Saluted Zion

Introduction

removed the outside covering to give it to David, and Zadok said he had not done so (Chap. 56). Then Solomon told him to go at once and see, and when he had gone into the Holy of Holies he found there nothing but the box which Azaryas had had made to take the place of the Tabernacle. When Zadok saw that Zion had departed he fainted, and Benaiah found him lying there like a dead man. When Zadok revived he cast ashes on his head, and went to the doors of the Temple and in a loud voice bewailed the loss of the glory and protection of Israel. When Solomon heard the news he commanded men to make ready to pursue those who had stolen Zion, and to slay them when they found them (Chap. 57). When the soldiers were ready Solomon set himself at their head, and his mounted scouts rode in all haste to Egypt, where they learned that the fugitives had left the place nine days before (Chap. 58). When Solomon himself arrived at Gâzâ he found that the report which his scouts had made to him was true, and his heart sank. Near Egypt he met envoys of Pharaoh who had been sent to him with presents, and he asked one of them for news of the thieves. This man told him that he had seen the company of David II in Cairo travelling through the air, and that all the statues of kings and gods in Egypt had fallen down in the presence of the Tabernacle of Zion, and were dashed in pieces (Chap. 59). When Solomon heard this he returned to his tent and wept bitterly, and gave vent to the lamentations that form (Chap. 60).

When Solomon returned to Jerusalem he went with the elders into the House of God, and he and Zadok embraced each other and wept bitterly. Then they dried their tears and the elders made a long speech to Solomon in which they sketched the past history of the Ark of the Covenant, i.e. the Tabernacle Zion. They reminded him how the Philistines captured it and carried it into the house of Dagon, and how they sent it away with sixty gold figures of mice, and sixty phalli, and how, when

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it came to Judah, the men of Dan slew the camels that drew the wagon on which it travelled, and cut up and burnt the wagon, and how it withdrew to its place and was ministered to by Samuel, and how it refused to be carried to the Valley of Gilboa, and how David, the father of Solomon, brought it from Samaria to Jerusalem. They proved to the king that the Tabernacle Zion could not have been carried off against God’s will, and that if it was God’s will it would return to Jerusalem, and if it was not then it would not. Of one thing they were quite certain: the Tabernacle was able to take care of itself (Chap. 61).

When Solomon had heard all they had to say he agreed with them that the Will of God was irresistible, and called upon them to kneel down with him in the Holy of Holies (Chap. 62). When they had poured out prayer and supplication and dried their tears, Solomon advised them to keep the matter of the theft a secret among themselves, so that the uncircumcised might not boast over their misfortune. At his suggestion the elders set up the box which Azaryas had made, and covered the boards over with gold, and decorated the box with coverings, and placed a copy of the Book of the Law inside it in lieu of the Two Tables. They remembered that Jerusalem the free was as the heavens, and that their own earthly Jerusalem was the Gate of Heaven, and they determined to do God’s Will so that He Himself might be ever with them to watch over Israel and to protect His people. The suggestion is that God would be a better protector than even the Tabernacle Zion.

But the loss of the Tabernacle Zion had a sad effect upon Solomon, for his love for God waned, and his wisdom forsook him, and he devoted himself to women during the last eleven years of his life. He married Mâ˚shârâ, an Egyptian princess, who first seduced his household into worshipping her idols, and then worked upon him with her beauty in such a way that he tolerated all she said and did (Chap. 63). When she knew that David II had stolen the Tabernacle Zion, she reminded

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