viii, 22; x, 27; xiii, 23; xiv, 7; xvi, 6 ; xvii, 23, 34, 41 ; xxiii, 25. It is remarkable, however, that in no instance does the use of this phrase lead us to suppose that it was penned after the destruction of the Temple : in sev- eral of the above instances the phrase necessarily sup- poses that the Temple and the kingdom of Judah were still standing. If the phrase, then, is the compiler's, it proves him to have written before the Babylonian cap- tivity; if it was a part of the chronicle he was quoting, it shows how exactly he transferred its contents bo his own pages.
IX. A ulhor and Date. — The authorship and age of this historical treatise may admit of several supposi- tions. AVhatever were the original sources, the books are evidently the composition of one writer. The style is generally uniform throughout (Dr.Davidson, in IIorne''s Infrod., new edit,, ii, 666 sq.). The same forms of ex- pression are used to denote the same thing, e. g. the male sex (1 Ivings xiv, 10, etc.) ; the death of a king (1 Kings xi, 43, etc.); modes of allusion to the law (livings xi, 13) ; fidelity to Jehovah (1 Kings viii, 63, etc.; see De AVette, Einleit. § 184, « ; Hilveniick, Einleit. § 171). Similar idioms are ever recurring, so as to produce a uni- formity of style (Hiivernick, /. c). See § ii, above.
1. With regard to the time when the author lived and wrote there are the following arguments :
(1.) The stj'le and diction indicate the later age of the Hebrew language, but not the latest. Attempts to prove a more modern date than the middle of the cap- ti\-ity have signally failed. Nearly all the words which De Wette and others have selected (see § v, above) are shown to have been in use, either by the prophets who flourished before the captivity and at its commence- ment, or by still earlier writers; but words and phrases abound which were in common use by the writers of the concluding period of the kingdom of Judah. who did not go into captivity, especially by Isaiah and Jereusiah, In this respect there is a manifest difference liftween Kings and Chronicles. Though neither work is free from Chaldaic forms, they are rare in Kings, hut numer- ous in Chronicles. Their occurrence at all in Kings is sufficiently accounted for from the contiguity of Judah to Syria, and from the frequent intercourse with Assyria which commerce and war involved.
(2.) With the evidence which the language affords, the internal evidence of the contents agrees. The his- tory is carried down to the captivity in detail ; and, by way of supplement, to the reign of Evil-merodach, king of Babylon. The closing verse implies that the ^%Titer survived Jehoiachin, but gives no hint whatever of the termination of the captivity, which he surely would have done had he written after the return from Baliylon. We may therefore safely conclude that the work was composed before the end of the captivity, but after the twenty-sixth year of its continuance.
2. Calmet ascribes the authorship to Ezra; but there are no decided indications of his authorship, and the names Zif and Bui (1 Kings vi, 1, 37, 38) were not in use after the captivity. The general opinion, however, that Jeremiah was the author is adopted by Grotius, Carp- zov, and others, and is lately revindicated b^' Hiivcr- nick, as also by Graf {De lihror. Sam. et Reriiim composi- tione, p. 61 sq.), but is opposed by Kell, Davidson, and others. In fiivor of it are the following strong argu- ments ;
(1.) The work is attributed to Jeremiah by ancient tradition. There is a reference to Jeremiah as the au- thor in the Talmud (L'aba Jlathra. fol. 15, 1), and with this notice the common opinion of the Jews agrees.
(2.) The style and language of Kings resemble those of the acknowledged writings of Jeremiah. In both works there is an unusual number of ii—aE ^eyi'i^uva; and also of words peculiar to each work, though used more than once. What is still more to the purpose, there are words and forms of words used in both Avorks, but in them only; as, p^rjra, a -cruse" (1 Ivings xiv,
KINGS
98
KINGS
3, aiul Jer. xix, 1, 10) ; S;."^, a '■ husbandman" (2 Kings XXV, 12 ; Jer, lii, IG ; and C^Sa^ Jer. xxxix, 10) ; nnn, to "hide," used in Niphal only in Kings (1 Kings xxii, 25; 2 Kings vii, 12) and in Jeremiah (xlix, 10) ; "i^:^\ to "blind," used in the sense of putting out the eyes only in 2 Kings xxv, 7, and Jer, xxxix, 7, and lii, 11, etc. See § V, above.
(;5.) The habit of referring to the Pentateuch, pointed out as cliaracteristic of the books of Kings, is equally so of Jeremiah ; and this habit in both is thought to be accounted for on the ground of the discovered copy of the la^v in the days of Josiah, in whicli Jeremiah took great interest, traces of which are discoverable in Jer. xi, 3-5 (Dent, xxvii, 2G); xxxii, 18-21 (Exud. xx, G; vi, G) ; xxxiv, 14 (Deut. xv, 12). The same general spirit of solemnity, the same modes of thought and il- lustration, and the same political principles, are thought to mark the two works.