DAVID'S REIGN--HIS CONQUESTS--PURPOSE TO BUILD A TEMPLE

DAVID'S REIGN--HIS CONQUESTS--PURPOSE TO BUILD A TEMPLE
AMALEKITE SLAIN--DAVID MOURNS OF SAUL
On the third day of David's return to Ziklag a man arrived in haste, with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head, and laid at the feet of David the crown and armlet which Saul had worn. He told, truly, that Israel had fled before the Philistines, and that Saul and his sons were slain; but thinking to win royal rewards from the son of Jesse, he boasted that he had slain Saul with his own hand. The truth was probably that he had found the body of Saul in the night after the battle, and had taken from it the royal insignia which he brought to David. His expectations were grievously disappointed; for David, believing his statement, caused him to be put to death, as who had not feared to slay the Lord's anointed. The man was an Amalekite. David mourned and fasted-for the desolation of Israel, and he lamented the death of his beloved Jonathan, and even of Saul, in a most affecting and beautiful elegy, which we may here introduce as a specimen of the poetical compositions of one whose rank among the poets of the Hebrews is fully equal to that which he occupies among their kings--[270]
[270] The version now given is that of Boothroyd, altered in some of the lines.
“O, antelope of Israel! pierced on thy high place!
How are the mighty fallen'
Tell it not in Gath,
Publish it not in the streets of Askelon,
Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice,
Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.
Ye mountains of Gilboa, on you be no dew,
Nor rain, nor fields of first-fruits;
Since there bath been vilely cast away,
The shield of the mighty, the shield of Saul,
The armor of him anointed with oil.
From the blood of the slain,
From the fat of the mighty.
The bow of Jonathan was not held back,
Nor did the sword of Saul return in vain.
Saul and Jonathan!
In mutual love were they in life united,
And in their death they were not separated,
Swifter than eagles, stronger than lions were they!
Ye daughters of Israel weep over Saul,
Who clothed you pleasantly in scarlet,
And put golden ornaments upon your robes.
How are the mighty fallen in the midst of battle!
O Jonathan, slain on thy own mountains!
I am grieved for thee, O Jonathan, my brother!
Very dear to me wast thou:
Wonderful was the love to me,
Surpassing the love of women
How are the mighty fallen!
And the weapons of war perished!”
That he mourned even for Saul, will only be attributed to hypocrisy by those who are themselves incapable of such magnanimity, and are determined to forget that David, during the life of his persecutor, always respected him as a king appointed by God, and twice spared him when he had his life completely in his power.
JUDAH AWARDS DAVID WITH THRONE
With the approbation of the Lord, whom he consulted, David now removed, with his family and friends, to Hebron, where the rulers of the tribe of Judah, with views altogether theocratical, awarded the scepter to him, as one whom God had already designated as king. David was at this time thirty years of age.
ISHBOSHETH KING OF ISRAEL
But no other tribe concurred with Judah in this important step. On the contrary, all the other tribes elected Saul's only surviving son, Eshbaal, as he was originally named (1 Chronicles 8:33), but nicknamed Ishbosheth (a man of shame) from his weakness and incapacity, which, it would appear, saved his life, by precluding him from being present at the battle in which his brothers perished. This measure was probably promoted by that radical jealousy between the tribes of Judah and Ephraim, which prevented the latter (which took the lead among the other tribes) from concurring in the appointing a king of the rival tribe, or indeed from heartily sympathizing in any measure which that tribe originated. But the prime agent in this schism was Abner, the commander of the army, who had drawn off the remnant of the defeated army to the other side the Jordan, and there, at Mahanaim, proclaimed Ishbosheth king. Abner was a bold and able, but unprincipled man; and doubtless expected to govern in the name of his feeble nephew. And he did so.
ABNER KILLS ASAHEL
For two years no hostile acts between the two kingdoms took place. But war was at length provoked by Abner, who crossed the Jordan with the intention to subdue the tribe of Judah to the authority of Ishbosheth. David sent Joab to meet him; and the opposing forces met near the pool of Gibeon. But the men on each side felt that they were all Israelites, and were reluctant to fight against each other. The two generals, therefore, thought of a device which has often been employed in the east, and elsewhere, to excite tribes or nations to battle, when relationship or other causes made them reluctant or wanting in zeal. Twelve men on each side were matched to fight against each other between the two armies; and so well were they matched that they no sooner came within reach of one another, than each man seized his antagonist by the head and sheathed his sword in his body, so that they were all killed upon the spot. This kindled the opposing forces, and a desperate and most sanguinary battle followed. It ended in the defeat of Abner, who was himself obliged to flee for his life. As he fled he was singled out by Joab's brother Asahel, “who was as swift of foot as any antelope of the field;” and he pursued him, without allowing himself to be drawn aside by other objects. He was close at the heels of Abner, when the latter looked back, and finding who it was, he became most anxious to avoid such a blood-feud as would arise between him and Joab, in case he slew his brother, even in his own defence. He therefore entreated Asahel to turn back that he might not be compelled to smite him to the ground. But finding that he was still pursued, and that it was impossible to outstrip his pursuer, he struck at him with the hinder point of his spear,[271] and with such force that the weapon passed through him and came out behind. The pursuit of Abner and the other fugitives was continued by Joab and his other brother Abishai until sunset, by which time they were got as far as the hill of Ammah. Here the Benjamites (always valiant, and jealously attached to the house of Saul) rallied again under Abner, and posting themselves on the rising of the hill, stood prepared to make a stout defence; but their general, who was weary of fighting, called to Joab, and begged him to put a stop to the slaughter of his brethren, whose destruction could not but cause bitterness in the end. Although Joab had determined to continue the pursuit all night, he had the sense to hearken to his advice, and caused the trumpet to sound a retreat. After this, Abner and his men took the way to Mahanaim, and Joab returned to Hebron. Abner lost three hundred and sixty men in thus action, while on David's side only nineteen were killed. The war having thus commenced was continued for several years; but it appears to have been a small irritating warfare, which never came to any important or decisive engagement between the opposing parties. It was, however, attended with this result, that the cause of David was gathering strength every day, while the house of Saul daily became weaker and weaker. Indeed, it seems to have required all the great talents of Abner to keep the kingdom of Ishbosheth together.
[271] The spear is armed at the tower end with a pointed iron, whereby it is stuck into the ground when the owner is in repose.

Hebron The Pursuer slain

ABNER OFFERS DAVID ALL ISRAEL
Meanwhile David reigned prosperously in Hebron.[272]
[272] Hebron is an ancient city of Palestine, situated in the heart of the hill-country of Judea, about twenty-seven miles southwest from Jerusalem. Originally it was called Kirjath-Arba, or the city of Arba, “which Arba was a great man among the Anakims” (Joshua 14:15). In the vicinity of this place Abraham abode, after he parted with Lot (Genesis 13:18), and bought a field with a cave in which to bury his dead (Genesis 23:3-20). Besides Abraham and Sarah, his son Isaac, his grandson Jacob, with their wives Rebekah and Leah, and his great grandson Joseph, were severally interred here (Genesis 23:19). When the Hebrews invaded Palestine, Hebron was the residence of a king (Joshua 12:10) named Hoham, who confederated with four other Canaanitish kings against Israel; but they were all discomfited and destroyed by Joshua (Joshua 10:3-4). After which the city, being taken, was assigned to Caleb (Joshua 19:6-11) agreeably to a promise given him by Moses (Numbers 13:30-33). Subsequently it was made a city of refuge, and given to the priests (Joshua 21:11). Afterward, when David succeeded Saul on the throne of Israel, he selected Hebron for his royal residence, and continued there until Jerusalem was captured from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 2:1; 1 Chronicles 12-13). On the division of the kingdom under Rehoboam, Hebron fell to the share of the king of Judah (2 Chronicles 11:10).
He increased the number of his wives to six, by all of whom sons were born to him in that place. In this small kingdom his good and prosperous government, together with the knowledge that he had been divinely appointed to reign over all Israel, appears insensibly to have inclined the other tribes toward him, by which, more even than by war, his cause gathered that strength which that of Ishbosheth lost. Abner was fully sensible that without himself the kingdom of his nephew would fall to pieces, or rather pass quietly into the hands of David. He rated his services at their full value; and although we do not ourselves see cause to suspect, as some have done, that he contemplated taking the crown to himself, it is certain that he was not disposed to consider himself responsible to the king for his conduct, or to allow any of his proceedings to be questioned by him. Now Ishbosheth had heard that Abner carried on a criminal intercourse with one of Saul's concubines, named Rizpah: and as according to the usages of the East, the concubines of a deceased sovereign became the property of the successor in so strong and peculiar a sense, that such an act as that imputed to Abner might be interpreted into a design upon the crown,[273] or at least was an insulting encroachment upon the peculiar rights of royalty, even the timid Ishbosheth was roused to question Abner on the subject. It is not very clear whether the charge was true or false; but it is clear that this overbearing personage was astonished and disgusted that the king should dare to question any part of his conduct. He rose into a towering passion: “Am I who, against Judah, have to this day shown kindness to the house of Saul, thy father, and to his brethren and to his friends, and have not delivered thee into the hands of David, such a dog's head that thou chargest me to-day with a fault concerning this woman? God do so to Abner, and more also, if, as Jehovah hath sworn to David, I do not so to him, by transferring the dominion of the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba.” From this it seems that even Abner knew that he had acted against a higher duty, in setting up Ishbosheth in opposition to David; but this can not justify the grounds on which he now declared his intention to act against him. What he had said was no vain threat, although he was probably willing afterward that the son of Saul should take it for an unmeaning outbreak of passion. He sent messengers to David to enter into a treaty with him, under which he would engage to use his great influence in bringing all Israel to acknowledge him as king; and after this he found a pretence for going himself unsuspectedly to Hebron to complete the agreement and arrange the steps to be taken. David had sent to Ishbosheth to desire him to restore to him his wife Michal, whom Saul had given to another. He had a perfect right to make this demand, if so inclined--the rather as she had thus been disposed of against her own wish; but we may suppose that he was particularly induced to reclaim her at this juncture, in consideration of the satisfaction the measure was likely to give to those attached to the family of Saul. As this claim was doubtless supported by Abner, it was granted; and having obtained an order to demand her from her present husband, that personage himself undertook to escort her to David. From this transaction it would seem that the war had latterly been allowed to die away, although without any concession or treaty having been made on either side. That he was escorting the daughter of Saul to David, proved to Abner a favorable opportunity, on his way, of explaining his present sentiments to the elders of the tribes through which he passed; especially to those of Benjamin, which was naturally the most attached to the house of Saul, while his own influence in it was the greatest. He dwelt strongly on the public benefits which might be expected from the government of one who had been expressly nominated by Jehovah to the kingdom; and such a presentation, coming from such a quarter, coupled with the favorable dispositions toward David which had grown up during his reign in Hebron, was attended with such effect, that Abner was authorized to make overtures to him in behalf of the tribes which had hitherto adhered to the house of Saul.
[273] See instances of this in the case of Absalom (2 Samuel 20:23) and Adonijah, 1 Kings 2:13-25
Abner was received with great distinction and royally feasted by David; and after the business on which he really came had been settled to his satisfaction, he departed with the intention of inducing the tribes to concur in giving David a public invitation to take the crown of Israel.
JOAB KILLS ABNER
Joab had been absent from Hebron during this visit of Abner; but he returned immediately after Abner had departed, and was deeply displeased when he learned what lead occurred. Through the energy of his character, his abilities and experience in the affairs of peace and war, his influence and popularity with the army which was under his command, and his unquestioned devotion to the interests of David, this man had great authority with the king. His standing, indeed, in the kingdom of Judah, had much resemblance to that of Abner in the other kingdom; nor were their characters altogether unlike. In the points of difference, the advantage was on the side of Abner; for his experience in military and public affairs was larger, from which, together with his near relationship to Saul and his son, and the high stations he had occupied under them, his influence with the people was far greater than that which Joab or any other man in Israel could pretend to; and hence his greater power at this time of rendering essential services to the king of Judah. Abner and Joab also served very different masters; and thus it happened that while Abner was, in the public eye, the greatest man in the kingdom of Israel, Joab was in that of Judah only the greatest man next to David. Upon the whole, Abner was the only man in the country of whom Joab had cause to be afraid, and by whom it was likely that his own influence would be superseded in case the two kingdoms were united through his instrumentality. It was probably more from such considerations than any other that his displeasure at the intercourse between David and Abner arose. He went instantly to the king, and reproached him for allowing himself to be imposed upon by the able uncle of Ishbosheth, declaring his belief that the true object of his visit was to obtain such information concerning his state and resources as he might afterward employ against him. He then went out and sent a messenger after Abner to call him back in the name of the king. As he returned, Joab took care to meet him near the gate, and drew him aside as if to speak to him privately, and while he was entirely unguarded and unsuspicious, gave him a treacherous stab, of which he instantly died. The history describes this as an act of blood-revenge for the death of his brother Asahel by the hand of Abner; and while allowing him the full benefit of this motive, it is hard to believe that envy and jealousy sharpened not the dagger of the avenger. It must be conceded, nevertheless, that the existence of a blood-feud between them extenuated if it did not justify the art of Joab in the eyes of all Israel It was, in fact, according to the strict ideas of that barbarous institution, the imperative duty of Joab to shed the blood of Abner, who had slain his brother; and that Abner himself knew that the death of Asahel would be attended with this result, is evinced by his anxiety to avoid the fatal necessity of slaying his pursuer; for if the man-slayer is known, the avenger is not bound to make any distinction as to the circumstances under which his relative is slain: and at the present day, the one who slays another in battle is pursued by the avenger equally with the murderer. The extent to which the law of Moses had interfered with this custom only provided for the safety of the man-slayer while to a city of refuge. Hebron was a city of refuge; and if Joab had slain Abner within that city, the law would have allowed David to treat him as a murderer. This Joab knew; and hence his meeting Abner at the gate, and drawing him aside before he entered the city. These details we judge necessary, to show that those who most suffered from the death of Abner, and abhorred the manner in which it was inflicted, knew that his offence was not punishable by the king or by the law; and hence that it was not merely the rank and influence of Joab which prevented David from calling him to account for this barbarous deed. Perhaps he could not have punished Joab in any case; but it is important to know, that in the present case the law, custom, and public opinion, did not require or permit him to do so.
