(3.) What was likely to be the influence of the prophet to whose care the education of Solomon was confided? (Heb. of 2 Sam. xii, 25). We know, beyond all doubt, that he could speak bold and faithful words when they were needed (2 Sam. vii, 1-17; xii, 1-14). But this power, belonging to moments or messages of special in- spiration, does not involve the permanent possession of a clear-sighted wisdom or of aims uniformly high, and we in vain search the later years of David's reign for any proof of Nathan's activity for good. He gives him- self to the work of writing the annals of David's reign (1 Chron. xxix, 29). He places his own sons in the way of being the companions and counsellors of the fut- ure king ( 1 Kings iv, 5 ). The absence of his name from the history of the " numbering," and the fact that the census was followed early in the reign of Solomon by heavy burdens and a forced service, almost lead us to the conclusion that the propliet had acquiesced in a measure which had in view the magnificence of the Temple, and that it was left to David's own heart, re- turning to its better impulses (2 Sam. xxiv, 10), and to an older and less courtly prophet, to protest against an act which began in pride and tended to oppression. Jo-
sephus, with his usual inaccuracy, substitutes Nathan for Gad in his narrative (Ant. vii, 13, 2).
3. Under these influences the boy grew up. At the age of ten or eleven he must have passed through the revolt of Absalom and shared his father's exile (2 Sam. XV, 16). He would be taught all that priests or Levites or prophets had to teach ; music and song; the book of the law of the Lord in such portions and in such forms as were then current; the "proverbs of the ancients," which his father had been wont to quote (1 Sam. xxiv, 13) ; probably also a literature which has survived only in fragments; the book of Jasher, the upright ones, the heroes of the people ; the book of the wars of the Lord ; the wisdom, oral or written, of the sages of his own tribe, Heman, and Ethan, and Calcol, and Darda (1 Chron. ii, 0), who contributed so largely to the noble hymns of this period (Psa.lxxxviii. Ixxxix), and proba- bly were incorporated into the choir of the tabernacle (Kwald, Gesch. Is?: iii, 855). The growing intercourse of Israel with the Phoenicians would naturally lead to a wider knowledge of the outlying world and its wonders than had fallen to his father's lot. Admirable, however, as all this was, a shepherd -life, like his father's, fur- nished, we may believe, a better education for the king- ly calling (Psa. Ixxviii, 70, 71). Born to the purple, there was the inevitable risk of a selfish luxury. Cradled in liturgies, trained to think cliiefly of the magnificent "palace" of Jehovah (1 Chron. xxix, 19) of which he was to be the builder, there was the danger first of an aesthetic forrnalism and then of idtimate indifference.
III. Accession. — 1. The feebleness of David's old age led to an attempt which might have deprived Solomon of the throne his father destined for him. Adonijah, next in order of birth to Absalom, like Absalom, "was a goodly man" (1 Kings i, 6), in full maturity of years, backed by the oldest of the king's friends and counsel- lors, Joab and Abiathar, and by all the sons of David, who looked with jealousy — the latter on the obvious though not as yet declared preference of the latest-born, and the former on the growing influence of the rival counsellors who were most in the king's favor, Nathan, Zadok, and Benaiah. Following in the steps of Absa- lom, he assumed the kingly state of a chariot and a body-guard; and David, more passive than ever, looked on in silence. At last a time was chosen for openly proclaiming him as king. A solemn feast at En-rogel was to inaugurate the new reign. All were invited to it but those whom it was intended to displace. It was necessary for those whose interests were endangered, backed ay)parently by two of David's surviving elder brothers (I Chron. ii, 13, 14; Ewald, Gesch. Isi: iii, 2G()), to take prompt measures. Bathsheba and Nathan took counsel together. The king was reminded of his oath. A virtual abdication was pressed upon him as the only means by which the succession of his favorite son could be secured. The whole thing was completed with won- derful rapidity. Riding on the mule well known as be- longing to the king, attended by Nathan the prophet and Zadok the priest, and, more important still, by the king's special company of the thirty ( J ibborim, or mighty men (1 Kings i, 10, 33), and the body-guard of the Che- rethites and Pelethites (mercenaries, and therefore not liable to the contagion of popular feeling) under the command of Benaiah (himself, like Natiiau and Zadok, of the sons of Aaron), he went down to Cihon and was proclaimed and anointed king. (According to later Jewish teaching, a king was not anointed when he suc- ceeded to his father, except in the case of a previous usurpation or a disputed succession [Otho, Lex. Rabbin. s. v. "Kex"].) The shouts of his followers fell on the startled ears of the guests at Adonijali's banquet. Hap- pily they were as yet committed to no overt act, and they did not venture on one now. One by one they rose and departed. The plot had failed. The counter coup d'etat of Nathan and Bathsheba had been success- ful. Such incidents are common enough in the history of Eastern monarchies. They are usually followed by