this day, that ye have not found aught in my hand. And they said, He is witness.

And Samuel said unto the people, It is Jehovah that appointed Moses and Aaron, and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I may plead with you before Jehovah concerning all the righteous acts of Jehovah, which he did to you and to your fathers. When Jacob was come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto Jehovah, then Jehovah sent Moses and Aaron, who brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made them to dwell in this place. But they forgat Jehovah their God; and he sold them into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab; and they fought against them. And they cried unto Jehovah, and said, We have sinned, because we have forsaken Jehovah, and have served the Baalim and the Ashtaroth: but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. And Jehovah sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side; and ye dwelt in safety.1

In contrast to the qualities represented in the more extreme examples cited, the story of the child Samuel is highly attractive, yet the swift movement of an earlier age has disappeared, the dialogue is less natural than in earlier times, and the real working out of events is obscured by an artificial conception.

And the child Samuel ministered unto Jehovah before Eli. And the word of Jehovah was precious in those days; there was no frequent vision. And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place (now his eyes had begun to wax dim, so that he could not see), and the lamp of God was not yet gone out, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, in the temple of Jehovah, where the ark of God was; that Jehovah called Samuel: and he said, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down. And Jehovah called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know Jehovah, neither was the word of Jehovah yet revealed unto him. And Jehovah called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And Eli perceived that Jehovah had called the child.

11 Samuel 12 1-11.

Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Jehovah; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

And Jehovah came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel said, Speak; for thy servant heareth. And Jehovah said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from the beginning even unto the end. For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever, for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons did bring a curse upon themselves, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated with sacrifice nor offering for ever.

And Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the house of Jehovah. And Samuel feared to show Eli the vision. Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he said, Here am I. And he said, What is the thing that Jehovah hath spoken unto thee? I pray thee, hide it not from me: God do so to thee, and more also, if thou hide anything from me of all the things that he spake unto thee. And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is Jehovah let him do what seemeth him good.1

It is impossible to determine how soon the later Samuel history was compiled with the earlier groups of stories. Possibly they were inwoven almost immediately. If this is the case, the death of David, now recorded in 1 Kings, was included in the composite work and the miscellaneous material of 2 Samuel 21-24, which interrupts the dramatic story of David's court and family life, was inserted in its present place by the later editors who compiled the books of Kings and gave the finishing touches to Samuel. In the composition the material was so arranged that the later picture, representing Samuel as the recognized leader of all Israel, was given priority, and quite obscured the earlier and nobler picture of the true founder of the Hebrew kingdom.

The earlier and later groups of stories are combined with only very slight harmonistic touches until the summary of David's reign, 2 Samuel 8. From this point forward the early narrative of David's court and family life stands almost without alteration or interruption.

11 Samuel 3 1-18.

CHAPTER XV

PROPHECY FROM THE DEATH OF JOSIAH TO THE EXILE

Jeremiah, Habakkuk

(608 to 586 B.C.)

AFTER the death of Josiah the kingdom fell temporarily under the sway of Egypt, and Pharaoh-Necho decided which of the Judean princes should rule as vassal king. The ruler selected, Jehoiakim, was distinctly hostile to the spirit and policy of his father; his reign was marked by the backrush of all the heathen practices which had been driven out. Egypt remained suzerain only four or five years, and then the Babylonian Nebuchadrezzar, who had defeated the Egyptians in a decisive battle, became ruler of Palestine. For a time Jehoiakim paid tribute, but after a few years, trusting to Egypt for help, he undertook to throw off the Babylonian rule. Jehoiakim himself died in time to escape the consequences of his folly, and his son ruled only three months when the Babylonian army was before Jerusalem. The new king, surrendering at discretion, was carried a prisoner to Babylon. With him were taken 10,000 men, besides women and children, the flower of the little state-nobles, soldiers, and skilled artisans. Thus the partial exile began in 597 B.C. In Jerusalem an uncle of the captive king, a son of Josiah, was placed upon the throne by the Babylonians. Matters went from bad to worse in the government of the little devastated state, where the new rulers attributed their exemption from deportation to the special favor of God, and, after a few years, refused the Babylonian tribute. Jerusalem stood a long siege, but in 586 B.C. the city was captured, plundered, and razed to the ground; the brief, impressive statement in Kings is:

