SAUL'S REIGN--HIS WARS--DAVID ANOINTED KING

SAUL'S REIGN--HIS WARS--DAVID ANOINTED KING
SAUL NOT COMPLETELY ACCEPTED
The election of Saul, though generally approved, did not meet with universal acceptance. In one point of view, the choice of a person belonging to a neutral and powerless tribe was calculated to obviate the rivalries of the two great tribes of Ephraim and Judah, who probably both thought that they had the better right to the distinction, but neither of whom were likely to agree that the other should have had it. But, on the other hand, Saul himself was not likely to derive the more respect from this neutral and politically insignificant position which prevented the mutual jealousies of these great rivals. But seeing that the tribe of Benjamin was, from its geographical position, closely connected with, and in some degree dependant on that of Judah, it is more probable that the dissentients, “the children of Belial,” who despised Saul, and said, “How shall this man save us?” were of the haughty and turbulent tribe of Ephraim. Samuel left it to the people themselves to settle the money price they were to pay for their new luxury; and, although he had foreshown the exactions which the regal state would in the end render necessary, it was not his object to give his sanction to that which he had announced as a contingent evil. Besides the external organization of the new government was left to be developed by circumstances, the prophet having only cared to secure the principles. Saul was left to grow into his position and its privileges, while Samuel continued to administer the civil government: for it is to be borne to mind that Samuel continued to judge Israel all the days of his life, which did not terminate until thirty-eight years after the election of Saul, who himself outlived the prophet but two years. The position of Saul was, therefore, for the greater part of his reign, chiefly that of a military leader, while Samuel continued to discharge the civil part of the regal office, to which it was probably obvious that Saul was not competent. The kingdom, properly speaking, was not established, not developed under Saul, but only begun with him. And this it is necessary to understand, if we would clearly apprehend the growth of that monarchical principle which was only planted with Saul.
After his election at Gilgal, the king returned to his own home at Gibeah, where such “presents” were brought him by the people as oriental kings usually receive, and which form no inconsiderable portion of their ordinary revenue. As the product of these offerings was probably more than adequate to the present wants and expectations of the king, who as yet assumed no regal state, the question as to the permanent support of the kingly government was not yet pressed upon the attention of either the people or the king. The discontented parties, however, “brought him no presents.” Saul took no notice of their insults, but wisely “held his peace.”
SAUL CHALLENGES AMMONITES
Very soon after Saul's election, the Ammonites, under their king Nahash, marched into the old disputed territory beyond Jordan, and laid siege to the important city of Jabesh Gilead. The inhabitants, avowing their impotence, offered to submit to the condition of paying tribute to the Ammonites; but the insulting and barbarous king refused to receive their submission on any other terms than that the right eye of every one of them should be extinguished, that they might remain as so many living monuments of his victory. Here again was a barbarity of which the Israelites were never guilty, even in thought. The people of Jabesh Gilead were so distressed that they dared not absolutely refuse even these merciless conditions, but besought a grace of seven days for deliberation. This they did with the hope that the tribes on the other side the river might, in the interval, be roused by the news to appear for their deliverance. Nor was their hope in vain. Saul no sooner received the intelligence than he at once and decidedly stood up in his position of a hero and a king, claiming the obedience of the people, whom he summoned to follow him to the deliverance of Jabesh Gilead. This call was readily obeyed; for it ran in the names of Saul and Samuel, and was conveyed in that imperative and compulsory form, which it was not, under any circumstances, judged safe to disobey. For he hewed a yoke of oxen in pieces, and sent the pieces by the hands of swift messengers to all Israel, calling them, by all the penalties of that well-known and dreaded sign, to follow him. All Israel obeyed with one consent. All the men, of age to bear arms, quitted their several labors, and hastened from all parts to the plain of Bezek, where Saul numbering his army, found it to consist of three hundred and thirty thousand men, of whom thirty thousand were of Judah, which seems rather an inadequate proportion for so large a tribe. It being already the sixth day, Saul sent to apprize the citizens of Jabesh Gilead of the help which was preparing for them, and which they might expect to receive on the morrow, being the very day they were to surrender their eyes to the Ammonites.
Accordingly, in the morning, the king, having marched all night, appeared before Jabesh, at the head of his army, invested the camp of the Ammonites, and falling upon them on three different sides, overthrew them with a great slaughter. So complete was the rout, that those who escaped were so broken and dispersed, that no two could be found together.
SAUL ADMIRED OVER VICTORY
Saul in this action displayed a large measure of those heroic qualities which the ancient nations most desired their monarchs to possess. Considering all the circumstances, the promptitude and energy of his decision, the speed with which he collected an immense army and brought it into action, and the skill and good military conduct of the whole transaction, there are probably few operations of the Hebrew history which more recommend themselves to the respect and admiration of a modern soldier. Its effect was not lost upon the people, who joyfully recognized in their king the qualities which have generally been held most worthy of rule; and so much was their enthusiasm excited, that they began to talk of putting to death the small minority who had refused to recognize his sovereignty. But Samuel interposed to prevent an act unbecoming a day in which “God had wrought salvation in Israel.” So harsh a proceeding would also have been rather likely to provoke than allay the disaffection of the leading tribes.
SAMUEL INVITES ARMY
Samuel then invited the army, which comprehended in fact the effective body of the Hebrew people, to proceed to Gilgal, there solemnly to confirm the kingdom to Saul, seeing that now his claims were undisputed by any portion of the people. This was done with great solemnity, and with abundant sacrifices of peace and joy.
SAMUEL ASKS FOR THUNDERSTORM
But lest this solemnity, which was obviously designed to remind the people of their continued dependence on Jehovah, should be construed into an approbation and sanction of all their proceedings, the prophet took this public occasion of reminding them that their proceeding had been most unpleasing to their Divine King; although, if they maintained their fidelity to him and to the principles of the theocracy, some of the evil consequences might be averted. He also neglected not the opportunity of justifying his own conduct and the purity of his administration. He challenged assembled Israel to produce one instance of oppression, fraud, or corruption, on his part, while he had been their sole judge; and in that vast multitude not one voice was raised to impugn his integrity and uprightness. He then proceeded to remind them of their past transgressions, in forgetting or turning astray from their God, with the punishments which had invariably followed, and the deliverances which their repentance had procured; showing them, by these instances, the sufficiency of their Divine Sovereign to rule them, and to save them from their enemies, without the intervention of an earthly king, whom they had persisted in demanding. And he assured them that, under their regal government, public sins would not come to be visited with public calamities. To add the greater weight to his words, and to evince the divine displeasure, the commissioned prophet called down thunder and rain from heaven, then at the usual season of wheat harvest, when the air is usually, in that country, serene and cloudless. On this the people were greatly alarmed at the possible consequences of the displeasure they had provoked, and besought Samuel to intercede for them. The prophet kindly encouraged them to hope that if they continued to trust faithfully in God, all would yet be well; and he assured them of continued intercession on their behalf, and of his services as a civil judge or teacher--for that the omission would be a sin on his own part.
SAUL'S ARMY
Saul, now fully established as king, dismissed his numerous army; but he retained three thousand of their number, two thousand of which he stationed at Michmash and Bethel, under his own immediate orders, while the other thousand were at Gibeah of Benjamin, under his eldest son Jonathan. Josephus says that these formed the body-guard of himself and his son. If so, he began very soon to act “like the kings of the nations” and to fulfill one part of the predictions of Samuel as to the course which the kingdom was likely to take. Even supposing (as we rather do) that he retained this force to be in readiness for the smaller military operations which he had in view, it is evident that he had already taken the idea of a standing army, the nucleus of which this body of three thousand men maybe deemed to have formed. At all events, it may seem as an early indication of Saul's subsequently besetting public sin, of forgetting his properly vice-regal character, and his subordination to the Divine King. It was assuredly a new thing in Israel, and does savor somewhat of a distrust of God's providence, by which the peculiar people had hitherto been protected and delivered in every time of need; as well as of an affectation of that independent authority which “the kings of the nations” took to themselves. However, as the character of Saul seems to be held generally in more disesteem than the writers of his history intended, we shall not impute blame to him where the Scripture does not; but are ready to allow that, under all the circumstances, the measure was prudent and proper; for it appears that an enemy was then actually present in the country, whose expulsion the king had then in view. There were garrisons of the Philistines in the land. How this came to pass is not very clear. It would seem, however, that in resigning their conquests after their last defeat, they had retained some hill fortresses, from which they knew the Hebrews would find it difficult to dislodge them; and that when they recovered from the blow which was then inflicted upon their power, they contrived, by the help of this hold which they had in the country, to bring the southern tribes (at least those of Judah and Benjamin) under a sort of subjection. Thus when Saul was returning home after having been privately anointed by Samuel at Ramah, and met the sons of the prophets at Gibeah, we learn that at that place was “a garrison of the Philistines.” And now we further learn that the Hebrews had in fact been disarmed by that people. According to that jealous policy of which other examples will ultimately be offered, they had even removed all the smiths of Israel. lest they should make weapons of war; to consequence of which the Hebrews were obliged to resort to the Philistines whenever their agricultural implements needed any other sharpening than that which a grindstone could give; and as this was an unpleasant alternative, even these important instruments had been suffered to become blunt at the time to which we are now come; and so strict had been the deprivation of arms that, in the military operations which soon after followed, no one of the Israelites, save Saul and his eldest son, was possessed of a spear or sword.
