clear that during his latter years the tranquillity and prosperity of the country constantly increased. Asa himself, in advanced age, suffered from disease of the foot. His consultation of physicians on his case, proves what a high civilisation had still been maintained in Judah since the time of Solomon; although the Chronicler, in accordance with the more rigid idea of the proper means of cure which it was endeavoured to establish in his day, only reproaches him for this step.' He died in high honour, and was buried with great solemnity.

3. The long reign of Asa marks the noble era in the middle of this century of the history of Judah, when the kingdom regained its consciousness of its higher destiny and formed the conviction that it was the seat of a loftier power for the active promotion of the true religion, and was intended for a prolonged existence. It followed, therefore, in due course, that Asa's son and successor Jehoshaphat, who came to the throne at the age of thirty-five years, carried on the government on the same principles. His reign was only terminated after a period of twenty-five years by his death. As brave in battle as his father, and with greater enterprise and daring, he carried out many of Asa's plans still further, and the same decision marked his policy alike abroad and at home.

4

At home, like Asa, he tolerated no idolatry, and endeavoured to efface whatever vestiges of it still remained. His reign was marked by the labours of two prophets, mentioned in the historical books, Jehu the son of Hanani, and Eliezer the son of Dodavah; 3 the former had at an early period ministered in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, and may have settled in Judah in consequence of his expulsion from it.-Jehoshaphat, however, made an important step in advance, in his anxious endeavours to enable the people to participate in the true benefits of the higher religion, as far as came within the scope of his royal power. In the first place, he appointed competent persons to give instruction all over the country in more precise knowledge of religion and the laws. Five of the most respected of the laity,

years of tranquillity with which Asa's reign commences, for, according to 1 Kings xv. 16, 32 (in the latter passage we should probably read Nadab for Baasha), as well as judging by the internal situation, the mutual hostilities of the two kingdoms continued, although nothing more important than a few marauding expeditions may have been undertaken in ordinary years. On the other hand, it is not the practice of the Chronicler to invent such dates without having any basis for them

at all. The thirty-sixth year in xvi. 1 seems therefore to have arisen originally in the different connexion already alluded to; while the ten years in xiii. 23 (which even there are very indefinite) appear to have belonged originally to the end of Asa's reign.

1 2 Chron. xvi. 12.

2 1 Kings xxii. 46 [45] and other evidence.

32 Chron. xix. 2, xx. 34, 37.
4 P. 35.

nine Levites, and two priests, visited every place in the kingdom, not omitting the smallest, to spread far and wide those blessings of needful knowledge which could always be obtained in abundance at Jerusalem. In the next place, he provided good judges, nominating the high priest supreme judge in ecclesiastical cases, while a layman of great authority was made the final appeal in royal, i.e. civil cases. He further appointed Levites as their assessors, and enjoined on them with special emphasis the strictest administration of justice.' Hitherto the king alone had decided all disputes which had not been settled by the arbitrators. This arrangement, which had necessarily given rise to many evils,2 Jehoshaphat now replaced by an organised system of jurisdiction; and he brought the whole of his authority to bear on the swift and impartial administration of justice, to secure which is the proper aim of the royal supervision.

Abroad Jehoshaphat gained victory and renown. The whole of Idumea, which under his three predecessors had probably maintained its own kings, though perhaps at times in a sort of feudal dependence upon Judah,3 he once more completely subjugated as far as the Arabian sea, and ruled as only David and Solomon had done before him. This victory was certainly, however, not secured without numerous contests; of one of which a remote tradition has been at any rate preserved in the Chronicles. This is the account of the strangely easy victory won by Jehoshaphat over the united forces of the 'Moabites, Ammonites, and inhabitants of Mount Seir.' These hostile bands

1 These two sets of arrangements are described in 2 Chron. xvii. 7-9, xix. 5-11. The elements peculiar to the Chronicler only in these two representations are easily discernible. The book of the law which the teachers had, xvii. 9, was not (as the Chronicler might suppose) the present Pentateuch, though other ancient works might be used for the purpose; and the beautiful speech of Jehoshaphat on the administration of justice, xix. 6-11, bears strong marks of the Chronicler's hand. The basis of his narrative, however, the Chronicler certainly derived from ancient sources; the numerous names which are

supplied must be historical; the high priest Amariah, xix. 11, belongs according to 1 Chron. v. 37 [vi. 11] to the fifth generation after David, just as Jehoshaphat

is the fifth successor of David.

