116 
1 570,000. The discrepancy between these two is not great; 
but the fact of there being any difference at all, I think, tends 
to prove my point. The number, whether we take the higher 
or the lower, seems to me probably a correct one. it would 
imply a total population of about 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 ; half 
of the number we obtain by calculating the increase on 
2 000 000 (the supposed number who came out of Bgypt) at 
tho rate of B8- per annum for 475 years. But, though we 
find Judah numbered in 1 Chronicles at 470,000 only, still 100 
years later, in the time of Jehoshaphat, the kingdom of Judah 
could muster, exclusive of Benjamin, 780,000. 
24 But I will refrain from wearying you with tedious 
details. I will call your attention to a very few points more. 
The 7,000 who followed Ahab, king of Israel, killed, we are 
told 100,000 Syrians in one day : that is, more than fourteen 
each; and 27,000 were killed by an accident on f 
that the whole Syrian force seems to have been nearly 150,000. 
Can we consider that we have here the number really intended 
by the inspired historian ? Or again, to turn to a different 
subject-matter, we read in the 1st Book of Chromcles that 
David prepared 3,000 talents of gold and 7,000 talents of 
silver ; and his princes offered more than 5,000 talents of gold 
and 10,000 talents of silver; that is to say, David left to 
Solomon, in all, more than 673 tons of gold and 71o of silver ! 
And on a certain dav, we are told, they offered as burnt- 
offerings 1,000 bullocks, 1,000 rams, and 1,000 lambs. Can 
these be correct figures ? Again, Solomon is said to ka.ve had 
153 300 (the 2nd Book of Chronicles says 153,600) hands 
employed in bearing burdens and quarrying for the Temple, 
and offered at the dedication 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep; 
and yet this Temple, according to our text, was only 105 feet 
long, 30 broad, and 45 high, with a porch of 30 feet by 1 o ; 
and a “ house, that is the temple before it,” i.e., an outer 
court, of 60 feet in length, and an oracle, or chancel, as we 
should term it, of 30 feet long, broad, and high. These dimen- 
sions are as much under the mark as the other numbers 1 have 
just stated are above it ; they are exceeded, I imagine, by 
every cathedral in England. The total length, court, porch, 
house, and oracle was but 225 feet, not half the length _ of 
St. PauTs (510 feet), not so much as the transeptal breadth 
from north to south portico (282 feet). Surely the great 
Temple of Solomon, the centre of worship for 5,000,000 ot 
people, with all its golden, and silver, and brazen furniture, 
was larger than an ordinary parish church ! 
25. I will trouble you with only one detail more. When 
the children at Bethel, the stronghold of Israelite idolatry, 
