a peculiar relation of privilege to Jehovah Himself; to him, in other words, the sacred vocation of Israel is to be specially delegated. Nothing less is involved in the solemn transference of the title 'son' from Israel to its king than the assumption that henceforth the holder of the promised sovereignty is to be an individual of the reigning house.

This oracle, reflecting the Messianic consciousness of a unique vocation, becomes the starting-point of what is sometimes called 'figurative prophecy,' that is, the ascription of ideal attributes to the reigning monarch. The idealization of David himself and of the period of his reign begins with the narrators of the books of Samuel, and reaches its climax in the representations of the Chronicler. To prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, whose position is intermediate, the name of David became the recognized symbol of Messiah. David's reign came to be regarded as the pattern of Messianic times, a kind of golden age in Israel's history; and amid the calamities of a later period the national hopes were sustained by the promise of a kingdom framed on the Davidic pattern. Prophecy henceforth takes a new development. The king who from time to time sits on David's throne is seen 'in the light of the promise made to David, and in that light he is transfigured 3' and invested with more than human attributes, whether as victorious warrior (Ps. ii), or as royal bridegroom taking to himself a consort from the heathen world (Ps. xlv), or as monarch reigning in righteousness and peace (Ps. lxxii), or finally as one who combines the functions of royalty with those of priesthood (Ps. cx), the promised dignity of the Davidic prince with the prerogatives of the ancient king who had blessed the

1 Exod. iv. 22.

2 Jer. xxx. 9; Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24; xxxvii. 24, 25 (referred to by Cheyne, Aids to the Devout Study, &c., p. 70). Cp. a striking passage in Meinhold, Jesus und das A. T. p. 99.

3 Perowne, Commentary on the Psalms, Introd. (vol. i, p. 54).

patriarch Abraham himself'. Thus prophecy creates a kingly image with ideal attributes-each monarch being in his degree a type of the coming Messiah. It is true that in Palestine, as in the East generally—in Egypt and Assyria and Chaldaea-there was a tendency to deify the king; to regard him as the visible embodiment of the divine majesty 2. But there is a special significance in the application of the title Elohim to the Hebrew monarch. It implies that the divine. sovereignty is in a manner actually delegated to a human representative. The theocratic king reigns and feeds his flock in the name and in the strength of Jehovah. He occupies a unique and central position in the kingdom of God-the kingdom of righteousness. He is endued with a full measure of the Spirit of God, executing God's holy will, guided by His wisdom, judging with His righteousness, even revealing His essential attributes. We may observe that circumstances at one time elevated the thought of a theocratic king into prominence, at another time threw it into the background; but the vision was never completely lost. In the days of the disastrous struggle with Assyria, when the world-power attacked the kingdom of God specially in the person of its monarch, the figure of the king naturally became the centre of Israel's hopes; through the king there would be deliverance from the national foe; in allegiance to David's house alone would there be any prospect of salvation for the hardlypressed northern kingdom". For in an age of distress and decay it was the figure of David that lived in the memory of the nation-David taken from the sheepfolds to feed Jehovah's people; David the ruler of strong hand and powerful arm, wise of heart as an angel of God. In the most distressful days faith clung to the covenant established by Jehovah with David and 1 Heb. vii. 4 foll.

* See Isa. ix. 6 and xi.

2 Schultz, vol. i. p. 169.

8 Mic. v. 2-4.

Isa. xi. is called by Darmesteter 'une vision de paix, qui depuis a hanté l'univers' (Les Prophètes d'Israël, p. 63).

Hos. i. 11; iii. 5; Amos ix. 11 foll. Cp. Jer. 1. 4.

6

2 Sam. xiv. 17, 20; xix. 27.

his house. Thus,' says Schultz, 'it was a faith in things not seen, a faith in the everlasting significance of this house.' It is a phenomenon without parallel in history that even under the worst disasters of a later period the confident hope of seeing the Saviour of the future born of this dishonoured family was never lost 1.'

