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 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 

COMMON-SENSE VIEW 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Books of the Old Testament. 
 
 RUFUS P. STEBBINS, D.D., 
 
 FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL, 
 AND AUTHOR OF "a STUDY OF THE PENTATEUCH." 
 
 \l 
 
 
 BOSTON: 
 UNITARIAN SUNDAY-SCHOOL SOCIETY. 
 1885. 
 
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 \l\ 
 
 ,St5 
 
 Copyright, 1885, 
 By the Unitarian Sunday-School Society. 
 
 University Press: 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 To the churches of which I have been the pastor ; to the Bible 
 classes which I have taught during half a century ; but more espe- 
 cially to the graduates of the Meadville Theological School who were 
 under my care, and to the two hundred young men of Cornell Uni- 
 versity who not only listened to my Biblical teaching but also ear- 
 nestly and repeatedly requested me to publish the views which were 
 to them so satisfactory, — this book is dedicated, in the hope that it 
 may keep my memory fresh in the ?ninds and hearts of those with 
 whom I have shared so many joys, and from whom I have received 
 so many favors. 
 
 R. P. S. 
 
 Newton Centre, Mass., 
 A ugust, 1885. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Had the author of this book lived to write its preface, he 
 would have stated with characteristic force and clearness the 
 reasons which led him to prepare the work. The present 
 writer recalls the earnest manner in which Dr. Stebbins 
 often spoke of the pressing need of such a book. The 
 average reader of the Bible, he argued, is shut out from 
 that knowledge of Biblical criticism which has made the Old 
 Testament a new volume to the modern theological student. 
 He felt that liberal scholarship should do something to make 
 known to our young people, who seldom study the Old Tes- 
 tament as they study English or German literature, and to 
 busy men and women who have no time for critical inquiries 
 or historical researches, the inestimable value of the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. To this end he wrote the present work, using 
 many of the lectures which he had originally prepared for 
 his Bible-classes and theological students, but throughout 
 the book addressing the common reader, to whom he would 
 give, in the words of its title, "a co7n?non-sense view of the 
 books of the Old Testament." He hoped in this way to 
 accomplish two objects : on the one hand to remove from 
 these precious fragments of Hebrew literature the incrusta- 
 tions of ancient errors, dogmatic prepossessions, and super- 
 stitious fancies under which the Old Testament has been 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 worshipped as a fetich or discarded as a relic ; and on the 
 other hand to give to the ordinary Bible-reader such infor- 
 mation concerning the age, character, and contents of the 
 Old Testament books as would enable him rightly to appre- 
 hend and fully to appreciate their literary excellence and 
 their spiritual worth. 
 
 At a time when the new Revised Version of the Old Tes- 
 tament is calling popular attention to the Hebrew Scriptures, 
 this volume, the outcome of patient study, ripe scholarship, 
 and a consecrated spirit, is sent forth in the hope that as a 
 manual for Bible-classes, as well as a book for the individual 
 reader, it may be a bringer of light and an aid to faith ; — a 
 helper to that trust in the Eternal, and that loyalty to right- 
 eousness, which make the Old Testament writers the sources 
 of an ever-fresh inspiration to all, in every age and nation, 
 who seek to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly 
 with their God. 
 
 H. G. S. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. STEBBINS. 
 
 BY REV. CARLTON A. STAPLES. 
 
 Rufus Phineas Stebbins was born at South Wilbraham, 
 Mass., March 3, 18 10. He grew up under the discipline of 
 poverty and hard work. By his unaided efforts, — teaching 
 school in the winter, toiling on the farm during vacations, — 
 he fitted himself for college and paid his expenses while 
 there, graduating at Amherst in 1834. He had been reared 
 under the influence of Methodism, his mother being a devoted 
 member of that church ; and up to the time of his entering 
 college he had hardly known of any other faith. Some work 
 by Dr. Channing which fell into his hands led him to a care- 
 ful reading of the Bible with reference to its theological 
 teachings; and the result of a long and patient study was 
 the acceptance of Unitarian views, to the preaching of which 
 he then consecrated his life. 
 
 Entering the Divinity School at Cambridge, he pursued 
 the usual course of study, and graduated in the class of 
 1837, of which Henry W. Bellows and Edmund H. Sears 
 were members. In September following he was ordained 
 and settled over the Unitarian church in Leominster, having 
 been united in marriage the week before with Miss Eliza 
 Livermore, of Cambridgeport. The next seven years of his 
 life were spent in the care of this large and flourishing 
 
Vlll BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 parish, in the preparation of boys for college, and in the 
 oversight and tutorship of boys " rusticated " from college. 
 As a teacher and disciplinarian he was eminently successful. 
 What he knew he knew thoroughly, and could state forcibly 
 and in an interesting manner. Never was he more happy 
 than when engaged with a class of Sunday-school teachers 
 in the study of the Scriptures. 
 
 His ability as a teacher and organizer led to his selection 
 for the presidency of the Meadville Theological School, a 
 position which he took in 1844, and continued to hold for 
 twelve years. Dr. Stebbins was a born teacher, and at 
 Meadville the best work of his life was done. Having a 
 warm sympathy with young men, an earnest desire to lead 
 them in the paths of knowledge and of usefulness, positive 
 views of Christian truth, tireless industry in preparing him- 
 self to meet his classes, and great fertility of illustration 
 and force of argument in presenting his ideas, he inspired 
 his pupils with something of his own enthusiasm in devotion 
 to their work. He was teacher, friend, and father to all 
 under his charge. During the twelve years that he spent in 
 the school, a large number of young men were trained under 
 his instruction and influence for the ministry, many of whom 
 have filled their places worthily, and acquitted themselves 
 as faithful ministers of the gospel. He never lost his inter- 
 est in them ; and they have never been unmindful of their 
 indebtedness to his wise, patient, and loving care. 
 
 After leaving Meadville, Dr. Stebbins was settled at 
 Woburn, where several years were passed in the service of 
 the Unitarian church there, and of the Unitarian denomina- 
 tion as one of the Directors of the Association. He was 
 subsequently chosen President of the Association, and was 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. IX 
 
 continued in that office for three years. While he occupied 
 this position, just before the close of the war, a great awak- 
 ening of interest in the missionary work of the denomination 
 took place. From that movement, carried through largely 
 by his wise planning and his earnest toil, the Unitarian 
 body has gone on enlarging its activities and extending its 
 influence. 
 
 The next work undertaken by Dr. Stebbins was at Ithaca, 
 N. Y., where he placed the Unitarian church, just organized 
 there, upon a permanent basis, and brought it up to a fair 
 degree of prosperity. During the four years of his ministry 
 there he attained no little influence with a limited number of 
 the students of Cornell University through his Bible class 
 and his lectures upon theological and Biblical subjects. By 
 his persistent efforts he secured the erection of a house of 
 worship for the new church, which was completed and dedi- 
 cated free of debt. 
 
 In the year 1877 he took charge of another new movement 
 at Newton Centre ; and here the remaining years of his life 
 were passed, — bringing together and building up an earnest 
 body of Christian believers, securing for them a neat and 
 attractive church-home, and inspiring them with something 
 of his own fidelity and enthusiasm. 
 
 He had finished reading the proof-sheets of this book, and 
 said, " My vacation now begins, — my work is done," when 
 he was called to a higher and larger service in the immortal 
 world. When told that the end was near, he was not sur- 
 prised nor alarmed. 
 
 Forty-eight years of faithful ministerial service, with the 
 break of but one Sunday from sickness in all that time, is a 
 noble record. A sound mind in a sound body, ever reaching 
 
X BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 • 
 out for larger knowledge and pressing on to new usefulness ; 
 an indomitable will and tireless energy ; strong positive 
 views of truth, which he stoutly maintained and defended ; 
 great reluctance to give up the old for the new, in his habit 
 of thought ; and, underneath the Puritan sternness, a warm 
 sympathy with all classes of men, and the genial, joyful, 
 trustful heart of a child, — such were some of the character- 
 istics of our friend. 
 
 He died suddenly, at Cambridgeport, August 13, 1885, in 
 the seventy-sixth year of his age. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Part I. 
 
 General Remarks 3-19 
 
 Section I. The Bible — Two Books, 3, 4. Sect. II. The Apocry- 
 pha, 4. Sect. III. Other Jewish Books, 5-7. Sect. IV. 
 Further Divisions of the Bible, 7. Sect. V. Literary Character 
 of the Books, 8 ; language, 8 ; manuscripts, 9 ; chapters, 
 punctuation, 9 ; headings of chapters and pages, 10 ; words 
 in Italics, 11; transcriptions and interpolations, 12-16; mis- 
 translation and obsolete words, 16, 17. Conclusion, 18. 
 
 Part II. 
 
 An Introduction to the Pentateuch 23-44 
 
 Chapter I. Pentateuch — Creation to Abraham (Gen. i.-ix.), 23-33 > 
 why called Pentateuch, 23 ; divisions, 24 ; preface to the Law, 
 25 ; first portion of it, 25 ; the two documents, 25-28 ; tradition 
 among the Etrurians and the legend of Isdubar, 28, 29; origin 
 and trustworthiness of traditions and genealogies, 29 ; differ- 
 ence between first and second accounts, 31 ; poetry, 32, 33. 
 
 Chapter II. Brief Biographies of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen. 
 xii.-l.), 34-44; documents, 34; trustworthiness, 36 ; Abraham, 
 38, — his princeliness, 40 ; two marked events respecting Lot 
 and Isaac, 41 ; character of Isaac and of Jacob, 42 ; history of 
 Joseph, 43. 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 $art III. 
 
 An Introduction to the Pentateuch {continued) . . 47-72 
 
 Chapter I. The Israelites in Egypt (Exodus i.-xix.), 47-53; birth 
 of Moses, 47 ; author of these chapters, 48 ; contents, 48, 49 ; 
 when written, and trustworthiness, 49 ; escape, and pillar of 
 fire, 51 ; triumphal song, 52. 
 
 Chapter II. The Law, and its Appendix (Exodus xx.-Deuteron- 
 omy), 54-72 ; contents of this division, 54 ; facts to be noticed, 
 55—59 ; sacrifices, 56. Sect. I. Author, 59. Sect. II. Age, 60. 
 Sect. III. Journal-like Character, 61. Sect. IV. Archaic 
 Language, 62. Sect. V. Authenticity, 62. Note A. Recent 
 German and Dutch Hypotheses, 64-67. Note B. The Story 
 of Balaam, 68-72. 
 
 Part IV. 
 
 The Historical Books 75-125 
 
 Chapter I. The Book of Joshua, 75-82; contents, 75. Sect. I. 
 Author, 76. Sect. II. Age, 76-78. Sect. III. Authenticity, 
 78-80. Sect. IV. Inspiration, 81. 
 
 Chapter II. The Books of Judges, 82-94 ; chronology, 82. Sect. I. 
 Contents, 83 ; office of judges, 84. Sect. II. Age, 86. Sect. 
 III. Authorities, 87; Song of Deborah, 88-91. Sect. IV. 
 Author, 91. Sect. V. Inspiration, 92. Note. Remarkable 
 Facts, 93. 
 
 Chapter III. The Book of Ruth, 94-97. Sect. I. What is it? 94. 
 Sect. II. Age, 95. Sect. III. Author, 95. Sect. IV. Author- 
 ities, 96. Sect. V. Authenticity and Inspiration, 96. 
 
 Chapter IV. The Books of Samuel, 98-102. General character of 
 the books, 98. Sect. I. Contents, 99 ; witch of Endor, 99. 
 Sect. II. Object, 100. Sect. III. Authorities. 100. Sect. IV. 
 Author and Age, 101. Sect. V. Authenticity and Inspira- 
 tion, 102. 
 
 1 
 
CONTENTS. Xlll 
 
 Chapter V. The Books of the Kings, 103-108 ; divisions, 103- 
 105. Sect. I. Object, 105. Sect. II. Authenticity, 106. Sect. 
 III. Author and Age, 10S. Sect. IV. Inspiration, 108. 
 
 Chapter VI. The Books of the Chronicles, 109-115. Sect. I. 
 Contents, 109-111 ; no partiality to the priesthood, ill. Sect. 
 
 II. Authorities, 112. Sect. III. Authenticity, 114. Sect. IV. 
 Age, 1 14. Sect. V. Inspiration, 115. 
 
 Chapter VII. The Book of Ezra, 116-1 18. Sect. I. Contents, 116. 
 Sect. II. Author and Language, 117. Sect. III. Authenticity 
 and Inspiration, 117. 
 
 Chapter VIII. The Book of Nehemiah, 1 18-120. Sect. I. Con- 
 tents, 118. Sect. II. Language, Age, and Author, 119. Sect. 
 
 III. Inspiration, 119. 
 
 Chapter IX. The Book of Esther, 120-123. Sect. I. Contents, 120. 
 
 Sect. II. Object and Author, 121 ; historical romance, 121. 
 Chapter X. Conclusion of the Historical Books, 123. 
 
 Part V. 
 
 The Poetical Books 129-205 
 
 Chapter I. General Observations on Hebrew Poetry, 129-166. 
 Sect. I. Books, 129; classes of poetry, 129. Sect. II. Early 
 Fragments, 130. Sect. III. Form or Structure, 131 ; paral- 
 lelism, 132, — synonymous, 133; antithetic, 134; synthetic, 135 ; 
 alphabetical, 136. Sect. IV. Subjects, 138; power of God, 
 138 ; knowledge of God, 139 ; omnipresence of God, 139 ; eter- 
 nity of God, 139 ; goodness, tenderness, mercifulness of God, 
 140; trust in God, 140; exultation, aspiration, penitence, 141 ; 
 revenge, patriotism, 142. Sect. V. Sources of Imagery, 143 ; 
 nature, light, and darkness, 144 ; storms, deluges, rains, and 
 dews, 145; mountains, plains, 147; forests, 148; animal king- 
 dom, 149; occupations, 151 ; harvest, threshing-floor, 151; 
 vineyard, wine-press, 153 ; shepherd, family, 156 ; burial-places, 
 157; vices, 158; sacred places, seasons, offices, services, 158; 
 dress, 160; remarkable events, primitive earth, 160; exodus 
 from Egypt, 161 ; phenomena at Sinai, 163 ; fabulous creatures, 
 163. Conclusion, 165. 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter II. The Book of Job, 167-178. Sect I. Age, 16S. Sect. 
 II. Author, 170. Sect. III. Integrity and Style, 170. Sect. IV. 
 Subject, 172. Sect. V. Structure, 172 ; prologue, 173 ; dialogue, 
 174; epilogue, 176. Sect. VI. Immortality, 177. Sect. VII. 
 Theology and Inspiration, 178. 
 
 Chapter III. The Book of Psalms, 179-192. Sect. I. Compila- 
 tions, 179. Sect. II. Notes and Tunes, 183; imprecatory 
 psalms, 184. Sect. III. Messianic Psalms, 185. Sect. IV. In- 
 spiration, 189. Conclusion, 191. 
 
 Chapter IV. The Book of Proverbs, 192-196. Sect. I. Divisions, 
 193. Sect. II. Morality and Inspiration, 195. 
 
 Chapter V. Ecclesiastes, or the Preacher, 197-200 ; subject, 197. 
 Sect. I. Style, 197. Sect. II. Divisions, 198. Sect. III. Age 
 and Authorship, 199. Sect. IV. Motives and Inspiration, 199. 
 
 Chapter VI. The Song of Solomon, 200-205 ; an amatory poem, 
 200. Sect. I Arrangement, Subject, and Plot, 201. Sect. II. 
 Age and Author, 203 ; object, 204. 
 
 Part VI. 
 
 The Prophetical Books 209-328 
 
 Chapter I. General Introduction to the Prophetical Books, 209. 
 Sect. I. The Prophetic Office, 209 ; the prophets as reformers, 
 209, — courageousness of, 211 ; number of, 212 ; Mill and Bun- 
 sen on, 214. Sect. II. Qualifications for the Prophetic Work, 
 215 ; public speaking, 215 ; meaning of Nabi, 215. Sect. III. 
 Schools of the Prophets, 216, — by whom established, and 
 where, 216 ; life in, 217; uneducated prophets, 218. Sect. IV. 
 Style of the Prophets, etc., 218, — not predictors of future 
 events, 219 ; meaning of "sent of God," 220. Sect. V. Method 
 and Style of Prophetic Teaching, 221 ; dreams, visions, 224; 
 symbols, 225. Sect. VI. Fundamental Principles, etc., 228 ; 
 righteousness, 228 ; the law of God supreme, 230 ; moral law 
 superior to ceremonial, 230 ; final prevalence of righteousness, 
 232 ; immortality, 233. Sect. VII. Rules of Interpretation, 234 ; 
 predictions conditioned, 235 ; Oriental poetry, 235, — use made 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 of, by later writers, 238 ; previous prophecies, 238 ; marginal 
 notes, 240. Sect. VIII. Origin of Authority, 240 ; early tra- 
 ditions of the nation, 241 ; fundamental law of the State, 242 ; 
 results of obedience and disobedience, 243. Conclusion, 246. 
 Chapter II. Introduction to the Separate Books of the Prophets, 
 248-328. Sect. I. Joel, 248 ; style of the book, 249 ; kingdoms 
 of Israel and Judah idolatrous, 250 ; fast-day sermon of Joel, 
 251 ; prophecy of the return of captives, 252; no prediction 
 of the day of Pentecost in the Book of Joel, 253. Sect. II. 
 Amos, 253 ; the prophet to be regarded as a lay preacher, 254 ; 
 his authority the law of Moses and the law of right, 255 ; 
 prophecy divided into two parts, 257. Sect. III. Hosea, 259; 
 wickedness of the people to whom the prophet spoke, 262 ; 
 two divisions of the book, 263 ; promises of blessings to fol- 
 low repentance, 264. Sect. IV. Isaiah, 264 ; title to the book 
 of his prophecies, 265 ; courage and wisdom of the prophet, 
 267 ; corruption of the people, 268 ; hope for them in the dis- 
 tant future, 270; two parts of the book, 271 ; no supernatural 
 revelation made to Isaiah, 272 ; style of the prophet, 279 ; ex- 
 planation of Isaiah ix. 1-7, 280. Sect. V. Micah, 286; themes 
 of Micah's discourses, 287 ; God's law his authority, 290. 
 Sect. VI. Nahum, 291 ; no evidence of inspiration, 292. 
 Sect. VII. Zephaniah, 293. Sect. VIII. Habakkuk, 294; 
 no evidence in the prophecy of divine aid, 295. Sect. IX. 
 Obadiah, 295. Sect. X. Jeremiah, 296; announcement of 
 his call to the prophetic office, 297 ; prophecies of the restora- 
 tion of the Jewish State, 301; prophecies against foreign 
 nations, 302; style of the book, 303 ; Lamentations, 304. 
 Sect. XI. Ezekiel, 304; prophecy divided into three parts, 
 305 ; translation from Rosenmuller, 306-308 ; Ezekiel inferior 
 to Jeremiah, 309 Sect. XII. Daniel, 310 ; two divisions of 
 the book, 311 ; written in two languages, 312 ; explanation cf 
 the prophetical part, 313 ; age, 316. Sect. XIII. Jonah, 317. 
 Sect. XIV. Haggai, 320. Sect. XV. Zechariah, 322; two 
 divisions of the book, 322. Sect. XVI. Malachi, 326; 
 annunciations based upon the law of Moses, 328. 
 
PART I. 
 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 

COMMON-SENSE VIEW 
 
 BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 PART I. 
 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 Section I. — The Bible. 
 
 When we open the Bible, we find that the sacred 
 books of two religions are contained in it, — the sacred 
 book of the Jews, called the Old Testament, and the 
 sacred book of Christians, called the New Testament. 
 It would have been well for the world if the books of 
 these two religions had never been bound up together, 
 as there is a tendency to believe that they include only 
 one religion, and that both are of equal authority to the 
 Christian. This is a most pernicious error, and has led 
 to the saddest results. The Old Testament is the author- 
 ity of the Jew's religion ; the New Testament is that of 
 the Christian's religion. The commands given in the 
 Old Testament are not binding upon the Christian, unless 
 they are repeated in the New Testament. Whatever Old 
 
4 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 Testament laws are repeated in the New Testament are 
 obligatory upon Christians ; no others are. It is vain to 
 quote the Old Testament as proving either Christian 
 doctrine or duty. To find these we must confine our- 
 selves to the New Testament. We are not under obliga- 
 tion to keep the seventh day simply because the Jews 
 were commanded to keep it, nor to offer sacrifices, nor to 
 pay tithes, — the Law was for the Jews, — just as we are 
 not obliged to obey the old articles of the Confederation, 
 which were in full force before the formation of the Con- 
 stitution of the United States. Whatever articles of the 
 old Confederation were embodied in the new Constitution 
 we are bound to obey, not because they were in that, but 
 because they are in the new Constitution. 
 
 It is of no avail, therefore, in proving a doctrine or duty 
 of a Christian, to quote passages from the Old Testament 
 which teach it and command it. Let this fact be settled 
 immovably in the mind of every person who would intel- 
 ligently read the Bible. It contains the sacred books of 
 two religions, the Jewish and the Christian. If you are 
 a Jew, study and obey the Old Testament. If you are a 
 Christian, you can read and study for instruction the Old 
 Testament ; but you must study and read the New Testa- 
 ment for a knowledge of your own religion. 
 
 Section II. — The Apocrypha. 
 
 Nor is this all. In many Bibles there are bound up 
 between the Old and New Testaments several writings, 
 
OTHER JEWISH BOOKS. 5 
 
 called "The Apocrypha." These are books which the 
 Jews supposed not to be of equal value with the others, 
 and hence they were not joined with them. They are 
 received by the Roman Catholics as partly inspired, but 
 not of equal authority with the other Old Testament books. 
 As these books are not generally, probably very seldom, 
 read by Christians, whether Protestant or Catholic, I shall 
 pass them by with the remark that the Wisdom of Solomon 
 and Ecclesiasticus are rich in instruction, and as worthy 
 a place in the Old Testament as Solomon's Song and 
 Ecclesiastes. The stories of Bel and the Dragon, and 
 Susannah and Tobit and Judith, are as instructive as 
 Daniel and Jonah; and the Books of the Maccabees 
 thrill us as deeply with their accounts of the exploits of the 
 heroes of the people as do those contained in Judges. 
 These neglected books are worthy of being read. 
 
 Section III. — Other Jewish Books. 
 
 The literature of the Jews before the time of the Baby- 
 lonian Captivity is all lost save the fragments of it contained 
 in our Bible. That they had a literature which was quite 
 extensive and comprehensive, is evident from books or 
 works which are referred to in the Old Testament. It 
 may interest the reader to see a list of them ; and for this 
 reason, as well as for other reasons which will appear 
 further on, I will name them : — 
 
 i. " The Book of Jasher," referred to in Joshua x. 13, 
 and 2 Samuel i. 18. This was probably a book of paeans 
 
6 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 on great victories, and poetic eulogies on great warriors 
 and chiefs, statesmen and others. 
 
 2. "The Book of the Wars of the Lord," Numbers 
 xxi. 14. This was apparently much like the Book of 
 Jasher, but may have been more historical. 
 
 3. " The Visions of Iddo the Seer," 2 Chronicles ix. 29, 
 and elsewhere. This was probably a book of instruction 
 founded on dreams and visions, like Daniel and Ezekiel. 
 
 4. "The Book of Gad the Seer," 1 Chronicles xxix. 29. 
 This was probably chiefly historical or biographical, since 
 the author of Chronicles refers to it as authority for his 
 account of David. 
 
 5. "The Book of Nathan the Prophet," 1 Chronicles, 
 xxix. 29. This also was apparently a history of his times. 
 
 6. "The Book of Samuel the Seer," 1 Chronicles 
 xxix. 29. This book, also, appears to have been to a 
 large extent historical. 
 
 7. "The Book of Shemaiah the Prophet," 2 Chroni- 
 cles, xii. 15. This author is said to have written the acts 
 of Rehoboam, and he was probably a historian as well as 
 a biographer. 
 
 8. " The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel," 
 1 Kings, xvi. 5. It appears that the kings of Israel, like 
 other Oriental kings, employed scribes who wrote down, 
 perhaps daily, the doings of the government; and this 
 book is one of the books of records. 
 
 9. "The Book of Jehu, son of Hanani," 2 Chroni- 
 cles, xx. 34. This author was also a chronicle --writer and 
 biographer. 
 
FURTHER DIVISIONS OF THE BIBLE. 7 
 
 Solomon was a voluminous writer, though it may be 
 that the number of proverbs which he spake, " three 
 thousand," and the number of songs which he wrote, "a 
 thousand and five," are exaggerated. He was also a 
 botanist, and " spake of trees, from the cedar that is in 
 Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the 
 wall." He pushed his studies in other directions also; 
 " he spake of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, 
 and of fishes." It is not probable that Solomon was the 
 only student of Nature, though no others are named. 
 
 Section IV. — Further Divisions of the Bible. 
 
 I have said that our Bible contains two books, the Old 
 Testament, in which is the Jewish religion, and the New 
 Testament, in which is the Christian religion, and between 
 the two there is sometimes placed the Apocrypha. I now 
 say that both the Old Testament and the New are made 
 up of many separate books or works, written by many 
 different authors, and during many centuries. 
 
 The Old Testament may be divided into three parts : — 
 
 I. The Law : Genesis to Deuteronomy. II. History : 
 Joshua to Esther. III. Literature, mostly poetry : Job 
 to Malachi. 
 
 But there is another division, which indicates to us the 
 different authors whose works are contained in the Bible, 
 and shows us that one author is not responsible for the 
 writings of another, any more than Paul is responsible for 
 the writings of Peter. 
 
8 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 If we open the Old Testament, we shall find that it is 
 made up, as now divided in our Bibles, of no less than 
 thirty-nine different books, — the longest, the Psalms, con- 
 taining one hundred and fifty-nine chapters or psalms, and 
 the shortest, the prophecy of Obadiah, containing one 
 chapter. How many different writers were engaged in 
 composing these thirty-nine books it is impossible to tell, 
 but probably as many as thirty-five. Seventeen books of 
 prophecies are named, then Moses, then a writer of Joshua, 
 another of Judges, another of Ruth, another of the Samuels, 
 another of the Kings, another of perhaps the Chronicles, 
 Ezra, and Nehemiah, another of Esther, another of Job, 
 half a dozen of the Psalms, and of Proverbs three cer- 
 tainly and no one knows how many more, and of Eccle- 
 siastes and Solomon's Song one or two. This is only an 
 approximation to the truth. 
 
 Section V. — Literary Character of the Books. 
 
 If we examine the literary character of these books, we 
 shall find very different styles of composition, and very 
 different subjects treated. All readers know that our 
 English Bible is a translation of the book from the lan- 
 guage in which it was first written. The Old Testament 
 was written in Hebrew, with the exception of Ezra iv. 8 to 
 vi. 1 8, Daniel ii. 4 to vii. 28, Ezra vii. 12-16, and Jere- 
 miah x. 11. Before the invention of printing, the Bible 
 was copied by persons who made it a business to copy 
 books. In writing them, some employed capital letters 
 
LITERARY CHARACTER OF THE BOOKS. 9 
 
 only, others wrote in small letters. No spaces were left 
 between the words, nor was there any punctuation. The 
 page was not broken into paragraphs, but written con- 
 tinuously j and abbreviations were often used for words, as 
 if in English I should write " Gd " for God, and " sn " for 
 son, and " tt " for that. Hence, when the letters began 
 to be separated into words, it was often a question what 
 division to make ; for sometimes the change of a letter 
 from the end of one word to the beginning of another 
 would change very materially the sense, and very serious 
 errors might be made unintentionally by those who en- 
 gaged in this separation of the continuous letters into 
 proper words. Often, also, bad work was made in dividing 
 the page into verses, by letting a verse end with a comma 
 before any full sense was expressed. Sometimes, even, a 
 chapter ends with a comma instead of continuing until 
 a full stop would give the reader the meaning of the 
 passage. This whole work of dividing the Bible into 
 chapters and verses was very carelessly done, and is of 
 no value in determining the meaning of the writer. 
 
 The punctuation of the Bible is not the work of the 
 authors of the books, but was made by the translators 
 or previous critics, and very often changes entirely the 
 meaning of the writer. A doctrine receives its support 
 sometimes from a comma or period which was inserted 
 by the translator of our Bible into English. Romans ix. 5 
 is a notable instance of such improper punctuation (see 
 Revised Version). This example must suffice to illus- 
 trate what effect punctuation has upon the sense of a 
 
IO GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 passage while the author has no direction of the matter. 
 All these things — the division of his work into chapters 
 and verses and its punctuation — the author had nothing 
 to do with ; and however infallibly inspired he may have 
 been, his translators and punctuators and chapter-and- 
 verse makers did not share it in any degree. 
 
 Nor is this all which is the work of the translators of the 
 Bible with which the original authors had nothing to do. 
 If you will open your Bible in the Book of Psalms, at 
 Psalm li. you will find the heading, " To the chief musi- 
 cian : A Psalm of David, when Nathan came unto him," 
 etc., and similar headings to the Psalms which immediately 
 follow. All these headings are the work of unknown per- 
 sons, who wrote them to give information respecting the 
 author of the Psalm. They are no part of the original work, 
 and cannot be relied upon as correct. The word " Selah," 
 found in Psalm lii. and in several others, makes no part 
 of the original composition, but was inserted to direct the 
 musicians, when the psalm was sung, where to pause. 
 
 Once more : all the headings of the chapters, and all the 
 running summary of the contents of a page at the top of 
 the page, are the work of our translators. What is said in 
 these headings is not to be relied on, and is often false. 
 They are nothing but a commentary on the chapter by the 
 translator. Turn to Solomon's Song, and you will read 
 in these headings of " the church's love unto Christ," 
 of " the mutual love of Christ and his church," " the 
 church is sick of love," and much more of the same ama- 
 tory character, when there is not a word said in the Song 
 
LITERARY CHARACTER OF THE BOOKS. II 
 
 about Christ or about his church, or the remotest allu- 
 sion to either. Nearly as false headings are found in the 
 Prophets and the Psalms, which make no part of the origi- 
 nal Bible. And still more : all the words printed in italic 
 are the insertion of our translators to express more clearly 
 what they thought was the true sense of the original ; 
 but being most of them men of strong doctrinal bias, they 
 would be liable, even unconsciously, to give a doubtful 
 passage a strong doctrinal signification in support of their 
 opinions. In Acts vii. 59, where Stephen is represented 
 as " calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my 
 spirit," there is no such word as " God " in the original, 
 and the passage should be translated, " Calling aloud, or 
 out, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." In 2 Sam- 
 uel i. 18, is a very striking instance of a failure by the 
 translators to apprehend the meaning of the writer, and a 
 curious leading astray of the reader by the insertion of 
 words in italic. The passage is the introduction of David's 
 most beautiful elegy on Saul and Jonathan. "And he 
 [David] bade them teach the children of Judah the use of 
 the bow, behold it is written in the Book of Jasher." Now, 
 to exhort the people of Judah to teach their children to 
 shoot arrows, was a thing the farthest possible from David's 
 mind. Leave out the italic words, and. you have just 
 what David desired to have taught ; namely, " The Bow," 
 that is, this most tender eulogy on his friends, which was 
 called " The Bow." This was the name of the poem, and 
 this poem he would have taught through all generations in 
 memory of the fallen heroes. We should be grateful to 
 
12 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 our translators for warning us of the words which they 
 have inserted by printing them in italic letters. There is 
 no ground for charging the translators of our Bible with 
 adding words for the purpose of sustaining their peculiar 
 doctrines ; but there can be no question that their doc- 
 trinal bias did influence them in the rendering of all 
 doubtful words, and in the construction of all equivocal 
 sentences. They would probably do it unconsciously 
 more frequently than consciously. 
 
 It is necessary to bear in mind, furthermore, and above 
 all, that our Bible is a translation of the Hebrew and 
 Greek Testaments. We do not read the original writing 
 in our common Bibles. The translation which we use, and 
 which is printed by the American Bible Society, was made 
 two hundred and seventy -four years ago (1611), by a com- 
 mission of scholars appointed or approved by James I., a 
 great bigot and pedant, who cramped the freedom of these 
 scholars so closely by the rules which he gave them for 
 their guidance, that their work could hardly be called a 
 new translation, but only a revision of the one then in use, 
 which was made only forty-three years before, and was 
 called the Bishops' Bible. Within less than a century no 
 less than seven translations, or revisions of translations, 
 had been made ; so that in point of fact King James's 
 translators, so called, only revised a revision of a revision, 
 instead of translating anew freely, according to their own 
 judgment as scholars, the original Hebrew and Greek 
 Testaments. No one claims that James and his forty- 
 seven translators were all under the infallible guidance of 
 
LITERARY CHARACTER OF THE BOOKS. 1 3 
 
 the Holy Spirit, and therefore no one can suppose that 
 their translation of our Bible is inspired, infallible. 
 
 Another very important fact should be borne in mind 
 by all students and readers of the Bible. I have already 
 said that the Old Testament was almost wholly written in 
 Hebrew, and the New Testament in Greek. Down to 
 the time of the invention of printing, these books, as well 
 as all others, were multiplied by making copies of them 
 by writing. Some of these copies were made by profes- 
 sional writers, and were for sale ; others of them were 
 made by private persons for their own use. And as it 
 is certain that the separate books of the Bible were not 
 collected into one volume till centuries after they were 
 written, different writers would copy different books as 
 they chose, one preferring Isaiah, another Proverbs, 
 another the Psalms. In this manner, copies of the same 
 book would be made by several different persons, and no 
 one of these copies would be absolutely accurate in every 
 particular. Soon the original writing of the author would 
 be lost, and copies could only be made from copies, and 
 so the mistakes of the earlier copies would be perpetuated, 
 as well as new ones made. Now, when it is remembered 
 that this process of copying went on with the New Testa- 
 ment for about fourteen hundred years, and with parts 
 of the Old Testament for nearly twice as long, we should 
 expect to find that the manuscript copies would differ very 
 much from each other, and that it would become very im- 
 portant to make a wise selection of the manuscripts from 
 which the Bible should be printed. But when our Bible 
 
14 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 was printed, no comparison of manuscripts had been care- 
 fully made, and therefore the manuscript used was not a 
 choice from many, made by competent scholars, but such 
 an one as the printer happened to have. Our Bible, 
 therefore, which we read to-day is a translation of one of 
 the many manuscripts in existence, without reference to 
 its superior accuracy to the others. 
 
 Any one who has attempted to copy even a page of 
 writing knows how difficult it is not to make a mistake ; 
 and when a mistake is discovered, there is no way of cor- 
 recting it but by interlining or writing the omitted words 
 on the margin. Now, as these manuscripts were private 
 property, the owner would have no hesitation in writing 
 between the lines or in the margin an explanatory word, 
 which was not in his copy ; and if his friend borrowed his 
 manuscript to make a copy for his own use, he might well 
 make the mistake of putting into the body or text of his 
 copy the explanatory word or words in his borrowed copy, 
 thinking that they had been accidentally omitted by the 
 former copyist, and by him placed between the lines or 
 in the margin. No one intends to corrupt the original, 
 but it is done. All such additions to the text, whether 
 accidental or intentional, are called " interpolations." 
 
 Men of great learning and of great patience have visited 
 libraries in universities and monasteries in both the West 
 and the East, and a great many manuscripts have been 
 compared, and the most accurate readings have been 
 chosen, and new editions of the Old Testament and the 
 New have been printed, which are used by scholars, and 
 
LITERARY CHARACTER OF THE BOOKS. 1 5 
 
 which will be given to us in the Revised Version of the 
 sacred Scriptures which some of the most eminent scholars 
 in England and America, of different religious denomina- 
 tions, are now making. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, from these considerations, that 
 there is no Greek or Hebrew manuscript that is absolutely 
 correct, and that to speak of the infallible inspiration of 
 all these copyists, and of the copies which they made from 
 each other, is simple foolishness. Whether the writers of 
 the original manuscript, all whose autograph writings are 
 lost, were infallibly inspired or not, is quite another ques- 
 tion, and to be decided in a very different way, — which will 
 be shown when we come to examine the separate books 
 and the claims to inspiration made by their authors, and 
 the validity of those claims. We have at best, therefore, 
 only an imperfect copy of the autographs of the authors 
 of the books contained in the Bible. It is very painful to 
 hear scholars who should know better, affirming the abso- 
 lute perfection, the infallible accuracy, of our Bible. 
 
 Having explained the origin of these errors of copyists, 
 it is important that some of them should be pointed out, 
 that the reader may know exactly their importance, and 
 understand with what wonderful accuracy the integrity of 
 the original text has been preserved, in spite of all its 
 exposure to the infirmities of copyists, and careless or 
 conscientious correctors of supposed errors found in their 
 manuscripts. 
 
 A very large portion of these mistakes arise from sub- 
 stituting one synonymous word for another; as if in 
 
1 6 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 English " said " should be used for " spake," " hear " 
 for "hearken," "on" for "upon," "beside" for "by." 
 Probably not one in twenty of these errors affects the gen- 
 eral meaning of the sentence. Some of them, however, 
 are important, and a very few have a doctrinal value. 
 
 I shall not here take room to illustrate the interpola- 
 tions in the Old Testament. They will appear in their 
 proper place. That they are so few, rather than that they 
 are so many, is the ground of wonder. No other work of 
 that age has come down to us so perfect. 
 
 MISTRANSLATIONS. 
 
 There are very many mistranslations which lead the 
 reader astray, and many words well understood two cen- 
 turies and a half ago have become obsolete, and convey 
 no meaning to the reader, or, what is worse, a false mean- 
 ing. I will not occupy room with referring to many of 
 them, as the Revised Version, which we are impatiently 
 waiting for, will correct them all. 
 
 In i Samuel xx. 40, we read of " artillery," which 
 means " baggage ; " "tell" means "to count ; " " to ear " 
 means "to plough;" "wist" means "to know." "A 
 brazen mirror " is translated " looking-glass " in Exodus 
 xxxviii. 8; and "to engrave or write," in Job xix. 23, is 
 translated "to print." 
 
 I will give only two more illustrations of the imperfec- 
 tion of our translation. In Isaiah vi. 13, the prophet is 
 speaking of the captivity of the people and the return of 
 some of them to their native land to perpetuate the race. 
 
MISTRANSLATIONS. 
 
 17 
 
 Our translation is placed at the left hand, and a correct 
 
 one, Dr. Noyes's, at the right. 
 
 "Until Jehovah have removed 
 the men far away, and there be 
 great desolation in the land. 
 And though there be a tenth 
 part remaining in it, even this 
 
 " And the Lord have removed 
 men far away, and there be a 
 great forsaking in the midst of 
 the land. But yet in it shall be 
 a tenth, and it shall return, and 
 shall be eaten : as a teil tree, 
 and as an oak whose substance 
 is in them, when they cast their 
 leaves, so the holy seed shall be 
 the substance thereof," — which 
 means nothing. 
 
 The second illustration is found in Ezekiel xxi. 14-17, 
 where the prophet is predicting a great slaughter by the 
 sword. 
 
 again shall be destroyed ; yet as 
 when the terebinth and the oak 
 are cut down the stem remaineth 
 alive, so shall a holy race be the 
 stem of the nation." 
 
 " Thou, therefore, son of man, 
 prophesy, and smite thine hands 
 together, and let the sword be 
 doubled the third time,the sword 
 of the slain : it is the sword of 
 the great men that are slain, 
 which entereth into their privy 
 chambers. I have set the point 
 of the sword against all their 
 gates, that their heart may faint 
 and their ruins be multiplied : 
 ah ! it is made bright, it is 
 wrapped up for the slaughter. 
 Go thee one way or other, either 
 on the right hand or on the left, 
 whithersoever thy face is set. 
 I also will smite my hands to- 
 gether, and I will cause my fury 
 to rest." 
 
 " Thou, therefore, son of man, 
 prophesy and smite thine hands 
 together ! for twice, yea thrice, 
 cometh the sword, a sword of 
 slaughter, a sword of great 
 slaughter, that besetteth them 
 on every side, that their 
 hearts may faint, and their 
 overthrown may be multiplied. 
 I have set the terror of the 
 sword against all their gates. 
 Ah ! how it is made to glitter, 
 polished for slaughter ! Unite 
 thyself, smite to the right, pre- 
 pare thyself, smite to the left, 
 whithersoever thine edge is 
 turned ! I also will smite my 
 hands together, and cause mine 
 anger to cease." 
 
1 8 GENERAL REMARKS. 
 
 These specimens are sufficient to show the imperfection 
 of our present translation, and the necessity of a thorough 
 revision of it ; and also to show that the prevalent opinion 
 that the Bible is absolutely correct in every particular, 
 plenarily inspired, and perfect as the original writing of the 
 authors, is utterly mistaken and groundless. What re- 
 liance can be placed upon the historical and biographical 
 portions of these books must be learned from the books 
 themselves when their age and authorship and contents 
 pass under our notice. As far as words and sentences 
 are concerned, they come down to us in the same im- 
 perfect condition as other ancient writings, and, as they 
 are in our hands and in our translation, are most certainly 
 not infallibly inspired. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I have now shown the general construction of the book 
 which we call the Bible, and find that it is made up of 
 many smaller books composed by many different writers 
 during a long series of years ; that it is not one book, but 
 several smaller books bound in one ; and that no one of 
 these smaller books guarantees the accuracy or authority of 
 any other one. The historical or biographical or doctrinal 
 value of each book must be determined by the contents 
 and author of the book itself. The Books of Samuel may 
 be authentic history, and the Book of Judges not. Hosea 
 may be the writing of a divinely inspired prophet, and the 
 Book of Joel not such a writing. There has been no word 
 spoken from heaven or among men which authorizes us to 
 
CONCLUSION. 19 
 
 believe the Bible, all these books, are the "Word of God," 
 written under His special guidance, and free from all error 
 of fact and doctrine. This being the case, each book 
 must be examined separately, that its origin and author- 
 ship and accuracy and inspiration may be learned and 
 clearly established, if possible. To this examination I 
 now call the reader's attention. 
 
PART II. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
PART II. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CREATION TO ABRAHAM. 
 Genesis i.-xi. 
 
 The first five books of the Old Testament are called 
 by scholars the " Pentateuch," from a Greek word mean- 
 ing five books ; and I shall generally speak of them under 
 that name. As these books are commonly supposed to 
 have been compiled or written by Moses, I shall some- 
 times probably call them the Books of Moses. The names 
 of these books are Genesis, as it contains an account of 
 the creation of things ; Exodus, as it gives an account 
 of the departure from Egypt; Leviticus, as it gives an 
 account of the duties of the Levites ; Numbers, as it gives 
 an account of the numbering of the people ; and the fifth 
 book, as it repeats many parts of the Law, and makes 
 amendments to it, is well called Deuteronomy, or Second 
 Law. 
 
 If we divide the Pentateuch into sections, we shall 
 find that (i) it contains the transactions at Sinai, and 
 
24 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 the laws there given; Exodus xx.-Numbers x. 10. 
 (2) This body of the laws is preceded by an account of 
 the servitude in Egypt and the escape of the people to 
 the wilderness of Sinai; Exodus i.-xix. (3) And this 
 is preceded by biographical sketches of the three great 
 patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Genesis xii.-l. 
 (4) These biographical sketches are preceded by an 
 account of the creation, of Eden, of the flood, and cf 
 Babel, and sundry genealogies ; Genesis i.-ix. (5) Then, 
 succeeding the record of the giving of the Law, there is 
 an account of the journeyings of the people till they 
 arrived at the eastern bank of the Jordan, Numbers xii.- 
 xxxvi. ; (6) and of the transactions there till the death 
 and burial of Moses, Deuteronomy i.-xxxi. In other 
 words, there is the book of the Law, Exodus xx.-Num- 
 bers x. 10, and its preface or introduction, Genesis i.- 
 Exodus xix., and its appendix, Numbers x. 10-Deuter- 
 onomy xxxiv. The division of the work into five books, 
 as now arranged, seems fanciful or accidental. Whoever 
 made it perhaps thought it would be a good place to 
 make a break when the history was brought down to the 
 arrival in Egypt of Jacob and his household ; or Genesis 
 may have been compiled after the incidents in and de- 
 parture from Egypt, and prefixed to it. So Exodus may 
 have closed where it does because the mechanical work 
 of the tabernacle and its furniture, and the sacred gar- 
 ments, were finished, and the new subject of sacrifices was 
 entered upon. And Leviticus may have ended where it 
 does because arrangements are now made for the num- 
 
CREATION TO ABRAHAM. 25 
 
 bering of the people. Numbers ends naturally with the 
 end of the people's journeyings ; and Deuteronomy is a 
 clearly denned appendix containing the last addresses of 
 Moses and his amendments of the previous laws. 
 
 Such being the general structure of the Pentateuch, 
 I proceed to consider its contents more particularly. The 
 preface or introduction to the Law, Genesis i.-Exodus 
 xix., may be divided into three parts : 1. The traditions 
 antecedent to the time of Abraham, Genesis i.-xi. ; 
 
 2. The biographical sketches of the lives of Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob, interspersed with a few historical events, 
 and anecdotes of some other persons, Genesis xii.-l. ; 
 
 3. The abode in Egypt, and the rescue from servitude 
 under the lead of Moses to the wilderness of Sinai, Exo- 
 dus i.-xix. 
 
 The first part of this preface, Genesis i.-xi., is a com- 
 pilation of two, or at most three, ancient documents, 
 which the compiler used as they came into his hands, 
 without materially changing them, as may be readily seen 
 by any reader of the Bible in the English language, 
 though not as clearly as by one who can read the original 
 Hebrew. In one of the documents used by the compiler 
 of these eleven chapters the Supreme Being is called God 
 (in Hebrew, Elohim). In the other document he is 
 called Lord (in Hebrew, Jehovah or JahveJi). If a third 
 document was used, in that he is called Lord God, and it 
 extends from chapter ii. 4 to chapter iii. 24. The reader, 
 therefore, if he wishes, can very readily make this division 
 for himself, regarding only the name by which the Supreme 
 
26 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 Being is called. But as it may be helpful, and will take 
 little space, it may be well to give a brief outline of these 
 documents, which critics call Elohistic and Jehovistic, 
 from the Hebrew names of God used in them. 
 
 The Elohistic document, or that in which the Hebrew 
 name (Elohim) of the Supreme Being is translated "God," 
 extends from chapter i. i to chapter ii. 4, containing an 
 account of the creation. 
 
 The other account of the creation, called the Jehovistic 
 account, because in this document the Hebrew name of 
 the Supreme Being is Jehovah, translated Lord, follows 
 the former, instead of being placed in a parallel column 
 so that the reader could easily compare them. God is 
 added to Lord in chapters ii. 4-iii. 24, making these two 
 chapters, in the opinion of some critics, a third document 
 in this compilation. 
 
 The reader sees that this new account of the creation 
 begins chapter ii. 4, as if with the title of a separate work : 
 " These are the generations [creations] of the heavens 
 and of the earth when they were created, in the day that 
 the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." The 
 writer now goes on to give an account of the creation in 
 many respects different from that of the writer of the first 
 document, and tells of the Garden of Eden, the sin of the 
 first pair, the expulsion from Eden, the murder of Abel, 
 the banishment of Cain, and what he and his posterity 
 did, to the 5 th chapter. In a few instances the Supreme 
 Being is called God ; but the general rule is not affected 
 by these exceptions. 
 
CREATION TO ABRAHAM. 27 
 
 The first document now begins again in chapter v. 1, 
 with this title : " This is the book of the generations of 
 Adam; " and, giving a genealogy of the descendants of 
 Adam till the time of Noah, ends with chapter vi. 2. It 
 begins again (I omit the other Lord, Jehovistic docu- 
 ment), chapter vi. 9, with these words as its title : " These 
 are the generations of Noah," and goes through the chap- 
 ter. It begins again at vii. 6, and continues, with very 
 slight exceptions, if any, to viii. 20. It begins again at 
 ix. 1, and continues to ix. 20 ; and commencing again, 
 it includes the 28th and 29th verses, closing with the 
 words, " and he died." It begins again with chapter 
 xi. 10, — "These are the generations of Shem," is the 
 title, — and continues to verse 2 7, when a new title is 
 introduced, " Now these are the generations of Terah," 
 and continues to the 3 2d verse inclusive. All the rest of 
 these chapters not enumerated as belonging to the first 
 document, belong to the second ; and the reader, by omit- 
 ting what is contained in the first document, will be able 
 to read continuously what is contained in the second. 
 
 The account of the creation given in the first document 
 agrees so marvellously with the revelations of modern 
 science, that the reader is almost compelled by that fact 
 alone to admit that it must have been revealed, substan- 
 tially as we have it, to some early inhabitant of the earth. 
 The order of creation, as here written, is the order which 
 science confirms, — chaos, clouds, seas, dry land, herb, 
 sea animals and birds, land animals and man. The sec- 
 ond account is very different, and appears to have been 
 
28 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 deeply colored by traditions. The first document con- 
 tains very little which appears mythical ; while the second, 
 though evidently based upon facts, gives them to us so 
 colored by the atmosphere of ages that the fact cannot 
 with any certainty be separated from the fiction. That 
 these great events — the fall, so called, the flood, the 
 building of Babel, and the consequent confusion of 
 tongues, as well as the creation — have some basis of 
 fact, is evident from their acceptance through the East 
 in the earliest time. The tablets exhumed in the valley 
 of the Tigris and Euphrates refer to all these events, 
 though written a thousand years before the time of Moses. 
 In the Oriental legends * translated by the late George 
 Smith, there is a fragmentary account of the creation, the 
 fall, the expulsion from Eden, the flood, the building of 
 the Tower of Babel, and the dispersion. These tablets 
 show that all these legends, if one pleases to call them 
 such, were familiar in the land of Ur, out of which Abra- 
 ham emigrated, and might well have been brought by him 
 to the West, and handed down from generation to genera- 
 tion, at last in a written form, to the time of Moses, or 
 whoever was the compiler of the Book of Genesis. 
 
 It is a curious fact that the tradition of the creation 
 most similar to that in Genesis is found among the Etru- 
 rians, an ancient people of Italy. But the marvel is 
 removed when we find that modern excavations have 
 brought to light the equally curious fact that the ancestors 
 
 1 The Chaldasan Account of Genesis, etc. A new edition, corrected by A. H. 
 Sayce. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1880. 
 
CREATION TO ABRAHAM. 29 
 
 of the Old Etrurians emigrated from the same country 
 as Abraham, and would therefore be likely to transmit 
 the same traditions. 
 
 The legend of Isdubar, which has recently been dug up 
 in the ruins of Nineveh, though the dried clay tablets on 
 which it was written were in a very broken state, gives a 
 tolerably connected account of the flood, but locates it at 
 the mouth of the Euphrates ; and the mountain on which 
 the ark rested is part of a range on the east side of the 
 river, below Babylon. The tablets giving an account of 
 the creation, the fall, and the building of Babel are too 
 much mutilated to enable the antiquarian to give any 
 very satisfactory information respecting them. For a full 
 account of these tablets and their contents, the reader 
 is referred to the works of the Rawlinsons and George 
 Smith. 
 
 My purpose is not so much to interpret as to describe. 
 These eleven chapters, unless we except the tenth, are not 
 historical, nor were they intended to be. Whoever com- 
 piled the lives of the three great ancestors of the Jewish 
 race, prefixed these chapters as giving the genealogy of 
 the greatest ancestor from the earliest time, even from 
 Adam ; and with this genealogy he has given a few tradi- 
 tions, — only four, — covering but a very few years out of 
 the two thousand which the genealogies cover. 
 
 In regard to the trustworthiness of these traditions 
 and genealogies, it can only be said that we do not 
 know who compiled them, nor do we know who first 
 committed them to writing. The compiler has given us 
 
30 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 two accounts of the creation and of the flood, as if he 
 would not attempt to determine which was the more cor- 
 rect ; and it would appear that in his first document (the 
 Elohistic) there was no account of the fall, so called, or 
 of Cain and his posterity. As this document reads con- 
 nectedly when the parts which I have named are put 
 together, it is very probable that the compiler has given 
 us the whole of this very ancient document. But we 
 know not its author. We have no means of judging of 
 the authenticity of these eleven chapters, except by their 
 contents ; and these contents are sometimes contradictory, 
 sometimes apparently extravagantly incredible ; as, for 
 example, the age of the antediluvians, reaching in one 
 instance to nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and the 
 capacity of the ark to hold all the creatures named, and 
 the food they required, during the flood. If it should be 
 said that these wonderful things are miracles, the reply is : 
 Certainly they were miracles if they ever took place ; but 
 whether they ever took place or not, in the manner here 
 related, is the very question at issue. Who affirms the 
 accuracy of these traditions and genealogies? Till a 
 responsible indorser is found, they must be accepted or 
 rejected as valid or invalid, as their contents demand. 
 No claim of inspiration in any sense is made by the 
 original author or by the later compiler, nor is there 
 evidence of any kind from any quarter that they were 
 inspired. Better, far better, admit that we do not under- 
 stand them, than to make such unsupported claims of 
 their divine origin, and such wretched blunders in their 
 
CREATION TO ABRAHAM. 3 1 
 
 interpretation, as have been made by those who claim that 
 they are a revelation of infallible truth from God. There 
 must be witnesses of unchallenged veracity to convince us 
 that the serpent talked with the woman; or that eating 
 the fruit of one tree produced death and the eating of 
 another restored life ; or that the woman was made of 
 the rib or side of the man, which contradicts the account 
 in the first chapter ; and so of much more in the second 
 document. There is not the slightest evidence that the 
 " seed of the woman," chapter iii. 13, is the Messiah, as 
 many critics affirm. 
 
 The first account implies that more than a single pair 
 were created : " Let us make man [the species, man], and 
 let them have dominion. So God created man . . . male and 
 female created he them" In the second account we read 
 that Cain feared men would kill him ; and being assured of 
 his safety, he went into the land of Nod, took a wife, built 
 a city, and had children. But only his father and mother 
 and himself were on the earth, if only Adam and Eve were 
 created, and their children named were the only persons 
 besides. I am not an interpreter, however, but a describer. 
 At all events, there is nothing in these early documents 
 which opposes conclusively the creation of different groups 
 of human beings, or the creation of many families in the 
 Adamic group. Nor is there anything which conclusively 
 shows the specific manner of creation, — whether by grad- 
 ual evolution of species from simple forms and continued 
 differentiation during vast ages, or instant creation at distant 
 intervals by the divine fiat. Nor does the word " day," 
 
32 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 as used in the first document, necessarily mean a period 
 of only twenty-four hours ; it may signify ages, as it cer- 
 tainly does in the second document, chapter ii. 4 : " These 
 are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when 
 they were created, in the day that the Lord God made 
 the earth and the heaven." Here the whole time of the 
 creation is called a " day ; " that is, a period of time in 
 which a thing was done. The contradictions which some 
 scientists think they find, and affirm with so much bold- 
 ness that they do find, between the revelations of science 
 and the first account in Genesis, are many of them en- 
 tirely destitute of any foundation, as any Biblical scholar 
 knows. 
 
 I call the attention of the reader to the first scrap of 
 poetry which is found in the Bible, and which may be 
 called " The Sword Song ; " Genesis iv. 23, 24. I shall 
 translate the passage anew, for in the common version it 
 makes no sense. " And Lamech said unto his wives : 
 
 ' Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, 
 Ye wives of Lamech, give ear to my speech, 
 For I slay a man if he woundeth me, 
 Even a young man, if he hurteth me. 
 Lo ! Cain would be avenged seven-fold, 
 But Lamech seventy-and-seven fold.' " 
 
 The reader of even the English translation perceives a 
 rhythmic movement which is not found in prose. The 
 subject of Hebrew poetry will be fully discussed when we 
 take up the Poetical Books. 
 
 The 10th chapter appears to drop all mythical dra- 
 pery, and to be founded upon the most reliable tradition. 
 
CREATION TO ABRAHAM. 33 
 
 Indeed, the "Journal of the Asiatic Society" says of it: 
 " A precious document, which well deserves to be called 
 the most authentic record that we possess of the affiliation 
 of nations ; " and the Journal might have added, of their 
 early migrations. It would be very pleasant to follow the 
 migrations of these different families, and show how cor- 
 rect is this old account which has floated down these four 
 thousand years, informing us of the peopling of all western 
 Asia, eastern Africa, and all Europe ; but this is the part 
 of the commentator. The accuracy of this document 
 awakens a confidence in the honest intent of the com- 
 piler of the other traditional accounts, and that they are 
 based upon supposed real transactions, and not upon ideal 
 fancies. 
 
 There is one more passage of poetry which has sur- 
 vived the tooth of time, which I cannot refrain from 
 quoting. It is usually called the " Curse of Canaan," and 
 is put into the mouth of Noah when he recovered from 
 his excessive draught of wine, and is found in Genesis 
 ix. 25-27: — 
 
 " Cursed be Canaan. 
 Let him be a servant of servants unto his brethren. 
 Blessed be the Lord God of Shem, 
 And let Canaan be his servant. 
 God shall enlarge Japheth, 
 And he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, 
 And Canaan shall be his servant." 
 
34 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB. 
 
