The History of Antiquity, Vol. 2 (of 6)

It was a rapid and brilliant transformation. David was master from the borders of Egypt, the north-east point of the Red Sea, to Damascus. He was not content with successfully establishing his rule for the moment by these great and brilliant deeds of arms; he intended to give it a solid support for the future. He employed the spoils of his victories in order to fortify more strongly and extend the city which he had chosen for his metropolis; it was now called the city of David, and afterwards Jerusalem.[296 - 1 Kings xi. 27.] On Zion, the citadel of Jerusalem, David caused a royal palace to be built. In the city the remnant of the Jebusites had been joined by inhabitants from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. If David hoped to lessen the disaffection of the tribe of Benjamin by establishing a royal citadel in their land he had not calculated wrongly. The sequel shows that Benjamin, which previously held to Ephraim, now stood fast by Judah.

In possession of a considerable and well-fortified metropolis, and a strong royal citadel, David was able to rule over Israel with greater safety and severity than Saul from his rural court at Gibeah. Moreover, David intended to create independent means and property for the crown, and kept together what he had won. From the tribute of the subjugated nations he formed a treasury, which was placed under the care of Asmaveth. In addition we hear of overseers of the royal gardens, oliveyards, vineyards, and sycamore plantations, and we learn that David kept flocks of small cattle, herds of oxen, and camels.[297 - 1 Chron. xxvii. 25-31.]

The strongest support of the throne were his selected and thoroughly devoted troops of warriors. David was accompanied by a body-guard which was always with him (Saul had had round him some "runners"). It appears from the name, Pelethites and Cherethites, to have been entirely composed of foreigners; their leader was Benaiah.[298 - 2 Sam. xx. 23; 1 Chron. xviii. 17.] The core of the army was formed not by this body-guard, but by the freebooters who once gathered round him in the cave of Adullam and at Ziklag, warriors tried often and in numerous battles. They remained in one body in Jerusalem, and were maintained by the king. This band – it was apparently about 600 men in number,[299 - 2 Sam. xv. 18.] and in the ranks were also foreigners, Hittites, Ammonites, Moabites, and others, who formerly associated with David, or were attracted by the fame of his deeds – was called the troop of the mighty, "Gibborim;" accompanied by armour-bearers and servants, they took the field. They were divided into three portions, under three leaders; at their head fought 30 selected heroes: Abishai, Joab's brother, was the captain.[300 - 2 Sam. xxiii. 18; 1 Chron. xi. 15, 26-45.] As simple peasants, the Israelites had always fought on foot, without horses and horsemen; David, after the pattern of the Syrians, introduced chariots. Josheb Bassebet was the captain of the war-chariots.[301 - 2 Sam. xxiii. 8.] Along with the Gibborim, the chariots were intended to give, as trained divisions, firmness and support to the levy of the whole people.

In order to regulate the levy, Joab, the chief captain, with some of his subordinates, was commanded to enumerate and write down all the fighting men from the Jabbok to Mount Hermon, and from Dan to Beersheba. Nine months and twenty days were required by the captains for this task. When the muster was completed, captains were appointed for hundreds and thousands; but in order that the whole mass of the people need not be called out on every campaign and every attack of the enemy, – in which hitherto, for the most part, only those who were eager for battle had engaged, while those who preferred peace and rest remained at home, – the whole number of the fighting men was divided into twelve portions, of which each, in number 24,000 men, was pledged to service for one month in the year. Each of these divisions had a separate captain. As occasion required, several of the divisions, or all, might be called out. If we may trust these accounts, Israel had at that time 300,000 fighting men, and consequently a population of about two millions.[302 - 2 Sam. xxiv. 9. The number of the levy here, as in almost all accounts of the assembling of the people, must be grossly exaggerated: 800,000 are given in Israel, 500,000 in Judah only. Chronicles raises the first number to 1,100,000, and reduces the second to 30,000, 1 xxii. 5. The statement given in Chronicles about the division of the levy into 12 troops, and the strength of these troops (1 xxviii. 1-15), contradicts these numbers. As this arrangement of the army is mentioned in Chronicles only, which books show a great tendency to systematise, the division into 12 remains uncertain. That there was a numbering of the people is not to be doubted. It is counted as one of David's errors, and Jehovah strikes the people with pestilence. This narrative is connected with the command to redeem the firstborn, the boys (vol. i. 499), the ordinance given in Exod. xxx. 12, which is connected with the same conception: "When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul to Jehovah that there be no plague among them."]

Hitherto the descendants of the oldest families, the heads of the tribes, the successors of those who in the conquest of the land had won for themselves separate localities and valleys, had enjoyed a pre-eminent position within the circle of the various tribes (p. 91). To them, or to brave warriors, the Israelites had gone, – to men who had become of importance owing to their possessions, and who had the reputation of passing sound judgments, – or to priests and soothsayers, when they sought for advice, protection, and justice. Since the establishment of the monarchy the king was the supreme judge. David exercised this office as Saul had done.[303 - 2 Sam. viii. 15.] But though he retained the right of deciding in the last instance, David seems to have appointed the princes and judges of the tribes; he charged certain of his adherents with the duty of giving justice to the tribes and communities, although, of course, every man had the right of appeal from his decision to the decision of the king. Jurisdiction and administration not yet being separated, we may suppose that a regular government, which secured to the throne the execution of its will and of the orders given, was established by this means already in David's reign. We find that, beside the captains of the army, the officers of the house and treasury, the king had a chancellor, a scribe, and overseer of the taxes. Ahithophel was the man on whose advice David mainly depended; his most trusted friend was Hushai; and in the last twenty years of his life the prophet Nathan enjoyed a high place in his favour.[304 - 2 Sam. xx. 23-26; 1 Chron. xxvii. 16-22.]

It was a marvellous career that lay behind David. He had grown up in a hardy youth; early approved as a brave warrior and skilful leader, he was then raised to the side of Saul and Jonathan; after this he experienced the most sudden reverse of fortune, and at length by very perplexed paths he reached the highest stage. On this he had been able to retrieve many mistakes; he came victorious out of every conflict. Saul's deeds were surpassed, and Israel was proud of the successes of David and the respect which he won for her. He had securely established his authority; it was founded so firmly that the crown must pass to his descendants. The religious feeling which impelled him to inquire of Jehovah before every undertaking, which brought him at an early period into connection with the seers and priests, could not but increase as he looked back upon the course of his life. Who had greater reason than he to be thankful to the God who protected him and guided him so marvellously, who saved him out of every danger and had raised him to such power and splendour? In early days singing and harp-playing had occupied the leisure of his shepherd life; gifted with poetic powers, he understood how to give a powerful expression to his gratitude towards Jehovah. After these great wars he is said to have sung: "Jehovah, my rock, my fortress, my shield; the horn of my salvation, my defence. I called on him who is worthy of praise, and was delivered from my enemies. Out of his palace he heard my voice, and my cry came into his ears. Then the earth moved and quaked, and the foundations of the earth trembled, for he was wroth. Smoke rose out of his nostrils, and a consuming fire went from his mouth; coals burned forth from him. He bowed the heavens, and came down on the cherubim, and hovered on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his veil, the tempest and dark cloud his tabernacle. Jehovah thundered, and the Highest gave forth his voice, hail-stones and coals of fire. He shot forth his arrows and destroyed the enemy, the lightning fell and dispersed them. With thee, Jehovah, I went against hosts, and with my God I climbed over walls. Jehovah girded me with power; he gave me feet like harts' feet; he taught my hand the battle, so that my arm strung the iron bow. I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and turned not back till I had destroyed them; I shattered them in pieces that they could not rise up; I scattered them like dust before the wind; I cast them forth like dung. Thou, Jehovah, didst save me from the battles of the nations, and didst place me at their head; nations which I knew not serve me. At a rumour they obey me, and the sons of strangers flatter me; they sink away and tremble out of their castles. Praised be my protector, exalted be the God of my salvation."[305 - Psalm xviii.; cf. De Wette-Schrader, "Einleitung," S. 345.]

