After Saul was dead, David was made king, and he reigned for 40 years. He captured Jerusalem and made this city the capital, and then he and the whole house of Israel brought the Ark of the Covenant thither with shouts of joy and sound of trumpets. He executed judgment and justice to the whole people, and he remembered Jonathan and said to his son: I restore to thee all the lands of Saul, and thou shalt eat at my table. He was the light and the sweetest singer of Israel, and composed many beautiful psalms, which are found in the Book of Psalms in the Bible, and speaks in many of these of the Messiah, or the Savior who was to come. He subdued the nations round about and was very powerful.
David intended to build a house for the Lord. But the Lord spoke to him through Nathan the prophet and said: When thy days be fulfilled, I will set up thy seed after thee. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be made sure for ever before thee, thy throne shall be established for ever. (2 Sam. 2-10.)
While Joab was warring against the Ammonites, David one evening saw from the roof of his house a woman bathing. She was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. He sent for her and committed adultery with her, and sent a letter to Joab that he should set Uriah where the battle was fiercest, that he might fall by the hand of the Ammonites. Joab obeyed his lord, and Uriah was killed. When David got Joab’s message about this he said: The sword devoureth one as well as another. When the time of mourning had passed for Bathsheba, he took her to wife. But the deed that David had done was evil in the eyes of the Lord.
The Lord sent the prophet Nathan unto David, and he said: There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing save one little lamb, which did eat of his morsel and drink of his cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, but took the poor man’s only lamb, and dressed it for the wayfaring man. And David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man and he said: The man that did this is a son of death, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold. Nathan answered: Thou art the man! Uriah hast thou smitten with the sword of the Ammonites, and his wife hast thou taken to be thy wife. David humbled himself before the Lord and said: O God, create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. Thou delightest not in sacrifice, else would I give it; Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. And the Lord forgave him. But the son that Bathsheba bore him soon died; and much sorrow came upon David in his old age. (2 Sam. 11-12.)
Absalom, a son of David, was the comeliest man in Israel. There was no blemish on him from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. Although his father loved him greatly, he conspired to be king in his father’s stead. He would stand beside the road, and when any one came and would bow down before him, he embraced him and kissed him, and thus stole the hearts of the men of Israel from his father. He conspired with Ahithophel, David’s counsellor, and came with an army against Jerusalem, and David was forced to flee from his son. Ahithophel’s counsel was to pursue David immediately; but Hushai, David’s friend, advised Absalom to wait until he could raise a larger army. The Lord, wishing to bring destruction upon Absalom, caused Ahithophel’s good advice to be rejected, and Ahithophel went and hanged himself. David thus gained time to raise an army. He set Joab over it, and commanded him saying: Deal gently with the young man! There was a great battle in a forest. Absalom was compelled to flee, and riding under an oak, his head was caught in its boughs. The mule on which he rode ran away, and he was left hanging between heaven and earth. Joab ran and thrust three javelins through his heart. When David heard of this he wept and lamented: O Absalom, my son, would I had died for thee! O Absalom, my son, my son!—Some years later David died and Solomon, the son of Bathsheba, became king. (2 Sam. 15-18; 1 Kings 1-2.)
God appeared unto Solomon in a dream and said: Ask what I shall give thee. Solomon asked for wisdom. Shortly after two women came to him. They dwelt together, and each had given birth to a child. As one of them had in the night overlaid her child so that it died, she arose and took the child of the other, and laid her own in its place. Both now asserted: I am mother of the living child. Solomon said: Fetch me a sword! When the sword was brought, he said: Divide the child in two, and give half to one and half to the other. Then the one cried: Give her the child, and do not divide it. The other said: Divide it, so it shall be neither mine nor thine. Then Solomon said: Give the child to her who wills that it shall live, for she is the mother. All Israel heard the judgment and feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him.—Solomon was wiser than all other men, and the fame of his wisdom spread abroad, and the queen of Sheba came to hear him. He spoke 3000 proverbs, and his songs were 1005; he wrote of trees, from the cedar that grows on Lebanon to the hyssop that springs out of the wall; he wrote of beasts of the field, of birds, of creeping things and of fishes. He had peace round about and all Israel dwelt safely, each man under his vine and fig tree. He traded with distant lands and gathered gold and silver and precious stones in great abundance. On Mount Moriah in Jerusalem he built a magnificent temple instead of the Tabernacle, and put the Ark in the Holy of Holies. When the temple was finished, Solomon knelt down and prayed: O Lord, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded! Yet hear Thou in heaven, Thy dwelling place, every humble prayer that shall be sent up to Thee from this house! And when a stranger that is not of Israel shall come and pray towards this house, then hear Thou his prayers also!
