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bably distinguished by the number of inhabitants, as our hundreds originally were.

24. In the wilderness of Maon, in the plain on the south of Jeshimon.' 25. He came down into a rock, and abode in the wilderness of Maon.'-That is, when David heard of Saul's approach, he left the hill Hachilah, and removed more to the south, into a plain in the wilderness of Maon, and from thence to a strong rocky hill in the same wilderness.

25. The wilderness of Maon.' - This place is now

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CHAPTER XXIV.

1 David in a cave at En-gedi, having cut off Saul's skirt, spareth his life. 8 He sheweth thereby his innocency. 16 Saul, acknowledging his fault, taketh an oath of David, and departeth.

AND it came to pass, when Saul was returned from 'following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En-gedi.

2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats.

3 And he came to the sheepcotes by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet: and David and his men remained in the sides of the cave.

4 And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the LORD said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe privily.

5 And it came to pass afterward, that David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt.

6 And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.

7 So David 'stayed his servants with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on his way.

8 David also arose afterward, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, My lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed himself.

9 And David said to Saul, Wherefore hearest thou men's words, saying, Behold, David seeketh thy hurt?

10 Behold, this day thine eyes have seen

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how that the LORD had delivered thee to day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the LORD's anointed.

11 Moreover, my father, see, yea, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand: for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed thee not, know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine hand, and I have not sinned against thee; yet thou huntest my soul to take it.

12 The LORD judge between me and thee, and the LORD avenge me of thee: but mine hand shall not be upon thee.

13 As saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked: but mine hand shall not be upon thee.

14 After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a flea.

15 The LORD therefore be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of thine hand.

16 And it came to pass, when David had made an end of speaking these words unto Saul, that Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.

17 And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.

18 And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me: forasmuch as when the LORD had 'delivered me into thine hand, thou killedst me not.

19 For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore the LORD reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day.

20 And now, behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hand.

21 Swear now therefore unto me by the LORD, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after

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5 Heb. shut up.

went home; but David and his men gat them up unto the hold.

me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house.

22 And David sware unto Saul. And Saul

Verse 1. En-gedi.'-This name first occurs in Josh. xv. 62, as that of a city in the tribe of Judah, and which, without doubt, gave its name to the 'wilderness' in which David now found refuge. Its more ancient was Hazezontamar; and by that name it is mentioned before the destruction of Sodom, as being inhabited by the Amorites, and near the cities of the plain (Gen. xiv. 7). In 2 Chron. xx. 1, 2, bands of the Moabites and Ammonites are described as coming up against King Jehoshaphat, apparently south of the south end of the Dead Sea, as far as En-gedi. And this, as we learn from Dr. Robinson, is the route taken by the Arabs in their marauding expeditions at the present day. According to Josephus, En-gedi lay upon the lake Asphaltites, and was celebrated for its beautiful palm-trees and opobalsam (Antiq. ix. 1, 2); while its vineyards are also mentioned in Sol. Song. i. 14. In the time of Eusebius and Jerome, En-gedi was still a large village on the shore of the Dead Sea. It has always, until recently, been sought at the north end of the Dead Sea. But Seetzen recognized the ancient name in the Ain-jidy of the Arabs, and lays it down in his map at a point of the western shore nearly equi-distant from both extremities of the lake. This spot was visited by Dr. Robinson, and he confirms the identification. The site lies among the mountains which here confine the lake, a considerable way down the descent to its shore. Here is the beautiful fountain of Ain-jidy, bursting forth at once in a fine stream upon a sort of narrow terrace or shelf of the mountain, above four hundred feet above the level of the lake. The stream rushes down the steep descent of the mountain below; and its course is hidden by a luxuriant thicket of

trees and shrubs belonging to a more southern clime. Near this fountain are the remains of several buildings, apparently ancient, although the main site of the town seems to have been farther below. The whole of the descent below appears to have been once terraced for tillage and gardens; and near the foot are the ruins of a town, exhibiting nothing of particular interest, and built mostly of unhewn stones. This we may conclude to have been the town which took its name from the fountain.

