A M. 2941. ment appears to have been previously made for the fulfilment of his B.C. 1063. public promise to give David, as the conqueror of Goliath, his

lessness.

daughter in marriage; but whether that promise specified which to the daughters of Saul was intended, it may be now as difficult of decide as it was then convenient to doubt. The custom of the East at this time, and the general bearing of the Scripture narration, would certainly induce us to suppose that Saul added to his other Saul's faith- public crimes and follies, a breach of his public faith in giving, shortly after this time, his eldest daughter's hand to a comparative stranger. For "when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, she was given unto Adriel, the Meholathite, to wife." Michal, her younger sister, however, imbibed a strong personal attachment to David; and the wretched father could even congratulate himself on this circumstance as a means of ensnaring David's life. Many are the steps that occur in the most decided plans of the Divine Governor that bid fair to lead to the happiness of his most rebellious subjects. There had been nothing irreconcileable with the divine decision of transferring the throne of Saul to David (compared especially with similar declarations and their fulfilment,) in the continued relation of sovereign and subject between them, exactly as it now stood during Saul's life-much less in the honourable fulfilment of Saul's own proposal of an alliance with his family; which might have offered an arrangement that would have united the claims of each house. Saul now added an ex post facto condition to the marriage of David with his daughter Michal; that he was to bring 100 foreskins of the Philistines, as a dowry to his father-in-law.' Of this, David made no difficulty-" What is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?" was his manner of reasoning throughout these trying circumstances; he brought double the exacted dowry "in full tale" to the king, of whom we only read in this most promising circumstance of his life, that he “ became David's enemy continually."

David

justified in attacking the

Philistines.

Why David's conduct in these expeditions against the Philistines, who were continually watching for opportunities to attack and subjugate his country, should need any more defence than the patriotism of other heroes of antiquity, can only be accounted for on the supposition of his peculiar claims to be the servant of God in them, which very supposition answers the chief argument of the objector, and is confirmed by all the facts of the case. "The earth was filled

with violence"-God had never ceased to indicate his claims to control the evils which he did not originate; and had repeatedly asserted, and confirmed by miracles, his peculiar determination respecting this people and the land they inhabited, of which the Philistines occupied one of the richest districts. The whole history

7 According to the custom at that time, and still subsisting in some eastern nations, of the husband bringing a dowry to the wife or her friends. Compare Gen. xxxiv. 12, and Ex. xxii. 16, 17. ̧

of their public conduct towards the Israelites had been marked with A.M. 2941. treachery, with insult, and with blood; often and long had they B.C. 1063. debased and disarmed them, when in their power; had outraged 1 Sam. xiii. the sanctity of the ark, and witnessed many of the direct inter- 19, 21. ferences of God for his people in vain. David appears at this time to have generally headed the military expeditions of Saul against them.

settled

David.

As ignorant of the unity of virtuous minds, as he was tormented Saul's with the distractions of his own, the growing friendship of David and malignity Jonathan was either wholly unperceived by the king, (though it towards arose from Jonathan's opportunity of observing the correctness of David's present conduct to Saul,) or he supposed that the commands of a capricious and tyrannical parent were superior to every other law with Jonathan. Certain it is, that about this time, Saul made A.M. 2942. no secret of his determination, if possible, to take David's life. "The B.C. 1062. voice of the charmer" could touch his heart no more, for the voice of nature, and of common gratitude, was stifled within him. He issued an express command to Jonathan, and to his confidential servants, to watch the opportunity of secretly despatching David; and though that true friend and respectful son expostulated with the 1 Sam. xix. 6. besotted parent of them both, not altogether in vain; war having ensued between the Philistines and the Israelites, fresh obligations were incurred by Saul, with every act of David's valour; and the hateful burden of gratitude under which he could not learn to feel

urged him again to throw his javelin at the hero, from which he very narrowly escaped. These spears, which were probably the origin of sceptres, it was a custom of antiquity to have constantly about the person of a monarch, and very frequently in his hand. Saul now sent openly in pursuit of David, yet retained some compunction at the thought of violating the sleeping couch of his own son-in-law. He directed the messengers to encompass the house, and put him to death in the morning; but the affection of Michal enabled David to elude their vigilance. From an unperceived part of the wall she let Michal's him down, and substituted an image covered with a cloth, and adorned with goats' hair, for his person, in the bed. The oriental goat is said to be capable of yielding a shining, silky hair, which might have deceived completely a casual glance on a supposed sick bed, if we understand, as the original phrase will admit us to do, that she used it as an imitation of David's flaxen locks, and not for his pillow. The guards too would thus be capable of saying they