Solomon did not continue faithful to the end. He had taken many heathen women to be his wives, and when he was old they turned his heart, so that he built altars to the abominable idols of the heathens. And the people murmured because of heavy taxes and burdens. (1 Kings 3-11.)
When Solomon was dead, all Israel came together and said to his son Rehoboam: Thy father made our yoke heavy, make thou it lighter, and we will make thee king. Rehoboam first took counsel from the old men, who had been the counsellors of his father. They said: If thou wilt hearken to the people this day they will serve thee all thy days. Then he consulted the young men who had grown up with him, and he answered according to their counsel: My father’s yoke was heavy, mine shall be heavier still; my father chastised you with whips, I will chastise you with scorpions. At this answer the people were provoked, and ten tribes chose Jeroboam for king, and only Judah and Benjamin clung to Rehoboam for David’s sake.—Samaria became the capital of the ten tribes, or the kingdom of Israel, and Jerusalem the capital for the two tribes, or the kingdom of Judah. (1 Kings 12: 1-24.)
Jeroboam thought thus: If the people go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, their hearts will again turn to the house of David. He therefore set up two golden calves, and the people went and sacrificed to them. The Lord warned him, saying: Thou hast made thyself strange gods, therefore I will cut off thy house. His son became king, but was killed, and the whole family destroyed. There came kings of other families; but all were wicked and worshiped strange gods. (1 Kings 12:25-15:30.)
The worst of all kings in Israel was Ahab. He married the wicked Jezebel, daughter of the king of Sidon, and built a temple for the idol Baal. The prophet Elijah foretold as a punishment a drought which lasted for three years, and the land thirsted for rain. Meanwhile Elijah dwelt with a poor widow in the city of Zarephath, and the meal in her jar was not consumed, and the cruse of oil failed not, and when her son died, Elijah prayed to the Lord, and the soul of the child came into him again.
When the three years were ended, Elijah went at the Lord’s command unto Ahab and bade him call the priests of Baal together on Mount Carmel. Then said Elijah unto the people: I, even I only, am left a prophet of Jehovah; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under; and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under. And call ye on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of Jehovah; and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said: It is well spoken. The priests of Baal sacrificed an ox and called upon their god the whole day; but he answered not. Elijah said: Cry a little louder! Your god may be musing, or perhaps he sleeps! At evening Elijah sacrificed an ox and prayed: O Lord, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant! Then there came fire from heaven and consumed his sacrifice. The people took the priests of Baal and slew them, and the heavens grew black, and there was a great rain. Jezebel sought the life of Elijah, but he fled to the wilderness and wished that he might die, because Israel had broken their covenant with the Lord. But the Lord said: Return, there are yet left 7000 who have not bowed the knee unto Baal.
Naboth had a vineyard that Ahab wished to buy, because it lay close up to his palace. When Naboth would not sell his inheritance, because that was against the law of Moses, Ahab was sad, went to bed and would not eat. Jezebel said: Arise, eat and be merry! I will give thee the vineyard. She bade the judges procure witnesses to testify that Naboth had blasphemed God and the king. Naboth was stoned, and Ahab went to take possession of the vineyard. The Lord sent Elijah to him in the vineyard to say: Where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall they also lick thy blood, and dogs shall eat Jezebel. Ahab fell in battle, and his blood flowed into the war-chariot, and when it was washed in Samaria, dogs came and licked the blood. Jezebel was thrown out from a window, and her body was eaten by dogs. (1 Kings 16-22; 2 Kings 9:30-37.)
