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17 And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped? And Michal answered Saul, He said unto me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?

18 ¶ So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.

19 And it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.

20 And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

21 And when it was told Saul, he sent 4 Heb. fell.

other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also.

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22 Then went he also to Ramah, and came to a great well that is in Sechu and he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah.

23 And he went thither to Naioth in Ramah and the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

24 And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, 'Is Saul also among the prophets?

5 Chap. 10. 11.

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13. Michal took an image,' etc.-In the original this is a teraphim; and the intention, in placing it in the bed, was evidently to make an appearance as if a human being were lying there. Of teraphim we have already written under Gen. xxxi. 19. As these images appear to have been objectionable, it has occasioned some surprise that so pious a man as David allowed any to remain in his house. In fact, it is difficult to understand distinctly what the ideas connected with these images were; and it is very probable that the term was applied to different

kinds of images, some of which were less objectionable than others. Abarbanel and other Rabbins specify dif ferent sorts of teraphim, besides those used idolatrously. They say that one sort was a kind of talisman, designed to draw down the favourable influences of the heavenly "bodies; another served as a sort of dial, to make known the time of the day; and a third was in the similitude of some living person, and women had such figures of their husbands that they might have their presence, as it were, continually with them. The last of these explanations is exceedingly doubtful. We cannot help thinking that there was something wrong in these teraphim, and that they formed a superstition to which women seem to have been particularly addicted. We need not blame David, however. The image was not produced till he had left the place; and very probably he knew not that there was such a thing in the house. It must be constantly recollected that men and women live in separate tenements, and are not much in each other's company; so that a husband has very little cognizance of what is kept or done in the haram. And, whatever may have been the case in David's time, it is certainly true now, that one who receives a king's daughter for his wife is very differently circumstanced from all other husbands. The princess assumes the entire control of the domestic establishment; in which the husband is seldom considered in much other light than that of a favoured (and not always favoured) upper servant. He is usually most submissive to her; and rarely ventures on the smallest exertion of that authority which commonly belongs to husbands in the East.

-Put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.'-It must be observed, however, that the word hair is not in the original, and that the word rendered 'pillow' (7 kebir) is subject to various interpretations. The Septuagint and Josephus say that it was a goat's liver; the use of which, as explained by the latter, was, that the liver of a goat had the property of motion for some time after being taken from the animal, and therefore gave a motion to the bed-clothes, which was necessary to convey the impression that a living person lay in the bed. But the Targum says it was a goat-skin bottle: if so, it was probably inflated with air-a fact which would impair any claims to originality which the recent invention of air-pillows may have established. Others think that the goats' hair was put about the head of the image, to look like human hair; and, lastly, some suppose that the article in question was a net or curtain of

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goats' hair, used, as a mosquito-curtain, for the purpose of keeping away troublesome insects. Harmer traces an ingenious train of reasoning which led him to conceive that this pillow of goats' hair' was a mosquito-net or curtain of that material. His philological reasoning, indeed, somewhat halts; but as the idea has been adopted by some recent translators, and incorporated in their versions, it is worth while to state that his principal objection rests on the improbability of goats' hair being used for the bed of a sick man. This we cannot see. We have ourselves mattresses and pillows too of horsehair, with which also we stuff our sofas and easy chairs; and there seems no reason why goats' hair might not in the time of Saul have been used to stuff a pillow. The ancient pillows were usually very hard, and the use of one of goats' hair, or perhaps of any pillow, was probably regarded as a sort of effeminacy, unsuited to any but women and sick persons; and the use of it in the bed of one of such hardy habits as David would therefore alone suggest and corroborate the idea of his illness. The head of the image being thus placed upon the bolster, Michal would draw over it the top of the bed covering, which would not only lessen the chances of detection, but increase the illusion, it being customary in the East for people to sleep with their heads under the covering, Those who prefer Harmer's interpretation are, however, not probably wrong in assuming that curtains or nets to keep off the gnats may have been in use in the time of David, for we know from Herodotus that they existed very anciently in Egypt.

15. Bring him up to me in the bed.'-It will be recollected that the beds commonly in use were probably, as now, merely a padded quilt, doubled, for a mattress, and another, single, for a covering. There cannot, therefore,

be a more convenient way of transporting a sick person than to wrap him up in his bed and carry him away. In fact, this is the way in which we have usually seen sick persons, in Western Asia, carried from one place to another, when circumstances rendered it necessary to remove them.

This also explains how it happened that the sick were brought to Christ in their beds, to be healed.

