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EWALD'S
HISTOEY OF ISRAEL,
VOL. III.
r.OXUOX : PiUNTKIi BY
SI'OTTISU'OODK AND CO., NKW-STHKKT SQUAUK
AXU J'AKMAJIKXT S5TKEET
THE
HISTORY OP ISRAEL,
BY
HEINRICH EWALD,
Professor of the University of Gbttingen.
THE
EDITED BY
J. ESTLIN CARPENTER, M.A.
' The Old Testament will still be a New Testament to him who comes with a fresh
desire of information.' FULLER.
VOL. III.
The Rise and Splendour of the Hebrew Monarchy.
SECOND EDITION.
LONDON :
LONGMANS, GBEEN, AND CO.
1878.
D
,U45li /
EDITOE'S PEEFACE.
THE TWO VOLUMES of the History of Israel now offered
to the public represent the third volume of the German
edition, which appeared likely to prove somewhat cum
brous if reproduced in English without division.
The Editor has endeavoured to carry on the trans
lation as far as possible in the spirit of his predecessor.
As in the previous volumes, the ordinary orthography of
proper names has been preserved, with the exception of
the name Jehovah, in which case the form Jahveh has
been employed as the equivalent of the Hebrew JHVH.
The notation of chapters and verses is that adopted in
the printed Hebrew Bibles ; Avhere it differs from that of
our Authorised Version ('A.V.'), the English numbers
are inserted in brackets.
With some hesitation the Editor has also followed the
example of his predecessor in excluding from the text
and notes all allusions to contemporary German politics.
These references are exceedingly rare and very short,
and, though highly characteristic of Professor Ewald's
thought and style, they could have little intrinsic interest
for the English reader, arid throw no light upon the
history itself.
To each volume an Analytical Table of Contents has
been prefixed, and an Index added. The latter will be
found to contain references to the principal passages of
the Old Testament writings which are made the subject
of literary or exegetical comment.
vi EDITOR'S PEEFACE.
The Editor desires to express his great obligations to
those friends who have kindly assisted him by placing
passages of translation (amounting to nearly half the
present issue) at his disposal, and permitting him to
make such changes as seemed necessary to secure some
approximate unity of manner. Only those, perhaps, who
are acquainted with the intricacies of Professor Ewald's
style, will appreciate the difficulties of this task. The
section on the c Progress of Science, Poetry, and Litera
ture ' under Solomon (vol. iii. pp. 274—286) has been
contributed by Dr. Nicholson of Penrith.
The Editor also gladly avails himself of this oppor
tunity to render his most grateful acknowledgments to
Russell Martineau, Esq., M.A., whose counsel and aid
have been rendered the more valuable by the readiness
with which they have invariably been given. To him is
due, in particular, the verification of numerous references
which were inaccessible to the Editor.
LEEDS : September 1871.
NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION OF VOLS. III. id IV.
The Translation contained in these volumes has been carefully revised
by Mr. ERANCIS H. JONES, B.A., whose diligent scrutiny and exact
knowledge have removed many inaccuracies, and brought the English
rendering into completer harmony with the spirit of the original work.
Since the first edition was published, Prof. Ewald's volume on
Antiquities of Israel (Alterthiimer), so frequently referred to in the
notes, has been brought within reach of the English reader in a trans
lation by Mr. H. S. Solly, M.A. As the paging of the original is
given in the margin of the translation the references will serve for
either. In the Prophets of the Old Testament the references to the
English translation by Mr. J. F. Smith, now in course of publication,
are added in square brackets so far as it has yet appeared.
LOXDOX : April 1878.
CONTENTS
OF
THE THIRD VOLUME.
BOOK III.
THE BASILEO-THEOCRACY.
J'AGK
INTRODUCTION i
1. Need of an undivided human Authority 2
2. Peculiar Modifications of Monarchy by the side of the Theocracy . . 4
3. Diminution of the Violence inherent in Jahveism 8
4. The three Eras of Monarchy in Israel 12
SECTION I. FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY ; THE PERIOD OF SAUL
AND DAVID is
A. SAUL AND HIS HOUSE 15
I. SAUL'S ELECTION AS KING 15
1. His first Interview with Samuel . . . . .18
2. The three Signs 20
3. Mizpeh and Gilgal 23
II. SAUL'S PROPHETIC KEJECTION 2S
1. The War of Michmash 29
2. The Amalekite Campaign 36
3. The Breach between Saul and Samuel . . . .40
III. THE FALL OF SAUL AND HIS HOUSE 48
1. Saul's Struggle after a higher Life 48
2. Death of Saul: Accession of Ishbosheth . . .51
3. Length of Saul's Eeign 52
B. DAVID 54
His RELATION TO HIS AGE 54
I. THE EAELY HISTORY OF DAVID 67
1. His Introduction to Saul 67
2. Saul's Jealousy of him . . . • • • ' °
3. David and Jonathan 78
4. His Flight to Gath
II. COMMENCEMENT OF DAVID'S INDEPENDENT KULE . . . •
1. As Freebooter on the Confines of Judah ....
1) Life in the Wilderness 86
2) His Magnanimity towards Saul • '
3) Nabal and Abigail • ^
VOL. in. a
Vlll CONTENTS OF
SECTION I. FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY ; THE PERIOD OF SAUL
AND DAVID — continued.
PACK
2. As Philistine Vassal at Ziklag «9
1) His settlement at Ziklag 101
2) His Dismissal by Achish : Pursuit of the Amalek-
ites 103
3) Battle of Mount Gilboa : Death of Saul . .106
3. As King of Judah 109
1) Eelations with Saul's House: Abner reconquers
Israel from the Philistines 109
2) War between Israel and Judah . . . .113
3) Fall of Abner : Murder of Ishbosheth . . .115
III. DAVID AS KING OF ISRAEL 120
1. The Internal Organisation of the Kingdom . . .121
1) Conquest and Fortification of Jerusalem . .123
2) Removal of the Ark to Jerusalem .... 125
3) Treatment of Saul's Descendants . . . .135
2. David's Wars against the Heathen . . . .137
1) His Military Organisation 139
2) Survey of his Wars 146
a.) With the Philistines and Amalekites . . 146
b.) With the Moabites 149
c.) With the Arameans, Ammonites, and Edomites 150
3) The Census . 160
3. David's Temptations . . . . . . .163
1) His Polygamy 165
2) Consequences of his Intrigue with Bath-sheba . 165
3) Conspiracy of Absalom . . . . . .170
4) Rebellion of Absalom 178
5) Restoration of David and Revolt of Slieba . .189
4. Close of David's Career 195
1) His Prophetic Spirit 195
2) General Results 199
a.) Outward Stability and Power of Israel . . 199
b.) In ward Unity secured by the Basileo-Theocracy 199
c.) Spiritual Effect of the Monarchy on the Nation 201
d.) Personal Foundation of the Messianic Hopes 202
SECTION II. THE SPLENDOUR OF THE MONARCHY; THE AGE OF
SOLOMON 204
I. THE BEGINNING or SOLOMON'S REIGJN 208
1. His Policy on his Accession 208
1) Attempt of Adonijah to seize the Throne . . 209
2) Treatment of Abiathar, Joab, and Shimei . .212
2. Attempts of foreign Nations to throw off the Supremacy
of Israel 216
1) Revolt of Edom under Hadad . . . .217
2) Subjugation of Rezon, King of Damascus . . 218
3) Rising of Gozer and Hamath .... 218
3. The Two Paths open to Solomon . . . . 221
THE THIKD VOLUME. IX
SECTION II. THE SPLENDOUR OF THE MONARCHY; THE AGE OF
SOLOMON — continued.
FAGS
II. THE ORGANISATION AND GREATNESS OF SOLOMON'S GOVERN
MENT 224
1. The Sacred and Royal Buildings 226
1) The Temple 226
a.) David's Preparations 226
b.) Forced Service of the Canaanites . . . 229
c.) Site of the Temple 230
d.) Preliminary Works 231
e.) The Sacred House 235
f.) The Furniture of the Sanctuary . . .241
g.) The Sacred Grove 245
h.) Dedication of the Temple . . . .245
i.) Reorganisation of the Levites . . . 247
2) The Palace 248
3) Solomon's other Works 251
a.) The Water-supply of Jerusalem . . . 252
b.) His Gardens 256
c.) His Towers on Lebanon .... 257
2. Measures for the Security and Prosperity of the Realm 257
1) Fortifications and Armaments . . . .258
2) Development of Commerce 260
a.) By Land 261
b.) By Sea 262
c.) The Royal Revenues 264
3. Administration and Manners of the Monarchy under
Solomon and his Successors .... 266
1) His Ministers 266
2) Introduction of Foreign Manners . . . .271
4. Progress in Science, Poetry, and Literature . . . 274
III. THE RESULTS OF SOLOMON'S REIGN 286
1. His Royal Pomp and Royal Debts . . . .291
2. His Position towards Religion and the Priesthood . 296
3. His Relation to Prophetism 299
4. The New Importance of Jerusalem .... 305
5. The Disruption of the Kingdom of David ; the Begin
ning of its Decline 308
IV. LATER REPRESENTATIONS OF SOLOMON
INDEX 321
HISTORY OF ISEAEL.
BOOK III.
THE BASILEO-THEOCRACY.
INTRODUCTION.
HAPPY the nation which has preserved from the days of its un*
corrupted youth such inner strength and courage, that it is
able, at the right moment, when the Divine signal is given, to
add to its former blessings a new one now indispensable if it
is to continue to exist in power and honour ! Many a nation,
indeed, perceives in dim visions some such blessing, indispens
able yet unattained, like a pure gift of heaven on the very eve
of bestowal, while some of its members long for it with con
suming passion ; but while it is gazing and longing the autumn
passes away; and it seeks in vain, amid the storms of the
wintry days that follow, to reach a blessing which it feared the
toil of gathering in at the harvest time. But a nation which is
not afraid of the task of making a change which is clearly
recognised as necessary, and of carrying it out, not merely
experimentally, but with full renunciation of all prejudices
opposed to it and willing submission to all the sacrifices re
quired for its accomplishment — such a nation, without losing
any substantial benefit of the past, will triumph over all com
plications, renew the strength of its youth, and feel that it has
drawn a fresh breath, and is able to cope with the highest
problems of hum an existence. For nations do not die, like in
dividuals, from mere exhaustion of their powers, after a calcul
able term of years. As a nation is capable on the one hand
only of moral decay, so on the other hand, if the higher religion
be once perfected within it, and be not suffered to die out again,
it may thereby be preserved to pass through an indefinite suc
cession of such new developments, and, participating in every
VOL. III. B
2 THE BASILEO-THEOCRACY.
Divine and human blessing1, may continue to exist upon the
earth until its final doom is spoken by Him who created it.
This crisis of transformation was successfully reached by
Israel, before the perfected religion appeared in its midst, but
while it was still striving after it, and was already blessed in that
healthy and vigorous endeavour. By means of this change the
nation not only overcame the most obvious dangers of imminent
downfall, but rose in a comparatively short time to a remarkable
stage of higher development, and put forth blossoms whose
fruit, long after very different powers were at work to under
mine the community, served for the maintenance and increase
of the good already won, and finally yielded the most glorious
results which the soil was capable of producing during the
entire course of this history.
1. The great requisite which had at length become indis
pensable was an undivided and firmly established human
authority within the already existing community of God. The
various disasters of the last centuries had no doubt contributed
with ever-increasing and more widely spread force to make the
people conscious of the necessity of this innovation ; and
throughout the nation the right moment was now come to pre
pare them to accept it. But it remained to be seen whether
the nation was willing, readily and permanently, to undertake
the new burdens and duties required by the human sovereignty
when it should be once firmly established, or whether it had
simply resolved to set up a Monarchy experimentally, to look
to it for protection, and to abandon it again to decay if it
made new demands upon the people or did not immediately
fulfil all that was hoped from it ; and this could only be proved
by the actual trial of the new institution. There is a most
powerful charm in the feeling of greater independence and
freedom of movement in a land subject to no very stern rule,
especially when it has the support of deep-rooted habit in addi
tion to a public law with a standing of centuries, which can
always be appealed to, and which cannot be abrogated, but at
the utmost supplemented.
And though very possibly one class of the nation, or
portion of the country, may give in a close adhesion to the new
constitution, and secure its own prosperity in so doing, yet the
question remains, Will all ranks and districts — even those
from whom the change takes at first more than it gives to
them — at once stand unanimously by the new constitution, and
actively resist every inducement to abandon it again, whatever
dangers threaten it ?
INTRODUCTION. 3
And if thus the mass of the people are in favour of the new
constitution, or at least oifer no stubborn resistance to it, there
still remains another question, Will the higher powers also, by
whom the previous constitution was formed and defended be
able to accommodate themselves to the new without sweeping
away what is best in the old ; and further, will these powers,
without whose active cooperation no permanent change can be
successfully effected, be ready to acquiesce of their own free will
in the necessity of reform, and to conduct it to a prosperous
issue, or at least to secure to it an unimpeded course ? These
higher powers were then, indeed (as, properly speaking, they
always are), the abstract truths themselves, which had already
been so powerfully demonstrated, those, namely, upon which, at
the very commencement of the history of Israel, the community
had been formed and the Theocracy founded, and which ought
to animate all members of the community, and to be defended by
all. But such superhuman truths rarely have sufficient vitality
in the masses, and at this period no longer retained the same
immediate vigour that they had in the days of Moses and of
Joshua. The consequence was that the actual higher powers
lay rather in the classes specially entrusted with the charge of
those truths — less, however, among the members of the priestly
order, already somewhat degenerated, than with the newly
aspiring class of prophets, many or few as these latter may
have been. Now, however high we may suppose this prophetic
class to have stood in nobleness of spirit, and willingness to
resign all the external advantages accruing to it from the
previous constitution, yet (precisely because that previous
constitution itself aspired to the infinite ideal of a pure Theo
cracy, and realised it so far as it went) it might still hesitate to
assist in setting up by the side of it a strict and permanent
human sovereignty. For it might easily appear as if precisely
what was greatest and most characteristic in Israel as God's
people, its pride and distinction among the nations would thus
be lost.
Nor was this a mere illusion. As a matter of fact very
serious dangers of many kinds awaited the easy security and
free action of the ancient religion, if a human monarchy were
to be established which from the first deliberately and definitely
excluded the religion of Jahveh itself from its borders.1 And
1 What is said with regard to this historians of the kings), exactly hits the
point, 1 Sam. viii. 4-22, x. 18 sq, xii 7- important truth of the actual state of
20 (although, as will be shown hereafter, things.
first expressed in this manner by the later
s2
4 THE BASILEOTHEOCRACY.
thus from the inmost sanctuary of the existing religion itself a
spirit stubbornly bent on holding exclusively to the old institu
tions might break forth into violent opposition to the new
power which it was proposed to establish for the sake of uniting
all more firmly together. Or perhaps tolerating the new insti
tutions for a short time, this spirit might at each real or
imaginary offence rise in exasperation against them, and seek
to restore the former state of things. And thus from this very
influential quarter religious prejudices might present a more
serious obstacle than any offered by the people.
And even if it were possible at last to overcome all such
external obstacles, a still greater arose in the new institution
itself, which was now to be established as an unavoidable neces
sity. For no monarchy like any that had hitherto existed in
the ancient world could grow up here — at any rate none ought
to do so — on a soil where the law of the ancient religion and
constitution reigned; for this religion had sprung into vigorous
life, in great part out of direct opposition to everything which
then passed for human monarchy, and could not, therefore,
recognise such a monarchy without utterly denying and re
nouncing itself. Here, therefore, the experiment had to be
made in what manner, and to what extent, the Monarchy
which had become necessary, could be furnished with sufficient
strength for all salutary action, and yet be brought into agree
ment with the higher religion which forbade the exercise of all
human caprice. And it was necessary that all this should be
clearly understood and expressly decided at the very beginning,
before the new power which was to have the decision in all
external matters was fully established and developed, if a really
successful cooperation of the new power with the former powers
of the nation and community was to be brought about. Any
unsuccessful attempt 011 either side, unless fully retracted, might
soon have overthrown all again.
2. Such were the obstacles which might oppose the suc
cessful introduction of this indispensable change which involved
the entire transformation of the previous constitution. And if
for a, considerable period even a few of these obstacles could be
successfully overcome, results of great value would necessarily
ensue, and an entirely new turn would be given to the whole
history of the community of Jahveh, Its form of government
could not, indeed, any longer remain so simple as it had hitherto
been. The Monarchy was added to the Theocracy, not in order
to subvert it, or gradually supersede it, but to share its task
and to supply the wants which it could not satisfy. Hence, as
INTRODUCTION. 6
it was not to call in question the principle of the Theocracy,
but rather to exist side by side with it, upon the same principle,
and to cooperate with it, it was bound to leave untouched the
necessary living instruments which the Theocracy employed at
the time, that is pre-eminently the Prophets. This resulted
in the formation of what we may call a mixed constitution
and sovereignty ; and the pure Theocracy became a Basileo-
Theocracy. But the formation of a mixed rule of this kind was
the very best thing possible at that time. For generally the
best form of constitution in any kind of community is that by
which no power, whose free action may be beneficial to the
whole, is hampered, still less excluded; in which rather all
possible powers for good, although at times apparently, or even
actually, opposed to one another, are yet restrained by the im
passable barriers of what is necessary, and therefore good, for
all, and cooperate for the good end in view in such a manner
that the one-sidedness of each is corrected by the others, and
thus the best possible result is attained. Now, in as much
as the previous Theocracy excluded temporal royalty, thereby
losing what can with difficulty be dispensed with, it inevitably
acquired in course of time a certain immobility and one-sided-
ness, and became less capable of fulfilling its own task, as the
preceding history has shown. And thus the entrance of
Monarchy upon the scene soon surprises us by the great in
crease of variety, movement, and vigour which it produces ;
and while the two strongest powers of the state, by their com
bination, alternately hostile and friendly, kindle a new life in
the higher departments, such a fresh energy soon penetrates
the lower also, that Israel in a short time makes up for the ap
parent delay of centuries. As in the merely human dominion
(the State) nothing but mutual cooperation between king and
people can draw forth all the good which it is capable of pro
ducing; so even a purely divine dominion (a Church), if it is to
exist among men, cannot develop itself freely without a like
reciprocal action of the human and the divine king. For as
the king of a temporal state can desire, as such, only the good
of his people, and yet must come to an understanding with his
people in order that he may carry out this object, secure against
possible obstacles and misapprehensions ; so in what we call
the Theocracy, or divine dominion, there is properly no other
active power than a pure divine truth desiring to communicate
with the human sphere that belongs to it and to draw men to
itself, and yet, in order that this may be more successfully ac
complished, the human element itself must be able to rise up
6 THE BASILEO-THEOCRACY.
vigorously and independently before the divine, in order that
it may be at last the more entirely pervaded by it, and become
the more like it.
Hence it becomes at once apparent how different were the
demands made upon a king in this community from those
made in any other nation of antiquity. To maintain all the
best powers and influences of the kingdom in unity and sub
ordination, not crippling their salutary action, yet permitting to
none any absolute, i.e. counter-regal, exercise of authority, lies
in the very essence of royal power as such. Should it at first
fail to comprehend the full scope and necessity of its activity, it
will soon in the course of its development become conscious
of its proper function. The king of Israel, no less than the
heathen princes, was necessarily to be endowed with true royal
authority to judge, command, and compel throughout the whole
kingdom ; in token of which, he too received the staff (sceptre),
and was crowned. If similar distinctions had been already
borne by other rulers in Israel,1 they all assumed in him a
higher significance, proportioned to his higher dignity. But
since he furthermore received the unction 2 (hitherto confined
to the High-Priest), from the hands of the High-Priest himself,
or some prophet more influential still, the symbols of all high
offices previously existing in the community are centred in him,
and the whole power of state and people culminates in him
alone. More important, however, than all these external
symbols, is the fact that, as simply the c Chosen of Jahveh,' 3
or as the 'Anointed of Jahveh,' he has an inviolable sanctity
and majesty, such as no other personage of the community
possesses. In the community of the true God, sanctity has a
meaning more sublime, pure, and strict than anywhere else in
the ancient world; and its lofty splendour now becomes the
king's defence and shield, his majesty and pride. Thus the
crime of treason against Majesty, which in the old pure Theo
cracy was possible against Jahveh only,4 becomes at once
capable of extension to him also. He becomes the only mortal
who can be crowned with a sanctity which has hitherto been
regarded as pertaining exclusively to the Immortal.5
But now in this community, face to face with the human king,
1 See the Alterthilmer, p. 342, 376. 4 Vol. ii. p. 161.
2 See more fully in the Alterthumer, 5 Hence the very peculiar form in which
p. 319, 123. the idea of this crime is expressed, ' to
3 As even Saul is designated in ordinary blaspheme God and the king ; ' where we
discourse, 2 Sam. xxi. 6 ; cf. 1 Sam. x. see plainly that the original stricter con-
24. David himself, according to 1 Sam. ception is only expanded : 1 Kings xxi.
xvi. 8-13, has no higher title belonging 10, 13; cf. my Alterihumer, p. 252 sq.
t<}. that period.
INTKODUCTION. 7
stands the Theocracy, a something still higher and inviolable,
with all its long-standing sacred laws and institutions, and
still continuously revealing itself through prophets and their
word, valid as a Divine command. Thus command confronts
command; and though sometimes these two distinct powers may
easily understand each other, and remain in peace side by side,
they may at other times turn the more violently against each
other. If then the royal power would attain its own proper
completeness, without subverting the intrinsic truth of the
Theocracy, it must not content itself with a position equal, still
less subordinate, to the prophetic, and least of all must it
attempt simply to annihilate it ; but must appropriate to itself
whatever in the prophetic power is true and necessary. The
discord between the two rules is then composed, and the true
human king of such a state is found. And human monarchy
once established within the Theocracy implied strictly the ex
pectation of one who would fulfil all the conditions of this
monarchy, and become its ideal man, and the true King (or
Messiah) of the community. We know, with sufficient cer
tainty that every king of Israel, immediately upon his acces
sion, was pledged to the existing fundamental laws of the
kingdom ; in token of which he was required, when the crown
was placed upon his head, to lay above it a written copy of
the law, and with these sacred symbols to show himself to the
people, before he could be anointed.1 Thus he was not to be a
king ruling arbitrarily, as in heathen kingdoms, where at most
a few nobles, the populace, or a very imperfect oracular system
limited his power. Here, if he desired to be really king, it
could only be through his entering more fully than anyone else
into the mind and spirit of Jahveh, and hence becoming the
proper human ruler in the midst of the Theocracy. If he
enters fully into that mind and spirit, he reaches the highest
perfection of which human nature is capable ; a weak being
like man becomes, through the powerful operation of Divine
grace, himself the strongest and worthiest instrument for
Divine purposes.2 And even if this true and infinite mission
1 If we knew this only from the words inducted ; but we see from this account
of the Deuteronomist, Deut. vii. 18-20, it that they were anointed, like the High-
might seem doubtful with regard to earlier Priest, with oil taken from the Tabernacle,
times ; but the description in 2 Kings xi. i.e. the Sanctuary. Eespecting the custom
12 (2 Chron. xxiii. ]1), so much more of laying a written document on the head,
graphic, though merely brief and inci- comp. my observations on Job xxxi. 36.
dental, admits of no dispute. That no 2 This, which is the best that can be
mention is made in Solomon's case, in the said respecting the monarchy of the true
account 1 Kings i. 38 sq., of either the community, is expressed in the passage
law or the crown, proves at most only 1 Sam. xv. 17.
that his successors were the first to be so
8 THE BASILED -THEOCRACY.
was not at once clearly recognised, and when recognised was
misunderstood or but imperfectly realised by many ; nay, if even
the visible monarchy in Israel passed away without achieving
it ; yet it could not fail, when the right time came, to be under
stood and striven after with all possible force. If all previous
kings had failed to fulfil what was hoped from them, the advent
of the true king (Messiah) could not but be constantly looked
forward to, when once the basis of this hope was recognised. Of
such incalculable influence, even upon the remotest times, was
the present crisis ; and so certain is it, that the government of
Israel, having had from the period of its institution under
Moses, a wholly different object from that of other kingdoms,
could never again deviate, in any great crisis of its history,
from its true and lofty aim.
3. We perceive accordingly, that this great crisis of the
history, as soon as its immediate aim is attained, presses on at
once to a new development of a still loftier character. Although
the first or Mosaic epoch had indelibly fixed a truth capable of
infinite development, which was to be the soul of the entire
history of Israel, it could at first obtain general acceptance
only under a most rigid external form, which by its very
rigidity at length brought about the freer form which we have
now to consider, in this second great era of the history. Simi
larly the nation, in this era, as soon as its immediate tem
poral and material object is attained, is found to have a
further aim ; and the attainment of this end involves a still
greater crisis, through which the nation must pass before it
can reach that ultimate goal, which it has now for the first
time divined in the distant future — the Messianic Era. We
here approach, therefore, the grand central point, and the
strongest motive power of the whole history ; where its threads
combine as in one firm knot, where the grand connexion of its
greater or lesser crises is most plainly discernible ; and where,
in fact, the loftiest spiritual effort and the most unwearied
exertions reach their highest possible climax.
For, unquestionably, if monarchy in Israel did not now
attain its highest end and become the ideal of all human
monarchy, and if, during its course, men learnt more and
more distinctly to hope for that ideal only in a future kingdom,
the ultimate cause of this must be sought in a want still un-
supplied in the ancient religion itself. By its reconciliation
with human monarchy, that religion had, at this very moment,
filled up the first defect which 1 had marked it from the com-
1 According to ii. p. 115 eq., 150 sq.
INTRODUCTION. 9
mencement of its temporal existence. Now just when this
was corrected, the institution of the monarchy at once revealed
the second defect which 1 had also adhered to it from the be
ginning — that of violence. Every religion based upon oracles
as the immediate Divine word and command, involves an
element of violence, — grasping, compelling, ruling by mere
force. This was especially true of Jahveism, as proceeding
from the purest and highest prophetic power, and still deriving
thence its continual growth and progress; and the prophetic
function had been hitherto the only arbitrarily commanding
and irresponsible autocracy in this community. But monarchy
tends no less to absolutism, though from a distinct cause and
in a different way ; viz. as being in itself the highest earthly
force for maintaining national unity and strength. With this
aim, it must necessarily seek to keep all the other forces and
powers of the nation, that of prophecy included, united in sub
ordination to the national aim. The fact, therefore, that vio
lence still clung to the very life of the ancient religion, which
in its turn repudiated it on principle in connexion with the
state,2 and, by demanding that all should be equal before Jahveh
and serve Him alone, condemned all human self-will and one
sided violence, exposed monarchy in Israel to its most dangerous
temptation. In view of prophetic violence, it ought to keep
clear of everything of the sort, although itself the highest tem
poral authority, armed with full powers of coercion and punish
ment ; what then shall be its guiding star, and how shall it hold
its own ? Here was the field for inevitable, severe, and obstinate
conflicts with the prophetic power ; which had not only been
the original creative agency in this community, but also, on
this long-settled basis of true religion, had a strong, inex
tinguishable feeling, tha.t human force, come from whom it
might, even from the king himself, was irreconcilably antago
nistic to Jahveism, and could never be sanctioned. This,
then, first enables us to perceive why monarchy in Israel
attained its true object with such extraordinary difficulty, and
what were its severest temptations and dangers, sufferings and
pains. But the fact that the defect of the ancient religion
showed itself here in its most essential and sensitive point,
rendered it possible, at the same time, to make the most correct
estimate of its nature, and the most profound conjectures as
to the best means of its removal.
The advance of this great epoch of the history, as compared
1 According to ii. p. 52, 113 sqq., 421 sq. 2 See for instance 1 Sam. ii. 9cxvi. 7.
10 THE EASILEO-THEOCKACY.
with the preceding, is shown also in this — that the violence
inherent in Jahveism from the very beginning, and pervading
in manifold ways every movement and ramification of the
national life, is in this second stage in one important point
considerably diminished. As in the first period the great legal
freedom of the people, being still without any limitation from
human authority, degenerated more and more into license, self-
will, and separation of individuals, cities, and tribes, the better
spirit of the whole true community could often only maintain
itself by the most violent expedients. The severe chastisement,
and even the destruction, of recusant cities and tribes was of
very common occurrence.1 The spirit and will of Jahveh Him
self appeared most fully to sanction it ; and for the most part
it was only after violent and stringent measures against power
ful individuals, that any long period of quiet and respect was
restored for the community at large. Now, in proportion
as the monarchy advances to a higher and a purer standard,
this species of violence disappears ; sweeter repose and for
longer periods revisits Israel, and single cases of internal
dissension, insubordination, and revolt, become less formidable.
The whole visible penal authority being now centred in the
king alone, encompassed by a constant majesty and dread, is
coextensive with the whole community ; and this is, in fact,
the main cause of the greater peace and prosperity of the
times which followed. And, since the offences and transgres
sions of individuals now no longer appear directed immediately
against the will of the mysterious Invisible, but rather against
that of the king, a milder spirit becomes possible in judgment
and punishment ; even the rigid law of which he is the living
guardian, may, through him, be made more human. To him
belong all authority and all punishment ; but in this way
certainly the ancient tendency to violence becomes his own
greatest temptation ; and in him, as temporarily the most arbi
trary power which Jahveism or any other government could
produce or endure, it has now to be distinctly shown whether
such a power still rules in Israel, and what fruits it bears.
Violence, it is true, is the dismal shadow which Monarchy
everywhere throws, and by which its own course is so often
hindered and perplexed. But in actual history, the result
depends upon the special object towards which its full energy
is directed, or with which it comes into severest collision. For
even the highest power in the state, being human, neither can
1 See the numerous examples, ii. pp. 353, 377 sq., 387, 304 sq.
INTRODUCTION. 11
nor ought to escape supervision and scrutiny from other benefi
cent powers. If it should attempt to do so, monarchy makes its
own arbitrary will and violence its law and life, becomes the very
opposite of what it should be, and thereby brings about its own
destruction sooner and in ways more perilous to the general weal.
Thus every good and necessary power may become a means
of such supervision, and act as a check upon the dangerous
encroachments of royalty : be that power knowledge, or the
Church, or the people organising itself as a consultative body;
be it a foreign or a domestic power. Christian monarchy,
which can now look back clearly to the perfect King and Lord,
should by this time have learnt, in every nominally Christian
land, to fear no correct examination or scrutiny on the part
of any such power. Knowledge, however, as will afterwards
appear, first became an important power in Israel in the course
of that tranquil development which the monarchy brought with
it; and a Christian church was, from the time of Moses, only
in the mere dawn of its existence. It is true that estates of
the realm, i.e. the people assembled in an organised body to
consult and decide respecting all the most important concerns
and laws of the land, existed in Israel from very early times,1
and were not to be in any way superseded by the monarchy,
but on the contrary, continued throughout the whole period
of royalty in Israel ; 2 and how the public voice then resounded
in that national assembly, is sufficiently shown by the many
striking imitations preserved in poetic language.3 But these
estates (so far as we can yet discover) always maintained their
simplest form, as representatives of the people, qualified only
by birth or office, or Elders.4 As unchangeable powers, they
might easily occupy a dangerous position towards the go
vernment, and they were therefore assembled as rarely as
possible. During the period when the monarchy was rising
in all its first strength, they spontaneously withdrew into the
background ; and probably met of their own accord only at the
commencement of every reign, to treat with the new king, and
1 See my Alterthiimer, p. 282 sqq. alludes very distinctly to the customs and
2 See 1 Sam. x. 17 sqq.; xi. 14 sqq.; speeches of the great national assembly,
2 Sam. ii. 4; v. 1-3 ; 1 Kings xii. 1 sqq. ; to which the poets have beeii indebted
2 Kings xi. 13 ; xxiii. 1 sqq. ; Jer. xxxiv. for their first idea.
8-10; such words also of Isaiah as iii. 4 There is no proof whatever that even
14, cf. verse 2, are explicable only if a portion of the members were chosen
« the Elders of Israel ' were responsible, each time by the people for one single
conjointly with the king, and in some re- assembly ; though, in the absence of more
spects more than he, for the welfare of the particular information respecting separate
kingdom. periods in these five centuries, we must
8 Ps. 1. for instance, or Ps. Ixxxii , form our judgments with some reserve.
12 THE BASILEO-THEOCRACY.
to ratify his accession. It is not till towards the end of the
whole period of the monarchy, that they seem, from reasons
hereafter to be explained, to have enjoyed, with the general
national life, a freer development. Far more independent and
matured was the Prophetic power, which confronted the mo
narchy in Israel from the very beginning with a purity and
strength unknown in any other ancient state. That power on
which the very foundations of the national existence had
been based, was now fully capable of comprehending within
itself all true spiritual knowledge and force. The very rise
of this monarchy would have been impossible without most
devoted cooperation from the prophetic power, yet, after its
establishment, the latter would by no means think of sinking
its own pretensions. The action and reaction of these two
powers could not fail from the very beginning to be most
strenuous and critical ; and as l the ancient prophetic power
was also in danger of falling into violence, attack and repulse
must be here the strongest. It was only when one of them
was able simply to stem the excesses of the other, without
itself lapsing into violence, that its influence could be salutary;
and the realisation of the highest welfare and blessing of that
age was only possible when both were reconciled and united
under that higher Power, which was equally above them both.
But i(j is certainly in the very essence of monarchy to aim
at supremacy over every rival power in the state. It might
gain an. easy triumph over Prophetism, because that power
could offer so little material resistance, and was itself also
exposed to the danger of lapsing into violence. And in propor
tion as the monarchy here yields to this temptation, it must
lose its pure heart and its best force in the very flower of its
strength and prosperity ; if only because no adequate counter
balancing power now remained to exercise perpetual supervision
over it, and unchecked absolutism might become its abiding
law ; irreconcilably opposed as it would be to the deepest in
stincts of this community, of this people of God.2
4;« This suggests, however, in general terms, the peculiar
1 According to vol. ii. p. 114 sq. praiseworthy independence of spirit, only
2 This makes it clear upon what points too rare at present in England. But this
special stress should be laid in a general liberal spirit should not ignore real his-
history of the monarchy in Israel But toric greatness and estimate the affairs of
this is precisely what is wanting in the Israel as of less importance than they
History of the Hebrew Monarchy from the really were. K. A. Mengel's Staat- und
Administration of Samuel to the Baby- Religionsgeschichte d>r Kb'nigreiche Israel
lonish Captivity, London, 1847 ; although und Juda, Berlin, 1853, is characterised
the anonymous author of this work, which by a low tone. Comp. the Jahrbucher der
is somewhat too condensed, shows a most Biblischcn Wisscnschaft, v. p. 289 sqq.
INTRODUCTION. 13
development of the history of the kingdom of Israel. For
under the absolute necessity of monarchy, with which the
previous division concluded, there now remains, at the begin
ning of this new era this one question only — how the difficul
ties before mentioned, which might have prevented its establish
ment and development altogether, were overcome, either en
tirely, or as far as the fundamental principles of the ancient
religion permitted. A general survey shows that such difficul
ties certainly existed, and were only to be overcome by severe
struggles ; but that, thanks to the unimpaired energy still latent
in the community, these struggles were not only to a great
extent successful, but of comparatively short duration. The
history of Saul and David occupies this first act of the new
great era of Israel's history. We then see under Solomon, as
the ripe fruit of these successful struggles, the rapid rise of the
greatest splendour which this era, or, in external magnificence,
the whole history of Israel, could produce, in the very centre
of its glory. But in the clear daylight of these times of its
greatest prosperity, all those deep defects of the new organisa
tion become apparent, which even then it was unable to remove,
chiefly because the perfection of true religion was yet wanting.
And these defects, interfering in unchecked force with the lofty
machine of matured temporal monarchy, worked its destruction
steadily and surely, though retarded awhile by its inalienable
wealth of spiritual treasures. This concludes the third and
last act of this era, the history of the two kingdoms from the
division of the kingdom of David to the destruction of both.
That these three periods are very unequal in length, the first
comprehending little more than sixty years, and the second
not much beyond forty, cannot be set against the obvious truth
of facts. The entire development of these five centuries, or
thereabouts, falls plainly into these three stages, neither more
nor less, each of which is of just the same importance as the
others. They are the three periods of the auspicious com
mencement, the glorious maturity, and the slow decay, of
Monarchy in Israel.
It is self-evident from this, that the whole history of human
monarchy in Israel turns upon points entirely different from
those on which the destinies of the other kingdoms of the ancient
world depended. These latter considerations were indeed by
no means unimportant for the kingdom of Israel also. No mon
archy and no dynasty can last long if it fails to satisfy even
the subordinate conditions of its existence, if it is unable to
protect the unity and power of the people, to agree with the
14 THE BASILEO-THEOCRACY.
hereditary or elected representatives of the people (the Estates)
about laws and principles of government, to appreciate and even
promote all good work and useful labour in every craft or pro
fession, to avail itself advantageously of all real light and know
ledge, whether new or old, and to exercise a beneficent rule
over all interests, classes, and religions in the realm. And on
all this depended in many respects the fortunes of the numerous
kings of Israel also, as will appear hereafter. But on the
monarchy in Israel there devolved in addition other quite dif
ferent duties and labours. What the monarchy should be in
the community of the true God, and before His very face — this
was the question from the pressure of which it could never
escape, the point which touched even those who would willingly
have ignored it. And though not one of these kings might
become the perfect king and man actually demanded by the
deepest purposes and aspirations of Jahveism, and at last
longed for with ever-growing fervour, there yet arose upon this
soil kings in whom many forms of royal and manly excellence
were exemplified, and whose like would be vainly sought among
other nations in those early times. Here only, in all antiquity,
was the true ideal of monarchy persistently aimed at. The
visible kingdom might at last perish ; but its monarchy could
only be destroyed with the kingdom itself, by foreign hands.
In proportion as the whole history of Israel gradually rises at
this stage to that culminating point at which its eternal signifi
cance for all ages is for the first time fully determined, and even
far distant regions of its past receive fresh glory, the amount of
documentary and other evidence belonging to it is much greater;
so that we are able to recognise most of its more important
events with far greater completeness than in the previous
period. Yet even here there are still many intervals of con
siderable obscurity to us ; nay, even many names of men at one
time doubtless illustrious, to which we are unable to assign
places in the entire course of the history, by decades, or even
centuries.1
1 At what time. e.g. did Hanan son of or was the place whore he habitually
Igdaliah live, whom Jeremiah, xxxv. 4, taught. He was thus evidently at one
honours with that highest of all titles, time a great prophet in Jerusalem, like
man of God? One of the chambers of Joel, and perhaps flourished as early, or
the Temple was named after his sons, i.e. even earlier; yet we now know nothing
disciples, and was probably built by them further respecting him.
15
SECTION I.
FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY; THE PERIOD OF
SAUL AND DAVID.
A. SAUL AND HIS HOUSE.
OP the history of this royal house we certainly know more from
extant authorities, than we do with regard to many others
after the time of Solomon ; yet we must not disguise from our
selves, that, much as has been preserved, this is still but little,
compared with the importance of this period of the history,
which does not derive its significance from its duration. We
possess adequate knowledge of the final issue of this history ;
from its mid-career, also, many points start forth in bright dis
tinctness to our view ; but its beginning is still shrouded, as far
as the sources in question go, in that mysterious obscurity
which envelops the origin of all events which take the world by
surprise, especially those of such immense importance as the
first establishment of true, and therefore divinely consecrated
Monarchy in a primeval people.
I. SAUL'S ELECTION AS KING.
The Bible, even in direct historic narrative, often affords us
types of eternal truth ; stripping off by degrees the gross ma
terial covering of actual events, and retaining only their ever-
living religious significance, which it brings vividly before us
embodied in some form of corresponding beauty. Thus does it
treat even that portion of the history of Israel which, in itself,
as well as to succeeding ages, is one of the most important.
What is human sovereignty in general — and what in the commu
nity of Jahveh in particular ? What is its origin and develop
ment ? What principles and conditions are the basis of the
pledge of its divine necessity and sanction, and therefore of its
undisturbed existence, as respects even the special individual,
and the special dynasty, summoned at a particular time and
among a particular people to bear its honours and its burdens ?
Such questions are most easily and simply answered by recall
ing the rise of that king who was the first to be invested with
the full glory of true royalty ; and in whose history, precisely
16 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
because lie was the first, all such questions must actually have
presented themselves most vividly, before any clear and perma
nent solution of them could be arrived at.
However well qualified a man may be by birth, as well as
in body and soul, i.e. by nature, to govern with supreme honour
and power among men, yet these external advantages, though
needful as preliminary conditions, are not always attended by
that Divine predestination and consecration, as the second of
the two indispensable conditions without the union of which
the gerrn of true monarchy can nowhere be developed. In this,
as in so many smaller matters, the Divine possibility and op
portunity must come to meet the human ; and if in this most
exalted of human relations both possibilities coincide, Divine
grace and predestination come in their full might to aid frail
human beings in this highest of all tasks ; bestowing on them
the Divine power and consecration of spirit needful to enable
them to perform that function with the elementary qualifica
tions for which nature has already endowed them. No one,
with whatever other advantages, can become a true king, whose
heart has not previously been at some time touched and stirred
by some benign ray of heavenly light.
We have here, however, nothing but the two fundamental
conditions without whose coincidence no result in this direction
is possible, and as the presence of these intrinsic possibilities is
nowhere necessarily followed by their immediate realisation, so
it does not always happen that everyone immediately becomes
king, in whom these two fundamental conditions are united.
Yet since the dignity of a man so qualified is already a fact, re
cognised in heaven, and cannot therefore remain wholly inoper
ative, before he attains it outwardly he encounters various signs
and traces of the power working secretly within him. Not
that they are brought forward, however, by any will or purpose
of his own : rather they take him by surprise : yet they arise in
the very necessity of things, and bring him at the same time
joy and strength by their more distinct intimation of his des
tiny. The belief in omens was indeed universal in antiquity,
especially when such important matters were involved as the
election of a king and changes of government ; and the perver
sions to which such a belief is liable are clear enough to us in
these modern days. But it remains unquestionable, that upon
ground already prepared, preliminary sparks of flame may be,
as it were, involuntarily kindled by the first movement of that
same spiritual power which afterwards breaks suddenly forth,
and wraps all things in its blaze ; and that the truly predestined
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE. 17
ruler, even before he becomes such outwardly, must receive at
the fitting time divine intimations and impulses towards the
career which lies before him.1
And when, in accordance with these principles, and with
these auspicious signs which thus joyfully anticipate futurity, at
the appointed time he actually becomes king over the people, he
does not yet gain much by this mere external recognition. No
thing but true royal action for the welfare of the state, alike
bravely undertaken and firmly carried out at the right moment,
can win for him that real deference, that joyful, voluntary co
operation in state purposes, from all his subjects, without which
his sovereignty must ever remain most feeble and equivocal.
Supposing him, however, to have at last attained everything
that he can desire, to stand already on the steps of the temple
of immortal fame ! yet in this dizzy elevation it is all the more
necessary for him never to forget the lowly origin from which
he sprang. Thus must he constantly bear in mind, that above
him there abides another king — the Eternal ; and that only in
as far as he works together with God, and consequently with
all spiritual truths, can any earthly monarch be a king after the
heart of the King of kings. In this community especially, the
community of Jahveh, of which he is but a member like every
one else, he must never forget that from the beginning a boun
dary has been traced, an inviolable law fixed for him, to trans
gress which would be self-annihilation. This truth is the last
as well as the first, and is consequently supreme and most de
cisive, within the whole range of our perceptions on this matter ;
a truth which, though breathed only in a whisper, and shrouded
in mysterious darkness, perpetually supplies its own proof.
These four truths, then, exhaust the entire subject. By
them must every king, and especially the first, be measured ;
and should any king be found wanting, if only in the last, his
career must be accounted a failure.
It is the prophetic narrator (as he may be briefly character
ised) of the Histories of the Kings, who enfolds Saul's life in
the closely -woven net of these higher, or, in other words, pro
phetic truths ; obviously because it was those very truths which
its history appeared to him to convey for the instruction of all
succeeding ages.2 What portions of the narrative which now,
through the vitality of these truths, coheres as a living whole, he
1 Just as, in reference to a position greatness: i. p. 419.
wMch still better exhibits the elevation 2 Taking the fall of Saul as the fifth
of human power of government, dreams act, \ve have here again a complete drama;
announce to the boy Joseph his future as ia ii. p. 407.
VOL. III. C
18 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
may have found already existing in earlier unconnected accounts,
we are unable, in the absence of older sources, precisely to
determine. It is at all events clear that through the graceful
drapery in which all the more definite portions of the narra
tive are closely wrapped by these truths, we may still discern
many fragments of pure tradition ; and that this narrator was
the first to fling over the whole such a radiantly transparent
veil. The earthly, human element is still perfectly appreciable
under the thin disguise ; nay, even the traces of that popular
wit which must early have mingled abundantly in this king's
history with its alternations of the lofty and the low, are but
little effaced ; but it is only through the breath of higher
prophetic truth that the whole is vivified and transfigured into
a form of beauty. It is evidently owing to this prophetic
transfiguration that Samuel appears merely as the organ of the
divine spirit in its dealings with human kings. The cogni
sance and regulation of all that concerns Saul, which in this
representation is attributed to Samuel, is in fact typical of the
operation of the divine spirit in its complete independence
upon the human sovereign ; it predetermines, it strengthens,
and it sympathises, but it also warns, and it discloses glimpses
of an inviolable Ideal. Samuel serves, therefore, in this narra
tive as the easiest representation, so to speak, of the actual
operation and design of the divine spirit with regard to the
human sovereign. It by no means follows that in what is thus
attributed to Samuel, there is not very much that is based
upon actual recollection ; but the peculiar mode and colouring
of the extant representation could only result from that higher
conception of the whole. We must now turn our attention to
the details.
1. Saul, a man still in the prime of youthful strength and
beauty — nay, excelling in beauty all of his age, taller by the
head and shoulders than all the people, and besides as brave in
battle as any, is the son of a freeborn Benjamite of some note,
by name Kish.1 In respect of birth as well as of person and
character, he is adequately qualified for sovereignty ; for at
that time all the freeborn of good family were accounted noble
1 For the genealogy of Saul see 1 Sam. puished sons. Among these ten were
ix. 1 ; xiv. 50 sq. If in 1 Chron. ix. 35- Kish and Ner; and the last is mentioned
38, the name of the city Gibeon (ii. p. in 1 Sam. xiv. 50 sq., very emphatically,
251) is interchanged with Gibeah, and as Saul's uncle. It is therefore perhaps
the name of the father of Kish, ^m with ^ ^ S01f !ater misconception that in
* v the account given, 1 Chron. vni. 33 ; ix.
7K<I3K> 1 Sam. ix. 1 ; xiv. 51, this grand- 39, of Saul's genealogy: Ner appears at
father of Saul must have borne the title the head as his grandfather; otherwise,
of honour, ' father of Gibeah,' and have we must siippose the branch Ner to have
been famous as the father of ten dislin- been omitted in the earliest sources.
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE. 19
in Israel, while all the privileges which the judges or their
sons, for example, enjoyed, were strictly personal, not derived
from any privileged hereditary rank. His father dwells in
Gibeah, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, where his son after
wards, even as king, continues to reside (see below) ; just as almost
every judge had chosen his birthplace as his permanent abode.1
But though qualified for sovereignty, he does not seek it ;
for no exalted position, acquired by selfish devices, or grasped
by mere human ambition, <?an ever prove a real blessing. It
is therefore finely conceived,2 that Saul, sent forth by his father
to seek the strayed asses, after long unavailing search,3 comes
on the third day, almost against his will, to Samuel, who was
but little known to him. His object is to enquire of him re
specting the asses, and, instead of them, he is destined to
receive from him a kingdom. For the prophet, whose purpose
is at -this time to erect a monarchy in Israel, has already
selected him, before he is himself aware of it. The true spirit
of Jahveh, full of compassion, has already on the preceding
day whispered to Samuel, that for the deliverance of Jahveh's
people sorely pressed by powerful foes, most of all by the Phi
listines, a Benjamite must be anointed king. Thus when Saul
comes before Samuel, bashfully pursuing his humble quest, in
apparent unconsciousness of the power slumbering within him
of aspiring and attaining to the highest place, the great Seer
receives him in a way quite different from all that he could
have hoped or feared. At the moment of their meeting the
Seer has come forth from his house, on the way4 to the solitary
sacred height of Ramah, the city of his residence,5 where he
1 Comp. vol. ii. p. 362. p. 330, if the Q^yt?, 1 Sam. ix. 4, is an
2 1 Sam. ix. 1-14 ; cf. verse 20. abbreviation of this ; hereupon he turned
3 The direction of his three days' search eastward again into Benjamin's territory,
(verse 20) is given according to 'lands,' and finally northward to the land of Zuph,
in 1 Sam. ix. 4 sq. Most of the names -where Samuel resided. The way back,
here mentioned are certainly obscure to x. 2-5, was shorter because more direct,
us ; if, however, Saul's birthplace, accord- Besides this, some MSS. of the LXX.,
ing to Is. x. 29 ; Josh, xviii. 28 ; and according to Holmes, do actually read
Josephus, Bell. Jud. v. 2. 1, was only 2opt<ra. If it were known more definitely
about a league and a half north of Jem- where D"1"!^ (1 Sam. xvii. 52) was situ-
salem (somewhat south of Raman), and ^ g to ^ identi_
Samuels Eamathaim, or as abbreviated,
Ramah (according to vol. ii. p. 421 sq.) cal with D^V^- And Shalisha is pro-
the present Ram-allah, lay farther north- bably identical with Baal-Shalisha, 2
east of it; Saul probably proceeded at first Kings iv. 42; cf. the Onomast. of the
•westward over the mountain, then still Fathers under Beth-Shalisha.
farther westward to the present Saris or 4 As Ramah, Samuel's city, was cer-
Sdrus ( Wilson' B Lands, n. p. 266;Lynch's tainly not large, 'in the middle of the
Narrative, p. 453), if this corresponds to city,' verse 14, is not very different from
the district Shalisha ; and finally west- ' in the middle of the gate,' verse 18.
ward to rhe Sha'albim mentioned vol. ii. 5 Vol. ii. p. 421 sq.
c 2
20 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
sacrifices on the altar to Jahveh, or is wont to partake of a
sacred sacrificial repast with some of his closest friends. He
at once desires to take Sanl also with him, telling1 him before
hand how unimportant was the immediate object of his en
quiries, and that the matter was already settled ; but that for
him and his whole house was reserved a very different and far
better destiny in Israel. And though Saul, in his unassuming
simplicity, would fain waive the honour which is obscurely
hinted (so little does he yet know his better self), — the holy
man., more discerning, takes him with him to the sacrificial
meal which is already prepared ; nay, assigns him the place
of honour among the thirty guests before invited,1 while he
is served with a portion of the sacrificial meat, put by as it
were specially for him ; for in like manner a portion other and
higher than that of ordinary men had been long reserved for
him by heaven.2 And when by thus partaking of the Seer's
meal, nay, of his sacrificial feast, he has taken the first step
towards participating in his mind and spirit, the Seer, on
their return to the city in the evening, appoints to him with
equal respect, the roof as his sleeping-place.3 But early 011
the following morning, after giving him honourable escort, he
cannot refrain at their solitary parting from doing and saying
what must one day be done and said. Solemnly anointing
him, and kissing him in token of homage, he predicts dis
tinctly and minutely three signs which he will encounter on
his return home ; but he lets drop at the very end a myste
rious warning, that when he shall be elevated in accordance
with these divine auguries to his rightful sovereignty, and
shall be able in the plenitude of kingly power to accomplish
all his desires, from one thing he should nevertheless refrain ! 4
2tm Ah, who would not feel within him a new heart, and be
transformed into a new being, if, when already fitted by nature
for a loftier dignity, he were at the same time thus animated
and uplifted by the grace and glory of the divine spirit ! God,
proceeds the narrative, gave to Saul another heart ; and he at
once begins to encounter the three appointed signs.
