Moab. the important town of Gath and its dependencies, called in one part A.m. 2964. of the sacred narrative "Metheg-Ammah, or the Bridle of the B.c. 1040. Angle, because it commanded all the adjacent country of Judea, and had often, indeed, been a bridle on its inhabitants. He next invested Subdues and subdued the greater portion of the territory of the Moabites, fulfilling an ancient prediction of a prophet of their own, that " sceptre should arise out of Israel, and smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Seth: that Edom also, and Seir, should be a possession, and Israel should do valiantly. a submit The Syrians and Edomites then submitted to his arms. Of the The Syrians former, Hadadezer seems to have been the magnificent ruler, and Hadadezer. the Scripture narrative of his subjugation is confirmed by Nicolaus Damascenus, who says, as quoted by Josephus, "that Hadad, who reigned over Damascus and the other parts of Syria, except Phoenicia, made war against David, the king of Judea, and tried his fortune in many battles, but was beaten at last at the Euphrates.' It is said, that " 'David smote Hadadezer as he went to recover his border at the river Euphrates," which seems to bear reference to the ancient covenant with Abraham, never fulfilled until this period, "Unto thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates." The prisoners and spoil which David took on this occasion were very considerable, "a thousand chariots and seven hundred horsemen," and "twenty thousand footmen;" while the Syrians of Damascus afterwards coming to the succour of Hadad, or Hadadezer, incurred a loss of twenty thousand slain. David destroyed all the chariots, according to an express precept of God, and hamstrung all the horses except a hundred, which were probably reserved, however questionably, for purposes of state. From Hadadezer several shields of solid gold (some have thought from an allusion in the Song of Solomon, chap. iv. 4, as many as a thousand,) were taken and sent to Jerusalem, and from his cities Betah and Berothai, large quantities of brass; "wherewith Solomon," adds the writer of the book of Chronicles, "made the brazen sea, and the pillars, and the vessels of brass" for the temple. son. Edomites. The tidings of these successes brought David the homage of Toi, king of Hamath, and several valuable presents by the hand of his This prince appears to have had the further impulse of having been formerly at war with the defeated Hadadezer. Throughout the land of Edom, almost without a struggle, David planted garri- The sons, and exacted a regular tribute, dedicating the accumulated spoil of all those various nations, (except what was currently required for the exigencies of the state,) to his cherished plan of a magnificent temple to Jehovah, and generally to his future service. David now inquired diligently for any of the surviving family of MephiboSaul, that toward them he might fulfil his well-remembered vows to his early friend Jonathan, and finding that a son of his friend was living, named Mephibosheth, (a cripple in both his feet,) imme sheth. A.M. 2964. diately sent for him to court. He restored to him and his family B.C. 1040. all the land which was the private property of Saul, appointed the servant who had acquainted him with Mephibosheth's circumstances, steward of the estates, and welcomed that afflicted and grateful prince himself to his own daily table. A new coalition David The king of the Ammonites, a friend of David's, died a short insulted by Hanun. time after this occurrence, and David sent ambassadors to congratulate his son Hanun, on his succession to the throne. The A.M. 2967. young prince had the folly to affect to consider them as spies, and B.C. 1037. cut off a considerable part of their clothes and beards, and sent them back in this state to David, who felt justly indignant. Aware of the probability of this, and perhaps eager to try his strength against him. With this renowned conqueror, Hanun engaged the Syrians of Rehob and of Zoba, to the amount of 20,000 men, the king of Maacah with 1000, and the king of Ishtob with 12,000 men, amongst whom were included 32,000 chariots, to come to his assistance. Against this formidable host David saw it necessary to arouse his strength, and sent out a well appointed army, under Joab and Abishai. Joab selected his best troops to engage with the Syrians in person, intrusting the command of the rest, and the attack of the Ammonites and other nations, to Abishai; the battle Defeats the once more declared itself for Israel, and all the confederates fled. confederacy. After this, they made head again at Helam, but David now joined the war, and in a second signal defeat, seven hundred chariots and forty thousand horsemen were routed and fell, with Shobach the Syrian commander-in-chief. "So the Syrians," we are told, "feared to help the children of Ammon any more," and the latter were besieged in their capital city, Rabbah. A.M. 2969. A circumstance occurred at this time, in the life of David, upon B.C. 1035. which the malignity both of ancient and modern infidels has fastened with characteristic ardour. The facts of the case admit neither of colouring nor