some, their didactic, proverbial and moral compositions; and some, their devotional poetry, and that wide class of poetry, the prophetic. These books shall be briefly enumerated, and a list of certain lost books subjoined. The Jews do not arrange their Scriptures quite in the order in which they are placed in the English Bible. This latter arrangement has been copied from the Septuagint. But an earlier arrangement of the Old Testament is that which seems to be alluded to by our Lord (in Luke xxiv. 44) as the customary division in his time: "Jesus said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the PROPHETS, and in the PSALMS, concerning me." Very similar is the more express enumeration of the Jewish Scriptures in the prologue to the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus (the date of which is the second century before Christ), "The Law, and the Prophets, and the other books of our fathers." Each enumeration seems designed to comprise the Jewish Scriptures in general; in which view the word Psalms must evidently have been used in a wider sense than that of the mere Book of Psalms. That Book of Psalms is in fact the first and leading portion of one of the three great divisions into which the later Jews distribute their Scriptures. These divisions are the Law, the Prophets and the Chetubim (or writings), called by the later Jews Hagiographa (sacred writings). The Prophets, again, they distinguish into the Earlier and the Later Prophets; thus making four divisions, according to which the Hebrew Bible is still usually printed. The more particular contents are arranged under these four divisions, as follows: 1. THE LAW includes the Pentateuch or five books of Moses, namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. 2. THE EARLIER PROPHETS (prophets being used in a sense which will be explained in its proper place) include Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings. 3. THE LATER PROPHETS include (1) Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, known as the Greater Prophets; and (2) Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, known as the Minor Prophets. 4. THE CHETUBIM (the other Scriptures, or miscellaneous Scriptures) include Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles. Five of these, namely, Ruth, Esther, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations and Song of Solomon, are called the Megilloth or Roll,—an intimation, possibly, of their late or hesitating addition to the collection which, in the nature of things, would be gradually formed. These five books seem to have formed a separate Roll, and to have held an uncertain place. They are sometimes inserted in the Hebrew Bible immediately after the five books of Moses, instead of among the Chetubim. The above-mentioned Books, or Scriptures, are then the whole of the older Jewish literature now extant. Other books, once extant, are alluded to, and some of them quoted, in various parts of these, from which allusions we make out the following CATALOGUE OF LOST HEBREW SCRIPTURES: The Book of the Wars of Jehovah is quoted in Numb. xxi. 14,— an unseemly title to have given to the horrible wars of the Jews, but quite accordant with early Jewish notions and feelings. Perhaps it was an older history of their invasion. of Canaan, the contents of which are worked up in the Pentateuch and the Books of Joshua and Judges. The Book of Jasher (literally meaning the Book of the Righteous, or perhaps the Righteous Book, or the Excellent Book) is quoted in Joshua x. 13, and in 2 Samuel i. 18. It seems to have been a book of poems; at least, these two extracts are both poetical. The first is a few lines describing the sun and moon as standing still; the other is the beautiful ode of David on the death of Saul and Jonathan. If Jasher contained many such poems as these, we have great reason to lament its loss. These two quotations belong to events so distant from each other, that it is natural to suppose the book was a copious one. Possibly some of its contents may have re-appeared in the Book of Psalms; in which case the loss may not have been so great as might be supposed. The Book in which Samuel wrote the manner of the Kingdom (1 Sam. x. 25), was probably a mere extract made from Deut. xvii. 14—20, with possibly a record of the election of Saul as king, similar to that given in the chapter itself. So that we have probably lost nothing original here; though some suppose Samuel to have drawn up on this occasion a Book of Constitutional Law, now lost. Solomon's Three Thousand Proverbs, his Thousand and Five Songs, and his knowledge of the Natural History of Trees, Plants and Animals, may or may not, any or all of them, have been put into writing. The expression of the historian (1 Kings iv. 32, 33) is, that "he spake 3000 proverbs, and his songs were 1005, and he spake of trees, &c." There is nothing said about their being written or published; but probably some at least were, as the royal author speaks in his Ecclesiastes (xii. 12) of "making many books," in a way that seems to imply his having written many more himself than are come down to us. As regards his 3000 proverbs, we have in the Book of Proverbs not so many as 1000; and some of these are expressly ascribed to Agur, and others to the mother of king Lemuel. Of king Solomon's thousand and five songs, we have only one, from the character of which, however, we have no reason to regret, on religious and moral grounds at least, the loss of all the rest. We have no works on natural history even professing to be his. The Book of the Acts of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 41), the Chronicles of King David (1 Chron. xxvii. 