1 The resemblance to Gen. xliii. 34, rest of the people.'
arises more from the nature of the sub- 3 As also in 2 Kings iv. 10, such a
ject, not from one passage being an imi- retired apartment on the roof is mentioned
tation of the other. as the place of honour. Inverse 25 sq.
2 In verse 24 for "fifrn DH "1DK7» we should read with the LXX.
we should read, partly following the LXX.
rjfegp Dyn IK'^P «J> l™ tokeT1 that thou 4 sam. ix. 15-x. 8 ; with x. 7 comp.
wast invited before the rest of the people '; 2 Sam. iii. 21. Much is related also
cf. verse 22; or still nearer to the LXX. among other nations of the o-Tj^ela [AO-
'that thou art separated from the vapx'i-as, ^s in Ael. Tar. Hist. xii. 46.
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE.
21
These three signs are obviously selected and arranged with
exquisite skill. Each of them meets the future king (as the
Seer had already predicted) at a sacred spot ; this is as little
accidental as the belief, so often expressed in the Psalms, that
help comes from the holy place ; and the central district, the
land of Benjamin and Ephraim, through which Saul's course
now lay, was peculiarly rich in such sacred localities.1 There
is also in the signs themselves a regular progression, so that
the astonishment and effect produced should grow greater and
greater. First of all, near the sepulchre of Rachel,2 he is met
by two men in great haste,3 bringing the joyful intelligence
that the asses are found, and that his father is anxious not
about them but about his son. Thus happily vanishes the
burden of cares belonging to his former humble life, because
more important interests are henceforth to be the object of his
anxious consideration ! Proceeding farther, he is met near
the Terebinth of Tabor4 by three men journeying to the great
Sanctuary at Bethel, one bearing three kids, the second three
loaves, the third a skin of wine, constituting together all the
materials for sacrifice. These gifts are indeed designed for the
sanctuary ; yet, as if suddenly prompted by some unseen
power, they offer the unknown wanderer, with friendly saluta
tion, two of the three loaves of first-fruits.5 Thus the actual,
though yet unrecognised king, can accept this unexpected gift
as an act of homage, just as to the infant Jesus the three
Wise men from the East bring offerings. The fact that this
1 Vol. i. p. 304 sq.
2 The origin of this is explained in
Jacob's history, Gen. xxxv. 16-20 ; xlviii.
7, and there can be no doubt that in both
passages the same place of primaeval sanc
tity is intended. In 1 Sam. x. 2 it is
added that it lies ' on the border of Ben-
jamin ; ' unfortunately it is not explained
of which side this border is to be under
stood, for the in mcridie of the Vulgate
for n^Vl is certainly only conjecture
JSow if that monument somewhat to the
north of Bethlehem, which has been shown
since the Middle Ages under this name,
and has been described with such mani
fold exactness in modern times, were here
intended, the whole of Saul's journey
would be unintelligible. But here, as well
as in Genesis, we may very well under
stand the northern boundary of Benjamin,
as it might begin somewhat south-east
of Kam-allah.
3 nV^¥» taken as the name of a place,
does not suit the context; its meaning
is rather, according to the LXX., some
thing like ' hastening ; ' ' leaping.' Comp.
is certainly only a dialectic
variation of Deborah; comp. i. p. 294.
But in Gen. xxxv. 8 rt^w is pointed as
ti W' ' oak-' ^is place was situated, ac
cording to Judg. iv. 5, north of Kamah,
just where Saul might have to pass ; and
if according to Gen. xxxv. 8 (cf. 16-20)
it appears to lie farther north than the
sepulchre of Eachel, it is to be remembered
that Gen. xxxv. 1-8 is derived from the
Book of Covenants, but 9-21 from the
Book of Origins.
5 After Df6 some such word as QH-135
seems, according to the LXX., to have
dropped out. Such a description of the
loaves as first-fruits, i.e. sacrificial bread,
suits very well with the context; and it
is by no means clear how it could make
its way into the text of the LXX. without
warrant.
22 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
startling prelude to all gifts which should in future be made
to the king, was taken from sacrificial loaves, is an intima
tion that the king should henceforward receive some portion
of those products of the soil which had hitherto been appro
priated exclusively to the sanctuary. Finally, on approaching
his native city, likewise a holy place,1 he is met by a number
of prophets, coming from the altar 011 the hill where sacrifice
had just been offered, plunged in prophetic raptures amid the
loud music of various instruments. He is himself so carried
away by their enthusiasm, that, to the amazement of all his
former acquaintances, he flings himself with them into the
prophetic ecstasy.2 And so the entire spiritual transformation
which had begun within him at his parting from Samuel, is
now manifested openly and before the eyes of the world ; and
if he who was before but a simple citizen is now become the
equal of prophets in spiritual strength and greatness, why
should not his spirit be worthy also of royalty ? (Cf. p. 6 sq.) 3
And yet, though many involuntary signs seem to combine
to proclaim the hitherto unproclaimed king, and his homeward
journey becomes a path of flowers, he himself in his modesty
is so far from feeling himself in the eyes of the people also
really a king, that on his return home he does not disclose
even to the dearest of his questioning relatives4 anything of
what Samuel had said to him respecting the kingdom. So
diffident is he still in himself, having withal good ground for
not speaking out as yet too boastfully, since he still lacks
the public consecration, i.e. the recognition in solemn national
1 We certainly do not know on what the one just named. This was undoubt-
the historic sanctity of this place was edly the one which, according to ii. p.
founded ; but its having a ;-j£2' i.e. a 352, was in early times much the larger
separate place of sacrifice, and being here %n<* morj ™J°™d. ^esides- the names
. (jreoa and. (jrioean are oitcn interchanged.
distinctly named D^tf njnp, ' Gibeah 2 To understand this more fully, comp.
of God,' is sufficient proof of its being a ii. p. 425 sq.
holy place. This is also presupposed in » In verse 12 read .in^ltf, according to
2 Sam. xxi, 6, 9, although it is scarcely ,, T v~ „ r T, .
the same place where, according to Josh. the LXX" for Dn^K; and then, follow-
xxiv. 33, the aged High-Priest Phinehas ing the Cod. Alex., $•,* ^n. ' is ifc (his
to distinguish it from so many towns of f T7-- i T To
the samebname in other tribes.GtaA of S°n °f Klsh' In verse 13 ^34* should
Saul; and was, according to Jos. Sell, be read, following the LXX., for nQlH-
Jud., v. 2. 1, a league distant on the * This in is probably introduced here
direct road northwards from Jerusalem. as making these enquiries, because his
On the other hand, Gibeah of Benja- sou Abner afterwards plays the most irn-
win, according to I Sam. xiii. 15 sq., portant part in Saul's reign; for, according
is probably the present Geba, south of to xiv. 50 sq., Ner must in all probability
Michmash, and only a little north-east of be intended as the uncle.
SAUL A]STD HIS HOUSE. 2?
assembly, without which every inward or outward consecration
remains incomplete.1
3. Samuel indeed does all that further lies in his power to
promote the great cause. He calls a national assembly at
Mizpeh, where he has before summoned similar meetings.2
Here Saul is proclaimed king ; the sacred lot, it is stated, fell
among all the tribes of Israel upon Benjamin ; among the fami
lies of this tribe, on that of Matri ; 3 and in this family, on Saul
the son of Kish. If we consider the general use in those ages
of the sacred lot,4 we shall find that, taking the whole account
in this connexion, it exhibits nothing but the great truth, that
for the full and auspicious acknowledgment of Saul as king,
his mysterious interview with the Seer did not alone suffice ;
publicly, in solemn national assembly, was it necessary for the
spirit of Jahveh to choose him out, and mark him as Jahveh's
man. That is the real sign of the truly great prophet, and
bears not the slightest resemblance to the proceedings of the
great Seer's later imitators in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes ;
as will be further explained in the course of its history. And
even then (the narrative very characteristically proceeds), when
by the Divine voice he is publicly acknowledged as king, Saul
hides himself in shy reserve behind the baggage heaps of the
assembled people, overpowered by his sense of the momentous
consequences which must result from his inauguration — so little
does a good man force himself into office, still less into this
highest of all offices. A second divine announcement is con
sequently required to discover his hiding-place, and draw him
forth. Bat when, after being thus brought out almost against
his will, he is not only presented to the impatient people as the
chosen of Jahveh, but visibly justifies that choice by his tower
ing height, the whole assembly is satisfied, and unanimously
proclaims him king. And now, at last, the new constitution is
legally announced, and registered in written archives ; while
the new king, surrounded by a band of warriors, whom a divine
enthusiasm for him had at that moment seized, proceeds to his
own home.5
1 1 Sam. x. 9-16. quite a different word. The place itself
2 vii. 5, 16; com. ii. pp. 362, 413. probably lay to the west of Jerusalem.
This city, pronounced by the Hellenists 3 Unless VJBJO is a corruption from
Maffffr^d nS-V£>» must from tlie time of <I1?3 > comP- tne passages given in i. p.
Samuel have attained such sanctity, that 368 respecting the genealogy of Benjamin,
the remembrance of it was preserved 4 gee my Alterthumer, p. 338 sqq.
even in the period of the Maccabees; v. 5 j gam. x. 17, 20-26; respecting verse
p. 310. The pronunciation n^p might 18 sq>> whi'ch must have been interpolated
refer to the Skopos ; but nD-D would be b^ a later editor» see below- Instead of
24 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
Yet what avail such solemnities, discourses, promises and
hopes, if followed by no corresponding result, no abiding im
pression, no confirmation, no great deed bravely undertaken in
divine trust? if the object most urgently necessary is not
carried out as soon as possible with that same joyous courage
which the festal days may be supposed to have kindled? Evil-
disposed people (the account proceeds) doubted contemptuously
whether this king would help them, and brought him no
tribute. A month, however, had scarcely elapsed,1 when the
Ammonite king Nahash invaded the northern frontier of the
kingdom. His first step was to lay siege to the city of Jabesh-
Gilead.2 The citizens, sorely pressed by him, and threatened
with penalties most shamefully severe unless they immediately
surrendered unconditionally, send to their brethren across the
Jordan for speedy succour within a week. The people, on
hearing of it, weep, but give no help. An ordinary king would
not have allowed so distant a danger, on the frontier of the
country and beyond the river, to startle him from his repose.
But as soon as the tidings reach Saul, who has peacefully
resumed his private occupations, as he is following the plough,
that higher spirit, whose stirring presence he had already once
experienced, seizes him instantaneously with power before un
dreamt of. In fearful wrath, he turns the yoke of oxen he was
at that moment driving into the terrible war- signal ; hews
them in pieses and sends them to all the tribes throughout
the entire nation,3 which he thus rouses to action as prompt
as his own. He immediately musters the army in Bezek on
the Jordan,4 sends back thence the messengers of the threatened
city with comforting promises, and on the following morning
with his troops admirably disposed he surprises the besiegers,
and swiftly achieves before the heat of the day the most com
plete victory. In all this activity and triumph in his capacity
of king, he was not without the cooperation of Samuel.
Thus then have his people learnt really to know their king.
In the first outburst of delight at the happy result achieved
/Tin. verse 26, we ought with the LXX. 4 A city on the Upper Jordan, ii. p.
1 •• : ' addition n^212> which may probably sig-
1 For tvi-in»3> verse 27, we ought, ac- .»
^ JUW?' mfy some sacred height close to the city,
cording to the LXX. and Jos. Ant. vi. 5. 1, as in ix. 12. Jos. Ant. vi. 5. 3, makes
to read fc^hplp ; since it is obvious, from this into BaA.a without any mention
the entire "context, that here least of all of Bezek- The numbers of the corn-
could the specification of time be omitted, tetants m v- 8 are also most unnecessarily
2 y0i_ jj p_ 337 raised, in the LXX. and Josephus, to
8 Respecting this custom see ii. p. 6°0,000 (700,000) men from Israel and
340 note. 70,000 from Judah.
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE. 25
by the establishment of royal authority, they would fain punish
with death the cavillers who had previously doubted whether
Samuel's choice had fallen in Saul upon a competent sovereign;
but he, as true king, has too much discretion to allow any
private revenge to mar such a day of divine triumph. But
that which seemed wanting, and in the case of many weak
men had indeed been wanting, not entirely without ground,
was now at the right moment retrieved. At Samuel's own
desire, the community assembles in Gilgal,1 there with solemn
sacrifices to ratify anew, more numerously and unanimously
than the first time, the act of royalty in Saul's favour ; 2 and
great (it is said in conclusion) was the universal joy.3
Not till now, according to this narrator, was the great event,
the successful establishment of the monarchy in Israel, com
pleted : but now it is completed indeed ; and no further proof
is needed of how perfectly all this follows in harmonious
sequence, connected by the one fundamental thought, without
redundance or deficiency.
But the last narrator but one, who 4 remodelled in the seventh
century the earlier works of the history of the kings, found
much to introduce just here, in this important section, derived
partly from a somewhat later narrator,5 and to a still larger
extent from his own notions. An event of such infinite sig
nificance as the legal establishment of monarchy in Israel
affords, indeed, material sufficient to require the labour of
several writers to do it justice ; and however satisfactorily the
representation of the earlier narrator may exhibit, by Saul's
example, the essential character of genuine monarchy in its
origin, there is no denying that it stops altogether with con
templating the history of the monarchy from this, the nearest,
point of view, and that it is this alone which gives it its
especial beauty. But little consideration is paid to the fact
that this monarchy has its origin in a community so entirely
peculiar as Israel, and consequently under conditions quite
different from those in any other nation. Here, then, was left
an important gap to be supplied by later writers ; and we now
see the deficiency supplemented by more recent narrators. A
free and comprehensive survey is generally easier to writers
removed by the lapse of time from the events they describe, and
1 p. 29. Numa, ch. vii., cf. ch. iii. in the distinc-
2 As sometimes in the Middle Ages, in tion between the designatio of the ancient
the case of German kings and emperors ; kings and their dectio per suffragia.
see a similar case 1 Chron. xxix. 22 ; 3 1 Sam. x. 27-xi. 15.
comp. xxiii. 1. A still more exact parallel 4 Vol. i. p. 157 sqq.
is to be found, according to Plutarch's 6 Vol. i. p. 151 sq.
20 FOUXDAT10X OF THE MONARCHY.
the relation of the monarchy in Israel to the eternal truths and
principles of the community could only be made clear through
its own prolonged development. It is natural, then, that we
should find these narrators forming their conception of this
special history of the origin of the monarchy chiefly from a
wide retrospective view of the entire history of Israel as the
community of Jahveh, and describing it in the light reflected
thence upon it. And it is quite in keeping with this freer
treatment, that the Deuteronomic admonitions thence resulting
are, in the graphic account of the last narrator but one, put
immediately into the mouth of Samuel, who was fully recog
nised as the great prophet of Jahveh. The main truth which
was here to be supplied, concerns the relation of the Theo
cracy to the Monarchy. Had the former truly realised in
every age its original destiny, the Divine King, obeyed in all
things by all members of the community, would have made
the human sovereign superfluous. What was Israel's especial
pride, as well as a fundamental law of its foundation and con
stitution, its redemption and government by the Invisible alone,
seems to perish by the innovation ; and if human monarchy
be once established, how easily may it be perverted into pure
despotism, and bring upon a nation the severest oppression,
instead of the expected blessing ! It is obvious that, at this
period, the different sides of this great subject had long under
gone the severest scrutiny ; that monarchy in Israel had already
unfolded itself fully, even on its dark side ; and that, on looking
back to the first foundation of the community, the wide con
trast between the condition of the nation under its later kings
and its original state under Moses was observed with pain.
We shall, on the other hand, perceive with increasing clearness
in the course of this history that, during the first period of the
monarchy, in the joy of its final attainment, its great advantages
were much more fully recognised ; and that the question then
was less as to the existence of a human monarchy, than as to
who should be invested with it. It is entirely in this spirit
that the earlier narrator describes its foundation. The view
here introduced by the later narrator, though not without
substantial ground, belongs to a later and far maturer age.
And yet, again, it is impossible for such a narrator to regard
the human monarchy as wholly rejected by Jahveh ; if only
because he knew how long it had endured, and how often
besides, as under David, its existence had been the greatest
blessing to the people ; but it was further involved in the higher
conception of the true Grod, that by no human change could
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE. 27
He be changed, so long as the community did not prove faith
less to the deepest meaning of His words — those divine words
which, after all, comprehend so much more than the kind and
mode of government. The additional matter interpolated in
the earlier account by the last narrator but one assumes, ac
cordingly, the following form : —
The people alone originate the demand lor the king, because
the sons of Samuel are bad judges.1 Now although this last
circumstance may rest upon a tradition that is perfectly true,2
yet this view of the appointment of the first king with the
primary purpose simply of judging 3 is entirely at variance with
that taken by the previous narrator, who everywhere repre
sents the deliverance of the people from their foreign enemies
as the immediate purpose of his appointment.4 Whether any
external motives were admitted by the earlier narrator as in
fluencing Samuel's determination to appoint a king, is uncer
tain ; as a long passage of the earlier document has dropped
out before chapter ix. But this narrator regards Samuel as so
entirely an instrument of the divine spirit, and looks on the
monarchy as such an unmixed good, that he could not well
represent any external considerations as determining him to
the choice. — The demand of the people is, however, ill received
by Samuel, who prays to Jahveh for a decision, but is ad
monished by Him to yield to their desire,5 even though it
really springs from a reprehensible perversity. But he repre
sents to the people,6 in a warning speech, all the burdensome
services which the king would claim from them as his due, and
how they would hereafter vainly wish to be freed from this
yoke ; yet as they, notwithstanding, will not relinquish their
demand, he promises, with the sanction of Jahveh, to choose
1 1 Sam. viii. 1-5. (vii. 15), is not to be taken too literally
2 Vol. ii. p. 429. (cf. the similar instances, vii. 13; 1 Kings
3 As is expressly stated, viii. 5, 6 ; not v. 5 [iv. 25], compared with xi. 25) ; for
until verse 20 is the king's going forth to this notion of judging had already become
battle alluded to, and then it is men- very indefinite.
tioned after his judging, as if supple- 5 1 Sam. viii. 6-9.
mentary and less 'important. The refer- 6 It would be a sad mistake to identify
ence of the same later narrator to the this so-called ' king's right ' ofw. 11-17
Ammonite campaign as the immediate with the 'state-right' intended by the
cause, xii. 12, is no doubt suggested by earlier narrator, x. 25, and to deduce
the preceding narrative, ch. xi., and does from the former words the special force
not, as we see by verse 2, invalidate the of the latter, which certainly did not con-
other reasons. tain a hint of anything so objectionable.
4 1 Sam. ix. 16, 17 ; also x. 1, follow- The king's right evidently rested in later
ing the fuller reading of the LXX. The times entirely on usage, and was never a
whole account in ch. xi. also corresponds written code. But unfortunately the con-
with this. Yet the expression Samuel fusion between these two has done much
'judged Israel all the days of his life' harm, even in Christian states.
28 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
for them a king.1 In like manner, at the national assembly at
Mizpeh, he touches again, though briefly, on the ingratitude
of the people to Jahveh, but nevertheless, in compliance with
their will, proceeds to the election.2 At Gilgal, however, where
all the proceedings of the election are finally concluded, he
enters with the people into solemn consideration, point by
point, of this most critical change.3 First he pronounces his
own farewell address, laying down with the most dignified
composure the office he has hitherto filled. Only a Samuel
could thus quit office, proudly challenging all to convict him 'of
one single injustice in his past career, and by the act of resig
nation gaining, not losing greatness.4 No longer Judge and
Ruler, but simple Prophet, he is able now to discourse with
the greater freedom of the monarchy about to be introduced ;
and he seizes the moment to cast a more distant glance into
all the past and future of the community. That the recent
conduct of the nation had displayed ingratitude towards Jahveh,
its true king, could not be denied ; and only by more faithful
service of Jahveh in future on the part alike of king and
people, can the ruin they have deserved be averted.5 A sign
from heaven itself in answer to the prophet's prayer — a sudden
thunder-storm in harvest time --testifies to Jahveh's wrath,
and to the reality of His threatened vengeance.6 But when
the people, in real terror, entreat the prophet's intercession, he
addresses them in words of comfort ; for even the new constitu
tion may be in harmony with the fundamental moral principles
of the community, but the neglect of these will involve both
king and people in a common ruin.7 Such is, in fact, the ex
pression, towards the end of the Monarchy and Theocracy, after
the plainer revelation of their truths by the actual course of
events, of the loftiest sentiment possible within the limits of
the Old Testament concerning this infinitely important crisis.
1 1 Sam. viii. 10-22. influence exercised by the writings of
2 The entire style and colouring of the these prophets upon the general repre-
verses, x. 18, 19, betray a later hand, as, sentation of the nai'rator may be traced
however, their omission from the present besides in the entire colouring and man-
context would leave a hiatus, though but ner of the prophetic discourses. There is
a slight one, in the account of the older much, also, that reminds us of the accounts
narrator, we must presume that the com- of Moses in the early history, as if Samuel
piler hns here left out some words of the were regarded as the Moses of his time ;
original record. cf. for instance, viii. 21 sq. with Ex. xix.
3 1 Sam. xii. 8. On a close examination it is very
4 1 Sam. xii. 1-5. obvious that, in these few interpolated
5 1 Sam. xii. 6-15. passages, the whole style of composition
6 vv. 16-18. The sign is here described differs widely from that of the earlier
precisely as might be expected after the narrator.
model of the great prophets of the ninth 7 vv. 18-25.
and eighth centuries. .But the powerful
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE. 29
II. SAUL'S PROPHETIC KEJECTION.
1. ' Now thou art free' (such, according to the earlier nar
rator, was Samuel's fourth and last address to Saul, at his
mysterious prophetic consecration, p. 20), ' as king chosen and
approved of God, filled also with His spirit, to do whatsoever
thine hand shall find (i.e. as circumstances shall lead thee) ;
but if thou go down before me into Gil gal, I will conie unto
thee, to offer sacrifices of every sort; seven days shalt thou
tarry, till I come unto thee, and show thee what thou shalt
do.'1
The essential meaning of this is, in fact, as we have already
seen, no other than this : that even to the royal supremacy in
the state there is a limit not to be overstepped which is fixed,
and must ever remain fixed ; that even above the most rightful,
divinely-inspired king, in the plenitude of his power, there is
ever something inviolable on which, however sorely tried, even
in evil days and apparent danger, he must not lay his hand.
It may be that this general truth is here set forth in somewhat
fantastic and trivial guise ; yet it is only in the collision of
historic contrasts, and particular questions often of seemingly
little moment, that the highest general proof can be brought
to the test, and even attain its proper development. At that
period, we must accordingly affirm, it was just on the external
coordination of those inwardly antagonistic tendencies, that
the stability and progress of this eternal truth depended ; and
so, many things, which now appear insignificant to us, may
then have been of the deepest import and have involved the
most serious consequences.
Gilgal, on the south-western bank of the Jordan, was evi
dently at that time one of the most sacred places in Israel,
and the true centre of the whole people. Even in earlier
ages2 it possessed a similar importance, which at the time in
question was no doubt all the greater, because on the west the
Philistine power extended so far, that the centre of gravity
of the kingdom was necessarily pushed back to the banks of
the Jordan. There was the place of assembly for the people on
national questions of common interest; and thence, after solemn
sacrifice, did they march forth in arms to battle. It was there
fore in the very nature of things, that the relative position of
the two independent powers existing within the state should
be brought under discussion and receive a complete expression,
or at any rate come to some permanent agreement, at this par
ticular spot.
1 1 Sam. x. 7 sq. 2 Vol. ii. p. 244 sqq.
30 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
Now at the time when, according to this narrator, such a
crisis was impending, Saul had already reigned two years ; ] he
had become better acquainted with his position, and had
already learnt by experience the best course to be pursued in
military affairs. With the view, therefore, of carrying on opera
tions against the superior force of the Philistines more effec
tively than was possible by the mere plundering excursions of
numerous but untrained levies, he formed a select, well-trained
band of 3,000 practised soldiers (as the first beginning of a
standing army, raised from the nation itself). He himself
took the command of two thousand at Michmash 2 and at
Bethel to the north-west ; the remaining thousand were sta
tioned under Jonathan at Gibeah, and the rest of the people
were dismissed to their homes, for the peaceful cultivation of
the land. But after these judicious arrangements on the king's
part, the young prince, Jonathan, impelled by his daring spirit,
and by shame at the continued indignities which his country
had to endure from the Philistines, slays the officer placed by
the Philistines in Gibeah, doubtless for the collection of tribute
remaining due after former levies 3 No further details remain
of the origin of this particular quarrel. Jonathan, however,
appears throughout as the perfect type of a warrior according
to the requirements of his age : he is everywhere the first in
courage, in activity, and speed ; slender also, and of well-made
figure. This personal beauty and swiftness of foot in attack or
retreat gained for him among the troops the name of 6 The
Gazelle ' 4 in all this, as in his uprightness and fidelity, he
showed himself the right worthy son of a king. But as it was
easy to foresee what a tumult would inevitably arise among the
Philistines when this deed of Jonathan's should become known,
Saul followed up the announcement of this occurrence, and
It can only be by some kind of con- 1^¥3 (wholly different from
'
fusion that the words 1 Sam. xiii. 1, are -^ '^ h^& DQ othep meani ^
wanting in the LXX as they certainly fche ^ here .^ d to . ^ .g ^ ^
belong to the original context ; cf. more ari the passages i Sam. x. 5-
on this point hereafter Besides this wheje we should read ^vi-and xiii. 3
something has certainly dropped out of a *t
the older document between chapters xi. sq. with 2 Sam. viii. 6, 14 ; 1 Kings iv.
and xiii., as, in xiii. 2, Jonathan appears 19 (cf. verse 7), as well as from the inci-
without any previous intimation. dent itself as here described. This led
the LXX. to regard it as a proper name
2 This city, now rediscovered as Mukh- Neur/jS, 1 Sam. xiii. 3 sq., but they do not
mas, is always spoken of as lying farther understand it in x. 5.
to the east ; and, according to the read- 4 That is to say, of the larger species.
ing of the LXX. ver. 5, comp. xiv. 23, 31, The first line of the song, 2 Sam. i. 10,
its position is fixed south-east of Beth- can only be explained on the supposition
aven. On the other hand, the Beth-horon that Jonathan was well known by this
of the LXX. lies, according to Robinson, name in the army, and was clearly enough
due east of Michmash. indicated by it.
SAUL .^?D HIS HOUSE. 31
of the threatened danger from the Philistines, by summon
ing the whole people to assemble in military array at Gilgal.
And most vehement indeed is the wrath excited among the
Philistines against Israel. Thirty thousand of them in chariots,
and six thousand horse,1 with large numbers of other troops
besides, gather themselves together in a strong camp near
Michmash, and thence overrun the territory of Israel ; so that
many Israelites (as formerly under Gideon) 2 hide themselves in
caves and in holes, in rocks, in clefts,3 and in pits ; while some
flee for refuge beyond the Jordan to the lands of Gad and Gilead.
Meanwhile all the Israelites in any way capable of bearing
arms, gather, full of terror, under Sard's standard at Gilgal.
Yet, though the king deems it fully time to march against the
enemy, and during the delay those assembled around him are
beginning to disperse, he waits seven days till Samuel shall
arrive to consecrate by sacrifices the advance of the troops. At
length, overcome by impatience, on the seventh day he himself
offers the burnt-offering. The ceremony, however, is scarcely
over, when on the very same day 4 Samuel punctually arrives ;
and all the king's cordial greetings and anxious excuses are fruit
less, after he has neglected that mysterious warning, and trans
gressed the only prohibition laid upon him by the higher voice.
That what he dreaded in his impatience would not have hap
pened, had he not neglected the divine voice, is known by that
same voice which had before so expressly warned him ; and
Samuel is now obliged to reveal to him, that he has, by his
folly, wantonly forfeited the permanence of his kingdom before
Jahveh, and that already Jahveh has selected another man
after His own heart as prince over His people. And, as if the
beginning of his punishment followed at his heels for all to
see, Saul, who had hoped by offering sacrifice himself to keep
the people together about him, finds himself, on his parting
from Samuel, at once deserted by almost all his followers ;
only about six hundred men being eager enough for battle5
1 Unless by some early error these two ' DTH^ LXX. &66poi should, in my
numbers have been here transposed, as in opinion) be compared with ^^,rock; the
other passages the number of those fight- >
ing in chariots is always inferior to that context shows that it has no analogy m
of the cavalry (2 Sam. x. 18; 1 Kings x. meaning with j-p-,^, Judg. ix, 4
26; 2 Chron. xii. 3); or, as is still more which is rather to be compared with
likely, the number of chariots has been Oj 1 ? ? p ••
exaggerated. Similarly, the number of ^, and the Syriac |Z.j^£D, fortress.
chariots is given as 7,000 in 1 Chron. xix. C>
PerhaPs D^H should ** read for
18 ; but only as 700 in 2 Sam. x. 18 ;
while Josephus, Ant. vi. 6. 1, has as many * This must necessarily be taken as the
as 300,000 foot-soldiers, 30,000 chariots, true sense of the narrative.
and 60,000 cavalry. 5 1 Sam. xiii. 1-15; verse 15, now
2 Vol. ii. p. 336. greatly mutilated in the Hebrew, has for-
32 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
to follow him and his thousand trained warriors to Gibeah.
Samuel, 011 the other hand, after so solemn a declaration, cannot
but separate himself for ever from this king, since his prophetic
heart and eye are already turned towards another.
Thus, according to the view of this narrator, the happy
connexion, hardly even then securely established, is disturbed
after two or three years. The union between the two indepen
dent powers which augured so many blessings to the people,
and was already beginning to fulfil its promise, is again broken
up ; and broken on that very side which, as the superior in
wisdom, had originally suggested and effected it. But the
more trivial the occasion of this breach may appear to us, the
more certainly are we able to discern that the isolated case
which is here related received its true significance from a long
series of connected events, the meaning of which was not
obscure. The ruler who out of mere impatience precipitately
grasps at that from which he should have withheld his hand,
wantonly throws away his true power and his best influence ;
just as Saul, thinking the seventh day already elapsed, and in
consequence prematurely doing what had been forbidden him,
had cause on that same seventh day, through Samuel's arrival,
bitterly to repent his impatient and unlawful deed. This is
the meaning of the last of those four trials of the true king,
which is just the one in which Saul failed, and the account of
it is distinguished by the same thoughtfulness which marks,
with all their brevity, the representations of the first three.
Whatever be the particular tradition on which this account is
based (for without some such foundation it would not have
arisen), it has manifestly only retained, with a sort of vivid
reflection, the general impression of that characteristic tem
perament through which Saul threw away his power. And as
if this narrator himself felt that this general aspect of Saul's
character as king, with its tragical importance for him, should
be more fully exhibited in other instances, he immediately pro
ceeds to relate, from the oldest source, an occurrence which,
although taken from the lower side of life, and introducing us
further into the complicated movements of the age, still shows
Saul in essentially the same light, injuring by his impatience
both himself and his cause.
At that time — proceeds the narrative — the relations of Israel
to the Philistines were the most ignominious possible. The
Philistines had now added to their conquests the strong camp
unately been preserved quite entire in the 1^_ 'to Lattle>' as P^bable from the
LXX. ; the words ets <x7raz/T7]<rtv suggest context and 2 Sam. xvii. li.
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE. 33
at Michmash,1 and sent forth thence three bands of soldiers,
which in three directions swept plundering through the
country ; 2 one northwards towards Ophrah, another westwards
towards Beth-horon, the third south-east towards the valley of
Zeboim. In addition to this, they had for a long time past
allowed 110 smiths to dwell in the land,3 to prevent the Hebrews
from procuring even the most indispensable weapons, swords
and spears, so that all the Israelites had to go down into the
Philistine territory, when necessary, to have their agricultural
implements sharpened.4 Accordingly, in the war which had
now broken out,5 many of the Israelites about Saul and Jona
than had neither swords nor spears ; even for these two
generals themselves, including of course their immediate
servants and armour-bearers, sufficient weapons could with
difficulty be found.6
Now when during this shameful state of things the advanced
guard of the Philistines had pushed forward even beyond the
camp at Michmash,7 Jonathan was impelled by a mixture of
youthful impatience and higher courage, accompanied only by
his armour-bearer and without his father's knowledge, to ad
vance against it. Two sharp jutting rocks, the extreme points
of longer mountain-chains, Seneh running south and Bozez
north, separated him from the enemy's position ; but neither
this, nor the sight of their large numbers, can hinder him who,
like Israel in the old days under Moses, hopes for victory from
Jahveh, thinking ' there is 110 restraint to Jahveh to give
victory with many or with few.' In this mind he finds his
comrade in arms also willing to follow him everywhere, as a
friend his friend.8 Yet before actually beginning the work, he
1 P. 30. each one his spade, his ploughshare, his
2 rVrKPOn 1 Sam. xiii. 17, xiv. 15, is axe, and his threshing-sledge ; so that with
exactly the ^\ the freebooter, who goes difficulty, i.e scarcely, was there an edge
^XJ] to their spades, ploughshares, forks, and
out only to ravage and plunder, who axes> and pointed threshing-sledges.'
makes Alqaren (plundering excursions of f .-. Tw tkof ;
i \ ,-L • TUT i j j It appears from the .LAX. tnat, in
cavalry), as they say in Mohammedan and
Spanish countries; and thus forms the verse 22, £?£DD is wanting after POn^O t
exact contrast to 3£Bn the fixed out- This particular campaign was certainly
long called ' the war of Michmash,' on
3 Vol ii p 428 account of the stationary camp there.
4 In verse 20, for the last in^tHD it 6 1 Sam. xiii. 16-22.
would be better to read ftnn and in like 7 Verse 23, for "DyD read "Ojflp.
manner, in verse 21, f»nn for 3^n» as 8 He replies. 'Do all to which thy heart
we see partly from the LXX. (who, moves thee ; I will be with theen.y heart
however, in each instance, mistook the « as thy heart. , We see from the LXX
meaning), and in part from 2 Sam. xii. 31 ; that the re^' X1V' 7' must be thu8
ttdif, in ver. 21, we further read m^, fied ; the n S,h(?uld1be ^ken from
the sense will be : ' they went to sharpen and ™ ™* ™ Place of TO-
VOL. III. D
34 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
longs for a heavenly sign: he will approach the enemy openly
and address them ; and if they in audacity call out to him to
6 come up, they have a word to speak with him,' he will then
take this challenge of theirs as a call from Jahveh to advance
boldly against them with divine confidence of victory.1 On the
actual occurrence of this sign, he clambers on hands and feeb
up the precipice, followed by his armour-bearer. The enemy,
astonished at such daring, stare at him paralysed ; but no
sooner is he within reach of them than he strikes them down,
while his companion behind him despatches those whom he
has disabled.2 At the very beginning he thus strikes down
twenty men at once, ' as if a yoke ot land were in course of
being ploughed/ which must beware of offering opposition to
the sharp ploughshare in the middle of its work.3 This causes
a panic in the camp as in the field, among the soldiers of
the outpost as well as among the roving bands of plunderers ;
the earth resounds with a clamour as if a god had terrified it.
When Saul's watchmen on the lofty tower in Gibeah perceive
this commotion in the enemy's camp, arid on Saul's enquiries
Jonathan and his armour-bearer are missed, the king at first
wishes to consult the high-priestly oracle as to what should be
done 5 but he is obliged by the terrific increase of the tumult
every moment to break off his consultation, and rush forth with
his troops into the melee.4 The slaughter and uproar became
then still greater ; even the Hebrews who had been forced
into service as militia in and around the camp of the Philis
tines,5 took sides with Saul and Jonathan ; 6 the Hebrews also
who, in fear of the Philistines, had hidden themselves in holes
and corners of the earth,7 came forth at the first report of their
flight, to join in the pursuit ; and great was the victory over
an enemy whose strength had been doubtless previously dimin
ished by the despatch of bands for plunder.8
1 This gives a very instructive example D;T)3- Similarly, in verse 18, partly
of how such signs were regarded in actual ^ ^ Lxx .
life, how they were sought and accepted ;
ef. ii. p. 127 sq. serted before )VlJ$; we should also read
2 xiv. 13, is to be read according to the ^ for <^, and further on, in verse 20,
LXX., Dn* T& «M as the context shows. ^ ^
8 1 Sam. xiii. 23-xiv. 14. n^O is here
the ploughing itself; and the phrase (mis- * *ol- "• P- 428>
erstood however b the LXX. thus e In verse 21,
understood, however, by the LXX.) thus e In verse 21, n$8 is wanting after
affords an exceedingly fine and picturesque ^-qj;-,, as we see also by the LXX.
image ; indeed, the descriptions of this n<ir- . ' V T
rator overflow throughout with creative Wi}? is used in the infinitive for the de-
insight. scription of a sudden action. Cf. Lchrb.
4 xiv. 16, according to verse 19, and § 351<?.
partly, also, according to the LXX., should 7 P 31
be thus restored : Q^r Tl H.5 P^D * l Sam. xiv. 15-23.
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE. 35
After the host of the Philistines, in their flight westward,
had already pushed through Beth- av en, and about 10,000 men
had assembled around Saul, the battle now rolling over Mount
Ephraim from city to city,1 Saul, seeing how the people thronged
together and impeded the pursuit, broke forth with an oath,
forbidding any man, under pain of death, to take food before
the evening, and before complete vengeance was taken on the
king's enemies. Accordingly, no one ate anything ; even when
they came to a place where a large surface of ground was
covered with wild honey,2 no one dared, however exhausted, to
stretch out his hand to it, for fear of the king's oath. But
Jonathan, who had heard nothing of the oath, refreshed him
self with a little honey taken on the end of his staff, which he
had dipped, as he hastened by, into a honeycomb ; and when
informed of it, broke out into just complaints against his
father's want of foresight, which prevented his exhausted men
from properly following up their victory. And in fact, when,
continuing their pursuit of the enemy without even the refresh
ment of that wild honey, they arrived at Ajalon in the tribe of
Dan, the over-exhausted people seized so greedily on some of
the cattle which had been taken as spoil, that Saul could with
difficulty restrain them from devouring the flesh with the blood,
contrary to law, by hastily setting up a great stone as an altar,
on which the cattle should be slaughtered in accordance with
sacred usage. But when the king, with the ready assent of the
people, proposes to sally forth again that very night, still
further to chastise the foe, the priest requires that the oracle
should be consulted ; and as this does not give a favourable
answer, the king, seized with misgiving, loudly proclaims be-
1 Whatever of these words is wanting while {JO1! in its primitive meaning is
in verse 23, must be supplied from the c
LXX., as properly belonging here. On sweetness only, and therefore like . »
the other hand, the words of the LXX., L5 •
verse 24—' and Saul fell into a great may easily be applied to artificial honey
error '—awkwardly forestall the course of also. In -|yt with this meaning, as we
the narrative; whereas we should here ^ (which hsel inter_
rather be informed what was the exciting l *i ,v
cause of the king's oath ; and we ought changes with the pB p» explained in
, , . Job vi. 25), the/ is softened from n or m,
therefore probably to read "p-ltf^ N"p_ see my Lehrb., § die, 52a ; thus mjT<
verse 27, is properly distinguished from
it as it is used verse 25 sq. ; according to
2 The words, verse 25, of which even o'
the LXX. had lost the correct reading, my Lehrb. § l7Qa. And \^ bee, whose
may possibly be restored by reading letters belong to the same^honetic series,
H-VIK3 tor .-ifctt; the whole land was exca- .& Q{ the ^ ^^ ^ geems tQ be
voted by wild honey, or full of holes of s '
wild honey. For ' iy is undoubtedly spoken for J^, as n(\iff<ra is derived
wild honey, as we see from Cant. v. 1, from /w'At.
D 2
80 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
fore the assembled chiefs that there must be some transgression
clinging to the people, and that were Jonathan himself the
transgressor, he would not spare his life. And so, feeling in
wardly bound by his oath, and holding purity before God
dearer than his own or his son's life, he presses for decision by
means of the sacred lot,1 amid the ominous silence of the
horror-stricken people. When it falls upon his son, he is
actually ready to deliver him up to the punishment which even
he may not escape, and he is at last hindered only by the de
termined opposition of the people, who see God's real will with
more impartial vision, from sacrificing to God him through
whom God had given such deliverance to them, and thus com
mitting a still more frightful deed than Jephthah 2 once actually
carried into execution. Still the people must ransom Jonathan
by the death of another in his stead;3 and under these distress
ing circumstances, a vigorous pursuit of the victory was not to
be thought of.4 So little capable is Saul, with all his other
excellences, of maintaining a lofty circumspection, discretion,
and calmness. This may be easily gathered from the present
narrative ; and if this had become clear already in his far more
important connexion with Samuel, it now appears that, after
his separation from the latter, the king has gained nothing by
the presence of the priest AHjah5and his oracle in his camp.
£. But while the occasion of the separation of the two
powers in the state, as described by this earlier narrator, is
certainly only one particular conception of the decisive crisis in
the life of Samuel, we further gather from it that we have
before us, in chapter xv., another special conception and
description of the same great change. This passage was hot,
it is true, first written by the Deuteronomic editor of the
History of the Kings ; 6 its whole character indicates that it
originated in that period when the prophetic conception and
presentation of the older history reached just its highest flight,
about the time of the third prophetic narrator of the Primitive
History ; 7 it is thus of greater antiquity than the Deutero
nomic redaction, and more recent than the older work, yet
nevertheless, not by the second principal narrator. But the
Deuteronomic editor of the older work has certainly inserted
this passage here from another work intentionally, because it
1 xiv. 41, for D^Dft read B<|£)R and people, but without any such substitution
.uppl, the rest fro* the LXX. ^^K M'
2 Vol. ii. p. 394. s i Sain- xiv 3) 37<
8 Such is certainly the meaning of this 6 Vol. i. p. 157 sq.
passage. A similar interposition of the 7 Vol. i. p. 106 sq.
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE. 37
depicts the great moment of the history with the utmost vivid
ness, and, if possible, with still loftier and purer truth.
Saul's victorious campaign against Israel's ancient enemy,
the people of Amalek,1 was at least briefly mentioned in the
second older work, and raised into prominence as one of the
greatest and most meritorious deeds of this first king.2 It
must also, besides this, have been described in an older work,
after some detailed tradition ; since even the present narrator
of chapter xv. has interwoven so many fragments of such a
tradition into the midst of his otherwise strictly prophetic
representation. One trait of such a primitive tradition is cer
tainly to be found in the narrative which here attracts attention
by its very peculiar antique language,3 viz., that Saul, con
trary to the ancient and sacred custom of war,4 spared much of
the richer spoil of this campaign, and especially the captive
king himself. That this un sanctioned innovation did not pass
without protest from the defenders of the old code of the
Theocracy, needs not to be said ; indeed, there is no difficulty
in supposing that it was at this time opposed by Samuel
himself, as what is here5 related of his part in subsequent
events bears the clearest traces of antique phraseology and
primitive tradition. But the passage before us passes from this
isolated tradition to a high prophetic conception of the decisive
moment when the two powers of the state separate for ever ; and
in the lines, so much more sharply drawn, with which the counter-
position of Theocracy and Monarchy is indicated, as well as in
the most decidedly strong colouring of the prophet's speech
against the king, we seem to see the opposition between the
two powers carried out to its utmost height and intensity, as it
appeared in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. The narrative by
itself stands accordingly as follows : —
Samuel, by special Divine commission, commands Saul, as
the king anointed by Jahveh through him, to undertake the
sacred war against Amalek ; which involved the destruction of
all the spoil as a matter of course. Saul accordingly collects
all the forces and musters at Telaim,6 on the southern frontier,
where the army, pushing far southward, assembles to the num
ber of 200,000 foot and 10,000 men of Judah.7 He advances
1 Vol. i. p. 250. of this, read Gilgal, as if the advance had
2 i Sam. xiv. 48. commenced from this sacred spot ; but
s i Sam. xv. 9. the actual muster would more naturally
4 Vol. ii. p. 164 sq. take place on the southern frontier, as the
5 1 Sam. xv. 32. troops from Judah would hardly move at
G This place seems the same as Q^tQ, first so far north as Grilgal.
Josh. xv. 24. The LXX. indeed, instead 7 The LXX. raise the numbers to
38 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
safely as far as the capital of the enemy, and having placed
part of the army in ambush in a valley, is ready for the
assault; but he first of all summons the Kenites from the
midst of the enemy to join him, that he may spare them.1
The plans of the brave leader are perfectly successful ; the
enemy are beaten throughout the length and breadth of their
land, from Havilah in the east to Shur in the west, on the
Egyptian frontier ; but much of the most valuable part of the
spoil, with king Agag himself, is spared by the king. In par
ticular, the best herds and the stores of provisions are not
destroyed, the flourishing vineyards not laid waste.2 The vic
torious king, accordingly, returns with rich booty anrl with
king Agag, whose life he has spared, to the city of Carmel in
southern Judah, where he commences the erection of a trophy
of victory ; then, after a short rest, he returns north-east
towards Gilgal, and in this consecrated centre of the kingdom
offers in sacrifice the first-fruits of the spoil.3 Samuel is then
surprised in a dream by the announcement of Jahveh, that
Saul can be no longer looked upon as the king who is worthy
to stand before God. As a type of the true Prophet, he is at
first himself terrified at these evil tidings, and wrestles in
prayer the whole night through to be set free from the duty
thus implicitly imposed upon him. But it is in vain. When
he meets Saul, and the latter, receiving him with due honour,
professes to have fulfilled Jahveh's commission, the distant
lowing of the herds which had been saved from the general
destruction betrays to the quick ear of the prophet what must
have happened. Saul cannot deny it ; and when Samuel goes
on to demand how he, who must know himself to be as a mere
man so insignificant, and yet had been exalted so high by
Jahveh,4 could out of mere greed of booty have so trans
gressed Jahveh's express command, it is in vain that the king
seeks to excuse himself, 011 the ground that he had been com
pelled to bring them for sacrifice at the people's request.5 Then,
400,000 and 30,000 respectively. In the and again, Q*p15 for 0^3 ; since the
words which follow, Saul's plans for the destruction of the Vineyards' may certainly
battle and their execution are given only b reckoned in the ^ destruction of the
fragmentary from_ the earlier source so most yaluable t of ft Mti Is
that it is not surprising that later readers ^ ^ IQ ^ ^^ verge an
found special difficulty in understanding enumeration of all £^ b d the
the a-VJ in verse 5. We must assume flockg and herdg> ig not to be expJected.
that an ambush had been previously laid, , 1 gam xy j_12 to thig effect the
as m Judg. xx. 33 sq. Hebrew text, verse 12, is to be restored
o1' V Sq\ from the LXX- : cf. w. 15 and 21.
7 xv. 9. Irom the context and con
struction, D^tt^O is to be read, following 4 P. '6 sq.
the LXX., forD^— comp. Neh.viii.10; s 1 Sam. xv. 10-21.
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE. 39
as in a sudden storm of exalted feeling, the prophet pours forth
the winged words which will not be repressed :
Hath Jahveh pleasure in burnt-offerings and sacrifices
As in obedience to the voice of Jahveh ?
Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice,
And to follow than the fat of rams !
For disobedience is the sin of heathenism,
Disbelief is idols and devils ;
Because thou hast rejected the word of Jahveh,
He bath rejected tb.ee also as His king.1
Earnestly indeed does Saul entreat forgiveness, professing
that he had only acted so from fear of the people, nay, when
Samuel declares himself unable to accept this (certainly idle)
excuse, he seizes the skirt of the prophet's robe with such
despairing energy that it is rent. Bat even this unexpected
chance becomes — as Samuel, carried away by the exaltation of
the moment, hastens to add — a confirmatory sign that even
so is his kingdom, torn from him, and given by Jahveh to one
more worthy ; and only to maintain the honour of the reigning
king before the Elders and the people, does Samuel turn back
in apparent peace with the self-abasing Saul.2 But first of
all Samuel will himself execute on the Amalekite king, Agag,
the judgment which Saul — as if kings, for the very honour
of their craft, must spare each other — had omitted to inflict.
Waiting in the holy place to hew him down with his own hand
as a sacrifice, he calls out to him :
' As thy sword hath made women childless,
So shall thy mother be made still more 3 childless.'
