§ 5. The Hebrew Literature in the Age of Moses.

Moses, the founder of the Israelite state, and the mediator of the old covenant, is also the creator of the Old Testament literature. To him is attributed not only the reduction to writing of the whole legislation which takes its name from him, but also the composition in writing of the whole Pentateuch, both its historical and its poetical portions (§ 33). The Hebrews, indeed, had already many laws and principles of jurisprudence before the time of Moses; but these rested mostly upon old usage, without being extended in writing. We cannot now discover how much of the historical accounts from remote antiquity and from the age of the patriarchs had been handed down by word of mouth, and how much had been written down earlier than the time of Moses (1). Even the most ancient national songs and poems (the song of Lamech, Gen. iv. 23 f.; the blessing of Jacob, Gen. xlix.) were no doubt at first transmitted orally from one generation to another. The simplicity of patriarchal life could dispense with writing; and in Egypt, when the Israelites had grown to be a numerous race, they were subjected by the Pharaolis to hard bondage, in the midst of which no literature could flourish. Literature was created by Moses, whom God had furnished with all the qualifications requisite for the effective discharge of the duties to which he was called.

Called by the Lord to be the founder of that divine commonwealth in which the promises given to the patriarchs were to be realized, Moses not only led Israel out of Egypt, and gave them commandments, statutes, and judgments; he also wrote these in "the Book of the Covenant" (Ex. xvii. 12, xxiv. 4, 7). Besides, he collected and arranged the traditions of primitive and earlier times, according to the theocratic principle, into a historical introduction to the theocracy. And finally, he entered in the Book of the Law all the weighty events of his own time; not merely for the purpose of laying that historical foundation without which the legislation could not be fully understood, but also and chiefly on account of the prophetically didactic character of the history of the covenant people, who were placed under his immediate guidance and discipline. That is to say, the divine administration of righteousness and grace, its two

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characteristics which always remain in equipoise, comes out so distinctly as to form a prophetic type for all ages, and teaches by examples, as the Law teaches by commands and promises.

Yet, in addition to this Law and these historical statements, the books of Moses contain prophetic utterances, such as Balaam's (Num. xxii.-xxiv.); and poetical productions, called forth in the soul of Moses, and in those of other theocratic men, by the great deeds of the Lord on behalf of Israel,-such as Moses' song of praise at the Red Sea (Ex. xv.), his parting song and his blessing (Deut. xxxii. xxxiii.), and single fragments of songs out of "The Book of the Wars of the Lord" (Num. xxi. 14, 17, 27-30) (2). They thus unite within themselves all the branches of literature; and these not only in their beginnings and first weak attempts, but cultivated and brought to perfection in a manner becoming to the creative spirit of their author, so as to impress their form upon all following generations, and to furnish a model to them (3).

(1) The conjectures of Ewald (Gesch. i. 73 f.) and v. Lengerke (ibid.) as to traces of annals or historical works among other nations, anterior to the historical literature of Israel, are thoroughly precarious.

(2) "The Book of the Wars of the Lord" is not a foreign historical source (J. D. Michaelis), but an Israelite collection of songs upon the victories over the heathen, obtained by the Lord's almighty assistance, perhaps with interspersed historical notices of these victories; compare Hengstb. Beiträge, iii. 223–225. Ewald (Gesch. i. 88) holds it to be an ancient historical work, containing a collection not only of triumphal songs in reference to the conquests of the people, but also of all the reminiscences of the victorious expeditions of Moses and Joshua (?). See the older opinions in Wolf, biblioth. Hebr. ii. 216 sqq.

(3) Delitzsch, Genesis, i. p. 14 f.: "All the historical composition, the prophecy, the chokma ['wisdom '], and the poetry of Israel, have their foundation and their substance in the Law of Moses. Though De Wette (Einl. § 163) calls it a senseless notion, that Moses should have left it to all succeeding authors to copy him, this dependence of later literature will not mislead us as to the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. For as, in general, every creative commencement rules all the developments of succeeding times; so we might expect with certainty a whole crop of fertile germs for after ages from that unique

period of redemption, and from the greatest of all the prophets. Besides, the writers in later times retain each his own peculiar excellences. David is a greater master of lyric song, and Isaiah of the prophetic word; but we should have had neither David nor Isaiah without the Law of Moses."

§ 6. Development of the Hebrew Literature after Moses till the time of David.

It was through Moses that the Lord chose Israel, and constituted them the people of God; and through the Law and the pattern of Moses their literature received a character corresponding with their destiny. The Hebrew literature became a sacred literature, close alongside of which a worldly literature could not spring up and flourish. After the time of Moses the first steps were, in one direction, the continuation of historical notes of the more weighty occurrences; in another, the further cultivation of poetry.