It was not in praise and thanksgiving only that David gave expression to the grateful feeling which filled him towards God; he had it much at heart to create a lasting abode and visible centre for the worship of Jehovah. For 20 years the sacred ark of Israel had remained at Kirjath-jearim, in the house of Abinadab, who had made one of his sons the custodian of it. David determined to convey it into his metropolis, that it might there be in secure keeping, and receive proper reverence. It was placed on a new wagon; Abinadab's sons, Ahio and Uzzah, led it forth. On the way an evil omen occurred: the oxen which drew the wagon broke loose, the ark tottered, and Uzzah put out his hand to stay it. "Then the anger of Jehovah broke forth against Uzzah, and he smote him, and he died there before God." After this incident David feared to carry the ark further; it remained on the road, at the house of Obed-edom; and not until it was seen that it brought prosperity to the house of Obed-edom did David, three months after, again take it up and carry it to Jerusalem. In festal train the people accompanied it with "shouting and trumpets;" and David, clad in the linen tunic of the priests, "danced before Jehovah." "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, that the King of glory may come in," he is said to have sung. The tabernacle was already erected on Zion, and in it the ark of Jehovah was then placed; and "David sacrificed burnt offerings and thank offerings, and gave to all the people, to each man a measure of wine, a loaf of bread and a cake of raisins" (about 1020 B.C.[306 - 2 Sam. vi. 1-8, 12-15; Psalm xxiv. On the date see above, p, 125, n. 2. M. Niebuhr ("Assur und Babel," s. 350) explains the number of 466½ years given by Josephus ("Ant." 20, 10) by assuming that it contains the interval of 430½ years which the Hebrews give for the interval between the building of the temple and its destruction. To this amount is added eight years for the captive high priest Jozadak, down to the time when his son Joshua became high priest, and 28 years for Zadok's priesthood before the commencement of the building of the temple. If we reckon the 28 years of Zadok backwards for the time that we have assumed for the beginning of the temple, 990 B.C., we arrive at the year 1018 B.C. for the erection of the new tabernacle.]). Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, of the house of Eli, of the race of Ithamar, of the tribe of Aaron, who had formerly fled to him with the image of Jehovah from Nob and remained by his side, and beside him Zadok, of the house of Eleazar, of the tribe of Aaron, who had hitherto been high priest at the place of sacrifice at Gibeon,[307 - 1 Chron. xvi. 39.] were made by David the custodians of the new tabernacle, which he then adorned with the costly spoil of his victories. By bringing the ark of the covenant into his city he gave it a sacred pledge, the assurance of the protection and the grace of Jehovah. His city was the dwelling of Jehovah, the citadel of Zion the mount of God. David's new metropolis was thus at the same time raised to be the central point of the national worship, and in the fullest sense the metropolis of the land. Service before the ark of the covenant on Zion could not but throw into the shade the old places of sacrifice at Shiloh, Bethel, Gibeon, Gilgal, and Nob.

The erection of the sacred ark on Zion, the foundation of a central point for the worship, certainly met the wishes of the priests. Only by a strictly-regulated and dominant mode of worship, by centralising the service, could the priests hope to bring into vogue the arrangement of ritual which they regarded as the true method appointed by God. Relying on the importance of such a central point, on the authority of the crown, they could expect obedience to their regulations. David on his part would hardly fail to see what weight the influence of an allied priesthood could add to the strength of the throne.

What David did for Israel by the cultivation of religious song, by setting up the old national shrine in the new metropolis, by the dedication of it to be the abode of Jehovah has been of deep-reaching and even decisive influence for the fortunes of Israel and the course of her religious development. It is, of course, beyond doubt that only a few of the Psalms which David is said to have sung can with certainty be traced back to him; but from the fact that the greater part of these poems could be ascribed to him, it follows with the greater certainty that he must have given a powerful impulse to the religious poetry of Israel, that the words of thankfulness and trust in God from the lips of the victorious royal minstrel had the greatest influence on the Israelites. This influence connected with the exaltation and worship of the national sacred relic at Zion gave a new life and firmer root to the belief of the Israelites, both in the direction of religious feeling and religious prescriptions. When the chief place of sacrifice was marked out indubitably by the sacred ark on Zion, and members of the oldest priestly family officiated there, it was natural that by degrees a considerable number of priests should collect there, in order to share and co-operate in the worship in the sacred tent, in the tabernacle. These priests were arranged according to their families or "houses;" the greater number claimed Eleazar, the third son of Aaron, as their progenitor, while the less claimed to be descended from Ithamar, the fourth son of Aaron.[308 - 2 Sam. xv. 24, 27; 1 Chron. vii. 4-15, 50-53; xxiii. – xxvi.] The eyes of the priesthood were already turned from Hebron to the early history of the nation, to the correct mode of worship, as Aaron and Moses had formerly proclaimed and practised it, which since the settlement in Canaan had become almost forgotten and obsolete with priests and laymen, since different customs had come into use at different places of sacrifice. The service at the new and yet ancient shrine at Jerusalem must support the impulse to practise, here at any rate, the old correct customs in perfect purity as a pattern and example, to insist on the custom of Zion as pleasing to God, and established by Moses, and to bring once more into authority and practice the true regulations of the sacrificial rites for the whole land. Agreement and union in the mode of worship would be most quickly and most thoroughly obtained if the place of the tabernacle could be shown to be the only correct place of sacrifice.

Though the Philistines had opposed the growth of the strength of Israel, the combination and arrangement of her powers, with perseverance and stubbornness, the cities of the Phenicians seem rather to have welcomed the establishment of a strict ruling authority in Israel, which preserved peace in the land and so made trade easier. Perhaps too they looked with pleasure on the formation of a power which could balance that of the Philistines, and prevent them from advancing as far as the gates of Tyre. At any rate Hiram, king of Tyre, who began to rule in that city in the year 1001 B.C.,[309 - If Josephus is right, that the fourth year of Solomon was the twelfth year of Hiram of Tyre.] entered into friendly relations with David. He sent him Tyrian artisans, who adorned David's palace on Zion. The Israelites were not skilled in fine building. After this palace was completed we must look on David's house and court as splendid and numerous. There was the chancellor, the keeper of the treasury, the chief tax-gatherer, the scribe with his subordinates; there were singers, male and female, the body-guard, and the servants.[310 - 2 Sam. xix. 35.] David had brought seven wives from Hebron to his new metropolis. Michal, the daughter of Saul, had borne no children to David; his eldest son, Amnon, was by Ahinoam of Jezreel; the second, Chileab, by Abigail, the widow of Nabal. When he ruled the tribe of Judah from Hebron he married a fourth wife, Maacah, the daughter of Thalmai, prince of Geshur, in order, no doubt, to strengthen by this connection his power, then so weak. Maacah bore him a third son, Absalom, and a daughter, Tamar; his fifth wife, Haggith, bore a fourth son, Adonijah. In Jerusalem he took yet more wives and concubines into his house, who, besides these sons, bore seventeen sons and several daughters, beside Tamar. When his sons became men, the unavoidable consequences of the harem came to light: the mutual jealousy of the sons of the various wives, and the ambition of some of the wives to obtain the succession for their sons.

The establishment of the monarchy had brought a rich return to the Israelites. Under its guidance, not only had the enemies of the land been beaten back, but Israel had gained a leading place in Syria. Moreover, David had transformed the somewhat insecure leadership conferred on Saul by his election into a firm and deep-reaching supremacy; a mere name, a wavering authority, he had raised after the pattern of his neighbours into a strict rule, which could lead the people at will, and dispose of them at pleasure. This transformation had taken place so quickly, the enrolment of Israel in the forms of Syrian monarchy was carried out so thoroughly, that there could not fail to be a strong reaction. The new officers were oppressive; task-work for the king, levies of the army for muster and for service beyond the land, were to the Israelites new and very unwonted burdens. When external dangers had passed away with the humiliation of the neighbours, and the days of the old incursions, distresses, and oppressions were forgotten, it might very well happen that the Israelites felt the new arrangement of the community, the mode in which they were governed, to be a burden rather than a benefit. In the later years of the reign of David a lively aversion to his rule was spread through all the tribes; and it is remarkable that it was most deeply felt in his own tribe of Judah, which had formerly exalted him in Hebron. On this feeling of the people, David's third son, Absalom, founded the plan of depriving his father of the sovereignty, in order to ascend the throne before it came to him by inheritance.[311 - Absalom's rebellion cannot have taken place till the latter years of David. Absalom was born in Hebron, and therefore, at the least, after David's thirtieth year, 2 Sam. v. 4. He must at the least have been towards 20 years old when he caused Amnon to be murdered. Five years passed before David would allow him to enter his presence, 2 Sam. xiii. 38, and xiv. 28. Lastly, his efforts to gain popularity, and the preparations for rebellion, must have occupied two years. If it is stated in 2 Sam. xv. 7 that after Absalom's return from Geshur 40 years elapsed till his rebellion, Absalom must have been 63 years old at the time of his rebellion, and David at the least 93 years old. Hence in the passage quoted four years must be read instead of 40.]

Absalom, David's son by Maacah of Geshur, was a handsome man, without blemish from head to foot, adorned with a heavy growth of hair, and a favourite of the people, though the guilt of a foul deed lay upon him. The beauty of Tamar, the full sister of Absalom, had roused the passions of Amnon, the eldest son of David. He enticed her into his house by deceit, dishonoured her and thrust her in scorn into the street. As the king did not punish the crime, Absalom invited Amnon to his plot of Baal Hazor, to the sheep-shearing, and there caused him to be stabbed by his servants in order to avenge his sister's shame. After this he fled to his grandfather, the prince of Geshur. After three years' banishment he was allowed to return, but might not see his father's face; this was not permitted till two years after his return. Amnon was dead; Chileab, David's second son, died, as it seems, in this period. Absalom was now again received into favour, and became the legitimate heir to the throne.