BLOODY SONS OF ZERUIAH
The resentment of David was nevertheless very great. Like other eastern sovereigns, he must have been impressed with the evils of this custom of blood-revenge, and the extent to which it interfered with good government; nor was he insensible to the insult offered to himself, in the present and other instances, by “the sons of Zeruiah,” Joab and Abishai, and the high hand with which they wrought their own will. “I am this day weak,” he said, “though an anointed king; and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too stubborn for me. Jehovah will reward the evil-doer according to his evil deeds.” As it was of the highest importance to him that he should be clear of any suspicion of having had any part in the death of Abner, he publicly, “before Jehovah,” declared himself guileless of the blood which had been shed, and invoked the full burden of that blood on Joab and on his house. He ordered a public act of solemn mourning, in which he himself took a prominent part: and at the funeral he followed the body, as chief mourner, to the grave, where he stood weeping, and where he lamented, in elegiac[274] verse, over the prince and great man who had that day fallen in Israel.
[274] resembling an elegy
This conduct of David tended still further to satisfy and conciliate the tribes attached to the house of Saul; and by them the murder of Abner was never imputed to him. Indeed, the event must, at the time, have seemed to himself and others anything but advantageous for his cause. But we, who have his whole history before us, can see that the manner in which he ultimately became king over all Israel, by the free and unsolicited choice of the tribes, was more honorable and safe to him, and more becoming his divine appointment, than the same result brought about through the exertions of Abner, whose conduct, as between David and Ishbosheth, must have seemed very equivocal, and could, at the best, have been but “traitorously honest.”[275]
[275] Bishop Hall.
ISHBOSHETH MURDERED
When Ishbosheth heard of Abner's death (without being aware of the plot in which he was engaged), he felt that the right arm of his kingdom's strength was broken. Others felt this also: and the conviction that the son of Saul could not govern the troubled kingdom without Abner, grew stronger every day among the tribes, and directed their eyes to David as the only person under whom they could expect to realize the benefits the nation had expected to enjoy under a regal government. This feeling, this tendency of the nation toward David, was perceived, even in the court of Ishbosheth; and two of his officers, brothers, determined to anticipate the course which events were taking, by the assassination of their master, expecting by this act to deserve high rewards and honors from the king of Judah. Accordingly, they stole into his chamber, while, according to the universal custom of the East, he slept there during the mid-day heat. They pierced him as he slept, and then took off his head, with which they escaped unperceived, as at that time of the day most of the people were asleep. The murderers sped to Hebron, and laid the head of Saul's son at the feet of David, with the words, “Behold the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul thine enemy, who sought thy life. Jehovah hath this day avenged my lord the king of Saul and of his seed.” Astounding to them was the answer--“As Jehovah liveth, who hath redeemed my soul out of every distress! if, when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking that he brought good tidings, I took hold of him and slew him at Ziklag, when he expected that I should have given him a reward for his tidings--how much more when wicked men have slain a just person in his own house, upon his own bed, shall I not now require his blood from your hand, and destroy you from the earth?” And with these words he commanded his attendants to remove them to an ignominious death. The head of Ishbosheth he ordered to be deposited in the sepulcher of Abner.
MEPHIBOSHETH
The kingdom of Israel was now without even the appearance of a head, nor was there any remaining member of the family of Saul whom the most zealous adherents of that fallen house could dream of supporting in opposition to David. Saul had indeed left some sons by concubines, but they were living in obscurity, and even their existence was scarcely known to the people. Jonathan also had left one son, but he was a mere boy and lame. He was five years old when Saul and his sons perished in the battle of Gilboa, and he became lame from a fall which he received when his nurse fled with him, as soon as the tidings of that overthrow were brought to the house of Saul and Jonathan. His name was Mephibosheth.
ISRAEL CROWNS DAVID KING
David had reigned seven years and a half in Hebron, when, after the deaths of Abner and Ishbosheth, the crown of all Israel seemed to devolve upon him, as naturally as by an act of succession. It was probably the result of a unanimous decision in a great council of the eleven tribes, that those tribes sent an embassy to David in Hebron to invite him to assume the general government of the nation. This they did on the grounds of, 1, his military claim, as one who had often led them to victory in the days of Saul; and, 2, of his theocratical claim, as one who had been expressly nominated by God to govern Israel. By this we see that the people were on this occasion careful to recognize the theocracy, since they rested their preference of him on his having been nominated to the kingdom by Jehovah, and having proved himself worthy of it during the reign of Saul. The studious avoidance of all notice of the seven years in which the tribes had been separately ruled seems to intimate a desire that this measure should be formally regarded as following the death of Saul. David intimated his readiness to receive the honor designed for him, and to accede to the conditions on which the crown was to be held. The rulers of the eleven tribes, therefore, at the head of large bodies of the best trained men in the several tribes, described as “men that could keep rank,” who were chosen to represent the whole of their several tribes in the great national act of inauguration, repaired to Hebron to make David king. The number amounted to not less than three hundred and forty thousand, and the enumeration in the book of Chronicles (I Chronicles12:23, ad fin.) is accompanied with several remarks, which the scantiness of our information concerning the distinctive character of the tribes makes interesting. It appears that many members of the tribe of Judah had adhered to the house of Saul, and abode within its dominions; for, on the present occasion, six thousand eight hundred men of that tribe, armed with shield and spear, came with the others to submit to David. There were seven thousand, one hundred Simeonites of valor. The Levites sent four thousand six hundred; and there were three thousand, seven hundred priests, headed by Jehoiada, the son of Benaiah; besides whom came Zadok at the head of twenty-two chiefs of his father's house. This Zadok, of the old pontifical line of Eleazar, is the same who was long after made sole high-priest by Solomon, to the final exclusion of the house of Eli; but, on the present occasion, he is particularly noticed as “a young man, mighty in valor,” which shows--as indeed appears in the history--that the pursuits of the Levites, and even of the Aaronites, were not exclusively of an ecclesiastical and civil nature. From Benjamin came three thousand men; but the greater part of this tribe held back, still cherishing a lingering and futile attachment to the house of Saul, the rule of which had given to the tribe a flattering pre-eminence, which it was unwilling to relinquish. The half-tribe of Manasseh on this side the Jordan sent eighteen thousand men; and the proud tribe of Ephraim testified its concurrence by sending twenty-eight thousand. From Issachar came only two hundred men; but these were the chief persons in the tribe, the whole of which was at their back, and would have been in attendance if required. To them is given the marked character of being men of political prudence and sagacity, who knew better than most men how Israel ought to act under the present and other circumstances, and whose support was therefore of great value to David. From Zebulon came not fewer than fifty thousand men, skilled in the use of all warlike weapons, and “not double-hearted,” with respect to the object for which they came. Naphtali furnished one thousand captains, and with them thirty-seven thousand men, armed with shield and spear. Dan supplied twenty-eight thousand six hundred able warriors, and Asher forty thousand. The tribes beyond Jordan, Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, sent, collectively, one hundred and twenty thousand warlike men. One obvious remark, arising from the survey of these numbers, is the comparative largeness of the proportions furnished by the remoter tribes, to the north and beyond Jordan This is, perhaps, explained by the absence in those tribes of any pretensions for themselves, and of any strong attachment for the house of Saul, which could interfere with the heartiness of their recognition of the claims of David; together with the operation of the principles which gives to a prophet and great man the least degree of honor in and near his own home.[276]
[276] Of this Fuller seems to have given a satisfactory explanation. “How this comes to pass let others largely dispute. We may, in brief, conclude, it is partly because their cradles can be remembered, and those swaddling-clothes once used about them, to strengthen them while infants, are afterward abused against them, to disgrace them when men, and all the passages of their youth repeated to their disparagement; partly because all the faults of their family (which must be many in a numerous alliance) are charged on the prophet's account. Wherefore that prophet who comes at the first in his full growth from a far foreign place (not improving himself among them from a small spark to a fire, to a flame, but, sun-like, arising to perfect luster), gains the greatest reputation among the people. Because, in some respects, he is like Melchisedec, 'without father, without mother, without descent,' while the admiring vulgar, transported with his preaching, and ignorant grant of his extraction on earth; will charitably presume his pedigree from heaven, and his breeding well as calling to be divine.”
ISRAEL FEASTS DAVID'S CROWNING
With this vast body, the flower of the Hebrew nation, and representing the whole of it, “David made a league before the Lord,” which can be construed to have no other meaning than that which has already been indicated in the case of Saul, that he bound himself by oath to observe the conditions on which he received the scepter, which are now unknown. He was then anointed king, and received the homage of his new subjects; and the whole was terminated by a feast to all the multitude assembled at Hebron, supplies for which were liberally sent in by all the neighboring tribes, “on asses, on camels, on mules, and on oxen,” and consisted of meat, meal, figs, raisins, wine, oil, oxen, and sheep, in great abundance. “For there was great joy in Israel.”
DAVID TAKES JERUSALEM
The first act of David's reign was to undertake the reduction of the fortress of Jebus, on Mount Zion, which had remained in the hands of the natives ever since the days of Joshua, and which, as Josephus reports,[277] had been, from its situation and its fortifications, hitherto deemed impregnable. The Jebusites, therefore, ridiculed the attempt, and appear to have placed the lame and the blind on the walls, in derision, as fully sufficient to keep him out. But from the lower city, which was already in the possession of the Israelites, there was “a gutter,” or subterraneous communication, with the fortress, by which David introduced a party of men and took “the stronghold of Zion.” In the operations of this siege such ability and conduct were displayed by Joab, that he was appointed to the same chief command of the armies of Israel which he had previously held in the separate kingdom of Judah. The fact that his rule was likely, under all circumstances, to find the most zealous supporters in his own tribe of Judah, probably disinclined him to remove from its borders; and he determined to make his new conquest the metropolis of his empire. A more central situation, with respect to all the tribes, would have placed him in the hands of the Ephraimites, whose cordiality toward a Judahite king might well be suspected, and in whom little confidence could be placed in times of danger and difficulty. Similar considerations have dictated the choice of a very inconveniently situated capital to the reigning dynasty of Persia. But although better sites for a metropolitan city might have been found in the largest extent of Palestine, there were not better within the limits to which, for the reasons indicated, the choice of David was confined. That the site is overlooked from the Mount of Olives, although a great disadvantage in the eyes of modern military engineers, was of little consequence under the ancient systems of warfare, and could not countervail the peculiar advantages which it offered in being enclosed on three sides by a natural fosse of ravines and deep valleys, and terminating in an eminence, which, while strong in its defenses from without, commanded the town within, and was capable of being strongly fortified. The united influence of all these considerations appears to have determined the preference of David for a site which was open to the serious objection, among others, of being so remote from the northern tribes as to render the legal obligation of resort to it three times every year a more burdensome matter to them than it need have been had a more central situation been chosen.
[277] Josepus, Antiq. v. 2 and Joshua 15:63
It is supposed that David first gave the name of Jerusalem (“the possession of peace”) to the city, but this is not quite certain. On Mount Zion he fixed his residence, and erected a palace and other buildings, and it was on this account called, the city of David.” This strong part of the whole metropolis ever after remained what may be called the royal quarter of the town.
