Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub

In short, we say that the way of encamping, and every thing else that we admire with so much reason in the Greeks and Romans, was taken from the antient models of the eastern people. The Hebrews set a high value upon their booty and spoils, as all the nations of antiquity did they were marks of honour.

[ocr errors]

From Joshua's time to the kings the command of armies belonged to those whom the people chose, or God raised up in an extraordinary manner, as Othniel, Barak, and Gideon: but none were subject to them but the country or the people that chose them, or to whom God gave them for deliverers. The rest of the people, abusing their liberty, often exposed themselves to the insults of their enemies which made them ask for a king, not only to do them justice, but to conduct their armies, and make war for them. From that time too they were in much more safety. The king called the people together when he judged it convenient, and always kept up a great number of forces. It is observed in the beginning of Saul's reign that he maintained three thousand men :* David had twelve bodies of four and twenty thousand each, who served monthly by turns. Jehoshaphat had not a third part of David's kingdom; and yet he had eleven hundred and sixty thousand fighting men in his service, without reckoning garrisons."

1 Sam. viii. 20.

1 Chron. xxvii. 1, &c.

1 Sam. xiii. 2.

CHAP. XXIV.

Their Kings.

THE king had power of life and death, and could put criminals to death without the formality of justice. David made use of this prerogative in the case of him who boasted that he had killed Saul, and of those that murdered Ishbosheth." The Roman emperors possessed a similar power. The kings of Israel levied tribute upon the Israelites themselves; for Saul promises that all the family of the man that would fight Goliah should be exempted from it and it appears that Solomon had laid excessive taxes upon them by the complaints made to Rehoboam. The power of kings was in other respects very much limited they were obliged to keep the law as well as private men; they could neither add to nor diminish it; and there is no instance of any of them making so much as one new law. Their way of living at home was very plain, as we may see by the description that Samuel gave of their manners to put the people out of conceit with them; he allows them only women for household affairs. Yet they had a great attendance when they appeared in public. Among the

с

1 Sam. xvii. 25.

a

2 Sam. i. 15. iv. 12.
1 Kings xii. 14.

b

1 Sam. viii. 10-18.

signs of Absalom's rebellion, the Scripture reckons fifty men that ran before him; and the same is said of his brother Adonijah.'

The kings lived sparingly as well as private people; the difference was, they had more land and herds. When indeed David's riches are reckoned up, his treasures of gold and silver are put into the account; but so are his tillage and vineyards, his stores of wine and oil, his plantations of olive and fig-trees, his herds and kine, camels, asses, and sheep. Thus Homer describes the riches of Ulysses: he says he had twelve great herds of each sort of cattle upon the continent, besides what he had in his island." They took out of this great stock what was necessary to maintain their household. There were, in Solomon's time, twelve overseers distributed through the land of Israel, who, each in his turn, set monthly provisions for the table, which for one day were thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal, ten fat oxen, and twenty out of the pastures, and a hundred sheep, besides harts, and roebucks, and fallow deer, and fatted fowl, enough to feed at

i

• 2 Sam. xv. 1.

[ocr errors]

1 Chron. xxvii. 25, &c.

h 66

* 1 Kings i. 5.

Twelve herds of his

The main land graze; as many flocks of sheep;
Droves of fat swine as numerous-

As many flocks of goats: nor these are all,
But other goats beside, eleven flocks,
Browze on the margin of the field at home.
Odyss. xiv. ver. 110.
* 1 Kings iv. 22, &c.

1

1 Kings iv. 7.

COWPER.

least five thousand people. As this provision was the product of the country itself, there was no need to buy any thing; nor any want of purveyors, treasurers, or comptrollers; nor of that vast number of officers which eat up great lords; so that gold and silver continued laid up, or served for its most natural use, to be manufactured into plate and household ornaments.

Hence came the vast riches of David and Solomon.' David prepared all that was necessary for building the temple, the value of which came to a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand, i. e. a million talents of silver. 1 Chron. xxii. 14. that is, one thousand two hundred and twenty-three millions, six hundred and twenty-nine thousand, three hundred and forty-four pounds, nine shillings and eight-pence three farthings.TM Besides, he caused great treasures to be laid up in his sepulchre. Solomon built a great number of palaces, fortified several cities, and finished several public works. All the plate and furniture of his house at Mount Libanus was of pure gold; besides two hundred golden targets, each of which was worth about one thousand four hundred and seventy-four pounds, five shillings and eightpence halfpenny, or two hundred and ninety-four thou

1 1 Chron. xxix.

1 Chron. xxii. 14. In the original, only 100,000 talents of gold:

For 100,000 talents of gold come to
And 1,000,000 talents of silver come to

£737,142,858 486,486,486 9 8

Which, together, make in standard, £1,223,629,344 9 84

sand, eight hundred and fifty-seven pounds, two shillings and tenpence farthing sterling in all; and three hundred bucklers, worth seven hundred and thirty seven pounds, two shillings and tenpence farthing a-piece, which amounts to about two hundred and twenty-one thousand, one hundred and forty-two pounds, seventeen shillings and one penny three farthings sterling."

His revenues too were great. Commerce alone brought him in every year six hundred and sixtysix talents of gold; which make four millions nine hundred and nine thousand, three hundred and seventy-one pounds, eight shillings and eightpence sterling. He made the Israelites pay tribute, and all foreigners that were under his dominion, the Hivites, the Amorites, and all the other antient inhabitants of the land of Israel, the Idumeans, great part of Arabia, and all Syria: for his empire extended from the borders of Egypt to the Euphrates; and all the countries that were so rich, sent him every year vessels of gold and silver, cloth, arms, perfumes, horses, and mules. These reflections may serve to make one understand how Crœsus came by his riches in a kingdom about the same size as that of Solomon. Silver and gold were not yet dispersed through the world. There was but little in Greece; none in Italy and the rest of Europe, except Spain, where they had some mines.

[ocr errors]

"See the proper method of calculating the Hebrew talent, and value of the shield, so as to bring them into English money, Appendix, No. V.

« VorigeDoorgaan »