As a token of his claims, Absalom procured horses, and chariots and a retinue of 50 men. Early in the morning he was at the gates of Jerusalem; he inquired of every one whence he came, allowed no one to prostrate himself before him, but shook all by the hand and kissed them. If he heard that any one came for justice, he caused the matter to be told to him, and then said: Your cause is good, but you will not be heard; if I were judge in Israel you would certainly gain your rights. Four years after his return from Geshur, when Ahithophel, the most distinguished of David's counsellors, and Amasa, the son of a sister of David, had gone over to his side,[312 - 2 Sam. xv. 1-6; xvii. 25; 1 Chron. ii. 17.] Absalom considered his prospects favourable. He sent trusty men to all the tribes with instructions to proclaim him king as soon as they understood that he was in Hebron. Under pretence of offering sacrifice at Hebron, which city perhaps looked with jealousy on the new metropolis, Absalom went from Jerusalem to Hebron. The tribes obeyed this signal for revolt; everywhere the people on this side Jordan declared for Absalom, and great numbers gathered round him. At their head he set out against Jerusalem, against his father.

David was completely taken by surprise. His own son now brought on him retribution for all that he had previously done to Saul. Clever and circumspect as the old king was, he seems to have found his master in his son. Not secure of the people even at Jerusalem, he could not venture to defend himself in his fortified metropolis; nothing remained but to retire in all haste. Yet even in this desperate position the cunning which had so often come to his aid in his varied life did not desert him. Absalom he feared little; his greatest terror was the counsels of Ahithophel. Hence he commanded Hushai (p. 160) to remain behind, and in appearance to take Absalom's part, in order to counteract Ahithophel. If Absalom could be induced not to pursue his advantage immediately, and David could gain time to collect his adherents, much would be won. Abiathar and Zadok also, the high priests of the sacred tabernacle, who wished to share his flight, were bidden to remain in Jerusalem. Their position as priests was a sufficient protection for them; by means of their sons they were to furnish information of what took place in the city.[313 - 2 Sam. xv. 5-14.] Accompanied by some of his wives and their children, by his most faithful adherents, the Gibborim, and the body-guard, David left the city in the early morning. Over the Kidron, along the Mount of Olives, he hastened eastwards to find protection beyond the Jordan. At Bahurim Shimei, a man of Benjamin, of the race of Matri, to which Saul belonged, saw from an eminence the flight of the king. He threw stones down upon him and said: May Jehovah bring upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place thou hast become king; see, thou art now in calamity; away, thou man of blood. The body-guard wished to take the man and slay him, but David restrained them, and said: My son, who has come forth from my loins, is seeking my life; how much more a man of Benjamin; let him curse. Perhaps at this moment David's spirit was really broken; perhaps he did not wish that the people should be further roused by new acts of violence; in the sequel he showed that he had neither forgotten nor forgiven the words of Shimei.

On the same day Absalom marched into Jerusalem, and among those who greeted him he saw with astonishment Hushai, the ancient friend of his father. He believed Hushai's assurance that he wished to "serve him whom Jehovah and all the men of Israel had chosen." Ahithophel considered the success which had been obtained, the rebellion which spread through the whole country on this side of the Jordan, and the possession of the strong metropolis and the palace without a blow, insufficient and indecisive. He saw the situation clearly, and was convinced that all would be lost if the king had time to collect round him his old adherents, his companions in victory. Filled with the conviction that the only way to obtain the end in view was to make an immediate use of the great advantages won by the surprise, he insisted that Absalom should at once set out in pursuit of David. The people which Absalom had led from Hebron were numerous, of these he wished to leave behind the burdensome multitude and select 12,000 for this expedition. Hushai opposed this proposal with great skill. Thou knowest thy father, he said to Absalom, he is a mighty warrior, like a bear deprived of her whelps in the forest, and his men are mighty and of fierce courage. He will not be encamped on the field, but will have concealed himself in one of the hiding-places. If any of our men fall it will be said, Absalom's men have been defeated, and all thy adherents will lose courage. Rather rouse all Israel, and march out at their head, that we may encamp against David like the sand of the sea, and none of his men may escape. Absalom followed this advice to his ruin. Yet Hushai was not certain that Ahithophel would not win over Absalom to his opinion, or go of his own will against David; so he sent his maid before the gate to the fuller's well (to the south of the city, where the valleys of Hinnom and Kidron join), where Jonathan, the son of Abiathar, and Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok, lay concealed (Absalom's men had not allowed them to leave the gate), with instructions to them to hasten to the king and warn him not to encamp on this side of Jordan. Though watched by Absalom's guards and pursued, the two men came without disaster to David, who again set out in the night. When Ahithophel heard that the king was beyond Jordan he despaired of the undertaking; he saddled his ass, went to his own city, set his house in order and hung himself.

Absalom took formal possession of the sovereignty, and as a sign that he had broken for ever with his father and assumed the government, he took the royal harem into his possession. A tent was set up on the roof of the palace of Zion, under which Absalom lived with the ten concubines whom David had left behind in Jerusalem before the eyes of Israel. When this was done he raised the whole people to march against his father, and went with numerous troops to the Jordan. David was at Mahanaim, like Ishbosheth before him, eagerly busied with his army. It was due to the cunning arrangements made in the flight from Jerusalem that he had escaped without danger beyond Jordan, and was enabled to assemble his own adherents there while Absalom was calling out and collecting the whole army. From the Ammonites, whom he had treated so harshly, he seems nevertheless to have received support.[314 - 2 Sam. xvii. 27.]

While Absalom crossed the Jordan, David divided the forces he had at his disposal into three corps, the command of which he entrusted to Joab, his brother Abishai, and Ithai, a Philistine of Gath. He remained behind in Mahanaim, and bade the captains deal gently with Absalom in the event of victory. The armies met in the forest of Ephraim, not far from the Jordan. In spite of the superiority of the numbers opposed to them, the tried and veteran soldiers of David had the advantage over the ill-armed and ill-organised masses of peasants. Absalom started back on his mule, fell into a thicket, and became entangled by his long hair in the branches of a large terebinth. He remained hanging while his mule ran away from under him. Joab found him in this position, and thrust his spear thrice through his heart. Either the fall of the hostile leader, the author of the rebellion, appeared a sufficient success to David's men, or the advantage gained over Absalom's army was not very great, or they found themselves too weak to follow it up. Joab led the army back to Mahanaim.

Though the rebellion had lost its leader by the fall of Absalom, it was far from being crushed. Absalom's captain, Amasa, the nephew of David, collected the masses of the rebellious army; the elders of the tribes, as well as the people, were ready to continue the struggle against David, though some were again inclined to accept their old king. If the tribes could be divided, and Amasa separated from the elders of Judah, the victory was almost certain. On this David built his plan. By means of the priests Abiathar and Zadok he caused it to be made known to the elders of Judah that the rest of the tribes had made overtures to him, to recognise him again as king, which was not the case; – would they be the last to lead back their own flesh and blood, their tribesman David? At the same time the priests were bidden to offer to Amasa the post of captain-general as the reward of his return, and this offer David confirmed with an oath: So might God do to him if Amasa were not captain all his days in the place of Joab.[315 - 2 Sam. xix. 11-13.] The elders of Judah allowed themselves to be entrapped no less than Amasa, who little knew with whom he had to do. They sent a message to the king that he might return over the Jordan, and went to meet him at Gilgal. David showed himself placable, and prepared to pardon the adherents of Absalom. Shimei, who had cursed him on his retirement from Jerusalem, went to meet him at the Jordan; and when the boat which carried David over reached the hither bank he fell at his feet. David promised not to slay him with the sword.[316 - 2 Sam. xix. 18-33; 1 Kings ii. 8.] From Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, who had declared for Absalom, he only took the half of Saul's inheritance.[317 - 2 Sam. xvi. 3-5; xix. 24-30.]

The remaining tribes were enraged at the tribe of Judah, partly because they had abandoned the common cause, partly because Judah had entirely appropriated the merit of bringing back the king. Their feelings were wavering: half were for submission, the others for continuing the resistance.[318 - 2 Sam. xix. 40.] Then rose up a man of Benjamin, Sheba, the son of Bichri. "What part have we in David, what portion in the son of Jesse?" he cried to the waverers, caused the trumpets to be blown, and gave a new centre to rebellion and resistance. David commissioned Amasa to call out the warriors of Judah within three days and lead them to Jerusalem. While Amasa was occupied with carrying out this command, David sent Joab with the Gibborim and the body-guard against Sheba. At Gibeon Joab met Amasa. Is all well with thee, my brother? he said, and took him by the beard with his right hand to greet him, while with the left he thrust his sword through his body.[319 - 2 Sam. xx. 8-13; 1 Kings ii. 5.] Thus, after he had been gained by deceptive promises, the dangerous man was removed as Abner had been before him. Sheba could not withstand the impetuous advance of Joab; the tribes submitted. Sheba's first resistance was made far in the north at Dan, in the city of Abel-beth-maachah, and there he defended himself so stubbornly that a rampart was thrown up against the city and besieging engines brought up against the walls. When the walls were near upon falling, and the citizens saw destruction before them, they saved themselves by cutting off Sheba's head and sending it to Joab.[320 - 2 Sam. xx. 15-22.] The reaction of the people against the new government, at the head of which Absalom, Amasa, and Sheba had successively placed themselves, was overcome.