JONATHAN SLAYS PHILISTINES
This was the state of southern Palestine, where Jonathan, acting doubtless by the orders of his father, attacked and overcame with his thousand men the Philistine garrison in Gibeah. Encouraged by this success, Saul caused open war to be proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, against the Philistines, and to assert his authority over the tribes beyond Jordan, who were but too apt to regard their interests as separate from those of the other tribes, and who might think themselves exempt from taking part in a war against a people whose oppressions had not extended to themselves--Saul directed the proclamation to be made not only “throughout all the land,” but in a special manner it included “those beyond Jordan.” They did not disobey; but came with other Israelites, from all quarters, to the standard of the king at Gilgal. The people generally, though destitute of proper military weapons, were much inspirited by the success of Jonathan, and by their confidence to the now tried valor and military conduct of the king.
PHILISTINE ATTACK
Meanwhile the Philistines were not heedless of this movement among the Israelites. No sooner did they hear of the defeat of their garrison in Gibeah than they assembled a formidable force, which seemed sufficient to overwhelm all opposition. It was composed of three thousand chariots of war, six thousand horsemen, and “people as the sand upon the seashore for multitude.” The enthusiasm of the disarmed Israelites evaporated in the presence of this powerful force; and the army of Saul diminished every day, as great numbers of the men stole away to seek refuge in caves, in woods, in rocks, to towers, and in pits.
SAUL'S SHAMEFUL INDEPENDENCE
Saul had exhibited his inability of understanding his true position, or his disposition to regard himself as an independent sovereign, by entering upon or provoking this war without consulting, through Samuel or the priest, the divine will. Although not formally so declared, it was the well-understood practice of the Hebrew constitution, that no war against any other than the doomed nations of Canaan would be undertaken without the previous consent and promised assistance of the Great King. Yet Saul, without any such authority, had taken measures which were certain to produce a war with the Philistines. He probably thought that the aggressions of the Philistines, and their existing position as the oppressors of Israel, and their intrusion into the Hebrew territory, made his undertaking so obviously just and patriotic as to render a direct authorization superfluous, as its refusal could not be supposed: nor are we quite sure that in this he was mistaken. Be this as it may, Samuel was not willing that such a precedent should be established; and therefore he had appointed to meet Saul on a particular day at Gilgal, “to offer burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and to show him what he should do,” that is, both to propitiate the Lord, as on other occasions, and to advise Saul how to act in carrying on the war. On the appointed day Samuel did not arrive as soon as the king expected. The prophet probably delayed his coming on purpose to test his fidelity and obedience. Saul failed in this test. Seeing his force hourly diminishing by desertions; and in the pride of his fancied independence, considering that he had as much right as the Egyptian and other kings to perform the priestly functions, he ordered the victims to be brought, and offered them himself upon the altar. This usurpation of the priestly office by one who had no natural authority as an Aaronite, nor any special authorization as a prophet, was decisive of the character and the fate of Saul. If the principles of the theocracy were to be preserved, and if the political supremacy of Jehovah was at all to be maintained, it was
Rama indispensably necessary that the first manifestation by the kings of autocratic dispositions and of self-willed assumption of superiority to the law, should be visited by severe examples of punishment; for if not checked in the beginnings, the growth would have been fatal to the constitution. It will hence appear that the punishments which Saul incurred for this and other acts manifesting the same class of dispositions, were not so disproportioned to his offences, or so uncalled for by the occasions of the state, as some persons have been led to imagine.
SAUL'S APOLOGY TO SAMUEL
Saul had scarcely made an end of offering his sacrifices before he was apprized of the approach of Samuel, and went forth to meet him. The apology he made to the prophet for what he had done,-that his force was diminishing, and that he was afraid that if he delayed any longer the Philistines would fall upon him before sacrifices had been offered to Jehovah-showed little of that reliance upon the Divine King, which every Hebrew general was expected to manifest; and but little anxiety to receive these prophetic counsels which Samuel had promised to deliver. Under nearly similar circumstances, how different was the conduct of Gideon, who gained immortal honor by these theocratic sentiments which enabled him to leave to his successors a memorable example of confidence in God! Samuel saw through the hollowness of Saul's apology, and warned him that by such sentiments as he entertained, and such conduct as he manifested, he was rendering himself unworthy to be the founder of a royal house, inasmuch as he could not-become a pattern to his successors; and that by persevering in such a course he would compel the appointment of one more worthy than himself to reign over Israel, and to be the father of a kingly race. Samuel then retired from Gilgal, leaving Saul to carry on, as he saw best, the war he had undertaken.
SAUL'S RETREAT
On numbering his remaining force, Saul found that but six hundred men remained with him. With a less force than this, enemies as formidable as the Philistines had in former times been defeated. But Saul, entirely, overlooking, or distrusting, that divine assistance which every Hebrew leader in a just war was entitled to expect, and regarding only the disparity of his force, felt that it would be imprudent to engage or oppose so vast an army with a mere handful of disheartened men. He therefore retired from the field, and threw himself into the reconquered fortress of Gibeah. On discovering his retreat, the Philistines sent three powerful detachments in different directions to ravage the country, while the main body of their army still remained encamped near Michmash.
JONATHAN'S SURPRISE ATTACK
In this extremity, an entire change was wrought in the aspect of affairs through the daring valor of Jonathan. Accompanied only by his armor-bearer, he withdrew secretly from the camp, and, by climbing, opened himself a passage to one of the outposts of the Philistines, upon the summit of a cliff, deemed inaccessible, and therefore not very strongly guarded; and penetrating to the enemy by so new and unexpected a path, he killed the advanced piquets, and supported by his follower, slew all whom his hand encountered, and bore disorder and alarm into the camp of the Philistines, then much weakened by the detachments we have mentioned. The cries which arose from this part of the camp confounded and terrified the more distant parts; so that, aware of the presence of an enemy, which yet did not appear to them, they turned their arms against one another, and destroyed themselves with the blind fury of despairing men. The clamor which arose in the Philistine camp was heard by the Israelites. Saul at first was willing to go through the form of consulting the Lord by urim; but the confusion increasing in the Philistine camp, he deemed it a time for action rather than counsel; and directing the priest to forbear, he hastened to join his valiant son, whose absence was now known, and to whom this disorder was rightly attributed. The enemy were already flying in all directions, and Saul, with his small band, committed terrible havoc upon the fugitives. While thus engaged, his force increased with still greater rapidity than it had previously diminished: for not only did the Hebrew captives take the opportunity of making their escape and joining their king, but great numbers came forth from their lurking places to join in the pursuit; so that Saul soon found himself at the head of six thousand men. The rash and inconsiderate king, in his determination to make the most of his advantage, laid an interdictive[257] curse upon any of his people who should taste food until the evening. Not only were the pursuers weakened and exhausted by the strict abstinence thus enjoined, but Jonathan, unaware of this interdict, unwittingly transgressed it by tasting a little wild honey which he met with in his way through a forest.
[257] prohibitive command
SAUL ORDERS MEAT PROPERLY PREPARED
In the evening, the famished people, being then released from the interdict, flew ravenously upon the prey of cattle, and, in their impatience, began to devour the raw and living flesh. This being a transgression of the law which forbade meat not properly exsanguinated[258] to be eaten, Saul, who was really rather zealous to observe the law when it did not interfere with his own objects, interposed, and ordered the meat to be properly and legally slaughtered and prepared for food.
[258] bloodless
THE PEOPLE SPARE JONATHAN
The people being now refreshed, Saul proposed to continue the pursuit during the night, but deemed it prudent first to consult the Lord through the priest. No answer was given. This Saul interpreted to intimate that his solemn interdict had been transgressed; and, again unreasoning and rash, he swore that even were the transgressor his own son Jonathan, he should surely be put to death. It was Jonathan: the lot determined this. His father told him he must die; but the people, full of admiration of the young prince, protested that not a hair of his head should suffer damage, and thus saved his life.
