of him as a guide, to find out the Amalekites: || lag, he sent portions of the spoils to all that and when he had overtaken them, as they lay had been familiar with him, and to his friends, scattered about on the ground, some at dinner, in the tribe of Judah. And thus ended the some disordered and inebriated with wine; affairs of the plundering of Ziklag, and of the and in the fruition of their spoils and their slaughter of the Amalekites. prey, he fell upon them on the sudden, and made a great slaughter. For they were naked, and expected no such thing; but had betaken themselves to drinking and feasting: and so they were all easily destroyed. Now some of them that were overtaken as they lay at the table, were slain in that posture. Others of them were slain as they were drinking to one another, in their cups; and some of them when their satiety had made them fall asleep. And for so many as had time to put on all their armor, they slew them with the sword with no less ease than they did those that were naked. And for the partisans of David, they continued also the slaughter from the first hour of the day to the evening, so that there were not above four hundred of the Amalekites left, and they only escaped by getting upon their dromedaries and camels. Accordingly David recovered not only all the other spoils which the enemy had carried away; but his wives also, and the wives of his companions. But when they were come to the place where they had left the two hundred men, who were not able to follow them, but were left to take care of the stuff; the four hundred men did not think fit to divide among them any other parts of what they had gotten, or of the prey, since they did not accompany them; but pretended to be feeble, and did not follow them in the pursuit of the enemy: but said, they should be contented to have safely recovered their wives. Yet did David pronounce, that this opinion of theirs was evil and unjust; and that when God had granted them such a favor, that they had avenged themselves on their enemies, and had recovered all that belonged to themselves, they should make an equal distribution of what they had gotten to all, because the rest had tarried behind to guard their stuff. And from that time this law obtained among them, that those who guarded the stuff should receive an equal share with those that fought in the battle. Now when David was come to Zik

* 1 Sam. xxx. 25.

Now upon the Philistines joining battle, there followed a sharp engagement, and the Philistines became the conquerors, and slew a great number of their enemies. But Saul the king of Israel, and his sons, fought courageously, and with the utmost alacrity: as knowing that their entire glory lay in nothing else but dying honorably; and exposing themselves to the utmost danger from the enemy, for they had nothing else to hope for. So they brought upon themselves the whole power of the enemy till they were encompassed round and slain, but not before they had killed many of the Philistines. Now the sons of Saul were Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua. And when these were slain, the multitude of the Hebrews were put to flight; and all was disorder, confusion, and slaughter, upon the Philistines pressing in upon them. But Saul himself fled, having a strong body of soldiers about him: and upon the Philistines sending after them those that threw javelins and shot arrows, he lost all his company, except a few. As for himself, he fought with great bravery; and when he had received so many wounds, that he was unable to bear up, or to oppose any longer, and yet was not able to kill himself; he bade his armor-bearer draw his sword, and run him through, before the enemy should take him alive. But his armor-bearer not daring to kill his master, he drew his own sword, and placing himself over against its point, he threw himself upon it; and when he could neither run it through him, nor by leaning against it make the sword pass through him; he turned round, and asked a certain young man that stood by, who he was? and when he understood that he was an Amalekite, he desired him to force the sword through him: because he was not able to do it with his own hands, and thereby to procure him such a death as he desired. This the young man did accordingly: and he took the golden bracelet that was on Saul's arm, and his royal crown that was

*This way of speaking in Josephus, of fasting seven Adriatic sea, as verse 27, and that on this fourteenth day days without meat or drink, is almost like that of St. alone they bad continued fasting, and had taken nothing Paul's, Acts xxvii. 33. "This day is the fourteenth day before the evening. The mention of their long absti that ye have tarried, and continued fasting, having taken nence, verse 21, inclines me to believe the former exnothing;" and as the nature of the thing, and the impos-plication to be the truth, and that the case was then for a sibility of strictly fasting so long, require us here to understand both Josephus, and the sacred author of this history, 1 Sam. xxxi. 13, from whom he took it, of only fasting till the evening; so must we understand St. Paul, either that this was really the fourteenth day that they bad taken nothing till the evening, or else that this was the fourteenth day of their tempestuous weather in the

BOOK VII.

Containing an Interval of Forty Years.

FROM THE DEATH OF SAUL TO THE DEATH OF DAVID.

