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 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 &quot;down to the time of Solomon the sources of the historians were almost exclusively oral traditions,&quot; that the list of officers is &quot;direct&quot; 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 &quot;book of the records (Zikkarōn) of the chronicles&quot; and comparing with Mai. 3:16, Ex. 17: 14 and the &quot;recorders&quot; 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,