662 



HEBREW LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 



III. Period of the Monarchy from 1100 to 600. 



1. The Jewish State as one Kingdom, from 1095 

 to 975. The king was little more than the military 

 leader of the nation, bound to act according to the 

 commands of Jehovah, without a court or permanent 

 residence. The nation was still a mere agricultural 

 and pastoral people, without wealth or luxury, but 

 gradually acquiring a more warlike character. Saul 

 gained some victories, ami was acknowledged king 

 at an assembly of the people, in which Samuel 

 resigned his dignity of Judge. But the victorious 

 monarch was unwilling to submit to the dictation 

 of the prophet, and ventured to consult Jehovah 

 himself. The offended Samuel secretly anointed 

 smother king, the young shepherd, David, son of 

 Jesse, who finally succeeded to the Hebrew throne 

 on the death of Saul. He was at first acknowledged 

 only by his own tribe, that of Jinlah. The eleven 

 other tribes declared for Ishbosheth, son of Saul. 

 On the death of the former, however, David became 

 king of the whole nation. His reign (1055 1015) 

 is the era of an entire change in the constitution 

 of the state and the condition of the nation. By his 

 brilliant victories over the Jebusites, Philistines, 

 Amalekites, Idumaeans, Moabites, Ammonites and 

 Zeba, the state received large additions by way of 

 conquest, and his kingdom extended from the Eu- 

 phrates to the Mediterranean, and from Phoenicia to 

 the Arabian gulf. A new residence was fixed at 

 Jerusalem, which was intended to be the seat of 

 a national sanctuary. The strict observance of the 

 worship of Jehovah, as the exclusive national wor- 

 ship, was maintained; commerce was established, 

 and the general cultivation of the nation promoted. 

 At the same time, the foundation was laid for the 

 future disunion and final decline of the state ; for al- 

 though the nation, during his reign and that of his 

 son Solomon, reached the highest point of its power 

 and prosperity, the excessive splendour of the reli- 

 gious worship appealed too much to the senses, and 

 the introduction of foreign manners and customs 

 enervated the national character and the moral sim- 

 plicity of the people; too many of the conquered 

 nations revolted, and the jealousy entertained by the 

 other tribes of the ruling tribe, and the discontent of 

 the people with their increasing burdens, afforded 

 too many subjects of dissension, to allow of the long 

 continuance of this golden age of Israel. The reign 

 of Solomon (LOIS' 975) was tlw splendid reign of an 

 unwarlike, ostentatious, but cultivated monarch. 

 The government was administered from the interior 

 of the seraglio. The kingdom was organized anew 

 for the maintenance of a luxurious court. (For an 

 idea of the luxury of the Jews, consult professor 

 Hartmann's Die Hebraerin am Putztische. ) Foreign 

 commerce was carried on as a monopoly of the 

 crown, and a costly temple and palace were erected 

 in the royal residence. But while the metropolis 

 grew rich, the country was impoverished and op- 

 pressed by the profuse expenditures of the court. 

 The gradual internal decline was hastened by the 

 introduction of the worship of foreign gods, and 

 Syria, which had been gained by conquest, was 

 lost. Rehoboam was so little able to avert the 

 threatening storm, that he succeeded to the govern- 

 ment of only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin ; the 

 ten other tribes formed the kingdom of Israel under 

 Jeroboam. 



2. The Jewish State as a divided Kingdom ; 975 

 588. The capital of Israel was at first Sicliem, 

 afterwards Samaria ; that of Juclah was Jerusalem. 

 Although Israel was larger and more populous, 

 Judah was richer, and in possession ot the national 

 temple and the priesthood, so that the power of the 

 states was nearly equal, find the contest between 



them obstinate. The kings of Israel endeavoured 

 to confirm the political division of the nation by 

 establishing a sanctuary in their own territory, and 

 prohibiting their subjects from visiting the ancient 

 national sanctuary in Jerusalem. They were there- 

 fore denominated enemies of Jehovah. Even in the 

 kingdom of Judah, some of the kings introduced the 

 service of other gods. But oppression itself pre- 

 served the worship of Jehovah. The number and 

 political importance of the prophets increased, the 

 more the oracles of God were rendered necessary by 

 troubles. The notion of a future period of prosperity 

 under a powerful king, the idea of a Messiah and 

 his kingdom, was continually more and more deve- 

 loped and cherished. The jealousy and wars 

 between the two kingdoms not only continued with 

 little interruption, but were rendered more danger- 

 ous by connexions with foreign princes, particularly 

 with the kings of Damascus and Egypt, until these 

 feeble states were destroyed by the more powerful 

 empires of Asia. The kingdom of Israel survived 

 the separation 253 years, under nineteen kings 

 of different houses, who succeeded each other by 

 means of violent revolutions. Shalmaneser, king of 

 Assyria, took Samaria, the capital, and put an end 

 to the kingdom of Israel, carrying away the inhabi- 

 tants captive into the interior of Asia, B. C. 722. 

 The kingdom of Judah existed, under twenty kings 

 of the house of David, until 588. The throne passed 

 successively from father to son, and the succession 

 was only twice interrupted, by the usurpation of 

 Athaliah and by foreign interference. Jehosaphat 

 (914 891) restored the worship of Jehovah. Heze- 

 kiah, in whose reign Isaiah prophesied (728 699), 

 delivered his country from the tribute which Tiglath- 

 Pileser had exacted in the reign of his predecessor. 

 During the reign of Manasseh (699 644) the wor- 

 ship of the Phoenician Baal was introduced, and the 

 laws of Moses fell into oblivion. Josiah (642 01 1) 

 restored the temple and worship of Jehovah, re- 

 covered the lost book of the law, and introduced 

 strict reforms according to it. In 606, Nebuchad- 

 nezzar rendered the country tributary to Babylon, 

 and on a third invasion, in consequence of an attempt 

 to throw off the Babylonian yoke, took Jerusalem 

 (588), and carried away the inhabitants, who had 

 been spared on his second campaign. After their 

 return from the captivity, the name of Hebrews gives 

 way to that of Jews, under which head their history 

 will be continued. 



Hebrew Language and Literature. The influence 

 which the monotheism of the Hebrews has exerted 

 over the civilization of the human race, through 

 Christianity and Mohammedanism, gives to the old 

 national documents, in which this religion has come 

 down to us purer than in the worship of their de- 

 scendants, the Jews, a universal historical import- 

 ance. Hebrew literature, therefore, independently 

 of its containing the records of a divine revelation, 

 possesses a peculiar scientific interest. It surpasses 

 hi antiquity, general credibility, originality, poetic 

 strength, and religious importance, that of any other 

 nation before the Christian era, and contains most 

 remarkable memorials and trustworthy materials for 

 the history of the human race, and its mental deve- 

 lopment. 



Though the Hebrew is no longer to be considered 

 as the original language of the human race (See 

 Wahl's General History of the Oriental Languages, 

 &c., Leipsic, 1784), yet it is evidently one. of the 

 oldest of the 'Shemitish languages (the Chaldee, 

 Aramaean, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Phoenician, and 

 ^Ethiopian, so called on account of the supposed 

 descent of these different nations from Shem, the 

 son of Noah). In its formation, the following 



