Samuel Seeks a King

BY JULIUS SCHNORR, A LEADER OF THE RECENT

NAZARINE SCHOOL IN GERMAN ART.

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"For the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."-I. Sam., 16, 7.

HE aged Samuel, in those days of David's youth,

was still a mighty figure in Israel. His position as "judge," the active leadership of the people, he had resigned to Saul when he anointed Saul as king; but he was still the great prophet, interpreting the voice of God to Israel. Moreover he had founded at his home in Ramah a celebrated school in which the ablest and the purest of the Hebrew youth learned their religious faith from him.

The chief grief of Samuel's declining days lay in his break with Saul, whom he had loved. Then one day there came to the aged prophet a divine rebuke that he should still mourn for Saul, and a command that he should go to Bethlehem, to the home of Jesse, to anoint another king. Samuel obeyed. When the sons of Jesse were brought before him, he would have selected the eldest, Eliab; for Eliab was even as Saul had been, a huge, powerful, resolute, savage-looking man, who might easily enforce his rule upon others. But the divine whisper checked Samuel with those eternally comforting words, "The Lord seeth not as man seeth." As each of Jesse's seven older sons passed before Samuel, the Lord rejected each. The puzzled prophet asked if there were no other son, and young David was summoned from the sheepfold.

SECOND SAMUEL XXI-RIZPAH

585

5 And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,

6 Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them.

7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

8 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth: and the five sons of Michal1 the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:

9 And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.

10 ¶ And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. 11 And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul had done.

12 And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa:

13 And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones. of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.

14 And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated for the land.

15¶ Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint.

16 And Ishbi-benob; which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David.

17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel.

1See I. Sam. 18, 19. The mother in this case must have been Merab not Michal.

586

SECOND SAMUEL XXII-DAVID'S THANKSGIVING

18 And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant.

19 And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Beth-lehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

20 And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.

21 And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah the brother of David slew him.

22 These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

Chapter 22

A psalm of thanksgiving for God's powerful deliverance, and manifold blessings.

ND David spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul:1

2 And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;

3 The God of my rock; in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour; thou savest me from violence.

4 I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

5 When the waves of death compassed me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid;

6 The sorrows of hell compassed me about; the snares of death prevented me;

7 In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.

8 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was wroth.

9 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it.

10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.

11 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: and he was seen upon the wings of the wind.

12 And he made darkness pavilions round about him, dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

'The entire chapter following this verse is printed as a chant in the Revised Version.