to show that o. little store o.t e.ll events of wealth in this sort existed once. Nor is it o.bso1utely impossible that what has been lost may yet come to light. § 6. THE CONTENTS AND OBJECT OF THE WORK. 1. As regards the contents of Chronicles, they may, perhaps, be best divided into three parts. (1) Lists of genealogies, beginning from the very first, coming down to the tribes, and descending to different points in the history of these respectively (though neglecting Dan and Zebulon), to the time of the Captivity, and in some instances even later. With these genealogies are intermingled the ancient settlements of families and tribes and heads of houses, and a few brief but occasionally very significant touches of history. This portion occupies eh. i-vii. This is succeeded (after a brief statement of the Captivity and the Return) by (2) an imperfect skeleton sketch of the re-establishment in their ancient inheritances and settlements, and in some cases religions offices, of such families as returned, according to the houses of their fathers. This portion occupies only a part of one chapter, viz. eh. ix. 1-34. (3) The third portion extends from eh. ix. 35 right to the end of the work. It consists of a connected history of the kingdom of Judah, introduced very naturally (eh. ix. 35-44) by a repetition of that genealogical table which exhibited (eh. viii. 29-38) the name and pedigree of Saul. Passing lightly over Saul, it dwells at special length on the career and reign of David, thence throngh all his successors of the line of Judah to Zedekiah, to the time of the Capti-rity, and in effect, by virtue of its closing verses, to the dawn of the restored state. • One of the most interesting aspects under which to view the contents of this book is that which exhibits their relation to those of the works known as the Books of Samuel and Kings. The difference between the contents of these severally may be here noticed as a subject quite distinct from the question whether the compiler of Chronicles adopted direct from them those parts of his own work which are exactly similar to them-the negative reply to which question seems by far the more probable to us. The following is a. list, tabulated by Dr. Davidson, of the chief passages found in Chronicles and not found in Samuel or Kings, viz. :-Ch. xii.; :x:xii.; xxiii.-xxvi. ; xxvii.; xx:viii.; xx:ix.; 2 Chron. x:i. 5-23; xiii. 2-23; xiv. 8-14; xv. 1- 15; xvi. 7-10; xvii. ; xix.; xx. 1-30; xxi. 2-4, 11-19; xxiv. 15-22 ; xxv. 5-10, 14-16; xx:vi. 6-16; xxvii. 5, 6; xxx. 1-27; xxx:i. 2-21 ; xxxiii. 11-13. Side by side it may be convenient to place a list of the chief matters not found in Chronicles but found in Samuel or Kings, viz. :-2 Sam. i.-iv.; vi. 20-23; ix.; xi. 2-xii. 25; xiii.-xx.; xxi. 1-14, 15-17; xxii.; xxiii.; 1 Kings i.; ii. 1-9, 26-46; iii. 1, 16-28; iv.; vii. 1-12, 13-39; viii. 56-61; xi. 1-13, 14-40; 2 Kings xii. 17, 18; xvi. 5-18; xviii. 4-8 xii INTRODUCTION TO
So also the a.cconnts of Chronicles are occasionally much fuller, ae e.g. eh. xiii., xv., xn., compared with 2 Sam. vi. The order of not a few narratives in Chronicles differs from that found in Samuel or Kings. The chief of these, also furnished by Davidson, may be seen from comparing the following references respectively, viz. :-Ch. xi. 1-9, 10---47; xiii.; xiv.; xv.; 2 Chron. i. 3-13, 14-17; ii., with 2 Sam. Ti. 1-10; x:xiii. 8-10; vi. 3-11; v. 11-25; vi. 12-19; 1 Kings iii. 4-14; x. 26-29; v. Once more, there is a tendency manifested in Chronicles to detail lists of other names, qnite outside the genealogy tables, and some of which are not found elsewhere. They are lists of persons connected with army, or temple, or with the families of individual kings. The following are some of the chief of snch lists, viz. :-Ch. xi 26---47; xii. 1-14; xiv. 4-7; xv. 5-11, 17-24; xix. 15-17; xxiv. 7-18; xxv. 9-31; xxvi. 14-19; xxvii. 2-15, lG-22, 25-31; 2 Chron. xi. 5-10, 18-20 ; xvii. 7-18; xix. 11; xxi. 2; xxiii. 1; xxvi. 11; xxviii. 7, 12; xx:ix. 12-14; xxx:i. 12-15; x.xxiv. 8, 12; XXXV, 8, 9. 2. The exact obJect of the work is nowhere stated with authority. The internal evidence, however, as to this, if not absolute, is of a. character far from obscure. That evidence negatives at once any such theory of a merely supplemental character as might seem to be suggested by the Septuagint title. Although, in point of fact, the compiler of Chronicles certainly makes considerable additions, as may be easily tested from the above lists, yet, on the other hand, the identical repetitions (as in that case they would be) are too many to consist with such a theory, and the additions themselves have no appearance of being merely of a supplemental character. Nor, again, can that be esteemed a work supplemental to onr Samuel and Kings, which occupies itself almost exclusively with the fortunes of the kingdom of Judah, and has nothing to say of the kingdom of Israel, except where the career of any of its kings may involve it specially with the history of Judah. This, then, reveals the first manifest token of the object of Chronicles. From the time that it leaves its early chapters of genealogies, it is concerned with the great and enduring line of Judah. Supposing that its place were, as some say, last in the whole Old Testament canon, and thereby nearest the dawn of New Testament events, and in particular the birth of Christ, so much the more in harmony would its place be with its contents. There are, however, probably few books in Scripture which have deepe).- or distincter marks of individual character, and of specific and well-out- lined object. Occupied as it is with the line of Judah, we have been already forewarned, first, in the points at which some of the genealogies terminate, and then by the contents of eh. ix., that the whole retrospect is taken from a date subsequent to the Captivity and the return from Babylon. Though very much of the whole work was, without doubt, drawn from original sources-sources contemporary or nearly so with the events ,;uecessively recorded-yet its general point of view as a compilation was 'l'HE FlflS1' BOOK OF 'l'HE CHRONICLES. xiii