BIBLICAL LIBRARIES
the household and over laborers and these, of necessity, kept records in their departments—as in Egypt and everywhere else at that time. It is doubted by those who hold that "down to the time of Solomon the sources of the historians were almost exclusively oral traditions," that the list of officers is "direct" evidence of official records (Moore in: EB 2:2077) but any express linking with the common practice of the times is needed, it may be found in the description of the well understood Chronicles in Esth. 6:I as "book of the records (Zikkarōn) of the chronicles" and comparing with Mai. 3:16, Ex. 17: 14 and the "recorders" of David and Solomon. Moreover to the student of the history of record-keeping the very fact of so highly organized a kingdom as that of David is itself proof. All progress in social organization depends on records: the numbering of cattle and measuring grain, for assessing taxes,
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