WATER OF BETHLEHEM
The Philistines had good reason to dread the consequences of the consolidation of all the power of the Hebrew tribes in hands of such tried vigor as those of David, and they deemed it prudent to set upon him before he had time to establish himself firmly in his kingdom. Their measures were so well planned, and so secretly executed, that they appeared suddenly, in great force, in the heart of Judea, and took the king's native town of Bethlehem before he was able to make any resistance. Indeed, the danger of his position was so urgent, that he was obliged to withdraw, for present safety, with some attached followers, to his old retreat in the cave of Adullam. It was here that he happened to express a longing desire for a drink of water from that well of his native town at which the thirst of his younger days had often been assuaged. Hearing this, three of his most valiant and devoted men, Joab, Jashobeam, and Eleazar, secretly departed, and, breaking through the host of the Philistines, which was encamped along the valley of Rephaim, brought him the precious fluid for which they had periled their lives. But when the king received it he would not drink, but poured it out as a libation to Jehovah.
Soon after this, David, encouraged by a favorable answer from God, fell upon the Philistines, and so effectually discomfited them in two different onsets, that they were never after able to make head against him or any of his successors. Thus was one of the most irritating thorns in the side of Israel most effectually removed.
DAVID MOVES ARK
And now, when David had a respite from war, about the tenth year of his reign,[278] he thought of the ark of God, which had so long remained in the house of Abinadab at Kirjath-jearim, and contemplated its removal to Jerusalem, that the place which had now become the capital of the human kingdom, might also become the capital of the invisible King. The design being received with approbation by the elders and chiefs of Israel whom he consulted, the king prepared for its execution, by dispatching messengers throughout all Israel, to summon all the priests and Levites, and to invite as many of the people as were so disposed to attend the solemnity. He also prepared a tabernacle[279] to receive the ark on its arrival. Accordingly, at the appointed time, the ark was removed from the house of Abinadab, upon a new cart, attended by David and his court, by a large body of priests and Levites, who sang and played on various instruments of music, and by a numerous concourse of people from all parts of the kingdom. On the irregularity of removing it on a cart, we have already had occasion to remark. This irregularity gave occasion to an accident, attended with such fatal consequences as threw an effectual damp upon the joy of the solemnity: for the cart being at one place much shaken by the oxen, the officious Uzzah, the son or grandson of Abinadab, was struck dead upon the spot for putting forth his hand to stay the ark, none but the priests being warranted to touch it under pain of death. (Numbers 4:15.) This event struck David and the people with such consternation, that the intention of taking the ark to Jerusalem was relinquished, and it was left in the house of a Levite named Obed-edom, near which the circumstance occurred. But about three months after, hearing that the blessing of Jehovah had very evidently rested on the house in which the ark lay, the king hastened to complete his design. He perceived the former improprieties, and directed that the priests should now bear the ark upon their shoulders; and the whole solemnity was placed under the direction of Chenaniah, the chief of the Levites, who was found to be best acquainted with the proper observances. This was a great day in Israel. Nothing was omitted by which the occasion could be honored. In the presence of that sacred symbol of the Divine King, David laid aside his royal mantle, and appeared in such a garb as the Levites wore, with and before whom he went, as one of them; and as they sang and played the triumphant song which he had composed for the occasion, he accompanied them with his renowned harp, and danced to the joyful sounds it gave forth. Michal, the daughter of Saul, beheld this from a window, when the procession was approaching its destination; and she, imbued with some of the royal notions which had been fatal to her father and his house, despised him in heart for acting so far beneath what she conceived to be the dignity of the king of Israel: and when he came home, she could not refrain from allowing vent to this feeling. The reply of David was spirited and proper, declaring that it was before Jehovah, the true king of Israel, that he had laid aside the king, and made himself one with the people. And if this were to be vile, as she deemed, “I will yet be more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight.”
[278] Counting from his first becoming king over Judah only.
[279] The old tabernacle, made in the wilderness, with the altar, and all the sacred utensils, were, as it appears, at Gibeon; why David erected a new tabernacle, instead of removing the former, does not clearly appear; but it is probable that it was too large for the place within his new palace, which, for the present, he intended it to occupy.
REGULAR WORSHIP AND SINGING
David now instituted a regular and orderly attendance upon the ark and its tabernacle. But the regular services of religion were still performed at Gibeon, where the old tabernacle and altar remained, and which was still therefore the place of concourse to the nation at their great festivals. Here the priests rendered their services, under Zadok. The solemn removal of the ark, and its dignified repose in the city of David, were well calculated to make an impression upon the multitudes who were present on that occasion, and awaken their slumbering zeal for Jehovah. These favorable and becoming dispositions the king wished to confirm and strengthen, and for that end made suitable regulations in the services of the priests and Levites, and this especially by animating and instructive psalms, which were composed partly by himself, and partly by other gifted persons. They were sung not only by the Levites at all the sacrifices, but also by the people while on their way to the national altar, to attend the feasts. A very precious collection of these compositions has been preserved to our own day in the book of Psalms, which has in all subsequent ages ministered much edification and comfort to a large portion of mankind. By such instructive means David, without coercive measures, brought the whole nation to forget their idols, and to worship Jehovah alone; and thus also their religion became honorable, even in the eyes of foreigners, and acceptable to many of them. The above is the first occasion on which Zadok is mentioned as high-priest. But after this, throughout the reign of David, he and Abiathar are often named separately or together, as both bearing that character--a singular innovation, resulting probably from circumstances over which the king had little control. It seems likely that after Saul had slain the priests of Ithamar's line at Nob he restored the pontificate to the line of Eleazar, in the person of Zadok; while David and his people, during his wandering and his reign in Judah, had been accustomed to look to Abiathar, the escaped son of Ahimelech, as the high-priest; and that, on his accession to the throne of Israel, he found the people so accustomed to regard Zadok as high-priest, that he thought it proper and prudent to recognize him in that character, without depriving Abiathar of the consideration he had previously enjoyed. If this explanation be correct, Zadok would have had this advantage over Abiathar, that he had actually discharged the regular functions of the high-priesthood at the tabernacle, which the other had never an opportunity of doing. It is probably on this account, that wherever the two names occur together, that of Zadok is placed first.
PLANS FOR A TEMPLE
About five years after this, and the fifteenth of David's reign, when the king had finished and inhabited his palace of cedar, “and God had given him rest from his enemies round about,” he meditated a design of building a temple to Jehovah, in place of the temporary tabernacle which he had provided. This design he mentioned to the prophet Nathan, to whom it seemed so obviously proper, that he gave it much commendation and encouragement. But the night following, a message from God to David was delivered to him. This message declared it seemly that the temple of God should be built by a man of peace; but his life had been spent in warfare, and he had shed much blood. He was therefore directed to leave the accomplishment of his plan to his son and successor, whose reign should be one of peace. Nevertheless it was well for David that this intention had been formed; for the Lord, to testify his approbation of this and other evidences of his zeal, and of his attachment to the principles of the theocracy, promised to make his name “as great as the names of the great ones who are on the earth;” and, far beyond this, the Lord promised “to build him a house,” by establishing the succession in his house, and by granting to his posterity an eternal kingdom. The gratitude with which this promise was received by David seems to show he had some conception of its extensive import. He went, and seating himself most reverently on the ground before the ark, poured forth the strong expression of his gratitude.
ISRAEL BECOMES POWERFUL
As the Israelites were always victorious in war while they were faithful to their God and to the principles of the theocracy, so now the arms of David prospered in whatever direction they were turned. Indeed, it is scarcely until his reign that the national character of the Hebrews can be deemed to have recovered of the wounds which it had received in Egypt; and we find among them little military skill, and as little valor or fortitude. But from this time forward, trained to war and victory by David, they may be recognized as a truly courageous people, possessing among them as much military skill, science, and discipline, as any other nation of the same rank and age could claim.
The neighboring and rival nations had soon cause to learn that a new king reigned in Israel. The time was come for the old enemies, who had so often inspired the Israelites with dread, to be afraid in their turn; and even the more distant foreign princes, whose assistance they procured, had cause to repent of provoking an enemy more puissant than themselves. It was now the turn of the Philistines to receive the yoke to which they had accustomed Israel. Attacked in their own country, and beaten on all hands, they were brought under tribute and subjection. The Moabites were more heavily dealt with: to secure his conquest, David thought it necessary to act with a severity not usual with him; for he put to death one half of those who were taken with arms in their hands: and although it was then, or had been not long previously, usual for the nations to put all the armed men to death, this deed strike us as harsh, from comparison with the milder general character of David's own warfare, and can only be explained by reference to some peculiar circumstances with which we are unacquainted.
DAVID'S TERRITORIAL REIGN
In the ancient promises to the Hebrews, the limit to which, in their palmy state, their victorious arms should extend, had been as clearly defined as the limit of their own proper territory. And the distinction here incidentally mentioned, between the limit of the proper country destined for their own occupation, and that of the subject territory which should be acquired, is of considerable importance, and should not be overlooked or confounded as it often has been. The limit of conquest was fully reached by David.
Eastward this limit was to extend to the Euphrates. Of the kings who reigned in the intermediate country, one of the most powerful was Hadadezer, king of Zobah. This sovereign, whose dominion extended eastward to the Euphrates, was defeated by David in the first battle, and lost twenty thousand infantry, seven thousand horsemen with their horses, and one thousand chariots of war. Of the chariots, the king of Israel preserved a hundred, with horses for them; but, mindful that the law of the kingdom forbade the accumulation of horses, all the others were destroyed. The Syrians of Damascus, who were allies (perhaps tributaries) of Hadadezer, and came to his assistance, shared his fate. Hadad, their king, was vanquished, with the loss of twenty-two thousand men, and David brought his territory under subjection to his scepter. These two victories carried the eastern limit of his conquests to the Euphrates. Josephus adduces the testimony of a native historian, Nicolaus of Damascus, in confirmation of the testimony which the Hebrew writers have left. From this it seems that the kingdom, of which Damascus was the capital, had grown very powerful under this Hadad, who might, indeed, be considered as its actual founder; but after various engagements with King David, was finally overthrown in a great battle near the Euphrates, in which he performed deeds worthy of his high name Josephus himself, in conformity with the Scriptural account, relates that after David had reduced to his obedience Damascus and all Syria, having strong garrisons in every place where they seemed necessary, he returned in triumph to Jerusalem, where he consecrated to God the golden shields which had been borne by the royal guard of Hadadezer, from whose cities he also brought much spoil of brass for the service of the future temple.
While David was engaged in these victories, the southern frontier of his conquests was, according to ancient promises, extended southward to the Red sea. This was the work of Joab's valiant brother, Abishai, who defeated the Edomites in “the Valley of Salt,” at the southern extremity of the Dead sea, and then carried his victorious arms into the mountains, the enclosed valleys, and the rocky wildernesses of Mount Seir, leaving garrisons to secure the advantages he had gained.
SUBJECT STATES
David was too well acquainted with the law, to attempt to incorporate any of these conquests as integral parts of the Hebrew territory. He appears in most cases to have left the internal government of the conquered states in the hands of the native princes, who were required to render annually a certain amount of tribute, consisting, for the most part, of such articles as their country afforded in the most abundance, or which they had the best means of procuring or producing. The delivery of such tribute from subject states, under the name of presents, was anciently, as it is now, an occasion of great pomp and ceremony, which, on another occasion, we shall more particularly notice. The obedience of the more distant conquests was secured by garrisons, which do not seem to have been judged necessary in those nearer countries which the mere vicinity of the conquering power might sufficiently control.
KING OF KINGS
Thus David literally became a “king of kings,” and his fame extended into far countries. Some states which had been at hostilities with the states conquered by him sent splendid embassies, with valuable gifts, to congratulate him on his successes. Among these, Toi, the king of Hamath, upon the Orontes, who had been at war with Hadadezer, is particularly mentioned. He sent his own son Joram “to salute and bless” King David, and to deliver costly gifts, such as vessels and utensils of gold, silver, and fine brass. All the surplus wealth thus acquired from the states he conquered, or from those which sought his friendship and alliance, was treasured up by him for the great work which he had so much at heart, and which his son was destined to execute.
ALLIANCE WITH TYRE
But of all David's' foreign alliances, the earliest and most valuable was that with Hiram, king of Tyre. This had been formed very soon after David had taken Jerusalem and defeated the Philistines, and seems to have been sought by Hiram; for it will be remembered that David was famous in the closely neighboring states before he became king; and no doubt not only his eminent public qualities, but his remarkable personal history, was familiar not less to the Phoenicians than to the Philistines. And although an enterprising commercial and skilful manufacturing nation, like them, would be disposed to look down upon a people so inferior to themselves as the Hebrews in the finer and larger arts of social life, military talents and success, and such heroic qualities as the character of David offered, have never yet failed to be appreciated, wherever found. Hiram “was ever a lover of David,” and the offered alliance must have been the more gratifying to him as it came before “David acquired a name, and [before] his fame went out into all lands, and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations.” This alliance was one of mutual advantage. Tyre possessed but a narrow strip of maritime territory, the produce of which, if sedulously cultivated, would have been very inadequate to the supply of its teeming population and numerous fleets. But, besides this, the absorbing devotion of the Phoenicians to commerce and the arts rendered them averse to the slow pursuits of agriculture, the products of which they could so much more easily obtain by exchange against the products of their foreign traffic and their skill. To them therefore it was a most invaluable circumstance, that behind them lay a country in the hands of a people who had none of the advantages which were so much prized by themselves, but who had abundance of corn, wine, oil, and cattle, to barter for them. An alliance cemented by such reciprocal benefits, and undisturbed by territorial designs or jealousies, was likely to be permanent; and we know that it tended much to advance the Hebrews in the arts which belong to civilized life, and to promote the external splendor of this and the ensuing reign. In the present instance Hiram supplied the architects and mechanics, as well as the timber (hewn in Lebanon), whereby David was enabled to build his palace of cedar, and to undertake the other works which united the upper and lower cities. and rendered Jerusalem a strong and comely metropolis.
