* 1 Sam. x. 5-13, where we see Saul seized with the prophetic spirit on meeting with a band of prophets descending from the high place; cf. 2 Sam. vi. 13-16, 20-23, for David dancing before the ark.

The early kings, Saul and David, used to have recourse to individuals belonging to all these three classes, but the prophets, owing to the intermittent character of their inspiration and their ministry, could not fill a regular office attached to the court.  One of this class was raised up by God from time to time to warn or guide His servants, and then sank again into obscurity; the priests, on the contrary, were always at hand, and their duties brought them into contact with the sovereign all the year round.  The god who was worshipped in the capital of the country and his priesthood promptly acquired a predominant position in all Oriental monarchies, and most of the other temples, together with the sacerdotal bodies attached to them, usually fell into disrepute, leaving them supreme.  If Amon of Thebes became almost the sole god, and his priests the possessors of all Egypt, it was because the accession of the XVIIIth dynasty had made his pontiffs the almoners of the Pharaoh.  Something of the same sort took place in Israel; the priesthood at Jerusalem attached to the temple built by the sovereign, being constantly about his person, soon surpassed their brethren in other parts of the country both in influence and possessions.  Under David’s reign their head had been Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, a descendant of Eli, but on Solomon’s accession the primacy had been transferred to the line of Zadok.  In this alliance of the throne and the altar, it was natural at first that the throne should reap the advantage.  The king appears to have continued to be a sort of high priest, and to have officiated at certain times and occasions.* The priests kept the temple in order, and watched over the cleanliness of its chambers and its vessels; they interrogated the Divine will for the king according to the prescribed ceremonies, and offered sacrifices on behalf of the monarch and his subjects; in short, they were at first little more than chaplains to the king and his family.

* Solomon officiated and preached at the consecration of the temple (1 Kings viii.).  The actual words appear to be of a later date; but even if that be the case, it proves that, at the time they were written, the king still possessed his full sacerdotal powers.

Solomon’s allegiance to the God of Israel did not lead him to proscribe the worship of other gods; he allowed his foreign wives the exercise of their various religions, and he raised an altar to Chemosh on the Mount of Olives for one of them who was a Moabite.  The political supremacy and material advantages which all these establishments acquired for Judah could not fail to rouse the jealousy of the other tribes.  Ephraim particularly looked on with ill-concealed anger at the prospect of the hegemony becoming established