PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The First Book of Kings
Farrar, F. W. (Frederic William) · 144,384 words · 209 reading sections
Fifth Series, 1891-2.
_Editor of "The Expositor"_ =London= _Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d. each vol._ Colossians. By A. MACLAREN, D.D. St. Mark. By Very Rev. the Dean of Armagh. Genesis. By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D. 1 Samuel. By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D. 2 Samuel. By the Same Author. Hebrews. By Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D. G…
292 wordsSECTION 2Chapter Xxvi.
1 Kings. By Ven. Archdeacon FARRAR. Philippians. By Principal RAINY, D.D. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther. By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A. Joshua. By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D. Daniel. By Prof. FULLER, M.A. The Psalms. By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. II. THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; ARCH…
259 wordsSECTION 3Authorities Consulted.
JEROBOAM, AND THE MAN OF GOD 296 1 KINGS xiii. 1-34. DOOM OF THE HOUSE OF NEBAT 302 1 KINGS xiv. 1-20. NADAB; BAASHA; ELAH. B.C. 915-889 309 1 KINGS xv. 25; xvi. 10. THE EARLIER KINGS OF JUDAH. B.C. 937-851 313 1 KINGS xiv. 21-31; xv. 1-24. JEHOSHAPHAT. B.C. 876-851 327 1 KINGS xxii. 41-50. THE KINGS OF ISRAE…
591 wordsSECTION 4_The Higher Criticism._
"Ich bin überzeugt, dass die Bibel immer schöner wird, je mehr man sie versteht, d.h. je mehr man einsieht und anschaut, dass jedes Wort, das wir allgemein auffassen und in Besondern auf uns anwenden, nach gewissen Umständen, nach Zeit- und Orts-verhältnissen einen, eigenen, besondern, unmittelbar individuellen Be…
870 wordsSECTION 5_The Higher Criticism._
There are hundreds of texts in Scripture which may convey to some souls a very true and blessed meaning, but which do not in the original possess any such meaning as that which is now attached to them. The words of Hebrew prophets often seem perfectly clear, but in some cases they had another set of connotations in the…
715 wordsSECTION 6_The Higher Criticism._
It is probable that no age since that of the Apostles has added so much to our knowledge of the true meaning and history of the Bible as has been added by our own. The mode of regarding Scripture has been almost revolutionised, and in consequence many books of Scripture previously misunderstood have acquired a reality …
840 wordsSECTION 7_The Higher Criticism._
No doubt it is with a sensation of pain that we are compelled to give up convictions which we once regarded as indubitable and sacred. That is a part of our human nature. We must say with all gentleness to the passionate devotees of each old erroneous _mumpsimus_-- "Disce; sed ira cadat naso rugosaque sanna Cum veter…
680 wordsSECTION 8_The Books Of Kings._
[1] "Scriptura est sensus Scripturæ."--St. Augustine. [2] For a decisive proof of these statements I refer to my Bampton Lectures on the _History of Interpretation_ (Macmillan, 1890). [3] Bacon. The "Two Books of Kings," as we call them, are only one book (Sepher Melakîm), and were so regarded not only in the days o…
666 wordsSECTION 9_The Books Of Kings._
2. Although no direct quotations are referred to other documents, it seems certain from the style, and from various minor touches, that the compiler also utilised detailed accounts of great prophets like Elijah, Elisha, and Micaiah son of Imlah, which had been drawn up by literary students in the Schools of the Prophet…
718 wordsSECTION 10_The Books Of Kings._
This date of the book--which cannot but have some bearing on its historic value--is admitted by all, since the peculiarities of the language from the beginning to the end are marked by the usages of later Hebrew.[15] The chronicler lived some two centuries later "in about the same chronological relation to David as Pro…
953 wordsSECTION 11_The Books Of Kings._
vii. It must not be imagined that the late compilation of the book, or its subsequent recensions, or the dogmatic colouring which it may have insensibly derived from the religious systems and organisations of days subsequent to the Exile, have in the least affected the main historic veracity of the kingly annals. They …
650 wordsSECTION 12_The Books Of Kings._