MEPHIBOSHETH
In the midst of his success and glory, the memory of Jonathan was still very dear to David. He caused inquiry to be made whether any of his family remained, “to whom he might show kindness;” he then first heard of his lame son Mephibosheth, and caused him to be conducted to Jerusalem. The afflicted young man was received with great kindness by the king; who restored to him the lands which had belonged to Saul for the support of his household, but desired that he would himself be a constant guest at the royal table, even as one of the king's own sons. This generoustreatment, with the continued kindness which he afterward received, won entirely the open heart of Jonathan's son. He became strongly attached to the person and interests of David, whose higher qualities he regarded with admiration and reverence.
Rock Valley in Mount Seir The Entrance to a Tomb is shown on the left,
and the Remnants of an Amphitheater in the distance
GOVERNMENT ORGANIZED
It was probably in the period of peace and glory which followed the victories of David over all the enemies of Israel, that he employed himself in the organization of the government. The very important part which he took in giving to all the departments of the government the form and character which he desired it to bear in future times, has, it seems to us, been rather overlooked and undervalued. For, in truth, David was the real founder of the Hebrew monarchy; and in that character his great abilities appear not less prominently than in the various other endowments by which he was so eminently distinguished from the mass of mankind.
AMMONITE FOLLY AND WAR
During the days of his adversity, when persecuted by Saul, David had been treated by Nahash the king of Ammon with some kindness, of which he cherished a very grateful remembrance. When, therefore, he heard of his death, he sent an embassy to condole with the new king, Hanun, upon the loss of his father, and to congratulate him upon his peaceable succession. But this prince was led by his courtiers to regard the ambassadors as spies, and dared to give them such treatment as was then, and would be at this day in the East, regarded as the most ignominious which any men could receive. He caused their beards to be shaved, and their long garments to be cut short at their buttocks, and in this condition sent them away. When David, heard of this grievous insult to him through his ambassadors, he was filled with indignation. He sent messengers to meet these personages, and to relieve them from the necessity of appearing at his court in their present degraded condition, by directing them to remain at Jericho until the renewed growth of their beards might enable them to appear without shame. As the insult was too gross to be allowed to pass unpunished, David ordered Joab to march with an imposing force against the Ammonites. Meanwhile that people had not been idle; but, fully aware of the probable effect of their ungenerous conduct, and not confiding in their own strength, they engaged the assistance of some of the neighboring princes of Syria--in fact, “hired” them as mercenaries, being the first example of the kind which history offers. The force thus obtained from four Syrian princes amounted to thirty-three thousand men, who came and encamped before Medeba in the land of Ammon. The force of the Ammonites themselves marched out of the town when the army of Israel appeared. Joab with his usual address hastened to prevent the junction of the two armies, and himself turned against the Syrians, while his brother Abishai kept the Ammonites in check. The Syrians were speedily put to flight by Joab; and when the Ammonites saw this, they also fled before Abishai, and hastened into the city.
SYRIAN AND ASSYRIAN DEFEAT
In a second campaign, David himself marched against a powerful army, composed not only of the Syrians, but of Assyrians from beyond the Euphrates, whose assistance had been procured by Hadadezer, who seems now to have determined on a last and grand effort to recover and secure his independence. This formidable army was under the command of Shobach, the general of Hadadezer, and were encamped at Helam, near the Euphrates, where David found them. In the terrible battle which ensued the Israelites were victorious; and that day they destroyed 700 chariots, 7,000 horse, and 40,000 foot, being about half the force which the Syrians on both sides the river had been able to bring into the field. By this decisive victory the Syrian nations were completely subdued, and the Ammonites were henceforth left to their own resources.
The next campaign against that nation David left to the conduct of Joab, remaining himself at Jerusalem. Joab marched into the land of Ammon, and, after ravaging the country, laid siege to the metropolitan city of Rabbah, or Rabbath-Ammon,[280] which for some time held out against him.
[280] The site of the ancient capital of the Ammonites was first indicated by Seetzen, and has since been visited by various travelers. The original names of this town, which existed in the time of Moses, Ammon, and Rabbath-Ammon, was for a time observed by that of Philadelphia, which it took from Ptolemy Philadelphus, by whom it was rebuilt. That any portions of the ruins are of earlier date than this rebuilding by him, it would be absurd to expect; and most of them are obviously of later date, and may, for the most part, be referred to the period of the Roman domination in Syria. The present natives of the country now know nothing of the name of Philadelphia, but give to the site its original name of Ammon.
The very precise manner in which the prophecies applicable to the city have been fulfilled, gives to the place more interest than it could historically claim, although even that is not inconsiderable. The description which is the most available for our purposes is that which Lord Lindsay has given. In transcribing it, however, we omit the account of the ruins, which, although of high interest in themselves. are not such as the purpose of the present work requires us to describe:
The scenery waxed drearier and drearier, as, at ten hours and a half from Jerash, we descended a precipitous stony slope into the valley of Ammon, and crossed a beautiful stream called Mount Ammon. It has its source in a pond a few hundred paces from the southwest end of the town, and, after passing under ground several times, empties itself into the Zerka (Jabbok). The valley is bordered at intervals by strips of stunted grass, often interrupted; no oleanders cheered the eye with their rich blossoms; the hills on both sides were rocky and bare, and pierced with excavations and natural caves. Here, at a turning in the narrow valley, commences the antiquities of Ammon. It was situation on both aides the stream. The dreariness of its present aspect is quite indescribable. It looks like the abode of death. The valley stinks with dead camels. One of them was rotting in the stream and, although we saw none among the ruins, they were absolutely covered in every direction with their dung. That morning's ride would have convinced a skeptic. How runs the prophecy? 'I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites for flocks; and ye shall know that I am the Lord!'
“Nothing but the croaking of frogs and screams of wild birds broke the silence, as we advanced up this valley of desolation. Passing on the left an unopened tomb (for the singularity in these regions is where the tomb has not been violated), several broken sarcophagi, and an aqueduct, in one spot full of human sculls, a bridge on the right, a ruin on the lea, apparently the southern gate of the town, a high wall and lofty terrace, with one pillar still standing, the remains probably of a portico, we halted under the square building supposed by Seetzen to have been a mausoleum, and, after a hasty glance at it, hurried up the glen in search of the principal ruins, which we found much more extensive and interesting than we expected, not certainly in such good preservation as those of Jerash, but designed on a much grander scale. Storks were perched in every direction on the tops of the different buildings; others soared at an immense height above us.”
Then follows a more detailed account of the ruins, the predominant architectural character of which is indicated by the very fine specimen inserted in our text. By far the best and most ample description of the whole is that which has been given by Buckingham, in his “Travels among the Arab Tribes,” 67-81. After his description, Lord Lindsay resumes:
“Such are the relics of the ancient Ammon, or rather of Philadelphia, for no building there can boast of a prior date to that of the change of name. It was a bright cheerful morning, but still the valley is a very dreary spot, even when the sun shines brightest. Vultures were garbaging on a camel, as we slowly rode back through the glen, and re-ascended the akiba by which we entered it. Ammon is now quite deserted, except by the Bedouins who water their flocks at its little river. We met sheep and goats by thousands, and camels by hundreds, coming down to drink, all in beautiful condition. How--let me again cite the prophecy--how runs it? 'Ammon shall be a desolation!--Rabbah of the Ammonites ... shall be a desolate heap!--I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the Ammonites a couching place for Rocks; and ye shall know that I am the Lord!'”
Ruins of Ammon

BATHSHEBA
There was little in this war to occasion much anxiety in the king, who remained quiet at Jerusalem, where, in an evil and unguarded hour, his inordinate desires brought him very low, and entailed much anguish and sorrow on his future reign.
One afternoon the king arose from his mid-day sleep, and walked on the terraced roof of his palace,[281] from the commanding height of which he unhappily caught a view of a woman bathing. This was the beautiful Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, who was then serving under Joab at the siege of Rabbah. The king sent for her, and she became with child by him. Afflicted at this event, which was so calculated, by betraying the adulterous bring upon the woman the ignominious death which the law demanded, if the husband should think proper to demand her punishment, David sent to desire Joab to send him to Jerusalem, as if with news of the war, hoping that his presence about this time would screen, or at least render doubtful, the effects of his own crime. But Uriah, either, as he professed, thinking the gratifications of home inconsistent with the obligations of his military service, or suspecting the fidelity of his wife, avoided her during his stay, and remained publicly among the king's attendants. Disappointed in this device by the proud honor or caution of Uriah, the king concluded that the life of Bathsheba and his own character could only be secured by his death. This therefore he contrived, in concert with the unprincipled Joab, in such a manner as to make him perish by the sword of the Ammonites, although this could not be effected without involving several other men in the slaughter. David concluded his complicated crime by sending back to Joab, through the messengers who brought this intelligence, a hypocritical message of condolence: “Let not this trouble thee, for the sword devoureth one as well, as another.” And then, to fill up the measure of his successful guilt, he openly took Bathsheba to wife, after the days of her mourning were expired; and she bore him a son.
[281] There have been many grave remarks and sermons upon the consequences of idleness, as exemplified in this instance, and so forth. Now there is no idleness in the case, or anything to blame David for, but the sin into which he fell. It is quite true that, if he had not been at Jerusalem, and if he had not walked on the roof of his palace after sleep, this thing would not have happened to him; but this is no more than the obvious truth that if a man were doing one thing another thing would riot have been done, which is as applicable to every human act as to that of David. We are told that he ought not to have been at Jerusalem, but at the head of his army. Now this is more than we know. It is, perhaps, rather creditable to David that he knew that a king had more important duties than to lead forth his armies in person on every occasion. He was doubtless ready, if there had been adequate occasion; but the result proved that Joab was fully equal to the service on which he was engaged; and the king could probably more easily find one to command the army, than to conduct the civil government in his own absence, according to his own plans and designs. Those must have singular notions of an oriental monarchy who suppose that David had grown indolent because he remained in his metropolis; for there are few men whose ordinary home duties are more arduous and laborious than those of most eastern kings; and we know, from a subsequent event, that David actually undertook in his own person more labor than he was able adequately to sustain. Then, as to his afternoon sleep and subsequent walk: the idleness of this has seemed unquestionable. But this is the ignorant inference of people who sleep outright by night for eight or nine hours, and then marvel to see others sleepful while they are wakeful, without considering that these others have slept but five hours at night, rose at daybreak, and have discharged half the duties of the day before they commence their own. In warm climates the cool morning hours are highly favorable to exertion, and therefore the orientals rise early to employ them, to compensate for which, and to obtain the total quantity of sleep which nature requires, they he down again during the heat of the day, when, if they were awake, the relaxing warmth would make exertion difficult. Taken in all, the orientals do not sleep more, if as much, as we do; but they find it convenient and suitable to have two short sleeps instead of a single long one and for this they do not deserve to be considered indolent. Joab doubtless slept as soundly in his camp this afternoon as David in his palace.
NATHAN'S REPROOF
But the deed which David bad done with so much privacy, thinking to escape human detection, “displeased Jehovah; and he sent Nathan the prophet to reprove him.” This he did with much tact, in a well-known and beautiful tale of oppression and distress,[282] so framed that the king did not at the first perceive its application to himself; and which worked so powerfully upon his feelings that his anger was kindled against the man “who had no pity,” and he declared not only that he should, as the law required, make a fourfold restitution, but, with a severity beyond the law of the case, pronounced a sentence of death upon him. Instantly the prophet retorted, “Thou art the man!” In the name of the Lord, he authoritatively upbraided him with his ingratitude and transgression, and threatened him that the sword which he had privily employed to cut off Uriah should never depart from his own house, and that his own wives should be publicly dishonored by his neighbor.
[282] “There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds: but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished rip; and it grew up together with him and with his children; and it ate of his own morsel and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him like a daughter. Now a traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd to dress for the traveler that had come to him; but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that had come to him”--2 Samuel 12:2-4.
DAVID'S BABY DIES
Convicted and confounded, David instantly confessed his guilt--“I have sinned against Jehovah!” and for this speedy humiliation, without attempting to dissemble or cloak his guilt, the Lord was pleased to remit the sentence of death which he had renounced on himself, and to transfer it to the fruit of his crime. The child died; and the Rabbins remark that three more of David's sons were cut off by violent deaths, thus completing as it were the fourfold retaliation for the murder of Uriah, which he had himself denounced.