The age of Joshua, in which, by the mighty aid of their covenant God, the people conquered and inherited the land promised to the patriarchs, immediately afforded abundant materials for historical composition, which lie before us wrought up in the book of Joshua. In the following period, that of the Judges, with its alternations of hostile oppression and glorious deliverance, the theocratic life fell gradually away, and along with the life the culture; so that, in the interval between the death of Joshua and Samuel's time, we can expect only private descriptions of the glorious victories of individual judges, and of other memorable events in the national or the family life. It was first under Samuel that theocratic literature, along with the entire theocratic life, was re-awakened and revived. His "schools of the prophets" became nurseries for producing and cherishing a living theocratic sentiment, and in a variety of ways promoted the cultivation of sacred literature. And though the greater part of the prophets after Samuel may not have proceeded from these schools, since the gift of the Divine Spirit was not restricted to them; still the schools diffused among the people the susceptibility for receiving this Spirit, and contributed not a little to make it possible that an uninterrupted succession of prophets should arise from that time forward. But the prophets, as divinely constituted watchmen of the

Law, and as the men who announced the purposes of Jehovah, did not only influence mightily the continued education of this divine commonwealth by the force of the Word; they also followed, with the glance of seers, the whole proceedings of the people and their rulers, and took care not merely to transmit faithfully the memorable revelations made to them, but also, in general, to have the history of their time rightly comprehended and recorded (1).

After the exalted strains of poetry to which Moses and his contemporaries gave utterance, there is evidence in the highly poetical triumphal song of Deborah (Judg. v.) that it flourished nobly in the restless times of the Judges, and that it still re-echoed under Eli in pious Hannah's song of praise (1 Sam. ii.) (2). Yet it reached the highest pitch of cultivation (3) by means of the richly endowed poetical spirit of David. For, both as a simple shepherd and as a mighty king, he consecrated to sacred poetry the entire force of his profound mind, which had been educated for greatness in the school of affliction; and the multitude of his songs, and the introduction of them into public worship, secured the triumph of sacred lyrics over all other forms of poetry among the people, and incited the most gifted of his contemporaries, such as Asaph and several of the sons of Korah, to emulate him in sacred song (4).

(1) The references in 1 Chron. xxix. 29 make it clear that prophets wrote the history of David. We may assume the same of Saul's administration. Also our book of Judges gives the history of that period, as extracted from older contemporary records, in a prophetic spirit, and so wrought up by a prophet.

(2) These are not to be regarded as the only songs of this period. According to Josh. x. 13, 2 Sam. i. 18, there was a whole collection of songs in praise of theocratic heroes and saints,—a sort of book for the people, "The Book of Jashar," that is, "The Book of the Upright," or of men true to the theocracy: it was planned so early as under Joshua, and was continued down to the time of David. See Keil's Commentary on Joshua, p. 158; also Wolf, biblioth. Hebr. ii. 219 sqq., for the older views. Traces of popular poetry at other times occur in Jotham's parable (Judg. ix. 7 ff.), in Samson's riddles and songs (Judg. xiv. 14, xv. 16), and in the popular songs of triumph (Judg. xvi. 23 f.; 1 Sam. xviii. 6, 7).

(3) On the subject of the influence of the schools of the prophets

on the cultivation of sacred lyric poetry, compare Hengstb. p. 550 ff.; Häv. Einl. iii. p. 9.

(4) Compare Hengstb. p. 552 f.

§ 7. Progress of the Cultivation of Hebrew Literature under Solomon and the Kings until the Exile.

The theocracy unfolded its highest earthly glories under the peaceful rule of Solomon, and during this period poetry overspread the whole domain of intellectual life. Solomon himself was endowed with great wisdom and with a rich poetic spirit, and he surpassed his father as much in the abundance of his poetical productions as in his royal splendour (1). His lyrics, Ps. lxxii. and cxxvii., and his Song of Songs, whose contents are drawn entirely from his feelings, are distinguished from David's compositions by their completely rounded form, and by the great repose and objectivity of their attitude, which has risen to an elevation far above all striving and effort. Solomon accomplished more, however, in the domain of didactic poetry. His sayings leave everything of the sort which the Hebrew nation previously possessed so far behind, that his wisdom became proverbial. and his adages became a type and pattern for all future times. Yet this most flourishing period of their literature (from which proceeded also the book of Job, a noble didactic poem, indeed the most perfect in respect of both contents and form) did not continue long. Solomon in his old age allowed himself to be seduced from the Lord by the strong allurement of an earthly love for pomp and women (1 Kings xi.); and in like manner the people quickly sank more and more into sensuality, idolatry, and image-worship. This decay of the theocratic life, which threw the powerful and flourishing kingdom into disorder, and after Solomon's death led to the rending of the one people into two hostile, mutually injurious kingdoms, was attended with another consequence—namely, the decay of sacred poetry. And thus, during the subsistence of the separated kingdoms, it was only in times of great religious awakening, when the people for the moment returned to the Lord, as under Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah, that individual singers with renewed force praised God, and sounded out His glorious deeds in Israel; and at a later time, that of the catastrophe in which the Chaldeans were the agents, they expressed in melancholy lamenta