SAUL FIGHTS NEIGHBORS
This campaign, although concluded without a battle, was not the less productive of durable advantage. The glory which Saul acquired by it strengthened his authority among his own people, and henceforth no enemy to which he could be opposed seemed invincible to him. We see him, indeed, waging war, in turn, against Moab, Ammon, and Edom, and against the Amalekites and the Philistines; and in whatever direction he turned his arms, he obtained the victory and honor. Valiant himself, he esteemed valor in others; and whenever he discovered a man of ability and courage, he endeavored to draw him near to himself, and to attach him to his person. The qualities most prized by Saul were eminently possessed by his own cousin Abner, and he became “captain of the host,” or generalissimo of the army of Israel.
SAMUEL TELLS SAUL TO FIGHT AMALEKITES
The several expeditions of Saul against the enemies of Israel took up, at intervals, the space of five or six years. During these years, Samuel, without further interference in political affairs, continued to watch the civil interests of the people, and to administer justice between them. The authority which he still preserved in Israel was very great, and probably not considerably less than it had been at any former time.
About the tenth or eleventh year of Saul's reign, God made known to the prophet that the iniquity of the Amalekites had now reached its height, and that the time was fully come when the old sentence of utter extermination should be executed. Saul was charged with its execution; and his commission, as delivered to him by Samuel, was expressed in the most absolute terms, and left the king no option to spare aught that breathed. Under this supreme order, the king made a general call upon all the tribes, which brought together an army of two hundred thousand men, among whom there were but ten thousand men of Judah. The deficiency of that tribe in supplying its due proportion is probably not noticed by the historian on this and on a former occasion, without some object; and that object probably was to convey the intimation that since the scepter had been of old promised to that tribe, it was discontented at the government of Saul, and less hearty than the other tribes in its obedience.
The king led his army into the territory of Amalek. There he made the most able disposition of his forces, seized the most favorable positions, and then turned his advantages against the enemy. A general action followed, in which the Israelites were victorious, and they pursued the Amalekites to their most distant and last retreats.
AGAG TAKEN ALIVE
Agag, the king, was taken alive with all his riches. Blinded by his ambition and his avarice to the danger of acting in defiance of a most positive and public command from God himself, Saul determined to spare the life of Agag, and to preserve the more valuable parts of all the booty from destruction; but with a most insulting or weak mockery of obedience, “all that was vile and refuse they utterly destroyed.” He then led home his triumphant army, and paused in the land of Eastern Carmel,[259] where he erected a monument of the most important and distant expedition in which he had hitherto been engaged. He then passed on to Gilgal. Samuel came to him there soon after his arrival, and at once charged him with his disobedience. Saul behaved with a degree of confusion and meanness which we should scarcely have expected from him, and which the consciousness of wrong-doing only can explain. He affirmed and persisted that he had obeyed the Divine command, when everything before and around him evinced that he had not. In the end he confessed that he had acted wrong; but then excused himself by laying one part of it on the zeal of the people to sacrifice the best of the cattle to Jehovah, and part to his own fear of restrain, them from it. It was a great grief to Samuel to hear the king of Israel betray such meanness of soul, in palliating[260] an unjustifiable action; and, conceding the truth of the latter statement, he asked with severity, “Hath Jehovah as much delight in burnt offerings and in sacrifices as in obedience to his voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice; and to hearken than the fat of rams.” He then continued authoritatively, as a prophet, to announce his rejection from being the founder of a royal house, as the fixed purpose of the Divine King whose imperative commands he had publicly; disobeyed, or assumed a power of dispensing with, to such an extent as suited his convenience. It would be wrong to consider this as the sole actor omission for which this rejection was incurred. It was but one of many acts by which he indicated an utter incapability of apprehending his true position, and in consequence manifested impositions and conduct utterly at variance with the principles of government which the welfare of the state, indeed, the very objects of its foundation, made it most essential to maintain. Unless the attempts at absolute independence made by Saul were checked, or visited with some signal mark of the divine displeasure, the precedents established by the first king were likely to become the rule to future sovereigns. And hence the necessity, now at the beginning, of peculiar strictness, or even of severity, for preventing the establishment of bad rules and precedents for future reigns.
[259] On the southwestern borders of the Dead sea, and which we call “Eastern Carmel” to distinguish it from “Mount Carmel,” which lies westward, on the Mediterranean.
[260] Trying to lessen the seriousness of something
SAUL TEARS SAMUEL'S ROBE
Saul at first betrayed more anxiety about present appearances than ultimate results; and he entreated Samuel to remain, and honor him in the sight of the people, by joining with him in an act of worship to Jehovah. Samuel refused; and as he turned to go away, the king caught hold of the skirt of his robe to detain him, with such force, that the skirt was rent off. “So hath God,” said the prophet, “rent from thee, this day, the kingdom of Israel, and given it to thy neighbor who is better than thee. Nor will he who gives victory to Israel lie or repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent.” The expression which we have here particularly indicated was probably intended and understood as a further rebuke for the triumphal monument which Saul had erected in Carmel, and whereby he seemed to claim to himself that honor for the recent victory which, under the principles of the theocracy, was due to God only. Samuel, however, complied with the earnest wish of the king, and returned with him to the camp. There acting on the stern injunction which Saul had neglected, the prophet commanded the king of the Amalekites, by whose sword many mothers in Israel had been made childless, to be put to death. When the prophet and the king separated, the former proceeded to his usual residence at Ramah, and went no more to see Saul to the day of his death. Yet as he had a great regard for a man who, with all his faults, had many good natural qualities which would well have fitted him for rule in a simple human monarchy, and who, moreover, was faithful and even zealous for Jehovah, as his God, however deficient in obedience to him as his king, the prophet continued long to mourn greatly for him, and to bewail the doom which it had been his painful duty to declare.
SAMUEL TOLD TO ANOINT NEW KING
After fifteen years, the Lord rebuked Samuel for this useless repining, and commanded him to proceed to Bethlehem, there to anoint the man worthier than Saul, whom he had chosen to fill his forfeited place, and to become the founder of a royal house. This was a delicate mission; for Samuel knew enough of Saul to fear that he would not scruple to put even himself to death if the fact came to his, knowledge. He therefore veiled his real, object under the form of a public sacrifice, which, in his prophetic character, he had a right to enjoin. That he still retained his authority as civil judge is evinced by the alarm which his unexpected visit occasioned to the elders of Bethlehem, who “trembled” at his coming, for fear it should be not “peaceably,” but in judgment.
SAMUEL ANOINTS DAVID.
The family to which Samuel was sent was that of Jesse, the grandson of Boaz and Ruth, and, as such, a person of consideration in that place. Jesse was the father of eight sons, all of whom were present in Bethlehem, save the youngest, David by name, who was abroad with his father's flock. The whole family was invited by the prophet to be present at his sacrifice. Samuel knew that the destined king was to be found among Jesse's sons, but knew not as yet for which of them that distinction was intended. Still influenced by those general prepossessions in favor of such personal qualities as he had formerly beheld in Saul with complacency and admiration, Samuel no sooner beheld the commanding and stately figure of Jesse's eldest son, Eliab, than he concluded that “the Lord's anointed was before him.” For this he received the striking rebuke, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for Jehovah seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but Jehovah looketh on the heart.” It further appeared that no one of the other sons of Jesse then present was the object of the divine choice. On this, Samuel, with some surprise, asked Jesse whether he had other sons; and learning that the youngest, a mere youth of fifteen years old, was abroad in the fields, he caused him to be sent for. When he arrived, Samuel was struck by his uncommonly handsome appearance, especially by a freshness of complexion unusual in that country, and by the singular fire and beauty of his eyes. The divine choice was at once intimated to him, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he!” As in the case of Saul himself, this precious anointing was significant only of the divine intention and choice. As Saul had returned to his fields, so David returned to his flock. The path to the throne was to be opened by circumstances which did not yet appear. The anointing was the sign and seal of an ultimate intention. For the present David was not more a king, nor Saul less one, than before.
SAUL BECOMES MOODY
The doom of exclusion had been pronounced upon Saul at a time when he was daily strengthening himself on the throne, and increasing in power, popularity, and fame; and when his eldest son, Jonathan, stood, and deserved to stand, so high in the favor of all the people, that no man could, according to human probabilities, look upon any one else as likely to succeed him in the throne. But when the excitement of war and victory had subsided, and the king had leisure to consider and brood over the solemn and declaredly irrevocable sentence which the prophet had pronounced, a very serious effect was gradually produced upon his mind and character; for he was no longer prospered and directed by God, but left a prey to his own gloomy mind. The consciousness that he had not met the requirements of the high vocation to which, “when he was little in his own sight,” he had been called, together with the threatened loss of his dominion and the possible destruction of his house, made him jealous, sanguinary,[261] and irritable, and occasionally threw him into fits of the most profound and morbid melancholy. This is what, in the language of scripture, is called “the evil spirit that troubled him.” That it was not a case of demoniacal possession, as some have been led by this form of expression to suppose, is obvious from the effects to which we shall presently advert. Nor was it needful; for, as acting upon the character of man, earth contains not a more evil spirit than the guilty or troubled mind abandoned to its own impulses.
