CHAP. XXX, v. 25. And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day.

There are also some passages, even in the first book of Samuel, in which the distinction between Judah and Israel is clearly indicated. The book was therefore certainly written after the revolt of Jeroboam and the ten tribes. This took place about ninety years after the death of Samuel; the book, therefore, cannot be considered as a contemporary record. The passages which allude to the division of the kingdom, are these:

CHAP. Xviii, v. 16. But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.

CHAP. xxvii, 6. Then Achish gave him Ziglag that day: wherefore Ziglag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day.

CHAPTER 18.

SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL EXAMINED.

The Second book of Samuel labours under greater difficulties, as regards its authorship, than any of the preceding writings. Its narrative avowedly and manifestly begins long after the death of Samuel, who, consequently, had nothing whatever to do with writing it. The commentators have supposed Gad or Nathan to have been the

author, but they might with more reason have referred it to the time of Ezra, Nehemiah, or some later writer. Its contents are susceptible of the same examination which has been directed towards the books preceding it in the Jewish canon.

The allusions to the two separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel, which were noticed in the last chapter, occur again here:

CHAP. ii, 4-10. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. (v. 10.) Ishbosheth Saul's son was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel and reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David.

CHAP. iv, 3. And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and were sojourners there until this day.

CHAP. V, 5. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.

This must have been written after the division of the kingdom.

In verse 7 of the same chapter are the words:

Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion: the same is the city of David.

The latter part of the verse is introduced to explain, that the strong hold of Zion was the same which was called. afterwards the city of David.

In the 9th verse, again, of the same chapter, we read: So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward.

Note by Dr Pococke:

-from Millo] From the place where Solomon afterwards built Millo; for it appears from I Kings ix, 15, that it was not built till Solomon's reign.

If this be true, the books of Samuel must have been written, at least as late as the reign of king Solomon. So

must the book of Judges; for Millo is mentioned there

also:

JUDGES ix, 6. And all the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo, and went and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.

The house of Millo, or, as it is in the Hebrew, Bethmillo, occurs again in II Kings xii, 20:

And his servants arose, and made a conspiracy, and slew Joash in the house of Millo, which goeth down to Silla.

II SAM. xvi, 23. And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he counselled in those days, was as if a man had enquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom. CHAP. Xviii, 18. Now Absalom in his life-time had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's dale: for he said, “I have no son to keep my name in remembrance": and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom's place.

The 23rd chapter of II Samuel begins with these words:

Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said:

Then follows the song which David spake on this occasion; followed abruptiy by the catalogue of David's mighty men of war: and in v. 1 of chap. xxiv begins a new subject, which shews that David was still engaged in the duties of active life:

And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.

These abrupt methods of writing mark, not an original author but a compiler, who collects original documents together, copies them one after another and makes insertions, sometimes for the purpose of connecting them into one history, and, at other times of explaining those passages which his readers might otherwise find it hard to

understand. No other mode of interpretation will account for the inversions of order, the extraordinary repetitions, and unusual method of narration which the books of the Old Testament present.

CHAPTER 19.

THE TWO BOOKS OF KINGS EXAMINED.

As it is generally admitted that the two books of Kings were written after the return of the Israelites from Babylon, it is not absolutely necessary to examine them for the purpose of collecting the evidence which they furnish. But there are certain passages in both these books which, besides proving the assertion that has been made above, yield other evidence of a significant character respecting the true nature of Jewish History and Prophecy; and, besides, these passages are so remarkably similar to those gathered from the preceding books, that they warrant the inference of a common origin.

Such are the following, in which the distinction between Judah and Israel is so plainly marked that it was evidently employed by the writer as a long established fact:

I Kings i, 35. (David speaks) Then ye shall come up after him, that

he may come and sit upon my throne; for he shall be king in my stead: and I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and Judah.

CHAP. iv, v. 1. So king Solomon was king over all Israel.

CHAP. iv, 20. Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude.

CHAP. iv, v. 25. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely &c.

CHAP. iv, v. 21. And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt; they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life.

The river must here mean the Euphrates, not the Jordan; for Solomon reigned to a great distance beyond the Jordan east-ward. This designation of the Euphrates as the river, implies that the writer was well acquainted with it; that is to say, he wrote this account after the nation had dwelt at Babylon upon its banks.

CHAP. ix, v. 11....(Now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire,) that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. (v. 13) And he [Hiram] said, "What cities are these which thou hast given me, my brother?" And he called them the land of Cabul unto this day.

CHAP. xii, v. 19. So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.

CHAP. xiii, v. 2. And he cried against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said, "O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord; Behold, a child shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name'; and upon thee shall he offer the priests of the high places that burn incense upon thee and men's bones shall be burnt upon thee."

As this prophecy concerning Josiah was recorded after the events had happened, the record of it may probably have received a species of colouring from the pen of the writer, as is likely to occur in such cases. This consideration is of great importance in our estimate of such things all the original prophecies, known to have been written before the fulfilment, are found to be obscure, and even at present after so many centuries have passed, it is uncertain whether many of them have been fulfilled or not.