THE CENTURY BIBLE HANDBOOKS « » . .. .. " ■■ Books of the Old Testament OWEN C. WHITEHOUSE, M,A., D.D. BS 417 .C46 v.l Whitehouse Book of the Old Testament (lkf[iuM^_4Ci4^t^ CENTURY BIBLE HANDBOOKS List of the Volumes Issued a7id in Preparation THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. By Rev. Owen C. Whitehouse, M.A., D.D. THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By Rev, Prof, G. Currie Martin, M.A., B.D. APOCRYPHAL BOOKS (Old Testament and New Testament). By Rev. Prof. H. T. Andrews, B.A. OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. By Rev. Prof. W. H. Bennett, M.A., D.D., Litt.D. THE RELIGION OF ISRAEL. By Prof. Peake, M.A., D.D. LIFE AND TEACHING OF JESUS CHRIST. By Rev. Principal W. B. Seleie, ALA. LIFE AND TEACHING OF PAUL. By Rev. Principal A. E. Garvie, M.A., D.D. ST. JOHN AND OTHER NEW TESTAMENT TEACHERS. By Rev. Prof. A. L. Humphries, M.A. THE EARLY CHURCH. By Rev. R. F. Horton, M.A., D.D. THE NEW TESTAMENT DOCTRINE OF CHRIST. By Rev. Principal Adknev, M.A., D.D. THE NEW TESTAMENT DOCTRINES OF MAN, SIN, AND SALVATION. IJy Rev. Robert S. Franks, M.A., B.Litt. CHRISTIAN ETHICS. By Rev. Prof. Robert Mackintosh. M.A., D.D, CENTURY BIBLE HANDBOOKS General Editor Principal WALTER F. ADENEY, W.A., D.D. THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT :^ ^^ OF Pi A NOV 24 1931 REV. OWEN C. WHITEHOUSE, M.A., D.D. HODDER AND STOUGHTON NEW YORK 1910 CONTENTS CHAP. I. PRELIMINARY II. THE PENTATEUCH III. THE HISTORICAL BOOKS IV. THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS V. THE HAGIOGRAPHA CHRONOLOGICAL CONSPECTUS INDEX .... lO 90 179 ABBREVIATIONS O.T. Old Testament. N.T. New Testament. LXX. Septuagint, or Greek Version of Old Testament Scriptures made in third and following centuries B.C. B. Vatican Manuscript. A. Alexandrine Manuscript. S.B.O.T. " Sacred Books of the Old Testament," in which separate documents are distinguished by colours. L.O.T. Driver's " Literature of the Old Testament " (pub. T. & T. Clark). I.C.C. International Critical Commentary (pub. T. & T. Clark). Hastings' D.B. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. J. Yahwistic document. E. Elohistic document. P. Priestercodex. P^^, Pe, explained p. 26 ff. THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT CHAPTER I PRELIMINARY § I. Introductory. — The Old Testament is in reality a great library of selected literature belonging to the Hebrew race, arising out of varied periods of its life, extending over about eleven centuries of time, roughly stated from 1200 to 100 B.C. It will be shown in the sequel that the so-called books are in many cases composite^ i.e. not composed by a single author, but made up of distinct documents, each with distinguish- ing characteristics, belonging to a different period and arising out of a special environment or set of cir- cumstances. These literary phenomena have been discerned by a succession of able scholars who have minutely examined the style and contents of the different parts and have compared them with one A 2 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT another. Nearly all Old Testament scholars in Ger- many, England, and America, who have been trained in the universities and are not adherents of the Roman Catholic faith, are agreed as to the main results which have been achieved by careful investigations carried on during the nineteenth century, though there are necessarily differences of opinion upon secondary details.^ It is important that the reader should realise the immense gulf which separates the modern physical conditions of book-making, since the discovery of printing, from the ancient conditions when all records were laboriously copied by hand upon such rough materials as skins or papyrus and were preserved in rolls. Errors in transcription became easy,- and portions were easily torn off or became worn and ^ Of this general consensus of opinion as to the main results of the literary criticism of the Old Testament, a conspicuous example may be found in the large band of contributors to Hastings' "Dictionary of the Bible." These writers are in accord in all essentials with such expositions of the subject as Prof. Driver's "Literature of the Old Testament" (eighth ed.) and Cornill's " Introduction to the Old Testament " (sixth German edition). - In the case of Hebrew it must be recollected that in pre- Christian times there was no adequate representation of the vowels or separation between distinct words in the written records. PRELIMINARY illegible. Moreover, writing material was expensive, and, when space sufficed, other matter considered relevant or useful was incorporated. Thus it is easy to see why, to the student of Isaiah's oracles, certain chapters bearing upon the reign of Hezekiah (Isa. xxxvi.-xxxix.) appeared significant and valuable, and so were incorporated from the Books of Kings (II. Kings xviii. 13-xx.), and similarly why, in the large roll containing the oracles of Jeremiah, excerpts were made from the same source {cf. Jer. xxxix. 4-12 with II. Kings xxv. 1-12 ; Jer. xl. 7-9 with II. Kings xxv. 23, 24 ; Jer. xli. i, 2, with II. Kings xxv. 25, 26; Jer. lii. with 11. Kings xxiv. 18 -xxv. 20, 27-30) in order to illustrate the life and work of the later prophet. And when we come to study closely the large collection of oracles comprised under the general title "Isaiah" or "Jeremiah," it is not difficult to perceive that other oracles belonging to a later period than that in which the prophet lived, whose name stands at the head of the collection, came to be included in the large body of writings which had gradually grown up around the original smaller collections or rolls containing the utterances of the great seer. One of the most valuable aids to this critical study of the Old Testament is the most ancient version 4 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT (or translation) that we possess, viz. the Greek render- ing that was made between the third and first centuries B.C., called the Septuagint (LXX). The reader will perhaps be startled to learn that the earHest existing MS. of considerable extent containing our Hebrew Old Testament scriptures dates from the tenth century after Christ. Consequently our Septuagint version, whose MSS. (Vatican, Sinaitic, and Alexandrian) are much earlier and reflect a much earlier tradition, becomes a most valuable collateral aid in our study. Now when we compare it with our Hebrew text (from which both our Authorised and Revised Version are made) we discover, especially in the Books of Samuel and Kings and yet more in the prophetical books,- a great many variations in text, i.e. additions, omis- sions, and other changes. In the prophecies of Jeremiah the order of the chapters differs consider- ably. The conclusion to which these facts lead us is that many different texts of the Old Testament must have been current in olden times preceding 70 A.D., and that the documents themselves must have been frequently edited and in other ways have passed through numerous vicissitudes. While Hebrew scholars have been busy in examin- ing the Old Testament literature and in exhibiting the different documents out of which the separate PRELIMINARY books are composed, other scholars have devoted themselves to the careful investigation of the vast number of inscriptions, called hieroglyphics^ which cover the monuments of Egypt, and also of the in- scriptions called cuneiform (or wedge-shaped) which have been found in immense quantity in Western Asia, especially in Assyria and Babylonia. This department of research (called Archceology) has en- abled us, through the marvellous labours and acumen of past investigators, to discover the languages in which these inscriptions were written, and to become acquainted with the history and civilisation as well as religion of the great and powerful races that 'lived for thousands of years on the shores of the Nile, and of those who inhabited the lands of Western Asia, called Assyria and Babylonia, watered by the Tigris and the Euphrates. The civilisation, religions, traditions, and ideas of these peoples, especially the Babylonian and Assyrian, who spoke a language akin to the Hebrew, exercised, as we know from a careful study of the Bible, a profound influence over the history, life, and thought of Israel. The study of the Books of the Bible and the analysis of the Books severally into component documents, and the determination of the relative approximate dates of the several documents, is called by the 6 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT term Higher Critids??i. It is important to under- stand that Higher Criticism means this department of study, as contrasted with Lower CriticistJt, which is occupied with the text of the Bible^ and endeavours, by a process of careful comparison among the MSS. as well as versions of the Bible, to determine as far as possible the correct text. Higher Critic and Higher Criticism are terms frequently used in a very loose and confused manner to designate a writer or teacher, or his opinions, who is considered to hold very ad- vanced, rationalistic, or heretical views about the Bible. But this is obviously not what the terms properly mean. They are merely descriptive of a department of study. A "higher critic" remains a higher critic whatever views he may hold, whether traditional and conservative or advanced and revolu- tionary. Through the results of Archceology we are enabled to understand more clearly Hebrew history in relation to the movements, ideas, and civilisation of other neighbouring races. Through the results of the Higher Criticism it is possible to place a passage of the Old Testament in its true historic setting, so that its language and allusions are clearly understood in re- lation to the events and ideas of the age to which its writer belonged. The Old Testament becomes thereby PRELIMINARY much more interesting and instructive, because it becomes much more intelligible. What was previously obscure or seemed irrelevant thus becomes lighted up A'ith a new meaning. All who have a true love and reverence for the Bible will earnestly desire to know what light the best ascertained results of the Higher Criticism and of Archaeology, as mutually supplement- ing one another, have to throw upon the pages of the Old Testament. § 2. The Books of the Old Testament composite. — It is not necessary to spend many words to prove this ; for the books themselves, especially the historical books, constantly witness to the fact that they are based upon older written records. Writing we know to have been practised in Canaan (in the form of tablets inscribed with Babylonian cuneiform) previous to the advent of Israel, and it w^as probably carried on from the time of Moses downwards among the Hebrews themselves. Materials for history in the shape of royal annals existed from early times. Poeti- cal passages such as the desert-song of the "Well" (Num. xxi. 17, 18) and Deborah's song (Judges v.) were probably preserved orally for some considerable time before they were committed to writing. The Old Testament books themselves indicate in a few special cases the sources from which they were com- 8 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT piled. Thus the Book of YahweKs Wars ("Wars of the Lord ") is specially mentioned as the work from which a short poetic citation of a geographical character is made in Num. xxi. 14, 15, while the Book of Jashar is specially named in Joshua x. 13, II. Sam. i. 18, as the source from which certain songs are quoted. Jashar (yashar), meaning "upright," is probably, like Jeshurun (Deut. xxxii. 15, xxxiii. 5, 26; cf Isa. xliv. 2), a name for Israel, and the Book of Jashar appears to have been a collection of poems on Israel's heroes and their exploits. Both the Book of YahweKs Wars and the Book of Jashar pro- bably belonged to the early regal period (perhaps the tenth century B.C.). Moreover, ancient Israel seems to have had its reciters of ^^ ballads"'^ ("proverbs," A.V. and R.V.), to which Num. xxi. 27 refers as the source of the poem quoted in the following verses. With this we may compare Isa. xv. i-xvi. 12, an oracle which deals with Moab. From chap. xvi. 13 we learn that Isaiah is here quoting an old poem. Also, when we come to study the Books of Kings we are frequently reminded that the materials are derived ^ So Dr. Buchanan Gray would prefer to render the original Hebrew word on what appear to the present writer good grounds. See his " Numbers" (International Critical Commentary), p. 299 ff. Respecting the Book of fashar, see also below under § 13, footnote, p. 81. PRELIMINARY from older sources, viz. the Book of the Acts of Solomon (i Kings xi. 41), the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel^ and the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. To one or the other of the last two works reference is made in most cases at the close of the record of a monarch's reign. They were evi- dently official annals preserved in the State archives. The Book of Proverbs clearly manifests its character as a compilation of sayings derived from various collections, viz. what are called "The Proverbs of Solomon" (i. i and x. i), the "Sayings of the Wise" (xxiv. 23), a special collection ascribed to the time of Hezekiah (xxv. i), the "Words of Agur" (xxx. i), and the "Words of King Lemuel" (xxxi. i). The Psalter also contains obvious indications (to which we shall refer afterwards) that it was a compilation made from previous Psalm-collections. In the sequel the character of the separate books as compilations from documents, which have been pieced together and can be definitely traced by their specialities of language and other characteristics, will be more fully set forth. The conclusions of the Higher Criticism only exhibit with greater clearness and completeness the general composite character of many of the books, to which the books themselves in some cases bear, as we have shown, unmistakable and express witness. CHAPTER II THE PENTATEUCH § 3. The Pentateuch is the Greek name, meaning " five hooks" (pen ^e, "five"; teuchos^ "implement," "vessel," being used in late Greek with the meaning " book "). These are the five books of Moses, which are so called not because Moses wrote them, for this they do not state, but only that certain fragments which they contain were written by him {cf. Num. xxxiii. 2), Moreover, his death is recorded in Deut. xxxiv. These books are inscribed as a whole with the name of Moses because he is the central figure of the last four out of the five books. Similarly, the Books of Samuel are so designated because Samuel is regarded as the chief personage, though his death is recorded in the first book. The name by which this collection of five books is called by the Jews is "The Book of the Law," or simply " The Law " {torah), or " The Law of the Lord " (or God) (Ezra vii. 10; I. Chron. xvi. 40; II. Chron. xvii. 9, xxxi. 3, xxxiv. 14), or sometimes "The Book THE "PENTATEUCH ii of Moses" (Ezra vi. i8 ; Neh. xiii. i; H. Chron. xxv. 4, XXXV. 12). This entire collection of five books begins with the creation of the world, including human beings. The early beginnings of mankind are there recorded, special note being taken of the origins of the Israelite race, with which the narrative is afterwards almost wholly occupied. We at length reach the time of Israelite residence and bondage in Egypt, the deliverance of the people under Moses, their march through the desert, and the promulgation of the Law in Sinai. This last event occupies a very considerable space in the middle of the Pentateuch. In the Book of Numbers the further wanderings of the Israelites in the desert are recorded, the battles which they fought, and at length their entrance into the territory of Moab, where Moses delivers his exhortations to the people and recapitulates his legislation (Deuteronomy). In the closing chapters of this collection the death of Moses is recorded. We shall now describe the component documents which the careful researches of more than a hundred years have clearly shown to have been skilfully woven together in the compilation of this work. It is not unanimously agreed among Old Testament scholars which was the earliest of these documents, but it is held with good reason by the majority that 12 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT the earliest is that which is called the Yahwistic (Jehovist) narrative, which consistently employs the name Jahweh (Jehovah ^) as that of the Hebrew deity. This document in its earlier portions originated pro- bably between 900 and 800 B.C. in Judah, and is designated by the cipher J. Another document, which probably began to take shape about a century later in Ephraim, is called Elohist because it consistently employs the word Elohim as the name for the God of the Hebrews. Accordingly it is designated by the cipher E. A third document belonging to a much later stage of Hebrew history is that which is called ^ The characters J H V H in Hebrew were probably pronounced Yahweh (the character represented by J being pronounced as Y, and V as W). This seems to be indicated by the Hebrew proper names {e.g. Hezekiah, Jeremiah) which end with an abbreviated form of the name. But after the exile a tradition arose that the name was too awful to be pronounced. Thus whenever the characters occurred Y H V H, the Hebrew name for Lord {Adondy) was pronounced, and the vowels of this name Adondy were attached to the characters Y H V H which still stood in the Hebrew texts. It is owing to a confused misunderstanding of this strange blending of the characters of the old name (never pronounced) with the vowels of the substituted name Adondy, that the name Jehovah arose. It is quite certain that the sacred name was never so pronounced. The LXX translation " Lord" {Kurios) clearly proves that from the third century B.C. onwards the Hebrew word Adondy was always pronounced in the Jewish synagogue (as in the present day) when- ever those four characters of the sacred name occurred. THE PENTATEUCH 13 by the Germans Priestercodex^ i.e. Priests' code or Priestly document, marked by the cipher P. These different documents interlace each other more or less throughout Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers, as well as the Book of Joshua. The Book of Leviticus consists entirely of the legislation incorporated in the document P. The Book of Deuteronomy must be considered separately. It is based on a distinct document desig- nated by the cipher D, and took definite form in the reign of Josiah in connection with his religious reforma- tion, and probably preceded even the beginnings of the document P by nearly a century. At some period earlier than that in which the Book of Deuteronomy assumed its present shape, the documents J and E were redacted into one historical work (J E). It is not improbable that after the redaction of D the latter work was combined, either during the exile or after, with J E. Even as late as the days of Malachi (about 458 B.C.) the system of law which prevailed, and governed to a certain degree Hebrew practice, appears to have been the Book of Deuteronomy. On the other hand, the institution of High Priesthood finds no place in the Book of Deuteronomy. It must, however, have arisen meanwhile, since we find special mention of Joshua the High Priest in Zech. iii. i (about 519 B.C.). After the advent of Nehemiah and Ezra to Jerusalem 14 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT a new code was introduced which was embodied in the document P. This document includes not only some of the narratives in Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers, but also the entire body of legislative and other details to be found in the central portion of the Pentateuch, viz. Exod. XXXV. i to the close of Exodus, the Book of Leviticus entire, and Num. i. i-x. 28. Accordingly the documents out of which the Penta- teuch was framed belong to different periods extending from about 850 B.C. to 400 B.C., more than four cen- turies. They may be ranged in the chronological order J E D P. It must be remembered that in each case they are based on records, whether written or oral, far older than themselves. We shall now proceed to describe each of these documents with a little more detail and in chronological order (as above stated). The Yahwistic Document (J), marked by the use of Yahweh as the name of God,^ is generally recognised as the oldest, and exhibits its character as such by the simpler and more primitive traits which it exhibits. Its theophanies or portrayals of the manifestations of God or His Angel are aiithropotnorphic in character, 1 The name "God" (^/<3^//«), which is added to "Lord" (Yahweh), is the addition of the editor who pieced the documents together. It evidently does not belong to the original text (Gen. ii. 5, 7, 8, 9, &c., iii. I, 8, 9,&c.). THE PENTATEUCH i.e. God manifests Himself in action like a human being. He blows into Adam's nostrils the breath of life (Gen. ii. 7), walks in the garden in the cool of the day (iii. 8). The term used in describing the creation of man is not technical (as in the first chapter of Genesis by P), but is the ordinary verb employed to express the work of the potter who fashions or shapes the clay ; and the material out of which man is shaped is earth (Gen. ii. 7). God is subsequently represented as repenting and fretting Himself that He has made man (vi. 6). He smells the sweet fragrance of Noah's sacrifice (viii. 21). His Angel, who is often hardly to be distinguished from His own Self, converses with Abraham, accepts his hospitality, and partakes of his food (xviii. 1-8). Many other examples might be adduced to illustrate the simple, childlike conceptions of God's nature which this document exhibits. And it is this very feature which invests its narratives with a special charm for children. For it reflects the spirit of the world's youth. An equally marked feature of this document is its reverential tone, and especially its deep sense of human sin, which overshadows the early narratives. No other document in the Old Testament attempts, as this does, to fathom the mystery of human evil and probe it to its source in selfish greed that follows the tempter's i6 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT lure after self-aggrandisement, "Ye shall be as gods in knowledge" (Gen. iii. 5). This lust for the knowledge and power, embodied in the arts of civilisation, panders to the service of self, and not to the service of God and man. This tragic story of human life runs through chapters iii., iv., ix. 20-27, xi. 1-9. Many of the narratives respecting Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his sons, come from this documentary source. And it should be observed that Abraham's residence at Hebron is made a special feature. With this should be combined the feature of Judah's leadership in the Joseph narratives in this document, though Reuben is the first-born. These characteristic traits, which can be supported by other considerations, point to the conclusion that this Yahwistic source originated in the Southern Kingdom. We also note that the religious practices described in this document, as well as in E, differ widely from those which belong to the latest document, P (more especially in its legislation). In both these pre-exilian documents we hardly detect any separate and official priestly order. Any individual — more especially the father of a family or head of a large household — can offer sacrifice. The patriarchs frequently perform this religious function, and there is no restriction as to place. Mamre, Beersheba, and other spots are all alike holy places. THE PENTATEUCH 17 This document is not homogeneous. Scholars have dis- covered evident traces of an earlier and a later stratum. The earlier (called J^) may be traced in Gen. ii. 4(^-8, 16, 18, 22-25, ^"^^ portions of other verses; also iii. i- 19, 21, 23, iv. I and portions of other verses, 18-21, 23-24; vi. 1-3 (in part); ix. 21, 23-25, 27, and parts of other verses, xi. 1-9. Its chief characteristics are that it has no flood story, regards Cain as the ancestor of the race which follows the fall, while Noah is held to be the ancestor of Israel and Canaan. Moreover, Noah is not the hero of the flood, but a cultivator of the soil, devoted to vine culture, as well as a wine- bibber. On the other hand, the later stratum, called J2, has a flood story in which Noah is the chief per- sonage, who is subsequently portrayed as ancestor of the whole of humanity after the flood, while in the period that preceded the flood Seth is introduced as the son of Adam who is the ancestor of Noah. It is not possible to enter into further detail on this subject, upon which there are differences of opinion (see Cornill's Introduction, § 11, 7). The date usually assigned for this later stratum of J is about 650 B.C. The Elohistic Document (caUed E), in which the name for the deity is Elohim (always rendered " God " in our English versions), possesses many of the char- acteristics which we have already noted in the Yahwistic B i8 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT record. The religious practices which it describes are the same. We have many sacred places with altars erected in them, such as Moriah, Bethel, Gilead, and others. Moreover, it is to be noticed that most of these sacred places, e.g. Bethel and Shechem, belong to the Northern Kingdom. To these must be added Beer- sheba, which we know to have been a frequent resort of pilgrims from the Northern Kingdom (Amos viii. 14; cf. I. Kings xix. 3). We no longer find Hebron re- garded as an important centre as in the Yahwistic narratives. The chief role is assigned to Ephraim. He is the heir of the^ promises and privileges of Joseph (Gen. xlviii. 