada's successors (2 Chron. 26:20; 31:10; 34:9, etc.), who trace their office to him rather than to Aaron (Jer. 29:26). Jehoiada must have been regent for at least ten or twelve years. One of his last governmental acts, apparently, was to "take for Jehoash two wives," Jehoaddan of Jerusalem and another. The marriage with Jehoaddan must have taken place at least as early as Jehoash's twenty-first year, since Amaziah was born when his father was twenty-two. 3. But the high places were not taken away.** See the same formula used 1 K. 15: 14; 22: 43; 2 K. 14: 4; 15: 4, 35. The worship seems to have continued uninterruptedly to the time of Hezekiah, who abolished it (2 K. 18: 4). It was, however, again established by Manasseh, his son (2 K. 21: 3). The priests at this time cannot have regarded it as idolatrous, or Jehoiada would have put it down during his regency. B. C. 2. Chron. 24: 4, 5.** The first direction of Joash to the priests and Levites. After the enthronement of Joash, Jehoiada engaged the people in the overthrow of Baal's worship, and the restoration of the worship of Jehovah. During the king's childhood and youth, this wise and loyal uncle and priest permanently re-established the temple service; and probably reorganized the methods of instruction and the tribunals instituted by Jehoshaphat. The purpose of Joash, here referred to, concerning the repairs of the house of the Lord, was formed some years after his reign began; after his marriage (verse 3). During the three reigns of Jehoram, Ahaziah, and Athaliah, the Temple had been neglected, despoiled, and in part destroyed to its foundations. "The money collected to keep it in repair had been misappropriated to the worship of Baal." The priests and Levites had exclusive care of the Temple and of worship. The king therefore, at the outset, instructed them to collect special annual revenues from the people; and themselves to expend these moneys year by year upon the repair of the Lord's house. But his direction was not regarded. Up to the twenty-third year of the king's reign nothing was done (2 K. 12: 6). 4. He was minded to restore the house of the Lord.** This restoration of the Temple building and its ritual, furniture and order seems to have been the entire extent of the so-called "reformation" of Joash. No word is said about spiritual service, or even of any interest in the external offerings of priesthood and people. B.—The notable act of the reign of Joash was the restoration of the Temple. The need for it arose not so much from the age of the building, which had only been completed about a hundred and thirty years before, as from the damage done to it by the family of Athaliah, and the forcible appropriation for the service of Baalim of all that had been dedicated to the house of Jehovah (2 Chron. 24: 7). A. E. 6, 7. Joash calls Jehoiada to account for delay in the work of repair. We are in ignorance of the reason for the neglect of the priests and Levites and the failure of their "chief" in this matter. The only probable solution is that it required time and a fresh education of the people to bring them up to a necessary spirit of willingness to give for such an object; and that the priests would not risk their own support by pressing an unwilling constituency for more than this support required. At least it is safe to make this supposition from a similar state of things sometimes appearing in these later days. B. The Bible represents the building and repairing of the Lord's house as acts of eminent piety. The historian says of Joash in the context that he was a godly man as long as he had the guidance of the celebrated priest Jehoiada. Yet the only thing thought worthy of mention in that part of his reign is that "he was minded to repair the house of the Lord." The associations of the Lord's house are an incalculable help to the culture of religious character. We are creatures of association. We are moved more profoundly than we think by our surroundings. The recollection of our experiences in the house of God may be among the most precious treasures that memory hoards. A. Phelps. 2. Chron. 24: 8-11.** How the work of collection was successfully achieved. The king took it in hand now, and separated it entirely from the regularly gathered revenues for the support of the Temple service. He had a new treasure chest made, and set it at the gate, but outside the precincts of the Lord's house. Proclamation was then made through Judah and Jerusalem that the collection originally ordered by Moses in the wilderness for the building of the Lord's tabernacle was again required in behalf of the Lord's house. The king then appointed separate collectors and custodians of the treasure, and his own high officers, with one of the high priests, emptied the chest in his own palace. And very speedily, willingly, and joyfully did the princes and all the people cast into the chest, until it had been many times filled and emptied, and "money was gathered in abundance." B. Spontaneous gifts are implied by the tone of verse 10, which lays stress on the gladness of the officers. That is the incense which adds fragrance to our gifts. Grudging service is no service, and money given for ever so religious a purpose, without gladness because of the opportunity of giving, is not, in the deepest sense, given at all. Love is a longing to give to the beloved, and whoever truly loves God will know no keener delight than surrender for His dear sake. Pecuniary contributions for religious purposes afford a rough but real test of the depth of a man's religion; but it is one available only for himself, since the motive, and not the amount, is the determining element. We all need to bring our hearts more under the influence of God's love to us, that our love to Him may be increased, and then to administer possessions, under the impulse of giving gladly which enkindled love will always excite. Superheated steam has most expansive power and driving force. These glad givers may remind us not only of the one condition of acceptable giving, but also of the need for clear and worthy objects, and of obvious disinterestedness in those who seek for money to help good causes. The smallest opening for suspicion that some of it sticks to the collector's fingers is fatal, as it should be. A. M. 12, 13. How the money was disbursed and the work done. As the king and the high priest received it, so, under their direction, it was disbursed to the artisans and laborers, through appointed overseers or foremen. And the house of God was restored to its original completeness and beauty. The excess of contributed treasure was used to provide vessels of gold and silver for the Temple service. B. 2. K. 12:15.** It is a noble testimony borne concerning these men who did the part of overseers in the work of the Temple, that they did not need to be reckoned with, "for they dealt faithfully." They were men of probity and honor who conscientiously looked after the men set under them, seeing that the work committed to their care was properly done. There is a sphere for faithfulness in the discharge of every kind of duty. Carlyle says of Louis XV., "His wide France, look at it from the fixed stars, is no wider than thy narrow brickfield, where thou, too, didst faithfully or didst unfaithfully. It is not thy works, which are all mortal, infinitely little, and the greatest no greater than the least, but only the spirit thou workest in that can have worth or continuance." They were faithful in their money dealings—so faithful that it was not felt necessary to keep a strict reckoning with them as to their expenditure upon the workmen. It was only a very high degree of integrity which would warrant it. As a rule, it is wise to keep account even with those whose integrity we do not dispute. It is added that the revenues which properly belonged to the priests, the trespass money and sin money, were not touched for the purpose of the repairs. Neither was the money given for the restoration of the building applied, until the repairs were completed, to purchase new vessels for the sanctuary. A regard for justice is thus observable throughout the whole of these dealings. J. O. — "Faithful" work is prosperous work. As verse 13 picturesquely says, "Healing went up upon the work;" and the Temple was restored to its old, fair proportions, and stood strong as before. Where there is conscientious effort God's blessing is not withheld. Labor "in the Lord" can never be labor "in vain," though even a prophet may often be tempted, in a moment of weary despondency, to complain, "I have labored in vain." We may not see the results, nor have the workmen's joy of beholding the building rise, course by course, under our hands, but we shall see one day, though now we have to work in the dark. A. M. 2. Chron. 24:15, 16.** As regards the movement in the southern kingdom of Judah, Old Testament history does not present a nobler figure than that of Jehoiada, whether viewed as priest or patriot. Faithful to his religion, despite his connection with the house of Jehoram and the temptations which it would involve, he dared to rescue the infant prince and to conceal him for six years at the risk of his life. There cannot be doubt that the occupancy of the throne by Athaliah was not only an usurpation and a crime, but contrary to the law and constitution of the land. Yet in bringing about a change which was strictly legal, Jehoiada acted in the most careful manner, having first consulted with, and secured the co-operation of, all the estates of the realm. Similarly, the execution of the plan was entrusted to those to whom action in the matter naturally belonged; and if the high priest marked the accession of the new king by a covenant between him and the people and Jehovah, he was at least equally careful to secure the constitutional rights and liberties of the people by another covenant between them and their sovereign. Lastly, in the period that followed, Jehoiada used his position and influence only in favor of what was best, and not at any time for lower or selfish purposes. To this record of his life we have to add his activity in connection with the restoration of the Temple. We do not wonder that when he died at a patriarchal age, the unparalleled honor was accorded him of a burial not only in Jerusalem itself, where, according to tradition, there were no burying-places, but "in the city of David" and "among the kings," because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and His house” verse 16). A. E. 17-22. A most unhappy change ensued. The princes of Judah, who had doubtless been jealous of the high priest’s unbounded influence, seem to have persuaded the king that it was time to be his own master; and the first use that he and they made of this new liberty was to neglect the house of Jehovah, and to serve groves and idols. But not without warning and remonstrance. At this point of the history occurs that remarkable passage which introduces the line of prophets whose writings remain to us, and who began to appear about this time, Elisha being still alive: “Yet He sent prophets unto them, to bring them again unto Jehovah; and they testified against them: but they would not give ear.” Nay more, by adding to their sins the blood of the martyr whom Christ names with “righteous Abel”—both victims to the passion that knows the truth and hates it—they made themselves a type of the generation that slew the Lord. The Spirit of Jehovah came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, and probably high priest, who told them that they could not prosper, because they had forsaken God; and even in the court of the sanctuary, which they were perhaps attempting to profane by a sacrifice to Baal, they stoned him to death, by the king’s order, between the Temple and the altar. This was the very space within which Joash had been guarded by Jehoiada and his line of Levites; and the narrative lays stress on the king’s ingratitude to the son of the man who had saved his life. The dying cry of Zechariah, “Jehovah, look upon it, and require it,” never ceases to echo through the annals of the Jews, till they “filled up the measure of their fathers” by invoking the guilt of Christ’s blood upon their heads. Meanwhile, it found an immediate response in the calamities that followed. P. S. The sanction of the king to the introduction of idolatry in Judah soon brought, in the Divine order of things, its national punishment. But here also Divine mercy first interposed by admonitions and warnings sent through His prophets (2 Chron. 24: 19). Among these we have probably to include Joel, whose prophecies were probably uttered in the period of hopeful revival which characterized the first part of the reign of Joash. But now the warnings of the prophets were not only left unheeded: they called forth violent opposition. Still, prophets might be borne with because of their extraordinary mission and message. It was otherwise when the high priest Zechariah, the son—or, rather, grandson—of Jehoiada, standing in his official capacity in the court of the priests, addressed the people gathered beneath in the lower court speaking in similar language, under the overpowering influence of the Spirit of God. The princes and people conspired; and at the command of the king, unmindful not only of his duty to God, but even of the gratitude he owed to his former preserver and counsellor, the grandson of Jehoiada was stoned to death “between the Temple and the altar.” All things combined to mark this as a crime of no ordinary guilt, specially typical of what befell the last and greatest prophet of Israel, the Christ of God. The death inflicted on Zechariah was that which the law had appointed for idolatry and blasphemy (Lev. 20: 2; 24: 23). Thus the murderers of the high priest, as those of Christ, unrighteously inflicted the punishment which was due to themselves. Again, in the one case as in the other, the crime was provoked by faithful admonitions and warnings sent directly of God. In both instances the crime was national, the rulers and people having equal part in it; in both, also, it was connected with the Temple, and yet the outcome of national apostasy. Lastly, in both instances the punishment was likewise national. Yet there is marked difference also. For, as Zechariah died, “he said, Jehovah, look upon it, and require it;” while our Lord, when referring to this event as parallel to what was about to befall Him, implied no personal resentment when He uttered this prediction: “Behold your house is left unto you desolate.” And yet, further, unlike the words of Zechariah, those of Christ ended not with judgment, but with the promise of His return in mercy and the prospect of Israel’s repentance (Matt. 23: 39). A. E. 21. In the court of the house of the Lord.** “Between the altar and the Temple,” or directly in front of the Temple porch, if it be this Zechariah of whom our Lord speaks (Matt. 23: 35). A horror of their impious deed long possessed the Jews, who believed that the blood was not to be effaced, but continued to bubble on the stones of the court, like blood newly shed, until the Temple was entered, just prior to its destruction, by Nebuzaradan. B. C. We conclude that our Lord (Luke 11: 51) referred to Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada (which is the reading in the Gospel used by the Nazarenes), who was stoned by order of Joash “in the court of the house of the Lord.” That he is referred to is clear, because (1) this murder, in the order of the Jewish books, stood last in the Old Testament ; (2) in dying, Zechariah had exclaimed, " The Lord look upon it and require it ; " (3) the Jews themselves had many most remarkable legends about this murder, which made a deep impression on them, and which they specially believed to have kindled God's wrath against them (2 Chron. 24 : 18). Consequently " son of Berechiah" (which is not found except in D) in Luke 11 : 51 is a very early and erroneous gloss which has crept into the text. Farrar. The Lord did look upon it ; He did require it. With that deed ended the peace and prosperity of Jehoash's reign. The Syrian king, Hazael, invaded the land—the first time this power had appeared in the southern kingdom—and threatened Jerusalem. The force was small—much less than Jehoash had at his command ; but the king and his large army sustained a most disgraceful defeat ; and he then thought that he had no alternative but to buy off the Syrians by the sacrifice of the treasures and precious vessels of the Temple, as well as of the accumulations in the royal treasury. He seems to have been wounded, for it is stated that " they left him in sore diseases." But his bed screened him not from the popular indignation, insomuch that two of his servants, reckoning upon impunity, if not applause, from the people, murdered him upon his sick-couch. That they were nearly right in this is shown by the fact that his son Amaziah, who succeeded, dared not, until some time after, " when his kingdom was established," call the murderers to account. Indeed, the nation gave its solemn posthumous judgment upon the demerits of this king's reign by refusing his corpse a place in the sepulchres of the kings, although he was allowed a tomb within the city. Kitto. 2. K. 12 : 17, 18.** There was probably a considerable interval between the conclusion of the arrangement for the repairs and the Syrian expedition related in these verses. The death of Jehoiada, the apostasy of Joash and the " princes," the warnings of the prophets, and the murder of Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, all fell into this space. B. C. 2. Chron. 24 : 23, 24.** Although the Syrian force was numerically much inferior to that of Judah, the army of Joash was defeated with heavy losses. These notably included the destruction of those " princes" who had been leaders in the movement that ended in the murder of Zechariah. The Book of Chronicles is careful to mark the hand of God in a defeat which formed so striking a contrast to the vicvictory which the Lord had given to Asa with an army greatly inferior to his enemies (2 Chron. 14 : 9, etc.). And yet this was only the beginning of judgment upon Joash. According to the account in the Book of Kings (12 : 18), Joash bought off the capture of his capital by handing to the conqueror all the hallowed things of the Temple and the treasures of the palace. A. E. 2. K. 12 : 17-21.** Within less than a year, Hazael, the brave and warlike king of Syria, not content with the damage which he had inflicted on the northern kingdom (2 K. 10 : 32, 33), invaded the south. His main attack was on the Philistine town of Gath (ibid., 12 : 17) ; but having been successful there, he suddenly resolved to make a dash upon Jerusalem. Here plunder, rather than conquest, was his object ; and when Joash, after a battle in which he was severely defeated (2 Chron. 24 : 24), offered to buy off his hostility by the sacrifice of the Temple and palace treasures, Hazael readily consented. All the stores accumulated since Asa bribed Benhadad (1 K. 15 : 18) were made over by the Jewish to the Syrian monarch as the price of peace, were brought to Hazael in Damascus. Jerusalem was allowed to escape ; but the wretched king, humiliated and disgraced, fell into a sick condition, and had to take to his bed in the castle of Millo, which he had perhaps made his residence in expectation of a siege. Here, advantage was taken of his illness by some of his attendants, who formed a conspiracy against him among those of his household, and slew him on his sick-bed. G. R. 2. Chron. 24 : 25.** " And they buried him in the city of David, but they buried him not in the sepulchres of the kings." The slayer of the son might not sleep with that father whose memory he had so ungratefully and atrociously dishonored. So did the fair morning, for the want of depth and steadfastness of principle, give place to an evening of darkness and storm ; and the hopeful signs of early youth led into apostasy, crime, misery, disgrace, and ruin Hallam. #### Suggestions of this History. There are not many biographies more dramatically interesting and more practically instructive. He seems to have had the ordinary proclivities to evil, and nothing more. But he was destitute of any fixed religious principle, and he wanted constitutional firmness. He was one of those—and their name is legion—whose course is determined almost entirely by the circumstances in which they are placed and the hands into which they fall. He had not that firmness of will which bends circumstances to itself, nor that decision of character which makes a man self-centred and resolute. Hence we find that so long as his uncle Jehoiada lived he did remarkably well, just because he was then in good hands. But no sooner was Jehoiada removed by death, and counsellors of another stamp came about him, than (being as plastic in their hands as he had been in those of his uncle) he began to diverge from the path of duty, and ultimately brought himself to a violent and untimely death. Zeal about the outwards of religion is not necessarily religion itself. Joash had the one, but he never had the other. Perhaps he had a feeling of interest in the Temple from early associations, and the fact that it had been the means of saving his life; but that is but a poor substitute for the grace of God. And yet there are many whose religion is no better than this—a vague sentiment which has come up from the impressions of their early days, having no root of faith in the heart, and no fruit of holiness in the life. Nothing can be trusted to keep a man right, even in this world, but religious principle. A man may have a firm will, and a keen sense of the unprofitableness of sin, and these may help to keep him from open criminality; but even then he is not safe. His passions may get the better of him at some unguarded moment, and may ruin all. But when, on the other hand, as in the case of Joash, there is a facility of temperament—and a weakness of will—without the grace of God failure seems all but inevitable. The temptations are so numerous in a world like this; the flatterers are so many and so busy, that where there is not a strong constitutional power of resistance, a young man is much to be felt for. But here is his refuge—he cannot change his mental and physical constitution, but he can bring into it the strength of God, and that will be more than a balance, that will uphold him in every temptation, and give him the victory over every foe. Like Joseph, he will say, “Shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” or like Nehemiah, “But so did not I, because of the fear of God.” Beware of the beginnings of evil. You cannot tell where they will end. Beware what companions you choose, and what counsellors you follow. Make the Bible your guide and heaven will be your home. A. L. Simpson. All of God’s institutions rightly demand efficient maintenance by God’s people. First the house of worship, and next the various edifices wherein Christ is effectually ministered to in the persons of His poor and sorely afflicted. Single-eyed earnest purpose and effort for real good, wisely directed, will evoke a responsive spirit and attain the requisite means whereby to achieve success. Heart-giving or heart-doing always produces heart-rejoicing. Generous acting, the free, glad imparting to others of thought, of toil, of means, in the Christ-like spirit of unselfish sacrifice, brings of necessity a Christ-like joy to the Christ-loving man or woman or child. This is the interpretation of Christ’s ninth beatitude, posthumously given by Paul: It is more blessed to give! B. # 2d of Joash to 27th of Jeroboam II., of Israel. 26 : 1 AND all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in the room of his father Amaziah. He built Eloth, and restored it to Judah, after that the king slept with his fathers. Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty and two years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Jechiliah of Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. And he set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper. And he went forth and warred against the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod; and he built cities in the country of Ashdod, and among the Philistines. And God helped him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians that dwelt in Gur-baal, and the Meunim. And the Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah: and ON the murder of Amaziah, king of Judah, by conspirators at Lachish, the people are stated to have taken Azariah or Uzziah, one of Amaziah's sons, a youth of sixteen years of age, and made him king in his father's room (2 K. 14:21). There seems to be an indication of his having already won the popular favor, in the expression used by the writer of Chronicles (2 Chron. 