And how acceptable to the altar this sacrifice really proved
in atonement for the many misdeeds of his people, was shown
by the advance of the Amalekite king towards him, not, as
might have been feared, and as Saul probably had feared,
unwilling and resisting, but rather, as if suddenly transformed
by a loftier impulse, with delight and joy exclaiming, ' Surely
the bitterness of death is past.'4
1 It is, indeed, a sin to follow heathen 2 1 Sam. xv. 22-31.
customs, to serve idols (»«), and devils 3 Stitt more, because in losing her son
she loses also the king of her people, and
(properly house-gods, private gods) ; but it her logs ig thus greater than that of all
cannot be more sinful than rebellion against the other bereaved mothers in the nation,
the higher eternal truth : resisting this in 4 yv 32_34. It is well known that the
unbelief is really equivalent to heathenism. ancjents accounted it an evil omen if the
Thus clearly is one of the highest pro- victim resisted when led to the altar, or
phetic ideas anticipated here. After "pOO was snatched away from it (vol. i. pp.
—verse 23—'^ is probably wanting, some 329, 332). And this very portion of the
such word being here almost necessary narrative seems to be of great antiquity,
to the sense, however appropriate the ad- The description of Cassandra s death m
mirable brevity of these verses may other- the Agamemnon of jEschylus, 11. 1245 sqq.
wise be. The'LXX. supply still more. is very similar.
40 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY".
3. It is then incontestable, that each of these two higher
representations only raises into prominence one special feature
of the great crisis in SanPs life as king, and connects with it
the embodiment of the whole truth, which was too profound to
be grasped at once. The relative position of such powers as
the prophetic and the monarchical belongs altogether to the
depths rather than to the surface of life, and their alliance or
hostility does not rest on single and apparently casual incidents
of history ; the solitary instance which is noted and was per
haps the most frequently retold, is only a special expression
of a permanent state of feeling between the two powers, which
had long before acquired its strength in secret.
But all this only confirms the decisive fact which emerges
from all these manifold conceptions, and is at the same time
recognised plainly enough by its consequences throughout the
whole subsequent development of the history. The two powers
of the state, which had only just begun harmoniously to co
operate for the suppression of the deep-rooted corruption of
the age and the establishment of that prosperity which the
nation so much needed, now fell into lasting disunion. The
same power which, as the older, had recognised the need of the
younger, and had striven zealously to raise it to an equal
elevation, seems now, without very important grounds, to be
the one to separate. The same man who, nobly willing to
sacrifice his own power, had brought about this happy change,
appears inexplicably to shatter the very vessel which he himself
had chosen.
But a deeper investigation of the whole connexion between
the development of centuries and all the great historical truths,
proves most conclusively how necessary, how inevitable, as itself
a consequence of his unique greatness, was the action of this
prophet, who in our modern times has been a riddle to many super
ficial readers. For we must above everything beware of import
ing into the age of the commencement of monarchy in Israel,
the idea of royal authority fully developed, with its independent
grasp and control over everything in the kingdom, as we see it
prevailing, certainly to our great advantage, in our own states.
To conceive such an idea, at least in the clearness with which we
are now generally able to apprehend it, and consequently under
the necessary limitations with which at any rate in the best
states of our day, it is both understood and applied, was not
so easy and natural for that primitive age. The early history
of true monarchy in Israel shows us that its origin had nothing
to do with the external grandeur of a state, but sprang out of
SAUL AND HLS HOUSE. 41
the deepest needs of a particular age for the true welfare of the
people ; and at the same time it makes it clear that a power
which arises out of such necessities, under the pressure of
special times and circumstances, finds at first only a limited
sphere of activity, and has as much as it can do to perform
even those duties with tolerable efficiency. But it is equally
characteristic of it not to remain long confined within such
narrow bounds; and it may early feel the impulse to aspire
beyond the limits immediately imposed on it, to the fall
development of its absolute power in every direction. But as
long as it fails to satisfy the immediate purpose of its existence,
and yet on the other hand aims at subduing beneath its authority
what it is still incapable of comprehending, it will lose even
that footing which it has at first successfully obtained.
The earliest narrative, as we have seen above, represents Saul
to have been chosen not so much for the ordinary duties of a
judge, i.e. for the purpose of giving decisions between citizens
according to the existing law, or, in cases for which the law did
not provide, according to his own best judgment; still less with
reference to religion, as if he were authorised arbitrarily to
determine its rites and institutions; but to secure unity and
strength for the state. It is to enable him to make the nation
powerful and honoured abroad, united and well-ordered at
home, and to maintain it so, that he is invested with authority,
such as had been given before to no one in that community ;
and that not temporarily, but permanently. Whatever sacri
fices of former rights and liberties may be necessary for this
end, the people must and will now endure; and Samuel was
not the man to concede royal authority by halves. If, then,
the whole nation desires to obtain through a king the blessings
of greater unity at home and power abroad, it must grant him
all means needful for the purpose, must indeed, so far as
necessity requires, place all its powers at his disposal; and
with this royal authority Saul is, in fact, invested from the
beginning. He alone possesses supreme civil and military
power, and has the right of calling out the levies ; while for
permanent purposes of war or administration, or even for his
own service, he can take any subject he pleases to be his servant
in a higher or lower capacity.1 His demands on his subjects
for personal services could not help being larger or more varied,
in proportion to the absence of arrangement or custom for the
1 The further details given on this sub- the proper ancient prerogative of the king.
jectin 1 Sam. viii.- 11-17, are only the later See p. 27 ; comp. 1 Sam. xiv. 52.
one-sided development and distortion of
42 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
payment of contributions in kind or taxes in money. And as
lie is best able to estimate the services which any individuals of
especial merit or ability may render or have it in their power
to render to the common weal, he has also the right of releasing
individuals From the ordinary services of subjects, and in so
far constituting them freeholders ; and this high distinction
would easily come to be looked upon as hereditary, like royalty,
in the whole family, and as forming an intermediate stage
between the king and a simple subject.1 All these essential
attributes of royal prerogative are accordingly possessed and
freely exercised by Saul.
And at the beginning, he knows very well what is the main
purpose for which he has become king ; and working in this
direction, he soon finds his authority among the people
strengthened. The judicial office accordingly remains at first
very much as it previously was ; Samuel, it is expressly re
corded,2 judged the people all the days of his life. And the
institutions of religion continue what their historic develop
ment has made them ; Samuel is still, as before the change,
1 he revered prophet ; the usual functions of the priests sustain
no interruption. That the increase of the king's power at
home should keep pace with his victories abroad, and thus
attain, by quiet unobtrusive steps, the full extent belonging to
it, followed as a matter of course. We do not read that Samuel
was dissatisfied because the people turned to the king as an
ultimate appeal; even the fact that he offered sacrifices in the
name of the whole people, and thus assumed what was previously
the High-Priest's office, is not by any means — at least according
to the narrative in chapter xv. — a subject of reproach from
the Prophet; while the offering of those sacrifices which Samuel
according to the earlier narrator,3 had reserved to himself
under special circumstances, and in Gilgal alone, need by no
means imply that in the writer's conception the king had in
general no right of sacrifice. Had Saul, therefore, understood
the art of allowing the royal power to unfold itself with the
quiet progress of time, he would unquestionably, at a period
in every way favourable to the growth of this indispensable
authority, have gained the same high degree of it which we
afterwards see his great successor David attain, so much to the
welfare at once of himself and his people.
1 ^5?n is used in this sense in 1 Sam. 1857, i. p. 404.
xvii. 2oVon the other hand, in or -fin is 2 l Sam> vii" 15' The names of S™1
more often simply noble, noble-born ; and and Samuel are actually used together m
is more a term of later use. An example a command to the people, xi. 7.
of this freedom in other oriental states a 1 Sam. x. 8; xiii. 8 12.
may be found in the Journal Asiatiyuc,
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE. 43
But Saul is not quite the man for this. His virtues are in
deed undeniably great; and it is quite probable that among his
contemporaries of his own age there might be none so well
fitted as he for the royal dignity. Those qualities which must
have been most essential and most imperatively demanded of
him as king in that age — warlike courage and skill, indomit
able energy to push his conquests in all directions, a sense of
honour ever vigilant for the welfare of his people against their
many and powerful foes, zeal and tenacity in carrying out
his plans ; — that he possessed all these in a high degree, is
clear from every trace of his life which we can anywhere dis
cover. That he was in all points the ablest in war, and so
often brought back from it rich booty to the women who cele
brated his victories, is indeed almost the only, but it is also the
just praise bestowed by David in his lament on the newly-
fallen hero ; 1 and this no doubt only echoed the general judg
ment of his contemporaries. We cannot now, it is true, follow
his wars in much detail, since it is only of those with the Philis
tines and the Amalekites, that we find any particulars recorded.
According to the brief summary of his royal achievements given
by an earlier narrator,2 he had to fight, immediately on assum
ing the sovereignty, with all the neighbouring nations in turn ;
with the Moabites, Ammonites, or Idumsoans on the east, with
the kings of Zobah on the north-east,3 with the Philistines on
the west, and the Amalekites on the south. It would seem as
if all these neighbouring tribes had bestirred themselves the
more boldly during his reign, from the well-founded foreboding
which they might naturally feel, that if once the new monarchy
in Israel became strong, their own power must come to an end.
But that he was generally victorious, follows from the brief
words which this narrator appends to the enumeration of the
nations with whom he fought ; ' wherever he turned, he con
quered.'
We must guard against under-estimating the glory of a
hero whose history is thrown into the shade by the stronger
1 2 Sam. i. 21-24. but in Jer. xlix. 28. In this case the
2 1 Sam. xiv. 47 sq., where for y»^T» passage would then contain a note-
(which seems to have been introduced worthy allusion to an ancient kingdom,
into the text through the later strongly Comp. also the suggestion in ii. p. 325,
unfavourable opinion of Saul, like the respecting the results of Saul's great wars,
points above the letters, Grsn. xxxiii. 4), He has received most honour from the
SJ£«p should be read. In the important pas- Arabs, through Islamism ; Mohammed
• A* 4.1, TYV 4.- himself (Sur. ii. 247-257) having coupled
sage 1 Sam, xiv. 47 sq the LXX. mention unlder the similarly-formed name
besides a Bcuftuup ; ; if for this we read T m (cf algQ TAgMt) with G7llut i>e.
Ba.0«r»p we get the ancient Canaamte Goliath\s Ms true antagonist,
name lltfn, only that the one intended
. . ,. , . 3 See below, under David,
here would not be that in Judges iv. 2,
44 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
light of Ms greater successor, and yet under whom a real heroic
school of great warriors must evidently have arisen. And even
if the Philistines at that time l so exceedingly strong, were never
permanently subdued by him, and towards the end of his reign,
when everything in the kingdom was sinking lower and lower,
pushed their advantage with renewed violence — on the other
hand, his victory over the Amalekites was all the more decisive
inasmuch as, for a long period, they almost disappear from his
tory. What lasting aid he had rendered to the inhabitants of
Jabesh 2 was shown even after his death, when grateful citizens
came thence over the Jordan to bear in secret from the field of
battle the disfigured corpses of himself and of his sons, and
give them honourable burial among themselves.3 The efficiency
of the protection he had afforded, up to the very time of his
death, at any rate to the country beyond the Jordan, is evident
from the fact that his son and successor fixed the seat of his
government there for some years. Besides this, a noble zeal
for the maintenance of the customs of the ancient religion
animates his soul ; and although he is not himself consecrated
(a Nazirite)or a prophet, but according to the well-know nar
ratives is only visited for a moment by the breath of prophecy,4
he is yet evidently at first possessed not a little by that power
ful impulse of strict religion and daring enthusiasm for the
cause of Jahveh,5 which is the characteristic life and greatness
of this period. With what zeal, even while eagerly engaged
in pursuing a foe, he checks a transgression against the laws
of religion, such as eating flesh with the blood, we have already
seen; 6 and the stern expulsion of all kinds of sorcerers from the
land,7 as well as the numerous altars with their proper sacri
fices which he built to Jahveh,8 shows how he employed the
leisure he could snatch from war in restoring with a strong hand,
even in the interior of the country, the purity of the ancient
religion. Nor are traits of truly royal magnanimity wanting,
especially at the beginning of his reign.9 And how faithfully
he adhered during his whole reign, even after he had won im
portant victories and had assuredly tasted at times the seduc
tive repose of peace, to the simplicity and modesty of his
1 According to vol. ii. p. 428. 8 This follows from the short intimation
2 P. 24. in 1 Sam. xiv. 35, that the altar there
3 1 Sam. xxxi. 11-13; cf. 1 Sam. xxi. referred to was the first which he built ;
12 [11]. the narrator was then going on to explain
4 Vol. ii. p. 425. the origin of the others ; how much of his
5 Vol. ii: p. 391 sq. work must, according to this, have been
6 P. 35. lost!
7 Sam. xxviii. 3, 9, an account evi- 9 1 Sam. xi. 12 sq.
dently authentic.
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE. 45
primitive domestic habits, is evident from the circumstance
that he had only one wife and one concubine.1 And how
readily, despite occasional faults, the people acknowledged his
merits in the main, and what affection he was able to inspire
towards himself and his house, is very plainly shewn by the
fact, that we find no trace of a rising against him, or of any
general discontent; and it needed the confirmed folly of his
son and successor to drive the tribes of Israel as a body to
desert his dynasty. We must beware of undervaluing, 011
account of the gloomy events which obscure his later history,
the greatness of a hero who was the first to win honour and
dignity for the monarchy in Israel, and whose virtues were far
greater than those of so many later kings who, in the shadow
of a firmly established throne, had a softer, often only too soft
a seat. That infinite charm which the name 'Anointed of
Jahveh ' carried with it for centuries, and the effect of which
was the most marvellous at first, was first spread by him ; nay
he won for himself besides, from the people's lips, in the
brightest period of his reign, the still higher title, ' Chosen
of Jahveh.' 2 The truest testimony to this opinion of his time
respecting him, is given by his own great rival and younger
contemporary, David ; who, even when pursued - by him,
cherishes the most scrupulous reverence for the ' Anointed of
Jahveh.' Nor could a more beautiful expression be given to
the way in which two really great spirits, who are each pursuing
a different course, may still, under the constraining influence
of Divine truth, meet in freer moments as friends, than is found
in the story of the involuntary compulsion by which Saul is
forced, out of magnanimity, to acknowledge the still higher
magnanimity of his enemy David.3
But with all these kingly virtues, there is gradually developed
in him a peculiar bent of mind, quite capable of neutralising
a great part of their most valuable effects. An extreme im
petuosity in following up an enterprise easily fostered in eager
natures by an age of strong excitement and immoderate practice
of vows, marks his behaviour at the battle of Michmash ; and in
the same way that this impetuosity then led to the inconsiderate
imposition of a vow upon the people, and to other lamentable
consequences, it was not uncommon for the first king of Israel
to be betrayed under pressure of circumstances into similar acts
of thoughtlessness. But the bitter fruits of such precipitation
1 1 Sam. xiv. 49 sq. ; 2 Sam. iii. 7 ; xxi. 3 1 Sam. xxvi. 25 ; see below.
8-12. 4 P. 33 sqq.
3 P. 6.
46 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
easily excite in a man who is conscious at the bottom of his
original good intentions, that jealons suspicion the poison-
breath of which is nowhere so near and at the same time so
deadly to the sufferer and all his surroundings as in that
elevated rank, where it can easily ally itself with the greatest
outward power, and can thus easily carry out its sinister
suggestions. And it is indisputable that Saul, to be able to
act as king at all, had to overcome difficulties and remove
obstacles about which none of his successors needed to trouble
himself nearly as much. Iu was only human nature that in
proportion to the resistance his good intentions might en
counter, he should sink the deeper into the snare of an ever
growing suspicion of everything around him. And further, in a
community like that of Israel, where, even for the most ele
vated in the nation, there remained always standing clear before
them something higher still, an inviolable sanctity and blessed
life, — in such a community, it cannot be denied, it was all the
more easy for the king to fall into an uncomfortable and de
pressed condition, did he not continually approach more and
more closely to that higher life, and ever strive the more
bravely in right faith and deed to cleave the dark cloud which
seemed to part him from it. But the growing subjection of
the great hero of God's people to this human passion and gloom,
without his being able to free himself again from its power, pre
sents itself as the momentous crisis of his life, where human
excuse and Divine blame meet side by side. We cannot now
trace the first germ and growth of Saul's passion ; in the tra
dition respecting him, it appears almost at once in full violence.
The evil spirit which, according to the tradition, perpetually
troubled him, is nothing but this royal jealousy, ever reappear
ing in stronger and more deadly guise ; sometimes indeed
appeased for a while, but constantly returning in fresh strength,
and as constantly finding new material to work upon. Before
it vanish at last all consistent action, all wise and moderate
rule. If it impels him to-day from whatsoever motive (were it
only to display his royal supremacy) to spare more of the booty
than is permitted by sacred usage,1 it urges him to-morrow to
deal more unsparingly than custom sanctioned with the Gibeon-
ites,2 or even to destroy an entire priestly city for a mere
suspicion.3 And from this influence all men have to suffer alike,
friend and foe, servant and son, priest and prophet. But bow
in David he drives away not only his bravest but his most
faithful subject, will be shown farther on.
1 P. 38. 2 2 Sam. xxi. 1-S ; see more below. ' 1 Sam. xxii. 9-23.
SAUL AND HIS HOUSE. 47
In this, then, lies the true reason of the breach between
Samuel and Saul. For that Saul by no means despised the
prophetic voice as such, or desired to make himself quite
independent of it, is self-evident from the whole history of the
age. No king of that period would or could have done so.
Saul, according to the earlier narrator, as soon as Samuel has
departed from him, asks counsel of a high-priest ; l according
to a later narrator, he even craves for consolation from Samuel
after his death.2 But no true prophet could suffer the king,
a mere shuttlecock of passion, to violate the inviolable; and
Samuel was the last person to do so. And so, if Samuel had
before been great as Judge, Prophet, and Founder of the
Monarchy, he now displayed still nobler qualities in the decline
of his life. As soon as this tendency became unmistakably
manifest in Saul, he turned away from him with the same
decision with which he had before raised him up; like a father
regardless of his own beloved child reared up to manhood with
care and hope, when the ruin of others is involved. For had
he spared this his spiritual child, when to spare him would
have been contrary to the fundamental law of the Theocracy
itself, the worst possible precedent would have been afforded
for future ages by this first king. But he had not founded the
Monarchy in order that the Theocracy might become a kingdom
of human caprice and self-will. The very motive, therefore,
which induced him, in spite of all considerations, to found the
new institution as a necessity, must have equally induced him,
to exert all his power to shield it, when once founded, from any
perversion during the first period of its development.
The only weapon which he employs for this purpose is
separation from Saul, in the impossibility of co-operating with
him for the true objects of his life. There is no evidence that
he ever employed worse instruments against him, as will be
seen still more clearly hereafter. In doing this, however, he
only did what he was bound to do ; and it was in fact without
his own will that this action became a weapon. Even in his
separation from the king he is still great enough, and has
important work enough to do. He retires to Ramah, his native
city and his old prophetic seat, there to devote himself only
more exclusively to the training of younger prophets and citi
zens, and to lay the true spiritual foundations of national
welfare more indestructibly for the future.3 And as he can
thus work quietly and gradually, yet in the end irresistibly,
1 P. 35 sq. * 1 Sam. xix. 19-24 ; comp. xiii. 15
2 1 Sam. xxviii. 3-^25 ; see below. (LXX.) ; xv. 34 ; xxv. 1 ; xxviii. 3.
48 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
upon king- and people, lie thus gains a second and really more
dangerous, though wholly innocent weapon.
But should anyone suggest, that if this was to be the end
of it, Samuel would have done better not to choose in the
beginning an instrument which would have to be rejected, he
would be trying in his acuteness to be wiser than history and
the Bible itself. The Bible does not hesitate to relate that the
Spirit of God through Samuel chose and rejected Saul. It
thus leaves proper scope to human freedom, since the rejection
does not occur without actual guilt on Saul's part; yet it
intimates besides that above both choice and rejection stands
something Higher than the great prophet himself. For to
suppose that Samuel would have chosen Saul had he foreseen
his aberration as it really occurred, would be to make him out
what he was not, a bad man ; and that (as some moderns have
conceitedly presumed) he purposely selected the king out of
Benjamin, then the weakest tribe of Israel, in order that he
might more easily control him, is nothing but a miserable
conjecture, which only shows what would have been the con
duct of the persons who have hit upon this silly idea, if they
had been called upon to act under the same circumstances as
Samuel. It is enough to note that the tribe of Benjamin l
was the most warlike of all ; that Saul's native city Gibeah was
at no great distance from Samuel's residence ; and that this
Gibeah was a holy place, the dwelling-place of prophets, where
a heroic youth might easily catch some similar inspiration of
higher life ; 2 and especially that, as we have seen, the tribe of
Ephraiin, or, failing that, the closely allied tribe of Benjamin,
possessed from the earliest times a claim to the dignity of a
leading tribe, and therefore also to royalty, which it was the
duty of Samuel not to overlook.
III. THE FALL OP SAUL AND HIS HOUSE.
1. We have seen that Saul, the royal hero of his time, could
not but injure himself and his kingdom more and more, by the
jealous suspicion growing and spreading in his mind like a
creeper winding round the healthy stem. The stages of the de
velopment of this evil and its manifestation towards others can
no longer be traced in detail or with chronological precision.
The extant narratives content themselves with indicating their
progress by one single example, which the magnitude of its
1 Vol. ii. p. 281. 2 P. 22.
THE FALL OF SAUL. 49
subsequent consequences certainly renders the most important
and striking, that of David ; yet this is better reserved for the
life of the younger hero himself.
No mention, however, is made of any display of this jealousy
towards Samuel, even after his separation ; moreover, from the
nature of the case we have every reason to suppose, that Saul
never ventured to turn his rage against the hoary Prophet, who
had once elevated him to the royal dignity, and who now stood
aloof from him in silence. For a hero like Saul is great even
in his fall, and is more easily guilty of some inconsistency in
action, than wholly forgetful of the cause to which he owes his
first elevation from humble rank, and his brightest memories oi
better years. The silence of Samuel's separation Saul care
fully maintains on his part ; the two great powers of the state,
which could only work for the general welfare when united in
friendship by the higher truth, are separated by an overruling
power, but do not attack each other with such weapons as the
wily popes of the Middle Ages sedulously employed to weaken
and annihilate our best emperors.
But since Saul, although king, can never forget his origin,
this silent withdrawal of the great Prophet, when it is once
seen to be a decided and irrevocable step, may well be enough
to touch him in the most tender point. He may have thought
that on the proud eminence of royalty he should be able for
a time to do without the timely warnings and restraining
influence of his Divine voice, and he acted at least as if he
really thought so. But now that he has reached the moment
for dispensing in reality with that which he fancied himself
able to dispense with, it becomes for the first time evident how
little it is possible for him to do so ; and he sinks back deeper
and deeper into an abyss of perplexity and weakness. He has
not the strength to raise himself again in the right way and
without any surrender of kingly dignity to that sunny height
which he had in other days so nearly approached, and whose
warmth had once animated even him for the better life. Nor,
again, is he so degenerate as really to destroy that prophetic
elevation, even if in some rash moment he had wished to do so.
Once (so runs the beautiful and only too true narrative) he was
informed that the dreaded David was in the school built near
Ramah,1 and he despatched messengers thither to take him.
1 1 Sam. xix. 19-24 by the second dwellings; but this usual meaning is here
narrator. For JV13 which occurs six times entirely unsuitable, and it is much better
between xix. 18 and xx. 1, the Keri reads to treat JV}j as a word of <lm'te different
every time fl'TO as if ifc meant nifcO formation in the sing. ; it would then be
VOL. III. E
50 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
No sooner, however, did they behold the circle of prophets at
that moment engaged under their teacher Samuel in their
sacred exercises, than they felt themselves seized by the same
spirit, and joined the circle in similar exercises. The same
thing befell fresh messengers, a second, nay, a third time.
Then Saul, enraged, rushed himself to Ramah, and enquired at
the well by the threshing-floor on the adjoining hill where the
(newly- built) school was; but on the very way thither, as he
looked down from the hill upon the school, and heard the loud-
pealing songs issuing from it, he was seized by the Divine
spirit, and when he at last reached the spot, sank into the same
condition of enthusiasm still more deeply than all the mes
sengers whom he had previously despatched.1
It was thus out of the hero's power to abandon in his inmost
heart what he had in earlier times acknowledged as his better
self. But he was still too weak to raise himself to it once
more in full activity, and thus that better aim, which he
rejected e^en while he still felt it a necessity to him in his
heart of hearts, and ever yearned after it, at any rate in secret
and darkness, was avenged on him, inasmuch as he really did
once more turn towards it, but not till too late, in the last
agonising moments of his life. This is the true end of his
destiny, the supreme tragic suffering beneath which the great
hero of his time succumbs. And it is from the point of view of
the fulfilment of this higher truth, that the last moments of
Saul's life are conceived by that narrator who had also por
trayed with the most vivid colouring the decisive moment of
his life as king, the separation of the two powers of the state.2
It is possible and credible that, long after Samuel's death, his
shade was the subject of the spectral illusions practised by
necromancers; who artfully imitated the whole language and
manner of the great Prophet for those who were desirous of
hearino- his voice once more. From the earliest acres such
?7 O
black arts had their home in Egypt, the native land of necro-
latry, and were thence transferred to Canaan; and the majority
of enquirers would certainly wish to hear, from among the dead
those who in life had given the best oracles. Accordingly, when
Saul — so it is related 3 — in the greatest alarm, before the battle
much the same as school, properly study, for ;>VlJn and •»££; for *£&, or else the
iust as r" indicates the special direc- latter is to be interpreted as ' view,' i.e.
V height.
tion of mental power upon something ; and * A very similar event is related in the
is study anything else? The purport of the life of Buddha. Seethe Journal of the
whole narrative shows that the school was American Oriental Society, iii. p. 63 sq.
not situated in Ramahitseb. In verse 22 we 2 1 Sam. xv. ; p. 36 sqq.
should re.id, according to the LXX., pin * 1 Sam. xxviii. 3-25.
THE FALL OF SAUL. 5]
in which he was to fall, had tried in vain by dreams.1 by priestly
oracles and prophets to hear the voice of Jahveh, the very man
who in earlier and better days had banished all magicians,2
was conducted in disguise to a well-known sorceress in Endoi\
He hushes her dread of discovery, and requires her to conjure
up Samuel. But the instant she beholds the shadow of the
mighty dead ascending, she starts up wilh a scream of terror,
for she sees him arise no longer calm and mild, but with
gestures of fearful menace, such as he could only show towards
a deadly enemy, i.e. towards Saul. The woman thus perceives
that Saul is her questioner, and asks why he has deceived her
by his disguise. But he is satisfied as soon as he knows that
Samuel is really there, and kneels down in homage, yet only
to receive from the angry spirit of the dead the blame he
deserves, and the mournful announcement of the approach of
his last doom ; so that, instead of finding comfort, he sinks in
an agony of terror to the ground, and can scarcely be encouraged
to rise up, and, after some needful refreshment, go on his way.3
2. But deeply as the hero has fallen from the elevation at
which he started, yet the bright side of his history reappears
at the end in his death, a death worthy of his virtues. He falls
by no traitor or domestic foes; he still fights bravely in the
hardest battle of his life against the Philistines; but, ever
accustomed to victory, he will not survive the defeat already
but too plain ; and so he falls, to receive immediately from his
own great rival the rightful praise of his virtues, and in his
immortal song to live for ever among men as his better self.4
The fall of the founder of a new kingdom and dynasty, if
affairs are out of order at the time of his death, is apt to
entail the ruin of his whole house. It is, therefore, the mark
of an unusual attachment on the part of the people to their
first king, that all the tribes except Judah, even under these
most unfavourable circumstances, raised his only surviving
son, Ishbosheth, to power, although, so far as appears, before he
1 I.e., through sleeping in a sacred seeking an oracle as impious, but does not
place (cf. i. 329) ; it is remarkable that deny that the dead, or at least, a spirit
even this is done with reference to like Samuel's, could speak after death.
Jahveh. See an instance in Athenseus' On E. Tanchum's explanation, see the
Leip. xiii. 68. remarks in the Tub. Ihcol. Jahrbb. 1845,
2 By this addition, w. 3, 9, Saul's act p, 574.
is condemned beforehand by the narrator 3 In modern times Saul has been often
as running counter to the religion of made the subject of a tragedy. The ac-
Jahveh; but it is equally certain that the count of the first narrator, as I have
narrator means that what Saxil heard was remarked in the new edition of the first
really the angry spirit- voice of Samuel, vol. of the Dichtcr des Alien Bundes, is
and not mere deceptive words from the probally derived from a drama,
witch. He thus condemns this mode of 4 2 Sam. i. 19-27,
E 2
52 FOUNDATION OF THE MONARCHY.
assumed the sovereignty, he had not gained any particular
distinction. And had he, at least as king, shown himself
worthier of his father, he would probably never, or at any rate
far less readily, have sunk before David's rising might. But
his own folly brought him in a few years to the ground ; and
with him the house of Saul, of which only a few miserable
offshoots can have been left, fell for ever from the throne.
But all this, being so closely connected with the history of David,
will be better explained further on.
3m And finally, the question of the length of Saul's reign is
not without influence on the view taken of the fall of his house.
On this subject we find no information in the present Books of
Samuel ; but it cannot be doubted that it was supplied in the
work of the older narrator ; l it can, then, only have been lost in
the later recasting of this work on the part of the Deuteronomic
narrator, at a period when no great importance was any longer
attached to such chronological specifications in the sphere of
this history. Recent scholars, taking their stand on Acts xiii. 21,
have very generally assumed forty years as the duration of
Saul's reign; without reflecting what serious contradictions
would thence arise. For2 Saul had only reigned two years when
he organised the picked bands of warriors, and placed his son
Jonathan over one of them. He must, consequently, at the
beginning of his reign have had a son already about twenty
years old ; and indeed it was naturally to be expected that no
very young man would have been chosen for the first king of
Israel, when the country was involved in the most serious diffi
culties. If, then, Saul when he became king was already in
the prime of manhood, and had a son twenty years old, he
would, according to this assumption of a forty years' reign, have
fallen in a grey old age, and Jonathan on the verge of it, in the
battle which carried them both off; and wrho will accept such
a result, in the face of the surviving particulars of the history ?
But, in fact, the origin of this number forty has been already
explained; 3 and so far it has certainly its proper meaning. Jose-
1 Without observing that this narrator we see from the Hexapla, an old Greek
fixes other periods even for the history reader had here supplied the number thirty,
before Saul, it is sufficient to point out certainly only by his OAVII conjecture, and
that he fixes much smaller periods in it will probably remain impossible for us
the history of Saul ; in x. 27, according to to fill up this hiatus. How absurdly
the LXX., cf. above, p. 24, and xiii. 1, he Eusebius attempts to explain this corrupt
gives two dates about Saul at the same passage, is best read in his own words,
time. In, the latter passage the number Chr. Arm., i. p. 170. The explanations
of years of Saul's age on his accession of the Eabbis are equally ridiculous : see
must have fallen out after p ; perhaps in Tanchum in loc.
the redaction of the work, at all events, 2 According to p. 30.
at a very early date, since even the LXX. s Vol. ii p. 369 tq.
omitted the verse as untranslatable. As
THE FALL OP SAUL. 63
phus, however, by no means asserts absolutely that he reigned
forty years ; but that he reigned eighteen years until Samuel's
death, and thus contemporaneously with him, and twenty-two
after his death ; but instead of the number twenty-two, there
is found as a different reading the number two ; and we have
every reason to consider this reading the more correct.1 We
thus obtain a period of twenty years for Saul's reign, which
corresponds to all the other remaining indications ; and that
Samuel died only about two years before the end of Saul's own
life, is the purport of all the accounts of his relation to David
and Saul. Even in the present work the mention of his death
is pushed so far forward,2 that he is evidently assumed by this
authority to have died but a short time before the death of Saul
and the reign of David. Whence Josephus derived these dates,
we are indeed no longer able to specify particularly ; but they
are so little exposed to contradictions, that one feels inclined to
assume that they were obtained from earlier sources.
If Saul's reign, accordingly, lasted only about twenty years,.
a better explanation is afforded why his kingdom was still so*
far from being firmly established, and why his house could
easily lose the sovereignty after his "death. And indeed, the
increasing entanglement of such a hero, in many ways so worthy
of royalty, in the snares of a growing jealousy, is humanly
speaking, easier to understand, if he had already attained the
prime of life when first raised to a dignity so novel to himself
and in Israel so entirely strange. For if, even for one born a
prince, without having been early trained (like David) by the
severe discipline of life to kingly thoughts, it is often difficult
to keep free from jealousy, and in pure trust in God to trust
also the best among men, how much more so for him who only
attains in ripe manhood a dignity of which neither he nor his
nation has had any experience ! Such considerations do not, it
is true, diminish Saul's guilt ; but it is for us to recognise how
difficult it is to maintain moral nobleness, when even such a
hero fell from the purest elevation of life into ever deeper
degradation.
1 Because only twenty years are assigned and in the Chronicle, Eusebius puts forty
to him, Ant. x. 8. 4. That Saul reigned years for both together; while G. Syncellus
at the same time as Samuel, and that the wrongly assigns to Samuel twenty, and to
latter died two years before him, is Saul forty years. Cf. ii. p. 371 sq.
asserted also by Clem. Alex. Strom, i. 21 ; * 1 Sam. xxv. 1 ; xxviii. 3 ; cf. particu-
to Samuel he assigns twenty-seven, to Saul larly with xxvii. 7, and the further expla-
twenty years ; but twenty-seven is ob- nations given below. That Sanrael died
viously a mistake for thirty-seven or thirty- about two years before Saul maybe de-
eight. Eupolemus, in Eus. Prcep. Ev. ix. duced with certainty from these pas-
30, ascribes twenty-one years to Saul ; sages.
54 DAVID.
B. DAYID.1
His RELATION TO HIS AGE.
Now come the sunny days of David's rule, — the great period
in which the people whose history we are tracing-, reached
with a marvellously rapid development the highest pitch of
power and glory attainable on the basis of their existing
dominion and religion. And now for the first time we fully
comprehend the healthy influence of Samuel's whole course of
action — not only of his gentleness in developing the mixed form
of monarchy, but also of his severity against its perversion.
Yet what now came to the surface was really the result of all
the recent aspiration of the national mind, which, as we have
seen, had long been directed upwards, and by which Samuel
himself was affacted. The higher religion, or in other words
the Theocracy, when, though scarcely yet established on earth,
it appeared to be losing an assured position for its free de
velopment, rescued itself by a spasmodic movement from the
threatening danger ; the nation manned itself against its
enemies, first by the prowess of single heroes of action, and
then in ever- widening circles, as if determined to be nothing less
than a school of heroes. The spirit of religion turned inwards
to its own depths with greater earnestness and energy, thence
to direct itself more decisively upon external events through
prophecy, which was now waking up to greater strength and
purity. Thus the great alteration of the fundamental consti
tution which could 110 longer be delayed without great damage
—the admission of the human alongside of the divine monarchy
—was already irrevocably introduced through noble self-denial
and self-sacrifice. On the appearance of a king, therefore,
who fully carried out the immediate object of this institution,
unity at home and security abroad, the point was undoubtedly
1 The ancient mode of writing the name and i, where they come close together,
TH (which saved a letter) still predomi- easily pass into one another (according to
nates in the 0. T., and does not pass into my Lchrbuch, § 42e) we find tolerably,
TIT except in writers belonging to the ear] the dialectic form Aa^T . t > j
kingdom of the Ten Tribes (Cant. Hos.
in. 5) or to the people (Amos vi. 5), and Armenian always nuu_p- and also with
in those of later date (first in Zech. xii. .
7, 8 ; xiii. 1 ; Ez. xxxiv. 23 ; cf-, however, t at the end 5 the spelling J.^ J can only
verse 24). Since, however, the vowels u denote Ddiid.
HIS RELATION TO HIS AGE. 65
reached towards wliich the whole age had long been toiling, in
sofar as that point had been the simple attainment of worldly
advantages, such as the complete subjugation of the heathen
nations within the country and on its borders. But beyond
this it was especially due to Samuel's lofty spirit, that the
attainment of this point was accompanied not only by these
material advantages, but also, in conformity with the higher
religion, by new spiritual power and the opening of a hundred
blossoms of a higher intellectual life ; for it was Samuel who,
although he himself died some time before David's reign,
really shaped the character of this period, and its glory was
the result of his splendid efforts.
This was due then to his severity, especially the severity to
Saul which we have noticed above ; for without this discipline
the monarchy would have remained much as we first beheld it,
losing sight of its true goal through jealousy and caprice, with
no real cohesion and elevation, without even suspecting the
infinite nature of its final destiny. For the great lesson taught
by the first stage of the history of the whole of this period is,
that the monarchy could not, without injury to itself, separate
from the Theocracy, and (as it was yet too weak itself to under
stand the Theocracy) from its purest instruments — the prophets.
Let it turn to the Theocracy, then, in a closer and more friendly
spirit, look into its face with braver confidence, and reconcile
itself with it as far as possible. But this can only be done by
entering into its truths, and by a living participation in them.
The greater, then, and the more independent the participation
of the monarchy in the truths of the Theocracy, the better for
the community at large.
But in a still greater degree was the attainment of these
higher blessings due to gentleness with which Samuel, up to
the last year of his life, worked unwearied as a teacher of youth,
and tamed the wild spirit by the peaceful arts of the Muses.
Thus did the two opposites of severity and gentleness work
together in Samuel, flowing from one source and directed
towards one lofty object ; for the higher religion, whose severity
he enforced, yet fosters the utmost gentleness of heart and
delights in all the peaceful arts of the Muses : and in the same
way these two fundamental principles, though they seem at
first sight to be irreconcilable, are found working together towards
one object in the growing efforts of the next age to reach the
highest point of national elevation, and their union constitutes
the true greatness of this era. It frequently happens that at
such periods of national elevation the rudiments of all the arts
56 DAVID
have long existed among the people ; and if at the same time a
fresh impulse in that direction is vividly excited and a purer
religion prescribes moderation in all things and forbids the
one-sided pursuit of external power as the highest object, then
the reaction of newly acquired external power on their internal
capabilities will easily succeed in bringing these germs to an
earlier maturity. In Israel, Samuel was the chief instrument
in exciting this impulse at the happy moment; and his unbend
ing maintenance of the strictness of the true religion preserved
his people from the danger of the one-sided pursuit of military
power, even in the intoxication of the most dazzling victories
over other nations. And so a period of national glory now
dawned on Israel which reminds us far more of the first fair
days of Greece after the Persian wars, than of the time when
the Eomans meditated the conquest of the world ; although,
if we think of the power of the royal authority and national
unity as now established, we might sooner have expected a
Roman universal empire as its result than a field of Grecian
emulation in the arts of peace.
David most happily combined all the qualifications for be
coming the true support of the extraordinary efforts of this
period; and he thus succeeded in winning not only a name
unequalled in glory by any other king of Israel, but also
a halo of kingly fame as ruler of the community of the
true God, unattainable by a king of any other nation of
antiquity. To this most important result, no doubt, the very
period in which he was placed largely contributed, both by
supporting and urging him on, and also, on the other hand,
by tempering and restraining him ; and since, all the while,
the noblest powers of the age were employed in the genuine
eradication of old defects and the establishment of a better
order of things, the zeal of the individual was already inflamed
by that of the community. But it was not the age alone
which made David what history proves him to have been :
we must also recognise in him the glorious originality of a
creative spiritual power, such as rarely shows itself in any
people ; and we have the greater confidence in crediting him
with it, in proportion to the certainty with which we still recog
nise the most vivid utterances of this lofty spirit in his songs.
We have, indeed, in the historical works, richer and more
varied recollections of his life and times than of any earlier, and
I might almost add, any later period. The Davidic age, with
those that lie immediately round it, towers by its special glory
like a giant mountain above a wide tract of more level periods,
HIS RELATION TO HIS AGE. 57
It was, moreover, soon afterwards recognised by the nation itself
as a period of unique glory in the fortunes of the monarchy; and
its memory has therefore been preserved in the historic narrative
with the most exuberant fullness and detail. We are searching
amid the confusion of the dim caverns of a remote antiquity,
when at this point a strong light, shining far and wide, sud
denly bursts upon our view ! All is now almost in its original
life and movement, while round the chief hero a crowd of
other figures mingle in the mighty drama, and even these
are illumined by the bright rays of his sun ; nay, even what
would be insignificant elsewhere, acquires importance here
from the conspicuous eminence of Israel's greatest king. Such
is the impression left upon us by the extant fragments of these
narratives, although some indications of the later spiritualising
and generalising method of handling the history, are discernible
even here. And yet, precious as these sources of history are
which now flow for the first time in a full stream, they are even
surpassed in value by the personal outpourings which their
great hero ha,s left behind him in his songs. In these we
see his innermost spirit unveiled, and are enabled thereby to
compare his outward actions with the most secret workings
of his soul. And although no competent judge can at the
present day attribute to him the whole or even half the
Psalter in a gross historic sense, yet we may all the more
certainly ascribe to him such songs and fragments in the
Psalter and the Second Book of Samuel as prove themselves
afresh, after closer and closer examination, to owe their origin
to none but him; and of these a sufficient number are still
extant to enable us to recognise the true spiritual glory as well
as the artistic power of this hero.1
If we proceed to put together, in its most general features,
the whole picture of David which results from all these his
torical testimonies, we find the very foundations of his character
1 It is unnecessary to repeat here what has to tpll us of him (e.g. Sura xxi. 78
is brought forward in my Dichtfr des sq. ; Jalal-eldin, History of Jerusalem,
Alien Bundes, vols. i. and ii. (especially translated by Keynolds, London, 1836,
in the 2nd edition of 1840), and is still p. 287 sq.) is derived from very late
further supported in a new edition of sources. Samuel Chandler's Life of Datid
these volumes. On the other hand, we is valuable, as containing a diligent collec-
have no independent accounts of David tion of much analogous matter from clap-
outside the Bible, for the information sical sources, but in all other respects it
given by Eupolemus (apud Euseb. Pra>p. is a very unsatisfactory work, tor simple
Ev. ix. 30), wherever it steps beyond the good-will can be of but little use in a case
Biblical accounts, consists almost entirely like this. We have now, therefore, all
of the transposition of certain events from the more reason for referring to Dean
Solomon's life to that of David. On Stanley's very full article on David in W.
Nicholas of Damascus (apud Joseph. Ant. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. i.
vii. 5. 2) see below. Even what Islam
58 DAVID.
to be laid in a peculiarly firm and unshaken trust in Jahveh.
and the brightest and most spiritual views of the creation and
government of the world, together with a constant, tender,
sensitive awe cf the Holy One in Israel, a simple pure striving
never to be untrue to Him, and the strongest efforts to return
to Him all the more loyally after errors and transgressions. He
is no prophet, it is true, and assumes no priestly character;
but no layman of his day could live in the higher religion
with more honest sympathy or more joyous devotion than did
he. His mouth continually overflows with heartfelt praise of
Jahveh, and his actions are ever redolent of the nobility in
spired by a real and living fear of Him (for the errors by
which he is carried away stand out prominently just because
of their rarity) ; and thus by the lofty elevation of the
thoughts that crowd upon him, he often involuntarily becomes
a prophet,1 and at the end of his long career he feels himself
in a state of divine illumination and foresight which no pro
phet could well experience in greater strength.2 And so again
his life, as he corrects its special errors, shows a constant
growth in holiness, which could be looked for only in a priestly
life ; so that, even in his own times, a prophet applies to him
the lofty title of Priest-king — a king, that is, who was as holy
in the sight of God as any born or consecrated priest.3 Thus
in the clear daylight of Israel's ancient history, David fur
nishes the most brilliant example of the noble elevation of
character produced by the old religion, when still in its simple
and unbroken strength, in one who surrendered himself un
reservedly to its influence ; and of the extent to which one
thoroughly imbued with its spirit might become, in his turn, a
light and a stimulus to others. Moreover, the progress which
the old religion had recently made in depth and refinement is
shown by nothing more clearly than by the comparison of the
songs of Deborah,4 breathing so strongly of war and wild
revenge, with those of David, still indeed animated by a
thoroughly warlike spirit, but at the same time powerfully
touching the deepest sources of all moral strength, and re
vealing a rich fullness of originality in their interpretation of
nature.
Again, while the moral refinement just alluded to, which
is everywhere displayed in the songs and actions of David,
points to a peculiarly high morality and gentleness of dispo-
1 As Ps. xxxii. 8; iv. 4-6 [3-5]. * Ps. ex. ; compare below.
- In the 'last words' of David, 2 Sam. 4 Vol. ii. p. 377 &q.
xxiii. 1-7.
HIS RELATION TO HIS AGE. 59
sition, such as might proceed at that time from the newly
awakened prophecy in Israel, we further see him taking part
in the arts which may have been cultivated in the prophetic
schools then in existence. This interlacing of noble deeds and
noble language, impressing themselves upon morals and art,
cannot be a matter of chance, either with David or with
Samuel's prophetic schools, — as the nature of the case would
prove to us, even if no closer historical traces, such as we
shall soon observe, led us to the same conclusion. The
mighty influence of this newly awakened spirit of prophecy
seized even Saul; but he was only for a single moment, as it
were, caught up by it as by a power which, although it over
mastered him, yet always remained a mystery to him, and
never became a part of himself. In David, on the other hand,
the spirit of prophecy meets a kindred spirit, not only closely
related to itself and of fully as lofty origin, but even working
with a creative originality in the same field; and thus it causes
his inborn artistic glory to blaze forth all the sooner. At this
early period, then, David, as the poet of Song, stands at a
height which was never afterwards surpassed in Hebrew poetry.
It is true that some of his songs, which have come down to
us as mere sketches, exhibit the thoughts but little worked out,
and still retain about them something of the stiffness and
heaviness of antiquity ; l but most of them show, side by side
with a vigorous fullness and creative truth of thought (which is
not wanting in the earlier songs, as Ex. xv., Judg. v.), an easy
flexibility and softly moving flow of style which dates its exist
ence as a characteristic of Hebrew poetry from this point.
Thus the loftiest power of thought is accompanied by the most
exquisite form of expression, and the whole of the most ancient
poetry or Lyric of the nation is perfected in David; espe
cially as, even when a powerful king, he did not disdain to
encourage at his court the composition and vocal execution
of songs, even up to his extreme old age.2 On this account
poetry subsequently passed from songs to fresh branches of
the art; and such songs as were composed after David's time
surpass his at the most only in minor points and show no
real advance. Poetry, moreover, was by no means so re
stricted in the hands of David as in its manifestations in
later times, and especially among us ; for he appears to have
1 As 2 Sam. iii. 33 sq.; xxiii. 1-7 ; the song' of the hoary poet, aiming at pro-
former a short lament over one who had phetic brevity rather than running into
deserved well, but yet had not merited so poetic fullness,
artistic an elegy as that over Saul and 2 2 Sam. xix. 36 [35],
Jonathan, 2 Sam. i. ; the latter the 'last
60 DAVID.
been not less celebrated as a player of musical accompaniments
to songs. This we infer, not only from the narratives which tell
us how he alone understood the art of soothing Saul's evil
spirit with the harp, but also from the fact that we afterwards
find the cultivation of music so widely spread and so completely
naturalised in Israel, that in the time of Amos, some two hundred
years after David, it was even pushed to excess in temple and
palace, and laid itself open to reproof on the charge of affecting
vain display and imitation of David.1 And as music and song
excite a dance of sound and thought, and at their origin were
certainly connected closely with actual dancing, we see David,
on one solemn occasion, even when a mighty king in Jerusalem,
perform various dances before all the people, although by this
conduct he brought down upon himself the contempt of his
royal-born wife Michal,2 so powerfully did this third art of the
Muses also strive for expression in him. And not only do all
the arts press forward in him with creative power, and a sort
of irrepressible force, from the beginning to the close of his
career, but his entire conduct in life too, with hardly an inter
ruption, appears to be urged on by a divine harmony, so to
speak, of the powers of every other art of refined life. We see,
for example, not only from his life, but from an explicit state
ment,3 that he had few rivals in eloquence.
The possession of these two qualifications seems to mark a
man out as destined to a distinguished position as a prophet or
musician; but in David's case a third characteristic, capable of
producing a far greater result, is added to them, and even more
than for any other vocation he is born, as it were, to rule man
kind. For this destiny he is qualified, in the first place, by a
sinewy frame, which seems, from its concentrated strength and
indefatigable energy to have been made for war,4 a point which
was still of great importance in those times; in the next place,
by the inexhaustible strength and firmness of his trust in Grod,
and his lofty courage in the presence of every danger ; by his
remarkable power of fascinating everyone with his gracious and
gentle demeanour; by his wise circumspection in human affairs
and his reverent conscientiousness in those that are divine;
1 Amos vi. 5 ; comp. v. 23 ; viii. 3, known that in 1 Chr. xv. 29 two verbs in
10. quite ordinary use have been substituted.
2 2 Sam. vi. 14-22. In verse 16 the 3 1 Sam. xvi. 18.
longer account uses two verbs which are 4 Observe how David himself, in his
found nowhere else to describe the dance, great hymn of victory, exalts these per-
while in verse 14, for the sake of brevity, sonal advantages, rendering thanks for
only one is used; this points most probably them to Jahveh. Ps. xviii. 33-35 [32-
to two different modes of dancing, whose 34].
characteristics were afterwards so little
HIS KELATION TO HIS AGE. 61
and by the wonderful power to which this led, of always
surrendering himself at the right moment to the divine guid
ance, without loss of personal dignity and elevation. Eoyalty
was inborn in him ; and even the severest struggles and dan
gers of his early youth, when once overcome, could only serve
to strengthen and confirm in him his innate majesty. As to
warlike prowess, he stood as a warrior and conqueror on a level
with any hero-king of the age; but in how much was he
superior to the ordinary royal hero ! Now, since his youth fell
in a period in which the true king was more sought for than
found, his inborn aptitude for governing a great and united
nation might well come so prominently into the foreground as
to render subordinate his no less innate capacity for the fine
arts. He possessed, too, as already shown, enough self-denial
and genuine devotion to prevent his ever permanently forget
ting the reality of the Theocracy, even when he had become a
powerful king and was jealously guarding his own prerogative;
and so there appeared in him the most perfect king for Jahveh's
community whom that age was capable of producing.
