of some transcriber in writing Dy arba'yim, 'forty, for ya arba, four:' and this understanding is supported by the Syriac and Arabic versions, by Josephus, by the Sixtine edition of the Vulgate, and by various manuscript copies of the same version. These all read 'four', instead of forty.'

12. Sent for Ahithophel.'-Absalom must have been aware that this man, although David's chosen counsellor and trusted friend, was likely to come if sent for. The Jewish writers assign a reason for this by alleging that Ahithophel was the grandfather of Bathsheba, and that he had been alienated from David by his conduct towards this woman and her husband. But this seems exceedingly doubtful.

— · Giloh.'—This place is mentioned in Josh. xv. 51, among the towns in the mountains of Judah's lot. It seems to have been not far from Hebron, where Absalom was when he sent for Ahithophel.

18. The Gittites, six hundred men which came after him from Gath.'-These appear to have been native Philistines of Gath, whom David had attached to his service, after making himself master of their country, and who had perhaps become proselytes. Some, however, think that this body was composed of native Israelites, called Gittites or Gathites, in memory of the 600 followers who accompanied him when he sought refuge the second time at Gath, and in which the actual members of that body had been incorporated, and had been replaced as they died off. But there seems no good reason why a body thus constituted should be named from Gath rather than from any other place or circumstances in which their history connected them with David. Besides, the king obviously speaks to their leader Ittai in v. 19, 20, as a foreigner, who, with his brethren,' could hardly be expected to incur distress for his sake.

23. The brook Kidron.'-This brook, as mentioned in the general notice of Jerusalem (chap. v.), flows through the valley which lies between the city and the Mount of Olives on the east. It discharges itself into the Dead Sea, and, like most of the other streams of Palestine, is a mere winter torrent, having a considerable current during the rainy season, but being usually quite dry for nine months

AND when David was a little past the top of the hill, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of asses saddled, and upon them two hundred loaves of bread, and an hundred bunches of raisins, and an hundred of summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.

2 And the king said unto Ziba, What meanest thou by these? And Ziba said, The asses be for the king's houshold to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the wine, that such as be faint in the wilderness may drink.

3 And the king said, And where is thy master's son? And Ziba said unto the king,

1 Heb. I do obeisance.

of the year. Its bed is very narrow and rather deep, and is in one place crossed by a bridge of one arch.

6

26. Let him do to me as seemeth good unto him.'-From the whole of the words which this sentence concludes, and from other expressions similarly humble and resigned to the dispensations of the Lord's providence, it is manifest that David recognized in this unnatural conspiracy, which made him a fugitive, a portion of the divine judgments which the prophet had been authorized to denounce against him for iniquities in the matter of Uriah and Bathsheba.

30. Had his head covered.'-This does not mean covering the head in a common sense, as by putting on a cap or hat, which, it is evident, was not a sign of mourning; but it obviously means wrapping up or enveloping the head with a cloth or robe. This was also a custom of mourning among the Persians, Egyptians, and Romans-and is indeed a rather general practice, being a sufficiently natural expression of grief when understood as a resource to conceal its expression. Do we not find something of the same idea among ourselves in the hoods worn by female mourners, and even in the sweeping hatbands worn by the men at funerals? There are two touching illustrations of this custom in Quintus Curtius. Darius being informed by the eunuch Tyriotes that his queen had died in her captivity, but had been respectfully treated by the conqueror, he covered his head and wept a long time; and then, the tears still flowing from his eyes, he uncovered his face, and holding up his hands to heaven, prayed to be preserved in his kingdom; but, if not, that none but Alexander might be master of Asia.' And again, when the same king was in the power of the traitor Bessus, every moment expecting his own death, he had an interview with Artabazus: they wept together, and the latter being unwilling to leave Darius, the unhappy monarch ordered him to be taken away, and covered his own head that he might not see him depart in such affliction, and then flung himself upon the ground. In these instances we see that the covering of the head involves the concealment of the face, and is taken as a sign of grief that would be concealed. The principle of this idea was in the mind of the ancient painter, who, despairing of exhibiting adequately the grief of a father at the sacrifice of his daughter, represented his head as covered with a veil.

Behold, he abideth at Jerusalem: for he said, To day shall the house of Israel restore me the kingdom of my father.

4 Then said the king to Ziba, Behold, thine are all that pertained unto Mephibosheth. And Ziba said, 'I humbly beseech thee that I may find grace in thy sight, my lord, O king.