 Genesis xii.-l. 
 This sketch of incidents in the life of Abraham, as well 
 as that of Isaac and Jacob, is composed apparently of two 
 documents which came into the hands of the compiler, 
 and from which he selected such accounts as his fancy 
 or judgment dictated. They are evidently the same docu- 
 ments as were used in compiling the eleven previous 
 chapters, and there is no reason to suppose that another 
 person compiled these memoirs. The compiler evidently 
 added little or nothing from his own pen, only furnishing 
 connecting matter when it was needed, or explaining some 
 old custom, or adding a modern name to some ancient 
 city or place. The same name of the Supreme Being, 
 "God" or "Lord," distinguishes these fragments as in 
 the first eleven chapters ; and, guided by this rule alone, 
 the reader can hardly fail to make the proper divisions. 
 It is not of so much importance to make this distinction 
 in these biographies as in the previous chapters, because 
 they rarely describe the same event, and the incidents 
 given are not, therefore, parallel with each other. Abra- 
 ham fell into trouble, when he went down into Egypt, by 
 the fancy which Pharaoh took to his wife (chapter xii. 
 10-20). This is in an extract from the second document 
 
ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB. 35 
 
 in which the name of the Supreme Being is "Lord." A 
 second adventure like it occurred to him afterwards with 
 Abimelech, King of Gerar, which is related in the first 
 document (the Elohistic, chapter xx.) ; and some critics 
 are disposed to think both accounts are founded upon 
 one occurrence. But there is no proof of it. Substan- 
 tially the same thing might happen twice to the possessor 
 of a fair wife in those days. Hagar might be driven out 
 of Abraham's tent by the jealousy of Sarah before Ishmael 
 was born, as well as by the mother Sarah's partiality after 
 the birth of her son Isaac ; though one of these occurrences 
 is contained in one of these documents, chapter xvi., in the 
 "Lord" document, and the other, chapter xxi., in the "God" 
 document, — harshly so called in English by the critics. 
 
 This documentary character of the Book of Genesis may 
 be traced more or less distinctly through the memoirs of 
 Isaac and Jacob to the close of the book; and these 
 extracts which Genesis preserves were undoubtedly taken 
 from two large documents which have perished. That 
 they were written documents, is very evident from the 
 manner in which they are used by the compiler. He is 
 not arranging unwritten traditions. What dependence can 
 be placed upon them must be determined by their con- 
 tents. Their author, as I have already said, we do not 
 know, nor has any person made himself responsible for 
 the accuracy of the narration. There is no reason to 
 suppose that the writer of the original documents did not 
 correctly narrate such traditions as had reached his time 
 respecting Israel's great ancestor Abraham, and his son 
 
36 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 Isaac and grandson Jacob ; but how much reliance can be 
 placed upon these traditions must be determined by the 
 traditions themselves, as we have no contemporaneous 
 history which is more reliable than they are by which to 
 test them. There is no reason to call in question the 
 leading events in the lives of these three men. They are 
 so individual in their characters that it is not possible that 
 three so different yet so strongly marked persons would 
 have been invented as standing in the relation of ancestor 
 and posterity, and as the great patriarchs of the Jewish 
 nation. Who that created the strong, the vigorous, the 
 enterprising, the colonizing Abraham as one of the great 
 three who founded the Jewish nation, would have intro- 
 duced as his son and coequal head the indolently ef- 
 feminate, lackadaisical Isaac, inefficient, doing nothing, 
 effecting nothing which enabled his unknown biographer 
 to tell posterity anything of him which does not indicate 
 his consummate stupidity and inactivity ? And who that 
 had created these two characters would have created and 
 selected as the third compeer of the grand old immigrant 
 from Ur, the cunning, deceiving, cowardly, runaway Jacob, 
 whose whole career, as sketched by the unknown biogra- 
 pher, was as unworthy of his ancestry as of his manhood, 
 — by the side of whom the generous, prodigal, cheated 
 Esau stands in comparison a noble, grand, unselfish soul, 
 worthy to be a descendant of Abraham and an ancestor of 
 the Jewish race ? The pen that sketched these characters 
 was a skilful one. The personal traits of these three patri- 
 archs are drawn with all the clearness and specialness 
 
ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB. 37 
 
 of a great novelist, and the reader will find it impossible 
 to transfer to the portrait of the grand old Sheik and 
 Patriarch, Abraham, a single lineament of the counte- 
 nance of Isaac, or a solitary expression of the face of 
 Jacob ; Esau alone reflects back upon the great ancestor 
 any of his noble and admirable traits of character : and 
 yet he is not one of the immortal three. This is strong 
 evidence that the characters are drawn from life • that the 
 things here narrated have a foundation in fact ; that the 
 men here described are no myths, no creations of the im- 
 agination, but human beings like ourselves, trained under 
 the influence of Oriental skies and Oriental opinions. 
 
 I do not propose to write even an abstract of the lives 
 of these men as recorded in Genesis. I only propose to 
 touch upon some of the incidents narrated, and clothe 
 them in the language of modern thought, thus relieving 
 them of what is to us marvellous or incredible. To this 
 end, it is necessary to bear in mind a very few simple rules 
 which must always guide us when we read the writings of 
 Oriental men ; and especially what a profoundly religious 
 man writes on any subject, particularly on religious sub- 
 jects. These memoirs are all written from a religious 
 point of view, and by an ardent believer in the immanence 
 and perpetual agency of God in all things. Everything, 
 indeed, is attributed to His agency. He suggests what 
 Abraham and the rest are to do, what they are to say, 
 where they are to go, and where they are to remain ; and 
 the incidents which happen are interpreted as revealing 
 His will, which is put into words as if He had spoken. 
 
38 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 "The Oriental mode of narration/' says Setter, in his 
 Biblical Hermeneutics, " has this peculiarity, that it some- 
 times describes events by representing as spoken, things 
 which had only happened, without the express words hav- 
 ing been employed ; " and what God is supposed to mean 
 is put into words by the pious writer just as if God had 
 spoken those words. Immer, in his Hermeneutics, takes 
 the same view of many of the theophanies and angel- 
 ophanies, or appearances of God and of angels related in 
 this book. Indeed, this language of piety is not confined 
 to the ancients ; it prevails now in all the East, and even 
 among Christians in New England. They speak of God 
 as doing this and that, and saying this and that, by certain 
 events which take place. With this indisputable fact be- 
 fore us, let us read the lives of these great ancestors of 
 Israel guided by the rule that acts and words are attributed 
 to God which are only the devout expression of the opinions 
 and feelings of the writer. 
 
 Abraham dwelt with his father Terah and his two 
 brothers Nahor and Haran in Ur of the Chaldees, — a 
 region lying mostly south of Babylon, near the mouth of 
 the Euphrates, and identified with the ruined city now 
 called Mughier. Abraham married his half-sister (chap- 
 ter xx. 12), and Haran died early, leaving his son Lot. 
 With this family Terah set out on his migration to the 
 land of Canaan, to which some of his nation had migrated 
 long before him, settling on the eastern shore of the 
 Mediterranean Sea, and even west in Italy, where they 
 were called Etruscans. Terah, therefore, only followed 
 
ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB. 39 
 
 ; VY - 
 
 the enterprising company of emigrants. He went, hoA 
 ever, no farther than Haran, on the upper waters of the 
 Euphrates, at the foot of the mountains of Armenia, where 
 sickness, or age, or discouragement detained him, and 
 he died there. But the enterprising Abraham went on 
 after a short delay, directed, as he believed, by the will 
 of God, which will the old biographer has put into words. 
 There in Canaan he saw that his family would prosper, 
 increasing in wealth and numbers in that rich country till 
 it would become a great tribe, race, — hardly "nation" 
 in our use of that word, — both blessed and blessing all 
 the families (tribes) inhabiting that region, not the whole 
 round globe. He was now seventy-five years old. His 
 wife and Lot and all his servants and all his other prop- 
 erty he took with him. He had left an idolatrous people, 
 and seems to have attained some knowledge of one God, 
 but with very imperfect views of his character, and his 
 relation to the so-called gods of other people. Driven, 
 temporarily only, to Egypt by a drought, he grew rich in 
 cattle and servants; and his nephew Lot also so greatly 
 prospered that strifes took place between their herdsmen, 
 and Abraham proposed that they should separate, dividing 
 the country between them, and most generously he gave 
 his nephew his choice of the hill country or the plain. 
 Lot chose the plain, and their pecuniary interests there- 
 after were separate. 
 
 Chedorlaomer, with three allies from the region formerly 
 inhabited by Abraham, came to the neighborhood to put 
 down an insurrection, and was returning home with Lot 
 
40 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 as a captive, when Abraham rallied his forces, pursued, 
 overtook, and conquered him, and rescued his nephew. 
 Of this Chedorlaomer we read on the tablets recently ex- 
 humed by Rawlinson and Smith, and either this Kedar, or 
 another, called Keedar Mapula,is called " Conqueror of the 
 West." Thus the tablet which had been buried three thou- 
 sand years confirms this old scrap of an Eastern invasion 
 of the far West. Abraham reveals the princeliness of his 
 character by refusing to take of the King of Sodom any- 
 thing, " from a thread even to a shoe latchet," as com- 
 pensation for the great service rendered the king by 
 pursuing and conquering the invaders. Longing for off- 
 spring, with Sarah's consent, if not at her suggestion, as 
 was the custom in those days, Abraham took Hagar, his 
 wife's maid, as a concubine. But before the birth of her 
 child, Sarah became so jealous of her that she was obliged 
 to leave the tent for a season. Ishmael was born, and 
 grew up in peace till, in her old age and against all hope, 
 and paralleled by but few instances in the world's history, 
 Sarah bore Isaac. The wonderful visitations attending 
 this event must be interpreted by the general rule given 
 above. Oriental dreams came, in after times, to be un- 
 derstood as actual occurrences, and personal convictions 
 of duty and cherished hopes were interpreted as revela- 
 tions from God. 
 
 The nobleness and stern piety of Abraham are mani- 
 fested in two very marked events. When his sense of 
 God's hatred of flagrant sin, of the sure destruction which 
 it would bring upon evil doers, forced him to believe that 
 
ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB. 4 1 
 
 the days of the wicked cities of the plain were numbered, 
 he prayed with intensest fervor that they might be spared, 
 in the hope that even yet, hopeless as the hope was, they 
 would repent, reform, and live righteously. But it could 
 not be. With dramatic vigor he is represented as entreat- 
 ing the Lord to save the wicked city if fifty, or forty-five, 
 or forty, or thirty, or twenty, or even ten righteous persons 
 should be found in it. But the ten could not be found in 
 it ; and the storm came in all the terror of lightning and 
 tempest, and the asphaltum soil was fired by the thunder- 
 bolts, and the subterranean waters burst through the burn- 
 ing covering, and the cities perished, while Lot, suspecting 
 the impending tempest and possible conflagration, escaped 
 with his family. 
 
 The other incident illustrative of the profoundness and 
 superstitiousness of his piety was his conviction that he 
 should make as precious an offering to his God as other 
 peoples and persons made to their gods, or his piety would 
 be unacceptable. Isaac, his dear and only son, Sarah's 
 child, must be offered a sacrifice to his God ! What 
 anguish of soul the devout father suffered, God only 
 knows. But it seemed to him that God demanded it, 
 and he would not refuse. The account of the prepara- 
 tion, of the journey, of the revelation of the father's pur- 
 pose to the son, and the son's unresisting submission, 
 though now twenty-five years old, in the full strength of 
 manhood, the building of the altar, the binding of the 
 victim, the elevated knife of sacrifice, is most touching 
 and pathetic ; and then, as the blow is about to be struck, 
 
42 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 the rustling bushes and the struggling ram arrest the 
 father's eye and arm, and the incident is to him the voice 
 of God telling him to substitute the ram for his son. 
 Mistaken piety ! Most providential rescue ! 
 
 Abraham marries several wives after Sarah's death, and 
 finally passes away, leaving his great estate to Isaac, who 
 proves to be just what might be expected of a son of old 
 age, — indolent, inefficient, unenterprising, as unlike his 
 parents as possible. His only ambition seems to have 
 been to obtain " venison," to be cooked so as to make 
 " savory meat." His wife Rebecca was bright, sharp, 
 cunning, and could manage him according to her mind. 
 She had twin sons, Jacob and Esau, and she loved the 
 former more than the latter, though he was the younger ; 
 for Jacob was much more like his mother in disposition 
 than Esau, — cunning, deceptive, greedy. When, there- 
 fore, Isaac waxed old and was blind, and wanted " savory 
 meat," and faithful Esau had gone out to hunt to get 
 him some venison, Rebecca instigated Jacob to get a kid 
 and she would make " savory meat " of it and deceive his 
 father, and he should receive the paternal blessing. It 
 was done. Isaac was deceived, and Esau was defrauded. 
 But the cowardly Jacob fled for his life to Laban, his 
 mother's brother, in Padan Aram, and took a wife. How 
 Laban cheated him, and how he cheated Laban in 
 turn, and fled away with two wives and their concubines 
 and children, and much cattle, and settled in Canaan, I 
 need not relate. Famine came. 1 Joseph, who had been 
 
 1 There was a famine of seven years in Egypt (1064-1071, a.d.). 
 
ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB. 43 
 
 sold by his brothers into Egypt, makes himself known to 
 them, when they come down to Egypt to buy corn, as first 
 officer of the kingdom, and sends for his father and all his 
 household and all his possessions to come down and dwell 
 in Egypt ; and they do so. This history of Joseph is 
 most beautiful and most touching. No one can read it 
 without being impressed with its substantial accuracy, and 
 filled with admiration of his fortune and character. 
 
 The blessing of Jacob on his sons (Genesis xlix. 1-27) 
 is a most wonderful composition, and worthy the pen of 
 the most gifted of the poets of Israel ; and the brief ac- 
 count of his death is as tender as it is brief, and as simple 
 as it is tender. — a production of a much later age than 
 that of the patriarchs, yet identified with the period of 
 the composition and collection of the Pentateuch in the 
 Mosaic age. A new and more correct translation of it 
 may undoubtedly be found in the Revised Version. 1 
 
 What can be found in all literature more exquisite in 
 expression and touching in its incidents than Judah's 
 plea before Joseph for the release of his young brother 
 
 1 Many commentators maintain that the Messiah is referred to in the prophecy 
 attributed to Jacob (Genesis xlix. 10), by the name of Shiloh : " The sceptre shall 
 not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver [better " leader's staff "] from between his 
 feet, until Shiloh come [better "until he come to Shiloh"!, and unto him [or 
 " it," Shiloh) shall the gathering of the people be [or "shall the people gather]." 
 Shiloh was a town where the tabernacle rested many years after the people 
 entered the promised land, and here also was the ark of the covenant to which 
 the tribes went to worship. The rulers did not arise from the tribe of Judah till 
 three or four hundred years after they entered Canaan ; nor did the tribe of Judah 
 continue to furnish them till the time of Christ ; nor was the Messiah ever called 
 Shiloh. Moses, their great leader, was of the tribe of Levi ; Joshua, the conquer- 
 ing hero, was of the tribe of Ephraim ; and Saul, the first king, was of the tribe of 
 Benjamin. Not till David, did Judah furnish a king. 
 
44 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 Benjamin, — an outgush of fraternal and filial love with- 
 out a parallel in all the ages. Read it, — Genesis xliv. 
 18-34. 
 
 Who can read without shedding tears the account of 
 Joseph's making himself known to his brothers? How 
 simply the disclosure is told ! How every syllable throbs 
 with emotion ! The great prince of Egypt sobbed aloud. 
 In broken syllables he said, " I am Joseph. Doth my 
 father yet live?" What filial love! Astounded and 
 dumb, the brothers stand immovable. " Come near," 
 he says. " I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into 
 Egypt. God sent me here to preserve you alive. Be not 
 grieved." What tenderness ! 
 
PART III. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 [Continued.) 
 
PART III. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 {Continued.) 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT. 
 
 Exodus i.-xix. 
 
 A space of several centuries — some writers say two and 
 a half, and others over four — intervenes, in which little 
 or nothing is said of the condition of the descendants of 
 Jacob in Egypt. The first we learn of them is, that they 
 are oppressed; a portion of them at least are reduced 
 to servitude, and made to labor on the public works 
 and build treasure-cities. Their male children are put to 
 death at birth, under the pretence that they are becoming 
 so numerous as to peril the safety of the government. 
 Moses is born, and found by Pharaoh's daughter in the 
 place where he has been hidden by his mother. She adopts 
 him as her child, and he is brought up at the court till 
 he is forty years of age, when he ventures to interfere in a 
 quarrel, which compels him to flee the country for his life. 
 He is absent forty years, when, having a dream or vision 
 of a burning bush, he returns under a supposed or real 
 divine impulse to free his people. After suffering terrible 
 
48 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 plagues, Pharaoh gives his consent to their leaving ; but, 
 repenting, he pursues them, and his army is lost in at- 
 tempting to follow them through the Red Sea. Moses 
 leads the people to Mount Sinai, where he gives them 
 their law and their ritual. 
 
 The author of these twenty chapters of the Book of 
 Exodus was not probably the author of either of the two 
 documents from which the Book of Genesis was compiled, 
 nor is it clear that the compiler of the Book of Genesis 
 was the author of this account of the servitude and escape 
 of the descendants of Jacob. Moses, who by his educa- 
 tion was well acquainted with the traditions of his ances- 
 tors, may have compiled the Book of Genesis, and some 
 other person, even after the settlement of the people in 
 the promised land, may have composed this short sketch 
 of the servitude and escape from Egypt, from such oral 
 accounts as he found among the people three generations 
 after most of the events reported occurred. That the 
 account of the terrible calamities which visited Egypt at 
 this time, and of which Moses is said to have taken ad- 
 vantage to seek the release of his people, has foundation 
 in truth, is unquestionable. Such plagues were not very 
 uncommon, though not so severe. How accurate the 
 description is cannot be certainly ascertained. That 
 Moses convinced Pharaoh that the God of his people 
 was the cause of these terrible calamities, may be relied 
 upon. The whole story is told in the language of the 
 most devout and credulous piety, and is to be interpreted 
 accordingly. That it is not perfectly accurate appears on 
 
THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT. 49 
 
 the face of it. For example, it is said that " all the cattle 
 of Egypt died " of the murrain ; chapter ix. 6. Yet we 
 read that the next terrific tornado of rain, hail, and fire 
 " smote all that was in the field, both man and beast," 
 but that some of the servants of Pharaoh drove " his cattle 
 into the houses," while others left their " cattle in the 
 field;" verses 20, 21, 26. And when all the water in 
 Egypt was turned into blood, where did the magicians 
 get their water to try their enchantments on (chapter 
 vii. 22)? Besides, we do not know how great a portion 
 of the Nile valley is here called Egypt. Very probably 
 it was only that portion which is on the east side of the 
 lower divisions of the river Nile. At all events, the story, 
 told through three generations, would be likely to color 
 very deeply the original account of the plagues, and give 
 as their cause the direct and revealed agency of God, such 
 as we find attributed to them. The miraculous part of 
 these accounts may, therefore, be only the coloring given 
 them by pious minds, exaggerated as it would necessarily 
 be by so many successive repetitions. If any one, how- 
 ever, chooses to consider all the marvellous acts and 
 coloring as literal truth, so be it. That almighty power 
 could do these things is very true; but whether these 
 old accounts by an unknown writer are sufficient proof 
 of their truth, is quite another question. What is pos- 
 sible may not be probable, and what is probable may not 
 be proved to be real. Persons may choose as they please 
 between these interpretations of the wonderful events re- 
 corded in these chapters, — of the quails, of the bitter 
 
 4 
 
50 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 waters, of the tempest on Sinai, of the voice of God 
 speaking from the Mount. 1 The choice is to be made 
 between the substantial accuracy of the record of real 
 events and the traditional coloring which new, strange, and 
 wonderful phenomena would receive, so surprising to those 
 who had dwelt in level and fertile Egypt, and were now 
 transferred to deserts and among most awe-inspiring moun- 
 tains. Besides, these events were not recorded till after 
 a very long period, and by a believer in the special provi- 
 dence of God, and who thought that all which befell 
 the people or occurred in Nature was his personal act. 
 He is no more to be branded as sceptical who believes 
 the latter, than he is to be branded as superstitiously 
 credulous who believes the former. That to this body 
 of escaped slaves the whole rescue and march to Sinai 
 
 1 A terrible storm in these precipitous mountains, which filled the valleys with 
 darkness and hid the mountain peaks, the clouds torn with blinding flashes of 
 lightning, and the precipices reverberating with the most terrific peals of thunder, 
 would fill the minds of these escaping slaves with dumb astonishment. They 
 would be pallid with fear of the mightiness of the God who rode upon the tempest 
 and spake in the storm. Such a storm at Mount Sinai is described by Dr. Stewart, 
 " Tent and Khan," pp. 139, 140: " Every bolt, as it burst with the roar of a cannon, 
 seemed to awaken a series of distinct echoes on every side, . . . they swept like a 
 whirlwind among the higher mountains, becoming faint as some mighty peak in- 
 tervened, and bursting with undiminished volume through some yawning clefts 
 till the very ground trembled with the concussion. ... It seemed as if the moun- 
 tains of the whole peninsula were answering one another in a chorus of the deepest 
 bass. Ever and anon a flash of lightning dispelled the pitchy darkness, and lit up 
 the Mount as if it had been day ; then, after the interval of a few seconds, came 
 a peal of thunder, bursting like a shell, to scatter its echoes to the four quarters 
 of the heavens, and overpowering for a moment the loud howling of the wind." 
 During a thunder-storm in that neighborhood Mr. Drew unconsciously exclaimed, 
 in the reverberation of the echoes, " How exactly like the sound of a trumpet! " 
 How perfectly this corresponds with the description in Exodus: "There were 
 thunders and lightnings, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud from the thick 
 cloud." 
 
THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT. 5 1 
 
 was a perpetual wonder, a real presence and guidance of 
 God, there can be no question ; and that in the narration 
 of the events which transpired, human acts should be 
 attributed to God, and wonderful phenomena be changed 
 into special interpositions in their behalf, would be equally 
 natural and to be expected. 
 
 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night 
 appear at times to be miraculous. God is said to direct 
 the people by them as if they were his special creation 
 and direction. But there is no conclusive reason to be- 
 lieve that they were any different from the fires which 
 were carried before Oriental armies as signals by which 
 the distant portions of the host would be prevented from 
 receding too far from the main line of march or centre of 
 the encampments. Indeed, there is positive proof that 
 this signal, whatever it was, of moving, and direction 
 of march and encamping, was under human guidance. 
 " And Moses said unto Hobab . . . come thou with us, 
 and we will do thee good. . . . And he said, I will not 
 go. . . . And Moses said, Leave us not, I pray thee ; for- 
 asmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the 
 wilderness, and thou may est be to us instead of eyes; " Num- 
 bers x. 29-31. And he went as their guide ; as we learn 
 in Judges iv. n, that the children of Hobab were in 
 Canaan. While in the language of piety God is said to 
 be their guide, in the language of simple narrative Hobab 
 is said to be their " eyes," — their guide. 
 
 I must not close my remarks on this section without 
 calling special attention to the grand song of victory which 
 
52 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 was sung by the people after they had escaped the pur- 
 suing hosts of Pharaoh at the Red Sea. It is a nation's 
 anthem of deliverance : — 
 
 " I will sing unto Jehovah, for he has triumphantly exalted himself, 
 
 The horse and the horsemen he has overwhelmed in the sea ! 
 
 My strength and my song is Jah ; 
 
 And he is my salvation. 
 
 He is my God, and I will extol him in song — 
 
 My father's God, and I will magnify him. 
 
 Jehovah is a hero : Jehovah is his name ! 
 
 The chariots of Pharaoh and his host 
 
 He has cast into the sea. 
 
 The chief of warriors are sunk in the grassy deep ; 
 
 The refluent surges cover them. 
 
 Like a stone they sink down into the depths. 
 
 Thy right hand, O Jehovah, dashed down the enemy ! 
 
 And in the greatness of thy majesty 
 
 Thou prostratest all who rise against thee ! 
 
 Thou sendest forth thy wrath, 
 
 It consumes them as stubble. 
 
 At the breath of thy nostril, 
 
 The waters rushed into heaps ; 
 
 The swelling surges stood firm like a mound ; 
 
 The floods congealed in the heart of the sea ! 
 
 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will seize, 
 
 I will divide the booty ; my soul 
 
 Shall wreak its full vengeance on them ; 
 
 I will draw out my sword, 
 
 My hand shall extirpate them. 
 
 Thou breathest upon them with thy breath, 
 
 The waters cover them ! 
 
 They sink like lead in vast waters ! 
 
 Who is like thee : among the heroes like thee, O Jehovah ? 
 
 Who is like thee, exalted in equity, 
 
 To be extolled in songs, doing wonders ? 
 
 Thou stretchedest out thy right hand, 
 
THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT. 53 
 
 The earth swallowed them ; 
 
 Thou didst lead by thy mercy this people, 
 
 Redeemed by thee. 
 
 Thou wilt guide them by thy might 
 
 Unto the habitation of thy holiness. 
 
 The nations heard; they will tremble. 
 
 Terror seizes the dwellers in Philistia ; 
 
 Now the mighty ones of Edom are amazed ; 
 
 The heroes of Moab — trembling seizes them ; 
 
 All the inhabitants of Canaan melt with fear; 
 
 Dread and horror fall upon them. 
 
 By the might of thy arm they shall be motionless 
 
 As a stone, during the passing over 
 
 Of thy people, O Jehovah ! 
 
 During the passing over of that people 
 
 Thou hast rescued. 
 
 Bring them up. Plant them upon the mount 
 
 Of thy inheritance, the spot of thy residence, 
 
 Which thou didst prepare, O Jehovah, 
 
 The Holy place of the Lord. Thy hand built it — 
 
 Jehovah shall reign forever and ever. 
 
 Forth marched the horse of Pharaoh 
 And his chariots, and when he went down 
 Into the sea, Jehovah turned upon him the waters 
 Of the sea. But the children of Israel walked 
 On dry land in the midst of the waters." * 
 
 1 See Note A, at the end of Chapter II., giving some account of recent attempts 
 to trace different documents in this and later portions of the Pentateuch. 
 
54 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE LAW, AND ITS APPENDIX. 
 
 Exodus xx.-Deuteronomy. 
 
 We have now come to that division of the Pentateuch 
 which narrates the giving of the Law, Exodus xx.-xxiii. ; 
 the manufacture and erection of the tabernacle and its 
 furniture, xxiv.-xl. ; the ritual law, describing the sac- 
 rifices to be offered, Leviticus i.-vii. ; the dedication 
 of the tabernacle and priests, viii.-x. ; the distinction to 
 be made between things, beasts, and men, as clean and 
 unclean, xi.-xvi. j laws respecting crimes for which there 
 was no pardon, xvii.-xx. ; laws respecting festivals, vows, 
 and tithes, xxi.-xxvi. Next in order comes the number- 
 ing of the people, the order of encampment and order of 
 march, with a few new laws, Numbers i.-x. 10 ; then fol- 
 lows the account of the journeyings to the east bank 
 of the river Jordan, covering about thirty-eight years, 
 x. i i-xix ; then the narrative of the occurrences of ten 
 months on the east side of Jordan, xx.-xxxvi. 
 
 The reader will find some lines of old poems in Num- 
 bers xxi. 17, 18, 27-30; and some scraps attributed to 
 Balaam, xxiii. 7-10, 18-24; xxiv. 3-9, 15-19, 20-24. x 
 
 The appendix to the Law proper may begin with 
 the 1st chapter of Deuteronomy, or at Numbers xii. 
 
 1 See Note B, at the end of this chapter, on the story of Balaam. 
 
THE LAW, AND ITS APPENDIX. 55 
 
 Generally, however, the Book of Deuteronomy is looked 
 upon as a separate composition, and it will be so treated 
 here, and as an appendix to the previous work, or to 
 the Law especially. The time occupied by the events 
 recorded in the appendix is two months, and its contents 
 may be divided into four parts. The first part includes 
 the first address of Moses, chapter i.-iv. 40. The second 
 part consists ofamendments, offered in an address, of old 
 laws and the giving of new ones, iv. 40-xxvi ; the third, 
 the ceremonies to be observed at Ebal and Gerizim, 
 xxvii.-xxx. ; the fourth, an account of the delivery of the 
 Law to the Levites, the blessing of the tribes, and the death 
 of Moses on Pisgah, xxxi.-xxxiv. 
 
 I do not propose to give an analysis of either the 
 civil or ritual laws. The reader will find them, and when 
 they were given, in Exodus and Leviticus. The descrip- 
 tion, or the coloring of the description, of some of the in- 
 cidents attending the giving of these laws may have been 
 added afterwards, even half a century after, when the 
 actors had passed away. But there are a few facts to 
 which the reader's attention should be especially called. 
 
 I. The record, as a whole, claims to have been made 
 upon the spot near Mount Sinai, and there is no conclu- 
 sive evidence to the contrary. The construction of the 
 Law and the incidents connected with giving it corre- 
 spond perfectly with the place and time claimed. 
 
 II. The specifications of the articles to be made for 
 the tabernacle and its furniture and the priests' garments, 
 and then the entry of each specific article as "it was 
 
56 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 returned by the maker, unmistakably indicate work done 
 then and there, and credited to the workman on the spot. 
 Let the reader carefully peruse these chapters in Exodus, 
 giving an account of these matters, and see if he could 
 imagine them any other thing than specifications for work 
 to be done, and then credit for that work when done. 
 This one fact settles the substantial trustworthiness of 
 these accounts respecting the ritual laws, the furniture, 
 the tabernacle, and the priests' dresses. 
 
 III. It is to be carefully remarked that the sacrifices, 
 which are so minutely described in Leviticus, were not a 
 substitute for the penalty threatened in the law, from which 
 the transgressor escaped by offering the sacrifice. All 
 penalties were inflicted to the very letter before the trans- 
 gressor could offer his sacrifice; and this was only the 
 public confession of wrong on his part, and public proc- 
 lamation of full exculpation on the part of the priest. 
 Sacrifices were offered for thi?igs as well as for men, and 
 after diseases as well as after transgressions of the law, 
 and after accidental ritual uncleanness as well as after 
 necessary uncleanness, as in the case of the burial of a 
 dead body or the unnoticed touch of one who was un- 
 clean. The leper must offer a sacrifice as well as the 
 undertaker. The sacrifice was not a substitute for the 
 penalty of the law. It was a form of reception of the 
 transgressor into citizenship, after the full penalty had 
 been paid. 
 
 IV. Again, there was no sacrifice offered by one who 
 had committed a capital crime ; nor were any sacrifices 
 
THE LAW, AND ITS APPENDIX. 57 
 
 offered for sins, strictly so called, — crimes against God. 
 These, God punished always, or forgave, according to his 
 good pleasure, and no sacrifice was ever demanded for 
 them. Sacrifices were a part of the ritual, and were 
 offered only as a part of the ritual law ; they had nothing 
 to do with the moral character of the offerer. Ritual 
 transgressions, and no other, whether known or unknown 
 to the transgressor, were to be atoned by sacrifices. The 
 passage so often quoted from the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 ix. 22, that "without the shedding of blood is no remis- 
 sion," is only a universal for a general affirmation, as the 
 first half of the verse shows, — " and almost all things are 
 by the law purged with blood." " Things" observe, are 
 spoken of in previous verses, and are referred to largely, 
 if not wholly, in the clause so usually quoted. Besides, 
 there is in Leviticus v. 11-13, the statement of a case 
 where the "tenth part of an ephah of fine flour " is a sin- 
 offering, and makes an atonement for the sin of the offerer, 
 if poor ; and most of those liberated slaves were poor. 
 
 V. It is also to be observed that here is a full code of 
 civil and ritual law given to a people just escaped from 
 slavery, with all the debasement of both a coarse idolatry 
 and a cruel servitude clinging to them, and rendering 
 them wholly unfit for the instant understanding and re- 
 ception of this code. It is ideal; the people were 
 realists of the lowest order, but were to be trai?ied by 
 this ideal code into a higher life and purer worship. 
 Very many parts of both these two codes they could not 
 put into practice while they were in the desert, for they 
 
58 THE PENTATEUCH, 
 
 were adapted to a people in a settled state, which it was 
 supposed they would enter upon in a few mo7iths. But 
 they did not. For forty years they were a nomadic peo- 
 ple in the so-called " desert " or " wilderness." A whole 
 generation had passed away since the awful terrors of 
 Sinai revealed their God and sanctioned their law. Neg- 
 lected undoubtedly in many particulars from necessity as 
 well as from indifference, the people were in no condition 
 either to appreciate or obey it when they entered the 
 promised land ; and we shall see, as we go on with their 
 history, that it was almost a dead letter for many years. 
 Occasional traces of its observance are found during the 
 tumultuous period of the judges and the revolutionary 
 period of establishing the monarchy ; but it hardly took 
 form and developed its extent and pomp till the erection of 
 the Temple. Generations must pass before such a horde 
 of escaped slaves could appreciate such a code as Moses 
 gave them. But imperfectly as they regarded it at first, 
 yet, trained under its partial observance and frequent 
 violation, the people at last attained a religious eleva- 
 tion and literary taste which has caused not only the 
 marvellous survival of their scattered communities as a dis- 
 tinct race, but has made the writings of their historians, 
 poets, and prophets, household treasures throughout all 
 Christendom. 1 
 
 1 Deuteronomy xviii. 15-19, is supposed by many commentators to refer to 
 the Messiah, to Christ. But it is obvious that Moses had reference to a prophet, 
 or leader, who should immediately succeed him, to whom the people should give 
 heed instead of being led astray by "diviners," and "observers of times," and 
 " enchanters," and " necromancers," and "wizards," and " charmers," and " con- 
 

 THE LAW, AND ITS APPENDIX. 59 
 
 It is the duty of the commentator to explain the various 
 laws and rites which are contained in these books, Exo- 
 dus-Deuteronomy. It remains for me to inquire only 
 respecting their author, age, and authenticity. 
 
 Section I. — Author. 
 
 Beginning with Exodus, chapter xx., and including Le- 
 viticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, we find that some- 
 times directly, and sometimes indirectly, they indicate that 
 Moses was their author ; for what one does by the agency 
 of another, he may be said to do himself. If, therefore, 
 as is very probable and entirely in accordance with the 
 custom of the times, Moses employed a scribe or several 
 scribes to write for him, and they wrote these books at his 
 request or command, then they can be called his work. 
 The books also appear to have been written by different 
 persons, as the style in different passages has a slight shade 
 of difference, as it would have if written by different scribes. 
 The "archaic" forms are still found remaining in all parts, 
 showing that certainly no section of any length could have 
 been written in a much later age. Furthermore, all the 
 references to these laws, when their author is named, 
 
 suiters with familiar spirits." He had no reference to so distant a period as the 
 Christian era, nor would the passage ever have been referred to Christ had not 
 Peter quoted it in Acts iii. 22, and applied it to him. But this method of quota- 
 tion, that is, of applying to one person what is said of another, when that saying 
 is appropriate, is so common in the New Testament that it needs no illustration 
 here, as may be seen by comparing Matthew ii. 15 with Hosea ii. 1. This use of 
 the Old Testament Scriptures by the New Testament writers will be fully illus- 
 trated in the Introduction to the Prophetical Books. 
 
60 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 attribute them to Moses ; so that the presumption is that 
 he wrote them, or caused them to be written, unless the 
 contrary can be proved. 
 
 Section II. — Age. 
 
 Were they written, then, in his age? This must be 
 determined as we determine the age in which any book 
 was written. If we look into the writings of the Jews 
 between the time of the prophet Malachi and the time of 
 Christ, we shall find the Pentateuch referred to as " the 
 Law," as " the book of the Law of the Lord," as " the 
 book of the Law by the hand of Moses." And we find 
 the same style of reference made to a book of the Law 
 back through all the prophets to the time of Joel, 800 B.C., 
 indicating that the same book of the Law existed in his 
 time as was in use in the time of Malachi. 
 
 Nor is this all. We find that the passages quoted or 
 referred to by the prophets are contained in the Pentateuch, 
 thus identifying the book still more certainly. 
 
 Then, if we trace back the references to the same work 
 in the historical books from the time of Nehemiah to the 
 time of David, we shall find the same kind of evidence of 
 the existence of the book which we now have. And all 
 the references to the book in the Books of Samuel, Judges, . 
 and Joshua, still further identify it with the Pentateuch. 
 There is no counter historical testimony. The fact that 
 the Temple manuscript copy was lost or hidden away, 
 for three generations, for security during the idolatrous 
 
THE LAW, AND ITS APPENDIX. 6 1 
 
 reigns of wicked kings, and was at last found by Hilkiah, 
 or produced by him from its hiding-place, is no surprise 
 to any one acquainted with the perils of books in any age. 
 It is quite absurd to suppose that the book found did not 
 exist before, but was a barefaced forgery. Nor is it any 
 evidence that the Pentateuch was not in existence, because 
 at certain periods its laws were flagrantly and persistently 
 disobeyed. The gambling laws of Massachusetts are 
 constantly and openly disregarded. Tins objection to the 
 early existence of " the book of the Law of Moses " is of 
 no force whatever. 
 
 Section III. — Journal-like Character. 
 
 Again, the journal-like character of the work shows 
 that it was written when it claims to have been. Laws 
 are amended which are found to be unjust or inappropriate. 
 New laws are made to meet new emergencies as they 
 arise. 
 
 The case of the daughters of Zelophehad is in point. 
 The original law did not permit daughters to inherit the 
 father's estate. Zelophehad had no sons living at his 
 death. Who should have his estate? The daughters 
 present their case to Moses, and he amends the original 
 law, so that daughters may also inherit, and the estate not 
 pass out of the family; Numbers xxvii. i-ii. But it was 
 also a part of the law of inheritance that no possession 
 should pass out of the tribe. Now, the daughters of 
 Zelophehad were about to marry out of their tribe, and 
 
62 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 would carry their estate with them. To prevent this, 
 Moses amended his amendment, and enacted that when 
 a daughter married out of her tribe, the estate should be 
 given to other kinsmen ; Numbers xxxvi. Let this one 
 illustration suffice. 
 
 Section IV. — Archaic Language. 
 
 The old form of the language, called "archaic," in 
 which the book is written, remits it to an age long pre- 
 vious to the writing of any other book in the Bible. 
 
 These four witnesses to the Mosaic age of the book 
 might each of them be illustrated at great length; but 
 the purpose of this work forbids any such elaborate 
 discussion as would swell a small handbook into a large 
 volume. These four hints inform the reader of the method 
 of proof; the proof itself he will find as he studies the 
 different books in the Bible. 
 
 Section V. — Authenticity. 
 
 In regard to the authenticity of the Pentateuch, it may 
 be said, if it was written for the most part in the midst of 
 the events which it relates, then the author must have 
 been a most flagrant falsifier, or his book is substantially 
 true. There are some marvellous things narrated here. 
 That God could do all that is narrated as his act cannot 
 be disputed ; but it is an open question whether he did 
 do all that is attributed to him in this book. • When we 
 
THE LAW, AND ITS APPENDIX. 63 
 
 remember that an act of man is often attributed to God 
 when it conforms to his will, we must be very cautious about 
 believing that God did directly all that this author attributes 
 to him. What portions of these civil and moral laws can 
 be referred to direct revelation from God, no careful and 
 reverent critic will be in haste to decide. That Moses, 
 trained as he was in all the learning of the Egyptians, was 
 competent to construct this ritual without any supernat- 
 ural aid, is perfectly evident. He has introduced many 
 of the symbols and rites of the Egyptians. The ark of 
 the covenant and the cherubim over it, and the Urim and 
 Thummim, and various parts of the priests' and high- 
 priest's dress, are copied from the ritual of Egypt, yet 
 with difference enough to render the ritual of Moses in 
 great part original. It is not necessary for us to deter- 
 mine how many of these laws and rites are the work of 
 Moses, and how many, if any, are the direct inspiration of 
 God. We are Christians, and the Law is not our law, 
 nor is its ritual our form of worship. But as a matter 
 of curious scholarship students will still, and always prob- 
 ably, attempt the hopeless task of separating the divine 
 from the human element, and will often probably in the 
 future, as in the past, dogmatize on the subject, to the in- 
 jury of the Christian spirit and the dishonor of Christian 
 scholarship. 1 
 
 1 For a fuller discussion of the age and authorship of the Pentateuch, see the 
 author's " Study of the Pentateuch." 
 
64 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 NOTE A. 
 
 Several eminent critics on the Continent and in England, 
 and a few in this country, hold that the Pentateuch, with the 
 exception of a few brief passages, was not written till a period 
 long subsequent to the time of Moses. The Book of Deu- 
 teronomy was composed, some say forged, in the time of 
 King Josiah, by Hilkiah and his associates, and is the book 
 which they pretended to have " found " while the Temple was 
 undergoing repairs. They also maintain that the ritual law, 
 or Priest-Code as they call it, was not written till the return 
 from the exile ; and that the Book of Genesis was a compi- 
 lation made by an author as late probably as the last years 
 of the kingdom of Judah. Some critics also claim that the 
 code of ritual laws, though not written out, was growing up 
 during the reign of the later kings, and that its fragmentary 
 character is proof of it. Indeed, they maintain that Exodus- 
 Numbers is a mosaic of fragments of laws selected from 
 larger codes, and that these fragments can be separated. 
 They have attempted to make this separation. But no two 
 of them agree as to the fragments used, which shows that 
 the fragmentary theory, as regards Exodus-Numbers, is 
 by no means established, or capable of being established. 
 To show the reader how the most eminent of these theo- 
 retical critics differ in their selection of these fragments, I 
 will give their dissection of Exodus xii. I select six of 
 them, — Stahelin, Knobel, Kayser, Noldeck, Dillman, and 
 Wellhausen. 
 
 Stahelin selects as Elohistic verses 1-28, 43-51* 
 
 Knobe I selects as Elohistic verses 1-23, 28, half of 2>li A°~ 
 51 ; that is, Knobel omits four verses which Stahelin calls 
 Elohistic, and adds four in different places to Stahelin's 
 number. 
 
 Kayser selects as Elohistic verses 1-10, 14-20, 28, 40-5 *• 
 omitting thirteen verses that Stahelin accepts, and eleven 
 
THE LAW, AND ITS APPENDIX. 65 
 
 verses that Knobel accepts. No two of the three agree in 
 their choice of fragments. Again : 
 
 Nbldeck selects as Elohistic verses 1-23 (24-27 doubtful), 
 28, half of 37, 40-51. He differs from each of the other three 
 in his selections, and attributes to some editor half of 37 and 
 all of 38. 
 
 Dillman selects as Elohistic verses 1-20, 28, half of 37, 40, 
 41, 43-50 ; differing more or less from all the others, and 
 attributing to another Elohistic writer verses 21 (?), 31-33, the 
 other half of 37, 38, 42. Let the reader examine these divi- 
 sions, and satisfy himself of their utter groundlessness. But 
 I have not done. 
 
 Wellhausen selects as Elohistic verses 1-20, 28, half of 
 37, 40, 41, 43-50. He and Dillman agree in these selections ; 
 but we shall see, as we proceed, that they differ in making other 
 selections. 
 
 I will only delay to say that these eminent critics, whose 
 discoveries we are called upon to accept, do not agree. 
 
 But there are the Jehovistic selections of these critics yet 
 to be examined. 
 
 Stdhelin selects as Jehovistic verses 29-36, leaving six 
 verses of the chapter unaccounted for, or attributed to the 
 compiler. This is seen by adding together his Elohistic and 
 Jehovistic passages. 
 
 Knobel selects as Jehovistic verses 24-27, 29-36, half of 
 37, and 38, 39 ; differing widely from Stahelin. 
 
 Kayser selects as Jehovistic verses 11— 13, 21-27, 29-39; 
 differing from both the former. 
 
 Nbldeck selects as Jehovistic verses 29-36, 39, and at- 
 tributing to the compiler half of 37, and 38 ; not accounting 
 at all for eleven verses, and differing from all the other 
 critics. 
 
 Dillman selects as Jehovistic verses 21 ?-27, 29, 30, 34-36, 
 39, and not agreeing with any of the above named. 
 
 Wellhausen selects as Jehovistic verses (21-27 doubtful) 
 5 
 
66 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 29-39, 42 ; not agreeing in this selection, as in the other, with 
 Dill man, and with none of the others. 
 
 Wellhausen, the most eminent among those who have at- 
 tempted to show that the Pentateuch is made up of fragments, 
 has a peculiar theory, which I will state. The reader can 
 omit it if he is tired of this folly of learned men. 
 
 The Jehovistic document, as we now have it, or fragments 
 of it, in the Pentateuch, is composed of an original Jeho- 
 vistic document, and a first, second, and third emendation 
 of it ; so that, in fact, it had been changed by additions 
 and subtractions three times, and consisted of four parts, 
 namely, the original, and the three changes made by the three 
 revisers. 
 
 The Elohistic document underwent the same changes as 
 the Jehovistic, and consisted of the original document and 
 three revisions. 
 
 In this condition these documents would seem to be in a 
 sufficiently mixed state to defy separation. But be patient, 
 reader, if indeed you have ventured to read. Wellhausen is 
 not satisfied with this mixture, but says that the three-times 
 revised Jehovistic document is promiscuously added to the 
 three-times revised Elohistic document ; and these eight, or 
 by another reckoning twenty, intermixed documents he claims 
 to have detected and separated even to clauses of only a 
 dozen words ! 
 
 No two of these critics whom we are called upon to confide 
 in and follow agree in more than one instance, and several 
 passages in the chapter are not put into either the Jehovistic 
 or Elohistic class, but are attributed to the compiler or editor 
 of the Pentateuch. When we demand that at least two of 
 these critics shall agree in their separation into fragments of 
 the books before we are accused of stupidity or bigotry for 
 not blindly following them, our demand is reasonable, and we 
 should stand by it. Wellhausen goes so far as to say " there 
 were at least twenty-two authors, editors, and emendators 
 
THE LAW, AND ITS APPENDIX. 67 
 
 engaged in the composition and completion of the Pentateuch." 
 Till some better agreement is reached than we find in these 
 critics, and from whose opinion at least nine tenths, if not 
 nineteen twentieths, of the Hebrew scholars in England and 
 America decidedly dissent, it will be as reasonable as it is 
 prudent to accept the conclusion that the Pentateuch is a 
 work of the Mosaic age, and much of it the work of the hand 
 of Moses. 
 
 That some changes were made in later years is very prob- 
 able, such as substituting modern for obsolete words and 
 names, and notes to make plain an ancient statement. These 
 by no means prove the late date of the book in which they 
 are found. I give a few specimens of them. Genesis xii. 6, 
 " And the Canaanite was then in the land." This clause and 
 those like it were added after the conquest. Genesis xxiii. 2, 
 " In Kirjath-Arba ; the same is Hebron." The last modern 
 name is inserted to identify the old town. In Genesis xxxvi. 
 31, " before there reigned a king over Israel," was inserted 
 after the monarchy was established. The passage respect- 
 ing the cessation of the manna (Exodus xvi. 35) belongs to 
 the same class of explanatory notes. Leviticus xviii. 28, " as 
 it spewed out the nations before you," is evidently a note. 
 Deuteronomy ii. 12 contains another. So Exodus vi. 20, and 
 xi. 3, unless, as is more than probable, the whole account, 
 Exodus i.-xix. 25, was written many years after the events 
 transpired. " The meekness of the man Moses," Numbers 
 xii. 3, is clearly a marginal note. Let these suffice as speci- 
 mens of explanatory notes which have become part of the 
 text. They are easily detected. 
 
68 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 NOTE B. 
 
 THE STORY OF BALAAM. 
 Numbers xxi.-xxiv. 
 
 Balaam was an eminent soothsayer, the most eminent in 
 all the Eastern country. As it was supposed that a sooth- 
 sayer could both foretell and control events, kings were ac- 
 customed to consult him and to seek his aid in times of 
 difficulty. In great extremities, great sums were paid for 
 such services. As in modern times large fees are paid to 
 retain eminent lawyers, even if they are not employed, merely 
 for the purpose of preventing their being employed by the 
 other part)*, so in ancient times diviners were retained by 
 large gifts, or persuaded to invoke the descent of a curse 
 or a blessing. 
 
 The circumstances under which Balaam was called to act 
 challenged all his cunning and wisdom. The advancing 
 Israelites had prostrated nation after nation, and the fame of 
 their invincibility filled the land and the people with terror, 
 from hut to palace. Moab and Midian trembled and were 
 "sore afraid." It was in vain for them to put their trust in 
 horses and chariots, in spearmen and bowmen. Only one 
 resource seemed left to the terror-stricken kings and peoples. 
 The supernal or infernal powers, or both, must be invoked 
 and enlisted in their behalf. The great soothsayer Balaam 
 must be sought, — he who had access to the supreme powers 
 which control events and exalt or destroy nations. Vener- 
 able men bearing rich rewards are sent to obtain his good- 
 will and services. These Oriental princes are admitted to 
 the presence of Balaam. They tell him of the terror of the 
 kings, the irresistible march of Israel. 
 
 Like other diviners, Balaam is wise, watchful of his fame, 
 and greedy of fees. He must surround himself with mys- 
 tery, to sustain his profession ; he must hesitate and defer, to 
 
THE LAW, AND ITS APPENDIX. 69 
 
 increase his compensation. He asks the embassy to stay over 
 night that he may communicate with the supernal powers. 
 When the morning comes, he reports that the signs are not 
 propitious, and that he cannot go. The princes return and 
 report to Balak. He is not discouraged, but sends " more 
 princes and more honorable," and with richer fees than 
 before. 
 
 This is just what Balaam wanted. He was not a fool, if 
 he was a knave. He tells the embassy that if Balak would 
 give him his house full of silver and gold he cannot but obey 
 the unseen powers ; but he asks them to tarry another night, 
 and he will see what can be done ; possibly he may induce 
 the powers to let him go and curse Israel. They remain. 
 Once more Balaam reports, and more favorably. The powers 
 permit him to go, but whether he should curse he could not 
 tell, for that was not revealed to him ; ground shrewdly taken, 
 as we shall see. 
 
 That morning Balaam mounts his ass, takes two servants, 
 and goes with the embassy. His ass was fractious on the 
 way, and it is said that an angel appeared to the ass, and that 
 the ass and Balaam had a short talk. Then the angel ap- 
 peared to Balaam and gave him some good advice. Balaam 
 offered to go back, but the angel said, " Go on ; only speak 
 the word I shall give thee." 
 
 All this, be it remembered, is Balaam's own story, for there 
 is no evidence that the embassy or the servants heard this 
 colloquy ; even if they travelled with him, they may never 
 have heard what he told Balak about the desperate time he 
 had in getting to him. He knew how to magnify his office 
 and increase his importance and his fee. 
 
 Balak meets him and promises him "honors" as well as 
 richest rewards. But Balaam is shrewd. He has his repu- 
 tation to preserve. He must not be tempted by any gold or 
 honors to curse where the curse will not fall ; and he is pretty 
 sure at first sight that Balak is frightened out of his wits and 
 
70 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 cannot command his army, and that his army is equally scared 
 and could not fight even if it were well led. He therefore 
 apologizes, and tells Balak that he can speak only as he is 
 permitted. 
 
 The next day Balak takes Balaam upon the hills, that he 
 may see Israel ; and there seven altars are built, and seven 
 oxen and seven rams are offered. Balaam then goes away 
 to a high place ; and there were encamped beneath him the 
 hosts of Israel as the dust of the earth in multitude. He sees 
 that it will not do to curse such a well-ordered and mighty 
 host ; for surely they will conquer the timid Balak. He 
 returns and so reports, in the impassioned language of a 
 soothsayer under the influence of the higher powers whose 
 instrument he is. Balak is angry. Balaam is willing to try 
 another place for his offering : perhaps it will be more pro- 
 pitious to Balak. They move to the top of Pisgah. The 
 altars are built, the offerings laid upon them. Balaam again 
 goes to consult the powers, and to take another look at Israel 
 from " the top of the rocks." More numerous do the hosts 
 appear, and certain to go on conquering and to conquer. It 
 grows clear that they must scatter and destroy the forces of 
 Moab. 
 
 He returns again and reports to Balak the revelation of the 
 higher powers, in the same impassioned tones and language. 
 Balak is grieved and fearful ; for at this time, even a blessing 
 falls upon Jacob from the soothsayer's lips. Still, he will not 
 despair, and he proposes to try another place which may be 
 more propitious. Balaam consents. They go to the top of 
 Peor, and there again seven altars are erected and seven sac- 
 rifices offered. But Balaam did not go away alone this time 
 to consult the powers. His mind was made up. He sees 
 that Balak was doomed. He lifts up his voice in the raptures 
 of his occupation as soothsayer, and in loftiest strains of im- 
 provised poetry he blesses the camp of Israel, lying at his feet, 
 with richest promise of a most glorious future. 
 
THE LAW, AND ITS APPENDIX. J I 
 
 Balak now smites his hands together in his fury. But 
 Balaam is perfectly cool, as he can well afford to be. He 
 tells Balak that he had said from the first that he had no 
 power over what he should say : that was given him by the 
 powers whom he consulted. " I told you," he says, " that if 
 you would give me your house full of silver and gold, I could 
 speak nothing but what was given me to speak. Why, then, 
 are you angry with me ? But I have a word more to say, 
 before my return, about this all-victorious people lying here 
 in the valley below. They will become a great people, and 
 under the guidance of a mighty ruler they will smite Moab 
 and the neighboring nations." Then Balaam rose up and 
 returned to his place, and left the paralyzed king to the ful- 
 filment of the certain prophecy. 
 
 When the Israelites heard of this visit and the incidents 
 attending it, they saw in it the guiding hand of Jehovah, and 
 immediately translated it, so to speak, into the language of 
 their religion. The Lord guides, the Lord directs, the Lord 
 teaches Balaam what to say and do. In a word, the Hebrew 
 historian relates this story in the language of piety, and at- 
 tributes every transaction to the agency of God. There is 
 not a particle of evidence that Balaam's ass either saw an 
 angel or spoke, except the testimony of Balaam himself, who 
 was a soothsayer and understood his business well, as is evi- 
 dent from the whole account. If any one will have it that 
 his two servants were with him, we may be sure that they 
 also understood their business well enough not to contradict 
 their master. But they did not hear him tell this monstrous 
 story to Balak when he wished to magnify the difficulties 
 which he overcame on his journey, and the necessity which 
 was laid upon him to obey the supernal powers. And when 
 the story came to the ears of the Israelites it must have filled 
 them with courage and certainty that God was with them and 
 would give them the victory. 
 
 There is nothing supernatural in the addresses of Balaam. 
 
72 THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 It was evident enough that Moab was conquered even before 
 the battle ; and it was equally evident that the surrounding 
 nations must yield to the prowess of this advancing host. 
 This is just what Balaam says, and he says no more. To 
 find a prophecy of the Messiah in the "star" which is to 
 arise out of Jacob is inverting chronology ; for that star, or 
 sceptre, was to smite Moab then, immediately, and not 
 centuries afterwards. 
 
 This view of the account makes it intelligible and reason- 
 able, and satisfies both the critical and moral judgment. To 
 maintain the literal truth and divine inspiration of the mon- 
 strous story of this unprincipled soothsayer is a breach of all 
 rules of interpretation, and an insult to common sense. We 
 certainly should not believe the story from the lips of any other 
 man, nor should we believe that God had revealed to such an 
 one his purposes, even by the mouth of an ass, — instru- 
 ment fit enough for communicating with such a trafficker in 
 credulity, but hardly suitable for a divine messenger. If we 
 can rely upon the accounts we have of him, Balaam was a 
 bad man. He was an eminent soothsayer, as shrewd and 
 cunning and greedy as he was eminent. To other men of 
 quite other character and profession are we to look for 
 instruction and guidance. 
 
PART IV. 
 
 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
PART IV. 
 
 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 
 
 The Book of Joshua covers a period of about thirty 
 years, narrating special events which transpired from the 
 death of Moses to the death of Joshua. It may be 
 divided into four parts : i. Narrating the ceremonies 
 and wonders at the passage of the river Jordan, chapters 
 i.-v. ; 2. Containing an account of the conquest of the 
 land, chapters vi.-xii. ; 3. A description of the division of 
 the land among the tribes, chapters xiii.-xxii. ; 4. Joshua's 
 final addresses to the people, and an account of his death 
 and burial, chapters xxiii., xxiv. 
 
 In determining the historical value of this book, whether 
 we can rely upon its statements as being authentic, it is 
 important to know the author, the time at which he wrote, 
 and his authorities, if he was not a contemporary and an 
 eye-witness of the events which he narrates. 
 
J6 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Section I. — Author. 
 
 It is agreed on all hands that Joshua was not the author 
 of the book in the shape in which we now have it. Pos- 
 sibly some fragments, of which the history is composed, 
 were from his hand. The language of the book shows 
 that it must have been written some generations after 
 the Pentateuch, as the "archaisms" have disappeared. 
 Davidson says : " Of later diction there are various evi- 
 dences in the work ; though there are no such Chaldaisms 
 as would refer it to the time of the captivity " (vol. i. p. 
 426). Had we no other evidence than the change which 
 had taken place in the language between the writing of 
 the Pentateuch and the writing of the Book of Joshua, we 
 should know that it could not have been written before 
 his death. Half a century will not account for the differ- 
 ence in the language of the two works. There is no evi- 
 dence of any kind that Joshua wrote the work, as we now 
 have it ; nor is there, either in the book itself or elsewhere, 
 any clew to the author. 
 
