ページの画像
PDF
ePub

CORRIGENDA TO PART II.

Page 151, line 3 from bottom, for "a Syrian Prince" read "King of Zobah."

156, line 10 from bottom, for "towards the Jordan" read "beyond

the Jordan."

159, line 5, for " Gibeon of Saul" read "Gibeah of Saul."

162, last line, for "which ministered" read "who ministered."

164, line 3 from bottom, for "Moab " read "Edom."

164, bottom line, and page 165, two first lines, for "Eliadah, the successor of Hadadezer, prince or king of Zobah, a district of Syria" read "Rezon of Damascus, the son of Eiadah, who had made himself king of Syria."

172, line 15, for "nor was" read "not now."

174, line 9 from bottom, for "their" read "this."

177, line 2, for "ten years "read "twelve years," and for "B. C. 910," read" B. C. 918."

178, last line, dele "three."

184, line 12, for "Edomites" read "Ammonites."

185, line 11, for "Beelzebub" read " Baalzebub."

185, line 4 from bottom, for "the tributories " read "these tributaries."

188, line 21, for "obeisance" read "case known."

189, line 6 from bottom, dele "e" in "wonderous.'

191, line 6 from bottom, for "eight years" read "five years."
199, line 2, for "Jehohaz" read "Jehoash."

199, line 19, for "twenty years" read "eleven years."

199, line 24, for "thirtieth" read "

'thirty-eight."

203, line 2, for "Resem" read "Rezin.'

208, line 12 from bottom, for "two" read "three."

208, last line, for "fort" read "bank."

213, line 8 from bottom, for "Nidus" read "Ninus."

213, line 18 from bottom, for "of the causes which led to which" read" and of the causes which led to it."

217, line 12 from bottom, for "Palestine" read "Philistia."

218, for "Jehoaikim" read "Jehoiakim."

SACRED HISTORY.

PART II.

CHAP. XXV.

SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL.

CIVIL WAR. DAVID KING OF JUDAH. KING OF ALL ISRAEL. MURDER OF AMNON. EXILE AND RETURN OF ABSALOM.

WHEN this great reverse befell the armies of Israel, David with his men was in Ziklag, whither he had retired after the defeat of the Amalekites. He had rested there two days, when one who described himself as a fugitive from the lost battle, appeared before him. The man was an Amalekite, and hoping to win David's favour, stated, that he had himself slain Saul in order to hinder him from falling alive into the hands of the Philistines; and he laid at the same time a crown and bracelet, taken, as he added, from Saul, at David's feet. But David experienced no joy at the tidings. On the contrary, after upbraiding the messenger for the evil deed that he had done, he caused him to be slain on the

P

spot, and spent the rest of the day in mourning with his people the heavy blow which their nation had sustained.

B. C. 1156.—The blow, though severely felt on public grounds, operated to the private advantage of David and his friends. He was immediately proclaimed king by the tribe of Judah, and kept his court at Hebron. But the rest of the Israelites did not at once give in their adhesion. Saul had left yet one son, by name Ish-bosheth, whom Abner, the general-in-chief of the late monarch, set up in his father's room, and eleven out of the twelve tribes accepted him as their sovereign. The Hebrews continued about seven years in a state of alienation among themselves. During the first two of these there was no civil war. David seems to have been unwilling to shed the blood of his own people, and Ish-bosheth and Abner respected him too much, rashly to provoke a contest. But in 1154 hostilities began by a sort of combat of champions near the pool or fountain of Gibeon, out of which not one of all who took part in it on either side, came forth alive. This was followed by a general action, which ended in the defeat of Ish-bosheth's troops, though it cost the life of a fine youth called Asahel, the brother of Joab, David's commanderin-chief, and a nephew of the king. The young man, it is true, fairly courted his own destruction. Being fleet of foot, he pursued Abner, and though repeatedly cautioned to seek some humbler enemy, he refused to turn aside from his purpose. In selfdefence Abner slew him, and provoked thereby the implacable hatred of Joab.

six

B. C. 1148. The war thus begun extended over years. It brought constant accessions of strength to David's party; and at last Abner himself, because

DAVID KING OF ISRAEL.

151

of a private quarrel with Ish-bosheth, proposed to transfer his allegiance, and bring the body of the people with him. But before this treason could be consummated, two acts of violence, both of them morally inexcusable, laid Israel at David's feet. The first was the murder of Abner, which Joab, in revenge for his brother's death, effected. The second was the assassination of Ish-bosheth himself, whom two of his inferior chiefs attacked in his bed, and put to death. Both deeds were, however, disavowed by David. For the first he caused a general mourning and lamentation to be kept the second he avenged by cutting the murderers to pieces. And all Israel, as if satisfied that one who could so act ought no longer to be opposed, accepted him as king.

B. C. 1147.- David was thirty years of age when the crown of Judah devolved upon him. He wore it forty years: his reign over the twelve tribes extended to thirty-three years; and he raised the kingdom in that interval to the highest pitch of prosperity. His first exploit was the reduction of Mount Zion, which up to his day the Jebusites had retained, and the removal immediately afterwards to Jerusalem of the chief seat of government. He proceeded next to meet and repel a renewed invasion of the Philistines, whom he overthrew in two great battles. Then turning upon the Amorites on one side, and the Idumeans or people of Edom on the other, he defeated and reduced them to a state of vassalage. Nor was Moab more fortunate. Against that nation he waged a war of exceeding fury, destroying not less than two thirds of its population; and when the armies of Hadadezer, a Syrian prince, came out to succour them, he defeated him also, and overran his country. In a word, David waged for

well nigh twenty years, wars, in which he uniformly prevailed, against all his neighbours. He filled Jerusalem with the spoils of conquered cities; he took chariots and horses without number, he en

tirely purged the home districts from heathen occupiers and from heathen practices, and extended the limits of the kingdom as far as the bounds which God had set to them. Nor was he forgetful of other matters. He erected in Jerusalem a tabernacle, after the pattern of that which Joshua had set up at Shiloh; and removing thither the ark, with great rejoicing and pomp, caused God's worship, which had been too long interrupted, to be renewed with exceeding splendour. It is recorded of him that he incurred, by so doing, the contempt of his wife Michal, the daughter of Saul. But her reproaches did him no harm, and she reaped her reward by his total severance from her society.

B. C. 1035. — It was in the midst of this career of glory and success, that David suffered himself to be drawn into the commission of certain crimes, which leave a deep stain upon his otherwise noble memory. -He became acquainted, during the absence of her husband in the field, with the wife of one Uriah, a Hittite, and prevailed upon her, too readily, to sacrifice to him her own and her husband's honour. The consequences were not slow in showing themselves, and David, in the hope of hiding the sin and the scandal, caused Uriah to be exposed at the siege of an Ammonite city, and slain. But David did not hide his sin from God, nor was punishment withheld from him. He entertained in his household a seer or prophet, called Nathan, of whom, and of Gad, it is recorded, that by them the book which we are now analysing, as well as a considerable portion of that which precedes it, was compiled. Through Nathan,

« 前へ次へ »