Many years before, at the time when Joab was besieging Rabbath, the metropolis of the Ammonites, David had gone out on the roof of his house in Zion in the cool of the evening. This position overlooked the houses in the ravine which separated the citadel from the city. In one of these David saw a beautiful woman in her bath. This was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, a Hittite, who served in the troop of the "mighty." The king sent for her to his palace, and she soon announced to David that she was with child. David gave orders to Joab to send Uriah from the camp to Jerusalem. He asked him of the state of the war and the army, and then bade him go home to his wife, but Uriah lay before the gate of the palace. When David asked him on the next morning why he had not gone home to his house, he answered: Israel is in the field, and my fellows lie in the camp before Rabbath, and shall I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? Remain here, replied David; to-morrow morning I will let thee go. David invited him into the palace and made him drunken, but, as before, Uriah passed the night before the gate of the palace. Then, on the following day, David sent Uriah to the camp with a letter to Joab: Place Uriah in the thickest of the battle, and turn away from him, that he may be smitten, and die. Soon after a messenger came from the camp and announced to the king: The men of Rabbath made a sally; we repulsed them, and drove them to the gate; then the bowmen shot at thy servants from the walls, and some of our men were slain, among them Uriah. David caused Bathsheba, when the time for mourning was over, to come into his harem, and after the death of her first child, she bore a second child, whom David called Solomon, i. e. the peaceful,[321 - 2 Sam. xii. 15-24; 1 Chron. xxii. 9.] as the times of war were over with the capture of Rabbath and the subjugation of the Ammonites.

After Absalom's death the heir to the crown was Adonijah, the fourth son of David, whom Haggith had borne to him while at Hebron. Solomon was the seventh in the series of the surviving sons of David, and as yet quite young; yet Bathsheba attempted to place her son on the throne. One of the two high priests, Zadok, supported Bathsheba's views, as also Nathan the prophet, who acquired great influence with David in the last years of his reign. Both might expect a greater deference to priestly influence from the youthful Solomon than from the older and more independent Adonijah, and the more so if they assisted the young man to gain the throne against the legitimate successor. So Bathsheba prevailed upon David to swear an oath by Jehovah that Solomon should be his successor in the place of Adonijah.[322 - 1 Kings i. 17, 20.] But Adonijah did not doubt that the throne belonged to him, that all Israel was of the same conviction, and their eyes turned upon him.[323 - 1 Kings ii. 15, 22.] If Zadok was in favour of Solomon's succession, Abiathar, the old and influential adherent of David, was for Adonijah, and what was more important, the captain of the army, Joab, who had won David's best victories, also declared for him. On the other hand, Bathsheba's party won Benaiah, the captain of the body-guard, so that the power and prospects of both party were about equal.

When David, 70 years old, lay on his death-bed, Adonijah felt that he must anticipate his opponents. He summoned his adherents to meet outside the walls at the fuller's well (p. 170). Joab appeared with the leaders of the army, Abiathar came to offer sacrifice, and all the sons of David except Solomon. The sacrifice was already being offered, the sheep, oxen and calves were killed, the proclamation of Adonijah was to follow immediately after the sacrifice, when the intelligence was carried to the opposite party. Bathsheba and Nathan hastened to the dying king to remind him of his oath in favour of Solomon. He gave orders that Solomon should be placed on the mule which he always rode himself and that Zadok should anoint the youth under the wall of Zion eastwards of the city at the fount of Gihon. Then Benaiah with the body-guard was to bring him back into the city at once with the sound of trumpets, and lead him into the palace, in order to set him upon the throne there. This was done. Zadok took the horn of oil from the sacred tabernacle, and when the new ruler returned in solemn procession to the palace all the people cried with joy: Long live king Solomon. When Adonijah and his adherents heard the shouting from the city, and understood what had taken place, they gave up their cause for lost, and dispersed in dread in every direction. David rejoiced over this last success;[324 - 1 Kings ii. 5-9.] he called Solomon to his bedside, and said to him: "Do good to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite; he received me well when I fled over Jordan before thy brother Absalom. Shimei, who cursed me when I fled to Mahanaim, I have sworn not to slay; let him not go unpunished, and bring his grey hairs to the grave with blood. What Joab did to Abner and Amasa thou knowest; let not his grey hairs go down to the grave in peace."[325 - 1 Kings ii. 5-9. The verses 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7 may have been a speech of David's at some former time, if they are not an addition of the prophet's. Contrasted with the very definite and realistic colouring of the passage quoted from the Book of Kings, they can hardly be considered the last words.] David was buried in the grave which he had caused to be made on Zion, where the heights of the citadel meet the western height, on which the city lay.

Thus David had succeeded in healing the wounds which his ambition had inflicted in past days on Israel; he understood how to establish firmly the monarchy, and along with it the power and security of the state. He had given such an important impulse to the worship, to the religious poetry, and consequently to the religious life, of the Hebrews, that his reign has remained of decisive importance for the entire development of Israel. But beside these great successes and high merits lie very dark shadows. If we cannot but admire the activity and bravery, the wisdom and circumspection, which distinguish his reign, there stands beside these qualities not only the weakness of his later years, which caused him to make a capricious alteration in the succession, thereby endangering the work of his life; other actions, both of his earlier and later years, show plainly that in spite of religious feeling and sentiment he did not hesitate to set aside very fundamental rules of morality when it came to winning the object he had in view.

If even in his last moments he causes Joab to be put to death by the hand of his son, it may be that this old servant, when he had taken the side of the other son in the succession, appeared very dangerous for the rule of the younger son. But Joab had rendered the greatest services to David, he had won for him the most brilliant victories; and if our account makes David give the murder of Abner and Amasa as the reason for that command, David had made no attempt to punish one deed or the other; on the contrary, he had gladly availed himself of at least the results and fruits of them. We must not indeed measure those days of unrestrained force and violent passion in hatred and love, in devotion and ambition, by the standard of our own tamer impulses; the manner of the ancient East, above all of the Semites, was too much inclined to the most bloody revenge. Yet David's instructions to destroy a man of no importance, whom he had once in a difficult position sworn to spare, out of the grave, by the hand of his son, goes beyond the limit of all that we can elsewhere find in those times and feelings.

CHAPTER VIII

KING SOLOMON

In the last hour of his life David had raised his favourite son to the throne. The young king was not much more than 20 years of age,[326 - Bathsheba became David's wife not long before the capture of Rabbath-Ammon. Her first child died. According to 1 Kings iii. 7, Solomon, at the time of his accession, is still a boy. But since, according to 1 Kings xiv. 21, his son Rehoboam is 42 years old at Solomon's death, and Solomon had reigned 40 years, Solomon must have been more than 20 at the death of David. Hence, on p. 155 above, the date of the capture of Rabbath-Ammon is fixed at 1015 B.C.] and the news of the death of the dreaded ruler of Israel could not but awaken among all who had felt the weight of his arm the hope of withdrawing themselves from the burden laid upon them. The son of the king of Edom, whom his father's servants had carried away in safety into Egypt, had grown up there under the protection of the Pharaoh; at the news of David's death he hastened to Edom to summon his people to freedom and the struggle against Israel. A captain of Hadad-Ezer of Zobah, whom David overthrew, Rezon by name, fled at that time into the desert, where he collected a troop round him and lived by plundering. Now he threw himself on Damascus, gained the city, and made himself prince. Moreover, the power of Solomon was not firmly established even in Israel; the people had expected the accession of Adonijah,[327 - 1 Kings ii. 15.] and though he and his confederates retired at the first alarm, there was no lack of adherents. Serious dangers and commotions appeared to threaten the new reign. Adonijah had fled for refuge to the altar; he besought Solomon for a pledge not to slay him. Solomon promised to spare him if he remained quietly at home. Joab did not know what commands David had given Solomon in his dying hour, but he did know that Solomon would not forgive him for supporting Adonijah. He sought refuge in the tabernacle of Jehovah, and took hold of the horns of the altar in the tent. Solomon bade Benaiah cut him down. Benaiah hesitated to pollute the altar with blood; he reported that Joab could not be induced to leave the altar. The young king repeated his command, "Cut him down, and take from me and from the house of my father the blood of Abner and the blood of Amasa." So Joab was slain by Benaiah at the altar of the sacred tent, and buried "in his house in the desert." The high priest Abiathar escaped with his life. "I will not slay thee," so Solomon said to him, "because thou didst once suffer with my father." He banished him as a "man of death" to his inheritance at Anathoth. Zadok was henceforth sole high priest at the sacred tent. When Adonijah afterwards besought Solomon to give him one of the concubines of David, Abishag the Shunamite, to wife, Solomon thought that he sought to obtain the throne by this means. He commanded Benaiah to slay him on the spot. With the death of Adonijah his party lost their head and centre: it ceased to exist.