 Section II. — Age. 
 
 The next inquiry is respecting the age in which the 
 author wrote. To this we have some clew. The lan- 
 guage of the book shows that it must have been written 
 some generations after the time of Joshua, and before 
 the time of the captivity, — between the years b. c. 
 1300 (or 1400) and 600. But if we can rely upon the 
 

 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 77 
 
 statements of three or four passages, a much closer ap- 
 proximation can be made to the true date of the work. 
 We read, Joshua xv. 63, " the Jebusites dwell with the 
 children of Judah at Jerusalem unto this day." But we 
 read in 2 Samuel v. 6-9, that " David took the strong- 
 hold of Zion " and drove out the Jebusites. This would 
 show that the Book of Joshua was written before the 
 middle of the reign of David, about B.C. 1050. Again, 
 in chapter xvi. 10, we read that " they drove not out the 
 Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer ; but the Canaanites dwell 
 among the Ephraimites unto this day, and serve under 
 tribute." But in 1 Kings ix. 16, we read, " Pharaoh, king 
 of Egypt, had gone up and taken Gezer, and burnt it with 
 fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city, and 
 given it for a present unto his daughter, Solomon's wife " 
 (b. c. 1 000). These passages would place the writing of 
 the book before the close of the reign of Solomon, and do 
 not contradict the other two passages which place its date 
 as early as the middle of David's reign. Again, we read, 
 Joshua ix. 27, that " Joshua made them [the Gibeonites] 
 hewers of wood and drawers Of water . . . even unto this 
 day, in the place which he should choose" From this it 
 appears that the site of the temple had not been selected ; 
 but in 1 Chronicles xxii. 1-3, we read of David's selecting 
 the site of the temple and preparing to build it. These 
 two passages, if we can rely upon their accuracy, — and 
 there is no valid reason to suppose we cannot, — show 
 that the Book of Joshua was not written after the reign 
 of David, or after about b. c. 1050. This date agrees 
 
78 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 very well with the evidence of its age as inferred from 
 its language. 
 
 Besides this evidence of the age of the book, the phrase 
 " unto this day " is frequently used by the writer ; and 
 though it is too indefinite to mark the exact date of the 
 book, it agrees with that fixed by the passages quoted. 
 We may be morally sure, therefore, that the book was 
 written as early as the reign of David, perhaps as early as 
 the reign of Saul, or even in the time of Samuel, — accord- 
 ing to the recent chronology, within about three hundred 
 years of the time of Moses; but according to the old 
 chronology, about five hundred years after his time, or 
 about B.C. i ioo. This gives a period of from about 
 three hundred to five hundred years from the composition 
 of the book to the time in which the events transpired 
 which it records. We are now ready for an inquiry re- 
 specting the authenticity of the book as inferred from its 
 contents, and the writer's authorities, if he refers to any. 
 
 Section III. — Authenticity. 
 
 The author makes no reference to any writing to au- 
 thenticate what he says in the first twelve chapters, which 
 speak of the passage of the Jordan and the conquest of 
 the land, except in chapter x. 13, where he refers to the 
 Book of Jasher as containing an account of the standing 
 still of the sun and moon. The writer evidently depended 
 upon tradition, and possibly on popular ballads, most prob- 
 ably unwritten, though in the instance referred to he cites 
 
THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 79 
 
 a " book." As the poet describes the sun and moon as 
 standing still to favor the complete victory of Israel, and 
 as Deborah sings that the " stars fought against Sisera," 
 so we may suppose that the poet sang that the walls of 
 Jericho " fell flat " in the presence of an assaulting foe, 
 without the writer's telling what hand the soldiers had in 
 levelling them. And so also the poet might sing that the 
 waters of the Jordan rolled back and stood up so that 
 the people might pass over dry-shod, without giving us 
 the prosaic particulars of the passage. The author of the 
 Book of Joshua either takes the old ballad for literal truth, 
 or, in love with the wonderful tale, gives it as he finds it, 
 with all its poetical exaggeration, relying upon the good 
 sense of his readers not to interpret poetry as history. 
 That Almighty Power could work such wonders as are 
 here described, is not questioned ; that it did work them, 
 requires a very different kind of evidence from that of 
 an anonymous writer who lived from three to five cen- 
 turies after the events, and who gives us no authority for 
 his statements. According to recent measurements and 
 the statement in Joshua, the water must have stood from 
 eight hundred to a thousand feet high on the upper side 
 of the crossing host ! And taking the account as it stands 
 in Joshua, if the people in marching around Jericho had 
 marched in ranks of fifty in a rank, and the ranks were 
 within three feet of each other, they would have made a 
 column seven miles long, and would have marched forty- 
 nine miles to go around the city seven times, — which is 
 incredible. That the soldiers tore down the walls, is 
 
80 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 evident from their sparing the house of Rahab, which 
 stood upon the wall, and was protected by a sign (a red 
 cloth) agreed upon. 
 
 But my purpose is not exegetical. There is no suffi- 
 cient evidence that the events which are recorded in this 
 first part are trustworthy history. The accounts must be 
 accepted or rejected as they commend themselves to our 
 good sense, or the reverse. Their being in the Book of 
 Joshua adds nothing to the evidence of their truth, as we 
 shall see. 
 
 The historical value of chapters xiii.-xxii. is based 
 upon the metes and bounds of the tribes remaining in the 
 time of the writer, or handed down by tradition, or re- 
 corded in some book extant at the time ; for " the men 
 went and passed through the land and described it by 
 cities into seven parts in a book, and came again to 
 Joshua." This part of the Book of Joshua has been 
 properly likened to the Doomsday Book of England, in 
 which the division of the land made by William the Con- 
 queror among his followers was recorded ; and there is 
 no more reason to question the accuracy of the one 
 than that of the other, except that the account in Joshua 
 has been exposed to much greater perils by erroneous 
 transcriptions. The speeches of Joshua are probably such 
 as the historian would put into the mouth of the conquer- 
 ing hero. There is no evidence that Joshua ever delivered 
 them in the words here reported. His place of burial 
 would be preserved by tradition. 
 
THE BOOK OF JOSHUA. 8 1 
 
 Section IV. — Inspiration. 
 
 The writer of this book makes no claim to any divine 
 guidance in the collection and use of his materials, nor is 
 there any evidence that he had any such guidance from 
 either the subject of his work or its treatment ; nor is the 
 Book of Joshua ever referred to as an inspired book in 
 the common use of that word. There is no proof what- 
 ever of the inspiration of the anonymous author in either 
 the rest of the Old Testament or in the New, nor in the 
 book itself. It simply stands upon its own merits without 
 any divine sanction, and as such is to be read and inter- 
 preted. The judgment of the reader is to be as freely 
 used in accepting or rejecting any of its statements as in 
 reading any other anonymous work of equal age, or indeed 
 of any age, nor would its rejection as authentic history in 
 the slightest degree affect the reception or rejection of any 
 other book in the Bible as authentic and inspired. Each 
 book must stand or fall on its own evidence. We can 
 therefore dismiss it without any anxiety respecting the cruel 
 war of extermination which is related in this book as being 
 conducted by the special direction of God ; for we have 
 no trustworthy evidence that he gave the specific com- 
 mands and directions here recorded after the lapse of two 
 or three centuries at least. And then, again, we must bear 
 constantly in mind that the pious writer or compiler uses 
 the language of religion, not of philosophy, when he speaks 
 of transactions and events, and attributes every act, how- 
 ever revolting to our Christian sense, to God, as a pious 
 
 6 
 
82 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Catholic of the sixteenth century, in describing the insti- 
 tution of the Inquisition, and the bloody wars in the Low 
 Countries, and the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve, 
 attributes them to the will and direction of Deity. This 
 rule, of interpretation cannot be too often nor too em- 
 phatically enforced upon every reader of the Bible. The 
 theory of myths, now so popular with a certain class of 
 scholars, and the theory of the literal and personal guid- 
 ance of God in all these transactions, are equally untrue 
 and absurd. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 
 
 The chronology of this book is very doubtful, and 
 writers disagree very widely in their estimates of the 
 length of time covered by it. Some critics believe that 
 some of these judges were contemporaries ; others main- 
 tain that they succeeded each other in the order named 
 in this book. Some writers reduce the time during which 
 the events recorded in this book transpired, to one hun- 
 dred and fifty years ; others extend the time to three 
 hundred years. I shall enter into no examination of the 
 validity of the reasons which are given for either of these 
 periods. Such an examination would be entirely for- 
 eign to the purpose of this work. Simply remarking that 
 I incline to accept the longer period, I proceed to an 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 8$ 
 
 examination of the Contents, the Age, the Authorship, the 
 Historical Value, and the Inspiration of the book itself. 
 
 Section I. — Contents. 
 
 This book notices at greater or less length the exploits 
 and administration of thirteen magistrates, or warriors, 
 called judges in our translation. There was at this time 
 no national central government of the united tribes ; but 
 each tribe, after taking possession of its allotted inheri- 
 tance, administered its own affairs in its own way. under 
 the laws, or contrary to the laws, given by Moses. These 
 laws were very imperfectly enforced, when enforced at 
 all, as the fragments composing the book show. There 
 was a central resort of worship, the tabernacle, which ap- 
 pears to have been moved from place to place ; but it 
 was not always resorted to as the law required. Indeed, 
 the second generation from slaves inured to all the 
 hardships of servitude could not be expected to under- 
 stand, or if they did understand, to adopt and obey, all 
 the ideal legislation of Moses. That they did not and 
 could not obey it constantly is certain. That they gen- 
 erally aimed to do so is equally certain. If an enemy 
 attacked a tribe, that tribe, with such of its neighbors as 
 it could rally, engaged in war, and was victor or sub- 
 dued. The affair did not seem particularly to interest the 
 other tribes. They were in the condition of the American 
 colonies when this country was first settled, and, indeed, 
 down to the time of the formation of the Constitution. 
 
84 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Each colony acted for itself, and received aid from other 
 sister colonies only as they were disposed to render it as a 
 favor. Deborah complains bitterly of the tribes which did 
 not aid her in the desperate war with the invader Sisera. 
 Almost nothing is said of what took place in the years of 
 peace. The exploits of the judges in the time of war 
 occupy the historian's pen exclusively ; and it would seem 
 to a cursory reader as if there were no years of peace and 
 prosperity. But there were, according to one chronology, 
 about one hundred and thirty years of peace, leaving about 
 one hundred and seventy years of war. These wars were 
 much like the border raids between England and Scotland, 
 or the feuds of the Scottish clans, or even like our fron- 
 tier wars with the Indians. They were the exploits of a 
 few heroes rather than battles of organized armies. The 
 exploit of Gideon, or the raid of Jephthah, is a good illus- 
 tration of them. The war of Deborah appears to have 
 been more formidable. 
 
 These commanders (judges) sprang forward when the 
 occasion demanded. They led the people because they 
 were leaders by nature; and when the enemy was crushed 
 out, the people still followed the leader who had shown 
 himself capable of leading, by the success which had 
 crowned his exploits. They were not elected, they were 
 accepted. They were not sought, they appeared. In the 
 language of religion, they were the chosen agents of the 
 Lord to execute his will upon the enemies of his people 
 and vindicate his promise to their fathers. Under his 
 guidance and filled with his spirit, Samson " slew the 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 85 
 
 Philistines hip and thigh with the jawbone of an ass," 
 and pulled down the temple of Dagon on the heads of 
 his worshippers. Inspired from the same source, Gideon 
 sent confusion and slaughter into the camp of the Midian- 
 ites, as, fired by the same impulse, the ancient Joan of 
 Arc, Deborah, sent havoc and death into the hosts of 
 Sisera. All these exploits were attended with marvels, — 
 the dew on the fleeces of Gideon, and the appearance 
 of the angel of the Lord with the wonderful rod which 
 kindled a fire on the rock, and other things alike mar- 
 vellous. Samson is a unique character, a kind of pious 
 buffoon, a notorious athlete, whose feats of folly or 
 strength evidently attracted the admiration of the writer. 
 He is no military genius, nor is he a "judge," though 
 called such. He is a Don Quixote, ready for an adven- 
 ture or quarrel with anybody for any purpose or no 
 purpose. 
 
 In addition to the exploits of the judges, we have an 
 account of the raid of the Danites to find and secure a 
 new inheritance, and the shameful treatment of the con- 
 cubine of a Levite by citizens of the tribe of Benjamin, 
 and the consequent slaughter of thousands of Benjamites 
 by the enraged surrounding tribes. 
 
 What reliance can we place upon these accounts ? To 
 answer this question intelligently, we must know the time 
 in which the book was written, the author of it, and his 
 authorities. 
 
86 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Section II. — Age. 
 
 When was this book written? The language of the 
 work is good Hebrew, is destitute of nearly all the pecu- 
 liarities which mark the era of the captivity, and was 
 therefore written before the carrying away into Babylon. 
 The appendix, chapters xvii.-xxi., informs us that " Jona- 
 than and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until 
 the day of the captivity of the land" (xviii. 30). If 
 this passage refers to the deportation of the ten tribes 
 by Tiglath Pileser the Assyrian, then this appendix was 
 not written till after 720 B.C. In the body of the book, 
 chapter i. 21, we read that "the Jebusites dwell with 
 the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day" 
 But in 2 Samuel v. 6-8, we read that " David took the 
 stronghold of Zion . . . and dwelt in the fort." These 
 passages, if trustworthy, show that the body of the book 
 was written before the middle of the reign of David. In 
 chapter i. 29, we read, " Neither did Ephraim drive out 
 the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer ; but the Canaanites 
 dwelt in Gezer among them." But in 1 Kings ix. 16, we 
 read that " Pharaoh, king of Egypt, had gone up and 
 taken Gezer and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaan- 
 ites that dwelt in the city, and given it for a present unto 
 his daughter, Solomon's wife." These passages show that 
 the work was written before the marriage of Solomon to 
 Pharaoh's daughter ; and all these passages place the age 
 of the book as early as the close of the reign of Saul, or 
 in it. I think it is safe to say that all the evidence taken 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 87 
 
 into the account, — the language, the references to events, 
 and the apparent or implied comparison between the con- 
 fusion and insurrections of a tribal, uncentralized govern- 
 ment, and the strength and harmony of a union among 
 the tribes in a central government, — the writing or com- 
 pilation of the body of the book may be placed as early 
 at least as the first years of David's reign. This carries 
 back the nearest events to more than a century before 
 the time of David, and the earliest ones to three centuries 
 before his time, perhaps even earlier. The writer, there- 
 fore, could not have been an eye-witness of the events 
 which he narrates. What authorities, therefore, did he 
 use, and were they trustworthy? 
 
 Section III. — Authorities. 
 
 No books are quoted, no authorities of any kind are 
 referred to ; and yet it is evident that the author had some 
 fragments of songs and stories of exploits to which he re- 
 fers, and which he sometimes quotes. These fragments 
 were probably unwritten scraps of poems composed in 
 honor of feats of strength or cunning or war, colored by 
 the atmosphere of a dim antiquity. The difference be- 
 tween a prose and poetic description of a battle or exploit 
 may be seen by comparing the two accounts of the battle 
 of Deborah and Sisera, chapters iv., v. The writer of this 
 book, like Cotton Mather, loved marvels, and probably 
 believed them, and the more marvellous they were, the 
 more he admired them. It is impossible to tell how 
 
88 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 much truth there is in the strange stories which he had 
 found among the traditions of fully three centuries. The 
 bravado and quarrelsomeness of Samson appear to charm 
 him as much as the heroism of Gideon and Deborah. I 
 can overlook his poor taste when I remember that he did 
 appreciate the song of Deborah, and has preserved for 
 us one of the sublimest paeans of all the ages. I present 
 it to the reader in a new translation. 
 
 Then sang Deborah, and Barak son of Abinoam, in that 
 day, saying : — 
 
 Prelude. 
 
 For the bravery of the chieftains of Israel, 
 
 Tor the volunteering of the people, 
 
 Praise Jehovah ! 
 
 Hear, Kings ! Listen, Princes ! 
 
 I, even I, unto Jehovah will sing ! 
 
 I will sound the harp in honor of Jehovah, God of Israel I 
 
 Jehovah ! when Thou wentest forth from Seir, 
 
 When Thou marchedst from the field of Edom, 
 
 The earth trembled, the heavens, also, poured, 
 
 Even the clouds poured down waters. 
 
 Mountains quaked before the face of Jehovah ! 
 
 That Sinai, before the face of Jehovah, God of Israel : 
 
 The Desperate Condition. 
 
 In the days of Shamgar, son of Anath, 
 In the days of Jael, the highways were untrodden ! 
 And travellers, instead of the public roads, 
 Took winding, obscure by-paths ! 
 They failed, leaders failed in Israel, 
 Until I arose, I Deborah arose 
 A mother in Israel. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 89 
 
 They chose new Gods. 
 Then war was at their gates ! 
 A shield, lo it was not seen, nor spear, 
 Among the forty thousand warriors in Israel ! 
 
 The Summons. 
 
 My heart is to the princes of Israel, 
 To the volunteers of the people. 
 Praise Jehovah ! 
 Ye riders on white asses, 
 Ye recliners on couches, 
 Ye travellers in the ways, 
 Sing! 
 
 For the shouting of the spoilers by the watering troughs : 
 There shall they celebrate the righteous acts of Jehovah ! 
 Righteous acts, for his leaders in Israel ! 
 Then shall the people of Jehovah go down to their gates ! 
 
 Awake ! Awake ! Deborah, 
 
 Awake ! Awake ! Sing ! 
 
 Arise, Barak ! lead forth thy captives, 
 
 Son of Abinoam ! 
 
 The Gathering. 
 
 I said, descend, ye survivors ! 
 
 Descend, ye people, against the princes ! 
 
 Jehovah, descend for me against the mighty ! 
 
 From Ephraim those whose dwelling is by Amalek, 
 
 After thee, Benjamin with thy hosts; 
 
 From Machir, came down princes, 
 
 From Zebulun, came down standard-bearers, 
 
 Also, my princes of Issachar were with Deborah. 
 
 And Issachar, like Barak, 
 
 Into the valley, rushed with his hosts ! 
 
 The Cowardly. 
 
 By the brooks of Reuben 
 Were great debatings and agitations of heart ! 
 
90 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Why didst thou sit among thy sheepfolds ? 
 
 To listen to the pipings of thy flocks ? 
 
 By the brooks of Reuben 
 
 Were great debatings and agitations of heart ! 
 
 Beyond Jordan, Gilead remained in his abode ! 
 And Dan, why remained he among his ships ? 
 Asher, at his ease, continued by the sea-shore, 
 And among his harbors was quiet ! 
 
 Zebulun ! That people perilled their lives even unto death ! 
 And Naphtali, upon the high places of his habitation ! 
 
 The Battle. 
 
 Kings came : they fought : 
 They fought : the Kings of Canaan fought . 
 
 By Taanach, at the waters of Megiddo. 
 Spoil of silver they took not. 
 
 From heaven, they fought, 
 The stars from their circuits fought against Sisera ! 
 The river Kishon swept them away, 
 That river of renown, the river Kishon ! 
 Thou, O my soul, trample on the mighty ! 
 Then rattled the hoofs of the horses, 
 In the charge, the charge of his heroes ! 
 
 The Curse. 
 
 Curse Meroz, saith the angel of Jehovah ! 
 Pour out curses on its inhabitants, 
 Because they came not to the aid of Jehovah, 
 To the aid of Jehovah against the warriors. 
 
 The Heroine. 
 
 Blessed above all women be Jael, 
 The wife of Heber, the Kenite ! 
 Above all the tent-women, be she blessed ! 
 Water he asked — milk she gave; 
 In a princely dish, curdled milk she brought 1 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 9 1 
 
 In her left hand she took the tent-pin, 
 
 In her right, a workman's hammer. 
 
 She smote Sisera — she crushed through his head ! 
 
 At her feet he bowed ! he fell ! he lay ! 
 
 At her feet he bowed ! he fell ! 
 
 Where he bowed, there he fell dead ! 
 
 Distress of the Mother of Sisera. 
 
 From the window she looked, she cried ; 
 The mother of Sisera cried through the lattice, 
 " Why delayeth his chariot to come ? 
 Why linger the steps of his chariot? " 
 The wise of her princesses answer her, 
 Yea, she returneth answer to herself, 
 " Lo they have found, they divide the spoil, 
 A maiden, two maidens, to each warrior, 
 A spoil of dyed garments for Sisera : 
 A spoil of dyed garments, parti-colored, 
 A colored vestment, two divers colored vestments, 
 For the neck of the spoiler ! " 
 
 The Triumph. 
 
 So perish all thine enemies, Jehovah ! 
 But those who love him are like the sun 
 Going forth in his splendor. 
 
 Section IV. — Author. 
 
 The author of this book is unknown, as well as his 
 authorities. Hence we must be governed by our own 
 good sense as to how much can be accepted as authentic 
 history. Probably but little can be so received. But the 
 recent as well as the ancient attempts to represent as 
 mythical personages Samson and his compeers are as 
 groundless and as ridiculous as the old belief that Jephthah 
 
92 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 was inspired by God to sacrifice his daughter, and Jaei 
 impelled by the Holy Spirit to murder a guest, is gross 
 and blasphemous. These old stories, related by this writer 
 in all love and simplicity, are no mysteries and no myths, 
 but the real tradition of real transactions colored by the 
 refracting atmosphere of many centuries, and poetic hy- 
 perboles. Let them be read as we read the traditions of 
 any early people, and there will often be found in them 
 a beauty, a heroism, and a patriotism worthy of our 
 imitation. I would call special attention to the heroism 
 of Gideon, chapters vi.-viii., and to the beautiful fable of 
 Jotham, chapter ix. 1 
 
 Section V. — I?ispiration. 
 
 The writer of this book makes no claim to inspiration, 
 or to any divine aid either in the selection of the materials 
 or in the composition of his book. Nor is there any evi- 
 dence anywhere else, from any other writer, of the inspired 
 character of this Book of Judges. To call it " The Word 
 of God" is a boldness on which the reverent and thought- 
 ful mind will hesitate to venture. The appendix is no 
 more a part of the Book of Judges than is the following 
 Book of Ruth, and the unknown author of it claims no 
 inspiration ; indeed he needed none, any more than did 
 the writer of the history of the Great Plague in London. 
 Let the Book of Judges be received for just what it is ; 
 namely, a collection of early traditions respecting the feats 
 
 1 See note at the end of this chapter. 
 
THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 93 
 
 of the heroes of Israel before the time of the kings, by an 
 antiquarian who was no less fond of the marvellous than 
 of his nation. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 REMARKABLE FACTS. 
 
 As an illustration of the danger of rejecting as authentic 
 history remarkable occurrences and marvellous statements 
 of numbers, I will call the reader's attention to the following 
 fact respecting the class presenting themselves for entering 
 Harvard College, 1881. Two hundred and forty young men 
 presented themselves, of whom one hundred and fifty-four 
 were admitted, and eighty-six rejected. These men were 
 numbered from 1 to 240. Of these the first 5, with one ex- 
 ception, in every 20 were rejected. Thus 1-5 inclusive, 
 21-25 inclusive, 41-45, 61-65, 81-85, 101-105, 121-125, 141- 
 145, 161-165, 181-185, 201-205, 221-225. Now, the chance 
 that this would happen, or a priori be true, is as one to 
 infinity, or as one to a row of figures round the earth. It 
 looks like a carefully arranged plot. 
 
 But this is not all. All the number c/s in the even io's (as 
 29, 49, 69, 89, etc.) to 149 were rejected, while all the number 
 9's in the odd io's (as 9, 19, 39, 59, etc.) to 159 were admitted, 
 and also all numbers above 159 having 9 for the last figure, 
 as 169, 179, 189, 199, etc. That such would be the result 
 of the examination of 240 persons seems incredible. The 
 statement would be instantly rejected by many critics if 
 found in the Hebrew books. Indeed, things not half as 
 improbable would be scouted. 
 
 A remarkable correspondence of years is found in the ages 
 and times of service of the presidents of the United States. 
 Jefferson was born eight years after John Adams, and Madi- 
 son eight years after Jefferson, and Monroe eight years after 
 Madison, and John Quincy Adams eight years after Monroe. 
 
94 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 This is curious enough, and antecedently to proof incredible 
 enough ; but there is something to render it more incredible. 
 John Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe were each 
 sixty-six years old when they retired from the presidency. 
 Nor is this all. The first three died on the 4th of July, 
 and two of the three died on the same 4th, and these two 
 were signers of the Declaration of Independence. Now, the 
 improbability of such a coincidence is as one to millions of 
 millions. Yet it is true that it did take place. It will not 
 do to be hasty in denying the occurrence of very strange 
 things. 
 
 For examples of the mythical interpretation of the events 
 recorded in the books of Joshua and Judges, see the author's 
 " Study of the Pentateuch," pp. 59-65. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BOOK OF RUTH. 
 
 Section I. 
 
 This book is a prose idyl of great beauty, illustrating 
 the simplicity of Eastern life in the early ages. It was 
 once connected with the Book of Judges as an appendix, 
 but was afterwards separated from it and reckoned as a 
 separate book. The object of the book appears to be to 
 give an account of David's ancestry ; and if this was the 
 writer's purpose, it must have been written after the reign 
 of David or during it, — possibly the latter. The gene- 
 alogy in chapter iv. 18-22, is obviously incomplete, since 
 
THE BOOK OF RUTH. 95 
 
 from Pharez to David — eight hundred and fifty years, if 
 the chronology is correct — there are but ten persons 
 named, making the average age, at the time of the birth 
 of the sons named, eighty-five years, which is improbable, 
 though not impossible. 
 
 Section II. — Age. 
 
 In chapter i. i, we read that " in the days when the 
 judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a certain 
 man of Beth-lehem-Judah went to sojourn in the country 
 of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons." This pas- 
 sage implies very clearly that the book was not written till 
 after the time of the Judges, as the one previously quoted 
 shows that it was not written till the age of David or after 
 it. The language shows that it was not written after the 
 captivity. The few Chaldaisms which are claimed by 
 . some critics may well have crept into the text through 
 the carelessness of later copyists. The exact time of the 
 composition of the book cannot be determined. 
 
 Section III. — Author. 
 
 Various conjectures have been made respecting the 
 author of this delightful little book, but absolutely nothing 
 is known on the subject- That the writer was a person 
 of refined taste, and in deep sympathy with the heroine 
 of the story, is evident. 
 
96 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Section IV. — Authorities. 
 
 We have no more knowledge respecting the author's 
 sources of information than respecting the author himself. 
 He had access evidently to the genealogies of the people, 
 kept carefully for the settlement of all questions of inheri- 
 tance which might arise. Whether there were written 
 biographical documents in existence which he could use, 
 is doubtful. He most probably relied upon tradition for 
 his facts, as possibly only about a hundred or a hundred 
 and fifty years had passed between the time of Ruth and 
 the time of the author. The mention of a custom of 
 former times in Israel, chapter iv. 7, shows that a consider- 
 able period had elapsed since the event transpired ; but 
 a century, or a century and a half, would be sufficient to 
 change such a custom. 
 
 Section V. — Autheiiticity a?id Inspiration. 
 
 There is no reason to doubt the general accuracy of the 
 story. No marvels are narrated to awaken doubt, and the 
 events recorded are such as in that age, and under those 
 circumstances, would be very likely to happen. There is 
 no claim made by the writer to any divine aid in selecting 
 the incidents, or in their narration. Nor does any writer 
 in the Bible claim for this author divine guidance, or for 
 this book any inspiration. It is to be received as an 
 account of the ancestry of David, especially as a recital 
 of a romantic incident in the life of Ruth, and of her filial 
 
THE BOOK OF RUTH. 97 
 
 devotion to her widowed mother-in-law, Naomi, when she 
 said, " Whither thou goest I will go, and where thou 
 lodgest I will lodge ; thy people shall be my people, and 
 thy God my God ; where thou diest will I die, and there 
 will I be buried : the Lord do so to me, and more also, 
 if aught but death part thee and me." Dr. Davidson is 
 very much charmed with this book, and thus writes of it : 
 
 " This quiet picture of private life among the Hebrews 
 is eminently attractive. The author, possessing a peculiar 
 power of description, and animated with a poetic spirit, has 
 succeeded in constructing a picturesque narrative. He was 
 a learned man, familiar with the historical and poetical liter- 
 ature of his nation. And he had a gift of appropriating all 
 that was pertinent to his purpose in an original way, as is 
 observable in the arrangement of the story, the form in which 
 it is set forth, the spirit which breathes throughout it, the 
 masterly delineation of character, and the purity of language. 
 So complete and beautiful is the entire portraiture, that the 
 substance of the story is less considered by the reader than 
 the delineation itself. There is a mixture of the learned and 
 the artistic, which throws a peculiar charm over the piece, 
 and distinguishes it from all others. How nice must have 
 been the writer's perception of moral purity ! How much 
 alive he was to a sense of the beautiful in virtue ! And 
 what ability he had to reanimate an ancient tradition and 
 form it into an attractive picture ! With what plastic skill 
 he clothes it with flesh and blood, so that universal humanity 
 admires ! " 
 
 Both by pencil and pen, in picture and poem, have 
 modern artists and scholars attempted to represent their, 
 admiration of these characters. 
 
98 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. 
 
 The Jews originally made but one book of our present 
 two books of Samuel ; and the Greek translation, made in 
 Egypt two or three centuries before Christ, called the Sep- 
 tuagint, and also the Latin translation used by the Romish 
 Church, called the Vulgate, name these two books the 
 first and second books of the Kings, and first and sec- 
 ond Kings are called third and fourth Kings, as if the 
 four books were by one author. But the language and 
 style clearly indicate that the two books of Samuel and 
 the two books of the Kings had different authors. The 
 only serious difficulty which arises in supposing different 
 authors for the Samuels and the Kings is found in the 
 apparently abrupt conclusion of 2 Samuel with the nar- 
 ration of the purchase by David of Araunah's threshing- 
 floor, when he lived but two years longer; and the inci- 
 dents of his last illness and death are narrated in the first 
 two chapters of 1 Kings. However great the difficulty 
 may be in accounting for this abrupt termination of the 
 work of the writer of the books of Samuel, it is not so 
 great as that of accounting for the diversity of language 
 and style in Samuel and Kings if we assume that all these 
 books were from the same pen. Sickness or death may 
 have compelled the writer to lay aside his pen, as in the 
 
THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. 99 
 
 case of the writer of Mark's Gospel, whose work, as is sup- 
 posed, closes with the eighth verse of the sixteenth chapter, 
 the last eleven verses being added by another hand. 
 
 Section I. — Contents. 
 
 These two books of Samuel may be divided into three 
 parts : The first part, chapters i.-vii., treats of the judgeship 
 of Eli and Samuel; the second part, chapters viii.-xxxi., 
 relates incidents in the call and reign of Saul; and the 
 third part, 2 Samuel, chapters i.-xxiv., gives a sketch of 
 the reign of David. In addition to the acts of these four 
 men of eminence, we have a glimpse of the character of 
 the prophets Nathan and Gad. Samuel established or 
 encouraged the " school of the prophets," in which music 
 and recitation, and apparently extemporaneous speaking, 
 were taught and enjoyed, 1 Samuel x. 5 ; for the Hebrew 
 word translated " prophesy " does not signify predicting 
 future events simply, but addressing the people, especially 
 on religious subjects, and often it would seem in a kind 
 of chant, accompanying the words with music on some 
 instrument. A full discussion of the office of a prophet 
 will be given when an examination of the prophetical 
 books is reached. It is sufficient for the present to say 
 that they were usually an educated class of men. 
 
 There are very few wonders or marvellous things re- 
 corded in these books. The most marvellous are the story 
 of the birth of Samuel, of the witch of Endor, and of the 
 combat of David and Goliath. Respecting the witch of 
 
100 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Endor, it is sufficient to say that no one, not even Saul, 
 claims to have seen Samuel, but the witch only, and this 
 was a part of her business. She managed her part well. 
 And because Saul chanced to be killed the next day, as 
 the witch predicted, it is no evidence that she had any 
 more knowledge of the future than any modern necro- 
 mancer or fortune-teller. God does not make revelations 
 of truth to such creatures. The heroic act of David con- 
 tains nothing miraculous, nor does it claim any divine 
 interposition. Some most beautiful fragments of poetry 
 are preserved in these books, especially the elegy on Saul 
 and Jonathan, 2 Samuel i. 19-27. Our translators have 
 made a ludicrous blunder in translating it, as is shown 
 on page 11. 
 
 Section II. — Object 
 
 The writer of these books appears to have had but one 
 object in view, and that a very simple one j namely, to 
 give, in an abridged form, a popular and readable sketch 
 of the course of affairs during this period of about a cen- 
 tury and a half; and no bias appears which causes us to 
 distrust his faithfulness and the credibility of his story, if 
 his authorities were trustworthy. What were they ? 
 
 Section III. — Authorities. 
 
 The author would probably in many instances rely upon 
 tradition, and this source is less to be depended upon than 
 all others. The size of Goliath and the length of his spear 
 
THE BOOKS OF SAMUEL. IOI 
 
 are illustrations of the exaggerated form in which tradition 
 transmits accounts. But our author undoubtedly had be- 
 fore him written documents and annals from which he 
 drew generally ; as we learn that " the acts of David the 
 king first and last are written in the Book of Samuel the 
 seer, and in the Book of Nathan the prophet, and in 
 the Book of Gad the seer," i Chronicles xxix. 29. The 
 writer also draws from the great song-book of the nation, 
 the exploits of her heroes, the Book of Jasher ; 2 Samuel 
 i. 18. Some of these rhapsodies of victory are introduced 
 in full, 2 Samuel xxii. ; others he has probably reduced to 
 prose, yet retaining many of their hyperbolical expressions ; 
 for instance, the account of David's victory, 1 Samuel 
 xviii. 7, his elegy on Abner, 2 Samuel iii. 33, 34, and his 
 elegy on Absalom, 2 Samuel xviii. 33. The sources for 
 an authentic history appear to be sufficient, and no bias 
 can be discovered in the mind of the author leading him 
 to discolor them. Who was he? 
 
 Section IV. — Author and Age. 
 
 Samuel was not the author, for the death of this prophet 
 is recorded in 1 Samuel xxv. 1. As already said, the book 
 was not written by the same author as the books of the 
 Kings, as the language and style show. Samuel is much 
 more rhetorical than Kings, which is more like a collection 
 of annals. The books are free from Chaldaisms, such as 
 are found in the books written after the exile, and there- 
 fore they were written before the captivity. That they 
 
102 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 were written after the secession of the ten tribes is also 
 evident, if we can rely upon the passage in i Samuel 
 xxvii. 6, " Ziklag pertaineth to the kings of Judah unto 
 this day" It is therefore very clear that these books 
 were written after the secession of the ten tribes, and 
 perhaps soon after. Their author is unknown. 
 
 Section V. — Authe?iticity and Inspiration, 
 
 There is no reason to question the substantial accuracy 
 of the history. Davidson says, " On the whole, the air of 
 genuine fidelity marks the history. For the most part, 
 the connection of events is natural." There are a few in- 
 stances of angelophany mentioned, but they do not affect 
 the general credibility of the record. Some of the sketches 
 are very graphic, and touch the heart of the reader very 
 deeply. Everything is living and active. The reader's con- 
 fidence is won as the story proceeds. Nothing is kept back 
 which damages the uprightness of the heroes of the story 
 Savage deeds, at the recital of which the blood curdles, are 
 narrated as frankly as those which do honor to the actors. 
 
 There is no claim made by the writer to any divine 
 guidance either in the selection or use of his materials ; 
 nor does any other author of any of the books in the Bible 
 claim for him, whoever he was, or for his work, any inspi- 
 ration whatever; nor does his work require it. These 
 books are to be read as any other historical work, and the 
 trustworthiness of their contents judged by the same rule 
 which we apply to them. 
 
THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS. 103 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS. 
 
 These books bring down the history to the time of the 
 destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of Judah by 
 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, a period of four hun- 
 dred and twenty-seven years, from B.C. 1015 to 588. 
 The Jews made but one book of the two, and the Septua- 
 gint and the Vulgate call them "the third and fourth books 
 of the Kings." 
 
 The history may be divided into three portions : 1. To 
 the death of Solomon, or perhaps better, to the division 
 of the kingdom by the secession of the ten tribes, about 
 forty-five years; chapters i.-xii. 2. To the captivity of 
 Israel, a period of two hundred and fifty years, to 725 B.C. ; 
 1 Kings xiii.-2 Kings xvii. 3. To the captivity of Judah, 
 a period of one hundred and thirty-seven years, to 588 
 b. c. ; 2 Kings xviii.-xxv. The most remarkable episode 
 in this history is the stories of the prophets Elijah and 
 Elisha, especially that of the former. Both were remark- 
 able men ; and the marvels of Elijah's life, — the kindling 
 of the sacrifice on Carmel in the contest with the priests 
 of Baal, the healing of Naaman, the raising of the widow's 
 son, the multiplying of her cruse of oil, the supply of food 
 by the ravens, the swimming of the iron, and Elijah's trans- 
 lation to heaven, — most if not all of these indicate the 
 
104 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 coloring which traditio?i gives to the acts of remarkable 
 men. How authentic these accounts are must be decided 
 by the character of the author and the value of his sources 
 of information, to be examined at the proper time. That 
 there were many writers and much literature during this 
 period there can be no doubt, though but few precious 
 fragments have come down to our day. There were the 
 records kept by the civil government, the chronicles of 
 the kings ; and there were the writings of the prophets 
 and the poets of the nation ; and there were also the 
 works of her students, of whom Solomon was one ; and 
 his attainments and works are mentioned as if it was rare 
 for kings, as it was and is, to make science and literature 
 a study. But Solomon is said to have spoken " three 
 thousand proverbs ; and his songs were a thousand and 
 five. And he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in 
 Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the 
 wall ; he spake also of beasts and of fowl, and of creeping 
 things and of fishes." 
 
 Nor was Solomon the only student and writer of his 
 time. There were the prophets and writers, Nathan and 
 Iddo, who are named as biographers and historians, and 
 also Abijah and Ahijah and Shemaiah, who are named as 
 prophets, and who doubtless were writers also. In the 
 second period, from the secession to the captivity of the 
 ten tribes, besides the chronicles of the kings and frag- 
 ments of the prophecies or addresses of Joel, Amos, and 
 Hosea, we read of the prophet Jehu ; i Kings xvi. i. He 
 may not have been a writer, but simply a speaker, like 
 
THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS. 105 
 
 Elijah and Elisha. The prophet Jonah is spoken of in 
 2 Kings xiv. 25. In the third period we find the number 
 of prophets named largely increased, and their writings, 
 which have been preserved, much more extensive. Micah, 
 Isaiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, 
 and Obadiah, and the Chronicles of the kings are fuller. 
 The first two periods were the golden age of Hebrew 
 literature, which sheds its glow of glory into the first half 
 of the third period. 
 
 Not many marvels are found in the records of the 
 kingdom of Judah. The recession of the shadow on the 
 sun-dial of Ahaz, and the healing of Hezekiah by the 
 prescription of Isaiah, and the destruction of Sennacherib's 
 army, are the principal ones. 
 
 The style of the books is not rhetorical, as is that of the 
 books of Samuel ; but it is good, and for the most part 
 free from the feebleness which marks the style of other 
 writers at the commencement of the captivity. The writer 
 is particular to give the dates of events, as in 1 Kings ii. 
 11, "The days that David reigned over Israel were forty 
 years ; seven years he reigned in Hebron, and thirty and 
 three years reigned he in Jerusalem." 
 
 Section I. — Object. 
 
 The object of the writer, as far as it can be determined 
 by his work, was to select from the history of his people 
 such events as would be most attractive to the reader, — 
 pivotal events, on which great interests depended, and on 
 
106 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 which the destiny of the nation turned, illustrating the evil 
 of disregarding the Law, and incidentally the sin of desert- 
 ing the worship of Jehovah as prescribed in the Hebrew 
 ritual; and he has certainly been very fortunate in the 
 selection and grouping of incidents. 
 
 Section II. — Authenticity. 
 
 The authenticity of the books depends upon the validity 
 of the sources from which the author obtained his informa- 
 tion, and upon the accurate use of his material. Respect- 
 ing the first, — the sources on which our author relied, — 
 he names, "A book of the acts of Solomon" once; "a 
 book of the chroiiicles of the kings of Israel" sixteen 
 times, i Kings xiv. 19, etc.; "a book of the chronicles of 
 the kings of Judah" fifteen times, 1 Kings xiv. 29, etc. 
 There is no reason to doubt that the writer used freely 
 also such poems and traditions, unwritten, as had come 
 down to his day ; and his free introduction of some poeti- 
 cal hyperboles into his description of great events sustains 
 such a supposition. An illustration may be found of this 
 kind of writing in Joshua, where the sun and moon are 
 said to stand still during the close of the great battle 
 between Israel and the Philistines, and also in 2 Samuel 
 xxii., where David celebrates his escape from the hands 
 of Saul by saying that " Jehovah bowed the heavens and 
 came down, and darkness was under his feet . . . the earth 
 shook and trembled ; the foundations of heaven moved 
 and shook, . . . and the channels of the sea appeared, the 
 
THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS. 107 
 
 foundations of the world were discovered." Such poetical 
 phraseology the author would be very likely to introduce 
 into his prose from the old poems before him, written in 
 honor of great victories or great personages. These re- 
 markable expressions would be likely to be numerous in 
 proportion as the author was distant from the events which 
 he narrates, and was a firm if not a fanatical believer in 
 Jehovah's special care of his people Israel. 
 
 There is no reason to suppose that the writer did not 
 make judicious use of his materials, and that his brief 
 sketch of the history of his people is not substantially 
 correct. His frequent appeals to his authorities, and his 
 still more frequent carefulness to give the date of an event, 
 awaken confidence in his integrity ; and if he has exhibited 
 at times signs of unjustifiable credulity respecting some 
 marvels which tradition had preserved, let us not condemn 
 his whole work, for credulity has marked the works of all 
 the early historians. Besides, after the history of Israel 
 and the history of Assyria and Babylonia become contem- 
 poraneous, the accuracy of our author is sustained by all 
 the discoveries made in the exhumed cities of the East 
 by Layard, Rawlinson, Smith, Sayce, and Rassam. The 
 two books of the Kings are as reliable as any historical 
 works of that age ; and other works may as well be cor- 
 rected by these as these by those, when they differ. 1 
 
 1 M. Oppert by strict computation reduces the whole number of cases in which 
 the Biblical chronology can be proved to be at fault, to the surprisingly low figure 
 of eight. Nor are the errors the correction of which is needed for the restoration 
 of a full synchronistic accord of any particular magnitude. " Ahab did not reign 
 twenty-two years, but twenty-one;" " Menahem did not reign ten years, but at 
 
108 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Section III. — Author and Age. 
 
 Of the author of these books we know nothing, except 
 what we can gather from his work. Neither his name nor 
 his residence is known, and all the guesses of super- 
 serviceable critics are vain. 
 
 The time when this book was written is limited, at the 
 latest, to the first years of the captivity, as the language 
 partakes in only a slight degree of the corruptions intro- 
 duced by it. Probably the author had been writing before 
 the city was taken, and finished his work immediately 
 afterwards, — not later than 561 B.C.; 2 Kings xxv. 
 27-30. These verses may be an addition. 
 
 Section IV. — Inspiration. 
 
 The writer of these books nowhere claims any divine 
 aid in either the selection of his materials or in their use, 
 nor does any writer in the Bible claim it for him. That 
 he was inspired, or that his books are inspired, in the 
 usual acceptation of that word, is a mere human invention, 
 without any solid foundation whatever. 
 
 least six months longer ; " " Joram could not have reigned eight consecutive 
 years," etc. It will thus not be surprising that the dates as reconstructed by 
 M. Oppert do not materially differ from those hitherto generally given in works on 
 Bible history. The principal of them are : death of Solomon, 978 B. c. ; accession 
 of Ahab, 920 ; death of Ahab, October, 900 ; accession of Jehu, 887 ; fall of 
 Samaria, June, 721 ; expedition of Sennacherib, 700, —not in the 14th but in the 
 27th or 28th year of Hezekiah (the gravest concession to the Assyrian records) ; 
 accession of Nebuchadnezzar, July, 605; destruction of Jerusalem, August, 587; 
 release of Jehoiachin, April, 561. 
 
THE BOOKS OF THE CHRONICLES. 109 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE BOOKS OF THE CHRONICLES. 
 
 Section I. — Contents. 
 
 The two books of the Chronicles were by the ancient 
 Jews reckoned as one book, and were called " Annals." 
 The translators of the Septuagint made two books, and 
 called them " omitted things." They may be divided 
 into five parts : 1. The genealogies, chapters i.-ix. ; 2. The 
 reign of David, chapters x.-xxix. ; 3. The reign of Solo- 
 mon, 2 Chronicles, chapters i.-ix. ; 4. The kingdoms of 
 Judah and Israel, chapters x.-xxviii. ; 5. The kingdom 
 of Judah, chapters xxix.-xxxvi. Some critics think that 
 the two books of the Chronicles and the books of Ezra 
 and Nehemiah constitute but one work, and that they are 
 from the pen of one author or compiler. But there is 
 no conclusive reason for such an opinion ; and I shall 
 treat the last two books separately, as being not only more 
 convenient, but also as being more correct. 
 
 The first part of the books of the Chronicles, chapters 
 i.-ix., is made up of genealogies beginning with Adam, 
 and coming down in the branches of some families as late 
 as the Maccabees. There are large omissions and addi- 
 tions in them when compared with the genealogies in the 
 other books. They differ very widely from them in some 
 
110 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 respects, which shows either that the writer had other 
 copies of genealogies from those used by the earlier writers, 
 or that bad work had been made by copyists substituting 
 by mistake one name for another, or misspelling a name, 
 or by depending upon family tradition where there was no 
 written record. Everybody knows, who has attempted to 
 do it, how difficult it is to compile a genealogy, and how 
 full of mistakes genealogies are. The phenomena pre- 
 sented by the genealogies in the Chronicles prove nothing 
 against either the competency or the honesty of the com- 
 piler. There is no evidence that he did not use wisely 
 such materials as he had. 
 
 The remainder of the two books covering the period 
 from the reign of David to the captivity of Judah, 1012-588 
 b. c, is parallel with the history in Samuel and Kings, but 
 is very much briefer, and is mostly confined to an account 
 of ecclesiastical affairs, the Temple sendee, the Levites, the 
 priests, and the defections of the people to idolatry. It 
 maybe called church history, as distinguished from civil his- 
 tory, when compared with the books of Samuel and Kings. 
 There is no evidence that it was written with any ecclesias- 
 tical bias or controversial purpose. The story is told straight 
 on without any apparent object but to tell it. So far is it 
 from being true that its purpose was to exalt the priesthood 
 and discriminate against the Levites, that in the celebra- 
 tion of the great passover by king Hezekiah, we read that 
 when the " priests were too few, so that they could not 
 flay all the burnt offering, their brethren the Levites did 
 help them till the work was ended, and until the other 
 
THE BOOKS OF THE CHRONICLES. Ill 
 
 priests had sanctified themselves ; for the Levites were 
 more upright in heart to sanctify themselves than the 
 priests " (2 Chronicles xxix. 34). This sounds little like 
 a writer whose purpose in writing history was to disparage 
 the Levites and exalt the priests. And again, at the great 
 passover of King Josiah we read that the Levites flayed 
 the animals and rendered other service which pertained 
 to the priest's office ; " roasting the passover with fire ac- 
 cording to the ordinance ; but the holy offerings sod they 
 in pots and in caldrons and in pans, and divided them 
 speedily among all the people, and afterwards they made 
 ready for themselves and for the priests; because the 
 priests, the sons of Aaron, were busied in offering burnt 
 offerings and the fat until night; therefore the Levites 
 prepared for themselves and for the priests, the sons of 
 Aaron." This does not sound like the voice of a dis- 
 parager of the Levites and an exalter of the priests. 
 There is no proof that this writer was a partisan of the 
 priests, as is so often affirmed by a certain class of critics 
 who are biassed by their theories of historical and religious 
 development. The author is certainly as candid and un- 
 biassed, to say the least, as any ecclesiastical historian of 
 modern times ; and his authorities are all prophets, who, 
 it is contended by the same class of critics, were hostile 
 to the ritual, and especially to the priesthood ; and some 
 of these critics have been so extravagant as to maintain 
 that these books were forged to sustain the supremacy of 
 the priests. 
 
112 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Section II. — Authorities. 
 
 But a writer may be able and unbiassed, and his history 
 fail of commanding confidence for want of proper and reli- 
 able sources of information. How was it with our author ? 
 Had he reliable sources of information ? This is the next 
 question to be answered. Twelve sources of information 
 are named. It is possible, indeed it is very probable, that 
 some of them are the same work under different names. 
 He gives as his authority for the genealogies, " the book 
 of the kings of Israel and Judah," in which " they were 
 written." For the reign of David he gives three authori- 
 ties, — " the book of Samuel the seer, the book of Nathan 
 the prophet, and the book of Gad the seer ; " i Chroni- 
 cles xxix. 29. He gives three authorities for the life of 
 Solomon, — " the book of Nathan the prophet, and the 
 prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and the visions of Iddo 
 the seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat." For the 
 reign of Rehoboam he refers to the " book of Shemaiah 
 the prophet, and of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies." 
 "The acts of Abijah and his ways and his sayings are 
 written in the story of the prophet Iddo." He gives for 
 his authority in the reign of Asa, " the book of the kings 
 of Israel and Judah"; and for the reign of Jehoshaphat, 
 " the book of Jehu the son of Hanani," who is mentioned 
 in the books of the kings of Israel ; and for Joash's reign, 
 " the story of the book of the Kings." And of " the rest 
 of the acts of Amaziah," he asks, " Are they not written 
 in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel? " Of the 
 
THE BOOKS OF THE CHRONICLES. 113 
 
 reign of Uzziah he says, " The rest of the acts of Uzziah, 
 first and last, did Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, 
 write." His authority for the reign of Jotham is " the 
 book of the kings of Israel and Judah ; " and for the 
 reign of Ahaz he appeals to " the book of the kings of 
 Judah and Israel." His authority for the reign of Heze- 
 kiah is " the vision of Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amos, 
 and the book of the kings of Israel and Judah ; " and for 
 that of Manasseh, " the book of the kings of Israel " and 
 " the sayings of the seers." He relies upon " the book of 
 the kings of Israel and Judah " for the story of the reign of 
 Josiah. The same book contains the acts of Jehoiakim. 
 
 Very few writers of history are more frank and full in 
 giving their authorities. The value of these authorities 
 must be determined by the contents of the book ; and, 
 judging by these, they were in a dilapidated, disconnected 
 state, such as we should naturally expect after all the 
 hazards of the captivity. In making use of his au- 
 thorities the writer seems to be at a loss how to arrange 
 the fragmentary documents which are in his hands; 
 and it is evident enough that he often, fails. His au- 
 thorities were themselves probably not always accurate. 
 There is no evidence that the original authors were super- 
 naturally kept from all mistakes. At any rate the books, 
 as they have come into our hands, are often erroneous in 
 their statements, if we can rely upon the contemporaneous 
 history with which we compare them. They also disagree 
 with the books of the Kings in numerous places, which I 
 need not take space to cite. The reader of the Bible 
 
114 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 who has any interest in the subject may compare the two 
 works and judge for himself. These discrepancies lead 
 to the question of the authenticity of the work. How far 
 can we rely upon its statements ? 
 
 Section III. — Authenticity. 
 
 Nothing whatever is known of the author, and we are 
 thus cut off from all ground of judging of the historical 
 reliableness of the work which might be obtained did we 
 know him. Various guesses have been made, but they 
 are of no value ; they are mere guesses. It is very clear 
 that implicit reliance cannot be placed upon either the 
 genealogies or the numbers. The immense armies, the 
 vast number of chariots and horses, the multitudes of 
 cattle and sheep and lambs, are undoubtedly exaggerations, 
 or errors of copyists. But there is no reason to doubt the 
 general accuracy of the description of the course of events 
 and of the characterization of the kings and priests. 
 
 Section IV. — Age. 
 
 These books were not written till near the close or after 
 the close of the captivity, as the language shows. It 
 abounds in Chaldaisms, as do Ezra and Nehemiah, and 
 the style is much less pure than that of the Kings. Prob- 
 ably the Chronicles were written before the Book of Ezra ; 
 possibly not. The last two verses of Chronicles contain a 
 reference to the dream of Cyrus that the Jewish captives 
 should be permitted to return to their own land. The 
 first two verses of Ezra are in the same words. It has 
 
THE BOOKS OF THE CHRONICLES. 115 
 
 been thought by some writers that the Chronicles must 
 have been written as late as the time of Alexander, 
 330 b. c, because the genealogy of the posterity of Ze- 
 rubbabel is carried down to his time in 1 Chronicles iii. 
 19-24. But such an addition might have been made by 
 a later copyist respecting the royal family as a marginal 
 note, which afterwards found its way into the text ; or it 
 might have been introduced into the text by the scholiast. 
 No harm would be thought to be done by such an addi- 
 tion to one's own private copy. At all events, the bare 
 presence of these names is not a sufficient reason for 
 bringing down the date of the book itself to so late a 
 period. 
 
 Section V. — Inspiration. 
 
 After what has been said, it is not necessary to add that 
 there is not a particle of evidence that the writer had any 
 special illumination or guidance either in selecting the 
 materials of which this work is composed, or in arranging 
 them. It is the production of a man subject to all the 
 errors of any other man. He is not a skilful writer, and 
 his wisdom in the selection of his materials may sometimes 
 be challenged. Such discoveries as have been made in 
 the exhumed cities in the valleys of the Euphrates and 
 Tigris confirm the general accuracy of these books, as 
 some recent critics have maintained. No person has ap- 
 peared with authority to pronounce them infallible. Take 
 them for what they claim to be, and what they are, and they 
 are worthy the attention and confidence of the student. 
 
Il6 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE BOOK OF EZRA. 
 
 Section I. — Contents. 
 
 This book and that of Nehemiah were once reckoned 
 but one book, and there seems to be no good reason for 
 making two books of them now. The Book of Ezra gives 
 an account of affairs from the release and return from 
 captivity under Zerubbabel and his administration of the 
 government till the dedication of the new temple, 530 B.C. 
 Then we have an account of the return under Ezra, and 
 his administration till the return under Nehemiah, of which 
 we read in the book bearing his name. As well might 
 Ezra's administration have made a book as Nehemiah's ; 
 and so of Zerubbabel's administration. But the history, 
 or rather a very few incidents in the history of this period 
 from the captivity, 588 b. c, to the close of Nehemiah's 
 administration, b. c. 434, are divided, in our Bible, into 
 two books, and I shall so treat them. 
 
 From the destruction of Jerusalem to the return under 
 Zerubbabel was fifty-two years, not seventy years, and this 
 was the period of the captivity. Zerubbabel's adminis- 
 tration covers a period of six years in chapters i.-vi. 
 Eighty years afterwards, about 45 6 b. c, Ezra returned 
 with his company, as described in chapters vii.-x. 
 
THE BOOK OF EZRA. 1 17 
 
 Section II. — Author and Language. 
 
 The language in which this book is written abounds in 
 Chaldaisms, and chapters iv. 8-vi. 10, and vii. 12-26 are 
 written in pure Chaldee. The author of the book is not 
 known. Rather I should say the compiler is not known. 
 The account of Zerubbabel's return and administration is 
 given in the third person, and the letters of the Persian 
 king profess to be copies. But in the account of the re- 
 turn and administration of Ezra the first person is used, as 
 if either Ezra himself wrote the events of his administra- 
 tion as we have them here, or a compiler made very 
 copious extracts from a larger work which Ezra wrote. 
 Most probably the latter is the true view to be taken. 
 
 Section III. — Authenticity and Inspiration. 
 
 The authenticity of the book cannot reasonably be 
 doubted. The writer or compiler evidently had his 
 authorities before him, and many of the events recorded 
 transpired within his memory. There is no ground to 
 suppose that he did not use his materials wisely, or that 
 he was not free from vitiating bias. There is no evidence 
 of any special divine guidance either in the selection 
 or arrangement of his materials ; the anonymous author 
 claims no divine assistance, nor did he need any, nor has 
 any writer in the Bible claimed it for him. The book has 
 no other claim to our confidence than what the intelli- 
 gence and integrity of the writer give to it. Its inspiration 
 
Il8 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 in any sense of the word is an invention of men, and not 
 a claim or need of the writer. 
 