14 ^ ff.). Ephraimite heroes are placed in the forefront. The Ephraimite Joshua is from the first the attendant and comrade of Moses. Similarly the burial or graves of Ephraimite patriarchs and leaders such as Joseph and Joshua find special mention in this document (Gen. 1. 24 ff . ; Exod. xiii. 19; Joshua xxiv. 30). Cornill, indeed, finds in the narrative by E of the conclusion of the covenant between Laban and Jacob traits which point to the historic struggle between the Northern Israelite Kingdom with the Syrian State of Damascus. While, as we have indicated above, a tendency to ^ Probably Wellhausen and Kuenen are right in assigning verses 8-22 to E. THE PENTATEUCH 19 localise events and connect them with Israelite heroes belongs to E and J alike, we find special characteristics in E, some of which decisively point to a later date, (i) A tendency to dwell on a7itiquarian details such as kesiiah^ "piece of money" (Gen. xxxiii. 19; Joshua xxiv. 32), and frequent references to ritual details, as sacred pillars (Gen. xxviii. 18, 22, xxxi. 45 ; Exod. xxiv. 4) and terdphhn (Gen. xxxi. 19, 30 ff.), the former being treated as memorial rather than divine symbols. To- gether with this antiquarian tendency in reference to material objects we have the same tendency to quote ancie?it poems diS in Exod. xv., Num. xxi. 14, 27. Under the same head we may note the evident knowledge which this document exhibits of Egypt and its con- ditions {e.g. the towns Pithom and Raamses, Exod. i. 11 ; cf. also Exod. ix. 31, which is probably E). (2) The style is picturesque as in J, but less spontaneous, vivid, and poetical. (3) The theological conceptions are more advanced than those of J. Up to the momentous revelation of God's name and nature as Yahweh who ever is what He is, the Unchangeable One (Exod. iii. 14), He is called in the E document by the more general and abstract name of Elohhn. He participates in human life as a Divine providence who works miracles on Israel's behalf, but who, nevertheless, dwells apart from man in heaven and manifests Himself by 20 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT human intermediaries like Moses, or by angelic per- sonages, or through the supernatural avenues of dream or vision. Such is the main theological feature of this document. A result of this conception of Divine action in human history is that Moses appears in this document pre-eminently as prophet. And it may be noted that in this character Abraham appears in the E passage Gen. xx. 7. (4) Lastly, as a significant accompaniment of the more developed theology, is the higher ethical tone in E as compared with J. This is most clearly seen in the Decalogue of E (Exod. xx.), reduced to its simplest form, together with the code of laws (Exod. xx. 22-xxiii. 19) called the Book of the Covenant, compared with the Decalogue and briefer code in J (Exod. xxxiv. 10-28). From these distinguishing characteristics of the docu- ment E, it may be readily inferred that it was pro- duced at a later time than J. Indeed, from the occurrence of like phrases in the former when compared with the latter {cf. Gen. xxvi. 6-12 in J with Gen. xx. in E), it might even be inferred that the writer or writers of E were acquainted with the document J, unless we assume that both documents were based on some material common to both. But this last is too complex and obscure a subject to be discussed here. The date of the composition of this document can THE PENTATEUCH 21 only be approximately fixed. It cannot be placed later than 722, since it is inspired by a feeling of unclouded pride in the glory of the stem of Joseph. There is no hint that that glory has been or will be immediately overshadowed by disaster.^ The calamitous invasions of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria in the years 734- 722, eventually culminating in the capture of Samaria and the final extinction of the glory of Ephraim (Isa. xxviii. 1-4), were evidently for the most part unknown and unforeseen. Nearly all critics, therefore, from Kuenen and Stade to Cornill and Harper,^ are agreed that this document must have been composed at some time be- tween 800 and 750, i.e. during the prosperous reign of Jeroboam II. (II. Kings xiv. 25, 27, 28), perhaps as much as a century later than the earHer portions of the J document. As in the case of J, so in the case of E there are evidences that the narrative is not altogether homo- ^ We are here referring to the main or earlier body of the docu- ment. It is not denied that there are later additions (see below), and that these are conceived in a more sombre tone. Cf. Holzinger's " Hexateuch " (in German), p. 226. - See Harper's " Amos and Hosea " (International Critical Commentary, T. & T. Clark), Introd., p. Ixxix. The summary given by Harper in this and the following pages of the leading characteristics of the " Ephraimite Narrative" (E) is admirably lucid. 22 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT geneous. The perception of this fact is mainly due to Kuenen, who detected a later stratum, called E^, as distinguished from the earlier and main body of the narrative of which we have hitherto spoken. These later elements are found by Kuenen in the narrative of the golden calf (Exod. xxxii. i-xxxiii. 6), and the Decalogue in Exod. xx. and the passages relating thereto in Exod. xiv.-xxiv. These passages are held to stand related to the Ephraimite calf-worship in Bethel and Dan. It is far from easy to determine the date of these later accretions, or the source from which they came. We might, on the one hand, regard them as due to a later Judaean redaction of the E document, to which these later accretions are to be attributed, either in the days of Hezekiah or even later ; or we might regard them, as Cornill suggests, as originating among the NorthTsraelite population that remained after the extinction of the Northern Kingdom in 721. On the other hand, we find passages of analogous religious import, i.e. denunciatory of the idolatry of the Northern Kingdom, in the oracles of Amos and Hosea. This would point to an earlier date for E^ than 722 b.c. We give this as an interesting example of one of the unsolved problems of the Old Testament. The Deuteronomic Document, designated D, and the THE PENTATEUCH Deuteronomic redaction of Old Testament books will be treated when we come to deal with the Book of Deuteronomy, which began to assume shape in the days of the Reformation of Josiah's reign in 622-1 B.C. Last in chronological order comes the Priestercodex (called P). The style, tone, and contents of this ex- tensive and composite document are so strongly con- trasted with those to which we have already referred that there are comparatively few cases in which there can be serious doubt whether a passage belongs to P or to J (or E), while there are fairly numerous examples of sections which are assigned by some critics to J and by other critics to E (or perhaps to a redactor). The reason lies in the fact that P arose in an age (exilian and post-exilian) whose conditions were so widely dif- ferent from those of the centuries which preceded it. And these conditions impressed themselves on the lan- guage and contents of the Priestercodex, especially in the features of its legislation as to cultus. The old national life of pre-exilian Israel had vanished. At the head of the nation stood not a king, but in the civil government a Persian governor, and in the ecclesias- tical the High Priest. The old Hebrew calendar, with its Hebrew or Canaanite names, Abib, Bui, and Ethanim, had vanished. In their places we have Babylonian names, Nisan, Marcheswan, and Tishri. The ecclesias- 24 BOOKS OFOLD TESTAMENT tical year was the Babylonian, which began in spring with Nisan as the first month, and the months are designated by successive numbers beginning with Nisan. This designation of months by numbers beginning with Nisan is a characteristic of the Priestercodex through- out, in common with all Old Testament literature from the exile onwards, and it clearly indicates the influence of the exile of Israel in Babylonia. The Priestercodex or Priestly document is a very considerable and composite record. It consists of three distinct strata. Of these the earliest consists of a series of laws which are included in Lev. xvii.-xxvi., called by Klostermann by the appropriate title adopted by all critics, " Code of Holiness " (designated by the cipher P^). The con- cluding chapter of this series (chap, xxvi.) clearly proves that it cannot have been composed earlier than the period of the exile, or perhaps shortly after it. To this subject we shall revert when we deal with the Book of Leviticus (see p. 38 ff.). Next in order of time comes the extensive work called the fundamental document (German grimdschrift) of the Priestercodex, marked by the cipher P^'. In reality this document is also a legislative record thrown into an historical form, the end and aim of the history being to narrate the foundation from early times of the THE PENTATEUCH legislative institutions. That the writer or writers of this document are constantly keeping in view the re- ligious institutions of Israel is evident at every stage. Even in the Creation account the Sabbath cessation from toil enjoined in Hebrew legislation is fore- shadowed by Gen. ii. 3, which belongs to Ps, while the laws against eating flesh with the blood, as well as the law for the avenging of murder, are referred back to the age of Noah (Gen. ix. 4, 5). The narrative which describes the circumcision by the patriarch Abraham of his own household is another characteristic section in the narrative of this document (Gen. xvii.). When we come to the age of Moses we reach the central element in the narrative. This central element is the legislation given to Moses by Yahweh at the mountain, consistently called in this record (like J) Sinai (whereas in the pre-exilian documents E and D it is called Horeb). This legislation, in those portions of the middle books of the Pentateuch which belong to P^, falls into four groups: (i) That which is contained within the chapters Exod. xxv. i-Lev. xvi. ; (2) that which is included in Num. i.-x. ; (3) those laws of this document contained in Num. xvii. ff. ; and lastly (4), those of Num. xxxiii. 50-xxxvi. 12. Where does this document reach its close ? It might be supposed that the verses in Pe which refer to the 26 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT death of Moses in Deut. xxxiv. 7-9 would be the natural end of the work. But Kuenen has shown that this is not the case. The document can be further traced in the latter part of the Book of Joshua (xiii.- xxiv. ; in the earlier chapters, but few verses belonging to P are to be found). Holzinger is right in saying that the work only becomes a well-rounded whole when to the early history which precedes the theocratic system established by Moses there is appended the realisation of that system under Joshua. The promulgation of the document P°, as well as of the earlier " Code of Holiness " (P^), belongs to the age of Ezra and Nehemiah, 440 b.c, nearly a century after the exile. More still remains, however, — another document which may be regarded as an addendum to Ps, consisting of detailed rules, especially in the matter of cultus. It is with Ps that we are chiefly concerned. The characteristics of this document which distinguish it (and to a large extent P generally) from all other documents are: (i) Like E it contemplates a gradual unfolding of the Divine revelation. The name of God was first revealed as Yahweh to Moses (Exod. vi. 2 ff.). To the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob He was known as El Shaddai^ while in P° narratives (as in E) He is usually designated by Elohim up to Exod. vi. 2. THE PENTATEUCH 27 (2) We do not find in this document vivid colouring and graphic personal detail as in J, and to a certain extent in E, but well-planned method and precise statement and constant, sometimes monotonous, repeti- tions of phrase and detail as in Gen. i. ("and God said," " and the evening and the morning were the — day," " and it was so "), somewhat in the style of a legal document. (3) The language of this document is very definitely marked. We have already referred to the way in which months were designated, and the mountain where the law was delivered (common, how- ever, to other documents). Mesopotamia is called in this document Paddan Aram. God's creative activity is designated by a special technical name (bara), which came into use apparently in the days of the exile. In the history of the origins of Israel from the days of Creation, every new stage begins or closes with a " book of generations " or " generations " (Gen. ii. 4, V. I, vi. 9, X. I, xi. 10, 27, XXV. 12). (4) This post- exilian narrative is obviously based on earlier documents of pre-exilian origin. Of these E is especially utilised. It also presupposes the law of the central and only legitimate sanctuary (Jerusalem), repeatedly emphasised in D (see below). Hence we never find any record in P of sacrifices offered by Patriarchs. Of this we have an example in the contiguous narratives of J and P& 28 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT respecting Noah. The J narrative contains in viii. 20-22 a reference to the altar built by Noah, and the sacrifice of clean animals as burnt offerings thereon; whereupon Yahweh solemnly declares that He will no longer curse the ground on account of man {cf. iii. 17), and that the course of the earthly seasons, summer and winter, seedtime and harvest, shall in future continue for ever. In the immediately following section by P (ix. 1-17) we have a parallel account of a solemn covenant between Yahweh and Noah. But it is not here accompanied by a sacrifice {cf. also xv. 9 ff. [J] and xxxi. 45-54 [J E]), but by the covenant sign of a rainbow. (5) P^is distinguished by precise references to time and age. Examples may be found in the Flood story and the narrative about Abraham {e.g. Gen. vii. 6, II, viii. 4, 13, xvii. i, xxiii. i). § 4. The Book of Grenesis, as its Greek name implies, contains the narrative of the origin of the Hebrew race, carried back to its ultimate antecedents in the creation of the material universe, while the story ends with the settlement of that race in Egypt or its confines. This narrative may be divided as follows : — I. History of the world from the Creation to Abra- ham., the ancestor of the Hebrew race (chap. i. i-xi. 26). The history is here presented in summary form, con- THE PENTATEUCH 29 sisting in many cases of mere names, except in the cases of Adam and Eve, of Cain and of Noah, who intro- duced new epochs. This introductory portion of the narrative may be subdivided as follows : — (i) Creation of the universe, including man and woman. (Chaps, i. and ii.) (2) Temptation and fall of man. His banishment from paradise. The wickedness of the race in the descendants of Cain, accompanied by the beginnings of civilisation. The multi- plication of the race and growth of wicked- ness. (Chaps, iii.-vi. 4.) (3) Retribution of the flood. Noah and his family the only survivors. Noah's sacrifice and the covenant sign. Noah's sin. (Chaps, vi. 5- ix. 29). (4) Noah's descendants. The building of the Tower of Babel and the dispersion of the human race. As contrasted with the list of Adam's descendants in chap, v., Shem's descendants in chap. xi. 10 if., and the list of Noah's descendants in chap. x. contain racial and topographic names. (Chaps, x. i-xi. 26.) II. The sio?y of Abraham and his descendaitts in the line of Isaac and Jacob until the settlement in Egypt and the death of Jacob and Joseph (chap. 30 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT xi. 27-I. 26), This extended section falls into three subdivisions, each dominated respectively by the patriarchal names of Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph, to which all others are subordinate in significance, (i) The Abraham narrative, to which that of Isaac (a pale reflex 1) is attached as a link with Jacob. (Chap. xi. 27-xxviii. 9.) (2) Jacob story, with the Esau narrative as an accompanying element (xxviii. 10-xxxvi. 43). Here Jacob is the ancestor Israel of the Hebrew race, Esau of Edom. (3) Joseph narrative, in which the stories of his brothers as well as of his father Jacob are interwoven as subsidiary elements (xxxvii. i- 1. 26). Here Joseph is the ancestor of the Israelite tribes Ephraim and Manasseh, the main constituents of the Northern King- dom. This subdivision concludes with the settlement of the Israelite households in Egypt. The following table will show how the subject- matter of Genesis is distributed among the several documents out of which the book has been compiled ^ Chap. xxvi. obviously reflects the features of the Abraham story in chap. xiii. 10 ff., xxi. 22 fF. Similarly xxviii. i ff. reflects xxiv. I- 10. THE PENTATEUCH 31 by successive redactors (or editors), who occasionally introduce a few modifications and additions : ^ — p P E Pe Ch. i. i-ii. 4a Ch. ii. 43-25, divided between J^ and J2 (see p. 17) Ch. iii. i-iv. 2 iv. 3-16^ Ch. iv. 16^-24 V. 22, 24, 29 Ch. V. 1-21, 23, 25-28,30-32 Ch. vi. 1-4 vi. 5-8 Ch. vi. 9-22 vii. 1-5, 10, 12, Ch. vii. 6-8 in i6d-iyd, 22, part, 9, II, 23 13-16^, 17c, 18-21, 24 viii. 2d, 3^2, 6- Ch. viii. I, za, 12, i^d, 20- 3^-5. i3«. 22 14-19 Ch. ix. 20-27 i.x. 18, 19 Ch. ix. 1-17, 28,29 X. 8-19, 21, Ch. X. 1-7, 20, 25-30 22,23,31, 32 Ch. xi. 1-9 xi. 28-30 Ch. xi, 10-27, 31. 32 Ch. xii, i-4<2, xii. 10-20 Ch. xii. ^d-^ ^^~9 ... Ch. xiii. 1-5, Ch. xiii. 6, ii(5, y-iia, i2d-i8 12a ^ An analysis of the whole of Genesis is here presented to the reader, based upon the results of the most recent criticism, on which modern scholars are fairly agreed. But on many points of detail, as is inevitable, there are divergences of opinion. It is impossible to exhibit the results so completely with the remaining books of the Old Testament, owing to limitations of space. 32 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT T E V% Ch. XV. I, 2a, XV. -zh, 3(7, 5 3-^.4 6-21, with portions from E ■ and editorial additions. Ch. xvi. xb, 2, Ch. xvi. xa, 3, 4-7, II-I4 15, 16 Ch. xvii. 1-27 Ch. xviii. and xix. (except 29). Ch. XX. 1-17 Ch. xix. 29 Ch. Xxi. 1(2, 2(2, Ch. xxi. (chiefly) Ch. xxi. \h, 2/'- S'^. 7. 33-34 Ch. xxii. 1-13 5 but xxii. 14-24 can only be de- scribed as J E. Ch. xxiii. 1-20 Ch. xxiv. 1-67 Ch. XXV. 1-6, Cli. XXV. j-xia. \\h, 18, 21- 12-iy, 19, 20, 26a, 27-34 263 Notes. — Ch. xiv. comes from an altogether independent source, and has been inserted by a redactor. It stands entirely apart from the Abraham narratives of all the other documents, (i) in representing Abraham as a warrior, (2) calling him "the Hebrew" in v. 13. (3) In introducing the Eastern monarchs Hammurabi (Amraphel), Kudur- Lagamar (Chedorlaomer) , Eriaku ( Ario'ch) , who were historical , together with Melchizedek. (4) Peculiarities of style. We have no independent record of a combined assault of the kings of Babylonia and Elam in the age of Abraham (twentieth century B.C.) upon Palestinian territory. The chapter probably is of later origin than the pre-exilian documents J and E, but how much later it is not easy to determine. Ch. xvi. 8-10, ascribed by W'ellhausen, Kuenen, and Cornill to the redactor of J E. Ch. XX. 18, ascribed to redactor of J E. THE PENTATEUCH 33 J E Po Ch. xxvi. 1-33 Ch, xxvi. 34, Ch. xxvii. 1-45 for the most part. xxvii, II -13, 18-19, 21-23, &c. 35 Ch. xxviii. lo, Ch. xxviii. 11, Ch. xxviii. 1-9 13-16, iga 12, 17, 18, 19^-22 Ch. xxix, 2-14, Ch. xxix. I, 15- Ch. xxix. 24, 19-23. 25- 18 28^, 29 28a, 30-35 Ch. xxx. is too closely interwov en from J and E to be safely analysed. Ch. xxxi. I, 3, Ch. xxxi, 2, 4- 25-27, 46 24, 28-45, 47-54 Ch. xxxii. 4- Ch. xxxii. 1-3, 14a, 23<7, 24- 14^-22, 233 33 Ch. xxxiii. I- Ch. xxxiii, 5^, 5a, 6-10, 12- II, 18-20 17 Ch. xxxiv. closely interwovea from J and E, Ch. XXXV. 21, Ch, XXXV, 1-8, Ch, XXXV, 9-13, 22a 14, 16-20 15, 2 2/5-29 Ch. xxxvi, 2-53, Ch, xxxvi. I, 9-39 5^-8, 40-43 Ch. xxxvii. 2^-36 is closely in terwoven from J Ch. xx.wii. I, and E. 2<2 Ch. xxxviii, i- 30 Ch. xxxix. I- 23 (edited) Note. — In ch. xxxi. editorial glosses, especially in verses 47-54. C 34 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT J E PS Ch. xl. 1-23 (with very slight J ele- ments) Ch. xli. 1-57 Ch. xli. 46(?) (with very- slight J ele- ments) Ch. xlii. 2fl, 46- Ch. xlii. i,2<5- 7, 27-28a, 38 4a, 8-26, 28^-37 Ch. xliii. 1-34 Ch. xliv. 1-34 Ch. xlv. 13, 14, Cfa. xlv. 1-12 28 (with slight J elements), 15-27 Ch. xlvi. 28- Ch. xlvi. 1-5 Ch. xlvi. 6, 7, 34 8-27 Ch.xlvii. 1-4, 6i, Ch. xlvii. 12 Ch. xlvii. 5. 6a, 13-26, 29-31 7-1 1, 27^, 28 Ch. xlviii. I, Ch. xlviii. 3-7 2, 8-22 Ch. xlix. id-27 Ch. xlix. la, 28-33 Ch. 1. i-ii, 14 Ch. L 15-26 Ch. 1. 12, 13 Notes. — It is possible that xlvi. 8-27 may come from a redactor. That the blessing of Jacob (xlix.) was included in J is indicated by the fact that the allusion to the overthrow of Reuben and of Simeon and Levi appears to refer to Jahwistic passages in xxxiv. and xxxv. 22, Note also the praise of Judah (verses 9-10). Gunkel is right in assuming that these verses were the songs of Israel in very early times. Verses 9 ff. can hardly have originated earlier than the time of David, when Judah attained the leading position. THE PENTATEUCH 35 § 5. The Book of Exodus derives its Greek name from the fact that it records the departure of Israel out of Egypt. A considerable interval of time separates this from the preceding book of Genesis, which records the entrance of Israelites into Egypt under the friendly protection of its government. Exodus opens with a new dynasty, and a new policy of repression and slavery towards the rapidly increasing Hebrew popu- lation. The book may be divided into four parts : — I. Bondage of Israel. Birth and growth of Moses. His departure from Pharaoh's court into Horeb. His initiation into his life-work as Israel's deliverer. The revelation of Yahweh's name. (Chaps, i.-iv.) II. Refusals of Pharaoh to release Israel, and the infliction of successive plagues at each successive refusal. Final consent of Pharaoh on the death of the Egyptian first-born. Institution of the Passover. Departure of Israel and pursuit by Pharaoh. Miraculous deliverance of Israel in crossing the Red Sea. (v.-xiv.) III. Israel's march through the wilderness to Sinai. (xv.-xix.) IV. Laws delivered to Moses at Sinai. Worship of the golden calf Construction of the Tabernacle and the varied appliances and vestments for wor- ship, (xx.-xl.) I. In the first four chapters, excepting i. 1-5 and very brief insertions in the same chapter and chap. ii. 36 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT from P, the whole record is derived from the pre- exilian documents J and E. II. In the next section (v.