The Expositor's Bible: The First Book of Kings

224

1 Kings v. 6, ix. 19, x. 26, 28. Two of those passages are omitted in the LXX. Comp. 1 Kings xvi. 9.

225

Deut. xvii. 16.

226

Josh. xi. 9; 1 Sam. viii. 11, 12; 2 Sam. viii. 4.

227

The energetic dislike to the importation or use of horses is also found in Isa. ii. 7, xxx. 16, 17, xxxi. 1-3; Micah v. 10-14; Zech. ix. 10, x. 5, xii. 4.

228

Psalm xxxiii. 17, lxxvi. 6, cxlvii. 10.

229

Compare Poludemos, Eurudemos.

230

Xen., Anab., i. 4, 11; Arrian, ii. 13, iii. 7. For the phrase "on this side of the river," see ante, p. 18.

231

Psalm lxxviii. 58-64.

232

According to 2 Chron. i. 3.

233

David's suggestion does not seem to have been received favourably at first (2 Sam. vii. 1-17). The chronicler (1 Chron. xxviii. 19) indulges in the amazing hyperbole that David had been made to understand all the works of the pattern of the Temple "in writing from the hand of the Lord."

234

The ancient Israelites named their months from the seasons, as did the Canaanites. Only four of those old names are preserved in the Bible: Zif, "brightness" (comp. Floreal, Lenz); Bul, "rain-month" (Pluviose); Abib, "corn-ear month"; Ethanim, "fruit-month" (Fructidor).

235

In 1 Kings vi. 1 we read "in the 480th year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt." This may possibly be a later gloss. The LXX., Origen, Josephus, etc., omit the words, and the Old Testament does not, as a rule, date events by epochs. Further, the date is full of difficulties, though our received chronology is based on it. It was perhaps arrived at after the Exile, by counting backwards from the Decree of Cyrus, b. c. 535. See note at the end of the volume.

236

1 Chron. xxii. 14 says that David (comp. xxviii., xxix.) "with much labour" (A.V., "in my trouble," 1 Chron. xxii. 14) bequeathed to Solomon 100,000 talents of gold and 100,000 talents of silver! This impossible number is very considerably reduced in 1 Chron. xxix. 4, where the mention of darics shows an author living in the captivity.

237

Comp. Ezek. xxvii. 17; Acts xii. 20.

238

According to Tatian, Orat. ad Græc., p. 171, Solomon married a daughter of Hiram. Hiram, like the Queen of Sheba, acknowledges Jehovah as the (local) God of Israel. He was the son of Abibaal, and, according to Menander (a Greek historian of Ephesus about b. c. 300, who consulted Tyrian records), he began to reign at nineteen, and reigned thirty-four years. Josephus thinks that there were two successive Hirams.

239

Giblim, 1 Kings v. 18, where "and the stone-squarers" should be "and especially the men of Gebal." LXX., Alex., οἱ Βίβλιοι; Vulg., Giblii, Comp. Ezek. xxvii. 9, Psalm lxxxiii. 7, "The ancients of Gebal and the wise thereof were in thee." It is now Jebeil, between Beyrout and Tripoli. The Phœnician and Sidonian artisans were famous from the earliest antiquity for metal-work, embroidery, dyes, ship-building, and the fine arts (Hom., Il., xxiii. 743; Od., iv. 614-18, xv. 425; Herod., iii. 19, vii. 23, 96, etc.).

240

2 Chron. ii. 13, iv. 16, where "a cunning man of Huram my father's" should be "even Huram, my father," i. e., master-workman or deviser (comp. Gen. xlv. 8). In Chronicles he is called the son of a Danite mother. Here we have another of the manipulations used by later Jewish tradition to get rid of what they disliked; for in Eupolemos (Euseb., Præp. Evang., ix. 34) Hiram is said to belong to the family of David. "Quite a little romance," as Wellhausen says, "has been constructed out of the fact that the chronicler assigns his mother to the tribe of Dan; but it is not worth repeating, being a mass of hypotheses." To the dislike of Sidonian and semi-Sidonian influence, we perhaps owe the notion that David had already received a design from the hand of God Himself (1 Chron. xxviii. 11-19) (Ewald, iii. 227). Jerome mentions the Jewish fable that the artist Hiram was of the family of Aholiab, the artist of the wilderness.

241

"Araunah the king" (2 Sam. xxiv. 23). The Temple Mount was usually called the "Mount of the House." It is only called Mount Moriah in 2 Chron. iii. 1. It cannot be regarded as certain that "the land of Moriah" (Gen. xxii. 2) is identical with it.