 Nor is there any foundation for the opinion affirmed 
 with great confidence by the Dutch school of critics and 
 their followers in this country, that Ezra composed the 
 most if not the whole of the ritual now found in Exodus 
 and Leviticus. Not the remotest hint of any such work 
 of his is found in this book or in Nehemiah. He was a 
 priest well instructed in the law of Moses, and he in- 
 structed the people in it when he returned. He may 
 have arranged the sections of the law which the exposures 
 of the captivity had disarranged, and he may have ex- 
 plained obsolete words and customs ; but there is not a 
 shadow of proof that he introduced one new act into the 
 Mosaic law, or one new ceremony into the ritual. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH. 
 
 Section I. — Contents. 
 
 This book covers a period of thirty-one years, 444- 
 412 B.C., and may be divided into three parts. 1. The 
 first part treats of the fortification of Jerusalem, chapters 
 i.-vii., and is written in the first person, as if from the pen 
 of Nehemiah. 2. The second part gives an account of 
 the religious solemnities and the reading of the Law, 
 
THE BOOK OF NEHEMIAH. 119 
 
 conducted by Ezra, viii.-x. This is written in the third 
 person, and is probably from the pen of the compiler. 
 3. The third part contains lists of the different orders of 
 temple officials, and the return to monogamy, chapters 
 xi.-xiii. 
 
 Section II. — Language, Age, and Author. 
 
 The language in which the book is written is like that 
 of Ezra; and chapter vii. 6-73 is in pure Chaldee. 
 
 The author or compiler of the book is unknown. He 
 probably lived not long after the time of Nehemiah, if 
 Nehemiah himself was not the author. There is nothing 
 in either the language or contents of the book to forbid it. 
 Still, the only safe position to take is that the author is 
 unknown. That he intended to state correctly the few 
 incidents which he has recorded we have no reason to 
 question. There is no indication of any such bias as 
 to awaken suspicion of his accuracy, nor does he lack 
 ability to correctly copy or abridge the materials he has 
 in his hands. There are no indications of any great 
 skill in literary composition in this book any more than 
 in Ezra ; nor is there any evidence that it was written at 
 as late a period as that of Alexander the Great, — about 
 325 B.C. 
 
 Section III. — Inspiration. 
 
 The author or compiler, whoever he was, makes no 
 claim to any supernatural aid in either the selection or 
 
120 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 arrangement of the facts he has recorded or in the opin- 
 ions expressed respecting them. Inspiration in the usual 
 sense of that word is not claimed by either the author 
 of the book or by any other writer for him in the Bible. 
 As respects this book, all claim to inspiration is without 
 foundation, and as in the case of Ezra is a mere human 
 assumption. The work is to be judged, both as to its 
 contents and historical value, as all other books are. The 
 events narrated are full of interest, and speak well for the 
 patriotism and consecration of the people, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BOOK OF ESTHER. 
 
 Section I. — Contents. 
 
 This book covers but a very short period of time dur- 
 ing the reign of the Persian king Ahasuerus, the Grecian 
 Xerxes, contemporaneous with Zerubbabel or Ezra. The 
 book reads very much like a romance founded upon cer- 
 tain facts in the condition of the Jews during that period. 
 It is divided into two parts. The first part relates the 
 promotion of Esther, chapters i.-ii. ; the second part 
 gives an account of Hainan's intrigues and overthrow, 
 chapters iii.-x. 
 
THE BOOK OF ESTHER. 121 
 
 Section II. — Object and Author, 
 
 The object of the book appears to be to illustrate God's 
 care of his people when in most imminent peril, and how 
 those who trust in him will be delivered. The author is 
 -unknown; and as far as the time of its composition is con- 
 cerned, it appears to have been written in a period of ex- 
 treme national peril, as was the Book of Daniel. Several 
 such periods of peril occurred after the time of Nehemiah, 
 but it is not possible to determine with any certainty to 
 which of these periods this book should be referred. It 
 may have been written as late as the time of Antiochus 
 Epiphanes (180-170 b. c), or it may have been written at 
 some earlier period. The language of the book will not 
 settle the question. 
 
 The whole tone of the book is that of an historical ro- 
 mance. Most extraordinary things are narrated, some of 
 which seem incredible. Very marvellous things, however, 
 have happened in the history of the world in both ancient 
 and modern times. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew is 
 almost as incredible as the related massacre of the Per- 
 sians by the Jews. Still, looking at the subject in every 
 light, and weighing all the probabilities, I cannot but 
 think that the work is an historical romance, like Jonah 
 and Daniel, and some of the contemporaneous so-called 
 apocryphal books, as Judith, Bel and the Dragon, and the 
 story of Susannah ; or in modern times "Evangeline " and 
 " Gertrude of Wyoming." Could it be shown that super- 
 
122 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 natural aid was rendered to the writer, it would not prove 
 that the book, as it has come into our hands, is authentic 
 history, for it is plain that there are grave errors in it 
 which defy belief. But there is no evidence of any kind 
 whatever to show that the writer was inspired in any 
 degree. All claims of this kind put forth for the book 
 are the merest presumptions, and tend to disparage it. 
 
 There is one quite remarkable characteristic of this work 
 which demands notice in view of recent theories of criti- 
 cism and methods of applying them. I refer here to 
 the theory that in the early age of the Jewish nation 
 fetichism and polytheism abounded, and that a knowledge 
 of one God was not obtained till late in the history of the 
 nation, about 800 b. c, in the time of the prophet Hosea, 
 and that the Pentateuch must have been written as late as 
 his time and even later, because it insists upon the exist- 
 ence and worship of only one God. If this theory is true, 
 why would it not follow that the Book of Esther was written 
 before there was knowledge of any God, since the name 
 of God is not used in the whole book, nor is there any 
 recognition of divine aid in the great deliverance wrought 
 for the Jews ? But we know that this book was composed 
 after the return from the captivity. The language in 
 which it is composed shows it. But the language of the 
 Pentateuch as certainly shows that it could not have been 
 written in the age of Amos and Hosea. Its " archaisms " 
 remit it to an age as remote from them in antiquity as the 
 Chaldaisms of Esther remit this book to an age remote 
 from the prophets in modern times. All a priori theories 
 
CONCLUSION. 123 
 
 of the origin and progress of religion are to be discarded 
 in an inquiry of this kind, and the inexorable facts of 
 history are to be accepted as the only valid evidence of 
 the belief and rituals of peoples. Where these fail us it 
 is better to confess our ignorance than wander in the 
 bewildering mazes of theories which only mislead and 
 deceive. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I have now said all that it is necessary to say respecting 
 the historical books, which give a very brief epitome, mere 
 fragments, of the history of the Jewish nation from the 
 death of Moses till about a century and a half after the 
 return from the captivity, a period of about one thousand 
 or eight hundred years, according as we choose our chrono- 
 logical guide. We find that we do not know the author 
 of even one of these twelve books ; that in historical value 
 they differ very much (the first half of the Book of Joshua, 
 including some incidents of the conquest, and the whole 
 of the Book of Judges appear to record traditions based 
 upon old songs and not upon authentic documents) ; that 
 the last half of the Book of Joshua, giving an account of 
 the division of the land, appears to be founded upon rec- 
 ords made at the time, or upon such monuments and 
 traditions as were deemed reliable ; that the two books 
 
124 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS. 
 
 of Samuel appear to be derived from good authority, 
 though the authorities are not named ; that the two books 
 of the Kings and the two books of Chronicles give their 
 authorities, and that there is no reason to suppose that the 
 authors did not use them judiciously and without bias, or 
 that their accounts are not substantially correct ; that the 
 same is true of the brief fragments preserved in Ezra and 
 Nehemiah; that the authors of these books claim no 
 divine aid in selecting the incidents of which the books 
 are composed, or in arranging them ; that there is nothing 
 in the books requiring such aid or guidance ; that no writer 
 in the Bible claims for them any inspiration of any kind 
 or in any degree, nor does their work indicate any such 
 inspiration ; that the Book of Esther is probably an histori- 
 cal romance based upon historical traditions, and written 
 in some dark period of Jewish history to inspire patience 
 and faith in the people, and give them assurance that 
 God would deliver them as he had done in ancient times ; 
 and finally, that there is no reason why these books should 
 be studied in a different spirit or under different rules from 
 those w T hich guide us in the study of any other religious 
 books of ancient times. 
 
 This is said of the literature of these books. There 
 are persons mentioned in them who are said to claim to 
 speak by divine authority, and whose sayings are recorded 
 more or less accurately. Whether these writers and 
 speakers used only the language of devotion, of piety, of 
 assurance, as distinguished from that of philosophy, with- 
 out claiming special divine guidance, or whether they were 
 
CONCLUSION. 125 
 
 mistaken in their claim on the supposition that they made 
 one, is a question for the critic to decide, and does not 
 belong to the subject of the historical inquirer, whose 
 object is simply to learn the age and author of a work, and 
 the authenticity of the record. 
 
 The religious aspects of these books are remitted to the 
 province of the critic and interpreter, and there I leave 
 them. 
 

PART V. 
 
 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 

PART V. 
 
 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 
 
 Section I. — Books. 
 
 The whole number of poetical books is twenty-two, and 
 they may be divided into the following classes : i . The 
 prophetical books, sixteen in number ; namely, Isaiah, Jere- 
 miah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, 
 Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, 
 Malachi. 2. The dramatic, — Job and Solomon's Song. 
 3. The lyric, — Psalms. 4. The didactic, — Proverbs. 
 5. The philosophic, — Ecclesiastes. 6. The elegiac, — 
 Lamentations. In the Hebrew Bible only Daniel, Job, 
 Proverbs, Solomon's Song, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes 
 are placed after the Book of Psalms, and they are not 
 arranged in the order of time in which they were written. 
 Why the present order was adopted, it is not easy to see ; 
 nor does there appear to be any clew to the reason of its 
 adoption. 
 
 9 
 
130 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Section II. — Early Fragments. 
 
 " It is a phenomenon which is universally observed in 
 the literatures of all nations, that the earliest form in which 
 the thoughts and feelings of a people find utterance is 
 poetic." And of poetry the lyric is the earliest, according 
 to Ewald. He says, " It is the daughter of the moment, 
 the swift rising of powerful feelings, of deep stirrings and 
 fiery emotions of the soul." Fragments of this early 
 poetry we have found in the historical books. The 
 earliest of them is what Herder calls the " Sword Song " 
 of Lamech, Genesis iv. 23, 24. Another fragment, the 
 "Curse of Canaan," is found in Genesis ix. 25, 26. The 
 dying address of Jacob (Genesis xlix. 1-3 7) is longer; 
 so also is the song of Moses at the Red Sea, Exodus 
 xv. 1-19. Another fragment, "The Song of the Well," 
 is found in Numbers xxi. 17, 18 ; and a still longer frag- 
 ment from "The Victory at Heshbon," Numbers xxi. 
 27-32. The predictions of Balaam are still longer, in the 
 23d and 24th chapters of Numbers, and the last words 
 of Moses, in Deuteronomy xxxii., xxxiii. These are the 
 earliest specimens we have of the poetry of the Hebrews, 
 and they show no small degree of culture among the 
 people at this early age, and the strength of the tendency 
 to put into rhythm what was deeply impressive. As poetry 
 has its source in the emotional nature, not in the intellec- 
 tual, and takes form as imagination, not as reason directs, 
 its chief agency is to express and awaken feeling, not to 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 131 
 
 give instruction. Yet some poetry is didactic, as that of 
 the Book of Proverbs ; or philosophical, as that of the 
 Book of Ecclesiastes and the Book of Job. Exultation is 
 expressed in Psalm xcviii. ; trust, in Psalm xxiii. ; grief, in 
 vi. and xxii. ; bereavement, in 2 Samuel i. 1 7-2 7 ; triumph, 
 in Exodus xv. ; description, in Psalms civ., cv. ; indigna- 
 tion, in Psalm lxix. ; revenge, in Psalms cix., xxxv. 
 
 As poems are now written for special occasions, to be 
 either read or sung, or both, so among the Hebrews poems 
 were composed for special occasions. 
 
 We find, as we should expect, that most of those 
 which have been preserved were of a directly religious 
 character, and were so general in their expressions that 
 they could be used on various occasions. The 24th 
 Psalm was sung when the ark was conveyed from the 
 house of Obed-Edom to Mount Zion. The social 
 Hebrew lyric may be found in Psalm cxxxiii. ; the 
 patriotic, in Psalms cviii., cxi., cxiv. ; the hymeneal, in 
 Psalm xlv. 
 
 Section III . — Form or Structure of Hebrew Poetry. 
 
 It is time to say something of the form or structure of 
 Hebrew poetry, especially since our translators have made 
 no attempt in any manner, either by breaking the lines or 
 commencing each line of the poetry with a capital letter, 
 to indicate that it is poetry, and not prose. The common 
 reader discovers, if he discovers at all, that he is reading 
 poetry, only by a more imaginative and rhythmical style of 
 
132 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 writing than is commonly used in prose. Poetry and prose 
 are printed alike in our Bibles. 1 
 
 In the Hebrew language there are poetic words which 
 are used only in poetry, as there are in the English lan- 
 guage; as, "vale" for "valley," "eve" for "evening," 
 "morn" for "morning," "mead" for "meadow," and 
 others which the reader will readily call to mind. But as 
 I am not writing for Hebrew scholars, I shall not collect 
 a list of words which are peculiar to Hebrew poetry, but 
 shall confine myself to such characteristics of it as an 
 English reader can easily appreciate. 
 
 There is no such thing as rhyme in Hebrew poetry, 
 as there is in English and European poetry. The lines 
 do not terminate in syllables of the same sound either 
 consecutively or alternately. Nor are the lines in He- 
 brew poetry composed of the same number of syllables ; 
 some lines are longer than others. Yet it may be 
 stated as a general rule that poems of exultation are 
 composed in shorter lines than those of grief or peni- 
 tence. But though the lines do not have rhyme, they 
 have rhythm, a gliding kind of movement, like English 
 poetry. Yet they cannot be scanned. What especially 
 characterizes Hebrew poetry, is a rhythm of thought, 
 the same thought or idea being repeated in another 
 form of words. This rhythm of thought is called 
 parallelism ; and these parallelisms are divided into 
 several classes, each of which is adapted to the re- 
 
 1 In the Revised Version, which has just been published (June, 1885), the 
 poetical extracts and books, except the Prophets, are printed as poetry. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 33 
 
 sponsive style of singing among the Hebrews. I will 
 now proceed to illustrate them. 
 
 1. Synonymous Parallelism. In this the thought of 
 the first line is repeated in the second in another form, 
 as in Psalm cxiv. : — 
 
 " When Israel went out of Egypt, 
 The house of Jacob from a people of strange language, 
 
 Judah was his sanctuary 
 And Israel his dominion. 
 
 The sea saw it and fled, 
 Jordan was driven back." 
 
 The reader here plainly discovers the parallelism of the 
 thought in the departure from Egypt in the first couplet, 
 the care of the Lord in the second, and the refluence 
 of the waters in the third, which gives a kind of swing 
 or natural vibration or intonation in reading. Other ex- 
 amples of this kind of parallelism in couplets are found, 
 especially in Psalm cxiv., and in the first chapters of the 
 Proverbs. 
 
 Alternate parallel couplets are sometimes found, as in 
 Psalm ciii. 11, 12 : — 
 
 " For as the heaven is high above the earth, 
 So great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 
 As far as the east is from the west, 
 So far hath he removed our transgressions from us." 
 
 It will be observed that the first and third lines, and the 
 second and fourth, are the real parallels of thought. 
 Parallel triplets are found, where the thought of the 
 
134 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 first line is carried through three lines ; as in Psalm lxxvii. 
 16-19 : — 
 
 " The waters saw thee, O God ! 
 
 The waters saw thee and feared, 
 And the deep trembled. 
 
 The clouds poured out water, 
 The skies sent forth thunder, 
 And thine arrows flew. 
 
 Thy thunder roared in the whirlwind j 
 Thy lightning illumined the world ; 
 The earth trembled and shook. 
 
 Thy way was through the sea, 
 And thy path through great waters ; 
 And thy footsteps could not be found." 
 
 Parallel triplets are also found in Job iii. 4, 5, 9. 
 Sometimes the thought is carried through four lines, 
 and it may then be called a quartet ; as Isaiah i. 3 : — 
 
 " The ox knoweth his owner, 
 And the ass his master's crib; 
 But Israel doth not know, 
 My people do not consider." 
 
 This extended repetition of the thought in another form 
 appears to be done for emphasis, or for aiding the mem- 
 ory; as Psalm ciii. n, 12. 
 
 2. Another kind of parallelism is called antithetic. It 
 is so called because the thought expressed in the second 
 line of the couplet is the opposite of that expressed in the 
 first line. The Book of Proverbs abounds with these 
 antithetic couplets, chapters x.-xv. : — 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 135 
 
 " A wise son maketh a glad father, 
 But a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. 
 
 Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, 
 But righteousness delivereth from death. 
 
 A false balance is abomination to the Lord, 
 But a. just weight is his delight." 
 
 The antithesis is evident at sight, and the couplets need 
 no explanation. 
 
 3. Another class of parallelisms is called synthetic. 
 They are composed of cumulative expressions, often rising 
 in thought from line to line, as Psalm cxlviii. 7-13 : — 
 
 " Praise the Lord from the earth, 
 Ye dragons, and all deeps ; 
 Fire and hail, snow and vapor, 
 Stormy wind fulfilling his word ; 
 Mountains and all hills, 
 Fruitful trees and all cedars; 
 Beasts and all cattle, 
 Creeping things and flying fowl ; 
 Kings of the earth and all people, 
 Princes and all judges of the earth ; 
 Both young men and maidens, 
 Old men and children, 
 Let them praise the name of the Lord." 
 
 Here the gradual but not regular ascent from inanimate 
 nature up to man, and the greatest of men, even " kings " 
 and " princes," is obvious. 
 
 This kind of parallelism is also illustrated in Psalm cl., 
 where the musical instruments spoken of increase in size 
 and power. 
 
136 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 4. Another style of poetry is called " Alphabetical " or 
 Acrostic, because each couplet or verse begins with a new 
 letter of the Hebrew alphabet, beginning with the first 
 letter and going on in regular order till the last. And as 
 there are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, there 
 are twenty-two verses of two lines each in an acrostic 
 poem, if all the letters of the alphabet are employed. 
 There are seven alphabetic or acrostic psalms, — the xxv., 
 xxxiv., xxxvii., cxi., cxii., cxix., cxlv. Proverbs xxxi. 10-31 
 and the first four chapters of the Book of Lamentations 
 are also acrostic poems. The construction of Psalm cxix. 
 is highly artificial, and demands special notice here. The 
 reader will observe that the whole psalm is divided into 
 portions of eight verses each, and that these divisions are 
 preceded by a word which appears to have no meaning 
 and no relation to the section which it precedes ; as Aleph 
 before the first section of eight verses, Beth before the sec- 
 ond, Gimel before the third, and so on before each of the 
 twenty-two sections, a new word appears. Now, Aleph is 
 the name of the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and 
 each of the eight verses of this section begins with Aleph 
 (a), the first letter of the alphabet. Beth is the name 
 of the second letter of the alphabet, and each of the 
 eight verses in this section begins with Beth (J?), the sec- 
 ond letter. And so on with all the rest of the sections, 
 twenty-two in number, as there are twenty-two letters in 
 the Hebrew alphabet ; and as each letter is used eight 
 times, there are eight times twenty-two verses in the 
 psalm, or one hundred and seventy-six. This is a very 
 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 37 
 
 artificial composition, revealing more patience than poetic 
 genius or inspiration in the writer. 
 
 The alphabetic chapters in Lamentations are peculiar, 
 and require a word of explanation. In the first and sec- 
 ond chapters a letter of the alphabet begins each verse 
 in their order till each of the twenty-two letters has been 
 used, making a poem, or chapter, of twenty-two verses ; 
 but in the third chapter the letter Aleph (or d) begins 
 each of the first three verses, the letter Beth (or b) each 
 of the next three verses, and so on through the alphabet, 
 each of the twenty-two letters being used three times, and 
 therefore making a poem, or chapter, of sixty-six verses. 
 The fourth chapter, like the first and second, begins each 
 verse with a letter of the alphabet corresponding in num- 
 ber with the verse. Though the fifth chapter contains 
 twenty-two verses, it is not alphabetic. It would have 
 been better if these chapters had been versed as the other 
 three alphabetic chapters are, all the Aleph lines in one 
 verse, and all the Beth lines in another verse, making 
 twenty-two large verses instead of sixty-six small ones. 
 Then all these chapters would have shown triplets in each 
 
 " How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud of 
 his anger, 
 And cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, 
 And remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger ! " 
 
 But this is only the skeleton, the dry bones of Hebrew 
 poetry. Its sinews and nerves and life, its spirit, its 
 imagery, and its sources, are waiting for presentation. 
 
138 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Section IV. — The Subjects of Hebrew Poetry. 
 
 These, like those of all nations, are very various and 
 very comprehensive. But as the Hebrews were eminently 
 a religious people, more care was taken to preserve their 
 religious poetry than any other kind, and hence we have 
 but few specimens of their war-songs, historical poems, 
 dramatic pieces, and marriage hymns. God and his 
 attributes, Nature and its scenery, constitute the substance 
 of Hebrew lyric poetry. In describing these the poet 
 rises to his loftiest strains, and bears the reader through 
 the pure ethers of the higher spheres. 
 
 1. In Job xxvi. the power of God is described in un- 
 paralleled loftiness of thought : — 
 
 Before him the shades tremble, 
 
 Beneath, the waters and their habitation. 
 
 The underworld is naked before him, 
 
 And destruction is without a covering. 
 
 He stretcheth out the north over empty space, 
 
 And hangeth the earth upon nothing. 
 
 The pillars of heaven tremble 
 
 And are confounded at his rebuke. 
 
 By his power he stilleth the sea, 
 
 Yea, by his wisdom he smiteth its pride. 
 
 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens ; 
 
 His hand hath formed the fleeing serpent. 
 
 Lo ! these are but the borders of his works ; 
 
 How faint the whisper we have heard of him ! 
 
 But the thunder of his power who can understand? 1 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 39 
 How graphic such lines as these : — 
 
 " He looketh upon the earth and it trembleth. 
 He toucheth the hills and they smoke." — Ps. civ. 32. 
 
 " He spake, and it was done ; 
 He commanded, and it stood fast." — Ps. xxxiii. 9. 
 
 2. The knowledge of God is thus described in Psalm 
 cxxxix. : — 
 
 " O Lord ! thou hast searched me and known me ! 
 Thou understandest my thoughts from afar. 
 For before the word is upon my tongue, 
 Behold, O Lord ! thou knowest it altogether ! 
 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me." 
 
 3. The omnipresence of God is described in the same 
 psalm : — 
 
 " If I ascend into heaven, thou art there ! 
 If I make my bed in the underworld, behold thou art there ! 
 If I take the wings of the morning 
 And dwell in the remotest parts of the sea, 
 Even there shall thy hand lead me, 
 And thy right hand shall hold me. 
 If I say, ' Surely the darkness shall cover me,' 
 Even the night shall be light about me. 
 The darkness and the light are both alike to thee ! " 
 
 4. The eternity of God is thus described in Psalm xc. : 
 
 " Before the mountains were brought forth, 
 Or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, 
 Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God ! 
 For a thousand years are, in thy sight, 
 As yesterday when it is past, 
 And as a watch in the night." 
 
140 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 5. How admirably the goodness, the tenderness, the 
 mercifulness of God are painted in Psalms cxxi., ciii., 
 
 xxiii. : — 
 
 " He will not suffer thy foot to stumble ; 
 The Lord is thy guardian ; 
 The Lord is thy shade at thy right hand. 
 The sun shall not smite thee by day, 
 Nor the moon by night. 
 The Lord will preserve thee from all evil. 
 The Lord will preserve thee when thou goest out 
 And when thou comest in. 
 
 Like as a father pitieth his children, 
 
 So the Lord pitieth them that fear him. 
 
 He hath not dealt with us according to our sins, 
 
 Nor requited us according to our iniquities. 
 
 As high as the heavens are above the earth, 
 
 So great is his mercy to them that fear him. 
 
 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, 
 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures ; 
 He leadeth me beside the still waters ; 
 When I walk through the valley of death-like shade 
 I fear no evil, for thou art with me. 
 
 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of 
 my life." 
 
 6. The trust, the confide?ice of the filial soul finds fit 
 utterance in Psalms xlvi., xxiii. : — 
 
 " God is our refuge and strength ; 
 An ever present help in trouble. 
 
 Therefore will we not fear though the earth be changed ; 
 Though the mountains tremble in the heart of the sea ; 
 Though its waters roar and be troubled, 
 And the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 141 
 
 7. The exultation of a joyful soul finds expression in 
 Psalm ciii. : — 
 
 " Bless the Lord, O my soul ! 
 And all that is within me, bless his holy name ! 
 Bless the Lord, O my soul ! 
 And forget not all his benefits ! 
 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, 
 Who healeth all thy diseases ; 
 Who redeemeth thy life from the grave ; 
 Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies ; 
 Who satisfieth thine old age with good, 
 So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's." 
 
 8. Aspiration rises to a worthy height in Psalm xlii. : — 
 
 " As the hart panteth for the water-brooks, 
 So panteth my soul for thee, O God ! 
 My soul thirsteth for God, the living God. 
 When shall I come and appear before God ? 
 
 Oh, send forth thy light and thy truth, 
 Let them guide me ; 
 Let them lead me to thy holy mountain, 
 And to thy dwelling-place." 
 
 9. Where can words be found more expressive of 
 penitence than in Psalm li.? — 
 
 " Be gracious unto me, O God ! according to thy loving kindness ; 
 According to the greatness of thy mercy blot out my transgres- 
 sions ! 
 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, 
 And cleanse me from my sin ! 
 For I acknowledge my transgressions, 
 And my sin is ever before me. 
 Against thee, and thee only, have I sinned, 
 And in thy sight have done evil. . . . 
 
142 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Hide thy face from my sins, 
 
 And blot out all my iniquities ! 
 
 Create within me a clean heart, O God ! 
 
 Renew within me a steadfast spirit ! 
 
 Cast me not away from thy presence, 
 
 And take not thy holy spirit from me ! 
 
 Restore to me the joy of thy protection ! " 
 
 io. For passionate expressions of revenge, where can 
 more bitter be found than in Psalm cix. 6-13 ? And the 
 rest of the psalm will enlarge even this vocabulary for 
 cursing : — 
 
 " Set thou a wicked man over him, 
 And let an adversary stand at his right hand ! 
 When he is judged may he be condemned, 
 And may his prayer be a crime ! 
 May his days be few, 
 And another take his office ! 
 May his children be fatherless, 
 And his wife a widow ! 
 
 May his children be vagabonds and beggars, 
 And from their ruined dwellings seek their bread ! 
 May there be none to show him compassion, 
 And none to pity his fatherless children ! 
 May his posterity be cut off ; 
 In the next generation may his name be blotted out ! " 
 
 11. Where can be found fitter or warmer expressions of 
 patriotism than are found in Psalms cxxii., cxxxvii. ? — 
 
 " Pray for the peace of Jerusalem ! 
 May they prosper who love thee 1 
 Peace be within thy walls, 
 And prosperity within thy palaces 1 
 For my brethren and companion's sake will I say 
 Peace be within thee 1 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 43 
 
 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, 
 
 Let my right hand forget her cunning I 
 
 If I do not remember thee, 
 
 Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; 
 
 If I prefer not Jerusalem to my chief joy ! " 
 
 Section V. — The Sources of the Imagery which abounds 
 in the Hebrew Poetry. 
 
 These are found most abundantly in Nature, in the 
 vicissitudes of day and night, light and darkness, sunshine 
 and storm, mountain and valley, seas and streams, har- 
 vests and fruits, forests and fields, plenty and famine, 
 drought and deluge, thunder, lightning, and hail, snow 
 and ice, cold and heat. Nor from sources in Nature only 
 is this most impressive imagery drawn, but from Life, — 
 from labors, from diseases, from dress both of people and 
 priests, from temple and sacrifice, from animals wild 
 and tame, fierce and gentle, timid and courageous, plants 
 and planets, fish and fowl, sparrow and eagle ; indeed, all 
 arts and all articles, all scenes and sciences, were made 
 tributary by these Hebrew poets to illustrate, impress, and 
 adorn the subjects of their poems. 
 
 The nature of this work forbids the introduction of more 
 than a very few of these illustrations. The reader is re- 
 ferred to the poetry itself, which glows in every line with 
 imagery, often of surpassing beauty, as the firmament 
 glows with stars, and which cannot be described, but must 
 be seen. I will refer to some examples of them. 
 
 1. I will first call attention to some of the images 
 derived from Nature which illustrate and impress the 
 
144 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 thought of the Hebrew poets. Light and Darkness are 
 very frequently used as illustrative of prosperity and adver- 
 sity, of knowledge and ignorance. 
 
 a. Isaiah very often uses these words when he would 
 illustrate and impress upon the people the greatness of 
 their calamity or the abundance of their prosperity. 
 Describing the prosperity of the people after their de- 
 liverance from their oppressors, he exclaims : — ■ 
 
 " Then shall the light of the moon be as the light of the sun, 
 And the light of the sun shall be seven-fold, 
 As the light of seven days. 
 
 The sun shall no more go down, 
 
 Neither shall the moon be hid ; 
 
 For Jehovah shall be thine everlasting light, 
 
 And the days of thy mourning shall be ended ! 
 
 The people that dwelt in darkness behold a great light, 
 
 And they who dwelt in the land of death-shade, 
 
 Upon them a light shineth." — Isaiah xxx. 26 ; lx. 20 ; ix. 2. 
 
 And the Psalmist exclaims (Psalm xcvii. 11) : — 
 
 " Light is sown for the righteous, 
 And joy for the upright in heart." 
 
 b. In describing the adversity which had befallen his 
 nation, Isaiah mournfully cries as he looks around him : — 
 
 " Behold darkness and sorrow, 
 And the light is darkened. 
 
 . . . Look to the earth, 
 Behold distress and darkness and fearful darkness. 
 
 All the host of heaven shall melt away. . . . 
 
 For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, 
 
 Shall not give their light." 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 45 
 
 The prophet Amos (v. 20) exclaims, as he beholds the 
 impending punishment of the nation : — 
 
 " The day of Jehovah shall be darkness and not light : 
 Even thick darkness, and no brightness in it." 
 
 Job (xix. 8), in the extremity of his suffering, cries out : 
 " He hath set darkness in my path." 
 
 c. As significant of knowledge and ignorance, light and 
 darkness are very frequently used by the poets. Says 
 Isaiah (v. 20) : — 
 
 " Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil ; 
 That put darkness for light, and light for darkness." 
 
 And the Psalmist says of his enemies (lxxxv. 5) : — 
 
 " They are without knowledge . . . 
 They walk in darkness." 
 
 The Preacher, in Ecclesiastes ii. 13, says : — 
 
 " I saw indeed that wisdom excelleth folly 
 As far as light excelleth darkness. 
 The wise man's eyes are in his head, 
 But the fool walketh in darkness." 
 
 2. Blessings and calamities of both a personal and 
 national character are described by imagery derived from 
 streams, deluges, and storms, rains and dews. 
 
 Job (vi. 15-20) vividly illustrates the character of his false 
 friends by likening them to one of the deceptive streams 
 in a desert so common in Eastern countries : — 
 
 " To the afflicted kindness should be shown by a friend, 
 But my brethren are faithless like a brook, 
 Like streams of the valley ; 
 As soon as they flow forth they vanish ; 
 10 
 
146 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 When the heat cometh they are dried up in their channels. 
 
 The caravans turn aside to them on their way, 
 
 They go up into the desert and perish. 
 
 They are ashamed that they have relied on them. 
 
 They come to their place and are confounded." 
 
 In chapter xxvii. he describes the sudden overthrow 
 of the rich by flood and storm as follows : — 
 
 " The rich man lieth down and is not buried [is swept away], 
 In the twinkling of an eye he is no more. 
 Terrors pursue him like a flood ; 
 A tempest stealeth him away in the night, 
 The east wind carrieth him away and he perisheth." 
 
 The prophet Joel (iii. 18), exulting in the prosperity 
 which should come upon the land in the latter days, 
 exclaims : — 
 
 K In that day shall the mountains drop down new wine, 
 And the hills shall flow with milk, 
 And all the streams of Judah shall flow water. 
 A fountain shall come forth from the house of Jehovah, 
 That shall water the valley of Shittim." 
 
 The poets speak of blessings as dew and rain, Deuter- 
 onomy xxxii. 2 : — 
 
 " My teaching shall drop as the rain, 
 My speech shall distil as the dew, 
 As the small rain upon the tender herb, 
 As the showers upon the grass." 
 
 Jehovah is represented as saying (Hosea xiv. 5) : — 
 
 " I will be as the dew to Israel ; 
 He shall blossom as the lily." 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 47 
 The Psalmist, describing God's goodness (lxxii. 6), says : 
 
 " He shall be like rain descending upon the mown field, 
 Like showers which water the earth." 
 
 3. A few examples must suffice for the imagery drawn 
 from mountains and plains, — Lebanon, Carmel, Hermon, 
 and Sharon. 
 
 Isaiah (xxix. 17), in speaking of the great prosperity 
 which would come to the nation, describes it thus : — 
 
 " Lebanon shall be changed into a fruitful field, 
 And the [now] fruitful field be esteemed [only as] a forest [so fer- 
 tile will the land become]." 
 
 Of calamity he says (xxxiii. 9) : — 
 
 " The land mourneth and languisheth, 
 Lebanon is put to shame and withereth away, 
 Sharon is a desert, 
 Bashan and Carmel are stripped of their leaves." 
 
 What imagery could express prosperity and joy more 
 vividly than this? Isaiah xxxv. 1, 2 : — 
 
 " The wilderness and parched land shall be glad, 
 And the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose; 
 It shall blossom abundantly, and exult with singing, 
 The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, 
 The beauty of Carmel and Sharon ; 
 And they shall behold the glory of Jehovah, 
 And the majesty of our God." 
 
 The taunting language put into the mouth of Sen- 
 nacherib by the poet when he reproached the Lord is 
 remarkably expressive, Isaiah xxxvii. 24, 25 : — 
 
I48 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 " With the multitude of my chariots I have 
 Ascended the heights of the mountains, 
 Even to the extremest summits of Lebanon ; 
 I have cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress-trees ; 
 I have come to its utmost height, to its garden forest ; 
 I have digged and drunk water, 
 And with the sole of my feet will I dry up all the rivers of Egypt." 
 
 4. The poets introduce imagery derived from forests, 
 referring to its notable trees by name, as in Isaiah ii. 
 12-17 : — 
 
 " Jehovah of hosts holdeth a day of judgment 
 Against all that is proud and lofty . . . 
 Against all the cedars of Lebanon, 
 Against all the oaks of Bashan . . . 
 And the pride of man shall be humbled, 
 And the loftiness of mortals brought low." 
 
 In illustrating the excellence of the good and their 
 prosperity, the Psalmist says (Psalm xcii. 12) : — 
 
 " The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree, 
 They shall grow like the cedars of Lebanon. 
 Even in old age they bring forth fruit ; 
 They are green and full of sap." 
 
 The prophet Amos (ii. 9), describing the Amorites who 
 had been destroyed by Israel, says : — 
 
 " They were tall as the cedars, 
 And as strong as the oaks ; 
 I destroyed their fruit above 
 And their roots beneath." 
 
 The prophet Zechariah (xi. 1, 2), in describing the deso- 
 lation of Judea and the destruction of the rulers and 
 princes, exclaims : — 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 49 
 
 " Open thy doors, O Lebanon, 
 That a fire may devour thy cedars ! 
 Howl, O fir-tree, for the cedar falleth ! 
 For the lofty ones are destroyed ! 
 Howl, O ye oaks of Bashan, 
 For the high forest is come down ! " 
 
 5. The animal kingdom is introduced to give emphasis 
 and vividness to the poet's descriptions, — the lion, the 
 hind, the cattle of Bashan, wild and fierce. In Amos i. 1, 
 the voice of Jehovah is compared to that of a lion : — 
 
 " Jehovah will roar out of Zion, 
 And utter his voice from Jerusalem ; 
 The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, 
 And the top of Carmel [God's garden] shall wither." 
 
 The Psalmist, describing his agility (xviii.), says of the 
 
 Lord : — 
 
 " He made my feet like the hind's, 
 And set me in my high places." 
 
 And speaking of the activity of Naphtali, the poet ex- 
 claims, Genesis xlix. 21: — 
 
 " Naphtali is a hind let loose." 
 
 And describing the vigor of Judah (Genesis xlix. 9), he 
 says : — 
 
 " Judah is a lion's whelp, 
 
 He stooped down, he couched as a lion, 
 
 As an old lion." 
 
 God's favor to the good is expressed by the Psalmist 
 (xci. 13) in such impassioned language as this : — 
 
 " Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder ; 
 The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under foot." 
 
150 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 In the extremity of his peril among his enemies, he 
 exclaims (Psalm xxii. 12, 21) : — 
 
 " O be not far from me, for trouble is near. 
 Many bulls surround me : 
 
 The strong bulls of Bashan close me in on every side ; 
 They open their mouths wide against me, 
 Like a ravening and roaring lion." 
 
 " Save me from the lion's mouth, 
 Shield me from the horns of the buffaloes." 
 
 Jeremiah (xlix. 16), prophesying the desolation of 
 mountainous Edom, exclaims : — 
 
 " Though thou set thy nest on high like the eagle, 
 Thence will I bring thee down, saith Jehovah." 
 
 Isaiah, describing the prosperity of the righteous (xl. 
 
 31), says: — 
 
 " They that trust in Jehovah shall renew their strength ; 
 They shall mount up with wings like eagles." 
 
 Job laments his loneliness and the desertion of his 
 friends (xxx. 29), saying : — 
 
 " I am become a brother to jackals, 
 And a companion to ostriches ; " 
 
 and this imagery is very expressive, for these creatures 
 abode in desert places. 
 
 The Psalmist, to express the same idea of loneliness, 
 exclaims (cii. 6, 7) : — 
 
 " I am like a pelican in the wilderness ; 
 I am like an owl amid ruins ; 
 I am like a sparrow [a lonely bird] upon the house-top." 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 151 
 
 6. Much of the imagery of the Hebrew poets is drawn 
 from the occupations of the people. These occupations 
 were very varied, and the purpose of this work will not 
 admit of a full illustration of this field, in which the 
 poets gathered rich harvests. The work of the threshing- 
 floor, the vintage and wine-press, the harvesting, the shep- 
 herd, are the chief, and all that require special notice. 
 
 a. The gatheri?ig of the harvest and fruit was an occa- 
 sion of great rejoicing, but the field was left bare. The 
 prophet Isaiah (xvii. 4, 5, 6, and xxiv. 3) introduces the 
 desolation of a field which has just been reaped, to illus- 
 trate the desolation of the conquered country : — 
 
 " In that day shall the glory of Jacob sink away, 
 And the fatness of his flesh become leanness, 
 
 ^And it shall be as when the harvest man gathereth grain, 
 And reapeth the ears with his arm ; 
 
 There shall be left in it only a gleaning as in the olive harvest, 
 Two or three berries on the top of the highest bough, 
 Four or five on the fruitful branches." 
 
 Again : — 
 
 "Thus shall it be in the land, 
 In the midst of the people, 
 As when the olive-tree has been shaken, 
 As the gleaning when the vintage is ended." 
 
 kb. The threshi?ig-floor is a very frequent and impressive 
 image of the prophet-poets. This floor was made upon 
 the top of a hill, so that whichever way the wind blew it 
 would pass over it. A round spot of ground thirty or 
 forty feet in diameter was made very hard by various pro- 
 cesses, like the concrete pavement of our streets and side- 
 
152 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 walks, and on this the grain was thrown as it was drawn 
 from the adjacent fields. Over the floor, covered with 
 the grain, either cattle tied to each other were driven, or 
 pieces of wood were drawn, made notched on the under 
 side ; or cylinders, like those used to level ground, filled 
 with blunt points, were drawn over the floor by cattle or 
 horses, which broke the straw and tore out the kernel, so 
 that in a little while all the grain would be threshed out, 
 and the straw could then be raked off and another floor- 
 ful put on to be threshed. After as much grain had been 
 threshed out upon the floor as it was convenient to have 
 lying there while threshing, the grain was winnowed. 
 Taking advantage of the fresh breeze, the winnower with 
 his large winnowing shovel (" fan ") tossed the grain into 
 the air, and the chaff was blown away, sometimes to great 
 distances over the country, filling the air far away, the 
 grain meanwhile falling at the feet of the winnower. When 
 all the contents of the threshing-floor had been winnowed, 
 the clean grain was taken up and deposited in the 
 granary, which was usually a chamber cut into the very 
 dry limestone rock of the country. How startlingly 
 impressive Isaiah is enabled to make the destruction of 
 the enemies of his people by the image of the threshing- 
 floor (xli. 15) : — 
 
 " Behold, I will make thee [the nation] a threshing-wain, 
 Sharp and new, with double edges ; 
 Thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, 
 And make the hills as chaff. 
 
 Thou shalt winnow them, and the wind shall carry them away, 
 And the whirlwind shall scatter them ! " 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 53 
 
 Again (xvii. 13) : — 
 
 " Jehovah rebuketh the nations and they flee away, 
 Driven like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, 
 Like straw before the whirlwind ! " 
 
 The prophet Micah (iv. 12, 13) announces the total 
 destruction of the enemies of his nation in such imagery 
 as this : — 
 
 " Jehovah gathereth them as sheaves into the threshing-floor. 
 Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion ! 
 For I will make thy horns iron, 
 And thy hoofs brass ; 
 Thou shalt beat in pieces many nations." 
 
 Plenty is also sometimes represented by the threshing- 
 floor, 1 as in Joel ii. 24 : — 
 
 " The threshing-floor shall be full of wheat, 
 And the vats shall overflow with wine and oil." 
 
 c. The vineyard, the vintage, and the wine-press furnish 
 to the poets rich and impressive illustrations of calamity 
 and prosperity. The vineyard was a choice spot of 
 ground properly fenced and enriched, provided with trel- 
 lises on which the vines could climb, and in it was a large 
 tub built of wood, set on a frame, with a hole near the bot- 
 tom through which the juice of the grapes when trodden 
 
 1 Homer uses this same illustration when he would describe the destruction 
 wrought by Achilles in the Trojan army, who was aroused to avenge the death of 
 his friend Patroclus (Iliad, B. xx., close) : — 
 
 "As when one yokes the broad-horned bullocks 
 To trample out the white barley on the well levelled floor, 
 And it easily becomes small beneath the feet of the bellowing oxen, 
 So the solid-hoofed horses driven by magnanimous Achilles 
 Trod down together both corpses and shields." 
 
154 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 would run out into earthen jars that were set to receive 
 it. The grapes were gathered in baskets and borne on 
 the heads of the laborers to the wine-vat and poured in, 
 while those who trod them, destitute of clothing, save a 
 narrow band about the loins and hips, standing in the vat 
 and holding to cords attached to a piece of timber extend- 
 ing over it, continually stepped up and down. Sometimes 
 as many as three were able to tread in the same vat. Of 
 course they were besprinkled with the spirting juice of the 
 grapes as they were crushed, and looked as if stained with 
 blood. The time of the vintage was a season of great 
 rejoicing to the laborers, as well as to the owner of the 
 vineyard. Prosperity and adversity, conquest and defeat, 
 are illustrated by it. 
 
 Jeremiah, speaking of the degeneracy of the nation in 
 his day, says (ii. 21) : — 
 
 "Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, 
 Wholly a genuine seed ; 
 How art thou changed to a degenerate shoot of a strange vine ? " 
 
 Isaiah (xvi. 10) strives to describe the desolation of 
 Moab by such imagery as this : — 
 
 1 The lords of the nations break down the choicest shoots of the 
 
 vine of Sibmah ; 
 They reached even to Jazer, they wandered into the desert ; 
 Her branches were spread out, they crossed the sea ! 
 
 Gladness and joy are driven from the fruitful field,. 
 And in the vineyards is no singing nor shouting ! 
 The treaders tread out no wine in their vats ; 
 I have made the vintage shouting to cease ! " 
 
 

 OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 55 
 
 Jehovah is represented under the most startling figure 
 of a treader out of the grapes in the wine-vat. When the 
 conquest of Edom is made by the people inspired to vic- 
 tory by him (Isaiah lxiii.), the prophet cries : — 
 
 " Who is this that cometh from Edom, 
 In scarlet garments from Bozrah ? 
 Wherefore is thine apparel red, 
 
 And thy garments like those of one that treadeth the wine-vat ? 
 I have trodden the wine-vat alone, 
 And of the nations there was none with me. 
 And I trod them in mine anger, 
 And I trampled them in my fury, 
 
 So that their life-blood was sprinkled upon my garments. 
 I have stained all my apparel ; 
 I trod down the nations in my anger ; 
 I crushed them in my fury, 
 And spilled their blood upon the ground ! " 
 
 I must only refer the reader to the beautiful parable of 
 the vineyard in Isaiah v. 1-7. 
 
 d. The occupation of the shepherd furnishes beautiful 
 and impressive imagery for the poets both lyric and pro- 
 phetic. That most exquisite gem of Oriental poetry, the 
 23d Psalm, is a charming example of it : — 
 
 " The Lord is my shepherd ; I shall not want. 
 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures ; 
 He leadeth me beside the still waters. 
 He reviveth my soul ; 
 He leadeth me in the paths of safety 
 
 For his name's sake [for the credit of his name as a shepherd]. 
 When I walk through a valley of death-like shade, 
 I fear no evil ; for thou art with me ; 
 Thy crook and thy staff, they comfort me." 
 
156 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Isaiah uses the same image (xl. 11) respecting Jehovah : 
 
 " He shall feed his flock like a shepherd ; 
 He shall gather up the lambs in his arms, 
 And carry them in his bosom, 
 And gently lead the nursing ewes." 
 
 The prophet Ezekiel (xxxiv.) introduces a long meta- 
 phor where the princes of the people are represented as 
 shepherds, and the people as flocks : — 
 
 " Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. 
 Prophesy, and say to them, to the shepherds, 
 Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves ! 
 Should not the shepherds feed the flocks ? 
 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool ; 
 Ye eat that which is fatted, but ye feed not the flock. 
 The weak ye do not strengthen, 
 The sick ye do not heal, 
 And the wounded ye do not bind up ; 
 Ye bring not back that which has been driven away, 
 Neither seek ye that which has been lost, 
 But with force and cruelty do ye rule them." 
 
 The prophet continues in this strain through the whole 
 chapter, which is worth reading as an illustration of the 
 use of this imagery in many applications. 
 
 7. The customs of the people naturally furnish much 
 and very forcible imagery to the poets. Few illustrations 
 need to be given of them. 
 
 a. The family relation of husband and wife is a very 
 favorite illustration, in some of the poets, of the relation of 
 Jehovah to the nation ; and when the people disobey him, 
 or worship idols, they are said to commit adultery. Hosea 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 57 
 
 and Ezekiel abound with illustrations of this kind, not 
 always confining their descriptions within the limits pre- 
 scribed by modern taste. See also Jeremiah iii. 1-13, and 
 Hosea ii. 
 
 b. Imagery drawn from burial-places in the caves and 
 rocks is common, as also that drawn from dress. 
 
 The prophet Ezekiel (xxxvii. 12-14), m describing the 
 release of the people from their captivity in Babylon, 
 likens the latter to being buried in the grave, and the 
 former to a resurrection from the grave : — 
 
 ** Behold, I will open your graves 
 And cause you to come up out of your graves, 
 And put my breath within you ; 
 And ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land." 
 
 Hosea (xiii. 14) makes use of the same imagery 
 to represent the rescue of the people from bitter 
 oppression : — 
 
 " I will ransom them from the power of the grave ; 
 I will redeem them from death : 
 O death, where is thy plague ? 
 O grave, where is thy destruction ? " 
 
 The most remarkable use of this imagery is found in 
 Isaiah xiv. 4-27, and Ezekiel xxxii. 18-32, where the 
 prophets describe the commotion in the underworld, the 
 abode of the dead, when the king of Babylon dies and 
 descends to the shades. The passages are too long for 
 quotation, and the reader is requested to turn to them and 
 read them. 
 
158 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 In describing the terribleness of the judgment coming 
 upon the people, Isaiah (1. 3) avails himself of imagery 
 derived from the deep mourning apparel of the people : 
 
 "I will clothe the heavens with blackness 
 And make sackcloth their covering." 
 
 And Amos, representing Jehovah, says (viii. 10) : — 
 
 " I will bring sackcloth upon all loins ; 
 I will fill the land with mourning as for an only son." 
 
 8. Even the vices of the people are introduced to ren- 
 der service to the vivid coloring of the poets. 
 
 The Psalmist (xxxix. 9), describing the delusion and 
 wickedness of the nations, exclaims : — 
 
 " The nations are drunk, but not with wine ; 
 They stagger, but not with strong drink." 
 
 Again (Isaiah xlix. 27): — 
 
 " With their own blood shall they be drunk, as with new wine." 
 
 Jeremiah exclaims (li. 57): — 
 
 " I will make drunk her [Babylon'sl princes and her wise men, 
 Her prefects, her governors, and her mighty men : 
 And they shall sleep an everlasting sleep, 
 And shall no more wake, saith Jehovah." 
 
 Again (xlvi. 10), still bolder is the figure : — 
 
 " The sword shall devour and satiate itself, 
 And it shall be made drunk with blood." 
 
 9. The sacred places, seasons, offices, services, all the 
 pomp and glory of the ritual, are made to do service by 
 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 59 
 
 the poets when they illustrate the subjects which occupy 
 their thoughts and pen. 
 
 In attempting to present to the people the greatness, the 
 majesty of Jehovah, and what service such greatness and 
 majesty required, the prophet cries out (Isaiah xl. 16) : — 
 
 " Lebanon [all its cedars] is not sufficient for fire, 
 Nor its beasts for a burnt offering" 
 
 Again (xxxiv. 5, 6, 7) : — 
 
 " Saith Jehovah, my sword hath become drunk in heaven ; 
 The sword of Jehovah is full of blood ; 
 It is covered with fat, 
 With the blood of lambs and goats, 
 With the fat of the kidneys of rams ; 
 For Jehovah holdeth a sacrifice in Bozrah." 
 
 10. The distinction made in the ritual between the 
 clean and the unclean is introduced by the poets very 
 frequently to represent what is becoming or unbecoming, 
 worthy or unworthy, in act or purpose or character ; as in 
 the following examples : — 
 
 " The heavens are not clean in his [Jehovah's] sight." 
 
 " The ways of man are clean in his own eyes." — Prov. xvi. 6. 
 
 " Create in me a clean heart, O God."— Ps. li. 10. 
 
 " The land ye go to possess is unclean." — Ezra ix. 11. 
 
 " I am undone, I am a man of unclean lips, 
 
 And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." — Isa. vi. 5. 
 
 Here is another beautiful image, derived from the 
 Temple service (Psalm cxli. 2) : — 
 
 " Let my prayer come before thee as incense, 
 And the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice" 
 
160 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 The dress of the high priest was gorgeous ; and when 
 he appeared in the Temple arrayed in his flowing robes 
 and sparkling breastplate and blazing frontlet, his august 
 presence awakened the highest admiration. The poets 
 often make reference to this when they would illustrate 
 holiness of character and purity of life : — 
 
 " Jehovah reigneth, he is clothed with majesty. 
 Jehovah is clothed with majesty and girded with strength." 
 
 " Jehovah hath clothed me with the garments of salvation ; 
 He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness." 
 
 ii. A few illustrations must be given of the manner in 
 which the Hebrew poets refer to remarkable events in their 
 history to aid them in painting the calamities or blessings 
 which will befall the nation. 
 
 a. Jeremiah refers to the condition of the primitive 
 earth as recorded in Genesis, to depict the terrible de- 
 struction which had befallen, or would befall, the land : 
 
 11 1 looked to the earth, and lo ! emptiness and desolation [that is, 
 " without form and void," Gen. i. 2] ; 
 To the heavens, and there is no light." 
 
 " Darkness shall cover the earth, 
 And gross darkness the nations." — Isa. lx. 2. 
 
 b. Great blessings are said to be a new creation; as in 
 Isaiah lxv. 17: — 
 
 " Behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth ; . . . 
 Ye shall be glad and exult forever 
 In that which I create ; 
 For behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, 
 And her people a joy." 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. l6l 
 
 c. He also illustrates the calamities which would over- 
 whelm the people and land, by imagery drawn from the 
 deluge (xxiv. 1 8) : — 
 
 " The floodgates of heaven are opened, 
 And the foundations of the earth tremble. 
 The earth reeleth like a drunkard ; 
 It moveth to and fro like a hammock." 
 
 d. The destruction of the cities of the plain furnishes 
 most startling imagery to the poets when they would 
 describe the utter and terrible overthrow of wicked cities 
 and peoples (Psalm xi. 6) : — 
 
 " Upon the wicked he will rain lightning ; 
 Fire and brhnstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their 
 cup." 
 
 And Isaiah, when he would impressively describe the utter 
 overthrow of the hostile kingdom of Edom, exclaims 
 (xxxiv. 8-10) : — 
 
 "Jehovah holdeth a day of vengeance, 
 A year of recompense in the cause of Zion. 
 The streams shall be turned into pitch, 
 And her dust into brimstone, 
 And her whole land shall become burning pitch ; 
 Day and night it shall not be quenched, 
 Its smoke shall ascend forever ; 
 From generation to generation it shall lie waste, 
 None shall pass through it forever and ever." 
 
 e. The exodus from Egypt and the marvels attending 
 it furnish abundant and varied imagery to the poets 
 when they would describe great deliverances and special 
 blessings. 
 
 11 
 
1 62 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Isaiah illustrates the escape from captivity and return 
 to Jerusalem by vivid imagery drawn from that event. 
 Hear him encourage the people to brave the desert and 
 the foe (xliii. 16-21) : — 
 
 " Thus saith Jehovah : 
 He that made a way in the sea, 
 And a path in mighty waters, 
 That caused the chariot and the horse, the 
 Army and the forces, to march forth ; 
 There they lay down together ; they rose no more ; 
 They were extinguished, they were quenched like a torch; 
 Remember not the former things ; 
 The things of old regard no more ! 
 Behold I do a new thing ; 
 Now shall it spring forth ; yea, ye shall see it. 
 Behold I make a way in the wilderness, 
 And streams in the desert ; 
 The beasts of the forests shall honor me, 
 The jackals and the ostriches ; 
 For I make rivers in the wilderness, 
 And streams in the desert, 
 To give drink to my people, my chosen." 
 
 The same period of the people's history furnished the 
 same writer (li. 9-1 1) the following words of cheer to the 
 people to go forward, as he addresses them to Jehovah in 
 most urgent appeal : — 
 
 " Awake ! awake ! clothe thyself with strength, O arm of Jehovah ! 
 Awake, as in ancient days, in the generations of old ! 
 Art thou not the same that smote Rahab [Egypt], 
 And wounded the dragon ? 
 Art thou not the same that dried up the sea, 
 The waters of the great deep, — 
 
 That made the depths of the sea a path for the redeemed to pass 
 through ? 
 

 OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 63 
 
 Then shall the ransomed of Jehovah return ; 
 They shall come to Zion with singing ; 
 Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads ; 
 They shall obtain gladness and joy, 
 And sorrow and sighing shall flee away." 
 
 Once more (xlviii. 20, 24), he calls to the captives : — 
 
 " Come ye forth from Babylon, 
 Flee ye from the land of the Chaldeans ; 
 Jehovah hath redeemed his servant Jacob ; 
 They thirst not in the deserts through which he leadeth them ; 
 Waters from the rock he causeth to flow for them ; 
 He cleaveth the rock and the waters gush forth." 
 
 f. The phenomena at Sinai enable the Psalmist to de- 
 scribe most graphically his rescue from his enemies by the 
 interposition of Jehovah (xviii. 7-9) : — 
 
 " Then the earth quaked and trembled, 
 The foundations of the mountains rocked and were shaken. 
 He bowed the heavens and came down, 
 And darkness was under his feet ; 
 He made darkness his covering, 
 
 His pavilion round about him was thick clouds of the skies. 
 The Lord also thundered from heaven, 
 And the Most High uttered his voice ; 
 He sent forth his arrows, and scattered them, 
 Continual lightnings, and discomfited them. 
 He stretched forth his hand from above ; he took me, 
 And drew me out of deep waters." 
 
 12. Fabulous creatures were a source of poetic imagery, 
 and the poets occasionally introduce them with marked 
 effect. The prophet, in describing the utter desolation of 
 Babylon (xiii. 21), says of its location : — 
 
1 64 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 " Wild beasts of the desert shall lodge there, 
 And owls shall fill their houses ; 
 And ostriches shall dwell there, 
 And satyrs shall dance there." 
 
 And the same writer, describing the utter desolation of 
 Edom, says (xxxiv. 14) : — 
 
 " The wild cats shall fall upon the wolves, 
 And the satyr shall call to his fellow ; 
 There also shall the night-spectre light, 
 And find a place of rest." 
 
