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] 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] 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] 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] 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] Hence it is hardly possible that Solomon reduced the
kingdom of Hamath, north of Damascus, to subjection, as the Chronicles
assert;[331] 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] 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] 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] 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]
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] 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]
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]
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] 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] 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] 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]--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]
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] 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] 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]
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] 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]
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]
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 L3,000,000).[350]
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] 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] 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 = L80) for a war-chariot.[353]
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 L5,000,000).[354] 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] 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] 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] 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] 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]
The new arrangement of state life, which was partly established, partly
introduced, by Solomon, the leisure of peace, the close contact with
Phoenicia 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] 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 Sabaeans (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] 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] 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] 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]
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]
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]
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] 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.
FOOTNOTES:
[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.
[327] 1 Kings ii. 15.
[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.
[329] 1 Kings ix. 16.
[330] 1 Kings xi. 23-25.
[331] 2 Chron. viii. 3.
[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 Judaea.
[333] 1 Kings v. 7-10, 15-17.
[334] 1 Kings vii. 46.
[335] 1 Kings vi., vii. 13-51; 2 Chron. iii. 4, 10.
[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.
Mueller, "Archaeologie," Sec. 240, Anm. 4.
[337] 1 Kings ix. 25.
[338] 1 Kings vii. 1-12.
[339] 1 Kings x. 12; 2 Chron. ix. 11.
[340] 1 Kings vii. 7.
[341] 1 Kings x. 18-20.
[342] The Song of Solomon says, "There are 60 queens, 80 concubines, and
maids without number."
[343] 1 Kings ix. 10, 24.
[344] 1 Kings ix. 15-19.
[345] 1 Kings xi. 27; ix. 15-24.
[346] 1 Kings iv. 26; x. 26.
[347] 1 Kings iv. 20, 25; v. 4.
[348] 1 Kings ix. 19.
[349] 1 Kings x. 29.
[350] 1 Kings ix. 26-28; x. 22.
[351] Judges xvii. 10. The Hebrew silver shekel is to be reckoned at
more than 2_s._ 6_d._; the gold shekel from 36 to 45_s._ Cf. Vol. i.
304.
[352] 2 Sam. xxiv. 24.
[353] Song of Solomon viii. 11; cf. Mover's "Phoenizier," 3, 48 ff, 81
ff.
[354] 1 Kings x. 14.
[355] 1 Kings ix. 19.
[356] 1 Kings x. 21; 2 Chron. ix. 20.
[357] Song of Solomon iii. 7-10.
[358] 1 Kings x. 27.
[359] 1 Kings x. 27.
[360] 1 Kings iv. 29-34.
[361] 1 Kings iv. 22, 23, 26-28.
[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.
[363] 1 Kings iv. 11-15; v. 13-18.
[364] 1 Kings ix. 10-14. The contradictory statement in Chronicles (2,
viii. 2) cannot be taken into consideration.
[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.
[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.
[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.