[261] bloodthirsty
DAVID PLAYS MUSIC FOR KING SAUL
Not long after David had been anointed by Samuel, the mental malady of Saul gathered such strength--the fits of his mad melancholy became so long and frequent, that some remedial measures appeared necessary. Remembering that Saul had always been remarkably sensible to the influence of sweet sounds, it occurred to his friends that it might be attended with good effects, were an able musician retained at court, to play before the king, when his fits of gloom and horror came upon him. Saul himself approved of this advice, and directed that a person with the suitable qualifications should be sought. This reminded one of the courtiers how skilfully and sweetly he had heard the youngest son of Jesse play upon the harp; and in mentioning this to the king he also took occasion to commend David as a young man of known valor, prudent in conduct, and very comely in his person. From this and other corroborative circumstances, it is easy to perceive that music was now, and much earlier, cultivated by the Hebrews as a private accomplishment and solace. It formed their most usual relaxation, and divided their time with the labors of agriculture and the care of flocks.
The report which he had heard engaged Saul to send to Jesse, demanding his son David. The old man accordingly sent him to court, together with such a present to the king as the customs of the age--and of the east in all ages, required as a homage. It consisted of a quantity of bread, a skin bottle of wine, and a kid.
DAVID GAINS VALUABLE KINGDOM TRAINING
Thus, in the providence of God, an opening was made for David, whereby he might become acquainted with the manners of the court, the business of government, and the affairs and interests of the several tribes, and was put in the way of securing the equally important advantage of becoming extensively known to the people. These were training circumstances for the high destinies which awaited him. Saul himself, ignorant that in him he beheld the “man worthier than himself,” on whom the inheritance of his throne was to devolve, contributed to these preparations. He received the youthful minstrel with fervor; and, won by his engaging disposition and the beauties of his mind and person, not less than by the melody of his harp, became much attached to him. The personal bravery of David, also, did not long remain unnoticed by the veteran hero, who soon elevated him to the honorable and confidential station of his armor-bearer--having obtained Jesse's consent to allow his son to remain in attendance upon him. His presence was a great solace and relief to Saul; for whenever he fell into his fits of melancholy, David played on his harp before him; and its soft and soothing strains soon calmed his troubled spirit, and brought peace to his soul.
DAVID AND THE GIANT
In the twenty-six years which had passed since the signal overthrow of the Philistines at Michmash, that people had recruited their strength, and at last[262] deemed themselves able to wipe out the disgrace they then incurred, and to recover their previous superiority over the Israelites. They recommenced the war by invading the territory of Judah: Saul marched against them; and the two armies encamped in the face of each other, on the sides of opposite mountains which a valley separated; While thus stationed the Hebrews were astonished and terrified to behold a man of enormous stature, between nine and ten feet high, advance from the camp of the Philistines attended by his armor-bearer. His name was Goliath. He was arrayed it complete mail, and armed with weapons proportioned to his bulk. He stood forth between the hosts, and, as authorized by the Philistines, who were confident that his match could not be found, proposed, with great arrogance of language, that the question of tribute and servitude should be determined by the result of a single combat between himself and any champion which might be opposed to him. The Israelites were quite as much dismayed at the appearance of Goliath, and at the proposal which he made, as the Philistines could have expected, or as the Philistines themselves would have been under the same circumstances. No heart in Israel was found stout enough to dare the encounter with this dreadful Philistine; nor was any man then present willing to take on his single arm the serious consequences of the possible result. Then finding that no one of riper years or higher pretensions offered himself to the combat, David presented himself before Saul, whom he attended as his armor bearer, and said, “Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” But Saul told him that he was unequal to such a contest, “For thou art but a youth, but he a man of war from his youth.” The reply of David was equally forcible and modest--“Thy servant tended his father's flock; and when there came a lion or a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock, then I pursued him and smote him, and snatched it from his mouth; and if he rose against me; I caught him by the beard, and smote him, and slew him. Both lions and bears hath thy servant smitten, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them. Let me go and smite him, and take away the reproach from Israel; for who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the hosts of the living God?” He added, “Jehovah who delivered me from the power of lions and bears will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” Saul had been too little accustomed to this mode of speaking and feeling not to be struck by it. Although he had himself not been prone to exhibit military confidence in God, he perceived that such a confidence now supplied the only prospect of success; he therefore said, “Go; and may Jehovah be with thee!” He would fain have arrayed him in his own complete armor; but David rejected this as an encumbrance, and stepped lightly forward in his ordinary dress, and without sword or shield, or spear, having only in his right hand a sling--with the use of which early pastoral habits had made him familiar--and in his left a little bag, containing five smooth pebbles picked up from the small brook that there meandered and still meanders through the valley of Elah.[263] The giant was astonished, and felt insulted that a mere youth should be sent forth to contend with so fearsome a champion as himself; and availing himself of the pause which the ancient champions were wont to take to abuse, threaten, and provoke each other, he cried, “Am I a dog, that thou comest against me with staves?” He then cursed him by his god, and, like the old Homeric heroes, threatened to give his flesh to the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field. David's reply, conceived in the finest and truest spirit of theocracy, at once satisfies us that we behold in him the man fit to reign over the peculiar people. “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; that come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the hosts of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will Jehovah deliver thee into my hand; and I will take thy head from thee, and I will give thy carcass, and the carcasses of the host of the Philistines, this day to the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that the whole earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that Jehovah can save without sword or spear; for the battle is Jehovah's, and he will deliver you into our hands.” On this the enraged giant strode forward; and David hastened to fit a stone to his sling; and he flung it with so true an aim that it smote the Philistine in the only vulnerable part that was not cased in armor, his forehead, and buried itself deep in his brain. He then ran and cut off the monster's head with his own sword, thus fulfilling the prediction he had just uttered. A few minutes after he had gone forth, he returned, and laid the head and sword of the giant at the feet of Saul.
[262] B.C. 1080, five years after the anointing of David.
[263] “We entered the famous Terebinthine vale, renowned for centuries as the field of the victory gained by David over the uncircumcised Philistine. Nothing has occurred to alter the face of the country. The very brook out of which David chose the five smooth stones has been noticed by many a thirsty pilgrim journeying from Jaffa to Jerusalem, all of whom must pass it in their way. The ruins of goodly edifices, deed, attest the religious veneration entertained in later periods for this hallowed spot; but even these are now become so insignificant that they are scarcely discernible, and nothing can be said to interrupt the native dignity of this memorable scene”--Clarke.
PHILISTINES DEFEATED
The overthrow of their champion struck a panic into the Philistines. They fled, and were pursued, with great slaughter, even to their own country, by the Israelites, who then returned and plundered their camp.
DAVID HONORED
The honor which David won by this splendid achievement was too great for his safety. Saul could not but feel that the sort of spirit by which the youthful hero had been actuated was precisely that which on many preceding occasions he himself ought to have manifested, and for not doing which the doom of exclusion had been pronounced against him. The feeling that David was really the hero of the recent fight, was also not pleasant to one so jealous of his military glory. And when the women came forth from their towns to greet the returning conquerors with their instruments of music, and sang responsively to their tabrets and their viols--
“Saul has smitten his thousands,
But David has his ten thousands slain,”
the indignation of the king was provoked to the utmost. “To me,” he said, “they have ascribed but thousands, and to David tens of thousands: what more can he have but the kingdom?” It would therefore seem that this preference of David to him by the women in their songs first suggested to him the possibility that he was the man, worthier than himself, who was destined to succeed him and to supersede his descendants: and the notion having once occurred, he probably made such inquiries as enabled him to conclude or to discover that such was the fact. His knowledge of it appears soon after; and we know that from this time forward David became the object, not merely of his envy and jealousy, but of his hatred and dislike. Yet he was afraid, if he as yet wished, to do him any open injury; but as he could not bear him any longer in his former close attendance about his person, he threw him more into the public service, intrusting to him the command of a thousand men. From his subsequent expressions and conduct, it seems likely that the king expected that the inexperience of youth might lead David into such errors in this responsible public station as would either give him occasion to act against him, or would seriously damage his character with the people. But if such were his views, they were grievously disappointed. In his public station “David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, for Jehovah was with him;” and the opportunity which was given him only served to evince his talents for business and his attention to it; and, consequently, to increase and establish that popularity among the people which his character and exploits had already won. And so it was, that the dislike and apprehensions of Saul increased in proportion to the abilities and discretion which David evinced, and to the popularity which he acquired.
