From the Accession of David, to the Division

of the Kingdom

After Saul’s death, David went up to Hebron. “And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.” 2 Samuel 2:1-4.ASC 81.3

“But Abner, the son of Ner, ...took Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, and made him king ...over all Israel. Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and reigned two years.” 2:8-10.ASC 81.4

“But the house of Judah followed David. And the time that David was king in Hebron, over the house of Judah, was seven years and six months.” vs. 10, 11.ASC 81.5

After Ish-bosheth had reigned two years, there was war between the house of David and the house of Saul five years, to the death of Ish-bosheth. Then “all the elders of Israel came to the king, to Hebron, ...and they anointed David king over Israel. David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months: and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty and three years over all Israel and Judah.” 5:3-5.ASC 82.1

The date of David’s war with Ammon, and his sin with Bath-sheba, is thus gathered. That war was “after” (10:1) Mephibosheth, who was five years old at the death of Saul, was old enough to have “a young son, whose name was Micha.” 9:12. And Solomon had a son born, Rehoboam, one year before David died-Rehoboam being forty-one years old at the end of Solomon’s forty years’ reign. 1 Kings 14:21. It must, therefore, have been about B. C. 1055-1050.ASC 82.2

After Amnon’s sin, Absalom waited “two full years” (2 Samuel 13:23) before he took vengeance; after which “Absalom fled, and went to Geshur, and was there three years.” v. 38. He then returned and “dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king’s face.” 14:28. “And it came to pass after forty, ^{8“The Syriac, Arabic, and several MSS. of the Vulgate, supported by Josephus, Theodoret, and the context, read “four years,” the present reading being inexplicable.”-Hales.} [four,] years, that Absalom said unto the king, ...let me go and pay my vow in Hebron.” 15:7. This places the rebellion of Absalom towards the close of David’s reign. After this, “there was a famine in the days of David three years.” 21:1.ASC 82.3

A short time before the death of David, Solomon is anointed king. 1 Kings 1:39. “So David slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem. Then sat Solomon upon the throne of David his father.” 2:10-12. B. C. 1030.ASC 83.1

“And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord.” [Original illegible] 1 Kings 6:1. B. C. 1027.ASC 83.2

“In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the Lord laid, in the month Zif: and in the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof.... So was he seven years in building it.” v. 37, 38. B.. B. C. 1020.ASC 83.3

There is a great difference of opinion respecting the correctness of this period. It is impossible to reconcile it with the length of other periods comprised between these epochs.ASC 83.4

If we add,ASC 84.1

The time in the wilderness. 40 years, ”” to the division of the land, 6 “ ”” to Samuel the prophet, 450 “ ”” of Saul, 40 “ ”” of David, 40 “ And the three years of Solomon, 3 “ They make, 579 “

Or the 580th year from the Exode-an excess of one hundred years above the time given in the foregoing text-without making any allowance for a period between the termination of the 450 years to Samuel, and the forty years of Saul. ^{9The fact that the difference is precisely one hundred years, is an argument in favor of there being a mistake in the text of Kings of just that duration, and of there being no space of time between the two periods referred to.} There are one hundred and twenty-nine years besides the time of the Judges, which deducted from 479, would leave but 350 for the time of the Judges, which cannot be harmonized with the text of the Judges, or the statement of Paul. There must be an error here, or in that of St. Paul and the Judges. If in the Judges, the error must occur in several texts, which makes it less likely that it should be there than in the text of the Kings, where a single error would cover the whole period. To reconcile the length of the Judges with the text in Kings, the only plausible method has been to suppose some of the Judges were contemporaneous; but this is opposed to the language of Scripture, which describes one judge as being after another,-with the exception of Samson, Eli, and Samuel. Josephus says, “Solomon began the building of the temple in the fourth year of his reign, in the second month, ...five hundred and ninety-two years after the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.” Jew. Ant. b. 8, ch. 3. And Jahn (Heb. Com.) says of the text, in Kings, that the Jews, in China, who separated from their brethren in the first century of the Christian era, read “five hundred and ninety-two years.” Assuming that the text of 1 Kings 6:1 is correct, Usher and others have curtailed the time of the Judges to conform to it, as given in the appendix. An argument for this shortened chronology is that in the genealogy of David, as given in 1 Chronicles 2, and Matthew 1, but fourteen generations are given from Abraham; viz., 1, Abraham; 2, Isaac; 3, Jacob; 4, Judah; 5, Pharez; 6, Hezron; 7, Ram; 8, Aminadab; 9, Nahshon; 10, Salmon; 11, Boaz; 12, Obed; 13, Jesse; 14, David.ASC 84.2

The difficulty arises from the mention of Rahab, in St. Matthew’s genealogy, as the mother of Boaz-it being generally taken for granted that Rahab, the harlot of Jericho, is spoken of. Now if Salmon married this woman, Boaz must, on the longer computation, have been born at least four hundred and thirty years, and on the shorter, three hundred and sixty years, before David, which last would give one hundred and twenty years each, for the age of Boaz, Obed, and Jesse, at the birth of their son. It is, therefore, a difficulty against the shorter, as well as against the longer computation. Samuel (1 Chronicles 6:33-38) is the twenty-third in descent from Abraham, so that it seems surprising to find but fourteen to David. Dr. Hales thinks, that, as in the fourteen generations reckoned from Solomon to Jechoniah, or Jehoiachin, and the Babylonish captivity, (Matthew 1,) Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah, are omitted after Joram, and Jehoiakim after Josiah, that so there may be an omission of four or more generations between Obed, with whom the book of Ruth ends, and Jesse the father of David,-making Jesse the descendant, instead of the son of Obed,-as Jesus was the “son of David, the son of Abraham.” The longer computation is now generally received by chronologers.ASC 85.1

“But Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house.” 1 Kings 7:1. “And it came to pass, at the end of twenty years,” that “Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the Lord, and the king’s house.” 9:10. B. C. 1010.ASC 86.1

“When Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods.” 11:4. This, “according to Abulfaragi, p. 35, took place about the thirty-fourth year of his reign, when he was about fifty-four years old.” Hales. “And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. And Solomon slept with his fathers; ...and Rehoboam, his son, reigned in his stead.” 1 Kings 11:42, 43. B. C. 990.ASC 86.2