BENEDICT DE SPINOZA: Theological-Political Treatise

The Hebrew state and its history
men of Israel were slaughtered by those of Judah. In another, the Israelites
killed many of the men of Judah, captured their king, virtually demolished the
walls of Jerusalem and (to let everyone know that there was no limit to their
fury) totally devastated the Temple itself. Then, laden with great quantities of
spoil taken from their brothers and sated with their blood, they took hostages
and left the king his almost utterly ruined kingdom. Finally, they laid down
their arms, having built their security not on the edi¢ce of good faith but the
drastic weakening of the men of Judah. Some years later, when Judah’s strength
had revived, they engaged again in battle, and again the Israelites emerged
victorious, annihilating 120,000 men of Judah, taking as many as 200,000
women and children captive, and once again seizing immense booty. But when
their resources were consumed in these and other con£icts mentioned in
passing in the histories, they themselves ¢nally likewise fell prey to their
enemies.
[5] If we try to calculate the periods in which the Israelites were allowed
to enjoy complete peace, we shall ¢nd a signi¢cantly vast di¡erence
[between the periods without and with kings]. In the time before the
kings, they often passed forty and even, on one occasion (you may hardly
believe this), eighty years, in concord, without foreign or internal wars. But
as soon as the kings took control, the reason for going to war was no longer,
as before, peace and liberty but rather glory, and we read that all the kings
fought wars except only Solomon whose virtue, i.e. wisdom, £ourished
better in peace than in war. Deadly lust for power took over, rendering the
path to the throne very bloody for many of them. Finally, the laws remained
uncorrupted as long as the rule of the people continued, and were more
faithfully observed: for prior to rule by kings, there were very few prophets
to counsel the people. But once monarchy was opted for, there was always a
large number of prophets: Obadiah saved a hundred of them from death
by hiding them so that they would not be liquidated with the rest of the
prophets. Nor do we ¢nd the people being deceived by any false prophets
until after power passed to kings many of whom they strove to £atter.
Besides, the people whose resolve is generally high or low according to
their situation, readily disciplined themselves in disasters, prior to kings,
and turned to God and restored the laws, and in this manner extricated
themselves from every danger. By contrast, afterwards, their kings, since
monarchical minds are always proud, and cannot back down without feelings
of humiliation clung obstinately to their faults, until the ¢nal
destruction of the city.
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