DAVID'S VICTORY FOR MICHAL
The king was under, the full operation of those feelings, which as yet he durst not avow, when he happened to learn that his daughter Michal had become attached to David. This was far from displeasing him, as he thought it gave him an opportunity of entrapping the son of Jesse to his own destruction. He promised her to him; but on the condition of so difficult an enterprise against the Philistines, as he fully expected would ensure his death. But David, always victorious, returned in a few days with more numerous pledges of his valor than the king had ventured to demand; and he was then married to Michal who could not with any decency be refused to him.
In some subsequent actions against the Philistines, with whom a desultory warfare was still carried on, David displayed such courage and military skill as greatly increased his renown in Israel, and increased in the same proportion the animosity of Saul. His hate became at last so ungovernable, that he could no longer confide the dark secret to his own bosom, or limit himself to underhand attempts against the life of Jesse's son. He avowed it to his son Jonathan and to his courtiers, charging them to take any favorable opportunity of putting him to death. He knew not yet of the strong attachment which subsisted between Jonathan and David--that his noble son, rising far above all selfishness, pride, or envy, loved the son of Jesse even “as his own soul.” He heard the command with horror, and apprized David of it counseling him to hide himself until he should have an opportunity of remonstrating on the subject privately with the king. This he did with such effect, displaying services and fidelity of David with such force, that the better reason of Saul prevailed for the time, and he solemnly swore to make no further attempt against his life.
SAUL THROWS JAVELIN
But not long after, all the evil passions of Saul were again roused by the increased renown which David obtained, by a splendid victory over the Philistines. He had scarce returned to court before he had a narrow escape of being pinned to the wall by a javelin which the king threw at him in one of those fits of frenzied melancholy which the son of Jesse was at that moment endeavoring to sooth by playing on his harp.
DAVID ESCAPES HOUSE
David then withdrew to his own house. But the king had now committed himself, and henceforth threw aside all disguise or restraint. He sent some of his attendants to watch the house; and David would undoubtedly have been murdered the next morning, had not his faithful wife managed his escape during the night, by letting him down in a basket through one of the windows. In the morning, when the man demanded admittance with the intention of slaying her husband, Michal told them he was very ill and confined to his bed; and in proof of it showed them the bed. By this means Michal's artifice was discovered, and her father was so enraged, that for her own safety, she made him believe that it was to save her own life she had consented to it.
MICHAL GIVEN TO ANOTHER
As the only revenge then in his power, Saul took away Michal, and gave her in marriage to another; and the story which she had made up, that David had put her in fear of her life, probably precluded her from making that strenuous opposition which she might otherwise have done.
DAVID JOINS PROPHETS
David himself escaped to Ramah, where he acquainted Samuel with all the king's behavior to him. Samuel took him to Naioth, which seems to have been a kind of school or college of the prophets, in the neighborhood of Ramah, over which Samuel presided. Saul soon heard where he was; and so reckless was he now become, and so madly bent on his murderous object, that he would not respect even this asylum, but sent messengers to bring David to him. These, when they beheld the company of prophets, with Samuel at their head, “prophesying,” or, singing hymns, fell into an ecstasy, and “prophesied” in like manner. The same happened to a second and a third party. At last Saul determined to go himself; and in his rage he probably intended to slay Samuel also for sheltering David. Indeed, that the youth had gone to Samuel, and was sheltered by him, must have confirmed his conviction that David was his appointed successor, if he did not yet know, as he probably did, that the son of Jesse had actually been anointed by the prophet. But no sooner had the king beheld what had so strongly affected his messengers, than he also, as had happened to him in his happier days, “prophesied,” and lay in an ecstatic trance, divested of his outer garment, all that day and night.
DAVID AND JONATHAN MEET
This gave David an opportunity to leave the neighborhood; and he repaired to Gibeah, where the king resided, and where Jonathan then was, to seek a private interview with that valuable friend. Jonathan thought himself fully acquainted with all the intentions of his father, and would not believe that he really designed the death of David. But the latter was well assured of it; and thought that Saul, having become acquainted with their friendship, had concealed his full purpose from Jonathan. It was, however, agreed between them, that the conduct of the king on an approaching occasion should be deemed to determine his ultimate intentions; and that meanwhile David should keep himself concealed. The two friends then walked forth into the fields. Jonathan then avowed to David his conviction that he, and not himself was the destined successor of Saul; and, with rare generosity of spirit and
Throwing a Javelin Escape from a Window abandonment of self, he expressed his cheerful assent to this, and only desired to receive the pledge of David that, if himself alive when he became king, protection should be granted to him from the designs which evil men might entertain; and that if not himself living, kindness should be extended to his family for his sake. This was a matter in which he might be allowed at this time to feel more than usual, anxiety, as it appears, from a comparison of dates, that a son, Mephibosheth, had lately been born to him. Reciprocally, he would pledge himself to protect the life of David, to the extent of his power, from the designs of Saul and his other enemies These things they swore before God to each other, and entered together into a covenant of peace and love.
JONATHAN AND DAVID PART
It seems that by this time Saul lived in considerable state. At the recurrence of the new moons, he was accustomed to entertain his principal officers at meat. Such a feast was now near at hand; and it appears that Saul, who knew that David had returned to Gibeah, expected that, notwithstanding what had passed, he would make his appearance at this feast, as it would seem that non-attendance was regarded as an offensive neglect. Most probably the king thought that David might regard the attempt which had been made upon his life as mere frenetic[264] impulse, not indicative of any deliberate intention against him. The first day of the feast, the place which belonged to David at the king's table was vacant; but Saul then made no remark, thinking the absence might be accidental--But when the son of Jesse made no appearance on the second day, the king put some questions to Jonathan, who excused David's absence, alleging that it was by his permission and consent. On this Saul broke forth into the grossest abuse of Jonathan, and assuring him that his succession to the throne could never be secure while David lived, concluded with, “Wherefore now send for him; for he shall surely die.” And when Jonathan ventured to remonstrate, “Wherefore shall he be slain? What hath he done?” the maddened king threw his javelin to smite him. That he could thus treat his own son, on whom, in fact, all the hopes that remained to him were centered, lessens our wonder at his behavior to David, and at the other acts of madness of which he was guilty. By this Jonathan knew that the king really intended to destroy his friend. He therefore took his bow and went forth, attended by a lad, as if to shoot in the field where David lay hid; for it had been agreed upon between them that the manner in which the arrows were shot, and the expressions used by the archer to the lad who collected the arrows after they had been discharged, was to be a sign intimating to David the course he was to take; thus preventing the danger which might accrue to both from another interview. But when the unfavorable sign had been given, which he knew would render his friend a fugitive, Jonathan could not resist the desire again to commune with him before he departed. He therefore sent away the lad, and as soon as he was gone “David arose out of a place toward the south, and fell on his face toward the ground, and three times did obeisance; and they kissed each other, and wept one with another, with great lamentation.”
[264] excessively agitated and put into a rage
TRIP TO PHILISTINE COUNTRY
After taking leave of Jonathan, David took his journey westward, with the intention of putting himself beyond the reach of Saul, by going to the land of the Philistines, who were not at that time in actual hostilities with the Israelites, and with whom alone the enmity of Saul was not likely to operate to his disadvantage. In his way, attended by a few young men who were attached to him, he came to the town of Nob, belonging to the priests, about twelve miles from Gibeah, and in the neighborhood of Jerusalem and Anathoth. To this place the tabernacle had at this time been removed. We are not made acquainted with the precise occasion of its removal from Shiloh; but it was probably consequent upon the destruction of that town in the war with the Philistines. At this place he was received, as his rank and renown demanded, by the high-priest Ahimelech, whose surprise at seeing him he thought himself obliged to dispel, by the false and unseemly pretence that he had been sent by the king on private business of importance. But taking notice of the presence of one Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of Saul's shepherds, by whom he doubted not that he should be betrayed, he represented to Ahimelech that his business was urgent, and begged that he would supply some refreshment to himself and his men, after which he would continue his journey. The high-priest had nothing to offer but bread which had lain a week on the table of showbread in the sanctuary; and although by the priests only this might lawfully be eaten, he was induced by the alleged urgency of the occasion to give it to David and his men. David afterward
Eastern Forms of Obeisance inquired for weapons; and was told there were none but the sword of Goliath, which, as a pious memorial of the victory over that proud blasphemer, had been deposited to the tabernacle. This, at his desire, was brought to him, and having girded it on, he took leave of Ahimelech, and continued his journey till he reached the Philistine city of Gath, where he presented himself or was brought before Achish, the king of that place, or rather of the state of which that place was the denominating metropolis. It does not appear that David intended himself to be known; or if so, anticipated a more favorable reception: for when he found that he was recognized, and that the courtiers ominously represented him as that David to whom the maidens of Israel had in their songs ascribed the slaughter of tens of thousands of Philistines, and thousands only to Saul, dreading the result of such recollections, David feigned himself mad, with such success that Achish exclaimed, “Lo, ye see the man is mad; why have ye brought him to me? Have I need of madmen, that ye have brought this one to play the madman in my presence? Shall such a one come into my house?”