of apology. They charge upon David, certainly, some of the blackest of human crimes; for which, however, it is but just to add, that they exhibit also unaffected repentance and condign punishment. We shall endeavour to place these facts before the reader with the faithfulness and simplicity of the sacred historian. David's awful fall. This highly-favoured monarch was enjoying at Jerusalem that repose, during the season of war, to which his whole life had been hitherto a stranger, when, walking in the evening on the roof of his palace, after refreshing himself, according to the custom of the East, with a short sleep in the afternoon, the sight of a woman, exceedingly beautiful, attracted his attention, and hurried him away from the path of rectitude. She was bathing in a neighbouring house or garden. A kind of merciful check to his rising passion appears to have been afforded by some honest courtier, in the answer which met David's first inquiries after this unhappy female. "Is not this Bathsheba. Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" But in vain! In the wife of a valiant "pillar of his state," and a A.M. 2969. convert probably to his religion; in the daughter of another of his B.C. 1035. most distinguished commanders; and the grand-daughter of his chief counsellor, he saw no insuperable obstacle to the gratification of his lust, which he instantly indulged. The sudden pregnancy of Bathsheba now induced him to send to the army for her husband, under the pretext of receiving information of the war, but in reality to conceal, if possible, the violation of his bed. 66 Uriah. Uriah came, but could not be induced to visit his wife. He constantly slept amongst the guards at the palace, and David, finding it impossible by any artifice to transfer to the living husband the fruit of his perfidy, rushed into the "blood-guiltiness" of ordering David orders his death. Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, the death of and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten and die,' were the words of his own death-warrant, with which this ill-fated warrior was sent back to his general. The cruel mandate was but too readily obeyed; Uriah's life was taken, with that of several of his brave companions, in an hopeless attack upon the besieged Ammonites; and Joab quickly despatched the tidings of his death to Jerusalem. The guilty monarch, with apparent impunity, made Bathsheba immediately his wife. 66 from the parable. A child was born from this adulterous connection, before the A child born message of God's wrath was sent to David. Perhaps he was adultery. mingling good and evil in rejoicing at its birth, when the prophet A.M. 2970. appeared, denouncing the evil of his conduct and the child's death! B.c. 1034. Under the parable of a rich man who had spared his own flocks and Nathan's herds, and seized the only and favourite lamb of his poor neighbour to entertain a guest, he excited a warm and even angry sense of justice in the king, who instantly pronounced the rich man's death, though the law of Moses (still the criminal code of the state,) did not demand so severe a retribution. He shall surely die," said David, with an oath, "and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because HE HAD NO PITY.' With prophetic boldness Nathan answered, "THOU ART THE MAN!" and then proceeded to charge the monarch with his unaccountable ingratitude to God, and baseness to Uriah, in these complicated and disgraceful transactions. He threatens him, in conclusion, with Divine those divine chastisements in the present life, and that immediate threatenings. interposition of the Just Governor of all, to punish his sins after their own kind, for which these early ages of the world were distinguished. As he had slain Uriah with the sword, and desolated his family hopelessly, the sword was not to depart from his house for ever; and however secretly he had violated the honour of another, his own wives, the prophet declared, should be polluted in the face of the sun. The memorable union of persuasiveness and power in this message David's of Nathan quickly found its way to the monarch's heart. I have confession. 66 A.M. 2970. sinned against the Lord," said David, frankly, and with such undisB.C. 1034. sembled penitence, that the prophet immediately assures him of an alleviation in his punishment and the pardon of his guilt. The penalty of death, which he had pronounced upon the cruel robber of another's property, (though expressly prescribed by the law of Moses for adultery,) was graciously remitted by God, who assured him, Death of the however, that the fruit of his illicit intercourse was doomed to die; a sentence of which David afterwards, by fervent prayer and entreaty, endeavoured to obtain a repeal in vain. child. Remarks. Ps. li. lxix. &c. While it would be idle to deny, in reply to the observations of infidelity on these painful facts, that the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament exhibit David as a distinguished servant of God, and on the whole, as good a man, as he was a brave and great one, it is wholly contrary to every other instance of estimating human character, to pronounce upon that of David