49. B.C. 1095 to 1050

B.C. 1095 to 1050

Chapter II

Timeline View:

1. Several following years were distinguished by successful warfare with the enemies of Israel—with Moab and Amnion in the east, with Edom in the south, with the Philistines in the west, and with the Syrian kings of Zobah in the north. At length, in the tenth or eleventh year of his reign, Saul received orders, through Samuel, to execute the Lord’s “fierce wrath” upon the Amalekites, who had formerly been doomed to utter extermination for opposing the Israelites when they came out of Egypt. The result of the war put it fully in the king’s power to fulfill his commission; but he thought proper to retain the best of the cattle as booty, and to bring back the Amalekite king Agag as a prisoner. Here again Saul ventured to use his own discretion where his commission left him none. For this the Divine decree, excluding his descendants from the throne, was again and irrevocably pronounced by Samuel, who met him at Gilgal on his return. The stern prophet then directed the Amalekite king to be brought forth and slain by the sword, after which he departed to his own home, and went no more to see Saul to the day of his death, though he ceased not to bemoan his misconduct and the forfeiture it had incurred. But, during the years in which Samuel mourned for Saul, the king himself seemed increasing in strength and power; he became respected at home and feared abroad; while the many virtues of his excellent son Jonathan, who was greatly beloved by the people, seemed to render his dynasty secure. Saul himself, however, appears to

The Battle of Azotus have had sad misgivings on this subject, and we may perhaps impute to the constant brooding of his mind upon the doom pronounced by the prophet, those fits of morbid melancholy into which he frequently fell. His general temper, at the same time, became sour, irritable, and sanguinary.

2. At length, about the twenty-fifth year of Saul’s reign, Samuel received the Divine mandate, to take measures for anointing the person whom the Lord had chosen to displace the race of Saul in the throne of Israel. For this purpose he was to proceed to Bethlehem, and there anoint one of the sons of a man named Jesse. This was a delicate commission, which, if known, might, as the prophet apprehended, induce Saul to slay him; and he therefore veiled it under the form of a public sacrifice. The prophet appears to have made known his real purpose only to Jesse, who caused all his sons to pass before him, when they were rejected, one after another, until the youngest, David, was sent for from the fields, where he was with the sheep. This youth was the destined king; and Samuel anointed him as such in the midst of his elder brethren, who, as well as himself, were probably kept in ignorance of the purport of this act. Samuel returned to his own home, and David continued to tend his father’s flock. David was not more distinguished by the comeliness of his person than by his accomplishments and valour; he was skilled in music and poetical composition, and he had, without weapons, slain a lion and a bear which attacked his flock.

Grand Egyptian Harps

3. Meanwhile, the king’s fits of melancholy madness went on increasing in frequency and duration, and no cure was found for his disordered mind. At length, some persons who had observed that Saul was much affected by music, suggested that the soothing powers of the harp should be tried; and another then recommended “the son of Jesse” as an accomplished master of that instrument, and withal, a man of valour. Saul therefore delayed not to send to Jesse, commanding him to send his son to court. Little thinking that in him he beheld his successor on the throne, Saul received the youthful minstrel with favor. When the fits came upon him, David played on the harp, and under its soothing strains his mind soon recovered its usual tone. This service, together with his other engaging qualities, and his discreet behaviour, won the heart of the king, who conferred upon him the distinguished and confidential post of his armour-bearer.

Shields

1. The Tsenna, or Great Shield.
2. Common Egyptian Shield.
3. Target.
4. 5. Ancient Shields of unknown tribes.
6. Roundel.

4. Since their last great discomfiture, the Philistines had recruited their strength, and in the thirtieth year of Saul’s reign, and the twentieth of David’s life, they again took the field against the Israelites. It curiously illustrates the nature of warfare in those times, to find that the presence, in the army of the Philistines, of one enormous giant about nine or ten feet high, filled them with confidence, and struck the Israelites with dread. The giant, whose name was Goliath, had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a brazen coat of mail, the weight of which was no less than six hundred shekels. He had also greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders; and a man bearing his shield went before him. His weapons were of course proportioned to his enormous bulk; as an instance of which, we are informed, that the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam, and that its head contained six hundred shekels of iron. He presented himself daily between the two armies, and, with insulting language, defied the Israelites to produce a champion who might, in single combat with him, decide the quarrel between the nations. This was repeated many days; but no Israelite was found bold enough to accept the challenge. At this juncture David, who, when his services were no longer needed at court, had returned to his father, arrived at the camp to visit his elder brethren who were with the army. Hearing the insolent vaunts of the proud Pagan, witnessing the dismay of the people, and learning that high rewards had been offered to the man who should overcome the giant, David offered himself for the combat.

