and field, consecrated it by offering a sacrifice, and designated it for the future site of the temple. This passage, therefore, contains an indication of the cause why the temple was built in that place.

III. In the history of Elijah and Elisha certain miracles occur in which we cannot discern that important object worthy of the Deity, which is conspicuous in many other miracles; I Ki. xviii. II Ki. v. Some persons suppose them to have been natural events which had been handed down through a long course of oral tradition, and exaggerated by the addition of wonderful circumstances. But the author elsewhere derives his information from contemporaneous written documents; and the famine and subsequent rain granted to the prayers of Elijah, I Ki. xvii. 1. xviii. 1., are mentioned also by MENANDER, as cited by JOSEPHUS, Ant. Jud. VIII. xiii. 2., although he limits the drought to a single year, and attributes the rain to the prayers of Ithobal, king of Tyre. Some of the extraordinary accounts which are related can be explained on natural principles without any forced construction of the language, as, for instance, those which are recounted in I Ki. xvii. 4. ss., 17–24. II Ki. ii. 1. ss. iv. 8-37. vi. 1—7, 18-20. xiii. 21.;[b] and the design of others, which are undoubtedly miracles, is too plain to be misunderstood; and is worthy of the Divine Being. If all are miracles, perhaps the imperfection of the narrative prevents us from discovering an adequate object.[c]

IV. With respect to the discrepancies between the books of Chronicles and Kings, it is sufficient to observe, that some of them are of little moment; some are caused by various readings; some have arisen from omissions in Chronicles of what is related in Samuel and Kings, or the introduction of what is passed over in those books; and others, perhaps, arise from interpolations. Comp. I Ki. xv. 16. with II Chron. xv. 19; I Ki. xxii. 44. with II Chron. xvii. 6; II Ki. ix. 27. s. with II Chron. xxii. 9; especially II Chron. xxxvi. 6. with II Ki. xxiv. 1, 6. and Jer. xxii. 19. xxxvi. 30; see also Germ. Introd. P. II. Sect. I. §. 53. p. 263. s.[d]

[a) Michaelis and Dathe agree in the same opinion, and add that David's intention seems to have been to enrol the body of the people as soldiers. See Dathe in loc. Others have supposed that David's sin in this matter was pride and presumption, inclining to trust to the numbers and

power of his people for support, and forgetting his entire dependence upon the divine governor. This crime may also have been participated in to a considerable degree by the people themselves. See HALES' Analysis of Chronology, II. 386. Tr.]

[6) If the author means that all these cases are susceptible of such an interpretation, it is an admission by no means to be conceded: and with respect to any, except the first, is very doubtful. Tr.]

[c) In the miracles which are related in I Ki. xviii. and II Ki. v., the design is too obvious to escape any reader. The fragmentary character of other parts of the work will account for the brevity and imperfection of the narratives.]

[d) Such discrepancies prove that the author of Chronicles has not drawn from the books of Samuel and Kings, and that those books have not been altered so as to correspond with the former.]

§ 54. Character of the Text of the Books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles.

The text of these books contains more errors than that of the more ancient books. Some interpolations in the books of Samuel have been already mentioned, P. I. § 135; to which perhaps the passages found in II Sam. xxi. 1-4. II Ki. iv. 1-44., where a change of style is observable, and I Sam. xiii. 19-21., should be added.. -Readings are constantly occurring to which no sense can be attributed, or which convey a sense either incredible or repugnant to other passages, as in I Sam. xiii. 1. 2, Saul was the son

of a year, where the number of years is lost. So in I Sam. xiii. 5. thirty thousand chariots of war, belonging to the Philistines, are mentioned; II Chron. xiii. 3, 17. armies of 400,000 and 800,000 men ; II Chron. xiv. 7. s. armies of 580,000 and 1,000,000; II Chron. xvii. 14-19. an army of 1,600,000; I Ki. v. 6. (iv. 26.) Solomon is said to have 40,000 nis, stables or stalls for horses, while in II Chron. ix. 25. only 4000 are mentioned; and II Chron. xxii. 2. Ahaziah is said to have been 42 years old when, on the death of his father, who died at 40 years of age, he began to reign, whereas in II Ki. viii. 26. Ahaziah is correctly said to have been 22 years old, when he commenced his reign. [a]

(a) Remarkable errors occur also in other places. Thus in I Sam. occurs for ¡N; I Sam. xii. 11. 173 for pra; II Sam.

vi. 18.

-:

as in the Alexandrine version and in הישמעילי for הישראלי .25 .xvii

• "T:

I Chron. ii. 17.]

§ 55. Collation of the Books of Samuel and Kings with the Books of Chronicles.

As the books of Samuel and Kings contain the same history as the books of Chronicles, the two works should be continually compared, not merely in order to become the more thoroughly acquainted with the history, but also for the purpose of applying the one to illustrate or correct what may be obscure or erroneous in the other. Thus the objectionable parts in II Samuel, that relate to David's excessive respect for Joab, which prevented him from punishing this man, although guilty of a treacherous murder, are illustrated by I Chron. xi. 6.—The word ', applied in II Sam. viii. 18. to the sons of David, is commuted for pin I Chron. xviii. 17.-The

reading 777 x 77, in II Sam. v. 17. ought to be corrected

xxi. 16. with II Sam. xxiv. 17; I Chron. xxi. 1. with II Sam. xxiv. 1; II Sam. vi. 2. with I Chron. xiii. 6; II Sam. xxi. 19. with I Chron. xx. 5; I Chron. xi 20. with II Sam. xxiii. 18; II Sam. xxiii. 20. with I Chron. xi. 22. See also EICHHORNS Repert. für Bibl. und Morgenl. Lit. II. St. S. 257. ff. and SCHMIDT Historia Canonis p. 202. ss.[b]

(a) There is no reason to suspect the incorrectness of either reading, as the one may express in general what the other states with more particularity. Tr.]

(b) The following table of the more remarkable parallel places of the books of Chronicles and those of Samuel and Kings is from DE WETTE, Einleit. § 190 anm. a) S. 263.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH.

§ 56. Contents of the Book of Ezra.

THE book of Ezra consists of two parts. The first, c. i-vi. contains the history of the return of the Hebrews to their native land, of the re-establishment of divine worship, and of the rebuilding of the temple of Jerusalem; including a period of twenty years, from the first of Cyrus to the sixth of Darius Hystaspes, i. e. from the year 536 to the year 515 B. C.[a]-The second part, c. vii-x., relates the transactions of Ezra, who in the seventh year of Artachshasta,* NADUNAN, (or Xerxes, 478 B. C.) led another colony of returning exiles to Judæa, being invested by the king with ample authority to arrange the affairs of the Jews according to the law of Moses. He also conducted a considerable caravan of returning Jews to Jerusalem, administered his office, and reformed abuses. Between the first and second parts of the book there is an interval of thirty-seven years, of which no account is given.

Cyrus by heralds and public letters invited all the worshippers of JEHOVAH to return to Judæa and rebuild the temple; and Ezra obtained letters to the same effect. It is therefore not to be doubted that many of the ten tribes gradually returned, who, because they came often, and net at one time nor in considerable numbers, are not mentioned in the history. Hence in the age of the Maccabees, I Mac. v. 9-54, and in the time of Christ, Gilead and Galilee were inhabited by Hebrews. The prophecies, therefore, concerning the return of the ten tribes have been

[The author's orthography of the name of this Persian monarch, has been retained in preference to the common word Artaxerxes, with the view chiefly of avoiding obscurity. Tr.]