242

"The present platform is 1521 feet long on the east, 940 on the south, 1617 on the west, 1020 on the north." Bartlett, Walks about Jerusalem, pp. 161-70; Williams, The Holy City, pp. 315-62. Kugle, Gesch. der Baukunst, p. 125. The excellent stone was supplied by quarries at Jerusalem itself. Comp. "Cavati sub terra montes." (Tac., Hist., v. 12). It may have been extended by Justinian when he built his church. See Ewald, iii. 232, "The Mount of the Temple was 500 yards square"; Middoth, c. 2. Comp. Ezek. xiii. 15-20, xlv. 2; Josephus, Antt., XV. xi. 3.

243

Exod. i., ii.

244

1 Kings iv. 6, v. 13, 14, 17, 18, ix. 15, 21, xii. 18.

245

Ewald thinks that it was only "at the beginning" that Solomon, like Sesostris (Diod. Sic., Hist., i. 56), could boast that his work was done without exacting bitter labour from his own countrymen. But 1 Kings ix. 22 shows that the king's opinion on this subject differed widely from that of his people (1 Kings xi. 28, xii. 3); for we are told that he did not make servants of the children of Israel, but used them as military officers (Sarim) and chariot-warriors (Shalishim, τριστάται) and knights. It required a little euphemism to gild the real state of affairs. The details of numbers in the Books of Chronicles differ from those in the Kings.

246

1 Kings v. 13, ix. 22; 2 Chron. viii. 9. (Omitted in the LXX.)

247

In token of this defeat of Solomon he was represented in a statue outside the church leaning his hand on his cheek with a gesture of sorrow.

248

Professor Williams, Prolus. Architectonicæ.

249

Professor Hoskins (Enc. Brit.); Canina, Jewish Antiquities; Thrupp, Ancient Jerusalem; Count de Vogüé, Le Temple de Jérusalem.

250

Fergusson, Temples of the Jews; E. Robbins, Temple of Solomon.

251

Eupolemos (Euseb., Præp. Evang., ix. 30) and Alex. Polyhistor (Clem. Alex., Strom., i. 21) idly talk of help furnished to Solomon in building the Temple by an Egyptian King Vaphres, and of letters interchanged between them. Vaphres seems to be a mere anachronism for Hophra.

252

The Phœnician style may, however, have been borrowed in part from Egypt.

253

I have spoken of the Temple in Solomon and his Times (Men of the Bible), and have there furnished some illustrations. The following special authorities may be referred to. Stade, i. 311-57, Friederich, Tempel und Palast Salomo's (Innsbruck, 1887); Chipiez et Perrot, Le Temple de Jérusalem (Paris, 1889); Warren, Underground Jerusalem; Wilson and Warren, Recov. of Jerusalem (1871).

254

Parbarim (2 Kings xxiii. 11). Comp. 1 Chron. xxvi. 18 (A.V., "suburbs"; R.V., "precincts" and "Parbar"). Descriptions of the Temple, imperfect, and not always accordant with each other, are found in 1 Kings v. – vii.; 2 Chron. ii. – v.; Josephus, Antt., VIII. iii. 7, 8.

255

As we infer from Psalms lii. 8, lxxxiv. 3, lxxvi. 2 (where "tabernacle" should be "covert"). Eupolemos (ap. Euseb., Præp. Evang., etc.). Scattered passages of the Talmud which refer mainly to Herod's Temple are full of extravagances.

256

Jer. xxxvi. 10.

257

2 Chron. iv. 1. This could not have been the brazen altar of the wilderness, the fate of which we do not know. It was far larger, but probably on the same model, except that steps were forbidden as an approach to the altar of the Tabernacle (Exod. xx. 24-26). It is difficult to reconcile the description of the brazen altar with the distinct prohibition of that passage. Comp. Ezek. xliii. 17.

258

The huge stone vase of Amathus was borne on a bull (Duncker, ii. 184). Josephus says that in making these oxen Solomon broke the law (Antt., VIII. vii. 5), as well as by the lions on his throne. The Romans called huge vases lacus.

259

The descriptions of these lavers, whether in the Hebrew, the LXX., or Josephus, are not intelligible, and are wholly unimportant.

260

Like the palace of Ecbatana (Polyb., x. 27, 10; Herod., i. 98), and possibly the upper stories of the great temple of Bel at Birs-Nimrud (Borsippa).

