a body-guard which formed the nucleus of a standing army, and included all the most valiant and distinguished warriors of the kingdom. Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was their captain.1 He also employed a body of Philistine mercenaries who are said to have followed him from Gath2 and were apparently under the command of Ittai. In the direct administration of justice David took a leading part, nor does there seem to have been truth in Absalom's implied complaint that the king neglected this branch of his duty.3 Of his great officers of state various lists are given. They include a commander-in-chief of the army; a recorder or chronicler who registered all important acts, decrees, and events; two priests (or high priests), one of whom probably officiated in the tabernacle at Gibeon, the other at Jerusalem before the ark; a scribe or 'secretary of state'; a captain of the royal body-guard, and other ministers who may have formed the king's council of state.* This system of organization seems to have become permanent, and on the whole worked satisfactorily. Nevertheless the tribal jealousies of Israel and Judah were a constant source of danger to the monarchy and some customs of a ruder age were still tolerated, for instance the law of blood-revenge. The king himself allowed it to be enforced in one notable instance. The land, we are told, was distressed by a three years' famine, the cause of which was declared by the oracle to be the slaughter of the Gibeonites by Saul. The only atonement for this bloodshed which the Gibeonites would accept was the execution of seven of Saul's

Bloodrevenge:

2 Sam. xxi.

5

1 A list of David's heroes or 'mighty men' (Gibbôrim) is given in 2 Sam. xxiii.

2 2 Sam. xv. 18.

These are probably identical with the Krêthi and

Plêthi of 2 Sam. xx. 7, etc.

8 2 Sam. xv. 3. See 2 Sam. viii. 15.

4 See 2 Sam. viii. 16-18 with Kirkpatrick's notes.

5 The occasion mentioned in 2 Sam. xxi. 2 is uncertain. Possibly, as Prof. Sayce suggests, some Gibeonite temple-servants were involved in the wholesale massacre of the priests at Nob (1 Sam. xxii. 19).

sons. David spared Meribaal for Jonathan's sake, but the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, and the five sons of Merab1 were put to death; their bodies were left hanging in the mountain before the Lord, and were watched with pathetic devotion by Rizpah till the autumn rains began to fall. The remains were then interred, together with the bodies of Saul and Jonathan, which David had removed from Jabesh-Gilead. It was probably in the later period of David's reign that he made an attempt to number the people. The unpopularity of the census was perhaps due to

Attempt to number the

xxiv.

a wide-spread belief that the king contemplated people: 2 Sam. a scheme of universal conscription. The severe visitation which followed was regarded as a manifest proof of Jehovah's displeasure. For three days a pestilence devastated the whole country. It was about to attack Jerusalem when the hand of the destroying angel was arrested. At the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite, on the summit of Mount Moriah, David beheld the angel standing with hand outstretched to smite the city. The king at once marked the sanctity of the spot by the erection of an altar and the offering of sacrifice. He purchased the place from its owner, and it became the site afterwards chosen for the Temple.

David's successor :

I Kings i.

hands of his

The closing years of David's life were disturbed by troubles connected with the succession to the throne. The faculties of the king, who had now reached his seventieth year, gradually failed and he became little more than a helpless puppet in the ministers and of his wife Bathsheba. David's eldest surviving son was Adonijah the son of Haggith, who was generally regarded as David's heir. But the ambition of Bathsheba designed the succession for her son Solomon, whose claims. were supported by Nathan and other influential persons. his father's end now seemed to be close at hand Adonijah 1 Reading Merab for Michal in 2 Sam. xxi. 8. Cp. 1 Sam. xviii. 19. 2 I Kings ii. 15.

As

resolved to assert his rights without delay; he invited his supporters, among whom were Joab and Abiathar, to a sacrificial feast at En-rogel, a sacred spot near Jerusalem, and actually allowed them to salute him as king. Acting on the prophet Nathan's urgent advice, Bathsheba at once approached David and begged him to confirm his promise of the succession to Solomon. David accordingly ordered Nathan, Zadok, and Benaiah the captain of the royal body-guard, to proclaim Solomon king at Gihon, a sacred spot in the valley of the Kidron; he was anointed forthwith and greeted by the acclamations of the populace. The sounds of jubilation reached the ears of Adonijah. His adherents dispersed in consternation while he himself fled for refuge to the sanctuary. His life however was spared on his doing obeisance to the new monarch.

The closing scenes of David's life are not wholly in accord with the nobler side of his character. He secretly advised Solomon to take measures for ridding himself of his most dangerous antagonists, Joab and Shimei; on the other hand he commended the aged Barzillai of Gilead to his kindness. Tradition also ascribes to David a last prophetic utterance concerning the future fulfilment of the everlasting covenant which Jehovah had made with his house. At length he passed away in a good old age after a reign of about forty years. In a later age the memory of David's sins and weaknesses faded away in the light of the high hopes which rested on his house. By the force of his personal ascendancy he had welded together the different tribes of Israel into a vigorous and united nation, which he had inspired with a strong consciousness both of its military strength and of its peculiar vocation. It can scarcely be a matter of wonder that the figure of the generous, impulsive, and heroic warrior-king was in process of time idealized and invested with the glories of a saint. There is no

1 2 Sam. xxiii. 1–7.

reason to deny his claim to be in some sense the sweet psalmist of Israel, the founder of the art of sacred song and an organizer of worship; moreover his religious faith, however defective from a Christian standpoint, was deeply rooted and sincere. In dark days of disaster and perplexity the thoughts of patriotic Israelites often reverted to the reign of David, and anticipated an era when the hopes and longings which it had kindled in men's hearts should be gloriously fulfilled. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute judgment and justice in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, The LORD is our righteousness.2

1 2 Sam. xxiii. 1. Am. vi. 5 suggests that the music for which David was famed was chiefly of a secular kind, but the passage is quite consistent with the tradition that he was "the father and great master" of Israel's sacred music. See Robertson Smith, OTJC, p. 223 foll.

2 Jerem. xxiii. 5, 6.

CHAPTER VII.

SOLOMON AND THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM.

The reign of Solomon, ? 970-930.

THE exact limits of the kingdom which David bequeathed to his successor cannot now be determined; but there is little reason for doubting that the traditional account of its dimensions is well founded. It is said to have extended from the borders of Egypt to the river Euphrates, its northern boundary being Kadesh on the Orontes - a city which during the reigns of David and Solomon seems to have belonged to the Hittites. The condition of the surrounding nations was not such as to hinder the growth and expansion of an Israelitish kingdom. Owing to certain elements of internal weakness the Assyrian empire was not at this time able to adopt an aggressive policy. The Syrians (Aramaeans) indeed were beginning to press westward, but the petty kingdom of Zobah was, as we have seen, practically overthrown by the conquests of David, and even Damascus itself had been made tributary. With the Phoenician king both David and Solomon were on terms of cordial friendship.1 Solomon, however, was not slow to recognize the dangers which rendered his widely extended dominion unstable, and as time went on he turned his attention to the task of defending his possessions in Palestine itself by a chain of strong

Solomon's, internal administration: I Kings iv.

1 The ally of David was probably Abibal, the father of Hiram; Hiram himself was the friend of Solomon.