Solomon broke the rebellion of the Edomites not by his arms only, but also by withdrawing from them the support of Egypt. He sought the hand of the daughter of the king of Egypt and obtained it.[328 - 1 Kings iii. 1. From the statement in 1 Kings xi. 14-21, this must have been the daughter of Amenophtis, the Pharaoh who succeeded the king mentioned here, the fourth Tanite in Manetho's list. Below, Book IV. chap. 3.] Thus he not only withdrew from Edom their reliance on Egypt, he also obtained the active support of his father-in-law. The Edomites were defeated in battle by Solomon; Egyptian soldiers reduced Gezer for him.[329 - 1 Kings ix. 16.] On the other hand, Solomon could not defeat the new king of Damascus. Rezon maintained his place, and was an "adversary to Israel as long as Solomon lived."[330 - 1 Kings xi. 23-25.] Hence it is hardly possible that Solomon reduced the kingdom of Hamath, north of Damascus, to subjection, as the Chronicles assert;[331 - 2 Chron. viii. 3.] on the other hand, it appears that the oasis of Tadmor, in the Syrian desert, north of Damascus, was gained, and the city of that name was founded and established there. Hence, even after the loss of Damascus, he had command of one of the roads to the Euphrates.[332 - 2 Chron. vii. 8; viii. 4; 1 Kings ix. 18; Joseph. "Antiq." 8, 6, 1. The passage in the Book of Kings appears, it is true, to indicate Thamar in Southern Judæa.] We may assume that Solomon retained the kingdom of David without any essential alteration in extent; that he, like his predecessor, held sway as far as the north-east point of the Red Sea; and that even if his rule did not extend, like David's, to the Euphrates, yet he possessed a predominant position in this direction. The connection in which Hiram king of Tyre stood with his father he not only maintained, but made it more close and more extensive.

With the close of the third year of the reign of Solomon the wars which the change on the throne kindled came to an end. It is said to have been David's intention in the last years of his reign to build a temple in the place of the sacred tent on Zion. As soon as times of peace came Solomon set himself to carry out this purpose. Hiram of Tyre promised to deliver wood from the forests of Lebanon at a price, and to put at his disposal architects and moulders of brass. To the north of the palace which David had built on Zion the mountain, on which the citadel was, rose higher. Here the new temple was to be erected. The first task was to level the height; a terrace was raised upon it by removing some parts and filling up others, and building substructures; this terrace was intended to form the precincts and support the temple itself. The surrounding hills and the neighbourhood provided an ample supply of stones for building; stone of a better quality was quarried in Lebanon and carried down. The trees felled in Lebanon were carried to the coast, floated round the promontory of Carmel as far as Japho (Joppa), and again dragged up from this point to Jerusalem.[333 - 1 Kings v. 7-10, 15-17.] The vessels and the ornaments of brass intended for the temple were cast "in clay ground" beyond the Jordan, between Succoth and Zarthan, by the Tyrian Hiram.[334 - 1 Kings vii. 46.] A wall of huge stones, on which were built the dwellings of the priests, surrounded the temple precincts. The temple itself was a building of moderate dimensions, but richly adorned. A portico of 20 cubits in breadth and 10 cubits in depth, opening to the east, formed the entrance into the temple. Before this portico, after the Syrian manner, stood two pillars of brass, one called Jachin, the other Boaz. The temple, exclusive of the portico, was 60 cubits in length, 20 cubits in breadth, and 30 cubits in height. The breadth was limited by the unsupported span of the beams of the roof. On both sides of the temple itself leaned side-buildings, which rose to the height of half the main structure. The front space of the temple was lighted by trellised openings over these side-buildings. This front space, which was the largest, and entered from the portico by a door of cypress wood, adorned with carved work overlaid with gold, was richly ornamented. The floor was laid with cypress wood overlaid with gold; the walls and the roof were covered with panels of cedar wood, which in richly-carved work displayed cherubs and palm-branches, so that not a stone could be seen in the interior. In this space of the temple – the "holy" – was an altar overlaid with gold for offering frankincense (for the smoke-offering), and a sacred table for the sacrificial bread. Nearer to the inner space of the temple – the "holy of holies" – were ten candlesticks, and further in a candlestick with seven branches. The holy of holies, i. e. the smaller inner space of the temple, which was intended to receive the sacred ark, was divided from the holy by a wall of cedar wood, in which was a double door of olive wood, hanging on golden hinges. Only the high priest could enter the holy of holies, the walls of which were covered with gold-leaf, and even from him the sight of the ark was hidden by a curtain of blue and red purple, and approach was barred by a golden chain. Immediately before the ark were two cherubs of carved olive wood overlaid with gold, 10 cubits high, with outspread wings, so that from the point of one wing to the point of the other was also a distance of 10 cubits.[335 - 1 Kings vi., vii. 13-51; 2 Chron. iii. 4, 10.]

The sacrifices of animals were offered in the open air of the court in front of the temple. For this object a great altar of brass was erected in the middle of the court, 10 cubits in height and 20 in the square. Southward of this altar was placed a great basin, in which the priests had to perform their ablutions and purifications; this was a much-admired work of the artisan Hiram, and called the sea of brass. Supported by twelve brazen oxen, arranged in four sets of three, and turned to the four quarters of the sky, the round bowl, which was of the shape of a lily broken open, measured five cubits in depth and 30 in circumference.[336 - A similar vessel of stone, 30 feet in circumference, adorned with the image of a bull, lies among the fragments of Amathus in Cyprus: O. Müller, "Archæologie," § 240, Anm. 4.] Beside this great basin five smaller iron bowls were set up on either side of the altar. These rested on wheels, and were adorned with cherubs and lions, palms and flowers, with the greatest skill. They were intended to serve for washing and purifying the animals and implements of sacrifice.

Solomon commenced the building of the temple in the second month of the fourth year of his reign (990 B.C.). After seven years and six months it was finished in the eighth month of the eleventh year of Solomon's reign (983 B.C.). The elders of all Israel, the priests and Levites, and all the people "from Hamath to the brook of Egypt," flocked to Jerusalem. In solemn pomp the sacred ark was drawn up to the temple height; oxen and sheep without number were sacrificed for seven days, and from that time forward the king offered a solemn sacrifice each year at the three great festivals in the new temple.[337 - 1 Kings ix. 25.]

The house which David had built for himself on Zion no longer satisfied the requirements of Solomon and his larger court. When the temple was finished he undertook the building of a new palace, which was carried out on such a scale that the completion occupied thirteen years.[338 - 1 Kings vii. 1-12.] The new palace was not built on Zion, but on the western ridge, which supported the city to the west of Zion and David's palace. It consisted of several buildings, surrounded by courts and houses for the servants, and enclosed by a separate wall. The largest building was a house of stone three stories high, the stories and roof of which were supported by cedar pillars and beams of cedar; the length was 100, the breadth 50, and the height 30 cubits (about 50 feet). A balustrade or staircase in this house was made of sandal wood, which the ships of Ezion-geber had brought from Ophir.[339 - 1 Kings x. 12; 2 Chron. ix. 11.] On this building abutted three colonnades, the largest 50 cubits long and 30 broad; the third was the hall of the throne and of justice.[340 - 1 Kings vii. 7.] Here stood the magnificent throne of Solomon, "of which the like was never made in any kingdom," of ivory overlaid with gold. Six steps, on which were twelve lions, led up to it; beside the arms of the seat were also two lions.[341 - 1 Kings x. 18-20.] Then followed the dwelling of Solomon, from which a separate stair-way was made leading up to the temple, together with the chambers for the wives of the king, – their number is given at 700, the number of the concubines at 300,[342 - The Song of Solomon says, "There are 60 queens, 80 concubines, and maids without number."]– and lastly a separate house for his Egyptian consort, who passed as the first wife, and was honoured and distinguished above the rest. In the four-and-twentieth year of Solomon's reign (970 B.C.) this building was brought to an end, "and the daughter of Pharaoh went up from the city of David into the house which Solomon had built for her."[343 - 1 Kings ix. 10, 24.]

Solomon felt it incumbent on him to secure his land, and not merely to adorn the metropolis by splendid buildings, but to make it inaccessible to attack. To protect northern Israel against Rezon and Damascus he fortified Hazor, whose king had once so grievously oppressed Israel, and Baalath; to protect the western border he fortified Megiddo, Gezer, and Beth-horon.[344 - 1 Kings ix. 15-19.] The defensive works which David had added to the old fortifications of the metropolis he enlarged and extended. The gorge which, running from north to south, divided the city of Jerusalem on the western height from the citadel of Zion on the east he closed towards the north by a separate fortification, the tower of Millo. By another fortification, Ophel, he protected a depression of Mount Zion between David's palace and the new temple, which allowed the citadel to be ascended from the east. The space over which the city had extended on the western height opposite the temple, in consequence of the growth of a suburb there towards the north, the lower city, he surrounded with a wall.[345 - 1 Kings xi. 27; ix. 15-24.] He raised the number of the chariots of war, which David had introduced, to 1400, for which 4000 horses were kept. He formed a cavalry force of 12,000 horses, he built stables and sheds for the horsemen and chariots. If we include the body-guard, the standing army which Solomon maintained may very well have reached 20,000 men.[346 - 1 Kings iv. 26; x. 26.]