 I have now, as fully as the limits of this work will allow, 
 illustrated the kinds of Hebrew poetry, — its structure, its 
 sources, and its imagery. I should like to dwell at some 
 length upon the spirit — the purely literary character — 
 of these poetical books, and give illustrations of the free 
 use which their writers make of the usual figures of speech 
 fully described in our books on Rhetoric, and which are 
 the common property of all ages and all peoples. The 
 simple comparison is used very frequently, but seems tame 
 in these writings by the side of the bold metaphors, the 
 bolder apostrophes, and the startling personifications which 
 abound ; for example, Jeremiah (xlvii.) exclaims : — 
 
 " O sword of Jehovah, how long ere thou wilt be quiet ? 
 Return to thy scabbard ! rest and be still." 
 
 The Psalmist cries (cxiv.) : — 
 
 " What aileth thee, O thou sea ! that thou fleest ? 
 Thou Jordan, that thou turnest back ? 
 Ye mountains, that ye skip like rams, 
 And ye hills like lambs ? " 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON HEBREW POETRY. 1 65 
 
 In the 8th chapter of Proverbs is a continuous personi- 
 fication of wisdom. 
 
 The allegory or parable is less frequently resorted to 
 than we should expect. But there are two instances of 
 its use preserved to us which are gems, — the Parable of 
 Jotham, Judges ix. 7, in which he satirizes the poor 
 choice of a king by the people, by describing a parlia- 
 ment of trees which chose the bramble for a king ; and 
 the Parable of the Vineyard by Isaiah (v. 1-7). Ezekiel 
 often introduces them, but he is a writer much inferior in 
 skill to those named. His parable of the two eagles may 
 be referred to (xvii. 1-10). 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 A marked characteristic of the Hebrew poetry is its ele- 
 vated and often gorgeous imagery, exceedingly hyperboli- 
 cal, and frequently startling us with the amazing boldness 
 of its language and the loftiness of its thought. I will refer 
 the reader to a few examples of these (want of room for- 
 bids the gratification of my desire to quote them) : Habak- 
 kuk iii. ; Psalm xxix. ; Psalm xviii. ; Psalm Ixxvii. There 
 are other passages equally sublime, as Job xxxix. 19-25 ; 
 xli. 1 2-34. The Hebrew poets, catching inspiration from 
 objects in Nature, from events in history, from the customs 
 and occupations of life, from the ceremonies of their won- 
 derful ritual, clothed them all with highest significance, 
 and employed them to illustrate the attributes and provi- 
 dence of God and the duties and experiences of man. 
 
1 66 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 No Oriental poetry can compare with theirs in sublimity 
 of thought and sublimity of expression. The divine affla- 
 tus carries the poet into the heavens. He breathes the 
 pure ether and beholds the divine purposes and agencies. 
 Other Oriental poets smother you with the fragrance of 
 roses, soothe you with the songs of birds and maidens, 
 and calm you with the sedative of poppies. The Hebrew 
 poet invigorates you with the tonic odors of cedar-trees, 
 and rouses and thrills you with the voice of cataracts, 
 tornadoes, and thunder-peals. His is no effeminate spirit. 
 It is nourished by 
 
 " Thoughts that voluntary move 
 Harmonious numbers," 
 
 like the swellings of Jordan or the floods of Kishon. No 
 Grecian, no Roman poet cherished and expressed such 
 lofty conceptions of the Supreme Being as are found in 
 these writers. Addressed as these poems are to the pro- 
 foundest wants of man, in language and imagery which 
 are so universally understood, they have held their high 
 place in the literatures of the world, and at the head of 
 them all. The sad and the joyful, the successful and the 
 unfortunate, find fit words in which to express their grief 
 and exultation in these venerable, these grand old Hebrew 
 poets. In hut and palace alike they have given, during 
 all the centuries, comfort and inspiration ; and the great 
 refrain will be caught up by generations to come as it has 
 been by generations past, till men shall cease to admire 
 what is grand or be inspired by what is divine. 
 
THE BOOK OF JOB. l6/ 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BOOK OF JOB. 
 
 This is one of the most remarkable, if not the most 
 remarkable, of the books in the Bible, whether we con- 
 sider its construction, its subject, its style, or the variety 
 of opinions which have been maintained by eminent schol- 
 ars respecting its author, its age, and the place of its com- 
 position. The historian Froude calls it " a book of which 
 it is to say little to call it unequalled of its kind, and which 
 will one day, perhaps, when it is allowed to stand on its 
 own merits, be seen towering up alone, far away, above all 
 the poetry of the world." The great German poet and 
 critic, Herder (vol. i. p. 21), writing of the author, de- 
 scribes him as one " whose soul kindled with these divine 
 conceptions, who embraced in a single glance the heavens 
 and the earth, and who could send forth his living spirit, 
 his poetic fire, and his human affections to all that exists, 
 from the land of the shadow of death to the starry firma- 
 ment and beyond the stars. No cypress flourishing in 
 unfading green marks the place of his rest. With his 
 unuttered name he has consigned to oblivion all that was 
 earthly. In this book, full of imperishable thought, he 
 still lives and extends his triumph over centuries and con- 
 tinents. A phoenix has sprung from his ashes, and from 
 his odorous nest is diffused an incense which gives and 
 
1 68 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 will forever give reviving energy to the faint and strength 
 to the powerless." " It is the sublimest composition of 
 Hebrew genius inspired by God," exclaims Davidson. 
 
 Section I. — The Age of Job. 
 
 The age in which Job lived, whose calamity and 
 character are the ground of the discussion contained in 
 this book, is not agreed upon by critics, but a clew may 
 be found perhaps in the place of his residence and the 
 tribal relations of his three friends. The land of Uz, in 
 which he lived, was very probably situated on the eastern 
 borders of the mountainous region east of Jordan, and 
 his friends were residents of that region, if we may rely 
 upon their names and traditional ancestry. Eliphaz was a 
 Temanite, and Teman was a son of Esau (Genesis xxxvi. 
 4), and their country was in that region. Bildad the 
 Shuhite was a descendant of Shuah, a son of Abraham by 
 Keturah (Genesis xxv. 2). This tribe also lived in this 
 region easterly. Zophar the Naamathite cannot be even 
 conjecturally located, as there is no town or country by 
 this name ; but it is probable that his residence was in 
 the same region as that of the others, and not far from 
 Job's. Elihu was son of Barachel the Buzite. Buz was 
 a son of Nahor and a nephew of Abraham (Genesis xxii. 
 21). This people occupied the country on the borders 
 of Arabia (Jeremiah xxv. 23). Our hero is therefore lo- 
 cated by the poet on the borders of Arabia. 
 
 With this clew to the residence of Job, we may perhaps 
 
THE BOOK OF JOB. 1 69 
 
 give a probable guess at the age in which he lived. It 
 seems from his occupation that he lived in the nomadic 
 age, when flocks and herds were the chief property, and 
 rearing them the chief occupation. The age to which Job 
 lived, about two hundred years, agrees with a very early 
 period (chapter xlii. 16). The only kind of money men- 
 tioned agrees with this period (Genesis xxxiii. 1 9 ; Job 
 xlii. n). The form of worship also agrees with the cus- 
 toms of an early age. These and other indications justify 
 the conclusion that very probably the author intended to 
 place his hero in the patriarchal age. But this by no 
 means determines the age of the writer of the poem, any 
 more than the fact that Julius Caesar lived before the 
 Christian era proves that Shakspeare, who wrote the 
 tragedy of "Julius Caesar," lived before that era. 
 
 What, then, was the age of the writer of the Book 
 of Job? Scholars differ very widely on this subject, and 
 it would be merely a waste of time to name the different 
 periods to which the writing of this work has been referred, 
 and to name their advocates. It is sufficient for my pur- 
 pose to say that almost every century, from before the 
 time of Moses down to that of Ezra, has had its advocates. 
 There are, however, two limits, it seems to me, within 
 which it must have been written. The language of the 
 book contains no " archaisms," or obsolete forms or 
 meanings of words, as does the Pentateuch ; so that it was 
 not written till those forms and meanings had gone out 
 of use, some centuries after the composition of the Pen- 
 tateuch. It is equally certain that it was not written after 
 
170 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 the captivity, for the Aramaicisms or Chaldaisms of the 
 post-captivity literature are not found in it. At what 
 point in these six or eight centuries the writer lived can- 
 not be determined with any degree of certainty ; but the 
 purity of the language, and the grandeur of the style and 
 the subject treated, would lead one to place its composi- 
 tion in the golden age of Hebrew literature, or about the 
 age of Solomon. 
 
 Section II. — The Author. 
 
 The author is unknown. His name is buried in ob- 
 livion, but his fame has survived the wreck of literatures 
 and kingdoms. He has erected a monument more dura- 
 ble than brass, but no name is inscribed thereon. Guesses 
 like the stars in multitude have been made, but nothing, 
 absolutely nothing, is known of the author but his work. 
 This lives, and will live forever. It proves him to have 
 been a poet of almost miraculous genius and daring 
 expression, mounting to the very heavens on the wings 
 of his inspiration, or revealing the ocean-bed by the 
 penetration of his vision. 
 
 Section III. — Integrity and Style. 
 
 The work appears to have been preserved with great 
 accuracy through all the hazards of its long existence. 
 A very few passages seem to have been misplaced, and 
 the whole of the speech of Elihu has been supposed 
 
THE BOOK OF JOB. 171 
 
 by some very eminent critics to be an addition by a later 
 writer. But this opinion has not found acceptance among 
 critics generally. The disposition to substitute guesses for 
 evidence has had too wide an influence among a class 
 of Biblical scholars. The short passage in chapter xxvii. 
 13-23 is attributed, with some show of reason, to Zophar 
 as his final speech, thus rounding out the three speeches 
 in the third series. In chapter xxxi., it is possible that 
 verses 38-40 should be placed after verse 25. At any rate 
 they fit in there well, and seem out of place where they 
 now stand. 
 
 The book is written in poetry, except the 1st and 
 2d chapters, and from the 1st to the 6th verses inclu- 
 sive of the 3 2d chapter, and from the 7th to the 17th 
 verses inclusive of the 42 d chapter. The style, very 
 terse for the most part, is sublime and impassioned. 
 Some of the speeches are so long as to begin to be 
 tiresome, and are diffuse with repetitions; yet the style 
 of the different speakers is well preserved in their 
 speeches. 
 
 Eliphaz represents the true patriarchal chieftain, grave 
 and dignified, and erring only from an exclusive adherence 
 to opinions hitherto unquestioned, and, in the first part of 
 the discussion, influenced by a genuine regard for Job and 
 sympathy with his affliction. 
 
 Bildad, without very much originality or independence 
 of character, but very severe, reposes partly on the wise 
 sayings of the ancients, and partly on the authority of his 
 older friend. 
 
172 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Zophar differs from both. He appears like a young 
 man, and his language is violent, and at times coarse and 
 offensive. He fitly represents the prejudiced and narrow- 
 minded bigots who know everything and can be taught 
 nothing. 
 
 Elihu, the superfluous speaker, is a youngster, bluster- 
 ing, bombastic, self-sufficient, defiant. Yet withal he 
 utters some magnificent as well as some grandiloquent 
 sentences, and comes nearer to a true explanation of Job's 
 sad condition than either of his elders. 
 
 Section IV. — The Subject. 
 
 The subject discussed, though not formally stated, is 
 the Jewish doctrine that prosperity and adversity, health 
 and sickness, are attendant upon moral desert, and that 
 good character and bad are determined by worldly con- 
 dition. 
 
 It seems to be the object of the writer to propound a 
 better view, and to show that suffering is sometimes at 
 least disciplinary as well as penal, and to teach submis- 
 sion to God and trust in him when his ways are un- 
 searchable, and to man unreasonable and unmerciful. 
 
 Section V. — 'The Structure. 
 
 The structure of the book now claims our notice. It 
 is dramatic ; not a tragedy, as it has been called, but 
 more like one of Plato's philosophical dialogues. It may 
 
 
THE BOOK OF JOB. 1 73 
 
 perhaps be a Hebrew form of tragedy. The whole work 
 may be divided into three parts, which can properly 
 enough be called the Prologue, the Dialogue or Drama, 
 and the Epilogue. 
 
 1. The Prologue, chapters i.-ii., is in prose, and dis- 
 closes the cause of Job's affliction. It opens by saying 
 that Job was an upright man, fearing God, and had seven 
 sons and three daughters, and seven thousand sheep, three 
 thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred 
 she asses, and a great number of servants. The sons were 
 accustomed to make a feast in turn, and to invite the 
 sisters to it, and when the round of feasting ceased, Job 
 sent for them to sanctify them and offer burnt offerings, 
 that he might restrain them from idolatry. 
 
 The scene is now transferred to heaven, where the sons 
 of God assembled, and Satan, the accusing angel, — detec- 
 tive police, he might be called, — came also and reported, 
 contrary to God's opinion, that the supposed eminently 
 pious Job did " not serve God for nought ; " he was rich 
 and prosperous, and had all his heart's desire, but only 
 " bring misfortune upon him and he will renounce thee." 
 He is permitted to test him by destroying his property. 
 A messenger arrives, and announces that the Sabeans 
 have seized his herds and slain his servants ; a second 
 follows, announcing that fire from God has burned the 
 sheep ; and a third comes, crying that the camels are 
 taken by the Chaldeans; and still a fourth rushes in, 
 announcing that a whirlwind has smitten the house in 
 which his children were feasting, and that they are all dead. 
 
174 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Job bows his head in sorrowful submission, but sins not, 
 nor renounces his God. 
 
 A second meeting takes place in heaven, and Satan 
 reports and asks to touch Job's person as a final test. 
 Permission is granted, and Job is smitten with boils 
 {elephantiasis). And he sat down in the ashes. His wife 
 reproaches him for his resignation and trust, and tells 
 him ironically to " bless God and die ; " or, seriously, to 
 " renounce God and die," for the original may be ren- 
 dered either way. " Foolish woman," he replies, " shall 
 we not receive evil as well as good from the hand of 
 God?" And Job sinned not. 
 
 Then the three friends of Job, hearing of his sad calami- 
 ties, came to see him and comfort him ; and when they 
 saw his pitiable condition they cried and wept, and sat 
 on the ground for seven days and seven nights in silence. 
 So the Prologue opens to us the tragedy, if one is pleased 
 to call it by that name. 
 
 2. The Dialogue, or Drama proper, consists of six parts. 
 
 Job opens his case to his friends, and describes his 
 distress, and wishes the day in which he was born might 
 perish, heaping upon it the greatest evils conceivable, of 
 darkness and utter forgetfulness. Every word throbs with 
 agony and despair (chapter iii.). 
 
 Now open the regular speeches and rejoinders. 
 
 First Round (chapters iv.-xiv.). 
 
 Eliphaz timidly and somewhat tenderly tries to soothe 
 Job, and relates an oracle. 
 
 
THE BOOK OF JOB. 1 75 
 
 Job replies restively. 
 
 Bildad rebukes him for his rebellious spirit. 
 
 Job vindicates himself and excuses his complaining. 
 
 Zophar rebukes him more sharply. 
 
 Job replies to him with keenest sarcasm. 
 
 Second Round (chapters xv.-xxi.). 
 
 Eliphaz changes his tone to severity. 
 Job feelingly protests his innocence. 
 Bildad scoffs at him, and describes how God treats the 
 wicked. 
 
 Job complains of his cruelty to a helpless man. 
 Zophar repeats his old argument, and reproaches Job. 
 Job replies to him rather languidly. 
 
 Third Round (chapters xxii.-xxxi.). 
 
 Eliphaz charges him with specific sins. 
 
 Job wishes he might answer to God, and not to such 
 men. 
 
 Bildad informs Job that God is great and pure. 
 
 Job turns upon him in one of the sublimest descriptions 
 of the Supreme Being recorded in literature, — appeals to 
 his past life as honorable and good past all conviction. 
 
 Zophar is silenced by this overwhelming speech of Job, 
 — a fine artifice of the author. 
 
 These three men declining to speak any longer, as 
 they could not convince Job of his guiltiness, the wrath 
 of young Elihu is kindled, and he delivers himself with 
 
176 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 a good deal of pomposity and some good sense, of 
 the "wine that was fermenting in his bosom" (chapters 
 xxxii.-xxxvii.). 
 
 Then out of the sublimity of the passing whirlwind 
 Jehovah speaks, rebuking them all, and pronouncing his 
 ways inscrutable to man, yet declaring the innocence of 
 his servant Job (chapters xxxviii.-xli.). 
 
 Job meekly answers in a few words (chapter xlii. 1-6), 
 and the discussion, or drama, closes. 
 
 3. In the Epilogue, in prose, Jehovah rebukes the 
 three friends as being mistaken, restores to Job his former 
 wealth twice told, and all his relatives visit him, bringing 
 presents. And Job also has seven sons and three daugh- 
 ters, the most beautiful of all in the land ; and dies in 
 peace among his children, after enjoying their society for 
 one hundred and forty years. 
 
 Such is a very imperfect outline of this marvellous book. 
 After reading it one naturally asks, Did such a person as 
 Job ever live; and if such a person did live, did such 
 things happen to him? It is possible that among the 
 traditions of the people some such account may have 
 been preserved, which the poet worked over and up into 
 this most sublime drama. That any such discussion ever 
 took place, is incredible. Yet Dr. Barnes thinks that the 
 parties to this discussion were real persons, and that they 
 wrote out their parts with great deliberation one after the 
 other, and read their papers when they met ! To such 
 an extent of absurdity could a good and otherwise sensible 
 man be led. 
 
THE BOOK OF JOB. 177 
 
 Section VI. — Immortality. 
 
 There has always been a division of opinion among 
 scholars respecting the interpretation of chapter xix. 
 25-29, — one school contending that the doctrine of im- 
 mortality is taught in it and the resurrection of the body ; 
 the other school maintaining that there is no reference 
 here to anything beyond this life. If the subject of this 
 drama, as is almost universally agreed, is the discussion 
 and illustration of God's government in this world, and 
 the erroneousness of the doctrine that " men suffer and 
 enjoy in temporal things here just in proportion to their 
 moral desert," then the introduction of references to any 
 condition beyond this life would be out of place, and 
 not at all to the purpose ; and the presumption is that it 
 would not be done by a consistent writer. The whole 
 controversy, therefore, turns upon the translation of two 
 verses. In our version they read as follows : — 
 
 " For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall 
 stand at the latter day upon the earth : and though after my 
 skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see 
 God," 
 
 Professor Noyes translates as follows, which is not in 
 violation of the legitimate meaning of any of the Hebrew 
 words, and brings this passage into harmony with the 
 general purpose of the book : — 
 
 " Yet I know that m£ Vindicator [God] liveth, 
 And will hereafter stand up on the earth [to vindicate my 
 innocence] ; 
 
178 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 And though with my skin this body be wasted away, 
 
 Yet without my flesh I shall see God [even so badly 
 
 wasted away as to be only skin and bones, 
 God will yet vindicate me from your charges]." 
 
 The whole reference is to this life, and not to the future. 
 
 Section VII. — Theology and Inspiration. 
 
 The theology of the writer of this book is : That God is 
 one, unapproachable in majesty, unlimited in power, in- 
 scrutable in his government, yet doing all things well, 
 though they seem so dark and mysterious to man. He is 
 the creator and ruler of all things animate and inanimate, 
 intelligent and unintelligent, and is an ever-acting agent 
 in all things, from atom to angel, from earth to star. 
 
 As regards the inspiration of this book, in the common 
 acceptance of that word, there is no evidence anywhere, 
 in the book or out of it, that this writer, whoever he was, 
 had any divine aid either in the selection or management 
 of his subject. He wTites as an Oriental poet would write, 
 who was educated in the religion of the Hebrews ; but he 
 is no revealer of divine truth, nor an infallible teacher of 
 wisdom. There is no evidence whatever that he wrote 
 by divine direction, and that he was so guided that his 
 words are God's words. His writings are subject to the 
 same criticism as the writings of any other person. He 
 is a grand poet, and deserves and will receive the pro- 
 found admiration of all appreciative minds while the 
 world stands. This is his true fame and honor, and 
 it is enough. 
 
THE BOOK OF PSALMS, 179 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 
 
 This is a collection, made at various times, of the 
 poetry of the Hebrews, which was adapted to public occa- 
 sions for recitation and singing, accompanied by musical 
 instruments. It was the Hebrew hymnal. The different 
 poems or psalms were undoubtedly the offspring of special 
 individual experience, born of joy or sorrow, success or 
 adversity, penitence or trust. Some of them were com- 
 posed for special occasions of national thanksgiving, for 
 victories over enemies, or in celebration of remarkable 
 events in their history, for festival days, temple services, 
 and personal edification. A few are historical, in which 
 the poet strives to condense into a few lines the course 
 of the nation's history for the instruction of the young. 
 The structure and formation of the book will inform us 
 of its importance in its own age, and why it has survived 
 all ages. 
 
 Section I. — Compilations. 
 
 The one hundred and fifty psalms of which the book 
 is composed are the result of five compilations made at 
 different periods of the nation's existence. 
 
 i. The first compilation extends to Psalm xli. inclusive, 
 and closes with a doxology, — " Blessed be the Lord God 
 
l8o THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Amen, and 
 Amen." As this is the oldest collection, we should expect 
 to find in it the oldest psalms ; and we do. The language 
 shows it, and tradition attributes a large part of them to 
 David, and there is no good reason to doubt that he was 
 their author. At how early a period this collection was 
 made, it is impossible to tell; but it is probable that it 
 was made in the time of Solomon, which was an active 
 literary period. There is but one passage which indicates 
 that any psalm was written at a later period (xiv. 7) ; and 
 this may have been added to the original psalm by some 
 later compiler, or the whole psalm may have been attrib- 
 uted to David by some later collector, and inserted 
 improperly among the early poems. At any rate, the 
 presence of one discordant verse in the whole collection 
 cannot overbalance the testimony of the language and the 
 records of tradition ; and the tradition of the Davidic 
 composition of some of the psalms is very old (2 Chroni- 
 cles xxix. 30). 
 
 2. The second compilation includes Psalms xlii.-lxxii. 
 Of these the sons of Korah are reported to be the authors 
 of xlii.-xlix. ; and David of l.-lxv. ; the authorship of the 
 remaining psalms is not named, showing that this tradi- 
 tion of authorship was not a mere guess, but based upon 
 some reason sufficient to cause a distinction to be made 
 between them. The 53d is like the 14th, and in the 70th 
 is a part of xl. 13-17, showing that some of these psalms 
 were worked over ; thus rendering it impossible to decide 
 with certainty the age and author of any psalm by any 
 
THE BOOK OF PSALMS. l8l 
 
 verse or fragment of the whole. When this collection 
 was made it is impossible to tell with any certainty ; 
 probably before the captivity. There is nothing in the 
 collection to show that any of these psalms were written 
 later than that time, and the language forbids any such 
 opinion. This collection also closes with a doxology 
 (lxxii. 1 8, 19) and a note, — " The prayers of David the 
 son of Jesse are ended." 
 
 3. The third compilation is very small (lxxiii.-lxxxix.), 
 and the first ten psalms are attributed to Asaph, and the 
 remainder to the sons of Korah. It is probable that this 
 collection was not made till after the return from the cap- 
 tivity, and Psalm Ixxxvi. indicates that it was not written 
 till that time. The others were written earlier than this 
 time, and were the gleanings left by earlier collectors. A 
 doxology closes this collection also, which makes no part 
 of the psalm, — " Blessed be the Lord forevermore. 
 Amen, and Amen." 
 
 4. The fourth compilation includes xc.-cvi., and was not 
 made probably till after the captivity, though the psalms 
 were composed at an earlier period apparently, as the lan- 
 guage is purer than in those books which were written 
 after the captivity. The 90th psalm is attributed to Moses 
 by the tradition current when these notes of authorship 
 were prefixed to the different psalms. There is no proof 
 that he was the author, nor can there be ; but, as Ewald 
 says, " In subject-matter and style it is original, and pow- 
 erful in its originality, and would rightly be attributed to 
 Moses, the man of God, if we knew more exactly the 
 
1 82 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 historical grounds which led the collector to this view." 
 Herder, in view of its calm sublimity and terse expression, 
 calls it " that ancient psalm, that hymn of Eternity." And 
 Isaac Taylor says, " It might be cited as perhaps the most 
 sublime human composition, the deepest in feeling, the 
 loftiest in theological conception, the most magnificent in 
 its imagery." No man knows its author. This collec- 
 tion, also, closes with a doxology, which makes no part of 
 the concluding psalm. The time specified for the com- 
 position of some of these psalms may be correct. Psalm 
 xcvi. is a song said to have been composed by David on 
 a festival (i Chronicles xvi. 7-34). 
 
 5. They£/?/z compilation includes the remainder of the 
 book (cvii.-cl.). These psalms are mostly anonymous 
 and liturgic, prepared evidently for worship. A few are 
 ascribed to David ; but the distance of time between this 
 collector and David renders of little value the tradition 
 to which he trusted. The language of these psalms is 
 indicative of a very late age, and the style is poor and 
 often turgid. The collection was probably made by 
 degrees, and may not have been finished till very late. 
 Some critics maintain that many of these psalms were 
 written as late as the time of the Maccabees (150 b.c.) ; 
 but no certainty can be attained in regard to this point. 
 
 It is by no means probable that all the poetry of this 
 kind which was written by the Hebrews is contained in 
 these five collections which compose the Book of Psalms. 
 Each collector was governed by his own taste, just as 
 a modern collector of hymns is, and what these men 
 
THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 1 83 
 
 rejected has perished. Undoubtedly they preserved the 
 best. At all events, we ought to be grateful that they 
 have preserved so much, and that it is so excellent. That 
 the Hebrews were a literary people in the golden age of 
 their nation is evident past all question. Solomon is said, 
 in 1 Kings iv. 32, to have written one thousand and five 
 songs, besides works on botany and zoology, and proverbs 
 without number. It is not credible that he was the only 
 man that felt the poetic fire and wrote under the inspiration 
 of the Muse. 
 
 Section II. — Notes and Tunes. 
 
 The introductory notes to the psalms, giving the name 
 of the writer and directions to the musicians and singers, 
 are no part of the psalmist's work, and as far as author- 
 ship is concerned cannot be implicitly relied upon. 
 
 The Hebrews had tunes, as we have, which sometimes 
 took their names from the first line of some favorite song 
 or hymn, and these tunes are mentioned in that way some- 
 times ; as Psalm lvi. is to be sung to the air of " The silent 
 dove in far-off lands," evidently plaintive ; or as Psalm lvii., 
 to the tune of " Destroy not " ; or as Psalm xxii., to the 
 melody of " The hind of the Dawn." Sometimes special 
 directions are given either at the beginning of the psalm, 
 or in it, to the performers, when to sing and when to play ; 
 and the word " Selah," which is sometimes found in a 
 psalm, is supposed to refer to the use of the instruments 
 in the orchestra, and directs them to pause. 
 
1 84 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 If the introductory notes to the Psalms were reliable, 
 the authors would have credit for the following number 
 each : David, seventy- three ; Asaph, twelve ; the sons of 
 Korah, eleven; Heman, four; Ethan, one; Solomon, 
 two ; Moses, one ; anonymous, fifty. 
 
 Of the alphabetic psalms I have said all that is necessary 
 in the " Introduction to the Poetical Books ; " and of the 
 subjects which are treated in them it is sufficient to say that 
 every yearning of the human soul finds expression. God 
 in his majesty, speaking in the thunder and destroying in 
 the pestilence ; God in his mercy, reviving the fainting 
 and forgiving the penitent ; man in his weakness, implor- 
 ing strength; man in his vigor, admiring the heavens; 
 the blessedness of worship, and how to offer it acceptably ; 
 the desolation of bereavement and the inspiration of so- 
 ciety ; the wretchedness of betrayal and the glory of con- 
 stancy, — every condition in life, from hut to palace, can 
 find fit words in which to express its want or abundance ; 
 every degree of emotion, from despair to exultation, sobs 
 or sings in these marvellous productions of the Hebrew 
 bards. 
 
 The ethics of a few of these psalms, called imprecatory 
 psalms, are not in accordance with our Christian code. 
 The denunciations of wrath are terrible, and the judgments 
 which they call down upon their enemies are such as chill 
 our blood. I refer to one as an example of the rest, — 
 Psalm cix. By no sophistication can theologians convince 
 me that God ever directed men to say such things, or 
 pray for such judgments on their fellow-men. These 
 

 THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 1 85 
 
 psalms are the outpouring of the bitterest hatred, and 
 of a thirst for revenge, deep and malignant. 
 
 The doctrine of immortality is neither taught nor sung 
 in these psalms ; a very remarkable fact, since we know 
 that many of the later - ones were written when it is con- 
 ceded on all hands that the doctrine was generally 
 received among the people. Psalm xvi. 10 has been 
 thought to refer to the future state ; but it does not, as the 
 connection and a proper translation show. David, the 
 writer, is confident he shall be preserved in spite of all 
 trials, and exclaims : — 
 
 " Thou wilt not give me up to the underworld, 
 Nor wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see the pit [grave]." 
 
 The same is true of Psalm xlix. 15. The hope of the 
 life to come does not penetrate and fill these psalms as 
 it does Christian hymnology ; but instead, darkness veils 
 and silence pervades the land of souls. 
 
 Section III. — Messianic Psalms. 
 
 There are some psalms which have been understood as 
 referring to Jesus the Messiah, and no little confusion and 
 perplexity have arisen from the discussion of the sub- 
 ject. Though it is the business of a commentary, and 
 not of an introduction, to examine and interpret such 
 psalms, it seems necessary to give them a very brief 
 notice in this place. They are, or the most important 
 are, the following: ii., xvi., xxii., xl., xlv., lxxii., and ex. 
 
1 86 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that this Book of Psalms is the 
 expression of personal experience and personal wants ; and 
 as human experience and human wants, human trials and 
 fears and joys, are much the same in all ages, we can read 
 to-day, as expressive of our own experience and condition 
 and wants and trials, the language of the old psalms. We 
 can use the pronoun " I," and feel that it is perfectly fit 
 and right to do so. We can pray in the words of a 
 psalm, or praise in the words of a psalm, and still utter 
 what is true of ourselves to the very letter, though written 
 to express the feelings of a person three thousand years 
 ago ; just as we repeat and quote the poetry of our own 
 day to more fully express our feelings than we can do it 
 in our own words. The Psalms were the great fountain 
 of Jewish quotation, as Shakspeare is of English. We 
 are not surprised, therefore, to find that Jewish writers are 
 constantly using the language of the psalms in describing 
 their own feelings, and events transpiring in their time, and 
 also applying them to others as well as to themselves. 
 
 Very many descriptions of the condition and feelings 
 of the psalmists themselves apply to the Messiah, and are 
 quoted by the evangelists and apostles, and by Jesus him- 
 self, as most aptly descriptive of his person, his work, his 
 sufferings, his triumph. The inquiry is, (i) whether the 
 Psalmist had Jesus the Messiah in his mind, and spoke of 
 him only; or (2) whether he had him in his mind but spoke 
 of himself as well as of the Messiah : or (3) whether he 
 had not the Messiah nor any other person in his mind, 
 but was so guided by the Holy Spirit that what he wrote 
 
THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 1 87 
 
 was truly applicable to the Messiah, and intended to be so 
 by the inspirer ; or (4) whether his description of himself 
 was simply and aptly appropriate to the condition of 
 others, and to the Messiah in particular? If we look at 
 the psalms themselves we shall see that the writer most 
 evidently had no one in mind but himself, or some one 
 of his time. Whether the writers of the New Testament 
 or the Messiah himself believed that they had him distinctly 
 in mind is a question of New Testament interpretation 
 into which I have no occasion to enter. 
 
 Psalm x. is an expression of the king's trust in God 
 that he would enable him to "break the nations, his 
 enemies, with a rod of iron," and "dash them in pieces 
 like a potter's vessel." This is not the way in which 
 Christ triumphs ; but an Oriental king would glory in 
 trampling his foes in the dust. 
 
 Psalm xvi. is a prayer for aid, — a professed hatred of 
 the bloody offerings of false gods, and confidence in divine 
 protection from foes. There is no reference to a Messiah. 
 No reader of the psalm itself would suspect it. 
 
 Psalm xxii. contains many sentences which are applied 
 to Christ and used by him in the New Testament ; yet as 
 we read the psalm we feel that any one in deep distress, 
 as the writer evidently was, surrounded by merciless ene- 
 mies seeking his life, could just as appropriately use the 
 language or have it applied to him in a description of his 
 condition. 
 
 In Psalm xl., a passage in which is applied to Christ, 
 we find that the writer confesses that his " iniquities are 
 
1 88 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 more than the hairs of his head." Yet this is the same 
 person whose words describing himself just before are 
 applied to the Messiah. 
 
 Psalm xlv. is written in praise of a king, and summoning 
 him to war and conquest. " Daughters of kings are among 
 his chosen women." Yet there are passages here which 
 can be applied in quite another sense to the Messiah. 
 
 Psalm lxxii. describes a good king who will reign mostly 
 in peace, but he will break in pieces the oppressor ; his 
 enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and 
 of the isles shall bring presents ; the kings of Sheba and 
 Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before 
 him ; to him shall be given the gold of Sheba. Calvin 
 says, " They who will have this [psalm] to be simply a 
 prediction of the kingdom of Christ do seem to twist the 
 words violently." 
 
 The person represented as speaking in Psalm ex., a 
 king on Mount Zion, is said to crush kings in the day of 
 his wrath. He shall execute justice among the nations ; 
 he shall fill them with dead bodies ; he shall crush the 
 heads of his enemies in many lands, — a mighty king 
 indeed, but not the Prince of peace. 
 
 Thus it is evident enough that none of these so-called 
 Messianic psalms refer to the personal Messiah, Jesus, but 
 only contain descriptions of conditions and actions which 
 may be used in speaking of him, as we might quote from 
 any modern poet words fitly describing one about whom 
 we w r ere writing. 
 
THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 1 89 
 
 Section IV. — Inspiration. 
 
 In regard to the inspiration of this Book of Psalms, no 
 person qualified to speak with authority on the subject has 
 ever affirmed that these poems were inspired in the usual 
 acceptation of that word when used of the books of the Bible. 
 Therefore the inquiry is confined to the claims of the 
 book itself. But this book is made up of five different 
 collections, made by different persons at different times 
 during at least five centuries and what may be said of 
 one collection may not be true of the others. Besides, 
 there are fifty of the psalms which were written by persons 
 whose names are not even suggested by the compiler, and 
 of whose inspiration we can know nothing whatever. Nor 
 is there anywhere the slightest hint in the book or out of 
 it that Asaph, and Heman, and Ethan, and the sons of 
 Korah were inspired ; and Solomon, who wrote only 
 two, falls into the same category. There is no certainty 
 that Moses wrote Psalm xc. ; and if there was, there is 
 nothing in the psalm requiring divine aid for its compo- 
 sition. David only is left, to whom seventy-three psalms 
 are attributed. How many of these he wrote is by no 
 means certain. Was he inspired when he did write? 
 There are but two passages which have the slightest 
 reference to the subject. The first is Matthew xxii. 43, 
 in which our Saviour, to silence the Pharisees, who had 
 tried to ensnare him in his words, turns upon them with a 
 question relating to their own interpretation of the words 
 of David, which they applied to the future Messiah ; but 
 
190 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 of the correctness of their interpretation he says nothing. 
 "If David, as you believe and teach, called him, the 
 Messiah, his lord, how can he be his son?" referring to 
 Psalm ex. This, I say, is one of those cases where our 
 Saviour reasons on the interpretation of the Pharisees. 
 There is no evidence that he accepted it. He neither 
 says on his authority that the psalm refers to him, nor 
 that David was "in spirit," — what theologians call 
 " inspired ; " and we have already seen that this psalm 
 does not refer to the Messiah. Nor was it probably 
 written by David, but by some one in his honor, — a 
 psalm about David, not written by David. The other 
 passage is in 2 Samuel xxiii. 2, where the unknown author 
 of the book has introduced a fragment of a poem by David, 
 in which he says : "The spirit of the Lord spake by me, 
 and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, 
 the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men 
 must be just, ruling in the fear of God." It is evident 
 from these words that they are only a poetic expressio?i of 
 the common language of piety. The devout soul (and 
 David was sometimes very devout notwithstanding his 
 manifold sins) always speaks in this way of its acts as di- 
 rected by God, and its words as given by God. There is 
 no proof here that God had made any special revelation 
 of truth to David any more than he makes to every filial, 
 appreciative soul. We cannot be too careful to distinguish 
 the language of piety, especially when expressed in poetry, 
 from the language of revelation. 
 
THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 191 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The conclusion of the whole matter is, that there is no 
 satisfactory evidence of any kind anywhere that the Book 
 of Psalms was written under the special direction and 
 guidance of God, so that what is there written is to be 
 accepted and regarded as his own word to men. But 
 let us also be careful not to undervalue this remarkable 
 book, containing as it does the choicest and loftiest ex- 
 pressions of devout souls for a thousand years or more. 
 Every passion, every emotion, finds utterance here as in 
 no other Oriental poetry. " There is nothing," says Dr. 
 Clarke, in his " Ten Great Religions," — " there is nothing 
 in the Vedas, nothing in the Avesta, nothing in the sacred 
 books of Egypt, or the philosophy of Greece and Rome, 
 which so unites the grandeur of Omnipotence with the 
 tenderness of a father towards his child." " These songs," 
 says Irving, " are as comprehensive as the human soul, and 
 as varied as human life. This breadth of application they 
 compass not by the sacrifice of lyrical propriety or poeti- 
 cal method; for if there be poems strictly lyrical, these 
 odes of a people despised as illiterate are such. For pure 
 pathos and tenderness of heart ; for sublime imagination ; 
 for touching pictures of natural scenery and genial sym- 
 pathy with man's various moods ; for patriotism, whether 
 in national weal or in national woe ; for beautiful imagery, 
 whether derived from the relationships of human life or 
 the forms of the created universe, and for the illustration, 
 by their help, of spiritual conditions ; moreover, for those 
 
192 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 rapid transitions in which the lyrical muse delighteth, — 
 her lightsome graces at one time, her deep and full in- 
 spiration at another, her exuberance of joy and her lowest 
 falls of grief ; and for every other form of the natural soul 
 which is wont to be shadowed forth by this kind of com- 
 position, we challenge anything to be produced from the 
 literature of all ages and countries worthy to be compared 
 with what we find given in the English version of the Book 
 of Psalms." 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE BOOK OF PROVERBS. 
 
 Collections of short, pithy sentences, terse in form and 
 pungent in both thought and expression, have been made 
 by all nations, through all ages. Pythagoras spake pro- 
 verbs for the Greeks ; Lokman, for the Arabs ; Odin, for 
 the Scandinavians ; and " Poor Richard " (Franklin), for 
 Americans. Ray made a large collection of English pro- 
 verbs ; Caesar, of Roman ; Freytag, of Arabic ; and De 
 Sacy, of Persian. But Davidson says, " In purity of prin- 
 ciple the best of the old moralists are far surpassed by the 
 writers whose sayings are incorporated in this work." 
 
 This book is a collection of the sayings of wise Hebrews. 
 Possibly some wise sayings of other people have found their 
 way among them, as is the case with those of other nations. 
 
THE BOOK OF PROVERBS. 1 93 
 
 It is called the Proverbs of Solomon more commonly, be- 
 cause he is supposed to have spoken many if not most of 
 them. In i Kings iv. 32, he is said to have spoken " three 
 thousand." 
 
 Section I. — Divisions. 
 
 The book is composed of five parts, perhaps of seven. 
 
 1. The first part, i.-ix., is rather a continuous discourse 
 on the supreme excellence of wisdom and the supreme 
 folly of profligacy, than a series of disconnected proverbs. 
 The parallelisms in this part are almost universally synony- 
 mous. In the 8th chapter is a most remarkable personi- 
 fication of wisdom. The whole of this part is rich with 
 the wisest counsel and admonition. 
 
 2. The second part, x.-xxii. 16, is entitled The Proverbs 
 of Solomon, and contains four hundred and twenty-two 
 real proverbs, of which three hundred and seventy-four 
 have two lines each, and in x.-xv. are mostly antithetic. 
 They are pithy and pungent to the last degree, and were 
 probably not extemporaneous utterances, but carefully elab- 
 orated, as appears from the fact that usually the first line 
 in the Hebrew consists of four words and the second line 
 of three words. It was not possible to translate them so 
 tersely into English. From the 16th chapter to the end 
 of this part the proverbs are for the most part synthetic, 
 the second line only adding something to the idea con- 
 tained in the first. 
 
 3. The third part is short, xxii. 17-xxiv., and begins 
 with a prosaic introduction, 17-21, exhorting to atten- 
 
 13 
 
194 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 tion to what is said. The carelessness of the person or 
 persons who divided this book into chapters is seen 
 here by this division of parts in the middle of a chapter. 
 The proverbs proper begin at the 2 2d verse. A para- 
 graph seems to have been added, as xxiv. 23 reads, 
 " These also are the words of the wise." This part is 
 less regular than the second, and the proverbs are longer, 
 usually consisting of four lines. 
 
 4. The fourth part, xxv.-xxix., is said to consist of 
 " the proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah, 
 king of Judah, copied out." Here we have incidental 
 proof of the saying of the historian, that Solomon wrote 
 three thousand proverbs. These were probably " copied " 
 from the book containing them. There are one hundred 
 and twenty-eight proverbs, of which ninety-three are syn- 
 thetic and thirty-five antithetic. These are more terse 
 and apothegmatic than those in the third part, but less so 
 than those in the second. 
 
 5. The fifth part, xxx., contains the words of Agur, set- 
 ting forth the supreme excellence and desirableness of 
 true wisdom. It is very artificial in its construction, which 
 blunts the pithiness of its sayings, introducing as illustra- 
 tions three things and four with great formality. Who 
 Agur was is known at this day no better by the collector's 
 saying that he was the son of Jakeh, for of Jakeh we know 
 nothing. 
 
 6. The sixth part, xxxi. 1-9, is the merest fragment, 
 and is entitled "the words given to King Lemuel; the 
 prophecy which his mother taught him." It is well to 
 
THE BOOK OF PROVERBS. 195 
 
 note here the use of the word " prophecy " as synonymous 
 with "exhortation" or "counsel," as is explained fully 
 in the "Introduction to the Prophetical Books." Her 
 exhortation is a most earnest protest against the use of 
 wine and strong drink, and a plea to "judge righteously." 
 It is to be hoped that " King Lemuel," whoever he was, 
 was mindful of his mother's prophecy which she taught 
 him. 
 
 7. The seventh part, xxxi. 10-31, is a description of 
 a good wife ; and the virtues, both positive and negative, 
 which are said to signalize her, are admirable, — industry, 
 modesty, wisdom, and the education of her children. A 
 very delicate reference to her neatness and wifely attention 
 is made : — 
 
 " Her husband is known in the gates 
 When he sitteth with the elders of the land," 
 
 to act as judge among the people. She had seen that he 
 was neatly dressed, every garment clean and comely ; so 
 far forth she is an example to all ages. Precious relic of 
 ancient wisdom and good taste ! 
 
 Section II. — Morality and Inspiration, 
 
 The morality of these proverbs is for the most part very 
 high. No spirit of revenge is breathed in any of them, 
 as in some of the psalms. Industry, modesty, economy, 
 temperance in all things, are insisted upon with frequent 
 iteration. Young and old, husbands and wives, will find 
 instruction and reproof in this book. All appeals to 
 
196 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 regard the instruction of the book refer to success or 
 failure in this life. There is no reference to a future 
 state in the work. 
 
 As far as authorship is concerned, I have already stated 
 all that is known about it in noticing these different parts 
 of the book. Many persons besides those named were 
 undoubtedly engaged in its production. Yet it is safe to 
 attribute a large part of the proverbs proper to Solomon 
 either as the author or collector. The whole book was 
 probably put into its present form after the return from 
 the captivity, about 500 b. c. 
 
 There is no evidence in the book or out of it that either 
 the author of a proverb or proverbs, whoever he was, or 
 the collector of the proverbs already spoken of, was in any 
 degree under divine guidance, or inspired, in the usual ac- 
 ceptation of that word. The "men of Hezekiah " selected, 
 as any men would have selected, such proverbs as pleased 
 them. x\nother set of men might have selected different 
 ones. Where is the proof that Lemuel's mother had 
 special divine guidance in exhorting her son to be tem- 
 perate and wise ? There is nothing in the proverbs them- 
 selves that indicates the special influence of the Spirit. 
 We must be careful, however, not to undervalue this book 
 because we have no proof that it is "the word of God." 
 It is full of wise aphorisms to guide in a prudent life ; but 
 prudence is the highest rule of life given in it. To go 
 from the Sermon on the Mount to the Book of Proverbs 
 for guidance in life is like forsaking the light of noon and 
 feeling our way by the pale light of the stars. 
 
ECCLESIASTES, OR THE PREACHER. 197 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ECCLESIASTES, OR THE PREACHER. 
 
 This is one of the most remarkable books in the Bible, 
 as it is obviously the record of the doubts and disbeliefs, 
 the perturbations and contradictions, of a sceptical mind, 
 not a little soured apparently with his own mishaps as well 
 as perplexed with the phenomena of life which yielded to 
 no solution he could give in accordance with a belief of 
 a just ruler, or even of any ruler at all. He had tried all 
 methods of living, and found them unsatisfactory. He 
 had tried every form of solution of the problem, and found 
 them all inadequate ; and he leaves the mystery of life 
 where Job and his three friends left it, — unsolved and 
 inexplicable. Dr. Noyes says : " If I were to express 
 the subject of the work in a single sentence, I should call 
 it, 'Thoughts on the vanity of human life, interspersed 
 with such maxims of prudence, virtue, and religion as will 
 help a man to conduct himself in the best manner, and to 
 obtain the greatest amount of happiness, in his journey 
 through it ; ' or, to express the same general purpose in 
 briefer terms, the insolvable enigmas of life, and how to 
 make the best of it" 
 
 Section I. — Style, 
 
 The book cannot be called poetry, although it has 
 always been placed among the poetical books. It is a 
 
198 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 poetic essay. Its style is terse and very obscure, and our 
 translators seem to have been about as perplexed with it 
 as the writer was with life. The first four chapters are 
 purely speculative, the rest are preceptive. It is evident 
 that the spirit of misanthropy more than the spirit of 
 the Muse possessed the author. He is a most persistent 
 grumbler. 
 
 Section II. — Divisions. 
 
 The book may be divided into four parts. 
 
 1. The first part includes chapters i. and ii. Theo- 
 retical wisdom is discussed in the first chapter and prac- 
 tical in the second. But all this inquiry is declared to 
 result only in "vanity and striving after wind." 
 
 2. The second part includes chapters hi., iv., and v., 
 and treats of the fickleness of all enjoyments, and the 
 almost certainty of losing what you have gained. " Sore 
 evils" stand out on every hand, and the "fool's voice" 
 is lifted up everywhere. 
 
 3. The third part (vi.-viii. 15) treats of the vanity of 
 seeking riches and the true practical wisdom of life ; and 
 yet it happeneth alike to the righteous and the wicked, so 
 that prudence is of no avail. The sum of it is, " All is 
 vanity. . . . Nothing is good for a man under the sun 
 except to eat and drink and be joyful." 
 
 4. The fourth part treats of the inco?igruities of life and 
 nature, and gives some maxims for guidance among them 
 (ix.-xii.) ; and yet the writer, having said his best and 
 counselled his wisest, cries out, " Vanity of vanities, saith 
 the Preacher; all is vanity." 
 
ECCLESIASTES, OR THE PREACHER. 1 99 
 
 In the last six verses are a few words of conclusion of 
 the whole book, in which the Preacher warns against 
 speculating upon these mysterious problems, and wasting 
 time by attempting to solve the insolvable, and affirms 
 that the sum of the whole matter is contained in these 
 words : " Fear God and keep his commandments ! " 
 
 Section III. — Age and Authorship. 
 
 Respecting the age and authorship of this strange 
 book nothing certain is known. Good scholars have 
 placed it all the way from Malachi to the Maccabees, 
 from 400 b. c. to 1 70 b. c. My own impression is that 
 it belongs to an age earlier instead of later than the time 
 of Malachi, — about 400 b. c. 
 
 That the writer, whoever he was, wrote in Solomon's 
 name, is unquestionable ; and that he did so for rhetorical 
 effect, is equally so. There are too many Chaldaisms to 
 permit us to refer the authorship to Solomon, though 
 there is nothing in the subject of the book which forbids 
 his authorship. That he was as moody as this writer rep- 
 resents him to have been, there is no reason to question ; 
 but the evidence that Solomon was not the author is 
 decisive. 
 
 Section IV. — Motives and Inspiration. 
 
 All the teachings of the book are based on merely 
 prudential motives. No revelation of a future state is 
 here made, nor is such a state implied in any passage. 
 
200 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 All "judgments " referred to are in this life, and retribu- 
 tion is here. A few passages in the Common Version 
 appear to assert or imply it, but such an interpretation of 
 them is wrong. 
 
 There is no evidence that the writer of this sceptical 
 book was inspired. He neither claims it for himself, nor 
 does any other sacred writer claim it for him. He is a 
 Hebrew, perplexed with the problem of life, and, declar- 
 ing that having swept the heavens and sounded the seas 
 he can find no solution of it, surrenders the subject 
 in despair. The book has no claim to be called the 
 " word of God," nor does it make any such claim. 
 Presumptuous men of more recent times have ventured 
 to make our Heavenly Father responsible for the bitter- 
 ness and misanthropy of this ancient grumbler. It is 
 time that common sense took the place of this very 
 prevalent and misleading opinion. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SONG OF SOLOMON. 
 
 This peculiar book is called in Hebrew " The Song of 
 Songs, by Solomon ; " that is, the most excellent song. 
 I call it peculiar, because its subject and mode of treat- 
 ment are peculiar. It is on the face of it an amatory poem, 
 dramatic in its form. Possibly it was a Hebrew musical 
 
THE SONG OF SOLOMON. 201 
 
 entertainment, — what would now be called an operetta, 
 a little play for domestic entertainment. " Ten songs are 
 sung in the world," says the Targum, " but this song is 
 the most excellent of them all." It is very difficult to di- 
 vide it into separate parts or acts, and specify the parts 
 taken by each person engaged in performing it. Dr. 
 Noyes makes thirteen parts, others fewer, and others none ; 
 but I think that some divisions which have been made 
 are correct. That it was written to be acted, and sung 
 while being acted, seems to me very probable. 
 
 Section I. — Arrangeme?it, Subject, and Plot. 
 
 I think it may gratify some readers to have the arrange- 
 ment of Dr. Noyes inserted here. It will, at all events, 
 give some idea of what is meant when this book is spoken 
 of as a dramatic, amatory operetta. Before doing it, how- 
 ever, it may be well to state what the subject of the poem 
 is, and the plot, — if plot it may be called. 
 
 The subject of the poem is Human Love, which is illus- 
 trated by the fidelity of a rural maiden or wife to her 
 lover or husband, when tempted by King Solomon to 
 break her vow of espousal or marriage, — for it is not 
 clear that marriage had yet taken place, — and become 
 one of his wives. 
 
 The plot of the poem is as follows : " A rural maiden, 
 named the Shulamite, harshly treated by her brothers, 
 just espoused, or married, to a young man, a companion 
 from her childhood, is carried forcibly to the royal resi- 
 
202 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 dence of Solomon." The great and amorous monarch 
 tries to win her to join his harem, by entreaties, blandish- 
 ments, praises, — preferring her to all his women. She 
 resists them all, rejects the regal overtures and courtly 
 robes and jewels, and remains constant to her betrothed 
 or husband, from whom she was taken, and most passion- 
 ately pleads to be restored to her humble home and him. 
 The proud king at last yields to her imploring request and 
 permits her to depart and once more enjoy the society of 
 her rustic bridegroom, or her beloved husband, whose 
 praises she had sung so heartily. 
 
 " Part I. The maiden, with a company of ladies in Jeru- 
 salem, passionately desires to see her lover. The maiden 
 speaks, chap. i. 1-7 ; then the ladies, verse 8. 
 
 " Part II. Conversation between the maiden and a lover, 
 chap. i. 9-ii. 7 : lover, i. 9, 10, it ; maiden, 12, 13, 14; 
 lover, 15 ; maiden, 16, 17, chap. ii. 1 ; lover, 2 ; maiden, 
 
 3> 4, 5> 6 '> lover > 7- 
 
 " Part III. The maiden meeting her lover in the vine- 
 yard : maiden, chap. ii. 8-17. 
 
 " Part IV. The maiden searches for her lover : maiden, 
 chap. iii. 1-4 ; lover, 5. 
 
 " Part V. Conducting the maiden to Solomon's palace, 
 chap. iii. 6-1 1. 
 
 " Part VI. Conversation between a lover and maiden, 
 chap, iv.-v. 1 : lover, 1-15 ; maiden, 16 ; lover, v. 1. 
 
 " Part VII. Maiden searches for her lover by night and 
 praises his beauty, v. 2-vi. 2 : maiden, v. 2-8 ; ladies, 9 ; 
 maiden, 10-16; ladies, vi. 1 ; maiden, 2-3. 
 
THE SONG OF SOLOMON. 203 
 
 " Part VIII. The lover praises his beloved, chap. vi. 4-9. 
 
 " Part IX. A conversation between a lover and maiden 
 and ladies, vi. 10-viii. 4 : lover, verse 10 ; maiden, 11, 12 ; 
 ladies, first half of 13 ; maiden, last half of 13 ; lover, vii. 
 1-9, to l best wine * ; maiden, rest of 9— viii. 3 ; lover. 4. 
 
 " Part X. Chorus of ladies, maiden and lover, viii. 5-7 : 
 ladies, 5, to ' beloved ' ; maiden, rest of 5-7. 
 
 " Part XI. Two brothers talk together about their sister 
 and her remarks, chap. viii. 8-12. 
 
 "Part XII. The lover sent away, viii. 13, 14. This 
 appears like a fragment. Lover, 13 ; maiden, 14. The 
 meaning is not clear. The lover asks the maiden to sing 
 (13), and in verse 14 she seems to tell him to flee away, 
 declining to sing." 
 
 Thus the fidelity of love in betrothed or wedded humble 
 life is strikingly illustrated. We may have only an imper- 
 fect sketch of the little play, but as it stands we can easily 
 see how impressive it would be if acted with such scenery 
 as might have been furnished in the flourishing days of 
 the kingdom. I do not think that this failure of Solomon 
 in all his glory to retain the pretty rustic maiden would 
 have prevented his enjoying it, had it be enacted before 
 him. However, there is no conclusive proof that it was 
 written in his age, but much to the contrary. 
 
 Section II. — Age and Author. 
 
 The age of this little pastoral is unknown, but there is 
 pretty good reason to date it before the captivity. Nothing 
 
204 THE POETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 whatever is known of its authorship. The earliest tradition 
 attributes it to Solomon himself, and this supposed author- 
 ship may be the reason why it was received into the Bible. 
 
 It is no more than just to the reader to say that various 
 opinions have been entertained and advocated respecting 
 the real object of this song. The purpose which appears 
 at first sight has not been always, and far from universally, 
 received respecting it. It has been interpreted as an al- 
 legory, and as an allegory it has been applied to very many 
 subjects. Solomon and wisdom have been supposed to 
 be allegorized ; so also Jehovah and the Jews, and God 
 and the soul, and Christ and the Church. This last has 
 been the favorite view of most Christian writers. It seemed 
 incredible that a drama, though pure, devoted to human 
 love, could have found a place in the Bible ; and therefore 
 some other meaning and purpose than the most obvious 
 one must have been intended by the writer. But all these 
 various conjectures originated in an entirely false view of 
 the origin and purpose of the Hebrew Scriptures. I rejoice 
 that we have had preserved to us this charming fragment 
 of Hebrew amatory poetry. It opens to us a new depart- 
 ment of Hebrew literature, and gives us glimpses of novel 
 entertainments among that ancient and peculiar people. 
 
 We must remember, as we read it, that it is poetry, and 
 moreover that it is written in the warm, sensuous language 
 employed by Oriental poets when treating such a theme. 
 The bounds of Occidental taste are overpassed very fre- 
 quently ; but there is no baseness in the passion expressed, 
 no grossness in the persons described. 
 
THE SONG OF SOLOMON. 205 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that there is not a shadow 
 of evidence that this is an inspired work, to be called 
 the " word of God." Our translators believed that these 
 impassioned conversations took place, or are represented 
 as taking place, between Christ and the Church, and pre- 
 pared headings to all the chapters, and running explana- 
 tions at the top of the page, to correspond with that view. 
 The 7th chapter, for example, is said to be "a further 
 description of the Church's graces " ! A few years ago, 
 scholars of ripest learning and unquestionable orthodoxy 
 were appointed by the American Bible Society to examine 
 their editions of the Bible and report what changes were 
 necessary. They reported among other things a change 
 in these headings, so that they would refer to a maiden 
 and her lover, and then the heading just quoted would 
 read, "The bride's graces further described." The So- 
 ciety refused to adopt the report, and cancelled the plates 
 on which the edition was printed, and the edition itself ! 
 Such hindrances are thrown in the way of a correct knowl- 
 edge of the Bible. We ought to be grateful that intelli- 
 gence is spreading so fast that the people will be beguiled 
 by a Protestant no more than by a Catholic priesthood. 
 We should hail with joy the Revised Version, which omits 
 all the "headings" and "explanations" that refer the sub- 
 ject of this book to Christ and his Church. 1 
 
 1 A writer in the " Andover Review," June, 1885, says: "The poem is a 
 dramatic composition, setting forth the fidelity to her shepherd lover of a country 
 maiden of great beauty, whom Solomon had caused to be introduced into his 
 harem, and the final triumph of her constancy over the blandishments of the 
 king." 
 
