were ever made by Israelitish kings except in extraordinary cir cumstances. 66 20. EXPENSES.-In the time of Solomon a tax was paid to the government by merchants of other countries who traded in the land.1 At the same time his vassal the king of Moab brought him the enormous yearly tribute of the wool of two hundred thousand sheep." Solomon also, as we have seen, had trading-vessels, and it is not unlikely that he derived a considerable income from his commercial enterprises. He certainly needed a large revenue to support the state which he kept up. We are told that the daily provision for his table was 'thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal; ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, beside harts, and gazelles, and roebucks, and fatted fowl."4 If we consider, in addition, the levies he made on the laboring classes to carry out his immense building enterprises, it will appear as a necessary result that the rate of taxation was high. During his own reign, and while the wealth he had received from his father lasted, this was not so seriously felt. Under his successor it was sufficiently serious to be made the occasion of a revolt on the part of the ten tribes, and ultimately led to the division of the kingdom." 21. HOUSEHOLD.-The royal household seems always to have been large. One of the most important officials whom the king kept near him was the historiographer, or chronicler. He is the first source of most of the information we have concerning the events of Jewish history. He committed to writing not only the royal edicts, but all other matters of a public nature thought worthy of remembrance. It was his business, too, to keep the king informed of what was transpiring in his kingdom. The position of chronicler was looked upon as one of the highest honor and responsibility. A somewhat similar official, but of a lower grade, was the scribe, or secretary. Elihoreph and Ahijah are named as scribes during the reign of Solomon." In connection with the military establishment there were two other officers who had a place near the king: the general commanding, often known as captain of the host," and the chief of the body-guard. The latter was an official common to most Oriental courts. He was of the highest rank. Commissions of the most delicate and dangerous character were intrusted to the 66 51 Kings 71 Kings 11 Kings 10:14, 15. 22 Kings 3: 4. 31 Kings 9:28. 41 Kings 4: 22, 23. 12:4. 62 Sam. 8:16; 20: 24; 1 Kings 4:3; 2 Kings 18: 18, 37; Isa. 36:3, 22. 4:3. 8 1 Sam. 14:50; 2 Sam. 8:16; 20:23; 1 Kings 2:32; 4:4. 9 Gen. 37:36; 2 Kings 11:4; 25:8. body of men whom he controlled. The person of the king was in their charge, and they executed without intervention his public and secret orders.1 King David's body-guard, for some reason not clearly understood, was known by the name of the "Cherethites and the Pelethites."' Some, considering the words etymologically, have supposed them to mean the "executioners and couriers." Others, and the majority, have maintained that they were foreign mercenaries, like Ittai the Hittite and the six hundred whom he commanded. The latter hypothesis is favored by the circumstance that not only have the original Hebrew words the usual gentilic ending, but the former one is mentioned a number of times in such a connection with the Philistines as to make their identity nearly certain. The word Pelethite might even be a corruption of Philistine. Besides, these people appear in Israelitish history just at the time when David succeeded in bringing the Philistines into subjection.5 Another officer of the royal household was the one who, like Adoniram of Solomon's time, attended to the business of raising levies for the public service. Again, there was the king's counsellor, like Ahithophel whose counsel to Absalom David sent Hushai the Archite to defeat; and the "king's friend," a more private and intimate adviser and companion. There was also an officer answering to "keepers of the wardrobe."8 In two passages of the Revised Version a person is mentioned under the name of " priest," the original word being the same as that ordinarily so rendered. In the margin of the same version, however, the translation "chief minister" is substituted." This is probably correct. It would scarcely be expected, from what we know of David, that he would allow one of his own sons to usurp an office which belonged exclusively to descendants of Aaron. Moreover, in a parallel account of David's officials we read, in place of " David's sons were priests," ""the sons of David were chief about the king.' "10 Also in 1 Kings 4:5, where a list of the officials of Solomon is given, one by the name of Zabud is mentioned who " was priest, the king's friend." The root-meaning of the word rendered "priest" is to stand, and so to minister. In these exceptional instances, therefore, it goes back to the prim 11 Kings 2:25, 34, 46. 22 Sam. 8:18; 20:23; 1 Chron. 18: 17. 41 Sam. 30: 14 Ezek. 25:16; Zoph. 2:5. 5 2 Sam. 8:1. 72 Sam. 15:32-34; 1 Kings 4:5; 1 Chron. Kings 19:2; 22:14; 1 Chron. 27: 25-31. 32 Sam. 15:18-22. 62 Sam. 20:24; 1 Kings 4:6. 27:33; Isa. 3:3; 19: 11. 8 1 Kings 4:6, 7; 2 92 Sam. 8:18; 20:26. 10 1 Chron. 18:15-17. itive sense instead of taking the specific one of serving as a priest or minister of God. 22. FALL OF THE KINGDOMS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH.~The kingdom of the twelve tribes, as is well known, ended with Solomon. After his death ten of the tribes set up an independent government whose principal capital was Samaria. It lasted about two hundred and fifty years, when Samaria was taken and a large body of Israelites were carried away as captives to Assyria.1 The kingdom made up of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, whose rallying-point was the house of David and its capital Jerusalem, holding on with more tenacity to the principles of the theocracy, maintained its existence for a longer period. But, finally, it too yielded to other influences, and so was obliged to succumb to the world-power. Its end came in the first quarter of the sixth century before Christ. The captivity lasted until the accession of Cyrus to the throne of Babylon, B.C. 536. By him and his successors the Jews were allowed to return to Palestine. The first company, numbering about fifty thousand, were led back by Zerubbabel, who was appointed tirshatha, or governor, by the Persian monarch. Associated with him were the high priest, Joshua, and ten of the principal elders. Twenty-eight years afterwards, during the reign of Artaxerxes I., a second company of exiles, dismissed with the good wishes and generous gifts of their Persian rulers, returned under the leadership of Ezra. Fourteen years later still, B.C. 444, came Nehemiah. 23. GOVERNMENT SUBSEQUENT TO THE EXILE.-The people who returned in these successive companies belonged, for the most part, to the tribes that had been most recently carried into captivity, that is, Judah and Benjamin, which were the tribes, too, that had longest kept up their devotion to the institutions of their fathers. No obstacle seems to have been thrown in the way of those desirous to return. The great mass of exiles showed a singular indisposition to do so. Some, as we know, remained from choice in the more productive land of their conquerors, though purposing to adhere scrupulously to the customs of their compatriots in the father-land. There were, however, many more, including the majority of the ten tribes, who never lost their propensity to idolatry, and so finally sunk out of sight as Jews in the heathenism that surrounded them. Representatives of the ten tribes were found among those who returned with Zerubbabel and Ezra; but there is no evidence that as tribes they continued to exist after that time. While it was matter of frequent prediction with the prophets that the kingdoms of Judah and Israel should be again united in the restored house of David, these prophecies seem never to have contemplated a complete restoration. It was uniformly of a remnant that the prediction was made.' 1 Isa. 6:13; 10: 22; Micah 2:12; 5:3; Zeph. 2:9; Hag. 1: 12, 14; Zech. 8:6, 12. Assyrian Palace Restored. (After Fergusson.) 24. During the Persian period, B.C. 536-333, the province of which Judæa formed a part was under an officer called a satrap. Smaller districts, like Judæa itself, were ruled by governors (tirshathas). Such a governor was Zerubbabel (whose Persian name was Sheshbazzar), and later, Ezra and Nehemiah. Ample power was accorded to these Jewish officers by the Persian monarchs; but regular tribute was required. The exact amount of it is not stated. If Palestine was treated like other provinces, and the statements of Herodotus are to be trusted, it was no inconsiderable sum, the ground tax alone amounting to about twenty talents of silver. Besides this there would be taxes for the support of troops and the households of officials, including the Jewish governors themselves unless they declined it. The so-called “Great Synagogue," which existed in this period, was in no sense a political body, and the functions of the high priest were essentially religious. The people no longer attempted to keep up their former tribal organizations or to occupy their original tribal districts. Even the distinction between Judah and Benjamin largely disappeared, especially in Jerusalem where the chief representatives of both tribes had their home. Only the priests and Levites maintained their genealogical lists relatively uncorrupted. 25. During the brief reign of Alexander, the Jews were treated with marked favor. The story of Josephus concerning this ruler's visit to Jerusalem cannot be accepted as authentic.3 Undoubtedly, however, many Jews voluntarily entered the ranks of his army on his victorious march into Egypt. Among his successors, the attempt of Antiochus Epiphanes forcibly to Hellenize the Jewish people led to an extended revolt and a bitter conflict, which lasted for forty years. Largely through the valor and wisdom of the Maccabæan heroes, Judas, Jonathan and Simon, the yoke of Syria was at last broken and the Jewish commonwealth once more restored. From the year in which this event occurred, B.C. 143, the Jews subsequently dated, as well on coins as on private and public contracts, their national independence. It is an attractive picture which the historian gives of the close of Simon's reign. He "made peace in the land, and Israel rejoiced with great joy. And every man sat under his fig tree, and there was none to make them afraid. And no one was left in the land to fight against them.” Great were the admiration and gratitude felt for Simon by his countrymen. A brazen tablet inscribed with a record of his deeds and those of his 994 1 Herodotus, iii. 91. 2 Neh. 3:15, 18. 3 Josephus, Antiq. 11, 8:5. 4 1 Macc. 14:11, 12. |