261

In 1 Kings x. 12 "pillars" should be "a rail" or "balustrade." Heb., מִסְעָד; LXX., ὑποστηρίγματα; Vulg., fulcra.

262

Lilies symbolised beauty and innocence; pomegranates good works (so the Chaldee in Cant. iv. 13, vi. 11, Bähr, Symbol., ii. 122). Raphael crowns his Theology with pomegranates, Giotto places a pomegranate in the hand of his youthful Dante, and Giovanni Bellini in the hand of the Virgin Mary.

263

Some suppose that the words imply "He will establish" (Jachin) "in strength" (Boaz). "After some favourite persons of the time, perhaps young sons of Solomon," says Ewald, very improbably. LXX. (2 Chron. iii. 17), Κατόρθωσις and Ἰσχύς. See a description of these pillars in Jer. lii. 21-23.

264

Some writers have supplied the Temple with a porch 180 feet high, misled by the astounding method of the chronicler of adding the four sides into the total. Thus, he tells us that the wings of the cherubim were 30 feet long, meaning that each single wing was 7½ feet long (2 Chron. iii. 11). Josephus does the same in telling us the height of the Temple wall.

265

The ground plans of most ancient temples were alike.

266

2 Sam. viii. 7; 1 Chron. xviii. 7.

267

So 2 Chron. iv. 8. But it would seem from 1 Kings vii. 48; 2 Chron. xiii. 11, xxix. 18 that only one table and one candlestick were ordinarily used.

268

St. Jerome rendered debir by oraculum, but some derive it from the Arabic root dabar, "to be behind," not from דָבָר, "to speak" (Munk, p. 290).

269

In Zerubbabel's and Herod's Temples there was a curtain (Parocheth) before the Holiest; but we read of no such curtain in Solomon's, except in 2 Chron. iii. 14. The fact that the staves of the Ark were visible seems to show that there was not one. The chronicler speaks of "the vail" (2 Chron. iii. 14), showing, apparently, that there was only one; and does not mention the Māsak, which hung between the Porch and the Holy Place. Except in 2 Chron. iii. 14, the only mention of either is in the "Priestly Code." Since the Oracle had a door, one hardly sees why there should also have been a curtain. But the whole subject is obscure, and perhaps the chronicler is sometimes thinking of the second Temple.

270

We read nothing, however, of any observance of the Day of Atonement till centuries later.

271

2 Sam. xxiv. 25 (LXX.); 1 Chron. xxii. 1; 2 Chron. iii. 1; Josephus, Antt., I. xiii. 1, VII. xiii. 4; Targum of Onkelos on Gen. xii.

272

"The Ark of the Lord," or "of the Testimony," or "of the Covenant," was an oblong chest of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, surmounted by a border of gold, and resting on four feet, to which (A.V. corners) were attached golden rings.

273

1 Kings viii. 9. The pot of manna and the budded rod of Aaron were placed before it (Exod. xvi. 34; Numb. xvii. 10), and the Book of the Law beside it (Deut. xxxi. 26). The Mercy-seat above was more sacred than the Ark itself (Lev. xvi. 2). It was the cover (Kapporeth, ἐπίθεμα) of the Ark, and was partly formed of two winged cherubim which gazed down upon it and faced each other.

274

Stanley, ii. 203.

275

The Tyrian adornments; the steps to the altar; the ten candlesticks, and tables; the lions and oxen.

276

The Temple was finished in the eighth month of Solomon's eleventh year, and dedicated in the seventh month (Ethanim, or Tisri) of the twelfth year. The first eight days (8th to 15th) were devoted to the Feast of Dedication, and then from the 15th to the 22nd they kept the Feast of Tabernacles. On the 23rd (the eighth day from the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, called 'atsereth, 2 Chron. 10) Solomon dismissed the people. The עֲצֶרֶת, "solemn assembly," is not mentioned in Exodus or Deuteronomy, but in Lev. xxiii. 36.

277

It was perhaps stored away in one of the Temple chambers (2 Macc. ii. 4). The Gibeonites (Nethinim) were at the same time transferred to Jerusalem. The chronicler (2 Chron. v. 6) says that the Levites took the Ark, according to the Levitic rule; but 1 Kings viii. 3 says that the priests bore it, as in Deut. xxxi. 9, and in all the præ-exilic histories (Josh. iii. 3, vi. 6; 2 Sam. xv. 24-29, etc.). W. Robertson Smith, p. 144.

278

The sheykhs are heads of clans; the emîrs of tribes (Reuss, i. 444).

