The subject of the book of Exodus is the delivery of the people from the Egyptian bondage, and it is not less admirable for the importance of the events which it describes, than for the manner in which they are related. In this, and in the following book of Numbers, the record of patriarchal life gives place to the teachings of Moses and to the history of the wanderings in the deserts of Arabia.
In Leviticus the constitution of the priesthood is described, as well as the peculiarities of a worship.
Deuteronomy records the laws of Moses, and concludes with his sublime hymn of thanksgiving.
The historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, etc., contain the history of the Hebrew nation for nearly a thousand years, and relate the prosperity and the disasters of the chosen people. Here are recorded the deeds of Joshua, of Samson, of Samuel, of David, and of Solomon, the building of the Temple, the division of the tribes into two kingdoms, the prodigies of Elijah and Elisha, the impieties of Ahab, the calamities of Jedekiah, the destruction of Jerusalem and of the first Temple, the dispersion and the Babylonish captivity, the deliverance under Cyrus, and the rebuilding of the city and Temple under Ezra, and other great events in Hebrew history.
The internal evidence derived from the peculiar character of each of the historical books is decisive of their genuineness, which is supported above all suspicion of alteration or addition by the scrupulous conscientiousness and veneration with which the Hebrews regarded their sacred writings. Their authenticity is also proved by the uniformity of doctrine which pervades them all, though written at different periods, by the simplicity and naturalness of the narrations, and by the sincerity of the writers.
These histories display neither vanity nor adulation, nor do they attempt to conceal from the reader whatever might be considered as faults in their authors or their heroes. While they select facts with a nice judgment, and present the most luminous picture of events and of their causes, they abstain from reasoning or speculation in regard to them.
11. HEBREW PHILOSOPHY.--Although the Hebrews, in their different sacred writings, have transmitted to us the best solution of the ancient philosophical questions on the creation of the world, on the Providence which rules it, on monotheism, and on the origin of sin, yet they have nowhere presented us with a complete system of philosophy.