-xiv.), by far the larger portion is derived from these pre-exiHan documents, the chief insertions from the post-exilian work P being vi. 2-12, vii. 1-13, viii. 1-3 and 12-15, ix. 8-12, xii. 1-20, 43-51, xiii. i, 2, and xiv. 1-4, 8, 16-18. Of these P passages the longest and most characteristic is taken up with the details of the Passover celebration in chap. xii. III. The third section opens with the So7ig of Miriam, xv. 1-18, which may be an expansion of a shorter and simpler song which, according to Ewald, may be found in xv. 1-3.^ It is not easy to fix the date of the song in its present form. Nearly the whole of this section comes from J and E, E very largely predominating in chaps, xvii.-xix., which are almost wholly made up of this document. On the other hand, chap. xvi. is mostly, if not wholly, derived from P. ^ More probably the original song is to be found in verse I, repeated in verse 21. Verses 13 and 17 clearly presuppose the single sanctuary of Deuteronomy. The song is homogeneous, and was probably written about 540-538 in Babylonia, when the ex- pected restoration would naturally recall the memories ('"former things") of the exodus (Isa. xliii. i, 2, 16-17, xliv. 27, 28, xlvi. 9 ff., xlviii. 3, 21, 1. 2, li. 9, 10). THE PENTATEUCH 37 IV. We now come to the legislative part of the Pentateuch. Kuenen is probably right in claiming chaps, xix.-xxiv. for E^, as well as xxxii. i-xxxiii. 6. In the first of these E-sections codes of laws are included which are of much more ancient origin than the latter part of the eighth century (to which E'^ belongs). These ancient codes underlie the Ten Commandments in chap. xx. and the Book of the Covenant (Exod. xx. 22-xxiii. 19), a compound of old laws, some of which, e.g. the laws respecting murder and injury (xxi. 12-27), go back to Israel's old nomadic days preceding the settlement in Canaan, while others, such as the laws respecting the three annual festivals (xxiii. 14-19), evidently reflect the settled agricultural life of Israel in Palestine. Another much briefer code, parallel to the above and also ancient, are the Laws of the Two Tables (chap, xxxiv. 10-28) contained in the J section (xxxiv. 1-28). This is, in fact, the last J section in Exodus, and no other passage from J or E occurs till we reach the Book of Numbers. Chaps, xxv.-xxxi. are a continuous P section descriptive of the Tabernacle, its furniture, and other paraphernalia of worship. From chap. xxxv. to the close of Exodus we have the legislative ritual details of the Priestercodex. § 6. Leviticus, a book of priestly legislation, as its 38 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT name indicates, consists entirely of this same post- exilian document, but some portions of it belong to earlier and others to later strata of the Priestercodex. The contents fall into three parts : — I. Chapters i.-xvi. Of these, (<3;) chaps, i.-ix. deal with sacrifices ; {b) chap. xi. closely follows the laws of clean and unclean animals in Deut. xiv. 3-20, and is evi- dently ancient ; {c) chap. xii. contains the regulations respecting cleansing after childbirth ; {d) chaps, xiii.- XV., regulations respecting leprosy and sexual unclean- ness ; {e) chap, xvi., on the Day of Atonement. II. Chaps, xvii.-xxvi. The Code of Holiness, containing {a) laws forbidding sacrifice except at the central altar, and drinking the blood (xvii.) ; {b) unlawful unions ; {c) in xix.-xxii. we have varied laws and prohibitions ; {d) chap, xxiii., the annual feasts {cf. Deut. xvi.) ; {e) chap, xxiv., miscellaneous regulations'; {/) chap. XXV., laws respecting the Sabbatic year and jubilee; {g) chap, xxvi., final exhortation to keep the preceding laws, accompanied by promise and warning. III. Chap, xxvii. A concluding chapter on vows and tithes. Allusion has already been made (p. 24) to the col- lection of chapters (xvii.-xxvi.) called the " Code of Holiness" (II.). There is good reason to believe that this document, which embodies by far the larger por- tion of those chapters (P^) characterised by the oft- recurring formula, " I am Yahweh, your God " (or simply "I am Yahweh"), was earlier than Ps. Between this THE PENTATEUCH 39 document and the scheme of the restored common- wealth in Ezek. xl.-xlviii. there is a remarkable similarity both as to style and contents, and it has been a much- debated question whether P^ precedes the Ezekiel scheme of legislation or follows it. The problem is a very complex one. It has been generally held by recent critics that chap. xxvi. (the final exhortation) appears to presuppose the exile. This, however, does not necessitate a post-exilian date, though on other grounds an early post-exilian date is not improbable. The redaction of the laws in Leviticus into the form in which we now have them may be assigned to some date after 440 e.g., when Nehemiah and Ezra introduced their reforms. But a careful distinction must be drawn between the redaction or editing of the laws and their origin, " The laws embody usages, many of which are doubtless in their origin of great antiquity, though they have been variously modified and developed as time went on." ^ § 7. The Book of Numbers is a composite work con- sisting of extracts from all three documents P, J, and E, the legal portions belonging to P and the narrative portions for the most part belonging to J and E. To these latter sources the poetic fragments also belong. The book falls into the following divisions : — I. Chaps, i.-x. 28 (entirely P) begins with an enumera- 1 Driver and White in "Leviticus" (S.B.O.T.). 40 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT tion of the Israelite tribes and their clans and " fathers' houses," with the total male population capable of bearing arms, over twenty years of age, of each tribe and of the entire people (i. 1-46), the tribe of Levi excepted, whose special religious functions are described (i. 47-54). Then follow the camp divisions for the separate tribes and the order of march (ii. 1-34); the enumeration of the families of the Levites and the apportionment of their several places and functions (iii. 1-39); laws respecting the first-born (iii. 40-51); regulations respecting the " tent-of-meeting " and its fur- niture ; priestly 'services of the various Levitical families (iv. 1-49); laws respecting uncleanness (v. 1-3 1), the Nazirite (vi. 1-2 1), the words of benediction (verses 22- 27), offerings of the tribal representatives at the altar (vii. 1-89), service of the lamps, and also the cleansing and dedication of the Levites (viii. 1-26). Then come varied instructions respecting the passover and tokens for halting or marching, the use of the two silver trumpets, and details respecting the onward march (ix. i-x. 28). II. Chaps. X. 29 -XXV. 18 contain the narrative of Israel's march till they entered the Moabite territory. In this section, however, it should be noted that the enumeration of the spies in chap. xiii. 1-17^, xiv. 26-38, chap. XV. 1-4 1 on sacrificial offerings, stoning for Sabbath-breaking, and fringes, chap. xvi. 1-35 in large THE PENTATEUCH 41 part, dealing with the sin of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and chap. xvi. 36 (xvii. i Heb.) — xx. 13 entire and without a break — all these may be safely assigned to P, and contain the distinguishing characteristics of this document. Chap, xviii. in this last group of chapters contains the laws respecting tithes and other priestly dues, and the rites of purification by water for those who have touched a dead body. While chap. xx. 14-21, respect- ing the passage through Edom, belong to E, verses 23-29 are again a P passage. On the other hand, the episodes which follow (xxi. i-xxv. 5), including the story of Balaam and Balak, belong almost absolutely to J E, more especi- ally to E. The concluding chapter of this second part belongs to a large extent to P (xxv. 6-19), descriptive of the sin with a Midianitish woman and its chastise- ment, a warning against mixed marriages {cf. Ezra ix., x., Neh. xiii. 23 ff.). This passage is appended to a short J E section, xxv. 1-5, which narrates the sin of Baal Peor. HI. The concluding portion of this book, chaps. xxvi.-xxxvi., belongs almost entirely to P. It contains a second tribal enumeration of the surviving Israelites (xxvi.), the story of the daughters of Zelophehad and the law of female inheritance (xxvii. i-ii), appoint- ment of Joshua to be successor of Moses (xxvii. 12-23), laws respecting offerings (xxviii.), feast of trumpets and 42 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT sacrificial ritual laws (xxix.), laws respecting vows of men and of women (xxx.), war with and slaughter of Midianites, the spoil divided between the people and the sanctuary (xxxi.), a trans-Jordanic district assigned to Reuben, Gad and half Manasseh (xxxii. 1-38). A short T section (verses 39-42), descriptive of the con- quest of Gilead by Manassite clans, concludes this chapter. Chap, xxxiii. 1-49 contains a list of the stages in the march, with a short reference to Aaron's death on Mount Hor. This section is probably a compilation from varied sources, P, J, E, and D. It may have been added by the redactor. The rest of the book belongs altogether to P, and deals with the prospective division of Canaan among the tribes and the special arrange- ments to be made on behalf of the tribe of Levi (xxxiv. I -XXXV. 8). There follow the laws respecting the manslayer and the city of refuge (xxxv. 9-34). Chap, xxxvi. lays down the laws which regulate marriage with female heirs. The poetic fragments in chap. xxi. come from E, who borrowed them from the "Book of the Wars of the Lord," a collection of popular songs or poems, some of which, especially the Song of the JVe/l (verses 17, 18), may be, like the Song of Deborah, very ancient, and even extend to the old nomadic days of Israel's life. By Stade verses 27-30 are referred to the time of the THE PENTATEUCH 43 wars against Moab by Omri (885 b.c. circ.)} The poetic utterances of Balaam come from the documen- tary sources J and E. ; xxiv. 17-19 are evidently allusive to David's conquering exploits {cf. II. Sam. viii. 2, 13, 14, and Ps. Ix.) and are probably of Judaean origin. § 8. The Book of Deuteronomy , which means repetition of the law, stands altogether apart from the rest of the Pentateuch. Hardly a trace of the documentary sources J, E, and P appear in it. It is only when we come to the close of this Mosaic history and the narrative of the death of Moses that we once more light on traces of those documents. Thus xxvii. 5-7 (contrary to the law of single sanctuary), xxxi. 14-15, 23, seem to rest upon an E basis, while in xxxiv. 1-7 there are evident traits of J, and in xxxii. 48-52 and xxxiv. i, 8-9 we clearly recognise P. The book falls most naturally into the following divisions : — I. Retrospective address by Moses, accompanied by ex- hortations, special instructions, and a repetition of the decalogue and warnings against idolatry (chaps, i.-xi.), delivered in the land of Moab (Deut. i. 5). II. The Deiiteronoinic legislation (chaps, xii. -xxvi.). Chaps, xii., xiii., containing warnings against the ^ In the commentary on Isaiah (" Century Bible") it is assigned with Isa. XV. i-xvi. 12 to the time of Jeroboam II. (a century later). 44 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT worship of " other gods " ; enforcement of the law of the single sanctuary, " the place that the Lord shall choose [to put His name there]," xii. 5, 6, 18. Chap. xiv. contains the laws of clean and unclean animals {cf. Lev. xi.). Chap, xv., law of release and of firstling males. Chap, xvi., the three annual festivals, with feast of passover connected with feast of unleavened bread ; law respecting judges and prohibition of Asherah and pillar. Chap, xvii., re- specting unblemished offerings, judgment, kingship and the king's duties. Chap, xviii., priesthood of Levites and their sacrificial portion ; prohibition of sorcery, necromancy, and divination, and enforce- ment of the claims of Yahweh's prophet. Chap, xix., respecting manslaughter and blood revenge — the sacredness of the landmark — on witnesses. Chaps. xx.-xxv. deal with war, murder, marriage, criminal pro- cedure, just weights and measures, and other details of family,, social, and agricultural hfe. Chap, xxvi., in- junctions respecting firstfruits, and final exhortation. in. The last days of Moses (chaps, xxvii. -xxxiv.). Chap, xxvii., great plaistered stones on Mount Ebal to be inscribed with the law ; curses on evil doing. Chaps, xxix.-xxx., covenant with Israel (continued), blessings on fulfilment and curses on non-fulfilment of the law, followed by a prophetic-hortatory discourse. Chap, xxxi., parting address by Moses. Chap, xxxii., Song of Moses, followed by a brief exhortation ; and lastly a command to Moses to proceed to Mount Nebo, where he is to die. Chap, xxxiii. is the Bless- THE PENTATEUCH 45 ing of Moses on the tribes of Israel, parallel to the Blessing of Jacob in Gen. xlix. The book closes with the death, burial, and praise of Moses (chap, xxxiv.). We shall begin with the legislative portion {i.e. H.) which forms the kernel of the book, viz. chaps, xii.-xxvl. A comparison of this, as well as the earlier portion of Deuteronomy, reveals the fact that both are dependent on the earlier documents J and E, especially E. With- out going into detail, it is sufficient to note the fact that the legislation mainly consists in repetitions and expansions of the provisions in the " Book of the Covenant" (Exod. xxi.-xxiii.), incorporated in the docu- ment E. Similarly the Decalogue in Deut. v. 7-21 is another edition of that in Exod. xx. (E). On the other hand, the legislative provisions constitute a distinct advance on those of the earlier and briefer code in Exod. xxi.-xxiii. This it is most important to note. {a) The tribe of Levi acquires an exceptional importance unknown to the earlier codes (Exod. xx. 22- xxiii. 19 [E] and Exod. xxxiv. 10-28 [J]), all priestly functions being concentrated in this priestly tribe. {b) Repeated reference is made to the single sanctuary which " Yahweh has chosen to place his name there" (Deut. xii. 5, 18, 21, xvi. 6, 11, 16, 46 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT xxvi. 2) as the only legitimate place for sacrifice (see especially xii. 5-7 and 20, 21). (c) In xvi. (c/. Exod. xxiii. 14-17) Passover^ which is ignored in the earlier legislative codes, now acquires special importance in close connection with the feast of unleavened cakes. The " feast of ingathering" is now called the "feast of booths " (" tabernacles "). {d) The humanitarian traits of the Deuteronomic legislation, when compared with the earlier codes, show a considerable advance, unquestionably due to prophetic influence. This is specially marked in the treatment of slaves (see Hastings, D.B., art. Servant, Slave), of the poor, the father- less, and the widow. To what period does this more advanced legislation belong ? There are many reasons which clearly indicate that the promulgation of the code must be connected with the reforms in worship in the reign of Josiah (622-1 B.C.). The following parallels between the features in that reformation detailed in II. Kings and the provisions of the Deuteronomic legislation will corroborate this statement. (i) Asherah and vessels destroyed, II. Kings xxiii. 4, 6, 14, 15 5 C/- Deut. xii. 3. (2) Host of Heaven not to be worshipped, II. Kings THE PENTATEUCH 47 xxiii. 4; cf. xxi. 3, where the practices of the reign of Manasseh are referred to. This was an innovation practised by the kings after the time of Ahaz; cf. Deut. xvii. 3. (3) Destruction of Sodomites' houses, II. Kings xxiii. 7 ; cf. Deut. xxiii. 17, 18. (4) High places profaned (" defiled "), i.e. abolished, and its priests removed, II. Kings xxiii. 8. With this connect the law of the single sanctuary, Deut. xii. 2-5, with the command to destroy the high places. — The eighth-century prophets, though acutely conscious of the evils of the "high places," nevertheless did not prohibit them. Both J and E represent patriarchs as sacrificing at Bethel, Shechem, Beersheba, &:c. So also we find kings and prophets doing in the Books of Samuel and Kings. (5) Molech worship and child sacrifice (" making to pass through the fire ") suppressed, II. Kings xxiii. 10 ; cf. the prohibition in Deut. xviii. 10. (6) Pillars destroyed, II. Kings xxiii. 14; cf the command to break them in pieces in Deut. xii. 3 ; cf xvi. 22. Earlier codes do not require this. Isa. xix. 19 assumes their legitimacy. (7) Wizards and necromancers put away, II. Kings xxiii. 24; cf. the detailed prohibitions in Deut. xviii. 10, 11 (8) We read in II. Kings xxii. 11 that when Shaphan 48 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT the scribe read the book of the law to Josiah, the latter rent his clothes. This he might well have done when he heard the curses read in Deut. xxviii. (9) Lastly, the celebration of the passover by Josiah, as it had never been celebrated in the whole regal period of Israel's history (11. Kings xxiii. 21-23), is most significant when we compare the detailed regula- tions in Deut. xvi. 1-7, and note the absence of in- structions respecting this festival in the earlier codes. In addition to these points of contact between the legislation of Deuteronomy and the reformation in Josiah's reign, it should be observed " that the early prophets Amos (765-736 b.c), Hosea (745-725), and the undisputed portions of Isaiah (740-700) show no traces of this [Deuteronomic] influence ; Jeremiah (626-585) exhibits marks of it on every page" (Driver). Of this we have a notable example in Jer. xi.,^ which is full of Deuteronomic phrases. These considerations constitute a strong argument ^ Cornill, however, though formerly (in S.B.O.T.) recognising Jer. xi. 1-14 as genuine, now follows Duhm and Marti in denying it (see his commentary, p. 144), on what appears to the present writer insufficient grounds. That the author of vii. 21-28 and xxxi, 30-33 (the new covenant) should in the earlier days of his ministry (620 B.C.) have been enthusiastic for the reforms of Josiah is a priori probable. The defeat and death of Josiah (608 B.C.) wrought a great change in the religious condition of Judah, and with him the reforming impulse in cultus died. THE PENTATEUCH 49 for fixing the date of the Deuteronomic legislation as it stands before us. The promulgation evidently belongs to 621 B.C. But a careful examination of the series of chapters xii.-xxvi. shows that it is not homo- geneous. Varieties of expression as well as occasional signs of duplication show that various hands were at work on this entire section as it stands, and that the document brought to light in 622-1 was a briefer statement.^ One indication in II. Kings xxii. 8, 10, which clearly points in this direction, and compels us to assume that the document was not of very consider- able length, is that it was read over twice in the same day, first by Shaphan the scribe in the temple, and next it was read over by him in the presence of Josiah. The discovery of this "book of the Covenant," as it is called (II. Kings xxiii. 2, probably in anticipatory refer- ence to verse 3), after it had been lost for a considerable time, has been explained by the not improbable assump- tion that it was drawn up by a certain private priestly and prophetic circle and deposited in the temple in the reign of Manasseh. The evils which the legislation seeks to counteract are those of that long and de- 1 The original form of this legislation is held by Cornill ("Intro- duction to the Old Testament ") to be chap. xii. i-xiii. 18 in briefer form ; xiv. 3, 21-xv. 3, 7-23 ; xvi. i-xvii. 13; xviii. I-13; xix. i- XX. I ; XX. 5-14, 19, 20; xxi.-xxv., though not entire ; xxvi. 1-15. Probably chap, xxviii. in part was also read before King Josiah. D 50 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT generate reign. There is also considerable probability in the view that it may have been based upon a still earlier and briefer legislation drawn up in the reforming days of Hezekiah, to which not only II. Kings xviii. 4, but also xviii. 22 and xxi. 3 bear witness. It is held by most critics that the legislation con- tained in Deut. xii.-xxvi. was provided with an intro- duction, and this probably consisted of chaps, v.-xi., and that chap, xxviii. also belonged to this earlier edition of Deuteronomy^ called D^. Subsequently, probably soon after the close of the exile, this work was expanded, provided with a fresh introduction (chaps, i.-iv.), and the other material than that in D^ already described was added (D-). Most important of the added material is : — I. The Song of Moses (xxxii.), in its present form, cannot be regarded as other than a comparatively late product, not earlier than the time of the exile. Verses 15 ff. reflect the spirit of rebuke and threatening that characterise Jeremiah. In fact, the poem is full of phrases that are reminiscent of Jeremiah. Verses 23-26 obviously presuppose the exile, while verse 39 reminds us of the Deutero-Isaiah (xliii. 10, 11, 13, 25, ^ So Bennett in his " Introduction to the Old Testament," which combines the qualities of conciseness with clearness. For the critical theories of Steuernagel, Staerk, and Erbt the reader is referred to Cornill's " Introduction to the Old Testament," § 9. THE PENTATEUCH 51 li. 12, also xli. 4, xlviii. 12). We also find a large number of Deuteronomic expressions. 2. The Blessing of Moses (xxxiii.) is of a far different character, and reminds us in many points of Gen. xlix., but is probably of later origin. Simeon has vanished from the scene of history, and Reuben is nearing ex- tinction. Levi is definitely a priest tribe (not neces- sarily a sign of lateness ; cf. Judges xvii. 7 ff.). There is but slight reference to Judah, and that reference, combined with the lengthened blessing on Joseph, clearly points to a North Israelite origin and the E document. It can hardly be later than the earlier half of the eighth century B.C., and may even be con- siderably earlier. The Book of Deuteronomy and the tradition out of which it arose had a far-reaching influence. Deutero- nomic phraseology can be traced in a school of writers who edited the Old Testament records. It meets us in the Pentateuch and in the historical books, and we shall have frequent occasion to refer to these redactional Deuteronomic additions. The Pentateuch^ as Ryle has shown, must have ex- isted as a canonised body of literature, and have had a sacred, regulative value in religious worship and social administration, by the close of the fifth century B.C. (after Ezra's Reformation), i.e. before 400 b.c.^ * Ryle, "Canon of the Old Testament," p. 93. CHAPTER III THE HISTORICAL BOOKS § 9. The historical books, or First Prophets of the Hebrew Canon, consist of Joshua, Judges, I. Samuel, II. Samuel, I. Kings and II. Kings. These books, followed by what are called the "latter Prophets," begin- ning with Isaiah and ending with Malachi (but not including Daniel), constitute the second series of canonised books of the Jewish synagogue which went by the general inclusive name " The Prophets." By the beginning of the second century^ B.C. they held a place in popular veneration only second to the Pentateuch, or what the Jews have always called " The Law" {Torah^ literally " instruction "). Like the Penta- teuch, these " Prophets " (including the above historical books) possessed a sacred value and were read in the worship of the sanctuary {cf. Luke iv. 16-20). In fact, the " Law and the Prophets " constituted the main part of the sacred scriptures which formed the authorita- 1 Ryle, "Canon of the Old Testament," pp. 109-113. 