Finally, if that king alone be truly great to whom his contem
poraries spontaneously offer the full measure of admiration and
love, and who rules over them with a strong hand, whilst
appearing not to rule over them at all; viewed in this light
also, there could not have been a greater king than David-
Israel was not yet properly accustomed either to the forcible
restraints or the mysterious influence of regal government, and
looked upon the existing monarchy as little more than an ex
ternal institution. Still, the deep enthusiasm which David
kindled in all who came in contact with him in his youth,
sustained itself without abatement up to his extreme old age.1
His penetration which caused him to be feared because nothing
could remain concealed from him,2 secured approval of his
ordinances far less from slavish fear than from the perception
that he always hit upon the right measure.3 Nay even the
faults in which he was from time to time overtaken were unable
permanently to alienate from him the spontaneous love of the
whole people ; for he had enough self-denial and strength of
character to cast them aside at once and completely. To such
a king, with such a people — as yet uncorrupted, and absolutely
devoted to him — what was not possible ?
1 Comp. 1 Sam. xviii. 3, 16 with 2 Sam. Benjamites, relations of Saul, and the
xxj. 17. revolt of Absalom, can neither of them go
2 2 Sam. xviii. 13. fax towards disproviag this assertion.
1 2 Sam. iii. 36. The enmity of certain
62 DAVID.
We certainly must not allow these considerations to blind us
to the faults which attached to his character, — faults which are
unhesitatingly ascribed to him in the earlier writings, though no
longer alluded to in the Chronicles. Amongst these, however, we
should hardly reckon what appears to us his excessive harsh
ness in punishing the conquered enemies of his nation, and
offenders belonging to the people itself, for by all indications
David was not of a cruel disposition, even when king, and only
carried punishment as far as tradition and usage demanded.
In the course of the preceding centuries, when Israel had to
fight to the death for its existence as Jahveh's people, the
times had become more and more warlike, and Israel's entangle
ments with other nations more and more complex ; and among
the significant peculiarities of this age, is the rapid popularity
gained by the new appellation of the true God, 'Jahveh of Armies'
TA.V. the e Lord of Hosts '], in which the whole warlike spirit of
the times, seizing on the higher religion itself, finds its most
concise expression.1 It is but natural, then, that the convulsive
rising of Israel against her foes, which first realised its object
under David, should still have been capable of perversion into
some degree of harshness against those foreign nations; and yet
we shall see further on that even this harshness brought its own
o
punishment in subsequent times. Again, there is nothing in
itself culpable in the great craftiness which we unquestion
ably find in David, and in which the great ruler is second to no
Odysseus ; 2 for in times like these, of pressure from so many
quarters, even the most straightforward man could hardly push
1 Comp. i. p. 133, note 2. There is no they had been mightily strengthened Ly
intimation of the origin of this name in the the armies of Jabveh coming down from
Old Testament; but we may clearly see heaven. Isaiah xxxi. 4 alludes to this
from Ps. xxiv. 10, that in David's time meaning of the name, and ancient images,
it was still full of living power, for it such as Judges v. 20, lead to the same
appears there as the most impressive conclusion. According to this, the name
and loftv title of Jahveh. As the form describes Jahveh as coming with all His
in which it now occurs is obviously much heavenly armies to the assistance of the
abbreviated, it is very difficult for us to armies of Israel ; but when the military
fix its original meaning. This much, how- spirit of the nation died away, it might
ever, is clear — that the purely celestial easily be applied to God simply as mar-
meaning ' God of the armies of heaven,' shalling the celestial army of stars. We
i.e. ' the stars,' although indicated in the find an analogous name which may even
late passage, Isaiah xl. 26, is not in have arisen on a similar occasion in the
keeping witli the warlike age which evi- Pallas q>o$t<n<TTpa.~Ti, Aris'oph. Knights,
dently gave rise to it. Again, it would be v. 1173, or the Zei/s arparios of the
too tame to understand simply the 'armies Carians and other peoples of Asia Minor
of Israel' which the Book of Origins calls (cornp. Appian, Mithridates, c. 70, ^Elian,
the ' armies of Jahveh,' Ex. vii. 4, xii. 41 ; Nat. Hist. xii. 30) ; but the special cori-
oomp. 1 Sam. xvii. 45 and vv. 26, 36. ceptions of Jahveh among His people give
The name has evidently a loftier meaning, quite another significance to the Israelite
The most probable supposition then seems title.
to be that the name arose on some occa- 2 Comp. 1 Sam. xxi. 14 [13] sq. ; xxiii.
sion when the armies of Israel turned the 22; xxvii. 8-12.
enemy to flight in a great battle, as though
HIS RELATION TO HIS AGE. 63
through without it. But what was so disastrous in its effects
in David's case, as it must always be, was the habit of telling
lies under pressure of circumstances, — the offspring of the
necessities of those ages. It is true that this special form
of craftiness might easily be developed, when a people like
Israel, of such a peculiar genius and such strong spiritual as
pirations, had yet so many unfavourable surroundings to con
tend against and so much pressure on every side to fear; and at
an early period it seems to have been widely spread among the
ancient people in conjunction with artifice and dissimulation,
and not to have been regarded as altogether dishonourable, for
its practice is ascribed with little disguise even to those lofty
exemplars of the nation, the Patriarchs.1 But for all that,
the darkest passages in David's otherwise bright history —
Saul's massacre of the priests of Nob and the gloomy fate
of Uriah with all its connected guilt— are brought about
through no other cause than this ; nor is there any point of
view from which we see so clearly the immense deficiencies of
even so great an Old Testament hero as David.
Yet since this was rather the fault of the past character of
the nation than of the individual man, it does not touch the fact
that the general spiritual elevation of the age found its natural
leader, at last, in the person of David. Raised by it, he raised
and glorified it in return, and standing at the crowning point
of the history of the nation, he concentrates in himself all its
brilliance, and becomes the one man of greatest renown in the
whole course of its existence. Indeed everything appears singu
larly perfect at this point ; and it is an essential feature of the
glory of the age and its leader, that while other founders of fresh
dynasties, who rise from the bosom of the people to royalty,
usually make their entry in the midst of conspiracy, treachery,
and ambitious strife, David, on the other hand, rises to power
simply by his own loftiness of character and almost against his
will, though in obedience to a higher necessity, and, far from
destroying or banishing the surviving members of the earlier
dynasty, makes special provision for their maintenance. But
we can only understand how this was possible, by studying the
early history of David before the fall of the house of Saul had
made him king of all the tribes : before proceeding further,
therefore, we must bring up this previous history to the point
which we have now reached.
A sufficiently clear knowledge of David's early history, both
1 G-en. xii. 11-13 ; xx. 2; xxvi. 7.
64 DAVID.
before and after it connects itself with the general history of
Israel, may be gained from an abundance of detached traits of
a genuinely historical character. But when the attempt was
first made to take a more complete survey of the king's life, and
to trace it as far back as possible, it could not be expected that
the connexion of its earliest events should still be clear ; for
long before his life became interwoven with the main history
of the monarchy, he had already passed through the most
complicated and varied fortunes, the details and historic sequence
of which could not at the time have seemed to anyone important
enough to merit close observation and record.1 The conse
quence is, that though the earlier narrator was still in possession
of a mass of very clear and circumstantial accounts of the
events of David's early life, yet even he looks at them from a
special and elevated point of view, in accordance with which he
endeavours so to mould them into a whole as to lay a solid and
worthy foundation for what follows. After the close of David's
career, no one who took a clear view of it would fail to ob
serve the destiny to which the powers working in his history
— considered as purely divine — called him from the very first.
And thus the scattered reminiscences of his earliest youth
acquired an inner unity of spirit and an outward connexion
with each other, from this one idea which ran through them
all, viz., that David instead of Saul, was destined by God to
become the true human king in Jahveh's kingdom ; that in
accordance with this destiny, he had received his higher calling
and consecration from the first, and that his star, therefore,
shone out with ever-increasing power, while that of Saul as
steadily declined. It is a necessary result of this that, as soon
as David appears upon the scene, the history of Saul loses all
importance except as the antitype to that of David, and in as far
as the two (like the fundamental antagonisms of a drama) can
be brought into the closest connexion with each other. At
the same time it is very instructive to observe in respect to this
that the earlier narrator avails himself of this lofty point of
view and the contrast it involved, only to reanimate the very
earliest history of David up to his compulsory flight from Saul,
and even there, it is only at the culminating point that he
represents everything as brought about by pure divine truth ;
whereas the later narrators go far beyond him in both par
ticulars, and introduce greater freedom into their represen
tations.
1 The particulars recounted by the later Jews of the lives of David and his father
are arbitrary inventions.
HIS KELATION TO HIS AGE. 65
At this point, then, we must first examine the lofty repre
sentation which serves as prelude to the whole history. With
respect to the monarchy in Israel, Samuel was l regarded even
by the earlier narrator simply as the vehicle of divine truth —
or rather as this truth itself in its outward expression. In
view of it, as soon as Saul is rejected, David is the only
true king, and, therefore, even before he is outwardly con
secrated, he must obtain that true divine consecration on
which the other necessarily rests. And so the narrator tells
us at this point, how Samuel, after the divine rejection of
Saul, impelled by the Spirit, anointed the youthful David, and
with words of lofty prophecy, strengthened him for all the
difficulties which would beset his future course ; just as, in
the case of Saul, he had allowed the higher consecration and
the divine anointing to anticipate the outward form which, in
deed, is in vain without the presence of the other.2 This event
supplies to this narrator the proper connexion for the whole
human history of David ; for since he represents the Spirit of
God as transferred to the king elect3 with the divine anointing
and encouragement, it follows that this Spirit in coining
to David must have left Saul, so that the latter, tortured
by an evil spirit, cannot help longing after and searching for
the former : this is the link which was wanting for the repre
sentation of a historical connexion between the two kings ; the
one recognised, but declining and false, the other unrecognised
as yet, but rising and true. Thus, then, the whole of this lofty
picture depends on the equally lofty truth, that in the real
kingdom of Grod a true king is never wanting; but, even though
nowhere present in outward form, he always exists already in
inward spirit, by divine vocation that is, ready to step forward
at the right moment and assume his outward dignity.
The later narrator, however, to whom we owe the second
version of Saul's rejection,4 has substituted, at this point, for
the older narrative of David's anointing (which was probably
shorter in its contents) another,5 in which the special position
1 According to p. 18. rator of the consecration of David by
2 P. 19 sq. Samuel, is clear from his incidental allu-
8 This follows from 1 Sam. xvi. 13, siontoit asearly as iSam. xiii. 14, andhis
compared with x. 6, 10. The representa- reference back to it in xxv. 30. Besides,
tion is essentially the same as in the New the representation of the departure of
Testament, where the Spirit of God comes God's Spirit from Saul, xvi. 14 sqq.
upon everyone on whom the Apostles have (which unquestionably comes from this
laid their hands. narrator), is quite incomprehensible un-
4 P. 36 sqq. less something of the sort had preceded
* That there must here have been an it. But the truth is, that the colouring of
account from the hand of the earlier nar- the older narrator still shines through in
VOL. III. F
66 DAVID.
of David as the youngest of eight brothers by the same father,
is brought into prominence and endowed with a high signifi
cance. When Samuel (so it is related) had grieved long and
almost too deeply over the divine rejection of Saul which was now
unalterable, Jahveh commanded him to shake off, at length, his
excessive sorrow, and betake himself to Bethlehem to the house
of Jesse, amongst whose sons one had been chosen to be king. On
his expressing a fear that Saul might kill him for it, if it came
to his ears, Jahveh bade him take with him a calf as an offer
ing, and during the sacrifice obey the inspiration from above.
Thither he goes accordingly, no little to the surprise of the in
habitants of Bethlehem, prepares the sacrifice in Jesse's house,
and has his sons summoned to be present at it. But when he
sees the first-born and thinks assuredly Jahveh has destined him
to be His anointed, Jahveh teaches him the contrary ; for men
are not esteemed in God's sight for outward size and strength.
It is the same with the six next brothers, The youngest is in
the field as a shepherd. He must be sent for, as the sacrificial
feast cannot begin without him, and as he approaches — a lad
with ruddy skin and hair, beautiful eyes, and a fine figure —
the voice of Jahveh impels Samuel to anoint him as the chosen
one of God, and from that moment the divine Spirit is upon him.1
If we understand by this narrative that David was openly
anointed king with his own knowledge and that of his kins
folk, it is difficult to conceive how either he or they could all
remain so totally unconcerned, and how he could visit Saul's
court with a clear conscience. But according to the true signi
ficance of the narrative, although Samuel anoints him with his
spirit, and knows what this means in the sight of God (the
result, moreover, showing itself at once in the influence of the
Holy Spirit), yet, as far as outward appearances go, he simply
chooses him as his closest companion and friend in the sacri
fice2 without publishing aloud that the anointing has any
further significance; but if, as the history develops itself, the
truth is divined by one or two others, such as Jonathan 3 and
Abigail,4 that is all the better. The advent of higher life
which prefaces the whole history is thus at the beginning but
loosely attached to what follows ; for the sequel, though de
veloping itself quite in accordance with the introduction, yet
implies that neither the young hero himself nor anyone else knew
all from the beginning, so as to be embarrassed by it. The
xvi. 8; only the representation in xv. 35- ' 1 Sam xv. 15-xvi. 13.
xvi. 7 is entirely from the later hand, as 2 cOTT1p_ j gam_ }x> 22 ; see above, p. 20.
appears from the use of D^ft? vP' an(^ 3 xx- ^ > xxiii- 17-
the whole manner and btyle. 4 1 Sam. xxv. 30.
EARLY HISTORY OF DAVID. 67
development of the subsequent history advances, accordingly,
even if we set aside this previous revelation of the divine destiny
of the great hero, quite intelligibly in itself.1 It seems undeniable,
even from a more strictly historical point of view, that Samuel
had a most powerful influence over David (as the extant records
of an early narrator know of at least one visit of David to
Samuel at the time of his flight from Saul),2 and also that, long
before he was king over all Israel, David received prophetic in
timations of his future greatness ; 3 but it is quite as clear, that
the narrative of the anointing of David by Samuel is simDly
intended to form a lofty introduction to the whole history, and
can be rightly estimated only in the light of the pure divine
truth which it embodies, and the lesson involved in it, which is
drawn out clearly by the whole history.
I. THE EARLY HISTORY OF DAVID.
David's early history up to the commencement of his inde
pendent action may be very happily divided into four parts, in
accordance with the obvious progress of the subject-matter in
dicated by the hand of the earlier narrator.
1. At the furthest point to which we can trace back David's
early history, the reminiscences of him tell us of the two charac
teristics by which, in general, he was so specially distinguished
— his love of the arts and his undaunted courage in the midst of
the wildest strife ; for though these two characteristics appear
to contradict each other, and are seldom found united in the
same man, yet in him they were both manifested together, and
in the highest degree, from the very first. While yet a boy, he
exercised himself in both amid the secluded scenes of his home.
The shepherd's life early brings them both into play. The
pastoral art of flute-playing, glorified among the heathen in the
young Apollo and Krishna, is perhaps the earliest kind of
music to which not women but men, and a whole class of men
rather than individuals, devote themselves ; 4 but David — this
same shepherd boy who exercises his youth in these arts — must
1 Just as, in the Book of Job, the pro- 2 1 Sam. xix. 18-xx. 1.
gross of the human history would be quite 3 Comp. 2 Sam. iii. 18 ; v. 2 ; prophets
intelligible in itself, even without the such as Gad were with him from an early
Divine introduction. This resemblance period; 1 Sam. xxii. 5.
becomes all the more striking if we sup- 4 The Dniy.n'lpl^ inDeborah's songs,
pose these lofty narratives to owe their Judges v. 16, where it is clearly enough
earliest origin to a previously existing described ; nor can it be doubted that the
drama ; and it has already been noticed Greek ffvpiyt is connected with this pY^
incidentally, p. 51 wozte, that this supposition just as so manv of the oldest arts witli
by no means lies beyond all bounds of ^^ ;iss0ciated words passed over to the
possibility. Greeks from the Semites.
F 2
(38 EARLY HISTORY OF DAVID.
also wrestle with the lion. When a lion comes with a bear,
and carries off a lamb from the flock, he runs after him, strikes
him, and snatches the plunder from his jaws ; and when the
lion turns upon him with redoubled fury, he seizes him by the
throat, smites and slays him together with the bear.1 The mar
vellous two-fold power of the future hero is here foreshadowed
in its wild as well as its gentle phase.
The older narrator, however, does not begin David's history
from its human point of view till his public appearance before
Saul, and only glances back on his earlier life from that point.
But, even in the very description of the way in which he came
to Saul's court, this narrator shows us the alternation of his
two wonderful characteristics, making him come before Saul's
notice and as it were become his complement both by the one
and the other. From this point of view does this narrator
regard the beginning of all David's earthly history.
When an evil spirit from Jahveh (so runs the narrative) had
fallen upon Saul, his servants, with his own sanction, sought
for a harper to drive it away with his music in the moments
of its rage. Then a skilful player is found — a youth of equal
strength and skill in fight, eloquent in speech, beautiful in
person, and full of the spirit of Jahveh — it is David of Beth
lehem ; and since his father cannot withhold him from the
king's service, he sends him to the court. Here he soon finds
such grace and favour with Saul, that the latter begs him of his
father for his constant companion; and so the object of his
appointment is fully accomplished.2
But it is not always the time to listen at court to the soft
strains of the lyre, submitting one's soul to be soothed by all
the arts of the Muses. The Philistines have ventured upon
another inroad into the country ; and this time they have
advanced a great distance in a southerly direction, and have
taken up a firm position on the slope of a mountain, Ephes-
Dam mini, between Shochoh and Azekah3 in Western Judah.
Israel, under the leadership of Saul, encamps over against
them on the slope of another mountain, at a place called the
1 1 Sam. xvii. 34-36, where the JifcO exercised the right of summoning into his
inn is to be taken in accordance with service linJ warlike or otherwise capable
man ; moreover, the assertion in xiv. 52
§ 339« compared with § 27 fd. p. 684 of points at the game time to the further
my Lehrb. account of the Philistine wars which now
2 1 Sam. xvi. 14-23. The whole tone follows, xvii 1 sqq.
of the colouring and thought of this pas- 3 That Azekah lay west of Shochoh
sage shows it to proceed from the earlier follows from the whole description, xvii. 1.
narrator, who had already incidentally Robinson, ii. p. 422, thinks he has found
noticed, xiv. 62, that Saul possessed and Shochoh in Suwaikheh, south of Jarmutb.
INTRODUCTION TO SAUL. 69
valley of the Terebinth; and between the two camps lies a deep
narrow valley, which seems destined as a field on which the
warriors of either side may exercise their valour. And now
from the Philistine camp there advances a champion, Goliath
of Gath, six cubits and a span high, with a brazen helm, a
coat of mail weighing 5,000 pounds of brass, brazen greaves,
a brazen javelin hanging from his shoulders, and a spear with a
shaft like a weaver's beam and a head weighing 600 pounds of
iron.1 His shield-bearer advances before him, and be scorn
fully challenges to single combat any one of Israel's warriors,
but no one appears to contend with him. Forty days long, to
the horror of the terrified people, he makes himself heard morn
ing and evening without receiving an answer, until David (who
has accompanied Saul to the war) offers himself for the combat,
unable any longer to hear Israel and her God mocked so con
temptuously. So he goes forth, slays him in the combat, and
thus not only removes the reproach from Israel, but at once
leads on the people to a great victory. And this was how he
first gained the love of Jonathan the king's warlike son, who
(probably) had been prevented by the king and the people
from undertaking this combat himself; and so close a friend
ship is now knit between the two that, as a token of it, they
exchange their garments and their arms.2 Moreover, Saul em
ploys him further in military commissions, and places him in a
position of authority where he manages everything entrusted to
him so discreetly as to earn the esteem of the whole people as
well as that of Saul and his surrounding servants.3
It is beyond doubt, on the one hand, that it must have been
some such extraordinary feat of arms which first brought David
into Saul's notice, as a hero of whose warlike capacity he ought
to avail himself; and as to the sequel, we know from the his
tories of many ancient nations that in those times a whole war
might turn on a single combat undertaken with due formalities
1 It is remarkable that no mention or far smaller than ours.
description of the sword is found here ; 2 Like the Homeric heroes, 11. vi. 230-
other indications, however, show us that 236.
it must have played an important part in 3 We assume that even the earlier nar-
the account of the earlier narrator ; cf. rator mentioned the single combat between
xvh. 45; xxi. 10 [9]; xxii. 10. It David and Goliath : the passages xviii. 6,
follows from this also, that we no longer xix. 5, xxi. 10 [9], leave us no doubt
possess the original representation of this on this point ; besides, the words which
affair by the earlier narrator, and that describe the final result of the achieve-
this description of the enormous weapons ment, xviii. 1, 3-5, to judge from their
comes from no earlier hand than that of a colouring, are from the earlier narrator ;
third and later author. Comp. Plutarch's again, the description of the camp, xvii. 1-
Demetrius, ch. xxi, for what was con- 3, comp. xiv. 4 sq., betrays the hand of
sidered the maximum in such matters by the same author. Possibly the whole
the Greeks. These pounds are of course verse, xvii. 45, is also from him.
70 EARLY HISTORY OF DAVID.
by the heroes of the two armies.1 But, on the other hand, it is
equally evident from many clear traces that this first warlike
feat of David— the greatest hero of that heroic time, soon
gained a specially lofty significance as the type of all the great
ness of the age ; and so, being told and retold with infinite fre
quency and delight, gradually assumed a form of ever- increasing
circumstantiality .and expansion.
We have already said that only a few fragments of the
earlier narrator's description are left to us, and it is not impro
bable that even in them the name of the Philistine giant may
have been introduced from another source ; for we know from
one of the earliest accounts 2 that Goliath of Gath — the giant
' whose spear- shaft was like a weaver's beam ' — was really slain
by a certain Elhanan the son of Jair of Bethlehem ; and in
deed, according to the same authority, this event did not take
place until David had already become king. Since we cannot
doubt that the giant so described is the same whose name is
now introduced in David's early history, we must suppose that
his name was transferred to the Philistine whom David slew
(who is, moreover, generally called simply ' the Philistine,')
when his proper name had been lost. This would be all the
more likely to happen, because Elhanan, like David, was a
native of Bethlehem.
The second narrator, again, brought the first great warlike
feat of David into a somewhat different connexion, in repre
senting this amazing feat as the only means by which David
became known to Saul. According to him, David is sent by
his aged father from Bethlehem to the army, with provisions,
and a present for the captain under whom his three elder
brothers are serving in the camp, to ask after their health
and bring back to the old father some token to show that
they are still alive. On his arrival, under these circum
stances, at the camp, David hears the taunting words of
Goliath ; and learns that whosoever will venture to undertake
the combat, will be rewarded by the king, if victorious, with
great riches, his own daughter in marriage, and the elevation
1 Vol. ii. p. 339. the words were taken to mean ' he slew
2 2 Sam. xxi. 19 and 21 is really the an- Lahmi ' as though Lalimi were the giant's
cient model of the greatly elaborated repre- name, it would certainly be very natural
sentation in 1 Sam. xvii : cf. vol. i. p. 136 to make the further change of reading
84. on the whole passage. According to iplX f°r the succeeding fitf, making the
1 Chron. xx. 5, we should read "Vy for meaning ' Goliath's brother,' as though
•oy and strike out the following D'Oltf- this Lahmi had not been Goliath but
The alteration in the Chronicles of the simply his brother. There wotdd then
word r\ '3, which follows next, into fltf, may be no mention in this passage of the fall
have happened in the first instance through of Goliath; but it is perfectly clear that
a simple mistake of the copyist, but when the text, as it now stands, is corrupt.
INTRODUCTION TO SAUL. 71
of his house to noble rank.1 On this he advances, trusting in
the true God and in the strength which had proved victorious
when matched against a lion in the open field, and conquers the
giant. When the combat begins, he is so little known in the
army that Saul cannot even learn his parentage from his
general Abner, but the victory gives him such a glorious in
troduction to the king, to whom he brings Groliath's head, and
to the other chiefs of the army, that Saul will not suffer him
to leave him. The unexpected but surprisingly majestic man
ner in which the heroic young stranger suddenly becomes
known, and the unlooked-for way in which Saul himself comes
to know him, are essentially characteristic of the event, accord
ing to this representation, and bring it to an appropriate close.2
There was still one other point left for more detailed descrip
tion ; for when David was once considered as a shepherd boy,
the disproportion between the weapons of a simple stripling
such as he, quite inexperienced in war,3 and a giant like Goliath
might be brought into greater prominence. Accordingly we
are told that when David has made known to Saul his fixed
determination to accept Goliath's challenge, the king, by way of
precaution, gives up to him his own massive armour; but David,
after trying in vain to move freely when thus encased, lays it
aside again and takes nothing but his shepherd's staff and wallet,
together with his sling and five smooth pebbles from the water
course (putting four of these in his wallet as a reserve); and thus
equipped, draws near to the giant, who is at first so enraged by
the ridiculous preparations of the slightly- built and unarmed
lad, that he can hardly persuade himself to enter upon the con
test! The earliest source of this most free manipulation and de
scription of the event is a third narrator, while one still later fused
together the representations of all his predecessors into the very
complete account which we now read.4 The pursuit of the flying
1 P. 42. points to the second; the almost synonymous
2 We may perceive from this what pas- 'fllQ^S, xvii. 12, cf. i. 1, to the first ; iJO
sages in the narrative of ch. xvii. can be Qr ^^Q, xvi. 12, xvii. 42, to the second-
considered as original to this narrator ; ^ .
xvii. 55-n8, xviii. 2, especially, are from and -)NF|, xvi. 18, to the first. But since
his hand without alteration. Fl. Josephus the different fragments of the older nar-
has done well, therefore, in dropping this rators, collected here by the latest hand,
trait from his otherwise very servile re- have nevertheless not been completely
production. amalgamated, and so to some extent
3 On the other hand, according to the contradict each other when carefully
earlier narrator, xvi. 18, David was already compared, even ancient readers may have
known as a practised young warrior before preferred to leave out the passages xvii.
he came to Saul. 12-31, xvii. 55-xviii. 5. At least, there
4 1 Sam. xvii. 1 -xviii. 5. It is conse- is no other probable explanation of their
quently only here and there that we can omission from most of the MSS. of the
still recognise the words and descriptions LXX. Cf. further R. Tanchum's conjee-
peculiar to the first and second narrators, ture that there has been a great deal of
Forexample,iDn^n JV3,xvii.58;cf.xvi. 1, transposition in this passage.
72 EARLY HISTORY OF DAVID.
enemy (which seems to be described in part after the earlier and
in part after the later narrator) was carried on with great loss
along the way from Shaaraim l as far as Gath and Ekroii. On
returning, Israel plunders the camp of the Philistines, whilst
David brings Goliath's head to Jerusalem (it is clear that he
did not do this till afterwards, when he was king), and deposits
the weapons of which he has stripped him in his own tent.2
And yet, through all the manifold varieties of form which
may have been assumed in the following centuries by this first
great warlike exploit of David, it preserved its own peculiar
importance, and all the many narrators whose traces we can
detect are united in the feeling of its high significance. Even
supposing these stories of successful prowess against Philistine
giants had been told and applauded a hundred times in Israel,
in no other spirit than that in which the Eomans boasted of
similar achievements against Gallic giants, or the Greeks of
Odysseus' victory over Polyphemus, the feeling would still
have been an honourable one, and would have sprung from
a higher spiritual aspiration. For as the hero of inferior stature
but of nervous arm, unshaken courage and superior skill,
fights and conquers the terrible but uncouth and awkward giant,
just so, in all essentials, do the nations who, though smaller,
are yet spiritually active and artistically cultivated, contend
against those which are stronger but less refined. In the vic
tory of a David over a Goliath, the whole nation — unfortunate
sometimes but never despondent — rejoices in its spiritual su
periority over its mightier foes, who are certain, for all that, to
be conquered again at last. And so these combats are the fore
shadowing of future victories still greater and more extensive,
the symbols of the first successful efforts of a general spirit of
lofty aspiration ; and the idea we have seen manifested in
Samson's life 3 finds its embodiment again in David. But neither
the heathen nor even Samson himself can rival the special
glory, so prominent in David's case, and consonant with his
whole nature, of a courage supported by the higher religion ;
and this peculiar elevation transforms this human strife into a
public contest between two religions. The Philistine curses the
1 This town in the tribe of Judah may 2 On the other hand, the older narrator
•well be supposed, from the connexion must have told us how David presented
in which it appears with Shochoh and Goliath's sword to the High-Priest and
Azekah, Josh. xv. 53 sq., to have lain afterwards found it in his possession, xxi.
due west of these cities, so that the pur- 10 [9], xxii. 10. This also shows us
suit towards Philistia must have passed that much of the earlier narrator's account
through it ; see also p. 19 and Seetzen's must have been lost.
Eeisen, ii. p. 393. Even the LXX had 3 Vol. ii. p. 402 sq.
already lost the meaning of the words.
RELATIONS OF SAUL AND DAVID. 73
apparently defenceless stripling by his invisible God, whilst
David, though not unskilled in war, trusts more than in anything
else in the name of Jahveh of Armies, the God of Israel's battle
array,1 and it is He who gives him courage and victory. And
thus the two-fold greatness of David and his whole age
already steps into the foreground — the courage that is bold
without rashness, which is inspired by the newly wakened energy
of the higher religion, and vindicates for itself a victorious
freedom from even the strongest and most threatening of its foes.
2. Thus has David come into contact with Saul, and indeed
become forthwith almost necessary to him in peace and war,
so that it now rests with Saul to avail himself of the service
of this most gifted of his subjects. But when the army of
Israel is returning home from the campaign in which David's
exploits had no doubt been the most prominent, and the
women, in celebration of the feast of victory, sing, in their
simplicity : —
Sawl has struck his thousands down,
but David his ten thousands ! z
the king is overtaken by his dreadful curse, and becomes jealous
of David also; and though the latter affords him not the slightest
grounds for his fears, the thought already rises within him that
the hero of the panegyric now only lacks the kingdom ! It is
in these times of repose that the sting of envy works itself
deeper and deeper into the soul through such ungoverned
thoughts. So, even while David is once more playing quietly
at his side to chase away his evil humour, the frenzy of the
evil spirit comes over him in a totally new form, with such
irresistible power, that he seizes the spear which stands as a
sceptre at his side, and hurls it against the wall by which David
sits, intending to transfix him; 3 the singer draws back his head
from the blow, but the king seizes the spear again, and it is only
the rapid execution of a second retreat that protects the innocent
man from his furious outburst of rage.4 Thus wonderfully
1 1 Sam. xvii. 43, 45. down her own son from jealousy, as Ap-
2 The great importance which is at- pian distinctly states, Syr. ch. Ixix. ; cf.
tached to this verse, wherever it occurs, Liv. Epit. Ix. ; Justin, xxxix. 1. It is
cf. xxi. 12 [11], xxix. 5, proves that the known, however, that the sceptre of kings
earlier narrator, who at this point appears and princes was originally nothing but a
again quite by himself and henceforth is staff, which reached down to the feet like
predominant alone, really took it from an a shepherd's, Gen. xlix. 10 (JEschylus,
old national song; besides, it is by no Ag. 195), and so, especially in war, served
means in the manner of this narrator to as a spear also (Ps. ex. 2).
insert verses unless he has taken them 4 1 Sam. xviii. 6-11. It follows, ho w-
from the old tradition or some other his- ever, from the very different tone of the
torical source. Cf., however, the remarks description in xix. 10, that on this occa
below. sion, and also in xx. 33, the matter went
3 Just as a Syrian queen Cleopatra shot no further than a simple cast of the spear.
74 EARLY HISTORY OF DAVID.
rescued from this wild frenzy, the youthful David only excites
Saul's secret dread the more ; and after the failure of his open
attempt which would be the more easily excused by those who
surrounded the afflicted king, iD consideration of his well-known
madness, he seeks for some crafty means of crushing the youth,
or rather the dreaded Divine power within him.
Under his special command he places a small troop of 1,000
men with which to conduct independent operations against the
enemy, hoping that the incessant warfare in which he will thus
become engaged will soon prove fatal to him ; but the propi
tious presence of Jahveh's spirit is not withdrawn from David,
and he not only remains uninjured through all these conflicts,
but, as he develops his powers on a more independent footing
at the head of his little troop, he wins the love of the whole
people in a yet higher degree.1
In order to spur him on yet further to wild feats of war and
excite him more powerfully to the most extravagant adven
tures, the king determines to raise him to a position of yet
greater honour and distinction, and is ready to make him his
own son-in law upon condition that he will pursue the holy
Avars against the national foe with still greater eagerness.
But at the same time he will only give him Merab, his elder
daughter, who is already married to another, Adriel of Meho-
lah, and is to be taken away from him for this purpose.2 David
at first declines, saying, ' Who am I and who are my kindred,3
my father's family in Israel, that I should be made the king's
son-in-law ? ' yet, for all that, he has to conform himself to the
king's gracious will. But as the marriage is about to take
place, Michal, Saul's second daughter, who is yet free, declares
her love for David ; and though the attitude which Saul as
sumes for a time with respect to David's suit, threatens in
creased difficulty in gaining his consent to this second request,
yet he has at the same time determined in his own mind to
take the fullest advantage of this turn of affairs also, for his
own purposes. He therefore secretly instructs his courtiers
to drop a hint to David that he need not place any heavy sum
1 1 Sum. xviii. 12-16. sage 2 Sam. xxi. 8, a simple copyist's error
2 This is no more extraordinary than ma^ hav« crept in at an earl/ period, as
thai Michal should afterwards be taken ls >lotlced be]°w-
back again, by David's command, from '-&, 1 Sam. xvm. 18, must be an
the man to whom she had been given in ancient idiom equivalent to ' my relations/
marriage by her father, clearly against as is clear from what follows. It will
her own will, atter David's flight, 1 Sam. therefore mean the same as the equally
xxv. 44; 2 Sam. iii. 14-16. On such antiquated form elsewhere nTl fan- sg.
loose treatment of marriage relations see Ps lxyiii< n r1()-, See mjYehrbuch, §
my Altcrthumer, p. 223 sqq. In the pas-
RELATIONS OF SAUL AND DAVID. 75
of purchase-money for the girl in her royal father's hands, but
by presenting him with a hundred foreskins of Philistines he
may make him friendly to his cause. Since the interval before
the marriage with the elder daughter is not yet passed, David
actually marches out at once with his little retinue,1 slays 200
Philistines, and causes their foreskins to be presented to Saul.2
And so, instead of attaining his object of seeing him destroyed
by the dangers of war, Saul is compelled to give David the fair
young Michal, and has to bear the additional vexation of seeing
him loved by Michal as well as by the whole people. This
causes his hatred and dread of him to rise higher and higher;3
and yet for the sake of outward appearances it was desirable that
the king should now confer some post of honour on his son-in-
law. At any rate, he can no longer remain an armour-bearer or
esquire as he was before, and accordingly he appears at this
time if not earlier (for the authorities on this point have not
been fully preserved to us) to have obtained the second place in
the court as commander of the king's body-guard, next to
Abner, who had long4 occupied the post of commander-in-
chief, which was the highest dignity in Saul's court. That
David actually held this appointment appears yet more cer
tainly from scattered indications.5
During the campaigns of the next few years, David continues
to be successful in his attacks upon the Philistines, and his
name becomes dearer and dearer to the whole people, and
Saul, therefore, can no longer refrain from calling (quite openly)
on all his courtiers and his son Jonathan to take the first
1 ' He and his men,' xviii. 27, i.e. with court, next to Abner, follows from 1 Sam.
his two or three squires, as Joab had ten xx. 24-27, and from xxii. 14 we learn
arrcour-bearers, 2 Sam. xviii. 15; the fact that this was the post of caprain or' the
that at that time of the year there was no body-guard. In this latter passage 1p
war, and that- 1,000 men would have had LXX( &px(av= ^ prince, must be read
no difficult task against 100 or 200, makes " ^ .
it all the more certain that the 1,000 men for "«? (compare also 1 Kings xx. 3
over whom he was captain are not meant, and ^ must be regarded as confused
Compare Samson's exploit, vol. ii. p. 405. ith Ly . princC) i.e. captain, over thy obe-
2 Fl. Josephus makes 600 heads of them
throughout. According to Kouge in the dienoe, i.e. thy body-guard, who always
Rev. ArcheoL 1867, p. 42 sq., this was an surround the king, obedient to every sign,
Egyptian custom, and must, therefore as witn Us an onZmty is a soldier specially
have been borrowed thence by Israel. assigned to the officer. This is the inean-
3 xviii. 17-29; since everything is thus infycof ftyftvfo, as appears also from
seen to hang very well together from .'; : • . .
xviii. 6 onward, and to show the hand of 2 Sam. xxm 23 (1 Chron xi 25); 1
the earlier narrator throughout, the nu- Kings iv. 6, LXX. (see below); cf 2
merous omissions in the Vatican MS. of Sam. viii. 18; xx 23 Something .he
the LXX. must be purely arbitrary. same is expressed by the phrase 'keeper
« Not from the first, for in the war of of the kings head (hie),' 1 bam. xxvm.
Michmash (p. 33)it is nothe, but m default 2; and according to the old account m
of such an officer, Jonathan, who apppars 1 Chron. xu. 29 Sauls body- or house-
still to occupy the post he afterwards filled, guard consisted of a considerable number
5 That David held the second office at of Benjamites.
7G EARLY HISTORY OF DAVID.
opportunity of destroying him. It is at this juncture that the
first proof is furnished of the true nature of a friendship which
must ever be regarded, even now and among Christians, as the
eternal type of such a friendship, the parallel of which would
be sought in vain among all the Homeric heroes. True
friendship is something far purer and more divine than sexual
love, since it excludes, when genuine, even that sensuous ele
ment which is found in the other; as David himself, in his elegy
on Jonathan, exclaims with truest feeling, as he looks back
011 all their intercourse which is now closed, ' More wonderful
was thy love to me than the love of woman.' 1 Nothing can
establish a true bond between two friends and produce pure
friendship except a loftier necessity which stands above them
uoth, and which both alike burn to satisfy with ever increasing
fullness — the necessity, namely, of finding and loving in
others, if possible in a yet higher degree, the purely divine
power already felt within, and thus mutually living under its
influence. Anything else which calls itself friendship is un
worthy of the name, and is rather an empty hypocrisy, by means
of which one of the two merely seeks his own advantage, to
compass which he is ready, if need be, even to deceive and
betray his friend. It is in an age, therefore, which is possessed,
above all things, by a pure aspiration to obtain noble gifts,
that the blessing of such a genuine friendship will also most
readity be 2 realised ; and so the period in Israel's history with
which we are now concerned furnishes, among so many other
glorious spectacles, that of a friendship which shines for all
ages as an eternal type. If we find in David, who occupies a
lower rank, a more original, strong, and productive love of divine
things, expressing itself in a corresponding grandeur and
nobleness of action, yet in Jonathan, whose position is loftier,
we recognise a love of the same things, no less pure than David's,
though at first rather owing its own warmth to the glow of his
friend's ; and, accordingly, the fruit of this friendship also, as
will be shown in the sequel of this history, is as glorious and
rich in blessings as is possible.
In the present instance Jonathan can neither betray David
(as is self-evident) although it is his father's direct command,
nor act to the prejudice of his father, which would be. the
result of his simply advising David to flee and thus depriving
his father of the firmest support of his kingdom. He therefore
advised David to conceal himself on the following day in a
1 2 Sam. i. 26. i.e. a sacred oath between the two friends,
2 Eesting on a ' Covenant of Jahvah.' 1 Sam. xx. 8.
KELATIONS OF SAUL AND DAVID. 77
corner of a certain field to which he purposed accompanying
his father. He would then converse about him with his father,
and let him hear the tidings, so that, if his father were really
resolute in such an evil purpose towards him, he might at
once flee from the open field. On the next day, then, he re
presents to his father, in the open field, all David's virtues and
the great services he had already rendered to him, adjuring him
at the same time not to shed innocent blood. Saul cannot with
stand the truth of these representations, and takes a solemn oath
to make no attempt to injure him; and then Jonathan brings
his friend once more before him, and David performs the duties
of his office in Saul's court exactly as before.1
But no sooner does David return from a fresh campaign
against the Philistines in which he has once more gained im
portant victories, than jealousy and envy again take possession
of the king ; and one evening, as David is playing by his side,
he attempts in another fit of rage to transfix him with his
spear. This time too, David fortunately avoids the blow, but
he cannot now be blamed for leaving Saul's dwelling at last,
and retiring to his own which was probably situated in the
lower town. But when Saul even sends messengers to his
house to ask whether he is there, his own wife, Saul's daughter
Michal; advises him to seek safety in the country at a distance,
and devises means of facilitating his escape. Their house being
at first simply watched, with the view of preventing David's
escape by night and having him removed next morning under
a suitable guard, she lets him secretly down by night through a
window, takes the image of their house-god, in shape like a man,
throws a sheet over it, and lays it in his bed with a fly-net of
goats' hair over its head, so as to prevent the image from being
recognised, at any rate at a first glance, and to make it appear
as if her husband himself had covered his face with a fly-net.2
On the following morning, therefore, when a sufficient guard
actually arrives to take him prisoner, she gives out that he is
ill in bed ; and when Saul sends again to fetch him up to him,
bed and all, she cannot, indeed, dissemble any further, and
alleges in her terror that she was really compelled to let him
escape, for he threatened to kill her if she refused ; but mean-
1 1 Sam. xviii. 30-xix. 7. \\^ Layard's Nineveh, i. p. 57;
2 This seems to be the easiest way of £>^y ' ..
understanding the D"-TV 1^3; it is well Lynch s Narrative, pp. 206 8; thus the
' -v . * : sleeping Holophernes protected his head
known that in hot countries people often from flies with the cost]y Kuvtav^OVt an(j
cover their faces in bed with fly-nets, and Jmiith threw it over his stolen head :
equally so that goats' hair is much used Judith x. 21 ; xiii. 9, 15; xvi. 19.
there for curtains, cloaks, and tents ; cf.
78 EARLY HISTORY OF DAVID.
while the fugitive has had time enough to withdraw to a
distance, and Saul perceives that his project is foiled.1
3. Now that he has barely escaped from the king- with his
life by flight, what is he to do? The majority of Christians of
the present day would think that all the patience of a subject,
especially of one whose position was already so high, would be
exhausted, and that nothing would remain except to leave so
ungrateful a country and try his fortune in foreign lands,
or, still better, to levy war against the king and seek revenge.
Not so David, who seems to have composed the eleventh Psalm
just at this crisis. He certainly cannot remain any longer in the
kingdom without finding some protector to take his part in case
of need against the king ; so he goes at once, according to the
second narrator,2 to Samuel at Eamah, and tells him how he
has been treated by Saul, and is taken by him to the School of
the Prophets which is situated near the town. Here he remains,
and since he is a hero no less distinguished in the peaceful arts
of music than in war, he takes his share in the exercises of the
place, and, while thus employed, easily forgets all his troubles.
But as soon as Saul hears of this, he cannot rest till he has
forced David to flee from even this peaceful retreat.3
According to the first narrator, there is now nothing left for
him to turn to in the whole land, except what he may possibly
get by the friendship of Jonathan, which has already stood one
test ; for perhaps (it must seem to him) he may once more suc
ceed in softening Saul's wrath by means of Jonathan, as he had
done before. To him, therefore, he betakes himself, as to a
protector bound to him by ties of hospitality and friendship, and
asks him in all sincerity wherein he has failed in duty so as to
deserve death at Saul's hand. Jonathan seeks to reassure his
friend by representing to him that if his father's designs were
indeed so evil, he would not have concealed the fact from him
self; but David justly replies that he has omitted to do so only
for the sake of sparing him pain, that he himself feels only too
plainly that but one step divides him from death, and that con
sequently he is now anxious to obtain, by his friend's help, a
1 1 Sam. xix. 8-17. drier and shorter representation of this
2 It is true that the narrative in xix. second narrator, who does not srand far
18-xx. 1 is closely woven into this con- below the first either in time or historic
nexion by the last author, but it is not capacity, has left other traces scattered
likely that David should flee back once through cc. xxi.-xxiii. ; and the last
more from Samuel to Jonathan at Gibeah ; author seems in this place to have adopted
and as the representation is a different from him the name Ahimelech for Ahijah;
one from that of the first narrator, x. ii. p. 41o.
10-12, we must here recognise the hand 3 1 Sam. xix. 18-xx. 1; cf. p. 50.
nf the second narrator. The somewhat
DAVID AND JONATHAN. 79
sure token of Saul's real disposition towards him. In order to
concert some plan for doing so, the two friends retire from the
town to the open country, and Jonathan, earnestly reflecting on
what may happen, takes an oath to his friend, that, during the
next two days as soon as he has gained any certain knowledge
of Saul's disposition, whether it augurs well or ill for him, he
will report it faithfully to him. If it augurs ill, David must
think of his own safety, and as Saul's true successor, begin his
own rule under as happy auspices as once were Saul's ; but by
the great love with which he loves him as himself, he hopes that
when once David has taken triumphant possession of the king
dom, he will treat him with Godlike mercy if he is himself still
living, and will never withdraw his favour from his house, even
should he himself be dead. Whenever God shall destroy from
off the earth all David's enemies, may the house of Jonathan still
rest in peace by the house of David, but as for the real enemies of
David, may God chastise them!1 With these and similar
words does the noble prince adjure the friend he loves so deeply
in this hour of foreboding, when the crisis is at hand of
everything which, to vulgar sight, concerns not him but David
alone, but which he, as a true friend, only takes the more
deeply to heart on that account. As to the sign which it was
their purpose to concert, Jonathan agrees, by David's desire, to
observe whether Saul misses him during the next two days at a
celebration of the feast of the New Moon, when the king was
wont to assemble the chief officers of the court at his table ;
for he might conjecture that David was with Jonathan, and so
expect that when Jonathan came to court he would be accom
panied by his friend. Meanwhile David himself is to hide in the
open country by a desolate heap of stones in the place where he
had once before2 concealed himself under similar circumstances;
Jonathan is then to come into the neighbourhood of it and dis
charge three arrows towards it as if he were making that his
mark ; in reality, however, he is either to overshoot it or to let
his arrows fall short of it;3 then, as his attendant runs to-
» HSi, the first and second time in xx. 2 Namely when the spear had been
: ._ , cast at David, xix. 1-7; a sort of filial
14 and the second time in verse 15, must reyerenee here imluces Jonathan to call
be understood according to § 3686. _ o : that , sjmp]y « the day of the affair,' to
my Lehrb., and then partially following avoid joying to give to tlmt affair its right
the LXX., who still had on the whole ^^
a better text here, we must read DK1. , ^ 36_3g furnish some additional
n-1»K for 'K &6v and in verse 16 N?i Proof that this is the meaning of verse 20
1V3 VlS*1 for rrp»V In the same way sq. ; thus the expression H")tDD^ ^ rhvh<
in verse 'l9 we must read npsn for rtfl- Terse 20 means ' leaving it (the heap of
'"T ' stones indicated) as my mark, not usicg
Ct., moreover, 2 Sam. ix. 3. it ag ft m.irk lrn(. ghooting either this side
80 EARLY HISTORY OF DAVID.
wards the mark, if lie cries to him ' The arrows He nearer this
way,' David is to come forth confidently, for that is the token
of a possible reconciliation with Saul, but if he cries to him
4 They lie further on,' then David is to go whithersoever God
may send him.2
In accordance with this arrangement, David hides in the
field ; but Saul, at the feast of the New Moon, takes his accus
tomed seat of honour at the table, with his back against the
wall opposite the door, Jonathan takes the seat opposite him,2
Abner that on one side, while on the other side the seat of
David, who is the fourth person for whom the table has been
prepared, remains empty ; but Saul is not surprised at his
absence, for he supposes that it is perhaps accidentally caused
by some bodily uncleanness.3 On the second day of the feast,
however, he asks Jonathan why ' the son of Jesse ' is not in
his place this day also ; Jonathan answers, according to their
private arrangement, that he has asked leave from him to go
to Bethlehem where his kinsmen are celebrating their annual
family sacrifice, at which David's eldest brother has specially
desired his presence. Upon this, Saul bursts into a fit of rage
and hurls the bitterest reproaches against Jonathan; 4 he knows
well enough, he says, that his own first-born has entered into
a league with David, although his own prospect of accession to
the throne, and even his life, can never be safe while David is
alive : he must bring him to his presence at once, that he may
be put to death ; and Jonathan can scarcely get out another
word on David's behalf, before he sees his father poising his
spear to transfix him. In grea.t agitation he leaves the table
tasting nothing the whole day through the depth of his grief
for the undisguised rejection of David by Saul. The next
morning he goes into the country to the rendezvous agreed
upon with David ; and the arrows, shot beyond the appointed
mark, inform his anxious friend soon enough that the disaster
of it or that, just as Iliyn?, verse 36, 3 According to my Alterthumer, p. 177
' shooting beyond it (the heap of stones) ; ' sq.
see my Lehrb., § 280t/. We must
follow the LXX. in reading nj^n, heap . Tnst?ad of the words nmon HW p.
which give no sure meaning, we should
of stones, for ]^n verse 19, or at any most p*obably read> followin| th(i Lxx>
rate for 3^n, verse 41, for pj< might and Vulgate, fpTlftn nny.3"}3 ' thou
have much the same force ; and for Pjtfn» son of the c/irl of following" i.e. the
verse 19 read 'pTSn* 'the solitary* or lowest girl, who runs after the man.