The excellent arrangement of his military means and forces must have contributed to make Israel respected and to preserve peace in the land. In Solomon's reign, so we are told in the Books of Kings, every one could dwell in peace under his own vine and his own fig tree.[347 - 1 Kings iv. 20, 25; v. 4.] This peace from without, united with the peace which the power and authority of the throne secured in the country, must have invigorated trade, favoured industry, and considerably increased the welfare of Israel. The example of the court, the splendour and magnificence of which was not increased by buildings only, made the wealthy Israelites acquainted with needs and enjoyments hitherto unknown to their simple modes of life. If hitherto the Israelites had sold to the Phenicians wine and oil, the wool of their flocks, and the surplus products of their lands for utensils and stuffs, the finer manufactures of the Phenicians now found a demand in Israel. If the king of Israel was friendly to the Phenicians, he allowed them a road by land through his territories to Egypt; now that the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites had been subjugated he could close or open the caravan road past Rabbath-Ammon, Kir Moab, and Elath to South Arabia (I. 320), and when Tadmor was in his hands he could permit or prohibit a road to the Euphrates beside that past Damascus. Solomon prohibited none of these; on the contrary, he promoted the intercourse of the merchants by erecting resting-places and warehouses on all the lines of traffic which crossed his dominions.[348 - 1 Kings ix. 19.] The exportation of chariots and war-horses from Egypt to Syria, which the Pharaoh no doubt permitted in an especial degree to his son-in-law, Solomon carried on by means of merchants commissioned by him.[349 - 1 Kings x. 29.] Another trade undertaking, at once much more far-seeing, and promising far greater gains, he commenced in union with the king of Tyre. It was of great importance to the Phenicians to obtain an easier connection with South Arabia in the place of, or at least in addition to, the dangerous and very uncertain caravan routes past Damascus and Dumah (I. 320), or past Elath along the coast of the Red Sea, to South Arabia. The circuit by Babylon was very distant, and not much more secure. The rule of Solomon over Edom pointed out the way, and secured the possibility of reaching South Arabia by the Red Sea. At Eziongeber, near Elath, Tyrian shipbuilders built the vessels which were to explore the coasts of South Arabia, the coasts of the land of gold. Guided by Phenician pilots, Phenicians and Israelites sailed into the unknown sea, and to unknown and remote corners of the earth. They succeeded not only in reaching the South Arabian coasts and the coasts of East Africa, but in passing beyond to Ophir, i. e., as it seems, to the mouths of the Indus. After an absence of three years the first expedition brought back gold in quantities, silver, ivory, sandal wood, precious stones, apes and peacocks. The profits of this expedition are said to have contributed as Solomon's share 420 Kikkars of gold, i. e. towards 20,000,000 thalers (about £3,000,000).[350 - 1 Kings ix. 26-28; x. 22.]

With the increased sale of the products of the country, the improvement and security of the great routes of traffic, the entrance of Israel into the trade of the Phenicians, and the influx of a considerable amount of capital, money seems to have become very rapidly and seriously depreciated in price in Israel. Before the establishment of the monarchy a priest is said to have received 10 silver shekels, with food and clothing, for his yearly service at a sacred place.[351 - Judges xvii. 10. The Hebrew silver shekel is to be reckoned at more than 2s. 6d.; the gold shekel from 36 to 45s. Cf. Vol. i. 304.] The amount from which Abimelech is said to have maintained his retinue (p. 107) is placed at only 70 shekels of silver. Before the epoch of the monarchy the prophet received a quarter of a shekel as a return for his services. David purchased the threshing-floor of Araunah at Zion with two oxen for 50 shekels of silver.[352 - 2 Sam. xxiv. 24.] On the other hand, Solomon appears to have paid the keepers of his vineyards a yearly salary of 200 silver shekels, and in his time 150 shekels were paid for an Egyptian horse, and 600 shekels (500 thalers = £80) for a war-chariot.[353 - Song of Solomon viii. 11; cf. Mover's "Phœnizier," 3, 48 ff, 81 ff.]

The prosperity of the land allowed Solomon to increase the income of the throne by taxation of the people. His income from the navigation to Ophir, from trade, from the royal demesnes, and the taxes of Israel is said to have brought in a yearly sum of 666 Kikkars of gold, i. e. about 30,000,000 of thalers (about £5,000,000).[354 - 1 Kings x. 14.] He applied these revenues to the support of his army, to his fortifications, sheds, and splendid buildings, to the erection of the stations on the trade roads, and finally to the adornment of the court. "He built in Jerusalem, on Lebanon, and in the whole land of his dominion," say the Books of Kings.[355 - 1 Kings ix. 19.] We hear of conduits, pools and country houses of the king on Antilibanus; of vineyards and gardens at Baal-Hammon. The splendour of his court is described in extravagant terms. All the drinking-vessels and many other utensils in the palace at Jerusalem, and in the forest-house in Antilibanus, are said to have been of pure gold, and the servants were richly clad.[356 - 1 Kings x. 21; 2 Chron. ix. 20.] In a costly litter of cedar wood, of which the posts were of silver, the arms of gold, and the seat of purple, Solomon was conveyed to his vineyards and pleasure-houses in Antilibanus, surrounded by a retinue of 60 men chosen from the body-guard.[357 - Song of Solomon iii. 7-10.] At solemn processions the body-guard carried 500 ornamented shields: 200 were of pure gold, – for each 600 shekels were used, – 300 of alloyed gold.[358 - 1 Kings x. 27.] The number of male and female singers, of the servants for the king and crowded harem, and the kitchen, must have been very great, as may be inferred from the very considerable consumption of food and drink in the palace. From the court and from trade such an amount of gold flowed to Jerusalem that silver was in consequence depreciated.[359 - 1 Kings x. 27.]

The new arrangement of state life, which was partly established, partly introduced, by Solomon, the leisure of peace, the close contact with Phœnicia and Egypt, the entrance of Israel into extensive trade, the increase of prosperity, the richer, more various, and more complicated conditions of life, the wider range of vision, could not be without their influence on the intellectual life of the Israelites. From this time an increased activity is displayed. They were impelled and forced to observation, comparison and consideration in quite another manner than before. The results of these new reflections grew into fixed rules, into proverbs and apophthegms. In this intellectual movement Solomon took a leading part. A man of poetical gifts like his father, he composed religious and other poems (1005 in number, according to the tradition). The impulse to knowledge and the sense of art which he excites must first have found room within himself; his vision, like his means, reached the furthest. Hence we have no reason to doubt that he was one of the wisest in his nation. "God," says the Book of Kings, "gave Solomon a spirit beyond measure, as the sand of the sea. And the wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the sons of the East, and the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than all men, and he spoke of the trees, from the cedar on Lebanon to the hyssop which grows on the wall, and of the cattle and the birds, and the worms and the fishes."[360 - 1 Kings iv. 29-34.] Beside poetry and extensive knowledge of nature, in which he surpassed his wisest countrymen, Ethal and Heman, Chalcol and Darda, it was his keen observation, his penetrating knowledge of mankind, his experience of life which made the greatest impression. His proverbs and rules of life seemed to the Israelites so pointed and exhaustive that they attributed to Solomon the entire treasure of their gnomic wisdom, which was afterwards collected into one body. Among these proverbs scarcely any can with complete certainty be ascribed to Solomon, but the fact that all are attributed to him is a sufficient proof that Solomon possessed a very striking power in keen observation of human nature and human affairs, in the pregnant expression of practical experience, in combining its lessons into pointed and vigorous sentences.

As a proof of his acuteness and the calm penetration of his judicial decisions, the people used to narrate the story of the two women who once came before Solomon into the hall of justice. One said: I and that woman lived in one house, and each of us bore a male child. In the night the son of this woman died. She rose, laid her dead son at my breast, and took my living child to her bosom. When I woke I had a dead child in my arms; but in the morning I perceived that this child was not the son which I had borne. The other woman answered: No; the living boy is my son, and thine is the dead child. The king turned to his retinue and said: Cut the living child into two parts, and give half to one and half to the other. Then tenderness for her child arose in the mother of the living child. I pray you, my lord, she said, give her the living child, but slay it not. And the king gave sentence: This is the mother, give her the child. It is further narrated that the fame of Solomon's wisdom reached even to distant lands, and kings set forth to hear it. From Arabia the queen of the Sabæans (Sheba, I. 315) is said to have come with a long train of camels, carrying spices, gold, and precious stones, in order to try Solomon with enigmas. And Solomon told her all that she asked, and solved all the enigmas, and nothing was hidden from him. When the queen perceived such wisdom, and saw the house which he had built, and the food on his table, and his counsellors, and his cup-bearers, and servants, and the burnt sacrifice which he offered in the house of Jehovah, she sent him 120 Kikkars of gold, and such an amount of spices as never afterwards came to Jerusalem. This narrative may not be without some foundation, in fact we saw above how old was the trade of Egypt and Syria with the land of frankincense. We shall afterwards find queens among the Arabians in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.: Zabibieh, Samsieh, and Adijah, and even at the head of the tribes of the desert. To this day the East preserves the memory of the wise king Solomon, who, in their legends and stories, has at the same time become a great magician and exorcist.