52 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 53 tive basis of religious life and doctrine, though other books, such as the Psalms and the Book of Daniel, were also used in worship and highly esteemed. It will be noted that the expression " Law and Prophets " frequently occurs in the New Testament as synony- mous with Holy Scripture (Luke xxiv. 27, 44, &c.). It is convenient as well as instructive for us to follow the order of these successive canonised writings of the Old Testament as they stand in the Hebrew Bible or sacred scriptures of the Jews. Of course canonisation^ or official recognition of the sacred validity of a book and authorisation of its use in worship, is quite independent of the composition of the book itself, which may be centuries earlier in date. § 10. The Book of Joshua is a continuation of the story of the Pentateuch after the death of Moses, re- corded in the last chapter of Deuteronomy, but it appears to have been separated from the Pentateuch, perhaps before the reforms of Ezra (450-40 B.C.). It records the conquest of Canaan by Israel under the leadership of Joshua, whose name is naturally bestowed on the book. Then follows the division of the land among the tribes. The book concludes with the dis- courses of Joshua to Israel in a manner analogous to the conclusion of the Book of Deuteronomy, and similarly closes with the death of Israel's leader. 54 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT The book falls naturally into three parts : — I. Chaps, i-xii. record the advance of Israel and the conquest of Canaan. II. Chaps, xiii.-xxi., division of the land among the several tribes. III. Chaps, xxii.-xxiv. contain Joshua's address to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half tribe of Manasseh, the controversy with these trans- Jordanic tribes respecting their erection of a "great altar," and its settlement (xxii.). Final addresses of Joshua to the assembled tribes, his death and burial (xxiii., xxiv.). The same documents, P^, J, and E, are interwoven in this book as in the Pentateuch, but in addition to these the Deuteronomic additions are much more ex- tensive and conspicuous. I. In the first twelve chapters there is very little of P. J and E in alternation furnish the staple of the narrative, with occasional and brief Deuteronomic additions (D). II. It is quite otherwise with chaps, xiii.-xxi. Here P is by far the most predominant element. J is occasionally present, E very slightly, while Deuteronomic additions (D) may be found as before, e.g. xiii. 1-14 and xiv. 6-15. III. In the concluding chaps, xxii.-xxiv. P is hardly THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 55 present at all, whereas the element D is found in xxii. 1-6 and in xxiii. 1-16, while nearly all if not the whole of chap, xxiv., which contains Joshua's farewell address to the assembled tribes at Shechem, is assigned by all critics to E. There is little poetry in this book. In x. 12 ff. there is a couplet (two distichs), associated with the battle of Bethhoron, quoted in a brief Yahwistic ex- tract (J) from the book of Jashar. See above, § 2. § II. The Book of Judges carries on the history of Israel from the settlement of Canaan under Joshua until the birth of Samuel, which is narrated in the book that follows. It therefore covers the intermediate period between Joshua and the Hebrew monarchy, and takes its name from the so-called " Judges " ^ who exercised the functions of ruling (which included judicial functions) and defending and delivering the Israelite tribes during war, and were the forerunners of the Israelite kings. The work, as might be expected, is composite. Its true character has been clearly exhibited by critical investigations mainly conducted by Budde and Kittel about twenty years ago. The results we can here ^ In Hebrew Shofetiin, the same word being used for the rulers of Carthage, a Phoenician colony, called in Livy siiffetes. Cf. Moore's "Judges" (LCC), pp. xi., 8S, 89. 56 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT only present in brief summary. The work may be divided into : — (i.) An introduction (chap. i. i-ii. 5) descriptive of the condition of Canaan when the period of the Judges opens. This section is exceedingly important for the historical student, since it is "an old account of the conquest of Canaan," not by all Israel simultaneously under Joshua's leadership, "but by individual tribes separately" (Driver), The opening verse of the book is evidently editorial, and obscures the character and chronological relation of the entire section which follows, which, as Dr. Driver states, " is in iQ2i\iX.y parallel^ at least in part, with the narrative in Joshua, and not a con- tinuation of it." ^ (ii.) A prelude to the history (chap. ii. 6-iii. 6). In this prelude ii. 11- 19 is thoroughly Deuteronomic in phraseology^ and tone. Moore, however, finds in it older material coming from the source E. It is essen- tially a moralising summary of the following history. (iii.) "The real kernel of the history," as Cornill designates it (in his Introduction, § 16, 3), is found in iii. 7-xvi. 31. This section contains the history of the Judges from Othniel to Samson. Some of these figures, as Othniel, Tola, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, and ' Abhdon, 1 L. O. T., p. 162. - See above, § 8 ad fin., p, 51. THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 57 are mere shadows, and seem to be based on very obscure traditions. Throughout the chief portions of this narrative may be traced either the documents J and E or documents closely similar. J is certainly the older, and is assigned by Moore to the ninth century b.c. E is later, and consists of an earlier stratum, perhaps not much later than J, and a later stratum exhibiting a more advanced religious sense, strongly characterised by prophetic ideas in the judg- ments passed upon the religious offences of the people. This later Elohistic writer probably belonged to the seventh century. Lastly we have the Deuteronomic editor, whose insertions are easily recognised, and are, to use Budde's phrase, planted throughout this section "like milestones," e.g. chap. iii. 7-15, iv. 1-3, vi. I, 6^, viii. 28, 33-35, X. 6-8, 12-16. The reflec- tions upon the events of the narrative which these passages contain might be called a kind of religious philosophy of history. Owing to the composite character of the work, dupli- cations in the narrative sometimes appear. Of this duplication the most conspicuous example is afforded in chaps, iv. and v. (the Song of Deborah). The latter is a valuable poetic remnant which has come down to us (unfortunately in a corrupted text in some passages) from ancient Israel. The prose narrative which pre- 58 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT cedes it stands contrasted with the poem in several particulars, (i) In the poem Sisera is evidently the head of the Canaanite confederacy, whereas in chap. iv. Jabin, King of Hazor, is the head and Sisera is his general. (2) In the poem all the tribes surrounding the plain of Megiddo, Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali unite in the struggle. Judah is, of course, not mentioned. The more remote tribes, Dan, Asher, and even Reuben and Gilead beyond Jordan, are bitterly reproached for standing aloof. In chap. iv. Barak collects a force from Zebulun and Naphtali only. (3) In the poem Sisera is standing at the opening of his tent drinking milk from a bowl when Jael strikes him the deadly blow. In chap. iv. Jaei drives a tent-pin through his temples when asleep. Now when we carefully compare Judges iv. with Joshua xi. 1-15, the parallel must immediately strike us. For (i) in both we have a war between a confederation of Israelite tribes against a coalition of Canaanite tribes. (2) In both the scene of the conflict is N. Palestine; according to the Joshua narrative, the battle is fought by the waters of Merom. (3) In both special mention is made of Jabin, King of Hazor (Joshua xi. i and Judges iv. 2, 17). It is to be noted that the name of this king is absent from the ancient song of Deborah, which mentions Sisera only. Accordingly it is not THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 59 improbable that Cornill and Guthe are right in the surmise that Judges iv. blends two narratives in one. The one consists of the struggle of Jabin, King of Razor, in Upper Galilee, led by Barak of Kadesh in Naphtali, at the head of the tribes Zebulun and Naphtah. This struggle is held to be identical with that which is recorded in Joshua xi. 1-15, which belongs to a later time than that of Joshua. The other narrative runs parallel to Judges v. and recounts the story of a larger coalition of Israelite tribes, including the Rachel stem, viz. Machir (Manasseh), Ephraim, and Benjamin. The head of this larger coalition is Barak, son of Abino'am, and the leader of the opposing host is a warrior with a Hittite name, Sisera. The scene of the conflict, moreover, is further south, viz. Taanach in the valley of Megiddo. Another example of duplication of narrative is to be found in viii. 4-21, in which the names Zebah and Zalmunnah take the place of Zeeb and Oreb in the previous narrative, viz. vi. 2 -viii. 3, w^hich is quite inde- pendent and made up of elements from the two sources J and E. The previous shorter narrative is obviously a fragment. (iv.) Lastly, we have an "appendix" (chaps, xvii.-xxi.) containing the story of Micah with his Ephod and Teraphim and the advent of the Levite. the migration of 6o BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT part of the tribe of Dan northwards, the outrage of Gibea, and the war of Israel against Benjamin. These narra- tives, like those in the preceding part of the book, are made up of elements derived from J and E. The book appears to have passed through at least two editions as a compilation out of earlier memoirs. The first was the Deuteronomic redaction, which may have taken place either during the exile or the early post-exilian period. This is held by Cornill to have been ii. 6-19, iii. 7-30, iv. i-viii. 29, 33-35, x. 6-16, xi. i-xii. 7, and xiii.-xv. The " appendix" was evidently not included, though it contains old material from J E, for in chaps, xvii.-xxi. there is no trace of Deuteronomic editing. The second was the Priestly redaction, which added to the work these other elements from a redacted J E and probably other sources. In the Book of Judges we are brought face to face with the complicated problems of Biblical chronology. From the data of the Book of Judges as it stands we are led to conclude that a far longer period intervened between the Exodus and the building of the temple in the fourth year of Solomon's reign than the 480 years given in I. Kings vi. 1.^ Even the latter estimate is ^ The numerical details will be found most clearly set forth in Bennett's '* Introduction to the Old Testament" (Methuen & Co.), pp. 83-85. Cf. Cornill's Introduction, § 16, 7. THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 6i considerably greater than most recent chronologies based on Egyptology would allow. These would scarcely admit of a greater interval than barely three centuries. In all probability the " minor " Judges, Tola, Jair, Ibzan, &c. (Judges xii. 8-15), should be cancelled out of the chronological scheme. Moreover, it is wholly un- necessary to suppose that the other " greater judges " ruled successively over all Israel. The historical con- ditions point in the opposite direction. Their rule was partial, only involving the hegemony of a few neigh- bouring tribes. Therefore there is nothing to forbid the assumption that some {e.g. Samson and Jephthah, Barak and Ehud) ruled contemporaneously. In this manner we arrive at a very considerable reduction of the interval that separates the Exodus from the reign of Solomon. § 12. The Books of Samuel continue the record of Israel's history from the days of Eli and Samuel to the reign of David, when the unification of Israel was con- summated by David's statecraft and the military skill of his general, Joab. The two Books of Samuel appear originally to have formed in the Hebrew canon a single book called the "Book of Samuel," since this term is employed in the Massoretic note, which is placed at the end of the second Book of Samuel, specifying the number of 62 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT verses which it contains. There is no such note at the end of the first book. This is confirmed by a citation from Origen in Eusebius (vi. 25) which speaks of one Book of Samuel "called of God." Probably the name originated, as the Jewish writer Abarbanel suggested, from the fact that Samuel is regarded as the central personality. Saul and David, whose history fills most of the text, were both designated as king by him. On the other hand, when we turn to the LXX we find the two books of Samuel designated, along with the following two books of Kings, as the first and second of the four books of Kings. The classification of the contents of the two books adopted by Budde, and improved by Driver, appears to be the most natural, viz. : — I. I. Sam. i.-vii. Eli and Samuel. 11. I. Sam. viii.-xiv. Samuel and Saul. III. I. Sam. xv.-xxxi. Saul and David. IV. II. Sam. i.-xx. David. V. 11. Sam. xxi.-xxiv. An addendum consisting of varied contents, poems and narratives. Thenius, one of the soundest of the German critical scholars of the middle of the nineteenth century, per- ceived that the narratives contained in these books were composite in character. The grounds were as follows : — THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 63 (a) Some events are narrated in two, and moreover divergent, forms. Take for example the two narratives respecting the choice of Saul as king in I. Sam. ix. i- X. 16 and in x. 17-27, and the grounds and mode of his rejection, I. Sam. xiii. 8-14 compared with xv. 1-30. (d) In several places we can clearly discover what appears to be a conclusion to some special section, e.g. I. Sam. xiv. 47-51, a resume respecting Saul's wars and his family. In II. Sam. viii. 15-18 we have a list of David's officers ; in xx. 23-26 we have a second list of like character. (c) Differences in style. Thus in II. Sam. viii. we have a bare chronicle, while in I. Sam. i.-iii. we have a style more epic in manner. Or we might compare I. Sam. vii., the style of which resembles the Deutero- nomic, with I. Sam. xiii., which possesses no such character. Other writers who followed Thenius, viz. Wellhausen, Stade, Kittel, and Cornill, have set forth this composite nature of the books more completely. But the chief credit here, as in the case of the Book of Judges, belongs to Budde, who in 1888 showed that the same kind of documentary strata are traceable in these books as in the Book of Judges. We shall now set forth his main results. In the ^rsf place, we have the older document J 64 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT which makes Gilgal the place of Saul's appointment as king. In fact, it is in the description of the events which lead up to Saul's election as king in chaps, viii.- xii. that the contrasts between the two sources appear in sharpest relief. According to J, the Benjamite Kish sends his son Saul with a slave to find some lost she-asses. After wandering in a vain search, Saul is induced by his slave to seek counsel from a "man of God " in a neighbouring town, a seer who is Samuel himself. To Samuel Yahweh had already announced that a Benjamite would come to him on the morrow, and that he was to be anointed by the seer as prince over his people. Samuel accordingly welcomes Saul and receives him as an honoured guest, together with his slave attendant, at the sacred meal in the high place. On the following day he anoints Saul and gives him the sign of his Divine call (chaps, ix. i-x. i6). About a month ^ after this Nahash the Ammonite besieges Jabesh Gilead, and emissaries from Jabesh cross the Jordan in order to seek help from the disgraceful terms of surrender imposed. They arrive in Gibea, and Saul coming in with his team of oxen beholds a scene of lamentation and woe. Overpowered by a Divine spirit of anger, he stirs up Israel to the 1 We follow here the reading indicated by the LXX (chap. x. 27/^ linked to the following chapter). THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 65 deliverance of the beleaguered and the subjugation of the Ammonites. The people amid festive sacrifices raise Saul to the kingship (chap. xi.). In the second place, we have another later document E. Here Samuel appears as quite a different figure. He is no longer a seer-priest in a provincial town, but Israel's judge ruling the people in Yahweh's name. He is moreover an old man. The people are dis- contented with the conduct of his sons, and desire to have a king like the neighbouring nations. Samuel disapproves of this desire, and Yahweh regards it as an act of apostasy, but commands Samuel to comply with the people's wish after having first warned them what a king's prescriptive rights were. The people nevertheless persist in their desire (chap. viii.). They are dismissed to their towns, and are subsequently summoned to Mizpah (chap. x. 17), and there Saul is chosen by lot as king. In a solemn discourse to the people Samuel lays down his of^ce as judge, and warns them of their heavy responsibility. He promises the people God's favour if, nevertheless, they remain faithful to Him (chap. xii.). In this document E Saul is no longer the young son of a Benjamite chief, but an independent warrior and father of a warlike son of considerable prowess. We may now present a summary of the results of E 66 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT a careful analysis. The document E narrates the history of Samuel, priest, prophet, and last judge, from his birth and early childhood in chaps, i.-tii. In these early chapters there is inserted in chap. ii. i-io the Song of IIa?i?ia, which may be regarded as a Song of Thanksgiving for victory, yet is in reality, as Budde (who follows Smend and Cheyne^) describes it, an "extra-canonical Psalm" which celebrates the final victory of Yahweh and His people over the godless and the heathen. The reference to the barren woman bearing children is the link which has served to con- nect it with Hanna. That the poem is a post-exilian production and to be classed as a Psalm, like the "writing" of Hezekiah (Isa. xxxviii. lo ff.) and the "Prayer" of Habakkuk (Hab. iii.), is clearly shown by the large number of literary parallels between this song and Psalm-literature (note especially verses i and 5). Verse 8 is nearly identical with Ps. cxiii. 7 ff. Chaps, iv.-vi. evidently come from the same source, viz. E, since the points of contact between chap. iv. and i.-iii. are apparent in the former. Here, it is true, Samuel is not mentioned, yet the points of contact with E in chaps, i.-iii. are quite manifest in chap. iv. Thus in ii. 12-17, 22, 25 the evil deeds of Hophni and Phinehas are recounted and the rebuke administered * "Origin of the Psalter," p. 57. THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 67 by their father Eli, while the calamity announced in verse 34 comes to pass in chap. iv. Respecting chap. vii. there has been some difference of opinion. Some critics, including Kittel and Max Lohr, are disposed to see clear traces in this chapter, as well as in chap, xii., of Deuteronomic influence. On the other hand, Cornill contends that Jer. xv. i is an allusion to I. Sam. vii. and xii., and that therefore these chapters must have been composed before his time.^ He would agree, therefore, with Budde in assigning chap. vii. to E. Chap, vm'.i as we have already noted, belongs to the same source. — Chap, ix. i-x. 16 is, as already explained, a narrative coming from J, while x. 17-27 belongs to E. On the other hand, xi. i-ii ^ is J. — Chap. xii. should be connected with chap. vii. (E). — Chap. xiii. 2-'ja is once more J, but verse i (omitted in LXX) is a chronological addition framed on the Deuteronomic model. Verses 'jb-i^a Cornill would assign to a later writer of the same school as J (Introd., § 17, 5). — Chap. xiv. 1-46 and 52 belongs to J. It is otherwise ^ The references in Jeremiah to the E sections in I. Samuel should be noted. Wellhausen has already noted the parallel in language between Jer. xix. 3 and I. Sam. iii. ii. Jer. vii. 12-15 is evidently based on I. Sam. iv. ^ X. 25, 27 and X. 12-14 are assigned by Budde to the redactor of J E. 68 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT with 47-51, which may be regarded as Deuteronomic. Verse 48 reminds us clearly of Judges ii. 16. — Chap. xv. belongs to E. Chap. xvi. 1-13 in its present form is certainly later, though Budde considers that it was probably based on a narrative by E. On the other hand, verses 14-23 are a continuation of the narrative of J at the point where it left off at xiv. 52, and of the unfortunate episode of the preceding verses 24-45. We now come to a section, chap. xvii. \-xviii. 5, which bristles with problems. This section belongs to E. The verses 34-37 may be compared with Gen. xxxi. 36-42, which is also an E passage. We have here a second and quite distinct account of David's introduction to Saul, which bears no rela- tion to the first (xvi. 14-23), which belongs to J. The account of David's victory over Goliath is recorded in two distinct versions. The /rj/, xvii. i-ii and 32, is common to the LXX (cod. B) and our Hebrew Mas- soretic text, as well as 33-36 (with additions in LXX), 37-39 (with variants), 42-47 (with additions i), 48 (first part only), 49, 51 (with omission of clause "and drew it out of the sheath thereof"), 52-54. All the verses which are not enumerated in this list, as well as xviii. 1-5, are 1 In the LXX, David, in answer to Goliath's angry query in verse 43, "Am I a dog that thou comest to me \}'\\h. staves?" makes the spirited reply, " Nay, yet worse than a dog ! " THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 69 omitted in the Vatican text (B) of the LXX. The second version is the more extended one of our Hebrew (Massoretic) text. In the Alexandrian text (cod. A) the omitted verses are incorporated. This addition of the missing verses in the LXX, cod. A, was evidently made at a later time, for these added verses adhere much more closely to the later or Massoretic text of our Hebrew Bibles. Thus the Vatican MS. of the LXX and our Hebrew text present two distinct recensions. Budde considers that the LXX {i.e. cod. B) text has arisen through a harmonising ten- dency which sought to remove those elements which are at variance with xvi. 14 ff., a view which is supported by Kittel. In chap, xviii.^ verses 1-4 and 12-19 belong to E, while to J must be assigned verses 5-1 1, 20-30. Here again due note should be taken of the omissions in LXX, cod. B, viz. verses lo-ii, 12b, 17-19, 21b (which Budde regards as redactional), 26b, 29^, and 30. Moreover, it may be noted that a smoother and more consistent narrative is obtained by these omissions. Probably Kuenen and Wellhausen are right in supposing that here, as in chap, xvii., the LXX, or the compilers of the Hebrew original which they translated, endea- voured by omissions to simplify and harmonise the narrative. — In chap, xix., verses i-io belong to E, 70 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT and Kittel as well as Budde would derive verses 11-17 from the same source.^ This is, however, doubted by Cornill (Introd., § 17, 7). On the other hand, all three critics are agreed that xix. i8-xx. la is a, later edition of the same character as xvi. 1-13. — C/iap. xx. is difficult to analyse. Max Lohr considers that it is made up of a series of smaller sections which do not fit in well together, while Budde ascribes it to the document J, but that it has been, especially in the speeches, con- siderably worked over. Both Budde and Cornill, as well as other critics, consider that verses 40 ff. at the close of the chapter are hardly consistent with the preconcerted signals arranged between Jonathan and David, which were expressly designed to obviate the need for an interview with its attendant risks. On these grounds it is held that these verses are an in- dependent addition based on chap. xix. 1-7, and also on the tradition of the close friendship of David and Jonathan. On the other hand, it is surely quite possible that we have here the report of an actual incident detached, it may be, from its original con- nection. — Ckap. XXI. 1-9 (i-io Heb.) belong to E, and probably constitute one of the earlier portions ^ The reference to the Teraphim may be compared with like reference in Gen. xxxi. 32-35, Judges xvii. ff., which are E sections. THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 71 of that document. Verses 10-15 (11-16 Heb.), the narrative describing David's stay with Achish, King of Gath, are later according to some critics, and hardly consistent with preceding facts, since David is called (verse 11, 12 Heb.) "king of the land." This ex- pression, however, is put in the mouth of Achish, and can scarcely be pressed. It is quite possible that these verses are not placed in actual chronological sequence with verses 1-9. The connection between verse 11 and xviii. 