A further and serious difficulty in the reproduction of events in their historic exactitude is introduced by the certainty that many books of the Bible, in their present form, represent the results arrived at after their recension by successive editors, some of whom lived many centuries after the events recorded. In th…
595 wordsSECTION 13Footnotes:
[4] How closely these documents are transcribed is shown by the recurrence of "_unto this day_," though the phrase had long ceased to be true when the book appeared. [5] It is inferred from 1 Kings viii. 12, 13, which have a poetic tinge, and to which the LXX. add "Behold they are written in the Book of the Song," tha…
702 wordsSECTION 14Footnotes:
[23] "In der Chronik," on the other hand, "ist es der Pentateuch, d.h. vor Allem der _Priestercodex_, nach dessen Muster die Geschichte des alten Israels dargestellt wird" (Wellhausen, _Prolegom._, p. 309). It has been said that the Book of Kings reflects the political and prophetic view, and the Book of Chronicles the…
608 wordsSECTION 15_The Historian Of The Kings._
"The hearts of kings are in Thy rule and governance, and Thou dost dispose and turn them as it _seemeth best_ to Thy godly wisdom." Were we to judge the compiler or epitomator of the Book of Kings from the literary standpoint of modern historians, he would, no doubt, hold a very inferior place; but so to judge him wo…
663 wordsSECTION 16_The Historian Of The Kings._
It belongs to the same essential view of history that the writer's attention is so largely occupied by the activity of the prophets, whose personality often looms far more largely on his imagination than that of the kings. If we were to remove from his pages all that he tells us of Nathan, Ahijah of Shiloh, Shemaiah, J…
852 wordsSECTION 17_The Historian Of The Kings._
It is this that makes him linger so lovingly on the glories of the reign of Solomon. At first they seem to inaugurate an era of overwhelming and permanent prosperity. Because Solomon was the heir of David whom God had chosen, his dominion is established without an effort in spite of a formidable conspiracy. Under his w…
793 wordsSECTION 18_God In History._
[35] _Speaker's Commentary_, ii. 477. [36] 1 Kings xiii. 1-32, xx. 13-15, 28, 35, 42; 2 Kings xxi. 10-15. [37] 2 Kings xvii. 7-23, 32, 41, xxiii. 26, 27. [38] רֹאשׁוֹנִים נְבִיאִים. The three greater and twelve minor prophets are called _prophetæ posteriores_ (אַחֲרוֹנִים). Daniel is classed among the Hagiographa (כ…
735 wordsSECTION 19_God In History._
2. The historian has been blamed for the perpetual gloom which enwraps his narrative. Surely the criticism is unjust. He did not invent his story. He is no whit more gloomy than Thucydides, who had to record how the brief gleam of Athenian glory sank in the Bay of Syracuse into a sea of blood. He is not half so gloomy …
667 wordsSECTION 20_God In History._
"The voice of the afflicted is rising to the sun, The thousands who have perished for the selfishness of one; The judgment-seat polluted, the altar overthrown, The sighing of the exile, the tortured captive's groan, The many crushed and plundered to gratify the few, The hounds of hate pursuing the noble and the tr…
725 wordsSECTION 21_History With A Purpose._
[44] 2 Kings xx. 16-18, xxii. 16-20. [45] Isa. xxx. 16. [46] _Queen of the Air_, p. 87. [47] Tac., _Hist._, 1, 2: "Opus aggredior opimum casibus, atrox prœliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace sævum." "History, as distinguished from chronicles or annals, must always contain a theory whether confessed by the …
674 wordsSECTION 22_Lessons Of The History._
"Though the mills of God grind slowly, Yet they grind exceeding small;" and that, alike for Trojans and Danaans, the chariot-wheels of Heaven roll onward to their destined goal. Such words express a belief in the hearts of pagans identical with that in the hearts of the early disciples when they exclaimed: "Of a tru…
664 wordsSECTION 23_Lessons Of The History._
But though the thoughtful Israelite had no such glorious spectacle as this before him, he saw something analogous to it. The prophets had been careful to point out that no merit or superiority of its own had caused the people to be chosen by God from among the nations for the mighty functions for which it was destined,…
782 wordsSECTION 24_Lessons Of The History._