CHAP. I.

bracelets that had been on the king's arms, and his crown, which he had taken away from

OF DAVID'S CONDUCT ON RECEIVING THE NEWS OF SAUL'S Saul's dead body; and had brought them to

DEATH; AND OF THE CIVIL WAR WHICH ENSUED BETWEEN
THE ADHERENTS OF DAVID AND ISHBOSHETH, IN WHICH
ASAHEL AND ABNER WERE SLAIN.

him. So David having no longer any room to question the truth of what he said, but seeing most evident marks that Saul was dead, HIS battle happened on the same day he rent his garment, and continued all that day, whereupon David was come back to Ziklag, with his companions, in weeping and lamentaafter he had overcome the Amalekites. Now tion. This grief was augmented by the consiwhen he had been already two days at Ziklag, deration of Jonathan, the son of Saul, who had there came to him the man who slew Saul: he been his most faithful friend, and the occahad escaped out of the battle which the Israel- sion of his deliverance. He also evinced such ites had with the Philistines; and had his great virtue, and such great kindness for clothes rent, and ashes upon his head. And Saul, as not only to take his death to heart, when he made his obeisance to David, he in- though he had been frequently in danger of quired of him whence he came? He replied, losing his life by his means, but to punish him From the battle of the Israelites: and inform- that slew him. For when David had said to ed him, that the result of it was unfortunate: him, that he was become his own accuser, as manyten thousands of the Israelites having been the very man who had slain the king; and cut off, and Saul, together with his sons, slain. when he had understood that he was the son He also said, that he could well give him this in- of an Amalekite, he commanded him to be formation, because he was present at the vic-slain.* He also committed to writing some tory gained over the Hebrews; and was with the king when he fled. Nor did he deny that he had himself slain the king, when he was ready to be taken by the enemy, and himself exhorted him to that act: because when he was fallen on his sword, his wounds had made him so weak, that he was not able to kill himself. He also produced demonstrations that the king was slain which were the golden

lamentations and funeral commendations of Saul and Jonathan: which have continued to my own age.

When David had paid these honors to the king, he left off his mourning, and inquired of God by the prophet,† which of the cities of the tribe of Judah he would bestow upon him to dwell in? God answered that he bestowed upon him Hebron :‡ so he left Ziklag,

the whole tribe, and the possession of those priestly families who espoused David's interests, it was a very commodious city for him to make the place of his residence at this juncture, as being not insensible, that the determination of the metropolis in his favor would be of great weight to influence the whole tribe. And accordingly we find, that he was soon invested with the sovereignty thereof: For the men of Judah, (saith the text) came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah,

and came to Hebron: and took with him his two wives, and his armed men. Whereupon all the people of the aforementioned tribe came to him and ordained him their king. But when he heard that the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead had buried Saul and his sons honorably, he sent to them and commended them, and took what they had done kindly, and promised to make them amends for their care of those that were dead: and at the same time he informed them, that the tribe of Judah had chosen him for their king.

agreed that twelve soldiers of each side should fight together. So those that were chosen out by both generals for this fight came between the two armies; and throwing their lances one against the other, they drew their swords, and catching one another by the head, they held one another fast, and ran each other's swords into their groins, until they all, as it were by mutual agreement, perished together. When these were fallen, the rest of the army came to an obstinate engagement, and Abner's men were beaten; and when they were beaten, Joab did not leave off pursuing them, but he pressed upon them, and excited the soldiers to follow them closely, and not to grow weary of killing them. His brethren also pursued them with great alacrity; and especially the younger Asahel, who was the most emi

But as soon as Abner, the son of Ner, who was general of Saul's army, and a very active and good-natured man, knew that the king and Jonathan and his two other sons were fallen in battle, he hastened into the camp; and taking away with him the remaining son of Saul, whose name was Ishbosheth, he pass-nent of them. He was very famous for his ed over to the land beyond Jordan; and ordained him king over the whole multitude, excepting the tribe of Judah ;† and made his royal seat in a place called in our own language Mahanaim, but in the language of the Grecians, The Camps. From whence Abner made haste, with a select body of soldiers, to fight with such of the tribe of Judah as were disposed to it: for he was angry that this tribe had set up David for their king. But Joab, whose father was Suri, and his mother Zeruiab, David's sister, who was general of David's army, met him, according to David's appointment. He had with him his brethren Abishai, and Asahel; as also all David's arm-brother in the face. But when Asahel would ed men. Now when he met Abner, at a certain fountain, in the city Gibeon, he prepared to fight. And when Abner said to him, that he had a mind to know which of them had the more valiant soldiers, it was mutually

2 Sam. ii. 4. 2. B.

2222.