DAVID ESCAPES PHILISTINES
He was therefore allowed to go where he pleased. He delayed not to avail himself of this advantage, and hastened into the territory of his own tribe of Judah, where he found shelter in the cave of Adullam. He was here joined by his parents and family, who probably deemed themselves unsafe in Bethlehem; and as soon as his retreat became known in the neighborhood, his reputation attracted to him a considerable number of men hanging loose upon society, as in the somewhat analogous case of Jephthah. To understand some of their future operations under David, it is quite necessary to give them just that character, and no other, which they bear in the Scriptural record, which states that “Every one in distress, every one in debt, and every one discontented, flocked to him; and he became chief over them, and there were with him about four hundred men.”
DAVID GOES TO MOAB
From Adullam David took an opposite direction to that which he had first followed, and went into the land of Moab. Here he was well received; for the king consented to take the parents of the outcast under his protection, until the dawning of better days. They therefore remained among the Moabites until the troubles of their son ended with the life of Saul. But, although he might himself have found greater safety in that land, it was important to his future interests that he should return to his own country, that his conduct, adventures, and persecutions, there might keep him alive in the minds of the people. He did not himself plan anything with reference to the destination intended for him ultimately; but God, who best knew by what agencies to effect his purpose, sent the prophet Gad to command him to return into the land of Judah. He obeyed, and found shelter in the forest of Hareth.
DOEG KILLS THE PRIESTS
Saul soon heard of David's return and the place of his retreat, and was greatly troubled; for, as his safety could not be the object of this move from the security which Moab afforded, he inferred that he had returned with the intention of acting offensively and vindictively against him when occasion or advantage offered. He therefore called together the officers of his court; and as there was not, as yet, any building or palace in which such assemblies could be held, the king sat upon a bank, under a tamarisk tree, with a spear in his hand.[265] It seems that the persons present were chiefly Benjamites; and Saul, speaking as one distrustful of their fidelity, appealed to their selfish interests, asking on what grounds they, as Benjamites, could hope to be bettered by the son of Jesse; and complained that there were plots between him and his own son Jonathan, of which they knew, but that they were not sorry for him, nor would give any information to him. On this Doeg, the Edomite, informed him of the assistance which David had received at Nob from the high priest; but omitted to state, if he knew, the certainly false grounds on which that assistance had been claimed by David and given by the priest; and added (which was not true) that Ahimelech had “inquired of God” for him. On hearing this, Saul was highly enraged, and immediately sent for Ahimelech and all the priests of his family that were at Nob. When they arrived, the king fiercely charged him with his participation in what his jealous imagination tortured into a conspiracy, of David against him. Ahimelech declared that he had entertained him merely as the king's son-in-law, and one employed on the king's business, and denied that he had consulted the sacred oracle on his behalf; but Saul, without listening to his statement, commanded his followers to slay them all. A dead stillness followed this order; and, finding that no one moved to obey it, the frantic king turned to Doeg and commanded him to fall upon them. The unscrupulous Edomite was ready to his obedience; and although the Israelites then present had refused to stain their own hands with the blood of the most sacred persons in the land, they had not sufficient spirit or principle to interpose in their behalf, but stood by and saw them slaughtered by Doeg and his myrmidons.[266] Not fewer than eighty-five priests fell in this horrid massacre; and immediately after, Doeg, by Saul's order, of course, proceeded to Nob, and slew all that lived in it--man, woman, child, and beast. This was a further development of that judgment upon the house of Eli which had been pronounced of old; this was that deed in Israel of which it had been predicted that “both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle.” The only individual of the family of the high-priest who escaped was Abiathar, one of his sons. This person repaired to David, who was deeply afflicted at the intelligence which he brought, and desired him to remain with him.
[265] The spear was obviously used by him not more as a weapon than as a scepter. As such it is several times mentioned The earliest scepters were, in fact, spears to many ancient nations
[266] follower who carries out orders without question
DAVID PROTECTS KEILAH
Soon after this, David heard that a party of Philistines had come up against the border-town of Keilah, with the view of taking away the produce of the harvest which the people of that town had lately gathered in. He greatly desired to march his troop to the relief of that place; but his men, who, as might be expected from their character, were by no means distinguished for their courage or subordination, declined so bold an enterprise. At last, a distinct promise of victory from the sacred oracle, consulted by Abiathar, who acted as priest, encouraged their obedience. They went and obtained a complete victory over the Philistines, delivering Keilah from the danger by which it was threatened. This and other instances of David's readiness, in his own precarious situation, to employ his resources against the enemies of his country, must have tended much to raise his character among the people, and to keep him before the public eye.
DAVID LEAVES KEILAH
He now entered and remained in the town he had relieved, which Saul no sooner understood than he exclaimed, “God hath delivered him into my hand; for he is shut in by entering into a town that hath gates and bars;” and he delayed not to call together a powerful force, which he marched to besiege that place. But David, being apprized by the oracle that the people of Keilah, unmindful of their obligation to him, would deliver him up to the king if he remained there until his arrival, withdrew from the place at the head of a force now increased to six hundred men. When Saul heard this, he discontinued his march against Keilah.
JONATHAN MEETS DAVID
David now sought shelter in the eastern part of Judea, toward the Dead sea. There were strong posts and obscure retreats to that quarter, among the mountains and the woods, to which he successively removed; as the motions of Saul dictated; for the king, now openly bent on his destruction, hastened to every place to which he heard that the son of Jesse had retreated, hunting him “like a partridge in the mountains.” He was for some time in different parts of the wilderness of Ziph. He was sheltered by a wood in that wilderness, when Jonathan, becoming acquainted with his place of retreat, went to him, “to encourage him to trust in God.” He said to him, “Fear not, for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee; and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth.” Again the friends renewed their covenant before Jehovah, and parted--to meet no more. There is really nothing in all history finer than this love of Jonathan to David; it was, as the latter himself found occasion to describe it, “Wonderful, passing the love of women!” It was a noble spirit with which the son of the king held close to his heart, and admitted the superior claims of, the man destined to supersede him and his in the most splendid object of human ambition, which, on ordinary principles, he might have considered his just inheritance. But his were not ordinary principles, such as swayed the mind and determined the conduct of his father. His were the true principles of the theocracy, whereby he knew that Jehovah was the true king of Israel, and cheerfully submitted to his undoubted right to appoint whom he would as his regent, even to his own exclusion; and, with generous humility, was the first to recognize and admire the superior qualities of the man on whom it was known that his forfeited destinies had fallen. Yet lest, in our admiration of Jonathan's conduct, human virtue should seem too highly exalted, it may be well to remember that the hereditary principle in civil government was as yet without precedent among the Hebrews, with whom sons had not yet learned to look to succeed their fathers in their public offices. None of the judges had transmitted their authority to their sons or relatives: and the only instance in which an attempt had been made (by Abimelech) to establish this hereditary principle had most miserably failed. But the friendship of Jonathan and David is a passage in the history of the Hebrew kingdom from which the mind reluctantly withdraws. If it occurred in a fiction, it would be pointed out as an example of most refined and consummate art, that the author represents to us in such colors of beauty and truth the person he intends to set aside, and allows him so largely to share our sympathies and admiration with the hero of his tale.
SAUL SURROUNDS DAVID
Not long after this, some inhabitants of Ziph went to Gibeah and acquainted the king with the quarter in which David lay hid. Saul was so transported with joy at the news, that he heartily blessed them as the only people who had compassion upon him in his trouble; for by this time, if not before, it seems that his morbid fancy had fully persuaded him that David was really engaged in a conspiracy to take his life, and pace the crown upon his own head. But David had timely intelligence that his retreat was betrayed, and withdrew southward into the wilderness of Moan. But Saul pursued him thither, and, with the design to surround him, was already on one side of the mountain, on the other side of which David lay, when he was providentially called off by intelligence of a sudden incursion into the country by the Philistines. He went and repulsed them; and then, at the head of three thousand men, returned to follow upon the tracks of Jesse's son--so inveterately was he now bent upon his fell purpose.