The historian who, six hundred years before Christ, saw so clearly, and illustrated with such striking conciseness, the laws of God's moral governance of the world stands far above the casual censure of those who judge him by a mistaken standard. We owe him a debt of the deepest gratitude, not only because he has prese…
797 wordsSECTION 25_David'S Decrepitude._
[51] 1 Cor. i. 26-28. [52] _Id._, v. 25. [53] Deut. xxvi. 5. [54] Isa. xxxviii. 17 (Heb.). [55] See Stade, i. 1-8. 1 KINGS i. 1-4. "Praise a fair day at night." The old age of good men is often a beautiful spectacle. They show us the example of a mellower wisdom, a larger tolerance, a sweeter temper, a more unse…
739 wordsSECTION 26_David'S Decrepitude._
"His face Deep scars of thunder had entrenched, and care Sat on his faded cheek." The Nemesis of sin's normal consequences pursued him to the end. Dark spirits walked in his house. Joab knew his guilty secrets, and Joab became the tyrannous master of his destiny. Those guilty secrets leaked out, and he lost his char…
830 wordsSECTION 27_David'S Decrepitude._
The people must have felt how deep was the debt of gratitude which they owed to him. He had given them a consciousness of power yet undeveloped; a sense of the unity of their national life perpetuated by the possession of a capital which has been famous to all succeeding ages. To David the nation owed the conquest of t…
782 wordsSECTION 28Footnotes:
It is an oft-repeated story. Even so we see great Darius "Deserted at his utmost need By those his former bounty fed; On the bare ground exposed he lies Without a friend to close his eyes." So we see glorious Alexander the Great, dying as a fool dieth, remorseful, drunken, disappointed, at Babylon. So we see our g…
318 wordsSECTION 29_An Eastern Court And Home._
1 KINGS i. "Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness."--EZEK. xvi. 49. A man does not choose his own destiny; it is ordained for higher ends than his own personal happiness. If David could have made his choice, he might, indeed, have been dazzled by the glittering lure of royalty; yet he would have been in…
660 wordsSECTION 30_An Eastern Court And Home._
"Ope not the mouth to me, nor cry amain As at the footstool of a man of the East, Prone on the ground: so stoop not thou to me;" or, as another has more literally rendered it:-- "Nor like some barbarous man Gape thou upon me an earth-grovelling howl."[64] But the royal position of David brought with it a surer cu…
752 wordsSECTION 31_An Eastern Court And Home._
The consequences which followed had been frightful beyond precedent. David must have learnt by experience the truth of the exhortation, "Desire not a multitude of unprofitable children, neither delight in ungodly sons. Though they multiply, rejoice not in them, except the fear of the Lord be with them: for one that is …
851 wordsSECTION 32_An Eastern Court And Home._
For the favour of his weakly-fond father he cared little; what he wanted was the throne. His proud beauty, his royal descent on both sides, fired his ambition. Eastern peoples are always ready to concede pre-eminence to splendid men. This had helped to win the kingdom for stately Saul and ruddy David; for the Jews, lik…
397 wordsSECTION 33Footnotes:
[63] The same word is rendered "worship" in Psalm xlv. 11. Comp. 2 Sam. ix. 6; Esth. iii. 2-5. In 1 Chron. xxix. 20 we are told that the people "_worshipped_" the Lord and the king. [64] "Μηδὲ βαρβάρου φωτὸς δίκην Χαμαιπετὲς βόαμα προσχανῇς ἐμοί." Æsch., _Agam._, 887. [65] Ecclus. xvi. 1-3. He must have had at lea…
351 wordsSECTION 34_Adonijah'S Rebellion._
1 KINGS i. 5-53. "The king's word hath power; and who may say unto him, What doest thou?"--ECCLES. viii. 4. The fate of Amnon and of Absalom might have warned the son who was now the eldest, and who had succeeded to their claims. Adonijah was the son of Haggith, "the dancer." His father had piously given him the na…
688 wordsSECTION 35_Adonijah'S Rebellion._
The secret of his destiny was probably known to few, though it was evidently suspected by Adonijah. To have proclaimed it in a crowded harem would have been to expose the child to the perils of poison, and to have doomed him to certain death if one of his unruly brothers succeeded in seizing the royal authority. The oa…
815 wordsSECTION 36_Adonijah'S Rebellion._
Benaiah was one of David's twelve chosen captains, who was placed at the head of one of the monthly courses of 24,000 soldiers in the third month. The chronicler calls him a priest.[90] His available forces made him master of the situation, and he joyfully accepted the commission with, "Amen! So may Jehovah say!" and w…