The History of the Life of King David, vol. * 2 Sam. ii. 4. + 2 Sam. ii. 9. This was a place in the tribe of Gad, which had its name from the appearance of an host of angels to Jacob, as he came with his family and all his substance to Padanaram, Gen. xxxii. 1. and the reasons for Abner's retreating hither, in the beginning of the new king's reign, were, that he might secure the people on that side of Jordan, and especially the gallant inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead, who were great lovers of Saul, and attached to his family; that he might prevent the Philistines from falling upon the king, whom he had under his protection, in the infancy of his reign; and chiefly, that he might be at a great

swiftness of foot: for he could not only be too hard for men, but is reported to have over-run a horse, when they had a race together. This Asahel ran violently after Abner; and would not turn in the least out of the straight way, either to one side, or to the other. Hereupon Abner turned back, and attempted artfully to avoid his violence. Sometimes he bade him leave off the pursuit, and take the armor of one of his soldiers; and sometimes, when he could not persuade him so to do, he exhorted him to restrain himself, and not to pursue him any longer, lest he should force him to kill him, and he should then not be able to look his

not admit of any persuasion, but still continued to pursue him; Abner smote him with his spear, as he held it in his flight, and by a back stroke gave him a deadly wound, so that he died immediately. But those that

distance from David, have the new king more absolutely under his command, and a better opportunity of raising recruits among the people, not only brave and courageous, but very well affected to the cause which he had espoused. Calmet's Commentary, and Pool's Annotations. B.

§ The expression in the Bible is,-That with the hinder part of the spear he smote him under the fifth rib: which Virgil, speaking of a mortal wound, has not unhappily imitated:

Haud multa moratus

Excipit in latus, et, qua fata celerrima, crudum
Transadigit costas et crates pectoris ensem.

En. 12. B. were

Saul's sons did almost every day become weaker.

About this time, David was become the father of six sons, born of as many mothers. The eldest was by Abinoam, and he was called Amnon: the second was Daniel, by his wife Abigail: the name of the third was Absalom, by Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur: the fourth he named Ado

phatiah, by Abitail: and the sixth he called Ithream, by Eglah. Now while this intestine war went on, and while the subjects of the two kings came frequently to action, it was Abner, general of the host of Saul's son, who by his prudence and the great interest he had among the multitude, made them all continue with Ishbosheth. And indeed it was a considerable time that they continued of his party.

were with him pursuing Abner, when they came to the place where Asahel lay, they stood round about the dead body, and left off the pursuit of the enemy. However, both Joab himself, and his brother Abishai ran past the corpse, and making their anger at the death of Asabel an occasion of greater zeal against Abner, they went on with incredible haste and alacrity, and pursued Abner, to a certain place called Ammah: it was about sunset.nijah, by his wife Haggith; the fifth was SheThen did Joab ascend a certain hill, as he stood at that place, having the tribe of Benjamin with him, whence he took a view of them, and of Abner also. Hereupon Abner cried aloud, and said, that it was not fit that they should irritate men of the same nation to fight so bitterly one against another; that as for Asahel his brother, he was himself in the wrong when he would not be advised by him not to pursue him any farther; which was the occasion of his death. So Joab consented to what he said, and accepted his words as an excuse about Asahel; and called his soldiers back with the sound of the trumpet, as a signal for their retreat, and thereby put a stop to any farther pursuit. After which Joab pitched his camp there that night. But Abner marched all night, and passed over the river Jordan, and came to Ishbosheth, Saul's son, to Mahanaim. On the next day Joab counted the dead men, and took care of all their funerals. Now there were slain of Abner's soldiers about three hundred and sixty; but of those of David nineteen, besides Asahel, whose body Joab and Abishai carried to Bethlehem. And when they had buried him in the sepulchre of their fathers, they came to David to Hebron. From this time, therefore, there began an intestine war, which lasted a great while; in which the followers of David grew stronger, in the dangers they underwent, and the servants and subjects of

What notion the world, at this time, had of marrying any royal relict, is evident from the case of Adonijah, whom Solomon put to death for desiring but to ask for Abishag, one of David's concubines, though he had em

But afterwards § Abner was blamed, and an accusation was laid against him, that he had taken indecent liberties with Rispah, the daughter of Aiah, and Saul's concubine ; so when he was complained of by Ishbosheth he was very uneasy, he was very uneasy, and angry at it; because he had not justice done him by Ishbosheth, to whom he had shewn the greatest kindness. He therefore threatened that he would transfer the kingdom to David, and demonstrate that he did not rule over the people beyond Jordan by his own abilities and wisdom, but by his warlike conduct and fidelity, in leading his army. So he sent ambassadors to Hebron, and desired that David would give him security upon oath, that he would esteem him his companion and friend; upon condition that he should persuade the people to leave Saul's son, and to choose him king of the whole country. And when David had made that league with Abner; (for he was pleased with this message to him,) he desired that he would

ployed Beth-sheba, the king's mother, to he his intercessor, and was himself his brother, 1 King's ii. 17. It may be said perhaps, that Adonijah was at this time aspiring at the throne, which Solomon perceiving, took occasion from this his request, to fall out with him, and prevent it. But however this be, a general rule it was, not among the Jews only, but among other nations, that no private person should presume to marry the king's widow; for this made him appear as a rival and competitor for the crown. Calmet's Comment, B.