РАКТ III. David not recognised. Order of and helmet, coat of mail and sword, he took merely his shepherd's staff, and the sling with which he had often practised while tending his father's sheep on the mountains. He came down into the wady, put five smooth stones into his scrip, and went on boldly to meet the giant. One of these, hurled with his whole force and with unerring aim, sank deep into the giant's insolent forehead. He staggers convulsively, and with a mighty clang falls prostrate upon his face. David is upon him in a moment, and with his own great sword strikes off his head, which he bears back to Saul in triumph. Thus were verified David's confidence and piety. He fought "that all the earth might know that there is a God in Israel." How do you account for the fact that neither Saul nor Abner, either before or after the battle, recognised David? In the verses immediately preceding the account of Goliath, we are informed that David had been summoned from Bethlehem to play on his harp before Saul, when the evil spirit from the Lord came upon him; and Jesse had sent him upon an ass, laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid. It is added that "Saul loved David greatly, and he became his armour-bearer." He also requested his father to leave David with him, for he had found favour in his sight. But the very next notice is that David is quietly tending sheep at Bethlehem, and his three older brothers are with the army. David re-appears before the king, and is not rocognised either by him or by his servants. To me this has always appeared very strange. It is, indeed, so strange as to suggest the query whether the incidents in incidents. this part of David's life are arranged in the exact order of time in which they occurred. The account in the 17th chapter has throughout the air of first acquaintance. Abner said, in reply to the inquiry of the king, "As thy soul liveth, O king, I cannot tell who he is." David himself gives not the slightest hint, either before or after the fight, that he had ever seen the king before. This is a reserve, a stretch of modesty unparalleled, upon the supposition that he had not only been with him before, but had been greatly beloved by him, and selected to be his armour-bearer--implying the closest intimacy and largest confidence. It is no part of Oriental character to refrain, through modesty, from claiming previous acquaintanceship with superiors, and the present instance is so far beyond the bounds of probability that I hesitate to believe it while there is any other possible explanation. How could the king, and Abner, and all the other attendants of the royal household, have so utterly forgotten the wonderful harper, who had charmed away the evil spirit, and had been so beloved? It seems to me much more probable that this incident of playing on the harp before the king belongs to some period subsequent to the battle with Goliath. This is rendered more credible from the fact that there are some circumstances introduced into the account of that day's adventures which could not have taken place until long after; as, for example, in the 54th verse, where it is said that " David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armour in his tent." Now David had no tent at the time, and did not go to Jerusalem until after the lapse of many eventful years. XXXVII. ance. If, however, we were shut up to the necessity of accepting the narrative as to CHAPTER time just in the order in which it is recorded, I have only to remark that we do not know how long a period intervened between the return of David to his father's house and his appearance before the king on the morning of the duel with Goliath. If it were two or three years, it is possible that David had, in the meanwhile, suddenly shot up from boyhood to youth, tall and robust, Change and his personal appearance might have so changed as to bear little resem- of appear. blance to the ruddy lad who played skilfully on the harp. It is a fact that lads of this country, particularly of the higher classes, are often very fair, fullfaced, and handsome, until about fourteen years of age, but during the next two or three years a surprising change takes place. They not only spring into full-grown manhood as if by magic, but all their former beauty disappears; their complexion becomes dark, their features harsh and angular, and the whole expression of countenance stern, and even disagreeable. I have often been accosted by such persons, formerly intimate acquaintances, but who had suddenly grown entirely out of my knowledge, nor could I, without difficulty, recognise them. David had become a shepherd after leaving the king's palace, -an occupation which of all others would most rapidly change his fair complexion into a dirty bronze. He appeared before Saul in his shepherd's attire, not in the gay dress of a courtier in the king's palace, and he may, therefore, not have been recognised. But, as before remarked, if this were so, it is not only remarkable in itself, but it follows that David was at an early age possessed of a wisdom, modesty, and self-control, without a parallel in the history of mankind. Gath In after life, David had much to do with this part of the country. Twice he David in fled to Gath for fear of Saul. Is it not strange that he should select the city of Goliath for his