8 Ps. lviii. 5. a passage which might allude to this memorable period of David's life.

9 The classical reader will not fail to remember Homer's kings, and their scep

tres. Pausanius says, expressly, that the
kings of Argos called their sceptres,
spears; and Justin tells us, that in the first
ages of the Romans, they had spears as
ensigns of royalty, which the Greeks call

sceptres.

stratagem.

A.M. 2942. had seen him stretched upon the couch. Saul quickly commanded B.C. 1062. them to return, and bring David, sick or in health, to his feet;

to Samuel.

Michal's expedient was discovered, and the unrelenting tyrant reproached her with sending away "his enemy," and becoming so herself. Other outrages were to complete this monarch's abandoned David flees character. David fled to Samuel, at Ramah-to Samuel their common friend, and the upright judge of Israel-could Saul have alleged any just complaint against David. Here he narrated his persecutions and his dangers, which induced Samuel to proceed with him to the neighbouring establishment of some of the prophets at Naioth, where it is probable he frequently resorted to watch over their education, and occasionally conducted their worship. The messengers of Saul having pursued him thither, arrived at the moment of its celebration, and were incapacitated from accomplishing their errand by catching a kind of kindred devotion. Other messengers arrived a second and third time, and suffering David to remain unmolested from the same cause, Saul himself proceeded to the spot, and fell under the power of similar impressions. He cast aside his armour and royal vestments, ("rejecta veste superiore," as Tacitus says of the Germans, when they threw off their upper garments,) and again astonished his subjects by continuing a whole day and night amongst the prophets.

Returns to
Jonathan.

David availed himself of this unexpected detention of Saul at Naioth, to rejoin Jonathan at Gibeah, the seat of the royal government, and freely to commune with him on his present situation. Jonathan endeavouring himself, perhaps, to believe in the sincerity of his father's present change, much of whose confidence he still retained, assured him there was no present danger; but promised to ascertain Saul's mind more fully, and devised a method of communicating the result to David. He was to wait at an appointed spot, in the field where they were communing, and Jonathan, after sounding his father's disposition, on his return, proposed to bring his archery and an attendant on the ground the third day, as if for the purpose of shooting arrows at a mark; when, if Saul continued implacable in his enmity to David, he was to call to the lad that the arrows were 66 beyond" him; and David was forthwith to escape. As this may be called the last deliberate interview between these illustrious friends, and as for constancy, disinterestedness, and discretion, their attachment has been rarely if ever equalled, we may be allowed to advert the more freely to so memorable an occurrence in David's life. By a solemn appeal to God, the princely Jonathan declared his present openness and full determination of mind to communicate to David every thing that should concern his future interest; imploring pathetically a final blessing on his friend should Saul's rage render it impossible and unavailing for them to abide together. And now, as if with a presentiment that this might be their last meeting, he opened up a further view of things, which

66

interview of

must have awoke all the powerful feelings of David's soul, and a.м. 2942. brought every principal circumstance and prospect of his life dis- B.C. 1062. tinctly before him. Thou shalt not only while yet I live," said Memorable he, "show me the kindness of Jehovah, that I die not;" (it was too the friends. much to expect, at this time, that he should refer more explicitly to David's designation to the throne,) "but also, thou shalt not cut off thy kindness from my house for ever; not when Jehovah hath cut off the enemies of David every one from the face of the earth." To this effect he pressed David twice to swear; and concluded the interview with the memorable and repeated adjuration, Jehovah be between me and thee for ever. His father was found in the sequel as malignant as David could have anticipated;-disappointed of whom as the object of his rage, he was vile enough to hurl his spear at Jonathan as his supposed protector: the appointed signal of this state of Saul's mind was given the friends met to weep together, until "David exceeded;' (for the noblest minds, like some of the noblest metals, according to the ancient proverb, can still be melted,) and Jonathan and David parted to renew their former constant intercourse no more. SECTION 2. DAVID'S EXILE, AND PERSONAL SITUATION, UNTIL HIS FINAL POSSESSION OF THE THRONE OF ALL ISRAEL.

