son.  “The story of David’s hasty flight from Jerusalem over Olivet and across the Jordan to escape from Absalom is touchingly sad.  ’And David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up, and he had his head covered, and went barefoot.’  Then what a picture of paternal love, which the basest filial ingratitude could not quench, is that of David mourning the death of Absalom, ’The king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept:  and as he went, thus he said, O, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!’” After finishing out a reign of forty years, “the sweet singer of Israel” “slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David.”

His son Solomon succeeded him on the throne, and had a peaceful reign of forty years, during which time the Temple on Mount Moriah was erected, being the greatest work of his reign.  David had accumulated much material for this house; Hiram, king of Tyre, furnished cedar timber from the Lebanon mountains, and skilled workmen put up the building, into which the Ark of the Covenant was borne.  This famous structure was not remarkable for its great size, but for the splendid manner in which it was adorned with gold and other expensive materials.  Israel’s wisest monarch was a man of letters, being the author of three thousand proverbs and a thousand and five songs.  His wisdom exceeded that of all his contemporaries, “and all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.”  A case in point is the visit of the Queen of Sheba, who said:  “The half was not told me; thy wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame which I heard.”  But the glory of his kingdom did not last long.  “It dazzled for a brief space, like the blaze of a meteor, and then vanished away.”  Nehemiah says there was no king like him, “nevertheless even him did foreign women cause to sin.”

Solomon’s reign ended about 975 B C., and his son, Rehoboam, was coronated at Shechem.  Jereboam, the son of Nebat, whose name is proverbial for wickedness, returned from Egypt, whence he had fled from Solomon, and asked the new king to make the grievous service of his father lighter, promising to support him on that condition.  Rehoboam counseled “with the old men, that had stood before Solomon,” and refused their words, accepting the counsel of the young men that had grown up with him.  When he announced that he would make the yoke of his father heavier, the ten northern tribes revolted, and Jereboam became king of what is afterwards known as the house of Israel.  The kingdom lasted about two hundred and fifty years, being ruled over by nineteen kings, but the government did not run smoothly.  “Plot after plot was formed, and first one adventurer and then another seized the throne.”  Besides the internal troubles, there were numerous wars.  Benhadad, of Damascus, besieged Samaria; Hazael, king of Syria, overran the land east of the Jordan; Moab