DAVID CUTS SAUL'S ROBE
Meanwhile David had removed to the district of Engedi, toward the southwestern extremity of the Dead sea, the caverns and rocky fastnesses of which offered many secure retreats. Saul pursued him into this region, and one day entered a large cave, to repose himself during the heat of the day. Now it happened that David and his men were already in this cave; but, being in the remote and dark inner extremity, were unperceived by the king; but he, being between them and the light which entered at the cave's mouth, was seen and recognized by them. As he lay asleep, David's men joyfully congratulated him that his enemy was now completely in his power. But they knew not what manner of spirit was in the son of Jesse. “Jehovah forbid,” he said to them, “that I should do this thing to my master, the anointed of Jehovah, to stretch forth my hand against him; for the anointed of Jehovah is he;” and the men were with difficulty restrained by these words from putting the king to death. But that he might know how completely his life had been in the hands of the man whose life he sought, David went and cut off the skirt of his mantle. Saul at length arose, and left the cave, and went his way. David went out and called after him, “My lord, the king!” When Saul turned, David bowed himself reverently toward the earth, and proceeded in the most respectful terms to remonstrate against the injustice with which he had been treated, and the inveteracy with which he was pursued. He charitably imputed the designs laid to his charge to the suggestions of evil-minded men; and, in proof of their utter groundlessness, related what had happened in the cave, and produced the skirt to show how entirely the king's life had been in his power. Saul's naturally good feelings were touched by this generous forbearance from one who knew that his own life was then sought by him. “Is that thy voice, my son David!” he cried, and his softened heart yielded refreshing tears, such as he had not lately been wont to shed. That which had been in David a forbearance resulting from the natural and spontaneous impulse of his own feelings, seemed to the king an act of superhuman virtue, which forced upon him the recognition that he was indeed that “worthier” man to whom the inheritance of his crown had been prophesied. Rendering good for evil was a new thing to him; and now, in the regard and admiration which it excited, he freely acknowledged the conviction he entertained--“And now, behold, I know well that thou wilt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in thy hand. Swear now, therefore, to me, by Jehovah, that thou wilt not cutoff my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house.” The anxiety of the king, and even of Jonathan, on this point, seems to show (what has already appeared in the case of Abimelech) that it was even then, as it ever has been until lately, usual for oriental kings to remove by death all those whose claims to the throne might seem superior or equal to their own, or whose presence might offer an alternative to the discontented: the intense horror with which the Hebrews regarded the prospect or fear of genealogical extinction, also contributes to explain the anxiety which both Saul and Jonathan felt on this point more than on any other. David took the oath required from him; Saul then returned to Gibeah, and David, who had little confidence in the permanency of the impression he had made, remained in his strongholds.
SAMUEL DIES
Very soon after this, Samuel died, at the advanced age of ninety-two years (B.C. 1072), after he had judged Israel fifty years, that is, twelve years alone, and thirty-eight years jointly with Saul; for there is no doubt that he retained his authority as civil judge to the end of his life. The death of this good man was lamented as a common calamity by all true Israelites, who assembled in great numbers to honor his funeral. He was buried in the garden of his own house at Ramah.
NABAL AND ABIGAIL
As David immediately after removed much further southward, even “into the wilderness of Paran,” it would seem that, having no confidence in Saul's fits of right feeling, he was fearful of the consequences of the absence of that degree of moral restraint upon him which had existed while the prophet lived. The southern country offers, in the proper season, excellent pastures, away to which those of Judah, who had “large possessions of cattle,” were wont to send their flocks during a part of the year. The advantage offered by the free use of these open pastures was, however, in some degree counterbalanced by the danger from the prowling Arab tribes with which they sometimes came in contact. David probably supported his men during the eight months of his stay in this region by acting against those tribes, and making spoil of their cattle. And as their hand was against every man, it was natural that every man's hand should be against them; the rather, as we may be sure, from their general conduct, that they lost no occasions of oppressing or plundering the people inhabiting, or pasturing their flocks, along or near the southern frontier. Thus the presence of David's troop was, for that reason, a great advantage to the shepherds, as he had by this time secured sufficient control over his men to oblige them to respect the property of the Israelites. And this was, at least in the feelings of the people, no small thing in a body of men living abroad with swords in their hands, and obliged, as they were, to collect their subsistence in the best way they could. Among those who were advantaged by this, none were more so than the shepherds of Nabal, a man of large possessions in Carmel. When David returned northward, he heard that Nabal was making great preparations for the entertainment of his people during the shearing of his three thousand sheep; and being then greatly pressed for provisions, he sent some of his young men to this person to salute in respectfully in his name, and to request some small supply out of the abundance he had provided. Now in point of fact, according to all usage, Nabal ought to have anticipated this request, as soon as he learned that one who had protected his property in the wilderness was then in his neighborhood. But Nabal was “churlish and evil in all his manners, and irritable as a dog.” This character, his insulting answer to the message fully supported--“Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants now-a-days that break away, every man from .has master. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh, which I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men whom I know not whence they be?” When this answer was brought back to David, he was highly enraged, and ordered his men to gird on their swords; and, with four hundred of them (leaving two hundred to protect the baggage), he set forth with the rash and cruel purpose of destroying the churl and all that belonged to him. The provocation, although very great, and not likely to be overlooked by a military man, was certainly not such as to justify this barbarous design. Its execution was, however, averted by Abigail, the wife of Nabal, who is described as “a woman of good understanding, and beautiful in form.” Those shepherds who lead been in the wilderness with the flocks, and were sensible of the value of that protection which David's troop had rendered, greatly disapproved of their master's conduct. They therefore reported the whole matter to their mistress, who appears to have had that real authority in the household which a woman of sense always has had in the house of even a brutal fool. She concurred in their apprehensions as to the probable consequences, and with a promptitude which bears out the character given to her, decided on the proper steps to avert them. While Nabal was eating and drinking, even to drunkenness, at the feast, she made up an elegant and liberal present, consisting of two hundred loaves of bread, two skin bottles of wine, five measures of parched corn, five sheep ready dressed, two hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs; and, having placed all this on asses, the set forth with suitable attendance to meet the enraged hero. She soon met him
Presents to a Bedouin Chief and his men, on full march to Carmel; and after rendering him her most respectful homage, she spoke to him with such fine tact and prudence, that his passion grew calm under her hand; and she convinced him that the deed which he contemplated would cause the weight of innocent blood to lie heavy on his conscience in after days. Being thus made to feel that he had allowed the bitterness of “a blockhead's insult”[267] to sink too deeply in his soul, he felt really thankful that his fell purpose had been interrupted--“Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel,” he said, “who sent thee this day to meet me; and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, who hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.”
[267] “Fate never wounds more deep the gen'rous heart Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.” Johnson
NABAL DIES
Abigail returned to her husband, and the next day acquainted him with the steps she had taken, and the imminent danger into which his churlishness had brought him, and his. The view which was presented to his mind of the evil which had hung over his head struck him with such intense dread and horror, that in a few days he died of a broken heart. When this came to the ears of David, who had been much charmed by the good sense and beauty of Abigail, he sent to her, and she consented to become his wife. He had previously married Ahinoam of Jezreel, after Saul had given Michal to another. Polygamy was not expressly forbidden by the law; neither did it receive any sanction therefrom. It was a matter of existing usage with which the law did not interfere; although it discouraged the formation, by the kings, of such extensive harems as the kings of the East have been wont to possess: and both David and his son Solomon had ample occasion to lament those besotting passions which led them to neglect this injunction, as well as to learn that there is in this matter an obvious social law which can not with impunity be transgressed.
DAVID TAKES SAUL'S SPEAR
Soon after this David removed to his former place of shelter, in the wilderness of Ziph. While he remained there, Saul justified the doubts which the son of Jesse, who well knew his character, entertained of the continuance of his good resolutions; for he again came to seek him at the head of three thousand men. But this only gave David another opportunity of evincing the true and generous loyalty of his own character. For one night, while the king lay asleep in the midst of his men, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, to mark the station of the chief, David entered his camp, attended by Abishai (brother to the subsequently celebrated Joab), and, without being noticed, penetrated to the very spot where the king lay. Abishai thought this a fine opportunity of ending all their troubles with the life of their persecutor; and begged David to permit him to transfix the sleeping king with his spear. But, to the pious hero, “a divinely appointed king,” although his enemy, was a sacred person. To lay violent hands on him, and to open a way to the throne by regicide, was a crime which he justly abhorred. What God had promised him he was willing to wait for, till He who had promised should deliver it to him in the ordinary course of his providence.”[268] He therefore checked the misdirected zeal of Abishi, and withdrew with him, taking away the spear which was planted at Saul's head, and the vessel of water which stood there for his use. David then went and stationed himself at the edge of an opposite cliff overlooking the camp of Saul, and calling by name to Abner, the cousin and chief commander of the king, told him he was worthy of death for the careless manner in which he guarded the royal person. As he went on reproaching Abner, Saul, as he expected, recognized his voice, and guessing that he had again been spared when in his power, called out, “Is that thy voice, my son David?” and was answered, “It is my voice, my lord, O king!” David then proceeded with much energy, but in the most respectful language, to remonstrate against the treatment he received, and produced the evidence of the spear and water-jug, as evincing the value of the king's life in his eyes. The result was the same as it had been on a similar occasion before: Saul's heart was touched. He acknowledged that he had “acted foolishly, and erred exceedingly;” and after blessing David, returned to Gibeah.
