chapter I

have pointed out the improbability that the fatal wrath of Solomon against Adonijah could have been excited by his brother's proposal of honorable wedlock with the maiden Abishag, and conjectured that there may have been a story, now lost, of rivalry between the brothers for this "very fair" damsel. Whatever may have been the real history there is little doubt that there was substituted for it some real offence by Adonijah, perhaps such as that afterwards ascribed to Absalom. Bathsheba herself is here the Nemesis, as her grandfather is in the case of Absalom.

It must be borne in mind that we are dealing with the age which produced the thrilling story of Joseph and his brothers, and Potiphar's wife, and the contrast with his chastity represented in the profligacy of Judah. Indications have been left in Gen. xxxv. at the end of verse 22 of the suppression of a story of Reuben and Bilhah, and no doubt there were other suppressions. How very bad the story of Reuben was we may judge, as Bernstein points out, by the severity of his condemnation by Jacob (Gen. xlix.) and by the shocking things about Judah (Gen. xxxviii.) allowed to remain in the text. In the latter chapter Bernstein finds the same personages,--David, Bathsheba, Solomon,--acting in a similar drama to that presented in the Samuel fragments, and under their disguises may perhaps be discovered some of the details suppressed in the Davidic records. Bernstein says:

"In Genesis xxxviii. Judah, the fourth son of the patriarch, is shown in a light which is to lay bare the stain of his existence. Judah went to Adullam, where lived his friend 'Chirah.' He married a Canaanite, the daughter of Shuah. [8] His eldest son was called Er. He (Er) was displeasing in the eyes of Jahveh, therefore Jahveh slew him. His second son was called Onan: he died in consequence of his sexual sins. The third son's name was Shelah, and, as it is mysteriously stated after his name, 'he was at Chezib when his mother bare him.' Chezib is certainly the name of a place, and the addition may therefore signify that the mother had named the boy Shelah because the father happened to be in Chezib at the time, absent from home. Chezib has, however, a second meaning.... Chezib means 'deception, lie,' and is used by the prophet Micah in this sense (i. 4). Now as Shelah, in our narrative, serves to deceive Tamar's hopes, held out by Judah, the allusion to Chezib is appropriate. However this may be, Judah's sons are all represented as despicable. Even Judah himself fell into bad ways and was trapped into the snares laid by his daughter-in-law Tamar, who played the prostitute. Thus only did Judah found a generation, from which King David is said to descend, from a son of Judah called Paretz, meaning 'breaking through,' in which manner he is supposed to have behaved towards his brother at his birth.

"Veiled as the libel is here, it becomes apparent as soon as we cast a glance upon David's family. The picture which this libel draws of Judah hits David himself sharply. The 'Canaanite'--namely, whom Judah marries [?]--is no other than the wife of Uriah the Hittite (murdered at David's command) whom David himself married adulterously. This wife of Judah is said to have been the daughter of a man named Shuah. Therefore she is a Bath-shua, and is thus called (verse 12). But Bathshua is also Bathsheba herself, as one may conclude from 1 Chron. iii. 5. The eldest son died, hateful in the sight of God, just like the first son of Bathsheba (2 Sam. xii. 15). The son of Judah is alleged to have been called Er; why? because reading it backwards (rea, wrong) it means 'bad,' 'wicked.' The second son is called Onan, and dies for sexual sins. He is no other than David's son Amnon, who meets his death on account of his sexual sins (2 Sam. xiii). The Tamar of Judah's story is the same as the Tamar dishonored by Amnon,--the daughter of David, who, in spite of her misfortune and her purity, is, to the entire ruin of her good name, humiliated to a person who plays the prostitute. And Shelah who does not die,--add to his name only the letter m, and you have Solomon."

If in the light of these facts, which reveal the mythical character of some of the worst things told of Judah and David, the blessings of Jacob (Gen. xlix.) be carefully read, the blessing on Judah will be found rather equivocal. Colenso translates:

"A lion's whelp is Judah, Ravaging the young of the suckling ewes."

Is this couplet related to Nathan's parable of the rich man taking away the poor man's one little ewe lamb which smote the conscience of David?

"The staff shall not depart from Judah, Nor the rod from between his feet Until Shiloh come."

Is this merely a device of the Ephraimite rebels, Jeroboamites, pretending to find in a patriarchal prophecy a prediction that Judah is to be superseded by the descendants of Joseph (on whom Jacob's encomiums and blessings are unstinted)? Shiloh was always their headquarters.

It is probable, however, that there is here a play upon words. The words "Until Shiloh come" are rendered by some scholars "Till he (Judah) come to Shiloh," and interpreted as meaning "Till he come to rest." The Samaritan version ("donec veniat Pacificus") seems to identify Shiloh with Solomon. (Colenso, Pent. iii. p. 127.) But this is transparently Shelah over again. Shelomoh (Solomon), Shelah, and Shiloh are substantially of the same etymological significance. It will be observed that in Gen. xxxviii. Shelah is the only person whose character is not blackened. The Ephraimic poem, the "Blessings of Jacob,"--each blessing a vaticinium ex evento,--could well afford a half-disguised compliment to Solomon who had made no attempt to suppress the rebels of Shiloh,--the city of Abijah, who originated the Jeroboamic revolution which divided the Davidic kingdom. Jacob's blessing on Joseph is of course a blessing on Ephraim: it closes with a transfer of the crown (from Judah) to "him that is a prince among his brethren." This is "rest" from the arrows of David, this is the coming of Shiloh; it occurred under the reign of the Prince of Peace, Solomon, and it could not be undone by Solomon's son Rehoboam.

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