2. The two Books of the Kings.-They extend from the beginning of Solomon's reign to the Babylonian captivity. The history of the two kingdoms, after the division is related in the synchronal mode. Jewish traditions indicate Jeremiah as the author.-3. The two Books of the Chronicles (Paralipomena).—They begin with genealogical tables which ascend to the patriarchs; these are succeeded by the history of David, Solomon, and the kingdom of Judah; they close with the edict of Cyrus permitting the captives to return to their country. They omit the history of Saul and of the kingdom of the Ten tribes, and the author dwells with special interest on the religious condition of the people and the worship of Jehovah. According to Jewish traditions, Ezra is the author.-4. In reference to the later periods of time, additional historical sources are found in the writings of the prophets, and in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther (see 108).

§ 71. Samuel, and the Reformation of the People.

1 Sam. ch. 7.-While external measures were adopted by Samson, during the period in which he judged the people, the prophetico-reformatory efforts of Samuel, which were of an internal nature, were continued in a slow and quiet manner. Soon after the death of Samson, which had inflicted greater evils on the Philistines than all the actions of his life, and which could not fail to arouse the Israelites, Samuel gathered the people together, after having silently continued his preparatory labors during twenty years. All the people submit, when he admonishes them to acknowledge their sins and to repent. In obedience to his command, the children of Israel remove every trace of idolatry in their midst, and serve the Lord alone. They gather together in Mizpeh, by his directions, and observe a day of humiliation and of prayer for the whole nation. They drew water, poured it out before the Lord, confessed their sins, and fasted the whole day. Hitherto Samuel had labored to revive Israel, only in virtue of his prophetic office, but on this occasion, the voice of God and the voice of the people united in investing him with the office of a judge also; he discharged its duties in Mizpeh. When the Philistines hear of this general rising of the oppressed Israelites, they approach with a powerful army, for the purpose of suppressing it in its incipient stage. The opportunity is now

furnished for ascertaining whether Samuel possesses the means of sustaining himself in his judicial authority as well as in his prophetic office, or rather of sustaining the former by the aid of the latter. He offers a sacrifice, and the Lord thunders with a great thunder, insomuch that the Philistines are terrified and smitten before Israel. Samuel erects near Mizpeh the memorialstone named Eben-ezer (that is, stone of help), and says: "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." Thus Israel was delivered out of the hand of the Philistines, and Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life (about twenty years after these events). He dwelt in Ramah, and there built an altar unto the Lord.

OBS. 1.-The symbolical act of pouring out water is to be interpreted according to Ps. 22: 14; "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax: it is melted—;” and 2 Sam. 14: 14, "We must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground —." It is an image of the complete dispersion, faintness and helplessness of the Israelites; they are now painfully conscious of their real situation, and beseech the Lord to deliver them from it.

OBS. 2.-After the disaster which was rendered memorable by the loss of the ark of the covenant (3 68), the regular public worship in Israel was discontinued, and, amid the confusion of the times, was not restored, even after the recovery of the ark. Shiloh was rejected, and the ark remained in Kirjath-jearim, waiting till a brighter day would restore it to its place. That day did not arrive till David appeared. (2 74.) It was during this intermediate period, that Samuel, in virtue of his prophetic office, formed the medium of communication between God and his people.

§ 72. The Appointment and the Rejection of Saul.

1. 1 Sam. ch. 8-14.—When Samuel was old, his sons did not walk in his ways, but perverted judgment. Moreover, the king of the Ammonites pursued a hostile course towards Israel (12: 12), and the people approached Samuel, requesting him to give them a king such as the heathen nations around them possessed. In accordance with the directions of God, Samuel anointed Saul as their king, who was the son of Kish, a Benjamite, and to whom God gave another heart. (10: 9.) Nahash, who besieged Jabesh in Gilead, and had threatened to thrust out the right eyes

of all the inhabitants, is defeated. Saul likewise gains a complete victory over the Philistines, chiefly through the heroism of his son Jonathan.-At this juncture, Samuel takes leave of the people. In answer to his inquiry, they testify before the Lord, and before his anointed, that they find no cause of complaint in him. He reproaches them on account of the untheocratic sentiments which had urged them to ask for a king; the thunder and the rain which the Lord sends (an unprecedented occurrence at that period of the year, 12: 17), confirm the truth of his words, and fill the people with fear. He reassures them, urges them to be obedient to the Lord, and solemnly declares, that although he is no longer a judge, yet as a prophet, he will not cease to pray for them, and to teach them the way of the Lord.

