As for the two books of the _Kings_, and the two books of the _Chronicles_, besides the places which mention such monuments, as the writer saith, remained till his own days; such as are _1 Kings_ ix. 13, ix. 21, x. 12, xii. 19. _2 Kings_ ii. 22, viii. 22, x. 27, xiv. 7, xvi. 6, xvii. 23, xvii. 34, xvii. 41, and _1 Chron._ iv. 41, v. 26: it is argument sufficient they were written after the captivity in Babylon, that the history of them is continued till that time. For the facts registered are always more ancient than the register; and much more ancient than such books as make mention of, and quote the register; as these books do in divers places, referring the reader to the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, to the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, to the Books of the prophet Samuel, of the prophet Nathan, of the prophet Ahijah; to the Vision of Jehdo, to the books of the prophet Serveiah, and of the prophet Addo. [Sidenote: Ezra and Nehemiah.] The books of _Ezra_ and _Nehemiah_ were written certainly after their return from captivity; because their return, the re-edification of the walls and houses of Jerusalem, the renovation of the covenant, and ordination of their policy, are therein contained. [Sidenote: Esther.] The history of _Queen Esther_ is of the time of the captivity; and therefore the writer must have been of the same time, or after it. [Sidenote: Job.] The book of _Job_ hath no mark in it of the time wherein it was written; and though it appear sufficiently (_Ezekiel_ xiv. 14, and _James_ v. 11) that he was no feigned person; yet the book itself seemeth not to be a history, but a treatise concerning a question in ancient time much disputed, _why wicked men have often prospered in this world, and good men have been afflicted_; and this is the more probable, because from the beginning, to the third verse of the third chapter, where the complaint of Job beginneth, the Hebrew is, as St. Jerome testifies, in prose; and from thence to the sixth verse of the last chapter, in hexameter verses; and the rest of that chapter again in prose. So that the dispute is all in verse; and the prose is added, but as a preface in the beginning, and an epilogue in the end. But verse is no usual style of such, as either are themselves in great pain, as Job; or of such as come to comfort them, as his friends; but in philosophy, especially moral philosophy, in ancient time frequent. [Sidenote: The Psalter.] The _Psalms_ were written the most part by David, for the use of the quire. To these are added some songs of Moses, and other holy men; and some of them after the return from the captivity, as the 137th and the 126th, whereby it is manifest that the Psalter was compiled, and put into the form it now hath, after the return of the Jews from Babylon. [Sidenote: The Proverbs.]