And he burnt the house of Jehovah, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great man's house burnt he with

fire. And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about.1

A few thousand more were now deported to Babylonia, so that in all, men, women, and children, there must have been some 50,000 Judeans in that distant region. There were now three chief centres of Jewish population, for many had fled to Egypt in the troublous times, and many, largely the peasantry, were left in Judea.

We have fuller information concerning the experiences of Jeremiah, during the next twenty-three years after the death of Josiah, than in the case of any other of the Old Testament prophets. His teachings during this period have been preserved mingled with a large amount of biographical and historical information. It is possible, therefore, to gather from the book of Jeremiah a vivid picture of the inner and outer life of the prophet and the intimate life of Jerusalem during the years 608 to 586. The impression of these things quite overshadows the sermons themselves which generally lack the literary power found in the addresses of the eighth-century prophets. Jeremiah's significance lies in the insight which he reached in the later years of his ministry, and this insight we are able to appreciate as we follow him through the inner and outer struggles incident to the time of his nation's downfall.

We may see him in the temple court, warning the worshippers who have come thither from the cities of Judah, or at the temple gate denouncing the confidence of those who trust in the sanctuary while they are guilty of moral and religious wrongs; we may see him going to the palace to address king and nobles, or follow him to the potter's house, where he will learn a lesson as he watches the workman change his plan for the particular vessel to be made, or again we may go out with him to the valley of the son of Hinnom by the east gate, whither he goes to shiver in pieces an earthen vessel, before a gaping crowd. His striking sermon of judgment, preached on this occasion, gave excuse for the ruler of the temple to put Jeremiah in the public stocks, in the gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord.

In the case of most prophets who delivered their message orally, as Jeremiah did his, we are left to infer how it came to be written

12 Kings 25 -10.

down. The confused state, for example, of Isaiah's oracles strongly suggests that these were gathered by his disciples, after his death; the orderly arrangement of Amos's memoirs, on the other hand, makes it probable that he himself put the substance of his preaching into permanent form, after returning from his Bethel misson.— All this is inference. In the case of Jeremiah we have a definite account of his dictating to Baruch in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, what he had preached during the twenty-two years of his ministry. When King Jehoiakim contemptuously cut up and burned this precious book, Jeremiah had it rewritten and expanded by the addition of many like words.1

This second and enlarged edition of Jeremiah's oracles must have contained the inaugural vision and early addresses, already discussed, and also the original discourses and narratives that connect themselves with the first four years of Jehoiakim's reign. The theme of this little roll was "Words against Israel, Judah, and all the nations";2 Jehoiakim's reactionary reign certainly furnished ample occasion for oracles of this character. As we examine our present book of Jeremiah, a still later and greatly enlarged edition, it is impossible to determine always which discourses were delivered early enough in Jehoiakim's reign to be included in the original roll written in the fourth year; probably a comparatively small amount of material outside of chapters 1-17 belonged to this collection.

Jeremiah's silence during the later years of Josiah's reign3 is broken with his lament for King Jehoahaz or Shallum whom the people had chosen to succeed Josiah. Pharaoh-Necho carried the newly appointed king in bonds to Egypt, and Jeremiah would stay the mourning for the dead king with thought for this second national loss.

Weep ye not for the dead; nor mourn for him.

Weep sore for him who has gone, for he shall not return,

To see the land of his nativity.1

Soon after Jehoiakim's reign is begun, Josiah's reform, with its destruction of the high places and enforcement of the law, is as though it had not been.