26:1), that "all the people of Judah took him and made him king." Uzziah, as Ewald says, "was equally great in the arts of peace and in those of war." His reign was, as Dean Stanley remarks, "the most prosperous, excepting that of Jehoshaphat, since the time of Solomon." G. R. Uzziah was contemporary with nearly half the reign of Jeroboam II., with Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, and Pekahiah, and the last year of his reign was the first of Pekah's. He was at first under the influence of Zechariah, a prophet "who had understanding in the visions of God." He began his reign by recovering and rebuilding Eloth (Ælana: Akabah), the old port of Solomon and Jehoshaphat, at the eastern head of the Red Sea. His successful wars restored Judah nearly to the power she had possessed under the latter king. He received tribute from Ammon, and subdued the Philistines, razing the fortifications of Gath and Ashdod, and building fortresses throughout their country. The Arabs of the southern desert, whom we have seen with the Philistines, first as tributaries and then as enemies of Judah, were reduced to the former condition. Towers were built and wells were dug, both in the maritime plain (Shefelah) and the Idumean desert (Arabah), for the king's numerous flocks: and he had husbandmen and vine-dressers in the plains about Carmel (in the south) and in the mountains. While thus improving the resources of his country, Uzziah made preparations for its defence, whether against Israel, Syria, or Assyria. He repaired the wall of Jerusalem, which had been broken down after his father's defeat by Jehoash, building towers at the corner gate, and the valley gate, and the angle of the wall. He armed the fortifications with newly invented military engines, the first of which we read in Jewish history, like the balista and catapult, for shooting arrows and great stones. He kept on foot an army of 307,500 men "that made war with mighty power," under 2600 captains, "the chief of the fathers of the might men of valor," with Hana-niah as commander-in-chief. They went forth to war by bands, the roll of which was kept by the king's scribe, Jeiel, and the ruler of his house, Maaseiah. By the care of Uzziah, all the soldiers were armed with spears and shields, helmets and coats of mail, bows and slings. "And his name spread far abroad, for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong." But deprived probably of the counsel of Zechariah, he could not bear his prosperity. In his arrogance, he claimed the functions of the priests; not those which we have seen always exercised by judges and kings, of offering burned sacrifices, but those which belonged exclusively to the sons of Aaron. He entered into the Holy Place to burn incense on the golden altar. He was followed by the high priest Azariah, with eighty of the most courageous of the priests, prepared to resist the profanation by force. The high priest reproved the king with all the boldness of his office, and warned him to leave the sanctuary, predicting that dishonor would befall him. What reply or deed Uzziah meditated in his rage, we are not told; but as he stood, censer in hand, there rose with the flush of anger to his forehead the spot of leprosy, the sign of his exclusion even from the court of the house of God. When the priests saw it they thrust him out; nay, he himself was so struck with the judgment that he hastened from the sanctuary. He remained a leper to the day of his death, secluded in a separate house, according to the directions of the law, while the government was committed to his son, Jotham. When he died he was not received into the sepulchre of the kings, but buried in a field attached to it. His life was written by the prophet Isaiah, as well as in the Chronicles of Judah. P. S. Uzziah, in the Second Book of Kings and once in Chronicles called Azariah, ascended the throne at a time of great disorder. But from this time the kingdom of Judah attained, during the sixty-eight years which comprise the reigns of Uzziah and his son Jotham, a degree of power such as it had not possessed since the disruption; while the sister kingdom enjoyed under Jeroboam II, but a short period of prosperity. On the south Edom was subdued, and the territory of Judah again extended to the Gulf of Akabah; in the west the Philistines were compelled to submit; on the east the Moabites and Ammonites became tributaries to Judah instead of the northern kingdom. A powerful military force was raised, the country defended by fortresses, the fortifications of Jerusalem itself were strengthened, and trade and agriculture flourished. Still, notwithstanding the general adherence of Uzziah and Jotham to the theoretic ordinances, the moral and religious condition of the people was not satisfactory. Luxury, pride and oppression of the poor increased together with power and riches, while heathen superstitions and other foreign customs were at the same time disseminated. See the characteristics of the times described (Isa. 2: 5-8, 16 sqq.; 5: 18-23). Idolatry, too, probably of the same kind as the image-worship at Bethel, was tolerated, if not at Jerusalem, in other parts of the land—at Beersheba (Amos 5: 5; 8: 14); and Lachish (Mic. 1: 13)—according to the probable meaning of this passage. Hence Isaiah, in spite of the scoffers in high places (5: 19 sqq.), announced in the days of Jotham the coming of the day of the Lord upon all who were proud and lofty, that they might be brought low (2: 12). The judgment already in process of infliction upon the northern kingdom was to overtake Judah also (see especially 6: 9-13); but here, where all was not as yet corrupt, it was to be accomplished by slower degrees. O. 2. Chron. 26: 1. Uzziah.** This form of the name is found uniformly in Chronicles, with the single exception of 1 Chron. 3: 12, where Azariah occurs. Uzziah is likewise the only form used by the prophets. The writer of Kings prefers the form Azariah, but has Uzziah in four places (2 K. 15: 13, 30, 32, 34). B. C. 3. The summary of Uzziah's reign, both in Kings and Chronicles, declares him to have been a good king—"He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done." There is, of course, the usual reservation, that under him "the high places were not removed; the people sacrificed and burned incense still on the high places" (verse 4); and the writer of Chronicles adds the qualifying statement, that he "sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God" (verse 5), by which it would appear that Uzziah, like Joash his grandfather, was in the earlier part of his reign faithful to Jehovah and the national religion under the influence of a Jehovah's prophet, but afterward, when this influence was removed, fell away and became irreligious. Still, no act of sin is recorded against him until nearly the close of his long life. Then, we are told, he became puffed up with pride on account of his continuous and extraordinary prosperity—"his heart was lifted up to his destruction, and he transgressed against the Lord his God." G. R. 16. Uzziah's transgression.** A very long period of comparative fidelity had produced long prosperity, but this prosperity filled his heart with pride, and pride led him to wrongdoing. Not content with his kingly prerogative, he also aspired after the priestly dignity. The offering of incense upon the altar within the Holy of Holies was exclusively the office of the priests. This altar derived special importance from the daily burning of sweet incense upon it morning and evening, and from the sprinkling of the blood of atonement upon it by the high priest once every year. Prayer by the body of the people without accompanied the offering of the incense, and hence it came to be associated with prayer as its natural symbol. This altar had a connection with the altar of burnt offering, in the fact that its fire was taken from that. As the one altar—that of burnt offering—signified the fact of Christ's expiation, so the other, within the veil—the altar of incense—symbolized in its office the intercession of Christ. Hence there was a peculiar sacredness in the offering of incense, as representing the Saviour's own act. Therefore the priest alone, in his representative office as mediator, was privileged to perform this service; and this Uzziah well knew, yet his ambition led him to undertake so defiant a transgression against the law of his God. B. Prolonged and uniform prosperity, especially when united with high place and the ostentation and subserviency that inevitably cling to its skirts, is a severe trial which none but a robust and hardy virtue can long endure. Uzziah's goodness gave way under it. Not content with his kingly honors, he will fain be a priest also. He is unwilling to admit that there is any important thing in his kingdom that he cannot do, any honorable function that he may not discharge. It seemed a disparagement and limitation of his supremacy. Hallam. 17,18. Faithful opposition of the priests.** Under the leadership of Azariah, the chief priest, a band of brave priests withstood the entrance of the king and the royal guard. With remonstrance first they asserted the exclusive right of the consecrated priest to burn incense unto the Lord. And they bade him depart from the sanctuary upon whose precincts he had already trespassed; and they intimated that God would sustain His own honor against the royal trespasser. 19. God's interposition of judgment upon Uzziah.** The opposition of the priests only stirred the wrath of the king. It stayed not his sacrilegious purpose. He dared to lift the censer, when suddenly God struck him with leprosy. Visibly to the priests broke forth upon his forehead the white scourge, as he stood with lifted censer. B. 20. It was Heaven's laws that Azariah was defying, and it was from heaven the blow came which struck his pride low. While yet he stood at God's altar, offering unhallowed incense, the leprosy spot began to burn in his forehead, and in presence of the priests, whose protestations he despised, he felt himself a leper. The priests, in horror, thrust him out from the holy place. But it needed not their violence: "Yea, himself hastened also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him." How quickly God can bring the haughtiness of men low! He is a jealous God, and what touches the honor of His sanctuary and worship is of special concern to Him. We are warned against will-worship in God's service (Col. 2:23; cf. Num. 10:1, 2). The leprosy was but the outward token of the invisible sin of pride; yet how little shame the reality of sin occasions, as compared with that caused by an outward symbol of it like this! We may believe that in the end inward character will somehow stamp itself upon the outward appearance, and then men will see sin in its real loathsomeness. J. O. Leprosy is a chronic, hereditary, malignant vampire, slowly eating up its victim in one long, momentary meal. It eats hair, nails, flesh, bones, exposing heart and lungs through gnawed and ghastly ribs. There is no poison that can pall this appetite, for it is virulence itself. But Jesus had compassion, put His hand on the leper, in defiance of all sanitary and civil law; and, with a word, the Lord of life changed that festering mass of corruption into the sweetness of the flesh of a little child. Measureless mercy! Marvellous power! It is as easy to make sweetness out of putrescence as lilies out of the river slime. Leprosy is God's language to describe sin; hereditary, eating like a canker, horrible, to be quarantined against here and hereafter, unmedicable by man, instantly curable by power Divine. H. W. Warren. 20-23. As a leper thrust forth from the Temple; thenceforth secluded for life, and in his burial. No defence was attempted by the king or his guard against the act of expulsion by the priests. The king himself felt that which was apparent to the priests, that the hand of God had been interposed in judgment. The king was now doubly a trespasser in the holy place, for the Law excluded the leper utterly from the Temple precincts. He went forth, and to the day of his death dwelt apart, cut off not only from the house of the Lord, but severed from all association with his own household, and virtually dethroned by his own guilty act. B.—We are not told whether during his incarceration he repented of the sin that he had committed; but we may assume that he did so, since he certainly left behind him the character of a good king. G. R. Three kings of Judah in succession begin well, serve God for a time and prosper, yet stumble and fail at last. We have seen the fates of Joash and Amaziah; and Azariah furnishes a third example. J. O. 21,23. Cut off from access to the house of the Lord, where he had impiously sought to command, and debarred from all intercourse with men, the kingdom was administered by Jotham, his son—for how long a period before the death of Uzziah it is impossible to determine. His punishment followed him even into the grave. For, although he was "buried with his fathers," it was "in the field of the burial which belonged to the kings," probably the burying-ground of the members of the royal family; he was not laid in the sepulchre where the kings of Judah rested. A. E. The case of Uzziah is one of the few instances recorded in the Scriptures of instant and severe punishment of the sin of irreverence and presumption. God does not always punish sin in the same way. The sin is the same, age after age. It is marvellous how human nature repeats itself, but God's treatment of the wrong is infinitely diversified. That irreverent worshippers are not all lepers is no proof that they are more pleasing to God now than when the Judean king was rebuked by that loathsome disease. Phelps. As prosperity genders pride, and pride leads to the out-acting of self-will, so it goeth before destruction. God will not be mocked. He will be had in reverence by all them that are round about Him. And none can contend against Him. A faithful stand for truth and duty, even boldness in reproof of wrong-doing, is suggested by the attitude of these priests of God. A just and noble life like Uzziah's, ending in evil and sorrow, strongly emphasizes the New Testament exhortations to steadfastness and endurance to the end. Hold on in the way of obedience and trust, of humility and truth, that you may be enabled to hold out to the completion of a Christian life. The whole Epistle to the Hebrews has this counsel as one of its main thoughts; and the whole Hebrew history emphatically illustrates this counsel. B. # Sixteen Years, 1st to 17th of Pekah, of Israel. Another good reign followed that of Uzziah. His son Jotham, the eleventh king of Judah, succeeded to the throne at twenty-five years of age, and reigned sixteen years. He was a wise, energetic, and devout ruler, faithful to God and mindful of the interests of his subjects. He maintained the worship of Jehovah, although idolatry was still practised to some extent among the people. He strengthened the defences of Jerusalem, and of the other walled cities of Judah. He added to the wealth and the adornment of the Temple. He reduced the Ammonites to complete subjection, and retained supremacy over the other adjacent nations. Thus true to Jehovah, the realm of Judah enjoyed peace and prosperity during the entire period of his reign. "So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord God." B. # Fuller Outline of his Reign. Jotham, who became regent when his father, Uzziah, was stricken with leprosy, is said to have held the throne of Judah for sixteen years (2 K. 15 : 33) ; but it is questionable whether the space mentioned does not also include the period of his regency. He is reckoned a good prince—one who "did right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Uzziah had done" (ibid., verse 34), but who avoided Uzziah's sin—"howbeit he entered not into the Temple of the Lord" (2 Chron. 27 : 2). In his general policy, he simply trod in the footsteps of his father. First of all, he further improved the defences of the country. He also "built cities"—i.e., fortresses, "in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers" (ibid., verses 3, 4). The Ammonite nation, subdued by his father (2 Chron. 26 : 8), rebelled against him, and refused to pay him tribute, whereupon Jotham invaded their country, defeated the Ammonite monarch, reimposed the tribute, and increased it for the first three years, as a punishment. Toward the close of his reign he had to sustain attacks on the part of Pekah and Rezin, who had already formed their alliance; but these attacks do not seem to have become formidable until the reign of his son (2 K. 15 : 37 ; 16 : 5). The internal condition of Judah did not improve under Jotham. Notwithstanding his own faithfulness to the Jehovistic worship, "the people did yet corruptly" (2 Chron. 27 : 2). The high-place worship, as a matter of course, still continued (2 K. 15 : 35) ; and with it were joined a number of base and degrading foreign superstitions. The opening chapters of Isaiah depict the Judea of Jotham's time. "The whole head was sick, and the whole heart faint" (Isa. 1 : 5). The rulers were no better than "the rulers of Sodom :" the people were like the "people of Gomorrah" (verse 9). A "form of godliness, without the power," prevailed. Sacrifices were offered; incense was burned; new moons and Sabbaths were carefully observed; the appointed feasts were kept; assemblies were called; solemn meetings were held; hands were spread forth; "many prayers" were even put up (verses 11-15). But all this was a mere show of religion, worthless—nay, abominable—in the sight of God. G. R. Chap. 27. This short chapter runs parallel with 2 K. 15 : 32-38, and is taken mainly from the same source or sources. It is simpler than the narrative in Kings, containing all the facts of that narrative except the notice of the Syrian war (verse 37), and adding besides a much fuller account of Jotham's buildings (verses 3 and 4), and the entire account of the Ammonite war (verse 5). The writer inserts also, after his manner, certain religious reflections—as that Jotham, warned by his father's fate, did not attempt to enter the Temple (verse 2) ; and that he became mighty because he established his way before the Lord his God (verse 6). 2. He did right according to all that his father Uzziah did. Uzziah's single act of impiety is not regarded as destroying the generally good character of his reign. "Howbeit he entered not into the Temple of the Lord”—i.e., he imitated his father in all respects, excepting in his impious usurpation of the priestly functions. B. C. 6. Because he prepared his ways before the Lord.** Because he directed his counsels and actions according to the rule of God's word. It has been observed that Jotham is the only one of the kings of Judah who has not some evil laid to his charge. David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Jehoshaphat, all committed some trespass of greater or less magnitude; but of Jotham no fault or error is recorded. Bp. Patrick.—This text takes us behind the scenes, and admits us into those privacies of the king's mind and habit where the real clues of every one's character are to be found. We arrive at the secret of all strength, “preparation,” and that preparation made “before the Lord his God.” When a man prepares his ways before the Lord his God, the consequence is sure: he will grow mighty. He will do what he does strongly. And both his work and his own soul are sure to grow. This is just what we all want; we ought never to rest till we reach it—to be mighty in prayer, mighty in influence, mighty in good works, mighty in grace. J. Vaughan. 2. K. 15 : 37. In those days the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin the King of Syria.** Rezin's name occurs in the Assyrian inscriptions early in the reign of Tiglath-pileser, probably in the year n.c. 743. At that time he pays to the Assyrians a heavy tribute, consisting of eighteen talents of gold, three hundred talents of silver, two hundred talents of copper, and twenty talents of spices. Subsequently, about the year n.c. 734, he is found in revolt. His alliance with Pekah, here implied, is directly stated by Isaiah (7 : 2). Begun in Jotham's reign, it continued, and came to a head, in the reign of Ahaz. Ham- mond.—The alliance between Pekah and Rezin was made in the reign of Jotham. It had for its object in all probability the consolidation of a power in Syria which might be strong enough to resist the further progress of the Assyrian arms. The recent invasions of Tiglath-pileser had effectually alarmed the two northern monarchs, and had induced them to put aside the traditional jealousies which naturally kept them apart, and to make a league offensive and defensive. Into this league they were anxious that Judea should enter; but they distrusted the house of David, which had been so long hostile both to Damascus and to Samaria. They consequently formed the design of transferring the Jewish crown to a certain Ben-Tabeal (Isa. 7 : 6), probably a Jewish noble, perhaps a refugee at one of their courts, whom they could trust to join heartily in their schemes. Hostilities apparently broke out before the death of Jotham; but nothing of importance was effected until the first year of his successor. B. C. Holy Scripture simply informs us that “in those days Jehovah began to send against Judah Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son of Remaliah.” It is a majestic and truly prophetic mode of viewing events, thus to recognize in such a league as that of Rezin and Pekah the divinely appointed judgment upon Judah. It is to pass from the secondary and visible causes of an event straight to Him who overrules all, and who with Divine skill weaves the threads that man has spun into the web and woof of His dealings. In point of fact, the Syro-Israelitish league against Judah ultimately embraced not only the Ammonites, who refused to continue their tribute, but also the Edomites, the Philistines, and all the southern tribes lately reduced to subjection (2 Chron. 28 : 17, 18). A. E. # 17th of Pekah to 3d of Hosea, of Israel. 29: 1 HEZEKIAH began to reign when he was five and twenty years old; and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the broad place on the east, and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites; now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the sight of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to be tossed to and fro, to be an astonishment, 9 and an hissing, as ye see with your eyes. For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to minister unto him, and that ye should be his ministers, and burn incense. 12. Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the 29: 1 HEZEKIAH began to reign when he was five and twenty years old; and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the broad place on the east, and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites; now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the sight of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to be tossed to and fro, to be an astonishment, 9 and an hissing, as ye see with your eyes. For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to minister unto him, and that ye should be his ministers, and burn incense. 12. Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the 29: 1 HEZEKIAH began to reign when he was five and twenty years old; and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that David his father had done. He in the first year of his reign, in the first month, opened the doors of the house of the LORD, and repaired them. And he brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together into the broad place on the east, and said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites; now sanctify yourselves, and sanctify the house of the LORD, the God of your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place. For our fathers have trespassed, and done that which was evil in the sight of the LORD our God, and have forsaken him, and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the LORD, and turned their backs. Also they have shut up the doors of the porch, and put out the lamps, and have not burned incense nor offered burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. Wherefore the wrath of the LORD was upon Judah and Jerusalem, and he hath delivered them to be tossed to and fro, to be an astonishment, 9 and an hissing, as ye see with your eyes. For, lo, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. Now it is in mine heart to make a covenant with the LORD, the God of Israel, that his fierce anger may turn away from us. My sons, be not now negligent: for the LORD hath chosen you to stand before him, to minister unto him, and that ye should be his ministers, and burn incense. 12. Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the 1. AFTER these things, and this faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself. And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib was come, and that he was purposed to fight against Jerusalem, he took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city; and they helped him. So there was gathered much people together, and they stopped all the fountains, and the brook that flowed through the midst LORD, and in the treasures of the king's 16 house. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria. 17 And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army unto Je- rusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the high way of the 18 fuller's field. And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah 19 the son of Asaph the recorder. And Rab- shakeh said unto them, Say ye now to Heze- kiah, Thus saith the great king, the king of Assyria, What confidence is this wherein 20 thou trustest? Thou sayest, but they are but vain words, There is counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou hast rebelled against 21 me? Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt; whereon if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of 22 Egypt unto all that trust on him. But if ye say unto me, We trust in the LORD our God: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem? 23 Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. 24 How then canst thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's ser- vants, and put thy trust on Egypt for 25 chariots and for horsemen? Am I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said unto me, Go 26 up against this land, and destroy it. Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Sheb- nah, and Joah, unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and speak not with us in the Jews' language, in the 27 ears of the people that are on the wall. But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my mas- ter sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak these words? hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own water of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water? 5 And he took courage, and built up all the wall that was broken down, and raised it up to the towers, and the other wall without, and strengthened Millo in the city of David, and made weapons and shields in abundance. 6 And he set captains of war over the people, and gathered them together to him in the broad place at the gate of the city, and spake 7 comfortably to them, saying, Be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the mul- 8 titude that is with him: for there is a greater with us than with him: with him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. 9 After this did Sennacherib king of Assyria send his servants to Jerusalem, (now he was before Lachish, and all his power with him,) unto Hezekiah king of Judah, and unto all Judah, that were at Jerusalem, saying, 10 Thus saith Sennacherib king of Assyria, Whereon do ye trust, that ye abide the siege 11 in Jerusalem? Doth not Hezekiah per- suade you, to give you over to die by fam- ine and by thirst, saying, The LORD our God shall deliver us out of the hand of the king 12 of Assyria? Hath not the same Hezekiah taken away his high places and his altars, and commanded Judah and Jerusalem, say- ing, Ye shall worship before one altar, and 13 upon it shall ye burn incense? Know ye not what I and my fathers have done unto all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands any ways able to 14 deliver their land out of mine-hand? Who was there among all the gods of those na- tions which my fathers utterly destroyed, that could deliver his people out of mine hand, that your God should be able to deliver 15 you out of mine hand? Now therefore let not Hezekiah deceive you, nor persuade you on this manner, neither believe ye him: for no god of any nation or kingdom was able to deliver his people out of mine hand, and out of the hand of my fathers: how much less shall your God deliver you out of mine 16 hand? And his servants spake yet more against the LORD God, and against his servant 17 Hezekiah. He wrote also letters, to rail on the LORD, the God of Israel, and to speak against him, saying, As the gods of the na- tions of the lands, which have not delivered their people out of mine hand, so shall not 28 with you? Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and spake, saying, Hear ye the word 29 of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus saith the king, Let not Hezekiah deceive you; for he shall not be able to deliver you 30 out of his hand: neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of 31 Assyria. Hearken not to Hezekiah: for thus saith the king of Assyria, Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the 32 waters of his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and of honey, that ye may live, and not die: and hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you, 33 saying, The LORD will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? have they 35 delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand? But the people held their peace, and answered him not a word: for the king's commandment was, saying, 37 Answer him not. Then came Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh. the God of Hezekiah deliver his people out 18 of mine hand. And they cried with a loud voice in the Jews' language unto the people of Jerusalem that were on the wall, to affright them, and to trouble them; that 19 they might take the city. And they spake of the God of Jerusalem, as of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work 20 of men's hands. And Hezekiah the king, and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, prayed 21 because of this, and cried to heaven. And the LORD sent an angel, which cut off all the mighty men of valour, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. And when he was come into the house of his god, they that came forth of his own bowels slew him there with the sword. 22 Thus the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all other, and guided them on 23 every side. And many brought gifts unto the LORD to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah: so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from thenceforth. 24. In those days Hezekiah was sick even unto death : and he prayed unto the LORD ; and he spake unto him, and gave him a 25 sign. But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him ; for his heart was lifted up : therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem. Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the LORD came not upon them 27 in the days of Hezekiah. And Hezekiah shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not. Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon. Then said he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them. Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Baby- 7 lon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then said Hezekiah unto Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which thou hast spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days. THE reader will note the transposition of the chapters in this and the next Sections. The simple and sufficient reason is that Hezekiah's sickness and restoration, and the embassy of Baladan occurred some years before the great invasion of Sennacherib and the miraculous destruction of his host. The evidence of this may be found in the notes immediately following. B. 2. K. 20:1. In those days.** This note of time is very ambiguous. As it stands, it should (apparently) refer to the period of the death of Sennacherib and accession of Esarhaddon, or B.C. 680. But Hezekiah seems to have died B.C. 697; and his illness, if the number fifteen is correct in verse 6, must really belong to B.C. 713 or 714, a date which falls early in the reign of Sargon. We may conjecture that the writer of Kings found the narrative of this chapter, which has a unity of its own, altogether separate from the other records of Hezekiah, and added it in the state in which he found it, without intending to fix its date by the opening words. Its true chronological place in the narrative is prior to all the other facts related of Hezekiah except his religious reforms. B. C. The narrative of Hezekiah's sickness and of the embassy of Merodach-baladan, which in an abbreviated form is also given in the Book of Isaiah, must, on literary grounds and from its had exceeding much riches and honour: and he provided him treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of goodly vessels; storehouses also for the increase of corn and wine and oil; and stalls for all manner of beasts, and flocks in folds. Moreover he provided him cities, and possessions of flocks and herds in abundance: for God had given him very much substance. This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper spring of the waters of Gihon, and brought them straight down on the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works. Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart. And of thy sons that shall issue from thee, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which there shall be peace and truth in my days. position in this history, be regarded as an appendix similar to that added to the account of David's reign in the closing chapters of the Second Book of Samuel. Whether or not it was taken from a special and distinct record, or else inserted in this place in order not to break the continuity of a narrative which had a spiritual meaning and object of its own, it is certain that the events which it records could not have been posterior to the final departure of Sennacherib from the soil of Palestine. After that there could not have been occasion for such anxiety in reference to the king of Assyria as to be met by the Divine promise in 2 K. 20:6; nor yet, from what we know of the history of Merodach-baladan, could he then have sent such an embassy with the manifest purpose of an alliance against Assyria, nor, finally, would Hezekiah then have encouraged such overtures. A. E. The important data are that Hezekiah reigned twenty-nine years (2 K. 18:2); that after his sickness he lived (and reigned) fifteen years (Isa. 38:5 and 2 K. 20:6), and consequently had reigned fourteen already. There being no important counter testimony, it is safe to accept the promise made to Hezekiah (chap. 38:6) as practically deciding in favor of the priority of the sickness, since the Lord couples with the promise of fifteen more years, that of deliverance from Assyria. "And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city." It is scarcely supposable that this would have been said after the great catastrophe. Assuming that the sickness was prior to the fall of the Assyrian, the latter may have been put first in order as being naturally connected with the antecedent prophecies; and on the other hand, the sickness last in order as being in like manner connected with the visit of the embassy from Babylon, and that, with the allusions to the restoration of the Jews from Babylon through the aid of Cyrus as set forth in chaps. 44 and 45. H. C. Isa. 38:1; 2 K. 20:1. Thou shalt die, and not live. Here we see the difference between a simple prediction and a prophetic warning. A message, thus addressed to a person, not spoken of him to others, is a call to repentance and prayer, not the revelation of a fixed, unalterable decree. Such was the message of Jonah to Nineveh; and such the address to Shebna (22:15-19). The last mention of him as a suppliant before Isaiah in sackcloth, side by side with Eliakim, makes it likely that the sentence on him, while in part fulfilled, was in part repealed, as the whole is here in the case of Hezekiah. In Jer. 18:7-9, the law of such conditional warnings, in form resembling prophecies, is clearly laid down. Birks. This message was not a Divine decree that he should die, but an announcement from Jehovah to Hezekiah that his malady was deadly, and that under the laws of nature he should surely die. Escape for the king by the use of human remedies was hopeless; his sickness, in the regular course of nature, was unto death, and unless the God above nature and above disease should interpose to recover His servant, Hezekiah, the king must surely die. The message of Isaiah was intended to turn the thoughts of the king away from all human physicians and earthly remedies, and to fix his attention on the God who not only had power over health and disease, but also over life and death; and it was therefore one of the divinely ordained means to the accomplishment of the divinely ordained end—viz., the recovery of Hezekiah from the sickness which was otherwise unto death. It was the will of God that the king should not die, but live. But this will of God was unknown to Hezekiah, and as he had been informed by the Lord through the prophet that human remedies would be in vain, he turned his face to the wall and addressed himself to God as the only Being in the universe who could save him from going down to the grave. There was no vital force in the king to overcome the power of the disease; there was no remedy known to his physicians that could arrest the progress of his malady; there was no vis medicatrix naturae that could bring restoration and health. Unless a personal God, above nature and with power over disease and death, should interpose, Hezekiah must die. Pitzer. The natural repugnance to death in the midst of the vigor of life; the peculiar circumstances of the land, as yet not delivered from the dominion of Assyria; the probable absence as yet of a legitimate successor to the throne—all these things combined make the tears and prayers of Hezekiah perfectly intelligible. It is certain, at least, that his prayer for the lengthening out of his days may be termed in our mouths both natural and permissible, when we see ourselves, or those dear to us, brought apparently to the verge of the grave. The petition, "Lord, take me not away in the midst of my days" (Ps. 102:24), is legitimate from a Christian standpoint. Although we have long known that there is an infinitely higher life than that on earth, still this is to the Christian a treasure; and perfect indifference on this point, especially in our best years, is not a healthy, but a sickly sign. Like Hezekiah, we have also here below an important task to fulfil. Above all, our own preparation for eternity may be furthered by the prolonging of our stay on earth: the longer in the summer the sickle is kept back from the grain, the more time has it to become fully ripe. Even of itself, the quiet prayer in days of sickness and distress relieves the oppressed soul: even before Isaiah returned, the suffering prince was unquestionably brought nearer to God. And when now the man of God came to announce to him, not that God's counsel had altered, but that the trial of his faith was turned into a crowning mercy and that fifteen years were added to his life, assuredly then the surprised Hezekiah received abundant material to frame therefrom a thankful song of praise to God. Van O. No solemn message from the unseen world comes to us, as it once came to Hezekiah, "Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live." Before the work of death begins, we know not which of our friends and acquaintances will pass away soonest. It may be the old and gray-haired, who have nothing left to live or hope for in the world; it may be the sick who have lingered long on the perilous edge of death, and whose life has been endurance, not enjoyment; or it may be the young and healthy, to whom death is a far-off cloud, no bigger than a man's hand, casting no shadow on their sunny horizon. It may be the fruitful vine or the barren fig-tree, the heavenly minded Christian or the worldly-hearted professor. Who is to be the first to receive the message to pass hence? We know not. Macmillan.—We live in a universe of death. The phenomenon is common to us, but no familiarity can rob it of its dreadfulness; for the dead, who are the more in number, have kept their awful secret unrevealed, and the child who died yesterday knows more than can be guessed at by the thousand millions of living men. Yet this death is the least and the least dreaded part of that other, second, spiritual death. Farrar. There is nothing more certain than death—nothing more uncertain than the time of dying. I will be therefore be prepared for that at all times which may come at any time, and must come at one time or another. I shall not hasten my death by being still ready, but sweeten it. It makes me not die the sooner, but the better. Warwick.—We cannot see before us. No hand can tear one leaf from the sealed book where the recording angel has written against all our names the day of our great change. A veil shuts close down before our eyes on the very spot where we stand. This year, or another; yourself first, or one you love better than yourself; by slow decline, or swift destruction: these are secrets. But there is no dimness over the command that points us to the open way of life; no uncertainty in the immortal promise, "Set thy house in order;" and then, though "absent from the body," thou shalt be present with the "Father of Jesus Christ, our Lord, of whom the whole family, in heaven and earth, is named." F. D. H. Willing or unwilling, fit or unfit to die, voyagers to a land of bliss or bound to misery, many have entered on their last year. Like time and tide, death—regardless of his convenience and deaf to his prayers—will wait on no man. Since death is gain to the Christian, and through faith in Christ may be so to all, we should familiarize our minds with that event: beginning every year, and indeed every day, as if it were to be—what it may be—our last. To be prepared for death, so prepared that it may be the happiest event that ever be—fell us, so prepared that we may confront this king of terrors without the shadow of a doubt or any sense of fear, so prepared that we shall be better pleased to go than to stay—let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling; looking to Jesus for pardon, and to God to work in us by His Holy Spirit both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Guthrie. In every earthly enterprise we anticipate its bearings and results; we weigh, before we meet them, every obstacle, every interest which may come in conflict with our purpose; we count every cost of advantage or disadvantage, we reach forward our thoughts to contemplate every feature, promising or unpromising, of the probable result. And this is universally admitted to be the course of true wisdom. Not less surely is it the part of a wise and thinking man to pursue a similar course with reference to the life to come. Not less wise is his conduct who anticipates by careful thought the consequences of his departure, the ties that must then be broken, the office and influence that must be resigned, the possessions that must be relinquished, the pause that must ensue to all his schemes. Above all, not less wise is his course who solemnly, deeply ponders the more positive, momentous results of the change of state, the scenes upon which he must enter, the abiding character he must bear, the irreversible judgment he must meet, and the unalterable destiny he must experience in the sphere of an eternal being. As, compared with these stupendous themes, all other subjects of thought are mean and insignificant, so incomparably wise is he who habitually ponders these, who gives all the strength of his mind and the energy of his heart to their frequent, deliberate, prayerful contemplation. Knowing that death is to finish his works, to fix his character and place him forever and irremovably in paradise or perdition, incomparably wise is he who makes his daily life one prolonged act of preparation and readiness for his one great and changeless change of existence. B. The fact that there is a time as surely appointed to us as to Hezekiah, although we are not allowed that knowledge of the fact which he possessed, ought to teach us patience in quiet waiting upon God. It is not in man, whatever be his rage, to take one hour of our appointed life from us, or to add one moment to the time of our sorrow. If our very hairs are all numbered, much more are all our days. Let us, therefore, honor God by having good thoughts of Him, knowing that whether our times be short or long, calm or stormy, they are appointed times; appointed by One who loves us with exceeding love, although He well remembers that we are but dust. Kitto. Christianity is as needful to live by as to die by. It is quite as solemn a thing to say, "This year thou shalt live," as to say, "This year thou shalt die." We have a Gospel to preach that claims, indeed, to be the only thing that can make a man die rightly; but which claims a higher glory than that—to be the only thing that can make him live rightly. A. M.—To be really alive in some sincere work is to have solved the mystery of life and mastered the fear of death. Then to die is only one of the accidents and incidents of our unending life, and no evil. To die out and even anticipate the body's dying is what we have to dread—to come to the end of earth with a sense of emptiness and exhaustion, a broken cistern, a worn-out piece of mechanism, a candle burned to the socket, a ball spent before the mark was reached. "It is as natural," says Lord Bacon, "to die, as to be born; and to the little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other. He that dies in an earnest pursuit is like one that is wounded in hot blood, who for the time scarce feels the hurt; and therefore a mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good doth avert the dolors of death." R. Ellis. How often has He succored me, when nature and art have failed? How has He eased my pained limbs, and upheld an emaciated skeleton? I have had fifty years added to my days, though I expected not to live one of them: and what strange deliverances have been wrought for me, upon the importunate requests of many hundreds of my praying friends? How have I been kept in ordinary health and safety, when the raging pestilence came near my habitation, and consumed an hundred thousand citizens? And how was my dwelling preserved, when I saw (London) the glory of the land in flames? These and many more are my experiences of that wonderful mercy which has measured my pilgrimage and filled up my days. Never did God break His promise with me. Never did He fail me, or forsake me. And shall I now distrust Him at last? "To Thee, O Lord, 'as to a faithful Creator, I commit my soul.' I know that Thou art 'the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Thee, and keep Thy commandments. Thou art faithful, who has called me to the fellowship of Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord.' Thy faithfulness has saved me from temptation, and kept me from prevailing evil, and will 'preserve my whole spirit, and soul and body, unto the coming of Christ.' It is 'in faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me;' and shall I not trust Thee to save me?" Baxter. 3. And he said, Ah Jehovah, remember, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth and with a whole heart, and that which is good in Thine eyes I have done. The figure of walking before God includes the ideas of communion with Him and subjection to Him, and is therefore more comprehensive than the kindred phrase of walking with Him. By truth we are here to understand sincerity and constancy. This verse is not an expostulation nor self-praise, but an appeal to the only satisfactory evidence of his sincerity. A.—Hezekiah does not demand a reward from God for his good services, but begs that God would remember, not how he had reformed the kingdom, taken away the high places, cleansed the Temple and revived neglected ordinances; but, which was better than all burnt offerings and sacrifices, how he had approved himself to God with a single eye and an honest heart, not only in these eminent performances, but in an even, regular course of holy living; I have walked before Thee in truth and sincerity, and with a perfect, that is, an upright heart; for uprightness is our Gospel perfection. H. 5. Hezekiah had been a second David, following more closely in his steps than any other royal son of his. This prominent fact of his life had been involved in Hezekiah's prayer: "I have walked before Thee with a perfect heart," and is here tacitly admitted in the Lord's gracious answer. The tenderness of the reply is precious: "I have heard thy prayer; I have seen thy tears." Oh, truly, God does hear the imploring cry of pressing want and strong desire. Not a tear ever fell in His sight unheeded. There are thousands of prayers for prolonged life which God cannot wisely grant; but He loves to grant them when He wisely can. This case stands a witness to the loving-kindness of His heart. H. C. 2. K. 20:9. It is not difficult to perceive the symbolical significance of this sign. As Isaiah had been commissioned to offer to Ahaz "a sign" of the promised deliverance, and to leave him the choice of it, "either in the depth or in the height above" (Isa. 7:11), so here a similar alternative was presented to Hezekiah. As Ahaz in his trust in natural means and his distrust of Jehovah had refused, so Hezekiah in his distrust of natural means and trust of Jehovah asked for a sign. And lastly, even as Hezekiah had feared that his life-day would have ended in its midday hour, so now, when it was to be lengthened, did the falling shadow climb up again the ten steps to its midday mark. But there are also deeper lessons to be learned from this history. The change in the announcement of what was to befall Hezekiah, in answer to his prayer, is of eternal meaning. It encourages us "always to pray"—not excluding from the range of our petitions what are commonly called "things temporal." And yet the very idea of prayer also excludes any thought of the absolute certainty of such answer as had been primarily contemplated in the prayer. For prayer and its answer are not mechanically, they are morally connected, just as between Isaiah's promised sign and its bestowal the prayer of the prophet intervened (verse 11). As miracle is not magic, so prayer is not necessitarism; and on looking back upon our lives we have to thank God as often for prayers unanswered as for prayers answered. Further, the lessons taught the king first by his danger and then by his restoration were precisely those which Hezekiah needed to learn if, obedient to the admonitions of Isaiah, and believing the promise of the Lord, he was consistently to carry out the will of Jehovah amid the temptations and difficulties of the Assyrian invasion. This not only because he had had experience of the truth of prophetic promise, but because he had learned, as he could not otherwise have been taught, that God answered prayer; that He was merciful and forgiving, and able to turn aside the most threatening danger, even at the extreme moment. In truth, what was afterward witnessed in the deliverance of Jerusalem was on a large scale the same that Hezekiah himself had experienced in his healing. Thus the lessons of his recovery were intended as spiritual preparation for what was so soon to follow. A. E. 11. The fact here announced is an optical or sensible miracle, the reversed motion of the sun's shadow in the sun-dial of Ahaz. The words themselves leave it open, whether there was a change in the sun's apparent and earth's real motion, a general change by unusual refraction, or one local only. But the last seems more likely for several reasons. First, the special mention that it was "in the sun-dial of Ahaz." Next, the envoys from Babylon had heard of it as a local sign (2 Chron. 32: 31). It could not, then, have extended to Babylon. Birks. Some suppose that the phenomenon might have been produced by the simple refraction of the rays, through the sudden interposition of a different medium. That such refraction takes place when rays of light pass through a denser medium is a well-known physical fact. The most striking illustration is perhaps found in the observation made, on March 27th, 1763, by P. Romauld, prior of the cloister of Metz, that, owing to such refraction in the higher regions of the atmosphere, in connection with the appearance of a cloud, the shadow of his dial deviated an hour and a half. However produced, the retrogression of the shadow upon the dial of Ahaz was certainly of a miraculous nature. Kitto. The shiftings of shadows on the dial that Isaiah predicted to sick Hezekiah are liable to occur at any place, when these two circumstances concur: (1) That the upper atmosphere is in that condition which causes two bright parhelia or mock suns to appear on opposite sides of the sun; and (2) that the lower air contains drifting clouds, massive enough to hide often two of the three. When the real sun and eastern mock sun are hidden, there is only the western to east shadows, which then coincide with what the sun will cast an hour and a half later; but if the clouds shift so as to hide the west parhelion, and disclose the eastern, the shadows instantly become such as the sun cast an hour and a half earlier. The parhelia being always caused by rays refracted through two faces of equilateral triangular prisms or fibres of ice, their angular distance from the sun is always the minimum deviation that such a prism of ice produces on the brightest or yellow rays, which is very near a fourth of a right angle; so that if Hezekiah's diallers divided the quadrant into forty, than which no number is more likely, considering how constantly it recurs in the Hebrew laws and history (oftener, indeed, than any other above ten), the advance or recession of the shadow would have to be ten of these parts. On March 29th, 1848, these effects occurred, had any one been looking, on every dial in the Isle of Portsea, and very probably of much of Hampshire besides. The parhelia were present and bright enough at about 11 P.M., and still better between 1 P.M. and 1.30 P.M. (not between 11 P.M. and 1 P.M., because, though the atmospheric conditions were right, the sun had risen above the required limits of altitude), and the drifting clouds below were present. Considering how much steeper is the sun's daily path in the latitude of Jerusalem than in England, it seems more likely that the pair of parhelia were of the rarer kind, over and under the sun, which I certainly have seen described (or possibly even oblique), than the commoner ones that I saw, and Descartes, Halley, Folkes, and the other Royal Society observers. From the account in Isaiah, speaking of bringing back the sun, but the fuller one in Kings of only bringing back the shadow, I gather the Book of Kings to be the earlier document, and more likely, in this place, to preserve that prophet's own words. E. L. Garbett, Letter to R. A. Proctor, 1883. # Hezekiah's Psalm of Gratitude. Isn. 38 : 10-20. This psalm or ode written by Hezekiah is a sort of memorial record of his thoughts and emotions during those solemn days when the Lord brought him so near the gates of death. It may have been written in part for his own personal benefit; in part to cherish the social sympathy of his friends and people. We may suppose it to have been sung or chanted in social worship. The original might as well be read, "When he was sick and was recovering from his sickness"—i.e., during the process of recovery, while his experiences were yet fresh in his mind. H. C.