Elijah was taken up alive into heaven in a whirlwind, in a chariot of fire with horses of fire, and Elisha, who became prophet after him, stood and saw it. (2 Kings 2.)
The kings and the people of Israel continued to worship strange gods, and would not listen to the prophets of the Lord. So the punishment must come. The king of Assyria, the powerful Shalmaneser, put Hoshea, the last king, in chains, and his successor took Samaria and carried the people to Assyria. One of the later kings sent heathens from his countries to dwell in the land. These were called Samaritans, and learned more and more to know Jehovah; but the inhabitants of Judah and Benjamin would not acknowledge them as right brethren, and there was bitter enmity between the Samaritans and the Jews. (2 Kings 17.)
In Judah kings of the house of David always reigned; many of them were wicked and served strange gods; but a few were pious and served the Lord, and thus idolatry did not come to such power as in the kingdom of Israel.
The most pious of the kings was Hezekiah. Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came against Jerusalem and used great words, saying: Believe not that your God can deliver you, for the gods of the heathens were not able to deliver their countries from the king of Assyria. Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and prayed for deliverance. The prophet Isaiah sent this message to him: The Lord has heard your prayer. The angel of the Lord passed through the camp of the Assyrians and smote in one night 185,000, and Sennacherib was compelled to return home in disgrace.—Shortly after this Hezekiah became sick. Isaiah promised to prolong his life fifteen years. The king of Babylon sent messengers with gifts and greetings to Hezekiah, for he had heard that he had been sick. Hezekiah was glad, and showed the messengers all his treasures. Then Isaiah came and said: These treasures shall all be carried away to Babylon, and thy sons shall be servants in the palace of the king of Babylon. (2 Kings 10-20.)
Isaiah has written many prophecies. Of our Savior Jesus Christ he wrote: Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. He was oppressed, yet when He was afflicted He opened not His mouth, as a lamb that is led to the slaughter. (Isaiah 53.)
The people fell off from the Lord, and King Manasseh sacrificed his own children to the idols, and the punishment had to come upon the kingdom of Judah also. The king of Babylon, the mighty Nebuchadnezzar, took Jerusalem, burned the temple and the city and tore down the walls. Zedekiah, the last king, was forced to look upon the slaying of his own children; then his eyes were put out, and he was placed in chains and together with the people brought to Babylon in captivity 588 years before the birth of Christ. (2 Kings 21-25.)
The sins of the Jews were great, and their punishment was heavy. Now, when they were compelled to live among the heathens, they longed for the Holy City and the worship in the temple of the Lord. Yet the Lord left them not without consolation. From the prophecies of the prophet Jeremiah they knew that when 70 years were passed the Lord would have compassion on them and bring them back to the land of their fathers. And the Lord sent two great prophets to them to console and strengthen them. These were Ezekiel and Daniel.
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream which he could not remember. Daniel prayed to the Lord, and both the dream and the explanation of it were shown him in a vision in the night. The king had seen a great image. The head was of gold, the breast and arms of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, and the legs of iron and of clay. A stone which was not thrown by the hands of man struck the image and broke it to pieces; but the stone became a great mountain which filled the whole earth. Daniel interpreted the dream thus: There shall arise four great kingdoms after each other; afterward God will establish a kingdom that shall overthrow all these, but shall itself remain forever.—The king said: Thy God is a God above all gods, since he can reveal secret things. Daniel was now made ruler of the wise men of the country and remained in great respect and honor even after the death of Nebuchadnezzar. But he had enemies, and these caused one of the following kings to throw him into a den of lions; but the Lord sent him His angel who shut the mouths of the lions. The next day Daniel was pulled up from the den unhurt, and the men that had accused him were cast into it; but they had not even reached the bottom of the den before the lions seized them and broke their bones. (Book of Daniel 2-6.)
