VII.II.

VII.II.1.  The comprehensive revision which we noticed in the Book of Judges has left its mark on the Books of Samuel too.  As, however, in this case the period is short, and extremely rich in incident, and really forms a connected whole, the artificial frame- and net-work does not make itself so much felt.  Yet it is by no means wanting, as the dates of themselves indicate, whose place in the chronological system was shown above.  It is worthy of notice how very loosely these are fitted into their context.  In 1Samuel iv. 18 seq. we read:  “And when the messenger made mention of the ark of God, Eli fell backwards off his seat, and his neck brake, and he died, for he was an old man and heavy, and he judged Israel forty years; and when his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, who was with child, heard the tidings,” etc.  The statement of the date is not altogether inappropriately dragged in, indeed, yet it is easy to see that it is dragged in.  In 2Samuel ii. 8-13 we read:  “Abner, the captain of Saul’s host, took Ishbaal the son of Saul, and brought him over the Jordan to Mahanaim, and made him king over Gilead and Geshur, and Jezreel, and Ephraim, and Benjamin, and all Israel. Ishbaal was forty years old when he began to reign over lsrael, and he reigned two years.  But the house of Judah followed David.  And the time that David was king in Hebron was seven years and six months.  And Abner and the servants of Ishbaal went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon, and Joab with the servants of David went out to meet him.”  The words in italics <_..._> manifestly interrupt the connection; and with regard to Ishbaal’s dates we have also to remark that from what we learn of him elsewhere he was, in the first place, still in the years of pupilage, and in the next must have reigned as long in Mahanaim as Oavid in Hebron.  The number two connected with his reign is to be explained as in the case of Saul (1Samuel xiii. 1):  Saul was...years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years over Israel.  In this verse, which is not found in the LXX, the number for the years of his life is wanting; and originally the number for the years of his reign was left out too:  the two is quite absurd, and has grown out of the following word for year, which in Hebrew has a somewhat similar appearance.

In company with the chronological formulas, we find also the religious (1Samuel vii. 2-4).  “While the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel came together after Jehovah.  And Samuel spake unto the whole house of Israel, saying:  ’If ye do return to Jehovah with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and the Astartes from among you, and prepare your hearts unto Jehovah, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’  And the children of Israel did put away the Baals and Astartes, and served Jehovah only.”