"T T The whole connexion places it beyond
desert;' comp. ,\'fZ. doubt that some such strong expression
1 ^ g,im xx 1^29 of contempt is intended here, and the
2 Inverse 25 we must follow the LXX. Blowing 1&K nny expresses essentially
in reading D"W for Dp'V the same thinS-
DAVID AND JONATHAN. 81
is inevitable. When he has sent his attendant back to the
town with his weapons, David creeps forth, his soul full of the
deepest emotion, and the two friends weep long together ; but
David more than Jonathan, who does not forget the possible
danger in which they were at that moment standing, and urges
his friend to speedy flight, reminding him, however, at parting,
of the promise to which their mutual vow has bound them for
all future time.1
This is the culminating point in the mutual relations of the
two friends who furnish the eternal type of the perfection of
noble friendship; and, moreover, in these last hours before their
separation, all the threads of their destinies, henceforth so
widely different, are secretly woven together. It is, con
sequently, at this point, that the clearest anticipation of the
whole subsequent history already shines through. As Jonathan
here foresees, David afterwards obtains the kingdom ; and in
accordance with his oath to his friend, he afterwards, when a
powerful king, always spares the descendants of Jonathan, in
grateful remembrance of his dearly loved friend, and never
loses an opportunity of showing them kindness. If it is
evident at this point, that the style of the language in the
entreaty and covenant of Jonathan has been intentionally
selected in such a manner as, at a later point, to place the
perfect correspondence of the actual sequel in a yet more strik
ing light, and to lead the way up to it beforehand, we yet may
well believe that when, in after-years, David drew to his court
the posterity of Jonathan, he often told them himself of these
last events before their separation (with which no one but the
two friends could be acquainted), and that our present narra
tive springs ultimately from this source.
4. David is thus compelled at last to avoid the king for ever;
the most loyal and innocent of subjects to flee from the land,
before the prince who might have had in him the firmest, nay
almost the most necessary support of his kingdom ; and should
he ever venture to appear in the presence or within the reach,
of his father-in-law, instant death awaits him. But it never
comes into his thoughts to enter upon hostilities, on this
account, against Saul, ' the Anointed of Jahveh,' to levy war
against him, or even to support his enemies ; he has too much
genuine reverence for God and His commandments, which
clearly forbid a man to engage in even the smallest under
taking against his own people, how much more against the
community of God, and their lawful leader upon earth ! It is
' 1 Sam. xx. 24-xxi. 1 [xx. 24-42].
VOL. III. G
82 EARLY HISTORY OF DAVID.
true that the result is to entangle him still more closely than
before in an impenetrable network of the most dangerous
situations and the most extreme privations, and that his for
tunes upon earth seem, to sink hopelessly lower and lower.
But in reality his inward strength is thoroughly tempered for
the first time under the heavy pressure of these sufferings ; and
when his perplexities have reached their very extremity, he
finds himself at last, against his will, at the head of an inde
pendent community, and learns to rule on a small scale and
under difficulties, so as to be able to do so on a large scale with
the greater ease. Thus, then, this very period of his deepest
sufferings becomes the decisive turning-point of his whole
history, at which it enters upon its true upward course, thence
to rise ever higher and higher; while his real destiny, viz., to
rule, is now for the first time not only foreshadowed but
already begun, though only on the smallest scale ; and the
clearest proof that this actually is his destiny is found in the
fact that he begins to work it out without consciously exerting
himself to do so.
David is now forced to flee from the whole district under
Saul's dominion, and has therefore secretly escaped without
provisions or weapons from Gibeah. There he is seized with
the longing, before he leaves the country altogether, to see once
more the venerable priest at Nob from whom in earlier times he
had often drawn spiritual strength, to question his oracle as to
the dark future of his life, and if possible receive comfort and
encouragement from him ; l perhaps, too, to satisfy some of his
most pressing bodily necessities there, for in time of need relief
of every kind was sought at the sanctuary with equal readiness.
So he repairs to Nob, a sacerdotal city situated somewhat to
the south of Gibeah and the north of Jerusalem, to the
priest Ahimelech,2 with the request that he will furnish him
as well as he can with provisions and weapons ; and un
happily he deems it necessary to avail himself of a fictitious
pretext to allay the priest's surprise at his arrival unaccom
panied and without arms. The priest replies that he has, at
the time nothing but consecrated bread, no common bread
being at hand ; and that, in order to eat that without offence,
1 The subsequent description, 1 Sam. In Mark ii. 26 ho is confused with his
xxii. 9-15, of the further results of this son Abiathar or Ebiathar, and in other
deed, to which David was urged by his late writings the two names are not seldom
necessities, first shows us clearly that it confounded: see below. On the other
must all be understood as represented in hand, A6imelech, 1 Chron. xviii. 16 (see
the text above. below), and LXX, Ps. lii. 2, is simply a
- See, concerning him, vol. ii. p. 415. transcriber's error.
FLIGHT OF DAVID. 84
David's attendants (whom he pretends to have left behind him
at a certain place whilst executing a secret commission of the
king's) must none of them have touched a woman on the
previous night. When David has removed this scruple,1 the
priest supplies him with some holy bread from the altar ; but
can think of no arms to give him except Goliath's wonderful
sword, which David had before dedicated in the sanctuary and
which was still hanging there on a nail, carefully wrapped up
in a cloth, and also covered with the priest's oracular robe,
which was hanging on the same nail. Thus provided, David
departed; but the proceeding, harmless enough in itself, had
been witnessed by a person who afterwards maliciously distorted
it— Doeg the Edomite, who seems to have gone over to Saul
during his wars with Edom,2 and whom Saul had made chief
overseer of his flocks. He had adopted the Jahveh religion,
and may have been then staying at the sanctuary for the per
formance of some vow.3
To get beyond the boundaries, David now betakes himself to
Achish4 the Philistine king of Gath, for he certainly lived in
perpetual feud with Saul ; so that a fugitive from the latter
might expect the safest refuge with him. His reception by
him is in fact favourable; but by some means or other (perhaps,
according to the original meaning of the tradition, it was
Goliath's sword that betrayed him) the courtiers discover that
he is no other than the renowned David himself, and inform
the king of the fact. Since there is now good reason for David
to be afraid that the king may be tempted by this discovery to
make him a prisoner for life,5 or even to execute him in revenue
for his having formerly conquered so many Philistines, he can
think of no other means, in his perplexity, of disarming the
king's suspicion, than by openly feigning madness, beating with
his fists upon the city gates as if they were kettle-drums,6
1 He says, verse 6 [5] : 'Women have * 1 Sam. xxi. 2-10 [1-9].
not been accessible to us since the day 4 The LXX always spell this name
before yesterday ; when I left home the 'Ayxovs, probably because it was still a
bodies of the young men were pure, al- well-known Philistine name at that time,
though it was an ordinary business (no 5 The superscription to Ps. Ivi., whose
religious service) on which we were sent author surely found this history still in a
out ; how much more will they be pure somewhat fuller form, assumes that David
in body to-day!' So must we connect was at that time actually taken prisoner,
and understand the words contrary to the That the Philistine king even intended
accent, only we must read .Itjrqp* for EH|r> to hand him over to Saul when occasion
as indeed the LXX did. Since the queV- f rved is rendered unlikely by the good
tioa is one of bodily purity or impunity, faith which then characterised that nation.
Jft can only mean the vessel of the man ' ™fi' ™™ U [13], must be equivalent
himself, ie. his body, in which sense to HBPl from tfi, accenting to my Lehrb..,
ffKfvos also may be used. § l'21n : perhaps the prison was near these,
2 P. 43. city gates.
o 2
84 EARLY HISTORY OF DAVID.
letting his spittle run over his beard, and similar devices. By
this conduct the king became at last convinced that he was
really imbecile, harmless therefore, but also useless to him ;
and irritated by the sight of such foolery, he ordered him to be
expelled from the city.1
II. COMMENCEMENT OP DAVID'S INDEPENDENT EULE.
1. As Freebooter on the Confines of Judah.
It has now become clear that David's life is not safe even
among the enemies of Israel, unless he will unite with them
against his own people; and this his fear of God will not
permit him to do. In this extremity he might certainly have
found refuge in other kingdoms, that of Moab for instance,
but the result would have been the same or perhaps even
worse. Just at this time, however, he must have heard that
a number of persons, indignant at the persecution to which
he had been subjected, or otherwise disaffected towards Saul,
were already awaiting him in Judah as their leader, ready to
assemble under his standard. He determines, therefore, to
become, for the time being, a second Jephthah,2 and to take
refuge again in the territory of his native tribe Judah, but with
no intention of levying war against Saul. Accordingly he be
takes himself to a cave in the barren district of Judah east of the
range of mountains which cuts through the territory of this tribe
from north to south, — a cavernous district writh which his early
life had no doubt made him thoroughly familiar. On the re
port of his arrival in the country, not only did all his kinsfolk
from the neighbouring Bethlehem come to see and perhaps to
.support him, but a number of other fugitives and malcontents
soon collected spontaneously around him. Some of these, ifc is
true, were simply pressed by ' the difficulty of finding a living,'
or were pursued ' for debt ' by creditors ; but the situation of
the kingdom, which was becoming more and more melancholy
1 1 Sara. xxi. 11-16 [10-15]: compare of this narrative, for several years had
similar examples of this stratagem in the intervened and David stood in quite an-
story of Ulysses as well as amongst the other position at the head of 600 men and
Arabs (Hamdsa, p. 322, 21); also Jnurn. as Saul's reputed rival. It is certainly
As. 1844, ii. p. 181. According to the possible that the Achish who appears
Shuhnameh, Kai-Khosrev (like another afterwards was a successor of this one ;
David) fights, while still almost a child, indeed, this first king is called Abimelech
•with lions and so on, and afterwards has rather than Achish in Ps. xxxiv. super-
to feign idiocy in the face of mortal peril, scription, unless the author of the super-
The fact that David afterwards entered scri»tion of this Psalm simply had this
into friendly relations with the same king, name floating in his mind from Gren. xx.
1 Sam. xxvii.-xxix., gives no ground for 2 sqq. ; xxi. 22. 32; xxvi. 8 sqq.
suspicion against the historical character 2 Vol. ii. p. 392 sqq.
LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS. 85
under Saul, filled others with * bitterness ' or sorrow of heart,
and drove them to a leader from whom they might hope better
things for the future.1 David did not send these men away, so
that he soon saw himself surrounded by about 400 men who
acknowledged him as their commander (or * prince ') ; but he
was certainly not urged to this course by any idea of levying
war against Saul with his men, but rather by his native instinct
of commanding and ruling others, especially in their time of
need and in war. He must easily have foreseen that, when
commanding a company such as this, he might, without injur
ing the king, be of the very greatest use to the people; he
might protect the southern frontiers of the kingdom from the
plundering incursions of the surrounding tribes, and so play
into the hands of the king himself, though not in the way he
would most have desired. The actual course of events soon
realised some of these expectations.
Such is the general knowledge respecting this period of
David's life which we are able to attain with certainty; but it is
more difficult for us to recognise the connexion and sequence of
the separate events which must have then taken place and of
which no doubt there were far more than are now recorded.
During the whole of this period, David's army remained in
constant occupation of the territory of eastern Judah, from
the cave of Adullam (lying somewhat south of Bethlehem 2) on
the north, down to Maon (still well known by its modern site),
on the south ; a tract of land of considerable mileage both in
length and breadth, in some parts mountainous, wooded and
cavernous, in others stretching far into desolate wastes, and
admirably suited by its whole conformation to shelter fugitives
and small armies. From this position, the little army could
easily command the surrounding districts far to the south, or,
by climbing the mountain ridge to the west, could push through
to the Shephelah or great plain of Judah, to oppose the Philis
tines who were always making incursions there. But within this
circle, as we learn from many indications, the little army must
often have changed its quarters, as convenience or its varied
necessities or the cry of the oppressed demanded. Never long
in any city, especially a fortified one, where it might be besieged
1 1 Sam. xxii. 2. in the plain of Judah was not a cave at
2 Robinson's opinion (Bib. Res. ii. p. all but a city ; comp. 2 Mace. xii. 38. So
175) that this cave lay west of the moun- long, therefore, as nothing more certain is
tain-ridge in Judah, seems to us to be in known, we may adhere to the tradition
opposition to the whole history of these that it is identical with the present Wadi
years of David's life; nor can it derive Khurd-.'un, south of Bethlehem; cf., how-
any support from Josh. xv. 35, since the ever, Jahrb. der Bib. Wiss. iii. p. 193 and
Adullam described iu this passage as lying Saulcy's Voyages, ii. p. 95 sq.
86 DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
and captured,1 drawing itself off on the approach of every
danger to the steep heights easy of defence, it encamped upon
the mountain top or in the shelter of the wood, upon the hill
side or in the wilderness, just, as chance directed.2 Besides
the connected narrative, we still possess a catalogue, which is
evidently derived from very ancient sources, of towns of Judah,
to the Elders of which David became known at this time by
his acts of service and neighbourly conduct, and the friendly
remembrance of which he desired also to retain afterwards at
ZiHag;3 the number of these towns is considerable. Further,
this freebooting life must have lasted several years: but not even
this section supplies us with any dates ; and, moreover, the
representation of the earlier narrator has not come down to us
without many gaps. All that we can know for certain of the
separate events in the course of this period may be related as
follows :
1) The cave of Adullam, whither David first betook himself,
soon became the resort of so many fugitives who sought his
protection, that he occupied the nearest mountain height with
the four hundred men or so, who acknowledged him as their
lender, a,nd there entrenched himself;4 and since he could not
but fear that as soon as Saul came to hear of these proceedings
he would seek to revenge himself, at all events on his parents
who dwelt at Bethlehem, even if not at once on himself, he
escorted them beyond the Dead Sea, to a fortress in the land
of Moab, and commended them to the good faith of the king
1 This is the meaning of the words in Carmel, which must be read for '3312, see
1 Sam. xxiii. 14, 19. above p. 38; 13. The cities of the Jerah-
a Comp. 1 Sam. xxiii. 7- meelites, 1 Chron. ii. 25 sq., 42, and of
3 In the passage 1 Sam. xxx. 26-31, theKenites; 14 Hormah, vol. ii. p. 190,
where the earlier narrator keeps very close omitted by the LXX ; 15. LXX 'Iept/xou0,
to the most ancient authorities. The cities Josh. xv. 35; 16. j^y 1-13, cf. Josh. xv.
are: 1. Tjtf fV2 (which we must read 42 . 17 ^y, OP rather "iflg, Josh. xv. 42,
after the LXX instead of ^ JVl), known x]x 7 this and the precej-'ng are omitted
from the history of the Maccabees ; 2. b the Lxx ]g Lxx Beersheba ;
Bamoth in the south; 3. Jattit; 4 Aroer, ]9 Lxx N ^ 1)ut not identical with
Robinson, n. p 199 sqq Bitters Erd- Beit_Nubah or Nobe in Jerome, Epitaph,
kundc, xiv. p. 123 sq. ; 5. A^d&i, accord- paul 6J3 E -^ ]xxxyi 2Q Hebron.
ing to the LXX, perhaps the ^ \*y The LXX have here on the whole a
mentioned 1 Sam. xxiv. 1 ; 6. m£S£' no ketter text
further known as yet, but like an ancient 4 The connexion of the words in xxii.
Canaanmsh name, 1 Chron xxvii. 27, !_5< obli us to that David
Num xxxiv. 10 sq. ; 7. Eshtemoa now repaired thither ; so that a statement to
identified as Samua ; 8. LXX Gath, pro- that effect must have fa]len out after yerse
bably an abbreviation of n 3 nBHlO, Micah 2. But we conjecture that the omis-
i. H ; 9. LXX ^^e, perhaps identical gion hepe ig of ft fargraver character from
with nyp, Josh. xv. 22 ; 10. LXX 2a0e«, the gudden mention of the prophet Gad,
perhaps a corruption of pQ^, Josh. xv. yerse 6> whoge arrival must necessarily
»53 ; 11. LXX 0i7,ua0, uncertain, unless have been further described after verse 2.
identical with HtDH, Josh. xv. 52; 12.
LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS. 87
there, c until he should see what God would do with him.'
Since he desired to place his parents in safety in a foreign land
beyond the reach of Saul, and since he could no longer trust the
Philistines after his latest experience,1 Moab was his nearest
resort ; and this consideration gained weight from the old clan
relations which subsisted between Moab and Judah, and espe
cially (according to the Book of Ruth) with the house of David.2
This state of affairs seems to have lasted a considerable time:
and we are still more definitely informed, by a very ancient
authority,3 that when David had gained a firm footing on this
mountain height, mighty men from every tribe of Israel
streamed to join him, considering that the times offered no
better alternative than to put themselves under his command.
From the tribe of Gad beyond the Jordan, there came (to follow
this account) eleven heroes of renown, whose names are enu
merated, fully versed in the art of war, equipped with shield
and spear, like lions in aspect, and yet speeding over the moun
tains with the swift foot of the gazelle ; 4 the feeblest of them,
equal to a hundred and the mightiest to a thousand men.5 On
one occasion (perhaps at the very time of their secession to
David) they passed in the spring month over the flooded banks
of the Jordan, swollen high by heavy falls of rain and melted
snow, and, moreover, put to flight their pursuers, who had
rallied from east and west in the plain of the Jordan. David's
troop was further increased by men of Benjamin and Judah,
and though their names are now omitted from the Chronicles,
the following circumstance is narrated of them. As they ap
proached, David advanced ceremoniously to meet them, and
addressed them, declaring that ' if they had come in a friendly
spirit to help him, he would have one heart and one soul
with them; but if they had come to betray him, when some
future occasion served, to his enemies, although he had done
no wrong, then he called on the God of their fathers for re
venge upon them ! ' Upon this, their leader Amasai,6 suddenly
1 P. 83 sq. with the Kb>£_y who plays so prominent
M Sam. xxii 1-4. The recurrence of in ^^ of Absa]om, cf. infra;
a similar proceeding in the times of the ^^ thig lasfc wftg of thetribe of Judah
Maccabees is worthy of note ; vol. v. p. and ^ Jhfl same time a nephew of David,
m\ m. .. 0 . , . .„- 2 Sam. xvii. 25, 1 Chron. ii. 16 sq. ; his
w /"-I , ; /°i 'f P 1 ™ther Abigail however (according to 2
« We are forcibly reminded of similar gam xyii ^ &nd her sigter Zeruiah)
images undoubtedly derived from that Joab',g mothel.f were certainly not the
period: 2 Sam. i. 23; 11. 18; Ps. xvm. daughtors of David's father Jesse, but
33r4mJ32~39-K i 4.1 only of his mother by a former husband
* Thtse words of verse 14. on the other f ^e name of Nahash. Amasa's father
hand, have quite the Tone of an addition ^ an Ishmaelite) 8trictiy speaking there
from the hand of the Chronicler himself foreigner, of the name of Ithra, 2
6 This ^DV appears to be identical
88 DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
seized with a genuine inspiration, cried out : ' Thine are we,
David, and with thee, thou son of Jesse ; peace, peace unto thee,
and peace to thy helpers, for thy God helpeth thee ! ' So he re
ceived them in friendship and appointed them as officers. These
words of unwonted precaution on David's part seem to indicate
that he had already witnessed, to his own detriment, shameful
instances of the deceit and treachery of deserters such as these,
especially from the tribe of Benjamin. Indeed we have every
reason to suppose that until the death of Saul there were plenty
of people in Israel who sought openly and secretly, at his in
stigation, to injure David. The example of the Ziphites will be
noticed in detail below ; and it was perhaps at this very time
that the Benjamite Cush (of whose treachery David, who was
thereby brought into extreme danger, complains so bitterly in
the beautiful seventh Psalm) played his part; for the style of the
song alluded to marks it out as belonging to the time when
David was already the independent commander of an army.
On another occasion three of the greatest heroes came to
David while he was occupying this mountain fastness, wh^re
he, too, like Saul, was the object of attack from the Philistines.
Although their head-quarters were in the valley of Rephaim
south-west of Jerusalem, they had pushed forward an advanced
guard (or post) further south to Bethlehem. David descended
from his mountain hold to take part in the engagement against
them, bat in the toil of battle he felt so exhausted, that he
longed above all things for a draught of clear water from the
well at the gate of Bethlehem. When the three heard this,
they started of their own accord, burst into the camp of the
Philistines at the gate of Bethlehem,, drew the water, and
brought it to David ; but he would not drink it, but poured it
as a thank-offering to God upon the ground, and said, ' God
forbid that I should do this ! shall I drink the blood of the men
that went in jeopardy of their lives ? ' l
The second oldest narrator, from whose hand alone we have
anything like a connected history of David during this period,
has certainly already begun to pay less attention to such isola
ted events and individual traits ; but he indicates the gradual
increase of David's band by the fact of his henceforth estima-
Sam. xvii. 25, or Jether, 1 Kings ii. 5, 32, xi. 15-19. Similar stories are sometimes
1 Chron. ii. 17, which is apparently no- told of later generals, as of Alexander for
tlnng but a shorter form of the same name, instance; but here we have a primitive
Cf. vol. ii. p. 25, note 7. tvPe> the historical character of which is
1 From the very ancient source, 2 Sam. beyond dispute. This picture is presented
xxiii. 13-17, where "V^'p- verse 1.3, must in great detail and with some peculiarities
be corrtvted in accordance with 1 Chron. in 4 Mace. lii. 6-1 6.
LIFE IX THE WILDERNESS. 89
ting the army that accompanied him no longer at 400, but at
about 600 men : 1 an important number, of which we shall have
more to say below. But the band of David's followers already
included a prophet also, of the name of Gad, doubtless the same
who still appears at his side in Jerusalem, when his age is
more advanced ; 2 this would make him about contemporary with
David, and hence the conjecture forces itself upon us that the
two had already contracted a close intimacy in earlier times in
Samuel's Prophetic School, and that it was this which induced
Gad to follow him into the desert regions. The character of
the times of which we are speaking made it no small good
fortune to have at one's side a prophet, and in his person a
kind of oracle, especially for so small an army devoid of other
supports ; and we soon have evidence of the loftier encourage
ment and guidance which he afforded. The prophet requires
in the name of Jahveh (no further particulars are given),
that the army should leave the mountain height and descend
deeper into the land (of Judah) ; so David marches to a forest
which lay in the heart of the country.3 Subsequently news
arrives that the Philistines are besieging the city of Keilah,4
situated in the low land, west of the mountain ridge, and that
all over the surrounding plain they are plundering the threshing-
floors which the harvest time had just filled with corn. David
consults the oracle of this prophet, and is encouraged to make an
expedition to drive away the marauding Philistines, and relieve
the sorely-pressed city. The army, indeed, does not share in the
lofty courage aroused by this response in their leader. It feels
that even its present position is not free from anxiety and
danger ; how much less can it venture to engage the well-
ordered ranks of the Philistines in battle ! But since the
oracle, on a second consultation, gives the most positive assur
ance of a defeat of the Philistines, David breaks up his camp
and leads the army thither, drives away their herds from the
Philistines, defeats them in a great battle, and relieves the
city, in which he then establishes himself and his army.5
1 1 Sam. xxiii. 13; cf. xxii. 2. however, fcrp should be read for
2 2 Sam. xxiv. 11 ; on the other hand, according to xxiii. 15, 18 sq. Joseph.
he seems to have been already dead at the ^ntiq. vi. 12, 4 reads 2a<r(s, but "Wilson
time of Solomon's accession to the throne, (Lands, ii. p. 266) is wrong in joining
1 Kings i. sq. ; the other great prophet of this with the Sarus noticed p. 19.
David's time, Nathan, was probably there- * Since it lay, according to Josh. xv. 44,
fore younger, and to judge at leist from between the cities of Nezib and Mareshah,
the indication in 1 Kings iv. 5, of priestly and these, according to Robinson's Bib. Rex.
descent. ii. p. 404 sq., 422 sq , lay east and south
3 ' The forest of Hareth.' sxii. 5, is not of Eleutheropolis, the position of this city
otherwise known, nor is the *6\is 2opi* may be defined with tolerable accuracy.
of the LXX any clearer to us; perhaps, a 1 Sam. xxii. 5; xxiii. 1-5.
90 DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
Meanwhile, as this last event is taking place, a black deed of
royal suspicion was already accomplished at Saul's court without
the knowledge of David, which could not but bear bitter fruib
for Saul, and was also not without influence on David's further
history. When Saul had received trustworthy information that
David and his followers had established themselves in the
almost inaccessible regions of the south, he held a solemn re
ception in an open place on the height of his capital Gibeah,
sitting under a venerable tamarisk tree,1 where those who
sought his judicial decision might appear before him. Here
surrounded by the magnates of his kingdom, chiefly drawn
from amongst the Benjamites, he alludes with bitter vexation
to the affair of David : ' No doubt the son of Jesse would load
all of them too with honourable gifts and offices, since they had
all conspired against him; not one of them would communicate
the truth to him, while his first-born had already made a league
with David ; not one would share his deep grief in that his son
had raised up his own subject now to lie in wait against him ! '
Upon this, Doeg the Edomite,2 steps forth from the ring of
officers round the royal seat3 to relate how he has seen the
High-priest Ahimelech at Nob give David an oracle, provision
for the journey, and the sword of Goliath, whereupon the king
has this priest and the other male members of his whole
house brought at once from Nob to Gibeah, and accuses them
of high-treason. Ahimelech answered, with perfect justice,
that he had known nothing of David except that, as son-in-law
of the king and commander of the royal body-guard,4 he was
more trusted and honoured at the royal court than anyone else ;
that as to the oracle, he had always before communicated it to
him when he desired it; that the king must not ascribe to him
and to his house a crime of which he could never have had
the smallest knowledge. Saul, however, entangled in the un
reasoning delusion that this priest must have joined in con
spiracy with David, resolves without further delay to put him
and all his relatives to death, — nay, when the body-guard hesi
tate to carry out this order, through reverence for their priestly
rank, Doeg himself, at Saul's behest, executes all the innocent
men, to the number of eighty-five,5 and then, in addition,
1 Like the earliest Teutonic kings. must road '•"ITS, according to the LXX,
instead of "H^y ; he was overseer of the
8 His office, which gave him thp right king's mules, or as we should say, the
of being present here mid of volunteering king's chief equerry,
to speak, is described in xxii. 9, having 4 P. 75.
been designated somewhat more gent- rally 5 The LXX adopt, in preference, the
in xxi. 8 [7] ; but in th's last passage we number of 305, Fl. Joscphus 385.
LIFE IX THE WILDERNESS. 91
slaughters every living thing in the sacerdotal city of Nob,
women and children, men and beasts. The narrative needed
not to intimate farther how much Saul lost in public estima
tion by this act ! 1
Only one single son of this priest, Abiathar by name, found
means of escaping this massacre. As a matter of course he
betook himself as soon as possible to David, who received him
with all the deeper emotion because he now remembered to
have seen the Edomite Doeg with his father Ahimelech at the
time, — not without a foreboding that he would betray the
whole affair to Saul. He might regard himself, therefore, as
the ultimate cause of so great a calamity to a noble sacerdotal
house. For although no one could well have suspected before
hand that Saul would lay his hand on even one single priest for
having afforded to an innocent refugee spiritual consolation and
bodily sustenance, yet a man of such tender feelings as David
would rightly take it deeply to heart that he had, even in
directly, been the cause of such great misery ; and so he now
desired at least to hold sacred, as a costly pledge entrusted to
him, the one member of the sacerdotal house who had been
rescued, and to protect his life as though it were his own. And,
at the same time, this fugitive was already a priest whose
rank empowered him to give oracular responses, and he brought
with him the sacred apparatus of his oracle ; so that David had
gained in him a friend, whose priestly oracle, according to the
popular ideas of the age, would rank far higher than the purely
prophetic oracle of Gad. From this time forward, therefore,
we find that he plays no unimportant part in David's history.
An example of this occurs immediately. David already occu
pied the conquered Keilah at the time of Abiathar's escape
to him,2 and when Saul heard that he had established himself
in this ' city of gates and bars,' he made preparations for war,
and proclaimed a general levy, so as to capture him and all
his army in the city. On hearing of this, David resorted to this
priestly oracle, rather than to that of Gad, with the double
1 1 Sum. xxii. 6-19. he describes tin manner in which the
2 This is the evident meaning of the priestly oracle was consulted and its re
words in xxiii. 6; and since we have no sponses were given as^ quite different
reason to doubt, on any other grounds, from that of the preceding oracle, xxin.
that this is the chronological connexion 2-4. No doubt even early readers con-
of the events, we must suppose that the fused all this, and therefore altered the
oracle mentioned in xxiii. 2-4 was not reading of verso 6, as is seen in the
that- of this priest but that of Gad LXX ; but it is not until then that the
mentioned in xxii. 5. But the most dis- inexplicable difficulty arises how the re-
tim-t indication of this fact which the presentation could lose all its order and
narrator gives is really found in another principle of arrangement.
passage, xxiii. 9 sq.; ci'. xxx. 7 *<{•, where
92 DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
question of whether Saul would descend upon KeiJah, and
whether its inhabitants would at once deliver up himself and
his men, if Saul should appear with his army. Th^ oracle
answers both questions in the affirmative ; and so David, with
his force of about 600 men, retires from the city to his earlier
hiding-places in such good time that Saul, when the news
reaches him, abandons his campaign.1
We cannot expect to find, however, that Saul at the same
time lost his passionate rage, burning for David's destruction ;
and in fact we see, from many significant traces, that he en
deavoured repeatedly to get David into his power. The earlier
narrators indicate these long-continued hostilities in but few
words,2 yet in the history of those sad, bewildered efforts which
were ever brought to nought by a divine destiny, two special
event*, are prominent.
On one occasion, as David lay in the depth of a wood within
the wilderness of Ziph 3 south-east of Hebron, he was thrown
into the utmost terror by the approach of Saul. We are not
further informed of the special circumstances, b'it no doubt the
great anxiety of the hero was sufficiently justified. Just at this
moment, Jonathan, as though led by God, made his way to
David in the thicket of the forest, and consoled him as if with
words and promises from God himself: so far from falling into
Saul's power, he should one day rule as king of Israel, and, as
for himself, his only wish was to be next to him in the king
dom, and so to be the first of his subjects; thus had he spoken
even to Saul, and never would he tire of striving to influence
his father to the same purport. On these assurances the two
renewed their covenant of friendship, and in this mood they
parted.4 Now there certainly can be no mistake that with this
free impulse of the purest and most self-sacrificing love the
earlier narrator designedly — already referring, that is to say,
to the whole sequel of the history — closes his account of the
connexion between the two heroes : this is the last time that
either sees the other, and it is this which forms the crowning
1 1 Sam. xxii. 20-23; xxiii. 6-13. since in other respects verse 15 is certainly
2 1 Sam. xxiii. 14. connected with verses 16-18, and we have
3 On the situation of Ziph see Robinson, no grounds for supposing the text to be
ii. p. 191 sqq. mutilated here, we must read S"V1» tne
^ This is the meaning of the narrative onl word which fitg the el TQf the
xxm. 15-1 8, which we cannot understand wh' le narrative- But then a statement of
rightly as long as we preserve in verse 15 wha(. it was that finall hindered - Saul
the reading tf-p which was followed in- from taking David capdve on that occa.
deed even by the LXX ; for we do not sion, seems to have fallen out after verse
see how the fact that David saw the danger 1 8.
is connected with Jonathan's arrival. But
LIFE IN THE WILDERNESS. 93
point of this sacred friendship. There is no difficulty, how
ever, in believing that on some occasion, when his friend was in
danger, Jonathan really did visit him, penetrating even to his
desert abode.
On another occasion,1 some of the rude inhabitants of the
wilderness of Ziph even went to Saul to offer him their ser
vices in capturing David ; and the king, highly commending
their zeal towards himself, urges them at the same time to
ascertain in which of his many haunts the crafty fugitive is
actually to be found, so that, be it in what division of Judah
it may, with the assistance of their information and guidance,
he may succeed in capturing him.'2 They accordingly advanced
before Saul to the desert of Ziph. David had already drawn
off further south, to the yet more barren desert of Maon ; but
since his resting-place was betrayed to Saul, who, as he heard,
was engaged in an expedition against him, he dropped down
from the steep mountain 011 which his army had encamped,3
and for fear of being surrounded and starved out, remained 011
the uncultivated plain, ready for a further retreat as soon as it
should become necessary. But Saul, thoroughly apprised of
all his movements by spies, anticipated him; and now there
was nothing between the two armies except the bill which
David had abandoned, and whilst he, 011 one side of it, made
repeated preparations for adroitly effecting his escape from
the king with the greatest rapidity, Saul with his men sought
so to surround him on all sides -as to leave no possible outlet
for escape. David and all his army were now in the utmost
danger of being taken prisoners, when Saul was called off by
a special messenger to check the Philistines who had pene
trated far into the country, apparently northwards, and were
everywhere victorious.4 Never before had David and his army
been in such extreme danger; no wonder, then, that the very
rock where his fate had finally come to such a wonderful crisis,
long bore the name of Destiny rock ! 5
1 1 Sam xxiii 19-28. which incited the Philistines to make an
2 M-J- ;erse 22, is ''to make sure,' as expedition themselves, and as this was
' • " . unexpected, it was not at the usual time
appears from pj, verse 23, • the certain, ^ ^ ^^ . bufc there ig nothing to prove
trustworthy.' that David had called them to his assist-
s y^ppj -|-|t verse 25, is ' to descend the ance.
rock.' down from it. therefore, as we might 5 s}ncp the meaning elsewhere assigned
express it more definitely ; tat M early as n;DSnnn, verse 28 (the word in ques-
the LXX we find the false reading CM T*IV L0 ™P?'?<S"J» v
irirpw which dof-s net at all suit the con- tion\ is not suitable here (for if so, we
text of the narrative. should have to understand 'rock of the
* It is possible, and even probable, that divisions of the army, i.e. rock of the
it was Saul's expedition against David army, which would not be sufficiently sig-
04 DAVIDS STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
David liimself now withdrew further eastwards to the moun
tain heights of En-gedi on the shore of the Dead Sea ; but
when Saul, at the close of the campaign against the Philis
tines, heard of his movements, he took the field again with
8,000 chosen warriors to seek David and his men on the ' rock
ledges of the chamois.' We have no farther information from
the same early narrator as to the means by which this second
enterprise, prompted by the king's implacable hatred, was frus
trated ; but we can scarcely be surprised that David at last
perceived (as this narrator further states that he did clearly)
the impossibility of maintaining' himself any longer in these
desert regions of Judah, or indeed in any part whatever of
Saul's dominions. Such then, according to the representation
of the earlier narrator, is the close of the whole of this period
of David's life.1
2) At the conclusion, however, of the mutual relations of
David and Saul, the later narrators have interwoven in the
narrative a lofty conception, which could not easily have
been brought into striking prominence at any other point.
Generosity towards his foes was a part of David's very being,
so that if accident had thrown an adversary into his power,
he would not seize the opportunity for gratifying his revenge,
but would rather dismiss him with honour. Indeed, David
himself indicates as much, quite briefly and incidentally, but
clearly enough, in the poem Psalm vii. 5 [vii. 4]. Again, even
if he had had a favourable opportunity of inflicting a deep
injury on Saul himself, the pure conception of ' God's Anointed'
which filled his soul would have been enough in itself to
restrain him from doing him any bodily harm. And at this
point, no doubt, the earlier narrator also, whose fragments
are defective here, gave some account of how David had de
livered Saul when he had run too far into danger ; for with
out the supposition of some such original narrative, even the
representations which we have are inexplicable. Moreover,
we may easily perceive that even in the more popular tradition
this story of David's generosity was almost as great a favourite
niticant), there seems to be nothing left tives in xxiv. and xxvi., David would have
Lut to understand it, like the simple p^n, had no ^ason whatever fur fleeing from
c,. v '!' the country through fenr of Saul) ; and
of a decree of late. Since the name is alb0 from ^ ^ [xxiij> 2g^; 3]
certainly quite historical we need not be we ct,rtainl slill ^ ^ ^^ of *
surprise-! at its peculiar formation. ^^ narjat both beeHUSH of their
It clearly frllows from xxvn 1 Bq., ^ ^ ftnd ^^ the mention of
that the connexion of the whole history gje , sh f(.lds b the , fiounds as his.
m the earner narrator s mind was such topical a^ in .^ * vt Connexion, unin-
as is indicated above (for on the other telli il)le aud
hand, alter the close of the present narra-
DAVID AND SAUL. 05
as that other tale of his youthful combat with Goliath ; and
accordingly was told as often and finally assumed as many
different forms. How Jahveh's true servant must reverence
' Jahveh's Anointed/ how he must seek his good even at the
cost of his own, but hold it the greatest sin so much as to lay
a hand upon him, — all this could now be brought vividly to
mind from the history of him who afterwards furnished the
type of such an Anointed one himself, but who could hardly
have thus embodied the idea, had he not previously borne
it with him in his own soul, and never sinned against it in
his life. But while David behaves in the noblest manner
to the ' Anointed of Jahveh ' from a true conception of his
real function, the deeper meaning which increasingly penetrates
these representations is not quite complete until even Saul, as
if moved by David's matchless generosity, is himself conceived
as behaving in a manner worthy of the true ' Anointed of Jah
veh ' towards his supposed enemy. He is represented not only
as having had to thank David for the preservation of his own
life at the very time when he was seeking his, but also as having
been seized at the moment by a true and irresistible feeling of
David's exalted greatness, so that he himself acknowledged
to him that the future sway over Israel was his due, and upon
that entered into a league of friendship with him. This was,
in fact, the origin of the loftiest representations of pure truths
which are conceivable in this direction; for he alone is the
true hero who, like David, forces involuntary recognition and
friendship, even from his bitterest foe ; and he is an < Anointed
of God' through whom, as through Saul, according to this
representation, the lightning flash of pure truth, dispelling
all the shades of darkness, unexpectedly darts at the right
moment, even though a darker night has already clouded his
brow. But according to the early narrator, it was only at
a former time that Saul was still capable of these sudden
moments of illumination with respect to David;1 moreover,
the earlier narrator certainly confines to Jonathan the antici
pation and sanction of David's future rule on the part of the
House of Saul itself, together with the artistic foreshadowing
which it contains of the whole subsequent course of events ;
whereas the latter representation prefers to extend all this to
Saul. But it is equally clear that this is simply a further
expansion of the original narrative, in which the ideal con
ception becomes at last quite predominant.
Two narratives of this description are contained in the
1 P. 75 sqq.
96 DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
present book, both alike in that discursive style of represen
tation in which the simple act sinks into insignificance before
the grandeur of the sentiments which it illustrates, yet each
bearing in its style of composition traces of a special narrator.
Just in the same way, we had before to distinguish between
three narrators of the history of Goliath,1 to which the present
story bears an analogy throughout. The two accounts agree
in representing the opportunity afforded to David of taking
vengeance upon Saul, as a deep sleep into which the king had
fallen in a cave2 during his campaign against David; we
need not doubt, therefore, that this was a trait in the original
narrative;3 but the account in 1 Sam. xxiv. (which proceeds
from the earlier of these two narrators) connects the event with
David's abode at En-gedi, while the other, 1 Sam. xxvi. (which
holds more closely to many words of the older narrator, and
by all indications is due to a yet later hand), lays the scene
in the wilderness of Zipli at the hill of Hachilah situated in
that district.4 Both represent David as urged by his men to
seize the opportunity of revenging himself upon Saul; but it
is only the latest narrative chapter xxvi. which mentions
Abishai,5 the brother of Joab, as accompanying David when he
approached the king, and Abner as laying himself fairly open
to the taunts of David by his careless watch over Saul. Ac
cording to each account, David takes from the sleeping king
that which may serve as a sign of his having been at his side,
so as to be able to show it to him with affectionate expostu
lation when he wakes ; but according to chapter xxiv. he cuts
off the border of his royal garment, and then, somewhat
alarmed himself by the over-boldness of the deed,6 checks the
eagerness of his people by strictly forbidding any attack upon
1 P. 70 sqq. feet, i.e. to squat down, it perhaps might
2 In 1 Sam. xxvi. 4 the LXX at any bear the usual interpretation, but might
rate still read H^VP ttD3 b«, instead of Just as well signify the sleep of simple
tba^K. t^ we ought rather to read ^tigue in the middle of the day without
v . a covering.
?rB9TM"?8f <in the cleft M Sam. xxvi. 1-3. according to xxiii. 19.
even -|p3, unless -Q3 means the same. 5 The description with Abishai, xxvi. 6,
3 In 1 Sam. xxiv. 4 [3], IviTJ"!^ ^Pi? seems to have been taken from an earlier
is commonly taken as signifying ' to obey passage 2 Sam. xxiii. 18. Ahimelech (LXX
the necessities of nature,' but this by no 'Afl'M^tf the Hittite, who _1S mentioned
means suits the narrative, since one cannot here together with Abishai, but repre-
(for many reasons which it is hardly worth sensed as inferior in valour, does not
while to enumerate) conceive how David appear anywhere else in the extant re-
and his friends could have done what they cords, but no doubt the narrator found
did on any such occasion as that : besides, him already mentioned by some earlier
in Judges iii. 24, the above interpretation authority.
does not allow for as much time as is 6 Cf. 2 Sam. xxiv. 10, whence this ex-
there described as elapsing. Now if the pression, 1 Sam. xxiv. 6 [5], is no doubt
expression properly means to cover his borrowed.
DAVID AND NABAL. 97
Saul; while according to chapter xxvi. he takes away his spear
and the cruse of water.1 The conclusion is much the same
in both narratives. In the later form, chapter xxvi., which is
fullest throughout, David's admonition to the king is especially
striking : ' if it is Jahveh who (by an evil spirit) has incited him
to persecute the guiltless, let Him smell an offering, i.e. let
Him have a sufficient sin-offering brought to Him ; but if
it is men who have thus misled the king, he prays that they
may be accursed, for they have forced him to leave the holy
land and (in strange countries) to serve strange gods, whilst
his one only wish is that his lot should not be cast far from
the holy place (the temple).' Through these words we seem
to hear the sound of the bitter complaint of the numbers who
were driven into banishment at the beginning of the great
national dispersion about the seventh century, by unjust kings
like Manasseh.
3) Apart from the relation in which David stood to Saul,
the earlier narrator has left us a very graphic picture of other
aspects of his life in these desolate regions. It is contained in
a very detailed narrative which only hinges, it is true, on one
single occurrence;2 but it is an occurrence which assumes a
greater importance from its consequences. For some reason, of
which we no longer know the particulars, David and all his
men descended after the death of Samuel (towards the close,
that is,3 of the whole of this period of David's life) from the
eastern cliffs by En-gedi to the south-eastern desert by the
city of Paran,4 and there he heard that a great rural festival
was being held in the neighbourhood. There was a very rich
Calebite 5 who lived at Maon, and sent his flocks, which were of
unusual size, to pasture on Mount Carmel, which lay somewhat
1 A very ancient usage explains whv predecessor, by accident as it were, or in
the cruse of water is here brought info sport. Thus Alexander at first takes the
such special prominence. According to royal divining cup from Dara as if in sport;
this custom, some high dignitary always a story which, even in the Shahnameli, no
had in keeping a costly ewerfor the king's longer appears in its original light ; and
necessary ablutions, and it was specially in nothing was the belief in omens so
his duty to take it with him and present strong as in the high afltairs of state.
it to the king during campaigns or other 2 1 Sam. xxv.
journeys ; so that its disappearance would 8 P. 52 sq.
involve almost as great disgrace to the 4 It seems from the LXX Vat. as if we
king as the loss of his sceptre. I have should read jiyo, 1 Sam. xxv. 1, since
shown long ago in reference to Ps. Ix. 9 ^Q wilderness of Paran, well known in
[8], that this custom still existed in the ]y[osaic history, ii. p. 189, appears to lie
age of David. Besides, there are many t()O far south to be suitable here ; this
other instances of similar stories, in which Paran, however, was certainly not a dit-
the future conqueror and founder of a new ferent one, and lay some distance south of
dynasty is represented as having received ^e far better known Maon.
at first some symbol of royalty from his a yoi jj p, 284 sq.
VOL. III. H
98 DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
more to the north; and it was he who was celebrating the
annual shearers' feast on his estate on the hills. Now, since
the inhabitants of these southern regions received little or no
protection in person or property from Saul (as we have already
seen1 in the case of the city of Keilah), they would have been
const.intly exposed to the rapacity of the tribes of the desert
south of Judah, had not David and his flying troop undertaken
to protect them. It was not, therefore, at all unreasonable
in David to wish to receive a small share of the superfluities
of the feast for the immediate necessities of his people. He
certainly did not at that time exact stated contributions from
any of these districts ; but without a certain participation in
the abundance of the inhabitants whom he took under his
protection, he and his army could not have subsisted ; as must
always be the case under similar circumstances. Accordingly
he sends ten of his followers to congratulate the rich Calebite,
and intimate to him their master's modest request. But un
luckily they had to do with a churlish fellow, who easilv allowed
himself to be hurried by his thoughtlessness into acts of vio
lence, or even impiety, and so seemed actually to be what his
name signified, Nabal, i.e. fool. In accordance with his cha
racter he turns away the deputation, and adds some insulting
expressions about David, the low-born traitor who rebelled
against his rightful lord ! On the return of his messengers,
David determines to be revenged for the slight thus openly put
upon him, and leaving the rest behind to guard the baggage,
marches off at the head of two-thirds of his whole force of
600 men, with drawn swords, to surprise and destroy everything
the following night. Fortunately, however, the discreet and
beautiful Abigail, Nabal's wife, receives timely notice of all
that has happened, from one of the servants who was acquainted
with every circumstance, and had therefore good reason for his
evil forebodings; and towards evening, when Nabal surrenders
himself to the most careless revelry, she hurriedly collects,
without his knowledge, a suitable present of all kinds of pro
visions,2 sends it forward, packed on asses, to meet the ad
vancing force, and then follows after it in person. Hardly
has she reached the slope (the ' covert ') of the hill, when she
comes upon David descending from the southern hill right
1 P. 89. After ^£in it seems that D1XO has fallen
2 How simple these provisions were at out, for a seah of grain, according to Gen.
that time may be seen from the enumera- xviii. 6, did not contain much more than
tion of them in verse 18: 200 loaves, 2 enough for a couple of men, and even an
skins of wine, 5 dressed sheep, 500 small ephah, which is substituted by the LXX,
measures of peeled barley, 100 similar would still be too small. Cf. also 1 Sam.
measures of raisins, and 200 of dried figs. xxx. 11 sq. ; 1 Chron. xii. 40.
DAVID AND NABAL. 99
opposite her. She beseeches him to accept her present ; and
her representations, while offered with the utmost humility,
are such as must appeal most powerfully to a good man's
heart : ( surely now he is withheld by God himself from coming
to shed blood and to take vengeance with his own hand ; since
he fights the battles of Jahveh,1 and has done no evil, assuredly
God will one day establish his house in prosperity ; and when
God gives him his long-appointed rule over Israel, he will have
no thought of blood spilt and vengeance taken to turn to bitter
reproaches in his heart.' David, on his part, accepts the present
with joyful thanks to God for having restrained him in time
from a further advance, and then turns back. On her return
home, Abigail finds her husband spending the night in a drunken
revel, and is unable to tell him anything that has passed ; when
she does tell him of it the next morning, the affair, now doubly
vexatious to him, drives him into such a brutal rage, that he
falls into a fit on the spot, and dies ten days after from a stroke
of apoplexy ; not without reason was a divine retribution dis
cerned in his death !
No doubt the narrator was all the more ready to give such a
detailed account of these events, because the close of the whole
of this section of David's life seemed a convenient place in
which to introduce a survey of his domestic life at that time.
When the time of mourning had passed, David sought the
hand of the rich and apparently childless widow Abigail, and
obtained her consent. Before this2 he had already taken to
wife Ahinoam, who came from the little town of Jezreel3 not
far from this neighbourhood, but we are unacquainted with the
circumstances of the marriage. He was all the more justified
in contracting these marriages from the fact that Saul had
meanwhile taken away Michal from him, no doubt designedly,
and given her in marriage to another husband, whom he desired
to attach to the fortunes of his house.4
2t. As Philistine Vassal at Ziklag.
When David at last came to the conclusion,5 that it was not
safe, either for himself or his men, to remain any longer in the
territory of Israel at all, his thoughts reverted to the same
Philistine king Achish of Gath, in whose court6 he had found an
1 Vol. i, p. 67. ' According to Josh. xv. 55 sq.
2 The position of the words 1 Sam. 4 1 Sam. xxv. 39-44.
xxv. 43, xxvii. 3, xxx. 5, 2 Sam. ii. 2, P. 94.
shows that this had happened earlier. 6 P. 83 sq.
B 2
loo DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
asylum on his first flight from Saul several years before ; but
now, as the independent and tried chieftain of a band of 600
warriors, he could assume a very different position towards him
from that in which he stood on the former occasion. No doubt
king Achish, on his part, had by this time long been aware of
his previous mistakes about his extraordinary visitor ; arid the
more bitterly he repented of them the more readily would he
now feel inclined to harbour the distinguished leader of a con
siderable warlike troop, who had been subjected to such open
and severe persecution by Saul. One commander and prince,
in truth, is ready to work with another, if only for the sake of
their common ' craft;'1 but happily for the good cause, and (as
will be seen in the sequel) for David himself, there yet remained
certain individuals at ihe Philistine court, who looked upon him
with other eyes than those of the king.
All that David, indeed, could reasonably expect was to secure
protection and sustenance for himself and his followers, in
return for certain stated services which he promised to render
to the king. These were, first, a stated share of the booty
taken in his independent expeditions,2 which it was thus tacitly
assumed would generally be directed against Saul's subjects ;
and secondly, service in the Philistine army itself whenever
the king should demand it.3 In this way he entered at once
as an independent chieftain (like an Italian Condottiere of the
Middle Ages) into the king's service ; and the worst of the
matter was, that he thereby became liable to be compelled to
fight against Saul and Israel, from which, nevertheless, all his
feelings in the first instance so violently recoiled. And yet it
would not be his fault if ever he found himself fighting under a
foreign standard at last, against the man who had persecuted
him with such groundless and unremitting rage ; moreover, he
was possessed of enough wiliness and skill to turn his indepen
dent position rather to the advantage than the injury of his own
people; and at least he might cherish in his inmost heart the hope
that, under the most unfavourable circumstances, viz., if he should
be compelled to fight in the ranks of the Philistines against
Israel, no grievous results might follow, and if absolutely neces
sary, he might run the risk. He could not as yet maintain
himself anywhere as a perfectly independent prince ; and con
sequently he could not have sought protection for himself and
his men in any quarter whatever without expecting to be em-
1 I use this expression here because the 2 This follows from 1 Sam. XXYII. 9,
late kiiig of Prussia used it in Hanover when the words are rightly- understood,
when Crown-prince in 1839. * This results from 1 Sam. xxviii. 1 sq.
