Book Description:
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: v. Character Of The Book Of Kings And Its RelaTion TO OTHER BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. The Book of Kings was clearly meant to be a continuation of the Books of Samuel. The writer alludes continually in the life of Solomon to the promises which had been made by God to David and which are mentioned in the second of those books. A son was to succeed David whose kingdom should be established of the Lord, who should build a house for the name of Jehovah, to whom God would be a father, and from whom the mercy of the Lord should not depart (2 Sam. vii.). To shew that this prophecy was fulfilled is the object of the Compiler of the Book of Kings, and whatever does not conduce thereto is passed over with but little notice. There elapsed, no doubt, a considerable time between the plague in Jerusalem, with which the Books of Samuel conclude, and the feeble age of David described in the opening paragraph of this Book. But to give historical events in their full and complete order is no part of our writer's aim. We can see this from every portion of his work. He opens his narrative with so much, and no more, of the story of David's closing life as serves to introduce the accession of Solomon, while to the history of that monarch, in whom the promises made to David had so conspicuous a fulfilment, he devotes about one quarter of his whole work. Solomon's glory and prosperity are set forth in the early chapters, and he is exhibited as the king whom God had set up over Israel to do judgement and justice. While he walked in this way it was well with him ; but on his decline therefrom, chastisements divinely sent came heavy upon him and upon his son. Yet God would preserve a lamp unto David, and over and over again we are reminded that this promise was not forgotten (i Kings xi. 36; xv. 4; 2 Ki...
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