"Israol," have occupied the previous seven chapters ( i.e. eh. ii. I-viii. 40). And tho authority cited appears, both in our Authorized Version and in our Hebrew text, as" The Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah." But, as will be seen under the passage, the Masoretic pointing will give us rather, " The Book of the Kings of Israel " as the title intended by the compiler. First, then, we observe either that this authority must, in fact, cover aho the contents of eh. i., or that we have no distinct statement as to the originals of that most interesting chapter. On these, therefore, we are left. to speculate for ourselves. Now, the resemblance between it and what we have in Genesis in pari materia, is in substance and in order, though certainly not always in form, so close and almost identical, that we might be content, if it were necessary, simply to take for granted that the Book of Genesis and others of the earlier books of the Old Testament were, so far as they went, the sufficient though unacknowledged originals. However, inasmuch as we find about a similar amount and closeness of resemblance to Genesis and the other earlier books of the Old Testament in other portions (as, for instance, in eh. ii.) of our genealogies, such as do come strictly within the limits of genealogies of Israel, and which, therefore, are covered by the authority now in question, it is at least possible that this latter may by this time have incorporated the e,arliest materials of all, and so far forth have been an example, which the compiler of Chronicles now follows. Up to this point, then, whatever other authorities may possibly have been put under contribution by the compiler (and evidently not a few of the most ancient documents and memoranda were among them), all that he him- self answers for is what is described as "The Book of the Kings of Israel." Secondly, we may ask, what is known respecting this authority? Wbat is it that is here intended by " The Book of the Kings of Israel" ? This exact title, then, is found not at all in Kings, where, however, we do find above thirty times either the title, " The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah," or "The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel." It is fo=d in three places only in Chronicles, and under remarkable conditions in each instance. The first depends upon the Masoretic reading, as explained above (eh. ix. 1). The third shows the word 1J:;l:T, in place of the familiar i~i;;, (2 Ohron. xxxiii. 18). And farther, inasmuch as Manasseh, a King of J1,dah, is the person there in question, and inasmuch as the separate kingdom of Israel had collapsed now some eighty years, it can scarcely be that the title stands for a separato work of the kings of Israel as distinct from those of Judah. The second of the three passages (2 Chron. x.x. 34) is doubly remarkable. Although Jehoshaphat, whose memoir is being spoken of, and his biographer, Jehu the prophet, the son of Hanani, are both of Judah, yet this latter prophesied principally to Israel ; his writings, therefore, might have found their way possibly into a work that belonged distinctively to Israel, and, in fact, to say this may be the purport of the somewhat obscure last sentence of ver. 34. Three passages of this kind can sca.1·cely be sufficient upon which to base the theory of the viii INTRODUCTION TO
exist,ence of a separat,e work entitled, " The Book of the Kings of Israel," distinct from a work, for instance, so often quoted in Kings as "The Book oft.be Chronicles of the Kings of Israel." Meanwhile we have reference made four times in Chronicles to "The Book of the Kings of Judah nud Israel," and three times to "The Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah." A careful examination of these seven occasions, and comparison of them with their parallel passages in Kings (2 Chron. xvi. 11 with 1 Kings xv. 23; 2 Chron. x.xv. 26 with 2 Kings xiv. 18; 2 Chron. x:xvii. 7 with 2 Kings xv. 36 ; 2 Chron. xxviii. 26 with 2 Kings xvi. 19 ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 32 with 2 Kings xx-. 20; 2 Chron. xxxv. 27 with 2 Kings xxiii. 28; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 8 with 2 Kings xxiv. 5), show that all the cases in question are of kings of Judah, and that the authority cited in the parallel passages in Kings is always " The Books of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah." These facts give strong countenance to the positions, (1) that it is the same authority substantially v.- hich is q noted, whether in Chronicles or Kings ; and (2) that at the time of the compilation of Chronicles, the two divisional works mentioned so often in Kings had come to be quoted as one, with a somewhat abbreviated title, of which it was not absolutely material whether it were quoted as "The Books of the Kings of J ndah and Israel " or as " The Books of the Kings of Israel and Judah." In this last way it certainly is quoted three times, even when it is a King of Judah to whom reference is being made (2 Chron. xxvii. 7; xxxv. 27; xxxvi. 8). This work must have been a full repertory of historical and biographical facts ; for it is referred to not only as an authority, but repeatedly as the authority in which all minntire may be found of " acts," "wars," and "ways" (2 Chron. xxvii. 7). Also that it was not coincident with any of our existing historical books is very clear from the fact that these latter are again and again found not to contain the very matters to which attention is directed (2 Chron. xxiv. 7; x.xvii. 7; xxxiii. 18, 19). 2. The second distinct allusion to authorities from which the compiler bas drawn materials is found in our eh. xx.ix. 29. That no intermediate reference has occurred is easily explained. Ch. ix. was more a matter of the compiler's own hand, taken from comparatively recent and comparatively known documents. The matter of the short eh. x. will have been included in the authorities now quoted, as well as in the previously cited authority. But all the rest np to the present point is what clusters round the name of David. For this stretch of subject, then, the authorities used are now quoted as" The Acts, or History [Authorized Version, 'book'], of Samuel the Seer," "of Nathan the Prophet," "of Gad the Seer." To these may be added an incidental allusion to a work evidently known by the compiler, viz." The Chronicles of King David" (eh. x.xvii. 24). Little or nothing else is known of these specific works, except what may be gathered from their names and conjectured from the nature of the case. Yet the contrariety of opinion as to what they were is considerable. Some are very strongly of opinion that these are not histories written by Samuel, Nathan, and Gad TUE Fil:ST DOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. ix