279

The Greek Ἐπιφάνεια. Solomon seems to have had some jurisdiction there (2 Chron. viii. 6).

280

The torrent (nachal) of Egypt.

281

The Holiest, being an unlighted cube, must always have been dim; but, as we have seen, we have no proof that in Solomon's Temple the entrance to it was shrouded by a curtain. In 1 Kings viii. 12, for "The Lord said that He would dwell in the thick darkness," the Targum had "In Jerusalem."

282

In 1 Kings viii. 4 we read that "the priests and the Levites" brought up to Jerusalem "the Tabernacle of the congregation." But the LXX. only has οἱ ἱερεῖς. In 2 Chron. v. 5 the Hebrew text has "the Levites" in some MSS., or "the priests, the Levites" —i. e., the Levitic priests. For "the priests took up the ark" (1 Kings viii. 3) the chronicler has "the Levites" (comp. Numb. iii. 31, iv. 15). It is at least doubtful whether the distinction between priests and Levites is older than the Priestly Code and the days of Ezekiel. Also, the LXX. in 1 Kings viii. 4 puts "witness" for "congregation," and some critics maintain that "congregation" ('edah) is post-exilic. (See Robertson Smith, Enc. Brit., s.v. Kings). See infra, pp. 189, 190.

283

Some psalm, like Psalm cxxxvi., was probably sung by alternate choirs, but hardly in the attitude of prostration which followed the sudden blaze of glory (2 Chron. vii. 3).

284

"The prayer" is of extreme beauty, but it belongs by its ideas to the seventh and not to the eleventh or tenth centuries b. c. (Ewald). It is probably added by a later editor who took the Deuteronomic standpoint. It is found, sometimes almost word for word, in Lev. xxvi. and Deut. xxviii.; but there are many variations between the Hebrew and the LXX., and Kings and Chronicles. Looking only at actual facts, not at a priori theories, we see that, as Professor Driver says (Contemporary Review, Feb. 1890), "the Hebrew historians used some freedom in attributing speeches to historical characters." Thus, both the syntax and vocabulary, to say nothing of the thoughts of various speeches attributed to David by the chronicler, are sometimes such as mark the latest period in the history of the language, and are often quite without precedent in præ-exilic literature. Some feelings which gathered round the Temple find expression in Psalms xxiv., xxvii., xlii., lxxii., lxxxiv., cxxii., and in more extravagant and less spiritual forms throughout the Talmud. Soteh, f. 48; Berachoth, f. 591; Moed Qaton, f. 261, etc.

285

The Khalif Moktader sacrificed at Mecca 40,000 camels and 50,000 sheep (Burton's Pilgrimage, i. 318). Solomon offered burnt offerings (oloth) and thank offerings (shellamim). No mention is made of sin offerings; and it may be doubted whether they had any separate existence till the days of the Exile.

286

1 Kings viii. 66, "went unto their tents," is a reminiscence of earlier days. The chronicler (1) extends the feast to fourteen days, according to which there is an interpolation, "and seven days, even fourteen days," in verse 65; (2) he says that the sacrifices were consumed by fire from heaven.

287

1 Kings ix. 25. The Hebrew text seems to have been tampered with, and the allusions significantly disappear from 2 Chron. viii. 12, 13. The commentators assiduously try to clear away the difficulty.

288

The scepticism of modern critics, who doubt whether there ever was a Tabernacle in the wilderness at all, seems to be insufficiently grounded.

289

Vit. Mos., iii.; Antt., III. vi. 4, vii. 7; B. J., VII. v. 5.

290

E.g., Origen (Hom., ix.), Clement of Alexandria (Strom., v.), Theodoret (Qu., xl. in Exod.), Jerome (Ep., lxiv.), and others. See Kalisch, Exodus, p. 495.

291

Wisdom ix. 8: "A copy of the holy tabernacle which Thou didst prepare from the beginning."

292

Exod. xxv. 40, xxvi. 30; Acts vii. 44; Heb. viii. 5.

293

More Nebochim, iii, 45-49; Kalisch, Exodus, p. 497.

294

The three names given to the Tabernacle are Ohel ("tent"), Mishkan ("tabernacle," "habitation," or "dwelling-place"), and Baith ("house"). It is undoubted that the Tabernacle followed the ordinary construction of the Oriental tent, with its two divisions, of which the interior could not be entered by strangers.