24), the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, and the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, are continually referred to in our Books of Kings and Chronicles, as containing "the rest of the acts" of each monarch, besides the acts which are recorded there. They were probably the Royal or State Records. The Book of Samuel the Seer (referred to in 1 Chron. xxix. 29) may probably be our present Book or Books of Samuel. But the following, which are referred to in the Books of Chronicles, appear to be all lost : The Book of Nathan the Prophet (1 Chron. xxix. 29; 2 Chron. ix. 29). The Book of Gad the Seer (1 Chron. xxix. 29). The Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite (2 Chron. ix. 29). The Visions of Iddo the Seer against Jeroboam, his Genealogies and his Story (2 Chron. ix. 29, xii. 15, xiii. 22). The Book of Shemaiah the Prophet (2 Chron. xii. 15). The Sayings of the Seers (or perhaps of Hosea) (2 Chron. xxxiii. 19). The Lamentations (2 Chron. xxxv. 25)-(plainly not the existing book of Lamentations). The greater part of these lost books seem, by the manner in which they are referred to, to have been, as by their titles many of them plainly were, purely of an historical kind. The extant histories are avowedly based on them, though in many cases confessedly less full and minute than were the older and now lost Chronicles. But the references made to them are important, as shewing that, at least in the times of the Hebrew monarchy, public records of important events were regularly kept. Of these state records, we have an abstract in our books of Kings and Chronicles. CHAPTER IV. THE RELIGIOUS VALUE AND SIGNIFICANCY OF THE JEWISH LITERATURE. THE chief part of the extant Jewish Scriptures have a more or less directly religious character. This fact constitutes their authority to the Jew and their continued interest and value to the world at large. Let me establish the fact and trace its significancy. Those books which describe the Laws of Moses are, as it were, at the basis of the whole Jewish literature. The historical books, while recording the secular affairs of the Jewish people, give a degree of prominence to their religious institutions which is quite unusual, whether in ancient or in modern histories. Their poetry is full of the religious spirit, and commands a living interest in the minds of Christians to the present day. The Jews, in fact, have taught the world its devotional poetry. With the single exception of the Song of Solomon, all the extant poetry of the Hebrews belongs to the class of sacred or religious. It is a curious and important fact that this characteristic runs through all the varieties of their muse. They have their patriotic, their descriptive, their didactic, their lyrical poems, in the same varieties as other nations. But with them, unlike other nations, each of these varieties, without foregoing its specific character of patriotic, descriptive, didactic, lyrical, exhibits one common characteristic of sacred or religious poetry. Like other nations, the Hebrews have their patriotic songs, in which historical reminiscences and traditional allusions abound. But with them, all these things are part of their religion. Their love of their country is the love of their country's God; its history is the detail of His wonderful providence over them. Even their deeds of war are celebrated (in a way that often shocks a modern mind) as His triumphs. Their prosperity is announced as the light of His favour; their troubles are the signs of His displeasure. Their land itself is the peculiar dwelling-place of Him who is Most High over all the earth. He is their King and Lawgiver, as well as their God. A religious reference pervades all the patriotic productions of their muse. In descriptive poetry the Hebrews are rich. Inhabiting a picturesque country and enjoying a delightful climate, their senses were constantly addressed by such objects as stir the soul of the true poet within him. And they describe with joyous animation the beauties of the verdant earth and the glory of the splendid heavens; they picture with glowing pencil the fertility of their goodly land and the happiness of its rejoicing inhabitants. But, in doing this, they never forget expressly to refer all these bountiful and beauteous things to Jehovah God as their author, and to point to them as the tokens of His high attributes,-a true inference, indeed, and one which gives the brightest touch of poetry to any such picture, but one which is not invariably, nor usually, found in the descriptive poets of other countries. "JEHOVAH hath set his tabernacle in the heavens, from which the sun rejoiceth to run his race." "HE watereth the hills from his chambers." "HE causeth his wind |