2. 1 Sam. ch. 15, 16.—But the carnal self-will of Saul caused him to forget his theocratic position. Even previous to his war with the Philistines, he had presumed to offer a sacrifice himself, and had been told by Samuel that his kingdom should not continue (13:14). He afterwards receives a divine command to destroy Amalek utterly, slaying both the people and all their cattle, as accursed things; his self-will permits him to obey only partially, for he spares Agag the king, and the best of the flocks and herds. He meets Samuel with false and deceitful words, but is betrayed by the bleating of the sheep, and the lowing of the oxen which he had set aside; the prophet announces God's irrevocable sentence of rejection, and with theocratic zeal executes the divine sentence of destruction passed upon Agag, with his own hand. — The Lord selects as his anointed a lad who kept his father's sheep-David, the youngest son of Jesse; through him the tribe of Judah acquired the position assigned to it by the ancient promise (Gen. 49: 8-10, § 35. 2), and subsequent arrangements (Judges, 1 : 1, 2, § 65. 1). (David's genealogy is found in Ruth, 4: 18-22; 1 Chron. 2: 1-17; and Matt. 1: 36). He is anointed by Samuel, to whom the Lord says: “The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." The Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled Saul. David is conducted to the

court of the king, for the purpose of causing the evil spirit to depart from him, by playing on the harp.*

OBS.- Ancient prophecies had declared that kings should proceed from the seed of Abraham (Gen. 17: 6, 16; 35: 11, compared with Gen. 36: 31), and, with a prophetic reference to the present period, Moses had already given a law respecting the election and duty of a king (Deut. 17 : 14-20). It was, moreover, necessary that the kingly office, which essentially belonged to the Messiah, should be approximated and typified in the development of the old covenant, as well as his priestly and his prophetic office. For the purpose of justifying their demand for a king, the people strictly comply with the provisions in Deut. 17: 14, 15; they do not appoint a king themselves, but submit the choice to the Lord, through Samuel, as the medium of communication (1 Sam. 10:24). Nevertheless, their demand was ungodly; it was both premature, and also unsupported by sufficient reasons: they rejected Samuel whom the Lord had given as their judge, when they made that demand, and in Samuel, they rejected the Lord himself. Since they demand a king without a divine intimation, God gives them a king, even as they wish, not after his own heart (1 Sam. 13: 14), but after the heart of the people, not one who belonged to the tribe of Judah, but one who was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward (10: 23). David, on the contrary, the man after God's own heart, and of the tribe of Judah, was of less stature than his brothers and the youngest of all (16: 7, 11).

mences.

73. David's Afflictions.

Saul's Death.

1. 1 Sam. ch. 17-19.- - Another war with the Philistines comGoliath of Gath, the giant, openly defies the armies of Israel, but no one ventures to accept his challenge. David had previously returned to his father's house, but now appears in the camp with messages for his brothers: full of trust in God he resolves to contend with the giant, armed with a sling and a few

* No discrepancy exists between 1 Sam. 16: 19-23 and the question which Saul subsequently asks: "Whose son is this youth?" (17: 55-58.) The king had not been previously anxious to become intimately acquainted with the origin and family-connexions of one who merely bore his arms and served as his harper; but when the latter is on the point of becoming his son-in-law, it is naturally a matter of interest to him to acquire a more accurate knowledge of the personal history of David.

stones alone. His victory and the triumphal songs of the women, arouse the envy of Saul, who seeks to slay him, although he is married to Michal, the king's own daughter. David escapes the javelin of Saul, and flees by night to his house; here his life is again saved, by an artifice of his wife, and he reaches the abode of Samuel in Ramah in safety. Messengers are sent by Saul to take him, but the Spirit of God came upon them, and they prophesied; Saul sends messengers a second and a third time, but the result is the same. Then he goes himself to Ramah, but the Spirit of God is upon him also, and he prophesies; hence is derived the proverb: "Is Saul also among the prophets?"

OBS.-That Saul's heart was not yet entirely closed to all divine influences, is seen in the circumstance that the spirit of prophecy comes upon him, even without the consent of his will. At an earlier and more happy period of his life, when the kingdom was first given to him (1) Sam. 10 : 5-11), the Spirit of the Lord had come upon him in the same manner, and the Lord gave him another heart. (Ver. 6 and 9.) An unhappy change occurred in him afterwards, which conducted him to the very brink of the abyss. Once more the Spirit of prophecy comes upon him (precisely as in the former case, when that prophet is near him whose word he despises), for the purpose of admonishing him and of reminding him of that early and brighter period of his life, and, if possible, of inducing him to retrace his steps; but the effort is made in vain. The case of Balaam (256) is analogous. Henceforth all divine communications recede so far from Saul, that in his utter destitution of counsel and in his despair, he is driven to heathenish necromancy as his last resort. (See below, no. 3.) 2. 1 Sam. ch. 20-22. - David departs from Ramah for the purpose of consulting with his bosom-friend Jonathan; the latter makes fruitless efforts to appease his father's wrath against David. On perceiving that his father is determined to slay David, he urges his friend to flee. David proceeds to Nob, a city of the priests (22 19), not far from Jerusalem, where the high-priest Ahimelech gives him the shew-bread and the sword of Goliath. He afterwards escapes to the Philistine king, Achish, of Gath. The suspicions of the servants of the latter involve him in danger, from which a (simulated) madness extricates him. About four hundred men gather around him in his next place of refuge, the cave Adullam, not far from Bethlehem. In the mean time, a

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