By W. F. COLLIER, LL.D.
During this period the state of _social life_ among the Jewish people
underwent a very great change. An immense flow of wealth into the
country took place. Through intercourse with other countries, many new
habits and fashions were introduced. The people lost not a little of
their early simplicity of character and life. A splendid court had been
set up, and a splendid capital built. Commercial relations had been
established with remote parts of the world. A great stride had been
taken in the direction of luxury and refinement.
There was now a standing army, a large staff of civil officers, and a
vast number of menial servants in the country. Besides the ass, the
horse and the mule were now introduced as beasts of burden; chariots
and splendid equipages were set up; and many persons assumed the style
and bearing of princes. Private dwellings underwent a corresponding
change, and all the luxuries of Egypt and Nineveh became familiar to
the Hebrews.
But was all this for good? It appears as if the nation, or its leaders,
now struck out a new path for themselves, in which God rather followed
than preceded them, giving them, indeed, at first, a large measure of
prosperity, but leaving them more to their own ways and to the fruits
of these ways than before. This, at least, was plainly the case under
Solomon. The vast wealth circulated in his time over the country did
not bring any proportional addition, either to the material comfort, or
to the moral beauty, or to the spiritual riches of the nation. There
can be no doubt that “haste to be rich” brought all the evils and sins
which always flow from it in an age of progress toward worldly show and
magnificence.
It appears from the Proverbs that many new vices were introduced. Many
of the counsels of that book would have been quite inapplicable to
a simple, patriarchal, agricultural people; but they were eminently
adapted to a people surrounded by the snares of wealth and the
temptations of commerce, and very liable to forget or despise the good
old ways and counsels of their fathers. The Proverbs will be read
with far greater interest, if it be borne in mind that this change
had just taken place among the Hebrews, and that, as Solomon had been
instrumental in giving the nation its wealth, so, perhaps, he was led
by the Spirit to write this book, and that of Ecclesiastes, to guard
against the fatal abuse of his own gift.
The practice of soothsaying, or fortune-telling, was common among the
Jews at the beginning of this period. The prevalence of such a practice
indicates a low standard of intellectual attainment. It seems to have
had its headquarters among the Philistines (Isa. ii:6); and very
probably, when Saul drove all who practised it from the land, he did so
more from enmity to the Philistines than from dislike to the practice
itself. It continued, as Saul himself knew, to lurk in the country,
even after all the royal efforts to exterminate it. (I Sam. xxviii:7.)
Probably it never altogether died out. In New Testament times it was
evidently a flourishing trade. (Acts viii:9; xiii:6.) All over the East
it was practised to a large extent, and the Jewish sorcerers had the
reputation of being the most skillful of any. It was the counterfeit
of that wonderful privilege of knowing God’s mind and will, which the
Jew enjoyed through the Urim and Thummim of the high-priest. Those who
would not seek, or could not obtain, the genuine coin, resorted to the
counterfeit.
In _literary and scientific culture_ the nation made a great advance
during this period. In a merely literary point of view, the Psalms
of David and the writings of Solomon possess extraordinary merits;
and we can not doubt that two literary kings, whose reigns embraced
eighty years, or nearly three generations, would exercise a very great
influence, and have their example very largely followed among their
people. David’s talents as a musician, and the extraordinary pains
he took to improve the musical services of the sanctuary, must have
greatly stimulated the cultivation of that delightful art.
What David did for music, Solomon did for natural history. It need
not surprise us that all the uninspired literary compositions of that
period have perished. If Homer flourished (according to the account of
Herodotus) 884 years before Christ, Solomon must have been a century in
his tomb before the “Iliad” was written. And if it be considered what
difficulty there was in preserving the “Iliad,” and how uncertain it
is whether we have it as Homer wrote it, it can not be surprising that
all the Hebrew poems and writings of this period have been lost, except
such as were contained in the inspired canon of Scripture.
There were, also, great _religious_ changes during this period of the
history. Evidently, under Samuel, a great revival of true religion
took place; and the schools of the prophets which he established seem
to have been attended with a marked blessing from heaven. Under David
the change was confirmed. In the first place, the coming Messiah was
more clearly revealed. It was expressly announced to David, as has been
already remarked, that the great Deliverer was to be a member of his
race. David, too, as a type of Christ, conveyed a more full and clear
idea of the person and character of Christ than any typical person that
had gone before him.
It is interesting to inquire how far a religious spirit pervaded the
people at large. The question can not receive a very satisfactory
answer. It is plain that even in David’s time the mass of the people
were not truly godly. The success of Absalom’s movement is a proof
of this. Had there been a large number of really godly persons in the
tribe of Judah, they would not only not have joined the insurrection,
but their influence would have had a great effect in hindering its
success. The real state of matters seems to have been, that both in
good times and in bad there were some persons, more or less numerous,
of earnest piety and spiritual feeling, who worshipped God in spirit,
not only because it was their duty, but also because it was their
delight; while the mass of the people either worshipped idols, or
worshipped God according to the will, example, or command of their
rulers.
