to build the house of Yahweh, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Meggido, and Gezer. Pharaoh, king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites that dwelt in the city and given it for a portion unto his daughter, Solomon's wife. And Solomon built Gezer, and Beth-horon the nether, and Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land, and all the store-cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. As for all the people that were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel; their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy, of them did Solomon raise a levy of bondservants, unto this day. But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondservants; but they were the men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen.

These were the chief officers that were over Solomon's work, five hundred and fifty, who bare rule over the people that wrought in the work.

But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David unto her house which Solomon had built for her: then did he build Millo.

And three times in a year did Solomon offer burnt-offerings, and peace-offerings upon the altar which he built unto Yahweh, burning incense therewith, upon the altar that was before Yahweh. So he finished the house.

And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.

And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug-trees and precious stones. And the king made of the almug-trees pillars for the house of Yahweh, and for the king's house, harps also and psaltries for the singers: there came no such almug-trees, nor were seen, unto this day.

Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold, besides that which the traders brought, and the traffic of the merchants, and of all the kings of the mingled people, and of the governors of the country. And king Solomon made two hundred bucklers of beaten gold; six hundred shekels of gold went to one buckler. And he made three hundred shields of beaten gold; three pounds of gold went to one shield: and the king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon. Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the finest gold. There were six steps to the throne, and the top of the throne was round behind; and there were stays on either side by the place of the seat, and two lions standing beside the stays. And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in any kingdom.

And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, that he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem. And the horses which Solomon had were brought out of Egypt; and the king's merchants received them in droves, each drove at a price. And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty; and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their

Page 3 (Ch. II, 46.)

NOTES

GENESIS

I. THE STORY OF CREATION

Yahweh was the name of the tribal God of the Hebrews. In disentangling these most ancient passages, scholars have been guided by the use of the name of Yahweh for the Deity, hence it has been called "The Yahwist Bible" which is supposed to begin in the middle of the fourth verse of second chapter. In the original story there was probably a "Tree of Life" and a "Tree of Death." If man ate of the one he lived forever, if he ate of the other he lived only a few hundred years. But deceived by the serpent he ate of the "Tree of Death," and so lost his immortality.

Page 4 (Ch. III, 8)

According to Sir James Frazer they heard the sound of his footsteps, and not that of his voice, as in the English version.

Page 5 (Ch. III, 14, 15)

Among savage tribes it was a common belief that serpents ate dust and with lizards and beetles were immortal.

In the most ancient Semitic Epic, the serpent steals the life plant from Gilgamesh, while he is bathing in the brook. When he discovers he has lost his immortality, he sits down and weeps. This story of the Fall is taken from an earlier savage myth that man has been robbed of his immortality by these rivals.

Page 5 (Ch. III, 22)

Lest they might "live forever " was the sole reason apparently why they were driven out of the Garden.

Page 6 (Ch. IV, 22)

Wandering families of smiths are still found among Arabs."

Page 7 (Ch. IV, 23, 24)

These verses are taken from the most ancient literary material used by the Yahwistic writer.

Page 7 (Ch. VI, 1)

THE STORY OF NOAH

The Babylonian deluge myth as found in the cuneiform tablets is believed to be the origin of the Biblical story of the flood.

Page 8 (Ch. VII, 1)

Xanthus was the tenth king of Babylon in the Babylonian story as told by Berosus. Noah was the tenth man from Adam in the Yahwistic narration. According to Josephus the animals went in by sevens."

The laws of uncleanness were parallel with the taboos that "totemism lays on the use of sacred animals as food," according to W. Robertson Smith.

A special prominence is given to the number seven both in the Yahwistic and Babylonian version. See, Century Bible.

Page 9 (Ch. VIII, 21)

The Sumerian legend is believed to have been written about the time of Hammurabi, 2100 B. С.

Page 10 (Ch. XI)

Herodotus says that the temple was in a series of eight terraces or solid towers, one on the top of the other with a rampart winding up on the outside, but broken about half way up by a landing place where there were seats for rest and refreshment.