DAVID'S FALL
“The fall of David is one of the most instructive and alarming recorded in that most faithful and impartial of all histories, the Holy Bible. And the transgression of one idle and unguarded moment pierced him through with many sorrows and embittered the remainder of his life, and gave occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme on account of this crying offence of “the man after God's own heart.” When he only cut off the skirt of Saul's robe, his heart smote him for the indignity thus offered to his master; but when he treacherously cut off a faithful and gallant soldier, who was fighting his battles, after having defiled his bed, his heart smote him not--at least we read not of any compunction or remorse of conscience till Nathan was sent to reprove him. Then, indeed, his sorrow was extreme; and his Psalms, composed on this occasion, express in the most pathetic strains the anguish of a wounded spirit, and the bitterness of his penitence. (See Psalms 31) Still the rising again of David holds forth no encouragement to sinners who may wish to shelter themselves under his example, or flatter themselves with the hope of obtaining his forgiveness; for though his life was spared, yet God inflicted upon him those temporal punishments which the prophet had denounced. The remainder of his days were as disastrous as the beginning had been prosperous.[283]
[283] Hales, ii. 341-343
These things happened about the eighteenth year of David's reign, and the forty-eighth of his age.
RABBAH TAKEN
Soon after this, Joab, always zealous for the honor and credit of his master, though not himself an unambitious man, sent to acquaint David that he had taken the royal quarter of the city of Rabbah; and as this contained the sources from which the rest was supplied with water, it was not possible that it could much longer hold out. He therefore desired that the king would come with a suitable reinforcement and carry the town, that his might be the glory of bringing the war to a conclusion. David did so. The spoil taken in this metropolis was immense; and among it was the crown of the king, of gold set round with jewels, and worth a talent of gold, which may be reckoned at nearly thirty thousand dollars. This was “set upon David's head;” but whether as appropriating it to his own future use as king of Israel, or as the act of a conqueror to denote the transference to himself of that sovereignty over Amnon which the native princes had hitherto enjoyed, is not quite evident. It is certain that such of this cruel and arrogant people as were taken in Rabbah were treated with unusual severity--not, indeed, by their being put to torturing deaths, as the ambiguous terms of the text have suggested, but by their being reduced to personal servitude, and devoted to the most laborious employments which existed among the Hebrews, being such as those of sawing and cleaving wood, of harrowing the ground, and of laboring in the brick-fields.
SOLOMON BORN
This was prosperity; as was, not long after, the birth of another son from Bathsheba. This son was Solomon, who, long before his birth, and long before his mother was known to David, had been pointed out by name as “the man of peace,” who was to succeed him in the throne, and through whom his dynasty was to reign in Israel.
AMNON'S RAPE
But the commencement of the evils threatened upon the house of David was not long withheld. Amnon, the eldest of his sons, conceived a violent passion for his half-sister, Tamar, the full sister of Absalom. By a feigned sickness, he procured her presence in his house, and delayed not to declare to her his criminal desires; and finding that he could not persuade her to compliance, he by force effected her dishonor. Then, passing suddenly from a criminal excess of love to an equal excess of hate, he expelled her ignominiously from his house. Tamar, in her grief, rent her virginal robe and threw dust upon her head, and sought the asylum of her brother Absalom's house; for, according to the ideas of the East, the son of the same mother is, more than even the father, the proper person to protect a female and to redress her wrongs. No man could be more haughty and implacable than Absalom; but he was also deeply politic: and while he received the unhappy Tamar with tenderness, he desired her to conceal her grief, seeing that a brother was the cause of it, and to spend her remaining days in retirement in his house. He made no complaint on the subject, and, young as he was, so well concealed his deep resentment, that even Amnon had not the least suspicion of it. When the news of this villainous fact came to the ears of David, it troubled him greatly; but being greatly attached to Amnon, as being. his eldest son and probable successor in the throne, he neglected to call him to account or to punish him for his transgression. This, we may be sure, increased the resentment of Absalom, and perhaps laid the foundation of his subsequent alienation from, and dislike to, his father.
ABSALOM AVENGES TAMAR
Absalom waited two years before he found an opportunity of giving effect to his long and deeply-cherished purposes of vengeance. It seems that David allowed separate establishments to his sons very early. We find before that both Amnon and Absalom had separate houses, and now we learn that Absalom (and doubtless his brothers) had a distinct property to support his expenses. For at this time he was about to hold a grand sheep-shearing feast in Baal-hazor, to which he invited the king and all his sons. As Absalom had hoped, David declined, on the ground of the expense which his presence would occasion to his son; but all the princes went, and among them, and the chief of them, was the eldest, Amnon. Now Absalom felt that the day of his vengeance was come; and while he received his company with distinction, and royally entertained them, he gave secret orders to his servants to fall upon Amnon, and slay him, even at the table, on a given signal from himself. This was done. Amnon was slain while his heart was warm with wine; on which the other princes, expecting perhaps the same fate, made all haste to get to their mules, and fled to Jerusalem. Their arrival relieved the king from the horror into which he had been plunged by a rumor that all his sons had been slain; but still his indignation and grief were very great. Absalom himself fled the country, and found refuge with his maternal grandfather, Talmai, the king of Geshur, with whom he remained for three years.
WIDOW'S TALE
During this time the grief of David for the murder of Amnon was gradually assuaged, and his heart insensibly turned with kindness toward Absalom, to whom he always had been much attached, and who was now his eldest son, and who might seem to have the more claim on his indulgence and sympathy on account of his exclusion from the succession to the throne, to which by birth he deemed himself entitled. Joab was not slow to perceive the turn which the king's feelings were taking, and was desirous of bringing about a reconciliation between David and Absalom; but not daring to speak openly to the king himself, in the first instance, he engaged a shrewd woman of Tekoah to come before the king with a fictitious tale of distress, which, as in the case of Nathan's story, might be made instructively applicable to the circumstances. The woman played her part to admiration; but when she began to make her application, the king at once guessed that she had been prompted by Joab; and this being admitted by the woman, the king turned to that personage, who was present all the time; and, glad that what was secretly his own desire was thus made to appear a concession to the urgent request of that powerful servant, he said, “Behold, now, I grant this request; go, then, and bring back the young man Absalom.” He accordingly came back to Jerusalem, but his father declined to see him on his return; and he remained two years in Jerusalem without appearing before the king.
Flight of the king's sons

ABSALOM RETURNS HOME
At the end of that time, Absalom was again, through the interference of Joab, admitted to the presence of his father, who embraced him and was reconciled to him.
ABSALOM'S DILEMMA
It would seem that during his retirement Absalom had formed those designs, for the ultimate execution of which he soon after began to prepare the way: this was no less than to deprive his father of his crown. As David was already old, Absalom would probably have been content to await his death, but for peculiar circumstances. If David properly discharged his duty, he must have led his sons to understand, that although the succession to the throne had been assured to his family, the ordinary rules of succession were not to be considered obligatory or binding, inasmuch as the Supreme King possessed and would exercise the right of appointing the particular person who might be acceptable to him. In the absence of any contrary intimation, the ordinary rules might be observed; but, according to the principles of the theocratical government, no such rules could be of force when a special appointment intervened. It was already known to David, and could not but be known or suspected by Absalom, that not only he but some other of the king's sons were to be passed over by such an appointment, in favor of Solomon to whom, by this time, the king probably began to pay attention as his successor. The fact that even the ordinary law of primogeniture, as applied to the government, had not yet been exemplified among the Hebrews, must have tended to increase Absalom's uncertainty of his own succession to his father. Besides, in contending for the crown while his father lived, he had but one competitor, and that one fondly attached to him; whereas, if he waited until his father's death, he might have many vigorous competitors in his brothers. These, or some of them, were probably the considerations in which the designs of Absalom originated. But these designs were not merely culpable as against his own father, but as an act of rebellion against the ordinations of the theocracy, since they involved an attempt to appropriate by force that which God had otherwise destinated, or which at least was to be left for his free appointment. The ultimate success of Absalom would, therefore, have utterly subverted the theocratical principle which still remained in the constitution of the Hebrew state.
At the first view, such an enterprise, against such a man as David, and by his own son, must have seemed wild and hopeless. But in the contest between youth and age--between novelty and habit--between the dignity and authority of an old king, and the ease and freedom of one who has only popularity to seek, the advantages are not all in favor of the old governor. Besides, it seems that there was much latent discontent among the people, arising in a considerable degree from that very confidence in the justice and wisdom of the king by which his throne ought to have been secured. It is the duty of an oriental king to administer justice in his own person, and that duty is not seldom among the heaviest of those which devolve upon him. This grew in time to be so sensibly felt, that ultimately among the Hebrews, as in some oriental and more European states, the king only undertook to attend to appeals from the ordinary tribunals. But under the former state of things, the people will rather bring their causes before a just and popular king than to the ordinary judges; and he in consequence is so overwhelmed with judicial business, that there remain only two alternatives--either to give up all his time to these matters, to the neglect of the general affairs of the nation, or else to risk his popularity by fixing a certain time every day for the hearing of causes, whereby some of the suers must often wait many days before their causes can be brought under his notice. This hindrance to bringing a case immediately before the king is calculated to relieve him by inducing the people to resort to the inferior judges, from whom prompt justice might be obtained; but, on the other hand it is well calculated to endanger his popularity with the unthinking multitude, who deem their own affairs of the highest importance, and attribute to his neglect or indolence the delay and difficult which they experience. David made choice of the latter alternative, and suffered the inevitable consequences.
Absalom was not slow to perceive the advantage this was to him, or to neglect the use which might be made of it. He had other advantages: he was an exceedingly fine young man, admired by all Israel for his beauty, and particularly celebrated for the richness and luxuriance of his hair. This was no small matter among a people so open as were the Hebrews to receive impressions from the beauty, or tallness, or strength of their public men. It was also, probably, a great advantage to Absalom, as against David, and which would have availed him against any of his brothers, had any of them been older than himself, that he was maternally descended from a race of kings. When, even in our own day, we see the conventional rights of primogeniture set aside, in the East, in favor of the son of a nobly-descended mother,[284] we can not suppose this consideration without weight among the Israelites in the time of David.
[284] In Persia, Abbas Meerza, the father of the king, was, on account of the noble descent of his mother, nominated by his father to succeed him in the throne, in preference to an elder son whose mother was a merchant's daughter.
ABSALOM CAMPAIGNS FOR THRONE
Soon after the reconciliation with his father, Absalom began to live with great ostentation, taking upon him much more state than his station as the eldest son of the crown required, and more probably than his father exhibited as king. He had chariots, and a guard of horsemen, and never appeared in public but attended by fifty men. This, by contrast, the more enhanced the condescension and affability which his purposes required him to exemplify. It was his wont to make his appearance very early in the morning, in the way that led to the palace gate; and when any man who had a lawsuit came to the king for judgment, Absalom would call to him and inquire with much apparent interest from what town he came, and the nature of his suit before the king; he would then condole with him on the state of affairs which made it so difficult to obtain redress and justice, and would wind up with the passionate exclamation, “Oh that . were made judge in the land, that every man who hath any suit or cause might come unto me, and . would do him justice!” And then when any man passing by came to make his obeisance to the king's son, Absalom would put forth his arms, and take hold of him, and embrace him like a brother. “And after this manner,” says the narrative, “did Absalom to all Israel who came to the king for judgment:thus Absalom stole away the hearts of the men of Israel.” And it is important to note, that the men whose hearts he thus “stole away,” were inhabitants of all the different parts of the land, who would afterward carry to their several homes the impressions they had received.
ABSALOM DECLARED KING
At last, four years after his reconciliation to his father, Absalom judged his plans ripe for execution; he therefore obtained the king's permission to go to Hebron, under the pretence of offering there a sacrifice which he had vowed during his residence at Geshur. At this place he had appointed the chiefs of his party to meet him, while others, who were dispersed through all the tribes, were ordered to proclaim him king, as soon as they heard the signal given by the sound of the trumpet. At his arrival in Hebron, he sent for Ahithophel,[285] who readily came; and the defection of that great politician, who had been the chief of David's counselors, and whose reputation for wisdom was so great that his opinion on most subjects was respected as that of an oracle, gave much strength to the cause of Absalom, and attracted to Hebron numbers of influential men from all quarters of the land.
[285] The Jews suppose that Ahithophel was the grandfather of Bathsheba, and that he had been alienated from David by his conduct toward her, and by the murder of her husband. But this is doubtful.
DAVID FLEES HIS THRONE
Alarmed at this formidable rebellion so close to him, David hastily took flight with his family and servants, leaving ten of his concubine-wives in charge of the palace. He paused outside the town to survey the faithful few who were prepared to follow his fortunes. Among them were the high-priests, Zadok and Abiathar, with the priests and Levites bearing the ark. These David directed to return with the ark into the city: “If I shall find favor in the eyes of Jehovah, he will bring me back, and show me both it and his habitation. But if he thus say, 'I have no delight in thee,' behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him.” From this and other expressions, similarly humbled and resigned to the dispensations of Providence, it appears that he recognized in this unnatural conspiracy against him a portion of the judgments which the prophet had been authorized to denounce against him for his iniquities in the matter of Uriah and Bathsheba. David also pointed out to the high-priests that they might render him much service by remaining in the city, from which they might secretly transmit intelligence and advice to him through their sons, Ahimaaz and Jonathan.