Cyrus, king of Persia, took Babylon, and permitted the Jews to return to the land of their fathers. He gave them back all the vessels of gold and silver from the temple that had been carried away by Nebuchadnezzar. The 70 years were then at an end. Those who went away were 42,360. Zerubbabel, a chief of the house of David, led them to Jerusalem. In the second year after their return they began to build a new temple on Mount Moriah, where the temple of Solomon had stood. The Samaritans wished to build the temple with them; but the Jews would not permit it, as they did not regard them as right brethren. The Samaritans therefore hindered the work for many years. But then the prophets Haggai and Zechariah arose and encouraged the people, and the temple was finished; but it was not so magnificent as Solomon’s temple.—The Samaritans built a temple for themselves on Mount Gerizim.
Several years after this, Ezra, of the tribe of Levi, came to Jerusalem and exhorted the people not to sin any more against the Lord by marrying heathen women. (Book of Ezra.)
The walls of Jerusalem were not yet rebuilt. When Nehemiah, cup-bearer to the king of Persia, heard of this he begged leave to go to Judea. The king made him governor of Judea, and he got the walls of the city built in fifty-two days, even though the Samaritans tried to hinder him. (Book of Nehemiah.)
Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia, took Palestine, formerly belonging to the king of Persia, as well as all the other kingdoms of the latter. When Alexander died his great empire was divided, and the Jews came first under Egypt and after that under Syria and were oppressed in every way. At last the Syrian king, Antiochus Epiphanes, sought to compel them to live as the heathens. Many renounced their faith and sacrificed to the gods. But many also continued firmly in the faith and chose rather to die than to turn from the law of the Lord. Seven brothers were successively scourged and tormented to death. The mother stood by and looked on and admonished them not to turn from the Lord. At last the mother also was killed. (2 Macc. 7.)
At this time there lived in Judea a priest by the name of Mattathias. He would not sacrifice to the idols, but fled with his sons to the mountains, and those who feared God gathered about him. When he died his son Judas Maccabaeus[2] became the leader. He was brave as a young lion; he defeated the Syrians, took Jerusalem and purged the temple.—The Maccabees ruled over the country for 103 years. Then the powerful Romans, whose home country was Italy, came and conquered the country. The Roman emperor Augustus made Herod king of Judea. Herod who is called the Great, was an Edomite. He was very suspicious and cruel and killed a great many innocent people, even his own wife and three of his sons. He wished to flatter the people, and decorated the temple magnificently; but the people turned their hearts from him.—During his reign the fulness of time had come, and our Savior Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, as the prophet Micah had foretold.
The Lord said unto the prophet Jonah: Go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim that it shall be destroyed, for its sins are great. But Jonah went aboard a ship to flee over the sea. The Lord sent a tempest, so the ship was at the point of sinking. The sailors said one to another: Let us cast lots to see whose fault it is that such evil befalls us. The lot fell on Jonah, and they cast him into the sea; and it was calm. The Lord sent a great fish that swallowed Jonah, and he was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. The Lord commanded the fish, and it cast Jonah up on land. The Lord now spoke a second time to Jonah: Go to Nineveh and proclaim what I shall bid thee. Jonah went into Nineveh and cried: In 40 days Nineveh shall be destroyed! The people repented, and the king put off his royal garments and clothed himself in sack cloth and ashes. God repented of the evil He had spoken, and He spared Nineveh. Then Jonah murmured and said: Did it not go as I thought while I was in my country, and would flee over the sea? For I knew that Thou art a God merciful and slow to anger, and repentest of evil.
Jonah had gone outside the city and remained there to see what would become of the city. The Lord let a plant spring up to give shade for his head, and Jonah was fond of the plant. In the morning the Lord prepared a worm, and it stung the plant, so it withered. And there came a sultry east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, and he said: It is better for me to die than to live. Then said the Lord: Thou hast pity on the plant for which thou hast not labored, neither madest it grow, because it withered; and should not I have pity on Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than twelve times 10,000 persons that cannot discern between their right and their left hand, and also much cattle? (The Book of Jonah.)
