monarch who was at the helm of the state, and David yielded to it. The motive for causing a numbering of the people, without doubt, originated in these circumstances, and the severity of the divine punishment corresponded to the depth of that ungodly perverseness, from which this numbering proceeded. Levi and Benjamin (1 Chron. 21: 6) had not yet been counted when the plague began; the results, as far as they were obtained, showed that there were in Israel 800,000 men that drew the sword, and in Judah 500,000 men. (2 Sam. 24: 9.)

§79. David's Significance in the Kingdom of God.

The entire history of the Old Testament is highly significant, in consequence of its great office to prefigure Christ, to prophesy concerning him, and to continue the line which terminates in him; all these features appear in the life of David. He is the ancestor of Christ, the blessing of the promise is expressly transferred to his family, and henceforth the prophets describe Christ as a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch, and as David's son. He is also a type of Christ; his path conducts through suffering and humiliation to glory; he is made the king of the people of God; he subdues the heathen, &c. In consequence of this eminently typical character of his life, his inspired Psalms, whether they mourn and lament, or express thanks and praises, contain a mysterious prophetic meaning, and, transcending the bounds of the present time, enter into similar scenes occurring in the life of his antitype, who is his son and his Lord. He is, finally, the prophet of Christ; he revolves in his believing soul the promise which is already received, and through the illuminating influences of the Spirit of God, gives it a new development. (§ 84. 3.)

§ 80. Solomon ascends the Throne.

1 Kings 1-4. (2 Chron. 1.)-Nathan, the tutor of Solomon, discovers that Adonijah, a son of David, is conspiring with Joab and Abiathar, for the purpose of securing the throne for himself. David, accordingly, after a reign of forty years, causes Solomon, his son by Bathsheba, to be anointed by Zadok the priest, and

to be proclaimed king; he commits to his successor the task of inflicting the deserved punishments, which personal considerations had caused him to omit, on the murderer and rebel Joab, and on Shimei, who was guilty of high treason. After the death of David, Abijah engages in new plots, for which he is executed. Abiathar the priest is deprived of his office, Joab is executed at the altar where he had sought refuge, and Shimei, who had left the city of Jerusalem, contrary to his oath, and pursued two fugitive servants, is also put to death. Solomon, whom Nathan. had already named Jedidiah (that is, beloved of the Lord, 2 Sam. 12:25), beseeches the Lord, who appears to him in Gibeon, to give him an understanding heart, and the Lord promises him riches and honor also. He reigned from the year 1015 to 975 before Christ.

OBS.-Joab and Shimei had forfeited their lives, and it was a sacred duty of David to execute judgment in their case. His heart was painfully oppressed by the feeling that his own guilt had compelled him to neglect this duty (8 77. 1, OBS., and 2, OBS.), and he could not die in peace (1 Kings 2: 1, &c.) until he was assured that Solomon, whom such fatal considerations did not affect, would raise up justice from the defeat which it had sustained, and punish these criminals.

§ 81. The Building of the Temple.

1 Kings 5-8. (2 Chron. 2-7.)-In the fourth year of Solomon's reign, and the four hundred and eightieth year after the Exodus, Solomon begins to build the temple, and is occupied seven years in the work. His alliance with Hiram king of Tyre furnishes him with cedar-trees out of Lebanon, and with Tyrian builders; in return, he supplies Phenicia with grain. The construction of the temple requires the labors of a quarter of a million of men, who are at different times employed. - The building had two courts, of which one was appropriated to the people, and the other, or the inner court, to the priests. Within the latter stood the altar of burnt-offering and the brazen laver, or molten sea, intended for the ablutions of the priests; it was supported by the figures of twelve oxen made of brass, and its brim was wrought with flowers of lilies. The dimensions of the

house were twice the size of those adopted in the tabernacle; the whole length was 60 cubits, the breadth 20 cubits, and the height, also 20 cubits. The interior was lined with boards of cedar, the house was overlaid with gold, and a wall surrounded the whole. The upper chambers were 10 cubits high, on which account the height of the whole building is stated to have been 30 cubits. The porch before the entrance of the temple was 10 cubits in length and as many in breadth, and here were placed two massive pillars of brass, named Jachin (that is, he shall establish, or, steadfastness) and Boaz (that is, in it is strength, or, strength). On the other three sides a building was erected three stories in height, which rose to two-thirds of the height of the house of the temple. The sanctuary, 40 cubits in length, contained the golden altar of incense, ten candlesticks of gold, and the table of gold whereon the shew-bread was set. The holiest of all was a cube of 20 cubits; it contained two cherubim made of the wood of the olive-tree, overlaid with gold, and 10 cubits in height, whose expanded wings touched in the middle, and, on the opposite sides, touched the walls. Beneath the two interior wings the original ark of the covenant was placed (§ 68. 2, OBS.), containing the two tables of the law, for Aaron's rod and the pot of manna had already disappeared (1 Kings, 8:9). When the temple was consecrated, the cloud filled the holy of holies, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. On that occasion Solomon pronounced a prayer which is a noble monument of his wisdom and knowledge of God.