DAVID AT ZIKLAG. ]01
ployed on some occasion against Saul. The knot is disentangled
speedily and satisfactorily enough, but far less by the hero's
human skill than by the overruling of a higher destiny.
1) Soon after he had passed over to the Philistines, David
himself certainly made an important step towards securing
greater independence. At first he established himself according
to agreement in the capital city of Gath, and was therefore in the
immediate neighbourhood of the king ; but he was not accom
panied by the 600 warriors alone, but by a complete little tribe,
for almost every one of these warriors had a wife and children.1
This might furnish him at once with an excuse for begging the
king, whose entire confidence he acquired immediately, to make
him the grant of a country town in his territory, in which he
and his people might live. The king granted to him for this
purpose the city of Ziklag, of which he thus, became feudal
lord, thereby laying the foundation of a family estate (demesne);
so that in later times, on the division of the Davidic kingdom,
this city was considered to pertain to David's house and there
fore to the territory of Judah.2 Amongst other nations, too, it
has not seldom happened that a chieftain such as David then
was, has been thus made proprietor of a small territory, which
has possibly become the foundation of a kingdom of constantly
increasing independence and extent. As a matter of fact, David
in this city laid the foundation of all his kingdom. Here he
could already rule with greater freedom and independence, col
lect fugitives and deserters around him in larger and larger
numbers, send or receive embassies like a prince,3 and as a ruler
over soldiers and over peaceable citizens rehearse, on a small
scale, those arts by which he afterwards acquired and main
tained his great kingdom.4 Moreover, being a genuine poet
and lover of art, he took advantage of all his opportunities in
this direction also, and exercised himself as a musician, in the
Gittite, i.e. the Philistine style, which he afterwards transferred
from there to Judah and Jerusalem.5
' As follows from 1 Sam. xxvii. 3 ; cf. which belonged to its district, Josh. xv.
2 Sam. ii. 3. 30 sqq., xix. 4. sq., the nearest of all being
i • the Hormah mentioned ii. p. 190. The
* 1 Sam. xxvn. 6 See more on this -ectui.e of some recent writers that
point below, under Rehoboam. The site .f ^ identical with el-Sukkariyeh (i.e.
of this place has not yet been ascertained , Susary '), south-west of Beit-Jibrin,
by any modern traveller. It originally a landless. We might think with
belonged to the tribe of Simeon, Josb. xix. * * gince _ would si if
5, but was also, according to 11. p. 287 * A ,
sq., reckoned as Judah's, Josh. xv. 31. strait, of the present el-Lukiyeh.
That it lay very far to the south, follows 3 Cf. 1 Sam. xxx. 26-31.
alike from the narrative of David's life « 1 Sam. xxvn. 1-6.
and from the situation of the other places * That this is the most correct view
102 DAVID S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
We still possess a very ancient and accurate notice ! of the
illustrious heroes who gathered round David at Ziklag, as soon
as he had established himself there as a feudal lord. There
were Benjamites, and some even of Saul's own kindred, who
could hardly have gone over to David except from great dis
satisfaction with the turn which things had taken under Saul ;
men like the Benjamites,2 equally able to use the right or the
left hand in slinging and shooting : again, there were several
from Judah,3 all of them mentioned by name, except that the
Chronicler has here, as in so many other places, greatly curtailed
the enumeration of names which he found in the ancient docu
ments. But since the earlier narrator still continues as before4
to speak of David's army as composed of only 600 men,5 we see
clearly that this is to be taken merely as a round and constant
number; and we shall take occasion hereafter to investigate
further how this use of the number arose.
We have already observed that it was at this time a neces
sity for David and his men to make warlike expeditions from
Ziklag, which were, at best, nothing but forays hither and thither
in search of rich booty. But whenever he went 011 these raids,
he invariably marched against the Geshurites 6 and Ainalekites,
who were the Aborigines of these countries, and spread partly
to the north, but chiefly to the south of the territory of the
Philistine king, as far as Egypt, leading for the most part a
nomadic life. He seized their herds of camels and their gar
ments, and then brought the covenanted portion of the booty to
king Achish at Gath ; but (we are told) whenever he was ques
tioned by him about the direction of his expeditions, he always
pretended that he had fallen upon the soutn of Judah, especi
ally upon the Jerahmeelite and Kenite settlers.7 Eor this
reason he put to death all his prisoners, for fear the king-
should learn, through his share in this portion of the booty,
where he had really been and what he had been doing. By this
means, it is true, he succeeded in keeping the king favourably
appears from Ps. viii. 1 [title]. See the ii. 43, they too were of the tribe of Judah.
remarks made on this subject in my Dick- The derivation of the family name ijD'nn,
ter des Alten Bundcs, vol. i, or Keri, ^i^n, ver. 5, is uncertain.
1 1 Chron. xii. 1-7 ; cf. vol. i. p. 136 4 P. 89.
sq., and above, p. 86 sqq. 5 1 Sam. xxx. 9-24; just as xxiii. 13,
2 Vol. ii. p. 282. xxv. 13, xxvii. 2.
3 Weareguidtdto Judah by the places, 6 Or Gazerites, according to ii. p. 328
Gederah, 1 Chron. xii. 4, which, according sqq.
to Josh. xv. 36, was not very far distant 1 It is clear that his reason for making
from Ziklag, and Gedor, ver. 7 ; cf. Josh, special mention of these people was sim-
xv. 58 : the Korhites, ver. 6, can hardly ply that they led, for the most part, a
have been members of the well-known nomadic life, just as we know for certain
Levite family ; but, according to 1 Chron. (ii. p. 286) the Kenites did.
DAVID AT Z1KLAG. 103
disposed towards himself, and yet sparing his beloved country ;
but at the same time we cannot help regretting that it was
only by dissembling and untrue pretences of this kind that he
found the means of extricating himself from so embarrassing
a situation, and satisfying those whose friendship it seemed
indispensable to him to retain.1
2) When about a year and four months, however, had thus
elapsed,2 a general Philistine war was kindled against Saul. As
a Philistine vassal, David was obliged to take a part in it, and
then began the great struggle in which his feudal duty came
into collision with his patriotic feeling. When king Achish
informed him that he was to take the field against Israel with
him, he could not refuse to comply; but he only answered,
6 the king should soon know what he would do ; ' and since the
latter only took this really very ambiguous answer in a favour
able sense, he rewarded his vassal's willingness by promising to
appoint him captain of his body-guard, i.e.3 to make him the
foremost man in the kingdom, next to the commander-in-
chief.4
The scene of the general war of all the Philistine princes
a.gainst Israel, which was now to begin, was laid this time in
the more northern territory of Israel; and while, according to
the earlier narrator, the camp of Israel was pitched at Ain, in
the territory of Jezreel, i.e. in the southern portion of that
division of the country which subsequently received the name of
Galilee, that of the Philistines was pitched more to the west,
at Aphek, or according to the other narrator, at Shunem.5
The central province in which Gibeah, the seat of Saul's
government, lay, seems from this, to have been either strongly
occupied by the Philistines at this time, or so far devastated as
to enable them to push the war into the extremely fertile terri
tory to the north, in the hope of soon reducing the whole of
Israel under their yoke ; for, had they not been by this time
tolerably secure in the southern and central districts, the ease
1 1 Sam. xxvii. 7-12. 'Afuleh, which lies somewhere to the west ;
2 This period is fixed by 1 Sam. xxvii. at any rate, Aphek is as yet undiscovered
7, and xxix. 3 ; only that in the last in- if this be not its site. If so, Ain, xxix. 1,
stance the more vivid language gives a can hardly be an abbreviation of En-dor,
vaguer tone to the definition of the time xxviii. 7, since the two places would be
' this year or these years.' separated by the whole of the lesser
« P. 75. Hermon ; it is, therefore, probably better
4 1 Sam. xxviii. 1 sq. to follow Kobinson, Bibl. Res. in Pal, iii.
5 The most recent investigations, in- p. 167 sq., in regarding it as an abbrevia-
cluding those of Kobinson, p ,int to the tion of the present Ain Jalud, since this
conclusion that Shunem. xxviii. 4, is iden- is situated on Mount Gilboa: 1 Sam.
tical with the present Solam ; and in that xxviii. 4, xxxi. 1 sqq., 2 Sam. i. 21.
case Aphck, xxix. 1, probably answers to
104 DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
with which their own kingdom might be attacked from those
quarters would have made them afraid of transferring the
seat of war so far north. Thus David and his army had a
considerable distance to traverse from Ziklag to the camp, and
they were obliged to employ several days in the journey. He and
Achish brought up the rear of the great Philistine army, which
inarched with its hundreds and thousands in battle array. The
other princes, however, conceived a suspicion that the Hebrews
might prove faithless at the decisive moment of the battle,
and perhaps the dreaded David might wish to make his peace
with his old master Saul, at the expense of Philistines' heads.
This is, in fact, only the same suspicion which had induced
Achish to persecute David, and at last compelled him to take to
night several years before.1 Achish himself was at this time
as far as possible from entertaining any such suspicions, and
endeavoured on the other hand to overcome those of his con
federate princes, by commending his vassal's long-tried fidelity ;
but in spite of this, he found himself compelled by them to re
quest David, in all friendliness, to return to Ziklag, and he, after
making, in his turn, the most earnest protestations and assur
ances of his fidelity, complied. Thus, before the last decisive
moment drew nigh, he was released unexpectedly from his
painful dilemma. What he would really have done had he been
obliged to remain, the ambiguity of his former answer still leaves
uncertain ; but when we remember the consummate skill with
which he had always managed to avoid injuring his own people,
or contending against them up to that time, we cannot help
believing that he entertained no idea, even then, of preferring
the good of the Philistines to that of his own nation.2
But there was yet another circumstance which made this
leave of absence most opportune for David.3 Ziklag was more
than two days' journey distant from the place where he and
his men had been dismissed by Achish, and when he reached
it again on the third day he found it in a most frightful con
dition. A strong band of Amalekites (encouraged, it would
seem, by the news that the bravest Philistine and Israelite
troops had moved northwards) had issued from the southern
wilderness in a successful raid against the adjacent towns of
Philistia and Judah, and on the last day had approached
Ziklag, having heard, no doubt, of the departure of the terrible
David. Here they had not only seized, as a matter of course,
the property of the original inhabitants, who offered but a feeble
resistance, but had also borne off, amongst other booty, all the
1 P. 83 sq. 2 1 Sum. xxix. 8 1 Sam. xxx.
MARCH AGAINST THE AMALEKITES. 105
wives and children of David and his men as prisoners, and had
set fire to the city.1 No sooner had the soldiers who returned
from the war under Achish, recovered from the first cruel shock,
than they gave way to the most violent indignation against
David as their leader : they even threatened to stone him ; nor
can it be denied that it was really thoughtless in him to leave
the city to the feeble defence of its original inhabitants alone,
after having given such gross provocation to the Amalekites
by his former plundering incursions. But (as the narrator ex
pressly states in this case) he quickly regained his composure
from Jahveh, his God, enquired of the priest-oracle whether a
pursuit of the enemy would be advisable, and, on receiving an
answer in the affirmative, gave chase at once with all his 600
men. When they come to the brook Besor,2 only 400 men
pass over it, the rest remaining behind from excessive fatigue ;
but David does not allow this to prevent his continuing an
eager pursuit. On the road they find an Egyptian slave of one
of the Amalekites deserted by his master on the march to Ziklag
three days before, because he was sick. This man was with
great difficulty brought back to life, and served as a guide to
the enemy's camp, which they reached that evening. Here
they find the Amalekites scattered over the ground in com
plete disorder and carelessness, carousing and making holiday.
David accordingly falls upon them the next morning and smites
them till evening with such effect, that only 400 of the com
mon soldiers escape on camels ; he captures from them not
only the women arid children from Ziklag (all of whom they
had fortunately kept alive, in hopes of a high ransom), but also
the whole of their immense spoil, laden with which he returns.
When fchey reach the brook Besor the victors are unwilling to cede
any portion of the booty to the 200 men who had remained be
hind there, but at last they allow themselves to be persuaded to do
so by the eloquence of David, which pointed to a higher justice ;3
1 But for the mention of this last cir- &>$ HIKE? must have fallen out before
cumstance, one would almost have sus- Q^^^.^ verse 9; their authenticity is by
pected that they had been called in by no menns 'disproved by their absence even
the original inhabitants, to whom they as eariy as the LXX.
were related; at any rate, they must have 3 ^his has reference (1) to God, who
been kept well informed by them, or ^a(^ g}verl them this unexpected victory, so
they would not have known how to hit tnat man ccmld not boast of his own merit,
upon the right moment so exactly. jn obtaining thes-e possessions, verse 23
2 Its position has not yet been redis- (where "]0jrn£ must be taken as an ex~
covered any more than that of Ziklag it- clamation, according to my Lehrb. § o29fl,
self, although certain recent geographers think of what . . . ); and (2) to man, since,
have been beforehand in setting it clown as men> tnev could not demand that this
in their maps. The whole context shows wjs^ Of theirs should be humoured, vert-e
that some such words as
106 DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOK INDEPENDENCE.
so thenceforth, it became a fixed custom in Israel to assign
an equal portion of the booty to those who had been in
action and those who had stayed behind to guard the baggage.1
David had never before captured so large an amount of spoil,
and he did not neglect to send rich portions of it as presents
to all the friendly Elders of the cities of Judah with whom he
had come into contact at an earlier period.2 In this way the
disaster actually resulted in a real gain ; and at no other time
could friendly relations towards the Elders of Judah have
involved consequences of greater importance.
3) For while all this was happening in the southern districts
of the country, in the north the great drama so closely connected
with these events was being played out ; and the catastrophe
which could not have furnished a more gloomy presage for
Israel's immediate future, necessarily recalled David from his
present position. In the battle of Jezreel the victorious Philis
tines pressed forward to the south-east from the plain in which
they had been at first stationed, up to Mount Gilboa. Here
Saul and his faithful followers made a desperate resistance, but
so many of their bravest men fell, that the Philistines, after
a complete victory, not only took the camn of Israel, but even
gained possession of the whole territory as far as the Jordan,
and so reached the utmost limit of their desires. Hard pressed
by the Philistines, there fell in the slaughter of that same
battle, not only Saul's three sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and
Melchi-shua, but also Saul himself ; but as might easily happen
on so miserable an ending of the campaign, slightly varying
reports as to the details of his death were soon in circulation.
According to one account3 he was so hotly beset4 by certain
archers, that, coveved as he was with wounds already,' and see
ing no possibility of escape, he entreated his armour-bearer to
run him through, for fear his enemies should do so with insults
and mockery; and when he shrank in terror from the act,
Saul threw himself upon his own sword, whereupon the armour-
bearer in despair followed his example and died with him.
According to the other account5 the son of an Amalekite serf
' I have already noticed in my Alter- or instead of it ^1, is most correctly
thumcr, p. 348 sq., the importance of this , T|T7 ,
simple and ancient Testimony to the rise ta^en as coming from ppH' 'to be wounded,
of this_ custom with repml to a cor- to suffer,' Ps. cix. 22, and so far the LXX
responding regulation of the Book of Ori- give correctly erpa^cmcrflT,, only what
follows cannot safely be rendered by tis
a P. 86. TOL
3 1 Sam. xxxi. . to judge by all indica- \ 2 Sam. i. 1-16, by the earlier narrator.
tions it coim-s from the second narrator. It; is contrary to the intention of the
nar-
4 The context shows tha- bn»1, verse 3 *?*** t0 suPPose that the Amalekite sim-
^V-' *• ply pretended that he had slain the king,
DEATH OF SAUL. 107
came accidentally upon Saul on Mount Gilboa, as, hotly pursued
by chariots and horses, he sank down and rested his head for
weariness on his spear1 which he still held in his hand. Looking
anxiously behind him the king saw this man, and urged him to
kill him outright, for though he still breathed, convulsions had
seized his frame. Thinking that the king could never recover
from this collapse, the Amalekite obeyed his orders, took the
crown from his head and the golden bracelet from his right
arm and brought them with all speed to David, together with
the fatal news. Both accounts are evidently ancient, but one
represents the faithful armour-bearer, the other a rough and
careless fellow, not even of the Hebrew race, as being at the
side of the falling hero when he expired ; as though these two
accounts were the respective representations of those who dwell
on the good or on the evil of Saul's career.
In the rent clothes of a mourner, this same Amalekite (the
earlier narrator tells us), on the third day after David's return
to Ziklag, brought him this news of Saul and Jonathan, and
of his own deed, no doubt expecting some high reward. But
David broke with his men into the deepest lamentations over
the death of these two and so many other heroes, and over the
disaster thus entailed upon the whole people. On the morrow
the Amalekite was executed as one who had sacrilegiously laid
his hand on Jahveh's Anointed. So little pleasure had David in
the fall of his implacable foe, and so earnest was his desire that
all, without distinction, should reverence even in its decline the
glory of true monarchy ! But in fact, even the claims of rigid
justice would not have allowed him to act otherwise than he
did, for the falling king might possibly have still had long to
live. And the deep sorrow for Saul, and yet more for Jonathan,
which he cherished in his heart, his readiness to recognise true
worth, even in a foe, the incomparable tenderness of his love
for Jonathan, — all this shines forth in his elegy over the two
heroes with unspeakable pathos, and yet with such truth and
simplicity, that David could have given posterity no surer
pledge of the loyalty and uprightness of his own heart. And as
such an elegy comprises in condensed and noble language all
the praise which can be given to the dead, David took special
care that it should be learnt by heart by the younger Israelites,
for instance in the army, in order that it might be preserved
and he could not have thought that such l Saul's spear, which this narrator
a pretence would have been a higher re- brings into such prominence everywhere,
commendation than the crown and bracelet has its place in his narrative even here,
which he brought to David.
108 DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
for ever, and that the latest ages might sing the praises of the
two heroes.1
But what further steps was David to take at this great crisis ?
Jonathan, between whom and himself a noble rivalry in self-
renunciation, might now have arisen, had fallen ; Ish-bosheth,2
it is true, another of Saul's sons, was still living, and was old
enough to enter at once upon the government, but since here
ditary succession to the crown was not as yet legally esta
blished, David could in no way be considered as owing allegiance
to his person ; and indeed, even if he had acknowledged him as
king, it would not have done much good, since the whole of
Saul's kingdom (as we shall see presently) was at that time in
the last stage of disintegration, and all the central and northern
territory west of the Jordan was in the hands of the Philis
tines. The thought of declaring against Saul's house and at
once struggling for dominion over all Israel, could certainly
never enter so noble a heart as David's ; but in earlier years he
had already maintained himself in the territory of his own tribe
of Judah as a protecting chief, and had bound many of its
cities in ties of gratitude to himself. He might well therefore
consider it a duty to defend it (since none appeared better able
to do so), against the incursions of the Philistines and other
foes, who had waxed bold through recent events. The further
consequences he would leave to God.
We know, moreover, from a very ancient source3 that im
mediately after Saul's great disaster, while David still main
tained himself at Ziklag, a large number of the most valiant
warriors came over to him voluntarily, and looked for his
leadership to save Israel; seven district chiefs of the tribe
of Manasseh are mentioned by name, and all such chiefs no
doubt brought with them the greater part of their men. And
besides these, from day to day fresh warriors came to help him
or to seek their fortune with him, ' so that his camp waxed
great, like to a camp of God.'
And so he could no longer stay inactive here, or simply
remain in his former relation to Achish. He consulted the
1 2 Sara. i. 17-27; cf. the Dichter des a transcriber's error for 'I<r#. The names
Alien Bundes, vol. 1, and above, i. p. 18, enumerated by the second narrator, 1 Sam.
n°te !• xxxi 2, correspond to this list ; but in
2 The four sons of Saul are most dis- that of the earlier narralor, 1 Sam. xiv.
tinctly named in 1 Chron. viii. 33, ix. 39, 49, Abinadab is wanting, and *<}& must
according to which Jonathan is the eldest, bp anoth form f ^ name Isn_b:osher.h,
Ish-bosheth the youngest; but the latter unless it ig a ^ mistakc the
is there called Esh-baal, according to vol. T0<ui MW, FJ
ii. p. 380, note 2. The LXX and Fl.
Josephus have 'Iffto<r6i, but surely this is 3 l Chron. xn. 19-22.
DAVID K1XG OF JUDAH. 109
oracle (says the earlier narrator) whether he should go to a
city of Judah, and was answered in the affirmative. To which ?
he asked again, and in reply was directed to Hebron, the
ancient city of Judah. Thither he accordingly inarched, and
his people with their households settled down in the little towns
round about the capital. Nothing surely could be more pleasing
to the Elders of the whole tribe, in the present position of affairs ;
so they assembled at Hebron and anointed him king of Judah.1
3. As King of Judah.
David reigned over Judah seven years and six months at
Hebron ; and meanwhile Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, reigned over
all Israel (that is, except Judah) for two years. At a first
glance, the utter want of harmony between the two numbers is
puzzling, for David certainly became the ruler of all Israel im
mediately after the death of the rival king,2 without any inter
val of five and a half years. It is quite true that we know very
little of this period of David's life altogether, but yet if we put
together, as vividly as we can, the various indications which
remain, we gain the following results.
1) After Saul's death, it was at first only in Judah, where
David maintained his government, that a new kingdom of Israel
could properly be established at all, so disastrous were the con
sequences of the great Philistine victory. The Philistines, who
must have already conquered the central territory, now occupied
that to the north also, while the inhabitants of the cities of the
great plain of Jezreel and of the western bank of the Jordan,
fled, we are very distinctly informed, across the river.3 Every
indication leads to the belief that the Philistines never crossed
the Jordan ; but there had been, from of old,4 such a want of
firm organic unity among the Transjordanic cities, that they
could not afford any firm support to a government. Had Saul's
immediate successor, indeed, been a man of distinguished quali
ties, he might have found it easier to establish a fresh kingdom
on the ruins of his father's ; but Ish-bosheth, as far as we know
anything about him, had no strength of character. If there
had been no unwillingness to depart from the strict succession,
1 2 Sam. ii. 1-4. till David becomes king of all Israel that
2 But the earlier narrator more strictly he gives his age too at the time of his
regards Ish-bosheth .MS the real and David accession, 2 Sam. v. 4 sq.
as the rival king. This is clear from his 3 1 Sam. xxxi. 7. Just as, in Joshua's
mentioning Ish-bosheth, 2 Sam. ii. 10 sq., day, the Canaanites had fled before Israel,
before David and giving his age at his 4 Vol. ii. p. 344.
accession to the throne, whereas it is not
no DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
many a hero might, no doubt, ha^e been found, more or less
closely related to Saul, of greater capacity than this his only
legal heir ; but although no distinct law for the regulation of
the succession to the throne appears to have been at that time
•in existence, yet it was a perfectly healthy popular instinct
which directed that it should in every respect follow the ancient
law of all family succession. This is, in fact, the only means
of securing the proper peace and quietness of succession, and
the people themselves should consider it their duty to supple
ment and remove the deficiencies of even an inefficient successor
to the throne.
Under these circumstances, as soon as David had established
himself at Hebron as the acknowledged king of Judah, the
immediate prospect opened before him of being requested at
once by all the tribes, to become their protector and ruler ; and
if such a request had been made, he certainly would not have
declined to take at once the step which he actually took seven
years later. A fact which is worthy of note on other grounds,
offers one proof at least that David himself felt the possibility
of such a result, and took a sufficiently comprehensive view of
the various relations in which he was placed. As they were
stripping and spoiling the bodies on the battle-field after their
victory, the Philistines found amongst others the bodies of Saul
and his sons. They severed Saul's head from his body, stripped
off his arms, had their victory proclaimed in the temples of the
idols and in the market-places all over their country, and then
laid up Saul's arms in the principal temple of Astarte, and his
skull in the temple of Dagon ; they fixed his trunk, however,
together with the bodies of his sons, by way of insulting the
Hebrews who dwelt beyond Jordan, high up on the wall ] of the
city of Beth-shan (afterwards Scythopolis), situated on the Jor
dan to the east of Gilboa. But the citizens of Jabesh beyond
the Jordan,2 who had once been rescued by Saul,3 moved to in
dignation by the spectacle and by such treatment of the body
of the king whom they held in revered and grateful memory,
journeyed a whole night through, removed all the bodies, and
buried them with honours under the tamarisk, i.e. their place
of public meeting. As soon as the news of this act of respect
reached David at Hebron, he courteously sent a formal em-
1 So the second narrator ; the older, was closely investigated by Robinson on
however, according to 2 Sam. xxi. 12, his second journey, but was 'not discovered
with greater precision, named the market- with exactitude ; tee his Bib. Ets. in Pal.
place by the gate. iii. 319 sq.
* The situation of the town in the 3 P. 24.
Wadi, which now bears a similar name,
DAVID KIXG OF JUDAH. Ill
bassy to them, to thank them, with many hearty good wishes,
for the love they had manifested for the king, to exhort them,
to continued steadfastness in these troubled times, and to in
form them that he had himself been anointed king by the tribe
of Judah. l It is plain that they had no son of Saul's as their
present king, and had the lords of Jabesh desired to enter into
further negotiations with David, he would no doubt have wil
lingly granted their request that he should become their pro
tector, and in consequence their ruler. But if this were not
their wish, the anxiety he had shown concerning the honour of
the fallen king and his energetic friends, must in itself have
redounded to his credit everywhere.
It now became evident, however, that the ground was not
sufficiently prepared for David's extended activity. No doubt
his military talent had been universally acknowledged for a
long time, but his recent connexion with the Philistines might
give offence to many ; and when we consider that he was left
at peace by these Philistines as long as he reigned at Hebron,
but had to sustain the severest contests with them the moment
he became king of all Israel, it seems only too probable, in
spite of the silence of our authorities, that he paid tribute to
them, and owed to this circumstance the tranquillity of his early
rule. Besides this, there were still a great number2 who had
genuine scruples against revolting from the house of Saul,
which they regarded as lawfully established ; and finally, there
were probably others who sought the restoration of Saul's
kingdom in the hope of thus laying the foundation of their own
future prosperity. A number of Benjamites must, from the
nature of the case, have formed the bulk of this last party,
although, even in Saul's lifetime, many of them had gone over
to David.3 One Benjamite in particular, named Abner, whose
history comes into the foreground during these years, made
once more the most daring efforts for the house of Saul. This
Abner, was, as we have seen,4 a son of Ner, the brother of Saul's
father, and appears (not indeed in the first great war carried on
by Saul with the Philistines,5 but on every subsequent occasion)
as commander-in-chief, that is, as the first man in Saul's king
dom, and the representative of the king. The escape of a man
so brave and distinguished from the slaughter which accom-
1 1 Sam. xxxi. 8-13, 2 Sam. ii. 4-7. dropped out of the text of the LXX.
In 1 Sam. xxxi. 10, af-er r\\~\F\V?y JV3 Otherwise, the text of the Chronicles is,
should be inserted (according to I Chron. ** mu^ > confessed, generally less near
. [ t the original.
x. 10) the words j^ TV3 W|?f H«l 2 p. 51. • Pp. 90, 102.
cf. 1 Sam. v. 2, although they had already * Pp. 18, 22. • P. 30.
112 DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
parried Saul's defeat, was a piece of good fortune amid all the
misfortunes of the house of Saul, which might easily have en
abled it to regain all its former power. In virtue both of his
office and of his kinship, Abner was called upon to take under his
special protection his nephew Ish-bosheth, Saul's only surviving
son; and he fulfilled the utmost claims of duty which could be
made on him in this double capacity. But the whole kingdom
lay in ruins at the time, and hardly a single city west of the
Jordan either could or would acknowledge the rule of the house
of Saul; while even on the east, though single cities like
Jabesh were willing to submit to such a king as Ish-bosheth, yet
the country as a whole was hardly prepared to do so. Under these
circumstances the only course, which for the present lay open
to the valiant Abner, was to attempt the gradual reorganisation
and reconquest of the territories which were either thoroughly
disintegrated, or subdued and occupied by the Philistines ; and
to accomplish this it seemed advisable to leave David in quiet
so long as he confined himself to Judah. The extreme diffi
culty of the problem which Abner had to face, and the great
honour which he gained by his ultimate success in solving it,
may be readily understood. His first step appears to have been
to reunite under his protection the country of the east, and
thence to consolidate his forces for the accomplishment of his
further designs. This is the necessary inference from a con
sideration of all the circumstances, and it is confirmed by the
fact that the seat of Ish-bosheth's government was not, like
that of his father, at Gibeah, or in Benjamin at all, but beyond
the Jordan at Mahanaim, a city, it would seem, of ancient great
ness and sanctity, which was certainly of high importance at
that period,1 and still retained its sanctity in far later times.2
A further indication of the same fact is contained in the way
in which the districts finally ruled over by Ish-bosheth are
enumerated : ' Abner ' (says the earlier narrator) ( took Ish-
bosheth. brought him across to Mahanaim, and made him king
over Gilead, the land of Geshur, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin,
and all Israel (except Judah).'3 In this list of the districts west
1 David also takes up his abode at this 2 This follows from Cant. vii. 1 [vi. 13] •
place when compelled to flee across the cf. Gen. xxxii. '2 sq. [xxxii. 1 sq.].
Jordan, 2 Sam. xvii. 22 sqq., 1 Kings ii. 8. 3 2 Sum. ii. 8 sq. For ni£\SV the
Ruins have now been discovered at a place LXX read H1BTI or VVS5TI : therp is
called Makneh, in about the same latitude more probability in favour of the reading
as Scythopolis. but far east of the Jordan; of other ancient translators, niEa for
but if the Jabbok is to be identified with according to ii. 302, this place appears
the Greek Hieromax (vol. ii. p. 295), then elsewhere as a country lying far to the
the ancient Mahanaim, according to Gen. north-east, the capital of which, -y^
xxxii. Z so. 1 1 PCI.], must luivc tc6n situ- *.i
ated north of this place. ?.. , . .mo Oh'id a.klnf of lt* own : 2 Sam-
in. 3, xiu. 37, xiv. 23; cf. xv. 8, from
DAVID KING OF JUDAH. 113
of the Jordan, the order in which Abner reconquered the districts
occupied by the Philistines, may at the same time be indicated.
Whilst Abner was making these efforts, some five years must
necessarily have elapsed, nor can Ish-bosheth have been
solemnly anointed as king of Israel until after the expiration
of this period ; for it would be no such easy task to compel
the Philistines to relinquish the conquests in which they had
already firmly established themselves.
2) But now that Abner had accomplished this great project,
consistency of purpose would urge him to make the attempt to
unite Judah once more to the kingdom of the house of Saul.
It was, however, to be anticipated that David would not volun
tarily abdicate, after having already governed for five years.
The consequence was, that the mutual taunts of the soldiers on
either side provoked a war between the two houses, which
evidently occupied the greater part of the two years of Ish-
bosheth's reign. Abner and his troops, just victorious over the
Philistines, and proud of their maintenance of the king's cause,
obviously began the quarrel with David's men; and though
we cannot give any detailed account of the way in which the
latter had spent the five preceding years, they had no doubt
been exercised in wars against the southern and western peoples
(except the Philistines),1 and were consequently not only pene
trated by David's spirit of lofty cheerfulness and confidence,
but also strengthened in all the arts of war by constant
practice. A company of extraordinarily valiant and courageous
warriors must by that time have been formed around David,
— the nucleus of that army of heroes with which he subsequently
laid the foundations of an imperial power ; and even Abner
seems hardly to have had a just appreciation of this pheno
menon — unknown to Israel since the days of Joshua — when,
trusting to the numerical superiority of his own troops, he
sought to engage those of David, inferior to his own in nothing
but numbers. In particular, David's army reckoned among its
officers Joab his general, Abishai, and Asahel, the three heroic
sons of David's sister, who, on this account, were commonly
called not after their father, but after their illustrious mother
Zeruiah.2
Abner (says the earlier narrator,3 whose account becomes
predominant again, for the most part, from this point) proceeded
which it appears that the inhabitants of ' P. 111.
this little country were Arameans. Jez- 2 1 Chron. ii. 16.
reel appears as a name fur the vale of * 2 Sara. ii. 12-iii. 1.
Galilee in Josh. xvii. 16 as well.
VOL. III. I
114 DAVID'S STRUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
with Ish-bosheth's subjects in battle array to Gibeon, in the
tribe of Benjamin ; l there, however, he was met by Joab, who
had lost no time in advancing with David's men, and the two
armies encamped over against each other at the pool near the
city. Here Abner proposed, half in sport and half in earnest,
by way of entertaining the two armies, a contest of champions ;
and on Joab's giving his assent, twelve warriors of Benjamin
stepped forth from the side of Ish-bosheth as if they were the
representatives of all the tribes of Israel, and they were con
fronted by twelve of David's adherents. These champions
entered upon the contest armed with swords, but the crafty
Benjamites, renowned of old2 for using the left and right
hand with equal effect in war, instead of engaging in straight
forward sword-play, each seized his opponent's head with the
left hand, and at the same moment plunged his sword into his
side with the right : 3 the men of Judah, however, with equal
craft and activity, dealt in like manner with their opponents,
so that they all fell together, and the spot was known ever after
as 'the field of the malignant.'4 But this only kindled a
general battle, in which Abner's men sustained heavy loss.
Amongst David's heroes, special distinction was won by Joab's
youngest brother, Asahel. Swift of foot c as a gazelle on the
mountains,' he had selected as his opponent no less a person
than Abner himself, whom he pursued without swerving.
Abner, who knew him, turned round at last and begged him to
seek out some private soldier and strip him of his armour; but
Asahel would not desist, so once more Abner begged him to leave
off. He shrank from striking Asahel to the ground, out of simple
consideration for his brother Joab, into whose face he could
never look again after such a deed ; but he would not turn back,
and so Abner struck him in the belly and right through the
back with the butt end of his spear which was simply pointed,
so that he fell down dead. This misfortune at first restrained
the pursuit of the flying Israelites, since everyone who came
to the spot halted at the sight of the dead body. Joab and
Abishai, it is true, continued to pursue Abner, and all the more
hotly,5 although the sun had already set ; but the Benjamites, on
their side, perceiving the great danger of their leader, took
1 Vol. ii. p. 251 . nents,' no indication of the peculiar nature
2 Vol. ii. p. 282. of the conflict would be conveyed by so
3 In verse 16, after {jMtf the little word ordinary a name. The above repre^enta-
1*T> has dropped out ; the LXX still had tion merely explains somewhat more in
it. detail what is implied in the few words
4 DHtfru as the LXX (r&v eTripovAow) which are employed.
still readT instead of Dntfn ; if we were 5 The minute description of the point up
., ,, . to which they came, verse 24, still remains
to spell tins nn>%n, 'field of the oppo- obscure> ^ Kobinson> BlbL Ees.in PaL
DAVID KING OF JUDAH. 115
hurried possession of the hill and closed round Abner in a com
pact circle. On this he cried out to Joab no longer to pursue his
brethren so relentlessly, and to reflect how bitterly it might all
end; and Joa.b gave way, but declared that the pursuit would have
lasted till break of day had not Abner spoken. The two armies
then parted. Abner's troops, after sustaining a loss of three
hundred and sixty men, returned to Mahanaim on that very
night; while Joab's men, who had lost twenty, including
Asahel, buried Asahel that same night on their way back, in
his family sepulchre at Bethlehem, and reached Hebron early
in the morning.
This encounter is no doubt described thus minutely on
account of Asahel's death and its subsequent results ; but in
this opening scene of the two years' war, we discern at once the
reason why, as it went on, David's army always remained vic
torious, and his power rose higher and higher. Together with
his external successes, his family connexions likewise became
more extensive, a method of aggrandisement not unfamiliar at
the present day to princes of those countries ; for sometimes he
sought by marriage to gain the support of some powerful house
which he thus bound over to his interests, and sometimes these
houses themselves endeavoured to secure his friendship by a
matrimonial alliance. During those seven or eight years
at Hebron, his six wives presented him with six sons, amongst
whom was Absalom whose mother was a daughter of the king
of Geshur.1
3) But, after all, the hand which was stretched forth to
effect the immediate ruin of Ish-bosheth, who was not an ill-
meaning but a weak and timid man,2 was no other than his
own. While the war was still going on, Abner had married
Saul's concubine Rizpah. This act might of course be inter
preted as an indication that he was aiming at the throne, for in
accordance with the court custom of the country and the time,
such a proceeding was frequently regarded as the symbolic
occupation of the inner house (the harem) of a preceding king;*
but, on the other hand, there was no necessity at all to put this
i. p. 4;36, note 10, though he speaks of the 2 2 Sam. iii. 6-v. 3 ; cf., with special
water-springs by Gribeon, makes no more reference to Ish-bosheth's character, iv. 11.
particular reference to our passage. The 3 Cf. 2 Sam. xvi. 21, xx. 3, 1 Kings ii.
description of the route pursued beyond 13-25 ; the same custom was in force at
Jordan, verse 29 (through the whole Bith- the Egyptian court (see the history of
rcn), is also unintelligible to us as yet ; Armais, according to Manetho in Joseph,
the Bithron appears to have been a long Contr. Ap. i. 15), and at the Persian
valley or mountain ridge. court, Herod, iii. 68, and is even yet in
1 P. 112, note 3. 2 Sam. iii. 2-5; cf. force amongst the Tartars; cf. Kiculf in
1 Chron. iii. 1-3. Laurent's Peregrinatores quatuor, p. 116.
i 2
116 DAVID'S STKUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
meaning on Abner's act, since he gave no further evidence of
cherishing designs upon the supreme power ; whereas, had he
done so, he would undoubtedly have given other indications of
his plans, since it would have been easy for him, as the most
powerful man in the kingdom, to supplant the king openly.
Ish-bosheth, however, became suspicious, and took Abner to
task for what he had done ; upon which the latter, vehemently
incensed,1 reproached him with ingratitude, and swore that he
would transfer the crown to David, to whom the oracle had
long ago promised the dominion over the whole of Israel. It
is plain that this was but the chance spark falling upon dry
ground which had long been ready for it. The feeling that
David was the only man worthy to rule over the whole of Israel,
and that it would be better to lay aside the present civil strife,
must have already penetrated the masses of the people a long
time since, and even secretly entered the mind of Abner himself;
so that nothing but an accidental occasion was needed to give the
thought a definite shape and an open vent. Ish-bosheth, in
fact, terrified by the anger of his powerful subject, silently
submits to everything. Abner at once sends messengers to
open negotiations with David, who on his part is willing to be
reconciled with him for this purpose, but only on condition of
his securing the surrender of his first wife, Saul's daughter
Michal. No doubt it was of great importance to David, on
every account, to maintain, if possible, this matrimonial con
nexion with the house of Saul, in order to preserve the sort of
claim to the succession which his alliance gave him, and he had
a right to require, under these totally different circumstances,
the surrender of his wife Michal, who had been unjustly taken
away from him ; 2 but an additional motive which now urged
him to demand her restoration, was evidently the prudential de
sire of possessing in her a pledge against possible treachery on
Abner's side. Since Abner now supported the demand which
David made, Ish-bosheth gave orders to have Michal taken away
from her present husband Phaltiel, although it caused him the
deepest pain to be compelled to relinquish her.3 But Abner,
1
head
sort of expression occasionally indulged Jerusalem to the north ; and at that time,
in at the court of Mahanaim to describe therefore, it must have been situated on
what was utterly contemptible. the boundaries of the tribe of Benjamin
P. 99. on the way to Hebron. This explains the
3 He followed her (we are told) wreeping reason why Abner ordered Phaltiel to
to Bahurim, where Abner ordered him to stop there. The place is still mentioned
turn back. This little town (which Jose- in Anton. Mart. Itincr. p. 89, Tobler, and
phus, Ant. vii. 9. 7, appears indeed to in Burchard, vii. 57 sq., in Laurent's
have known as existing in his time, but Percgrinatores guatuor, p. 62.
the site of which he does not describe
The cry of rage, verse 8, ' am I a dog's with any more exactness) lay, according
d of Judah,' gives a glimpse of the to 2 Sam. xvi. 5, on the direct road from
DAVID KING OF JUDAH. 117
after he had infused into the Elders of all the tribes, at last
even of Benjamin, sentiments favourable to David, or rather
after he had met half way with his eloquence the favourable
sentiments which most of them already entertained, proceeded
himself with a guard of twenty men to David at Hebron, where
he was honourably received by him, and discussed with him the
conditions under which the union of the whole kingdom was to
be effected. Finally he was dismissed, promising to return at
the head of all the Elders c f Israel ; and though we are not in
formed what was to become of Ish-bosheth, no doubt an honour
able retirement was arranged for him. It is probable that Abner
had intentionally chosen a time for this negotiation when
he knew that Joab and the army were absent on a raid; but he
had hardly left Hebron before Joab returned from the opposite
direction. On hearing of what had happened, Joab uttered the
most violent reproaches against David for allowing a man so
open to suspicion as Abner to depart in peace, and sent after
him, without David's knowledge, to beg him to come back to a
secret conference with himself. When Abner returned, how
ever, Joab, with the assistance of his brother Abishai, craftily
hurried him into the dark recess of the city gateway, and there
stabbed him, in revenge, as he might declare, for the death of
his brother Asahel at Gibeon.1
The violent emotion which David exhibited at this event,
when in his boiling rage he uttered the bitterest imprecations
on Joab,2 his orders for a general mourning over the death of
the princely hero, in which Joab was specially commanded to
join, his own participation in the funeral ceremony, with the short
but deep-toned elegy 3 composed on the occasion, which caused
the tears of all present to flow yet more abundantly, his refusal
of food during the whole day, — all this was no doubt perfectly
sincere on his part, and did not fail to produce the most favour
able impression upon everyone else, who might otherwise per
haps have suspected him of having had some understanding
with Joab. It was one of those moments in which a king, even
1 In verse 30 we must follow the LXX 2 These curses, however, are not made
in reading •<Q"]K, instead of l^nri- The to apply to Joab himself so much as to
murder might/ however, pass for blood his posterity ; wh-j are to be afflicted with
vengeance, in so far as it was no doubt a11 ^mds oi leProsJ> and to be lame, as-
considered dishonourable among the an- sassinated, starved ! verse 28 sq. Here the
cient Israelites (as it was amon" the an- llarrator ties one of the last knots which
cient Germans, according to Saxo Gram- the further development of the history is
waticus) fora man in the prime of manly 1P unloose (cf. i. p. 142 sqq.) ; cf. 1 Kings
strength like Abner to strike down a u- 28 S(W" where mdeed tfle beginning of
stripling like Asahel. This had made the ^"l^nt of the curse is related.
Abner shrink from the very first from 3 ^ee the ^chter des Alien Bundes,
striking him down, on account of Joab. vo • L
118 DAVID'S STEUGGLES FOR INDEPENDENCE.
with the best intentions and the greatest power, must feel, to
his own heavy cost, the weakness of everything human, and the
limits of human supremacy ; for how much must he permit to
go unpunished, which he would never tolerate, were he not,
even as king, subject to the inherent weakness of all human
institutions. ' To-day,' he cried at last, ' is a great prince
fallen in Israel ! Truly now I live in palaces l and arn anointed
king, and yet are these sons of Zeruiah beyond my reach ; may
God repay to the evil doer what he deserves ! ' Thus must he
leave Joab's punishment, albeit with heavy heart, to God, since
he could not well spare him, and his black deed might really
have found an excuse in the ancient right of the blood- avenger.
No doubt Joab had found an additional motive to his deed in
secret jealousy, since he suspected, or perhaps had already
heard, that Abner was to receive the highest office in David's
kingdom ; at any rate, this is a probable inference from his
similar conduct towards Amasa.2
The news of Abner's death deprived the weak Ish-bosheth
of all courage, and threw the whole of the northern kingdom
of Israel into consternation. It was felt that with Abner had
fallen the only support of the scarce re-established monarchy.
At the same time the movement in this kingdom in David's
favour had already become too strong to be extinguished
by Abner's death, and since it was now deprived of proper
guidance, it degenerated (as would easily happen) into mere
violence. Two of Ish-bosheth's officers, themselves also Benja-
mites, Baanah and Eechab of Beeroth,3 who cherished a special
animosity against the house of Saul on account of an old blood-
feud, shortly after this, one day effected their entrance into the
house of Ish-bosheth at noon. The female door-keeper had
fallen asleep while cleaning some wheat,4 so they slipped into
the chamber where the king lay sleeping on a couch, cut off
his head, and hurriedly pursuing their journey through the
whole night, brought it to David at Hebron, thinking that they
should be doing him a favour in ridding him of his enemy.
1 This or something similar is the they are meant to explain how it was that
meaning of T-| in this connexion ; cf. these two, although Beerothites and there-
Isai. xlvii. 1, Deut. xxviii. 54-56. fore Bei.jamites, could do such a thing,
2 2 Sam xx 'rom wnlcn it follows that they no longer
3 The words inserted at 2 Sam. iv. 2 ^t in B< eroth at ^ that time; the pro-
sq. 'Beeroth also was reckoned to Ben- bable cailse of thls fllght and also of their
jamin, but the Beerothites fled to the crime will be explained below,
neighbouring (Neh. xi. 33) town of Git- ' In lv- 6> we nnist read after the LXX
taim, and were refugees there until this D^H fi^D JV2n "ijin 7J7 "10$ n-J.ni.
day ' must clearly be intended to stand ^^ j™|, th'en 33^, &CJ though
inclose connexion with the narrative it- t ' TT~
self, or else they would not have been &*?> ma^ be taken m the 6ense of ' to
inserted. Now the connexion shows that slip in.'
DAVID KING OF JUDAH. 119
But David swears by Him ' who has delivered his soul out of all
distress,' that he is still less able to forgive them than he had
•7 O
been to pardon Saul's murderer, and orders them to be executed,
and, with their hands and feet cut off, hung up as a warning at
the pool by the city.1
There now remained no direct representative of the house
of Saul except Jonathan's son Meribosheth ; 2 and he had been
lame since he was five years old, when his nurse let him fall
from her arms, in her wild fright on receiving the terrible news
of the death of Saul and Jonathan. There was nothing left,
therefore, but for the Elders of all the tribes to present them
selves at Hebron, and offer the kingdom to that 'fellow-country
man who had ever led them to victory, even before Saul's death,
and to whom, by divine destiny, the rule over all Israel had
long been due.' There was a great festival in Israel, when
these Elders of all the tribes, together with their numerous and
well-armed followers, met at the national assembly at Hebron
and remained there three days, liberally supplied with pro
visions collected from the whole country.3 They returned
home after having established and confirmed the laws of the
new kingdom with David, who was at this time about thirty-
seven years old.
1 Some think that they have redis- j8o<r0e. The name was in use amongst other
covered the locality of the pool, as well as members of the house of Saul, 2 f-'am. xxi.
that of the well has-Stra, fi.om which 8. On the name itself cf. ii. p. 380, note.
Abn°r (2 Sam. iii. 26) returned to Hebron. 3 It is thus circumstantially described
Wilson's Lands of the Bible, i. p. 368 sq. 1 Chion. xii. 23-40, undoubtedly from
385. very ancient sources, although the Chroni-
2 2 Sam. iv. 4, ix., xvi. 1, xix. 25 sq. cler here and there adds a few words in
[xix. 24 sq.], according to the LXX Me^t- his own style.
120 THE EEIGN OF DAVID.
III. DAYID AS KING OF ISRAEL.
Seldom indeed has a, king reached sovereign power in an
important state in the manner in which David attained it ! He
was not called to be a ruler by hereditary right, and yet he
constantly rose in power without entering into any conspiracy or
practising any other hostile arts against the reigning dynasty ;
he was not summoned by a majority of votes to the throne of
an avowedly elective monarchy (though no doubt the hereditary
descent of the crown was less clearly defined than it is now),
and yet he was finally acknowledged, spontaneously and with
enthusiastic love, by the whole people, as the only man worthy
of being called to be their ruler ; he was not thrown to the
surface by the accident of a sudden revolution, and so possibly
a mere child of fortune, immature and essentially incompetent ;
but in the fulness of time, and at the right moment, in perfect
vigour of body and mind, he grasped the supremacy which was
offered him, after having passed through every outward stage
of power and honour, and every inward test of heavy trial and
varied strife. But though he was the most worthy of gaining
this prize and by far the greatest man of his time, yet both the
real facts of the case and his own consciousness combined to
warn him that he had only reached this lofty position by his
reverence for the Holiness which had, once for all, been embodied
in the community of Israel, while Saul, on the other hand, had
fallen through despising it; and so he was clearly urged by
the striking events of his past life, above all things to seek true
welfare hereafter even on the 4 throne of Israel ' in nothing but
a faithful clinging to the ' rock of Israel ' and his i shining
light,'1 and thus he might expect a more and more glorious de
velopment of the new period of his kingly career. For certainly
his accession to the throne could not fail to be the beginning of
fresh labours and struggles, even if of a different kind. The
disintegrated and shattered kingdom must be reorganised, a
firmer basis of monarchical rule must be laid down, many an
ancient error must be atoned for, and many a grievous deficiency
made up ; and, since the neighbouring peoples would not look
quietly upon so independent and mighty an upheaving of the
1 To use David's own expressions, Ps. xviii. 29-31 [xviii. 28-30],
INTERNAL ORGANISATION OF THE KINGDOM. 121
nation, farther and constantly extending wars were unavoidable;
but all the toils and problems might prove the steps to power
and glory which lay in the path before the new monarch. But
now that, true to that Holiness, he had reached, by wise and
persevering effort, the furthest point of the power and glory
which was prepared for him — a point of dizzy height to which
no member of the nation had ever climbed before — then at last
the question had to be decided whether at this height he would
still, as king, seek to be led by the same spirit of Jahveh that
had raised him so far, or whether he would forsake that spirit
and rely in his pride upon the power which his unprecedented
greatness gave him. The way in which he stood this keenest
test, a test which could only be applied to him, determined the
issue of his life, and his abiding significance for the history of
the future.
It is to be regretted that the accounts of these thirty-three
years of David's life have come down to us, for reasons already
explained,1 arranged according to the subject-matter, rather
than the sequence of the events to which they refer, so that our
existing authorities do not put us in a position to present a
connected chronology of the period, and we are compelled, in
consequence, to adapt our survey to the various subjects in
turn. Nevertheless it appears, on closer investigation, that
the chief direction of David's deeds and fortunes must have
been greatly modified as time went on.
