THE MISSIONARY JOURNEY OF PAUL

THE GREAT KING EPISODE 2

He speaks of himself indeed at that time as "a little child," but the expression is metaphorical, and is only used as the language of deep humility.1 He succeeded to the crown in early man- hood. If so, he was probably born not long after the year B.C.1035 of the chronology which is most usually adopted, and which is, so far as we can discover, reasonably accurate.2But before we leave the tragic circumstances which accom- panied David's first introduction to the mother of Solomon, itis worth notice that the deadly wound which it inflicted on the king's conscience, and the indignation which it caused in the hearts of all to whom it became known, are proofsof that loftier morality and keener sense of sin which resulted from the Divine training of the Hebrew people. There were many of the surrounding nations among whom this crime of a brilliant and successful monarch would have been regarded as venial or indifferent. The subjects of a Pagan autocrat would have easily forgiven such an offence, and he would have found no difficulty in forgiving himself. Indeed it is doubtful whether any Egyptian or Assyrian subject would have ventured to in- quire into circumstances which were surrounded with mystery and doubt. But "the eye of the Lord is ten thousand times brighter than the sun," and it was by a holy inspiration that His prophets had been taught to look on sin "with such a glance as strook Gehazi with leprosy, and Simon Magus with a curse." The gaze of Nathan pierced through the precautions which veiled the guilty secret of the king, and his voice—the voice ofthe king's own conscience, and of the conscience of all the nation—awoke the offender to that burst of heartfelt penitence which expressed itself in language never to be forgotten in the Peni- tential Psalms. The king's repentance was as signal as had been his crime.1 I Chron. xxii. 5; xxix. 1. "Solomon my son is young and tender." But the same phrase is applied to Rehoboam, when he was forty-one (2 Chron.xii. 13; xiii. 7), unless that (מא) be a clerical error for twenty-one (כא).2 The systems of chronology vary. Ewald dates the reign of Solomon from 1025-986; Usher from 1017-977. Hales, Jackson, and Bunsen adopt other schemes.