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2. Wild goats.'-The domestic goats of Western Asia have been noticed under Gen. xv. 9. There are also one or more species of wild goats; all large and vigorous mountain animals, resembling the ibex or bouquetin of the Alps. Of these Southern Syria (including Palestine), Arabia, Sinai, and the borders of the Red Sea contain at least one species, known to the Arabs by the name of Bedan or Beddan, and Taytal, the Capra Jaela of Colonel Hamilton Smith, and Capra Sinaitica of Ehrenberg, who has figured it in his Symbola Physica. There is little room for doubt that this animal is the by jaal, 'wild' or 'mountain goat' of the present text, and of Job xxxix. 1; Ps. civ. 18; Prov. v. 19. The male of this species is considerably larger and more robust than the larger he-goats. The horns form regular curves backwards, with from fifteen to twenty-four transverse elevated cross ridges, and are sometimes nearly three feet long, and exceedingly ponderous. It has a beard under the chin, and the fur is dark brown; but the limbs are white, with regular black marks down the front of the legs, with rings of the same colour above the knees and on the posteriors. The females

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are smaller than the males, more slenderly made, brighter rafous, and with the white and black markings on the legs not so distinct. These animals live in troops of fifteen or twenty, and plunge down precipices with the same fearless impetuosity which distinguishes the ibex. Their horns are sold by the Arabs for knife-handles, etc., but the animals themselves are rapidly diminishing in number.

3. The sheepcotes.... where was a cave.'-This was, no doubt, such a cave as shepherds were accustomed to resort to (see the note on Gen. xix. 30). We have already had occasion to mention that such caves are numerous, and some of them very extensive, in Palestine, Arabia Petræa, and other mountainous parts of Western Asia. The cave of Adullam, in which David remained with four hundred men, besides his family, and this of En-gedi, in the sides' or farther parts of which six hundred men stood, without being observed by Saul when also in the cave, must have been large, but by no means remarkably large; as the ancient writers, as well as modern travellers, give us accounts of caves fully extensive enough for this purpose, and some that would have contained a much greater number of men. Some of them consist, not of one apartment, but of two or more; that is, the exterior entrance leads to a sort of ante-chamber, within which there is another or several others, which, collectively or separately, are much larger than the first. Perhaps the cave of En-gedi was such as this; and the description that David and his men ' remained in the sides of the cave,' appears to sanction this conclusion. Some of the caves are however single, and, being very large with a narrow entrance, are so dark in the remoter parts, that persons near the entrance cannot by any possibility perceive others who remain in the interior, while their own operations can, of course, be most distinctly observed by the latter. This perhaps was the relative position of David's party and the king.

Josephus has a striking account (Antiq. I. xiv. c. 15, $5) of some of the caves of this country, and of Herod's proceedings against the robbers, who, with their families, sheltered in them. They, of course, preferred the most inaccessible caverns, the entrances of which were high up in the sides of rugged and precipitous mountains, so that it was impossible for the soldiers to climb to them from below or creep down from above. The plan adopted therefore was to let down from the top, by iron chains, large chests full of armed men, with provisions and suitable weapons for this strange warfare, such as long poles armed with hooks, to pull out such of the robbers as they could lay hold of and tumble them down the precipices. The robbers kept themselves back in the interior of their caverns, not daring to come near the entrance, and the soldiers, finding no opportunity of using their hooks and other weapons from their chests, at last managed to get into the caves, where they killed those whom they found within the light at the entrance, and employed their hooks with advantage in pulling forward those who lurked in the remote parts of their dens. They also killed great numbers by setting fire to the combustibles which many of these caverns contained; and in the end completely succeeded in the dangerous service of destroying in their retreats, previously deemed inaccessible, the incorrigible

CHAPTER XXV.

1 Samuel dieth. 2 David in Paran sendeth to Nabal. 10 Provoked by Nabal's churlishness, he mindeth to destroy him. 14 Abigail understanding thereof, 18 taketh a present, 23 and by her wisdom 32 pacifieth David. 36 Naba! hearing thereof dieth. 39 David taketh Abigail and Ahinoam to be his wives. 44 Michal is given to Phalti.

robbers who had so long alarmed and distressed the country. This account gives a lively idea of the dens' and 'caves' which are so frequently mentioned in Scripture.

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14. After a dead dog, after a flea.'-Similar phrases are still employed in the East by persons who wish to express a sense of their own lowliness. In the East, if not in the West, the flea certainly deserves all the contumely which can be bestowed upon it; and as to the dog, whatever be its general merits, its name has, in all ages and in most countries, been used as an epithet expressing debasement or detestation. In this sense it frequently occurs in Scripture. Thus Goliath, when he felt his dignity affronted, said, Am I a dog?' (ch. xvii. 43); and Abner, when his conduct was questioned, 'Am I a dog's head?' (2 Sam. iii. 8); and Jonathan's son, when touched by the kindness of David, said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?' (2 Sam. ix. 8). There are several other instances of a similar bearing; besides which, the epithet dogs' is, in the New Testament, applied in a general sense to persons addicted to vile and sensual practices and habits, as Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers' (Phil. iii. 2); Without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers," etc. (Rev. xxii. 15). All this needs little explanation, as the same contemptuous estimate of the dog's character, and the application of its name, continues to prevail; but with this difference (at least among ourselves), that the word, as an epithet of abuse, is not so frequently found as it was anciently in the mouths of distinguished persons. Homer's heroes call one another 'dogs' with great spirit.