from this single, though most disgraceful circumstance. It proves him but man in his present awfully degenerated state, while the whole tenor of his life beside will be found to exhibit a singular and most satisfactory freedom from the usual vices of his station and opportunities-the very vices here exhibited. Though he was extensively engaged in war, his general character is not that of a cruel man, nor do we find any other instance of his violating the bonds, or even the courtesies of social life; not, though he was for so many years treated as a kind of outcast himself, and possessed of abundant means. The business, on the whole, must be considered either in its relation to the character of the criminal, or to the moral government of God. With respect to its connection with the general character of David, the friends of inspiration are entitled to insist upon it being considered an awful and most surprising exception to the general tenor of his life. They are entitled to add, that while they reprobate the whole affair as abominably gross and unjustifiable iniquity, it exhibits almost unparalleled repentance; perhaps taken in connection with those penitential Psalms that immediately arose out of these circumstances, the most striking and most dolorous breathings of repentance, in the whole history of human crimes. As with regard to its connection with the divine government, it will be found, we would submit, THAT CRIME which was punished in the person of the transgressor with the greatest severity of any sin on record. 16 David now felt it a duty to administer all possible consolation (mingled doubtless with the affectionate faithfulness to which he owed so much) to Bathsheba; of whom, as if to seal his forgiveness, 16 The defilement of an affectionate daughter and sister by her own brother; the death of four sons, three of them before his own eyes, and one by the hand of his brother; Absalom's unnatural rebellion, which brought his father almost to the brink of ruin; the prostitu tion of ten of his wives before all Israel; to say nothing of the visitations of divine wrath upon his remotest posterity, (with which he was expressly made acquainted as a punishment,) form the tremendous catalogue of sufferings which attended upon this crime. and mark God's altered view of the sinner, though he long suffered A.M. 2970. for his sin, Solomon, the promised son of peace, was born shortly B.C. 1034. afterwards, and pronounced, by an express prophetic message, the Beloved of the Lord. Rabbah. With heavy recollections of the past, however, David must have gone down to close the siege of Rabbah;-Joab having informed him that he was upon the point of taking the town; and, with the generosity of a brave spirit, (never to be denied this general in all his acts of public warfare,) having requested David to come and reap Takes the honours of the war. Rabbah is mentioned by Polybius (Hist. Lib. V.) as advantageously situated on the top of several small eminences. When Antiochus took it, it was again a considerable city, and was, at this time, the capital of a large surrounding district in Arabia Felix, watered by the river Jabbok. The king David formally deposed from a station he had filled most unworthily, and probably placed Shobi, another son of his friend Nahash, of whom we shortly afterwards read in this neighbourhood," as viceroy over the place. The inhabitants of the town he brought forth, and "put them to the saw, to iron mines, and to iron axes, and transported them to the brick kilns," or "to the brick frame and hod. other words, he reduced them to slavery, and put them to the most servile employments of sawing, making iron harrows, working in the mines, &c. useful employments, as a substitute for the trade of war and private plunder. So, at some length, the learned Chandler proposes to render this account of David's present conduct, and to his Life of David, Vol. II. p. 227-233, we refer the reader for some able criticism on these phrases. SECTION 4.-THE PERIOD OF DAVID'S PUBLIC TRIALS, In outrage. Now commenced, and though these principally arose from domestic A.M. 2972. circumstances, and were inflicted for the greater part by his own B.C. 1032. children, they place both his crown and character in a series of awful straits and storms which lasted to the very close of his reign. About two years after the king's return from Rabbah to Jerusalem, Amnon's Amnon, his son by Ahinoam, a Jezreelitess, conceived an incestuous passion for his sister Tamar, and feigning illness basely to avail himself of her affectionate attentions, violated her person and suddenly dismissed her from his house. Attired as she was, in a dress peculiar to her station, and which, from the secluded habits of females of rank and character, in the East, might subject the last feelings of her outraged virtue to the worst of reproaches, she seems to have felt most keenly this final insult, and goaded to the quick, fled to the house of her brother Absalom. David's apathy or 17 And who brought David very large supplies of provision on his flight from Absalom, 2 Sam. xvii. 27, a proof that he did not at this time depopulate the dis trict in the extensive way, a literal con- |