Page 10 (Ch. X, 8-11)

Cush was the son of Ham, Accad, ancient Akkad-Shinar, Babylonia. Nineveh was probably settled 3000 В. С.

"In the ancient Sumerian language the temple was called E-temenan-ki or the House of the Foundation of Heaven and Earth." - R. F. Harper.

Page 11 (Ch. XI, 28)

THE STORY OF ABRAM

"Ur of the Chaldees." The Hebrew Yahweh was originally a Turanian deity.

Page 14 (Ch. XV, 10 and 18)

Yahweh adopts the common customs of men in making a legal contract. "The practise of passing between the parts of the animal sacrifices can hardly have any other meaning than that the man identifies himself with the animal into whose body he forces himself and that he offers it to the Higher Powers as a substitute for himself. The principle of vicarious sacrifice which has played so great a part in the history of religion could hardly be carried out more perspicuously than in these savage and bloody rites." - Sir James Frazer.

Page 20 (Ch. XXI, 25)

Abimelech was the king of Gerar.

Page 20 (Ch. XXIV, v. 2, 3)

One of the ancient phallic customs of taking an oath, among savage tribes, which were especially prevalent in the Semitic races. Compare Chap. 47, v. 29.

Page 22 (Ch. XXIV, v. 21)

This story is supposed to depict well known experiences of the nomads of the desert in seeking wives from other tribes, especially the meeting with the women at a well.

THE STORY OF ISAAC

Page 25 (Ch. XXV, v. 26)

"Abram is the type of a Semitic Sheik, brave and hospitable, dignified and courteous. Jacob is the type of the Semitic trader, supple and acute with a keen eye to gains, compassing his ends not by force but by craft, and not too scrupulous in his choice of means by which to overreach and outwit his competitors." - Sir James Frazer.

Page 27 (Chap. XXVII)

"At a certain stage of moral evolution such frauds excite little or no reprobation except among those who immediately suffer by them; the impartial spectator indeed is apt to applaud them as exhibitions of superior intelligence and dexterity triumphing over mere honest stupidity. However, a time comes when public opinion ranges itself on the side of the honest dullard and against the clever sharper, because experience proves that every fraud, however admirable the ingenuity and foresight it displays, directly injures not only individuals but society as a whole, by loosening that bond of mutual confidence by which alone any corporate body of men is held together. When this truth has been generally recognized the historian comes to judge the doings of men in the past by a moral standard which neither the men themselves nor their contemporaries ever dreamed of applying to their actions, and if the heroic figures of the past seem to fall far below that standard, the charitable critic instead of frankly acknowledging the gulf which moral progress has created between himself and them, attempts to bridge it over by finding excuses or justification for deeds which his own ethical judgment leads him to condemn. The process of whitewashing moral blackamoors when it is prompted by the charity of a kindly heart and not by the empty vanity of maintaining a paradox is creditable to the whitewasher and perhaps harmless to other people." Sir James G. Frazer.

THE STORY OF JACOB

Page 31 (Ch. XXVIII, 18)

The Century Bible says that the pillar or sacred stone was part of the apparatus of a sanctuary in early times both in Israel and elsewhere and was a relic of an earlier time when the stone itself was an object of worship, the abode of the deity - the black stone at Mecca continues to be worshipped by the Mohammedans.

Page 33 (Ch. XXIX, 27)

This affair apart from the genuine love Jacob felt for one of his wives was essentially a commercial transaction between two sharp men, each of whom tried successfully to cheat the other. The virtuous indignation which each of the two rogues felt or affected at the rascality of the other is a delicate stroke of satire in the manner of Molière." - Folklore of the Old Testament.

Page 33 (Ch. XXX)

This patriarch, in marrying his cross cousins, the daughters of his mother's mother, the elder before the younger, and serving his father-inlaw for a series of years for them was observing the ancient customs of many tribes.