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this whole time was five hundred and fifteen || upon the enemy suddenly, and slew some of years.

I shall now make mention of Araunah, who was a wealthy man among the Jebusites, but was not slain by David in the siege of Jerusalem; because of the good will he bore to the Hebrews; and a particular benignity and affection which he had to the king himself; which I shall take a more seasonable opportunity to speak of* a little afterwards. Now David married other wives over and above those which he had before: he had also concubines. The sons which he had were in number eleven, whose names were † Amnon, Emnos, Eban, Nathan, Solomon, Jeban, Elien, Phalna, Ennaphen, Jenae, Eliphale, and a daughter, Tamar. Nine of these were born of legitimate wives: but the two last of concubines. And Tamar had the same mother with Absalom.

CHAP. IV.

them, and put the rest to flight. And let no one suppose that it was a small army of the Philistines that came against the Hebrews: as guessing so from the suddenness of their defeat, and from their having performed no action that was worth recording, from the slowness of their march, and want of courage: but let him know that all Syria and Phonicia, with many other nations besides them, and those warlike nations also, came to their assistance, and had a share in this war. Which thing was the only cause why, when they had been so often conquered, and had lost so many ten thousands of their men, they still came upon the Hebrews with greater armies. Nay, indeed, when they had so often failed of their purpose in these battles, they came upon David with an army three times as numerous as before, and pitched their camp on the same spot of ground as before. The king of Israel therefore inquired of God again, concerning the event of the battle; and the high-priest

of David's further SUCCESS AGAINST THE PHILISTINES; prophesied to him, that he should keep his

HIS REMOVAL of the arK TO JERUSALEM, AND HIS DESIRE TO BUILD A TEMPLE.

WH

HEN the Philistines understood that David was made king of the Hebrews, they made war against him at Jerusalem, And when they had seized upon that valley which is called The valley of the Giants; and is a place not far from the city; they pitched their camp there. But the king of the Jews, who never permitted himself to do any thing without prophecy, and the command of God, and without depending on him as a security for the time to come, bade the high-priest foretell to him what was the will of God, and what would be the event of this battle. And when he foretold that he should gain the victory, and the dominion, he led out his army against the Philistines; and when the battle was joined, he came himself behind, and fell

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army in the groves, called the Groves of Weeping, which were not far from the enemy's camp: and that he should not move, nor begin to fight, till the trees of the grove should be in motion without the winds blowing; but as soon as these trees moved, and the time foretold to him by God was come, he should, without delay, go out to gain what was already prepared, an evident victory. For the several ranks of the enemy's army did not sustain him, but retreated at the first onset, whom he closely followed, and slew them as he went along, and pursued them to the city Gaza, which is the limit of their country. After this he spoiled their camp, in which he found great riches: and he also destroyed their gods.

When this had proved the event of the battle, David thought proper, upon a consultation

when Saul's daughter, Michal, laughed at David's dancing before the ark, 2 Sam. vi. 16, &c. it is probable she did so, because her father Saul did not use to pay such regard to that ark; to the Urim there inquired by; or to God's worship before it; and because she thought it beneath the dignity of a king to be so religious.

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he was not a priest, and yet touched the ark, God struck him dead. Hereupon both the king and the people were displeased at the death of Uzzah; and the place where he died is called the Breach of Uzzah unto this day. So David was afraid, and supposing that if he received the ark to himself into the city, he might suffer in the like manner as Uzzah had suffered, who, upon his barely putting out his hand to the ark, died in the manner already mentioned: he did not receive it to himself into the city; but he took it aside. unto a certain place belonging to a righteous man, whose name was Obededom, who was, by his family a Levite, and deposited the ark with him. And it remained there three entire mouths. This augmented the house of Obededom, and conferred many blessings upon it: and when the king heard what had befallen Obededom; how he was become of a poor man, in a low estate, exceeding happy, and the object of envy to all those that saw or inquired after his house, he took courage; and hoping that he should meet with no misfortune thereby, he transferred the ark to his own house; § the priests carrying it, while seven companies of singers, who were set in that order by the king, went before it; and while he himself played upon the harp, and joined in the music; insomuch, that when his wife Michal, the daughter of Saul, saw him so do

with the elders, and rulers, and captains of thousands, to send for those that were in the flower of their age, out of all his countrymen, and out of the whole land; and withal for the priests and the Levites: in order to their going to Kirjathjearim, to bring up the ark of God out of that city, and to carry it to Jerusalem, and there to keep it; and offer before it those sacrifices, and those other honors, with which God used to be well pleased. For had they done thus in the reign of Saul, they had not undergone any great misfortunes at all. So when the whole body of the people were come together, as they had resolved to do, the king came to the ark, which the priests brought out of the house of Aminadab, and laid it upon a new cart, and permitted their brethren and children to draw it, together with the oxen. Before it went the king, and the whole multitude of the people with him, singing hymns to God, and making use of all sorts of songs usual among them; accompanied with the sounds of musical instruments, and with dancing and singing of psalms; as also with the sounds of trumpets and of cymbals: and so they brought the ark to Jerusalem. But as they came to the threshing floor of * Chidon, a place so called, Uzzah † was slain by the anger of God. For as the oxen shook the ark, he stretched out his hand and would needs take hold of it. Now because

* 1 Chron. xiii. 9.

+ Josephus seems to be partly in the right, when he observes here, that Uzzah was no priest, (though perhaps he might be a Levite,) and was therefore struck dead for touching the ark, contrary to the law; and for which profane rashness death was the penalty by that law, Numb. iv. 15, 20. See the like before VI. 1. It is not improbable that the putting this ark in a cart, when it ought to have been carried by the priests or Levites, as it was presently here in Josephus so carried from Obededom's house to David's, might be also an occasion of the anger of God on that breach of the law. See Numb. iv. 15. 1 Chron. xv. 13.