However great the splendour of Israel in Solomon's reign, this advance was not without a darker side. The new paths in which Solomon led his people brought the Israelites comfort and opulence, the advantages and impulses of a higher civilisation and more active intellectual life. But with the splendour and luxury of the court, and the increasing wealth, the old simplicity of manners disappeared. The land had to bear the burden of a rule which was completely assimilated to the forms of court life, and the mode of government established in Egypt and Syria, in Babylon and Assyria. The court, the army and the buildings required heavy sums and services, and these for the most part had to be paid and undertaken by the people. Solomon not only imposed on the tribes the maintenance of his standing troops, the cavalry and the chariots, he also demanded that they should support the court by contributions in kind. This service was not inconsiderable. Each day 30 Kor of fine and 60 Kor of ordinary meal were required, 10 stalled oxen, and 20 oxen from the pasture, and 100 head of small cattle. Besides this, deer and fallow-deer, gazelles and fed geese were supplied. The assistance which Hiram king of Tyre gave to Solomon's buildings, the wood from Lebanon, had to be paid for; each year 20,000 Kor of wheat and 20,000 Bath of oil and wine were sent to Tyre, and this the Israelites had to provide. Further, the people had to pay a regular yearly tax in money to the king.[361 - 1 Kings iv. 22, 23, 26-28.] Still more oppressive was the task-work for the buildings of the king. It is true that the remnant of the tribes subject to the Israelites, the Amorites, Hittites, Hivites and Jebusites, were taken chiefly for these tasks, for Solomon had compelled them to do constant task-work,[362 - 1 Kings ix. 20, 21. In order to prove that Solomon used these and no others for his workmen, the Chronicles (2, ii. 16, 17) reckon this remnant at 153,000 men, i. e. exactly at the number of task workmen with their overseers given in the Book of Kings. According to this the incredible number of half a million of Canaanites must have settled among the Israelites. The general assertion of the Books of Kings (1, ix. 22) is supported by the detailed evidence in the same books, 1, v. 13; xi. 28; xii. 4 ff.] but the Israelites themselves were also employed in great numbers in the building. Over each tribe of Israel Solomon placed an overseer of the task-work, and these overseers were all subordinate to Adoniram, the chief task-master. The Israelites summoned for these services are said to have had two months' rest after one month of work, and there was a regular system of release. In the years when the buildings were carried on with the greatest vigour, 80,000 workmen are said to have been engaged in felling wood in Lebanon, in quarrying and hewing stones under Tyrian artisans, while 70,000 others carried out the transport of this material. Though the workmen were constantly changed and the extension of the task was not unendurable, these burdens were unusual and certainly undesirable. In order to introduce regularity into the payments in kind and the taxes of the land, the country was divided into twelve districts, – no doubt on the basis of the territorial possessions of the tribes, – and over these royal officers were placed. Each district had to provide the requirements of the royal house for one month in the year. These overseers of the districts were subordinate to a head overseer, Azariah, the son of that Nathan to whom, next to his mother, Solomon owed the throne.[363 - 1 Kings iv. 11-15; v. 13-18.] Yet in spite of all the services of subjects, in spite of all means of receipts, Solomon's expenditure was in excess of his income. When the settlement with Hiram followed the completion of the building of the temple and palace, it was found that Hiram had still 120 Kikkars of gold to receive. As Solomon could not pay the sum, he ceded to Tyre twenty Israelite places on the border. No doubt the king of Tyre was well pleased to complete and round off his territory on the mainland.[364 - 1 Kings ix. 10-14. The contradictory statement in Chronicles (2, viii. 2) cannot be taken into consideration.]

The example of a lavish and luxurious court, the spectacle of a crowded harem, the influence and demeanour of these females, was not only injurious to the morals of the people, but to their religious conduct. If the national elevation of the Israelites under Saul and David had forced back the foreign rites which had taken a place after the settlement beside the worship of Jehovah, it is now the court which adopts the culture and manners of the Phenicians and Syrians, and by which the worship of strange gods in Israel again becomes prominent. Among the wives of the king many were from Sidon, Ammon, Moab and Edom. Solomon may have considered it wise to display tolerance towards the worship of the tributary nations, but it was going far beyond tolerance when the king, who had built such a richly-adorned and costly temple to the national god of Israel, erected, in order to please these women, altars and shrines to Astarte of Sidon, to Camus of the Moabites, and Milcom of the Ammonites.[365 - 1 Kings xi. 4-9, 33. Though this account belongs to times no earlier than the author of Deuteronomy, yet since the destruction of these places of worship "set up by Solomon" is expressly mentioned under Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 13), it cannot be doubted.]

Yet the impulse which Solomon's reign gave to the worship of Jehovah was far the most predominant. It is true that the idea of raising a splendid temple to Jehovah in Jerusalem arose out of the model of the temple-service of the Phenicians and Philistines and their magnificent rites (I. 367), whereas the Israelites hitherto had known nothing but places for sacrifice on altars on the heights and under the oaks, – nothing but a sacred tent. The temple itself was an approximation to the worship of the Syrians; but it was at the same time the completion of the work begun by David. This building of the temple was the most important of the acts of Solomon during his reign, and an undertaking, which in its origin was to some degree at variance with national feeling, not only contributed to the maintenance of the national religion, but also had very considerable influence upon its development. Solomon, after his manner, may have had the splendour and glory of the structure chiefly in view, – yet just as the monarchy comprised the political life of the nation, so did the specious, magnificent temple centralise the religious life of the nation, even more than David's sacred tent. By this the old places of sacrifice were forced into the shade, and even more rarely visited. The building of the temple increased the preponderance of the sacrifice offered in the metropolis. The priests of the altars in the country, who mostly lived upon their share in the sacrifices, turned to Jerusalem, and took up their dwelling in the city. Here they already found the priesthood, which had gathered round Abiathar and Zadok (p. 164). The union of a large number of priestly families at Jerusalem, under the guidance of the high priest appointed already by David, caused the feeling and the consciousness of the solid community and corporate nature of their order to rise in these men, while the priests had previously lived an isolated life, at the places of sacrifice among the people, and hardly distinguished from them, and thus they were led to a far more earnest and systematic performance of the sacred worship. It was easy to make use of the number of priests already in existence in order to give to the rites the richer and more brilliant forms which the splendour and dignity of the temple required. For this object the arrangements of the sacred service must be divided, and the sacred acts allotted to special sections of the priests at hand.

The organisation of the priesthood needed for these divisions was naturally brought about by the fact that those entrusted with the office of high priest supposed themselves to be descendants of Aaron, and that even in David's reign these had been joined by the priests who claimed to be of the same origin. These families, the descendants of Eleazar and Ithamar, retained the essential arrangements of the sacrifice and the expiation, the priesthood in the stricter sense. Even the families, who side by side with these are said to have belonged to the race of Aaron, which, like Aaron, are said to have sprung from the branch of Kohath, were not any longer admitted to this service. The priestly families of this and other origin, which are first found at a later date in Jerusalem, who retained their dwelling outside Jerusalem, were united with the races of Gershom and Merari, and to them, as to the families of the race of Kohath which did not come through Aaron, were transferred the lesser services in the worship and in the very complicated ritual. Those men of these races who were acquainted with music and singing, together with such musicians as were not of priestly blood, were also divided into sections. They had to accompany the sacrifice and acts of religious worship with sacred songs and the harp. Others were made overseers of the sacred vessels and the dedicatory offerings, others set apart for the purification of the sanctuary and for door-keepers. All these services were hereditary in the combinations of families allotted to them. This organisation of the priesthood cannot have come into existence, as the tradition tells us, immediately after the completion of the temple; it can only have taken place as the effects of a splendid centre of worship in the metropolis of the kingdom became more widely felt, and was finally brought to completion under the guidance of the priests attending on the sacred ark.[366 - 1 Chron. xxiv. – xxvii. Here, as is usual in the Chronicles, the division of the priests is given systematically, and the idea of such a division is ascribed to the last years of David. "The Levites were numbered according to David's last commands," 1 Chron. xxiv.; cf. cap. xxvii. Throughout the Chronicles make a point of exhibiting David as the originator, and Solomon as the executive instrument. We must content ourselves with the result that the temple is of decisive importance in separating the priests from the people, and for gathering together and organising the order.]