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24. Lay down naked all that day.'-Reland has an excellent note on this subject, which we cannot refrain from quoting, with slight alteration, as given by Whiston in his translation of Josephus. The word naked does not always signify entirely naked; but sometimes means without men's usual armour, or without their usual robes or upper garments; as when Virgil bids the husbandmen plough naked and sow naked. And we are thus to understand when Josephus says that God had given the Jews the security of armour when they were naked; and when he says that Ahab fell upon the Syrians when they were naked and drunk; when he says that Nehemiah commanded those Jews who were building the walls of Jerusalem to take care and have their armour on upon occasion, that the enemy might not fall upon them naked. I may add that the case seems to be the same in Scripture, when it says that Saul lay down naked among the prophets (1 Sam. xix. 24); when it says that Isaiah walked naked and barefoot (Isa. xx. 2, 3); and when it says that Peter, before he girt on his fisher's coat, was naked (John xxi. 7). Nor were the yvμvîtes, or naked soldiers, others than those levis armature, who were free from the heavy armour of the rest. And the like may be supposed in several other places. What is said also of David gives light to this; who was reproached by Michal for having shamefully uncovered himself while dancing before the ark; whereas it appears by the context that he had at that time been covered with a linen ephod, propably such as the Levites wore.' We are therefore to understand that, in the present instance, and also in that of David, the king put aside the outer robes and arms, by which his dignity was, perhaps, more particularly distinguished, and appeared in the light under-dress which, as now worn in the East, is complete in itself, although, from fitting closer to the body than the loose outer robes, it certainly does suggest the idea of comparative nakedness.

CHAPTER XX.

1 David consulteth with Jonathan for his safety. 11 Jonathan and David renew their covenant by oath. 18 Jonathan's token to David. 24 Saul, missing David, seeketh to kill Jonathan. 35 Jonathan lovingly taketh his leave of David.

AND David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life?

2 And he said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will 'shew it me and why should my father hide this thing from me? it is not so.

3 And David sware moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.

soever thy soul 'desireth, I will even do it for thee.

5 And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, to morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even.

6 If thy father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Beth-lehem his city for there is a yearly 'sacrifice there for all the family.

7 If he say thus, It is well; thy servant shall have peace: but if he be very wroth, then be sure that evil is determined by him.

8 Therefore thou shalt deal kindly with thy servant; for thou hast brought thy servant into a covenant of the LORD with thee: notwithstanding, if there be in me iniquity, slay me thyself; for why shouldest thou bring me to thy father?

9 And Jonathan said, Far be it from thee: for if I knew certainly that evil were determined by my father to come upon thee, then would not I tell it thee?

4 Then said Jonathan unto David, 'What2 Or, Say what is thy mind, and I will do, &c. 5 Chap. 18. 3, and 23. 18.

1 Heb. uncover mine ear.

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10 Then said David to Jonathan, Who shall tell me? or what if thy father answer thee roughly?

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And Jonathan said unto David, Come, and let us go out into the field. And they went out both of them into the field.

12 And Jonathan said unto David, O LORD God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about to morrow any time, or the third day, and, behold, if there be good toward David, and I then send not unto thee, and 'shew it thee;

13 The LORD do so and much more to Jonathan: but if it please my father to do thee evil, then I will shew it thee, and send thee away, that thou mayest go in peace: and the LORD be with thee, as he hath been with my father.

14 And thou shalt not only while yet I live shew me the kindness of the LORD, that I die not:

15 But also thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever: no, not when the LORD hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth.

16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, Let the LORD even require it at the hand of David's enemies.

17 And Jonathan caused David to swear again, 'because he loved him: for he loved him as he loved his own soul.

18 Then Jonathan said to David, To morrow is the new moon: and thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.

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19 And when thou hast stayed three days, then thou shalt go down "112 "quickly, and come to the place where thou didst hide thyself "when the business was in hand, and shalt remain by the stone "Ezel.

20 And I will shoot three arrows on the side thereof, as though I shot at a mark.

21 And, behold, I will send a lad, saying, Go, find out the arrows. If I expressly say unto the lad, Behold, the arrows are on this side of thee, take them; then come thou: for there is peace to thee, and no hurt; as the LORD liveth.

22 But if I say thus unto the young man, Behold, the arrows are beyond thee; go thy way for the LORD hath sent thee

away.

23 And as touching the matter which thou and I have spoken of, behold, the LORD be between thee and me for ever.

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So David hid himself in the field: Heb. searched.

7 Heb. uncover thine ear. 12 Heb. greatly.

and when the new moon was come, the king sat him down to eat meat.

25 And the king sat upon his seat, as at other times, even upon a seat by the wall: and Jonathan arose, and Abner sat by Saul's side, and David's place was empty.

26 Nevertheless Saul spake not any thing that day: for he thought, Something hath befallen him, he is not clean; surely he is not clean.

27 And it came to pass on the morrow, which was the second day of the month, that David's place was empty and Saul said unto Jonathan his son, Wherefore cometh not the son of Jesse to meat, neither yesterday, nor to day?

28 And Jonathan answered Saul, David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem :

29 And he said, Let me go, I pray thee; for our family hath a sacrifice in the city; and my brother, he hath commanded me to be there and now, if I have found favour in thine eyes, let me get away, I pray thee, and see my brethren. Therefore he cometh not unto the king's table.

30 Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, 16 17Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother's nakedness?

31 For as long as the son of Jesse liveth upon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom. Wherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die.

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32 And Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said unto him, Wherefore shall he be slain? what hath he done?

33 And Saul cast a javelin at him to smite him whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of his father to slay David.

34 So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and did eat no meat the second day of the month: for he was grieved for David, because his father had done him shame.