Coats of Mail

1. Egyptian tigulated. 2. Sleeve of ring-mail, Ionian.

Spear Heads

He was accordingly brought before the king, who failed to recognize him under the altered appearance which a year or two on the verge of manhood produces, but, contrasting the bulk and known prowess of the giant with the inexperience and light frame of the young man, earnestly dissuaded him from the enterprise. But as David expressed his strong confidence that the God of Israel, who had delivered him from the lion and the bear when he tended his father’s flock would also deliver him from the Philistine, Saul at length allowed him to go forth against Goliath. Refusing all armour of proof and weapons of common warfare, David advanced to the combat, armed only with his shepherd’s sling and a few smooth pebbles picked up from the brook which flowed through the valley. The astonished giant felt insulted at being offered such an opponent, and poured forth such horrid threats as might have appalled any one less strong in faith than the son of Jesse. But as Goliath strode forward to meet David, the latter slung one of his smooth stones with so sure an aim and so strong an arm, that it smote his opponent in the middle of the forehead and brought him to the ground.

Egyptian Slingers and Sling

5. The king lost no time in following up this blow, and attacked the astonished Philistines with such vigor that they immediately gave way and were defeated with tremendous slaughter. Triumphant was the return of Saul; but it mortified his pride to perceive that David was on all hands regarded as the hero of the day: and when the damsels made this the burden of their triumphal song—“Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands!” he could not conceal his resentment that the honors of victory should be thus proportioned. From a fretful expression which he let fall, it seems more than likely that he then first suspected that David was “the man after God’s own heart,” to whom his throne was to be given. His inquiries probably confirmed this impression, and thenceforth he lost no opportunity of exposing David to disgrace and danger. But all the schemes laid for his ruin served only to make more prominent David’s valor in the field, and the wisdom and generosity of his general conduct. Finding that the honors which were designed as snares for him—including that of giving him his daughter Michal in marriage—really exalted David, Saul could no longer confine his dark passions to his own bosom, but charged his son Jonathan and others to take some opportunity of destroying the son of Jesse for him. He little suspected that a most tender friendship, “passing the love of women,” had grown up between Jonathan and David. To Jonathan, in particular, was this celebrated friendship highly honorable; for it was not unknown to him that the son of Jesse was destined to exclude himself and his children from the throne of Israel. But with a generosity of feeling, of which there is scarcely another example, he cheerfully acquiesced in the superior claims of David, and was the most ardent admirer of his person and character. He could even find pleasure in picturing the time when David should sit upon the throne, and when he should himself be next to him in place, as nearest to him in love, and find in him the protector and guardian of the very children whom narrow minds might have suspected to be in the utmost danger from his claims.

6. On the present occasion Jonathan gave his friend timely notice of danger, and spoke so forcibly to his father, that his better feelings overcame his insane horror of David, and he promised to make no further attempt upon his life. But soon after this, David, having commanded an expedition against the Philistines, so distinguished himself as to increase the admiration of the people, and to revive the hatred of Saul. When he resumed his place at court, and was one day playing on his harp to soothe the perturbed spirit of the king, he narrowly escaped death from a javelin which Saul threw with the intention of pinning him to the wall. He then withdrew to his own house, where he was followed by men whom the king sent to dispatch him. But they were amused and deceived by David’s wife Michal, Saul’s own daughter, while her husband was let down from the window in a basket and made his escape to Samuel at Ramah. Repeated attempts to take him thence or slay him there, the last of which was made by the king in person, were defeated by the special interposition of Providence. But Saul, brooding gloomily over his doom, still cherished his cruel purpose against him; and on one occasion he even threw his javelin at Jonathan for speaking in favor of his absent friend. This being made known to David, he resolved, after a private interview and tender parting with Jonathan, to withdraw himself effectually from the designs upon his life by retiring to a foreign land. For this purpose he made choice of Gath, one of the five Philistine states. In this choice he was probably guided by the consideration that the Philistines, from their enmity to Saul, were less likely than any other neighboring nation to give him up at the demand of the king.

7. The tabernacle had by this time been removed from Shiloh to Nob, in the tribe of Benjamin; and David, with his few followers, called there on his way, and procured from the high priest, Ahimelech, a supply of provisions and the only weapon in his possession—the very sword which David himself had taken from Goliath, and which had been laid up in the tabernacle as a trophy of that victory. This assistance David obtained under the unjustifiable pretence of being on a private mission from the king. He then proceeded to Gath; but finding that the Philistines cherished revengeful recollections of his former exploits against them, he feigned himself mad, and by that means escaped their resentment.

8. David then left the country of the Philistines and repaired to the wild district of Adullam, in the tribe of Judah. Here there was a large and not easily accessible cave, which formed an excellent shelter for himself, and the men of broken fortunes and reckless character, about four hundred in number, who resorted to him, and of whom he became the captain.

9. From Adullam David went to the land of Moab for the purpose of placing his parents in safety there, lest they should become exposed to the blind fury with which Saul was now animated. He was perhaps inclined to remain there himself; but it was of importance that his dangers and conduct should keep him in the view of his admiring countrymen, and a prophet was therefore sent to command his return to the land of Judah. He obeyed, and found refuge in the forest of Hareth.