2 Vol. iii. p. 176.

3 Further evidence on this point is certainly wanting, cf. pp. 45-47. But the short remark in 1 Kings xxii. 48 [47],

that in Jehoshaphat's time 'no king had been appointed in Edom as king (i.e. as actual king),' points to the belief that before his reign there was such a king in Edom, although he perhaps entered into a certain relation of dependence with the king of Judah, as was immediately the case again under Jehoram. Further, no other supposition renders it intelligible why it was not till then that Jehoshaphat endeavoured to resume the navigation of the Arabian sea.

4 2 Chron. xx. 1-30. The inhabitants of Mount Seir are not named, it is true, in ver. 1, but they appear in vv. 10, 22, and that they were sufficiently numerous is clear from ver. 23. Accordingly in ver. 1, for the word ", which is in every way unintelligible and incorrect, we ought to read '; cf. i. p. 239 note 3. the same time for D, in ver. 2, as the Arameans have not the remotest connexion with the meaning and the words of this

At

6

had invaded the south-eastern frontier of Judah, and had advanced as far as Engedi, on the western side of the Dead Sea, before Jehoshaphat received the news of the pressing danger, and could take the necessary measures for meeting it. With swift decision he collected his army at Jerusalem, while, even before his departure, a Levite named Jahaziel,' suddenly inspired during the solemn service in the temple, predicted for him a divine victory. Immediately around Engedi rise steep slopes and precipitous rocks. West of it, on the direct road to Jerusalem lies a broad tract of country, the southern part of which was then called the wilderness of Jeruel,' while the northern bore the name of the 'wilderness of Tekoa '2 from the city south-east of Jerusalem which bounded it in this direction. The enemy had ascended the pass of Haziz and stood at the end of the mountain ridge facing the wilderness of Jeruel, while Jehoshaphat was hastily advancing through the wilderness of Tekoa, when the Moabites and Ammonites suddenly fancied themselves misled by the Idumeans (who are henceforth often designated as crafty). They fell upon them, and such a general massacre ensued that when Jehoshaphat with his army arrived at the spot, he gained a brilliant victory almost without any trouble, and was able to return with rich booty. It is not surprising that in Jehoshaphat's army this victory was ascribed to evil spirits, which were set by Jahveh to perplex the different forces of the enemy, and precipitate them into mutual slaughter; and in like manner the Chronicler avails himself of this example to show what sort of preparations a pious but warlike king like Jehoshaphat ought to make for battle, and how heavenly powers may help him to victory.

3

But there is no reason to

Husasah, which Robinson describes as leading down to the south-east from Tekoa (Bibl. Res. i. 527, ed. 1856); for that the should come from the article is by no means necessary.

* The ', ambushments,' which God, according to ver. 22, directed against the enemy, can only from the connexion be a sort of evil spirits, just as the name Satan itself possesses a similar meaning; ver. 23 contains the execution on earth of the heavenly preparations ver. 22.

It is easy to see to what extent the whole narrative bears the marks of the Chronicler; but while it is only possible for a person who intentionally refuses to see to ignore the fact that the Jehoshaphat who is here described is quite a different person from the one depicted in 1 Kings xxii., 2 Kings iii., it is on the other hand

6

doubt that the narrative reposes on a historical basis. The valley in which the victory was won, subsequently went by the name of the valley of blessing;' and when Joel, certainly scarcely half a century later, called the future field of judgment the valley of Jehoshaphat,' this designation of the scene of the grand triumph of the future, must have been suggested by some great victory of Jehoshaphat's. We may further assume that this victory belonged to the beginning of Jehoshaphat's reign,3 and led to the complete subjugation of Edom. Moab certainly did not assert its independence till after the death of Ahab, and the real object of its attack was not Judah at all but Israel; but marauding expeditions from Moab and Ammon may have then united with the forces of Edom.