—That Hezekiah should compose a psalm is not more strange than that he should make a collection of proverbs (Prov. 25 : 1). It would have been far more strange if one so much like David in character and spirit had not followed his example in the practice of devotional composition. The inspiration and canonical authority of this production are clear from its having been incorporated by Isaiah in his prophecies, although omitted in the Second Book of Kings. The questions raised by some interpreters, as to its antiquity and genuineness, are founded on the mere possibility that the passage may be of later date and by another writer. So far as we have evidence, either external or internal, there is not the slightest ground for critical misgiving. There is nothing in the psalm itself at all inconsistent with the supposition that it was conceived, and perhaps composed, if not reduced to writing, before the complete fulfilment of the promise in the king's recovery. A. 11. The sacred name JAH, here repeated with emphasis, is full of meaning. It is a simpler form of Jehovah, meaning simply, HE IS, or, I AM. Its repetition is meant to place in full relief the relation between the living God and living men. Hence it seems best to translate it in its second occurrence. The last word some render "the under-world"—i.e., the state of the departed. But the structure and parallelism confirm the received version. The afflicted king made a double complaint; that he would be cut off from the presence of the living God, who had placed his name in His Temple among living men; and also that he would be shut out from the society of all that dwell upon earth. The word "no longer" implies that these things for the present would cease, but neither excludes continued being in Hades, nor the sure hope of a resurrection. Birks. 12. My dwelling is plucked up and uncovered by me (or away from me) like a shepherd's tent. I have rolled up, like the weaver, my life; from the thrum he will cut me off; from day to night thou wilt finish me. The same thing is here represented by two figures. The first is that of a tent, the stakes of which are pulled up, and the covering removed, with a view to departure. The second figure is that of a web completed and removed by the weaver from the loom. 15. What shall I say?—i.e., how shall I express my gratitude and wonder? He hath said and done it, He has promised and performed, perhaps with an implication that the promise was no sooner given than fulfilled. The recollection of this signal mercy he is resolved to cherish all his years—i.e., throughout his life, by going softly, solemnly or slowly, on account of the bitterness of his soul—i.e., in recollection of his sufferings. A. 15. Sickness, sorrow or suffering of any kind, when sanctified, has this softening effect. In remembrance of what we have felt and learned, we want to go softly, tenderly, gently. He who has been shaken by the hand of God, either physically or morally, must have learned a larger, tenderer charity for the weaknesses of others, for their doubts and wanderings. Sickness almost always brings something of this softening effect into the heart and life for a time. It chastens and subdues the angles and roughness of character. Sanctified sickness will produce softness of spirit before God. Our thoughts of Him will be more loving, more grateful, more personal. We shall think of Him not as the great Ruler, the general Benefactor, but as the Friend, my Healer, the One who has lifted me up from the gates of death. My voice as I utter His name will be tremulous with feeling, and soft with intensity and tenderness of love. S. S. T. 16. "O Lord, by these things"—Thy promised and performed mercies—such blessings as Thou hast kindly granted to me, "do men live;" human life is full of such manifested goodness from God: "And in reference to all these things my spirit lives," or, "there is life to my spirit." In the last clause, the word "so" should rather be and. "And Thou wilt still restore and save me"—i.e., through the years of life that yet remain for me. 17. Probably his thought is of the change from the great bitterness of his sickness to the peace that succeeded, which peace is in the last clause expanded and referred to God's love toward him, as if God's love became itself the power that lifted him up from the pit. God had freely forgiven all his sins, and therefore had heard his prayer for recovery. This is forcibly expressed in the phrase "cast them all behind thy back." The Hebrew conception of pardon is usually that of covering one's sins; hiding them from view; seeing and remembering them no more. H. C. 18. For the grave shall not confess Thee (nor) death praise Thee; they that go down to the pit shall not hope for Thy truth. Here, as often in the Psalms, the loss of the opportunity of praising God is urged as a reason, not only why he should be loath to die, but why God should preserve him (see Ps. 6: 6; 88: 11, 12). It does not follow from these words either that Hezekiah had no expectation of a future state or that the soul remains unconscious till the resurrection. The true explanation of the words is given by Calvin—viz., that the language is that of extreme agitation and distress, in which the prospect of the future is absorbed in contemplation of the present, and also that so far as he does think of futurity, it is upon the supposition of God's wrath. Regarding death, in this case, as a proof of the Divine displeasure, he cannot but look upon it as the termination of his solemn praises. The truth mentioned in the last clause is the truth of God's promises, to hope for which is to expect the promised blessing. 19. The living, the living, he shall thank Thee like me (or as I do) to-day; father to sons shall make known, with respect to Thy truth—i.e., the truth of Thy promises, as in the verse preceding. Only the living could praise God in that way to which the writer was accustomed, and on which his eye is here fixed, with special reference, no doubt, to the external service of the Temple. The last clause must be taken in a general sense, as Hezekiah was himself still childless. A.—His language here is accounted for by supposing that his mind is absorbed with the interest and the blessedness of praising God in His earthly Temple, and of testifying before all his people to the great things God had wrought for him. These modes of recognizing and praising God's goodness and of bearing his joyful testimony for God before the wide world, he appreciates deeply, hence he says: I cannot do this in the grave; if I had died in my sickness, I should have been cut off from this most precious privilege of witnessing for God here among His people. H. C. How the believer watches the sun as its rising or declining measures the course of a Christian workday! How vast seems the task, and how short the time! What Divine opportunities, and we shall be here only once through all eternity to use them! What places meet for kindling up in them the lamp of true knowledge, and for shedding abroad through them the warmth of true love; they know us now, but presently they shall know us no more forever. We are working the work of Him that sent us while it is day, when we are demonstrating and illustrating and embodying the religion of this world's life, the integrity, mercy, diligence, purity, patience which belong to earth and man, following in the footsteps of our divinely human Master. We want to bring all our Christianity to bear upon this world while we are in it, that with the help of our Christianity we may make the best of the world, and make it the best, and win the blessing which is bound up with it. Because we believe that there is a God, and an immortality for God's children, an infinite justice and an infinite love; because these great disclosures have been made to us now, in the time of our mortal life; because our Lord was found in fashion as a man, and had a man's work to do, we see that there can be no better thing for us now, nothing which should more engage us now, than to be on earth, striving to fashion it according to heavenly patterns, to advance the ever-deepening purpose of good which runs through its ages, to nurse into vigor and beauty and fragrance and fruitfulness the trees of the Lord which spring from what seems mire and rubbish. It is good to be here, trying again and again, though amid many discouragements and after repeated failures, to make this human life a grand, blessed and gracious thing. R. Ellis. 2. Chron. 32: 30.** The sign given him was fulfilled to Hezekiah's entire satisfaction, and his recovery was rapid and complete. In three days he was able to make his appearance in the Temple, and to sing this song of thanksgiving. In a short time he resumed the active duties of his station, bent upon utilizing to the utmost the fresh lease of life which had been granted him. It was probably now that many of those works were undertaken which kept his memory so long in good odor among the Jewish people, as the collection of Proverbs of Solomon hitherto not put upon record (Prov. 25: 1), and the arrangement of the water supply of Jerusalem on a new system (2 Chron. 32: 30; Isa. 22: 9, 11). Research is still busy with these remarkable constructions, the extent of which is only now beginning to be fairly estimated. Evidently a long term of years was requisite for the elaboration of so vast a scheme, involving the excavation in the solid rock of numerous shafts, tunnels and aqueducts. G. R. Hezekiah was not only a religious, he was also a civil, restorer; and his name has been handed down even to the present day in connection with the ingenious system of the ancient water supply of Jerusalem, the remains and fragments of which still may be traced, and are noble engineering works, worthy of good King Hezekiah. In the highest part of Mt. Zion is a large tank, still full of water, surrounded by houses, and still bearing the name of the "Pool of Hezekiah." It is fed by the drainage from the upper valley of Gihon, conveyed by a subterranean, and as yet unexplored, channel, at some depth underneath the city walls. There is no absolute proof that this great tank is the work of Hezekiah; but when we remember how, both in Chronicles and in Isaiah, the arrangement of watercourses is mentioned as Hezekiah's work, there is every reasonable probability that the traditional name embodies a historical fact. We are told (2 Chron. 32: 33) that "Hezekiah stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David." Still we can see on the west side of Mt. Zion, outside the walls, the two pools, the upper and lower, of Gihon, with the broken embankment, which once intercepted the water and drained it into the upper pool. All the surface channels have long since been broken and destroyed, but the underground work of Hezekiah still remains to fill the pool which continues to bear his name. There is also a very recent discovery which may throw light on the works of "the good king." Down the valley of the Kedron, below the southeast corner of Mt. Moriah, crowned by Solomon's Temple, there is a long underground tunnel, pierced through the rock, which conveys the water of what is called the Virgin's Fountain to the Pool of Siloam. It is only in our own day that this tunnel, through which there is a perpetually flowing stream, has been explored. In the year 1881 a long inscription, without name or date, was discovered about the middle of this tunnel, recording the fact of the meeting of the workmen who were excavating from the one end with those who were working from the other. Though without name or date, as we have said, this inscription, from the shape of the letters, has been decided, by archaeogists, aided by the style of the characters of the Moabite Stone, to belong to the period of Ahaz or Hezekiah. Whatever be the exact date, it is one of the only two known inscriptions of the period of the Jewish monarchy, and throws much light on the civilization and engineering knowledge of that age, illustrating the minute accuracy of the scriptural record. Tristram. Isa. 38: 21, 22. The last two verses of this chapter in Isaiah are evidently out of their chronological order. The obvious and simple supposition is that the passage before us is the first draught or original form of Isaiah's narrative, in which the facts recorded in these two least verses were added by a kind of afterthought, and that in rewriting the account, as a part of the national history, he naturally placed them in their chronological order. It would probably be easy to produce many parallel cases from the correspondence of voluminous letter-writers, or from other cases of repeated composition on the same subject by the same writer. However this may be, it seems clear that the explanation now proposed is simpler in itself, and requires less to be imagined or supposed than any other, and is therefore, even on the strictest principles of criticism, entitled to the preference. A. 2 Kings 20: 12-19; Isa. 39: 1-8; 2 Chron. 32: 31. Soon after his recovery, Hezekiah received an embassy from a new quarter. Hitherto Babylon and Judea had been isolated from one another, and had perhaps scarcely known of each other's existence. Assyria had stood between them, and Babylonia had been for the most part an Assyrian dependency. But recently Babylonia had asserted herself. In B.C. 722, on the death of Shalmaneser, a native Chaldean named Merodach-baladan had made himself king of the country, and maintained his independence against all the efforts of Sargon to reduce him. His position, however, was precarious, and it was probably in the hope of concluding an alliance with Hezekiah—also an enemy of Sargon's (see the comment on verse 6)—that he sent his embassy. He had two excuses for it. A neighboring king might well congratulate his brother monarch on his recovery; and a Chaldean prince might well inquire into an astronomical marvel (2 Chron. 33: 31). The date of the embassy appears to have been B.C. 712, the year following on Hezekiah's illness. Hammond. Isa. 39:1, 2. "At that time Merodach-baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered. And Hezekiah was glad of them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold." (The words in italics are additional to the text of 2 K. 20:12, 13). The author of Chronicles, without relating the circumstance, makes a short comment upon it. After describing the riches, honor and prosperity of Hezekiah, he adds: "Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him to try him, that He might know all that was in his heart" (2 Chron. 32:31). The reign of a Babylonian monarch, called Merodach-baladan, at about the period indicated—the latter part of the eighth century B.C.—is recorded in the famous "Canon of Ptolemy," which assigns him the years between B.C. 722 and B.C. 710. That the same monarch, after being deprived of his throne, was restored to it, and had a second reign of six months' duration, is related by Alexander Polyhistor, the friend of Sulla. This latter reign appears to have belonged to the year B.C. 703. So much is known to us from the classical writers. From the Assyrian monuments we learn that the relations between Babylonia and Assyria, during the reign of Merodach-baladan, were hostile. Sargon relates that he attacked this king, whom he viewed as a rebel, in his first year, defeated his ally, the king of Elam, and ravaged his territory, but without coming into contact with the Babylonian monarch himself. After this, troubles elsewhere forced him to leave Merodach-baladan in peace for eleven years; but in his twelfth year he again invaded Babylonia, took Babylon, and made Merodach-baladan a prisoner. Five years after this, as we learn from Sennacherib's annals, on the death of Sargon, Babylonia revolted. Merodach-baladan, escaping from the custody in which he was held, hastened to Babylon, and re-established his authority over the whole southern kingdom. But Sennacherib at once marched against him, defeated his forces, recovered Babylon, and drove him to take refuge in the marshes of Southern Chaldea; whence, after a short time, he fled across the Persian Gulf to Southern Elam, where he died in exile. The embassy of Merodach-baladan to Hezekiah falls, by Archbishop Usher's chronology, which is here founded upon Ptolemy's Canon, into the year B.C. 713. It would thus have taken place between Sargon's first and second attack, very shortly before the latter. The monuments do not mention it; but they show that at this time Merodach-baladan was expecting the Assyrians to invade his country, was looking out for allies, and doing his best to strengthen his position. Under these circumstances it would be natural that he should seek the alliance of Hezekiah, who, at the opposite end of the Assyrian dominions, had "rebelled against the king of Assyria, and served him not" (2 K. 18:7). That he should cloak his design under the double pretext that his object was to congratulate the Jewish king on his recovery from a dangerous illness (Isa. 39:1), and to inquire concerning the astronomical "wonder done in the land" (2 Chron. 32:31), is intrinsically probable, being consonant with diplomatic practice both in the East and in the West. An astronomical marvel, such as that of the going back of the shadow on the dial of Ahaz (2 K. 20:11; Isa. 38:8), would naturally attract attention in Babylonia, where the phenomena of the heavens were observed with the utmost diligence from a very remote period. G. R. In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign (B.C. 711), accordingly, ambassadors came from the court of Babylon, under the pretext of congratulating the Jewish king on his recovery from sickness. Their real object, however, was to concert measures with Hezekiah for a general uprising in the West, and for the formation of a league against Sargon, which should embrace at once Babylonia, Palestine and Elam. Hezekiah was flattered by such a proof of his own importance. He opened the gates of his armory and treasure-house, and showed the ambassadors the accumulated stores of wealth and arms which he was ready to lavish on the war. Sayce. 3-8. It was a disingenuous device when Hezekiah, in answer to the questioning of Isaiah, sought to divert him by a reference to the "far country" whence the ambassadors had come, as if flattering to Jewish national pride, and implying the acknowledged supremacy of Jehovah's power. Such had not been the object of the prophet in asking about the country of these strangers. By eliciting that they had come from Babylon, he would indicate to Hezekiah that his inmost purpose in showing them all his treasures had been read. But to know it was to pronounce the Divine disapprobation of any such alliance against Assyria. This explains the severity of the punishment afterward denounced upon Hezekiah for an offence which otherwise might have seemed trivial. But this had clearly appeared, that Hezekiah had not learned the lessons which his late danger and God-granted recovery were intended to teach; nor did he learn them otherwise than in the school of extreme anguish, after all his worldly policy had ended in defeat, his land been desolated, and the victorious host of Assyria laid siege to Jerusalem. And this seems to be the meaning of the reference in 2 Chron. 32: 25, 26, to the ungratefulness and the pride of the king after his miraculous recovery, as well as of this other notice (verse 31), that in the matter of the ambassadors, God had left Hezekiah to himself, to try him, and "know all that was in his heart." But with God there was not any changeableness. As afterward Isaiah denounced the alliance with Egypt, so now he spoke the Divine judgment on the hoped-for treaty with Babylon. So far from help being derived from such alliance, Israel's future doom and misery would come from Babylon, and the folly of Hezekiah would alike appear and be punished in the exile and servitude of his descendants. Thus in the sequence of God this sowing of disobedience should be followed by a harvest of judgment. Yet for the present would there be "peace and continuance"—till the measure of iniquity was filled. And Hezekiah acquiesced in the sentence, owning its justice and grateful for its delay. Yet here also we perceive shortcoming. Hezekiah did not reach up to the high level of his father David in circumstances somewhat similar (2 Sam. 24: 17), nor was his even the humble absolute submission of Eli of old (1 Sam. 3: 18). But as throughout this history Isaiah appeared as the true prophet of God by the consistency of his utterance of the Divine Will against all heathen alliances, by His resistance to all worldly policy, so did he now rise to the full height of his office. Never before had there been so unmistakable a prediction of the future as when Isaiah in the full height of Assyria's power announced that the world-empire of the future would not belong to it, but to vanquished Babylonia, and that Judah's judgment would not come from their present dreaded enemies, but from those who now had sought their alliance. A. E. 3,4. It is noticeable that Hezekiah did not at first answer both the questions put by Isaiah. But the prophet had his mission from God and knew where to place his finger to touch the sin of his king and friend. This must have been to him a heavy message, borne with a sad heart, yet a heart true and faithful to his God. No hint is dropped as to his emotions however; we only know that he did not shrink in any wise from this painful duty. H. C. It was not for a mere yielding to vanity that Isaiah so severely rebuked him. His offence was of a graver kind. The ambassadors had come with proposals for an alliance, and in hearkening to them on this subject Hezekiah had really been unfaithful to his position as a theocratic king. He was departing from the example set him by David. As king of the holy nation, it was his duty to keep himself free from entangling worldly alliances, to make God his boast, to rely on Him for defence and help, and to resist solicitations to worldly pride and vanity. From this ideal he had fallen. In displaying his treasures, he was practically placing them before God, as the glory and defence of his kingdom. In reciprocating the friendship of the foreigners, accepting their gifts, and encouraging their advances, he was taking a first step in that direction of forming worldly alliances, which afterward brought such trouble on the state. It was this policy, indeed, which ultimately led to the Captivity, as already a similar policy had wrought the ruin of Israel. The lessons for the Christian are obvious. "The friendship of the world is enmity with God" (James 4: 4). It is his duty to avoid worldly display, to guard against being ruled by worldly motives and ambitions, and to avoid ensnaring worldly alliances. He who gives way to these things is laying the foundations of his own spiritual overthrow. J. O. In his memorial song he had expressed a very earnest desire to live that he might praise God among the living and testify to all the world his gratitude to his gracious Benefactor; and yet when this admirable opportunity came providentially to his hand, his vanity swamped his piety, made him forget his solemn vow to walk softly before God all his days, and drove out of his mind (apparently) every thought of bearing a grateful testimony for the God of Israel before these heathen ambassadors. Alas for human frailty when God leaves a man to try him that He may know what is in his heart! This is the discriminating and philosophical explanation given by the author of 2 Chron. (32: 25) of this sad dereliction in Christian duty. H. C. 2. Chron. 32: 31. God left him to try him.** God rules men on large principles, but proves them by specific tests. His law is great and equitable; the trial of obedience to it is sometimes quite minute. In the garden within the land of Eden man and woman were put under a rule of universal obedience to the voice of the Lord, and they were tested by this specific requirement, to abstain from the fruit of one of the trees in the garden. Lot, his wife and daughters were rescued by angels from a doomed city, and enjoined to flee to the mountains; "but his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." Hezekiah, devoutly referring everything to God, had great deliverances and a prosperous reign; but failing to consult the Lord when a flattering embassy came to him from Babylon, he revealed vainglory lurking in his heart, and broke down the wall of defence which his previous piety had reared round his throne. D. F.—When Sennacherib threatens, when his messengers blaspheme, the Jewish monarch remains firm; his faith is unshaken; he casts his care upon God, looks to Him and Him only; believes in Him, trusts in Him, regards prayer as the only door of safety. Similarly, when disease prostrates him, and the prophet is commissioned to bid him "set his house in order; for he shall die, and not live," his faith fails not, in God is still his refuge, to God alone he betakes himself, and prays and weeps sore. But the danger past, health restored, the admiration of foreign kings attracted, his ear besieged by congratulations and flatteries, his court visited by envoys from "a far country," and at once his grasp relaxes, the thought of God fades from his heart, his faith slips from him, and he is a mere worldling, bent on winning to himself a great alliance, and obtaining the aid of an "arm of flesh" against his enemies. And so it is and will ever be with most of us. We can bear the buffets of fortune, resist them, defy them, and still maintain our integrity; but let the world smile, let fortune favor us, let riches increase, let friends spring up on all sides, and how few of us can stand the sunshine! Hammond. The Scripture history faithfully exhibits the temptations that have charms for us all, and the failures of God's most favored children. The whole Bible breathes the same tone of noble frankness. One is constantly reminded of God, who "cannot lie." Not a lurking passion is suffered to remain undetected in its living pictures. Motives which we should be ashamed to avow are dragged before our conscience in the history of another; and while his sentence is passed we feel a personal condemnation. This is, indeed, the true and highest use of history: to speak to the heart through the understanding; to make every character that is brought before us promote the formation and consolidation of our own. Encyc. Metrop. Isa. 39:5-7. This prophecy, delivered while yet Babylon was scarcely an independent power, received (a full hundred years later) a very specific fulfilment. This message must be dated about B.C. 713. The first considerable deportation of captives occurred B.C. 606; the last B.C. 588. H. C.