- 142-
when during many reigns the Mosaic law and order of worship were so often set aside,
"the book" should have been removed and hidden by pious hands, and so for a time have
become lost, can as little surprise us as its finding during the thorough repairs of the
Temple.*
- How far the imagination of even the ablest critics can mislead them, appears from the
account which Ewald gives (u.s., pp. 734, 735, 753, 754) of the origin of Deuteronomy.
"To all appearance it was written in Egypt" by a fugitive from Judah in the time of
Manasseh. "Slowly, and as it were, accidentally, the book spread into Palestine," where a
copy of it "accidentally" got into the Temple "through some priest." In this fashion any
kind of history might be constructed to suit the views of any school of "critics."
And whatever the compass of this special book, the whole context shows, on the one
hand, that it implies the embodiment of the Mosaic law in the Pentateuch, and, on the
other, that the existence of that law was generally known and universally admitted as
primitive, derived from the great Lawgiver himself, valid, and Divine.
We can now understand how, on hearing "the words of the Book of the Law," the king
had "rent his clothes" and "sent to inquire of the LORD" both concerning himself. and his
people. For such breach of the covenant and the law, as he now knew Israel to have been
guilty of, must involve signal judgment. In the execution of the king's behest, they whom
he sent, including the high-priest, addressed themselves to Huldah, "the prophetess," the
wife of Shallum, "the keeper of the wardrobe," who "dwelt in Jerusalem, in the second
town." This part of the city is also designated "the mortar" (Zephaniah 1:10, 11) -
in the first place, probably, from its shape, being in the hollow of the valley, and
surrounded by rising ground.
- It is impossible to say whether it was the royal wardrobe, or that of the Temple - or,
indeed, any other.
** So we render the word "Mishneh," rather than "the second quarter."
*** Comp. Riehm's Hand-Worterb. 1., p. 685.
It probably formed the first addition to the old city which the increase of the population
must have rendered necessary even in the time of Solomon.*
- It is generally supposed that the number of the inhabitants of Jerusalem before the exile
never greatly exceeded that at the time of Solomon.
It occupied the upper part of the Tyropoeon valley west of the Temple area, and north of
"the middle city," and was the great business quarter, containing the markets, the bazaars,
and homes of the industrial population. This may imply a comparatively humble outward
(^)