295

Numb. xvii. 7, xviii. 2; 2 Chron. xxiv. 6; Acts vii. 44; Exod. xxix. 10, etc.; 1 Kings viii. 4; 2 Chron. viii. 13. The phrase "Tent of Meeting" in the R.V. removes the complete obscuring of the meaning involved by the A.V. rendering of "Tabernacle of the Congregation."

296

Exod. xxv. 22.

297

Exod. xxix. 42, 43.

298

Kuenen's notion that the cherubim had come to the Jews through the Phœnicians from the Assyrians is quite improbable. The symbol was common throughout the East, whatever be the derivation of the word.

299

Compare Ezek. i. 10 with x. 14, where "the face of an ox" is identical with "the face of a cherub." Perhaps this gave rise to the pagan calumnies that the Jews worshipped an ass. Josephus says (insincerely) that no man could tell or even conjecture the shape of the cherubim.

300

Bähr, whose profound studies on symbolism command respect, says that "as standing on the highest step of created life, and uniting in themselves the most perfect created life, they are the most perfect revelation of God and the Divine" (Symbolik, i. 340).

301

Compare the Homeric epithet νέποδες, and Milton's "smooth-gliding, without step."

302

One of the Scriptural functions of the cherubim was to guard treasure (Ezek. xxviii. 13-15). This conception, too, was widely diffused throughout the East: —

"As when a Gryphon through the wildernessPursues the Arimaspian, who, by stealth,Has from his watchful custody purloinedThe guarded gold."Milton.

303

I follow the Rabbis in saying that the first broken slabs were in the Ark.

304

Like the Greek images of the gods, they were made of olive, the least corruptible kind of wood, and overlaid with the purest gold.

305

See, especially, Deut. xii. 5-19. In the later Priestly Code the centralisation of worship is not inculcated, but supposed to be already established. In the original Book of the Covenant it is not required at all.

306

Judg. ii. 5, vi. 24, viii. 27, xx. 1, xxi. 2, 4; 1 Sam. vii. 9, x. 8, xi. 15, xiii. 9, xvi. 5, etc.

307

ἡ νηστεία (Acts xxvii. 9); Philo, Lib. de Septenariis.

308

Neh. viii. 17.

309

Canon Cook in the Speaker's Commentary (Leviticus, p. 496) admits: "It is by no means unlikely there are insertions of a later date, which were written and sanctioned by the prophets and holy men who after the captivity arranged and edited the Scriptures of the Old Testament."

310

Book by Book, p. 7.

311

See Professor Robertson, Book by Book, p. 56. I quote Professor Robertson as one of the ablest and most competent opponents of extreme conclusions; but it does not seem to me that he touches on some of the arguments which constitute the main strength of the case against him.

312

See 2 Kings xxii. 11; Ezra ix. 1, 7; Neh. ix. 3.

313

"Sacrificia symbolicæ preces" (Outram, De Sacrif., p. 108).

314

Yoma, f. 21, a.

315

On vast ancient holocausts, see Athen., Deipnos., i. 5; Diod. Sic., xi. 72; Porph., De abstin., ii. 60; Suet., Calig., 14; Sen., De Benef., iii. 27; Ammian. Marcel., xxii. 4, xxv. 4; and other passages collected by the diligence of commentators. See, too, Josephus (B. J., VI. ix. 3) who reckons that at a passover in Nero's time 256,000 sacrifices were offered.

316

Amos vi. 5; 1 Chron. xxiii. 5.

317

Edersheim, The Temple and its Services, p. 54.

318

The chronicler says that there were 38,000 Levites, of which 24,000 were "to oversee the work of the house of the Lord; and 6000 were officers and judges, and 4000 door-keepers; and 4000 praised the Lord with the instruments which I made," said David, "to praise therewith."

319

Some of these titles of the Psalms are, however, very uncertain. Gesenius thinks that this last title (Psalm ix.) means that the Psalm "was to be sung by boys with virgins' voices." It is, to say the least, a very curious coincidence, that in 1 Chron. xxv. 4 the names of the sons of Heman, Giddalti and Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth, mean (omitting the strange Joshbekashah, for which the LXX. Cod. Alex. reads Σεβακαιτάν), consecutively, "I have given | great and high help: | I have spoken | visions | in abundance." Had the names any reference to tunes?

320

Ezra ii. 65; Neh. vii. 67; Psalm lxxxvii. 7.

321

Of these, perhaps, were "the children" who shouted their hosannas to Jesus in the Temple (Matt. xxi. 15).

322

The Temple and its Services, p. 67.

323

Exod. xix. 5, 6.

324

Rev. xv. 6.

325