—To those who are under no unhappy necessity of explaining away the clearest proofs of inspiration and prophetic foresight, this passage affords a striking instance of the gradual development of prophecy. The general threatening of expatriation had been uttered seven hundred years before by Moses (Lev. 26:33; De. 28:64-67; 30:3). Five hundred years later, Ahijah had declared that Israel should be rooted up and scattered beyond the river (1 K. 14:15). Within a hundred years they had been threatened by Amos with captivity beyond Damascus (Amos 5:27). Isaiah himself had obscurely intimated a future connection between the fortunes of Israel and Babylon (chaps. 14:1; 21:10). But here, for the first time, the Babylonish exile is explicitly foretold, unless the similar prediction of the contemporary prophet Micah (4:10) be considered earlier. The fulfilment of the prophecy began in the deportation of Manasseh (2 Chron. 33:11), but was described as something still prospective by Jeremiah (20:5), in whose days, and the reign of Zedekiah, it was at length fully accomplished (2 Chron. 36:18). A. 7. Now he was told, that of the sons which should issue from him, which he should be kept, there would be captives taken, who would be carried to Babylon. The curse of childlessness was therefore to be removed from him; his wife, Hephzibah—happily named (Isa 62:4)—was to bear him at least one son; his seed was to sit upon the throne of David; and the Messiah might be, as in fact He was, among his posterity. And within the space of a year or two the implied promise received fulfilment. Hephzibah brought forth her first-born, and it proved a "man child." No doubt the joy of the parents was great, and overshadowed by no prevision of his future apostasy. They called their child Manasseh, implying, that now all their domestic troubles were forgotten (Gen. 41:51), and perhaps anticipating that the name might prove attractive to the remnant of the Israelites. G. R. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/ 1. MANASSEH was twelve years old when he began to reign; and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; and he reared up altars for the Baalim, and made Asheroth, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: and he practised augury, and used enchantments, and practised sorcery, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. And he set the graven image of the idol, which he had made, in the house of God, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever: neither will I any more remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers; if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses. And Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, so that they did evil more than did the nations, whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel. And the LORD spake to Manasseh, and to his people: but they gave no heed. Wherefore 34 : 1 JOSIAH was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And he did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images. And they brake down the altars of the Baalim in his presence; and the sun-images, that were on high above them, he hewed down; and the Asherim, and the graven images, and the molten images, he brake in pieces, and made dust of them, and strowed it upon the graves of them that had sacrificed unto them. And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem. And so did he in the cities of Manasseh and Ephraim and Simeon, even unto Naphtali, in their ruins round about. And he brake down the altars, and beat the Asherim and the graven images into powder, and hewed down all the sun-images throughout all the land of Israel, and returned to Jerusalem. Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land, and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God. And they came to Hilkiah the high priest, and He "began to seek after the God of David, his father." He began amid all the idolatry that surrounded him, and that was still encouraged by the princes and rulers who had the actual conduct of affairs during his minority, to seek after and try to realize communion with the true God of Israel, the God of his father David. In thus setting his heart he may have been encouraged by a certain number of kindred spirits present in Jerusalem at the time—by Hilkiah, the high-priest; by Shaphan, the scribe; by Huldah, the prophetess, wife of Shallum, keeper of the wardrobe; possibly by Zephaniah the prophet, the descendant of Hezekiah, his own cousin. With Jeremiah at this date he is not likely to have had any contact, since Jeremiah dwelt at Anathoth in Benjamin, and did not receive his call till five years afterward, in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign (Jer. 1: 2; 25: 3). # Reforms in his Twelfth Reigning Year. When he had attained the age of twenty, and the actual administration of affairs had devolved upon him, the young king proceeded to the revival of true religion in its purity throughout the country. His first care was to "purge Judah and Jerusalem"—i.e., to put down, remove and eradicate all the open and flagrant idolatries which his father, Amon, had reintroduced after they had been abolished by Manasseh. G. R. 6. 7. The extent of Josiah's reformation in worship. Through all the land of the kingdom of Israel, among the remnant still abiding in the nearest tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, and throughout all the territory to the farthest tribe of Naphtali, he carried this work of cleansing. "The abolishment of idolatry in Ephraim involved the destruction of the altar and temple of the golden calf at Bethel, which had been the royal chapel of the kings of Israel (Amos 7: 13); and this was a remarkable fulfilment of a singular prophecy (cf. 2 K. 22: 15-18 with 1 K. 13: 1, 2)." (Todd.) His personal connection with the work is indicated by the statement that after it was completed he returned to Jerusalem. The zeal and courage of this youthful king in undertaking and steadily prosecuting a six years' work of purging the land of idolatry can scarcely be overestimated. To appreciate it we must read the strong statements of Jeremiah and Zephaniah concerning the prevalent corruption of the people prior to and during this period. He wrought by faith, and at every step stayed himself on God. His work commenced with the destruction of all the images and the temples of idolatry. Some of the dust of the ground metal-images was strewn upon graves of idolatrous priests, that it might be unfit for further religious use. The bones of the priests taken from graves were burnt upon the idolatrous altars, so that they were rendered unclean. The distinction made between the graves of true worshippers and of idolaters shows that even in such evil times the line which separated the idolater from the believer was distinctly drawn. Each class was known by the character of his worship. As far as possible, Josiah personally supervised and directed this radical work of cleansing. It is said to have been done "in his presence." But with all his efforts to root out the practice, he could not extirpate the spirit of idolatry. This clung to the people until the Captivity. That alone annihilated all desire or thought of idolatrous worship. B. 6. In the cities of Manasseh, etc.** The power of Assyria being now (n.c. 629-624) greatly weakened, if not completely broken, Josiah, it is evident, asserted and maintained a claim to authority over the whole "land of Israel." It was no longer—as in Hezekiah's time—a tumultuous crowd that, in a fit of enthusiasm, hastily overran a portion of the Israelite country, destroying idolatrous emblems (chap. 31: 1), but the monarch, who went in person through the length and breadth of the land, and purified the whole region. We must regard Josiah as aiming, not merely at a religious reformation, but at a restoration of the kingdom to its ancient limits. B. C. The authority of Josiah was acknowledged and his orders fulfilled to the most remote part of Palestine; an apparent proof that, notwithstanding the numbers that had been carried away into the foreign colonies, the Ten Tribes were not so entirely exterminated but that their descendants, at least of the lower orders, were still the predominant population of the country. Milman. Reformation of Josiah's Eighteenth Reigning Year. Temple Repairs. The Repair of the Temple. A long period had elapsed since the repairs of Joash—more than two hundred years. The Temple must have greatly needed restoration. It had doubtless suffered much in the reigns of the idolatrous kings. Contributions were received, as had been done under the direction of Joash. A commission was appointed, consisting of three civil officers in conjunction with the high-priest, to keep account of the money contributed, and to disburse it in the execution of the work. In connection with this repair of the house of God, a copy of the Book of the Law was found in the Temple. B. 2. Chron. 34: 8.** What stir was there in Judah, wherein God's Temple suffered not? Six several times it was pillaged, whether out of force or will: first, Jehoash, king of Judah, is fain by the spoil of it to stop the mouth of Hazael; then Joash, king of Israel, fills his own hands with that sacred spoil, in the days of Amaziah; after this, Ahaz rifles it for Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria; then Hezekiah is forced to ransack the treasures of it for Sennacherib; yet after, the sacrilege of Manasseh makes that booty of it which his later times endeavored to restore; and lastly, Amon, his son, neglects the frame, embezzles the furniture of this holy place. The very pile began to complain of age and unrespect. Now comes good Josiah, who takes up the latest care of his father David, and gives order for the repairing of the Temple. Bp. H. Shaphan the scribe. Shaphan is mentioned frequently by Jeremiah. He was the father of Ahikam, Jeremiah's friend and protector at the court of Jehoiakim (Jer. 26 : 24), and the grandfather of Gedaliah, who was made governor of Judea by the Babylonians after the destruction of Jerusalem (2 K. 25 : 22). Several others of his sons and grandsons were in favor with the later Jewish kings, as Elasah, his son, who was sent on an embassy to Babylon by Zedekiah (Jer. 29 : 3), Gemariah, another son, who tried to induce Jehoiakim not to burn Jeremiah's roll (Jer. 36 : 12, 25), and Michaiah, a grandson, who heard Baruch read the roll and reported its contents to the princes (ibid., 10-12). Shaphan's office was one of great importance, involving very confidential relations with the king. B. C. 9,10. Josiah sanctioned a collection of money for the repairs, not only in the Temple itself, but also throughout Judah and Benjamin, and all the land of Israel. The money gathered was expended in the purchase of hewn stones and timber, and in the payment of carpenters and masons, and bearers of burdens, and overseers of the work, which continued probably over several years, since there was a great deal to be done. From time to time the civil officers who had the general management of the work proceeded to the Temple, and there received from the high-priest such moneys as had been collected since their last visit, which they made over to the superintendents of the workmen, who thereupon paid their wages to the men employed. G. R. # Finding "the Book of the Law." The high-priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan, "I have found the Book of Law in the house of Jehovah." Therefore the book found—i.e., the contents—were not only known to him, but in his opinion must be known to others also. The book was found in the house of Jehovah, where was its natural and designated place (De. 31 : 26). S. C. Bartlett. 2. Chron. 34 : 14. This took place in connection with the repairs of the Temple. In this verse the word "they" refers to the commission of four chief officers—of the State, the city, the supreme tribunal and the priesthood. While searching the secret places where money was deposited for security during the lawless period of Manasseh's reign, the Book of the Law was found. B.—Its discovery at this time, when the work of repair was going forward, shows that it had been lost from sight. Possibly, as some suppose, it had been secreted during the idolatrous reign of Manasseh, to protect it from violence and injury, and the place where it had been deposited was forgotten. Given by Moses.** Literally, as in the margin, "By the hand of Moses." "By the hand of" simply means that the law was given by the instrumentality of Moses (Lev. 8 : 36). W. H. G. 15. I have found the book of the law.** Rationalistic criticism has concluded from this discovery, either that no "book of the law" had ever existed before, the work now said to have been "found" having been forged for the occasion by Hilkiah; or, at least, that all knowledge of the old "book," if such book existed, had been lost, and that a work of unknown date and authorship having been at this time found was accepted as the law of Moses on account of its contents, and has thus come down to us under his name. But Hilkiah, the high-priest, having found in the Temple a certain roll and read it, recognizes it with apparent certainty as "the Book of the Law"—"The Book of the Law of the Lord by the hand of Moses" (verse 14), and mentions his discovery to Shaphan, who communicates it to the king. Now if Hilkiah had been bold enough and wicked enough to forge, or if he had been foolish enough to accept hastily as the real "Book of the Law" a composition of which he really knew nothing, would there have been no means of detecting his error or his fraud? Four means of detection would, it is evident, have existed : (1) The Jewish liturgies, which embodied large portions of the law, just as the Romish liturgies before the Reformation embodied large portions of the Bible ; (2) the memory of living men, which in many instances may have extended to the entire five books, as it does now with the modern Samaritans ; (3) other copies, entire or fragmentary, which it cannot but be supposed would exist among the more learned Jews, or, at any rate, in the schools of the prophets ; and (4) quotations from the law in other works, as especially in those of the psalmists and prophets, who refer to it almost on every page. On the whole, it may be said that fraud or mistake might as easily have imposed a new "Bible" on the Christian world in the sixteenth century, as a new "law" on the Jews in the reign of Josiah. In the house of the Lord. The copy of the law found by Hilkiah was no doubt that deposited, in accordance with the command of God by Moses (De. 31 : 26), by the side of the ark of the covenant, and kept ordinarily in the Holy of Holies. It had been lost, or secreted, during the desecration of the Temple by Manasseh, but had not been removed out of the Temple building. B. C. There had been no wanton destruction of the Book of the Law. It had merely been thrust out of sight, and then forgotten. As the repair and restoration of the Temple proceeded, and even lumber-rooms and closets were searched, that the whole building might be brought into proper order, those employed in the work came upon the lost volume. Priests, king and people unanimously, though with much grief and fear, accepted it. The prophetess, who was God's mouthpiece at the time, confirmed their view; and it remained for nineteenth-century critics to throw a doubt upon the conclusion thus come to, and to brand the work as a forgery of Hilkiah's, or as a chance production of a chance author, who had amused himself by composing a code of laws for a Utopia. Hammond.—The entire statement conveys the impression that a well-known book, after having been for an indefinite period lost from sight, had now been accidentally discovered—a discovery which produced great and immediate, though not permanent results. Now a certain school of critics accept this narrative, but insist that the book thus found was a recent production, which had been hidden in order to be found as it were by accident, and thus create a false impression of its antiquity. But this is playing fast and loose with a historical record. It must be accepted or rejected as a whole. If there was a book found at all, it must have been in the way described. To take one part of the story and discard the other is to violate an established canon of criticism, and especially when this is done to bolster up a theory the most arbitrary and irrational ever conceived. T. W. Chambers.—The enormous difficulties attending on the supposition that such an introduction of such a document at such an epoch could have been successful, and the equally enormous difficulty of saving the character of its contrivers, whatever allowance may be made for the diversities of literary conscience in different epochs, may well make us pause before admitting that Jeremiah and the group of devout men and women around him were "liars for God." A. M. No reasonable motive on the part of the priesthood, still less of the prophets, for the invention of such a book can be conceived. And plainly it must have been accepted and its genuineness attested by Jeremiah, who at that time had already been five years in the prophetic office. The further question of the precise contents of the book is both difficult of discussion and not of great practical importance. Irrespective of the time which the reading of the whole Pentateuch would have occupied (cf. here 2 K. 23 : 2), the wording of Holy Scripture scarcely conveys in the first instance that the book comprised the strictly historical portions of the Pentateuch (such as Genesis), but, as we expressly read, "the Book of the Covenant" and "the Book of the Law." The latter expression leads us in the present case to think, first of all, of that aspect of the law which specially affected the people, and the breach of which entailed the national judgment that Huldah had announced, and the apprehension of which had caused such consternation to the king. If so, we should perhaps not have to think, in the first place, of those ritual ordinances found in the central portions of the Pentateuch, which are now commonly called the "Priest Code." These would chiefly affect the priesthood, nor perhaps could the people have followed with complete understanding the mere reading of their complicated ritual details. Besides, the previous history has furnished us with sufficient instances to show that, unlike the law, the provisions and ordinances of the "Priest Code" must have been well known. On the other hand, the main contents of the Book of the Law read in hearing of the people must have concerned the whole fundamental relation between Israel and Jehovah. Hence we conclude that it must have contained, besides the Book of Deuteronomy, at any rate those portions of the Pentateuch which related to the same all-important subject. But on the main points we cannot have any hesitation. In De. 31 : 25, 26, we find directions for depositing the Book of the Law in the innermost sanctuary, as indeed might have been expected. That in the various troubles, when during many reigns the Mosaic law and order of worship were so often set aside, "the book" should have been removed and hidden by pious hands, and so for a time have become lost, can as little surprise us as its finding during the thorough repairs of the Temple. And whatever the compass of this special book, the whole context shows, on the one hand, that it implies the embodiment of the Mosaic law in the Pentateuch, and, on the other, that the existence of that law was generally known and universally admitted as primitive, derived from the great Law-giver himself, valid and Divine. We can now understand how, on hearing "the words of the Book of the Law," the king had "rent his clothes" and "sent to inquire of the Lord" both concerning himself and his people. For such breach of the covenant and the law, as he now knew Israel to have been guilty of, must involve signal judgment. In the execution of the king's behest, they whom he sent, including the high-priest, addressed themselves to Huldah, "the prophetess," the wife of Shallum, "the keeper of the wardrobe." . . . How far the imagination of even the ablest critics can mislead them appears from the account which Ewald gives of the origin of Deuteronomy. "To all appearance it was written in Egypt" by a fugitive from Judah in the time of Manasseh. "Slowly, and, as it were, accidentally, the book spread into Palestine," where a copy of it "accidentally" got into the Temple "through some priest." In this fashion any kind of history might be constructed to suit the views of any school of "critics." A. E. A factitious importance has, in recent times, been given to the finding of the Book of the Law by unbelieving critics, who allege that this marks the origin of the law itself, which they claim was never heard of before this time. De Wette, in his earliest production in the beginning of this century, is credited with having invented the notion that Deuteronomy was the Book of the Law found in the Temple, and that it had no existence prior to the reign of Josiah. The Pentateuch was then first completed by the addition of this, its closing book. The most recent school of critics, led by Reuss, Graff and Wellhausen, have gone far beyond this. Accepting De Wette's conclusion that Deuteronomy belongs to the days of Josiah, they maintain that the major portion of the Pentateuch was not even then in existence; but that what we denominate the Priest Code, embracing the whole of Leviticus, together with portions of Exodus and Numbers, was not written until after the Babylonish exile, when it was first brought forward by Ezra, and the people were pledged to obey it. The allegation is that the Book of Deuteronomy is a pious fraud prepared with good intent by the best men of the nation. They were convinced by the experience of the past that idolatry could not be thoroughly extirpated, and the religion of Jehovah be maintained in its purity, so long as the worship on high places was suffered to remain. It was, they claim, the ancient and, previous to this, the universally approved custom to establish sanctuaries and altars to Jehovah in every part of the land. This had been the usage of the patriarchs, and no one had ever thought of regarding it as unlawful. But in the sanctuaries remote from the capital and subject to no effective supervision idolatrous emblems came to be introduced, and degrading forms of worship. And the various attempts which had been made to purge out idolatry from the high places, and to rectify the worship celebrated there, proved abortive. They were so numerous and scattered so widely that they could not be kept under proper control. Hence the most enlightened men of the nation, particularly the priests and the prophets, felt it to be necessary to restrict sacrificial worship to one central altar, that of the Temple in Jerusalem; and to accomplish this end the Deuteronomic code was drawn up. To give it the highest sanction and authority, it was prepared in the name of Moses, and in the form of a parting address to the children of Israel just prior to their entrance into Canaan. In order to bring it to the attention of the king, and gain his influence in its favor, Hilkiah, the high-priest, was to represent that it had been found in the Temple while repairs were going forward there. The king sent to Huldah, the prophetess, to inquire about it; but she was in the secret, and gave a response in its favor. Thus the support of the young and impressible king was obtained, and the code was enforced with all the weight of the royal authority. But this is all a sheer invention of the critics, and has not the slightest foundation in the historical narrative. It is directly in the face of what both Kings and Chronicles explicitly record, which give no suggestion of a plot or a forgery, but simply of the finding of the Book of the Law, which is spoken of as a well-known volume upon the very first mention of it (2 K. 22 : 8), which their fathers should have obeyed, but did not (verse 13), and which is further called the law of Moses (2 K. 23 : 25). The charge of forgery against such men as the high-priest and the prophets of the period is gratuitous and preposterous. If the parties concerned had been bad enough to attempt such a fraud, it would have been impracticable. A previously unheard-of body of laws could not be thus suddenly imposed upon a people as one that had been in force ever since the days of Moses; especially if designed, as is alleged, to make an entirely new departure, to forbid what had always been freely practised, and enjoin what had never been required before. Every man in the nation would know that no such law existed before, and that it could not possibly be what it professed to be. The critical hypothesis of the late date of the Book of Deuteronomy stands opposed to all the evidence, internal and external, by which its Mosaic origin may be established. There is a connected chain of historical testimony to the existence of the Book of the Law reaching back from the days of Josiah to those of Moses. Hezekiah kept the Commandments which the Lord commanded Moses (2 K. 18 : 6). The Ten Tribes did not observe the law which Jehovah commanded their fathers (2 K. 17 : 13), and which is expressly declared to have been a written law (verse 37). The Book of the Law of Moses was obeyed in the reign of Amaziah (2 K. 14 : 6; cf. De. 24 : 16). It was transgressed by Jehu (2 K. 10 : 31). It was commended by David to Solomon (1 K. 2 : 3; 2 K. 21 : 7, 8). It is spoken of in the time of the judges (Judges 3 : 4). It was possessed by Joshua (Josh. 1 : 7; 24 : 26), who solemnly charged Israel to obey it (Josh. 8 : 31 ff. ; 22 : 5). And the law of the unity of the sanctuary (De. 12) is not only that by which Hezekiah was governed in his abolition of high places (2 K. 18 : 4) a century before the finding of the book in the Temple, but it can be shown to have been the law from the time of Israel's first settlement of Canaan. Every departure from it was either a wilful violation of known law, or is capable of satisfactory explanation from the peculiar circumstances of the case. There never was but one ark of the covenant; the presence of that ark in the sanctuary made it Jehovah's dwelling; and there could be no other. By a unanimous voice psalmists and prophets uniformly speak of Zion as God's earthly dwelling-place, never of any other. Not a solitary passage can be adduced from any one of them which refers to other places of sacrifice than Zion, except in the language of rebuke and denunciation. The attempt to foist upon different periods of Israel's history a diversity of views in relation to God's true sanctuary is a signal failure. It is in the face of the teaching of every book in the Bible. And there is abundant evidence of the existence of the ceremonial law long before Josiah. This appears from numerous allusions found in the earliest of the prophets, Hosea and Amos, Micah and Isaiah. It appears also from the history. Solomon's Temple was only a magnified Mosaic tabernacle, after which it was modelled throughout. The horns of the altar (1 K. 1 : 50, 5f ; 2 : 28) imply that its construction corresponded to Ex. 27 : 2. The feast observed on the fifteenth day (1 K. 12 : 32, 33) of the seventh month (1 K. 8 : 2) agrees with Lev. 23 : 34. The gradations in the sacerdotal order of highpriests (2 K. 12 : 10; 22 : 4, 8), priests of the second order (2 K. 23 : 4; 25 : 18) and Levites (1 K. 8 : 4), are those of the Levitical law. Unleavened bread was the food of priests (2 K. 23 : 9); mention is made of sin offerings and trespass offerings (2 K. 12 : 16), the burnt offerings, meat offerings and peace offerings (1 K. 8 : 64), the daily sacrifice and the sprinkling of the blood (2 K. 16 : 15), and the exclusion of the leper from the ordinary abodes of men (2 K. 15 : 5). W. H. G. 15. The book delivered by Hilkich to Shaphan, to be carried to the king. Shaphan, the scribe, was the secretary of the king—not only the custodian, but the reader and interpreter of all written records, sacred and profane, in possession of the monarch. The book belonged properly in the Temple, and was in the care of the priesthood; but the high-priest sends it to the king, because of the strangeness of its discovery. Probably, also, his purpose was to impress the young king's mind as it was impressed by the reading. # Reading the Book before the King. 16, 17. Shaphan first reports the fulfilment of the king's direction. All that had been committed to their charge had been faithfully executed. The money necessary for the renovation of the Temple had been received and disbursed, and the work of repair completed. As in the previous similar repair by Joash, no accounts had been kept. The money was faithfully expended and the work properly done. 18. He acquaints the king with the discovery by the high-priest of the book, and reads it to him. The secretary does not inform the king of the contents of the book, but awaits his direction in regard to the reading. This, as we know from Esther, was a custom with the Oriental kings. They were wont to listen to the reading of others, rather than themselves to read. By the king's direction Shaphan read from the book. 19. The instant effect of the reading upon Josiah. The intensest form of grief or anguish was expressed by the reading of the garments. The fact here stated shows how startling was the impression produced upon the mind of the king by the words of God. The denunciations against idolatry, and the fearful threatenings prophetically uttered by God against this greatest of crimes, joined with his knowledge of the idolatries of the previous generation, would naturally stir the heart of Josiah. The denunciations were uttered against his people, and himself as their representative. He felt his own personal responsibility in connection with this startling revelation. B.—It was because he recognized it as the law of God, which the people were bound to obey, which their fathers should have obeyed but had transgressed (verse 21), that he was so disturbed. The reforms which he had instituted years before (2 Chron. 34 : 3, 4) imply his knowledge of its requirements, with which he sought to comply. W. H. G. It is hard for us to realize the full force of this discovery. We can scarcely conceive of a state of things in which, during centuries of the nominal establishment of Christianity, the people should still observe solemn festivals at the old sites of Druidical worship; the altars of Thor and Woden and Freya should smoke with sacrifices in every city, town and village; their statues be set up in our cathedrals, and the heights around London should be crowned with the temples of Siva and Juggernaut—all this lasting for centuries, with an occasional and partial return to the purer form of worship, while the Bible, never multiplied by printing, and only known in older and purer times through infrequent readings by the clergy, should have been utterly lost and forgotten. Add to this the supposition that the lost volume contained, not the dark symbols of the Apocalypse, but the clear warning of national destruction and captivity to befall us because of these idolatries, and then let us imagine our feelings on its sudden discovery. No wonder that Josiah rent his clothes, and could not rest till he found a prophet to expound these terrible denunciations. P. S. Oh, gracious tenderness of Josiah! He doth but once hear the law read, and is thus humbled—humbled for his father's sins, for the sins of his people. How many of us, after a thousand hammerings of the menaces of God's law upon our guilty souls, continue yet insensible of our danger! The very reading of this law doth thus affect him; the preaching of it stirs not us. The sins of others struck thus deep with him; our own are slighted by us. Bp. II. # The Prophecy of Huldah. 2. Chron. 34 : 20-22.** The king commands that counsel and direction be sought from the Lord. He bade the high-priest, with other chief men of the court and Temple, to undertake this service. The chief thought in his mind concerned not himself, but the remnant of God's people in Israel and Judah. His anxiety was not for himself, nor was his fear for them on account of outward foes. He thought only upon the consequences of such long-protracted and extreme disobedience to Jehovah by His covenanting people. How to avert the wrath of God, and to have those fearful maledictions written in the Book removed and the promised blessings restored, was his great desire, and the main purpose of his inquiry. B. 21. Concerning the words of the book that is found. They were not deputed, as has sometimes been represented, to learn whether the book found in the Temple was genuine and was possessed of Divine authority. No doubt is expressed upon that point. The only question was whether God's sparing mercy was now exhausted, and the threatenings which they had read were to be executed without longer delay. For great is the wrath of Jehovah that is poured out upon us.** The declarations of the law combined with the calamities which they had already experienced to convince them of the greatness of the Divine displeasure, which had already begun to be visited upon them, and which, it was to be apprehended, would bring upon them still severer inflictions. Because our fathers have not kept the word of Jehovah. The sins of former generations and their own constituted an ever-increasing amount of guilt, which was calling down the Divine judgment upon the nation (Matt. 23 : 34, 35). To do according unto all that is written in this book. What is written in this book is here identified with the word of the Lord, and the word which had been possessed though not obeyed by their fathers. W. H. G. 22. So Hilkiah, and they whom the king had commanded.** The servants of Josiah immediately consulted with Huldah, the prophetess, a widow living in Jerusalem, known to be a recipient of prophetic gifts. The inference is that neither Zephaniah nor Jeremiah were at the time in the capital, and the king's urgency was too great to send to them at a distance. God was wont to speak by women as by men; as certainly, but not as frequently. Other instances we have in Miriam, Deborah and Anna, who seem to have been especially endowed by the Holy Ghost in great emergencies. B.—That such a deputation should have unhesitatingly addressed itself at such a crisis and in a matter so important to a woman, not only indicates the exceptional position which Huldah occupied in general opinion—by the side of and even above the two other Old Testament prophetesses, Miriam (Ex. 15:20) and Deborah (Judges 4:4)—but also casts light on the spiritual relations under the Old Testament, and on the religious conditions of the time. Above all, it shows with what absolute freeness the Spirit of God selected the instruments which He employed in the execution of the Divine behests (cf. Joel 2:28, 29). A. E. 23-28. Huldah's reply reaffirmed in the name of Jehovah the threatenings pronounced against the city and the kingdom. The nation was doomed ultimately to destruction because of its persistence in disobedience and idolatry. But the king received from the prophetess a comforting message. Since he had humbled himself before God, and manifested a sympathy with the people of God by seeking His merciful interposition in their behalf, since as an intercessor he had wept before God, the Lord declared, "I have heard thee." Further, the comforting word was uttered that he should be gathered to his fathers in peace, and not behold the ruin that should come upon the nation. B. The truth was forced upon Josiah that his great effort at reformation might delay the outbursting of these judgments, might save many individual souls from perdition, but could not permanently arrest the downward proclivity of the masses, could not effectually save the nation. The power of idolatry throughout his kingdom was terrific; the heart of the masses was fearfully saturated with its spirit. He could send abroad his royal mandate, and find a few trusty men to arm with his authority to go forth, levelling heathen groves, crashing down idol-images and altars, burning dead men's bones on all desecrated localities; but the roots of this awful sin would yet remain, and not many years would elapse before the vials of God's wrath would be poured out for sins and abominations that defied all remedy. Thirteen more remained before Josiah's death. So far as can be inferred from the history, he continued to reign in the fear of the Lord to his death. H. C. 28. Josiah was the last king of Judah honorably buried in Jerusalem. Two of his three sons, and his grandson, were carried into captivity, and died in the lands of their exile. In peace. The death of Josiah in battle (chap. 23:29) is in verbal contradiction to this prophecy, but not in real opposition to its spirit, which is simply that the pious prince who has sent to inquire of the Lord shall be gathered to his fathers before the troubles come upon the land which are to result in her utter desolation. Now those troubles were to come, not from Egypt, but from Babylon; and their commencement was not the invasion of Necho in n.c. 608, but that of Nebuchadnezzar three years later. Thus was Josiah "taken away from the evil to come," and died "in peace" before his city had suffered attack from the really formidable enemy. B. C. # Public Reading of the Book and Renewal of Covenant with Jehovah. Josiah summoned a great meeting, and "recited aloud the whole law from end to end to an immense concourse assembled in the court of the Temple, in which every order of the State, priests and prophets no less than nobles and peasants, heard the (practically) new revelation from the lips of the royal reformer, from his pillar at the entrance of the inner court, beside the sacred laver, himself the new lawgiver of his people." Nor did he deem this enough. The king called on the people to make profession of religion, and to pledge themselves that they would thenceforward "walk after the Lord, and keep His Commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all their heart and with all their soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in the book" from which he had read. And then, as one man, "all the people stood to the covenant" (2 K. 23:3). G. R. The ignorance of the law which seems now to have prevailed may be sufficiently accounted for from the history of the preceding reigns; for Manasseh had been an idolatrous king for a long series of years, and he wanted neither power nor inclination to destroy the copies of the law, had they been secreted by the servants of the true God. The law, after being so long concealed, would be unknown to very many of the Jews; and thus the solemn reading of it by Josiah would awaken his own and the people's earnest attention. Kennicott.—The same words of the law that had wrought upon his heart are by him caused to be publicly read in the ears of Judah and Jerusalem. The assembly is universal, of priests, prophets, people, both small and great; because the sin was such, the danger was such. That no man may complain to want information, the law of God sounds in every ear. Bp. H. Destruction of Idolatrous Images, Vessels, Chariots, Altars and High Places, and Removal of their Priests and of Wizards, etc. The whole history leads to the conviction that the reformation inaugurated by Josiah, although submitted to and apparently shared in by the people, was not the outcome of a spiritual revival. It was a movement on the part of the king rather than of the nation. Of this we have only too much confirmation in the account which the prophets give of the moral and religious condition of the people, and of the evidently superficial and chiefly external character of the reformation. And as we derive our knowledge of it from the pages of Jeremiah, we bear in mind that the beginning of his prophetic activity, in the thirteenth year of Josiah (Jer. 1 : 2), synchronized with the commencement of the reformatory movement. Thus we further understand why the changes inaugurated, however extensive, could not avert, as the prophetess Huldah announced, the Divine judgment from the nation, but only from their king. A reformation such as this could be but transient, and the people hastened only the more rapidly to their final apostasy. A. E. 2. K. 23 : 15-20.** Jerusalem being thus purified, Josiah went to Bethel. He broke down and burned the high place, the altar and the grove, and fulfilled the word of the disobedient prophet by taking the bones of the priests out of the sepulchres and burning them upon the altar, while he spared the remains of the prophet and of the other who was buried with him. The priests who still dared to sacrifice in the high places were put to death, according to the law against idolatry. The wizards and necromancers shared their fate. P. S. 16. Took the bones out of the sepulchres.** In order to make it sure that the place might not be afterward used as a place of idolatrous worship, he caused the bones of all the men of note, whether priests, prophets or others, who had been promoters of that idolatry, to be dug out of their graves and thrown together upon the place, to pollute it as much as possible and render it odious and contemptible. And thus was that remarkable prophecy pronounced about three hundred and fifty years before concerning this altar (1 K. 13 : 1, 2) now exactly and literally fulfilled. Pyle.—The time was, and it was no less than three hundred and fifty years since, that the man of God, out of Judah, cried against Jeroboam's altar, "O altar, altar; thus saith the Lord: Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places, that burn incense upon thee; and men's bones shall be burned upon thee." And now is the hour come, wherein every of those words shall be accomplished. Bp. II. 20. And he slew all the priests of the high places.** Here again, as in burning the human bones upon the altar at Bethel, Josiah was carrying out prophecy, and may have regarded himself as bound to act as he did (1 K. 13 : 2, 32). Excepting on account of the prophecy, he would scarcely have slain the priests upon the altars. B. C. 25. As neither before nor after him was there any king whose heart was so "tender," and who so humbled himself before Jehovah (2 K. 22 : 19), nor yet any who so "turned to Jehovah with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses," so we must surely regard his upraising at that crisis, his bearing, and his rule as of direct Divine grace and interposition. A. E.—The law of Moses. It is not very often that the law is expressly called "the law of Moses." The only other instances in the Old Testament are Josh. 8 : 32 ; 2 K. 14 : 6 ; 2 Chron. 23 : 18 ; 25 : 4 ; Ezra 3 : 2 ; Dan. 9 : 11, 13 ; Mal. 4 : 4. These passages are, however, quite numerous enough, and scattered enough, to show a general consensus of the Jewish nation upon the subject. B. C. Josiah's Passover. Returning to Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of his reign (n.c. 622), Josiah kept the passover according to the directions of the newly discovered Book of the Law. This passover was the greatest and the most exact that had been kept since the time of Moses. It is the last great united act of religion in the time preceding the Captivity. P. S. 2. K. 23 : 21. The king commanded.** The parenthesis which commenced with verse 4 ends with verse 20, and in verse 21 the author returns to the narrative of what was done in Josiah's eighteenth year. Having read the Book of the Law in the ears of all the people, and caused all present to join him in a solemn promise that they would keep all the Commandments written in the Book, Josiah commanded that the ensuing passover should be kept with the greatest strictness and exactness, "as it was written in the Book of the Covenant." The need of the injunction was owing to the fact—not that Josiah had as yet held no passover, but that the reading of the book had shown him differences between the existing practice and the letter of the law—differences consequent upon negligence, or upon the fact that tradition had been allowed in various points to override the law. B. C. Fatal Conflict with Pharaoh-Necho, of Egypt. 1. THEN the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in his father's stead in Jerusalem. Joahaz was twenty and three years old when he began to reign ; and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. And the king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem, and amerced the land in 33. And Pharaoh-necoh put him in bands at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem; and put the land to a tribute of an hundred talents of silver, and 34 a talent of gold. And Pharaoh-necoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim: but he took Jehoahaz away; 35 and he came to Egypt, and died there. And Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh; but he taxed the land to give the money according to the commandment of Pharaoh: he exacted the silver and the gold of the people of the land, of every one according to his taxation, to give it unto Pharaoh-necoh. 36 Jehoiakim was twenty and five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Zebidah the daughter of Pedaiah 37 of Rumah. And he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that 24:1 his fathers had done. In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him. And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldeans, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by the hand of his servants the prophets. 3 Surely at the commandment of the LORD came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did; and also for the innocent blood that he shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and the LORD would not pardon. 5 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin 7 his son reigned in his stead. And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land: for the king of Babylon had taken, from the brook of Egypt unto the river Euphrates, all that pertained to the king of Egypt. 9. JEHOIACHIN was eight years old when he began to reign ; and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem : and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. And at the return of the year king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the LORD, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem. 11. Zedekiah was twenty and one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD his God; he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet speaking from the mouth of the LORD. And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the LORD, the God of Israel. rebel king who had defied his authority, made no change in the natural order of succession, but placed his son, Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, upon the throne at the age of eighteen. Jehoiachin, like all the kings of Josiah's stock, "did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord," and provoked Jeremiah, after he had reigned a few months, to declare that he was "a despised broken idol, a vessel wherein there was no pleasure" (Jer. 26 : 28). G. R.—Jehoiachin was dethroned after a reign of three months by Nebuchadnezzar, who now came against him in person, and carried him away, together with the nobles, men of war and priests, to Babylon. This was the second deportation, and by it the better portion of the people was taken into captivity (see the vision of the two baskets of figs, Jer. 24). Among those carried to Babylon was Ezekiel, who from the fifth year of his captivity onward filled the office of prophet to the exiles at Chebar. Nebuchadnezzar made Mattaniah, a still remaining son of Josiah, his vassal-king, changing his name to Zedekiah. O. At first the siege of Jerusalem was entrusted to subordinate officers. But when the fall of the city seemed near, Nebuchadnezzar himself appeared. Jehoiachin, together with the queen-mother, the court, the princes, and the leaders seem to have surrendered to the victor. The punishment inflicted on the city was of signal severity. All the treasures of the Temple and the palace were carried away, the heavier furnishings of the sanctuary being cut in pieces. Thus was the word of the Lord, long and often spoken, fulfilled (2 K. 24 : 12, 13). The king himself, his mother, his wives, and all the officials, whether of the court, the State, or the army, were carried to Babylon. Nay, to make sure of the permanence of the conquest, "all Jerusalem"—in the sense of what made it the capital—and all who in any sense were "strong and apt for war"—who could either lead, or fight, or prepare the means for it—were carried into captivity. Their number is roughly stated as 11,000, comprising 3000 ranked as "princes" and leading citizens, 7000 soldiers, and 1000 craftsmen, especially smiths. A. E.—These together constituted all that was important in the population of the city; the remainder were weak and insignificant—probably not only in respect of enterprise and military strength, but even in number. The population of modern Jerusalem, which seems to be nearly of the same size as the ancient city, is estimated by the most judicious of modern observers at from 10,000 to 17,000 (Robinson's "Researches"). That of the ancient city has been calculated, from its area, at 15,000 (Fergusson). The remnant left did not, therefore, in all probability exceed 5000 or 6000. When Jeremiah (52 : 28) says that the number of captives carried off at this time was 3023, we may suspect that his text has been corrupted. B. C.—Nebuchadnezzar looked well to his own interests when he deported these classes, and not the poor, the less able, less thrifty, to Babylon. But their departure was ruinous to Jerusalem, and this also Nebuchadnezzar intended. It was, indeed, an irretrievable, crushing blow which had fallen on the nation, none the less ruinous and terrible that it had been so long predicted, and was so richly deserved. J. O. Nebuchadnezzar saw the impolicy of leaving on the throne the nominee of Egypt. He therefore set the now lustreless crown upon the head of Josiah's youngest son, Mattaniah, whose name he changed to Zedekiah, and sent away Jehoiachin to Babylon. Jehoiachin was at this time but eighteen years of age; and he survived in Babylon till long after the entire subversion of the kingdom over which he had so briefly ruled. He seems to have been kept in some sort of confinement until the death of Nebuchadnezzar, but was liberated from restraint by his successor, and was treated with high distinction, among the kings of subverted thrones, whose presence glorified the imperial court. By the numerous captives who were eventually removed to the East, he was doubtless looked up to as their natural prince—the sole relic of the house of David; and it is likely that his influence availed much to secure for them many of the advantages they enjoyed in the land of their captivity. Kitto. 2. K. 24 : 8. Eighteen years old.** The parallel passage of Chronicles has "eight years," which is probably the error of a copyist. That Jehoiachin was not a mere child when he ascended the throne is clearly indicated by Jer. 22 : 28. B. C. 13. Jehoiakim had saved his treasures at the expense of exactions from the people, and his "covetousness" had doubtless filled them still more (Jer. 22 : 17). These ill-gotten gains were now carried away, and with them such of the Temple vessels as were made of or plated with gold, the "cutting to pieces" being probably confined to the latter, with such large articles as the golden candlestick, etc. Of the smaller articles some few were spared, and the rest were preserved in Babylon, and restored on the return. Judgment thus again began at the house of God. J. O. 2. K. 25 : 25-27 ; Jer. 52 : 31-34.