7 would indicate that no long interval sepa- rates this episode from that recorded in xviii. 6-9. Chap. xxii. 1-4 belong to J. Verse 5 is rejected by Budde, and now by Cornill (Introd., 6th ed.), but the grounds are by no means cogent, though the intro- duction of the prophet Gad (elsewhere " the Seer "), who belongs to later history (II. Sam. xxix. 11), may appear strange. Verses 6-23 probably belong to the other source E, and appear to be in sequence with chap. xxi. i-g. Chapters xxiii.-xxiv. and xxvi. Of these xxiii. 1-13 belong to both J and E combined, whereas xxiii. 14- xxiv. 22 are of uncertain origin. Cornill (Introd., § i7j 8) assigns xxiii. 19-xxiv. 22 to E. It is quite evident that chap. xxvi. stands separate. From xxiii. 19- xxiv. 22 we have a continuous narrative, interrupted only by the interlude, xxiii. 27-28, describing how a 72 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT sudden Philistine raid draws away Saul from the pursuit of David. To xxiii. 19-xxiv. 22 we have an evident duplicate in chap. xxvi. Max Lohr follows Wellhausen and Driver in rejecting Budde's view, which makes chap. xxvi. a later production (viz. E) than the former. All these critics as well as Cornill {jbid^ consider that chap. xxvi. shows more signs of belonging to an older and more original document {i.e. J). The evidence from language is by no means conclusive. Budde has noted several words which seem to point decisively to the E, since they are employed in E passages in Genesis, Joshua, and Judges. Chaps, xxv.-xxxi. (with the omission of chap. xxvi. already discussed) might be regarded as a continued narrative belonging to J if it were not for the episode described in chap, xxviii. 3-25, which disturbs the chronological sequence and would appear more naturally immediately before chap. xxxi. than in its present posi- tion. Verses 17 ff. seem to point back decisively to chap. XV. Consequently many critics (Stade, Kuenen, Kittel, and others) have ascribed it to the same source as chap, xv., i.e. E. On the other hand, note that Samuel is here once more the seer of chaps, ix., x. 1-16 (not the Judge), whom Saul consults in his desperate need because God gives no answer (verse 6). The truth seems to be (as Budde shows) that Deuteronomic THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 73 influence had entered into the narrative which comes from J {cf. verses 9 ff. with Deut. xviii. 11), and this passage has, through this redactional influence, been displaced. In the Second Book of Samuel, we must on critical grounds separate chaps, i.-viii. from the rest of the book. I. In chaps, i.-viii. the documents J and E can still be traced, but apparently not further. Chaps, i.-v. at all events in the main belong to J. The only exceptions are chap. i. 5-1 1 and 13-16, which belong to E. This explains the divergent tradition of Saul's death which meets us in I. Sam. xxxi. 1-7, which comes from J, in which the wounded Saul inflicts death upon himself on the refusal of his armour-bearer to perform the deed, and the narrative in 11. Sam. i. 5-1 1, in which we have the confession of the Amalekite, which David implicitly beUeves, that he had committed the deed. This, as we have seen, belongs to E. In chap. i. 19-27 we have the Elegy on Saul and Jonathan^ composed by David, inserted into the narra- tive from the "Book of Jashar"^ (see above under § 2). Reasonable criticism will coincide with the dictum of Cornill that we have absolutely no warrant for doubting 1 The LXX calls it "Book of Song" {shir), the characters which make up Jashar in the original being transposed. 74 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT the authenticity of the Song. It is a genuine product of David's poetic genius. And the same remark applies to the Elegy on Abner in chap. iii. 33, 34. Chap. iii. 2-5 and v. 4-16 have probably been in- serted here out of the original connection in which they stood. On the other hand, chap. vii. has quite a distinctive character which separates it from that which precedes and follows. If it belongs to E it should be assigned to the later stratum of that docu- ment belonging to a period in the seventh century that precedes the Book of Deuteronomy. It bears a definitely Messianic impress, and evidently comes after the powerful impulse to Messianic prophecy communi- cated by the teaching of Isaiah in the latter part of the eighth century. Chap. viii. is probably derived from J. With verses 16-18 we may connect such sections as chaps, iii. 2-5, v. 13-16, and xx. 23-26 (see below). Chaps, ix.-xx. form a continuous whole, and with this section Wellhausen would connect chap. vi. It is difficult and precarious to find traces of E in this section ; indeed, that document in its earlier form can hardly be traced anywhere after the death of Saul. These chapters, as Cornill shows (Introd., § 17, 9), exhibit many parallels in expression with other previous J passages in these books. The following points, THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 75 moreover, may be specially noted: (i) Chap. xi. 22 has in LXX an important addition; (2) chap. xii. 10-12 has been regarded by recent critics as a later addition to Nathan's speech, made by a writer who regarded all the evils in David's subsequent history as the harvest springing from David's sin against Uriah the Hittite. (3) The relation of chap. x. i-xi. i has to be considered. According to x. 6 the Ammonites hire the Aramaeans of Beth-Rehob, of Soba, the King of Maakah, and the people of Tobh, all apparently SW. Aramaeans living near to the Ammonites. On the other hand, chap, viii. makes no mention of the Ammonites except in the bare enumeration in verse 12, unless we are to suppose (with Budde) that Moab stands by mistake for Ammon in verse 2. Verses 7-12 may be regarded as an insertion, probably based on J material. Now in chap. viii. and chap. x. (together with xii. 26-31) we have probably records of one and the same cam- paign against the Ammonites and their Aramcean allies. (4) Chaps, xiii.-xx., which may be called the Absalom narrative, are relatively well preserved and free from redactional insertions. We now come to chaps, xxi.-xxiv. These are to be regarded as addenda to the Books of Samuel, with poetic insertions subsequently included. Among the narrative portions xxi. 1-14 is evidently derived from 76 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT J, and its contents connect it with chap, xxiv., while the following section, xxi. 15-22, is connected in the same way with xxiii. 8-39. The two poetic passages, chap. xxii. and xxiii. 1-7, can only be briefly dealt with here. Chap. xxii. is Ps. xviii. in a somewhat different version, less reliable in text. The fact that this Psalm should have been selected for insertion in this appendix out of the entire body of so-called Davidic Psalms points to a tradition which specially connected this song with David. That the entire Psalm emanated from him is very improbable. It is, however, possible that verses 1-20 are based upon an original Davidic song. Verse 15 is echoed in Ps. cxliv. 6. But the later portions of the Psalm, as verse 31 {cf. Prov. xxx. 5), have a reflective character belonging to later Hebrew literature. It is otherwise with the Last Words of David (xxiii. 1-7). The opening phrases seem to be borrowed from the oracles of Balaam, Num. xxiv. 3 ff., 15 ff". The characterisation of David as " sweet in Israel's lays," and the proverbial style of verses 4 ff., point to a later period than that of David, though it is im- possible on the- slight basis of this short poem to determine even approximately what that period is. As in the case of the Book of Judges, so it is evident that the Books of Samuel passed through a THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 77 Dmteronomic redaction. This, as Budde has shown, affected the order of the component elements. But it is hardly safe to attempt a reconstruction of the order and form of the successive editions as they appeared. That there was more than one edition (or " redaction ^') of the work is shown by the two lists of David's state officials in chap. viii. 16-18 and in chap. XX. 23-26, which are close counterparts, the latter apparently the more correct in form. A comparison with the LXX on the one hand, and with the parallel in I. Chron. xviii. 15-17 on the other, shows that textual corruption has entered into the names in chap. viii. 16-18. It is to a final post-exilian redaction of the work that the insertion of the Psalm and " last words" of David are due (II. Sam. xxii., xxiii. 1-7). § 13. The Books of Kings are called the "third and fourth books of Kings " in the LXX (see the beginning of § 12), and we know from the testimony of Jerome that as far back as the fourth century a.d. they constituted a single book in the Hebrew scriptures. The influence of the Book of Deuteronomy upon the contents and structure of the work is more clearly visible here than in the Books of Samuel. The period of the exile and the century which immedi- ately followed must have been one of considerable literary activity. To this interval the redaction of the 78 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT Book of Deuteronomy in nearly its present form, and of the historical books from Judges to Kings, is to be ascribed. The overthrow of the Jewish kingdom in the seventh century had awakened the reflective and religious spirit of the faithful followers of Yahweh who had been deported into exile, and who had been taught by the prophets to regard the humiliations and disasters to the Jewish state at the hands of foreign powers as God's chastisements for the sins of idolatry and social oppression. These lessons of past history are enforced in these historical books in appropriate sections, usually very brief .^ One of the longest and most characteristic passages of this kind is to be found in II. Kings xvii. 7-19. Also the characters of the successive monarchs of Israel and of Judah are estimated from the religious and legal standpoint of the Book of Deuteronomy, which enforced the legitimacy of the single sanctuary at Jerusalem only, and forbad the worship of the high places with their stone pillars and Asherim (mistranslated "groves"). The contents of the two books fall into the follow- ing divisions : — (i.) I. Kings i.-ii. The last days of David. The intrigues and conflicts respecting the succession and Solomon's ascent of the throne. * Cf. above, § 11, p. 57. THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 79 (ii.) I. Kings iii.-xi. The reign of Solomon. (iii.) I. Kings xii. 1-24. The revolt of the northern tribes and the constitution of the Israelite kingdom, (iv.) I. Kings xii. 25 -II. Kings xvii. 41. The parallel history of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms until the capture of Samaria by Sargon II. of Assyria. The end of the Kingdom of Israel (722-1 e.g.). Concluding moral re- flections on the same, and the subsequent history of the imported settlers, (v.) II. Kings xviii.-xxv. History of the Kingdom of Judah from the capture of Samaria to the capture and destruction of Jerusalem (587-6 B.C.) and the exile in Babylonia (to 561 B.C.). (i.) I. Kings i., ii. is evidently a continuation and conclusion of the history of David's reign in II. Sam. ix.-xx., probably by the same narrator. (ii.) I. Kings iii.-xi. is a compilation made from various sources which the Deuteronomic editor has excerpted and adapted for his own special purposes. Among these sources was a special work called the Book of the Acts of Solomon^ to which express refer- ence is made in I. Kings xi. 41. This work seems to have consisted of a series of narratives descriptive of the glory of Solomon. Another source consisted 8o BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT in the annals of Solomon's reign, containing lists of his officers as well as statistical details such as may be found in iv. 1-19, v. 27, 28. In addition to this, it is agreed among most recent critics that there was an old Te77iple-record preserved by the Jerusalem priest- hood, which contained a full description of the erec- tion, architectural construction, as well as furniture of the Temple, such as could hardly have found a place in the Annals. To this documentary source I. Kings vi. and vii. are to be ascribed, and perhaps also I. Kings xiv. 25-28, xv. 16-22, as well as II. Kings xiv. 8-15 and xviii. 14-16 (Cornill). The i?isertio?is of the Detiteronomic editor are as clearly discernible in this portion of the Book of Kings as they are in the following sections, viz. in iii. 2, 3, v. 4, 9-13, the long inaugural temple-prayer of Solomon viii. 14-61, and also ix. 1-9. We have also a characteristic example of Deuteronomic editing in the closing refer- ence to Solomon's reign in xi. 41-43, to which close parallels will be found in the following chapters of the Books of Kings. To this section also belongs what may be reasonably held to be the mutilated fragment of a poem composed by Solomon himself, placed in our Hebrew version in verses 12, 13, but in the LXX after verse 53, which is certainly a quite appropriate place for it. With THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 8i the aid of the LXX we can restore this ancient and interesting fragment thus : — " The Sun hath Yahweh set in the heaven, Hath determined to dwell in the thick darkness ; I have surely built a dwelling-house for thee. An abiding place for thee to inhabit for ever." According to the LXX, this fragment is inserted from a work called the " Book of Songs." As no other mention is made of such a work, Wellhausen has ingeniously suggested that here we have a corruption of the original, which ought to be rendered " Book of Jashar." ^ See above, § 2. We also find occasional traces of a later post-exilian redaction due to the influence of the traditions of the document P. Thus in I. Kings viii. 1-4, the ^ Shtr^ " song," arising by a transposition of consonants out of fashar. Kittel, however, is disposed to regard "Book of Songs" as the original as well as appropriate reading here. The question indeed arises whether the corruption may not have arisen in the reverse direction to that which Wellhausen suggests, viz. that Jashar {^yashar) itself is a corruption of the original shir. The passages cited from the so-called "Book of Jashar" are all poetic, and the name Jashar (or " upright") connotes ethical rather than martial or heroic qualities. It may, however, have been a designation of Israel, as the name Jeshurun seems to suggest (see note on Isa. xliv. 2 in "Century Bible"). This appears to be the strongest argu- ment for the retention of the word Jashar as the original, though somewhat enigmatic, form. 82 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT omission of certain clauses in the LXX indicates that they were late additions to the text. We have similar omitted clauses in chap. v. 4-6, which are evidently later insertions, since they are not (note especially verses 5 and 6) to be found in the Vatican MS. of the LXX.* (iii. and iv.) L Kings xii. i - xvii. 41. As we enter the period of the Divided Kingdom with the reign of Rehoboam, it becomes at once evident that we are dealing with a continuous history, and worked out in a uniform framework clearly marked out by definite formulae, and a system of cross-references in chronology whereby the synchronism of the reigns of the Judsean and Israelite kings may be made clear. These cross-references were probably later than the definite statements as to the length of each monarch's reign, since the length of each mon- arch's reign would naturally be stated in the annals preserved in the state archives, while the cross- references would be the work of an editor of a complete parallel chronicle of the regal period of both kingdoms. Moreover, as Kittel^ points out, these cross-references in chronology are sometimes at variance with the statements as to the length of ^ Comp. with I. Kings v. 6, II. Chron. i. 14. ^ Introduction to his Commentary on the Books of Kings (in German), p. xi„ THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 83 the king's reign or other historical details. These inconsistences cannot be easily obviated by the as- sumption of textual errors. They are best explained by the hypothesis that the synchronisms or cross- references were the work of a later editor, the earlier editor being the Deuteronomic redactor. The stereotyped formulae of this framework of regal history consist in stating, in the case of the Judcean kings, the age of the monarch on his accession, the length of his reign, the name of his mother, also his death and burial. In the case of the Israelite kings we have the length of reign and the death mentioned. To these details are added the synchronistic cross-references in the case of both Israelite and Judsean kings to which allusion has already been made. We have likewise the characteristic Deuteronomic estimate of the character and policy of each successive monarch. Even Zimri, who only reigned for a week, is not passed over (I. Kings xvi. 15-20). Just as we have a " book of the acts (or history) of Solomon," from which the Deuteronomic editor borrowed in his record of Solomon's reign (I. Kings iii. 11), so in the following history of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah we have the Book of the Chro?iicles of the Kings of Israel and the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judahy to which refeience is repeatedly 84 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT made at the close of the narrative of a king's reign. It would be natural to suppose that these works were simply the royal state annals of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah respectively. But ever since the time of Kuenen, O.T. scholars have held that these are histori- cal works based upon such original documents, rather than the documents themselves. For the Northern Kingdom it hardly seems probable that such state annals could have existed in the form in which they are here presented. Thus the conspiracy "wrought" by Zimri (I. Kings xvi. 20) or by Shallum (II. Kings xv. 15) are expressions which belong rather to an independent history based on official documents than to those official documents themselves. It is extremely doubtful how far access to the official annals of the Northern King- dom would be possible after the dynastic troubles and wars ending with the siege and capture of Samaria in 722 B.C. This would apply to the official records of Pekah's reign {cf. II. Kings xv. 31). This monarch, who waged war with Jotham and Ahaz, was ultimately slain by the Assyrians, as Tiglath Pileser's inscriptions inform us. It is therefore probable that the " Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel " was an Ephraimite work, which had passed over into Judaea and had been employed either in its original form or, as is probable, in a Judaan recension by the Deuteronomic editor. THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 85 When this Judaean recension was made it is impossible to say. The " Chronicles of the Kings of Judah " was a parallel historical work based on state records of the Southern Kingdom, which must have been com- posed during or after the reign of Jehoiakim, since the last reference to it is to be found in the ordinary formula, " Now the rest of the acts," &c., which comes at the close of the reign of Jehoiakim (II. Kings xxiv. 5). In addition to these histories of the two kingdoms, we have inserted into the middle of the work bio- graphical narratives respecting the two prophets of the Northern Kingdom, Elijah and Elisha. The narra- tive of the prophet Elijah can be readily detached from the surrounding matter, viz. I. Kings xvii.-xix., xxi., II. Kings i. 2-17 (most of which is regarded by some critics as late). The narrative of the prophet Elisha consists of more detached episodes, II. Kings ii.- viii. 15 and xiii. 14-21, which by no means suggest unity of origin like the Elijah narratives. Undoubtedly both originated in the Northern Kingdom. There was also another Ephraimite narrative which was utilised by the Deuteronomic redactor, viz. The graphic story of AhaFs wars contained in I. Kings xx. and xxii. 1-38, which are evidently distinct from the Elijah narrative in chaps, xix. and xxi. Kittel 86 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT in his commentary^ has pointed out special features of language in the original of this Ephraimite narrative of Ahab's reign. To this same document belongs the equally vivid story of Jehu's usurpation and his over- throw of the Omri dynasty and its Phcenician Baal worship, II. Kings ix. i-x. 27. Most recent critics, however, follow Stade in regarding x. 12-16 as an insertion from another source, since verses 12 ff. do not fit in naturally with verses 1 7 ff. The spirit of this interesting Ephraimite document is evidently strongly national and in sympathy with the prophetic move- ment against the Phoenician cult favoured by the Omri dynasty and upheld by Jezebel. We pass now from these older sources to some of the later insertions which have been incorporated in the Books of Kings. One of the most striking examples of these later insertions is to be found in the late narrative, I. Kings xii. 33-xiii. 33. In this the mention of the name of Josiah, King of Judah (in xiii. 2), is an indication that we have here a late production composed after 621 b.c. under the influence of the Deuteronomic standards of cultus and legality. The story is introduced into the texture of the work by the preface of a Deuteronomic redactor who wrote xii. 30- 32. In fact, it is quite evident to the careful reader 1 In German, p. 163. THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 87 that the Deuteronomic editor fastened upon the reign of " Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin " as one of the turning-points of reHgious as well as political history w^hich needed the pen of the redactor to throw it into powerful and instructive relief. This is clearly visible in the following narrative, I. Kings xiv. 1-24. But the Judaean editor bestows his blame im- partially. It falls on Rehoboam (verses 22 ff.) as well as on Jeroboam I. (v.) 11. Kings xviii. i-xxv. 30. We now pass to the record of Judah's history after the capture of Samaria. Here the narrative is obviously based on the Judaean Chronicle (" Chronicles of the Kings of Judah "), which, as we have already explained, made use of the official state records. The narrative flows on in much the same fashion, with the characteristic touches and in- sertions of the Deuteronomic redactor. We notice these traits more especially when we come to the reactionary reigns of Manasseh, Amon, and Jehoiakim. Just as we had in the earlier portions of the history of the regal period inserted portions derived from Ephraimite narratives of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, so we have here inserted portions derived from an earlier and a later biography of Isaiah^ probably com- posed by writers belonging to the prophetic circle. The earlier section is found in II. Kings xviii. 13, 17- 88 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT xix. 8, and the later in xix. 9-37. Owing to the use that is made of both narratives, the single embassy of Rabshakeh, who is despatched by Sennacherib from the Assyrian camp at Lachish and confers with the Jewish elders, is made to appear as though there were two, in both of which Rabshakeh speaks in much the same strain. In these chapters which describe the events of the reign of Hezekiah, 11. Kings xx. has been mis- placed, since Merodach Baladan's embassy takes chro- nological precedence of the invasion by Sennacherib described in xviii. 