The whole of the two corps of body-guards (the Cherethites and Pelethites), as well as the six hundred Gathites, were ready to attend the king. The last-named body appear to have been native Philistines of Gath, whom David had attached to his service after the conquest of their country, and who had perhaps become proselytes.[286]
[286] Some, however, think it was a band of native Israelites, called Gathites in memory of the six hundred men who composed the band of followers who accompanied him when he sought refuge the second time in Gath and in which indeed the members of that body had been incorporated, and were replaced as they died off. But there is no good reason why such a body should be named from Gath rather than from other places or circumstance in which their history connected them with David. Besides, he obviously speaks to Ittai, their leader, as to a foreigner, who, with “his brethren,” could hardly be expected to incur distress for his sake.
The king attempted to dissuade Ittai, their leader, from attending him with his men, apparently feeling that, as foreigners and mercenaries, they might be rather expected to attach themselves to the rising fortunes of Absalom. But the answer of Ittai was decisive: “As Jehovah liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord shall be, whether in death or life, there also will thy servant be.”
HUSHAI SENT TO STOP AHITHOPHEL
Having taken this melancholy review of his followers, the king went on, “by the ascent of Mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, barefoot, and with his head covered; and all the people that were with him covered every man his head, weeping as they went up,” in token of extreme sorrow and humiliation. They had scarcely reached the summit before David was joined by an old and attached friend named Hushai, who had been one of his council, and who came with his clothes rent and dust upon his head, resolved to share in the misfortunes of his king. But David, well convinced of his attachment, did not think it fit to take him with his train, but rather begged him to go and join himself to Absalom, where he might render much better service by thwarting the counsels of Ahithophel (of whose defection he had just heard), and by conveying to him, through the two high-priests, information of whatever resolutions the revolters might take. Hushai readily accepted this office, and acquitted himself in it with such consummate tact and zeal, as not a little contributed to the final overthrow of Absalom and his party.
ZIBA'S TREACHERY
In his further progress David was joined by Ziba, the steward of Mephibosheth, who brought with him some necessary refreshments, and falsely and treacherously reported that his master remained behind, in the expectation that the turn which affairs were taking might result in the restoration of the house of Saul in his person. David, sensibly hurt at this treatment from one who owed so much to his kindness and gratitude, hastily told Ziba henceforth to regard as his own property the lands he had hitherto managed for Mephibosheth. Immediately after, an incident occurred to confirm the impression he had thus received; for near Bahurim, a village not far on the eastern side of Olivet, he was encountered by one of Saul's family, named Shimei, who dared to throw at him and his people volleys of stones, accompanied by the grossest abuse and bitterest imprecations against David as the author of all the wrongs and misfortunes of the house of Saul, which he said were now in the course of being avenged. All this unexpected insult David bore with meekness and patience; for when Abishai desired permission to punish the man on the spot, the king refused: “Behold,” he said, “my son, that came forth out of mine own bowels, seeketh my life, how much more now this Benjamite? Let him alone, and let him curse; for Jehovah hath bidden him. It may be that Jehovah will look upon mine affliction, and requite me good for his cursing this day.”
ABSALOM PUBLICLY RAPES
Absalom delayed not to march to Jerusalem. He was surprised and gratified to find there Hushai, the old friend of his father, and gave him a place in his council. In that council the voice of Ahithophel was still paramount and decisive. Perceiving that many held back or wavered from the apprehension that Absalom would hardly go to the last extremities against his father, and that possibly they might become the victims of another reconciliation between David and his son, this wily and unprincipled statesman advised that Absalom should not delay to remove this apprehension by such an act as would, in the sight of all the people, commit him beyond all hope of a pardon or reconciliation to the bad cause in which he was engaged. This was, that he should rear a pavilion on the top of the palace (to render it conspicuous from afar), into which he should, “in the sight of all Israel,” enter to the concubine-wives whom David had left in charge of the palace. This atrocious counsel was followed by Absalom, who thus unintentionally accomplished Nathan's prophecy.
HUSHAI COUNTERACTS AHITHOPHEL
The next advice of Ahithophel was that not a moment should be lost in crowning the success of the rebellion by the death of the king, without allowing him time to bring his resources into action. To this end he offered himself to pursue him at the head of twelve thousand men: “And I shall come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed, and terrify him; and while all the people who are with him flee, I will smite the king only. And I will bring back all the people unto thee, as a bride is brought to her husband (for only one man's life thou seekest); and the whole people shall have peace.” This really sagacious advice was much approved by Absalom, who perhaps considered that the guilt would rest upon Ahithophel; and to the other counsellors it also seemed good. Hushai was absent: and as a high opinion of his prudence was entertained, Absalom sent for him, and then told him what Ahithophel had advised, and asked whether he thought that advice good. Hushai at once saw that David was lost, if this plan were not frustrated. He therefore, with great presence of mind, adduced several specious arguments against it, and in favor of delay; dwelling upon the known valor of David and his friends, and the serious consequence of any check or failure in the first attack. The least repulse at such a juncture might be fatal to the cause of Absalom. The awe in which they all stood of the military talents and courage of the old king gave such effect to these suggestions, that the counsel of Hushai was preferred to that of Ahithophel. Of all this Hushai apprized the high-priests, and desired them to convey the information to David through their sons, together with his advice that not a moment should be lost in passing to the country beyond Jordan. This message was conveyed to David with some danger and difficulty by Jonathan and Ahimaaz, who had remained in concealment at Ain Rogel, outside the city. Neither the information nor advice was lost upon the king, who instantly marched to the Jordan, and passed over with all his people, so that by the morning light not one was left in the plain of Jericho.
Absalom's Sepulcher

AHITHOPHEL SUICIDE
The far-seeing Ahithophel deemed the cause of Absalom to be lost, when he knew that the counsel of Hushai was to be followed. His pride also could little brook the neglect of the advice which be had given, and which he had been used to see so reverently regarded. On both accounts, he abandoned the cause. He went to big own home; and while he was still wise enough to set his affairs in order, was mad enough to hang himself.
DAVID TO MAHANAIM
David established himself at the town of Mahanaim, which, it will be remembered, had been the royal seat of Ishbosheth, and which appears to have been chosen by him, and now by David, on account of the strength of its fortifications. To that place several principal persons of the country, who were well affected to the cause of David, brought a timely supply of provisions for himself and his men, together with tents, beds, and other necessary utensils. An aged person of Gilead, named Barzillai, particularly distinguished himself by his liberality on this occasion to the exiled king.
ABSALOM DEFEATED
When Absalom heard that his father was at Mahanaim, he crossed the Jordan with an army, and encamped in the land of Gilead. His army was under the command of Amasa, his cousin.[287]
[287] Zeruiah, the mother of Joab and Abishai, was a sister of David; Abigail, the mother of Amasa, was another sister. Whence Joab, Abishai, and Amasa, were all nephews of David, and cousins of Absalom; whence also it happened that commanders of the opposite armies were sisters' sons. See 1 Chronicles 2:16-17. But 2 Samuel 17:25, makes Abigail the grandmother of Amasa.
David, on his part, reviewed his force, which was but a handful of men as compared with the large host which Absalom brought into the field. He divided it into three battalions, the command of which he gave to Joab, Abishai, and Ittai the Gathite, intending himself to command the whole in person. But his people, aware that his valued life was principally sought, would not hear of it, but insisted on his remaining behind at Mahanaim, with a small reserved force. As the rest of his adherents marched out at the gate, David, who stood there, failed not to charge the commanders, in the hearing of the men, for his sake to respect the life of Absalom.
ABSALOM KILLED
A most sanguinary action was soon after fought in the forest of Ephraim, wherein the rebel army was defeated, with the loss of twenty thousand men, slain in the battle-field, besides a great number of others who perished in the wood and in their flight. Absalom himself, mounted upon a mule,[288] was obliged to flee from a party of David's men toward the wood, where the boughs of a thick oak having taken hold of his bushy hair, in which he took so much pride, the mule continuing its speed, left him suspended in the air. The pursuing soldiers, seeing him in this state, respected the order of the king, and forbore to smite him; but Joab, who happened to learn what had occurred, ran and struck three darts through his body. “Whatever were Joab's crimes, among them disloyalty was not to be reckoned. And now he gave the most unequivocal proof of his unshaken fidelity, in knowingly incurring the king's displeasure, to rid him of an obstinate rebel against his own father, whom no forgiveness could soften and no favors could bind, for whom Joab himself had so successfully interceded, and was likely therefore to have been otherwise well disposed toward Absalom from the mere circumstance of having served him.”[289]
[288] As he had for civil state plenty of horses and chariots, this shows that the Hebrews had not yet come to use either in war.
[289] Hales, ii. 349.
ABSALOM'S TOMB
As the death of Absalom ended the cause of war, Joab caused the trumpet to sound a retreat, to stop the carnage. The body of Absalom was taken down, and cast into a large pit, and covered with a heap of stones. This was not the end or the sepulcher expected by this ambitious man, when he reared for himself a fair monument “in the king's dale,” supposed the valley of Jehoshaphat, to keep his name in remembrance, because he had no sons, and therefore called it by his own name. In what manner we may venture to connect with Absalom the monument which now appears in the valley of Jehoshaphat bearing his name, is a matter on which a few words may be said in a note to this page.[290]
The partisans of Absalom were no sooner acquainted with the death of their popular chief than they fled, every man to his own home.
[290] Absalom's Sepulcher,--Of the monument represented in the engraving, a very good and satisfactory account has been given by Mr. Wilde, whose description we shall here transcribe--
“Descending to Gethsemane, we continued our course through the valley of Jehoshaphat by those remarkable monuments denominated the sepulchers of the patriarchs, which have been described, as well as drawn with great accuracy by most writers on Palestine. They are placed on the eastern side of Kidron, nearly opposite the southern angle of the present wall, and are some of the rarest and most extraordinary specimens of sepulchral architecture in existence. They are hewn out of the solid rock, with temple-like fronts. Some of them are enormous masses separated from the rest of the rock, and left standing like so many monolithic temples--monuments that record as well (if not more so) the labor and ingenuity of their constructors as those to whose memory they have been erected. The names assigned to these tombs are Jehoshaphat, James, Zechariah, and Absalom. This latter is the most elegant and tasteful piece of architecture in Judea, indeed, I might almost add, in the East, and viewed from the valley beneath, it is one of the most beautiful tombs that I have ever seen in any country. It consists of a mass of rock twenty-four feet square, separated from the rest, and standing in a small enclosure that surrounds three of its sides; it has four pilasters with Ionic capitals on each front, the two outer ones being flat, while those in the center are semicircular; the frieze is ornamented with tri-glyphs. The upper part is composed of several pieces, and surmounted by a small spire terminating in a bunch of leaves. There is a hole in the back immediately beneath the architrave [a part that rests on the capitals--RCM] through which I was enabled to climb into its interior. As the door by which it was entered was concealed, this opening was formed, in all probability, for the purpose of rifling the sepulcher of its contents. Within, it presents the usual form of eastern tombs, having niches at the sides for bodies. The general opinion of antiquaries is, that the Grecian architecture exhibited on the exterior of this rock is no test of the date of its construction; and, that it was added in later times, and a similar workmanship is visible in the other neighboring tombs. To it may be referred that rebuke of our Lord to the Pharisees, regarding their garnishing the sepulchers of the prophets. The tradition is, that this pillar, of which we have an account in the book of Samuel, was erected by Absalom. 'Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the king's dale; for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance; and he called the pillar after his own name; and it is called unto this day Absalom's Place.' Josephus also informs us that 'Absalom had erected for himself a stone marble pillar in the king's dale, two furlongs distant from Jerusalem, which he named Absalom's Stand, saying, that if his children were killed, his name would remain by that pillar.' I see no reason to doubt the tradition regarding this monument, although the historian has stated it to be a greater distance from the city than we now find it; but this is an error into which he often falls. In confirmation of its supposed origin I may add that it has ever been a place of detestation to the Hebrews; and every Jew who passes it by throws a stone at it to this day, so that a large cairn has formed round its base.
“The style of the whole of these four sepulchers, but especially the two I have more particularly noticed, is very peculiar, and is totally different from other tombs in this neighborhood. An inspection of them would lead us to believe that, at the time of erection, the Hebrews had not quite forgot the lessons on architecture which their forefathers had learned in Egypt. Around these mausolea, upon the sides of the rocks, and the slopes of Mount Olivet, there are hundreds of plain flat gravestones belonging to the Jews. All these have Hebrew inscriptions, some of which a Hebrew scholar resident in the city informed me were dated a short time subsequent to the Christian era”--Wilde's “Narrative of a Voyage.” p. 325-327.