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16. Is this thy voice,' etc.-Saul's naturally good feelings were touched by the generous forbearance of one whom he had come there to destroy. Is this thy voice, my son David?' he cried; and his softened heart yielded to refreshing tears, such as he had not lately been wont to shed. That which had been in David a forbearance resulting from the natural and spontaneous impulse of his own feelings, seemed to the king an act of superhuman virtue, which forced upon him the recognition that he was indeed that worthier' man to whom the inheritance of his crown had been prophesied. Rendering good for evil was a new thing to him; and now, in the regard and admiration which it excited, he freely acknowledged the conviction he entertained; and added, Swear now therefore to me by Jehovah that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house.' The anxiety of the king, and even of Jonathan, on this point, seems to shew (what had already happened in the case of Abimelech) that it was even then, as it ever has been until lately, usual for Oriental kings to remove by death all those whose claims to the throne might seem superior or equal to their own, or whose presence might offer an alternative to the discontented. The intense horror with which the Hebrews regarded the prospect or fear of genealogical extinction, also contributes to explain the anxiety which both Saul and Jonathan felt on this point more than on any other. David took the oath required from him; Saul then returned to Gibeah, and David, who had little confidence in the permanency of the impression he had made, remained in his strongholds.

were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.

2 T And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and he was shearing his

AND 'Samuel died; and all the Israelites sheep in Carmel.

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3 Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb.

4 ¶ And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep.

5 And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name :

6 And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that

thou hast.

7 And now I have heard that thou hast shearers now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Carmel.

8 Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young men find favour in thine eyes for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David. 9 And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and "ceased.

10 ¶ And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, 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.

11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?

12 So David's young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.

13 And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.

14 ¶ But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he 'railed on them.

15 But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields:

3 Heb. ask him in my name, of peace.
8 Heb. shamed.
Or, lumps.

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10 Heb. ears.

4 Heb. shamed. 13 Or, present.

16 They were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.

17 Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his houshold: for he is such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.

18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred 'clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.

19 And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.

20 And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.

21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good.

22 So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,

24 And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine 1oaudience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.

25 Let not my lord, I pray thee, "regard this man of Belial, even Nabal: for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him: but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.

26 Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from 12avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

27 And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given unto the young men that "follow my lord.

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28 I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.

29 Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.

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30 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel; 31 That this shall be "no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid.

32 ¶ And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:

33 And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging my self with mine own hand.

34 For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, which hath kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

35 So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.

15 Heb. in the midst of the bow of a sling.

18 Josh. 15. 56.

36 And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

37 But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

38 And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal, that he died.

39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the LORD hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife.

40 And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife.

41 And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.

42 And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of her's that went "after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.

43 David also took Ahinoam 18of Jezreel; and they were also both of them his wives. 44 But Saul had given "Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, which was of Gallim.

16 Heb. no staggering, or, stumbling. 19 2 Sam. 3. 14, 15.

17 Heb. at her feet.

Verse 1. 'Buried him in his own house at Ramah.'-The Rev. W. Jowett, in his Christian Researches in Syria, relates: 'While walking out one evening, a few fields' distance from Deir-el-Kamr, at Mount Lebanon, with Hanna Doomani, the son of my host, to see a detached garden belonging to his father, he pointed out to me, near it, a small, solid stone building, apparently a house; very solemnly adding, "Kabbar beity," "the sepulchre of our family." It had neither door nor window. He then directed my attention to a considerable number of similar buildings at a distance, which to the eye are exactly like houses, but which are in fact family mansions for the dead. They have a most melancholy appearance, which made him shudder while he explained their use. They seem, by their dead walls, which must be opened at each several interment of the members of a family, to say, "This is an unkindly house, to which visitors do not willingly throng; but, one by one, they will be forced to enter, and none who enter ever come out again." Perhaps

this custom, which prevails particularly at Deir-el-Kamr and in the lonely neighbouring parts of the mountain, may have been of great antiquity, and may serve to explain some Scripture phrases. The prophet Samuel was buried in his house at Ramah' (1 Sam. xxv. 1); it could hardly be in his dwelling-house. Joab was buried in his own house in the wilderness' (1 Kings ii. 34); this is 'the house appointed for all living' (Job xxx. 23).

Carpzovius (Apparatus, p. 643) remarks: It is scarcely credible that these sepulchres were in their houses and under their roofs. It is more correct therefore to understand this expression as embracing all the appurtenances of a house, and whatever is contiguous. In this sense, then, it means the court, or garden, in the farthest corner of which they probably erected some such monument.' Kubbehs, or tombs of the kind represented in the engraving, are still very common in the gardens of the East.

'And David arose,' etc.-As David, immediately

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