13 ff. A careful examination of the text of I. and II. Kings shows that it has been edited not once only by the Deuteronomic editor, but has passed through a three- fold redaction. The first Deuteronomic redaction was that which embraced the entire historical books of the Old Testament from Gen. ii. 4^ onwards, including only the pre-exilian narratives within its scope (J and E), and ended with II. Kings xxiv. 7. This redaction was probably effected shortly before the close of the Judsean kingdom, i.e. about 600 B.C. Clear traces of a later Deuteronomic redaction may be found in which definite reference is made to the exile. Thus in II. Kings xvii. 19, 20, 34(^-41, Judah is specifically included in the judgments which are to befall disobedience. Nor is the sin only the defection THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 89 from the central and true worship associated with the name of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but Canaanite idolatry as well. Similarly in II. Kings xxi. 7-15, the ''line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab" is denounced against Judah for the Asherah worship of King Manasseh. After II. Kings xxiv. 7, the later Deuteronomic redaction probably supplies the concluding historical and other matter, which is brought down to 561 B.C. in the reign of Evil Merodach, when Jehoiachin was released. No allusion is made to the return from exile; accordingly some time between 560-555 B.C. may be assigned to this second Deuteronomic redaction. We have also clear indications of a last and final post- exilian redaction under the influence of P, e.g. I. Kings vi. 16, where the reference to "the most holy place" is inserted. Moreover, in the ritual details of I. Kings viii. i-ii the influence of P is obvious in every line. Only a brief allusion can here be made to the variations in text which are indicated by the LXX version. A remarkable example of this is to be found in the LXX Vatican and Lucian text of I. Kings xii. 24, in the Greek text, as compared with I. Kings xii. 6-9 in the Hebrew text of our Bibles. On this we would refer the reader to Principal Skinner's full note in the " Century Bible " Commentary on Kings, Appendix, Note II., p. 443. CHAPTER IV THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS §14. The Prophetical Books, or, in the language of the Hebrew canon, "the Latter Prophets'' {cf. § 9, p. 52, above), fall into two parts, viz. the Greater Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and the " Lesser " or " Minor Prophets." According to one of the treatises in the Talmud, Isaiah did not always stand first in the list of prophets, since, according to this tradition, it came third in the list of greater prophets and Jeremiah came first. This may have been due to the fact that the Book of Isaiah is really a collection of prophetic groups of oracles, some of these groups, more especi- ally chaps, xxiv.-xxvii., being very late. The entire col- lection was therefore in all probability formed at a later time than those of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. However this may be, it is certain that at the time of Origen, in the early part of the third century, Isaiah, as constituting the largest and most important collection of prophecies, was placed first among the greater prophets of the Hebrew canon. 90 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 91 § 15. The composite character of the large collection entitled the " Book of the Prophet Isaiah " has long been demonstrated by Old Testament scholars, not only from a careful examination of the language and style of the original, but also from the contents. The weight of the accumulated evidence on both sides is irresistible, and clearly points to the conclusion that the prophet who lived in the latter part of the eighth century B.C. and exercised his ministry during the reigns of the Judaean kings from Jotham to Hezekiah, called Isaiah^ delivered oracles which are only to be found in scattered groups of considerable relative size within the first thirty-three chapters, and not beyond. The entire collection of oracles, to which the name of this earlier prophet was given, may be best divided as follows into the following larger groups, viz. : (i) Chaps, i.-xxxix. ; (2) chaps, xl.-lv., which is called the Deutero-Isaiah ; (3) chaps. Ivi.-lxvi., now designated Trito-Isaiah. With each of these three larger groups we shall now deal seriatim. (i) Chaps, i.-xxxix. form a collection made up of smaller groups, viz. : (i.) Chaps, i.-xii., mainly consisting of genuine Isaianic matter ; (ii.) chaps, xiii.-xxiii., consisting almost wholly of prophetic " burdens," or more accurately " utterances, ^^ delivered against foreign nations, many of which were composed by the prophet 92 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT Isaiah ; (iii.) chaps, xxiv.-xxvii., a very late group of prophecies of a highly apocalyptic character, difficult to interpret ; (iv.) chaps, xxviii.-xxxv., another series of oracles, some of which were composed by Isaiah ; (v.) chaps, xxxvi.-xxxix., a historical appendix consisting of the two Isaiah biographies which are inserted in the Books of Kings (see ante^ § 13, p. 87 ff.), viz. II. Kings xviii. 13, 17-XX. 19. Into the midst of this narrative a late redactor inserted a Psalm-prayer of Hezekiah, with an introductory title Isa. xxxviii. 9-20, similar to those which are found in the Psalms. (i.) Chaps, i. -xii. formed a smaller collection consist- ing of Isaianic matter, and concluding with a lyrical, or rather two short lyrical songs. This collection must have been made in post-exilian times. All critics are agreed that this lyrical chapter xii., with which the col- lection ends, belongs to this period; also the title in chap. i. I, which now stands at the head of the entire collection of prophecies, was probably intended at first for this smaller collection, to which it obviously and more strictly applies, since chaps, xiii.-xxiii. deal rather with foreign peoples than with " Judah and Jerusalem " (see i. i). On the other hand, chaps, i.-xi. contain oracles (with one clear exception) dealing with the re- ligious and social conditions of the Southern Kingdom. Some of the most important and characteristic oracles of THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 93 the prophet belong to this small collection. It is strange that the account of the call of the Prophet to the work of his life in the death-year of Uzziah, 740-39 b.c. (chap, vi.), does not stand at the beginning of the collection, just as the call of Jeremiah (Jer. i. i-io) and that of Ezekiel (Ezek. i., ii.) are recorded at the beginning of the collections which respectively bear their names. As we examine the sequence and contents of these chapters i.-xii., we see clear traces that there was at one time a small separate collection of Isaiah's oracles, chaps, vi. i-viii. 18, which we might have called the " Book of Immanuel." Chap. viii. 16 would indicate that in an hour of great depression, about 735-4 B.C., the prophet gave instructions that his disciples should preserve some of the discourses of the first five years of his ministry. It is to this period of religious and political gloom that the composition of chap, vi., de- scriptive of his inaugurating vision and call, is due. This book may have been subsequently enlarged by the addition of other Isaianic matter, which included the oracles breathing greater confidence against Assyrian tyranny, x. 5-27, and the Messianic poems, ix. 1-7 and xi. 1-9. About these last two lyrical passages there has been considerable controversy. Several recent critics pronounce them to be non-Isaianic and post- exilian. But there are no decisive proofs of this* 94 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT Their language and conceptions might well have belonged to the close of Isaiah's ministry when the withdrawal of Sennacherib's forces from Palestine (701 B.C.) appeared to be a vindication of the prophet's encouraging oracle, x. 24-27. In chaps, ix. 8-x. 4 we have an unfortunately mutilated fragment of a long poem, with intercalary refrain directed against the Northern Kingdom and announcing its impending doom. It was probably composed about 726-5 B.C. Fortunately the concluding fragments of this poem are to be found in another small collection, viz. ii. 2- V. 30. These concluding fragments consist of verses 25-30 at the end of chap. v. The recurrence of the refrain of ix. 8-x. 4 in the latter part of chap. v. 25 shows that here we have the impressive conclusion of the entire poem. Chap. v. begins with the parabolic song of the vineyard (verses 1-7). Then follows the seven- fold denunciation of woes against the social sins and vices of Judah. This chapter, which is entirely Isaianic, appears to have been attached to the smaller Isaianic collection, chap. ii. 2-iv. 6, to which ii. i stands as title. In this small collection, chap. ii. 2-4, which is almost identical with Micah iv. 1-4, has been regarded by many critics as non-Isaianic and post-exilian, though its genuineness is maintained by others. There can be Uttle doubt that chap, iv, 5-6 are verses that were THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 95 composed in post-exilian times. Some would include verses 2-4, which precede them. Chap. i. forms another brief compend of Isaiah's oracles, placed at the head of the collection, chaps, i.-xii., because it embodies in impressive form the prophet's arraignment of Judah and the denunciation of the judgments that are to befall the people for disobedience. The great German exegete Ewald appropriately calls it "the great arraignment." Its date may probably be 735 B.C. for verses 2-17, and perhaps for the remaining fragments of the chapter. (ii.) Chaps, xiii.-xxiii. are a series of "utterances" or oracles (A.V. and R. V. " burdens ") delivered against foreign peoples. Chaps, xiii. i-xiv. 23 is a remarkable elegy against Babylon, with a short prosaic section interpolated, xiv. 1-4^. One of the most impressive passages in this long poem is the description of the advent of the Babylonian monarch called "Lucifer, son of Aurora " (the nearest equivalent of the original), to the shades below, where the subjugated kings whom he had overthrown greet him as he enters Hades (xiv. 9-21). From numerous indications it is evident that this poem cannot have been composed till the time of the Babylonian exile about 550 b.c. — There follows afragtnent of an orach by Isaiah (xiv. 24-27) delivered probably in 705-4 B.C. against the Assyrians. — Chap, xiv. 29-32 is an oracle of warning against over confi.- 96 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT dence, addressed to the Philistines. The superscription in verse 28 prefixed by the redactor assigns a wrong date. The "serpent" is Sargon, who had recently died, and the "fiery flying serpent" is Sennacherib. The date, therefore, is the same as that of the pre- ceding fragment, 705-4 b.c. Chap. XV., xvi. is another long oracle announcing the doom of Moab. The last two verses by the prophet Isaiah clearly show that the preceding passage, XV. i-xvi. 12, was an older oracle. It appears to have been a 77idshdl^ i.e. a ballad, composed probably in the days of Jeroboam II., when Moab was overthrown by Israel, or, perhaps, earlier still, when it was subju- gated by Omri (about 885 b.c.).^ Chap, xvii., the oracle on Damascus^ is one of the earliest of Isaiah's prophecies, and may probably be dated 736 b.c. Chap, xviii. is a prophecy of the speedy overthrow of the Assyrian power, delivered in response to an anxious embassy from Ethiopia. We might assign to it the approximate date, 702 b.c. The oracle on Egypt in chap. xix. is in reality a series of prophetic utterances on Egypt, which were delivered at various times and crises in her history. Only the short passage, verses 19-22, can be regarded as Isaianic. 1 The "stone of Mesha" (sometimes called "the Moabite Stone "), lines 4-7, testifies to this subjugation of Moab by Omri. THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 97 — Chap. XX. is a warning against the Egyptian alliance addressed to the rulers in Jerusalem, and expressed in the language of symbolic action, as in Jer. xiii. 1-7, xix. T-ii, xxvii. i-ii, xxviii. 10-17, ^^iii- 9> lO) li. 60-64; Ezek. iv., v.; Acts xxi. 11. The reference to the attack by Sargon's general (Tartan) on Ashdod fixes the date of this prophecy as 711 b.c. — Chap. xxi. i-io, ^^ Burden of the Wilderness of the Sea,'' is an oracle on the doom of Babylon. Various internal indications show that it does not emanate from the age of Isaiah, but from the latter part of the exile. The brief and enigmatic " oracle of Dumah " (xxi. II, 12) affords no definite clue as to date. — Also xxi. 13-17, "the utterance in the Steppe" {^^ burden upon Arabia ") may belong to a date as early as the time of Isaiah, or even earlier. Verses 16, 17 are the prosaic addition of a later writer than the author of the oracle. — The " utterance of the Valley of Vision^' (xxii. 1-14) is a denunciation by Isaiah of the frivolity of Jerusalem. The historic occasion for the untimely rejoicing may have been the embassy of Merodach Baladan, 704 B.C., or the arrival of the captured Padi, Assyria's puppet-king of Ekron.^ — Chap, xxii. 15-25 describes the encounter between Isaiah and ^ Duhm's ingenious suggestion, based on the incident to which Sennacherib's Prism-inscription refers, col. ii. 69-72. G 98 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT Shebna, the king's vizier, who belonged to the Egyptian party in the state, whose policy Isaiah strongly opposed. — Chap, xxiii., the utterance against Tyre^ can with diffi- culty be ascribed to Isaiah. Verses 1-14 might be connected with the prolonged siege by Esarhaddon and the final reduction of Tyre by Asurbanipal, 668 B.C. Verses 15-18 belong to a later time. (iii.) Chapters xxiv.-xxvii, belong to a later and quite distinct type of prophecy from that of the pre- exilian period. This type is called apocalyptic^ of which the Book of Daniel furnishes a vivid example. While the earlier prophecy foretells a definite future which has its foundation in the present, apocalyptic directs attention to a new world-period, sharply contrasted with the present and ushered in by a great cosmic crisis or agony, a war of destruction or " day of Yahweh," which is universal in character, waged against hostile nations, after which God's world-dominion begins. Compare xxiv. i, 3-5, 14-16, 18-23, xxvii. 1, 13. Another distinguishing feature of this group of prophecies is the clear enunciation of the soul's resurrection and immortality (xxvi. 19 ; cf. Dan. xii. 2, 3). Pre-exilian prophecy presents us only with a dark and shadowy existence after death in Sheol or Hades, i.e. the underworld. The date of this com- plex group of prophetic passages cannot be deter- THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 99 mined with any certainty. Probably they belong to the Greek period, and cannot be safely placed earlier than the time of Alexander the Great, circ, 330-325 b.c. (iv.) Chaps, xxviu.-xxxv. This group contains both Isaianic and post-Isaianic matter. Chap, xxviii. 1-4 is a denunciation by Isaiah of the drunken habits of the Ephraimites, and the announcement of doom against their capital, Samaria. The date of this short prophecy may be placed in 725-4 b.c. Verses 7-22 is another denunciation by the prophet, in 7-13 of the priests and prophets who yielded to the vices of gross intoxication, in 14-22 of the political rulers. — Chap. xxix. contains a series of warnings and denuncia- tions. Jerusalem will soon be invested, but her foes shall disappear as a vision of the night. There follows a rebuke of the dull, unintelligent spirit of the people. — Chap. XXX. begins with a scathing condemnation of the policy of alliance with Egypt. In verse 7 he calls Egypt by the mythical name of the monster Rahab of Semitic legend (to which chap. li. 9 refers), viz. " Rahab the Vanquished " (verse 7).^ The Isaianic origin of verses 18-26 is doubtful, but the threatening ^ Not " Rahab that sitteth still," which is due to a false group- ing of consonants. Rahab corresponds to Tidmat of the Babylonian Creation epic, slain by Marduk, god of light; see art. "Cosmo- gony " in Hastings' D. B., i. p. 505. loo BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT of fiery judgment against Assyria in the concluding verses, 27-33, is in the vivid style and language of Isaiah. — Chap. xxxi. contains another strong con- demnation of the policy of an Egyptian alliance. Yahweh will Himself protect Jerusalem and Assyria will be overthrown. — Chap, xxxii. 1-5 contains another Messianic oracle of Isaiah. The following verses (6-8) are by a later writer and of a didactic character. In verses 9-14 Isaiah rebukes the frivolity of the women in the upper classes of society {cf. iii. 16 ff.). The concluding verses, 15-20, contain the promise of the advent of a Messianic age of righteousness and peace. — Chap, xxxiii. appears to have been based on an Isaianic oracle of reassurance to Judah and directed against Sennacherib. This Isaianic oracle has been worked over and adapted to the circumstances and events at the close of the Judaean kingdom in the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Chap, xxxiv. is a denunciation of judgment on Edom which must be placed by the side of Mai. i. 1-5 and Isa. Ixiii. 1-6. It cannot be put earlier than the middle of the fifth century B.C. To this a lyrical pendant is attached in chap. xxxv. The many points of contact with exilian and post-exilian literature, in- cluding Deutero- and Trito-Isaiah, are clear indications that the post-exilian date which we have indicated is not by any means too late. THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS loi (v.) The historical appendix, chaps, xxxvi.-xxxix., consisting of the two Isaiah narratives, which are nearly identical with the corresponding sections in II. Kings (see above, § 13, p. 87 fif.), was evidently added to the preceding collection as a convenience for the reader who desired to have at hand a narrative of the great historic event — the invasion of Sennacherib and the siege of Jerusalem — in which the prophet took so con- spicuous a part. We shall find that there were similar excerpts in the collected oracles called the " Book of the prophet Jeremiah," taken from the contemporary history in II. Kings. Before passing to the next main division of the Book of Isaiah, it will be convenient to place before the reader a list of the genuine oracles of Isaiah in their probable chronological order : — Chap. ii. 6-21. 740-739 B.C. „ xvii. i-ii (on Damascus and Ephraim). 736 B.C. „ i. 1-26. 735 B.C. (Syro-Ephraimite war) rather than 701 (Sennacherib's invasion), as most recent critics assume. At this latter date the tone of the prophet was more hopeful. „ vii. i-viii. 18. 735-731 B.C. „ vi. refers to the prophet's call in 740 B.C. (Uzziah's death year), but was probably written about 735-4 B.C. 5, v. 1-24. About 730 B.C. (?). „ iii. i-iv. I may be assigned to 730-25 B.C. 102 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT Chap, xxxii. 9-14 might be assigned to the same period, or later. ix. 8-x. 4, chap. v. 25-30. 726 B.C. i. 29-31 refers to the Northern rather than Southern Kingdom. 726-5 B.C. xxviii. 1-4 (on Samaria). 725-4 B.C. viii. 19-22. Either 735 (like preceding verses) or any time between 725 and 715 B.C. xxviii. 7-13. Some time within 724-715 B.C. xxviii. 14-20 may be conjecturally referred to 713 B.C. Chaps. XV. and xvi. An earlier oracle referring to Moab, employed by Isaiah about 713-11 B.C. Chap. XX. 711 B.C. xxii. 15-25. 705-4 B.C. xiv. 24-27 and 28-32. 705-4 B.C. X. 5-27. 705-4 B.C. xxix. 1-2 1 ) X. 28-32 |703-2B.C. xvii. 12-14, xviii. ) , . ]- 702 B.C. XXX. and xxxi. \ ' xxii. 1-14. 701 B.C. xxi. 13-17 might belong to the same date^ but its chronological position is quite uncertain. After 701 B.C. we might place the Messianic passages in the following probable order : ix. 1-7 ; xi. 1-9 ; xxxii. 1-5, 15-20 ; iv. 2-4 ; and perhaps ii. 2-4, but the Isaianic authorship of this last is doubtful. (2) Chaps, xl.-lv., or Deiitero- Isaiah. We now come THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 103 to a prophetic collection which stands altogether separate from the oracles that precede, and which European scholarship during the last century has proved to have been written during the close and immediately after the close of the exile This conclusion is found to be inevitable when we take into account both the contents and style of the chapters. The conte?tts evidently presuppose that Jerusalem had been destroyed, and its population in considerable numbers had been deported to Babylonia and were living there in exile (xl. i, 2, xlii. 22^ xliv. 26, 27, xlvii. 6, xlix. 14-17, 19-21, 1. I, li. 13, 14, 17, 19-22, liv. 7 ff., 11) ; moreover, that a restoration of these exiles was immediately at hand, and that Cyrus, the anointed servant of Yahweh, was God's chosen instrument to carry out His purpose of Divine redemptive love (xl. 3, 4, xli. 2, 3 (in reference to Cyrus), xli. 11-14, 25 ff. (in reference to Cyrus), xliii. 1-6, 16 ff., xliv. 28-xlv. 6 (in which Cyrus is expressly named twice), xiviii. 20, 21, xlix. 8, 9, II, 12, 19-21, Hi. 8-12, Iv. 12, 13). In the Isaianic sections of chaps, i.-xxxix. we have frequent allusions to Canaanite forms of idolatry, necromancy and foreign practices of divination, to Assyria as the dominant military power. Egypt is denounced as a delusive support. The social sins denounced, of self-aggrandisement, drunkenness, and oppression of I04 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT the poor, are those of a resident Palestinian population. The place-names in x. 28-32 are all Judaean. In chaps, xl.-lv. none of these characteristics appear. We have to do with a community of exiles. There are no allusions to altar and its ritual. Babylonia is the only dominant power; Egypt is very remote. The only foreign deities mentioned are the chief divinities of Babylonia, Nebo {Nabi'i) and Bel {i.e. Marduk, god of light), in xlvi. i. The scenery in xli. 18, 19, xliv. 4, li. 3 is that of Babylonia. The references to magic and astrology in xlvii. 9, 12, 13, like those of Ezek. xiii. 17-23, are clearly descriptive of the sorcery and divinations of Babylonia, as recent publications of its incantation-rituals definitely prove. The language and style of chaps, xl.-lv. are likewise special and distinctive, viz. : (i) A tendency to reduplicate a word or phrase, as "Comfort ye" (xl. i), "Awake" (li. 9, 17, Hi. i), "Depart ye" (Hi. 11). (2) A tendency to accumulate descriptive clauses, e.g. xl. 22-23, ^^ii- 5> xliii. I, 14, 16-19, ^l^v. 6, 24-26, xlv. 18, xlvi. 3, xlviii. I, xlix. 7. (3) The combination of the Divine name with the epithets "Creator" (xliii. i), " stretcher out of the heavens" (xl. 22), "fashioner of Israel" (xliii. i), "redeemer" (xliii. 14, xliv. 24^2, xlvin. 17^, &c.). (4) We have certain recurring formulae — " fear not, for" (xli. 10, 13 ff., xlii. i, 5, xlv. 2, Hv. 4), THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 105 " I the first and last " (xli. 4, xliv. 6, xlviii. 2). (5) We have certain special expressions : *' Lift up thine eyes above" (xl. 26, xlix. 18, li. 6), "things to come'' or future (xli. 23, xliv. 7, xlv. 11). The special word " create " in respect of Divine action {bard) appears to have originated with the Deutero- Isaiah (xl. 28, xlv. 7), and passed from him to later writers as P in Gen. i. i, 27, v. i, 2, &c.^ (6) The language of Isa. xliv. 27, xlv. 3 has been compared with the Babylonian of the Cyrus-cylinder, and the parallels seem to clearly indicate that the Deutero-Isaiah was familiar with the court-style which was current in Babylonia, and employed it in reference to Cyrus. Other examples of the influence of Babylonian phraseology {e.g. the word for "bowl" in li. 17, 22) might be cited. In this connection the close parallel between the conception of Yahweh hewing Rahab in pieces in H. 9, 10, and the conflict with Tiamat in which the dragon-goddess is hewn in pieces by Marduk the god of light, described in the fourth tablet of the Babylonian Creation-epic, is of great significance. The Deutero-Isaianic oracles fall into two divisions : — (i.) Chaps, xl. - xlviii. are reassuring prophecies of restoration. Babylon is soon to be overthrown, ^ Amos iv. 13 and Isa. iv. 5 are not pre-exilian but late. Jer. xxxi. 22 is doubtful. io6 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT and special reference made to the victorious advan-ce of Cyrus, Yahweh's anointed Servant, destined to carry out His redemptive purpose in delivering the exiled Israel and accomplishing their restoration to Judah. (ii.) Chaps, xlix.