OBS. 1.—The Law had already repeatedly intimated that the Lord would choose a place in the holy land, in which his name should dwell. The Tabernacle was evidently a temporary place of worship only, which is already indicated by the fact that it was a tent, and it was designed to serve merely during the wanderings of Israel. The Temple, contra-distinguished from the Tabernacle, intimated that the kingdom of God in Israel, had now gained a firm foundation, and could proceed in assuming its proper form, and continue its course of development. In other respects, no essential changes occurred (? 45. 2, OBS.). The three-fold division of the holy structure, which constituted the peculiar nature of the kingdom of God, as it appeared in the times of the Old Testament, remains the same (? 201. 2, Obs.).

OBS. 2.- The Temple was built on mount Moriah (3 75. 3), agreeably to the original consecration (? 29. 2) and appointment (? 78) of that spot. The area of the temple was a square, its length and breadth being each nine hundred feet; the various buildings and courts belonging to the temple are here included. For the purpose of gaining the necessary space, massive walls, of which portions still remain, were raised from the Tyropoeon and the valley of the Kidron, and also on a very steep eminence named Ophel, and the space which they enclosed was filled up with earth. Solomon and his successors constructed galleries and porches or porticoes on the sides of the platform which was thus gained. The most magnificent of these was the king's porch, or Solomon's porch, which extended along the whole southern wall of the buildings of the temple, and to which a vast bridge resting on arches conducted, from the royal palace on Zion over the Tyropoeon.-The site of the temple is now occupied by the large mosque es-Sakharah, built by the caliph Omar.

§ 82. Solomon's Glory and Fall.

1 Kings 9-11 (2 Chron. 8, 9).—The Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, and spoke words of admonition and warning, of promise and threatening. The king fortified Jerusalem, adorned it with splendid palaces, and built several strong frontier towns, such as Baalath or Baalbec in the north of Palestine, and Tadmor or Palmyra in Syria. All the surrounding nations paid him tribute. He himself and his court were distinguished for their uncommon magnificence. Trading vessels were sent from the ports of Eloth and Ezion-geber on the Elanitic Gulf to Ophir (probably in southern Arabia), and his navy of Tarshish (Tartessus in Spain) made a voyage once in three years in the Mediterranean Sea. The queen (Baalkis ?) of Sheba (the modern Yemen), in Arabia, visited him, and admired his wisdom and glory. If he was pre-eminent in wisdom, he was equally distinguished by the brilliance and fertility of his poetic talents, for "he spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five;" the extent of his knowledge, particularly in the department of Natural History, was equally remarkable, for “he spake of trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes" (1 Kings, 4 :

32, 33). Nevertheless, his many foreign wives at last led him astray. The prophet Ahijah rent a new garment in twelve pieces, ten of which he gave to Jeroboam, who escaped Solomon's attempts to kill him, and fied to Shishak (Sesonchis) king of Egypt. Solomon died after a reign of forty years.

§ 83. The Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews.

Among all nations, Poetry is a daughter of Religion; but while its attention, in the progress of time, appears to be frequently, and indeed, chiefly directed among other nations to the temporal interests of life, it remains, among the Hebrews, dedicated almost exclusively to the service of the exalted parent to which it owes its birth. For religion with them was both the basis of public, and the soul of domestic life. Its presence continually depends on the presence of the revelations of God, and it appears as an echo of these, proceeding from the believing people. Poetic productions, furnished in moments of inspiration, are already found in the earliest historical records (§ 36. 4), and a still richer vein of Hebrew popular poetry is discovered in the Mosaic age, of which fragments are preserved in Num. ch. 21. But the eagle-flight of the poetic soul of Moses specially attracts our attention (Exodus, ch. 15; Deut. ch. 32 and 33). In the age of the Judges we meet with two females (Judges, ch. 5; and 1 Sam. ch. 2), who are eminent for their theocratico-poetical endowments. A "book of the wars of Jehovah" had already been commenced in the age of Moses (Num. 21 : 14), of which the "book of Jasher" (Joshua, 10: 13; 2 Sam. 1:18) was probably a continuation (§ 62. 2, Obs. 2); it may have been a book of popular poetry, containing hymns of praise commemorative of theocratical heroes. The age in which Hebrew poetry flourished in the highest degree, in which its peculiar character, its depth of religious sentiment and feeling, and its theocratical inspiration and fulness are developed in the most brilliant and noble forms (probably introduced by the schools of the prophets, § 70. 1, OBS.), coincides with the age of David and Solomon. David, the man after God's own heart, is distinguished, above all the men of God in the old covenant, by depth of thought, tenderness of