The life of David assumes a singular and instructive division into four very distinct periods:-his personal prosperity, succeeded by his personal trials, previous to his possession of the throne; and his public prosperity, succeeded by his public trials, after that memorable event.

Hitherto, though followed all the way by the unnatural, but Review. not surprising, efforts of envy and malignity, his path has been shining, his steps have been just. A shepherd youth, the youngest son of an inconsiderable family, has been expressly designated as GOD's future king over his people; introduced within the precincts of that very court in which he was afterwards to preside, he has enjoyed an unrestricted personal access to the monarch, but has made no personal efforts after the throne. His accomplishments, and his distinguished valour, have been devoted, on the contrary, to the service and support of its present possessor. He has obtained an alliance with his family, and the closest friendship of the immediate heir to that throne, (while he has excited by the same conduct the vilest passions in the king,) but he has never attempted to invade the filial duty of Jonathan; he has voluntarily disturbed neither the domestic nor the public peace of Saul. But the long period of David's personal trials had now commenced; and commentators have ascribed to this part of his life the composition of the seventeenth Psalm. Certainly the devout reader will feel no small pleasure in perusing it in connection with his present circumstances. We shall occasionally venture to give an opinion upon the

A.M. 2942. probable date of some other of these compositions, as entering B.C. 1062. strictly into the character of one of the earliest and most eminent poets of antiquity.

David flees

priest.

Doeg.

From the late interview with Jonathan, David hastened to the to the high abode of the high priest Abimelech, or Abiathar, at Nob, a city of the tribe of Benjamin; prevented, it is probable, by his profound respect for the character of Samuel, from again disturbing the repose of his old age. But whether with a deliberate design to quit the kingdom of Saul, at this time, as he shortly afterwards did; or whether the unwelcome presence of the wily Edomite, Doeg, whom he accidentally found here, induced him to resolve on this step as a further measure for his safety, does not appear. Perhaps that circumstance, however, had some influence in the reply which he gave to the inquiry of Abimelech, why he came unattended? David stated that the king had intrusted him with a confidential business, upon which his servants were to meet him at a further place. He requested of the high priest some loaves of the show bread, in his necessity, (a measure afterwards justified upon this Matt. xii. 4. ground by the highest authority,) and any weapons for his personal use, which might be deposited at the sanctuary. The well known sword of Goliath, happening to be the only one, was therefore offered him; and supplied to him originally by God's peculiar providence, he made no hesitation of accepting it, exclaiming, "There is none like that. Whether David may not be justly charged with a criminal violation of truth on this occasion, we are not inclined to dispute. Saul had sent him on no such errand. was a remarkable beginning of his personal troubles, in any case, and led to other degrading expedients. 10 Let us be allowed to suggest, however, that as David would anticipate Saul's future knowledge of these circumstances, the case does not rest altogether on an effort for self-preservation, but he might suppose that this account of himself would furnish to Abimelech, as it afterwards did, a plausible excuse for assisting him.

Repairs to
Gath.

It

David now, for the first time under the influence of " fear," resolved to throw himself on the protection of a stranger; and repaired to the court of Achish, king of Gath. His stay, however, was short, and his measures unworthy of his spirit. Finding that the princes of Gath remembered, with as much hostility as Saul, his popularity in Israel, and the national songs in which he was celebrated, he feigned himself to be deranged, and seemed glad of the expulsion of a madman, as a refuge from worse treatment.

10 We know of no service that it can yield the cause of truth to observe on such occasions, with some commentators, that Euripides is of opinion, when truth is likely to be attended with great evil, falsehood is pardonable; or, that Cicero says, he is a good man who does all the good he can

to others, and injures no one unless grievously provoked; any more than it would apologize for David's fault to add, that a celebrated moralist of our own country admits of some fashionable and some legal lies.