-lv. contain no further reference to Cyrus. They indicate a later stage in the progress of events. Babylon has been taken, and the prophet is engaged in setting forth before his exiled fellow-countrymen their great opportunity and the splendid ideals of the restored Jewish state and the rebuilt temple. Throughout the Deutero-Isaiah there recurs the epithet " Servant of Yahweh," whom Yahweh addresses as " My Servant." A careful examination of the passages where the expression occurs soon reveals that this is a personification of Israel. Cf. xliv. i, 2, 21 and xlix. 3, 5. But a still closer scrutiny reveals a distinction in the use of the term. We have a series oi fo2ir '-^ servant poems'''' in the midst of the Deutero- Isaiah, viz. chap. xlii. 1-4, xlix. 1-6, 1. 4-9, Hi. 13- liii. 12, in which this personality the "Servant of Yahweh" is the central figure. Some recent critics have argued that the Deutero-Isaiah was the writer of these four Servant poems, and that the epithet as THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 107 used in these poems and by the Deutero-Isaiah de- signates the whole Israelite people. But careful ex- amination shows that the facts point the other way. The Servant in these four poems is not the whole of Israel, as xlix. 6 compared with verse 3 clearly proves, but a select portion of the exiled community in Babylonia who were faithful to their God and suffered patiently many hardships awaiting the promised re- storation. This faithful remnant suffered as an atone- ment for Israel and the rest of mankind (chap. lii. 13-liii. 12). The author of these four remarkable poems lived in Babylonia and wrote before the Deutero- Isaiah, and evidently deeply impressed the latter, who employs many of his phrases, but has distinctive char- acteristics of his own. Thus "Servant of Yahweh" is employed by the Deutero-Isaiah as equivalent to the whole of Israel, and is by no means a pure and faultless personage, as xlii. 19, 20 clearly indicates. (3) Chaps. Ivi-lxvi., or the Trito-Isaiah, constitute a separate collection of prophecies. The environment is quite different from that of the Deutero-Isaiah. In the latter we were in the midst of an exiled community in Babylonia. Anticipations of emancipation from exile, and the restoration of the Jewish community and its temple in Jerusalem, fill these oracles of the closing days of the exile. In the Trito-Isaiah we io8 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT are in Palestinian and not in Babylonian surroundings. The temple has been rebuilt, and sacrifices are offered there and a definite ritual has been established. Sabbaths are strictly kept. But as we pass through chaps. Ivi.-lix. we frequently read the language of bitter and stern rebuke of hollow formalism and social oppression (Iviii. and lix.). The close parallels between the circumstances disclosed in these chapters, as well as Ixiii.— Ixvi. and those in the oracles of Malachi, clearly indicate that the Trito-Isaiah is post-exilian and belongs to some time between 460 and 445 B.C. In both Malachi and these oracles the personal Messiah has no place. It is a period of religious degeneracy. Modes of religious life and cultus prevail which are survivals of the old Palestinian life, contrary to the ideals of the Deuteronomic code (Isa. Ivii, 3-10, Ixv. 2-5, Ixvi. 3, 4). We have likewise definite allusions in the concluding chapters to the Samaritan schism (Ixvi. 1-6). These references become much clearer when we study the earlier chapters of Nehemiah. We have a short lyrical group of chapters, Ix.-Ixii., which breathe a happier spirit of confident hope and remind us of the Deutero-Tsaiah — indeed, many Deutero- Isaianic expressions here occur. These lyrical passages emanate from the time which immediately preceded or perhaps even synchronised with the advent of THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 109 Nehemiah, who brought with him a new reforming spirit. The style of the Trito-Isaiah shows the evident in- fluences of the prophets who preceded, and also of the Book of Deuterono7fiy . The influence of Jeremiah and that of Ezekiel are very conspicuous, yet certainly not so marked as that of the Deutero-Isaiah. The whole of these chapters, however, did not emanate from one author or one time. Chaps. Ixiii. 7-lxiv. 12 belong to an earlier post-exilian period preceding the build- ing of the temple by Zerubbabel, i.e. between 538 and 520, preceding the oracles of Haggai and Zechariah. Moreover, both in Deutero-Isaiah and Trito-Isaiah there are insertions by a redactor who evidently Hved in much later and less happy times (xlviii. 4, 8-10, 17-19, Ixvi. 23, 24). Probably at some time near 400 B.C. both Deutero- Isaiah and Trito-Isaiah (xl.-lxvi.) were united into one work. It is possible that they were subsequently combined with the oracles of Jeremiah, for in II. Chron. xxxvi. 22 ff". there seems to be a reference to Isa. xliv. 28 as though it came from Jeremiah.^ The Books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah were ^ Jer. xxix. lo, in which no mention of Cyrus is made, is by no means as probable a reference as Isa. xliv. 28, in which Cyrus, is expressly named. no BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT composed before 250 B.C. In Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 23-25 we have allusions to Isa. xl. i, Ixi. 1-3, as written by " Isaiah the prophet." This shows that the entire collection of sixty-six chapters as we now have them was formed by the time that Ecclesiasticus was written (180 B.C. or earlier). § 16. The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, like the large collection of oracles which precedes it, con- tains much extraneous matter beside the genuine utterances of the prophet. We have far more defi- nite biographical information about Jeremiah and his literary activity than we possess respecting any earUer prophets. This we owe to the fact that he had a young disciple who was his faithful companion, Baruch. There can be little doubt that at least a very con- siderable portion of the narratives in chaps, xix.-xx. 6, xxvi.-xxix., xxxiv., and xxxvi.-xlv. came from the pen of Baruch. In these biographical records Jere- miah is called " the prophet." Among these narratives chap, xxxvi. has special importance. We there learn that Jeremiah, who began his prophetic career in 626 B.C. (the 13th year of Josiah), received a com- mand from Yahweh in the 4th year of Jehoiakim, or 605-4 B.C., to write down in a roll the oracles which he had hitherto uttered. The work was ac- comphshed at his dictation by his young disciple THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS iii Baruch, but within what time we are not told. In the following year, when a special fast-day was cele- brated in Jerusalem, these oracles were read by Baruch before the people in the temple entrance. And they were subsequently read before the king, who burned the entire roll (Jer. xxxvi. 10-24). But the words of the destroyed roll were reproduced at God's command, and other oracles of similar import were added (verses 27-32). This important chapter clearly shows (i) that during the first twenty-three years of the active life of the prophet no record was taken of his words; (2) that a lengthy compen- dium of his utterances, which apparently occupied some time in writing, was dictated by the prophet, but not so long that it could not be recited twice over in the course of a few hours. The condition in which we find the genuine oracles of the prophet scattered in the midst of other matter, partly biographical and partly of later exilian or post-exilian origin, clearly shows that we have in our present book of the prophet materials based upon the roll of Jeremiah's oracles which Baruch copied out to replace the roll that was burnt — certainly not the roll itself. In order to recover from our present text the genuine oracles of Jeremiah which he delivered during these first twenty-two years of his prophetic Hfe, we have to 112 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT separate the biographical elements in the earlier chap- ters of the collection which speak of Jeremiah in the third person (xix. i-xx. 6/ xxvi.), as well as the inter- polations of a much later time. There will then remain chaps, i.-xii. 6, xviii., xxii. lo (lament over Josiah's successor), and xxv. as those in which the actual utterances of the prophet are to be found which belong to the first twenty-two years of his prophetic activity. Yet much critical caution is re- quired in dealing with these chapters. As Stade shows, chap. iii. 6-i8 is interposed between iii. 5 and verse 19 and breaks the continuity. We are not, however, to argue from this that verses 6-18 are quite independent of Jeremiah and belong to a later time. For in this passage the restoration of Israel, whose sin was less heinous than that of Judah, is definitely announced, and this is substantially the message of Jer. xxxi. 2-6 and 15-22, which are held by most critics to be the genuine utterances of Jere- miah. Similarly, the connection between ix. 22 and x. 17 ff. is interrupted by a series of discourses (ix. 23-x. 16). Of this insertion it is possible that Jere- miah uttered the oracles ix. 23-26, but it is hardly ^ This by no means excludes the substantial accuracy of the incidents as well as utterances of Jeremiah described in these chapters (see Cornill's Commentary, pp. 230, 299). THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 113 possible that x. 1-16 were spoken by him, for verse II, like portions of Daniel and Ezra, is not in Hebrew but in Aramaic, and verses 6-10 are omitted in the LXX (B). We have also belonging to this first period of the prophet's career the narratives in which Jeremiah himself speaks in the first person, and which evidently originate from him, contained in chap, xiii., as well as those in i., xi., xviii., already mentioned. It is, however, extremely difficult in some cases to fix the chronological order of the genuine utterances of the prophet contained in the first twenty-five chapters, and to determine which among them came before and which after the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign. Thus it is quite possible that we ought to place chap. xxxi. 2-6 and 15-22, and what seems to be its duplicate, iii. 6-18, among the discourses uttered before 605 b.c. which were included in the roll. We might place in the time oi Jehoiakhn not only chaps, xiv., xv., which in many of their graphic allusions (xiv. 2-6, 18, XV. 2, 7-9) point to a time of grievous famine and drought, but also chaps, xvi. 2—xvii. 18. There likewise belong to the same period (607-597 B.C.) the narrative sections, chap. xix. i-xx. 6, xxvi., xxxvi., and xlv. (the last two belonging to the fourth year oi Jehoiakim^ s reign, as stated in the opening verse H 114 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT of each). We have also Jeremiah's own interesting narrative respecting the Rechabites, chap. xxxv. To the brief reign of three months of the next King JehoiacJmi belong xxii. 20-30, and also xiii. 18, 19. To the reign of the last King of Judah, Zedekiah, we must ascribe chaps, xxvii.-xxix. and also xxxiv., closely connected with the subsequent historical nar- rative, xxxvii., and the immediately following xxxviii. 1-28^. To these must be added chaps, xl.-xliv.^ the narratives respecting Jeremiah, describing the events which immediately follow^ed the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar's army (587-6 B.C.), the murder of Gedaliah by Ishmael, and the deliverance of Jeremiah from the latter by Johanan, and his deportation by Johanan as an unwilling exile to Egypt. Here all definite historical details respecting the prophet cease. These narrative sections, which deal with the personal experiences of the prophet, are evidently based on the records drawn up by his faithful disciple and attendant Baruch. Obviously they are not the records themselves, since many modifications and additions have been made. This can be clearly seen in chap. xxvi. Here the discourse delivered in the forecourt of the temple is evidently the same as that which is given to us in extended form in chap. vii. 3 ff. In chapters xlvi. to li. we have a series of oracles THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 115 delivered against foreign countries and their peoples, somewhat resembling the "utterances" ("burdens") of Isaiah, introduced by the editorial heading "The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the foreign nations." In the LXX these oracles are closely connected with chap, xxv., which in verse i is dated from the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign. This would be the year 605 B.C., when Nebu- chadnezzar fought one of the great decisive battles of ancient history at Carchemish, and inflicted an overwhelming defeat on Pharaoh Necho, which com- pelled him to relinquish all his ambitious projects of extending the Egyptian power to the Euphrates (Egypt's proud position in the reign of Thothmes III.). The threatening attitude of Nebuchadnezzar in Western Asia was the natural occasion for the delivery of the two oracles in chap, xxv., viz. verses 3-13, in which Nebuchadnezzar, Yahweh's servant, is to execute God's judgment against Judah and the surrounding nations (verse 9), and verses 15 ff., in which the maddening cup of God's fury is to be forced upon Judah, Egypt, Philistia, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre (and Sidon, &c.), and other peoples, and lastly Elam and Babel (dis- guised under the name Sheshach). Now in the LXX verse 14 is absent, and was probably a subsequent addition. What is more noteworthy is the insertion ii6 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT by the LXX, after verse 13 and before verse 15, of the entire series of chaps, xlvi.—li. directed against foreign peoples, but in the following order: xlix. 34-39 (on Elam), xlvi. 2-28 (on Egypt), 1., li. (on Babylon), xlvii. (on the Philistines), xlix. 7-22 (on Edom), xlix. 1-5 (on Ammon, but verse 6, which prophesies restoration, is omitted), xlix. 28-33 (o" Kedar), xlix. 23-27 (on Damascus), and xlviii. 1-44 (on Moab, verses 45 to 47, with its prophecy of restoration omitted). When we turn to xlvi. 2, which is the preface to the oracle on Egypt, it will be seen that the date there given, viz. the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign, in which the battle of Carchemish was fought, coincides with the date given in xxv. i. There can hardly be any doubt that this series of oracles against foreign nations must be connected with the oracles in chap. xxv. in point of time, and there is evidently a most intimate relation between them. There has been considerable difference of opinion as to whether any of these oracles (xlvi.-li.) contains the actual words uttered by Jeremiah. Some critics have held that none of them was delivered by the prophet, and the large number of quotations or literary parallels would seem to render this view probable. But the most recent Old Testament scholars have argued that, putting aside chaps. 1. and li., there is THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 117 a substantial basis of the original oracles of Jeremiah contained in these chapters,^ to which considerable additions have been made (as in the long oracle on Moab) in later times. The student should carefully note the more im- portant of the later additions to the oracles of the prophet. Thus in chap, xvii.^ verses 19-27, on Sabbath maintenance, are recognised by all critics as a later addition characteristic of the times that followed Ezekiel, but not of the teaching of Jeremiah. These additions are specially to be noted in the group of chaps, xxx.-xxxiii. In chap. xxx. the LXX omit verses lo-ii, which are repeated in xlvi. 27, 28, and are thoroughly in Deutero-Isaianic and not in Jeremiah's style; also verses 15 and 22, In verses 12-17 we find a number of phrases recurring which are found else- where, in the earlier chapters of our collection of Jeremiah's oracles. In chap, xxxi., verses 7-14 exhibit so many parallels with later Hebrew literature, especi- ally Deutero-Isaiah, that they are obviously later than Jeremiah. The same remark applies to verses 35-40. Verses 2-6, 15-20, and 27-34 are acknowledged to be the genuine utterances of the prophet Jeremiah. The ^ Cornill in his Commentary (pp. 441-4) examines Schwally's arguments against their genuineness, and shows them to be inade- quate, and in some cases groundless. ii8 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT last is specially important, as it contains the highly characteristic New Covenant passage, and embodies the most essential element of Jeremiah's teachings which lays stress on the internal renewal of man's heart by Divine grace, instead of the external rites of ceremonial and written prescription. In the following chapters^ xxxii. 17-23 and xxxiii. 14-26 are recognised by critics as evidently later insertions. Moreover, in the group of oracles on foreign nations, chaps. I. i-li. 58, the long de- nunciation of doom on Babylon, are obviously late, since they exhibit manifest signs of dependence on the later sections of the Book of Isaiah, e.g. xiii.-xiv., xxi. i-io, xxxiv., XXXV., on Ezekiel, as well as on Jeremiah (from whom many turns of expression are borrowed). Lastly, we have in xxxviii. 2Zb-xxxix. 18 narrative details appended by a redactor. Chap, xxxix. 4-13 are omitted in LXX (B), and contain a history of the events which accompanied the capture of the city. Verses 4-10 correspond to II. Kings xxv. 4-12, which are repeated in closer adhesion to the original in chap. lii. 7-16. Chap. lit. was evidently the addition to the book made by a still later editor, who excerpted II. Kings xxiv. i8-xxv. 30, but substituted for II. Kings xxv. 22-26 an enumeration in lii. 28-30 of the number of Jews deported to Babylonia by Nebuchadnezzar. It is possible that this stood in another version of THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 119 the original used by the editor. It is omitted, how- ever, in the LXX (B). The variations in the LXX text of Jeremiah are very instructive. Evidently this version was based on a shorter and earlier (not always more correct) edition of the collected prophecies of Jeremiah than that of our present Hebrew text. § 17. The Book of the prophet Ezekiel, who prophe- sied in the earlier period of the exile, falls into five clearly marked divisions : (i) Introductory chaps,, i. i- iii. 15, descriptive of the prophet's inauguration to his work through an elaborate vision of a divine chariot and four living creatures. After this comes the Divine mandate to the prophet expressed in the symbolic form of eating a roll. (2) Chaps, iii. i6-xxiv. 27, a collec- tion of discourses upon the impending destruction of Jerusalem, and further calamities, which are all God's retribution for Judah's faithlessness. Many of these oracles are conveyed in allegorical form. (3) Chaps, xxv.-xxxii. are oracles against the seven foreign peoples : Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt {cf. Jeremiah xlvi.-xlix.). (4) Chaps, xxxiii.-xxxix., pro- phecies respecting Israel's restoration and union as well as the final overthrow of her foes. (5) Chaps, xl.-xlviii., an elaborated scheme of the restored theocracy of united Israel. This collection of prophecies (which are often de- I20 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT finitely dated^ and were delivered between 592 and 570 B.C.) is much more homogeneous in character than those larger collections which precede, to which the great names of Isaiah and Jeremiah are attached. Not only the style but also the contents bear the impress of one dominating mind. To a far larger extent than any preceding prophet, Ezekiel was literary. In him we find the reflections of ideas already presented in older literature. His debt to Jeremiah is obvious, though his tendencies differed widely from those of his predecessor. Like Isaiah and Jeremiah, he had firmly grasped the conceptions of God's universal sovereignty, omnipotence, and justice. This is pre- supposed in the oracles on the destinies of foreign kingdoms (chaps, xxv.-xxxii.). But he clung with even greater tenacity than either to God's exceptional provi- dential care of Israel, and the central position to be accorded to the shrine and commonwealth of the reunited Israelite nation (xl.-xlviii.), and the complete overthrow of the hostile powers represented by Gog (xxxviii., xxxix.). The debt to Jeremiah, the elder prophet, is notable. Like Jeremiah, Ezekiel interpreted the calamities of his people as chastisements for past transgressions — notably idolatry, while tracing the evil further back, since Ezekiel was more prone to historic retrospect {cf. Ezek. xvi., THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 121 XX. 5, 24, xxiii. 2). Jeremiah prophesied that Israel would repent in the exile with their whole heart (xxix. 12, 13), and that Ephraim also would return (iii. 12, 13, xxxi. 18 if.), and in Ezekiel the same con- ception recurs in chap. xi. 14 if. The doctrine of repentance and the internal renewal by Divine grace is fundamental to the teaching of the elder prophet (Jer. xxiv. 7, xxxi. 27-34), and it reappears in the utterances of the younger, who expresses it in the familiar words that God would give the people " a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone" (Ezek. xi. 19, 20, xx. 40- 43, xxxvi. 26). The stress is therefore laid upon the viternal, and in consequence the note of personal re- ligion and personal responsibility is sounded. Ezekiel, in contradistinction from the ideas of Deut. v. 9, 10, denies that the individual dies for any other's sin but his own (Ezek. xviii. 4), and with this is bound up the teaching of individual freedom (xx. 33 ff.). But, unlike Jeremiah, Ezekiel lays stress upon the external as well as the internal, e.g. Sabbath observance and ceremonial. For the genius of this prophet, reflected in his style, is for detail and cumulative effect. Note the elaborate consecration-vision of the chariot and four living creatures occupying twenty-five verses in Ezekiel and the sublime simplicity of Isa. vi. and Jer. i. 4-10. We see the same love of detail and cumulative effect 122 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT in the great oracle on Tyre (xxvii. 3-36), and in the elaborate scheme of the restored temple and Jewish state in chaps, xl.-xlviii. In this scheme of restoration, which is evidently ideal and not actual, and may have received additions from later writers, we see an important foreshadowing of the later legislation (P) called the Code of Holiness (Lev. xvii.-xxvi. ; see above, p. 38 ff.). In many respects it stands midway between Deuteronomy and Leviticus. In Deuteronomy the Levites only are qualified to offer sacrifice ; in Leviticus the sons of Aaron take precedence of the Levites. In Ezek. xliii. 