Old Testament History. By Henry Preserved Smith, D.D. (T. and
T. Clark. 12s.)—" The purpose of the present volume," writes Dr. Smith in his preface, "is to put into narrative form the results of recent Old Testament study." He treats the original with considerable, sometimes, we cannot but think, with exces- sive, freedom. He wholly rejects, for instance, the narrative of the intervention of Abraham in the invasion of Chedorlaomer. " Where," he asks, "was this valiant band of retainers when Sarah was taken into the harem of Pharaoh ? " Abraham prob- ably entered Egypt for the same reason that took his descendants thither,—the pressure of famine. If so, he would have had to dismiss his following for a while, collecting them again when the times became easier. Of course, this suggestion does not dispose of all the difficulties of the narrative. It only exhibits the too common tendency to find difficulties that do not exist. Dr. Smith must not, however, be taken as a mere destructive. He has given us here, on the contrary, much that is constructively valuable.
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