asylum? He was hard pressed, and had only a choice of dangers. Gath was near his native mountains, and, probably, had more friendly relations with the Israelites than the more distant cities of the Philistines. King Achish, also, appears to have been an open-hearted, unsuspecting, and generous character, probably of that chivalrous temperament which led him to admire such a hero as David. At any rate, he treated him very kindly, and presented him with Ziklag, a village which seems to have been long retained and highly prized by the royal family. How do you dispose of the deception practised by David toward his protector Deceiving in the matter of the excursions against the Amalekites and others down south of Achish of us? That David acted under the pressure of very powerful motives, and was by them urged aside from the plain, open path of rectitude. We are under no obligation to justify all his conduct. It is but common justice, however, to give him the benefit of all palliating circumstances; and when these are duly weighed we shall not find occasion to pass a severe judgment upon him. IIe was an exile, hunted out of his home like a partridge on the mountains, and PART III. Ziglag. obliged to reside among enemies-was surrounded on all sides by difficulties and dangers, and with a large troop of friends and followers, for whom he must find the means of support; he had also been set apart by God himself to be the deliverer of his people from these very Amalekites, who had been condemned to total destruction for their enormous wickedness by the Sovereign Ruler of all nations. David, therefore, felt that he had a divine warrant for attacking and exterminating them; and they were actually within the borders of his own tribe of Judah as settled by Joshua. The wrong, therefore, if wrong there were, was in the deception practised upon Achish, and not in the invading and destroying of the Amalekites. This God had sternly enjoined upon the Israelites to do. Let it be remembered, however, that Achish had no real right to know where David went, nor was David under any obligation to tell him the whole truth. What he did say was true in the letter of it, for David did really make an inroad into those places which he mentioned, though not against the Jews. Ziklag, you suppose, was somewhere in this neighbourhood? 66 We infer this from the notices of it in the Bible, but the site has been long lost. Connected with it is one of the most remarkable incidents in the life of David. While he was with Achish and the Philistine army in the plain of Esdraelon, these bordering Amalekites invaded the south, and Ziklag, which they burned with fire, and carried all the inhabitants away captive. This terrible calamity threw David and his whole company into the most violent transports of grief. They lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep;" and the people, in their madness and despair, even talked of stoning David.1 He, however, succeeded in inspiring them with courage to pursue their enemies. They overtook them in the night some distance south of the brook Besor, and falling suddenly upon them while they were eating, and drinking, and dancing, because of the great spoil they had taken, the victory was complete, and all that had been taken from Ziklag were recovered, together with a vast amount of booty which these Amalekites had gathered up from the land of the Philistines. There is a remarkable resemblance between this victory of David and that of Abraham over the kings who had carried Lot away captive. I was reminded of the poor Egyptian whom David found half dead, and brought to life again by giving him "a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins" to eat, and water to drink, by an incident which occurred to me when crossing the plain to Askelon. Far from any village, a sick Egyptian Egyptian. was lying by the road side in the burning sun, and apparently almost dead with a terrible fever. He wanted nothing but "water! water!” which we were fortunately able to give him from our travelling-bottle; but we were obliged to pass on and leave him to his fate, whatever that might be. Sick This victory over the Ainalekites was probably achieved on the very day that Saul was defeated and slain on Gilboa; and David, when he had heard of that 1 Sam. xxx. 3-6. DAVID'S OUTLAW LIFE-EXPLANATIONS. 571 CHAPTER event-by which the way to the throne of Israel was open to himself - took of the spoils, and sent presents to all the towns and villages where he used for- XXXVII. merly to resort. He acted in this matter upon a principle which his wise son Gifts. has expressed after this fashion: "A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men.' His gifts speedily made room for him in Hebron, and prepared the hearts of all Judah to welcome him as their king. It seems to have tasked all David's firmness and tact in government to control his heterogeneous troop of followers. 