There follows his principal achievement
as king, the humiliation of the Philistines and the foundation of
Jerusalem, the work concluding with a short notice of other
remarkable circumstances. This narrative is preserved to us
complete, only not in the earliest form, but with many
interruptions and alterations. The second work, 2Samuel ix.-2Kings
ii. is mutilated at its commencement, but otherwise almost
completely intact, if 2Samuel xxi.-xxiv. be removed. It tells
chiefly of the occurrences at the court of Jerusalem in the later
years of the king, and carefully traces the steps by which
Solomon, whose birth, with its attendant circumstances, is
narrated at the outset, reached the throne over the heads of his
brothers Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah, who stood before him. Both
works are marked by an essentially historical character. The
treatment is much more detailed, while not nearly so poetical as
in the history of Saul (1Samuel ix. seq.). There are no
exaggerations, such as xiv. 46 seq. The second is the better
work of the two, and frequently affords us a glance into the very
heart of events, showing us the natural occasions and human motives
which gave rise to the different actions.
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