5 And when king David came to Bahurim, behold, thence came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera: he came forth, and cursed still as he came.

6 And he cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David: and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.

7 And thus said Shimei when he cursed, Come out, come out, thou 'bloody man, and thou man of Belial :

8 The LORD hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose

3 Heb. man of blood.

CHAP. XVI.]

stead thou hast reigned; and the LORD hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son: and, 'behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man.

9 Then said Abishai the son of Zeruial unto the king, Why should this 'dead dog curse my lord the king? let me go over, pray thee, and take off his head.

10 And the king said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? so let him curse, because the LORD hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say, Wherefore hast thou done so ?

11 And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life: how much more now may this Benjamite do it? let him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD hath bidden him.

6 7

12 It may be that the LORD will look on mine affliction, and that the LORD will requite me good for his cursing this day.

13 And as David and his men went by the way, Shimei went along on the hill's side over against him, and cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and "cast dust.

14 And the king, and all the people that were with him, came weary, and refreshed themselves there.

15 And Absalom, and all the people the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him.

4 Heb. behold thee in thy evil.

51 Sam. 24. 14. Chap. 9. 8. 9 Heb. Let the king live.

Verse 13. Threw stones at him.'-In like manner, when the later Jews were offended at what Christ said to them, they took up stones to cast at him.' Professor Paxton observes-This conduct was evidently the relic of a very ancient custom, which had gradually fallen into disuse, as the conduct and policy of the warrior improved, till, among the Jews at least, it was confined to the movements of private rage or popular fury.' (Illustrations of Scripture, iii. 381.) This custom was that of using stones as regular and legitimate weapons of offence. There is no question that stones were the first missiles that were used, whether in private quarrels or public warfare; and one of the first inventions for an offensive purpose was (as by the sling) to give to the stone greater power and impulsion than when discharged by the hand. We have no notice in the Bible of the use of stones in regular warfare, unless in the defence of besieged towns; but there is abundant indication that these were the weapons with which the Hebrews were most accustomed to assail each other in their quarrels, sometimes with fatal effect. See, for instance, Exod. xxi. 18, and Num. xxxv. 17. Nor was this an undignified resource, according to ancient notions. Homer's most stately heroes do not hesitate to pelt each other with stones most vigorously. In one action

As the feath'ry snows

Fall frequent, on some wint'ry day
So thick, alternately by Trojans hurl'd

Against the Greeks, and by the Greeks return'd,
The stony vollies flew.'-Iliad, xii.-CowPER.

20

6 Or, tears.

stone.

7 Heb. eye. 10 Heb. word.

8 Heb, dusted him with dust.

We also see Diomede knocking down Eneas with a great stone and breaking his leg; Ajax and Hector assail each other in the same manner, and the latter has his shield shattered to pieces with a stone as large as a millAgamemnon also, the king of men,' in dealing destruction among the ranks of the enemy, employs by turns spear, sword, and massy stones.' Other instances of this use of stones might be mentioned for the purpose of indicating that the act of throwing stones was not quite so undignified as it now is. (See the cut at page 145 of this volume.)

And cast dust.'-Thus also the Jews of a later day, when offended at the address of St. Paul, Cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air' (Acts xxii. 23). That practice is however susceptible of a distinct illustration, from the existing custom of the East, as 6 Who, in thus graphically described by Mr. Roberts.

the East, has not often witnessed a similar scene? Listen to the maledictions: they are of such a nature that evil spirits only could have suggested them. Look at the enraged miscreant: he dares not come near for fear of punishment, but he stands at a distance, vociferates his imprecations, violently throws about his hands; then stoops to the ground and takes up handsful of dust, throws it in the air, and exclaims, "Soon shalt thou be as thatthy mouth shall soon be full of it-look, look, thou cursed one; as this dust so shalt thou be!" We may add, that the Oriental nations, generally, infinitely surpass those of Europe in the expressions and acts of insult and abuse;

but that the exhibitions of their rage, however violent, are seldom attended with personal injury, or proceed to the length of bodily conflict.