1. The Internal Organisation of the Kingdom.
The first important undertaking of the new king was, doubt
less, the conquest of Jerusalem,2 which the Jebusites, who had
occupied it for centuries,3 still held. The city is known to have
been called Jebus 4 by the Canaanites ; and since this name
may signify a dry mountain, so that, changing the name but
preserving the signification, it might also be called Zion,5 we
may draw the conclusion, confirmed by all the circumstances,
2
Vol. i. p. 147 sq. country, cf. n*V > hence tlle Syrians (and
2 Sam. v. 6-12; cf. 1 Chron. xi. 4^9, fonowing them the Arabs) write more
Xl^ Vcfh'ii. p. 284. intelligibly in their language ^QJOT. .
« Judg. x« 10 sq., and because the Aco OBdi ^ lies between
Canaanite inhabitants called themselves ' ^>"*
after it, vol. i. p. 234. Concerning the Hamath and Laoclicea in northern Syria,
Jebusites of Cyprus see the Acta App. but its history is still obscure (see Baha-
Apocrr. ed. Tischendorf, p. 72 sq. eldin's Life of Saladin, p. 82, and Keraal-
5 Formed like ji"Qn> and a nnmber of eldin, p. 125, 15. Journ. As. 1855, i. p.
similar ancient names of cities in the 57> 6L Matthew of Edessa, p. 22 [384]).
122 THE REIGX OF DAVID.
that the erection of the whole city began from the broad dry
mountain to the south, which easily formed a strong citadel,
whence the rest of the city gradually spread farther and farther
to the north and east. There are many indications that even
the name Jerusalem l did not spring from Israel, but was
more probably the ancient name, and came down from the
primitive occupants, since this mountain was 110 doubt in
habited from the earliest ages in consequence of its convenient
situation.2
Its situation almost in the middle of the country, and its
great strength as a fortress, rendered an organised government
of the whole of Israel hardly possible as long as any such hostile
city midway between the northern and southern tribes remained
independent. But the inhabitants, still proudly confident in
the strength of their position and the freedom of centuries,
answered David, when first he summoned them to surrender,
with the scornful words, 6 thou shalt not come in here, but the
blind and the lame will chase tkee away,' as though it would
not even be necessary to bring warriors or sound men against
him, but the lame and the blind of the city would suffice to
drive him away.3 But giving a different turn to these words,
David cried out to his own warriors :
Whoso shall conquer the Jebusite,
Let him hurl down from the cliff
The lame arid the blind together,
Hated ot David's soul,4
1 It has always appeared to me probable the simultaneous mention of the temple,
that this name is a contraction, as stated which shows us that in :his passage Ma
in the Kritische Grrammaii/c, p. 332, of net ho is transplanting into the primitive
D?&y E^IS jus-t like ngQ'np, vol. ii. p. age the names and ideas of later times.
ZSQnotc ; according to this it would mean Ou much later narratives see Chwolson's
Sal-em's inheritance or habitation, or if the Si*abler, ii. pp. 389 sq. 542, 679 sq. In
first word is not a proper name, peaceful Ver^ late times ifc became a common trick
city. The abbreviated form Cfry, does to lieaP the greatest possible number of
, T . names upon the city of ancient sanctity;
not occur in prose (vol. i. pp. 307 328), eee sorn(f odd exam"les of this in j^I
and in poetry only m Ps. xxvi. 3 [2] ; but eldin>B Rlst of Jerusalem 'transl. by
when the Hellenists had d.scovered a epo- Re ld Lo,fd> fg86) 4
in the sound of the hrst part o; this as / Ima;es which ^ Ppropllets of the
ot so many other geograpmca names in later Jerusalem } £ £e Israclites
Palestine, they might easily believe the the-nselvp* T^i xvxiii 91 «n
original name of the city to have been !mu- •'.,'.? q' f
i, T 4 This is the probable sense of a verse
bolyma only and they often call it so n wll-.h :,ti ' *„ nnt ,
prose; nay, they next connected even the
which, if thus explained, nee 1 not be re-
Solyniites of Homer w.th Jerusalem (which ****" a mere fragment without any
Bochart refuted)- Jos Bell Jud vi 10 comPlete senf We iavo then only to
Ant. vii. 3. 2 ; Tac. Hist, v/2 Pead ^-? ln the Hlphl1' maklDg thlS W°rd
'-' We might therefore regard as his- a Part °^ ^G apodosis, Lehrbtich, § 347a.
torical Manetlio's mention ot Jerusalem "l'l3'V ^s e^sewhere. when it refers to water,
as early as the time of the Hyksos and a cataract , but this Greek word itself
.Moses (vol. n. pp. 77-82), were it not for originally means nothing but a falling
CONQUEST OF JERUSALEM. 123
and took the city by storm. On this success we may well
believe that the inhabitants really met the fate with which
they are here threatened ; that is to say, that their warriors,
at all events, were hurled over the precipice from the conquered
rocks,1 or in some other way destroyed. This metrical saying
of David's was never forgotten, and when Jerusalem became a
holy place, the saying, that no blind or lame man should enter
the temple, was probably derived from it.
1 ) In this conquered city David now resolved to fix the seat
of his government. The conquest had made it his city above
any other in the country, thus far ; besides, it was situated in
the tribe of Benjamin, not Judah, where it would certainly have
been distasteful to the other tribes to see him establish himself,
and yet it was not far from his native tribe ; moreover, he may
have thought it of some importance to fix his permanent abode
in the ancient leading tribe of Benjamin- Joseph ; 2 and lastly,
some influence on his choice was doubtless exercised by the
fact, that from its position it was easily capable of being
strongly fortified. What glory this conquest conferred 011
David, and how constantly his power increased ever after it,
is still shown by the short extant narrative. He himself per
ceived (we are told) that Jahveh had destined him to be king
over Israel, and had raised up his kingdom for the sake of his
people Israel.3 Success, therefore, elevated his consciousness
of royalty higher and higher; and if once this consciousness
be quickened in the true direction, as it was with David, what
good fortune may attend the efforts and achievements which
may flow from it !
As far as we can now judge, the city was made up, even at
that time, of two great divisions. The long broad ridge which
stretches to the south (known also as the upper-city4), was then
the only real fortress, and it was to this that the ancient name
of Zion originally belonged ; 5 while over against it spread a
down (hence even a trap-door) ; and so Borne was put.
the Hebrew word al«o may mean the pre- 2 P. 48.
cipitous descent of a rock. What the 3 2 Sam. v. 10,12. So, after all, it was
Chronicler substitutes for this obscure old only for the sake of his people !
saying is obviously not original in this 4 See the Greek expressions upper- and
place; he says that David promised to lower- city in Joseph. Bell. Jud. v. 4. 1 ;
make the first man who conquered the Ant. vii. 3. 2.
city his general, and that Joab gained s This important information is now
this distinction; but Joab was his general only found in 2 Sam. v. 7, 9, 17,
already before this. From the interpre- 1 Kings viii. 1 ; cf. 1 Chron. xi. 5.
t-ition of ")isy, as watercourse, which is The name &Kpa, corresponding to the
accepted without any reason, Consul Hebrew n^VJp. is used for this moun-
Schultz draws some wonderful conclusions tain in the description in Josephus, Ant.
in his Jerusalem, p. 78. vii 3. 2, as well as in 1 Mace. iii. 45, iv.
1 A use to which the Tarpeian rock at 2, xiii. 49 sq. ; cf. i 33. This fortress,
124 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
lower-city. This ridge, naturally easy of defence, and, no doubt,
additionally strengthened by art in many ways from time im
memorial, was surrounded (to use the ancient names) on the
south by the deep valley of Ben-Hinnom, or, in the shorter form,
of Hinnom l (so called, no doubt, after some ancient prince or
other possessor) ; on the west by the valley of Gihon ; on the
east, and probably in connexion with it on the north also, by a
ravine which was known in the time of Mavius Josephus as the
Cheesemakers' (Tyropceon) ; 2 farther east, beyond what was later
the Mount of the Temple, streamed from the north-west the
brook Kidron, which then flowed to the plain of Jordan. The
whole of this extensive ridge, the southern half of which is
left outside the city-walls of the present Jerusalem, was cer
tainly, at that time, completely inclosed by strong walls and
towers, which David only restored in still greater strength after
its capture ; and since, as conqueror, he might consider him
self the real possessor of this fortress, which he intended to
make the strongest bulwark of the realm and of the monarchy
in Israel, he laid it out entirely in accordance with his own
views, in concert with his general Joab. In this fortress, there
fore, he established a large building for the accommodation of
his six hundred gallant warriors, of whom more hereafter, ap
parently on the south-west side of the mountain,3 and also an
arsenal to the south : 4 for his own court, on the other hand, he
erected, apparently to the north-east, a palace of stone and
cedar-wood by aid of Tyrian craftsmen of every kind ; 5 and,
in addition, the sacred ark of the covenant, as will be presently
explained, now found its resting-place in this well-protected
spot. But he also covered a considerable portion of the north
ern surface of the mountain with buildings for various purposes;
while Joab built over the remaining space, perhaps, with a view
to letting the houses to foreigners.6 The chief quarter of the
ancient city was thus renewed and beautified during the reign
of David to such an extent that we need not be surprised to find
it spoken of as the City of David ; but, although this name was
however, was more strictly distinguished 4 Following the indication given in
from the whole of the rest of the city, Neh. iii. 19.
Isaiah xxxi. 4, cf. xxix. 7; and after d 2 Sam v. 11 ; we can only conjecture
the name Zion had received its more ex- what may have been the site of this
tended signification in poe ical langu ge, ' House of David' from the single men-
poeto might even speak of its mountains, tion of it in Neh. xii. 37.
Ps. Ixxxvii. 1, cxxxiii. 3. 6 2 Sam. v. 9 ; it is true that the words
1 The shorter name is found side by referring to Joab are now found only in
side with the original as early as the 1 Chron. xi. 8, but they are certainly
Book of Origins, Josh. xv. 8, xviii. 16. original, and have only fallen out of the
u Bell. Jud. v. 4. 1. passage in 2 Sam. accidentally.
3 See the description in Neh. iii. 16.
FORTIFICATION OF JERUSALEM. 125
retained for a very long time,1 yet it certainly did not arise
until the close of David's reign or the beginning of Solomon's.
And while this name took firm root in ordinary language, the
ancient name of Zion, in the grandeur with which David's reign
opened, was celebrated with such various glories, at least in
songs and other forms of more lofty utterance, that on the one
hand it fell more and more into disuse in ordinary language,
and on the other became the proper term in higher style for
Jerusalem as a whole.2
The lower-city, at that time probably called the Valley* had
attached itself to the fortress proper, though we cannot exactly
tell what position it then occupied ; but most likely it was situ
ated for the most part on the north and east — the direction in
which the whole city gradually spread in later times. It was
in this quarter, probably, that the chief business of the city was
transacted ; and here were the dwellings of the greater part of
the artisan and commercial community,4 as well as of the
prophets 5 and artificers. These two halves, therefore, formed
what might afterwards be called the old city ; 6 and it will be
pointed out below, how far the boundaries of Jerusalem were
gradually extended from the time of Solomon onward.
2) A well-ordered and enlightened government, wherever it
acquires power, will always be ready to recognise and protect
the existing religion, if at all tolerable, and to enter into friendly
relations with its human instruments — the priests. For the
rest, it will treat them just like its other subjects, and will not
allow itself to be defied by the priesthood. This is the course
which we find David adopting ; just as Gideon had before at
tempted to unite a spiritual and temporal supremacy.7 The
priesthood still continued to hold somewhat aloof; at least, this
seems to be shown by the fact that the ancient tabernacle re
mained in Gibeon,8 so that the central point of all priestly
power was not yet identified with the seat of temporal power,
although this would be a desirable arrangement for the latter
to facilitate the organisation of the kingdom. But in other
respects. David, in accordance with his own genuine reverence
for the old religion as well as his enlightened views of govern-
1 We often find it in the historical ancient writings of high authority,
books, as well as in Isaiah xxii. 9, and 3 To judge from the artificial name in
even 1 MaccaLees i. 33. Isaiah xxii. 1-5, as well as from other
2 In such ancient passages as Ps. ex. 2, indications.
ii. 6, this name is still used, no doubt, in 4 As indicated in Zeph. i. 11.
its strictest original meaning ; but when, 5 Isaiah xxii. 6.
in 1 Maccnbees. the Mount of the Temple, 6 Just as an ' Old-gate' appears Neh.
in contradistinction to the ' City of David,' iii. 6, Zech. xiv. 10.
is called Zion, this is the simple result of 7 Vol. ii. p. 388.
the frequent use of the Psalter and other 8 Ibid. p. 415.
126 THE REIGX OF DAVID.
ment, did all lie could for the priesthood, and acted as became
the great restorer of the kingdom.
The first step was to remove the ark of the covenant to
Jerusalem from the spot where l it had formerly been stationed
as a mere temporary resting-place, and this was certain ly effected
tolerably soon. This event is narrated with considerable detail
by both of the earlier narrators.2 David assembled all the
warriors in Israel,3 for the ceremony, as if for one of the most
important national feasts, and proceeded to Kirjath-jearim,4
where the ark of the covenant 5 stood in the house of Abinadab
on the hill. The ark was set upon a new waggon G and escorted
by Abinadab's two sons Uzzah7 and Aliia (the former leading
the kine, and the latter preceding the waggon) amid the most
]oyous songs and sports of the whole people, including David
himself.8 But this procession took no wished-for course ; for
the kine, becoming somewhat restive at a certain place, kicked
the ark, so that it seemed likely to fall off, and Uzzah put out
his hand to it and laid hold of it, unnecessarily and from the
precipitate impulse of human nature, for it did not fall ; so
God was wroth, and he who had rashly touched the most sacred
object they possessed, fell down dead on the spot. Such is the
account of the second narrator, who is fond of these lofty ard
austere representations of the Holy.9 Certainly some event must
have happened at this place, which passed for an evil omen, and
so broke up the whole festive proceeding. This occurred at
Goren Nachon,10 a place not otherwise known to us and cer
tainly of small importance, afterwards called Perez-Uzzah (i.e.
Uzzah's Disaster) ; and since David, vexed also by the disaster,
was afraid that Jahveh might not choose that the sacred ark
should come to Jerusalem,11 he had it placed in the house of
1 Vol. ii. p. 417. 5 Vol. ii. p. 418.
2 2 Ram. vi. ; the description of the 6 See what is said ii. p. 417, and cf.
obstacles on the way, vv. 3-12, is specially further Eckhel I). N. iii. p. 369.
due to the second, the rest to the first 7 Perhaps, according to another au-
narrator. thority, 1 Sam. vii. 1, this name stands
3 30.000 according to the common read- for Eleazar ; just as n"-Ty exists side by
ing, verse 1 (cf. verse 15} but 7CO,000 side with ^^
according to the LXX; 1 Chron. xui. 1- T:-::
5 without mentioning any sueh number, Verse ° ™"st bo emended from verse
o'ives more of an indirect description, but 14;m;1 l ,9hron- xiii- 8-
this rests on some such number as that tlt\£?' n P;. 416 S9-
o-iven by the LXX Ihe rei^"tf of the LXX aA« Nayccp,
h 4 In verse 2, n>lH? H^l N'Pl is a and also the fp} of 1 Chron. xiii. 9, seem
•better reading than rP %m for the city to be simply clerical errors.
is also called Eaalah or Kirjath-Baal, In the words of verse 9, the narrator
Josh xv 9 10, 11, xviii. 14. On the site would hardl.y intend fo make anJ allusion
of the oitv see ii p. 289, note, and cf. *° the words of David's song, Ps. ci. 2.
the remarks of Williams in answer to 1 hat Obed-Edom was a Levite appears
Robinson (The Holy City, pp. 10, 12). ±rom 1 Chron. xv. 18-24, xvi. 5.
KEMOVAL OF THE ARK. 127
Obed-Edom of Gath (apparently Moresheth-gath),1 who lived
there. It was not until three months afterwards, when he per
ceived how this man's house was blessed by the presence of the
sacred ark, and that the place to which he had brought it was not
unlucky, that he decided on completing its transfer to Jerusalem.
The particulars of this procession are described by the
earlier narrator. The ark was carried by the Levites2 (not
placed upon a vehicle) ; as soon as they had taken seven
steps forward, a bullock and a fatted sheep were sacrificed ; 3
and David, clad like a Levite, performing every kind of sacred
dance, took a most active part in the rejoicings of the whole
people, who celebrated the day as a grand festival. Thus did
the procession move on to Jerusalem ; and on its arrival, the
sacred ark was at once placed in the new tabernacle which had
already been erected for it there ; at the same time many mag
nificent thank-offerings were made, while David performed the
duty of a priest and pronounced a benediction on the people.
Then he had a cake of bread, a piece of roast meat,4 and a cake
of raisins distributed to every one of the assembled multitude,
men and women without distinction, and when the people had
separated, he pronounced a fresh benediction on his own house,
which would now for the first time receive the lofty blessings
conferred by the presence of the sacred symbol. When at the
earlier part of the proceedings, his wife Michal saw him thus
dancing and rejoicing at the head of the people, and, in parti
cular, approaching Jerusalem in the midst of the female dancers
and musicians, who took the most active part in the festival
according to the Hebrew custom, this daughter of Saul, con
sidering her royal judgment superior to that of anyone else,
affected to despise such a king as soon as she saw him through
her window, and then going out to meet him she exclaimed,
' Oh ! how the king of Israel covers himself with glory to-day,
now that he has stripped himself5 before the eyes of the hand
maids of his servants, just as any vagabond strips himself!'
1 P. 86, note 3. _ 4 -|£)£>X is best understood in accord-
2 This narrator, in contradistinction to ance with the context, of meat ; and
the second, everywhere represents the seems to come from"ia^= £pb>» 'to burn.'
Levites as carrying the ark ; cf. xv. 24. -j -j
3 Irstead of nirP, it- is better to read (.The I? » ^^1 whlch the Peshito has
HJDK'j with the LXX, so as to preserve for jua(a, in Dan. xiv. 26, seems only to
the sacred number. But it is not clear be from a-Qcupa.)
whether this offering was renewed at every 5 Stripped himself, i.e lowered himself,
seven steps, though this is not probable at any rate, while thus dancing and play-
according to my Lehrb. § 342£ ; moreover, ing he wore somewhat lighter garments
this was certainly a sin- and consecration- (such as the ordinary priestly garb),
offering for the happy consummation of instead of the heavy royal mantle. For
the impending journey, not a thank-offer- the rest, since Michal finally lays the
ing like that described in verse 17 sq. whole stress of her reproach on this,
128 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
But he answered her, 'If before Jahveh who advanced me before
thy father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people
of Jahveh, over Israel — if before Jahveh I play ; then I think
myself but too mean for this, and appear to myself too humble
for it ; and from these handmaids of whom thou speakest — from
them shall I seek my honour ? ' No ; there is no such need.
Thus it is his glory, here as everywhere, to be humble before
God ; and he knows it to be a true thought that he, equally
with the most insignificant of men, is still unworthy to play
and to rejoice before Him ; how much less can he, in such a
position and thus joyfully playing, seek outward honour from
even the humblest of men, to whom he rightly feels himself to
be but equal ! Surely this is the most striking answer which he
could have given the princess, and corresponds exactly to the
disposition which is also discovered by his songs. The narrator,
however, remarks in connexion with this affair, and not with
out design, that Michal, to the day of her death, had no
children ; as though she received her recompense for the proud
disposition which she so evidently possessed, in never experi
encing a mother's joy, in spite of the envy with which she re
garded other more fortunate women.
The solemn festivities of this period, however, which certainly
formed a great epoch in David's career as king, are the subject
of still more eloquent testimony in certain hymns which we are
able to ascribe to him without hesitation. Ps. xxiv. 7-10 l is
a short popular song, which was evidently to be sung on the
occasion of the transfer of the ark of the covenant, while it was
yet on the way. It is true that the great hymn of thanksgiving,
which must have been sung publicly as a triumphal ode at the
close of the sacred ceremony, is lost to us as a whole ; but all
the indications warrant us in believing that we still possess
some important fragments of it in Ps. Ixviii.,2 which is es
sentially nothing else than an ancient song of victory of this
kind revived for the dedication of the second temple. Next,
the short didactic poem Ps. xxiv. 1-6, shows how this con
secrated spot must be approached and its blessings won by men.
But Ps. ci. admits us to the most secret thoughts and aspi
rations of the great king at this time. The whole contents of
this poem seem to throw it into these early years, but it cannot
have been composed, at the earliest, until after the removal of
stripped himself (as only some worthless ' I do not think it worth while to show
vagabond would strip himself), the strange once more that these verses make up a
comb nation, n'^JJ riA|ri5» is fully ex- song ty themselves, and are independent
plained. See my'lefo-6. j 312c. and 240*. ° ^Especially vv. 16, 17 [15, 16].
REMOVAL OF THE ARK. 129
the ark, when Jerusalem had already been c the city of Jahveh '
for some considerable time. Here, at last, the purest feelings
and resolves of royalty flow forth free and clear as the open
heaven; with that marvellous power which belongs to every
pure creative truth, the supreme ideal of true kingship which
had long been cherished in the holy recesses of the heart,
forces itself into utterance; and the language of this hymn
exhibits most beautifully the profound impression which the
immediate proximity of the consecrated spot could produce, in
accordance with the sentiment of high antiquity, on the recep
tive heart, and so pre-eminently on the spirit of the true king, —
and the increased joy and vigour of determination with which
David now resolved, in the ' city of Jahveh,' to become, what he
had ever before wished to be, a just king, faithful to the true God.
The transference of the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem took
place, it appears, before the palace l which David was building
for himself was completed ; 2 and it was sufficient to place
it again for a time in a light and portable tent like the
Mosaic tabernacle. It has been shown3 that the old Mosaic
tabernacle without the ark of the covenant still existed some
where else in the neighbourhood, and that a great proportion
of the people continued, therefore, still to resort to it. But now
that the ark of the covenant had found a permanent seat in
Jerusalem, it was but natural that David should not only build
himself a palace 4 in the capital of his kingdom, but should also
conceive the idea of building for his Lord and God a palace or
temple, as it is called, of far greater splendour, and of placing the
ark of the covenant within it : in fact, the feelings he expressed
to Michal on occasion of the removal of the ark to the capital,
would lead us to expect that this scheme would embody one
of the dearest wishes of his life, and that he would really
feel ashamed of living himself in a more magnificent abode
than that of his God. Now if a larger and a permanent
sanctuary were built for the Mosaic ark of the covenant, a
general cultus, embracing the whole people, might at once be
centred in it, and all the Priests required for this might be
transferred to Jerusalem from the older sacred tabernacle, which
remained at some distance from the capital ; and in this way,
while the unity of government would be strengthened, the unity
of religion also would be more completely restored. Indeed,
there are many indications that David made various efforts to
build that temple which was not erected till Solomon's reign ;
1 P. 124. Sam. vii. 1.
2 This is assumed by the words of 2 3 Vol. ii. p. 415. * P. 124.
VOL. III. K
130 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
and at first sight it is surprising that the man who accomplished
such great works in other directions should never have been
able to carry out this idea. It is no doubt partially true, that
the heavy wars in which he was constantly involved, hindered 1
or delayed the execution of the scheme, but its abandonment
cannot be wholly explained in this way, neither is this the only
explanation offered in the Bible. On the other hand, we are
driven, by distinct indications, to recognise the cooperation
of another cause, of which on further reflexion we may clearly
discern the nature. The fact is, that the religion of Jahveism,
not only in its leading truths but also in its usages, tends far
more to simplicity and the clear grasp of essential principles,
than to ceremonial splendour a"nd the eclipse of the essential
behind external magnificence and inflexible routine. The
simple altar under the open sky, which had satisfied the patri
archs of Israel, was still enough for Jahveism, true to its first
appearance and development;2 and though, since the great
elevation and the fresh victories of Israel under Moses and
Joshua, even the cultus had become in part more magnificent,
and in part more closely defined by custom, yet the noble
impression of the original simplicity which marked the life of
the true religion still retained its hold.3 But now the ancient
freedom and simplicity of the cultus would be still further con
fined if its head-quarters were such as to bind it down more
firmly to a fixed spot and associate it more closely with ex
ternal splendour. As a matter of fact, we see, from the course
of the following centuries, that these serious consequences
actually followed from this step. Solomon's temple epitomised
in itself all the splendour of Israel's mightiest days, and then,
in subsequent times of need, furnished the community with
much firm support and protection ; but it also helped to make
the old spiritual religion increasingly hard and sensuous. Now,
whenever the temporal necessities of an age demand a corre
sponding innovation, the voice of pure truth makes itself heard
first of all more or less distinctly ; formerly under Moses, even
the first limitation of spiritual religion by the establishment
of a Priesthood and a sacred tabernacle had not passed un-
1 This is intimated in 1 Kings v. 17 allowed to be taken from the imperial
[v. 3]. On the other hand, it is nothing revenue, because it was supposed not to
but a later sacerdotal representation of have been acquired in quite unexception-
the Chronicler's that David was forbidden able ways (Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia,
by Grod to build the temple because he i. p. 253) ; but according to the older
had shed much blood, i.e. had carried on authorities, this conception was quite-
many wars, 1 Chron. xxii. 8, xxviii. 3. foreign to the time of David himself.
Tn a similar way, according to Ulemu, 2 See the Altcrthumer, p. 133 sqq.
the funds necessary for the restoration of 3 See the Alterthumer, p. 361 ; cf.
the Kaabah were not, on one occasion, Isaiah Ixvi. 1 sq.
THE PKOPHETS AND THE PROPOSED TEMPLE. 131
challenged ; l and so now, when the erection of a magnificent
permanent temple was contemplated, the anticipation of the
Prophet was fully justified, as he foresaw the great dangers
concealed in the project and sought to show how unnecessary
was the innovation, at any rate when the strict requirements
of the case were taken into account. That great prophets like
Nathan spoke in this spirit and thus, even if the innovation at
last became inevitable, at least succeeded in rescuing this pure
truth for future ages, is the grand and divine characteristic of
those times. This prophetic view of the design must also have
long delayed its accomplishment. In the last years of his life,
indeed, when the great wars had quite subsided, David, accord
ing at any rate to some accounts, made some more special
arrangements for carrying out the grand undertaking ; though
it was not until the fourth year of Solomon's reign that a
beginning could actually be made, since the preparations and
preliminary works were necessarily very considerable ; 2 and
moreover, towards the close of David's reign a circumstance
occurred, which must have excited afresh the desire to accom
plish some such work. This was his happy escape from the
great plague, for which the most appropriate thank-offering
appeared to be the erection of a temple such as had never before
been seen in Israel.
When the earlier narrator began to describe this grand design
of David's and the position taken up with regard to it by the
Prophet Nathan (of whose character and greatness there will
be more to say hereafter), this temple had long been built, and
the happy reign of Solomon was already in the distant past. As
he surveyed the whole with comprehensive glance, he sketched
the words of Nathan and David, with the object of giving at
the same time a prophetic view of Solomon's subsequent career,
and thereby conforming to an artistic practice of which he avails
himself in other places 3 in his historical delineations. When
David (so runs his narrative 4) sat in his proud palace at Jerusa
lem, and Jahveh had given him rest from all his enemies round
about,5 he expressed to Nathan his intention of building the
temple ; and the Prophet, taking a human view of the question,
1 Vol. ii. p. 142 sq. would fall into the latest years of David's
2 The probability of this has been since life ; but this is contradicted by ver. 12,
confirmed by investigations on the spot ; according to which Solomon was not yet
cf. Vogue's Le Temple de Jerusalem, p. born ; neither can we possibly suppose
110 sq. that David's house, ver. 1, was not built
3 Vol. i. pp. 143, 145 sq. until the close of his life. The expression in
4 2 Sam. vii. ; cf. 1 Chron. xvii. 2 Sam. xxii. 1 must, therefore, be specially
5 From this last expression (vii. 1, cf. compared with this. Indeed, some more
yer. 9) one might suppose that this oracle modern writers tell us that this happened
132 THE EEIGN OF DAVID.
had at first nothing to urge against it. But that very night he
was taught otherwise by Jahveh in a vision, and on the following
day he told David that as Jahveh had always up to that time
dwelt in a tent and had never required of a ruler any other
abode, so he too should suffer Him to remain therein ; He who
had raised him from the dust to be a monarch would raise him
higher yet, and would never suffer His people Israel again,
as heretofore, to be oppressed by unrighteous heathens ; l He
would not, it is true, permit him to build the contemplated
temple, but He announced to him instead that his house
should endure and be blessed; and when he himself should
lie in the quiet of the tomb, a future son of his should build
the temple, a prince for ever loved by Gfod as by a father,
who, if he sinned, would, like everyone else, be punished at the
hands of Grod, but would never lose the divine favour 2 as Saul
had done. On this David went into the sanctuary and offered
a heart-felt prayer of thanksgiving for so gracious a promise,
which was added to all the divine blessings hitherto enjoyed.
Words of thanksgiving he said were here too weak, for all pro
ceeded from the free grace of God. It was in this that the
infinite superiority of the greatness of the true God would
appear, viz. that He would sustain His people for ever, and
would never again suffer them to fall. Oh that this oracle
uttered over David's house might hold for ever ! but the truth
fulness of God was the pledge of the fulfilment of the promise,
and only because this had been given him by unsolicited grace,
had he found courage for this prayer.3 In reality Nathan and
other such Prophets must have spoken to David on the two
in the twelfth year of David's reign in remarks made i. p. 296.
Jerusalem ; see Jalaleldin's History of 3 The whole of this prayer, at least in
Jerusalem, transl. by Reynolds, p. 32. its extension, is somewhat unlike the
1 _Insteadof'»t01^) ver. 7, we should read earlier narrator, so that one may reason-
•>Jp5"^> according to ver. 11. The suffixes ably trace fragments of an older work in
are" sometimes exchanged in this passage, tnis passage ; isolated expressions, how-
and so in ver. 11 we must read ^ and ever> remind us of the style of the earlier
V^fc* as tlle context and the comparison narrator : ver. 19 is very like vi. 22, and
of vv. 1 and 9 demand. |tjK DK n?J, in ver. 27, is peculiar to
2 In this strict equalisation of all men n"n ; ver. 19 must be read chiefly in
before God, so that even the king is to be accordance with 1 Chron.xvii. 17, "OHX")!!!
punished for his sins like everyone else, rhvfth D"JKn lirp» ' and lettest me look
the severe antique spirit of this prophecy '," : T T T .
is made manifest. Cf. Ps. Ixxxix. 33 [32], °n/h" *f<***™ of men upwards,' far
where this feeling is already weakened. ™to the future' a%the for™f memb^ °
-In vv. 15, 16 it might be preferable to the verse **!*• In ver. 23, instead of
follow the LXX in reading »jg&», in- &» ™W (w^ch closes the parenthesis
lead of 7-, in both passages, were it not from ?'» *? forward) we must read
that in ver. 15 the whole reading of the TO^y2> and also *!#"$•? for 1¥"%6» and
LXX is evidently corrupt, and that the at the end DTl^K, partially after the
text of ver. 16 explains itself from the LXX and Chron.
EEORGANISATION OF THE LEVITES. 133
points now under consideration. In the first place, they must
have declared from the point of view of the higher truth,
whether the building of the temple was necessary or whether
it might be dispensed with, and they must have dissuaded
David from his design. In the second place, they undoubtedly
announced during his life the blessed duration of his house
and (a closely connected point in the feeling of antiquity) the
transfer to him of the Priestly dignity ; this David himself clearly
indicates in his last song,1 nor does the idea present any
difficulty. The earlier narrator only gives us in this passage
the substance of all these oracles concerning David in a com
pressed form and brought into a more definite connexion, and
as he here sketches the prophetic height of David's career from
the point at which he himself learns the highest of all the
divine counsels and from which the more distant prospect of
the life of Solomon is opened to him as in a mirror, he is also
justified in choosing this place for a corresponding answer from
David. But the colouring of Nathan's discourse in details and
as a whole is exactly that which elsewhere characterises this
earlier narrator, so that it is not directly in the words or in
their connexion, but only in the thoughts themselves, that we
can rediscover the truths to which Nathan once gave prophetic
utterance, just as is the case with the discourses of John the
Baptist and Christ in the fourth Gospel.2
Again, the reorganisation of the Levites by David was ren
dered necessary partly by the establishment of the chief sanc
tuary at Jerusalem, and partly by the confusion into which the
affairs of the Levites had fallen during the centuries immediately
preceding.3 In fact, to these men, who had once been the rulers
of the community and who were now so weak, it cannot have
been otherwise than acceptable to receive powerful protection,
and, in as far as the age demanded it, reorganisation at the
hands of a man of the people who retained, even when he had
become king, a tender reverence for the ordinances of the an
cient religion. The hereditary Priesthood in general connected
itself henceforward more and more closely with the rising
power of the monarchy, from which it received the protection
it expected ; although in the time of David it retained a greater
legree of independence, from the fact that the sacred tabernacle,
1 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. The promise of the been more and more generally recognised
Priesthood to which Ps. ex. 4 must refer, in recent times ; but I have shown more
may already have been implied on some exactly how it is to be iinderstood in the
earlier occasion. Johanneischen Schriften, i. 1861.
2 A fact which careful readers have 8 Vol. ii. pp. 347 sqq., 413 sqq.
long been able to perceive, and which has
134 THE EEIGN OF DAVID.
and therefore a chief part of the religions cultus with it, re
mained at Gibeon.1 Since the destruction by Saul of all the
descendants of Eli, with the exception of Abiathar who escaped
to David,2 the highest functions of the Priesthood had once
more been exercised by the other high-priestly house 3 at this
sanctuary ; and at the time when all the tribes elected David
king, amongst other Levites who came from there to David at
Hebron, was a descendant of this house named Zadok.4 He
was then in the full vigour of youth, and David attached him
thenceforth to his court, by appointing him High-Priest in
conjunction with Abiathar and causing them both to live to
gether at Jerusalem,5 so that probably the one had immediate
charge of the new sanctuary at Jerusalem, and the other of
that at Gibeon. Now, if the t ,vo high-priestly houses were thus
pnt on an equal footing under the monarchy, this arrangement
itself would lay the foundation of a fresh organisation of the
whole tribe of Levi ; and the Book of Chronicles 6 gives a more
detailed description of the manner in which this was worked
out, at all events in the last years of David. The explanation
of these matters, however, together with that of the temporal
offices of the court and the other arrangements of the govern
ment, must be deferred to a more convenient place.
The diligent cultivation, in times of peace, of the higher arts
of the Muses at the court of Jerusalem is what David's genius
CD
would lead us to expect and is confirmed by a passing reference.7
It is true that we have now no particular information on the
subject ; but we have testimony to the fact, eloquent enough, in
the greatness of David himseK as a poet, and in the immediate
succession of the glorious age of Solomon, which realised a yet
higher development of all such arts. That David was skilled in
all the arts we have already seen,8 and the Gittite style which
was so much employed in Israel after his time,9 may have been
naturalised there in consequence of his former close connexion
with the Philistine city of Gath.10
1 P. 125. 2 P. 91. is true that, according to 1 Chron. xxiv.
3 Vol. ii. p. 409 sq. 3 sqq., Aliimelech as son of Abiathar had
4 This follows from 1 Chron. xii. 28; already become High-Priest in David's last
cf. xvi. 39. years ; but since this contradicts the other
6 Thus the two constantly appear in authorities, it is better to suppose that
the earlier narrative, 2 Sam. viii. 17, xx. the Chronicler in this passage confounds
25 (on the priest mentioned verse 26, see the age of Solomon with that of David ;
p. 268, note 6), xv. 24 sqq., 1 Kings i. on this more must be said below,
7—27 ; accordingly in the passage 2 Sam. 6 1 Chron. xxiii.— xxvi.
viii. 17 the two names Ahimelech and 7 2 Sam. xix. 36 [35].
Abiathar must be transposed, while 1 8 P. 59 sq.
Chron. xviii. 16, A&imelech certainly 9 See the Dickter des Alien Bundes, i.
stands for Ahimelech, p. 82, note 2. It 10 Pp. 83, 99 sqq.
HIS TREATMENT OP SAUI/S DESCENDANTS. 135
3) But as far as internal arrangements are concerned, a new
dynasty is dependent for its ultimate security on the attitude
which, it assumes towards the surviving members of that which
preceded it; and since so many dynasties have considered it
impossible to purchase their own safety, except at the price
of the destruction or rigorous banishment of every member of
the fallen house, we cannot but admire the peculiar greatness
displayed by David in this respect also. As soon as he
had taken up his permanent abode at Jerusalem, he enquired
whether there yet survived any member of the family of Saul
to whom he might 6 show the kindness of God for Jonathan's
sake; ' so they brought him Ziba, an old servant (house-steward)
of Saul's, who told him that at Lo-debar in the country beyond
Jordan, in the house of a wealthy man named Machir, there
was still a son of Jonathan's, Meribosheth by name,1 who was
lame, and on that account, if on no other, hardly capable, ac
cording to ancient ideas, of occupying the throne. David
immediately sent for him, and returned to him all the family
possessions of Saul, with the condition that the old steward
with his fifteen children and twenty slaves should administer
them as hereditary tenant or copyholder, and should deliver
up their produce to him and to his heirs for ever ; he himself,
moreover, was to eat at the royal table whenever the king was
not absent from Jerusalem.2 How Meribosheth threw away
half of these royal gifts will hereafter appear.
But afterwards, on another occasion, it was shown how little
David, with the best intentions, could soften the public feeling
which Saul's deeds of violence had stirred up against his
house.3 On the first conquest of the country, the Canaanite city
of Gibeon together with its territory was spared,4 on condition
of the performance of certain services for the sanctuary of Israel,
and it is possible that the tabernacle was situated for a time,
even under Joshua, within its boundaries. When the tabernacle
was again placed there under Saul,5 so that the ancient duties
of the city were revived, a dispute may have arisen between
Saul and the citizens on this very matter, and the former, with
the recklessness so characteristic of his latest years, may have
1 P. 119, note 2. [On the name see though even the LXX found the present
vol. ii. p. 380, note.] readings in both cases. Ver. 5, accord-
2 2 Sam. ix. ; from the earlier narrator, ing to the present text, could at the most
who had already prepared us for all these be translated ' who thought of us we were
representations, 1 Sam. xx. 14 sqq. destroyed,' and even that would not suit
3 2 Sam. xxi. 1-14, also no doubt from the meaning,
this earlier narrator. In ver. 5, for
U1DBO we must read ffljQJp? ; also ver. * Josn- ix-
8 (cf. supra, p. 74), HID for ^D, al- 5 Vol. ii. p. 415.
136 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
taken up the quarrel at once with fearful violence, and com
menced an absolute war of extermination against all the
inhabitants. In fact, many of the Gibeonites must at that
time have been put to death, and others driven into exile,
amongst whom no doubt were the two chieftains1 who took
such a shameful revenge on Ish-bosheth.2 When David had
reigned several years,3 a drought and famine of three years'
duration terrified all Israel. David had the oracle consulted
on the matter ; and it answered (no doubt because it was not
easy to attribute it to any less remote cause) that the calamity
was sent by God to punish the cruelty which Saul had exer
cised towards the Gibeonites, and which had not yet faded
from the popular memory. The oracle usually looked for
the cause of offence, under such circumstances, in the deeds
of the actual government; and David must hitherto have
ruled in a very irreproachable manner to render it necessary
to go further back to find a cause for the calamity ; and
the feelings of justice and sympathy with which the case of
even the Canaanite Gibeonites was taken up, furnish a beau
tiful indication of the moral position of the people at that
time. But the Gibeonites refused either to content themselves
with quit-money, or to avenge themselves on Israel, for their
very position as serfs would prevent their venturing on this
last demand. They required that the king himself should
deliver over seven of Saul's descendants to them, to be hanged
at the sacred spot already mentioned 4 on the height of Gibeah,
the city of Saul, that the divine wrath might thus be appeased.
On this occasion David, even against his will, was compelled
to yield ; but he spared the posterity of Jonathan, and had two
of Saul's sons by his concubine Rizpah, and five sons of his
daughter Merab,5 given up to the Gibeonites. The execution
took place at Easter, just at the beginning of barley-harvest
— a season which had always possessed a certain sanctity in
1 P. 118. charged David with the guilt of having
2 The little place called Beeroth from designedly murdered Saul's posterity, 2
•which they both came, was, as we know Sam. xvi. 7 sq., cf. xix. 29 [xix. 28].
from Josh. ix. 17, nothing but a sort of There are also many of the most modern
suburb belonging to Gribeon. German writers who will continue to join
3 It is clear that this event took p]ace Shimei in condemning David in this affair ;
before the war of Absalom, partly because but their want of judgment is evident,
the outrage against Gfibeon must still have How little David desired to destroy Saul's
been very energetically condemned at the descendants and relations as such, is ob-
time, as it might have been during the vious from the fact that some of them
first six or seven years of David's reign remained quietly settled in Jerusalem it-
at Jerusalem ; partly because at the time self down to a late period. 1 Chron. ix.
of Absalom's revolt Shimei plainly re- 35-44.
ferred to this event, and without ground * P. 22. 5 P. 74.
HIS WARS. 137
Israel in connexion with such events. With touching maternal
affection, the concubine seated herself at once on the rock with
her mourning cloth, scared away bird and beast from the sus
pended bodies by day and night, and so continued until a shower
of rain came down, with which the divine wrath seemed
lifted from the parched earth. On hearing of this, David had
the bones of these crucified men, together with those of Saul
and Jonathan, which were brought from Jabesh,1 honourably
deposited in the family tomb at Zelah in the tribe of Benjamin.
Thus just and wise was David's internal administration.
2. David's Wars against the Heathen.
Of the wars of David against the Heathen, important as they
must have been during these thirty-three years, we now possess
but the slightest knowledge from detailed accounts. It is
plain that in the oldest writings they were described minutely,
but in the works which are still preserved we read only meagre
abstracts of their history. What abundant material for the
spread of its own fame would the nation subsequently have
possessed in them, if, like other vain peoples, it had attached
any value to such power over foreign races ! But since the
days of Moses, this people had set a goal before its eyes far
other than the vaunting of its earthly victories and conquests,
and as its recognition of it became more single-hearted with
the advance of time, especially in the period after David and
Solomon, the less did the later historical works delight in
extensive descriptions of the foreign victories of the national
heroes, and of David's in particular, and the more did they
contract the ancient records of their achievements.
This general fact, however, is clear at once, that we should be
very far wrong if we were to suppose that David stirred up these
wars from a simple love of war and conquest, such a supposition
being opposed both to the separate accounts which have been
preserved, and to the whole spirit of the ancient nation and its
religion. How little David resembled the later Assyrian,
Chaldean, and Persian disturbers of the world, is most im
mediately and clearly shown by the fact that he did not, like
these great conquerors, seize upon the Phoenician maritime
towns, but always remained on the best terms with the little
Phoenician states, which were entirely occupied in commerce
and the productive arts, and readily sought peace with him.
1 P. no.
138 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
Indeed, he gladly accepted the advantages of the more refined
modes of life which they afforded;1 — so great was the alteration
now made in the mutual relations of Israel and this section of
the ancient Canaan ites ! The time was now fully come for this
people, once so greatly dreaded by the Israelites in the field,
to be regarded by them simply as a guild of peaceful merchants,
so that the name of Canaanite became synonymous with that
of the trader ; and the pride with which they had once looked
down upon the skilful people whom they had overcome in war,
manifested itself only in a certain contempt for the commercial
cunning which was now gaining an easy ascendency among
them.2 But in truth there were other causes now at work to
produce a closer union between Israel and the Canaanites, who
were completely driven back to the strip of land along the most
northern part of the coast. The Philistines, originally so very
different from them, must, from the nature of the case, have
been dangerous to them during the last centuries of their great
power in the land. This supposition is confirmed by certain
obscure traditions ; 3 and we may well believe that this danger
was an additional reason with them for seeking friendly re
lations with David, as the great conqueror of the Philistines.
The causes of these wars must, then, be looked for in the
conduct of the Heathen rather than in that of David. The
surrounding peoples, with which Israel had frequently been
engaged in war already, could not fail to observe that they
would no longer be able to hold Israel in terror and subjection,
as they had done so often heretofore, if the nation acquired
unity and strength under a vigorous king. They certainly
desired to oppose Israel in its powerful movement for increased
independence, and attacked it with every weapon of violence or
scorn ; while Israel, on its side, had in truth to recover from the
many losses which it had been compelled to sustain during the
preceding centuries, and4 was able to look back upon a far
mightier past. But when once a great war was thus kindled,
and the enemy found himself in unexpected danger, he was
ready to seek alliances with more distant nations, and so the
flame of battle spread in a few years over a wider and wider
area, until almost all the peoples between the Mediterranean
Sea and the Euphrates, between the Arabian Gulf and the
1 2 Sam. v. 11, according to which the Isaiah xxiii. 8, Zeph. i. 11, Ezek. xvi. 29,
king of Tyre sought peace of his own xvii. -t, Job xl. 30 [xli. 6], so that from
accord after the conquest of Jerusalem. this again an abbreviated noun for Wares
2 The first allusion of this sort which was actually formed, Jer. x. 17.
is now known to us is fcmnd in Hoseaxii. 3 Justin, Hist, xviii. 3, 5.
8 [xii. 7] ; then the term becomes fixed, * Vol. ii. p. 235 sqq.
HIS MILITARY ORGANISATION. 139
Orontes, were caught by it, and it became a vital question for
David, whether he was to subject them all or to surrender the
power and honour of his kingdom. If a considerable power
was to arise between the Mediterranean and the Euphrates,
it must be driven into constant efforts to unite all these
countries under its own sway, even contrary to the original
purpose of its existence.
1) David's Military Organisation.1
The forces which David had to oppose to these attacks are
fortunately known to us with some precision. The troop of six.
hundred, the original formation of which we have traced in an
earlier period of David's history,2 still constituted the nucleus
of his whole military force. These men were all of them not
only carefully-trained and well-armed warriors, but had been
selected on account of extraordinary valour and love of war;
and they formed a sort of model soldiery. On this account they
were called GMorim, that is, heroes,3 a name to which the
Italian bravi would most nearly correspond. As their sole
occupation was the art of war, and they had no further duties,
their permanent maintenance of every kind (pay, dwellings free
of charge for themselves and their households)4 was of course
drawn from the king, so that they really constituted the first
standing army of which we have any special knowledge in such
early times. When they were not in the field they were
quartered at Jerusalem ; 5 they do not appear to have ever been
employed on garrison duty. The constitution of this troop
can be deduced with accuracy from certain indications. The
soldiers appear to have been formed into three divisions of two
hundred each; an arrangement which makes our thoughts
involuntarily recur to the three companies in which a well-
trained army generally made its attack ; 6 but we also read
1 Colonel Riistow's Essay on David as Vulgate, -which coincide in this passage ;
a Soldier (MilUarische Biographien, i. and to this reading we are directed by
Zurich, 1858) is profoundly unsatisfac- every indication. Even in Isaiah iii. 2,
tory,and at the same time unappreciative. they appear with their special name.
2 Pp. 89, 102. * p 124.
3 2 Sam. x. 7, xvi. 6, xx. 7, 1 Kings i. * This is clear from 2 Sam. xv. 18, xvi.
8, 10 ; whence it appears that they are 6. We have already seen that they were
often mentioned -with the addition all, married, p. 101 ; and so Uriah has his
clearly referring to their considerable wife Bathsheba in a house at Jerusalem,
number. The number six hundred is 2 Sam. xi. 2 sqq.
never given in these passages; but that 6 Of. Judges vii. 16, Job i. 17. and Gen.
the six hundred are meant admits of no xiv. 15 ; also in David's history, 2 Sam.
doubt, and receives additional confirma- xviii. 2, where, no doubt, the whole of the
tion from 2 Sam. xv. 18, if we read D'H^ main army must be understood; perhaps
here instead of DTU> in accordance with two hundred of the Gibborim accompanied
some of the translations of the LXX and each division of the army.
140
THE REIGN OF DAVID.
sometimes of one of these three divisions remaining behind to
protect the baggage.1 Over every twenty men there must have
been placed a captain ; so that in all there would be thirty of
these captains ; for no other explanation can be given of the
name of Shdlish (a thirty-man, one of the thirty) which these
officers (as we should call them) bore, than that they formed a
kind of Order or College.2 Over every two hundred men with
their ten captains was placed a Colonel ; arid the three Colonels
again had a superior, whom we might call a General. Thus the
whole regiment of the Gibborim, including the officers, con
sisted of six hundred and thirty-four men, to which 110 doubt
a number of retainers made a considerable addition.
Now we are not to suppose that because David was the first
to introduce this organisation among the Hebrews, he was also
the first to design it. It had probably been already established
in still older states in that region, for the name of Shalish has
been preserved in a very ancient song,3 and there are other traces
not altogether obscure of a similar institution among surround
ing nations of still greater antiquity.4 But under David this
army of heroes certainly earned its title in the fullest sense, and
1 1 Sam. xxv. 13 ; cf. xxx. 10, 24.
2 The derivation of the word ^17^,
where it means much the same as officer,
from Q^vfcJN thirty, is shown by 2 Sam.
xxiii. 13, 23, 24, 1 Chron. xii. 4, 18
(Kethib has the one word and Qeri the
other in this last passage), xxvii. 6. The
whole college of the thirty is called it£"^n>
formed according to the Lehrb. § 164, 177,
2 Sam. xxiii. 8, 18 (Kethib), or Qi^^n !
a Colonel, therefore, is *JJ»^n £^&O, 2
Sam. xxiii. 8, 18, or £>&$'") D^/^n* ver-
13 (in the plural), or Q^^fl h]}> i Chron.
xxvii. 6, xi. 42 (where we must read 'n ^y
instead of v^JJ) ; cf. 2 Sam. xxiii. 23.
