archs that followed. See 2 Chron.
16:7-12; 19:2; 32:25, 31; 35:21, 22.

21. In the Hebrew canon the books of Chronicles stand last in order. It
is generally agreed that they were written, after the return of the Jews
from the Babylonish captivity, _by Ezra_, who had all the qualifications
for such a work. Whatever use he may have made of the earlier books of
Samuel and Kings, it is plain that these were not his chief sources, for
he records many things not found in them. He and the author of the books
of Kings had access to the same public records, and each of them made
such selections from them as suited his purposes. Hence the matter
contained in the two works agrees in part, and is partly different. See
above, Chap. 15, Nos. 7, 8.

22. That there are some discrepancies between the books of Samuel and
Kings and the books of Chronicles, arising from errors in transcribing,
is generally admitted. These relate, however, mainly to dates, and do
not affect the general integrity of the works. But most of the
disagreements between the earlier and later histories are only apparent,
arising from their brevity, and from the fact that their authors
frequently select from the same reign different events, the one passing
by in silence what the other records; or that, where they record the
same events, various accompanying circumstances are omitted.

An example of apparent error in transcription is 2 Sam. 24:13
compared with 1 Chron. 21:12; the former passage specifying
_seven_ years of famine, the latter _three_ years. For other
examples see 2 Sam. 8:4 compared with 1 Chron. 18:4; 2 Sam. 23:8
with 1 Chron. 11:11; 1 Kings 4:26 with 2 Chron. 9:25. We are not
to infer, however, that all cases of apparent disagreement
involve error in one or the other of the records. When the
events of a whole campaign, for example, are crowded into single
sentences, it is not surprising that the different narratives
should contain seeming discrepancies which a full knowledge of
the details would enable us to reconcile. The separate
discussion of the difficulties presented by the books of
Chronicles, as compared with the earlier histories, belongs to
the commentator. It is sufficient to remark here, that
independent parallel histories always exhibit, with substantial
agreement, minor diversities which it is sometimes not easy to
harmonize. It has not pleased God that in this respec