740 wordsSECTION 37_Adonijah'S Rebellion._
This intelligence fell like a thunderbolt among Adonijah's unprepared adherents. A general flight took place, each man being only eager to save himself. The straw fire of their enthusiasm had already flared itself away. Deserted by every one, and fearing to pay the forfeit of his life, Adonijah fled to the nearest sanc…
490 wordsSECTION 38Footnotes:
[74] Morier tells us that in Persia "runners" before the king's horses are an indispensable adjunct of his state. [75] The Stone of Zoheleth, probably a sacred stone--one of the numerous isolated rocks of Palestine; is not mentioned elsewhere. The Fuller's Fountain is mentioned in Josh. xv. 7, xviii. 16; 2 Sam. xvii. …
696 wordsSECTION 39Footnotes:
[92] 2 Sam. xxiii. 8-39; 1 Chron. xi. 10-47; 1 Kings i. 8. The Gibborim are by some supposed to be a different body from the Krêthi and Plêthi (2 Sam. xv. 18, xx. 7); but from 1 Kings i. 8, 10, 38 they seem to be the same (Stade, i. 275). The thirty heroes at their head furnish, as Renan says, the first germ of a sort …
375 wordsSECTION 40_David'S Death-Bed._
1 KINGS ii. 1-11. "Omnibus idem exitus est, sed et idem domicilium."--PETRON., _Satyr._ In the Book of Samuel we have the last words of David in the form of a brief and vivid psalm, of which the leading principle is, "He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." A king's justice must be shown al…
950 wordsSECTION 41_David'S Death-Bed._
Doubtless in slaying Absalom, in spite of the king's entreaty, Joab had inflicted an agonising wound on the pride and tenderness of his master. But Absalom was in open rebellion, and Joab may have held that David's probable pardon of the beautiful rebel would be both weak and fatal. This death was inflicted in a manner…
823 wordsSECTION 42_David'S Death-Bed._
How are we to deal with sins which are recorded of God's olden saints on the sacred page, and recorded without a word of blame? Clearly we must avoid two errors--the one of injustice, the other of dishonesty. 1. On the one hand, as we have said, we must not judge Abraham, or Jacob, or Gideon, or Jael, or David, as th…
824 wordsSECTION 43Footnotes:
David was buried in his own city--the stronghold of Zion; and his sepulchre--on the south part of Ophel, near the pool of Siloam--was still pointed out a thousand years later in the days of Christ.[119] As a poet who had given to the people splendid specimens of lyric songs; as a warrior who had inspired their youth wi…
553 wordsSECTION 44_Avenging Justice._
1 KINGS ii. 13-46. "The wrath of a king is as messengers of death."--PROV. xvi. 14. The reign of Solomon began with a threefold deed of blood. An Eastern king, surrounded by the many princes of a polygamous family, and liable to endless jealousies and plots, is always in a condition of unstable equilibrium; the _deat…
697 wordsSECTION 45_Avenging Justice._
Alarmed at his visit she asked, "Comest thou peaceably?" He came, he humbly assured her, to ask a favour. Might she not think of his case with a little pity? He was the elder son; the kingdom by right of primogeniture was his; all Israel, so he flattered himself, had wished for his accession. But it had all been in vai…
1,037 wordsSECTION 46_Avenging Justice._
The doom fell next on the arch-offender Joab, the white-haired hero of a hundred fights, "the Douglas of the House of David." He had, if the reading of the ancient versions be correct, "turned after Adonijah, and _had not turned after Solomon_." Solomon could hardly have felt at ease when a general so powerful and so p…
799 wordsSECTION 47_Avenging Justice._
Solomon perhaps conceived himself to be only acting up to the true kingly ideal. "A king that sitteth on the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes." "A wise king scattereth the wicked, and bringeth the wheel over them." "An evil man seeketh only rebellion; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent a…
789 wordsSECTION 48_Avenging Justice._
But whether this legend about Phinehas be tenable or not, it is certain that the House of Ithamar fell into deadly disrepute and abject misery. In this the people saw the fulfilment of an old traditional curse, pronounced by some unknown "man of God" on the House of Eli, that there should be no old man in his house for…
489 wordsSECTION 49Footnotes:
[120] These events--like almost everything derogatory to David and Solomon--are omitted by the chronicler. [121] Luke iii. 31. Salathiel, son of Neri (Luke iii. 27), of Nathan's house, was probably adopted by Jeconiah, who was childless; or if he had a son Assir (captive), the son had died. 1 Chron. iii. 17; Isa. xxii…
656 wordsSECTION 50_The Boy-King'S Wisdom._
[146] Num. xxv. 13. [147] 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6; 2 Kings xxi. 6. "His children." [148] 2 Chron. xxviii. 3; 2 Kings xvi. 3. "His son." [149] 1 Sam. ii. 27-36. For eight centuries there was no other instance of a high priest's deposition. [150] Isa. iii. 10. 1 KINGS iii. 1-28. "An oracle is upon the lips of a king."--…
654 wordsSECTION 51_The Boy-King'S Wisdom._
The Jews recognised three modes of Divine communication--by dreams; by Urim, and by prophets. The highest and most immediate illumination was the prophetic. The revelation by means of the primitive Urim and Thummin, the oracle and jewelled breastplate of the high priest, was the poorest, the most elementary, the most l…
773 wordsSECTION 52_The Boy-King'S Wisdom._
"And Solomon awoke, and behold it was a dream." But he knew well that it was also more than a dream, and that "God giveth to His beloved even sleeping."[167] In reverential gratitude he offered a second sacrifice of burnt offerings before the ark on Mount Zion, and added to them peace offerings, with which he made a g…
728 wordsSECTION 53_The Boy-King'S Wisdom._
Modern critics, wise after the event, express themselves very slightingly of the amount of intelligence required for the decision; but the people saw the value of the presence of mind and rapid intuition which settled the question by bringing an individual dilemma under the immediate arbitrament of a general law. They …
698 wordsSECTION 54_The Boy-King'S Wisdom._
3. Far more precious than practical or intellectual ability is the gift of _moral_ wisdom, which Solomon so greatly appreciated but so imperfectly attained. Yet he felt that "wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom." The world gives that name to many higher and lower manifestations of capacity and attainmen…
692 wordsSECTION 55Footnotes:
[151] See 1 Sam. xxi. 6, compared with 1 Chron. xvi. 39, 40; 2 Chron. i. 3. [152] An old Hivite capital (Josh. xviii. 21-25), now El Jib. Josephus alters it to "Hebron." [153] See 1 Chron. xvi. 39, 40, xxi. 29; 2 Chron. i. 3. The annals of Solomon fall into three divisions: first, his secure establishment upon the th…
660 wordsSECTION 56_Solomon'S Court And Kingdom._
[182] "Sons of Mahol" (comp. Eccles. xii. 4). [183] Psalms lxxii., cxxvii. The so-called "Psalms of Solomon," fifteen in number, are of the Maccabean age; Josephus calls his songs βίβλια περὶ ὠδῶν καὶ μελῶν, and his proverbs βίβλους παραβολῶν καὶ εἰκόνων. [184] See Euseb., _Præp. Evang._, ix. 34, § 19. [185] Prov. x…
822 wordsSECTION 57_Solomon'S Court And Kingdom._
It has been a matter of dispute among the Rabbis whether Solomon was commendable or blameworthy for contracting this foreign alliance. If we judge him simply from the secular standpoint, nothing could be more obviously politic than the course he took. Nor did he break any law in marrying Pharaoh's daughter. Moses had n…
858 wordsSECTION 58_Solomon'S Court And Kingdom._
The chief points of interest presented by the list are these:-- 1. First we mark the absence of any prophet. Neither Nathan nor Gad is even mentioned. The pure ray of Divine illumination is overpowered by the glitter of material prosperity. 2. Secondly, the priests are quite subordinate. They are only mentioned fifth…
731 wordsSECTION 59_Solomon'S Court And Kingdom._
7. Last on the list stands the minister who has the ominous title of _al-ham-Mas_, or "over the tribute." The Mas means the "levy," corvée, or forced labour. In other words, Adoram was overseer of the soccagers. Saul had required an overseer of the flocks, and David a guardian of the treasury, but Adoram is not mention…
746 wordsSECTION 60_Solomon'S Court And Kingdom._
"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay!" * * * * * It is impossible to overlook the general drift of Jewish royalty towards pure materialism in the days of Solomon. We search in vain for the lofty spirituality which survived even in the rough epoch of the Judges and the…
445 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.