Thus there was connected with the building of the temple by Solomon, not only the reunion of the families of the tribe of Levi – if these even previously had formed a separate tribe; – by means of adoption from all the families which for generations had been dedicated to the sacred rites, the formation and separation of the priestly order became perfect.[367 - It appears that the lists of the priestly families were taken down in writing when the organisation of the order was concluded: Nehem. vii. 64.] At first, without any independent position, this order was dependent on the protection of the monarchy, which built the temple for it, and the importance of the priests was increased with the splendour of the worship. At the head of the new order stood the priests of the ark of Jehovah, who had already, in earlier times, maintained a pre-eminent position, which was now increased considerably by the reform in the worship. But they also were dependent on the court, though they soon came to exercise a certain influence upon it. As David had made Zadok and Abiathar high priests, so Solomon removed Abiathar and transferred the highest priestly office to Zadok, of the branch of Eleazar. Far more important than the position of the priesthood at the court was the feeling and consciousness of the mission given to them, of the duties and rights, to which the priesthood attained when combined in the new society. As they were at pains to practise a worship pleasing to Jehovah, they succeeded even before Solomon in discovering an established connection between the past and the present of the nation, in recognising the covenant which Jehovah had made with his people. From isolated records, traditions, and old customs they collected the law of ritual in the manner which they considered as established from antiquity, the observation of which was, from their point of view, the maintenance of the covenant into which Israel had entered with his God. This was the light in which, even in David's time, the fortunes of Israel appeared to the priests, and from this point of view they were recorded in the first decade of David's reign. The order which the priests required for the worship, its unity, centralisation and adornment, the exact obedience to the ritual which was considered by them true and pleasing to God, the position which the priesthood had now obtained, or claimed, appeared to them as already ordained and current in the time when Jehovah saved his people with a mighty arm, and led them from Egypt to Canaan. They had been thrust into the background and forgotten, owing to the guilt and backsliding of later times. Now the time was come to establish in power the true and ancient ordinances of Moses in real earnest, and to restore them. It was of striking ethical importance, that by these views the present was placed in near relation and the closest combination with a sublime antiquity, with the foundation of the religious ordinances. The impulse to religious feeling which arose out of these views and efforts found expression in a lyrical poetry of penetrating force. David had not only attempted simple songs, but also, as we have seen, more extended invocations of Jehovah; and the skilled musical accompaniment which now came to the aid of religious song in the families of the musicians, must have contributed to still greater elevation and choice of expression. The intensity of religious feeling and its expression in sacred songs must also have come into contact more especially with that impulse which had hitherto been represented in the seers and prophets, who believed that they apprehended the will of Jehovah in their own breasts, and, in consequence of their favoured relation to him, understood his commands by virtue of internal illumination. All these impulses operated beyond the priestly order. In union with the lofty spiritual activity of the people, they led, in the first instance, to the result that in the last years of Solomon the annalistic account of the fortunes of the people and the record of the law was accompanied by a narrative of greater liveliness, of a deeper and clearer view of the divine and human nature (I. 386), which at the same time, in the fate of Joseph, gave especial prominence to the newly-obtained knowledge of Egyptian life, the service rendered by the daughter of the king of Egypt to the great leader of Israel in the ancient times, the blessing derived from the friendly relations of Israel and Egypt, and the distress brought upon Egypt by the breach with Israel.

CHAPTER IX

THE LAW OF THE PRIESTS

Out of the peculiar relation in which Israel stood from all antiquity to his God, out of the protection and prosperity which he had granted to the patriarchs and their seed, out of the liberation from the oppression of the Egyptians, which Jehovah had prepared for the Israelites with a strong arm, out of the bestowal of Canaan, i. e. the promise of Jehovah to conquer the land, which the Israelites had now possessed for centuries, there grew up in the circles of the priests, from about the time of Samuel, the idea of the covenant which Jehovah had made with the patriarchs, and through them with Israel. Jehovah had assured Israel of his protection and blessing; on the other hand, Israel had undertaken to serve him, to obey his commands, and do his will. If Israel lives according to the command of Jehovah, the blessing of his God will certainly be his in the future also; the reward of true service will not and cannot be withheld from him. The will of Jehovah which Israel has to obey, the law of Jehovah which he has to fulfil, was contained in the moral precepts, the rules of law, and rubrics for purification and sacrifice, the writing down of which in the frame-work of a brief account of the fortunes of the fathers, the slavery in Egypt, the liberation and the conquest of Canaan, on the basis of older sketches of separate parts, was brought to a conclusion at Hebron, in the priestly families of the tribe of Aaron, about the first decade of David's reign (I. 385). In this writing were laid down the views held by the priesthood on the life pleasing to God, on the past of the nation and the priests, and of the correct mode of worship. It was the ideal picture of conduct in morals, law and worship which the priests strove after, which must in any case have existed in that great period when Jehovah spoke to the Israelites by the mouth of Moses. And, as a fact, the foundations of the moral law, the fundamental rules of law and customs of sacrifice, as we found above (I. 484), do go back to that time of powerful movement of the national feeling, of lofty exaltation of religious emotion against the dreary polytheism of Egypt.

It is doubtful, whether the families of the priests and sacrificial servants who traced back their lineage to Levi, the son of Jacob (p. 197), and were now united by David and Solomon for service at the sacred tabernacle, for sacrifice and attendance at the temple, had of antiquity formed a separate tribe, which afterwards became dispersed (I. 488), – or if this tribe first was united under the impression made by the idea of true priesthood, which those writings denoted as an example and pattern, and under the influence of the change introduced by the foundation of a central-point for the worship of Israel in the tabernacle of David, and then in the temple of Solomon, for the priestly families scattered through the land, by means of a gradual union of the priestly families; at all events, a position at least equal in dignity to the rest of the tribes ought to be found for the tribe of Levi, which knew the will and law of Jehovah, and the correct mode of sacrifice. It was not indeed possible in Israel to give the first and most ancient place to the tribe of the priests, as has been done in other nations where a division of orders has crystallised into hereditary tribes. In the memory of the nation Reuben was the first-born tribe, i. e. the complex of the oldest families, the oldest element of the nation, and the importance of the tribes derived from Joseph and the tribe of Judah in and after the conquest of Canaan was so firmly fixed that the tribe of Levi could not hope to contend with them successfully in the question of antiquity. But what was wanting in rank of derivation could be made up by special blessings given by Jehovah, and by peculiar sanctity. According to an old conception the first-born male belonged to Jehovah. In the sketch of the fortunes of Israel and of the law, Jehovah says to Moses, he will accept the tribe of Levi in place of the first-born males of the people. The number of the first-born males of one month old of all the other tribes was taken – they reached 22,373; the number of all the men and boys down to the age of one month in the tribe of Levi was 22,000. These 22,000 Levites Jehovah took in the place of the first-born of the people, and the remaining 373 were ransomed from Jehovah at the price of five shekels of silver for each person.[368 - Exod. xiii. 2; Numbers iii. 5-51; viii. 16.] Thus the Levites were raised by Jehovah to be the first-born tribe of Israel. Levi was the tribe which Jehovah had selected for his service, the chosen tribe of a chosen nation. Moses and Aaron were of this tribe, and if, instead of a few families who stood beside Moses when he led Israel out of Egypt, and restored the worship of the tribal deity, the whole tribe of Levi was represented as active in his behalf, and as a supporter of Moses, the consecration of age was not wanting to this tribe, and reverence was naturally paid to it in return for such ancient services.

The Levites were not to busy themselves with care for their maintenance, they were not to work for hire, or possess any property; they were to occupy themselves exclusively with their sacred duties. Instead of inheritance Jehovah was to be their heritage.[369 - Numbers xviii. 20-26.] It is true that the plan for the maintenance of the tribe of Levi, sketched in the first text on the occasion of the division of Canaan, the 48 cities allotted to them in the lands of the other twelve tribes (13 for the priests and 35 for the assistant Levites[370 - Vol. i. 488, 502.]), could never be carried out; yet claims might be founded on it. Moreover, the necessary means for support were supplied in other ways. The firstlings of corn, fruits, the vintage, the olive tree, were offered by being laid on the altar. No inconsiderable portion of other offerings was presented in the same manner. All these gifts could be applied by the priests to their own purposes.[371 - Numbers xviii. 8-20.] But by far the most fruitful source of income for the priesthood was the tithe of the produce of the fields, which was offered according to an ancient custom to Jehovah as his share of the harvest. The law required that a tenth of corn, and wine, and oils, and of all other fruits, and the tenth head of all new-born domestic animals, should be given to the priests.[372 - Levit. xxvii. 29-33.] The statements of the prophets and the evidence of the historical books prove that the tithes were offered as a rule, though not invariably. As the Levites who were not priests had no share in the sacrifices, the law provided that the tithe should go to them, but the Levites were in turn to restore a tenth part of these tithes to the priests. Finally, the law required that a portion of the booty taken in war should go to the Levites; that in all numberings of the people and levies each person should pay a sum to the temple for the ransom of his life.[373 - Genesis xiv. 20; xxviii. 22.]

Only the descendants of Aaron could take part in the most important parts of the ceremonial of sacrifice. From his twenty-fifth or thirtieth year to his fiftieth every Levite was subject to the temple service.[374 - Exod. xxx. 11-16; xxxviii. 25-28.] The law prescribed a formal dedication, with purifications, expiations, sacrifices, and symbolical actions for the exercise of the lower as well as the higher priesthood, for the offering of sacrifice and the sprinkling of the blood as well as for the due performance of the door-keeping. At the dedication of a priest these ceremonies lasted for seven days, but the chief import of the ritual was to denote the future priest himself as a sacrifice offered to Jehovah. Only those might be dedicated who were free from any bodily blemish. "A blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or anything superfluous, or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, or crook-backt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken shall not come nigh to offer the offering of the Lord made by fire."[375 - Levit. xxi. 16-21.]

No priest was to make baldness on his head or shave off the corners of his beard, or make any cuttings in his flesh;[376 - Levit. xxi. 5.] before the sacrifice he might not take wine or any intoxicating drink; he was required to devote himself to especial purity and cleanliness, and observe in a stricter degree the laws concerning food; he might not marry a widow or a woman divorced from her husband, still less a harlot; he was to avoid most carefully any contact with a corpse: only in the case of his nearest relatives was this defilement allowed. The clothing of the priests was definitely prescribed. He must wear a robe of white linen (byssus), woven in one piece; and this robe was held together by a girdle of three colours, red, blue and white. The priest also wore a band of white linen round his head, and trousers of white linen in order that he might not discover his nakedness when he ascended the steps of the altar.[377 - Exod. xx. 26.]