PART VI. 
 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
PART VI. 
 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Section I. — The Prophetic Office. 
 
 The prophets of the Old Testament were the great 
 reformers of the age in which they lived. They were 
 poets, orators, and singers, both male and female ; and 
 they addressed the people in prose or poetry or song, 
 as the occasion demanded or the spirit impelled. But 
 few of their writings have come down to us ; and it is 
 probable that most of their addresses and chants were 
 never written, but were extemporaneous utterances of the 
 pent-up feelings of their hearts. Enough of their writings, 
 however, remain to enable us to judge very correctly of 
 their topics, style, spirit, and influence. 
 
 We find, as we read them, that these reformers were 
 not equally richly endowed or of equally wide influ- 
 ence as orators or poets. The style of Ezekiel differs 
 widely from that of Isaiah, both in loftiness and refine- 
 
 14 
 
2IO THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS.. 
 
 ment; so does that of Jeremiah from that of Amos. 
 Indeed, these old prophets differ from one another as the 
 great modern reformers differ, — Luther from Melanch- 
 thon, and Calvin from both; or as Knox differed from 
 Wesley, and Fox from both. Some of them poured 
 forth the torrent of their indignation like the swellings 
 of Jordan ; and from some sympathy distilled like the 
 dew on Hermon. The speech of some of them was like 
 the thunders of Sinai, and that of others was like the 
 still small voice which Elijah heard among its cliffs. 
 While their subject was always the same, the method 
 of treatment was very different. The absolute supremacy 
 of Jehovah, the omnipotence of righteousness, the ruin 
 which would follow transgression, the prosperity which 
 would follow obedience, — these were the themes of their 
 discourses, the grand principles wmich pervaded and gave 
 power to their addresses, clothed as they were with all 
 the gorgeous imagery which Oriental scenery and the 
 Oriental imagination could furnish. 
 
 There were false prophets then, as now, who sold their 
 services for place or pelf, and cried, " Peace, peace ! " 
 when there was no peace ; who claimed that prosperity 
 in disobedience either proved that Jehovah was indifferent 
 to evil conduct or did not observe it, and not that it 
 evinced his patience and long-suffering with a rebellious 
 people. 
 
 History repeats itself. Human nature is the same in 
 all ages. There were prophets of Baal and prophets of 
 Jehovah then, as there are now, and ever will be while 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 211 
 
 there is a wrong to be redressed or a right to be strength- 
 ened ; and the prophets of the Lord met the same treat- 
 ment then that reformers of abuses meet to-day. The 
 more gigantic the wrong, the more desperate is its defence, 
 the more persecuted are its assailants. As the prophets 
 were of the people, forming no class, no caste, having no 
 hereditary rights like the priests, they looked solely to the 
 welfare of the people, and denounced in unmeasured 
 language all attempts at domination by any caste, all ex- 
 altation of ritualism above righteousness by the priesthood. 
 From Samuel to Malachi, the prophets proclaimed to 
 the priesthood that " to obey is better than sacrifice, 
 and to hearken than the fat of rams." When the people 
 attempted to avert the just judgments of the Lord for 
 their sins by fastings and ashes and sackcloth, Isaiah an- 
 nounced to them the better way, — that of dealing their 
 bread to the hungry, and giving shelter to the outcast 
 poor and raiment to the naked, and undoing the heavy 
 burdens. And when Micah saw the altars heaped with 
 the choicest of the flock to atone for sin and win forgive- 
 ness, he exclaimed, " What doth the Lord thy God require 
 of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk 
 humbly with thy God?" Not more startling were the 
 anathemas of George Fox in the ears of the ceremonious 
 churchmen of his day, than these words were in the ears 
 of the priestly formalists of Israel. 
 
 These prophets were the leaders of the party of prog- 
 ress. Monarchs as well as priests feared them. They 
 overthrew dynasties and crowned kings. When the 
 
212 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 despicable sons of Eli defiled the rites of religion and were 
 slain for their impiety, and when the tribal independence 
 had proved a failure and the people were in a state of 
 anarchy, Samuel, the prophet-statesman, established a 
 central government, and anointed Saul king. But the 
 moment Saul attempted to act as above law, his anointer 
 deposed his family and enthroned David. Nathan, the 
 great prophet in the reign of David and the historian of 
 his reign, transferred the succession from Adonijah, David's 
 eldest son, to Solomon. At the death of Solomon the 
 prophet Ahijah attempted to change the succession from 
 Rehoboam to Jeroboam, and thereby sundered the king- 
 dom. Ten tribes revolted, and Jeroboam became their 
 king j and thus arose the kingdom of Israel. Jeroboam 
 erected altars, established a priesthood chosen from the 
 priestly revolters, and partially observed a mutilated ritual 
 of Moses. The influence of Isaiah with Uzziah and Heze- 
 kiah, and that of Jeremiah with Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, 
 are fully recorded. They boldly denounced the judgments 
 of Heaven against the sins of the proudest and strongest 
 of the kings of Israel and of Judah. 
 
 These preachers of reform soon became numerous, and 
 scattered themselves among the people. The names of 
 but few have survived, — Ahijah and Iddo, the historian 
 as well as prophet, Obadiah, Micaiah, and Oded, and 
 chief of all, Elijah and Elisha. As the violation of the 
 law was most common and idolatry most prevalent in 
 the northern kingdom, we find the true prophets, as 
 well as the false, most active there. In the kingdom of 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 213 
 
 Judah the prophets appear to have been fewer during 
 this period, and hence fewer names have come down 
 to us. Only those of Azariah, Hanani, and Eliezer are 
 preserved. 
 
 When the kingdom of Israel was threatened with cap- 
 tivity, the prophets were roused to great activity, and the 
 writings as well as the names of some of them have sur- 
 vived. Joel, Amos, and Hosea prophesied at this time. 
 In the kingdom of Judah the great prophets Isaiah, Micah, 
 Nahum, and Zechariah delivered their messages in words 
 of flame. And when the southern kingdom was tottering 
 to its fall, Zephaniah and Habakkuk and Obadiah and the 
 noble Jeremiah all exhorted and promised and denounced 
 in vain. The storm burst. The nation was swept away. 
 Jerusalem became a heap. Ezekiel cheered the exiles with 
 visions of restoration. Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi 
 encouraged the hearts of the delivered exiles to restore 
 their homes and their temple and to re-establish their 
 ritual, prophesying of brighter days and wider influence in 
 the latter times. 
 
 Such is a glimpse of the office and work of the prophets 
 among the Hebrews. Samuel, who may be said to be the 
 leader of the line of the prophets, was as stern, as severe, 
 as puritanic as Cromwell, and much like him. Malachi, 
 the last of the long line of those whose names and writings 
 are found in the Bible, was serene, sympathetic, devout, 
 like John Wesley, and caught glimpses of the dawning of 
 the perfect day. To the beneficent and powerful influ- 
 ence of these great men upon the Hebrew nation, and 
 
214 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 hence upon the destinies of the human race, such writers 
 as John Stuart Mill and Bunsen abundantly testify. 
 Mill says (Representative Government, pp.41, 42) : 
 
 " The prophets were a power in the nation, often more 
 than a match for kings and priests, and kept up, in that little 
 corner of the earth, the antagonism of influences which is the 
 only real security for continued progress. Religion, conse- 
 quently, was not there — what it has been in so many other 
 places — a consecration of all that was once established, and 
 a barrier against further improvement. The remark of a dis- 
 tinguished Hebrew, that the prophets were, in Church and 
 State the equivalent of the modern liberty of the press, gives 
 a just but not an adequate conception of the part fulfilled in 
 national and universal history by this great element of Jewish 
 life, by means of which the persons most eminent in genius 
 and moral feeling could not only denounce and reprobate, 
 with the direct authority of the Almighty, whatever appeared 
 to them deserving of such treatment, but could give forth 
 better and higher interpretations of the national religions 
 which henceforth became a part of all religion. . . . Accord- 
 ingly the Jews, instead of being stationary like other Asiatics, 
 were, next to the Greeks, the most progressive people of 
 antiquity, and jointly with them have been the starting-point 
 and main propelling agency of modern cultivation." 
 
 Bunsen says : — 
 
 " They were not only prophets of their nation, but of 
 humanity. . . . They educated not only their own generation, 
 but all succeeding ones. They were not, however, exempted 
 from human frailty and national contractedness. They were 
 moreover like ourselves in all the variety of personal gifts 
 and deficiencies. But they had a divine mission and noble 
 impulse, which carried them into a higher strain and sphere 
 than prosaic mortals reach." 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 21 5 
 
 Section II. — Qualifications for the Prophetic Work. 
 
 The first requisite for this work of the prophet was flu- 
 ency of speech. His work as a public speaker made this 
 essential, and it is fully illustrated in the relation of Moses 
 and Aaron. When Moses was directed to go into Egypt, 
 rouse his people from the stupidity of servitude, and lead 
 them forth from bondage, he remonstrated against attempt- 
 ing the great work, saying, " I am not eloquent, or a man 
 of words ; but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue ; " 
 and Aaron his brother, who could speak well, was ap- 
 pointed to be his spokesman and a mouth unto Moses. 
 And when Moses returned to Egypt and was directed to 
 go to the palace and speak to Pharaoh the great king, and 
 ask the deliverance of his people, he again remonstrated, 
 saying, " I am of uncircumcised lips," that is, a poor 
 speaker, " and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me ? " And 
 the Lord said unto Moses, " See, I have made thee a god 
 to Pharaoh, and thy brother Aaron shall be thy prophet 
 [spokesman]. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee, 
 and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh." 
 
 As the prophet was to address the people, it was of 
 vital importance that he should be a good speaker. Indeed, 
 this is one meaning, if not the prime meaning, of our word 
 " prophet " as commonly used two hundred years ago. 
 A preacher was said to prophesy when he delivered his 
 sermon. The Hebrew word Nabi, which is translated 
 prophet, signifies primarily " to bubble, to boil over ; " 
 
2l6 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 and when used of a public speaker, means pouring forth 
 words, speaking with great fervor and fluency. So that in 
 modern speech Moses might be called the thinker and 
 Aaron the orator. Moses prepared the brief, so to speak, 
 and Aaron addressed the jury. 
 
 This signification of the word " prophet " is confirmed 
 by its application to singers who fervently and forcibly 
 utter their words. Miriam, the sister of Aaron, is called 
 a prophetess on account of her musical skill. Deborah 
 is also called a prophetess, very probably for the same 
 reason, as she was both a poet and a singer. In later 
 years we read of other women who were prophetesses, but 
 of whose special gifts we have no account. Probably they 
 were public speakers as well as singers and poets. 
 
 Section III. — Schools of the Prophets. 
 
 The people depended for a long period upon the gifts 
 of uneducated persons, and no special pains were taken 
 to prepare those whose natural talents for speaking gave 
 promise of usefulness in this profession. But the great 
 statesman and reformer, Samuel, felt the need of a higher 
 class of public speakers and leaders of the people in their 
 assemblies to consult for the public good, and established 
 " schools " in which young men might be educated as 
 speakers and singers and musicians. A school was opened 
 at Ramah, at Bethel, at Jericho, and at Gilgal. It is 
 very probable, since the use of musical instruments is so 
 often mentioned in connection with prophesying, that the 
 

 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 21/ 
 
 prophets chanted, or uttered in musical intonations, many 
 of their messages. From the days of Samuel to those of 
 Malachi the people were never destitute of educated 
 teachers. 
 
 As the political institutions of the Hebrews were based 
 upon their religious institutions, these schools were more 
 like our modern theological schools than any other of 
 our institutions of learning. The prophets were also 
 writers. The histories of the reigns of the kings during 
 which they lived are their work, and no doubt this depart- 
 ment of education received the attention of the students 
 in these schools. 
 
 The method of life in the schools of the prophets was 
 simple, and the garments and diet of the students were of 
 the plainest kind. The luscious fruit of the vine and fig- 
 tree satisfied their hunger, and the shadow of the palm-tree 
 shielded them from the fervors of noon. When the sun 
 had set and the day's studies were over, they took their 
 tabrets and pipes and harps and cymbals, and went forth 
 with music and song and rhythmic step or dance to enjoy 
 the glories of the heavens and the riches of the earth. 
 Electrifying music was heard ; and the excitement of the 
 dance was such that spectators would catch the enthusiasm 
 and join the animated procession. 
 
 These students were from no particular tribe or family, 
 as were the priests, but from all tribes and all families. 
 There was no respect of persons shown in them. 
 
 It must not be understood, however, that all the prophets 
 of the nation were educated in these schools, any more 
 
2l8 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 than that all preachers are educated in our theological 
 schools. Some of the old prophets, as some of our modern 
 preachers, possessed and carried away with a fiery zeal to 
 reform abuses and sustain right and proclaim the truth of 
 God as they understood it, left their occupations as me- 
 chanics, vine- dressers, shepherds, and lifted up their voices 
 like trumpets, showing to Israel their transgressions, and 
 the house of Jacob their sins. Kings trembled, unjust 
 judges turned pale, and gormandizing priests hid them- 
 selves at their words of indignant rebuke. Amos was one 
 of these, — a George Fox among the fat priesthood and 
 lying prophets ; and others like him burst the bonds of 
 custom and became leaders of the people. 
 
 Section IV. — The Style of the Prophets, and the Import of 
 Certain Formularies which they prefix to their Addresses. 
 
 The word " prophet," as we have seen, has no reference 
 to the authority of the speaker or the special subject of 
 his address, or whether he intones or sings it, accompany- 
 ing its delivery with a musical instrument. The theme of 
 his discourse may refer to the past, present, or future ; it 
 may be historical, moral, or religious ; it may be didactic, 
 hortatory, or consolatory, or all of these. Neither time 
 nor topic is indicated by the word " prophecy." " Ety- 
 mologically," says Professor Meyrick, of Trinity College, 
 Oxford, " it is certain that neither prescience nor predic- 
 tion is implied by the term used in the Hebrew or Greek." 
 As I have said, the word "prophecy " in English had no 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 219 
 
 such meaning till recently. Webster says, " In Scripture, 
 prophesy means to preach ; to instruct in religious doc- 
 trine ; to interpret and explain Scripture or religious sub- 
 jects ; to exhort." Jeremy Taylor wrote a celebrated 
 treatise on the "Liberty of Prophesying," in which he 
 maintained the freedom of the pulpit. But the word as 
 now popularly used means the prediction of future events, 
 which leads the reader of the prophetical writings of the 
 Bible far astray. There is very little more prediction of 
 future events in them than there is in the sermons of mod- 
 ern preachers. Very few if any of their predictions are 
 more definite or specific, as we shall see when we read 
 them. Great wrong has been done to these admirable 
 preachers of righteousness by modern ambitious interpret- 
 ers of their sermons. History has been searched as with 
 a candle to find the fulfilment of prophecies which related 
 to contemporaneous events, and the language of the grand 
 old preacher has been tortured by a false criticism into a 
 meaning which the prophet never dreamed of. All this 
 is a grievous mistake. The prophets addressed the men of 
 their own generation ; and the theme of their addresses was 
 the duties and the perils of their own age. 
 
 As I have already said, these prophets were religious 
 teachers j and the motives of religion are presented as 
 the life of the civil institutions of the nation. Hence the 
 language of religion is everywhere used. As Jehovah was 
 the head of the nation, he is represented as personally 
 directing all its affairs. A prophet was therefore an inter- 
 preter of the divine will, and spake as if speaking the mind 
 
220 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 and will of God. And indeed he was speaking them as 
 he understood them. So strong and deep is his convic- 
 tion of the truth of what he is saying as representing God's 
 will and purpose, that he does not hesitate, in the bold, 
 poetic language of the East, to announce that his words 
 are the words of the Lord, and that his message is the 
 Lord's message to the people. The Lord is said to speak 
 by the prophets and through them, because they unfolded 
 and illustrated his purposes and law as they understood it. 
 They are said to be filled with the spirit of the Lord, as 
 eminent preachers are to-day said to be filled with the 
 spirit of Christ. When men feel a constraining, overmas- 
 tering impulse to speak or to act, they are to this day, in 
 the language of religion, of piety, said to be called of God 
 to speak or to act. This is what the old prophets meant 
 when they said that the Lord called them, the Lord took 
 them. They interpreted this constraining, overmastering 
 impulse as indicating the will of God, and so declared ; as 
 pious people say to-day — it is a proverb with us, even in 
 our cold Occidental style of speech — that " the voice of 
 conscience is the voice of God." There are multitudes 
 of ministers of the present day who speak as confidently 
 as do these old prophets of their call from God to preach 
 the gospel. How much more is intended and proved, if 
 any more, in the one case than in the other, must be 
 learned from an examination of the sermons or prophecies 
 themselves, and from the lives of the ancient preachers. 
 But this is evident : the simple use of such expressions as 
 " called of God," " sent of God," " man of God," " speak- 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 221 
 
 ing the word of the Lord," " the Lord says," proves 
 nothing respecting any special revelation of truth to their 
 minds, or their inspiration, in the popular sense of that 
 word. It is especially of vital importance to remember 
 that the chief business of these prophets was not foretell- 
 ing events, but exhorting, entreating, persuading to cleave 
 to Jehovah, and depicting the sad consequences which 
 would fall upon both the individual and the nation, as de- 
 clared in their law, if they deserted him and followed 
 after other gods. Whether they foretold any events with 
 such specific exactness as to prove direct revelation from 
 Heaven, can be determined only by an examination of 
 their writings. 
 
 Section V. — The Method a?id Style of Prophetic 
 Teaching. 
 
 The root of the Hebrew word Nabi, which is translated 
 "prophet," signifies, as I have said, "boiling up," "bub- 
 bling up," " effervescing," " overflowing, as a spring over- 
 flows, or a caldron boils over." In Psalm xli. the wri- 
 ter says, as our translation represents him, " My heart 
 is inditing a good matter," — which is a very tame ex- 
 pression to introduce the wedding ode of a king. The 
 poet-laureate is guilty of no such platitude as that. " My 
 heart is boiling over with congratulations," he exclaims. 
 This expresses something. 
 
 Not only does the prophet's name indicate to us his 
 method of speaking as enthusiastic and earnest in the 
 
222 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 extreme, but the descriptions which we have of his manner 
 tell us that he was frantic with emotion, and not seldom 
 quickened and inflamed his passion with a musical ac- 
 companiment. The modern fakirs and dervishes are not 
 more delirious in their addresses than were these old 
 preacher-prophets on some occasions. The least edu- 
 cated of the prophets gave themselves up most com- 
 pletely to the power of their emotions ; and hence in the 
 earlier periods of the Jewish history we find that this class 
 of speakers was the most frantic and delirious. The un- 
 educated preachers in our border settlements and among 
 the Southern negroes speak or vociferate with almost 
 maniacal fury, incoherency, and final exhaustion. These 
 infatuated camp-meeting preachers " boil over," they 
 rave, they stamp with their feet, they beat their breasts 
 with their fists, they smite their hands together, they leap 
 from the ground, they frequently fall in convulsions ; and 
 the people, agitated with the preacher's agitation, shout, 
 leap, and also fall in convulsions. 
 
 In the early period of the Hebrew nation, when the 
 released slaves of Egypt had not learned the use of free- 
 dom or the value of knowledge, the prophets spoke in 
 the same manner, and in like ignorance attributed their 
 physical and mental excitement to a divine impulse. 
 This was to be expected. These advocates of truth and 
 righteousness, these rebukers of wrong and injustice, these 
 sustainers of the worship of the true God against idolatry, 
 spoke as they could, — the coarse, coarsely ; the refined, 
 purely ; the educated, reasonably. And even in the later 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 223 
 
 years of the nation, when tyrants and idolaters were on 
 the throne, and gluttonous priests served at heathen altars 
 or dared to defile by their presence the altar of Jehovah, 
 these heroic prophets, all on fire with indignation at such 
 desecration of both the throne and the altar, their hearts 
 " boiling over " with enthusiasm for the cause of truth 
 and righteousness, spoke in words of flame, their eyes 
 flashing, their bodies convulsed. Human nature, had it 
 done less under such circumstances, would have been 
 false to itself. 
 
 Now that I have described their manner of speaking, 
 their oratory, I must say something of the style of their 
 addresses, their rhetoric. 
 
 As these prophets spoke under the influence of deep 
 emotion, we should expect their style would assume the 
 emotional, the poetic form. And we find that it does. 
 With the exception of the prophecy attributed to Daniel, 
 portions of the prophecy of Jeremiah, and a large por- 
 tion of that of Ezekiel, the works of the prophets which 
 have come down to us are in poetry. Now the very es- 
 sence of poetry is its symbolic, figurative style of rep- 
 resenting ideas. Hardly a literal expression is found in 
 some poems. Personification, comparison, metaphor, 
 apostrophe, hyperbole, abound in them. Everything 
 speaks, acts, instructs ; a living spirit pervades all things. 
 Poetry transfigures the catacomb into a cathedral, and the 
 mute forms of the dead into worshippers. The amount 
 and boldness of this imagery varies with varying nationali- 
 ties. Among the Orientals this imagery is so bold, so 
 
224 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 daring, as to seem to us Occidentals the merest extrava- 
 ganza, and in the warmer latitudes it partakes of the 
 gaudiness and luxuriance of the vegetation. It is there 
 rather effeminate than masculine, and reminds one more 
 of a collection of colored confectionery than of precious 
 stones. The Hebrew poetry, however, is rubies, and sap- 
 phires, and emeralds. There is body as well as color. 
 There is truth sublimer than the imagery. The majestic 
 lines are weighted with thoughts more majestic ; and as the 
 prophet is as devout as he is poetic, he sees the divine 
 agency not only in all the processes of nature but in all 
 the events of history. Jehovah not only causes the " grass 
 to grow for the cattle, and herb for the sendee of man," 
 but he " plucketh up and planteth nations ; " he raiseth 
 up and he casteth down kings ; he buildeth up their walls 
 or casteth down cities. All things are attributed to his 
 direct agency ; man's agency is nothing. He rides upon 
 the whirlwind and directs the storm, and also "turneth 
 the hearts of men as the rivers of water are turned." 
 
 The glowing gorgeousness of the Hebrew prophetic 
 poetry is not its only characteristic. The prophetic 
 writings abound with symbols, dreams, visions, allegories, 
 and parables. Whether these dreams and visions, allego- 
 ries and symbols, were realities, or rhetorical devices to 
 render the message of the prophet impressive and effec- 
 tive, can be determined only by a critical examination of 
 their writings. There is certainly no reason to suppose 
 that the warm and rich imagination of these Oriental 
 speakers and writers would hesitate to use such rhetorical 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 225 
 
 aids, when we, of much cooler and tamer imagination, do 
 the same thing. 
 
 John Bunyan relates the long and eventful journey of 
 Christian from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City 
 as seen by him in a dream. And the fiery preacher Whit- 
 field was accustomed to put on his judgment cap and per- 
 sonate the Almighty in the day of judgment, as he called 
 the sinners before him. Why then should not Isaiah ex- 
 claim, " I saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted 
 up, and the train of his royal robe filled the Temple. . . . 
 Then I said, Woe is me ! . . . Then flew one of the sera- 
 phim unto me having a live coal in his hand ; and he laid it 
 upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips ; 
 and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin is purged " ? 
 Why might not Ezekiel say, " I looked, a?id behold a whirl- 
 wind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infold- 
 ing itself . . . and out of the midst of it came the likeness 
 of four living creatures, and above the likeness of a firma- 
 ment as crystal ; . . . and above this firmament the like- 
 ness of a man, clothed with brightness as the glory of the 
 Lord " ? Why might they not say this when they wished 
 to describe the enthroned majesty of Jehovah, and yet not 
 intend to be understood literally as speaking of a real robe, 
 and coal, and whirlwind, and cloud, and fire, and living 
 creatures, and firmament? 
 
 We are much less liable to mistake the prophets when 
 they clothe the truth which they would proclaim in alle- 
 gories and parables, than when they impart it in the guise 
 of dreams and visions. Indeed, there is very little danger 
 
 !5 
 
226 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 of our mistaking an allegory or a parable for a real trans- 
 action. When Isaiah says, " I will sing a song of my be- 
 loved touching his vineyard," and then goes on to describe 
 the preparation of the ground, the enclosure, the planting, 
 the wine-press, the watch-tower, no sensible interpreter 
 would mistake its being imaginary, as illustrating the re- 
 lation of the nation to God, even if the prophet had not 
 himself so interpreted it. And when we bear in mind the 
 warmer and more daring imagination of the Orientals, we 
 shall not be surprised at the boldness and minuteness of 
 some of these rhetorical devices. 
 
 More startling and striking are the symbols which these 
 preachers of righteousness introduced into their discourses. 
 Zedekiah presents himself to the kings, Ahab and Jehosha- 
 phat, with iron horns, to represent their conquest over the 
 Syrians. Isaiah appears without his mantle and sandals 
 (said to be " naked "), to signify the laying waste of Egypt. 
 Ezekiel cuts his hair from his head, burns one part, cuts in 
 pieces another, and scatters the third to the winds, to illus- 
 trate the destruction of two parts of the people and the 
 dispersion of the third part, and carries his goods into the 
 street to show that the captivity of the nation is near. 
 Jeremiah puts a yoke on his neck to represent the servitude 
 of the nation ; then breaks it to denote its liberation. 
 
 Some of the symbols introduced by the prophets are 
 described only, not performed. Jeremiah speaks of making 
 a long journey to the river Euphrates to bury his girdle, 
 and then of going a long time after to dig it up, all de- 
 cayed, that he may illustrate the captivity of the nation. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 227 
 
 Ezekiel speaks of lying on his side upon the ground be- 
 fore a tile for three hundred and ninety days to illustrate 
 the siege of the city. Now it is evident, from the history 
 of the prophet's whereabouts and his acts connected with 
 them, that neither of these things was ever done. Whether 
 a symbol is really acted or only described must be deter- 
 mined by the nature of the symbol and the attendant 
 circumstances. If a prophet says he was commanded to 
 lie three hundred and ninety days on one side, and also 
 that he obeyed the voice of the Lord, and yet we find him 
 the next day or next week travelling about exhorting the 
 people and rebuking kings, we know that the symbol 
 was described, but not acted. Then there are some sym- 
 bols introduced which could not have been acted without 
 the grossest criminality, even the description of which our 
 Christian culture would have most peremptorily forbidden. 
 There are but few of them, however. The distasteful and 
 repulsive symbols are but as spots on the sun. The sur- 
 passing beauty and vigor of the style and themes of these 
 Hebrew poet-preachers enrobe the shadows with light. 
 The luxuriant imagination of the Orient glows through all 
 their writings. The vehemence of Oriental passion flames 
 through all their delivery. The enthusiasm of their man- 
 ner, the weight of their matter, and the symbolism of their 
 dress and action impressed the hearts of the people as the 
 seal impresses the wax. Sometimes their words distil as 
 the gentle dew upon the tender herb, as the small rain 
 upon the mown grass. Again their periods of rebuke, 
 remonstrance, and warning roll on like the swellings of 
 
228 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Jordan and the torrents of Gilead. Sometimes their speech 
 has the fragrance of the rose of Sharon and the purity of 
 the lily of the valley ; and again it is as the storm which 
 breaks the cedars of Lebanon, and causes the wilderness 
 of Kadesh to tremble. Sometimes these prophets dare 
 the empyrean in their flight, and unveil the sapphire throne, 
 the bowed seraphim, and the Eternal Presence. 
 
 Section VI. — The Fundamental Principle of both Morals 
 and Religion, National Security and National Thrift, 
 on which the Prophets based all their Teachings. 
 
 The prophets were patriots as well as preachers of 
 righteousness ; or rather they were preachers of righteous- 
 ness because they were patriots. A God of justice ruled 
 their nation, and all nations. Hence the patriot-prophet 
 announced that righteousness, not compromising with in- 
 justice, exalteth a nation ; and that unrighteousness, not a 
 steadfast adherence to what is right, will as surely if not 
 as suddenly destroy a nation as an invading army or an 
 influx of the sea. Politicians dream that because punish- 
 ment against an evil work is not speedily executed it will 
 never come. The prophet knew that however long de- ' 
 layed retribution might be, the sword of justice would yet 
 leap from its scabbard, the waste would cover a fruitful 
 land, and ruins mark the site of proud and populous 
 cities. Against all political trimmers and demagogues 
 who compromise with unrighteousness these old prophets 
 set their faces like a flint and lifted up their voices like a 
 

 GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 229 
 
 trumpet. In the presence of idols and their worshippers 
 they proclaimed that there was but one God, and that 
 righteousness was the one and supreme law of nations. 
 What was right they maintained against all threats of 
 people and priest, of king and warriors. 
 
 The prophet was, therefore, a statesman. Knowing 
 the supreme will of his sovereign, he knew what was the 
 supreme good. There was no national security but in 
 national integrity. Not numbers, but virtue, was strength : 
 not riches, but righteousness, was wealth. It was the 
 prophetic spirit which inspired Ambrose when he shut 
 the doors of the church against the Emperor Theodosius. 
 It was the prophetic spirit that inspired Hildebrand to 
 compel Henry IV. to spend three days in midwinter, clad 
 in a penitent's garment and barefooted, at the gate of the 
 Castle of Canossa. Bishop Ken by the death-bed of the 
 licentious Charles II. reminds us of Isaiah by the bedside 
 of the dying Hezekiah. Savonarola denouncing with all 
 the fiery energy of his great soul the sins of the proud, 
 rich, luxurious city of Florence, reminds us of the light- 
 ning utterance of Nahum when he prophesied against 
 Nineveh. The vehement denunciations of Queen Mary 
 by Knox; the defiant utterances of Luther against the 
 " scarlet woman ; " the sublime announcement of Charles 
 Sumner on the floor of the Senate of the United States, 
 and of Samuel J. May from his pulpit in Syracuse, that 
 they would not obey the fugitive-slave law, were inspired 
 by the same spirit, were in obedience to the same prin- 
 ciple, which compelled Daniel to say to the great king, 
 
230 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 when all knees were bent in homage, " Be it known to 
 thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship 
 the golden image which thou hast set up." The supreme 
 court of appeal was divine, not human. "To the law 
 and to the testimony;" if human enactments agree not 
 with this word, then light is darkness. 
 
 In advocating justice and rebuking unrighteousness, 
 these prophet- statesmen were no respecters of persons. 
 Their trumpet voice was lifted up against rustic as well as 
 regal sins. Priests as well as people shrank from their 
 rebuke. The all-pervading principle running through the 
 prophecies like a silver thread is, that the law of God 
 is supreme above all other law, and that only obedience to 
 this law will give permanence and security to any 7iation. 
 Hence the prophets announced the existence of one God, 
 and one only ; all idols are vanities, all other gods no gods. 
 These idols are the work of man, and have neither life 
 nor power. With incomparable severity of satire does 
 Isaiah describe a man selecting a suitable tree, cutting 
 off a log and hewing for himself a god to worship, while 
 he makes a fire of the remainder to cook his food and 
 warm his house. This doctrine of the unity of God, and 
 of his presence everywhere, observing all that man does, 
 and even knowing his thoughts before there is one of 
 them, was pressed upon the conscience of the people with 
 surpassing earnestness, and was a master force in repress- 
 ing evil. 
 
 Another natural outgrowth of this fundamental principle 
 was the superiority of the moral law above the cera?io?iial. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 23 I 
 
 Righteousness and ritualism antagonize. The prophet 
 advocates the supremacy of character ; the priest, that of 
 ceremony. " Pure affections," cries the prophet. " Pure 
 incense," shouts the priest. The prophet insists upon the 
 "upright heart and pure." The priest calls for " clean 
 vessels and clean hands." From Samuel to Malachi, the 
 annunciation of the prophets is, " The sacrifices of God 
 are a broken and contrite heart." " To obey is better 
 than sacrifice." " I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." " I 
 hate, I despise your solemn feasts." " Let justice run 
 down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." 
 " Cease to do evil ; learn to do well." " If a man be just, 
 he shall live." "The soul that sinneth shall die." "If 
 he repenteth and doeth right, he shall save his soul 
 alive ; he shall not die." 
 
 Thus is ritualism subordinated by the prophets to spirit- 
 ualism ; the altar, to the heart ; the liturgy, to life. 
 
 Of necessity, therefore, the prophets always addressed 
 the moral sense, the conscience of the people. Nathan 
 stands before David in the loftiness of righteousness, and 
 illustrates by his parable the heinousness of injustice. 
 The monarch is indignant at the wrong and the wrong- 
 doer. So the appeal of Isaiah brings tears to the eyes 
 of Hezekiah, and fills his heart with penitence. Elijah, 
 when he stood before Ahab, was terrible as the ghost of 
 the murdered Naboth. Thus the prophets addressed the 
 conscience of the nation when they spoke to the people. 
 They did not balance expediencies, or calculate chances, 
 or compromise principles. They addressed the sense of 
 
232 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 right, of justice ; and awaking these, they called to then- 
 aid the strength of Omnipotence. The voice of the 
 prophet is the voice of the Lord. All injustice is in- 
 fernal, and will sink its doer — person or nation — to 
 the pit. Extended boundaries, stately mansions, famous 
 cities, renowned warriors, are not a nation's strength 
 and glory, but righteousness, obedience to the divine law. 
 In this respect the difference between the motives and 
 insight of these prophets and those of all other ancient 
 orators and statesmen is most distinctly marked. 
 
 The prophets were necessarily independent of all parties 
 and digues. Their great commission was, " Speak my 
 words, whether they will hear or forbear. Be not afraid 
 of them. As an adamant harder than flint have I made 
 thy forehead." And as the everlasting rock receives 
 upon its breast the sea when it roars, and as the waves 
 when they lift themselves up upon it are shattered to 
 foam, so these prophets met the wrath of kings and the 
 tumult of the people, and both were broken and thrown 
 back in confusion. They were as immovable as the prin- 
 ciples which they advocated. Glorious apostles of right- 
 eousness ! Grand champions of right ! The world will 
 not fail to give you supreme honor till it ceases to revere 
 truth and its heroic defenders. 
 
 One more marked and unique result naturally sprang 
 from this divine principle of the supremacy of righteous- 
 ness : it was its final prevalence as the guiding and gov- 
 erning power of all nations. All kings shall at last rule 
 in righteousness. Might shall no more give right. All 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 233 
 
 peoples shall at last be holy, with songs and everlasting 
 joy upon their heads. The wilderness and the solitary 
 place shall be glad, and deserts shall blossom as the 
 rose. The glory of Lebanon and the excellency of 
 Sharon shall pervade and prevail. No lion shall be there, 
 nor any ravenous beast. The mountains shall share the 
 delight of the people, and break forth into singing, 
 and all the trees of the field catch the sounding joy 
 and clap their hands. The fir-tree shall grow up in the 
 place of the thorn, and the myrtle-tree instead of the 
 brier. 
 
 The Utopias of modern idealists are but children's 
 dreams when compared with the glorious kingdom of God 
 to be established through the prevalence of righteous- 
 ness, as described by these Hebrew prophets. As the 
 orrery of the cabinet is to the majestic march and infinite 
 abysses of the constellated universe, so is the conception 
 of a perfect commonwealth, by Plato and Sir Thomas 
 More, to the sublime vision of God's perfected kingdom on 
 earth as seen and described by Isaiah and Ezekiel. The 
 faith of these old prophets in the ultimate triumph of 
 righteousness was one that removed mountains, subdued 
 kingdoms, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the vio- 
 lence of fire, changed weakness into strength, saw the in- 
 visible, and won the unattainable. 
 
 Of the great Hereafter, however, these men said noth- 
 ing, and drew no motives to action from beyond the grave. 
 If the hearts of the people burned within them when the 
 rapt prophet described the reign of righteousness and 
 
234 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 peace on earth, how should not our hearts exult as the 
 veil is lifted by a stronger hand, the gates of pearl un- 
 folded, the golden pavements revealed, — the river of life 
 refreshing, the ever-fruitful trees nourishing, and the be- 
 nignant face of the Father illuminating, all ! 
 
 Section VII. — Principles and Rules to be regarded in 
 i?iterpreting the Writings of the Prophets, 
 
 On the very threshold of a consideration of this subject 
 we meet the popular error that the prophets are mainly 
 occupied in foretelling future evettts, — revealing future 
 history. The contrary is true, as I have already said : 
 there are very few instances of specific prophecies in the 
 prophetical books. Those recorded in the historical 
 books are rendered suspicious, as the authors of those 
 books are unknown, and the traditions of the prophecies 
 may not have been accurate. But we are not now dis- 
 cussing the probable accuracy of these accounts. In the 
 prophetical books, now under consideration, specific pre- 
 dictions are very rare indeed. The prophets speak of the 
 results of good and bad conduct and administration, as 
 preachers and statesmen and publicists do to-day. But 
 as they clothed their addresses in the language of poetry, 
 and the gorgeousness of Oriental poetry, their descriptions 
 are more specific and graphic than those of Occidental 
 speakers. 
 
 It is to be borne constantly in mind, as the first 
 fundamental rule of interpretation, that all their pre- 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 235 
 
 dictions are conditioned upon conduct, — upon obedience or 
 disobedience to the law. 
 
 Jeremiah most emphatically affirms this in his prophe- 
 cies. Speaking in the name of the Lord, he says : " At 
 what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and con- 
 cerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down and 
 destroy it, if that nation . . .turn from their evil, I 
 will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 
 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation and 
 concerning a kingdom, to build up and to plant it, if it 
 do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then will 
 I repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit 
 them." The same underlying condition of the prophecies 
 is illustrated in the Book of Jonah. The story is too fa- 
 miliar to render quotation necessary. Prophecy is always 
 conditioned upon conduct ; and what is predicted is the 
 natural result of previous conditions or conduct which 
 the prophet saw : as we say, when we see a poorly built 
 bridge, that an accident will happen there ; or when we 
 see a drinking spendthrift, that he will some day be in 
 the poorhouse. The fulfilment of a prophecy is not the 
 result of an arbitrary volition of the Almighty, but the 
 natural consequence of human conduct ; sometimes bring- 
 ing calamity, sometimes bringing blessing, as the conduct 
 is good or bad. 
 
 A second rule to be observed in interpreting prophecy 
 is, that we should bear constantly in mind that we are not 
 only interpreting poetry, but Or 'wttal poetry, — the boldest 
 and most daring in expression of any in the world. 
 
236 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 When a great victory is gained, the prophet says, 
 " Jehovah has trodden the wine-press, and his garments 
 are dyed with blood." When he leads his people to 
 battle, he is said " to ride on a cloud, and to make dark- 
 ness his pavilion." When he comes for the deliverance 
 of his people, he is said " to bow the heavens and come 
 down, to ride upon a cherub, yea, upon the wings of the 
 wind." When a great calamity befalls a nation, "the sun 
 is darkened, and the moon does not give her light, and 
 the stars fall from their places." When the prophet de- 
 scribes peace and prosperity, he announces that " the wolf 
 and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion eat straw 
 like the ox." A disregard of this rule of interpretation has 
 been the cause of the grossest abuse of these writings. 
 
 In describing the terrible desolation which should come 
 upon the land, and the misery that would befall the peo- 
 ple, the prophet says : " The streams shall be turned into 
 pitch, and the dust into brimstone, and the land shall 
 become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night 
 nor day ; the smoke thereof shall go up forever ; from 
 generation to generation it shall lie waste ; none shall 
 pass through it for ever and ever." That no such thing 
 happened after that prophecy was delivered everybody 
 knows ; and everybody ought to know that the prophet 
 meant no such literal thing. And yet commentators have 
 attempted to show that all this has taken place, by the re- 
 port of travellers who have been through this very country 
 where "no one should pass for ever and ever" ! The 
 wrong done both to the old prophets and to modern 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 237 
 
 readers by such commentators is incalculable, and has 
 made many unbelievers. 
 
 The prophets must be read as poets, I cannot refrain 
 from one more quotation to illustrate this rule. In an 
 ecstasy of joy at the prospect of the destruction of the 
 enemies of his nation, and their terrible slaughter, the 
 prophet exclaims : " The mountains shall flow down with 
 their blood, and all the hosts of heaven shall melt away, 
 and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll, and all 
 their host shall fall down as the withered leaf falleth from 
 the vine, as the blighted fruit from the fig-tree." To look 
 for the literal fulfilment of such language would be as 
 foolish and as futile as to look for the philosopher's stone 
 or the fountain of perpetual youth. 
 
 These two principles or rules of interpretation are fun- 
 damental. I will now add some minor but yet important 
 rules which should be regarded in interpreting certain 
 portions of these writings. As Jewish literature was not 
 abundant, resort was had by later writers to the sacred 
 Scriptures for illustrative quotations ; as we quote passages 
 from the writings of Milton, Shakspeare, Burke, and Pope, 
 to illustrate some point and give force and attractiveness 
 to our style. We do not inquire what occasion or person 
 the original writer had in his mind, but we apply his apt 
 language to our occasion and person. So these later Jewish 
 writers quote their predecessors and are quoted by their 
 successors, without any regard to the occasion or person 
 to which or whom the original author referred, and apply 
 the apt phrase to their own times and contemporaries. 
 
238 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 The New Testament abounds with this kind of illustra- 
 tive quotation. In Matthew ii. 10, it is said of the return 
 of the holy family from Egypt, " That it might be fulfilled 
 which w r as spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out 
 of Egypt have I called my son." It would seem from 
 this formula that the passage quoted was a prediction of 
 the return of Jesus from Egypt, and not an application of 
 words suitable to describe this return, originally used for 
 a very different purpose. Turn to Hosea xi. 1, and it will 
 be seen that the passage is not even a prophecy, but sim- 
 ply an historical statement of the rescue of Israel out of 
 Egypt : " When Israel was a child I loved him, and called 
 my son out of Egypt." The words were not fulfilled as a 
 predictio?i, but as fitly describing an event. This was a 
 customary way of quotation among the Jews. 
 
 A third rule, therefore, which must be observed in in- 
 terpreting the prophecies is, that we must not understand 
 that a prophecy was intended for the event to which it is ap- 
 plied by later writers, but must inquire whether they have 
 not merely quoted it descriptively, rhetorically, as peculiarly 
 and impressively depicting the condition of things in their 
 own day. 
 
 A fourth rule to be regarded in interpreting the 
 prophecies is, to carefully distinguish between what the 
 Prophet utters as his original commission from Jehovah, 
 if he have any, and what is merely a development and en- 
 forcement of the fundamental law of the nation, or of 
 previous prophecies. 
 
 The foundation of all the hopes of the Hebrew race 
 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 239 
 
 and of all the predictions of the prophets is the original 
 promise to Abraham : " I will make of thee a great na- 
 tion, and I will bless thee . . . and in thee shall all the 
 families of the earth be blessed." The same promise was 
 repeated to Isaac and Jacob. Then Moses reveals God's 
 purposes more specifically, and tells the people that obe- 
 dience is essential to prosperity, that disobedience will bring 
 famine, invasion, captivity ; and that on their reformation 
 they will be restored to their own land again. Nathan 
 also promised David that his family should rule for ages. 
 
 On these promises and threatenings as fundamental 
 facts the prophets rest all their teachings, warnings, and 
 promises. Just as Christian ministers to-day rest all their 
 promises and threatenings on the gospel, so these old 
 prophets rest all their predictions of the future, and re- 
 bukes of the present time upon the laws and promises of 
 ancient times. Whether any of these prophets had other 
 and fuller knowledge of the future, derived from other 
 sources than their moral presentiments and the Mosaic 
 law, or from earlier annunciations of the elder prophets, 
 must be determined by an examination of their prophe- 
 cies. If they have no other insight than this into the 
 future, then there is no proof that they were supernatu- 
 rally enlightened. Again, if what they predict occurs, it 
 is necessary, in order to prove their inspiration in the 
 ordinary use of that word, that the "nature of the event 
 be such that it could not be foreseen by any supposable effort 
 of reason, or be deduced upon principles of calculation, 
 derived from probability and experience." 
 
240 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Again, it must always be borne in mind that since the 
 prophecies are poetry, — and Oriental poetry, — the bold- 
 est figures of speech are constantly used, and must be re- 
 garded in their interpretation. Names, persons, places, 
 are introduced into their addresses by the prophets, to 
 give life, point, force, impressiveness, to their speech. 
 We must not give literal significance to these. When 
 a modern orator, in the ardor of his feelings, exclaims, 
 " The Arnolds and the Davises shall be held in everlasting 
 contempt," he does not mean the progeny of these trai- 
 tors, much less the men who bear their names ; but he 
 means men of like falseness to high trusts, men of like 
 hostility to their country, — all traitors. So these old 
 prophets use names to represent classes and characters. 
 
 Finally, the reader must bear in mind that scholars of a 
 subsequent age were accustomed to make obscure passages 
 mo7'e explicit by marginal notes, called scholia, which were 
 introduced by subsequent copyists into the text as a part 
 of the prophet's own writing, and which were thought to 
 have been accidentally omitted by some careless copyist. 
 Very minute and careful rules are given in works on inter- 
 pretation by which these interpolations can be detected. 
 It would be out of place to introduce them here. 
 
 Section VIII. — The Origin of the Authority and Cer- 
 tainty with which the Prophets spoke. 
 
 To understand the origin of this authority, it is neces- 
 sary to inquire respecting what was contained in the early 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 24 1 
 
 traditions of their ancestors, and their fundamental law 
 respecting their future condition, and the causes which 
 would produce it. If we find that the prophet threatens 
 nothing and promises nothing the justification of which 
 he does not find in the traditions and laws of his people, 
 then we are to infer that the prophet has obtained his 
 knowledge from these sources, as Christian preachers 
 draw theirs from the Gospels, and not from any special 
 revelation to their own minds. This inquiry is vital to all 
 intelligent reading of these books. 
 
 What, then, were the early traditions of the nation? 
 When Abraham resided in Haran, he was directed to " get 
 out of the land and go to the land which Jehovah would 
 show him; and Jehovah said, I will make thee a great 
 nation ; and I will bless them that bless thee, and I will 
 curse them that curse thee ; and in thee shall all the na- 
 tions of the earth be blessed; " Gen. xii. 2, 3. And when 
 Abraham had crossed the Jordan, and from the heights 
 overlooked the whole country, the promise was repeated, 
 and Abraham's " seed was to be as the dust of the earth ; " 
 Gen. xiii. 14-16. And yet twice more is this great prom- 
 ise repeated to him, — at the birth of Isaac, and at the 
 rescue of Isaac from sacrifice on the mount. His seed is 
 to be " as the stars of heaven, and as the sand upon the 
 sea-shore.' 1 The same promise is made to Isaac when 
 famine threatens the extinction of his household ; Gen. 
 xxvi. 3, 4. Jacob, on his pillow of stone at Bethel, had the 
 same assurance ; Gen. xxviii. 13. If succeeding prophets 
 predicted the same destiny to the nation, they found their 
 
 16 
 
242 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 authority in the recorded promises to the patriarchs ; and 
 it is unnecessary to suppose that any special revelation 
 was made to them. 
 
 Passing on from the three great ancestors of the nation, 
 we will examine the fundamental law of the state, and see 
 what is here threatened and promised for the future, and 
 the conditions on which these threatenings and promises 
 are given. 
 
 This frst grand summary of God's purposes is given, as 
 understood by Moses, in Leviticus xxvi. : " Jfye will walk 
 in my statutes and keep my commandments, . . . then will 
 I give you ram, . . . and the land shall yield her increase, 
 and the trees . . . their fruit, . . . and ye shall eat your bread 
 to the full, and dwell in your land in safety ; and I will give 
 peace in the land ; . . . none shall make you afraid, . . . and I 
 will multiply you. But zfye will not do all these command- 
 ments, but break my covenant, ... I will appoint you terror, 
 consumption, and the burning ague : and ye shall sow your 
 seed in vain, . . . your enemies shall eat it. ... I will make 
 your heaven as iro?i and your earth brass. . . . Your land 
 shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees . . . yield 
 their fruits ; and wild beasts will destroy your cattle, . . . 
 and your highways shall be desolate. But if they shall 
 confess their iniquity, then will I remember my covenant 
 with Jacob, with Isaac, and with Abraham, . . . and when 
 they be in the land of their enemies I will not cast them 
 away." A captivity is implied in this last promise. 
 
 These threatenings and promises announced under the 
 awful shadow of Sinai are frequently repeated in fragments 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 243 
 
 during the next forty years to restrain or encourage the 
 people in their wanderings. On the banks of the Jordan 
 the great lawgiver, forbidden to pass over with the people, 
 exhorts them with all the pathos of a father and all the fer- 
 vor of a prophet to be true to the covenant and obedient 
 to the laws ; for he exclaims : " If ye shall do evil ... ye 
 shall soon utterly perish from off the land, ... ye shall not 
 prolong your days in 'it ; ... . the Lord shall scatter you 
 among the fiations, and ye shall be left few in number 
 among the heathen. . . . But if from thence thou shalt 
 seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him ; ... he will 
 not forsake thee nor destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of 
 the fathers which he sware to them" (Deuteronomy iv.). 
 
 So surely shall obedience bring prosperity, disobedience 
 bring plague, famine, invasion, captivity, and repentance 
 bring restoration from captivity and abundance in field 
 and fold. The grass will grow, the herds will multiply, 
 the fruits ripen, the harvest abound, the vintage increase, 
 just in proportion as the people are obedient. Drought, 
 pestilence, blight, locusts, wild beasts, will abound and 
 visit them just in proportion as they disregard the law 
 which the lawgiver, Moses, gave to the people. 
 
 It may be well to make a few more quotations from the 
 fundamental law of the nation, that we may see how firmly 
 the threatenings and promises of the old prophets were 
 based on the annunciations of their great lawgiver. 
 
 About to enumerate an abundance of blessings, he ex- 
 claims with deepest emotion : " All these blessings shall 
 come on thee if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the 
 
244 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Lord : Blessed shalt thou be in the city . . . and in the 
 field, and in the fruit of thy body, . . . and in the fruit of thy 
 ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, and the increase of 
 thy kine. . . . The Lord shall cause thine enemies to be 
 smitten before thy face. But if thou wilt not hearken 
 unto the voice of the Lord to observe and do all his com- 
 mandments which I command thee, then all these curses 
 shall come upon thee : Cursed shalt thou be in city, and 
 in field, and in thy basket, and in thy store, and in the 
 fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land. . . . The Lord 
 shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee till he have 
 consumed thee from the land; and thy heaven shall 
 be brass, and the earth iron ; the rain of thy land shall be 
 powder and dust. Thy sons and thy daughters shall be 
 given to another people. . . . The fruit of thy land shall a 
 nation which thou knowest not eat tip. The locust shall 
 consume the harvest. Thou shalt plant vineyards and 
 dress them, but thou shalt not drink the wine noi; gather 
 the grapes, for worms shall eat them. Thine olive shall 
 cast its fruit. All thy trees and the fruit shall the locust 
 consume. The Lord shall bring a nation from afar against 
 thee from the end of the earth as swift as an eagle flieth, 
 a nation whose tongue thou shalt not tinderstand, a nation 
 of a fierce countenance, and he shall besiege thee until 
 thy high fenced walls come down ; and thou shalt eat of 
 the fruit of thine own body, . . . and the Lord shall scatter 
 thee among all people from one end of the earth to the 
 other. And it shall come to pass when all these things are 
 upon thee, and thou shalt return unto the Lord thy God 
 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 245 
 
 and shalt obey his voice, . . , that the Lord will turn thy 
 captivity and have compassion upon thee, and will return 
 and gather thee from all nations whither he hath scattered 
 thee ; from the uttermost parts of heaven will the Lord 
 gather thee, . . . and will bring thee into the land which 
 thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it. And the 
 Lord will put all these curses on thine enemies which 
 persecuted thee" (Deuteronomy xxviii.). 
 
 So does the august lawgiver unfold the future of the 
 nation ; and then lifting himself to the loftiest height of as- 
 severation he exclaims : " I call heaven and earth to record 
 this day against you that I have set before you life and 
 death, blessing and cursing ; therefore choose life, that both 
 thou and thy seed may live, and that thou mayest dwell in 
 the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abra- 
 ham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." 
 
 On these great principles, and these consequences of 
 disregarding them, the prophets based their addresses of 
 warning and encouragement to the people. The reader 
 is advised to study diligently these early words of the 
 lawgiver, that he may intelligently enjoy the writings of 
 the prophets. 
 
 It remains to say a few words respecting the annuncia- 
 tions of a few of the later statesmen and wise men of the 
 nation. 
 
 Samuel, the founder of the monarchy, says to David, 
 " Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever 
 before thee, and thy throne shall be established forever ; " 
 2 Sam. vii. 12-16. Solomon, in his prayer at the dedica- 
 
246 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 tion of the Temple, implores the Lord to keep the promise 
 which he had made to his servant David, that there should 
 " not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of 
 Israel." And the Psalmist declares the perpetuity of 
 David's throne : " I have sworn to David my servant, Thy 
 seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all 
 gefierations. His throne shall be as the days of heaven. 
 It shall endure as the sun, and it shall be established for- 
 ever as the moon." 
 
 The authority of the prophets to announce the perpe- 
 tuity of David's throne, and his posterity as its occupants 
 forever, is found in the affirmation of the great founder 
 of the monarchy, whose words were repeated by states- 
 men and heroes of subsequent ages, and sung to the 
 music of harp and lyre and the blast of trumpets by the 
 sons of Korah in the Temple courts. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I have now finished what I thought necessary to say 
 in a General Introduction to the Books of the Prophets. 
 I have treated of the character and office of the prophets, 
 of the subjects on which they wrote and their method of 
 treating them, of the rules to be observed in their inter- 
 pretation, and of the authority to which they appeal for 
 the truth of their addresses. These old Hebrew prophets 
 were princely men, though no noble blood ran in their 
 veins, nor royal titles graced their names. Their integrity 
 was their princeliness ; their patriotism, their nobility. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION. 247 
 
 They maintained the superiority of righteousness over 
 ritualism, the acceptableness of sanctity above sacrifice. 
 They rebuked kings for their tyranny and priests for their 
 formalism. Their writings abound in all that is inspir- 
 ing. In loftiness of thought, in warmth of emotion, in 
 grandeur of expression, they are unexcelled, unrivalled in 
 all Oriental literature ; nor will their equal be found in the 
 classic pages of the polished Greek. The roll of the ma- 
 jestic periods of Isaiah is as the roll of the ocean's waves ; 
 and the rush of the sentences of Hosea is like the rush of 
 the torrents of Gilead. Would you feast upon what is 
 best and most sublime in all the literatures of the ages, I 
 commend you to that which comes fragrant from the 
 vineyards of Carmel and the cedars of Lebanon, from 
 the olive-groves and threshing-floors of Hebron, from the 
 fountains of Solomon and Siloam, from Zion's Hill and the 
 Temple on Moriah. 
 
 I shall next examine the books themselves, that we 
 may see how completely subsequent prophecies rest upon 
 the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 upon the fundamental enactments of the lawgiver Moses, 
 and of the founder of the monarchy, Samuel. 
 
248 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 INTRODUCTION TO THE SEPARATE BOOKS OF THE PROPHETS. 
 
 It is customary among writers on the prophetical books 
 to divide them into two classes according to their length. 
 Hence they are called the Major and Minor Prophets, or 
 the Larger and Smaller Prophets, — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Eze- 
 kiel, and Daniel composing the former, and all between 
 Hosea and Malachi being included in the latter : in all, 
 sixteen books, by at least eighteen authors. The books 
 composed by two authors whose works are united are 
 Isaiah and Zechariah. The reasons for attributing each 
 of these books to two authors will be given when the 
 books are examined. As these books are not arranged 
 chronologically in our Bible, I choose to treat them in a 
 different order, and will begin with the prophet Joel. 
 
 Section I. — Joel, 
 
 Of the life of the prophet Joel we know nothing. He 
 is said, in the inscription by some unknown preserver 
 of this address, to be the son of Pethuel. As little is 
 known of the father as of the son. It is also unknown 
 in what year he prophesied. Critics differ widely and 
 give the most extravagant conjectures respecting it ; some 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 249 
 
 placing the book as early as 900 b. c, and some as late as 
 500 b. c. There are no historical references in it by which 
 its precise date can be settled. Famines were frequently 
 occurring, and the plague of locusts was not rare. That 
 Joel wrote when such a terrible visitation was on the land 
 is evident, for he makes it the theme of his prophecy, and 
 bewails the sad state of his nation : — 
 
 " The vine is dried up, 
 And the fig-tree languisheth ; 
 
 The pomegranate, the palm-tree, and the apple-tree, 
 All the trees of the field are withered. 
 The corn also is withered. 
 How do the beasts groan ! 
 How do the herds of oxen wander perplexed, 
 Having no pasture ! 
 The streams of water are dried up ! " 
 
 And of the locusts he cries : — 
 
 " They are not to be numbered ; 
 Their teeth are the teeth of lions, 
 They have the jaw-teeth of the lioness. 
 They have made my vine a desolation, 
 And my fig-tree a broken branch ; 
 They have made it quite bare ; 
 The branches thereof are white ! " 
 
 The style of the book refers it to the golden period of 
 Hebrew literature. It is pure, terse, elevated, free from 
 the Chaldaisms which are found near the time of the cap- 
 tivity and which forbid its reference to so late a period as 
 500 b. c. Again, in enumerating the enemies of the peo- 
 ple Joel does not speak of either the Syrians or Assyrians 
 or Babylonians, which he certainly would have done if he 
 
250 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 had written as late as some of his critics maintain. He 
 most probably wrote in the ninth century, or about 850 b. c. 
 