Job was the name of a God-fearing man who had seven sons and three daughters, and owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 she-asses, and was the richest of all the men of the East. When his sons had feasted and eaten and drunk, he arose early and offered burnt offerings, for, said he: It may be that my sons have sinned and said farewell to God in their hearts. Eyes was he to the blind, feet was he to the lame, and a father to the poor; the aged arose before him, and princes were silent when he spoke.
One day when his children were feasting in the house of their elder brother, there came a messenger to Job, and said: The oxen were plowing, and the asses were feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants, I only am escaped. While he was yet speaking, there came another and said: Fire is fallen from heaven and has burned up the sheep and the shepherds, and I only escaped. While he was yet speaking, came a third and said: The Chaldeans fell upon the camels, and have taken them away, yea, and have slain the young men with the edge of the sword. I only am escaped to tell thee. While he yet spoke, came a fourth and said: Thy sons and daughters were eating and drinking in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the house, and it fell upon thy children, and they are dead, I only am escaped. Then Job rent his robe, but worshiped God, and said: Naked came I from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord!
Job’s whole body now became covered with boils, and he took a potsherd to scrape himself, and he sat in the ashes. His wife asked: Dost thou still believe in God? Job answered: Thou speakest as one of the foolish women. Shall we receive good at the hands of God, and shall we not receive evil?
Three of Job’s friends, hearing of his misfortunes, came to console him. But they knew him not, and they sat with him seven days and seven nights, and none spake to him, for they saw that his grief was very great. When they began to speak their words were harsh, for they thought that he must be a greater sinner than other men, since God sent greater afflictions upon him than on others. Then Job sinned; for he boasted of his perfection and disputed God’s righteousness. Then the Lord spoke to Job out of a storm and said: Who art thou, that durst dispute with God? And Job answered: I have uttered that which I understood not. And God forgave him, and reproved his three friends because they had judged Job harshly.
God blessed Job; he was healed again, and got twice as much riches as before; he got again seven sons and three daughters, and lived a hundred and forty years after and died old and full of days. (Book of Job.)
1-5. The 5 books of Moses, called the Pentateuch, which begin with the creation of the world, and close with the death of Moses. Their names are: 1. Genesis; 2. Exodus; 3. Leviticus; 4. Numbers; 5. Deuteronomy. 6. The Book of Joshua. 7. The Book of Judges. 8. The Book of Ruth. 9-10. The two Books of Samuel. 11-12. The two Books of Kings. 13-14. The two Books of Chronicles. 15. The Book of Ezra. 16. The Book of Nehemiah. 17. The Book of Esther, which tells of a Jewish girl who became queen of Persia. 18. The Book of Job. 19. The Book of Psalms, or The Psalms of David, in all 150. David has written many of these. 20. The Proverbs of Solomon. 21. Ecclesiastes, or The Preacher. 22. The Song of Solomon.
The five books of the four Major Prophets: 1. Isaiah. 2-3. Jeremiah, and his Book of Lamentations. 4. Ezekiel. 5. Daniel.
The 12 Minor Prophets: 1. Hosea. 2. Joel. 3. Amos. 4. Obadiah. 5. Jonah. 6. Micah. 7. Nahum. 8. Habakkuk. 9. Zephaniah. 10. Haggai. 11. Zechariah. 12. Malachi.—In all 39 writings.
In most of these books prophecies concerning Christ are found. Malachi, the last prophet, foretells even of him who shall prepare the way for Him. The Lord says in the book of this prophet: Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. And again He says: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great day of the Lord.
Concerning these writings the Apostle Paul says: All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for instruction in righteousness. And the Apostle Peter says: The holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
After these books come a number of others called Apocrypha. These were written by pious men and contain much that is good; but they are not inspired by God, as are the Holy Scriptures, hence we dare not always use them as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. The most important are: The Book of Tobit, The Book of Wisdom, The Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach, and the two Books of the Maccabees.