21. Go in unto thy father's concubines.'-Perceiving that many held back or wavered from the apprehension that Absalom would hardly go to the last extremities against his father, and that possibly they might become the victims of another reconciliation between David and his son, this wily and unprincipled statesman advised that Absalom should not delay to remove this apprehension by

such an act as would in the sight of all the people commit him, beyond all hope of a pardon or reconciliation, to the bad cause in which he was engaged. This was that he should rear a pavilion on the top of the palace (to render it conspicuous from afar), into which he should, in the sight of all Israel,' enter unto the concubine-wives whom David had left in charge of the palace. This atrocious counsel was followed by Absalom, who thus unintentionally accomplished Nathan's prophecy in ch. xii. 11.

CHAPTER XVII.

1 Ahithophel's counsel is overthrown by Hushai's, according to God's appointment. 15 Secret intelligence is sent unto David. 23 Ahithophel hangeth himself. 25 Amasa is made captain, 27 David at Mahanaim is furnished with provision.

MOREOVER Ahithophel said unto Absalom, Let me now choose out twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David this night:

2 And I will come upon him while he is weary and weak handed, and will make him afraid and all the people that are with him shall flee and I will smite the king only:

3 And I will bring back all the people unto thee: the man whom thou seekest is as if all returned: so all the people shall be in peace.

4 And the saying 'pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.

5 Then said Absalom, Call now Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise 'what he saith.

6 And when Hushai was come to Absalom, Absalom spake unto him, saying, Ahithophel hath spoken after this manner: shall we do after his saying? if not; speak thou.

7 And Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath 'given is not good at this time.

8 For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her-whelps in the field: and thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.

9 Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, when some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say, There is a slaughter among the people that follow

Absalom.

mighty man, and they which be with him are valiant men.

11 Therefore I counsel that all Israel be generally gathered unto thee, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that thou go to battle in thine own person.

12 So shall we come upon him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light upon him as the dew falleth on the ground: and of him and of all the men that are with him there shall not be left so much

as one.

13 Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one small stone found there.

14 And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.

15 Then said Hushai unto Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders. of Israel; and thus and thus have I counselled.

16 Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him.

17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel; for they might not be seen to come into the city and a wench went and told them; and they went and told king

David.

18 Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told Absalom: but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man's house in Bahurim, which had a well in his court; whither they went down.

19 And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread

ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known.

20 And when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house, they said, Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman said unto them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.

21 And it came to pass, after they were departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David, and said unto David, Arise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus hath Ahithophel counselled against you. 22 Then David arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over Jordan: by the morning light there lacked not one of them that was not gone over Jordan.

23 And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not 'followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his houshold in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.

9 Heb. done.

10 Heb. gave charge concerning his house.

Verse 7. The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time.'-The counsel which Ahithophel had given was in fact marked by his usual political sagacityadvising prompt action before the king should be able to collect his resources. Hushai at once saw that, according to human probabilities, David was lost unless some plan of frustrating this deep counsel were devised. He therefore, with great presence of mind, adduced several specious arguments against it, and in favour of delay-dwelling upon the tried valour of David and his friends, and the serious consequences of any check or failure in the first attack. The least repulse at such a juncture must, he argued, be fatal to the cause of Absalom. The awe in which they all stood of the military talents and resources of the old king gave such effect to these suggestions, that the fallacious reasoning of Hushai had more effect upon the heads of the conspiracy than the really sage counsel of Ahithophel.

8. As a bear robbed of her whelps.'-Harmer apologizes for the coarseness of this comparison. We are unable to perceive any coarseness that needs apology. David and his valiant men are not compared to bears; but their state of mind, when chafed by wrong, and contending for honour and existence, is compared to that most awful example of animal rage, and of unswerving vengeance and unconquerable energy, which the bereaved bear exhibits, even to the death. On this point we may remark again, under Prov. xvii. 12, where a similar comparison occurs -limiting our attention at present to the animal itself. We have stated in the note to 1 Sam. xvii., that the bear is now very rare in Palestine, but is not altogether unknown, and is still found in Syria and other parts of Western Asia. We believe that the only figure extant of a proper Syrian bear is that given by Hemprich and Ehrenberg in the Symbola Physica, after which the figure in our woodcut has been drawn. The specimen (a female) was killed by the travellers near the village of Bischerre in Syria. They have determined it to be a distinct species, to which they have given the name of the Syrian bear (Ursus Syriacus). It is perhaps a variety of the brown bear

24 Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.

25 ¶ And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man's son, whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah Joab's mother.

26 So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead.

27 And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lo-debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,

28 Brought beds, and "basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse,

29 And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat for they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.

