These chronicles
are not to be identified, it is clear, with the original annals.
The _book_ of the annals must be distinguished from the Dibre-hajamim
themselves. Whether the chronicle of Israel_-hardly anything out
of which is communicated to us--was composed much earlier than the
chronicle of Judah (which seems to close with Jehoiachim), and
whether it and the chronicle of Solomon (1Kings xi. 41) are a
quite independent work, I am inclined to consider doubtful.
The excerpts from the annals are interrupted by more extensive
episodes which are interwoven with them, and are also embraced in
the Deuteronomistic scheme. Of these the Jewish ones are the
minority, the greater part are Samaritan, but they all belong to
a very limited period of time. I select the miraculous history
of Elijah as an example of these, to show the sentiment and the
change of sentiment in this instance also.
The prophet Elijah, from Tishbeh in Gilead, appears before King
Ahab of Samaria, and says,
"By the life of Jehovah the God of Israel, whom I serve, there
shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word.
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