** Jehoiachin survived for many years after the fall of Zedekiah. For a long time his imprisonment at Babylon was rigorous: he was closely confined and clad in a prison dress. The plots of the Egyptian party and the hopes of his return held out by the false prophet Hananiah (n.c. 595) explain this severity as well as Hananiah's cruel execution; but in the thirty-seventh year of his captivity he was released by Evil-merodach, who had just succeeded to the throne of Babylon (January 11th, B.C. 561). He was received with kind words, was placed in the royal presence on a throne above all the other captive kings, received a robe of honor, and a portion for his daily diet, until his death. With him expired the royal line of Solomon. "This man was written childless," as Jeremiah had declared; and "no man of his seed prospered, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah." The inheritance of David passed on to the line of his son Nathan, whose representative, Salathiel, is therefore inserted in the genealogies as the son of Jehoiachin, and the ancestor of Christ. P. S. Jehoiachin, to the day of his death, lived in peace and comfort at the court of Babylon. Nothing can be gathered from the passage as to how much longer Jehoiachin lived; he may or he may not have survived Evil-merodach. The author of Kings is writing Jewish, not Babylonian history, and is only anxious to impress on his readers the fact that Jehoiachin, after his long and wearisome captivity, died in comparative comfort and honor. Amid the darkness that has gathered round the closing scenes of his history, he is glad to notice this one ray of light. He is glad to indicate that even in their extreme affliction the seed of David was not wholly cast off. Perhaps he intends to hold before the eyes of his nation the existence of Jehoiachin as a type of their own fate—an encouragement to them to hope that the time would come when God might take compassion upon them, and terminate their captivity also. He thus leaves them with a comforting thought, an anticipation of the dawn that was soon about to break; resembling in this the great bulk of the prophets, who, however sternly they may chide and menace the backsliding nation, end their prophecies with joyous strains, promising an ultimate restoration of the seed of Abraham to God's grace and favor. B. C. Two points may be helpfully recalled at this juncture of the history. 1. The relations of the two great empires of the "North" and the "South," as these terms are employed in the prophecy of Daniel. The empire of the "North," or more properly of the East, extended during a period of nearly two thousand years under three different names—the Chaldean, the Assyrian, and the Babylonian. B.—Chaldea was the lower or southern half, and Assyria the upper or northern half, of the great valley of the Tigris and Euphrates. It was the cradle of the human family, becoming an empire as early, probably, as 2500 B.C., and remaining such for about twelve hundred years, or down to 1300 B.C. At that time it was conquered by Assyria, which had previously been one of its provinces; and from this time it formed a part of the Assyrian empire, for nearly seven hundred years. For much of the time, however, it was restless under the Assyrian yoke, and engaged in frequent rebellions. At length in 625 B.C., when the Assyrian empire was broken and near its fall, Chaldea reasserted its independence, and soon became the seat of a second, or lower, commonly called the Babylonian empire. It was a splendid empire, but lasted less than a hundred years. The founder of the new empire was Nabopolassar, who reigned from 625 to 604 B.C. In 607 B.C. he associated with him his son, Nebuchadnezzar, who became the greatest of the Babylonian monarchs. Todd.—The empire of the "South," or Egypt, had its origin at a far earlier date than the Chaldean. It is the earliest kingdom referred to in the Bible. In the time of Moses it was possessed of the highest civilization, and of supreme power. For many centuries a conflict existed between the kingdoms of the "North" and of the "South." Many times the armies of each power invaded the territory of the other, seeking to make permanent conquest. The varying fortunes of this protracted conflict make up the known history of the centuries preceding the scheme of Daniel's prophecy. 2. The bearing of this conflict upon the history of Israel and Judah. God had employed the smaller kingdom of Syria, and the adjacent tribes of Moab, Ammon, and Edom, with the remaining Canaanites, especially the Philistines, as instruments to chasten His people. But the two chief agents by which He aided or hindered their prosperity were the two great empires, whose military movements seem to have been ordered of God, that He might use them in dealing with His people. This, indeed, is the key-fact of all ancient history. It is repeatedly so declared, by statement or clear hint, throughout the Old Testament. The death of Josiah occurred in connection with an advance by Pharaoh-Necho in the direction of Assyria, with a view to its conquest. Passing along the coast-line of Palestine, with no purpose of attacking the kingdom of Judah, this monarch's progress was opposed by Josiah. The reason of this opposition is variously inferred, but is not known. There seem to have been two parties in Judah—one in favor of alliance with Egypt, the other holding to an honest observance of tributary stipulations already existing with Assyria. On the supposition that Josiah belonged to the latter party, his persistent opposition to the Egyptian king is justified as both consistent and loyal. The four successors of Josiah, and only remaining kings of Judah, are only memorable for weakness and wickedness. Through the twenty years of their reign Judah was oppressed and despoiled by one or other of the two great monarchies. Nebuchadnezzar put Jehoiakim to death, and carried to Babylon Jehoiachin, the royal family, the priests and the princes, 7000 soldiers and 1000 skilled craftsmen. As his vassal, Zedekiah was placed on the throne of Judah. B. 14. Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the heathen; and they polluted the house of the LORD which he 15 had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending; saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel : Behold, I will bring my words upon this city for evil, and not for good ; and they shall be accomplished before thee in that day. But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD : and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid. For I will surely save thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee : because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD. treasures of the house of the LORD, and the these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. NEBUZARADAN, the great marshal of the king of Babylon, comes up against that deplored city and breaks down the walls of it round about ; burns the Temple of the Lord and the king's house and every fair palace of Jerusalem with fire ; drives away the remainder of her inhabitants into captivity ; carries away the last spoils of the glorious Temple. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the wonder of all times, the paragon of nations, the glory of the earth, the favorite of heaven, how art thou now become heaps of ashes, hills of rubbish, a spectacle of desolation, a monument of ruin ! If later, yet no less deep, hast thou now pledged that bitter cup of God's vengeance to thy sister Samaria. How carefully had thy God forewarned thee ! "Though Israel play the harlot, yet let not Judah sin." Lo now, as their iniquities so Thy judgments have overtaken her. Both lie together in the dust ; both are made a curse to all posterities. O God, what place shall Thy justice spare if Jerusalem have perished ! If that delight of Thine were cut off for her wickedness, "Let us not be high-minded, but fear." . . . Four hundred and thirty-six years had that Temple stood and beautified the earth, and honored heaven ; now it is turned into rude heaps. There is no prescription to be pleaded for the favor of the Almighty. Only that Temple not made with hands is eternal in the heavens. Thither will He graciously bring His faithful servants, for the sake of that glorious High Priest who has once for all entered into that holy of holies. Bp. II. Judea's weakness lay in this—that she had offended God. From the time of Moses to that of Zedekiah, it was not her own inherent strength or energy that had protected and sustained her, but the supporting hand of the Albecause he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place : but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man or ancient : he gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes ; all the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. mighty. God had ever "gone forth with her armies," had given her "help from trouble." Through God she had "done valiantly." He it was who had "trodden down her enemies." Many of their deliverances had been through actual miracle ; others were the result of a divinely infused courage pervading their own ranks, or a panic falling upon their adversaries. It was only as God's "peculiar people," enjoying His covenanted protection, that they could possibly hold their place among the nations of the earth, so soon as great empires were formed and mighty monarchs devised schemes of extensive conquests. God's arm had saved them from Egypt and from Assyria ; He could as easily have saved them from Babylon. He could have bridled Nebuchadnezzar as easily as Zerah or Sennacherib, and have saved the Jews under Zedekiah as readily as under Asa or Hezekiah. But Judah's sins came between him and them. The persistent transgressions of the people from the time of Manasseh, their idolatries, immoralities, cruelties and wickedness of all kinds, shortened God's arm that He could not interpose to save them. As the author of Chronicles puts it, "there was no remedy." "They had transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen ; and polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem ; they had mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets ;" and so "filled up the measure of their iniquities." Under such circumstances, God could not spare even His own children (Isa. 1 : 4 ; 63 : 16)—His own people. Can, then, any sinful nation hope to escape? Ought not each to feel the fate of Judah a warning to itself? Hammond. 2. K. 25 : 8. The nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar. The first year of Nebuchadnezzar corresponded with the fourth of Jehoiakim (Jer. 25 : 1), when the first deportation occurred, and from which the seventy years of the Captivity are to be reckoned (verses 11, 12). The first year of Zedekiah would accordingly be the ninth of Nebuchadnezzar, and the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in which the capture of Jerusalem occurred, would be Nebuchadnezzar's nineteenth year. 10. The walls, which seemed impregnable and had so long resisted attack, were broken down, and the city was reduced to a mass of ruins (Neh. 2 : 3, 13, 17). It is difficult for us to imagine the feelings produced in the mind of a devout Jew by this fearful desolation. It was not merely the ruin of his country, the overthrow of a kingdom that dated back to the days of David, the destruction of the capital city, with its elegant and venerable palaces, and its world-renowned Temple, the exile of his people from their homes at the will of a relentless conqueror, whose track was marked with fire and blood; but it looked like the overthrow of the kingdom of God upon earth, and the abandonment of His scheme of grace. The royal house of David, from whom Messiah was to proceed, had fallen. The seed of Abraham, which was to bless the world, was trampled in the dust by haughty foes. The Temple, where God had recorded His name, and where alone acceptable sacrifices could be offered and the Aaronic priesthood perform their mediation, was burned to the ground, and the divinely ordained ceremonial, so significant of blessing, was violently terminated (Lam. 2 : 6-9). It required a strong faith to believe that Jehovah, whose people were thus humiliated, was nevertheless the almighty and sovereign God, whose promises were true and faithful, and that the gods of the victorious Babylonians were impotent and senseless idols. 11. The residue of the people.** Those who survived the calamities of the siege. The policy of the Assyrian and Babylonish emperors, as shown not merely in the case of the Ten Tribes and subsequently of Judah, but in various other instances recorded upon the monuments, was to transport subjugated populations to distant regions, and supply their place by new colonists brought from elsewhere. W. H. G.—It deserves especial notice that the land which we may henceforth call Judea, to distinguish it from the other parts of Palestine, was not subjected, like that of Samaria had been, to a new colonization by heathen settlers. It lay ready to be occupied by those to whom God had given it, after it had rested for the sabbatic years of which it had been deprived, and when they themselves had been chastened by affliction. This hope sustained those of the captives who, like Daniel, had still the faith to pray with their faces turned toward Jerusalem; it is mingled with the sad complaints of the pathetic Psalms that belong to the time of the Captivity, and it even breathes through the more dismal wailing of Jeremiah's Lamentations. P. S. 12. In disposing of the still surviving population, the Chaldean policy seems to have been to take away all the princes and nobles, and all men of any considerable wealth or social position; all who had gone over to them during the war and the siege; and a portion of the poor. But a few of the poor, said by Jeremiah (39 : 10) to be those who "had nothing," they "left for vine-dressers and husbandmen." It seems probable that they were left, not so much for the sake of keeping up the cultivation of the vineyards and of the soil, as because it would not pay to take them to Babylon as captives, and they could get a subsistence in Judea. H. C. 18-21. Signal punishment was dealt out to those who were regarded as ringleaders or as representative persons during the late rebellion. "Seraiah, the chief priest" (high priest), "Zephaniah, the second priest" (probably the substitute of the high-priest), "and the three keepers of the door"—that is, the chiefs of the Levites who kept watch at the three Temple gates (Jer. 38 : 14), were brought before the court which sat at Riblah, and executed. The same punishment as that of the Temple officials was meted out to the royal officers in the city—the chamberlain who had charge of the troops, five of the king's councillors, and the secretary of the general of the army. With these were executed sixty of the people of the land, either as prominent in the late rebellion, or as representing the people generally. A. E.—It devolved on Nebuzaradan to select for exemplary punishment the persons whom he regarded as most guilty, either in respect of the original rebellion or of the protracted resistance. His choice, both as regards the number and the quality of the persons, is such as an equitable and God-fearing man would have made under the circumstances. Instead of taking indiscriminately the first comers, he first selected those who by their offices would be likely to have had most authority—the high-priest; his locum tenens, the second priest; three of the Temple Levites; the commandant of the city; five members of the king's council (or seven, according to Jer. 52 : 25) ; and the secretary (or adjutant) of the captain of the host. To these he added sixty others, who, though they had not held any special office, were of sufficient dignity to be accounted sarm, "princes." If we compare this with the many occasions on which Assyrian and Persian conquerors put to death hundreds or thousands after taking a revolted town, we shall see reason to regard Nebucharadan (and his master, Nebuchadnezzar) as moderate, or even merciful, in their vengeance. B. C. 13. Nebuchadnezzar carried away the riches and furniture of the Temple at three different times : first, in the third year of Jehoiakim (Dan. 1 : 2) ; these were the vessels which his son Belshazzar profaned (Dan. 5 : 2), and which Cyrus restored to the Jews (Ezra 1 : 7), to be set up in the Temple when rebuilt ; secondly, in the reign of Jehoiachin he again took the city, and cut in pieces a great part of the vessels of gold which Solomon had made (2 K. 24 : 13) ; thirdly, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, as here related, he pillaged the Temple once more. It is somewhat strange that among the other furniture we find no mention made of the ark of the covenant, which of all other things was held most sacred ; but it was probably burned together with the Temple in this last desolation. Stackhouse.—All the more precious treasures had been already removed from the Temple. But there still remained the two pillars of brass named Jachin and Boaz, which Hiram had made for Solomon, and set up in front of the Temple (1 K. 7 : 15-22) ; the brazen sea, a work of the same craftsman, which Ahaz had taken off its oxen and placed upon a pavement of stones (2 K. 16 : 17) ; the brazen bases, or stands for the ten lavers, from which Ahaz had detached the ornamental panels or "borders" (ibid.), but which had probably been restored to their original condition by Hezekiah ; a number of small utensils of brass, or rather bronze, belonging to the original service of Solomon (1 K. 7 : 45) ; and a certain number of gold and silver vessels which had either escaped the former plunderings, or had been made by Zedekiah to replace the vessels carried off previously. The list of articles is given in Jer. 52 : 17-23 much more fully than in this place. Carried the brass to Babylon. Objects in brass, or rather bronze (for it may be doubted whether brass was as yet known to the Orientals), were frequently carried off by the Assyrians from the conquered nations. Bronze was highly valued, being the chief material both for arms and implements. B. C. The first deportation to Babylon is not recorded at all in the historical books, but is mentioned in the opening verses of the prophet Daniel (Dan. 1 : 3, 4). No numbers are given there, but it is said that certain peculiarly gifted young men were selected "of the king's seed and of the princes," among whom were Daniel and his three companions. It appears, then, that there must have been others "of the king's seed and of the princes," probably many of them, and also others who were not thus distinguished. No definite cipher can be fixed, but it seems probable that the number must have been reckoned by hundreds. This occurred in the third year of Jehoiakim, which was the year before Nebuchadnezzar's accession to the throne (see Jer. 25 : 1), although he is very naturally spoken of as "king." Eight years after this—i.e., in Nebuchadnezzar's seventh year—Jeremiah mentions (52 : 28) that 3023 of the Jews were carried off by him to Babylon. This must have occurred in the early part of the same campaign in which he laid siege to and took Jerusalem. In the following year—the eighth of Nebuchadnezzar—Jerusalem was taken, and the king, Jehoiachin, with 10,000 of the people (2 K. 24 : 14), was carried captive. It was at this deportation that the prophet Ezekiel (compare 1 : 1 with 33 : 2) was carried off. There is no record of any further captivity for a period of ten years. At the end of that time, in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah (52 : 29) mentions that 832 were carried away. This also was doubtless in the early part of a campaign which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. At the close of this campaign it is said (2 K. 25 : 11) that "in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar," the "rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, and the remnant of the multitude" were carried away. The numbers are not given, but were probably very large, as they seem to have included the whole mass of the people. Subsequently, in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 52 : 30), 745 more were taken to Babylon. The whole period of the carrying off of the Jews is thus seen to have covered twenty-four years, extending from the year before Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne to the twenty-third year of his reign. The sum of the various numbers mentioned is 14,600 ; but none are given in connection with two of the deportations, that at the time Daniel was taken, which probably amounted to only a few hundreds, and that after the destruction of the Temple, when probably a much larger body was carried off than in all the others put together. There were then six successive deportations, instead of only the three commonly spoken of; while three of these were each of a less number than 1000 (two of them certainly, the other probably), the other three were large, one just over 3000, the next 10,000, and the third probably many tens of thousands. The mention, often incidentally, of these various deportations may show that there were still others of which no record has been preserved, so that the process was going on at every convenient opportunity for a quarter of a century. The number of Jews remaining in the land at the time of the murder of Gedaliah must therefore have been small, and when these fled to Egypt, the country appears to have become almost entirely depopulated. F. Gardiner. Jer. 39:11-14. Our involuntary respect for the grand king of Babylon is confirmed by the treatment which Jeremiah met with in obedience to his orders. As soon as the city was taken, Nebuzaradan, with the other chief officers, sent for the prophet out of the prison, and committed him to the care of Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, who plays a most important part in the subsequent transactions. P. S.—The man to whom they in-trusted him was manifestly one of his early and long-tried friends—a grandson of that Shaphan the scribe who was actively prominent in the reformation under Josiah. (See 2 K. 22:8-14.) H. C. The darkness of the picture is at once relieved and deepened by one touch of light. The aged hero of the story at last meets with kindness for his faithfulness. His importance is recognized, for the king of Babylon singles him out in a special charge. His fidelity is rewarded so far as an appreciative Gentile can reward it. He is to be carefully considered and cherished; no harm must befall him; and he is also given his choice, either to go on to Babylon or to remain in his devastated but still beloved country. The old patriot, as we should expect, preferred to stay. With him, also, the very poor of the people are spared. McPherson. 15-18. Very appropriately the Lord remembers that good and true man, Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, to whom, under God, Jeremiah owed his life (chap. 38:7-13). His record stands here as that of a godly man who trusted in the Lord. Of course the Lord did not forsake him in his hour of need. He never does. So retribution from the Lord visits the guilty for their punishment, and the good for their deliverance; “For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed” (1 Sam. 2:3), and “The Lord is a God of judgment,” and “Blessed are all they that wait for Him” (Isa. 30:18). H. C. The author of the Books of Chronicles, approaching the close of his history, indulges us with some reflections on the causes of the catastrophe which he relates. This is unusual in Scripture history, where commonly the facts are recorded and the reader is left to his own reflections—unless where a prophet, priest, or angel appears to warn or to exhort. The greatness of the event—the awfulness of the consummation—did, however, in this case call for the observations which are introduced. After describing the iniquities of the nation, especially in the latter years, and the obduracy of the king, who “stiffened his neck and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel,” and after distinctly stating that even “all the chief of the priests and the people transgressed very much,” he goes on to say—“And the Lord God of their fathers sent unto them by His messengers, rising up betimes and sending; because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling-place; but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, TILL THERE WAS NO REMEDY.” These are awful words. The judgment which now befell this people, terrible as it was, is even less striking than the patience which had so long endured their perverseness—which had so long withheld the stroke that at last laid them low. Even as it was, the judgment came most gradually, with constant solicitations to repentance, and with warnings from day to day. The whole Jewish nation, both in Judah and Israel, had all along evinced a strong propensity to idolatrous abominations, which would be almost incredible, in the presence of the light with which they were favored, did we not recollect the prevailing ideas of the times, and the condition of all the neighboring nations; and consider the strong tendency of an exceptional system to be absorbed into those which are more prevalent, especially when the latter is more material, unspiritual and demonstrative than the others. Still we are scarcely able, in our ignorance of idolatrous enticements, to appreciate the temptations to which the Hebrew people were exposed and before which they fell, and which brought them into a state from which the jealous endeavors of good kings—the warnings, invectives, entreaties and threats of a long series of glorious prophets, specially commissioned by God—were ineffectual to rouse them, and to produce a real reformation. It was for this the nation was carried away captive, and the holy city and its Temple reduced to ruin. This calamity came gradually, leaving ample opportunity of repentance, while God had not yet forgotten to be gracious. But they repented not. Gradual punishment produced no reform in the religion or morals of the people, for their morals also had become exceedingly corrupt; and the last king was no better than his predecessors, notwithstanding the more abundant and sharper warnings he received. Therefore the long-suspended doom at length came down, and the land was given over to desolation, and the people to what must have seemed their extinction and utter ruin. The mercy, the justice and the wisdom of God are all equally displayed in this event. His mercy in bringing this judgment so gradually—from lesser to greater, during the space of twenty-two years—so that most ample warning was given, and abundant opportunity was afforded to the nation, that the successive threatenings denounced by the prophets were not vain words, but would most assuredly be accomplished in their season. That it was a most just punishment for their sins no one ever questioned, and they have themselves constantly admitted it, even with tears. It was, in particular, a most righteous punishment of their idolatry, whereby they forsook God, and so provoked Him to forsake them, and to suffer their enemies to prevail over them, as Moses had long before foretold in Lev. 26, where the succession of the Divine judgments is most remarkably traced out. That is altogether a wonderful chapter, which should be read in connection with the closing portion of the Books of Kings and Chronicles. But also the wisdom of God is seen in this. He did not mean utterly to cast off His people, and He therefore brought first expatriation under Jehoiachin—the captive Jews should return to their own land; and before that, Isaiah had predicted that this should take place under an unborn king called Cyrus, of whom high things were spoken. Kitto. 