The Syrian bear is sometimes of a fulvous brown colour, and sometimes of a fulvous white, variegated with fulvous spots; the fur is woolly beneath, with long. straight, or but slightly-curled hair externally; and be tween the shoulders there is a stiff mane of erected hairs, about four inches long. The individual killed was neither young nor old, and measured, from the nose to the tip of the tail, about four feet two, the tail being six inches. They saw her den (where there was much bear's dang), formed by great fragments of calcareous rock that appeared to have been casually thrown together. They ate of the flesh, which they found sapid, but the liver was sweet and nauseous. The gall appears to be held in great esteem; the skins are sold, and so is the dung, under the name of bar-ed-dub; the latter being used as a medicine for diseases of the eye in Syria and Egypt. There was nothing found in its stomach; but it is described as frequently preying on animals, though it, for the most part, feeds on vegetables. It will be observed that Bischerre (Bishirrai of Burckhardt) is a few miles east of Kanobin in Mount Lebanon. It is there said to inhabit the higher parts of the mountain, near the region of snow, in summer; but in winter wanders to the neighbourhood of the villages lower down the mountain. As the Scripture indicates no characteristic of the bear which it mentions, except such as are common to every species, we cannot otherwise conIclude than that this bear is that which is intended, and concerning which the information furnished by Ehrenberg, however scanty, is by far the most satisfactory that has hitherto been given.

10.

He also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion.'-In v. 8, the bear robbed of her whelps is taken as the symbol of the rage and boldness of excitement and despair; here the lion is made the symbol of native, or permanently inherent, boldness and courage. In the Bible

the native courage of the lion is continually mentioned both as a fact, and as supplying an illustrative figure. Nor is this peculiar to the Bible; for the daring and indomitable warrior is compared to the lion in the poetry of Greece and Rome, and of every nation, ancient or modern, in which the lion exists, or is known by tradition or report. Even we have the same comparison. Men of high courage are called lion-like;' they fight like lions;' and it was thought a proud distinction for the fiercest of our kings to be called the lion-hearted.' We think that this concurrence of testimony, sacred and profane, ancient and modern, far outweighs whatever evidence may be deduced from the stray anecdotes by which it has, in modern times, been occasionally sought to shake the claim of this magnificent beast to those high distinctions which it has enjoyed from the earliest records of time. We believe that Leo Africanus was the first to assail the character of the lion. He says that the lions in some parts of Africa were so timid, that they would scamper away at the cry of children; and this was particularly the case in the neighbourhood of Agla, whence it became a proverb in Fez, to call blustering cowards 'lions of Agla.' Elsewhere he observes, that the most timorous persons might drive the lions away with a small stick. Mr. Barrow and others have also more recently impugned the claim of the lion to the more noble qualities which have been assigned to him; and numerous cases are related in which he has quailed before the eye of a courageous man, and made an undignified retreat in circumstances of danger. We have ourselves, on the banks of the Tigris, seen the most outrageous insults, by voice and missiles, insufficient to provoke lions from their secure dens, the entrances to which were strewed with the spoils of the animals they had devoured.

Nevertheless, we do not see why individual instances, or local modifications of character, should be made to affect the general estimation in which an animal is held. There is perhaps the same individuality of character among wild beasts, as we allow to dogs and other domestic animals: nor probably are they, in the different climates they inhabit, without, so to speak, national peculiarities analogous to those which we observe among the dispersed tribes of mankind. It requires therefore the concurrence of a large number of independent observations to establish the general character of any animal, or to authorize us to modify a character which has long been established. We may therefore allow that there are cowardly lions, and that even the lions of particular districts are timid creatures, without being required to admit that the lion is not generally as bold and courageous as the sacred writers and the general consent of mankind affirm him to be.

6

13. Bring ropes to that city,' etc.-The exaggerated, hyperbolical style which Hushai, here and elsewhere, judges to be calculated to win upon Absalom, shews that he perfectly understood the sort of man with whom he had to deal. In the present instance it is possible that there was some exaggerated reference to a mode actually adopted in the siege of towns. Hooks or cranes were thrown upon the walls or battlements, with which, by means of attached ropes, they were sometimes pulled down piecemeal into the surrounding trench or ditch. The language of Hushai is of stronger import than this, and seems intended to convey the idea, that, with such vast power as Absalom could command, the mere manual force of his troops would sweep the strongest town from the face of the earth. It is in fact a true Oriental style of speaking of or to a prince. Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs, has a passage which, as