The Books of Samuel and Kings contain prayers which suggest the subject of the place of prayer. The ark denoted the local presence of God, and therefore the place of praj^er. So Hannah (1 S 1) and David (2 S 7) resort thither. But as sacrifice is oftered at ' high places,' prayer may be oB'ered there also. So Samuel at Jlizpah (1 S 7^^), and Solomon at Gibeon (1 K 3). When the temple is dedicated, it is as a house of prayer, if, notwith- standing its affinities to Deut., we may take 1 K 8 as in some degree representing the mind of the founder. If, however, the prayer belongs in form and spirit to another period, it is no less worthy of attention in two important respects. (1) At the dedication of the centre of a great sacrificial cultus, not a word is said in the prayer about the sacrifices, but only about prayer to be offered there, or 'toward' that 'place.' For prayer ' toward ' a place, cf. Ps 28-, Dn 6'° ; and, even for Islam, Jerusalem was at first the Kibla. The temple is the house of prayer in Is 56' : and it will be seen to have been so regarded in NT. (2) The other point to notice in Solomon's prayer is the apparent conflict of two conceptions — that of some local habitation of God therein, and that of the impossibility of limiting His presence. — We have also two prayers attributed to Hezekiah — the first in Is 37''"'-'°, offered in the temple, a prayer for God's glory in the spirit of Ps 115 ; the second (Is 38') a prayer for himself, recalling his rifjht- eousiiess in the spirit of Ps 26, yet none the less accepted.
V. The Exile and Return. — Ewald (Hist. Isr. {Eng. tr. ) v. 23) has justly emphasized the iniport- ance assumed by prayer in this period. There were two main causes for this. (1) The necessary cessation of .sacrifice after the destruction of the temple. This threw the burden of worshiji wholly on prayer. (2) A sense of abandonment by God, which produced earnestness in seeking for an ex-
planation of His dealings, and a return of Hie favour. The evidence in sujjport of Ewald's asser- tion is twofold — (a) the great prayers extant from this period ; (6) the personal hahits of individual* recorded in the narrative, (a) Great prayers ex- tant. First and greatest is Is 63'-64'-. The pro- phet comes forward and ' leads the devotions of the Church of the Exile.' The prayer is remark- able as appealing to the Fatherhood of God, 63" 64*. The other four are, Ezr 9'" chiefly con- fession ; Neh 1 ; Levites' prayer in Neh 9, iu the form of historical retrospect (cf. Ps 106); Daniel's confession, Dn 9. On these last four some general remarks may be made. Confession is prominent, acknowledgment of the sin of Israel and the righteousness of God. They are cast in the same model, and contain the same phrases. Fasting has become connected with prayer (cf. Zee 7'). The confession in these prayers is representative confession, e.g. Nehemiah (Neh 1*) takes the sins of Israel upon himself and confesses them as a whole. He is an intercessor, but he does not stand apart ; he regards himself as involved in the guilt. (b) Personal habiti of individuals. Ezra at the river Ahava (Ezr 8-'"^) relies on prayer for the safety of his expedition. As to Nehemiah, it is unnecessary to show in detail that constant
Erayer is the characteristic of his journal. It is is resource in difficulty and discouragement, and takes a distinctly personal character, ' remember me, 0 my God.' Again, Dn 6 is an illustration of how prayer to God had become a distinctive mark of the Jews in exile. In it the enemies of Daniel decide to find their opportunity, and on it base their attack. In this narrative (Dn 6'") we first find unmistakable mention of the hours of prayer as afterwards practised by the Jews, though perhaps Ps 55" may be taken to denote them. As is usually the case in ritual, an endeavour \\ as made to tin^ sanction for the three hours of praj-er in the earliest times, and Gn 19-'' 24^ 28" were referred to by the Jews for this purpose.
vi. The Prophets. — 'The Latter Prophets,' i.e. the prophetic writings, niaj- now be considered as a whole, and without reference to date, in order to see what special characteristics are to be attri- buted to the prayers of prophets. It has already been seen that the latter were intercessors in virtue of their calling. The ground of this was twofold. The prophet %\as an acceptal>le person ; but, fur- ther, he had the Spirit (e.g. Ezk 2-), and the pos- session of it enabled him not only to interpret the mind of God to man, but also the mind of man to God (cf. Ro 8=«). The proi>hct thus knew what the needs of the nation were, much better than the nation itself. Intercession in the OT is not generally the duty of the priest. For an excep- tion see Jl 2", Mai 1" ; and in Apocr. 1 Mac '^-^\ Avhen, of course, prophets had ceased to exist. Bej-ond this general intercessory function we may trace three special aspects of prayer in the ]iro- phetical writings, which may be illustrated almost exclusively from Jeremiah, (a) Personal prayer. In Jeremiah intermixed with and in reference to the difficulties and trials of his own mi-ssion {e.ci. Jer 20). (b) Seeking to know. It is by prayer (in part, at least) that the prophet obtains the bivine revelations, Jer 33' 42* (where ten days pass before the answer is reported), (c) Interreding to avert present or predicted evil. See Au\ 7 and Jer 14. 15. The latter passage is an important example. In ch. 14 we have — (1) intercession, vv.*''-' ; (2) answer forbidding intercession, "'"''' ; (3) renewed pleading in spite of prohibition ; (4) renewed Divine tliicatenings, '■'•"' ; (5) a wail fro u the prophet ending in fresh intercession, ""— . To this ag.ain comes an answer (15''") of final con- demnation ; but even this does not close the di*