2 Sam. vi. 8. 1 Chron. XV.

13.

It is supposed by some, that this bringing back of the ark was appointed to be one of the great festivals; and the reason why David might summon so many of his principal ministers and officers to accompany him in the expedition, might be, to possess the young people, who perhaps had heard little or nothing of the ark, by reason of its having been absent so long, with a mighty veneration for it when they saw the king, and so many of the chief nobility, waiting on it, with such a variety of

music, and such public declarations of joy. Miller's History of the Church. B.

Strabo tells us, that it was customary among the Greeks, as well as other nations, to use music and dancing in the processions before their gods, lib. 10, Callima chus mentions the chori, and dancings of the youth at the altar of Apollo; Plato observes that among the Egyptians all kinds of music, songs, and dances, were consecrated to their gods. De Legibus, 1. 3. And even Lucian (De Saltatione) expressly says that among the ancients no ceremonial of religion, no expiation, no atonement, was accounted rightly accomplished without dancing. So that David was far from being singular in his behaviour upon this occasion; nor was his behaviour, in this particular, any disparagement to his regal dignity. His dancing, i. e. his moving in certain serious and solemn measures suited to music of the same character and tendency, was an exercise highly conducive to the purposes of piety, and his mixing with the public festivities of his people was a condescension (as Tacitus relates of Au. gustus the Roman emperor) not unbecoming the greatest monarch. Policy taught Augustus to put himself upon level with his subjects in the public rejoicings;

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ing, she laughed at him. But when they had brought in the ark, they placed it under the tabernacle which David had pitched for it; and he offered costly sacrifices, and peaceofferings; and treated the whole multitude, and dealt both to the women, and the men, and the infants, a loaf of bread and a cake, and another cake baked in a pan, with a portion of the sacrifice. So when he had thus feasted the people, he sent them away, and returned to his own house.

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herself thought of it. So this Michal, who was David's wife, had no children; however when she was afterwards married to him to whom Saul her father had given her, (for at this time David had taken her away from him, and had her himself,) she bare five † children. But concerning those matters + I shall discourse in a proper place.

Now when the king saw that his affairs grew better almost every day, by the will of God, he thought he should offend him, if, while he himself continued in houses made of cedar, such as were of great height, and had the most curious works of architecture in them, he should overlook the ark, while it was laid in a tabernacle; and he was desirous to build a temple to God, as § Moses had predicted such a temple should be built. And when he had discoursed with Nathan the prophet about these things, and had been encouraged by him to do whatsoever he had a mind to do, as hav

But when Michal his wife, the daughter of Saul, came and stood by him, she wished him all other happiness; and entreated, that whatever he should farther desire, to the utmost | possibility, might be given by God, and that he might be favorable to him. Yet did she blame him,* that so great a king as he was should dance after an unseemly manner; and in his dancing uncover himself among the servants and the handmaidens. But he replied, that he was not ashamed to do whating God with him, and his helper in all things: was acceptable to God, who had preferred him before her father, and before all others; that he would play frequently, and dance, without any regard to what the handmaidens and she

piety taught David, that all men are upon a level in the solemnities of religion. So that David was not singular in his behaviour upon this occasion. Patrick's Commentary, and The History of the Life of King David, vol. 2. B.

he was thereupon the more ready to set about that building. But God appeared to Nathan that night, and commanded him to || say to David, that he took his purposes and his de

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† Hence correct our other copies. 2 Sam. vi. 23. This is now wanting.

§ Josephus here informs us that, according to his understanding of the sense of his copy of the Pentateuch, Moses had himself foretold the building of the temple: which yet is nowhere that I know of in our present

unwarily, appears by what he observed before, IV. 8. how Moses foretold, that upon the Jews' future disobedi ence, their temple should be burnt and rebuilt; and that not once only, but several times afterwards. See also Josephus's mention of God's former commands to build such a temple presently, chap. xiv. contrary to our other copies; or at least to our translation of the Hebrew, 2 Sam. vii. 6, 7. 1 Chr. xvii. 5, 6.

The words of Michal, wherein she upbraids David, are these:-How glorious was the King of Israel to-day, who uncovered himself to-day, in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself! 2 Sam. vi. 20. At first read-copies. And that this is not a mistake, set down by him ing, they seem to intimate, that David, in his dancing, had exposed his naked body, and acted some way or other immodestly. But these words, we are to consider, were spoken in a fit of passion, and when Michal was minded to aggravate matters; for it is not to be doubted, but that David kept himself within the bounds of modesty, how joyous soever he might be. It was a command which God gave the Israelites, that they should rejoice in their feast, Deut. xii. 7; but then, their joy was not to be lascivious or petulant, but pious and moderate. In the case before us. David was in the more immediate presence of God, and about a very sacred business; and therefore it is incongruous to think, that he would commit any thing immodest. And that he could not expose his nakedness Las his wife would insinuate) is evident from his having not only an ephod on, but being clothed with a robe of fine linen, besides his usual under garments, 1 Chron. xv. 27, and, therefore, though his putting off his regal robes might give some occasion to Michal's expression of his uncovering himself, yet it must be owned that this op

Josephus seems in this place, with our modern interpreters, to confound the two distinct predictions which God made to David, and to Nathan, concerning the building him a temple, by one of David's posterity; the one belonging to Solomon, the other to the Messiah: the distinction between which is of the greatest consequenee to the Christian religion; and of which I have largely treated in my Boyle's Lectures, from pag. 247-272. To which discourse I must here refer the inquisitive reader. See also Antiq. VII. 13. and chap. xiv.

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