14. Compare with this passage (verses 14–17) the similar but much longer justification of God's rejection of the Ten Tribes, contained in 2 K. 17: 7–23. G. R. (Section 29.) 15. Rising early and speaking.** The oft-recurring expression, "rising up early and speaking," or "sending," is both beautiful and strong. As a man in earnest and full of his mission is up betimes in the morning to begin, so God represents Himself as wakeful and active, giving up the live-long day to His work, laboring with unwearied patience to reclaim and to save His people, but all in vain. H. C.—God in all ages has drawn near His people, and answered with the fidelity of a father to their needs. At every critical moment, and, so to say, at every bifurcation of the road, He has been found, rising up early (according to the beautiful expression of Jeremiah), and pouring forth His saving counsels through His prophets. And all these different voices combine in one to proclaim together the master-law, the supreme principle of all history: He that exalteth himself shall be abased. It was to this law that all the powers of the ancient world—the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek and the Roman monarchies—had to bow their proud heads. The littleness of Israel was no protection against the application of this great principle. As soon as it took upon itself to make its Divine election the ground of a monopoly, as soon as it dared to make itself an end in itself instead of simply an instrument, as it was in God's purpose, the thunder-bolt which falls from heaven upon everything that exalts itself struck it in its littleness; for let us ever bear in mind that the pride of the little is no more tolerable in the eyes of the Most High than that of the great. This law, indeed, which judged the ancient world, rules the modern world also. It is for this reason that the words of the prophets concern us still. They fell from too great a height to be of merely local or temporary application. Till the end of the world they will recall to men, dazzled with the sense of their own greatness, what they are, and what God is. Individuals and nations are subject to this law. Godet. 16. Notice the word "till." It shows how slow God is to take away the remedy. His mercy still holds back the arm of justice. But we may sin ourselves into a state, not in which there is no forgiveness, but in which there will be no thought or desire to seek for forgiveness. There is the bourn—worse than any grave—from which no man has returned. "There is no remedy," not on God's account, but on your own; not in God's want of will to save you, but in your own incapacity to will your own salvation. J. Vaughan. Two characteristics of this account of the fall of Jerusalem are striking—its minute particularity, giving step by step the details of the tragedy, and its entire suppression of emotion. The passionless record tells the tale without a tear or a sob. For these we must go to the Book of Lamentations. This is the history of God's judgment, and here emotion would be misplaced. But there is a world of repressed feeling in the long-drawn narrative, as well as in the fact that three versions of the story are given (Jer. 39: 52; 2 K. 25). Sorrow curbed by submission, and steadily gazing on God's judicial act, is the temper of the narrative. In Lamentations we have the emotions of devout hearts; here we have the calm record of God's judgment. It is all one long sentence, for in the Hebrew each verse begins with "and," clause heaped on clause, as if each were a foot-step of the destroying angel in his slow, irresistible march. Surely the fall of Jerusalem, though all the agony is calmed ages ago, still remains as a solemn beacon, warning that the wages of sin is death, both for nations and individuals; that the threatenings of God's Word are not idle, but will be accomplished to the utmost tittle; and that His patience stretches from generation to generation, and His judgments tarry because He is not willing that any should perish, but that for all the long-suffering there comes a time when even a Divine love sees it is needful to say "Now!" and the bolt falls. The solemn word addressed to Israel has application as real to all Christian churches and individual souls: "You only have I known of all the inhabitants of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." A. M. Sin ruined all—the house of David, the Temple of Solomon, the city of so many grand and holy memories. There is no heart, no house, no kingdom, no Church, that sin will not undermine and destroy. In the end of the book God seems to weep over Jerusalem, but He would not force upon it His worship or His law. He spoke to the kings and the people by His prophets. If they would not hearken, nothing could prevent their destruction. In a later age, the Son of God wept over Jerusalem, because its children would not be gathered to Him. The "City of Solemnities" would ruin itself again. The same love of God yearns still over cities, countries, churches, families and individual men, women and children. D. Fraser. The two great moral results sought by means of this destruction of city and Temple, and of this seventy years' captivity, were (1) to cure the nation of idolatry; (2) to break down this false reliance on the mere externals of their religious system. The whole Book of Ezekiel should be read with these points in mind. Every chapter, almost every verse, shines in the light of these truths, and bears to their illustration. H. C.—The holy city was ravaged and burned, together with the Temple of God. The place where God had recorded His name was desecrated and utterly demolished, its sacred services were suspended, the priesthood were scattered or slain, and the people of God were exiled from their homes in the heart of a heathen empire. All this, however, instead of annulling God's plan of grace, was a step toward its accomplishment. It was a merited chastisement, designed to arrest the degeneracy and growing corruption of the people. In the providence of God the better portion of the people were carried into exile (Jer. 24; Ezek. 11: 15, 16), and at the end of the exile there was a fresh sifting. The better portion of the exiles, those who truly feared God and trusted His promises, came back to Palestine, while those who had less faith and piety remained behind, in the homes they had in the land of their exile. By this discipline the power of idolatry over the people was completely broken, and they never relapsed into it again. The evil tendencies previously existing were checked. A total change was brought about. From this time forth the Jews were as steadfast in adherence to their ancestral religion as they had previously been prone to depart from it. W. H. G. This fall of Jerusalem is an object-lesson to teach everlasting truth as to the retributive providence of God. It declares plainly what brings down God's judgments. The terms on which Israel prospered and held their land were obedience to God's law. We cannot directly apply the principles of God's government of them to modern nations. The present analogue of Israel is the Church, not the nation. But when all deductions have been made, it is still true that a nation's religious attitude is a most potent factor in its prosperous development. There are abundant lessons for politics and sociology in the story of Jerusalem's fall. But these lessons have direct application to the individual and to the Christian Church. All departure from God is ruin. We slay ourselves by forsaking Him, and every sinner is a suicide. We live under a moral government, and in a system of things so knit together as that even here every transgression receives its just recompense—if not visibly and palpably in outward circumstances, yet really and punctually in effects on mind and heart, which are more solemn and awful. "Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner." Sin and sorrow are root and fruit. Especially does that crash of Jerusalem's fall thunder the lesson to all churches that their life and prosperity are inseparably connected with faithful obedience and turning away from all worldliness, which is idolatry. They stand in the place that was made empty by Israel's later fall. Our very privileges call us to beware. "Because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith." That great seven-branched candlestick was removed out of its place, and all that is left of it is its sculptured image among the spoils on the triumphal arch to its captor. Other lesser candlesticks have been removed from their places, and Turkish oppression brings night where Sardis and Laodicea once gave a feeble light. The warning is needed today; for worldliness is rampant in the Church. "If God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee." The fall of Jerusalem is not merely a tragic story from the past. It is a revelation, for the present, of the everlasting truth, that the professing people of God deserve and receive the sorest chastisement, if they turn again to folly. Further, we learn the method of present retribution. Nebuchadnezzar knew nothing of the purposes which he fulfilled. "He meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so." He was but the "axe" with which God hewed. Therefore, though he was God's tool, he was also responsible, and would be punished even for performing God's "whole work upon Jerusalem," because of "the glory of his high looks." The retribution of disobedience, so far as that retribution is outward, needs no "miracle." The ordinary operations of Providence amply suffice to bring it. If God wills to sting, He will "hiss for the fly," and it will come. The ferocity and ambition of a grim and bloody despot, impelled by vainglory and lust of cruel conquest, do God's work, and yet the doing is sin. The world is full of God's instruments, and He sends punishments by the ordinary play of motives and circumstances, which we best understand when we see behind all His mighty hand and sovereign will. The short-sighted view of history says "Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem B.C. so and so," and then discourses about the tendencies of which Babylonia was exponent and creature. The deeper view says, God smote the disobedient city, as He had said, and Nebuchadnezzar was the rod of His anger. Again, we learn the Divine reluctance to smite. More than four hundred years had passed since Solomon began idolatry, and steadily, through all that time, a stream of prophecy of varying force and width had flowed, while smaller disasters had confirmed the prophets' voices. "Rising up early and sending" His servants, God had been in earnest in seeking to save Israel from itself. Men said then, "Where is the promise of His coming?" and mocked His warnings and would none of His reproof; but at last the hour struck and the crash came. "As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image." His judgment seems to slumber, but its eyes are open, and it remains inactive, that His longsuffering may have free scope. As long as His gaze can discern the possibility of repentance, He will not strike; and when that is hopeless, He will not delay. The explanation of the marvellous tolerance of evil which sometimes tries faith and always evokes wonder lies in the great words, which might well be written over the chair of every teacher of history: "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward." Alas! that that Divine patience should ever be twisted into the ground of indurated disobedience. "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." God's reluctance to punish is no reason for doubting that He will. Judgment is His "strange work," less congenial, if we may so paraphrase that strong word of the prophet's, than pure mercy, but it will be done nevertheless. The tears over Jerusalem that witnessed Christ's sorrow did not blind the eyes like a flame of fire, nor stay the outstretched hand of the judge, when the time of her fall came. The longer the delay, the worse the ruin. The more protracted the respite and the fuller it has been of entreaties to return, the more terrible the punishment. "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: toward them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off." A. M. AFTER HISTORY OF THE REMNANT OF JUDAH: GEDALIAH, GOVERNOR FOR TWO MONTHS, MURDERED; REJECTING JEREMIAH'S WARNINGS; THE REMNANT SETTLED IN EGYPT AND PERISHED THERE. 20. AND them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: to fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years. 20. That "the reign of the kingdom of Persia" immediately succeeded to that of Babylon, which was swallowed up by the great Aryan power within seventy years of the accession of Nebuchadnezzar, is declared with one voice by the classical historians, and has been recently confirmed by more than one native document. Two inscriptions, brought from Babylonia within the last decade, describe the circumstances under which the great empire of Babylon collapsed before the arms of Cyrus the Great, and was absorbed into his dominions. G. R. 21. It should be observed that in this very expression of the land enjoying her sabbaths the promise of a restoration is conveyed. For the expression implies merely a temporary rest and not a total dereliction. Berriman.—She kept sabbath. Thus was the land left desolate that it might enjoy its sabbatical years of rest, of which it had been defrauded by the avarice and disobedience of the Jews, fulfilling the early denunciation of Moses (Lev. 26 : 34) and the later of Jeremiah (2 Chron. 36 : 21); and it is truly remarkable that Nebuchadnezzar left it in that state, and did not attempt again to people it, as the policy of the kings of Assyria had led them to do in Samaria. The land, therefore, lay still vacant for their reception against their return, the providence of the God of Judah insensibly overruling the counsels and decrees of that haughty and arrogant conqueror, whom He had raised up to be the scourge of His chosen people, when their apostasies and abominations rendered them unworthy of His tutelar care and protection; and they were transported into captivity "for their good" (Jer. 24 : 5). There they were cured of the idolatrous infection they had imbibed in Egypt and renewed in Canaan in the course of seventy years, when the remnant that returned were purified in the furnace of affliction, and had purged away a part of their dross (Isa. 1 : 25). Hales.—Again is the land keeping sabbath. And again is it "stillness unto God," till His voice shall waken land and people, whose are land and people, dominion and peace; till He shall come who is alike the goal and the fulfilment of all past history and prophecy—"a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel." A. E. To fulfil threescore and ten years. It is essential to fix in mind that the carrying of Judah into exile was a series of events extending over at least twenty-four years, and not a single event. The seventy years so familiarly spoken of, following Jer. 25 : 11, 12 ; 29 : 10, may perhaps be regarded as a round number rather than an exact number; though there are at least three ways in which it can be counted as exact. It is just seventy years, counting one of the terminal years, from the death of Josiah, B.C. 608, to the first year of Cyrus, 538 B.C. ; it is just seventy, counting both the terminal years, from the deportation of Daniel, 605 B.C., to the first year of Cyrus, reckoned as 536 B.C. ; it is just seventy years, counting one terminal year, from the burning of the Temple, B.C. 586, to the completing of Zerubbabel's temple, B.C. 516. We have no need to trouble ourselves to decide between these possible interpretations of the phrase. The sources of the history. The biblical sources of information for the history of the period are the concluding chapters of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles; the Books of Jeremiah and Lamentations; the Books of Ezekiel and Daniel; some psalms (Ps. 137, for example); the genealogies in 1 Chronicles, and incidental notices elsewhere. Ancient extra-biblical sources of information for the time we are considering are the writings of Berosus (a Babylonian priest, after Alexander, who translated into Greek the history of Babylon) and of other Oriental historians, preserved by Josephus and others (see especially Josephus Cont. Apion, I. 19-21, and Ant. X. xi. 1); and occasional items in the inscriptions of the Babylonian and Persian kings. The Greek historians, Herodotus, B.C. 484 to about 400, Ctesias, B.C. 398 and earlier, and Xenophon, about B.C. 444-357, wrote popular histories, including these times, but without that careful regard for facts that characterizes the Oriental historians. Josephus, about A.D. 100, repeats the accounts given in the Bible. The chronology. The dates for this and the subsequent times can be best studied by referring them to the scheme known as the canon of Ptolemy. Whatever be true of certain views of history implied in this canon, no one disputes its correctness as a scheme for giving names to the years in their succession. By this canon, the years for the time now under consideration are named as follows : - B. C. 625-605 are the 21 years of Nabopolassar. - B. C. 604-562 are the 43 years of Nebuchadnezzar. - B. C. 561-560 are the 2 years of Evil-merodach. - B. C. 559-556 are the 4 years of Nerigitesar. - B. C. 555-539 are the 17 years of Nabonidus. - B. C. 538-539 are the 9 years of Cyrus. 2. Chron. 36 : 22, 23.** These closing verses of 2 Chronicles are nearly identical with the first three verses of Ezra, and are there placed for comment. B. These last two verses of this book have a double aspect. 1. They look back to the prophecy of Jeremiah, and show how that was accomplished (verse 22). God had, by him, promised the restoring of the captives, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, at the end of seventy years; and that time to favor Zion, that set time, came at last. After a long and dark night, the dayspring from on high visited them. God will be found true to every word He has spoken. 2. They look forward to the history of Ezra, which begins with the repetition of these last two verses. They are there the introduction to a pleasant story, here they are the conclusion of a very melancholy one; and so we learn from them that though God's Church be cast down, it is not cast off; though His people be corrected, they are not abandoned; though thrown into the furnace, yet not lost there, nor left there any longer than till the dross be separated. Though God contend long, He will not contend always. The Israel of God shall be fetched out of Babylon in due time, and even the dry bones made to live. It may be long first; but the vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak and not lie; therefore, though it tarry, wait for it. H. Thus closes the first period of the Jewish history; and, in the ordinary course of human events, we might expect the national existence of the Israelitish race. The common occupancy of their native soil seems in general the only tie that permanently unites the various families and tribes which constitute a nation. As long as that bond endures, a people may be sunk to the lowest state of degradation; they may be reduced to a slave-caste under the oppression of foreign invaders; yet favorable circumstances may again develop the latent germ of a free and united nation—they may rise again to power and greatness, as well as to independence. But when that bond is severed, nationality usually becomes extinct. A people transported from their native country, if scattered in small numbers, gradually melt away, and are absorbed in the surrounding tribes; if settled in larger masses, remote from each other, they grow up into distinct commonwealths; but in a generation or two the principle of separation, which is perpetually at work, effectually obliterates all community of interest or feeling. If a traditional remembrance of their common origin survives, it is accompanied by none of the attachment of kindred; there is no family pride or affection; there is no blood between the scattered descendants of common ancestors. For time gradually loosens all other ties; habits of life change; laws are modified by the circumstances of the state and people; religion, at least in all polytheistic nations, is not exempt from the influence of the great innovator. The separate communities have outgrown the common objects of national pride; the memorable events of their history during the time that they dwelt together; their common traditions, the fame of their heroes, the songs of their poets, are superseded by more recent names and occurrences; each has his new stock of reminiscences, in which their former kindred cannot participate. Even their languages have diverged from each other. They are not of one speech, they have either entirely or partially ceased to be mutually intelligible. If, in short, they meet again, there is a remote family likeness, but they are strangers in all that connects man with man or tribe with tribe. One nation alone seems entirely exempt from this universal law. During the Babylonian Captivity, as in the longer dispersion under which they have been for ages afflicted, the Jews still remained a separate people. However widely divided from their native country, they were still Jews; however remote from each other, they were still brethren. What, then, were the bonds by which Divine providence held together this single people? What were the principles of their inextinguishable nationality? Their law and their religion. Their law, of the irreversible perpetuity of which they were steadfastly convinced, and to which at length they adhered too long and too pertinaciously. Their religion, which, however it might admit of modifications in its main principles, remained unalterable. Under the influence of these principles, we shall hereafter see the Jewish people resuming their place among the nations of the earth, and opening a new and extraordinary career, to end even in a more awful dissolution. Milman. The Captivity opens just after the overthrow of one of the great monarchies and the destruction of one of the great cities of the ancient world, which had kept its ground for a thousand years. It ends with the fall of one that, in the colossal greatness of its power and the magnificence of its buildings, surpassed all others. It begins with the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and ends with that of Cyrus. It was a time of vast migrations, and struggles of races and of creeds. The religion of Buddha was working its mighty change in India. That of Zoroaster was entering on a new and more energetic life. Then it was that Epimenides and the Orphic brotherhoods that traced their origin to him were altering the character of the earlier creed of Greece, as represented by the Homeric poems; that Pythagoras and his disciples were laying the foundations of an asceticism which developed into a philosophy; that Solon was building up the intellectual and political life of Athens. In the far west Rome was already rising into greatness. The walls of Servius Tullius, yet more the constitution that bears his name, were marking out the future destiny of the Seven Hills. In the far East Confucius was entering on his work as the teacher of an ethical system which has kept its ground through all the centuries that have followed, which at present, modified more or less by its contact with Buddhism, divides with that system the homage of nearly all tribes and nations of Turanian origin. Plumptre. # Condition of the Exiled Jews in the Period of Captivity. The condition of the people during the Captivity does not seem to have been one of special oppression. The people dwelt apart, maintaining their tribal distinction, under their own elders. In the apocryphal narrative of Susannah, also, it is assumed that the Jews in Babylon formed a special community, with a jurisdiction of its own. A true Israelite could indeed know no real happiness at a distance from the Holy Land. But the same word of prophecy, whose truth was proved by the judgment which had fallen upon them, exhorted them to wait with patience for the hour when the deliverance of Israel should appear in the doom of Babylon. For this future deliverance was Israel to be preserved in captivity. As the Levitical worship could not be carried on upon heathen soil (see Hos. 9:4), and the sacrifice of prayer had now to take the place of animal sacrifices, it was important to keep all the more strictly to those legal institutions whose observance was not connected with the Holy Land. Such ordinances would form a salutary fence for the people thus thrown in contact with the heathen, and a protection against a heathen mode of life; and this consideration explains why Ezekiel so emphatically insisted on the observance of the ceremonial law, and especially on the sanctification of the sabbath. The example of Ezekiel (cf. 14:1; 20:1, also 8:1; 11:25; 24:19) also shows that now, when the two other theocratic offices, the kingship and priesthood, were annulled, the leadership of the people devolved exclusively on the prophets, who, by the proclamation of God's word and the delivery of prophetic counsel, afforded to the dispersion a point of support similar to that which they had furnished to the pious in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. Perhaps it was from the custom which now arose among the Israelites, of gathering around a prophet to hear the word of God, that synagogues originated. It was during the Captivity, according to Zech. 7:3, 5; 8:19, that four days of mournful commemoration, kept by fasting, were added to the celebration of the Sabbath—viz., 1st, the ninth day of the fourth month, because on this day (2 K. 25:3; Jer. 52:6 sq.) the Chaldeans entered Jerusalem; 2d, the already mentioned tenth of the fifth month (Jer. 52:12) (subsequently exchanged for the ninth), in remembrance of the destruction of the city and Temple; 3d, a fast in the seventh month (Tisri), in remembrance of the murder of Gedaliah; and also, 4th, a fast on the tenth day of the tenth month (Tebeth), because on this day the siege of Jerusalem commenced. This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/butler/