1 troop. There were certainly some churlish sons of Belial among them, but this was David's not their general character. The servants of Nabal, in Carmel, gave a very different testimony concerning them: "The men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, nor missed we anything as long as we were conversant with them when we were in the fields."2 They were, therefore, in no sense a lawless set of robbers. Nabal's taunt to the messengers, "Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse there be many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his master," was as unjust as it was insolent; but he was, in fact, "such a son of Belial that a man could not speak to him;" or, as his not very polite wife has it, "As his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him." It does not follow that because "every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented," or, rather, bitter of soul, "gathered themselves unto David," 5 that therefore they were the refuse and offscouring of the land, like a troop of irregular Turkish cavalry, or the followers of an outlawed Druse sheikh. The government of Saul had degenerated into a cruel despotism. David himself, and all his relations, had been obliged to flee from his outrageous and murderous jealousy, and there is abundant evidence that they were honourable and respectable people. Nor is it any wonder that many were in distress, and bitter of soul, under a king who could employ a savage Edomite to kill the whole family of the chief priest of the nation, merely because David had been innocently entertained for a day by them. The madness and ferocity of such a king would compel the noblest spirits in the land to flee unto David, and a large proportion of his retinue was actually composed of such men. 115 Even the debtors, in such a time of misrule, were, in most cases, better men Debtors than their creditors. Nearly everybody is in debt in these Oriental countries, and, owing to the tenure of land, the modes of raising taxes, and the claims of feudal chiefs, it is impossible for the villagers to keep free from it, either personally or as part of a community loaded with heavy liabilities; and, even in the cities, the number who are more or less involved is far greater than those who stand square with the world. I hardly ever knew an estate in this country which was not found thus encumbered when the death of the owner brought out the truth; and very generally those who are the creditors are cold, PART III. cunning usurers, hated and hateful. The fact, therefore, that a man is in debt is no reflection on his character; and in times of misrule and apprehension like that of Saul, the best families are suddenly reduced by extortion to utter poverty. To raise the enormous sums demanded of the head of the house, and enforced by the bastinado, the wife and children sell and pledge everything they possess to those lenders, and raise money at ruinous rates of interest. The tyrant, also, from motives easily understood, enforces the collection of such debts with a rigour that knows neither delay nor mercy. That some of David's company fled from just such extortion is highly probable, and they may have been the most estimable people of the land. It is pleasant to believe that the noble and generous David was surrounded by a fair proportion of kindred spirits, and that in the midst of his sore trials and perplexities his heart was sustained and comforted by the reflection that he was able to furnish an asylum to many innocent victims of regal oppression. This is distinctly stated in the case of Abiathar, who escaped from the slaughter of the priests at Nob, and must have been equally so in regard to his own father and all his family. These modern dwellers about old Gath appear to be actually taller and more warlike than the average inhabitants of this region. The sheikh and his family might well be the descendants of the ancient giants, for they are rough, fierce-looking fellows; and, indeed, the whole popuModern lation now make a very savage display of guns, pistols, crooked swords, doubleweapons. edged khan-jars, long knives, and whatever else can aid them to cut, stab, The sling. and hack the human body to pieces. The sheikh says that they are thus armed in order to keep at a distance the Bedawîn Arabs, who would otherwise eat up their ripening harvests. This may be so, though I have never seen them without arms; and those who can get nothing better carry tremendous clubs, like the weaver's beam of the giant, and in handling them they are as expert as any Irishman with his shillalah, and far more dangerous. Do these people now make any use of the sling, which, in the hand of David, was so fatal to their famous townsman? The only place where I have seen the sling used is at Hasbeîya, on Mount Hermon, and there merely in mimic warfare, waged by the boys of the town. The deep gorge of the Busîs divides Hasbeîya into two parts, and when the war-spirit is up in the community, the lads collect on opposite sides of this gorge, and fight desperate battles with their slings. They chase one another from cliff to cliff, as in real warfare, until one of the parties gives way, and retreats up the mountain. I have seen the air almost darkened by their ringing, whizzing pebbles, and so many serious accidents occur that the "authorities have often interfered to abolish the rude sport; but, whenever there occurs a fresh feud, or a revolt against the government among the old folks, the young The seven ones return again to the fight with slings across the Busîs. hundred Benjamites. It must have required careful drilling and long practice hefore the seven hundred left-handed Benjamites "could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not |