 The two kingdoms of Israel and Judah were established, 
 and Joel prophesied in Judah. The kingdom of Israel was 
 almost perpetually, and the kingdom of Judah very fre- 
 quently, idolatrous. The people often deserted Jehovah, 
 and " sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places," 
 where they had erected altars to idols. The penalty 
 which the great lawgiver had denounced against idolatry 
 was inflicted. The whole land was groaning and perish- 
 ing. There was no vintage for the vine-dresser, there 
 were no first-fruits for the priests, there was no food for 
 the people. "The seeds were rotten under their clods." 
 In the midst of all this distress and suffering, and with 
 greater woes in prospect, the prophet appears, and strives, 
 in words of deepest pathos and most stinging rebuke, to 
 win back the people from their idolatrous worship to the 
 worship of the God of their fathers, or to terrify them by 
 unveiling still deeper calamities that would come upon 
 them if they should persist in their evil ways. 
 
 Some writers have supposed that the locusts were a 
 symbol of invading armies who had desolated the land, 
 and would desolate it more completely unless the people 
 repented. But there is no evidence of this symbolism in 
 the prophecy, and drought and locusts attend each other 
 hi the East, and elsewhere where locusts abound. The 
 prophet argues that so great a calamity proves great dis- 
 loyalty of the people to their God, and requires instant 
 and deep repentance. Therefore, — 
 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 25 1 
 
 " Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, 
 Appoint ye a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, 
 Gather the people, assemble the elders, 
 Bring in the children and the sucklings ; 
 Let the bridegroom come forth from his chamber, 
 And the bride from her nuptial bed ! 
 Weep between the porch and the altar, 
 And cry, Spare thy people, O Jehovah ! " 
 
 And if ye thus repent, God will drive away the locusts, 
 fill the wine-vat and the threshing-floor, bring home the 
 captives, and make the land abound with peace and 
 plenty. Joy shall fill the hearts of both old and young 
 at their deliverance and abundance, the blessings which 
 Jehovah will give you shall fill your sleeping as well as 
 your waking hours, visions of plenty and peace shall come 
 in the night watches, and all the people shall be priests 
 and prophets. 
 
 Such is the spirit of this fast-day sermon of the old 
 prophet of Judah. The calamity which had overtaken 
 the people was threatened in the Law for disobedience, 
 and the promises which Joel made were the promises 
 which the lawgiver had made on condition of repentance 
 (Deuteronomy xxviii., Leviticus xxvi.). The prophecy 
 of Joel neither claims nor implies that a special divine 
 communication was made to his mind. He simply an- 
 nounces in his own language and in his own way the 
 penalties and promises of the law. 
 
 There is one passage in Joel (ii. 28-31) quoted by 
 Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts ii. 16-21), which is 
 understood as being a prediction of what was then taking 
 
252 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 place. But when we remember the manner in which the 
 Jews quoted their sacred books, applying to one occasion 
 passages which were spoken in reference to another, and 
 especially when this passage in Joel is compared with the 
 circumstances which surrounded Peter, it will be seen at 
 once that it is not a prediction of the scenes of the Pente- 
 cost, but a description of the blessing which would attend 
 repentance and deliverance from the drought and the 
 locusts. 
 
 In those days of which Joel speaks, the captives of 
 Judah that had been taken in the recent inroads of their 
 enemies, Shishak and others, would be returned to the 
 land. This was one cause of the exultant joy of the 
 people which filled the night as well as the day with 
 rejoicings. Then also such revolutions would take place 
 among the enemies of the nation that they could be sym- 
 bolized only by 
 
 " Wonders in the heavens and in the earth ; 
 Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. 
 The sun shall be turned into darkness, 
 And the moon into blood, 
 Before the day of Jehovah cometh, 
 The great and terrible day. . . . 
 For upon Mount Zion and in Jerusalem 
 Shall be deliverance." 
 
 But no such things took place on the day of Pentecost ; 
 nor does Peter's language, when he quotes this passage, 
 indicate that this is a prophecy of that day, or that he 
 quotes it as such. He says only, " This which you see is 
 what the prophet Joel wrote of, — God's spirit is poured out 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 253 
 
 now as then ; " and he proceeds to quote the whole passage, 
 a part of which only was applicable to his purpose, if the 
 writer has with verbal accuracy reported his speech, which 
 is not at all probable. If the writer of Matthew could 
 quote Hosea xi. 2, with the formula, " that it might be 
 fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet," 
 when he was only citing a simple historical statement, 
 much more might Peter cite the words of Joel without 
 indicating, or intending to have it understood, that they 
 were prophetic, but only applicable to that occasion. At 
 all events, there is no satisfactory proof to be derived from 
 this quotation that Joel foresaw and predicted the day of 
 Pentecost, or that he had any knowledge of God's pur- 
 poses respecting men in general and the Jews in particular, 
 other than that derived from the national law and the teach- 
 ings of his own reason and conscience. He spoke as God's 
 ambassador, just as a Christian minister preaching to-day 
 appeals to the law of God written on the heart and re- 
 vealed by his Son. There is no evidence that Joel had 
 any inspiration in kind above that of Luther or Wesley or 
 Channing. He was an eloquent, impassioned preacher of 
 the Hebrew race. It is a cause of deep regret that only 
 this fragment of his prophecies has come down to us, — a 
 single gem from among many which sparkled in the casket 
 of his addresses. 
 
 Section II. — <Amos. 
 
 Of this prophet nothing is known except what can be 
 gleaned from the prophecy itself and its anonymous intro- 
 
254 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 duction. In Amos i. i, the prophet is said to have been 
 " one of the shepherds of Tekoa," a small town about 
 twelve miles south of Jerusalem in the kingdom of Judah. 
 Amos says of himself (vii. 14, 15) : — 
 
 " I was no prophet, nor the son of a prophet ; 
 I was a shepherd and a gatherer of sycamore fruit ; 
 And Jehovah took me from the flock, 
 And Jehovah said to me, 
 Go, prophesy to my people Israel." 
 
 Amos was not of the prophetic order, and he had not 
 attended the prophetic schools. He might be called a 
 lay preacher. Then, as now, men who were filled with 
 the love of their country and of their kind took their lives 
 in their hands and went forth in the name of God and 
 righteousness to teach, to warn, and to reform the people. 
 Amos prophesied " concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah 
 king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of 
 Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake." 
 Of this earthquake we know nothing ; but the manner in 
 which it is referred to shows that it was well known to the 
 contemporaries of the writer of this introduction, whoever 
 he was. Uzziah reigned from 808 to 756 b. c, and Jero- 
 boam reigned from 825 to 784 b. c. Amos probably 
 prophesied about 784-800 B.C. 
 
 Entering upon his work as an uneducated man, with no 
 culture but that of a fruit-grower, with no skill as a speaker 
 but such as sincerity gives, and having something to say 
 which must be spoken, his style is, as we should expect it 
 to be, more forcible than polished, of greater strength than 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 255 
 
 beauty, rugged even like the rocky slopes where his flocks 
 climbed, and abrupt like the precipices which overhung 
 the springs where they quenched their thirst. We also 
 find that his similes and metaphors, indeed all his figures 
 of speech and illustrations, are drawn from rural life. He 
 was a child of Nature, not of the schools. 
 
 The law of right and the law of Moses were his authori- 
 ties. He finds in them the judgments which will fall upon 
 transgressors and the blessings which will attend obe- 
 dience. As he watched his flocks under the transparent 
 skies of Judea, the heavens through all their constellated 
 dome illustrated the majesty of the God of Israel, and the 
 shepherd's tenderness for the weak and young of his flock 
 was a perpetual symbol of Jehovah's care of his people. 
 His prophecy is therefore full of references to his rural 
 life. The basket of fruit, the vineyards, the fig-trees, the 
 aftermath in the royal meadows, the herd of kine covering 
 the hills of Samaria, the shepherds scaring the lions from 
 their prey, the lions and the bears, the heavy-laden wagons 
 groaning under the burden of sheaves, the winnowing of 
 the grain, the locust desolating the fields, — these, and 
 such allusions as these, abound in his prophecy, and re- 
 veal what manner of life he lived, and what a careful 
 and impressible observer he was of the scenes and things 
 around him. 
 
 Jeroboam reigned in Israel when Amos prophesied, and 
 the people had been successful in their foreign wars and 
 home industries, and hence were prosperous, luxurious, 
 and proud. They forsook the law of Moses and the God 
 
256 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 of the fathers, and became base idolaters and grossly ef- 
 feminate. They imported costly furniture from Damascus, 
 and reclined at their sumptuous, idolatrous feasts on 
 damask couches. They had erected an idol altar on the 
 very spot where their great ancestor slept on his pillow of 
 stone and had visions of glory ; and the smoke of idola- 
 trous sacrifices ascended to the same heavens where he 
 had seen angels ascending and descending. 
 
 The prophet knew that great judgments must be in 
 store for them unless they repented, — locusts, drought, 
 famine, war, captivity, — for so taught the law. The na- 
 tions around were prosperous, and especially Syria on the 
 east, which was already crouched like a lion to spring 
 upon her rival. Farther away was growing, spreading, and 
 conquering, the Assyrian nation, fierce, warlike, trium- 
 phant, pressing westward. On the west was Tyre, whose 
 merchants were princes, whose commerce spread her 
 sails to the Pillars of Hercules and beyond, and brought 
 to her wharves the spices of India. On the southeast, 
 among the mountain ranges, and on the mountains east of 
 the Jordan and the Dead Sea, were Moab and Amnion and 
 Edom, all hating Israel with a perfect hatred, and lying in 
 wait to invade the kingdom. On the south was the rival 
 kingdom, Judah, smarting under the wrongs inflicted, and 
 watching sleeplessly for an opportunity to tear and rend 
 and destroy. Thus, not only were famine and drought and 
 locusts and empty garners impending, but hostile nations 
 were watching their hour ; and when it should come, the 
 heavens would gather blackness and the earth quake. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 257 
 
 Thus sustained by the law and impelled by the peril 
 which he sees impending, Amos leaves his sheepfolds 
 and sycamore -trees and goes forth clothed in the simple 
 panoply of truth and righteousness. He speaks in the 
 name of the God of truth, denounces against the sinful 
 nation the judgments threatened in the law, and holds up 
 for their encouragement the sublime promises of protec- 
 tion which would follow repentance. " Even should you 
 be carried captive into a far land," he exclaims, "still, God 
 would hear your cry for deliverance when you turned to 
 him, and would gather you from all the nations whither the 
 Lord your God had scattered you. From out of the utter- 
 most part of heaven will the Lord your God gather you 
 into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall 
 possess it, and he will do you good," as he had promised 
 in the law (Deuteronomy xxviii.). 
 
 He first addresses the hostile nations in a very periodic 
 style, and he opens his prophecy with a startling meta- 
 phor, which makes the ear tingle that hears it, and the 
 cheeks of him who understands it grow pale : — 
 
 " Jehovah will roar from Zion, 
 And utter his voice from Jerusalem ; 
 The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, 
 And the top of Carmel shall wither." 
 
 The prophecy or book may be divided into two parts : 
 the first part, i.-vi., containing discourses ; the second part, 
 vii.-ix., containing visions and symbols. Amos sets right- 
 eousness high above ritualism. Speaking in the name of 
 Jehovah, he cries : — 
 
 17 
 
258 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 " I hate, I despise your feasts ; 
 I have no delight in your solemn assemblies ; 
 When ye offer me burnt offerings and flour offerings 
 I will not accept them. . . . 
 
 Take ye away from me the noise of your songs. . . . 
 Let justice flow forth as waters, 
 And righteousness as a mighty stream." 
 
 When Amaziah commands him to prophesy no more, 
 he sends back a message which stands in the forefront of 
 all such literature : — 
 
 "Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, 
 And speak no word against the house of Isaac ; 
 Therefore thus saith Jehovah : 
 Thy wife shall be put to shame in the city, 
 And thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, 
 And thou shalt die in a polluted land, 
 And Israel shall be led captive from his own land." 
 
 But all calamities will be turned into blessings if the 
 sinning people repent and turn from all their iniquities. 
 Their ruined walls shall be rebuilt/ their waste cities shall 
 be inhabited, their desolate fields shall wave with harvests, 
 their broken wine-vats shall overflow with new wine. 
 
 " I will plant them in their land, 
 And they shall no more be rooted up from the land which I have 
 
 given them, 
 Saith Jehovah, thy God." 
 
 There are no predictions in this book so specific as to 
 prove that Amos was inspired in the usual sense of that 
 word, or that the veil of the future was parted to reveal 
 things to come more clearly than they were announced in 
 the law and foreshadowed by passing events to the eye of 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 259 
 
 a reverent patriot and devout Israelite. His prophecy is 
 to be read as the utterance of a devoted defender of truth 
 and righteousness ; of one who loved his country as he 
 loved his life. 
 
 Section III. — Hosea. 
 
 Of the prophet Hosea we know nothing except what 
 can be found in the anonymous introduction to his writ- 
 ings and gleaned from a very few allusions in them. He 
 is said to be " the son of Beeri," of whom we know nothing, 
 and to have prophesied " in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, 
 Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of 
 Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel." He lived, 
 therefore, during the closing period of the kingdom of 
 Israel, from 810 b. c. to near the capture of Samaria and 
 the captivity of Israel, 72 t b. c, — nearly ninety years. It 
 was a period of fearful internal revolution, regicide, and 
 idolatry, and of external invasion, destruction, and cap- 
 tivity. Judging by the very imperfect fragments of history 
 which have come down to us, there was a period of an- 
 archy, which Jeroboam's son Zechariah finally succeeded 
 in overcoming, but only for six months, when he fell with 
 all his house before a conspiracy in the army. Then Shal- 
 lum usurped the throne, but succeeded in holding it only 
 a month, when another conspirator, Menahem, smote him 
 and reigned in his stead for eleven years. Menahem was 
 a cruel usurper. He sacked the cities that would not 
 open their gates to him as king, slew their inhabitants and 
 
260 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 laid waste their country, committing the most savage atro- 
 cities which a monster in human form could perpetrate. 
 Hated at home, he was not feared abroad. Pul, king of 
 Assyria, took advantage of his unpopularity and weakness 
 and came up against him. Menahem, the coward, pur- 
 chased peace with one thousand talents of silver, which 
 he raised by levying a most oppressive tax upon his sub- 
 jects. Every man of wealth was doomed to pay fifty shek- 
 els of silver, and for this tribute Pul sustained Menahem on 
 his throne until his death. Pekahiah, his son, succeeded 
 him. Weak and wicked, and lacking his father's cunning 
 and energy, the army conspired against him, and Pekah, 
 a captain, assassinated him in his palace after he had 
 reigned two years. A regicide as energetic as he was 
 wicked, he ascended the throne, and by combined cunning, 
 treachery, and valor, held it for twenty years. He was a 
 terror not only to those who did well, but also to evil-doers. 
 He was jealous, implacable, cruel, treacherous. " He did 
 evil in the sight of the Lord," says the historian. As his 
 own subjects were completely cowed by his tyranny, he 
 looked abroad for some subject on which he could vent 
 his wrath and wreak his vengeance, and his ambitious 
 and cruel eye fell upon the kingdom of Judah. Dis- 
 trusting his unaided strength to subdue it, he made a 
 league with Rezin, king of Damascus, to unite with him 
 in an attack upon Ahaz, the king of Judah. The two kings 
 were victorious, taking many cities and captives and much 
 plunder. Jerusalem was saved. This was the time when 
 Isaiah prophesied the death of these two kings within two 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 26 1 
 
 years. Ahaz called upon Tiglath Pileser, king of Assyria, 
 for aid ; and he, summoning his ferocious hosts, swept out 
 of existence, on his march, the kingdom of Syria, putting 
 Rezin to death, and flushed with his victories rushed to 
 the conquest of Israel. City after city fell before him, 
 and their inhabitants were carried away captive. He left 
 in the city and suburbs of Samaria a fragment of a king- 
 dom in the hands of the humbled king. This campaign 
 of the Assyrian king is found described on the tablets of 
 Nineveh which have been exhumed after being buried for 
 two thousand five hundred years. 
 
 As Pekah gained his kingdom as a regicide, he lost it in 
 like manner. Hoshea, probably one of his chief captains, 
 slew the king and ascended his throne. He was a strong 
 and active monarch. But his secret and cunning treaty 
 with the king of Egypt did not screen him from the sus- 
 picion and finally from the inroad of Shalmanezer the 
 Assyrian, who succeeded Tiglath Pileser. City after city 
 was taken, and the streets were filled with captives. At 
 last Samaria was besieged, and after three years of most 
 intense suffering the city surrendered. The citizens and 
 nation were carried captive and colonized and scattered in 
 different parts of the great upper valleys of the Euphrates 
 and Tigris ; thus fulfilling the threatening word of the law- 
 giver who announced this punishment upon the nation if 
 they persisted in disobedience. On one of the exhumed 
 tablets just referred to is this laconic record of the cap- 
 ture of Samaria : " Samaria I looked at, I captured ; twenty- 
 seven thousand two hundred and eighty men who dwelt 
 
262 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 in it I carried away. I constructed fifty chariots in the 
 country ; I appointed a governor over them, and contin- 
 ued upon [them?] the tribute of the former people." So 
 passed away the kingdom of Israel from the land and the 
 knowledge of men. 
 
 It was to such a people, under such conditions, that 
 Hosea prophesied. In the midst of idolatry, anarchy, regi- 
 cide, licentiousness, he lifted up his voice like a trumpet, 
 announcing the end of such moral corruption. Into such a 
 seething caldron of iniquity, political, social, and religious, 
 the prophet was about to cast his prophecy, hoping against 
 hope that God would give power to the word to cool the 
 burning passions and calm the raging lusts of the people. 
 During the whole half-century in which the life of the 
 nation was flickering out, its blood thick with corrup- 
 tion, its breath foul with falsehood, and its lips blistered 
 with blasphemy, Hosea rebuked, remonstrated, threatened, 
 promised, and entreated, imploring the people to turn from 
 their wickedness and serve the God of their fathers, and 
 to "live and not die." 
 
 We should expect, under such circumstances, that 
 sometimes the style of the prophet would be like the 
 moaning of the winds in the cedar-trees or the rote of 
 the midnight sea on the beach ; at other times we should 
 expect that his indignation would be so inflamed that his 
 tones would be like the storms which shake the top of 
 Lebanon, or the thunders which made Sinai tremble,-^ 
 and we find it so. His style is always very abrupt, and 
 hence obscure. No book in the Old Testament, Job 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 263 
 
 excepted, perhaps, is so poorly translated in our Common 
 Version. The prophet delivers his message as if each sen- 
 tence were attended with a groan, and a sigh, and a pause, 
 before another could be spoken. Each verse is a whole, 
 like the heavy toll of a funeral bell. His heart often- 
 times melts within him. The reader of his prophecy will 
 be surprised by abrupt transitions from tenderest entreaty 
 to most indignant rebuke, as if we had only a very con- 
 densed report of what Hosea said. 
 
 There are two divisions of the book, — the symbolic, chap- 
 ters i.-iii., and the plain, chapters iv.-xiv. The symbols 
 under which the prophet represents Jehovah and Israel are 
 those of husband and wife, and through his prophecy he is 
 constantly referring to this relation to illustrate the base 
 ingratitude and sin of the nation. He ventures upon 
 ground, in his description of this relation and its duties, 
 which our Occidental tastes disrelish. The symbol is nar- 
 rated in prose, but the interpretation is in poetry. These 
 symbols were never acted, they are only described ; they 
 are, however, spoken of as acted, that they may appear the 
 more forcible. Had they been acted, Hosea would have 
 been as vile as the vilest of those whom he rebuked, and 
 would have been a most flagrant violator of the very law 
 which he was exhorting the people to observe. 
 
 There are no specific prophecies in the book which 
 render it necessary to suppose that Hosea was supernatu- 
 rally aided in their delivery. Based, as all his threatenings 
 and promises are, upon the Mosaic law, his authority and 
 guide were in his hand. The references to this book and 
 
264 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 the quotations taken from it by the New Testament writers 
 are all in accordance with the Jewish custom of applying 
 any passages in the old Scriptures to corresponding cir- 
 cumstances in their own times in order to give beauty, 
 force, and attractiveness to their own writings, whether the 
 original writer had their times in mind or not. 
 
 Hosea, like all the other prophets, closes with prom- 
 ises full of the most graphic description of the blessings 
 which will follow repentance, — even restoration to their 
 native land : — 
 
 " I will ransom them, saith Jehovah, from the power of the grave ; 
 I will redeem them from death. 
 O death, where is thy plague ? 
 O grave, where is thy destruction ? " 
 
 Captives though you are, and apparently hopeless as the 
 dead in their graves, I will rescue you, I will exalt you. 
 
 Section IV. — Isaiah. 
 
 As the form of Samuel looms up in grandeur in the 
 chaotic times of the Judges, as the form of Elijah rises 
 sublime over the idolatrous prophets of the kingdom of 
 Israel, so the form of this great prophet, Isaiah, stands 
 gigantic in the midst of his contemporaries. Of the life 
 of Isaiah more is known than of that of either of his 
 contemporaries. No mention is made of them in the 
 extant fragments of the history of their times ; but of Isaiah 
 we have many incidents in the books of both the Kings 
 and Chronicles. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 265 
 
 The title to the book of his prophecies reads as follows : 
 " The vision of Isaiah the son of Amos, which he saw 
 concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, 
 Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah." As we 
 read that he was called to the prophetic office in the last 
 year of the reign of Uzziah, and as the latest date of any 
 of his prophecies is that of the fifteenth year of the reign 
 of Hezekiah, we have the length of his prophetic work, 
 extending to fifty-five years, 758-703 B.C. 
 
 The reign of Uzziah was as good as it was long, extend- 
 ing over a period of fifty years. The nation was most 
 of the time at peace, grew rich and luxurious, and fell 
 into all the vices which riches, when devoted to luxury, 
 bring. The prophet, therefore, when he enters upon his 
 work as a religious teacher and moral reformer, rebukes 
 the people for their sins of pride and extravagance. 
 Jotham ascended the throne at his father's death, and 
 reigned wisely and well for sixteen years. We have no 
 prophecy of Isaiah which bears decisive marks of having 
 been delivered in his reign. At the death of Jotham, his 
 son Ahaz succeeded him at the age of twenty-five, a well- 
 meaning but weak and fickle man, and hence easily led 
 into idolatrous practices by the cunning, unprincipled 
 members of his court. His reign fell in stormy times. 
 Pekah sat on the throne of Israel, and Rezin reigned in 
 Damascus and ruled Syria. They hated each other as 
 only rivals can hate, and fought and ravaged each other's 
 kingdoms as only barbarians can do, till the overshadow- 
 ing power of Assyria terrified them both, and a common 
 
266 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 hostility to the peaceful, prosperous kingdom of Judah 
 caused them to smother their mutual hatred and make 
 common cause against the towering power on the east and 
 the harmless nation on the south. It was the faith, the 
 courage, the indomitable energy of Isaiah which saved 
 the timid Ahaz from despair when Pekah and Rezin came 
 up against Jerusalem. Yet against the remonstrance of 
 Isaiah he made a treaty with Tiglath Pileser, king of 
 Assyria, both offensive and defensive, to humble the pride 
 of Israel and Damascus; and thus the Assyrian learned 
 the weakness of Judah, and by treachery and siege caused 
 its humiliation. After the captivity of Israel and the sub- 
 jugation of Syria, the successors of Tiglath, especially 
 Sennacherib, did the kingdom of Judah great harm, cap- 
 turing cities, laying waste vineyards, plundering threshing- 
 floors, and enslaving and carrying away captive many 
 citizens. Moreover, Egypt, on the other side, was the 
 rival and the foe of Assyria, and the small and weak king- 
 dom of Judah was like the grain between the upper and 
 nether millstones. Forced by the one nation to make a 
 treaty in its favor, it was soon compelled by the other to 
 break it, as the tide of victory rose and fell between the 
 conflicting armies which trampled their soil as the vint- 
 ager tramples the grapes in the wine-press. 
 
 Hezekiah succeeded his father, Ahaz, and " was one 
 of the most splendid princes," says Ewald, "who ever 
 adorned the throne of David, and whose reign of thirty- 
 nine years exhibits an almost unclouded picture of per- 
 sistent struggle amid the most embarrassed and difficult 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 267 
 
 circumstances. He was thoroughly noble, wanting neither 
 the military spirit nor personal valor, yet devoted by pref- 
 erence to the arts of peace," which his enemies left him 
 little time to cultivate. He cleansed the sacred, and 
 destroyed the idolatrous, altars, and forbade the idolatrous 
 practices of his father, Ahaz; collected the scattered 
 proverbs of Solomon and of other wise men ; reformed the 
 Temple worship, and did all that a good and energetic king 
 could do, but often in vain, to stay the swift current of pro- 
 fligacy and corruption which was pouring through the land. 
 Diplomacy, war, tribute, could not protect him and his 
 people from foreign enemies and domestic dissensions. 
 
 During these stormy times Isaiah lived and prophesied 
 with the courage of a hero and the wisdom of a sage. 
 He had the passionate love of country which fires the 
 bosom of a true patriot, and the " vision divine " which 
 makes the patriot both poet and prophet. By the breadth 
 of his wisdom he commanded the audience of kings, and 
 under the shadow of his sublime trust the people sought 
 protection when all faces were pale with despair, and all 
 hearts were faint in the presence of the defiant foe. The 
 affrighted king became calm, hopeful, courageous, in his 
 self-reliant presence. His words were as goads to the 
 time-serving, and like living coals to his enemies. He 
 is a citizen of Jerusalem. All the stones of its walls are 
 precious to him. He was not, like Amos, taken from the 
 sheepfold, nor like Joel and Hosea was he a citizen of 
 an obscure village. He had lived under the very shadow 
 of the Temple. In childhood his ears had heard the priests 
 
268 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 as they chanted in the holy place the psalms of their shep- 
 herd king. He had seen the smoke of the morning sac- 
 rifice float away toward Olivet as the golden pinnacles of 
 the Temple were blazing with the coming day. The fra- 
 grance of the incense from the golden altar had greeted 
 him as he walked the streets. The house of David, the 
 palace of Solomon, and all the splendors of the Temple 
 were familiar to his eye and dear to his heart. The very 
 fervor of his manly love was made more intense by his 
 dread of the portending evil, for he saw the luxury, the 
 license, which come from great prosperity. Worship was 
 becoming a form ; justice was corrupted by bribes ; the 
 guardians of the fatherless defrauded them of their estates, 
 and the cause of the widow was perverted in the seat of 
 justice. Excess as well as corruption abounded. The 
 wine-cup overflowed ; the wardrobe was crowded with em- 
 broidered garments ; the arms and necks of the women 
 blazed with jewelry ; and the fragrance of perfumery filled 
 the air as, tinkling their ankle-chains, they passed in the 
 streets. The general hypocrisy and corruption of those 
 in office, both sacred and profane, in temple and in court, 
 are described by the prophet in chapter i. 11-23. The 
 extravagance of private life and the pride of display are 
 depicted in flaming colors in chapter iii. 16-24. The 
 certain consequences of such a state of things the prophet 
 knew. They were written in letters of light in the law, 
 and were prophesied in the premonitions of co?iscience. 
 
 The prophet's heart burned within him to deliver his 
 people and beloved city and Temple from the doom which 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 269 
 
 was hovering over it as the eagle hovers over the lamb 
 before it stoops upon its pinions and swoops down to bear 
 away its prey. Darkness was round about him. How 
 should he speak ? What should he say ? Speak he must. 
 Cry aloud he must ; and yet wisdom closed his lips, silence 
 sat on his tongue. Now it was that the vision of the ma- 
 jesty of the Great Guardian of both city and people rose 
 before him in a dream or a reverie. The Temple and all 
 its consecrated courts and pillars and altars were trans- 
 figured before him, and their earthly beauty was all aflame 
 with heavenly splendors. The throne of the Great King 
 of kings, even of Jehovah, God of hosts, was unveiled, 
 and on it, high and lifted up, sat the Guardian of Israel 
 in the majesty of his greatness. The train of his robe of 
 state covered the Temple pavement. Around him stood 
 seraphs. They bowed and veiled their faces, and covered 
 their feet with their wings, and in responsive strains they 
 cried : — 
 
 " Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts, 
 The whole earth is full of his glory." 
 
 And as the notes of the great refrain rose among the 
 arches, and broke upon the pillars, and poured through 
 the courts, and were rolled back from the walls, the foun- 
 dations of the Temple were shaken and the thresholds 
 trembled. The incense rose in clouds from the golden 
 altar and filled the holy place with fragrance. Fainting 
 with awe, the prophet cried, " Alas for me ! I am un- 
 done ! " He was a man of unclean lips, and unworthy to 
 speak for God and righteousness. Then one of the seraphs 
 
2/0 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 took from the flaming altar with the golden tongs a glow- 
 ing coal and touched the prophet's lips, and said to him, 
 " Thine iniquity is taken away." With changed spirit the 
 prophet rose and said, "Lord, send me. I will speak 
 thy word. I will be thy messenger." The vision filled his 
 heart with courage, and from this hour onward eloquence 
 was on his tongue. The glowing coal was a symbol of the 
 fervid language and glowing courage of the prophet. De- 
 spair did not overcome him when he was told that his 
 message would be rejected and the people persist in sin 
 even until 
 
 " The cities be laid waste so that there be no inhabitant, 
 And the houses so that there be no man, 
 And the land be left utterly desolate, 
 Until Jehovah have removed the men far away, 
 And there be great desolation in the land." 
 
 But there was hope for his people in a distant future. 
 Even though the tenth part of the people left after the 
 ten tribes were carried captive should be conquered and 
 removed, still a remnant would remain to once more 
 flourish and grow up into a great nation holy unto the 
 Lord, just as 
 
 " When the terebinth and the oak are cut down, 
 Their stem remaineth alive, 
 So a holy race shall be the stem of the nation." 
 
 By repentance, by sorrow, by the purification wrought 
 by desolation and captivity, would a " remnant " be the 
 " seed " of a great nation to return and build up the waste 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 2*J\ 
 
 places, and plant the vineyards and heap the threshing- 
 floors, and pile the altars with offerings ; and there should 
 be no one to disturb or make afraid in all the land. 
 
 So sublime is the language with which this greatest of 
 the prophets dedicates himself to his work. If this is 
 but the gate of the temple, what riches of imagination, 
 what fervors of devotion, what glowing colors of descrip- 
 tion, shall we not find when we cross the threshold ! 
 
 This book is divided into two parts, very easily distin- 
 guished from each other both by the style and the time 
 of their composition. The first part includes chapters 
 i.-xxxix., of which chapters xxxvi.-xxxix. are an historical 
 appendix. The second part includes chapters xl.-lxvi. 
 The first part may be divided again into three parts, — the 
 first, including chapters i.-xii., relating to the Jews ; the 
 second, including chapters xiii.-xxiii., relating to foreign 
 nations ; and the third, including chapters xxiv.-xxxix., 
 relating again to the Jews, and including the historical 
 appendix xxxvi.-xxxix., substantially like 2 Kings xviii.-xx. 
 Several passages of this first part are pretty evidently not 
 the work of Isaiah, as chapters xiii., xiv., and xxiv.-xxvii., 
 and the appendix which closes the first part. Several other 
 passages are judged by good critics, with greater or less 
 reason, not to be the work of our prophet, as chapters xv., 
 xvi., and a part of xxi. The whole of the second part, 
 chapters xl.-lxvi., is most evidently the work of another 
 author, as appears from the style of the book and the fact 
 that the writer assumes everywhere the present desolation 
 of Jerusalem, the captivity in Babylon, and the immediate 
 
272 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 return of the captives. Any reader of the English Bible 
 will notice, upon the most cursory reading, this difference 
 between the two parts ; and there is now very little con- 
 troversy on this subject among competent critics. The 
 writer of this part is unknown ; and Ewald, with reference 
 to the grandeur of his book, has called its author the 
 "Great Unnamed." 
 
 In only a few cases is it easy to determine the precise 
 date of the prophecies of Isaiah in the first part. Of 
 only two have we unquestioned historical assurance. 
 The first is recorded in chapter vii., and was delivered 
 in the reign of Ahaz, when Pekah and Rezin came up 
 against Judah ; where Isaiah declares that before a child, 
 soon to be born of the young wife by his side, shall be 
 old enough to distinguish between good and evil, these 
 two kings will be conquered, and their land made a 
 prey. Assyria will ravage Syria and Israel, and leave 
 them desolate, but afterward will that great and fierce 
 people invade and desolate Judah for its sins. The child's 
 name shall be God-with-us (Immanuel), as a sign that 
 Jehovah will not now permit the kingdom to fall wholly 
 into the hands of its invading foes. The animated and 
 confident appeals of Isaiah roused the nation and assured 
 the king. Their invaders finally retired to secure their 
 own dominions from conquest. 
 
 There is no ground for supposing any supernatural reve- 
 lation to have been made to the mind of the prophet to 
 enable him to announce this result. The signs of the 
 times were too ominous to escape the notice of a true 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 273 
 
 patriot and prophet. The gathering cloud of a terrible 
 people, fierce and multiplying, and thirsting for conquest 
 on the upper waters of the Tigris, before whose strength 
 and attack the western kingdoms were dreading and trem- 
 bling, was sufficient ground for Isaiah to say that these two 
 kings would be compelled to retire and look after the 
 safety of their own dominions, which they would not be 
 able to secure ; and further, that after the ruin of the 
 kingdoms the people of Judah would have cause to fear, 
 nay, to know, that desolation would also cover their own 
 land unless they made haste to repent, now that all barriers 
 between them and the barbarous conquering hosts were 
 removed. 
 
 A wrong translation of this verse has led many to sup- 
 pose that the child whose birth is here predicted was the 
 Messiah ; and an equally incorrect interpretation of the 
 quotations made in the New Testament from the Old 
 has led readers to suppose that the citation of this pas- 
 sage (Matthew i. 22, 23) proves that the prophet had 
 the Messiah in his mind. What has been said about the 
 method of quoting their old Scriptures by the Jews will 
 enable the reader rightly to understand both the prophet 
 and Matthew, and minute criticism must be remitted to 
 the commentator. 
 
 The second incident which demands particular notice 
 occurred in the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, 
 and after Sargon had taken Samaria and carried Israel 
 away captive. Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, had won 
 victory after victory over the nations, and was now muster- 
 
 18 
 
2/4 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 ing all his forces to drive back the king of Egypt to his 
 narrow domain on the Nile, and to take Judah from him 
 for his own province. Poor Judah ! whose land was the 
 camping-ground and battlefield of these two mighty nations. 
 It was not quite safe to leave so strong a city as Jerusalem 
 behind him untaken ; so the king sent his general, Rab- 
 shakeh, to take it, if it would not surrender on demand. 
 Terror and dismay filled the hearts of the citizens, and 
 Hezekiah fainted with fear. Defiant demands and bar- 
 barous threats were made by the fierce Assyrian. Isaiah 
 alone stood firm, confident, trusting in God. He spoke 
 words of hope and assurance to the king and to the peo- 
 ple, and declared, in the name of the Lord, that the hosts 
 of the enemy would perish and the king return to his own 
 country. If we can rely upon the accuracy of the his- 
 tory, all of this took place as predicted. Particulars are 
 mentioned there of which Isaiah says nothing in his 
 prophecy, and which must not be understood as having 
 been foretold. The curing of Hezekiah must not be 
 assumed to be a supernatural work, nor must we place 
 confidence in the historian's account of the going back 
 of the shadow on the sun-dial of Ahaz. This record is 
 not the work of Isaiah, and may not have been made 
 until some years afterward, when the facts were not under- 
 stood, or certain figurative language was supposed to be 
 literal. At all events, these two supposed miracles make 
 no part of the writings of Isaiah, and very probably are 
 the honest record of the traditions which had descended 
 to the time of the writer. The main facts in the historical 
 
 i 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 275 
 
 part are doubtless correct, but some of the specific state- 
 ments are open to more than doubt. 
 
 That Jerusalem was not taken at this time, we know 
 from the inscription on the tablets exhumed in Sennache- 
 rib's palace. Before me is a representation of the king 
 sitting on his throne before Lachish dooming the city to 
 massacre, and thus reads the judgment : ' k Sennacherib, the 
 mighty king, king of Assyria, sitting on the throne of judg- 
 ment before the city of Lachish. I give permission for 
 slaughter." And another tablet reads : " Because Heze- 
 kiah, king of Judah, would not submit to my yoke, I came 
 up against him, and by force of arms, and by might of my 
 power, I took forty-six of his strong fenced cities ; and of 
 the smaller towns which were scattered about I took a 
 countless number. And from these places I captured and 
 carried off as spoil 200,150 people, old and young, male 
 and female, and camels and sheep, and oxen a countless 
 multitude, and Hezekiah himself shut up in his capital 
 city like a bird in a cage." Thus is the substance of the 
 history confirmed by tablets which had been buried for 
 twenty centuries. The deadly wind from the desert and 
 the startling news from Assyria caused the boasting king 
 to take sudden departure for his dominions. Colored by 
 the imagination of the poet, the sudden departure of the 
 army, and the death of so many of them by the blast from 
 the desert, the whole transaction becomes the special in- 
 terposition of Jehovah in behalf of the beleaguered city, as 
 viewed and expressed by the pious spirit of the citizens. 
 
 The style of the prophet is not excelled in vigor and sub- 
 
276 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 limity by that of any other writer, nor is it rivalled by any, 
 unless it be by that of the author of the Book of Job. It is 
 graphic, terse, and throbs with emotion everywhere, some- 
 times melting with tenderness, sometimes glowing with 
 indignation. What power of description in chapters ii. 
 10-22 ; iv. 2-6 ! How graphic his parable of the vineyard 
 (chapter v. 1-7) and the consequences of revelling (chap- 
 ter v. n-17, 20-25) ! How startlingly he describes the 
 summoning of the hosts of Jehovah, by whose agency 
 these terrible deeds shall be done (chapter v. 26-30) ! 
 Read his description of the offensive nature of their wor- 
 ship (chapter i. 11-23), an( ^ °f the frippery of their dress 
 (chapter iii. 1 6-24), and learn how this writer, twenty-five 
 centuries ago, could paint the loftiest as well as the lowest 
 incidents and acts in colors which will never fade, and 
 which hold fast the admiration of the ages. 
 
 The second part, as already stated, includes chapters 
 xl.-lxvi., and was written a century and a half or two cen- 
 turies after the first part, as both the style and the historic 
 references show. Babylon and Persia and Cyrus are the 
 themes of this part, — not Assyria and Syria and Israel. 
 Jerusalem is desolate, and the land of Judah is waste, and 
 the people are about returning from captivity to build up 
 the waste places. A few quotations will call the reader's 
 attention to other similar passages which will be found 
 scattered through the prophecy : — 
 
 " Thus saith Jehovah . . . Jerusalem shall be inhabitedy 
 And the cities of Judah shall be built, 
 And the desolate places I will restore, 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 2*]7 
 
 And the temple, her foundations shall be laid. 
 
 Cyrus is my shepherd. 
 
 He shall perform my pleasure." — xliv. 26-28. 
 
 " Jehovah will have pity upon Zion ; 
 He will have pity upon all her desolations ; 
 He will make her wilderness like Eden, 
 Her desert like the garden of Jehovah." — li. 3. 
 
 " Arise, sit erect, O Jerusalem, . . . 
 O captive daughter of Zion. . . . 
 
 Break forth into joy, shout together, ye ruins of Jerusalem, 
 For Jehovah hath pity on his people. 
 Depart, depart ye ; go ye out from thence. . . . 
 Nor in flight shall ye pass along, 
 For Jehovah shall march in your front." — lii. 2, 9, II, 12. 
 
 " They shall build up the old ruins ; 
 They shall raise up the ancient desolations, 
 They shall repair the cities laid waste." — lxi. 4. 
 
 " No more shalt thou be called the Desolate 
 And thy land the Forsaken." — lxii. 4. 
 
 " Thy holy cities have become a wilderness ; 
 Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. 
 Our holy and glorious house, 
 Where our fathers praised thee, 
 Is burned with fire, 
 And all our precious things are laid waste." — lxiv. 10, II. 
 
 But the time to return and rebuild the city has fully 
 come. Cyrus is God's servant to deliver them from cap- 
 tivity, and the prophet lifts up his voice of command : 
 
 " Come ye forth from Babylon, flee ye from the land of the Chal- 
 deans with a voice of joy. . . . 
 
 Say, Jehovah hath redeemed his servant Jacob ; 
 
 They thirst not in the deserts through which he leadeth them." — 
 xlviii. 20, 21. 
 
278 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 The nations are called upon to prepare the way for the 
 emancipated captives : — 
 
 " Pass ye, pass ye through the gates ; 
 Prepare the way for the people ; 
 Cast ye up, cast ye up the highway, 
 Clear it of stones ; 
 Lift up on high the standard for the tribes." — lxii. 10. 
 
 " Thus shall the ransomed of Jehovah return ; 
 They shall come to Zion with singing, 
 And sorrow and sighing shall flee away." — li. 11. 
 
 " Comfort ye my people, saith your God, 
 And declare to her, Jerusalem, 
 That her hard service is ended, 
 That her iniquity is expiated. . . . 
 Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah, 
 Make straight in the desert a highway for our God : 
 Every valley shall be exalted, 
 And every mountain shall be made low ; 
 The crooked shall become straight, 
 And the rough places plain." — xl. 1-4. 
 
 The time when this part of the book was written is evi- 
 dent. It was during the period when Cyrus was marching 
 upon Babylon, and after he had taken it and the captives 
 were permitted to return to their desolated country. The 
 people had suffered all the sorrows and homesickness of 
 captivity, and the burden of this prophet's addresses is 
 to inspire them with fortitude and hope ; for, as the 
 promise of Jehovah in their law was true, deliverance 
 would come, — nay, was coming : Cyrus, God's servant, 
 chosen for this work, was already approaching to besiege 
 and take the proud city of Babylon. No specific events 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 279 
 
 are predicted, and the whole prophecy takes its topics 
 and coloring and confidence from passing events, obvious 
 future revolutions, and the fundamental law of the nation. 
 The style of this " great unknown, or unnamed," 
 prophet differs from that of the Isaiah of the first part as 
 the current of the river Niagara differs from its rapids. 
 The elder Isaiah is vehement, impassioned, abrupt, sym- 
 bolic, in his style. His sentences break asunder by the 
 pressure of the thought, and melt by the heat of the emo- 
 tion. He strides along upon the mountain-tops, and 
 rides upon the storm. On the other hand, the later 
 prophet pours out his thought in a majestic stream, so 
 strong as to be broken by no obstacle, so deep as to be 
 tossed by no roughness of its bed. His tone is lofty and 
 grand; and though he indulges in no visions, his meta- 
 phors and similes are at times original and startling. He 
 encourages and soothes in the tones of a mother. He re- 
 bukes and condemns in the tones of a judge. He unfolds 
 the rich promises of Jehovah in the most mellifluous sen- 
 tences, as winning as they are sweet. And when he lifts 
 the curtain of the future and reveals the restored Jerusa- 
 lem, the rebuilt villages, the waste places luxuriant with 
 vineyards and harvest-fields, he rises into strains of grati- 
 tude and assurance which thrill the heart after the pas- 
 sage of twenty-five centuries. He describes and satirizes 
 the manufacture of false gods in a tone of scorn and 
 language of contempt unsurpassed by any modern writer. 
 And if he described, as I think he did, the destruction 
 of Babylon and the descent of her king to the under- 
 
280 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 world, given in the first part, he stands without a rival 
 — certainly without a superior — in the literature of the 
 ages. 
 
 There is one passage in the first part which requires 
 separate consideration ; and the second part should not be 
 laid aside until an inquiry has been made respecting " the 
 servant of the Lord," so often mentioned in it. Isaiah ix. 
 1-7 is supposed by many commentators to be a specific 
 prediction of the Messiah, the great king who was to sit 
 on David's throne. This opinion is founded largely upon 
 the quotation of the passage in Matthew iv. 13-16, in which 
 our Saviour is said to have come " to Capernaum, which 
 is upon the sea-coast in the borders of Zebulun and 
 Nephthalim : that it might be fulfilled which was spoken 
 by Esaias the prophet, saying," — and then the verses 1 
 and 2 of Isaiah are imperfectly quoted. The fact that this 
 quotation is here made, and the language applied to our 
 Saviour's going into Capernaum in that region, is no proof 
 whatever that Matthew understood Isaiah as foretelling 
 this event. Hosea is quoted in a still stronger formula in 
 Matthew ii. 15, where it is evident that the passage is quoted 
 rhetorically, as adding force to the style by the singular ap- 
 propriateness of a phrase in Hosea to a transaction in 
 Matthew. If the passage in Isaiah refers to our Saviour, 
 it must be shown to do so by its place in the prophecy. 
 
 How, then, does the passage stand in that? It seems 
 that some enemy (Rezin, king of Syria, or the king of 
 Assyria) had just invaded Israel and laid waste this part 
 of that people's territory, as is hinted or implied in the 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 28 1 
 
 previous chapter, which should have contained also the 
 first seven verses of this chapter. The prophet promises 
 them that this will not long be, for a king will soon appear, 
 — nay, is now born, — who will scourge back the in- 
 vaders and deliver the people with a great victory; that 
 peace will follow his conquests, and joy fill the hearts 
 of the nation. So noble will be his character, so grand 
 his conquests, and so crushed his enemies, that he can 
 rightly be called " Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty Poten- 
 tate [Hero, God], Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace , " 
 that the king who will be worthy of these titles and win 
 these honors "is \_now~\ born," — not to be born, — "is 
 \fiow\ given," — not to be given. Therefore, be of good 
 cheer, faint not : the dawn of the day of your deliverance 
 is even now glowing on the summits of Hermon. 
 
 Some writers are of opinion that Hezekiah, now a lad, 
 was the " child " — the " son " — alluded to, and, in the 
 language of modern days, coi?tplimented by Isaiah ; for 
 the reign of Hezekiah was a good and prosperous one for 
 the times. It is objected that such language could not 
 be used of any merely human being. But the objector 
 forgets that this is poetry, — and not this only, but that 
 it is Orie?ttal poetry, the qualities of which have been fully 
 discussed. Much less fulsome, and much less offensive 
 to our tastes, is the language here used, if addressed to 
 a young prince or spoken of him, than the language 
 which Orientals often use of their nobles and kings. 
 To interpret this language of Isaiah literally, as sober 
 prose, would be a grievous wrong to the old prophet, 
 
282 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 and a most flagrant violation of the plainest rules of her- 
 meneutics. The two words which are here translated 
 " Mighty God " in our version are the same as are used 
 in the name Gabriel. This name does not signify the 
 nature or rank of the person. If it did, we might say 
 that Elijah was Jehovah, for his name signifies " my God 
 Jehovah," or "Jehovah my God." Indeed, every name 
 in the Old Testament ending in "ah " or " jah " signifies 
 some relation to Jehovah. This is too well known to all 
 scholars to need illustration. Jesus is never elsewhere 
 called by any of the names here applied to the present 
 triumphant king. 
 
 The passage was spoken for the encouragement of the 
 people when in distress, and the promise made that a 
 prince the?i born — Hezekiah or some other — would win 
 for them blessing, reign worthily of a successor of David, 
 and receive high titles of distinction for his virtues and 
 conquests. 
 
 " The servant of the Lord," who was he, — especially 
 as described in chapters lii. 13-liii. 12? To answer this 
 question fully would require more space than can be given 
 to it here. Critics are divided in opinion, and volumes 
 have been written upon the subject. It must suffice here 
 to give the briefest possible answer, without going into 
 particulars or proofs. The reader must fill out these out- 
 lines by his own personal study of the passage, and of the 
 usage of the word " servant " by this writer in the pre- 
 vious chapters of this second part ; for he begins to use 
 the word in chapter xli. 8, 9, and continues to employ it 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 283 
 
 to chapter liv., when he personifies the nation as a woman 
 (chapter xlix., "daughter of Zion"), and closes these 
 personifications with the rousing call to the people to 
 return and enjoy the blessings of peace and plenty in their 
 own land, in chapter lv. The " servant " is the chosen 
 people, Israel, personified, as appears from xli. 8, 9 : — 
 
 " But thou, O Israel my servant, 
 Thou, Jacob, whom I have chosen, . . . 
 And said to thee, Thou art my servant." 
 
 And xliv. 1, 2 : — 
 
 " Yet now hear, O Jacob, my servant^ 
 And Israel whom I have chosen." 
 
 And xliii. 10 : — 
 
 " Ye [the people] are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, 
 And my servant whom I have chosen." 
 
 And xlii. 18, 19 : — 
 
 " Hear, O ye deaf, 
 And look, ye blind, and see ! 
 Who is blind, if not my servant ? 
 "Who so deaf as my messenger whom I send? " 
 
 The reader will observe that when the people are in 
 the prophet's mind, and directly addressed, the plural 
 pronoun ye is used ; but in close connection, when the 
 people or nation are personified, they are called " servant," 
 
 " It pleased Jehovah, for his goodness' sake, 
 To give him a law great and glorious ; 
 And yet it is a robbed and plundered people. 
 
284 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 In chapters xliv. 21 ; xlv. 4; xlviii. 20; xlix. 3, 6, the 
 people are directly called or implied to be the servant of 
 Jehovah. This is the chosen, the ideal nation, God's be- 
 loved, not the real, actual people ; though sometimes this 
 writer, in his long description of thirteen chapters, appears 
 to forget himself, and, thinking of the mass of idolatrous 
 people, — the sinning, God-forsaking nation, — speaks of 
 the servant as deaf and blind; but this is not the 
 rule, and is a deviation from the figure or personification 
 with which the prophet starts, and to which he very closely 
 adheres, when we consider the perilous length of the 
 personification. 
 
 What happens to God's chosen, elect people, happens of 
 course to its personification, or servant. The careful 
 reader of the passage between chapter xl. and chapter 
 lii. 12 will find that this servant is spoken of as " feeble," 
 a "worm," "afflicted," "'despised," against whom men 
 were "enraged." He is said to be "poor " and "needy," 
 "blind" and "deaf," the "friend of God," yet "robbed," 
 " plundered," a " spoil," bound in prison and a " prisoner," 
 a "curse," a "reproach," "reviled by men," yet a "friend," 
 beloved of God, " chosen." Ideally, the people are 
 God's chosen servant for the enlightenment of all na- 
 tions. Actually, they are a sinful people, rebellious, guilty, 
 captive. 
 
 It may be well just here to call attention to the personi- 
 fication of the people as a woman, a handmaid, though this 
 word is not used. She is spoken of in chapters xlix., 1., and 
 li., as "childless," "unfruitful," an "exile," an "outcast," 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 285 
 
 as "oppressed," as "divorced," as dismissed for the "sins 
 of the people," as having drunk the cup of Jehovah's fury 
 to the dregs, as "afflicted," as "deserted," as " captive," as 
 to be "ransomed." The handmaid is described as suffer- 
 ing the same things as the "servant." Both are described 
 as despised and rejected of men. The " servant " says, 
 
 " I gave my back to the smiters 
 And my cheeks to them that pluck the beard, 
 And hid not my face from shame and spitting." — li. 6. 
 
 All this is the personification of the people represented as 
 suffering, since it was what the people themselves suffered. 
 There is not anything said of the servant in chapters 
 Hi. 13-liii. which is not said or implied in the previous 
 representations, except that in this section the prophet, 
 by exclusion of other matter, is able to condense into one 
 sad picture all he has said before, and give it such other 
 touches as would make it bold and expressive. The 
 burial of the " servant," as he represents the nation, is 
 no bolder figure than Ezekiel uses (chapter xxxvii. 12, 
 13) respecting the nation: "Behold, O my people, I will 
 open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your 
 graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye 
 shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your 
 graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your 
 graves, and shall put my spirit in you and ye shall live, 
 and I shall place you in your own land." Hosea (xiii. 14) 
 uses the same strong figure of a conquered nation. 
 
 But we are not here writing a commentary on the 
 prophecy of Isaiah. It is sufficient to say that, bearing 
 
286 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 in mind the previous use of the word " servant," and his 
 character and treatment, this account of his sufferings, 
 death, rescue, and prosperity can be understood of the 
 conquest, captivity, suffering, release, and future pros- 
 perity of the Jewish nation. 
 
 It should be said further, before leaving the subject, that 
 the application of many of the passages to our Saviour's 
 life and sufferings is in perfect accordance with the prin- 
 ciple and methods of quoting the earlier Scriptures, which 
 have already been fully explained, and by no means affords 
 any proof that our Saviour was the " servant of the Lord " 
 here spoken of. Besides, it is evident on the most cursory 
 reading that all this disgrace and suffering had already 
 been endured ; for the verbs describing it are in the past 
 tense, while the blessings to flow upon the servant, as also 
 upon the handmaid, as described in chapter liv., are de- 
 scribed as to come, — in the future tense. This fact alone 
 would settle the question whether our Saviour was the 
 "servant" described in chapters lii. 13-liii. 
 
 Section V. — Micah. 
 
 Of the life of this prophet very little is known. He is 
 said, in the introduction to his prophecies, to have been 
 " a Morasthite," and to have prophesied " in the days of 
 Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, . . . con- 
 cerning Judah and Jerusalem." The village of which he is 
 here said to be a native lay southwesterly of Jerusalem, on 
 the borders of the desert. It was in a rural district ; and 
 the style of Micah, as is that of Amos, is made delightfully 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 287 
 
 picturesque with images drawn from country life. The 
 herds, the vineyards, the flocks, the olive-trees, furnish him 
 with abundant and striking symbols of truth, and confirm 
 the statement of the anonymous inscription that he was 
 of rural origin. It is also evident that he was familiar 
 with the city of Jerusalem and its temple. He was a con- 
 temporary of Hosea and Isaiah ; and the same circum- 
 stances in the condition and history of the nation called 
 forth from him similar rebukes, threatenings, and prom- 
 ises. He is mentioned by name only once, Jeremiah xxvi. 
 18, where his prophecy, Micah hi. 12, is quoted. Isaiah 
 also quotes Micah iv. 1-3, in chapter ii. 2-4, but without 
 calling the prophet by name ; or perhaps Micah quotes 
 Isaiah; or possibly both quote some prophet whose 
 writings have not been preserved. 
 
 Most of Micah's prophecies appear to have been deliv- 
 ered in the reign of Hezekiah and after the fall of Samaria. 
 The prophet lived, therefore, in times of extreme peril 
 to his nation. The Assyrian was hovering on its eastern 
 borders and the Egyptian was crouching on the south. 
 The soil of Judah was trodden into barrenness by the ad- 
 vancing and retreating armies. To make a league with one 
 kingdom was to provoke war with the other ; and to attempt 
 to be independent was to invite the hostility of both. 
 
 Lamentation for sin and call to repentance, annunciation 
 of captivity and promise of restoration, — these are the 
 themes of Micah's poetic discourses. The book may be 
 divided into three parts. The first part, consisting of two 
 chapters, opens with a sublime theophany : — 
 
288 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 " Behold Jehovah cometh forth from his dwelling-place ; 
 The mountains melt under him, 
 And the valleys cleave asunder, 
 Like wax before the fire, 
 Like waters poured down a precipice," 
 
 because of the sins of the nation. The prophet therefore 
 calls upon all the cities to weep and lament and roll them- 
 selves in the dust on account of their transgressions. The 
 people contrive evil upon their beds, they covet fields, 
 they take by violence, they acquire by fraud, they reduce 
 to poverty, make children naked, and foolishly listen to 
 false prophets, which so stirs the indignation of Micah 
 that he exclaims in bitterest sarcasm : — 
 
 " If a man follow wind and invent falsehood, and say, 
 ' I will prophesy to thee of wine and strong drink ' ! 
 He will be the prophet for this people." 
 
 Still, God will hear them and deliver them if they will 
 repent. So the first part closes with promises. 
 
 The second part, iii.-v., is addressed to the chief men 
 and princes, and false prophets ; especially are the judges 
 most vehemently rebuked for their partiality in adminis- 
 tering justice : — 
 
 " Ye hate what is good and love what is evil; 
 Ye tear from men their skin ! 
 Yea, their flesh from their bones ! " 
 
 And, not relieved by the utterance of these terrible meta- 
 phors to illustrate the cruelty and express his hatred of 
 these ancient merciless monsters, he bursts forth again 
 more vehemently, — 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 289 
 
 " Ye devour the flesh of my people, 
 And strip from their skin, 
 And break their bones, 
 And cut them in pieces 
 As flesh for the caldron ! " 
 
 As they are deaf to the cry of their victims, so Jehovah 
 will be deaf to their cries. 
 