Race of Messengers

DAVID GETS NEWS
Ahimaaz, the son of Zadok the high-priest, besought Joab to be allowed to bear the tidings of the victory to the king. But as Joab knew that David would regard as evil any tidings that included the death of his son, he, out of regard to Ahimaaz, refused his permission, but sent Cushi with the news. The other, afterward persisting in his request, was allowed to go also; and he went with such speed that, he outran Cushi, and was first to appear before the king, who sat at the gate of Mahanaim, anxiously awaiting tidings from the battle. The king and the father had struggled hard within him; the father conquered; and now his absorbing desire was to know that Absalom was safe. Aware of this feeling, Ahimaaz contented himself with reporting the victory, leaving to Cushi the less pleasant news; and he, when plainly asked, “Is the young man Absalom safe?” answered, with much discretion, “The enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee evil, be as that young man is.” On hearing this, “the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate; and as he went, thus he said, 'O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would to God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!'” And thus he remained in the chamber over the gate, with his head covered like a mourner, wailing for his son, and oblivious to all things else.
JOAB REBUFFS DAVID
His faithful adherents, who, by venturing their lives for him against fearful odds, had that day restored him to his throne, returning weary to the city, where they deserved to be greeted with thanks and praises, and triumphal songs, were quite confounded to learn this conduct of the king, and slunk into the town like guilty people--even like defeated men rather than conquerors. As very serious consequences might arise from this state of feeling, Joab went in to the king, and reproved him very sharply for his un-kingly conduct and untimely wailing, so calculated to discourage his truest friends, and insisted that he should go forth and show himself to the people, and speak kindly to them; “For,” said he, “if thou go not forth, not a man will remain with thee this night; and this will be worse to thee than any evil that hath befallen thee from thy youth until now.” The king could see the prudence of this counsel; and, therefore, curbing his strong emotion, he went down to the gate and sat there; on hearing which the people hastened to present themselves before him, and all was well.
DAVID RETURNS TO HIS THRONE
It might seem the obvious consequence of his victory, that David should repass the Jordan at the head of his conquering army, and resume his throne at Jerusalem. But the mass of the people had chosen another for their king, and by that act had virtually, to the extent of their power, deposed himself; and in such a case it would appear that the civil principles of the constitution required that he should, in a certain sense, be re-elected to the crown by the people, before he was entitled to regard himself as king over any but such as had continued to recognize him in that character. He therefore remained beyond Jordan until the tribes should decide to recall him. It seems there was a general disposition among the people to do this; they blamed one another for their rebellion against the king, and their remissness in recalling him; but all seemed to shrink from taking the first step in the matter. Judah, from its more intimate relations with David, might be expected to give the example; but Judah had been the headquarters of the rebellion; and it appears that Jerusalem was in the occupation of Amasa, who, from the extent to which he had committed himself in Absalom's rebellion, might judge his case desperate, and hence use all his influence to prevent the king's return. This state of affairs being understood by David, he sent to the high-priests, who were still in Jerusalem, charging them to remind the elders of Judah of the obligation which seemed peculiarly to devolve upon them, and also to gain in over Amasa by the offer to make him captain of the host in the place of Joab. This was attended with the desired result; and the elders of Judah sent back the answer, “Return thou, and all thy servants.” On receiving this invitation, the king marched to the Jordan; and the men of Judah, on their part, assembled at Gilgal, to assist him over the river, and to receive him on his arrival. Among these, and foremost among them, were a thousand men of Benjamin, headed by Shimei, and including Ziba with his fifteen sons and twenty servants. No sooner had the king passed the river in a ferry-boat,[291] than Shimei threw himself at his feet, acknowledged his former crime, but trusted that it would be forgiven in consideration of his being the first in all Israel (except Judah) to come forward with a powerful party, to promote his restoration. In consideration of this circumstance, and, what was a greater merit and benefit--that his party was from the tribe of Benjamin--it would have been a most ungracious act had the king been inexorable. He therefore pardoned him freely, although some of his officers were for putting him to death. For the like reason, probably--that is, for fear of disgusting the valuable party to which he belonged, and in which he had much influence--the king dared not entirely recall from Ziba the grant of Mephibosheth's lands which he had hastily made to him. When the son of Jonathan came to the Jordan to meet the king, he made it clear to him that he had been slandered by his steward, who had purposely neglected to provide him with the means of escape from Jerusalem when he purposed to join the king in his exile; so that, in consequence of his lameness, he had been obliged to remain behind; but, during his stay, had remained in retirement, and, as a mourner, had neither dressed his feet, trimmed his beard, nor changed his clothes. Under the circumstances, the king could only say, “Thou and Ziba divide the land;” to which the reply of Mephibosheth was worthy of the son of the generous Jonathan, “Yea, let him take all, since my lord the king is come again to his own house in peace.”
[291] The first and only time we ever read of a ferry-boat on the Jordan. The interpretation is, however, rather doubtful. Some make it a bridge of boats. Many interpreters prefer the sense of the Septuagint and Syriac, which, instead of, “And there went over a ferry-boat to carry over the king's household, and to do what he thought good,” read, “And these (the men of Judah and Benjamin) went over the Jordan before the king, and performed the service of bringing over the king's household, and in doing what he thought good.
BARZILLI
The rich old man of Gilead, Barzillai, who had so liberally ministered to the wants of David during his exile, came down to the Jordan to see him over. The king would fair have persuaded him to accompany him to Jerusalem, that he might have an opportunity of rewarding his services; but Barzillai returned the touching reply, “How long have I to live that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am this day eighty years old, and can I discern between good and evil? Can thy servant taste what I eat, or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing-men and singing-women? Why then should thy servant be yet a burden to my lord the king? Let thy servant just go over Jordan with the king; and then let thy servant, I pray thee, return, that I may die in my own city, near the grave of my father and my mother.” He however, recommended the fortunes of his son Chimham to the care of the king, who accordingly took that person with him to Jerusalem.
SHEBA'S REBELLION
From the result, we may doubt the wisdom of the separate appeal which David had made to his own tribe of Judah, inasmuch as his more intimate connection with that tribe, by birth and by having reigned over it separately for seven years, required the most cautious policy on his side, to prevent his appearing to the other tribes as the king of a party. Now, when he had crossed the Jordan, people from all the tribes flocked to him to join in the act of recall and restoration. But when they came to consider of it, the other tribes were not willing to forgive Judah for having been beforehand with them; or, in other words, that, instead of inviting them to join with themselves in the act of recall, the elders of Judah, by acting independently had enabled themselves to exhibit the appearance of more alacrity and zeal in the king's behalf, putting the other tribes to an unfavorable position by comparison. They alleged also their claim to be considered, on the ground that the ten tribes had tenfold the interest in the kingdom to that which the single tribe of Judah could claim. The answer of that tribe was the most impolitic and provoking that could be made. They alleged that seeing the king was of their own tribe, “their bone and their flesh,” they had a right to take a peculiar and exclusive interest in his recall. This quarrel grew so hot, as to strengthen the natural disposition of the tribes to regard David as the king of the Judahites; and but a slight impulse was wanting to induce them to leave him to his own party. This impulse was supplied by one Sheba, of the discontented tribe of Benjamin, who, perceiving the state of feeling, blew the trumpet, and gave forth the Hebrew watchword of revolt, “To your tents, O Israel!” and, in the name of the tribes, disclaimed all further interest in David, and bade defiance to his adherents. The effect of this move, perhaps, exceeded his expectation. On a sudden he saw himself at the head of all the tribes, except that of Judah, which had occasioned this defection, and which was left almost alone to conduct the king from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
JOAB DISMISSED AS GENERAL
This circumstance, perhaps, supplied to David an additional motive for performing his secret promise of making Amasa captain of the host; as that person appears to have been high in favor with the tribes. But most readers will feel displeased that Joab should at this juncture--after the brilliant displays which he had so lately afforded of his loyalty, courage, and prudence--be displaced in favor of the rebel leader; and even if judged by the principles of the East, that every stroke of policy by which something may be gained, is a good stroke, whatever interests or honor it sacrifices--even judged by this rule, the policy of this operation may very much be doubted, as, indeed, David himself had soon occasion to suspect. In fact, we agree with Hales, that in this David “seems to have acted rather ungratefully and unwisely, justifying Joab s reproach (on a former occasion), 'thou lovest thine enemies and hatest thy friends.' But the old grudge and jealousy which he entertained against 'the sons of Zeruiah,' who were above his control, and too powerful to be punished, as in Abner's case, combined with Joab's disobedience of orders in killing Absalom, which he could never forget, nor forgive, to the day of his death, seem to have got the better of his usual temporizing caution and political prudence.”
AMASA STOPS SHEBA'S REVOLT
Amasa, the new captain of the host, failed to assemble the forces of Judah, to act against Sheba, within the time which the king had appointed. Whether this arose from want of zeal or ability in him, or from the disgust of the Judahites at the removal of Joab from an office which he had filled with great distinction for twenty seven years, we know not. The king was in consequence obliged to order Joab's brother, Abishai, to take the command of the royal guards, and pursue Sheba without delay, before he could get into the fenced cities; for that otherwise he might raise a rebellion more dangerous than Absalom's. On this occasion Joab went with Abishai as a volunteer, followed by the company which formed his private command, for his zeal for his king and country rose paramount above his sense of the disgrace which had recently been inflicted on him. But when Amasa, with the force he had collected, joined them at Gibeon to take the command, Joab, under the pretext of saluting him as his “brother,” slew him, just as in a former time he had slain Abner. He then took the command himself, causing proclamation to be made--“He that favoureth Joab, and he that is for David, let him follow Joab.” He then pursued Sheba, besieged him in a town to which he had fled, demanded his head from the inhabitants, and crushed the rebellion. He then returned triumphant to Jerusalem, self-reinstated in his former station, of which David dared no more to deprive him.
FAMINE AND GIBEONITE VENGEANCE
About the thirty-fourth year of David's reign[292] commenced a grievous famine, which continued for three successive years. When the sacred oracle was consulted, it declared that this was on account of the un-atoned blood of the Gibeonites, whom Saul, in despite of the ancient treaty between that people and the Israelites, had cut off. This circumstance is not mentioned in the history of Saul; but, from the circumstances, it may perhaps be collected that Saul, finding the difficulty, to which we have adverted more than once, of forming a landed property for his family, where the land was already inalienably parceled out among the people, had, under pretence of zeal for the interests of his own people, formed the design of utterly destroying the Gibeonites, and, as far as he was able, executed that design, giving their lands and wealth to his relatives, by the survivors of whom they were still possessed. As it therefore appeared that the calamity which punished this breach of national faith could only be averted through satisfaction being rendered to the remnant of the Gibeonites, David sent to learn what satisfaction they required. They, actuated by the powerful principles of revenge for blood, to which we had such frequent occasion to advert, refused to take “silver or gold,” that is, a blood-fine, from the house of Saul, but demanded that execution should be performed upon seven members of that house. Seven members of Saul's family were accordingly sought out and given up to them. These were, two sons of Saul by his concubine Rizpah, and five grandsons by his eldest daughter Merab; Mephibosheth (who appears to have been the only other member of the family) was held back by David, on account of the covenant between him and Jonathan. The Gibeonites took these persons, and, after having slain them, hanged up their bodies upon a hill. This was against the law, which forbids that a body should be kept hanging after the going down of the sun on the first day. How long they thus remained, is not stated; but the famine had been occasioned by drought, and they hung there until the rains of heaven fell upon them. It was then made known to David that Rizpah, the mother of two of them, had spread sackcloth for herself upon the rock, and had there remained to protect the bodies from the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. Touched by this striking instance of the tenderness of maternal affection, David not only directed the bodies of these persons to be taken down, but he went (or sent to Jabesh Gilead, to remove from under the oak in that place, the bones of Saul and Jonathan, and deposit them, with all respect, in the family sepulcher at Kelah in Benjamin, together with the remains of these unhappy members of their house.
[292] So Hales; but some think that although the history relates the event in this place, it actually occurred to the early part of David's reign. And there are scone very probable reasons for this conclusion.
David has been censured by some writers for consenting to the demand of the Gibeonites; but the reader must perceive that the demand of the Gibeonites was one which the king could not refuse. They might have accepted the blood-fine; but this was optional with them, and they were perfectly entitled to refuse it, and to demand blood for blood. That the persons who were slain had themselves no hand in the crime for which they were punished, is more than we know; it is most likely that they were active parties in it, and still more that they reaped the profits of it. But even were this not the case, it is a well-known principle of blood-avengement that the heirs and relatives of the blood-shedder are responsible for the blood in their own persons, in case the avenger is not able to reach the actual perpetrator. That David had any interest in getting rid of these persons is equally absurd and untrue, for they made no pretensions to the crown themselves, nor did others make such pretensions for them. Even when the cause of Saul's house was most in want of a head, none of these persons appeared to advance their claims, nor did the warmest partisans of the cause dream of producing any of them in opposition to David.
