he multiply wives unto himself, that his heart turn not away, neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.'

It is plain that this passage, which distinctly allows the appointment of a king, and, indeed, would have been enough to suggest it, if the desire for one had not otherwise arisen, —which, so far from disapproving of the introduction of the kingdom, rather promises a special blessing, and a permanent continuance of royalty, to any pious king and his children,could not have existed, as the declaration of the Divine Will, in the time of Samuel, or in the still later time of the author of the history of the election of the first king of Israel.

710. There we find Samuel charging it upon the people as a great sin, that they had desired a king,

'That ye may see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of Jehovah, in asking for a king . . . . And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto Jehovah thy God, that we die not; for we have added unto all our sins this evil to ask us a king.' 18.xii.17–19.

Nay, Jehovah himself is introduced as saying to Samuel, 1S.viii.7

'They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.'

Throughout the whole narrative, not the least reference is made to this law, as surely must have been the case if it was really in existence in those days; since either Samuel might have been expected to quote it, as laying down the conditions of the kingdom, if they were determined to have it, or the people would naturally have adduced it, as sanctioning, or, at any rate, excusing, their wish for a king.

711. Solomon, as we know, was the first king who' multiplied ' horses brought out of Egypt:

'And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen,' 1K.iv.26;

'And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen ; and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem, 1K.x.26;

'And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt . . . And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred

and fifty; and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria did they bring them out by their means,' 1K.x.28,29.

In later days Jotham also, Hezekiah's grand.ather, did this, as Isaiah tells us,

ii.7 :

'Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.'

And Hezekiah did the same:—

'Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen, because they are strong!' Is.xxxi.1;

'How wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?' Is.xxxvi.9.

712. But, later still, Jeremiah condemns the kings of Judah strongly in his days for going down again to Egypt for help:—

'And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor?... Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria,' ii.18,36.

And he speaks with special emphasis against the people's 'returning' to Egypt to sojourn there.

• Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there, then it shall come to pass that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt: and there ye shall die. So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there. They shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them. For thus saith Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt; and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more. Jehovah hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt; know certainly that I have admonished you this day.' xlii.15-19. While, therefore, in forbidding the multiplication of wealth and of wives, special reference may be made by the Deuteronomist to the well-known causes of Solomon's declension, 1K.x,xi, yet such a passage as that before us might very well have been written in the age of Josiah, and by the hand of such a Prophet as Jeremiah.

713. D.xvii.18-20.

'And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this Law in a book, out of that which is before the Priests the Levites; and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear Jehovah his God, to keep all the words of this Law and these statutes, to do them; that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left, to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.'

We observe here, first, that the Book of the Law is said to be before the Priests the Levites,' which seems to imply that, as we have been supposing, the roll, containing the Mosaic story, was left in the custody of the Priests all along, before and after the discovery of the Law' in Josiah's days.

714. But upon this passage

SCOTT observes:

It is probable that this law was very seldom observed by the kings of Judah, and never by the kings of Israel.

In another note, upon 2K.xxii.8-11, he says,

It seems to have been entirely neglected, as well as the command to read the Law publicly to the people every year at the Feast of Tabernacles.

It is possible that Josiah, after the discovery of this book by Hilkiah the High Priest in the Temple, did actually proceed to carry out the direction, and begin, at all events, to copy the Book of the Law with his own hand. But what sign is there that either David or Solomon each made a copy for himself of this Law, or that any of the best kings did so,—even Joash, as a youth, under the direction' of the chief Priest Jehoiada? If they did, pious kings as they were, how is it to be explained that they completely neglected its precepts in so many points, as we know they did, for instance, in sacrificing at Gibeon and other high places, 1K.iii.3,4, and in not duly keeping the Passover, 2K.xxiii.22 ?

715. On the other hand, if they did not make a copy of the Law, why was this? Can it be believed that they knowingly omitted to do so,- that is to say, that, having the Law itself (as is supposed) in their hands, with Pro

phets and Priests to remind them of their duties, they wilfully or negligently passed by so solemn, and, indeed, so essential, a part of their duty, to themselves and to their people? Rather, have we not here also a proof, that the book of Deuteronomy, at all events, was not known to these kings, or to the Priests and Prophets of their day,- and, therefore, probably, did not exist, or, at least, if it did, was not recognised as having Divine authority? Indeed, if, instead of writing out the Law, these kings, or any of their Priests and Prophets, had only heard it or read it, as a Divine Law, it would be equally impossible to explain their surprising disregard of its most plain and positive injunctions, as we have seen in the instances above noted, and as we shall see more fully, when we come to consider hereafter, in another part of this work, the facts recorded in their history.

513

CHAPTER XI.

DEUT.XVIII.1-22.

716. D.xviii.1-5.

ance.

'The Priests the Levites,* all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings of Jehovah made by fire, and his inheritTherefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren; Jehovah is their inheritance, as He hath said unto them. And this shall be the Priest's due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the Priest the shoulder and the two cheeks, and the maw. The firstfruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the first of the fleece of thy sheep, shalt thou give him. For Jehovah thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes to stand to minister in the Name of Jehovah, him and his sons for ever.'

Here, again, the Priests and Levites are treated as identically the same. Jehovah is the inheritance' of the whole tribe of Levi; whereas in N.xviii.20, He is spoken of as the inheritance of Aaron and his sons only, and, accordingly, in N.xxxi.28,29, as we have seen (631), Jehovah's tribute' is given to the Priests alone, and the Levites are supplied from the share of the booty which belonged to the people.

6

Here, also, as in x.8, Levi and his sons'--not Aaron and his sons'—are said to have been chosen out of all the tribes to stand to minister in the Name of Jehovah.'

717. Again, we have here the income of the Priests the Levites' laid down, and in this account also there are some notable variations from the original directions.

* As before observed, the translators of the E.V., by inserting ‘and' before 'all the tribe of Levi,' have here modified greatly the meaning of the original.