 To the false prophets who are crying, " Peace, peace, 
 when there is no peace," he says : " Night shall come 
 upon you, and darkness, and the day shall be dark to 
 you." The seers shall all be ashamed, and the diviners 
 shall be confounded, and hide their faces. 
 
 " Zion shall be as a ploughed field because of you, 
 And Jerusalem a heap of stones." 
 
 But not always will Zion be as a ploughed field, nor 
 Jerusalem as a heap of stones ; for in coming days all the 
 ruins shall be rebuilt, and become the " umpire of many 
 kingdoms," and peace shall wave her olive-branch over 
 all the nations. Jehovah's name will be held in supreme 
 honor, as the scattered captives return and build again 
 their altars and offer again their sacrifices. David's pos- 
 terity will continue to reign, as promised in the days of old. 
 The house of Bethlehem, David's house, shall give a ruler 
 of the royal line, and he shall rule in wisdom and peace 
 over his own people ; but he will be as a lion among the 
 flocks to his enemies. 
 
 The third part, vi., vii., opens with the boldest of even 
 Oriental figures, representing Jehovah as holding an argu- 
 ment with his people, and calling upon the mountains and 
 
 19 
 
290 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 the hills and the foundations of the earth to hear and judge 
 between him and his people ; and closes the discussion 
 with that sublime and masterly summary of God's require- 
 ments, which finds a response in every sincere heart : — 
 
 " What doth Jehovah require of thee, 
 But to do justly, and to love mercy, 
 And to walk humbly before thy God ? " 
 
 The prophet now describes their degraded condition, 
 their scanty measures, their wicked scales, their deceitful 
 weights, their merciless oppressions and shameless lying, 
 and announces the terrible chastisement which will come 
 upon the people, at a recital of which his heart breaks, 
 and he sobs : — 
 
 " Woe is me ! There is no cluster to eat ; 
 I long for the first ripe fig. . . . 
 The good man is perished from the land ; 
 They all lie in wait for blood ! " 
 
 All domestic privacy, fidelity, and security are lost. A 
 man's foes are his own household. But though Jerusalem 
 shall be trodden as mire in the streets, the day will come 
 when the captive people shall be gathered from Assyria 
 and the cities of Egypt, and with triumphal joy once 
 more inhabit the land of their fathers. 
 
 Ritualism, formalism, sacrifices, fastings, are of no ac- 
 count with Micah. Justice, uprightness, mercifulness, 
 filialness, these are the supreme things, limited to no 
 nation, limited to no time, — solid integrity both Godward 
 and man ward. 
 
 He appeals for his authority to God's law, the law of 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 29 1 
 
 the great lawgiver Moses, and the law written on the 
 heart. He claims no special illumination from God when 
 he uses the common language of piety and trust. He 
 foretells nothing which human sagacity, enlightened by 
 the law and experience, would not anticipate. He is a 
 preacher of righteousness, and grandly does he speak his 
 word. 
 
 The quotations made in the New Testament are to be 
 interpreted by the rules already given. Micah v. 2-4 == 
 Matthew ii. 6 ; Micah vii. 6. = Matthew x. 35. 
 
 Section VI. — Nahum. 
 
 Of Nahum nothing is known except what is said in the 
 note prefixed to his prophecy, — that he was an Elkoshite ; 
 but the site of his native village is unknown, some writers 
 conjecturing it was in Assyria, and some that it was in 
 Galilee. 
 
 His prophecy is very brief, only three short chapters, 
 and is probably but a fragment of what he wrote. Yet 
 judging by his style and subject he must have been one 
 of the foremost prophets of the nation. He lived in the 
 latter part of the reign of Hezekiah, and had seen 
 the splendors of the army of Assyria and the gleam of 
 the spears of her horsemen ; the shouting of the captains 
 had stunned his ears. The mortified and discomfited 
 king, Sennacherib, still plotted the destruction of Judah 
 and the pillage of Jerusalem. His great and proud city, 
 Nineveh, boasted herself above all other cities, and was 
 
292 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 filled and enriched by the plunder of nations. Against 
 her, the proud, the lofty, the rich, Nahum lifts up his 
 voice to encourage his own people. Surrounded by the 
 smoking ruins of cities just ravaged and pillaged by the 
 Assyrian, he sends his lofty words of defiance across 
 the desert to Nineveh, and announces its desolation. 
 The flaming scroll of his prophecy flew through the 
 heavens like the avenging angel in the Apocalypse, carry- 
 ing mourning, lamentation, and woe in its illuminated 
 sentences : — 
 
 " Nineveh is laid waste ! 
 Who will bemoan her ? 
 Woe to the city of blood ! . . . 
 She hath become void, empty, and desolate ; 
 All that hear thee shall clap their hands ! " 
 
 And when over the doomed city its fiery lines paled and 
 disappeared, the last syllable of prophecy ceased from the 
 kingdom of Israel. Of this great and renowned city we 
 hear no more in prophecy. Under this doom Nineveh 
 sinks to desolation, and its ruins, buried under the dust 
 of twenty centuries, are now uncovered to verify the an- 
 nunciations of this awful curse and wail of Nahum. City 
 and prophet have both perished from the knowledge of 
 men, — save this fragment of Hebrew writing and these 
 broken tablets of Assyrian inscription. 
 
 It is vain to make quotations from this prophet to illus- 
 trate the elevation and boldness of his style. The whole 
 book must be read in connection to appreciate it. 
 
 There is no evidence that Nahum was inspired, in the 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 293 
 
 usual sense of that word. He makes no claim to any 
 such inspiration, nor does any one make it for him who 
 has any authority to speak in his behalf. 
 
 Section VII. — Zephaniah. 
 
 Nothing whatever is known of this prophet except 
 the information given in the anonymous introduction 
 (chapter i. 1), where he is said to be " the son of Cushi, 
 the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of 
 Hizkiah," who prophesied "in the days of Josiah, the 
 son of Anion, the king of Judah." We know no better 
 who he was by this genealogy ; for there were so many 
 persons of these names that the right one cannot with any 
 certainty be selected. He denounces idolatry with great 
 vehemence, and probably lived before the great reforma- 
 tion under Josiah, and when the nation was wholly given 
 up to idolatry. 
 
 The prophecy is very brief, but it is a most precious 
 fragment of Hebrew poetry, and contains some passages 
 of great beauty and sublimity. Each of the three chapters 
 may be considered as a separate poem. 
 
 The prophet threatens Judah with punishment and ex- 
 horts to repentance to avert it, declaring that the enemies 
 of Judah shall also be punished, and specifies the cities 
 which shall be overthrown and laid waste ; but closes with 
 the promise that the " scattered shall be gathered, and 
 brought back from every land, and made a name and 
 a praise among all the nations of the earth." 
 
294 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 This prophecy contains nothing demanding supernatural 
 illumination for its utterance. It is never quoted in the 
 New Testament. 
 
 Section VIII. — Habakkuk. 
 
 Of the life and residence of this prophet we know ab- 
 solutely nothing. His early editor does not tell us his 
 ancestry, if he knew it. He lived later than Zephaniah 
 and Nahum, for he makes no allusion to the Assyrians. 
 The great Chaldean kingdom is now rising into almost 
 unchallenged supremacy, and Babylon succeeds to the 
 glory of Nineveh. It is against these barbarous con- 
 querors that the prophet lifts up his voice in indignant 
 description and denunciation. Conquerors as they were, 
 the prophet believes that Jehovah will not permit them 
 to be victorious forever, but that he will rise in his power 
 in due time and humble their pride and destroy their proud 
 city. So he stands upon the watch-tower and watches, 
 and the answer comes, that waste and desolation shall 
 visit the haughty people. At this answer the heart of the 
 prophet bursts forth in a lyric poem in honor of Jehovah, 
 which surpasses all prophetic utterances on record, and is 
 without a rival in the literature of the world. " The entire 
 ancient history of the Jews," says Eichhorn, " with all its 
 great and wonderful scenes, lends him ideas and images. 
 All that is terrible and grand flows together in one stream. 
 He contends with words ; he struggles with images ; and 
 who is not seized with a holy shudder as he reads, — 
 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 295 
 
 like that of the sacred prophet as he saw the sublime and 
 terrible appearance of the Indescribable ? Paint it better 
 who can ! " This sublime lyric is the third chapter of his 
 prophecy. Whatever may befall, however waste the deso- 
 lation may be, he exclaims, — 
 
 " Yet will I rejoice in Jehovah, 
 I will exult in God, my helper. 
 He will make my feet like the hind's, 
 And cause me to walk upon the high places." 
 
 With such a sublime expression of trust does the prophet 
 conclude this grandest of prophecies. Admirable preacher 
 of righteousness ! The loftiness of thy faith exceeds the 
 loftiness of thy verse y for when armies were ravaging thy 
 land, and the pastures were deserted, and the stalls empty, 
 and the vineyard trampled, and the wine-press broken 
 down, and the fig-tree bare, and the day darkness, thou 
 didst yet trust in the Lord and confide in the God of 
 Israel ! 
 
 There is no evidence of divine aid in this prophecy, nor 
 does the prophet claim any. The quotations in the New 
 Testament are all to be interpreted by the rules already 
 laid down and illustrated. 
 
 Section IX. — Obadiah. 
 
 Of this prophet we know nothing, and but one brief frag- 
 ment of his prophecies has come down to us. That he 
 wrote this prophecy after the destruction of Jerusalem 
 and the captivity of Judah, or after 588 b. c, appears from 
 
296 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 verse 11, — " In the day that thou stoodest on the other 
 side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his 
 forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots 
 upon Jerusalem, even thou wast as one of them." He 
 was contemporary with Jeremiah. He prophesies the de- 
 struction of Edom for its sympathy with the conquerors of 
 Judah, and announces the destruction of their chief city, 
 Petra. It is very much like Jeremiah xlix. 7-22. The 
 theme is the same. The style is very vigorous, and causes 
 regret that more of his prophecies have not reached us. 
 Of inspiration there is no hint nor need. 
 
 Section X. — Jeremiah, 
 
 We know more of Jeremiah than of any other of the 
 prophets. He was the son of the priest Hilkiah, and was 
 of course himself a priest. He prophesied in the reign of 
 the reforming king, Josiah, 638-603 b. c. ; in the reigns 
 of Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, 603-597 b. c. ; in those of 
 Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, 597-588 b. c. ; and after the cap- 
 tivity, 588-583 B.C., — covering a period of about fifty 
 years. Though his prophecies may be divided into three 
 classes, — (1) Those delivered before the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, chapters i.-xxxix. ; (2) Those after it, chap- 
 ters xl.-xlv. ; (3) Those against foreign nations, chapters 
 xlvi.-lii., — still, the better plan is to follow the order of 
 the reigns of the kings, or the life of the prophet during 
 each reign. 
 
 The prophecies are not arranged in chronological order, 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 297 
 
 and no rule appears to have guided the compiler, or else 
 the order has been sadly disturbed by time and careless 
 handling. Under Josiah's reign are included chapters 
 iii. 6-vi. ; under Jehoiakim's, chapters xxv., xxvi., xxxv., 
 xxxvi., xlv. ; under Zedekiah's, chapters xxi., xxiv., xxvii.- 
 xxix., xxxii.-xxxiv., xxxvii. 8, xxxviii., L, li. ; after the cap- 
 tivity, chapters xl.-xlii., xlvii.-xlix. ; and in Egypt, chap- 
 ters xliii. 8, xliv., 1. 8, li. This is a tolerably correct 
 arrangement of so many of these prophecies as give any 
 certain clew to their date. The date of the remainder 
 must be left in uncertainty ; for it is only misleading to 
 arrange them by guessing, as is often done. 
 
 Taking up the chronological order, after noticing the 
 call of Jeremiah to his prophetic office in the first chapter 
 and his expostulation with Judah for her sins, the prophe- 
 cies delivered in the reign of Josiah come first in order. 
 Jeremiah by two symbols announces his call to the pro- 
 phetic office, — the one, the appearance of an " almond 
 rod," which signifies watchfulness, and the other by a 
 " boiling pot whose face is turned toward the north," signify- 
 ing that from the north the ferocious hosts would pour 
 forth and desolate the land and assail the city. 
 
 This is undoubtedly one of those cases in which the 
 writer introduces a symbol to render forcible his thought. 
 It is not probable that either the " rod " or the " boiling 
 pot" was really seen either in dream or vision. Jere- 
 miah's style abounds in what in our day would be called 
 rhetorical devices of this kind to render his prophecies 
 graphic and cogent. 
 
298 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 It will be remembered that during the reign of Josiah 
 the half-century or more of idolatrous worship and dese- 
 cration of the Temple was ended, the idols thrown down, 
 the Temple purified, and the ritual again observed, as 
 far as the changed circumstances of the people rendered 
 possible, by the discovery by Hilkiah, the priest, of the lost 
 inscribed roll of the Mosaic law. The prophecy, iii. 6-vi., 
 appears to have been delivered before the reformation 
 took place, for the sins and idolatries of the people are 
 very sternly denounced, and Israel is spoken of as suffer- 
 ing just punishment for having led her sister Judah astray. 
 The prophet calls upon Israel to repent, and promises her 
 release from her punishment. Most vehemently does he 
 rebuke Judah and call upon her to repent, lest the spoiler 
 suddenly come upon her. The prophecy takes, the form 
 of a dialogue between the prophet, Jehovah, and the 
 people. 
 
 Chapters vii.-ix. have no date attached to them, and no 
 references are made in them to historical incidents which 
 enable us to fix the precise time of their delivery. But as 
 the theme is the same, and the Temple is not destroyed, it 
 is probable that this sermon, delivered in the " gate of the 
 Temple," should be dated at about the same time as the 
 previous one, — in the reign of Josiah. The prophet an- 
 nounces that Jehovah will not suffer the people to fall into 
 the hands of their enemies if they will repent ; and he 
 insists upon the necessity of their repenting in sackcloth 
 and ashes, painting in the boldest colors their sins and 
 shameful idolatries, and the defilement of their own wor- 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 299 
 
 ship, which has made their very sacrifices an abomination 
 to Jehovah. They also were fraudulent, deceivers, liars, 
 treacherous, adulterers ; both men and women were pol- 
 luted. Yet Jehovah exercises lovingkindness, and will 
 forgive the penitent ; therefore the prophet cries, " Turn 
 from your sins and trust in Jehovah." 
 
 In chapter x. 1-16, there is a most sarcastic description 
 of the manufacture of an idol, and a contrast of it with the 
 true God, Jehovah, which reminds the reader of Isaiah's 
 graphic description, chapter xliv. The chapter concludes 
 with threatening the destruction of Jerusalem and the 
 laying it wholly waste. 
 
 Chapters ix.-xiii. contain severe rebukes of idolatry and 
 terrible denunciations of punishment against idolaters. 
 Plunderers will come ; no man will have peace ; they sow 
 wheat but reap thorns ; " I ^n'^. pluck them out of their land, 
 saith Jehovah ; " and then, under the symbol of a girdle 
 buried by the river Euphrates, the prophet indicates the 
 captivity, and by that of a flagon full of wine the amount 
 and severity of their punishment as equalling their sins ; 
 they must drain the cup of misery to its dregs. The 
 bitterness and the intensity of Jehovah's indignation at 
 their disgusting and abominable conduct is expressed in 
 the strongest words. 
 
 In chapters xiv., xv., are related the desolation and 
 suffering caused by a famine which had come upon the 
 land on account of the people's sins. This description 
 is given in part in the form of a dialogue between the 
 prophet and Jehovah. So terrible is the famine that 
 
300 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 " The husbandmen are ashamed, 
 They hide their heads. 
 The hind deserteth her young, 
 The wild asses stand upon the hills, 
 They snuff up wind like jackals, 
 Their eyes fail because there is no grass." 
 
 All this accords with Deuteronomy, chapters xxvii., xxviii. 
 
 Then in chapters xvi., xvii., the captivity of the people 
 is threatened because they violate the laws and walk after 
 strange gods ; but Jehovah is merciful, and when the 
 people turn to him he will bring them back from their 
 captivity, Jerusalem shall be inhabited forever, and kings 
 shall sit upon the throne of David. 
 
 Under the type of a potter fashioning clay, in chapters 
 xviii.-xx., the prophet illustrates how nations are formed 
 and broken in the hands of Jehovah, and he warns the peo- 
 ple to repent and escape destruction. For this prophecy, 
 Pashur, a priest, who was chief overseer of the house of 
 Jehovah, smote Jeremiah and put him in the stocks. But 
 the next day, when he took him out, Jeremiah told him 
 that all his friends should be smitten by the sword before 
 his eyes, and that he should be carried away captive to 
 Babylon and die there. 
 
 In chapter xxi., we have a reliable date placing the follow- 
 ing prophecy in the reign of Zedekiah, when the enemy 
 was hovering on the borders of the land, and the mighty 
 king, Nebuchadnezzar, was mustering his hosts for battle. 
 Zedekiah sends Pashur to ask Jeremiah what will come to 
 pass. Destruction hangs over the city. Captivity of the 
 citizens and of the king is imminent. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 301 
 
 In chapters xxi.-xxiv. the prophet denounces different 
 classes of citizens, different officers and priests. His 
 words are as coals of fire as he speaks of the hypocrisy 
 and cruelty of rulers. Especially does he pour out the 
 living coals of his indignation upon the false prophets. 
 Glimpses of future blessing, however, are given through 
 the rifts in these black clouds of judgment. The symbol 
 of two baskets of figs closes this prophecy. 
 
 In chapters xxv., xxvi., we have an historical account 
 of what Jeremiah had suffered during this period of his 
 prophetic life, and the causes which led to his punishment. 
 And in xxvii. he is said to make for himself bonds and 
 yokes, to illustrate how severely the nation would suffer in 
 captivity when they were carried away to Babylon. In 
 chapter xxviii. Jeremiah denounces the false prophet 
 Hananiah, who was deceiving the king, in language 
 which must have made his ears tingle, and which shamed 
 him to death. 
 
 Jeremiah writes an epistle to the captives in Babylon, 
 which is contained in chapter xxix., predicting that after 
 seventy years they would be released, and the throne of 
 David be re-established, and warns them against trusting 
 two lying prophets. 
 
 Chapters xxx.-xxxiii. contain prophecies of the restora- 
 tion of the Jewish state : — 
 
 " Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, 
 That the city shall be built ; 
 It shall be holy to Jehovah. . 
 No more shall it be plucked up 
 Or thrown down forever" 
 
302 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 These last lines remind us that we are reading poetry, 
 and must not interpret it as prose. Jerusalem has been 
 thrown down for almost two thousand years. It was 
 thrown down within six centuries of the time of the deliv- 
 ery of this prophecy. In the first verses of chapter xxx. 
 Jeremiah is directed to write his words in a book, as if he 
 had not done it heretofore. 
 
 Chapters xxxii., xxxiii. are said to belong to the tenth 
 year of Zedekiah's reign. The former is largely historical 
 and prose, and treats of the buying of a field as a symbol 
 of the ultimate rescue from captivity and a prediction of 
 their certain removal to Babylon. The latter is a pre- 
 diction, in poetry, of return from exile, delivered while 
 Jeremiah was shut up in the court of the prison. Not till 
 day and night cease will Jehovah cast off his people. He 
 "will bring them back from captivity and have mercy 
 upon them." Chapters xxxiv.-xlv. are historical, and do 
 not appear to have come from the pen of Jeremiah, but 
 to have been written by some one who desired to fill out 
 his biography by telling what was understood to have be- 
 fallen him during this disturbed period. The main facts 
 are probably trustworthy ; but the particulars should be re- 
 ceived with great caution. They show that Jeremiah was a 
 hero as well as a prophet : not all tears, but some muscle. 
 
 Chapters xlvi.-li. contain prophecies against foreign 
 nations, the particulars of which it is not necessary to 
 state. There is nothing obscure in them which needs 
 clearing up. The last chapter, li., is historical again, and 
 its minute statements are to be taken with caution. It is 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 303 
 
 these historical portions of the book which trouble the 
 commentator, and not the poetical portions. Baruch is 
 said to have written out for Jeremiah his prophecies, and 
 these are probably entirely trustworthy; but the sayings 
 attributed to him in the historical sections have not his 
 authority, and very probably are incorrect. Many of 
 them could not have been written till several years, if not 
 a whole generation, had passed ; and as they are anony- 
 mous, it is impossible to tell whether their reporter was 
 a hearer of them, or only reported the common opinion 
 and tradition. The reader must draw a very broad line 
 between the prophecies of Jeremiah and these historical 
 notes of the editor of his prophecies. 
 
 The style of Jeremiah is poor compared with that of 
 the early prophets, Joel, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah. It ex- 
 hibits the corruptions of a declining age and of a declining 
 literature. The words and idioms of surrounding nations 
 were creeping into the Hebrew language, and the fires of 
 poetic genius were burning languidly. The brightness 
 of the flame had almost expended itself. He is very un- 
 equal in his writings, as if he were a man of moods. He 
 rises and sinks, in the same passage, from lofty and start- 
 ling figures of speech to those which are low, and repulsive 
 to our taste. The night of Hebrew poetry was approach- 
 ing, and soon shut down. 
 
 There are no predictions in the prophecies proper, for 
 whose accuracy Jeremiah is responsible, which are so spe- 
 cific as to make it necessary to suppose that any special 
 divine aid was rendered him. His predictions of the 
 
304 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 captivity and restoration of the people are based upon the 
 law ; and his affirmatiofis of the perpetuity of the house 
 and throne of David were all drawn from the early pro?n- 
 ises. As for the specific predictions contained in the his- 
 torical, editorial notes, they are not sufficiently sustained 
 by evidence as to their accuracy to justify any reliance upon 
 them. No quotations from Jeremiah are made in the New 
 Testament as prophetic, in the theological sense of the 
 word, of events which occurred in the Christian era. 
 
 Jeremiah was a patriot, a priest, a warm lover of his 
 country. He gave all his powers of intellect and heart 
 to the work of arresting the downfall of his nation, — but 
 in vain. Injustice, dissipation, idolatry, and licentiousness 
 had sapped the foundations, and the nation fell; and 
 great was the fall of it. 
 
 Lamentations is but an appendix to Jeremiah, and 
 whether written by him or another poet, calls for no 
 special examination. It is sufficient to remark that it is 
 very artificial in its structure, as was shown in the chap- 
 ter discussing the general subject of Hebrew poetry, to 
 which the reader is referred. 
 
 Section XL — EzekieL 
 
 Ezekiel was the son of one Buzi, a priest, and was car- 
 ried captive eleven years before the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem, in company with King Jehoiachin, to the river 
 Chebar, in Babylonia. He married, and built a house at 
 Telabib. He began prophesying after he had been a 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 305 
 
 captive five years, or six years before the destruction of 
 Jerusalem, 594 b. c, — about the time that Jeremiah's 
 letter was received by the exiles; and he prophesied 
 twenty-two years, till Jerusalem had been in ruins sixteen 
 years, — 572 b. c. 
 
 His prophecy may be divided into three parts : (1) 
 Prophecies delivered before the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 chapters i.-xxiv. (2) Those about foreign nations, chap- 
 ters xxv.-xxxii. (3) Those delivered after the destruction 
 of Jerusalem, chapters xxxii.-xlviii. Of these, chapters 
 xl.-xlviii. contain a description of the ideal temple, and 
 of the division of the land after the return from captivity, 
 which Ezekiel was not permitted to do; for he died, if 
 tradition can be relied upon, before the decree of Cyrus 
 was published, authorizing and directing the return. He 
 was therefore a contemporary of Jeremiah ; but his prophe- 
 cies are not so mixed up with traditional historical notices. 
 The first two parts are mostly condemnatory, and the last 
 one consolatory. 
 
 The construction of the book is very artificial, as are 
 also the separate prophecies. An analysis can be made 
 of it as minute as of one of Cicero's orations or of a well- 
 arranged treatise on morals. Rosenmiiller, in his intro- 
 duction to his commentary on Ezekiel, has given a minute 
 analysis of the whole book in Latin, the substance of 
 which I will translate, to show with what extreme care 
 the prophet wrote, and how little he was impelled, mas- 
 tered, and carried away by a resistless enthusiasm. His 
 prophecy is labored, — not spontaneous, irrepressible : 
 
 20 
 
306 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 I. The inauguration of the prophet. (Chapters i.-iii.) 
 i. An allegorical representation of God calling him to his 
 prophetic office, i. 
 
 2. The inauguration ceremonies, ii. 
 
 3. The themes of his prophecies, expressed by various 
 
 images and charges, iii. 
 
 II. Superstitions and crimes rebuked, and the overthrow 
 of the city and kingdom declared. (Chapters iv.-xxiv.) 
 
 1. Denunciations against 
 
 a. Jerusalem: (1) By the siege of the city, designated 
 
 by the figure of burying a brick ; (2) By famine, — 
 bread baked with dung ; (3) By destruction, — 
 newly cut hair and threatenings. 
 
 b. The mountains of Israel, where sacrifices had been 
 
 offered to idols. 
 
 c. The land of Israel, whose ruin is to be great, soon to 
 
 come, unavoidable, lamentable, merited by their sins. 
 
 2. The prophet in vision is transported to Jerusalem, and 
 
 there are shown him : (a) Four kinds of idolatry, — 
 images of Baal, of animals, of women weeping for 
 Tammuz, of priests worshipping the sun ; (b) Divine 
 judgments denounced, with restrictions, which the 
 prophet cannot avert; (c) The august presence of 
 Jehovah departing from the Temple, scattering coals 
 through the city ; (d) Evil counsels of rulers ; prayers 
 of the prophet in their behalf not answered, yet hope 
 for them on repentance. The divine image having 
 left the city, the prophet returns to Babylon and 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 307 
 
 narrates what has happened. (The rhetorical origin 
 and purpose of this visionary journey is too evident 
 to need confirmation.) 
 
 3. Denunciations against 
 
 a. The king and people of Judah, under the double 
 
 symbol of moving goods, and of eating in haste ; 
 then, without symbol, the ridiculers of the delay of 
 punishment. 
 
 b. False prophets, — males and females. 
 
 c. The elders of the people, for hypocrisy, following 
 
 false prophets. 
 
 d. Jerusalem, under the image of a burning vine, xv. 
 
 e. The Jewish people, under the image of a virgin, xvi. 
 
 f. Zedekiah, under the image of a vine and eagle, xvii. 
 
 4. A vindication of the divine justice, and exhortation to 
 
 repentance, xviii. 
 
 5. The destruction of the royal family, under the figure 
 
 of taken lions and dried vines, xix. 
 
 6. A reproof of exiles, in Egypt, in the desert, in Canaan, 
 
 and a promise of a holy state, xx. 
 
 7. Threatenings against Jei-usalem, whose utter ruin is 
 
 predicted, and the captivity of the people and the 
 king ; against the Ammonites ; against the citizens of 
 Jerusalem, wicked and doomed ; against the people 
 of Judea, sinful and sentenced ; against the priests, 
 rulers, prophets, and people, for hypocrisy and injustice 
 and lying ; against each king of Israel and Judah, 
 whose sins are enumerated ; against Jerusalem, under 
 the symbol of a pot filled with meat and bones, and 
 a widow weeping, xxi.-xxiv. 
 
308 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 ILT. Prophecies against foreign nations, (xxv.-xxxii.) 
 
 Against the Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites, Philis- 
 tines, Tyrians, whose city is to be besieged, taken, over- 
 thrown, and whose king will be taken captive ; against 
 Sidon, and Egypt (whose king will be taken and the land 
 devastated by Nebuchadnezzar, and the people dispersed 
 and its fall compared with that of Assyria and lamented 
 under the figure of a destroyed lion and sea-dragon, 
 and compared further with the destruction of Assyria), 
 and Elam, and Meshech, and Tubal, and Edom, and the 
 princes of the North, — all of whom Pharaoh will meet 
 in the underworld, and be comforted by their misery. 
 
 IV. Consolations and promises, (xxxiii.-xlviii.) 
 
 The whole of this portion is in prose. In the introduc- 
 tion the office of a prophet is compared to that of a 
 watchman. Then follow the promises he must make to 
 the people now that he has heard that the city is de- 
 stroyed. God is benignant, and will forgive their sins ; the 
 happy re-establishment of the kingdom ; the joy of the 
 people that Idumea is punished ; the glory and greatness 
 of the restored state ; its restoration represented by the 
 symbol of the valley of dry bones ; the Judeans and 
 Israelites united under the symbol of two sticks joined in 
 one ; the conflict and destruction of Gog ; and the divi- 
 sion of the land and the construction of the Temple 
 with its ritual ideally described, and their beneficence 
 illustrated by a river flowing from the Temple to bless 
 the nations. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 309 
 
 It is evident that all this description is ideal, from the 
 fact that it was utterly disregarded on the return of the 
 exiles. Ezekiel does not place the Temple in the city, 
 and constructs it a mile square. The city is ten miles 
 square, and the tribes occupy rectangular portions of land 
 bounded by straight lines running from east to west across 
 the whole countiy. The Levites, the priests, and the 
 prince have portions around the city and Temple. It is 
 simply amazing that commentators have taken this ideal 
 description as real, and have attempted to give drawings 
 of what it would be impossible to construct. 
 
 By this analysis it will be seen that the prophecies are 
 arranged with a great deal of care, — entirely unlike the 
 present condition of those of Jeremiah. 
 
 The language of Ezekiel is somewhat corrupted by the 
 later usage, and his association with his conquerors. His 
 prophecies are more oratorical than poetic, and they sel- 
 dom rise much above fervent prose. They are full of 
 symbols, and some of these are coarse. The symbolism 
 is colossal rather than beautiful, — as his symbol of the 
 throne of Jehovah, which covered the whole northern 
 heavens ; and the symbol of the tree on Lebanon, whose 
 shadow covered great nations, and the mighty river which 
 flowed from the Temple. Ezekiel is inferior to Jeremiah, 
 and falls incomparably below Isaiah and the contempo- 
 raries of that prophet. He was, however, a patriot as well 
 as a priest, though as a poet he failed to rival his con- 
 temporaries. But it must be admitted that, though some 
 of his visions are grotesque, many of them are grand. 
 
3IO THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 There is no proof that his prophecies were revelations. 
 They are not quoted as such in the New Testament, and 
 in the language he uses respecting them, interpreted ac- 
 cording to the accepted rules of interpreting religious lan- 
 guage, he makes no such claim for them. He was a 
 devoted lover of his country and its religion, and conse- 
 crated all his powers to their rescue from invasion and 
 overthrow. And when these failed, and invasion and 
 destruction came, then, confiding in the great lawgiver 
 and the unbroken tradition of the nation, he announced 
 the return and restoration. 
 
 There are no specific predictions of our Saviour ; he 
 only speaks of rich blessings and a peaceful state under 
 wise rule and Jehovah's protection. 
 
 Section XII. — Daniel. 
 
 Much cannot be said of this book, for the purpose of 
 this work will not permit it ; and if but little is said, the 
 reader may feel dissatisfied, since it is the fountain of 
 many vague and baseless theories, the arsenal for furnish- 
 ing every conceivable kind of weapon to sciolists and 
 pedants. Authorities cannot be quoted. Historical events 
 here alluded to cannot be fully narrated. Even the 
 authorship of the book cannot be discussed. I shall 
 only state some of the undisputed facts in regard to it, 
 and also the results of my own studies of it as agreeing 
 in the main with those of the best and most reverent 
 scholars in Christendom. If the readers of this brief 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 311 
 
 Introduction have the desire and time for further and fuller 
 information, they are referred to the elaborate introduc- 
 tions and commentaries on this book which scholars of 
 great ability have prepared. 
 
 Daniel was a youth of noble birth who was made a 
 captive by Nebuchadnezzar when he took Jerusalem, 
 and carried to Babylon King Jehoiakim and some of the 
 vessels of the house of God. He was brought up in 
 the court of the king with his three companions, named 
 Belteshazzar (Bel's prince), and was taught all the learn- 
 ing as well as the language of the Chaldeans. Lest he 
 should violate the law, he was granted such food as he 
 might choose. He was brought into notice first by inter- 
 preting Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and continued in high 
 favor under the remaining Chaldean princes until he in- 
 terpreted for Belshazzar the handwriting on the wall, and 
 until Cyrus took the great city. Darius the Mede made 
 Daniel the first of his three ministers. His rivals and ene- 
 mies plotted against him, and he was cast into the lions' 
 den for adhering to his religion and for praying three 
 times a day with his face towards Jerusalem. After his 
 deliverance from the den he continued in high favor with 
 the court, and lived till the first year of Cyrus, if not till 
 the third, as the accounts differ; chapters i. 21, x. 1. 
 Such is the recorded tradition of his life. 
 
 The Book of Daniel, as it comes to us in our Bible, 
 has two divisions, — (1) The historical, or the traditions, 
 chapter i.-vi., except the interpretation of Nebuchadnez- 
 zar's dream ; and (2) The prophetic, chapters vii.-xii. 
 
312 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Chapter i. tells of the captivity ; chapter ii., of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar's dream ; chapter hi., of the young men in the fiery 
 furnace ; chapter iv., of Nebuchadnezzar driven to the 
 field j chapter v., of Belshazzar's handwriting on the wall 
 (538 b. c.) ; chapter vi., of Daniel's devotion and the lions' 
 den. The contents of the second part will be taken up 
 soon, after we have examined still further the condition 
 of the book. 
 
 The book is the plainest prose, and no attempt is 
 made at literary ornament. That part of it which is in 
 our Bible is in two languages ; chapters ii. 5— vii. are in 
 the Chaldee language, or the language of Babylon, used 
 by the Jews after the return from the captivity. The book 
 is not placed in the Hebrew Bible with the prophets, but 
 after Esther, as if it were not thought worthy to be classed 
 with the prophetic books. In the Greek translation of 
 the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, three other 
 marvellous accounts are contained in the book, in charac- 
 ter somewhat like those of Nebuchadnezzar's eating grass, 
 the lions' den, the fiery furnace, and the handwriting on 
 the wall, — " The History of Bel and the Dragon," at the 
 end of our present book; "The Story of Susanna," at 
 the beginning ; and " The Song [prayer] of the Three 
 Children," in chapter iii., between the 23d and 24th 
 verses. These three additions are in the Apocrypha, 
 which is printed in the old family Bibles. 
 
 It is evident from these facts that the Jews in old 
 time looked upon this book very differently from the 
 way in which they regarded the books of their ancient 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 313 
 
 prophets, and no doubt for good reasons; but these 
 reasons have not come down to us. Let us now turn 
 to the prophetical part, leaving for the present the very 
 marvellous incidents recorded in the other section. 
 
 In chapter ii. the image represents five kingdoms, and 
 purports to have been interpreted to Nebuchadnezzar 
 (605 B.C.). 
 
 In chapter vii. the lion, the bear, the leopard, and the 
 dreadful beast with iron teeth, etc., ten horns and a little 
 horn, and the thrones set, represent five kingdoms 
 (557 B.C.). 
 
 In chapter viii. the ram with two horns, the he-goat with 
 a great horn, and the four horns, from out of them a little 
 horn which shall be broken, represent four kingdoms, the 
 first, the Babylonian, being dropped, as Babylon was to 
 be destroyed at this time (554 b. a). 
 
 In chapter xi. is a literal historical statement of what 
 transpires till Antiochus Epiphanes is destroyed or dies, 
 and the Jews are freed under the Maccabees from his 
 tyrannical sway. The chapter, begins with the third king- 
 dom, passing by Darius the Mede and his three succes- 
 sors, — the ram with two horns, Media and Persia, who 
 stirred up all Grecia. And a mighty king stands up and 
 rules, — Alexander, symbolized by a leopard, and he-goat, 
 and the belly and thighs of the image (chapter xi. 4) ; and 
 his kingdom is broken into four, his posterity not suc- 
 ceeding him. His four chief commanders divide his 
 kingdom between them ; and this constitutes the fourth 
 kingdom, represented in the image by legs and feet part 
 
314 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 iron and part clay, by the beast with ten horns and one 
 little horn, and by the four horns out of which sprang one 
 little horn. 
 
 The north was held by Seleucus Nicator, called " one of 
 his [Alexander's] princes" (chapter xi. 5), and Ptolemy 
 Lagus held Egypt, and is called " the king of the south." 
 Between these kingdoms perpetual wars raged, as history 
 tells us, until about a century and a half before Christ. 
 Intermarriages between the royal families were tried, and 
 various treaties were made, but all in vain. Ten kings 
 followed, imaged by the dreadful and terrible beast with 
 ten horns. They were Seleucus Nicator, Antiochus Soter, 
 Antiochus Theus, Seleucus Callinicus, Seleucus Ceraunus, 
 Antiochus the Great, Seleucus Philopator, Heliodorus who 
 was quickly poisoned, Demetrius who was sent to Rome as 
 a hostage, and Ptolemy Philometer who was rightfully heir 
 to the throne, but was dispossessed, as were the former 
 two, of their just claim by Antiochus Epiphanes (vii. 24). 
 He is the little horn of this ten-horned house of kings, 
 and his history begins at chapter xi. 2 1, and goes through 
 the eleventh chapter. Then in chapter xii. we have the 
 rescue of the Jews from his power described as the stand- 
 ing up of Michael, and the people are represented as 
 coming out of their graves after their terrible sufferings 
 for three years and a half under Antiochus Epiphanes, 
 as Ezekiel represented their fathers as doing when they 
 were restored from Babylon ; and peace and glory follow 
 their deliverance. 
 
 Some parts of the account given in chapter xi. can be 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 315 
 
 followed in the minutest particulars in the scant historical 
 records of the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes which have 
 come down to us. The portions not paralleled in history 
 are undoubtedly as historical as the others, and should 
 be so understood and received. 
 
 Respecting the time mentioned in chapter ix. 24-27, 
 seventy weeks, — or seven weeks, sixty-two weeks, one 
 week, and half a week, — reference seems to be made in 
 the sixty-two weeks to some event in early Jewish history, 
 one year for each day, 434 ; in the seven weeks, 49 years, 
 in all 483 years, to some event at that distance before the 
 taking of Jerusalem by Antiochus ; in the one week, 7 years, 
 to the time he ruled Jerusalem ; and in the half-week, to 
 the three years and a half during which he took away the 
 daily sacrifice and set up the image of Jupiter. The last 
 dates correspond with the historical events. In chapter 
 vii. 25, "a time and times and half a time " are the three 
 and a half years already mentioned. In chapter viii. 14, 
 the " 2300 evenings and mornings " are either so many 
 days, or half the number, 1150, or possibly seven years 
 or three years and a half. In chapter xii. 11, 1290 days, 
 or about three and a half years, and 1335 days, or 45 
 more, seem to be added to give time for hearing at 
 Jerusalem of the death of the tyrant in the East, as he 
 is supposed to have died at the end of three years and a 
 half, or thereabouts, after the desecration of the Temple. 
 But none of these dates can be proved to be correct. 
 They certainly correspond very nearly with the scant 
 historical dates which have been preserved. Antiochus 
 
3 l6 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 is said to have died in Persia after having plundered the 
 temple at Elymas in Media to get money to aid him in 
 carrying on the war against the Jews. 
 
 The age of the book has been in debate among scholars 
 for many years. The general opinion of those most 
 worthy of confidence is, that it was mostly written near, or 
 at, the close of the cruel reign of Antiochus, to encourage 
 the Jews to endure his persecutions ; and that the history 
 or traditions respecting the aged captive Daniel and his 
 three companions are here given in his name as a prophet, 
 as foretelling the severe trials through which they were 
 passing, and the certain blessings of peace and prosperity 
 which were to follow. The Lord would deliver them out 
 of all their trouble, even from the dust of the earth in 
 which they were sleeping. This view has fewer difficulties 
 than any other, and best accounts for all the peculiarities of 
 the book both in its style and its contents. 
 
 One passage (chapter ix. 27, or xii. 11) is quoted in 
 the New Testament (Matthew xxiv. 15) respecting " the 
 abomination of desolation," the idol of the heathen, 
 standing in the holy place. The Roman eagle on the 
 standards of the Roman army was worshipped by the 
 soldiers as a god ; and when that should be seen advanc- 
 ing over the sacred soil against the city, the Christians 
 should flee. This does not mean that the statue of 
 Jupiter would be seen in the holy place, and the pas- 
 sage has no reference to the statement of Daniel as a 
 prophecy. As then, so now, when the idol is set up, 
 beware, escape. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 317 
 
 Section XIII. — Jonah. 
 
 Jonah was the son of Amittai, of Gath Hepher, in Zebu- 
 lun, and prophesied in the reign of Jeroboam II. (2 Kings 
 xiv. 25), about 825 years before Christ. The book is 
 called Jonah, not because that prophet wrote it, as is 
 commonly supposed, but because it is about him. It 
 may be divided into three parts : the first containing 
 his commission, chapter i. ; the second, a hymn which 
 he sang in the stomach of the fish, chapter ii. ; and the 
 third, his prophecy against Nineveh, and its results, chap- 
 ters iii., iv. 
 
 The prophet refuses, in the first instance, to obey the 
 command to go to the great and heathen city Nineveh 
 and announce its destruction if it did not repent and re- 
 form. He flees by ship from Joppa, but is overtaken by 
 a storm. The superstitious sailors, having cast lots, throw 
 him overboard, and he is swallowed by a great fish, in 
 whose stomach he composes a prayer or hymn in poetry, 
 — the only poetry in the book, made up of fragments from 
 earlier poets, with little or none by the prophet himself. 
 After three days and nights the fish throws him out on 
 shore, and being commanded a second time, he goes to 
 Nineveh and in its streets announces its destruction. The 
 inhabitants repent and God spares the city. Meantime 
 Jonah went out of the city and made himself a booth 
 in which to watch the result, and a gourd grew up over 
 his head to give him shade ; but the gourd withered in 
 the morning, for a worm had found its root. Jonah was 
 
318 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 very angry when he saw that God had spared the repentant 
 city, and reproached God for not keeping his prophet's 
 word. He was also very much displeased, and even 
 wished to die, because the gourd had withered. And 
 God said, " Thou hadst pity on the gourd for which thou 
 hadst not labored, which grew up in a night and perished 
 in a night; and should I not spare Nineveh, that great 
 city, wherein are more than one hundred and twenty 
 thousand persons that cannot discern between their right 
 hand and their left hand, and many cattle? " Such is an 
 outline of the story told of Jonah. 
 
 Until recently this has been supposed by most critics to 
 be an account of a real transaction ; but it is much more 
 probable that it is a book which was written at a late 
 period, even after the return from the captivity, as the 
 language indicates, for the purpose of illustrating the 
 necessity of obedience to God's call to preach righteousness, 
 the care he has for the heathen, that he is indeed their 
 God also, as well as the God of Israel, and that he is 
 merciful, and desires not the ruin of a?iy people. This is a 
 most admirable theme ; and though it must be said that 
 the illustration of it by the writer is not in accordance 
 with our taste, yet to those to whom it was addressed it 
 was undoubtedly most striking and impressive. Dean 
 Stanley says : " It is a grand Biblical appeal to the com- 
 mon instincts of humanity, and to the universal love of 
 God against the narrow dogmatism of sectarian polemics. 
 There has never been a generation which has not needed 
 the majestic revelation of sternness and charity, each 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 319 
 
 bestowed where most deserved and where least expected, 
 in the sign of the prophet Jonah." The doctrine of 
 this book is in harmony with Christianity. It is a moral 
 and religious story of great worth and wide application. 
 Let it be so understood, and not as a literal narration 
 of real transactions. The name of the old prophet is 
 used by the writer for effect, as we now use the names 
 of great divines and statesmen to give attractiveness to 
 our writings. 
 
 Whoever composed this book was a very unskilful writer, 
 though for his age a most remarkable theologian and mor- 
 alist. He says that " Jonah prayed to the Lord his God 
 out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine 
 affliction unto the Lord and he heard me ; out of the belly 
 of hell cried I, and thou heardest me," and so on, — using 
 the past tense all through the poetic prayer which the 
 author says Jonah offered " when he was in the belly of 
 the fish." The prayer is reported, so to speak, by the 
 author in the person of Jonah, in the first person ; but he 
 forgets to change the tenses of his verbs so that the prayer 
 may correspond with the time in which he says it was 
 offered. He also makes Jonah, in this prayer, offered as 
 he says in the belly of the fish, express gratitude that the 
 Lord had brought up his life from corruption ; and he is 
 now, let it be observed, in the belly of the fish. Indeed 
 the whole book, or story, is put together very bunglingly. 
 But its doctrine is most admirable, — a jewel very badly 
 set. 
 
320 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Section XIV. — Haggai. 
 
 Very little is known of the life of this prophet. He is 
 referred to in Ezra (chapter v. i and vi. 14) as a con- 
 temporary of Zechariah, 520 b. c, in the second year of 
 Darius Hystaspis, sixteen years after the return of Zerub- 
 babel and his company from the captivity. Immediately 
 on their return they built an altar and began the observ- 
 ance of the ritual in the Mosaic law as far as their desti- 
 tute circumstances would permit, and also began to erect 
 a temple on the ruins of the old one. But they were hin- 
 dered by a decree of the king from continuing the work, as 
 they were represented to him by their enemies as building 
 a strong fortification in which to defend themselves when 
 they should revolt from him. Haggai induced Darius to 
 rescind the decree of his predecessor (Ezra, chapter vi.), 
 and the prophet, supported by the prophet Zechariah, 
 exhorted them to go on and build the Temple. So the 
 people, led by Zerubbabel and Joshua, set about the 
 work in good earnest, and finished it in six years, to 
 the great joy of the people, though some of the elders 
 wept because the former temple, which they remembered, 
 was so much more splendid than the one which they were 
 able to build. 
 
 The book is composed of four parts : (1) Severe re- 
 proofs are given for dilatoriness in setting about the work ; 
 chapter i. (2) The glory of the second temple is de- 
 scribed ; chapter ii. 1-9. (3) The unfruitful seasons which 
 they were experiencing were caused by their neglect to 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 321 
 
 press on the work of temple building (chapter ii. 10-19), 
 as affirmed in Deuteronomy, chapter xxviii. (4) The 
 prosperity which would follow its completion is described ; 
 chapter ii. 20-23. Of these four parts the first two were 
 delivered in the sixth and seventh months of the second 
 year of Darius, and the last two on the twenty-fourth day 
 of the ninth month of the same year. 
 
 The historical introduction to each brief prophecy is in 
 prose, and the poetry of the prophecies is poor and un- 
 spirited. There is no special prediction, and probably we 
 have but the briefest outline of what the prophet said. In 
 the vivid and hyperbolic language of Oriental poetry he 
 depicts the fall of kingdoms before the rising power of the 
 Jews, thus filling them with courage and hope. 
 
 There is one passage which has been understood as a 
 specific prediction of the Messiah, Christ (chapter ii. 7) : 
 " And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations 
 shall come ; and I will fill this house with glory, saith the 
 Lord of hosts." Our Bible has gone so far as to print 
 "Desire" with a capital letter, to denote a person. The 
 actual reference is to the contributions which the nations 
 would make of their most precious things to adorn the 
 Temple and make it glorious. Dr. Noyes's translation of 
 the passage is correct : — 
 
 " And I will shake the nations, 
 And here shall come the precious things of all the nations : 
 And I will fill this house with glory." 
 
 It is time that the Messiah should no longer be identi- 
 fied with the " precious things " mentioned in this verse. 
 
 21 
 
322 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 Such mistranslations in the Common Version increase the 
 value of the Revised Version of the Old Testament, in 
 which these passages are correctly rendered. 
 
 There is no evidence that Haggai had any divine 
 communication of future events, or direction in respect 
 to what he should say of the present. Like every true 
 preacher, he speaks as an earnest lover of his country 
 what he believes to be God's truth. 
 
 Section XV. — Zechariah. 
 
 The editor of Zechariah's prophecies, or Zechariah him- 
 self, if he had no editor, calls himself the son of Barachiah, 
 the son of Iddo. He is mentioned in Ezra (chapter v. i, 
 and vi. 14) in connection with Haggai, and was his con- 
 temporary. He was of priestly descent, and came from 
 Babylon with the returning exiles. He entered on his 
 prophetic office only two months after Haggai ; and con- 
 sequently the same condition of the people called for the 
 same rebukes and exhortations and promises from him as 
 from Haggai. 
 
 His book may be divided into two parts. The first 
 part contains a series of visions relating to the Temple and 
 the people (chapters i.-viii.), except chapters vii., viii. 
 which are in answer to a message from Babylon. The 
 second part contains neither symbols nor visions, and is 
 written in a very different style. It appears to have been 
 composed by a very different person, and even before 
 the exile, — perhaps by a Zechariah mentioned by Isaiah 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 323 
 
 (chapter viii. 2), a son of Berechiah. The first part is 
 mixed prose and poetry, like Haggai. The second part 
 is all poetry of a pure age, as the language shows. The 
 first part relates to the building of the Temple ; the sec- 
 ond part to the sins of the people, the desolation of the 
 land, the destruction of the city, and the return of the 
 captives. 
 
 In the first part the different visions are often dated, 
 and sometimes more than one vision occurs under the 
 same date. As these visions all have reference to the 
 building of the Temple and to the blessings which will fol- 
 low its completion, it is not necessary here to enumerate 
 them or interpret them. Especially is Joshua encouraged 
 to press forward the work by various symbols and visions, 
 since he seems to have borne the brunt of the opposi- 
 tion both of his own people and of the Samaritans ; and 
 Zerubbabel is also encouraged by the affirmation that 
 
 " Not by might nor by power, 
 But my spirit, saith Jehovah of hosts. 
 What art thou, O great mountain [of opposition and obstacles 
 
 before him] ? 
 Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain ! 
 And he shall bring forth the corner-stone amid shoutings, 
 [The people crying] Grace, grace unto it ! " — iv. 6, 7. 
 
 Some interpreters have supposed that passages in this 
 first part refer to Christ, and especially chapter vi. 12, 13 : 
 
 " Behold a man whose name is the Branch; 
 He shall spring up from his place, 
 And he shall build the temple of Jehovah. 
 Even he shall build the temple of Jehovah, 
 
324 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 And he shall bear the majesty, 
 
 And sit and rule upon his throne, 
 
 And be a priest upon his throne, 
 
 And the counsel of peace shall be between them both." 
 
 But who is the builder of the Temple but Zerubbabel? 
 And the counsel of peace was between him and Joshua, 
 who is said to be addressed. 
 
 There is nothing in this prophecy which required super- 
 natural assistance to affirm, nor is such assistance claimed. 
 The manner in which the prophet speaks of his addresses 
 and his call to deliver them is such as is used to this day 
 by very many pious preachers, and has been used during 
 all time, and is no proof of special divine illumination. 
 The visions and symbols are only devices to give force 
 and attractiveness to the prophet's message. They are 
 not to be read as real transactions. 
 
 The writer of the second part is unknown ; but, as just 
 stated, it is very evident that he lived before the exile, for 
 he speaks of judgments coming upon Damascus, and the 
 destruction of Judah, if not of Israel. His style is pure, 
 and his poetry compares well with that of the earlier 
 prophets. He prophesies of the destructio?i and captivity 
 and restoration of the nation, as do the other older 
 prophets, without being so specific as to exceed human 
 foresight under the guidance of the law. 
 
 A few passages from this part are quoted in the New 
 Testament, and applied to Christ on account of their ap- 
 propriateness, and not because this unknown prophet had 
 Christ in his mind when he spoke them. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 325 
 
 Chapter ix. 9 is quoted in Matthew xxi. 5, and John xii. 
 
 14, I 5 ; — 
 
 " Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, 
 Shout, daughter of Jerusalem ! 
 Behold, thy king cometh to thee ; 
 He is just and victorious, 
 Mild, and riding upon an ass, 
 Even upon a colt the foal of an ass. 
 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, 
 And the horse from Jerusalem ; 
 And the battle-bow shall be cut off. . . . 
 I will set thy prisoners free from the pit wherein is 110 water" 
 
 And just before these verses Jehovah says : — 
 
 " The king shall perish from Gaza, 
 And Askelon shall not be inhabited. 
 And strangers shall dwell in Ashdod, 
 And I will cut off the pride of the Philistines ; " 
 
 showing that the reference is to passing events. We 
 cannot tell who this king was whom the prophet had 
 in mind, or whether he had any one person in mind, or 
 simply meant that Jehovah would give them a good ruler 
 shortly after these events. The quotation in Matthew is 
 in the common form, and is no stronger than that in chap- 
 ter ii. 15, where the Evangelist quotes a simple historical 
 statement as appropriate to express a circumstance in the 
 life of Christ. 
 
 Another passage, chapter xi. 13, is quoted in Matthew 
 xxvii. 9, and applied to the purchase-money of Judas. In 
 the quotation Jeremy is undoubtedly a mistake for Zecha- 
 riah. When we read the passage in the prophet, it is 
 
326 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 evident at a glance that he had in mind a present sym- 
 bolic transaction, and had not the remotest reference to 
 a future event, — much less to the purchase-money of 
 Judas. 
 
 Chapter xii. 10 is also quoted in John xix. 37 ; but the 
 connection in the prophet shows, as does the previous 
 verse in John, that these passages are quoted only because 
 the language is appropriate to describe incidents in the 
 sufferings of Christ, — not because they predicted these 
 incidents. The reference to not breaking the bones of 
 the paschal lamb is purely historical ; Exodus xii. 46. 
 
 Chapter xiii. 7 is quoted in Matthew xxvi. 31 in the 
 same way and for the same purpose. There is no predic- 
 tion of the Messiah, but of the cutting off of a king before 
 the exile, after whose death the people would be scattered, 
 and only a remnant rescued. 
 
 It is a matter of great regret that this method of 
 quotation by Jewish writers is not better understood by 
 readers of our Bible ; for much misapprehension would 
 then be avoided. 
 
 Section XVI. — Malachi. 
 
 Of the life of this last prophet we know absolutely 
 nothing. As the Temple was rebuilt and the ritual ob- 
 served, he may have prophesied 460-450 b. c, or still 
 later, 420-408 b. c. The history of these times will be 
 found in Nehemiah. Malachi declares God's love of the 
 nation (chapter i. 1-5), and vehemently rebukes the priests 
 
INTRODUCTION TO SEPARATE BOOKS. 327 
 
 for their violations of the law and their complaints of the 
 dulness of their duty with a good deal of poetic vigor 
 for his age (chapters i. 6-ii. 9). He denounces their 
 foreign marriages and frequent divorces (chapter ii. 10-16), 
 and threatens punishment when he is scoffingly asked, 
 "Where is the God of judgment?" by an avenging 
 messenger whom the Lord will send ; and the sorcerers 
 and false swearers who boast themselves will be cut off 
 (chapters ii. 17-iii. 6). He rebukes the people for de- 
 frauding the Temple revenue of tithes and offerings, and 
 promises them, if they will bring them and regard the 
 law of Jehovah, that he will pour out a blessing upon 
 them from the open windows of heaven till there is noth- 
 ing left which they require (chapter iii. 7-12.) Nor need 
 they flatter themselves that they shall escape because God 
 is forbearing and has not visited them as they deserve. 
 Punishment will at last come ; for the day will come that 
 will consume all the proud and the wicked ; they shall be 
 consumed as stubble ; but the righteous shall be saved, 
 they shall prosper, they shall be glad. " Only remember 
 the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded in Horeb 
 for all Israel, — my statutes and my precepts ! I will send 
 one like Elijah, a prophet of power and courage, who shall 
 warn and reprove, counsel and instruct you, before the day 
 of terrible visitation come on you for your sins, that you 
 may have no excuse for not reforming. And many of 
 you will reform at his teaching ; for he will turn many 
 to obedience and observance of the law, so that God will 
 not come and smite the land with a curse, as he smote it 
 
328 THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. 
 
 in the days of the captivity, when your fathers sinned and 
 repented not." 
 
 Malachi iii. i is quoted in Matthew xi. 10, and applied 
 to John as the forerunner of Christ. The appropriateness 
 of the quotation in accordance with Jewish usage is at 
 once seen. If the reader turns to Malachi, however, he 
 will see that this was the prophet or messenger to be sent 
 to rebuke the people for their sins and bring them to 
 repentance, if possible, before Jehovah would visit them 
 with punishment. The hour and the coming were at that 
 time not four centuries away. 
 
 The annunciations of this last prophet are based upon 
 the law given by Moses, and do not indicate any divine 
 illumination in the speaker. 
 
 His style is much more poetical and elevated than that 
 of either Haggai or Zechariah. The patriotic heart of the 
 prophet beats high ; and he vindicates the mercifulness 
 and forbearance of Jehovah, as do all his predecessors. 
 
 Here conclude the writings of the Hebrew prophets, 
 whose addresses are as lofty as they are pure and as 
 enduring as they are elevated. In their treatment of 
 great moral and religious truths they are unique in the 
 world's literature of that age, not to say of any age 
 before the Christian era; and they will continue to be 
 read by all who admire loftiness of theme and sublimity 
 of expression. 
 
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