Date and Place. B. C. 1015, Jerusalem. Event or Narrative. Solomon's wise judgment, I Kings 3. 15-28:* [2 Chron. 1. 13]. Adonijah and Joab put to death; Abiathar deposed; Shimei not to leave Jerusalem, 1 Kings 2. 13-38. Tyre, Tsur, Solomon obtains materials and men for the building 102 N. Jer. of the temple, 1 Kings 5. 1-18: [2 Chron. 2. 1-18]. 1012, Shimei put to death for going to Gath, 1 Kings 2. 39-46. Jerusalem. Solomon marries Pharaoh's daughter, 1 Kings 3. 1-3. The building of the temple, 1 Kings 6. 1-8, [15-36]: [7. 13-50]: 6. 9-14, 37, 38: 7. 51: [2 Chron. 3. 1-9,] [3, 4, 22], [10-14]: [3. 15-4. 22]: [5. 1]. The dedication of the temple, 1 Kings 8. 1-11, 62-64, 12-61, 65, 66: 2 Chron. [5. 2-14: 7. 4-7: 6.-7. 3, 8, 10]: Psa. 47: 97: 98: 99: 100: 135: 136. Other buildings of Solomon; God makes a covenant with him, 1 Kings 7. 1-12: [9. 1-9]: 2 Chron. 7. 11-22. Acquisitions of Solomon; he carries out David's arrangements for the temple services, 1012-1005, I Kings 6. I-37. 1005, Jerusalem. 1002. 1001, Jerusalem. 993, Jerusalem. 980-977. 977. 1 Kings 9. 10-14, 15-25: [2 Chron. 8. 1-10, 12-16]. The wisdom of Solomon, 1 Kings 4. 29-33 : [2 Chron. I Kings 4. 34: 10. 1-13: [2 Chron. 9. 23, 1-12]. Eccl. or the Preacher, 1.-12: [3.-11. 8]. a Ver. 3, of the first measure, i. e., the larger cubit used before the captivity, nearly a yard. b Ver. II, "white raiment," additional to 1 Kings. The Jews offered the sacrifice, then prayed, and then the fire descended; hence this order (Townsend). Psa. 47. 5: see 2 Chron. 5. 13. The other Psalms are all appropriate to this service, and were probably used. The date of their composition is not known. d Compare 4. 8: 7. 4, with 2 Chron. 8. 6. Date and Place. B. C. 976, Jerusalem. 976, Shechem. Event or Narrative. Death of Solomon; Rehoboam his son succeeds, 1 Kings 11. 41-43: [2 Chron. 9. 29-31]. 68. The Division of the Kingdom. On the accession of Rehoboam, the people, headed 1 Kings 12. 16-19: [2 Chron. 10. 16-19]. The ten tribes make Jeroboam their king, and form the kingdom of Israel, I Kings 12-20. CHAPTER III. HISTORICAL AND PROPHETICAL BOOKS FROM THE DEATH OF SOLOMON TO THE CLOSE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON. Sec. 1. Brief Historical View of this Period. The Prophets in Connection with History. 69. With the reign of Solomon ended the glory of Israel. The kingdom was thenceforth dismembered. Ten The division. tribes, of which Ephraim was chief, separated from the rest, and formed the kingdom of Israel; Judah, with which Benjamin was now united, alone remaining faithful to the house of David. To the latter, however, most of the Levites, and many who feared God out of all the tribes, ultimately adhered, 2 Chron. 11. 13-16. 70. The history of these kingdoms presents striking contrasts and instructive lessons. Israel from the division to the de Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, and himself an struction of Ephraimite, was raised to the throne by God, and a the kingdom. conditional promise was given that his kingdom should be as David's (1 Kings 11. 38). But Jeroboam had neither the faith nor the obedience of David. To preserve the independence of his kingdom, he established a separate priesthood, and set up idol-. altars and images at Dan and Bethel. He thus framed a system of idolatry, denied practically the unity and spirituality of God, and perpetuated, in an exaggerated form, the evil for which the kingdom had been rent from Solomon (Deut. 28. 15: 1 Kings 11. 11). Unhappily, the people shared his feelings, and through his influence idolatry became ever after part of the national religion. He himself, therefore, is branded in history as "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." From the time of Jeroboam, the first king, to Hoshea, the nineteenth and last, we find no one king free from the charge of general depravity. Of king after king, it is said that he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord." Jehu, indeed, destroyed the prophets of Baal, and for his partial obedience was rewarded with enlarged temporal blessing; but he "took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord, for he departed not from the sin of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin." The nation copied their kings. There were a few exceptions, but it needed, in Elijah's days, a direct revelation to discover them; and out of the hundreds of thousands of whom Israel was composed, but 7,000 are mentioned as not having bowed the knee unto Baal. This fearful condition was the more guilty because of the warnings which had been given. Jeroboam knew why God had rejected Solomon, and was himself repeatedly rebuked by Ahijah and others. Within fifty years appeared the prophets Jehu and Micaiah, Elijah and Elisha; the two latter working more miracles than any prophet had wrought since the days of Moses and Joshua. A few years after their protracted ministry came Jonah, Hosea, and Amos. All the messages of these prophets were confirmed by Divine chastisements. Jeroboam and his family were cut off, as were Baasha and Zimri. In the 254 years of the monarchy, nine different families occupied the throne, and nearly their entire history is made up of bloodshed and confusion. Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam the second, was slain, after a reign of six months, by Shallum; and he, after a reign of one month, by Menahem, his son and successor. Pekahiah was assassinated by Pekah, and Pekah is put to death by Hoshea; while most of this wickedness is ascribed to an unhallowed adherence to the policy and idolatries of their first king, 1 Kings 14. 