19, xliv. 15 ff., it is the sons of Zadok only among the Levites who have the right to offer sacrifice at the altar of burnt offering. The Levites are relegated to the subordinate functions of gatekeepers and slaughterers of sacrificial victims (xliv. 10-14). Note also that the sacrifices become in Ezekiel, as in Leviticus, more propitiatory in character (Ezek. xlv. 15 ; cf. Lev. iv. 2 ff., xvii. 11 ; Exod. xxix. 33, XXX. 15 ff.). We have also a Holy of Holies in Ezek. xli. 2, in anticipation of Lev. xvi. 2. In Ezekiel we have a half-yearly ritual of sin-offering whereby atonement is made (xlv. 18-20) — a step towards the great Fast Day of Atonement in Lev. xvi., in which the High Priest occupied so august and solemn a place. The textual problems of this book are many and subtle. THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 123 The LXX was based on a much briefer text which evidently became expanded. § 18. The Minor Prophets form the conclusion of the Jewish canon of the " Latter Prophets," and probably were called the " twelve prophets " by 200 B.C., as we may reasonably infer from the testimony of Ecclesiasticus xlix. 10; but the order of these twelve prophets in the LXX differs from that of our Hebrew text which is followed in our Bibles, since the individual prophets occur in the succession, Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, and the rest in the same sequence. Moreover, the " twelve prophets " precede, and do not follow, the group of greater prophets. Hosea, with whom the series commences, is the only prophet of the Northerji Kingdom whose oracles have come down to us in a separate collection. The book falls into two sharply divided portions : (i) Chaps, i.-iii., which recount the tragedy of the prophet's domestic life, blighted by the unfaithfulness of his wife Gomer. (2) Chaps, iv.-xiv. contain a series of discourses directed against Ephraim, in which it is difficult to find any decisive indications to guide us to a definite chronological order. According to the superscription, he delivered his oracles from the time of Jeroboam and Uzziah until that of Hezekiah. This was, of course, prefixed, like other superscriptions 124 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT in the prophecies and psalms, by a late editor. These are not in some cases reliable. In this case it is somewhat strange that Jeroboam is the only king of the Northern Kingdom who is mentioned. Many critics hold that none of Hosea's prophecies can be placed later than 735 B.C., since we find no allusion to the Syro-Ephraimite war or to the disastrous inva- sion by Tiglath Pileser III. in 734-2 B.C., whereby the Northern Kingdom was shorn of a portion of its territory. But a careful examination of Hosea's oracles would lead to quite another conclusion. As distin- guished from Hosea's earlier contemporary Amos, we find definite references to Assyria. The utter social dis- organisation of the Northern Kingdom, to which many passages allude, point to a period subsequent to rather than before the invasion of 734-2. Chap. vi. I, 2 J 8-9, vii. 9 (foreigners have devoured his strength), viii. 4 (presupposing an interval of several reigns since the end of the dynasty of Jehu), ix. 15, xii. 12 (altars in Gilgal transformed into ruined stone-heaps) are best explained when Tiglath Pileser's campaign is placed in retrospect. The pathos of Hosea's agonised appeal to his countrymen in chap. x. 12-14, xi. 5-8 is best understood when we assign to these passages the date 726-5 b.c. This is confirmed by chap. xii. i, which evidently refers to King Hoshea's double-dealing. THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 125 and his negotiations with Egypt (H. Kings xvii. 4) carried on at this time. 725, rather than 735, is the closing date of Hosea's oracles. The keynote to all these oracles is furnished by the domestic tragedy of his wife's unfaithfulness, and the prophet's efforts to win her back to his home, contained in chaps, i.-iii. This event in his past history is treated as the parable of Yahweh's relation as Divine husband to Israel, who is unfaithful to His love and is drawn aside by the seductions of Baal- worship and foreign alliances from her loyalty to her Lord. Joel's prophecies, unlike those of Hosea, Amos, and Micah, but like those of Nahum and Habakkuk, contain no indications of date in the opening verse. Recent critics are agreed in holding that this small collection of prophecies is post-exilian. Numerous internal features point to a date a little before 400 b.c (a) Chap. iii. 2, 17 evidently point back to 586 B.C., when the Jews were deported into exile and Jerusalem destroyed, (d) Chap. ii. 9, with its reference to the walls and houses of Jerusalem, presupposes the city rebuilt as in the days after the advent of Nehemiah. (c) Chap. ii. 12-14 contain a summons to " fasting, weeping, and mourning," a combination characteristic of post- exilian Judaism (Neh. i. 4 ; cf. Ezra viii. 23, ix. 5, x. 6). 126 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT Moreover, there is no reference to idolatry, sorcery, and other sins that prevailed in pre-exilian Israel, {d) Desolation is threatened against Egypt for "shedding innocent blood in their land." Probably we should connect these outrages committed against Jews in Egypt with the destruction of their temple in Elephantine about 409 B.C., of which we are informed in the Aramaic papyri recently discovered in that spot. Amos, a herdman of Tekoah and dresser of sycamores (i. I, vii. 14), is the earliest prophet whose collected oracles have come down to us in a separate literary form. They may be divided into: (i) Chaps, i., ii., a series of oracles on foreign peoples — Syria (Damascus), Philistia (Gaza), Phoenicia (Tyre), Edom, Ammon, and Moab, and ending with Judah and Israel. (2) Chaps, iii.-vi. contain oracles chiefly directed against the Northern Kingdom, whose luxury, self-indulgence, and oppression of the poor are sternly denounced (iii. 14, 15). Drought and mildew are penalties threa- tened. Chap. V. is the most noteworthy. Verses 21 ff., in which hollow ceremonialism is rebuked and righteous- ness demanded, are re-echoed in Isa. chap. i. (3) Chaps, vii.-ix. record a series of visions, with an inter- posed episode (vii. 10-17), in which Amos comes into conflict with the court of the king represented by the High Priest Amaziah at the sanctuary at Bethel. THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 127 These prophecies belong to the middle of the eighth cen- tury, ix. from 765 to about 736 B.C., but not later. From the Assyrian Eponym-lists we learn that in June 763 B.C. there was a total eclipse of the sun at Nineveh. Amos, who was sensitive to natural phenomena of earth and sky (v. 8, ix. 6), probably alludes to this event in V. 20, viii. 9. If we follow the reading Assyria instead of Ashdod in iii. 9, on the authority of the LXX, we may reasonably hold chap. iii. 11, 12 to be a prophecy of Tiglath Pileser's invasion in 734-2 B.C. While Hosea's prophetic teaching laid stress on God's mercy and love, Amos proclaimed His universal sovereignty and righteousness. It was Yahweh who not only brought Israel out of Egypt, but the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir (ix. 7), that made the Pleiades and Orion, and "calleth for the waters of the sea and poureth them out on the face of the earth " (v. 8). The God of righteousness demands righteousness in human conduct (v. 24, viii. 4-6), rather than mere external routine of ceremonial observance. It was the epoch-making service to the cause of re- ligious progress rendered by this prophet that he eman- cipated the Hebrew conception of God from the restrictions of mere nationalism. He was now Lord of the World rather than the patron-deity of a mere race. In the stress which was now laid upon the 128 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT righteousness of God, religion was delivered from the limitations of ritual and made ethical rather than cere- monial. The echoes of his ideas resound in the prophets that followed and also in the Psalms (Isa. Iviii., Ps. XV., 1., li. 1 6, 17). It is generally acknowledged among critics that chap. ix. 11-15 is a later post-exilian addendum. Obadiah, the shortest prophecy in this collection, is occupied with a denunciation of doom against Edom for his attacks on his brother-nation Jacob when foreigners besieged and entered Jerusalem. This allusion to the terrible year 586, when that city was destroyed, shows that this prophecy is to be dated after that event, since the disasters which are to overtake Edom are a retribution for outrages committed against Judah. Verses 1-9 exhibit many parallels with Jer. xlix. 7-22. The question arises which is the original. Careful comparison shows that Obadiah possesses the better claim. At the same time, the Obadiah prophecy appears to have been extended in later times beyond its original form, which critics hold to be verses 1-5, 7, lo-ii, 13-14, and the latter part of verse 15. It is possible that we should connect the denunciation of doom on Edom with Mai. i. 2-5 and Isa. Ixiii. 1-6, when Edom's chastisement is in process of accom- plishment or has been already consummated. Obadiah's THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 129 prophecy is somewhat earlier, in time, i.e. in the earlier part of the fifth century B.C. About this time Edom was hard pressed by Arab incursions. Jonah. — We read of "Jonah, son of Amittai, the prophet which was of Gath-hepher," in the reign of Jeroboam II. (II. Kings xiv. 25). The identity of this prophet with the prophet of this book is clearly indicated by the fact that Nineveh and the Assyrian empire were flourishing at that time. Nevertheless the style of this book, as well as the narrative form in which it is cast, are clear proofs of its later post- exilian origin. It has been assigned by recent critics to the late Persian, or even the early Greek period, when there was a strong reaction against the narrow anti-foreign spirit of Judaism, and a revival of the nobler traits of Hebrew prophecy reflected in Jeremiah and Deutero-Isaiah. The broader spirit of love to all humanity, and even to the beasts of the earth as the objects of Divine care and compassion, finds eloquent expression in the closing words of God's rebuke to the prophet (iv. 10, 11). Into the framework of the narrative the editor has inserted in chap. ii. 2-9 a prayer-psalm, just as in Isa. xxxviii. 9-20 and Hab. iii. Micah of Moresheth, to whom Jeremiah (xxvi. 18) alludes, was a younger contemporary of the prophet Isaiah. Jeremiah, who quotes Micah iii. 12, places him I 130 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT in the reign of Hezekiah, and the closely analogous passage, Micah i. 5-9, clearly proves that he prophesied in the reign of Ahaz, shortly before the overthrow of Samaria (722-1 B.C.). Chaps, i.-iii., both in style and contents, evidently belong to the same period as the oracles of Isaiah. The same social sins are denounced, £.g. the oppression of the poor by the rich. With Isa. v. 7, 8, cf. Micah ii. 2, iii. 2, 3. False prophets and divination are also denounced {cf. Isa. ii. 6), and the sin of idolatry, Micah i. 7 {cf. Isa. i. 29, ii. 18-20). But it is not possible to assign to Micah and the latter part of the eighth century more than chaps, i.-iii. Chap. iv. opens with a description of a Messianic age when Jerusalem is to be the centre of the universal wor- ship and peace of humanity (verses 1-5, of which verses 1-3 recur in Isa. ii. 2-4). This passage is probably late exilian or early post-exilian (coeval with the Deutero- Isaiah). The following verses of this and the next chapter are complex in character, the connection in thought being frequently imperfect. In verses iv. 6 ff. we have prophecies of restoration, but the reference to Babylon in verse 10 clearly shows that verses 8-10 belong to a later age than the time of Micah, though it is difficult to assign a definite date. On the other hand, the definite reference to the overthrow of Assyria in the Messianic passage, chap. v. 2-6 [1-5 Heb.], as THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 131 well as to the " ruler " who is to come forth from Bethlehem, appear to point to the earlier part of Josiah's reign when the power of Assyria was declining. Simi- larly Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. Chap. vi. I - vii. 6 form an entirely new section. There is a controversy between Yahweh and His people. Nearly all recent critics accept Ewald's view that this section was composed by some unknown writer in the age of Manasseh. Verses 4 and 5 seem to show that the writer was acquainted with the traditions of J E, while the reference to the sacrifice of the first-born in vi. 7 points to the degenerate reign of Manasseh. On the other hand, chap. vii. 8-20 proceed upon other presuppositions. Disaster has befallen Israel, but there is pardon and restoration awaiting them. This latter section evidently belongs to the age of Deutero-Isaiah. Nahum's oracles are directed against Assyria. Chap. iii. 8-10 are a vivid allusion to the capture of Thebes in Egypt (called No) by the Assyrian armies. From the inscriptions of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal we know that the event referred to must have occurred between 670 and 662 b.c. This time, therefore, must have preceded the composition of the oracles, while the final overthrow of Nineveh in 606 B.C. must have succeeded it. Between these two dates these utter- 132 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT ances must have been delivered. The rise of the new Babylonian Empire under Nabopolassar and of the Median power under Cyaxares about 624 b.c, which brought about this overthrow, point to some date between 624 and 606. The memory of the capture of the Egyptian Thebes was still vivid. On the other hand, the prophet regards the destruction of Nineveh as closely impending (i. 2, 13), and the scenes of slaughter which accompany the siege of the city are vividly portrayed in chap. ii. 3-6. Traces of an acrostic poem have been discovered in chap. i. 2- ii. 2 (3 Heb.). Habakkuk's collection of prophecies involves some difficult problems. For their discussion the student is referred to Driver's Introduction (" Literature of the Old Testament"), 8th ed., p. 338,1 qj. ^q the briefer Introduction by Cornill. The date of the major portion of his oracles (chaps, i. and ii.) may be placed a little before 600 b.c. (reign of Jehoiakim). Chap. ii. 5-8 is directed against the Babylonians (Chaldaeans), against whom the nations that they have oppressed shall turn. Here we note a very different attitude towards Babylonia from that of Jeremiah (who was Habakkuk's con- temporary) and Ezekiel. It rather resembles that of the Deutero-Isaiah (xlvii.), or that of Isaiah in the ^ See also " Minor Prophets," ii. (Century Bible), p. 58 f. THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 133 eighth century against Assyria (x. 5-27, xxx. 27-33). Chap. i. 5-1 1 (according to Driver, i-ii) probably belong to an earlier period in which the Babylonians are summoned by God to inflict chastisement for wrong- doing {cf. Isa. vii. 18-20, viii. 7, 8). Chap. iii. is a much later Psalm, with the terms employed in the temple music, such as Shigionoth {cf. Ps. vii. title) and Selah, introduced. This *' Prayer of Habakkuk " has been appended (just as II. Sam. xxii. and Isa. xxxviii. 9-20) by the redactor. Zephaniah's prophecies belong, as the title in i. i tells us, to an earlier date, evidently the earlier part of Josiah's reign which preceded the Reformation (621 b.c). This is clearly shown by the references to idolatry (i. 4-6), which prove that the evil influences which pre- vailed during Manasseh's and Amon's reign had not yet been removed. Moreover, the Assyrian power was still dominant (ii. 13), though probably in a state of decline. Opinions greatly vary as to how much of chaps, ii. and iii. form genuine matter. Most critics are agreed that chap. iii. 9-10 are a later addition. With the exception of ii. 7 (last clause) and 11, i4-i5» and iii. 13-20, which are crowded with Deutero-Isaianic reminiscences,^ there are no strong grounds for ascrib- ing the authorship to any other than Zephaniah. ^ Chap. ii. 15 coincides with Isa. xlvii. 8 to a large extent. 134 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT Haggai's prophecies are clearly defined as to date. It is our earliest collection of post-exilian oracles. They all belong to the second year of Darius Hystaspis, viz. 520 B.C. The book contains four distinct deliverances of the prophet, each of which is dated, according to the custom of the age, from the year of the Persian monarch's reign : (i) Chap. i. in the 2nd year of Darius, 6th month, ist day; (2) chap. ii. 1-9 in the 7th month, 2 1 St day; (3) chap. ii. 10-19 ^^ ^he 9th month, 24th day ; (4) chap. ii. 20-23 on the same day of the same year, 520 b.c. The general burden of all these utter- ances is severe rebuke of the Jewish people in Judah for delaying the work of rebuilding the temple. In the last oracle we have a Messianic prophecy of the overthrow of kingdoms and of the Divine appointment of Zerubbabel. The prophecies of Zechariah fall into two main divisions : (i) Chaps, i.-viii., which are the genuine utter- ances of the prophet ; and (2) chaps, ix.-xiv., which are not genuine. (i) Chaps, i.-viii. contain a series of visions which commence with 520 b.c. (second year of Darius) and end with 518 B.C. (fourth year of Darius). The trance- vision which is here the medium of Divine communica- tion is not characteristic of pre-exilian, but rather of exilian {i.e. Ezekiel's oracles) and post-exilian prophecy. THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 135 The historic situation is the same as that which is dis- closed in the contemporary prophecies of Haggai. Jeru- salem's temple and the cities of Judah are still in ruins, but they will soon be rebuilt (i. 16, 17). Chap. iii. (vision of Satan accusing the High Priest clothed in rags) is a prophecy fulfilled in subsequent history of the enhanced prestige of the High Priest. With it is com- bined a promise of the coming Messiah. This Messianic prophecy was afterwards supplemented by another (vi. 9—15), which in its original form confers a crown on the " Branch " {cf. Jer. xxiii. 5, 6) Zerubbabel, who is destined to complete the rebuilding of the temple.^ Chaps, vii. and viii. (518 B.C.) are no longer visions, but " words of the Lord " which enforce the warnings of past history and the claims of his moral law to "execute true judgment and show mercy" (vii. 9, 10). A Messianic prophecy follows of the glory of the renovated Jerusalem (chap. viii.). (2) Chaps, ix.-xiv. are, both in language and con- tents, of a totally different character from chaps, i.-viii., and present us with some very complex problems. ^ The text has evidently been modified in accordance with the exigencies of later " history which placed the High Priest and not the King at the head of the Jewish community" (Marti). See Driver's note (Century Bible, "Minor Prophets," ii.) on Zech. vi. II. Zerubbabel after this time vanishes from the scene of history. 136 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT Forty years ago (about 1870 and earlier) it was generally held that these chapters belonged to the pre-exilian period. Chap. ix. belonged to about 750 B.C. Chap. x. is somewhat later, since verses 9, 10 allude to Tiglath Pileser III.'s deportations from N. Israel in 734-2 B.C. (II. Kings XV, 29). Chap. x. 2 refers to teraphim and diviners {cf. Isa. ii. 6 ; Hos. iii. 4). Chap. xi. 4-17, with xiii. 7-9, were held to refer to the troubles which befell the Northern Kingdom and to the brief reigns of three of its kings (xi. 8). On the other hand, xii. T-xiii. 6 and xiv., in which no reference is made to the Northern Kingdom, were assigned to the closing years of the seventh century and the Judaean Kingdom. But since 1882 critical views have changed, and it is generally held that ix.-xiv. must be assigned to a later post-exWiBXi period than the chapters which precede. The mention of the Greeks in ix. 13 and the general character of the contents of verses 13-15 (cf. xiv. i ff.) point to a time of conflict between Israel and the Greeks. This leads many scholars to place these oracles in the days of Alexander's invasion of Palestine or later (between 332 and 280 B.C.). There are many reminiscences of older oracles (e.g. xiv. 8, of Ezek. xlvii. 1-12). Probably some old pre-exilian oracles belonging to the eighth and seventh centuries have been worked into the texture of these prophecies in chaps, ix. ff. THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 137 The prophecies of Malachi. About Malachi as a person nothing is known. The word signifies "my {Le. Yahweh's) messenger " ; or more probably it is a contraction for Malachiah or "messenger of Yahweh." The reference to the "governor" as well as the form of the name {cf. Hag. i. i ; Neh. v. 14, xii. 16, &c.) point clearly to the Persian period, while the allusions to offerings and tithes and to the temple ("my house," iii. 10) clearly indicate that these oracles belong to a period v/hen the temple in Jerusalem had for some time been rebuilt, i.e. some decades later than the time of Zechariah. It was a time of religious declension. Offerings were defective (i. 7, 8, 12). Even the priest- hood was debased (ii. 8). This and the national degra- dation (ii. 1 1 ^ndpassim) incur the sternest denunciation of the prophet. Evidently the age of Malachi preceded the advent of Nehemiah (445 B.C.) and coincided with that of the Trito-Isaiah (see above, p. 107 f.). The references to ritual, excepting perhaps tithe offerings (iiio 9, 10), point to the traditions embodied in Deuteronomy rather than the Priestercodex. So also the mention of Levi or " sons of Levi " (ii. 4, 8, iii. 3) instead of the " sons of Aaron," and of Horeb instead of Sinai, (iv. 4), show that these oracles belong to the close of the earlier half of the fifth century (about 455 b.c). CHAPTER V THE HAGIOGRAPHA § 19. The Hagiographa ("sacred writings"), called by the Jews "the writings" {K'thrUtm), form the last or tht7'd portion of their canonised literature. In the pre- face to Ecclesiasticus or " Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach " (132 B.C.), after the mention of the " Law " and " the Pro- phets" it is called by the somewhat indefinite phrase " the others who followed them," or " the other books of our fathers," or the "rest of the books." It does not follow, however, that this expression included all the books of our Hagiographa, or even all the Psalms of our Psalter. The dearth of reference to some of the books in Jewish literature or in the New Testament down to a.d. 100 renders it probable that some of them, viz. Song of Songs, Esther, and Ecclesiastes, were only in comparatively late times admitted into this third section of " sacred writings." § 20. The Psalms or Psalter formed the religious liturgical song-book of the Jewish people, which arose 138 THE HAGIOGRAPHA 139 as a collection in post-exilian Israel when the nation had passed out of the condition of a kingdom into that of an ecclesiastical community. It is divided into five books, apparently after the model of the Pentateuch, which had by that time, i.e. after the days of Nehemiah, become a canonised work. These five books are (i) Pss. 1-41, (2) 42-72, (3) 73-895 (4) 90-106, (5) 107-150. These separate books are clearly marked out in the text by the concluding doxologies, except the last, in which such a doxology would have been superfluous, as the final Psalm has the character of a lengthened doxology. These concluding formulae vary somewhat, though some terms or phrases recur. It certainly would be an error to suppose that this divi- sion into books was purely artificial and was a special, arrangement made at one and the same time. This would not account for the fact that these collections have special characteristics. Thus in Book i. (Pss. 1-4 1 ) Yahweh is the prevalent sacred name. It occurs 272 times, while the ordinary name "God" {Elohtm) occurs only fifteen times. Similarly, in Book iii., Pss. 84-89, and also in Books iv. and v. almost entirely. In Book ii. (Pss. 42-72) "God" is the prevalent name and occurs 164 times, while Yahiveh is only found thirty times. Similarly, in Book iii., Pss. 73-83. Moreover, we have the same Psalm repeated, Ps. xiv. T40 BOOKS OF OLD TESTAMENT in Book i. being identical (save in the name for deity and slight textual varieties) with Ps. liii. in Book ii. ; also Ps. xl. 14-18 in Book i. is the same as Ps. Ixx. in Book ii. These facts point to the conclusion that the separate books, like the other separate collections, of which we shall presently speak, arose indepen- dently. Otherwise these duplications would not have occurred. Many of the Psalms possess "////