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leave us, nor forsake us; that he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers. And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before Jehovah, be nigh unto Jehovah, our God, day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, at all times, as the matter shall require; that all the people of the earth may know that Jehovah is God, and that there is none else. Let your heart, therefore, be perfect with Jehovah, our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.*

And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before Jehovah. And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto Jehovah, two and twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king, and all the children of Israel, dedicated the house of Jehovah.†

Now, when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Jehovah filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of Jehovah, because the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of Jehovah. And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of Jehovah upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshipped, and praised Jehovah, saying, For he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.‡

At the same time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.§ And in the

1 Kings, viii. 12-61. 2 Chron. vi. 1-42.

2 Chron. vii. 1-3.

+1 Kings, viii. 63. 2 Chron. vii. 5. § Supposed to be from Antioch of Syria, to the Rhinococura; the former being on the north, the latter on the south; i. e. from one extremity of the land to the other. A. CLARKE.

eighth day they made a solemn assembly; for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days. And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month the king sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart, for the goodness that Jehovah had shewed unto David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.*

Besides this magnificent temple, Solomon erected a palace for himself, of great splendour,† and the house of the forest of Lebanon, and a smaller palace for his queen, the daughter of Pharaoh; who, as a gentile, he did not think it right should dwell in the house of David, king of Israel, whereunto the ark of Jehovah had come ; and these latter erections, it is said, occupied a space of thirteen years.§

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And it came to pass, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of Jehovah, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do, that Jehovah appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared unto him at Gibeon. And Jehovah said unto him, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before me; I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there for ever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee; and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments, then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David, thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes, which I have set

2 Chron. vii. 8-10.

† See the description of this building in 1 Kings, vii. 1—12. 2 Chron. viii. 11. 1 Kings, ix. 24.

§ 1 Kings, vii. 1.

before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them; then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a by-word among all people; and at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath Jehovah done thus unto this land, and to this house? And they shall answer, Because they forsook Jehovah, their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them; therefore hath Jehovah brought upon them all this evil.†

Besides the cedar wood and artificers with which Hiram had supplied Solomon for these important erections, he also sent him six score talents of gold,+ and four hundred and fifty talents of gold from Ophir ;§ and Solomon in return, over and beyond the corn, wine, and oil, which he had contracted to pay his servants,|| gave him also twenty cities in the land of Galilee; with which, however, he does not appear to have been satisfied, for he called them Cabul.¶

This highly favoured monarch also built Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hagor, and Megiddo, and Gezer,

How is it possible that an infidel can resist the effect of the exact fulfilment of this and similar prophecies, in every Jew he sees or hears of, from the richest to the poorest amongst them? † 1 Kings, ix. 1--9. 2 Chron. vii. 11–22.

1 Kings, ix. 14.

§1 Kings, ix. 28. 2 Chron. ix. 10.

|| 2 Chron. ii. 10. 1 Kings, v. 11.

¶ 1 Kings, ix. 11-13. fies displeasing or dirty.

2 Chron. viii. 2. The word Cabul signiThey seem to have been small towns in the vicinity of Tyre, beyond the boundaries of the land, as divided by Joshua, and lately taken from the ancient inhabitants. SCOTT, in 1 Kings, ix.

which Pharaoh, king of Egypt, having taken and burnt, and slain the Canaanites who dwelt there, gave for a present to his daughter. He also went to Hamathzobah, and prevailed against it, and built Bethhoron the upper, and Bethhoron the nether, Baalath, and Tadmor* in the wilder

Tadmor in the wilderness; afterwards the city and powerful state of Palmyra, whose splendid ruins still constitute one of the grandest monuments of the remains of antiquity, and one of the most interesting spectacles to travellers. "To the west, about midway between Orouros and Emesa, in the vast desert which connects Syria with Arabia, is Palmyra, or Tadamora, the city of palm trees. It was a most powerful city under its celebrated queen, Zenobia, the wife of Odenatus. She opposed the Emperor Aurelian, in the plains of Syria, at the head of 700,000 men, and had nearly defeated him, but was overthrown and carried captive to Italy, A. D. 273, where she had large possessions assigned to her near the Tiber. She was no less an accomplished than a brave princess, and had for her secretary the celebrated Longinus, the reputed author of the well-known treatise on the sublime." Butler's Geography, 203. See more particular accounts of Palmyra, &c. in the following works: Ancient Universal History, vol. i. 367. Guthrie's General History, vol. i. 167. Prideaux, vol. iv. 590. Gibbon, chap. xi. Buckingham's Travels among the Arab Tribes, 428. Volney's Travels in Syria and Egypt, vol. ii. chap. 20. The most minute account is given by Dawkins, Wood, and Bouverie, from whom the above writers have largely borrowed; and by Dr. Halley, in the Philosophical Transactions; but the most interesting statements may be seen in Wells's Scripture Geography, vol. ii. 61-79. C. T. Middleton's Geography, vol. i. 87-90. Folio. London, 1778. And Crevier's Lives of the Roman Emperors, vol. ix. 147-175. See also Seller's Antiq. of Palm. London, 1696. And Quarterly Journal of Education, No. iii. p. 134.

The valley of salt, where David got him a name by smiting the Syrians, is about four miles from this city. 2 Sam. viii. 13. Harmer, amongst a variety of interesting remarks, has the following: "To those who feel something of an incredulous anxiety, about the accounts which the sacred writers have given us, of the extent of the kingdom, and of the fame of Israel in the days of David and

ness, and cities of store in Hamath, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, fenced cities, with walls, gates, and bars; for all which purposes he raised a levy of 30,000 men, besides 170,000 bearers of burdens, and hewers in the mountains.*

Jehovah had promised Solomon great wisdomt for government, and one instance, in particular, is recorded of his extraordinary discrimination: two women laid claim to the same child, and each persisting that it was her own offspring, the judicious monarch, by ordering the child to be cut asunder alive, and divided between them, ascertained, from the force of maternal feeling, the rightful claimant. And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged, and they feared the king; for they saw that

Solomon, I would recommend the curious account which Wood (Ruins of Palmyra) has given of that state. Let them consider that it was a small territory in the midst of a desert, and yet extended its conquests over many rich countries and considerable states; that the great kingdoms of the Seleucida and of the Ptolomies became part of the dominions of a single city, whose name we in vain look for in history; and this, though it flourished in modern times, in comparison of the age of David; none of the dates found there (Palmyra) being earlier than Christ, and in times concerning which we have large accounts. That Palmyra and Balbec, which are perhaps the two most surprising remains of ancient magnificence now left, should be so neglected in history, as in a great measure to be left to tell their own story, appears a very remarkable fact, replete with more sorts of instruction than one. For, besides the moral lessons which Wood refers to, it removes at once all the imaginary difficulties derived from the supposed silence of profane history, concerning the kings and affairs of Jerusalem, a city which stood in the neighbourhood of Palmyra and Balbec, both of which are passed over in as great or greater silence; to which is to be added the consideration, that Jerusalem was much more ancient than either of them." Vol. iii. 367.

• 1 Kings, v. 13-15. 1 Kings, ix. 15—19.

ii. 18

2 Chron. viii. 2-6.

+1 Kings, iii. 12. 2 Chron. i. 12.

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