of the Lord by those means which God still permitted His people to learn His pleasure, he was told that it was for Saul and his bloody house, because he had broken the covenant made by Josue with the Gabaonites, and put many of them undeservedly to death. In accordance with the rules in which justice was frequently administered in those times, David then gave the Gabaonites the choice of the punishment that should be inflicted upon the descendants of their persecutor. They asked that seven of Saul's posterity should be given up to them to be put to death. This therefore was done, and the famine ceased. David himself was now growing old, and in the pride of his heart he was seized with a desire to learn the exact numbers of the people whom he governed. This, indeed, was a forbidden thing; for God had promised to make the people innumerable, as the stars of the heaven or the sands on the sea-shore; and any wish to ascertain their precise amount was a sign of want of faith in the promises and protection of the Almighty. Even Joab, bloodthirsty and unprincipled as he was, remonstrated with the king on his determination; but in vain. David caused the reckoning to be made; and there appeared to be of the tribe of Juda (the largest of the tribes) 500,000 men capable of fighting in battle, and of the rest of the tribes 800,000. We may therefore conclude, that the whole population of the kingdom, including old and young, men and women, amounted to six or seven millions. And David's heart struck him after the people were numbered: and David said to the Lord: I have sinned very much in what I have done: but I pray thee, O Lord, to take away the iniquity of Thy servant, because I have done exceeding foolishly. And David arose in the morning and the word of the Lord came to Gad the prophet and the seer of David, saying: Go, and say to David: Thus saith the Lord: I give thee thy choice of three things: choose one of them which thou wilt, that I may do it to thee. And when Gad was come to David, he told him, saying: Either seven years of fa mine shall come to thee in thy land: or thou shalt flee three months before thy adversaries, and they shall pursue thee or for three days there shall be a pestilence in thy land. Now therefore deliberate, and see what answer I shall return to Him that sent me. And David said to Gad: I am in a great strait: but it is better that I should fall into the hands of the Lord (for His mercies are many) than into the hands of men. And the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, from the morning unto the time appointed and there died of the people from Dan to Bersabee seventy thousand men. And when the angel of the Lord had stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord had pity on the affliction; and said to the angel that slew the people: It is enough: now hold thy hand. And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing-floor of Areuna the Jebusite. And David said to the Lord, when he saw the angel striking the people: It is I, I am he that have sinned; I have done wickedly these that are the sheep, what have they done? let Thy hand, I beseech Thee, be turned against me, and against my father's house. And Gad came to David that day, and said: Go up, and build an altar to the Lord in the threshing-floor of Areuna the Jebusite. And David went up according to the word of Gad, which the Lord had commanded him. And Areuna looked, and saw the king and his servants coming towards him: and going out he worshipped the king, bowing with his face to the earth, and said: Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said to him: To buy the threshing-floor of thee, and build an altar to the Lord, that the plague, which rageth among the people, may cease. And Areuna said to David: Let my lord the king take, and offer, as it seemeth good to him: thou hast here oxen for a holocaust, and the wain and the yokes of the oxen for wood. All these things Areuna as a king gave to the king: and Areuna said to the king: The Lord thy God receive thy vow. And the king answered him, and said: Nay, but I will buy it of thee at a price; and I will not offer to the Lord my God holocausts free-cost. So David bought the floor, and : the oxen, for fifty sicles of silver and David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered holocausts and peaceofferings and the Lord became merciful to the land; and the plague was stayed from Israel. : CHAP. XI. Solomon is made King. The Death of David. INCREASING infirmities now warned the people of Israel that David's days were nearly ended. One of his sons, Adonias, preparing for his father's death, already proclaimed himself his successor; and David had not strength to resist him. Nathan the prophet and Bethsabee went, therefore, to him, and urged him to lose no time in fulfilling his former promise, that Solomon should succeed him upon the throne; and by their advice the king caused Solomon at once to be anointed sovereign over Israel. Adonias then fled to the altar of the Lord, and, laying