We may briefly notice some other associations which are never quite absent from the scriptural idea of royalty. David was a typical man of war, and the Messianic ideal did not fail accordingly to include the element of victorious triumph over foes. The title of king was essentially that of a warrior, a leader of hosts in the wars of the Lord. The notion of sovereignty thus implied the deliverance of Jehovah's people from their enemies and a perpetual extension of the boundaries of God's kingdom. Under the title 'king' applied to Messiah we discern the potency and promise' of universalist ideas. The Messiah must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. But this aspect of the Messianic character was not the most prominent. One of the best-known representations of Messiah depicts him as making his entry into Jerusalem in the garb of a prince of peace, just and having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass: without the implements of war he extends his righteous sway. He shall speak peace unto the heathen, and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. A typical passage which combines the idea of a peaceful rule with worldwide conquest is to be found in the prophecy of Micah (chapter v), which represents the future Saviour as feeding His people in the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah his God; and the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people

2

1O. T. Theology, vol. i. p. 173. Cp. Hunter, After the Exile, part i. PP. 225 foll. I Cor. xv. 25. Zech. ix. 9, 10. The date of Zech. ix-xiv is very uncertain. See Kirkpatrick, Doctrine of the Prophets, pp. 440 foll.; Cornill, Der Isr. Prophetismus, p. 166. Schultz, ii. 416, and apparently Riehm, regard Zech. ix-xi as pre-exilic.

as a dew from Jehovah, as the showers upon the grass; but also as a lion among the beasts of the forest; while Messiah executes vengeance upon the heathen, such as they have not heard1. The two conceptions illustrate the effect on the imagination of the prophets of the two primary facts in the historical situation during the time when Micah wrote. The advance of the Assyrian power no doubt gave a stimulus to the conception of a world-monarchy advanced by warlike prowess; but the permanent form of Messianic prediction was mainly determined by visions of a stable and peaceful re-establishment of David's kingdom 2.

3. Another permanent element in Messianic prophecy is the idea of a personal manifestation or intervention of Jehovah to set up His kingdom as sovereign in Zion. The final purpose of the kingdom of God is to manifest Jehovah Himself as supreme over the universe: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth3. As we shall see, the prophets do not attempt to adjust or correlate the two parallel lines of thought which pervade their writings. They look upon the Messianic salvation sometimes as the work of a Davidic king, sometimes, on the other hand, as the outcome of Jehovah's personal visitation of His people. But in any case, whoever may be from time to time the instrument in effecting His redemptive purpose, it is Jehovah Himself who is the real and sole source of help and deliverance. Further, the day of divine manifestation is a turning-point in human history, the day of judicial intervention, the day of God's decisive act, the day of the Lord. We have noticed the blind confidence with which the mass of Israelites clung to the thought of this day as an object of hope in all

1 Mic. v. 4, 7, 8, 15.

2 On the significance of Hezekiah's reign in relation to the Messianic hope see Darmesteter, Les Prophètes d'Israël, pp. 60 foll.

Ps. xcvi. 10, 13; xcvii. 1; xcviii. 9, &c. Cp. Schultz, vol. ii. p. 354.

times of distress. It was supposed to be 'self-evident that the crisis would certainly end in favour of Israel '.' We have seen that it was the special task of Amos to denounce this temper, and to proclaim the unpalatable truth that only through the overthrow of the existing theocracy and the salvation of a mere remnant would the purpose of God be accomplished. It was inconceivable that in view of the moral corruptions of the time there should be deliverance except by the way of judgment. Accordingly, from the rise of prophecy until its close in literature of a definitely apocalyptic type the thought of the day of the Lord continually reappears. It was to be a day of outward terror; the ordinary course of nature would be violently interrupted; the sun would be darkened, the moon turned into blood; the earth would tremble; the works of man would one and all be brought low; his loftiness would be humbled to the dust 3. It was to be a day of moral sifting, a manifestation of divine indignation against wickedness: cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. It would be a day of judgment in which God would test and refine not only the nations of the heathen world but His own people by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. With a searching visitation He will vindicate His outraged majesty, He will purge His kingdom of all that

offends".

This is one aspect of the day of the Lord. But it has another side. It is a day ushering in the blessings of the Messianic age. Though the corrupt mass of the people are warned not to wish for a day which to them shall be darkness and not light, the true Israel is encouraged to look forward to it with hope and joy. For the day of the Lord will be a day of vengeance on

1 Wellhausen, Sketch, &c. p. 83.

3 Isa. ii. 12 foll.

Isa. i. 24 foll.

4 Isa. xiii. 9.

7 Amos v. 18.

2 Amos ix. 8, 9.

Isa. iv. 4.

X