would appear, have been accidentally altered in the course of transcription -a resuH which need ca.l!se us no surprise, if we remember that anciently numbers were represented by letters, and that the Assyrian, or square characters, in which the Scriptures of the Old Testament have been banded down to us, are extremely liable to be confounded. The reader will see at a glance that the difference between :i and :> (which represent respectively two and twenty), between , and i (four and two hundred), between n and n (eight and four hundred), is extremely slight. But other dates would appear to have been altered, or inserted-probably from the margin-by some reviser of the text. We have nothing more than what we find else- where in Scripture, and even in the text of the New Testament-the margin:i.l gloss finding its way, almost unconsciously, into the body of the work.* It will be sufficient to mention here as instances of such imperfect or erroneous chronologies, 1 Kings vi. 1 ; xiv. 21 ; xvi. 23; 2 Kings i. 17 (of. iii. 1) ; xiii. 10 (of. xiii. 1); xv. 1 (c£ xiv. 23); xvii. 1 (of. xv. 80, 83). But this fact, though it has occasioned no little difficulty to the commentator, in no way detracts, it need hardly be said, from the value of our history. And it does this less because these corrections or interpolations are as a rule sufficiently conspicuous, and because, as has been justly remarked, "the chief difficulties of the chronology and almost all the actual contradictions disappear, if we subtract from the work those portions which are generally parenthetic."+
IX. LITERATURE. Amongst the works available for the exposition and illustration of the text, and to which reference is most frequently made in this Commentary, are the following : - 1. Oommentar llber der Bilcher der K"onige. Von Dr. Karl Fried. Kiel Moskau, 1846. 2, Biblischer Oommentar llber die prophetischen-Geschichts-'bucher ius .A.. T. Dritter Band: Die Bucher iur K"onige. Leipzig, 1874. By the ea.me author. Both these works are accessible to the English reader in translations published by Messrs. Clark of Edin- burgh (1857 and 1877). I have thought it well to refer to both volumes, as though the latter, no doubt, represents Keil's matured judgment, still the former occasionally contains valuable materials not included in the latter work. 8. Die Bucher der Konige. Von Dr. Karl C. W. F.Bii.hr. Bielefeld, 1873. This is one of the most valuable volumes of Lange's TheologischHomiletisches Bibelwerk. It has been trans- lated, under the editorship of Dr. Philip Sche.fl', by Dr. Harwood, of New Haven, Conn. (Edinb., Clark) ; and as the translation, especially in its "Textual and Gra.mmatical." section, contains additione.l and ooce.sionelly useful matter, I have referred both to it and to the origine.l. 4. Bymbolik des Mosaischen Oultus. By the same author. Heidelberg, 1837. For all that conoerns the Temple and its ritue.l, this work is indispensable, and though occasionally somewhat fanciful, is a monumen\ of Bii.hr's profound and varied learning.
• Scrivener, "Introduction to New Testament Critioism,n pp. 12, 13. t Rawlinson, "Speaker's Commentary," p. 476. xvi INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOKS OF THE KINGS.