The next step open to Jehoshaphat after he had completely subdued Edom, was to resume from his harbour of Eziongeber the voyages to Ophir, which had proved so profitable under Solomon. This he actually did towards the later years of his reign; but after he had constructed a fleet of large ships, which must certainly have been a work of great labour and expense (as the assistance of the Phoenicians is not mentioned), it was wrecked by storms ere it had left the harbour, partly perhaps through the carelessness of the sailors. Upon this, Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, who may, like his father, have been closely connected with the Phoenicians, offered, it seems, to share in the cost and profit of the voyage. Jehoshaphat, however, would not consent; and the disasters which soon happened in the reign of his son Jehoram, finally put an end to such designs.5 In spite of the frustration of this undertaking, the prosperity equally unfair to deny that the narrative not know from any other source that the has a historical basis. No comparison of valley had been called by the name of the event narrated in 2 Kings iii. 23 sq. Jehoshaphat before Joel. permits us to suppose that the Chronicler modelled his own account on the earlier narrative.

1 2 Chron. xx. 26. The valley probably lay east of the city Caphar Barucha and north-east of Hebron (see Reland's Palestine, p. 685), and the most recent travellers have also found in the neighbourhood a Wadi Beraikût.

2 Joel iv. [iii.] 2, 12. The allusion to the meaning of the name Jehoshaphat, 'God judges,' first appears in Joel; it is by no means, however, to be assumed that the prophet could have chosen the name independently without any reason, or have understood it only figuratively. The designation of the valley east of the temple by the name of Jehoshaphat at the time of the Fathers (see the Onomast.) was probably a mere inference from Joel iii. 5 [ii. 32], iv. [iii.] 16; at any rate, we do

The position of this narrative in the Chronicles might lead us to conjecture that the death of Ahab, 2 Chron. xviii. must have already taken place; but the Chronicler is evidently simply putting together detached narratives from his different sources, without supplying any proper dates.

4 Vol. iii. p. 263.

5 1 Kings xxii. 49 sq. The Chronicler, 2 Chron. xx. 35-37, who reprehends every approximation to the northern kingdom in the severest manner, represents the destruction of the ships as a divine penalty on the two kings for actually contracting an alliance for the purpose of the voyage. But there is no substantial reason for rejecting the definite and easily explicable statement of the older book, since the words in ver. 37 placed by the Chronicler in the mouth of a prophet of the time

of Judah was greater under Jehoshaphat than it had ever been since the time of Solomon. The Philistines once more brought gifts of allegiance, and the Arab tribes on the border which the subjugation of Edom had rendered defenceless, paid annual tributes from their flocks. The king built commercial cities as well as fortresses, and everywhere promoted vigorous trade.1 A list of the population which has been preserved, shows that there were then in round numbers seven hundred and eighty thousand men capable of bearing arms; i.e. originally the male inhabitants of Judah with three hundred and eighty thousand from Benjamin, including also the five districts into which the kingdom was then divided.2

II. CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE AND OF LITERATURE IN

JUDAH.

The general condition of the people and of literature during this period proves that in these departments, too, Judah still followed nobly in the steps of the kingdom of David. The heathen tendencies which had obscured its light during the last days of Solomon and the age of his successor, were paralysed through the very long reign of Asa and remained powerless under Jehoshaphat. Even the cutting off of those proud currents of energy which had streamed through the veins of the nation under Solomon, served to restore it once more to its originally limited but thoroughly sound condition. Under such manly kings as Asa and Jehoshaphat, the whole people glowed anew with the pure flame of perfect trust in all the spiritual blessings of the true community; and while the artistic activity of the age of David and Solomon continues to develope in the smaller kingdom with unchecked splendour as far as its straitened position allowed, the spirit of strong and simple religion seems once more to find a permanent resting-place in its heart, and to afford the best possible compensation for all the losses it has sustained.

The ascendancy of such a spirit in the people is proved by those writings which there is every reason to believe were produced in this century. But little, it is true, has been preserved; and this little is somewhat difficult to recognise, buried as it is in books which were only collected or altered and rebelong by their style to the Chronicler may be derived from the State-annals. himself alone.

12 Chron. xvii. 5, 11–13, xviii. 1. 2 The representation in 2 Chron. xvii. 14-19 also belongs unmistakably to the Chronicler alone, but the ground of these statements is evidently historical, and they

Such statements from ancient sources of the male population may have guided the Chronicler elsewhere in estimating the military forces of the kingdom; cf. pp. 48, 50.