DAVID ALMOST KILLED
Now that the Israelites had been weakened by two rebellions and three years of famine, the Philistines deemed the opportunity favorable for an attempt to shake off their yoke. They therefore renewed the war about the thirty-seventh year of David's reign, but were defeated in four engagements, and finally subdued. In all these engagements the Philistines exhibited their old passion for bringing gigantic champions into the field. In the first of these engagements, David himself, notwithstanding his years, shrunk not from the combat with the giant Izbi-benob; but he waxed faint, and was in danger of being slain, had not the brave and trusty Abishai hastened to his relief, and killed the gigantic Philistine. After this the people would no more allow David to go forth in person to battle, “lest he should quench the light of Israel.” This war completely extinguished the gigantic race to which Goliath had belonged.
CENSUS
The numbering of the people was one of the last and most reprehensible acts of the reign of David. In itself, an enumeration of the population might be not only innocent but useful; it was the motive by which the deed was rendered evil. This motive, so offensive to God, was obviously supplied by the design of forcing all the Israelites into military service, with a view to foreign conquests; a design not only pitiable in so old a man, but in every way repugnant to both the internal and external polity of the theocratical government. That the census was not, as in former times, taken through the priests and magistrates, but by Joab, as commander-in-chief, assisted by the other military chiefs, sufficiently indicates the military object of the census; and if they were accompanied by the regular troops under their command, as the mention of their “encamping” leads one to suspect, it may seem that the object was known to and disliked by the people, and that the census could only be taken in the presence of a military force. Indeed the measure was repugnant to the wishes of the military commanders themselves, and was in a peculiar degree abhorrent to Joab, who saw the danger to the liberties of the people, and gave it all the opposition in his power, and undertook it reluctantly, when he found the king adhered to his purpose with the obstinacy of age.
ISRAEL PUNISHED FOR CENSUS
At the end of nine months and twenty days, Joab brought to the king the return of the adult male population, which was 900,000 men in the ten tribes of Israel, and 400,000, in round numbers, in the tribe of Judah alone; being, together, 1,300,000. But the tribes of Levi and Benjamin were not included in this account; for Joab did not finish the enumeration, probably in consequence of some indications of the Divine displeasure in the course of it. According to usual proportions, the entire population of Israel at this time (without including these two tribes) could not well have been less than 5,200,000. The same marks of the Divine displeasure which prevented the completion of the census were probably those which awakened the slumbering conscience of David when the return was presented to him. He confessed before God that he had sinned, and prayed to be forgiven. The next morning it was made known to him, through the prophet Gad, that he had sinned indeed, and that his sin was not of such a nature as, with a due regard to the public principles of the government, could be allowed to pass without signal punishment. The choice of punishment was offered to him: seven years of famine, three months to be pursued by his enemies, or three days of pestilence. The humbled monarch confessed the choice to be hard, but fixed on the latter alternative, as the more equal punishment, and such as seemed more immediately under the direction of Heaven. Accordingly, Jehovah sent a pestilence, which in the course of two days destroyed 70,000 men, from Dan to Beersheba. It was then beginning to visit Jerusalem, when God was pleased to put a stop to it, at the earnest prayer of David. He beheld the commissioned angel stand in the thrashing floor of Araunah, a chief person among the Jebusites, as one preparing to destroy. And then he and the elders of Israel, all clad in sackcloth, fell upon their faces, and the king cried--“Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? Even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, O Jehovah, my God, be on me, and on my father's house; but not on thy people that they should be plagued.” This noble prayer was granted as soon as uttered. Through the prophet Gad, he was commanded to erect an altar, and offer sacrifices on that spot of ground where he had seen the destroying angel stand. The king accordingly bought the thrashing-floor from Araunah (who would willingly have given it free of cost) for fifty shekels of silver.[293] He then hastened to erect an altar, and to offer thereon burnt-offerings, and peace-offerings; and a miraculous fire which descended from the heavens and consumed the victims gave manifest proof of the Divine complacency, and so sanctified the spot as to point it out for the site of the future temple. The plague was stayed.
[293] As this was little more than thirty dollars of our money, and paid not only for the thrashing-flour, but for all that was upon it--cattle and implements--it seems to show that the value of the precious metals among the Hebrews at this time was much higher than it is now with us it is, however, possible that Araunah merely set a nominal price to satisfy the delicacy of the king, who would not sacrifice to God at the cost of other people. There is an apparent contradiction between the account in 2 Samuel 24:24, and 1 Chronicles 21:25, which says that David gave Araunah 600 shekels of gold by weight (which would be no less than $6,000 of our money); but this may be removed by the very probable supposition that after David knew, by the acceptance of the altar erected on the spot, that the temple was to be built in this place, be made a further purchase of a sufficient site for the additional and much larger sum just named.
ADONIJAH SEEKS THRONE
David was now advancing toward seventy years of age, and it appeared, from the declining state of his health, that his latter end could not be far off. This made Adonijah, his eldest surviving son, determine to take measures to secure the throne, which, had it been hereditary, would naturally have devolved to him. He doubtless knew that the crown had been assigned to his younger brother Solomon, and felt that this was perhaps his only opportunity of asserting what he conceived to be his natural rights. Adonijah was a very handsome man, and he had not at any time been balked or contradicted by his father, many of whose sorrows arose from his excessive indulgence of his children. He now, in apparent imitation of Absalom, set up a splendid retinue, and courted popularity among the people; and he succeeded in drawing over to his party Joab, who now at last forsook his old master, and Abiathar the high-priest, who had shared all his fortunes. One day, when matters seemed ripe for the further development of his designs, he made a grand entertainment at Ain Rogel, the fountain in the king's garden, to which he invited all the king's sons, with the significant exception of Solomon, and the principal persons in the state, with the exception of those who were known to be in Solomon's interest. There he was proclaimed king in the usual form--“Long live the king Adonijah!”--by the powerful party assembled.
SOLOMON ANOINTED KING
In this important emergency, Nathan the prophet sent Bathsheba to inform the king of these proceedings, and afterward came to himself and confirmed her account. By both he was reminded of his previous declarations that Solomon was to be his successor in the throne. The old king was roused to his wonted energy by this intelligence. He instantly appointed Nathan the prophet, Zadok the priest, Benaiah, and his own guards the Cherithites and Pelethites, who continued faithful, to take Solomon, and conduct him, mounted on the king's own mule, to the fountain of Gihon, and there to anoint and proclaim him king. The ceremony was thus attended with every circumstance which could give it authority in the eyes of the people, as indicating the intention of the king, which, it was now well known, was according to the will of God. There was the mule, which none but David had ever been seen to ride, and which, he having habitually ridden, none but a king might ride; there was the prophet who could only sanction that which he knew to be the will of God; there was Zadok, with the holy anointing oil from the tabernacle; and there were the guards, whom the people had been accustomed to see in attendance only on the king. The whole ceremony was also directed to take place on one of the most public and frequented roads leading from Jerusalem. The people were adequately impressed by all these considerations and circumstances; they heartily shouted, “Long live King Solomon!” The earth was, as it were, rent with the rejoicing clamor, mixed with the sounds of trumpets and of pipes. The party of Adonijah heard the noise; and when informed of the cause, they were all so struck with consternation at the promptitude and effect of this counter-move, that they dispersed immediately, and slunk away every man to his own house. Adonijah, seeing himself thus forsaken, and dreading nothing less than immediate death, fled to the refuge of the altar (erected on the thrashing-floor of Araunah). Solomon, being informed of this, sent to tell him that, if by his future conduct he proved himself a worthy man, he would not hurt a hair of his head, but at the same time assured him that any future instance of a disloyal intention would be fatal to him. On leaving the altar, Adonijah went and rendered his homage to the new king; after which he was ordered to retire to his own house.
DAVID CONVENES COUNCIL
The waning spark of David's life gleamed up once again before it finally expired. He availed himself of this to call a general assembly of the nation to ratify the coronation of Solomon, and to receive the declaration of his views and designs. The aged king was able to stand up on his feet as he addressed the assembly at considerable length. Perceiving from the revolts of Absalom and Adonijah, into which last some of his own staunchest friends had been drawn, that the principle of primogeniture was likely to interfere very seriously with the trite doctrine of the theocracy, he was careful to point out how the scepter had been assigned to Judah, not the firstborn of Jacob; and in the tribe of Judah, to the family of Jesse, not the first or most powerful of that tribe; and of the eight sons of Jesse, to David the youngest; and of the sons of David, to Solomon, at a time when there were living three (if not four[294]) older than he. He then proceeded to state the reasons which had prevented him from building to the Lord that temple which he had designed; and since his great work had been reserved for the peaceable reign of his son, he solemnly exhorted him and the nation to erect that temple according to the model which he had himself supplied, and to contribute liberally themselves toward it, in addition to the ample stores and materials which in the course of his reign he had been enabled to provide. He concluded with a most noble and devout thanksgiving to the Lord for all the mercies which he had shown to himself and to his people: and this, with the rest of his conduct on this occasion, shows that, whatever were now the bodily infirmities of the aged king, his better faculties were still in their prime.
[294] Chileab, the son of Abigail, is not historically named. The probability is that he died early.
SOLOMON ANOINTED AGAIN
Solomon was now again anointed king in the presence, and with the sanction of the assembly, by Zadok, who himself was now declared and recognized as sole high-priest, Abiathar being deposed from his participation in that dignity on account of his having gone over to Adonijah. It is impossible not to see in all this a strenuous assertion by David of the theocratical principles of the constitution, which rendered conclusive and final an appointment which the Divine King had made, or might make; and for this he deserves the more honor, as there is good reason to think that, for himself merely as a father, he would quite as soon have seen Absalom or Adonijah on the throne as Solomon. Of Abiathar it was quite necessary to make an example; for, as high-priest, he of all men ought to have been sensible of the obligation of the divine appointment, the maintenance of which had now become one of the most marked and grand prerogatives of Jehovah as king of the Hebrews, and the one which was calculated to keep his superiority present to the minds of the people. If this prerogative were allowed to be contemned by the high-priest, who should be its most strenuous supporter, the people would not be likely to hold it in much respect.
The enthusiasm manifested by the king for the object which for many years past he had so much at heart, kindled a corresponding zeal in the people, who presented liberal offerings for the great work which Solomon was destined to execute.
The following day was spent as a high festival. Holocausts of numerous steers, and rams, and lambs, were offered to Jehovah, and also abundant peace-offerings, on which the people feasted with great gladness, before they departed to their homes. This was, in fact, the coronation-feast of Solomon. He, being now twice anointed, and formally recognized by the people, mounted the throne of his father, and administered the government while David still lived.
WARNING ABOUT JOAB
It was not, however, long before David felt that his last hour approached. He then sent for his son, to give to him his last counsels. He first of all recapitulated the gracious promises which God had made to him and his posterity, and then reminded Solomon that these promises were only, in their first and obvious sense, to be understood as conditional, and depending upon their observance of the divine law; so that they might expect their prosperity to rise and fall in proportion to their obedience. He then proceeded to advise him as to the course he should take with reference to certain persons whom his own history has brought conspicuously under the notice of the reader. The predominating influence of the sons of Zeruiah had, throughout his reign, been very galling to himself, and he advised his son not to incur the same grievance, or to submit to it. As to Joab, he had, through policy, been pardoned for his part in Adonijah's rebellion, as David himself had, from like reasons, been compelled to overlook the crimes of which he had been guilty--such as the murders of Abner and Amasa; yet, should he again offend, Solomon was advised to bring him to condign[295] punishment, by which he would strike terror into evil doers, and, more than by any other act, evince the strength and firmness of his government.
[295] Fitting or appropriate punishment
WARNING ABOUT SHIMEI
The pardon which Shimei had asked, beside the Jordan, with a thousand men at his back, could not well have been refused, and David had no wish to annul it; but, aware of the character of this disaffected and dangerous Benjamite, he cautioned Solomon against him, and advised to keep him under his eye in Jerusalem, and watch him well that he might have no opportunity of stirring up seditions among the tribes; and should his conduct again offer occasion, David counselled the young king not to spare him, but at once rid his kingdom of so suspicious and malevolent a character.
David appears to have survived the coronation of Solomon about six months; for, although he reigned seven years and six months over Judah, and thirty-three years over all Israel, yet the whole duration is reckoned only forty years in 2 Samuel 5:4-5; 1 Chronicles 29:27. The interval he seems to have employed in the development, for the benefit of his son, of those plans and regulations which had long before been formed and considered in his own mind, and to which the due effect was afterward given by his son. These are fully stated in the first five chapters of the second book of Chronicles.
DAVID DIES
David was seventy years of age when “he slept with his fathers." At that time certainly the period of human life was reduced to the present standard; for, in recording his death at this age, the historian says, "He died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor." He was buried in a stately tomb, which, according to a touching custom, still prevalent in the East, he had prepared for himself, in that part of the city (on Mount Zion) which he had covered with buildings, and which was called after him, “the city of David.”