But the constant tendency was to idolatry; and the intercourse with
foreign nations which Solomon maintained, as well as his own example,
greatly increased the tendency. Under Solomon, indeed, idolatry struck
its roots so deep, that all the zeal of the reforming kings that
followed him failed to eradicate them. It was not till the seventy
years’ captivity of Babylon that the soil of Palestine was thoroughly
purged of the roots of that noxious weed.
During six hundred years that constituted the kingdom of Israel from
the close of Solomon’s reign to the total captivity, the same spirit of
luxury and taste for display prevailed.
In regard to wealth and property, the moderation and equality of
earlier days were now widely departed from. Isaiah denounces those
who “join house to house, and lay field to field, that they may be
placed alone in the midst of the earth.” Notwithstanding, some men,
like Naboth, stood up bravely for their paternal rights; and even in
Jeremiah’s time, the old practice of redeeming possessions survived.
(xxxii:7.) Many of the people lived in elegant houses “of hewn stone”
(Amos v:11), which they adorned with the greatest care. There were
winter-houses, summer-houses, and houses of ivory. (iii:15.) Jeremiah
describes the houses as “ceiled with cedar and painted with vermilion”
(xxii:14); and Amos speaks of the “beds of ivory” and luxurious
“couches” on which the inmates “stretched themselves.” (vi:4.)
Sumptuous and protracted feasts were given in these houses. Lambs out
of the flock and calves from the stall had now become ordinary fare.
(vi:4.) At feasts, the person was annointed with “chief ointments;”
wine was drunk from bowls; sometimes the drinking was continued from
early morning, to the sound of the harp, the viol, the tabret, and
the pipe. (Isa. v:11, 12.) The dress, especially of the ladies, was
often most luxurious and highly ornamented. Isaiah has given us an
elaborate picture of the ornaments of the fine ladies of Jerusalem.
He foretells a day when “the Lord would take away the bravery of the
ankle-bands, and the caps of net-work, and the crescents; the pendants,
and the bracelets, and the veils; the turbans, and the ankle-chains,
and the girdles, and the smelling-bottles, and the amulets; the
signet-rings, and the nose-jewels; the holiday dresses and the mantles,
and the robes, and the purses; the mirrors, and the tunics, and the
head-dresses, and the large veils.” (Isa. iii:18-23.—_Alexander’s
Translation._)
A plain, unaffected gait would have been far too simple for ladies
carrying such a load of artificial ornament: the neck stretched out,
the eyes rolling wantonly, and a mincing or tripping step completed the
picture, and showed to what a depth of folly woman may sink through
love of finery. Splendid equipages were also an object of ambition.
Chariots were to be seen drawn by horses, camels, or asses, with
elegant caparisons (Isa. xxi:7); the patriarchal mode of riding on an
ass being now confined to the poor.
There are some traces, but not many, of high intellectual culture.
Isaiah speaks of “the counselor, and the cunning artificer, and the
eloquent orator,” as if these were representatives of classes. We
have seen that one of the kings of Judah (Uzziah) was remarkable for
mechanical and engineering skill. Amos refers to “the seven stars and
Orion,” as if the elements of astronomy had been generally familiar to
the people. On the other hand, there are pretty frequent references to
soothsayers and sorcerers, indicating a low intellectual condition. The
prevalence of idolatry could not fail to debase the intellect as well
as corrupt the morals and disorder society.
Very deplorable, for the most part, are the allusions of the prophets
to the abounding immorality. There is scarcely a vice that is not
repeatedly denounced and wept over. The oppression of the poor was
one of the most flagrant. Amos declares that the righteous were sold
for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes. From Hosea it appears
that wives were bought and sold. The princes and rulers were specially
blamed for their covetousness, their venality, their oppressions,
their murders. (Isa. i:23; x:1. Hosea ix:15.) Impurity and sensuality
flourished under the shade of idolatry. In large towns there was a
class that pandered to the vices of the licentious. (Amos vii:17.)
Robbery, lies, deceitful balances, were found everywhere. Even genuine
grief, under affliction and bereavement, had become rare and difficult;
and persons “skillful of lamentation” had to be hired to weep for the
dead!
The revivals under the pious kings of Judah, as far as the masses were
concerned, were rather galvanic impulses than kindlings of spiritual
life. Yet it can not be doubted that during these movements many hearts
were truly turned to God. The new proofs that were daily occurring of
God’s dreadful abhorrence of sin, would lead many to cry more earnestly
for deliverance from its punishment and its power.
In the disorganized and divided state into which the kingdom fell,
rendering it difficult and even impossible for the annual festivals
to be observed, the writings of the prophets, as well as the earlier
portions of the written word, would contribute greatly to the
nourishment of true piety. The 119th Psalm, with all its praises of
the word and statutes of the Lord, is a memorable proof of the ardor
with which the godly were now drinking from these wells of salvation.
Increased study of the word would lead to enlarged knowledge of the
Messiah, though even the prophets themselves had to “search what, or
what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify,
when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory
that, should follow.” One great result of the training of this period
was, to carry forward the minds of the faithful beyond the present to
the future. In the immediate foreground of prophecy all was dark and
gloomy, and hope could find no rest but in the distant future. The
shades of a dark night were gathering; its long weary hours had to pass
before the day should break and the shadows flee away.
[_February 11._]