tribes, containing a
kind of epic of the history of the first two kings; the one
dealing with Saul, for instance, was probably written in the
time of Jeroboam.

**** The two lists in which the names of the principal
personages at the court of David are handed down to us,
mention a certain Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilud, who was
_mazhir_, or recorder; he retained his post under Solomon (1
Kings iv. 3).

It may be that more than one writer had already endeavoured to evolve
from these materials an Epie of Jahveh and His faithful people, but
in the second half of the IXth century B.C., perhaps in the time of
Jehoshaphat, a member of the tribe of Judah undertook to put forth a
fresh edition.*

* The approximate date of the composition and source of this
first _Jehovist_ is still an open question., Reuss and
Kuenen, not to mention others, believe the Jehovist writer
to have been a native of the northern kingdom; I have
adopted the opposite view, which is supported by most modern
critics.

He related how God, after creating the universe out of chaos, had chosen
His own people, and had led them, after trials innumerable, to the
conquest of the Promised Land. He showed, as he went on, the origin of
the tribes identified with the children of Israel, and the covenants
made by Jahveh with Moses in the Arabian desert; while accepting the
stories connected with the ancient sanctuaries of the north and east
at Shechem, Bethel, Peniel, Mahanaim, and Succoth, it was at Hebron
in Judah that he placed the principal residence of Abraham and his
descendants. His style, while simple and direct, is at the same time
singularly graceful and vivacious; the incidents he gives are carefully
selected, apt and characteristic, while his narrative passes from scene
to scene without trace of flagging, unburdened by useless details, and
his dialogue, always natural and easy, rises without effort from the
level of familiar conversation to heights of impassioned eloquence. His
aim was not merely to compile the history of his people: he desired
at the same time to edify them, by showing how sin first came into the
world through disobedience to the commandments of the Most High, and
how man, prosperous so long as he kept to the laws of the covenant, fell
into difficulties as soon as he transgressed or failed to respect
them. His concept of Jahveh is in the highest degree a concrete one