35 And it came to pass in the morning, that Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little lad

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10 Heb. missed. 14 Or, that sheweth the way.

8 Heb. cut. 9 Or, by his love towards him. 13 Heb. in the day of the business. 15 Heb. not any thing. 16 Or, Thou perverse rebel. 17 Heb. Son of perverse rebellion.

11 Or, diligently.

18 Heb. is the son of death. 19 Heb. to pass over him

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Verse 5. To-morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat.'-See the note on Num. xxviii. 11. The commencement of the new month or moon was celebrated by extraordinary sacrifices and feasting, at which, it seems, the head of a family expected all its members to be present. It seems that David did not ordinarily take meat with the king; but on such occasions he was expected to be present-probably as being the king's son-inlaw. Some of the Rabbins say that the principal persons of the court dined with the king on this occasion. In either case, David might be expected to attend; but the text does not indicate the presence of any persons not of the king's family.

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12. About to-morrow any time, or the third dayRather, The morrow of the third day,' that is, the day after to-morrow.

18. Thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will be empty.' -Thy place has long been empty among thy friends,' or simply, thy place has been empty,' or 'has long been empty-are common expressions of compliment among the Persians, addressed to one who is again seen after either a long absence, or after such short absences as occur in the common course of life. The late king of Persia, for instance, used the expression as a gracious compliment to Sir John Malcolm, at his first audience on his second embassy. One who returns from a journey, or who joins a circle of acquaintance whom he has not seen within the usual number of weeks or days, is greeted with the same phrase of compliment.

19. The stone Ezel,'-literally, 'the stone of the way,' or the way stone:' because, says the annotator in the Bible of 1595, 'it served as a sign to shew the way to them that passed by.' This seems likely, and then it appears to point out a very early origin of mile-stones, or directionposts.

25. The king sat upon his seat....by the wall-From the account of the manner in which the principal persons were placed at Saul's table, and that they all had an assigned place, David's seat being empty in his absence, it is evident that Saul had by this time introduced considerable state and ceremony into his court. The expression-Jonathan arose,' has been thought by some to imply that Jonathan stood during the meal; but others suppose he arose on the entrance of his father, from respect, and then sat down again. Josephus says that Jonathan sat on one side of Saul, and Abner on the other, and the same view is taken by the Syriac version. By Saul's being seated next the wall,' it would seem that he sat in the corner, which, with other circumstances, goes to shew that the corner at the top of the room, was anciently, as now, the seat of honour in the East--that is, the left hand corner, which places the left arm to the wall, and leaves the right arm free.

26. He is not clean.'-Saul conjectured that David's attendance was precluded by some ceremonial defilement. from which he had not purified himself.

30. Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman.'-In abusing another it is still customary in the East to apply disgraceful epithets to the mother of the abused person. There is no intention to stigmatize the mother personally. She may be wholly unknown to those who employ such expressions, and no one thinks her injured by them; but they are in the highest degree offensive to her son. When one person is offended with another, or when two persons quarrel, it is, indeed, the last and most venomous mode of attack for the parties to apply every intemperate epithet to their respective mothers, wives, and daughters-to charge them with offences, and to threaten what shameful thing they will do or would do to them. But the mother is in all these cases the most general and favourite object of this revolting form of abuse; and so prevalent is this habit, that not only will a father, like Saul, use such expressions in abusing his son, but even brothers in their quarrels with each other will in the same way, and for the purposes of mutual offence, apply the same expressions to the mother whom both of them respect and love. Similar forms of reflected abuse-harmless to the object from which they

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CHAPTER XXI.

1 David at Nob obtaineth of Ahimelech hallowed bread. 7 Doeg was present. 8 David taketh Goliath's sword. 10 David at Gath feigneth himself mad.

THEN came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee?

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2 And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.

3 Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is 'present.

4 And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from

women.

5 And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, 3yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.

6 So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken

away.

Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul.

8 And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.

9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me.

10 ¶ And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

11 And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, 'Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?

12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

13 And he changed his behaviour before. them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.

14 Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is 'mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me?

15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my

7 Now a certain man of the servants of house?

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Verse 1. Nob.'-This is described in ch. xxii. 19 as a 'city of the priests;' and in Nehem. xi. 32, its name is mentioned after Anathoth, among the cities occupied by the Benjamites on their return from the captivity. Jerome says that, in his time, the ruins of Nob still existed near Diospolis or Lydda. But this was in the south of Ephraim; and if he rightly determines its site, we may conclude that, as the ten tribes did not return with Judah and Benjamin, the latter tribe took the liberty of appropriating some part of the vacant territory of Ephraim

5 Or, especially when this day there is other sanctified in the vessel. 6 Or, made marks. 7 Or, playeth the mad man.

which adjoined its own. The Rabbins generally, however, think that Nob was near Jerusalem-and so near, according to some, as to be visible from thence. This is confirmed by Isa. x. 32; and it must therefore have been situated somewhere upon the ridge of the mount of Olives, north-east of the city. Dr. Robinson states that he diligently sought along this ridge for some traces of an ancient site which might be regarded as that of Nob, but without the slightest success. It seems difficult to understand this chapter without supposing that the tabernacle must at this

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