[268] Jahn, i. 103.
DAVID GOES TO ZIKLAG
David had before this formed the intention of again withdrawing to the Philistines; for in his remonstrance with Saul he had laid the responsibility of this measure upon his persecutors--If Jehovah hath stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering; but if they be the children of men, accursed be they before Jehovah, for they now drive me out from abiding in the inheritance of Jehovah.” He must not he allowed, however, thus easily to rid himself of the responsibility of so ill-advised and desperate an expedient, in which he neglected to ask counsel of God, but followed the impulse of his own apprehensions; and from the natural and obvious consequences of which he could only escape by acts of equivocation, hypocrisy, and ingratitude, which do no honor to his name. However, we are to regard David, in all this portion of his life, as a learner, as one who was in the course of being trained to rule wisely, by various disciplines, distresses, and errors; for even the errors of conduct into which men fall, by having placed themselves in a false position through too confident a reliance on their own judgment, are not among the least profitable experiences which they obtain, and which go toward the ripening of their minds. But, undoubtedly, it had been better for David, and more becoming, had he remained in his own country, relying upon the protection of that good Providence by which he had hitherto been preserved.
On reaching Gath, with his six hundred men, David was well received by the king, who appears to have been the same Achish in whose presence he had formerly played the madman. The Hebrew chief soon took occasion to request the Philistine king to assign him some town in which he might reside apart with his people; and the king, with generous and unsuspecting confidence, made over to him, to his full and exclusive possession, the small border town of Ziklag, which was situated not far from the brook Besor. Here he resided one year and four months, or until the death of Saul. From this place he undertook excursions against the ancient predatory enemies of Israel, the Amalekites, the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, who roved about in Arabia Petræa, on the seacoast as far as Pelusium, and on the southern frontier of the tribe of Judah. In all these excursions he utterly destroyed man, woman, and child, and took possession of the cattle and apparel, of which their wealth consisted. The exterminating character which he gave to this warfare was to prevent the Philistines from learning that he had been acting against their allies and friends; and he always pretended to Achish that his expedition had been against the Israelites and their allies, by which he established himself firmly to the confidence of that king. For the cool manner in which the son of Jesse poured out innocent blood to cover a deliberate and designing falsehood, we have no excuse to offer. He must bear the blame for ever.
DAVID DISMISSED FROM PHILISTINE BATTLE
In those days the Philistine states joined their forces for war against Israel; and David, having by his pretences impressed upon Achish the conviction that he now detested his own people, and was detested by them, was driven to the dreadful alien native of either taking the field with the Philistines and fighting against his brethren, or else of appearing ungrateful to Achish, and perhaps of occasioning the destruction of his family and himself. But from this difficulty he was extricated by the not unreasonable jealousy of the other Philistine princes, who expected he might turn against them in the battle in order to reconcile himself to his master. Achish was much hurt at such suspicions against one on whom he so perfectly relied, but was reluctantly obliged to dismiss him from the expedition.
DAVID FINDS ZIKLAG DESTROYED
On returning to Ziklag, David found the city pillaged and reduced to ashes. The Amalekites, Geshurites, and Gezrites, had taken the opportunity of his absence in another direction thus to avenge themselves for his former inroads upon them. They did not, however, retaliate to the full extent; for although “they took the men and women who were in it captive, they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away.” David's two wives were among the captives. His men were frantic at the loss of their families and substance, and at first talked of stoning their leader, whom they regarded as at least the remote cause of this calamity. But they were at last appeased, and set out in pursuit of the spoilers, notwithstanding the fatigue occasioned by their previous march. Two hundred of the men were unable to proceed farther than the brook Besor; and David, leaving them there, continued the pursuit with the remaining four hundred. On their way they fell in with a man half dead with illness, hunger, and thirst. Having refreshed him with food and drink, they learned that he was an Egyptian, a slave to one of the part they pursued; but that having fallen ill three days before, his master had left him--to live or die, as might happen--and that since then no bread or water had passed his lips. He gave an account of the operations of the horde; and, when pressed, agreed to conduct the Hebrew party to the spot at which he knew that they intended to repose. When that spot was reached, the nomads were enjoying themselves in full security, as they supposed themselves beyond the reach of pursuit, and could not know that David would have returned to Ziklag so soon. They were thus easily overthrown; and not only did the Hebrews recapture all that they had taken, but gained besides so considerable a booty, that David was enabled to send presents to all the rulers in Judah who were favorable to his cause.
DAVID RECOVERS PROPERTY
The four hundred men who had continued the pursuit were unwilling to share the additional spoil with the two hundred who had tarried by the brook Besor, although willing to restore their own property to them. But David took the opportunity of establishing the useful principle that all the persons engaged in an expedition should share equally, whatever part they took in it; or, in other words, that those whose presence protected the baggage should be equally benefited by a victory with those who went to the fight.
GOD ABANDONS SAUL
The present campaign of the Philistines against the Israelites was one of those large operations which nations can in general only undertake after long intervals of rest. There seems, indeed, during the reign of Saul, to have been always a sort of desultory[269] and partial warfare between the two nations; but it had produced no measure comparable to this, which was intended to be decisive, and was calculated to tax to the utmost the resources of the belligerents. When Saul surveyed, from the heights of Gilboa, the formidable army which the Philistine had brought into the plain of Esdraelon--that great battle-field of nations--his heart failed him. Presentiments of coming events cast deep shadows over his troubled mind. He sought counsel of God. But God had forsaken him--left him to his own devices--and answered him not, “either by dreams, or by Urim, or by prophets.”
[269] lacking a definite plan or purpose
Bedouins with Captives and Spoil

SAUL GOES TO A WITCH
The crimes of Saul arose from his disloyalty to Jehovah, in his reluctance to acknowledge him as the true king of Israel. But as his God he worshipped him, and had no tendency toward those idolatries by which so many subsequent kings were disgraced. All idolatry and idolatrous acts were discouraged and punished by him. In obedience to the law (Deuteronomy 18:10-11), he banished from the land all the diviners and wizards he could find. But now, in his dismay, he directed his attendants to find out a woman skilful in necromancy, that he might seek through her the information which the Lord refused to give. One was found at Endor, a town not far from the camp in Gilboa; and to her he repaired by night, disguised, with two attendants, and desired her to evoke the spirit of Samuel, that, in this dread emergency, he might ask counsel of him. Whatever might be the nature of the woman's art, and her design in undertaking to fulfill his wish--whether she meant to impose on Saul by getting some accomplice to personate Samuel, who had only been dead two years, and whose person must have become well known to the Israelites during his long administration--or whether she expected a demoniacal spirit to give him an answer, it appears from a close examination of the text, that, to the great astonishment of the woman herself, and before she had time to utter any of her incantation, the spirit of Samuel was permitted to appear, in a glorified form, and ominously clad in that mantle in which was the rent that signified the rending of the kingdom from the family of Saul. When the figure appeared, the king knew that it was Samuel, and bowed himself to the ground before him. From that awful and passionless form he heard that the doom declared long since was now to be accomplished--tomorrow Israel should be given up to the sword of the Philistines--to-morrow Saul and his sons should be numbered with the dead. At these heavy tidings the king fell down as one dead, for he had touched no food that night or the preceding day, and was with difficulty restored to his senses, and refreshed by the woman and his attendants.
SAUL AND JONATHAN DIES
The next day all that had been foretold was accomplished. Israel fled, before the Philistine archers; and Saul and his sons, unable to stem the retreating torrent, fled also. The three sons of the king, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Melchi-shua, were slain. Saul himself was grievously wounded by the archers; and that he might not fall alive into the hands of the Philistines, and be subjected to their insults, he desired' his armor-bearer to strike him through with his sword; and when that faithful follower refused, he fell upon his own sword: and the example was followed by the armor-bearer, when he beheld his lord lying dead before him. “So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, that same day together.”
SAUL DESECRATED
The next day, when the Philistines came to collect the spoils of the slain; they found the bodies of Saul and his three sons. The indignity with which they treated the remains of these brave men has no previous example. They cut off their heads, and hung their bodies to the wall of the town of Bethshan, near the Jordan. Their heads and armor they sent into Philistia, as trophies of their triumph, by the hand of the messengers who were dispatched to publish it in their temples and their towns. The bodies of Saul and his sons were soon stolen away by night from the wall of Bethshan, by some valiant men of Jabesh, on the opposite side of the river, where a grateful remembrance was cherished of the king's first military exploit, whereby the people of that town were delivered from the loss of their liberty and their eyes. To preclude any attempt at the recovery and continued insult of the bodies, the people burnt them, and buried the collected bones and ashes under a tamarisk-tree.