hold upon it, claimed refuge and safety; and Solomon promised it to him, so long as he should remain faithful and quiet. Solomon also received directions from his father to put to death Semei, whom he had spared during his own life, and also Joab, for the murders he had committed. Then, encouraging his son to be firm in his obedience to the Divine law, the aged monarch died in peace. Solomon now married the daughter of the king of Egypt, and offered solemn sacrifices to God, to draw down His blessing upon his future reign. And the Lord appeared to him in a dream by night, saying: Ask what thou wilt that I should give thee. And Solomon said: Thou hast shewn great mercy to Thy servant David my father, even as he walked before Thee in truth, and justice, and an upright heart with Thee: and Thou hast kept Thy great mercy for him, and hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And now, O Lord God, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a child, and know not how to go out and come in. And Thy servant is in the midst of the people which Thou hast chosen, an immense people, which cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore to Thy servant an understanding heart, to judge Thy people, and discern between good and evil. For who shall be able to judge this people Thy people which is so numerous. And the word was pleasing to the Lord that Solomon had asked such a thing. And the Lord said to Solomon: Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life nor riches, nor the lives of thy enemies, but hast asked for thyself wisdom to discern judgment, behold, I have done for thee according to thy words, and have given thee a wise and understanding heart; insomuch that there hath been no one like thee before thee, nor shall arise after thee. Yea, and the things also which thou didst not ask, I have given thee: to wit, riches and glory, so that no one hath been like thee among the kings in all days heretofore. And if thou wilt walk in My ways, and keep My precepts and My commandments, as thy father walked, I will lengthen thy days. A singular dispute soon afterwards tried the sagacity of the new monarch; and the judgment he gave displayed the extraordinary wisdom with which God had endowed him. Two women had each a child born at the same time to them; but one of the children died, and its mother, anxious to possess an infant, though not really her own, appealed to the king, and declared solemnly that the living child was hers, and had been stolen from her by the other woman. No one could decide the quarrel; for no one knew any thing of what had happened; and each of the women, as they were both of them persons of bad character, was equally unworthy of being believed. Solomon, therefore, knowing what would be a mother's feelings towards her true' child, commanded the living infant to be cut into two parts, and one part to be given to each of the woAs the king had expected, the real mother cried out in horror at the command, and entreated that, rather than the child should be slain, it should be taken men. from her, and given to the other woman; for thus at least its life would be preserved. The false mother, at the same time, was willing that the child should be cut into two pieces, as the king commanded. Solomon then saw which was the true and which the pretended mother, and he gave the child to the woman to whom it rightfully belonged. CHAP. XII. The Building of the Temple, and its Dedication. UNDER the rule of Solomon, the Israelites reached their highest point of temporal prosperity. The sovereign himself was distinguished for a supernatural degree of wisdom; so much so, that his name was not only a proverb amongst the Jews, and has so continued to this day, but among other nations of the East his fame has not even yet passed way. He combined a universal acquaintance with all the learning and science of his time, with a most wonderful knowledge of the heart of man and of all that goes on in the world. He wrote the books of Proverbs, of Ecclesiastes, and the Canticle of Canticles, or Song of Solomon, which, under the symbols of natural love, prefigures the mutual love of Christ and His Church. The Book of Wisdom contains also Solomon's sentiments on many of the greatest subjects which can occupy the mind of man; but it is not known who was its actual writer. Israel was now at perfect peace; and Solomon proceeded to put his father's plans into execution for the building a gorgeous temple to Almighty God in Jerusalem. For this purpose, he agreed with Hiram king of Tyre for the supply of timber from Mount Lebanon, and collected the ablest artists and workmen from the Jewish nation for the construction of the new edifice. The temple, when completed, was not what we now should call a large building, for the nature of the Mosaic worship did not require the people themselves to be present within the building. The whole was not much larger than many an old village church in our country parishes. It consisted of two parts, like the old taber |