9, 10: 2 Kings 17. 21-23. He thought that policy essential to the stability of his throne; it proved the ruin both of himself and of his kingdom. There is, indeed, "a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." The distrust of Divine power and contempt of Divine law in .which these evils originated proved the means as well as the primary cause of the overthrow of the kingdom. Pekah sought an alliance with Rezin of Syria against Ahaz of Judah. Pekah was at first victorious, and Ahaz, copying the sin of his neighbour, applied for help to Tiglath-Pileser, son of Pul, king of Assyria. He came and chastised the Israelites, carrying into Media the two and a half tribes beyond Jordan, and making the rest tributary.' This was the beginning of the captivity, and might have proved a salutary warning (738 B. C.) Ten years later, So, king of Egypt, alarmed at the power of Assyria, induced Hezekiah and Hoshea to withhold the tribute which their predecessors had engaged to pay. This revolt brought up Shalmaneser, the son of Tiglath-Pileser, with a large host; and in the end Samaria fell; Hoshea was carried to Nineveh, and Israel was annexed to the Assyrian crown. The conquered country was afterwards peopled by settlers from the region of the Tigris and Euphrates. They intermarried with those of the Israelites who had remained, and ultimately took the name of Samaritans. At first, they served the "God of the country" and "worshipped idols;" but Josiah, having destroyed the altar at Bethel, and carried his reformation even into Zebulon, they rested in a system of belief nearly as pure as that of the Jews, though less regular in some of its observances. What became of the ten tribes is not known. Customs, rites, and features like theirs have been discovered in all parts of the world. Many of them seem to have returned at different periods to their own land. Cyrus addressed his proclamation to all the people of Jehovah (Ez. 1. 1-3), and some of the rites connected with the consecration of the temple imply that there were present remnants of all the tribes; while many Israelites seem to have been settled in Galilee and Peræa long before the days of our Lord (1 Mac. 5. 9-24). Judah. 71. Very different were the destinies of Judah. Of twenty kings, all descendants of David, who, for 388 years, History of occupied the throne, six are mentioned with great praise (Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, and Josiah), and others are commended. Several, however, were fearfully wicked; Jehoram, Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon, introducing idolatrous worship into the temple itself, and filling Jerusalem with blood. The fatal error of the Jews, politically and religiously, was their alliance with idolaters, originating, as it did, in worldliness and distrust, and tending to conform them to their idolatrous neighbours. Ahaz sought, as we have seen, the aid of Tiglath-Pileser against the kings of Israel and Syria; and though, at first, he was delivered from impending evil, he really received from the Assyrians "no help at all." The payment of a heavy tribute was the first immediate result of this alliance, and other results soon followed. It cost Hezekiah most of his treasure, and but for special interposition would have cost him his throne. Manasseh it cost his liberty, and Josiah (who felt himself bound to oppose the progress of Necho eastward to Carchemish), his life. Jehoahaz, his son, was carried captive to Egypt. Jehoiakim (the brother and successor of Jehoahaz), who owed his crown to Necho, was set aside by Nebuchadnezzar. Shortly afterwards, his son Jeconiah was deposed by the same monarch and taken to Babylon; Zedekiah, the uncle of Jeconiah, and the third son of Josiah, being made king, after a solemn oath of allegiance, in his room. Tempted by Pharaoh Hophra, and against the remonstrance of Jeremiah, he revolted, and a third time Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem. After a siege of eighteen months, the city was taken at midnight; most of the inhabitants were put to death, the children of Zedekiah were slain, and he himself (his eyes put out) was carried in chains to Babylon. At the same time, or a few months later, Nebuzaradan, the general of Nebuchadnezzar, burned the city, destroyed the temple, and carried off the remainder of the sacred vessels and the greater part of the nation, a few poor only being left to till the soil. It is remarkable that no attempt was made to colonize the country, as had been done in the case of Israel; the providence of God thus keeping it vacant, to be reoccupied by the people on the completion of their captivity. On the first visit of Nebuchadnezzar to Jerusalem (606), he carried off to Babylon Daniel and his companions: on the second, when he took away Jeconiah (597), Ezekiel also was taken; Jeremiah and the other prophets of the captivity being left in the land. foreknow 72. Comparing these facts with prophecy, we have some Harmony of instructive conclusions. All the events thus prophecy and hastily sketched were foretold, and yet in every case the fulfilment of prophecy involves á moral lesson, and in no case does it supersede the freedom of the human agency which accomplished it. ledge with human freedom and responsibility illustrated in this history. Ahijah, for example, foretells the division of the kingdom, the captivity of Israel, and even the place where they were to be scattered (1 Kings 14. 15). Isaiah foretells the overthrow of Samaria, as Hosea had done, and the date; the preservation of Judah, and, finally, its destruction by Babylon, then a feeble and |