The three Colonels are also called, with
greater brevity, the three Gibborim, 2
Sam. xxiii. 9, 17, 22; a clear sign that
the intuie of the D^'^K' or Q^i^, also
was an abbreviation of ' thirty Gibborim ; '
the General was called nfc^&'n *")£^» 2 Sam.
xxiii. 18 sq. It cannot surprise us to find,
that in times after David, £>i^£J at last
came to be nothing but a general name
for an officer in the vicinity and the im
mediate service of the king. No doubt
such an abbreviated expression may ad
mit, from its origin, several very different
meanings ; for instance, as in recent times
a war-chariot, with three occupants, has
frequently been discovered on the monu
ments of Nineveh, and it is also known
that in ancient India three men were
considered to belong to each war-chariot
(according to the Dhanur- Veda, cf. Wil
son's remarks), we might easily imagine
the Hebrew bhalish to have some similar
signification. Nevertheless the whole
history shows that the word cannot have
even the remotest reference to a war-
chariot. The LXX probably meant by
a man of the third rank, as if
none but the first minister as n^D' of
the king, Gen. xli. 43, belonged to the
second rank after him. The rp'mis /uoTpas
^7€juc6j' of Josephus, Antiq. ix. 4. 4, 5 ; 6.
3, might mean a commander of the third
part of the army (and we might then
compare ] Kings xvi. 9 as somewhat
similar); but for this he uses, ix. 11. 1,
the more general title of Chiliarch.
3 Ex. xv. 4 ; cf. xiv. 7. We may con
sider Gideon's three hundred men, ii.
383 sqq., as a preliminary ; and it is
curious in how many other passages six
hundred warriors are mentioned as the
nucleus of the soldiery, Judges iii. 31,
xv'ii. 16 sq., xx. 47 sqq. (in the last place,
in fact, as the nucleus for the fresh forma
tion of a tribe), 1 Sam. xiii. 15, xiv. 2.
4 The coincidence of the six hundred
warriors among the Egyptians, Exodus
xiv. 7, and the Indians (Nala Maha-Bhar.
26, 2) with those of Israel, cannot be as
HIS MILITARY ORGANISATION. 141
was the soul of all the great victories which were won in this
age. We still possess a very ancient catalogue of the most
renowned of these valiant warriors, together with some of the
exploits of the most distinguished among them.1 First comes
the description of the three Colonels, Jashobeam the son of
Hachmoni, Eleazar the son of Dodo, a,nd Shammah the son
of Agee.2 The first of these, we are told, once brandished his
spear over three hundred slaughtered foemen at once ; which
can only mean that on one and the same occasion, on a single
day and as one piece of work, he slew three hundred foes in
succession, springing from one to another with terrific speed
and fury. Of the second it is related that once, when the
Philistines had collected at Pas-dammim,3 he sustained their
attack for a time quite single-handed, and continued to smite
them to the ground until his wearied hand clung convulsively
to the sword ; but then the great victory of Jahveh was already
won, and when at last the country people, who before had fled,
rallied behind him on the battle-field, they found that there
was nothing left for them to do but to strip the booty from the
bodies of the slain.4 Shammah, it is said, when the Philistines
on one occasion had assembled at Lechi,5 was deserted in a
similar manner by the flying country folk, but remained never
theless all alone near a large field of ripe lentils, which the
enemy wanted to devastate. He saved it from their destructive
purpose, and at the same time won a great victory of Jahveh.
We ought, however, to remember, that these single heroes were
always attended in battle by their armour-bearers, one or more
in number ; so that these exploits are scarcely described as much
greater than that of Jonathan in the battle of Michmash.6 To
the same rank of Colonel belonged the three heroes7 who,
accidental as that of the six hundred in Abishai, ver. 18. If rQ&J>3 Sty* before
the traditions of the Cid. Of. also B.uce's the name Jashob^am £ correct
Travels (ed. 1790), in. p. 310. which j/in facfc mogt probab]e> the fipst of
1 2 Sam. xxiii. 8-39, where thirty-seven the three must have had a special ad-
heroes are enumerated ; sixteen more are ditional designation something like /xe-
enumerated 1 Chron. xi. 10-47, but partly Ta0poi/oy.
after the manner of the Chronicler, with s gee p gg>
still more abbreviated descriptions. Cf. 4 jn ver> 9 fae unintelligible words
i. p. 136 sq. must be emended in accordance with 1
2 2 Sam. xxiii. 8 ; the words must be Chron. xi. 13 ; in ver. 10 after DVPI we
emended according to ver. 18 and the must probably restore DJ ")K>8' as in ver.
book of Chronicles, although perhaps
iSvyn really conceals some other word, i In ver n we must punctliate ^-L
such as TPJn- 2 aam. xxin. 8, indeed, . » f.f-
has eight hundred instead of three hun- instead of n»n?, since a place must be
dred ; and, it must be confessed that, named here ; it is the same spot af which
according to the older authority, this hero, Samson attacked the Philistines, ii. p. 406.
as well as his two immediate associates, 6 P. 33 sq.
had displayed much more true warlike 7 Since the description of these three
valour than his commanding officer men, ver. 13, is indefinite, we can hardly
142 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
when David was still in the mountain fastness near the cave of
Adullam, once brought him water at the peril of their lives
from the Philistine camp in the neighbourhood.1 Over the
three Colonels was placed Abishai, the elder of Joab's two
brothers ; a distinction which might be expected to fall to one
who is always called David's greatest General next to Joab, and
who almost everywhere acts in concert with him ; moreover he
had of course the same advantage that his brother enjoyed, of
being nearly related to David.2 Almost the same story is told
of his prowess as of that of the first of the three Colonels. The
rank of a Colonel was also possessed lay Benaiah, the son of
Jehoiada, a man of extraordinary energy,3 who held the post
of commander of the body-guard, of which we shall speak
shortly. He slew the two sons of the king of Moab.4 Once
in the winter, when, after an unusually heavy fall of snow, a
lion had taken refuge among the abodes of men and had made
his lair in the well near a house, he descended alone into the
well and slew him. Another time he engaged in a struggle
with an Egyptian of great fame, who had a spear as long and
as heavy as the beam of a bridge ; 5 he himself happened to
have nothing but a walking-staff in his hand, but he wrenched
the great spear from the Egyptian, and slew him with it. This
Egyptian was certainly a man of a very different stamp from the
slave formerly mentioned6 (who was probably seized on some
expedition for booty), which establishes the noteworthy fact,
that the contemporary Egyptian government did not look with
indifference upon David's wars for the supremacy over so many
countries. Perhaps this Egyptian fell in the war against
Edom, of which more hereafter. Such traits of warlike
courage are more significant than anything else. They re
call to us completely those other rare periods of history, in
suppose them to be identical with the xi. 22 show.
three Colonels named above ; at the same 4 Arid appears to ^ve keen tiie titie
time it is remarkable that m a passage of honour of a king of Moab, as Indian
where all the names are given, and indeed, pl.ilices cail themselves Daevasinha (Lion
according to the superscription, must be of God). The event accor(linsly oeeurred
given., these three alone should remain in the covrse of tho war wjth Moab of
anonymous. Perhaps, therefore, the article which we have very little further know-
has dropped out before T\\zh&-> ver- 13. ledge.
Further, it appears from ver. 22, 1 Chron. 5 This must be inserted from the LXX;
xxvii. 6, and 1 Chron. xi. 42, that besides we can only suppose it was quite a simple
those three heroes whose names are given, bridge over a wadi, consisting of nothing
otheis might attain to the same rank, but the stout trunk of a tree ; 1 Chron. xi.
either at some other time or as a mere 23 has, instead of this, a weaver s beam,
title. see p. 69. On the other hand, the stature
1 P. 88. 2 P. 113. of five ells which the Chronicler assigns
3 )3> which is superfluous before ^">fc$, n'm would correspond but ill to Goliath's
in vtr. 20, must be read as "02 after 13^, s^x ant^ a half ells.
as the LXX and to some extent 1 Chron. 6 P. 105.
HIS MILITAEY ORGANISATION. 143
which, a marvellous aspiration for the possession of some higher
blessing, such as freedom or immortality, has taken hold of an
entire nation, and so has produced, through special instruments
of exceptional power, even military exploits which appear in
credible to ordinary men. Such were the times of the first
confessors of Islam, of the old Swiss or of the Ditmarshers :
we cannot but suppose that the age of Israel under Joshua was
similar,1 but we no longer possess the record of so many par
ticular features of that era, as in the case before us. Of the
other warriors deemed worthy of mention who were not either
Colonels or of yet higher rank, we know nothing but the bare
names ; but the belief that each of them had performed great
exploits is justified by the very fact of their being mentioned at
all ; and of some of them a few details have been preserved acci
dentally to us from other sources, as for example of Asahel (here
introduced at the head of the list), the brother of Joab, who fell
so young,2 and the Hittifce Uriah, whose integrity at home and
on the field will presently call for notice. And so, just as the
names and deeds of Muhammed's many companions were long
held in very distinct remembrance and special records were
devoted to describing them, David's heroes, too, who had vied
with him in valour and self-sacrifice for the community of
Israel and the religion of Jahveh, lived on, linked for ever with
his memory.
This standing army did not include the soldiers of David's
actual body-guard, who were also employed, like the Eoman
lictors, to execute offenders at the king's command. These
were the so-called Cherethites and Pelethites, who were all,
as we have shown,3 foreigners, especially Philistines of every
kind. They are sometimes mentioned in conjunction with the
Gibborim ; but if we compare all the passages in which they
appear,4 we see in the first place that in point of numbers they
were, as we could not but expect, far inferior to them; and in
the second place, that they were never sent like the Gibborim
on actual service. In Saul's time the body-guard were called
runners ; 5 and David seems to have been the first, during his
residence at Ziklag, to form a troop of Philistines for the same
purpose, and he subsequently continued to recruit it from Phi
listine prisoners and other foreigners. Their quarters in Jeru-
1 Vol. ii. p. 241 sqq. times under the kings of Judah they again
2 P. 114. bore this name. We may conclude from
3 Vol. i. p. 246 sq. 2 Sam. XT. 1, 1 Kings i. 5, that, according
4 2 Sam. viii. 18, xx. 23, xv. 18, xx. 7, to the ancient custom of that court, there
1 Kings i. 38, 44. were generally fifty to run before the
5 1 Sam. xxii. 17, cf. ver. 18; in later king.
144 THE REItfN OF DAVID.
salem were ] doubtless not far from the royal castle. This small
body could at no time become a source of danger to the state :
far more was to be apprehended from the Gibborim, wbo ob
viously formed the commencement of a sort of milites prcetoriani
or janissaries, and were already of sufficient importance to play
a part at Solomon's accession ; 2 to this must be added that
they might also be chosen from foreigners, as soon as they con
formed (a self-evident condition) to the religion of the country.3
The standing army, it is clear, was not very numerous ;
in all the greater wars the levies had of course to be raised
from all the men of the nation capable of bearing arms ;
and Joab, David's general-in-chief, was therefore appointed
in command not only of the regiment of the Six Hundred
but also of all the fighting troops. These levies were called
out, for instance, by Absalom from all the tribes on the
west of the Jordan, when David, with his Six Hundred
and his body-guard, had fled from Jerusalem across the
Jordan : 4 and in the case of this force distinctive mention is
made only of princes, i.e. leaders of hundreds and thousands.
Considering how thickly populated the country then was, we
could not but expect this army, when actually collected, to be
very numerous, ' as the sand of the sea ; ' 5 but it is difficult to
make any more definite statement on this point. According to
the accounts of the census instituted by David, the men capable
of bearing arms were found to be 800,000 in Israel (the ten
tribes) and 500,000 in Judah ; 6 but we do not know what age
is considered manhood, and the numbers are certainly too round
to be accepted as strictly historical. On the other hand, more
light appears to be thrown upon the matter by a statement of
the Chronicler,7 that David made an arrangement by which every
1 P. 124. Though we nmst suppose them to be to
2 1 Kings i. 8, 10. some extent round numbers, and in cer-
3 Thus Uriah was a Hittite, but as far tain places exaggerated, yet there is no
as religion went, a good Israelite ; Zelek reason to doubt their generally historical
an Ammonite, 2 Sam. xxiii. 37 ; Ithmah character. For it is a question in all
a Moabite, 1 Chron. xi. 46; and Iitai of these cases of a levy en mass?, to which
Gath, who was appointed commander of the whole population without further clis-
oiie of the three divisions of the army in tinction of religion would be summoned,
the battle against Absalom, is expressly If, for instance, we reckon the present
designated as a foreigner by David, 2 Sam. population of Algeria at 3,000,000. and of
xv. 19. these from 300,000 to 400,000 as fighting
4 2 Sam. xv. 18, xvii. 11. men (vide Dawson Borrer's Campaign
5 2 Sam. xvii. 11. against the Kabailes), then surely the land
6 2 Sam. xxiv. 9. Similar estimates of Israel in times of such prosperity as it
of the numbers of men and soldiers enjoyed under David and with the ex-
of Israel, which may well appear too tended boundaries of that period, could
great for many of our foregone conclu- susiain a far greater population ; the
sions, have come under our notice in question has already been touched upon
earlier passages of this history, and in vol. ii.
others will present themselves further on. 7 1 Chron. xxvii. 1- 15.
HIS MILITARY ORGANISATION" . 145
month 24,000 men under a special commander were to be in his
service ; this would accordingly make up a total of 288,000.
But this is one of the few pieces of information which we are
now hardly able to understand. The names of the twelve com
manders, in spite of some variations, correspond on the whole to
the names of twelve of the chief Gibborim who are mentioned
in the ancient document l already noticed ; 2 and it is quite
credible in itself that the ablest of these trained warriors should
be appointed to command the popular levies. The accounts of
the other arrangements of the Davidic kingdom which are
given in this passage of the Chronicles 3 are also drawn, be
yond a doubt, from copious ancient authorities. But it does
not appear from this description 4 exactly what service was per
formed by these 24,000 men, changing with every month ; and
neither in the rebellion of Absalom 5 nor of Adonijah 6 do they
play any part which it is easy for us to recognise. We can only
regret, therefore, that the Chronicler has here abbreviated the an
cient accounts too much ; perhaps every month the corresponding
24,000 men underwent special training in the use of arms, or
perhaps they formed in part the garrisons of subjugated coun
tries. It is certain, from a statement of great antiquity,7 that
the Israelites, like all ancient nations, only took the field for
spring and summer, remaining at home during autumn and
winter, so that every war which was not quite brought to a
close had to be begun afresh each year at a fixed time. And
for that purpose, it is obvious, David must always have had at
his disposal, at any rate afterwards, a larger body of men in
addition to the central regiment of the Gibborim.8
But the whole force entirely conformed to the ancient He
brew type in not using either horses or chariots. The ranks
all fought on foot, and at the very most the various officers
rode mules and asses.9 Nay, David kept to the old Mosaic
custom, and had almost all the captured horses disabled.10 This
1 2 Sam. xxiii. 8 sqq. 5 2 Sam. xv.
2 P. HI. 3 1 Chron. xxvii. 8 1 Kings i. sq.
4 To judge from the style of the lau- 7 2 Sam. xi. 1, where, under the desig-
gtiage, ver. 1 is also entirely from the nation the kings, all together, Hebrew-
Chronicler. The fact that Asahel, who was and foreign, are include J.
killed by Abner (p. Ill), is mentioned, 8 This maybe concluded with certainty
ver. 7, as one of the twelve officers, from the brief words 1 Kings i. 9 ; cf.
may be of less importance from the fact ver. 25.
that his son is also mentioned in addition; 9 As it had been hitherto; vol. ii. p.
cf. the probably similar case in ver. 6. 211 sq.
The supposition that the names of the 10 2 Sam. viii. 4 ; cf. vol. ii. p. 130 sq.,
twelre officers were simply borrowed from 155. Similarly, even in December 1847,
2 Sam. xxiii. 8 sq. is not confirmed on Abdelqadir houghed his horses' feet as a
closer consideration ; cf. also 1 Kings v. 28 sign of the cessation of all war.
[v. 14].
VOL. III. L
14ti THE REIGN OF DAVID.
supplies a striking proof of the lofty courage which at that
time always armed the people even against those nations which,
with great superiority in the arts of war, provided themselves
with horses and chariots. In the same way the chief weapon
in Israel continued to be the spear, in the use of which many
of the Israelites must have attained great dexterity ; bows and
slings1 appeared less frequently, and most of the foreign nations
were probably better provided with weapons than the Israelites,
as the story of Goliath indicates.2
2) Survey of David's Wars.
A survey of the separate nations with whom war was waged
renders it evident that —
a.) Most of the wars were carried on against the Philistines,
and most of the separate traditions still preserved also refer
to them. If David, while he still reigned at Hebron over
Judah only, had paid tribute to the Philistines (as he probably
did),3 we can readily understand the violence of their attack,
when, after having firmly established himself in Jerusalem as
king of all Israel, he proceeded to throw off every sign of
subjection, and to meet their inroads and demands with the
same vigour which had been formerly shown by Saul in the
prosperous years of his reign. We now possess two groups
of short accounts of these wars in two different styles. The
first are those given from the prophetic point of view of the
events.4 These accounts state that when the Philistines heard
that David had been anointed king over all Israel, they all
marched out, eager for vengeance, to seek David and to take
his life. He heard of their designs, however, in time enough
to shut himself up5 in the citadel of Zion which had been
already conquered, and thus to secure himself against their
first outburst of rage. When they had spread themselves over
the fruitful valley of Eephaim, in search, as usual, of plunder,
and had therefore fallen (as we can well believe) into disorder,
David, encouraged by an oracle of Jahveh which promised him
1 2 Sam. i. 22, 1 Sam. xx. 20 sqq., David with Goliath, see p. 69.
xvii. 40; cf. vol. ii. p. 282 sq. In the 3 Seep. 111.
ancient Egyptian pictures we see similar 4 2 Sam. v. 17-25, 1 Chron. xiv. 8-17 ;
simple weapons; and for the Homeric cf i p 138
'5 Since " is the secific word for
.
2 Amongst the many little stories which conducting a campaign or attack, so its
the Koran tells of David, the only new counterpart -pS 2 Sam. v. 17, may very
one is that he invented chain armour, well mean to settle oneself down and
Sur. xxi. 80, cf. Tabari's Annals, i. p. 43, remain quiet in a fortress; cf. Judges
Dub. ; but this is certainly a confusion of xv. 8.
WAES WITH THE PHILISTINES. 147
success, suddenly attacked and defeated them. This happened
at a place otherwise unknown to us 1 called Baal-Perazim (a
name which may mean, according to the words which compose
it, 'the God of the breaches,' i.e. of the victories), as though
the place had received its name from the fact that there David,
led on by Jahveh's power, broke through the enemy's lines
with a force like that of the floods breaking irresistibly through
the dams. This time the Philistines left their idols to their
fate, and they were carried off by David and his soldiers ; 2 this
was the exact counterpart of the previous capture of the ark
of the covenant by the Philistines.3 — On another occasion the
Philistines had spread themselves in the same valley, but the
oracle opposed David's attacking them openly (for they seem
this time to have kept closer round the camp), and told him to
take a circuit which might enable him to attack them on the
rear, and there take up a position west of them, opposite some
lofty Baka- trees ; 4 then, if he heard a rustling noise in the tops
of these trees, he was to make good speed, for that would be
the sign that Jahveh was going before him to smite the camp
of the Philistines.5 And David did so, and smote the Phi
listines from Gibeon to Gezer.6 This makes it further evident
how powerful the Philistines must still have been at the be
ginning of this period, since they were able to penetrate into
the very heart of Israel.
The narratives of the other kind7 are of a more simply
popular nature, setting forth the prowess against Philistine
giants of individual heroes who became distinguished in these
1 The mountain Perazim, Isaiah xxviii. heavily ascending sound, gasping as it were,
21, appears however to be the same place, resounding from a mysterious deep; cf.
and if its summit had once been a holy nOlO1!' as a sign °f the Deity manifesting
spot like that of so many other mountains, Himself, 1 Kings xix. 12 Job iv. 16.
the name Baal-Perazim is explained at
once. But Isaiah does not borrow his 6 If in 2 Sam. v. 25 pjnj is to be read
description from the passage before us, instead of yiJ, according to the LXX
and in general does not take examples and 1 Chron. xiv. 16, since Gibeon, ac-
out of David's history (see note on the cording to Eobinson, lies west of Gibeah
passage in my Prophets of the Old Test.}, or Geba (for we can scarcely think that
2 Clearly with the immediate purpose Gibeah in the tribe of Judah is meant),
of displaying them in his triumphal pro- Gezer, which, according to Joshua xvi. 3,
cession ; but this did not seem suitable must be supposed west of Beth-boron,
to the Chronicler, so he makes David must indicate a pursuit carried very far
have them burned instead. to the west ; cf. ii. p. 328 sqq. Again, it
3 Vol. ii. p. 412 sq. seems to follow, fromlsaiah xxviii. 21, that
4 A kind of balsam-tree, which grows mount Perazim lay not far from Gibeon.
quite by itself. We shall then have to adopt the conchi-
5 This affords us distinct evidence that sion that the valley of Kephaim is the one
the Hebrews in early times, like other which stretches to the west from Jerusalem
ancient peoples, believed in omens derived as far as Gibeon.
from the rustling of the leaves^ of sacred ?2 gamt xxi 15_22j 1 Chron- xx
trees. piTO must> like \ I^J. signify a 4-8.
L 2
148 THE KEIGN OF DAVID.
wars ; but, as the narratives in prophetic style appear to have
been cut short at their close, so these have clearly been ab
breviated throughout in the Books of Samuel, and still more in
the Chronicles. Once, we are told, when David was completely
exhausted in a battle with the Philistines, a Philistine thought
he should find it an easy task to slay him ; he was one of the
race of giants,1 by name Ishbi-benob (i.e. probably highlander);
his lance weighed 300 pounds of bronze, and he was also girt
with a battle-axe.2 David was already engaged in a fierce
struggle with him when Joab's brother Abishai, who has so
often been mentioned, sprang to his assistance and slew the
giant; but when David's faithful men looked back upon the
danger he had escaped, they swore that he should never again
go with them into battle, lest he should ' put out the light of
Israel,' — a wish which reappeared on another occasion later on
in his life.3 Here even the place of the occurrence is not
mentioned. On two other occasions similar contests took place
in the neighbourhood of the Gezer just mentioned ; 4 the giant
Saph was slain by Sibbechai,5 and Goliath of Gath, whose spear
was like a weaver's beam, by Elhanan the son of Jaare.6 — In
the neighbourhood of Gath itself, one of the five principal cities
of the Philistines, Jonathan the son of Shimeah, one of David's
nephews, slew a monstrous giant, who had six fingers on each
hand and six toes on each foot/ and who, in the pride of his
strength, had defied Israel.
A short summary of the results of these battles is given in
the survey of David's wars against the heathen,8 which seems
to be the work of the last compiler. David, it is said, smote
the Philistines and humbled them, and tore from the hand of
the Philistines the bridle of the arm, i.e. he tore from them the
supremacy by which they curbed Israel as a rider curbs his
horse by the bridle, which is held fast on his arm.9 While
1 Vol. i. p. 227 sqq. * That he was one of the Gibborim is
2 nK-Hn cannot mean new in this pas- clear from 1 Chron. xi. 29, xxvii. 11. 2
sage, because a sword which was only new Sam. xxiii. 27 must be emended accord-
would have been no novelty, and would ing]y.
not have deserved mention at all; it was 6 Since this man came from Bethlehem,
evidently some unusual weapon, and since he is probably the Gibbor mentioned in 2
the roots Tin, SpPI in the Semitic Ian- Sam. xxiii. 24, 1 Chron. xi. 26, although
guages give the meaning of sharp, cutting, the name of his father is given differently
the word may mean an axe, LXX Kopvvri ; here. See also p. 70.
unless we are prepared to correct the word 7 Of. Journ. As. 1843, i. p. 264.
itself to njjnn. and compare \F\b axe; cf. 8 2 Sam. viii. 1.
P.s. xxxiii. 1. 9 These words can hardly express any
3 2 Sam. xviii. 2 sqq. other meaning. If the hand, then the
4 We should probably adopt this read- arm a^so (an(i especially the fore-arm
ing from 1 Chron. xx. 4 in both cases, HE>K)> must retain a firm grasp of a thing,
instead of ^ and yft. ' Although 1 Chron. xviii. 1 states instead,
SUBJUGATION OF MOAB. 149
this image leaves us almost entirely to guess at the exact
means by which they were rendered harmless, it makes it
clear that David did not conquer their country in the same
way as he conquered Edom, Moab, and other countries, and
subsequent history shows that this valiant people retained their
own chieftains. Properly speaking, the expression does not
even imply that they were made tributary, though this may
possibly have been the case; David seems to have been con
tented for the most part with the peace which they sought
under conditions honourable to Israel, and which they seem to
have always observed in the later years of his reign.
The conflicts with the Amalekites of the south also were
still continued from Jerusalem ^ l but they all seem to fall in
the early years, and almost to have annihilated that nation for a
long period.
b.) The next place in the survey is occupied by Moab, which
appears to have been early involved in war with David, and
certainly to have been already conquered before the war with
Ammon, during the course of which, though the description is
somewhat detailed, no mention is made of it. It is at first
sight astonishing that David should have so early engaged in
war with this nation when we recall that he had at an earlier
period 2 placed his own parents in security under the protection
of the king of Moab ; to say nothing of the intimate connexion
which, in ancient times, united Israel and the three sister
nations,3 and which was still held in distinct remembrance in
spite of the many disputes which had from time to time arisen.
In fact, if we take a fair view of David's conduct during his
early career in Judah,4 how, when a refugee from the Philistines,
the more he was persecuted by Saul, the farther he drew back
towards the east, — we are compelled to suppose that his inten
tion in the last extremity was no other than to fall back upon
these kindred nations to the east or south-east, and that nothing
but the unexpected hostility of Moab finally prevented him from
doing so. The various traces of Saul's activity prove that he
had, from the beginning, repressed with a strong hand these
restless tribes on the other side of the Jordan; and indeed, under
him (as the Chronicler only too briefly mentions), many members
of the tribe of Eeuben had pressed victoriously far to the east,
that David took Gath and her daughters, of Solomon's reign Grath had still a king
i.e. the cities of her district, out of the of her own ; 1 Kings ii. 39 sq.
hand of the Philistines and thereby entirely J According to 2 Sam. viii. 12.
destroyed one of the five little Philistine 2 P. 86.
kingdoms, yet the statementiscontradicted 3 Vol. ii. p. 199 sq.
by the fact, that at the beginning at least 4 Pp. 84-99.
150 THE REIGN OF DAYID.
and settled down in Arabian districts,1 so that Moab might at
first be all the more favourably inclined towards David. In the
changeful circumstances, however, of these little kingdoms, it is
not surprising to find that at length Moab was drawn again into
closer connexion with Saul. It is possible that Ish-bosheth,
who took up his abode in the neighbourhood of Ammon and
Moab, had secured the friendship of the latter under disgraceful
conditions, to which David refused to accede, and that for this
the Moabites would seek a bitter vengeance, or would treat
the new king of Israel with the same coarse contempt which
the Ammonites afterwards displayed.2 At any rate, it is certain
that they must have deeply wounded the honour of Israel, since
the punishment which David inflicted on them after the victory
was unusually severe. He made the numerous captives all
throw themselves upon the ground, divided them with a
measuring line into three divisions, of which he ordered two to
be slain and only one to be kept alive.3 As is well known, these
severe penalties are brought under our notice elsewhere, and
we learn from other passages how the sentence was executed in
a manner corresponding to the commencement here described ;
viz. as the captives lay down like wheat ready for the threshing,
sharp threshing-rollers were drawn over them, and they were
trampled to death by horses.4 But since this punishment was
inflicted by David on none of the conquered peoples except
Moab and Ammon, we may conclude that both must have
wantonly sullied the honour of Israel and provoked the national
wrath in some very special manner; for David, no doubt, simply
carried out what the excitement of popular indignation im
peratively demanded, and this is only another example of the
well-known rule that hostility between kindred nations readily
assumes the utmost bitterness. Thus, Moab became tributary
to David, and for a long time subject to Israel. — Of the other
events of this war we know nothing except the solitary fact that
Benaiah slew the two sons of the king.5
c.) After Moab comes the short review of David's great and
rapid victories in the Aramean war of which the chief hero was
king Hadadezer of Zobah.6 No cause is here assigned for this
war with these distant nations,7 but since the kingdom of Zobah
Vol. ii. p. 325. 7 The words 3. IT 2^r
jam. x. 2 sqq. ^ we mugt ^ thisreading from
u OIlITl. VI11. Z. »
.
Prov. xx. 2S, Amos i. 3 ; cf., in the Chron. xviii. 3 instead of l^jTl?) cannot
ca e of the Ammonites, 2 Sam. xii. 31 and explain the cause. They mean 'as he
ii. p. 387- went to establish his hand at theEuphra-
P- 142. ^ tes,' i.e. to assert and substantiate his
2 Sam. viii. 3. power at the Euphrates, and cannot, from
AMMONITE WAR. 151
is nowhere else mentioned as bordering immediately on Israel's
territory, it follows that the war must have been kindled by a
war going on at the same time between Israel and some nearer
kingdom. Now we are actually told in another part of the
present second Book of Samuel1 that a great Aramean war
with Israel was brought on by the Ammonites, so that we have
every reason to suppose that this was the very war in question ;
and a closer examination only confirms this conclusion, in spite
of certain apparent difficulties. The narration in such detail
of the war with Ammon, the development of which cannot be
understood without reference to that with Syria, is due 2 to a
special cause, its bearing, namely, on the history of Uriah;
and it is, no doubt, this fulness which has occasioned it to be
passed by in so very cursory a manner in the general review of
the great wars,3 for otherwise it ought to have been described,
at any rate in its results, as fully as that with Moab. The
picture of this most extensive and decisive of the Davidic wars
which we may derive from the authorities still in our posses
sion, is as follows.
After the subjection of Moab, Nahash the king of the Am
monites, with whom David had lived 011 the best of terms, died.
He was probably the same king against whom Saul had waged
war,4 and who might therefore look with favour on the rise of
David. He was succeeded on the throne by his son Hanun.
On this David sent ambassadors to the Ammonite court to con
gratulate him on his accession and to condole with him on the
death of his father ; and if they had been well received nothing
farther would have been involved than the solemn renewal, not
without obligations for the future being implied on both sides,
of the friendly relations which had existed under the late sove
reign. But the new king was prejudiced by his counsellors
against David, who was suspected of seeking treacherously to
reconnoitre the Ammonite capital by means of his emissaries,
so as to be able the mor£ easily to destroy it on the first oppor
tunity. The kindred kingdom of Moab had already fallen before
David's power, and the tear of a similar fate certainly appears
to have exercised a strong influence on the resolution come
to by the new court of Rabbah (i.e. the capital of Ammon).
Unfortunately, however, in adopting a completely new line of
their very position, refer to David, as words refer to Hadadezer, and therefore
though he had actually established him- simply indicate the time and the approxi-
self on the Euphrates, and as though the mate locality of David's victory over him.
war with the Syrians had arisen from this, * 2 Sam. x.-xii. 2 Vol. i. p. H8.
— a supposition, moreover, which would in 3 2 Sam. viii. 12. 4 P. 24.
itself be quite out of the question. The
]52 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
policy the court lost all self-control. The ambassadors were
seized, half of their beards (i.e. one side)1 shaved off, their clothes
cut off as far as the lower half of the body, and they themselves
dismissed in this condition. In their persons, therefore, the
coarsest insults were offered to their master. David, who had
only been king of all Israel for a few years, was compelled to
prepare for war with Ammon. Meanwhile he sent word to the
injured ambassadors, who could not appear in public, to remain
in Jericho until their beards had grown again.
The Ammonites would hardly have ventured upon such a
deed, had they not calculated on powerful external support ; for
although their own capital was remarkably well fortified, and
the whole nation was still at that time far more powerful than
the kindred nation of Moab,2 yet their territory was certainly
hardly as large as that of the single tribe of Judah, and in
former times they had always been inferior to united Israel.
But they were at no loss for aid against Israel, for Hadadezer,3
king of Zobah, a prince evidently of great power and military
distinction, had doubtless long held himself in readiness to
assist them. His importance makes it all the more to be re
gretted that we have so little trustworthy information about his
country or his capital Zobah. This city is not mentioned on
any earlier occasion, and even here it is evident that its power
was suddenly acquired and of short duration, so that when a
later antiquity began to busy itself with renewed eagerness
about the history of David, it was no longer possible clearly to
identify its site. Accordingly the most contradictory hypotheses
have been enunciated about it, and for a long time obtained
wide acceptance. Since it is related of the king of Zobah, that
he fought with David on the banks of the Euphrates and
brought Aramean troops from Mesopotamia into the field,4 the
Christian Syrians early identified Zobah with Nessibin (Nisibis)
in Mesopotamia, which has a somewhat similar sound; an
opinion which, even in modern times, J. D. Michaelis has chosen
to defend at length. On the other hand, many of the learned
Jews of the Middle Ages were accustomed to give this name
1 Where the beard is regarded as the 10, 1 Kings xi. 23 ; it must be substituted
man's honourable adornment, such an in- everywhere for Hadarezer found in 2
suit is quite intelligible. It is worthy of Sam. x. 16-19, and in the Chronicles, for
remark, that the first ambassadors of Hadad is the name of a Syrian idol from
Tschingis Khan were similarly treated by which a number of proper names are
the Moslems ; cf. Ibn Arabshah, Fdkihat, derived.
p. 239, 17. 241, 18. Cf. also Kemal-eldin
in Freytag's Loqmdn, p. 48, 6. 4 2 Sam- V1"- 3> x- 16- Jt has been
2 Vol. ii. pp. 333, 336 sq. supposed recently that J-QIV is a con-
3 This is undoubtedly the true form of tracted form of rQW^ but this is quite
the name, and is found in 2 Sam. viii. 3- incapable of proof.
ARAM E AN WAR. 353
of Zobah to the great and well-known Haleb (Aleppo) on this
side of the Euphrates.1 But any place in Mesopotamia lies
too far east, and the situation of Haleb is much too far north
for Zobah, as far as there are any safe data for determining its
site. The cities Tebah and Berothai, which Hadadezer pos
sessed, and from which David, after his victory, took enormous
quantities of bronze, we may reasonably look for not far from
Zobah itself.2 Now, since in Cl. Ptolemy,3 we find two cities,
Barathena and Sabe, close to each other in the same latitude as
Damascus, but much nearer the Euphrates ; and, further, since
the Halamath to be mentioned below, where Hadadezer was
finally put down, lay, according to Ptolemy, almost in the same
longitude but much more to the north, (all which falls in
exactly with the narratives of the course taken by this war,) we
really can no longer entertain any doubt as to the true site of
Zobah. According to this supposition the other little kingdoms
which were called on this occasion to the assistance of Ammon4
together with Zobah, lay to the south-west of the latter, and
this again harmonises perfectly with the rest of the narrative.
They were as follows : Beth-rehob or more briefly Rehob, a
little kingdom which must have been founded during the cen
turies immediately preceding (we know not exactly how) by
Arameans who pushed forward far to the south-west, at the
expense, therefore, of some of the ancient possessions of Israel ; 5
Maachah,6 and to the farthest south-south-east the land of Tob.7
1 Cf. Journ. As. 1842, ii. p. 6. Benjamin this, as also the Beth-rehob mentioned as
Tud. by Asher, p. 50. The reason of important, Judg. xviii. 28, may be meant
this is, no doubt, that Haleb was also here, cf. ii. p. 293, note 1. It is true that
called Bercea in earlier times, and this it is a very common name for Aramean
was connected with the TTQ of 2 Sam. towns, since it signifies nothing but market ;
viii.8; cf. also Catalogus Codd. Syr. Mus. PerhaPs one might even think of the
Brit. (Lond. 1838), p. 61. <Us»-i, which, according to Jaqut (apud
2 Instead of niD2, 2 Sam. viii. 8, we s'huft ad Salad.), was in later times a
must read j-QD after 1 Chron. xvm. 8, simpie village in the territory of Damascus,
which, according to Gen. xxii. 24, was but we have no solid ground for this sup-
Aramean, and was probably situated not position. 1 Chron. xix. 6 confuses it with
very far from Maachah. Berothai need not a better-known city of the same name on
be identified with Berothah, Ez. xlvii. 16, the Euphrates itself (Gen. xxxvi. 37), and
which is perhaps the far-famed Phoenician at the same time, therefore, substitutes
Ber^-tos (the present Beirout). the Mesopotamians for Kehob; whereas,
3 Creogr. v. 19 : they were situated in according to more accurate traditions, the
73° 20'; 33° 0'; Alamatha in 73° 40'; Mesopotamians did not take part in the
35° 0'; Damascus in 69° 30'; 33° 0'. contest until the following year.
[These are Ptolemy's own numbers; the 6 Vol. ii. p. 302.
longitude is reckoned from Ferro. Seethe 7 The three former kingdoms are all
' Orbis Terrarum ad Mentem Ptolemsei,' distinctly called Aramean either here or
in Kiepert and Menke's Atlas Ant.] elsewhere in the Old Testament, and this
4 2 Sam. x. 6, 8. kingdom probably had also Aramean in-
5 A city of the same name was situated habitants ; in that case it was the farthest
in the tribe of Asher, far to the west there- to the south-west of the Aramean king-
fore, Judg. i. 31, Josh. xix. 28, 30 ; and doms ; since it lay, according to Ptolemy
154 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
The fact that Zobah is only mentioned as a place of historical
importance in connexion with David and Saul,1 appears to be
due to the circumstance that it was really in itself insignificant,
but that just at that time it had attained, through the rare
address and good fortune of a distinguished prince, to a position
of great power.2 From this centre the king of Zobah ruled
the country far and wide, to the west as far as Hamath on the
Orontes, to the east as far as the Euphrates. Nay, even in
Mesopotamia he had great authority ; many petty monarchs were
subject to him, so that mention is made of ' Zobah's Kings,' 3
and the ancient and powerful Damascus, though still no doubt
independent of him, was certainly shut in all round by his pos
sessions. In like manner the kingdom of Zobah had already
engaged in war with Saul ; but now Israel sent against it a
hero of a very different calibre.
When David heard of the numerous allies which the Am
monites had secured, and of their having already invested Me-
deba far to the south in the tribe of Reuben,4 he ordered all
the men of military age to march out with Joab ; but while the
latter had pushed forward to the very walls of Rabbah itself,
intending to give battle to the Ammonite forces which were
drawn up before its gates, the allies of Ammon, after raising the
siege of Medeba, arrived at the spot, with 20,000 infantry, 1,000
men from Maachah, and 12,000 from Tob.5 Thus Joab saw hirn-
(Geogr. v. 19), who calls it 0aD/3a, much (Syr. ed. Ko'hler, p. 19, 49, 69; the first
farther down to the south-west of Zobah, passage is entirely wanting in the new
and so south-east of the land of Ammon, Paris edition by Reinaud) calls the once
in the wilderness. This position, more- celebrated old fortress of Paneas, lies too
over, exactly suits the few remaining pas- far to the west ; at most, the question
sages in which it occurs (in the life of suggests itself whether the name of the
Jephthah, ii. p. 392 and 1 Mace. v. 13, cf. mountain Suffa to the north of ITaur in
vol v. p. 313 note 6). <r t, cf Corp I cloes not bear some relation to it, but the
city of Zobah still lay too far east to be
ll, in. p. 234, is different from this place ; lo to thig> Unsuccessful attempts have
further investigations are needed as to the also been made to discover Zobah between
connexion with it of Tafiai, Steph. Byz. Lebanon and the sea (Literary Gazette,
Tatowi, Lckhel D. N. in. p. 352 sq., and 1855) p 349) We ^ nQ m^M of dig.
the present ^_>\_t> y£ Zeitschr. der covering how Jaqut knew of Zobah in the
Deutsch. Morg. Ges. 1849, p. 366. ancient history of Israel, and identified
1 1 Sam. xiv. 47, but no further details ll Wlfh the SJrian Kinisrin (Zeitschr. der
are supplied in this passage. Deutech. Morg. Ges. 1864, p. 449).
Hence it follows that Sophene (Jos. 3 1 Sam. xiv. 47; cf. 2 Sam. x. 19.
Ant. vii. 5), though similar in sound, must . „, . , ,. .
not be identified with Zobah, since it lies Th!s addition, 1 Chron. xix. 17, is
much too far north-east according to certainly quite historical.
Ptolemy (Geogr. v. 13), Pliny (Hist. Nat. 5 Instead of these numbers the Chro-
v. 13 [12]); even Kommagene, which nicies give a total of 32,000; but these
Eupolemos (apud Euseb. Pr&p. Ev. ix. were chariot combatants and horsemen;
30) understands, would be rather nearer, it is remarkable that in the statement in
No trace of the city seems to be apparent Sam. the horsemen are omitted,
any longer; fur Zobaiba, as AbulfiJa
DEFEAT OF HADADEZER. 155
self surrounded on all sides, but with prompt decision lie selected
the bravest warriors to engage the Arameans, handed over the
rest to the command of his brother Abishai to hold the Am
monites in check meanwhile, and instructed him to come to his
help, should victory threaten to turn to the side of the Ara
means, himself in like manner promising to come to the aid of
his brother, should he find himself unable to manage the Am
monites. But they could not help mutually encouraging each
other to do battle valiantly by the thought that they had to fight
for their people (the true community) and for the cities of their
God (the many separate cities in which the true God was hon
oured), that the heathen might not destroy the people and the
religion of Israel as they had already almost done at Medeba ;
but Jahveh would do as seemed good to Him. With such mu
tual arrangements and exhortations the brother-heroes entered
on their task with divided forces ; but the Arameans fled before
Joab's warriors, and the Ammonites, on seeing it, also retired
into the city. But the capital (Eabbah) was very strong, and the
Israelites did not succeed in rapidly reducing it ; so, when the
victors had taken great booty of all sorts, they returned to Jeru
salem, and for that year the campaign was certainly at an end.1
It was perhaps the first time in his life that Hadadezer had
suffered defeat, and he made preparations for the campaign of the
following year on a far larger scale. He effected a great union
of the Aramean kingdoms, which placed them all in opposition
to the threatening growth of the new Israelite power. Damascus,
it is true, must at first have hesitated to join this league, but on
the other hand Hadadezer succeeded in drawing allies from
Mesopotamia, and the Ammonites, who were still in constant
danger, certainly fanned the flame to no small extent. But
when David heard how Hadadezer was gathering great armies
on the Euphrates, and supporting himself on that river, he
determined to anticipate his attack. This time he marched in
person with his troops beyond the Jordan to the north-east, and
at a place now unknown to us, Halamah,2 a decisive battle was
1 2 Sam. x. 1-14, 1 Chron. xix. 1-15. Ant. vii. 6. 3, makes it into the name of
2 The LXX see fit to take the D7T1 of the king of the Arameans on this side of
2 Sam. x. 16 as the name of this place, the Euphrates, and gives him Shobach as
but this disturbs the sense; on the other his general with 80,000 foot-soldiers and
hand nON^n, ver. 17 (which the old trans- 10,000 cavalry. We may, however, very
lators, whose work is embodied in that of properly compare the Syrian city Alamatha
the present LXX, represent sometimes by <>n the Euphrates, mentioned by Ptolemy,
sometimes by AtAd/x), is undoubt- Geogr. v. 15 ; and, no doubt, the
edly the name of a place, although in 1 which appears in one of the versions of the
Chron. xix. 17 the reading is altered to LXX is a corruption of XaAa^uctT. "AAAe^a
avoid the insertion of a name so little or "AAAeyuot may be related to it, but only
known. On the other hand, Josephus, as tne name of a country, 1 Mace. v. 26.
156 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
fought in which the Araraeans from both sides of the Euphrates
were completely routed, their commander Shobach mortally
wounded, and 1,700 chariot men and horsemen, together with
20,000 foot soldiers taken prisoners.1 — It is true that now at
last Damascus came to the help of king Hadadezer (probably on
receiving news of the inroad of the Idumeans), but it was only
to crown the triumphant course of David with a final victory
of supreme importance. In a second great battle 22,000 Ara-
means were left upon the field, the great and opulent city of
Damascus, together with the other conquered Aramean king
doms west of the Euphrates, was made tributary to David, and
in place of the Aramean princes by whom they had been
governed, David everywhere installed his own officers. Thus
the Aramean supremacy, which had in previous centuries be
come so formidable to the Hebrews and even to the Canaanites,2
was now broken once more by the heroic arm of David ; and as
a great victory such as this can hardly fail to involve a number
of others, Toi, the Caiiaanite king of Hamath on the Orontes,
who had previously been hard pressed by Hadadezer and pro
bably reduced to some sort of vassalage,3 now felt that he had
been unexpectedly set free from his greatest enemy, and sent
to David grateful congratulations and rich presents by his son
Hadoram. The whole country as far as the Orontes, with the
exception of the sea-coast inhabited by the Phoenicians, was
subjugated, and one of Hadadezer's generals, Eezon, the son of
Eliadah, broke away from his master and became a rover in
the wilderness, as David had been in times gone by.4
While David, however, was thus fully occupied in the north,
and the strongly fortified city of Rabbah had not yet fallen, the
Idumeans had burst upon the extreme south of the land of
Judah. They may have thought that David's absence would
leave this district unprotected, and were evidently instigated and
encouraged by the Ammonites and Arameans. The Idumeans,
under whose wing Israel had formerly found shelter in the time
1 According to 2 Sam. viii. 3 sq. ; on 4 1 Kings xi. 23 sq., 1 Cliron. xviii. 9
the other hand, x. 18 gives, with less sq., where Hadoram is rightly substituted
probability on the whole, 700 chariots and for Joram. We know nothing of the fate
40,000 horsemen. The number 700 is of Hadadezer himself. Nicolaus Damas-
thus common to both the accounts, which cenus, in a passage from the fourth book
unquestionably refer to the same event. of his history (apud Joseph. Ant. vii. 5.
- Vol. ii. p. 30'2 sq. 2), calls the king of Damascus of that
3 Since in 1 Chron. xviii. 3, 2 Chron. time Hadad, and says that he ruled over
viii. 3, Hamath is joined to Zobah so as all Syria, and was the most valiant king
to make one name, it seems to follow that of his age, but was at last slain by David
Hadauezer derived his title from both at the Euphrates ; many of these state-
countries ; at any rate, it would be very inents, at any rate, rest on a confusion
difficult to explain this conjunction in any with Hadadezer.
other way.
SUBJUGATION OF EDOM. 157
of Moses, had left the latter in peace during the whole period
of the Judges. They first took up arms against Israel, as far
as we know, in the time of Saul,1 probably therefore because
the new king took upon himself to exercise certain rights
against them which they would not acknowledge ; and perhaps
ever since his successful campaigns they had been waiting an
opportunity of revenge. In this way the war which had
already spread so far now reached the extreme south, where
the Idumean possessions were surrounded by a great variety
of Arab tribes, Amalekites and others, who had received such
frequent provocation in recent times from both Saul and David,
that any league formed on their part against Israel might
easily become full of danger. Had the Idu means succeeded
in their plans, all the triumphs of David's arms in the north
would have been rendered useless at a blow. But the Israelite
army was divided with prompt decision into two parts, just
as in the campaign of the previous year, and while David
himself remained in the north and followed up his victories
without interruption, Joab turned back southwards with the
other division, marched along by the west shore of the Dead
Sea, probably driving the flying Idumeans before him, and
defeated them in a great battle in the Salt-valley (somewhere
about the southern extremity of the Dead Sea), where they lost
18,000 men.2 The mountain peaks, however, the caves and the
defiles of their country enabled them still to offer a stubborn
resistance; and Joab, striving to crush it with his usual severity,
exterminated without mercy all the male population (all, that
is, who were captured under arms). It was six months before
he was able to regard the whole country as subjugated. Some
of the members of the royal house were slain, while others
effected their escape, and the country was made tributary to
David, like all the others which were conquered at this time.
David appointed his own officers every where, and re-established
the ancient division of the country according to tribes.3
1 We have no other source of intelli- chapter. Further, 1 Kings xi. 15-17, where
gence on this subject than the scanty we are compelled to follow the LXX in
statement of 1 Sam. xiv. 47 ; but the in- reading Jl'lSHS instead of nVHS* since
cidental information, pp. 83, 90, is instruc- David did not" himseif stay long in Edom.
*lve- Also Ps. Ix. superscr., where the number
2 All this follows from a comparison of 12)000 men appears by a clerical error,
the following passagf-s : 2 Sam. vm. 13 tq. The omissjon of all mention of Damascus
where fa^3 must be referred to Joab. A or Edom at the end of 2 Sam Xli> apiseg
great many words which stood in the from the fact that the fate of Eabbah came
original passage must have been omitted within the view of the present narrator
before ver. 13, just as the whole account only from its connexion with Uriah,
of the first campaign against the Arameans s Vol. i. p. 75 sq.
has been omitted before ver. 3 of the same
158 THE EEIGN OF DAVID.
This year, with its varied and glorious victories, was un
doubtedly the time of David's greatest efforts and greatest
power— a time of unique exertions and successes, such as never
recurred again in the same full measure. It may well have been
when David was offering sacrifices and prayers at the holy place
before taking the field in person on this occasion, that some
prophet like Gad or Nathan uttered that wonderfully elevating
oracle which supplied a poet of kindred spirit with the starting
point of Ps. ex., and in which the royalty of Israel, combined
with the joyful valour of the people, shone forth with unsur
passable brightness and purity. When in the far north he
received tidings of the unexpected danger which threatened
him in the south from Edom, and when for a moment many
of those around him were perhaps in doubt, whether it were
possible to advance from so great a distance to Edom in time
to chastise it, his own unshaken lofty confidence was poured
forth, under the influence of a similar oracle, in that hymn
to his Lord and God from which we still possess some scattered
remains of most glorious poetry in Ps. Ix.1 But when David
from the north, and Joab from the south, returning with their
victorious armies entered Jerusalem, what festivals of rare
splendour must have been solemnised in the city ! We know
from a statement which appears most abrupt as it now stands,2
that David erected, on Joab's return, a monument of thanks
giving for his victory ; and we may imagine how brilliant
was the triumphal procession in Jerusalem when we recollect
the hundred war-chariots with their horses which were
spared when Hadadezer was conquered.3 David had cer
tainly no intention of using them himself,4 but merely of lead
ing them in the triumphal procession and then destroying
them. In the same way the gilded arms with which Hadadezer's
chieftains had adorned their persons 5 were brought to Jerusalem
to be preserved as consecrated offerings in the holy place, to-
1 See my Dichter dcx A. ~B., \\.~p- 374 (2nd 38. for a similar instance), but it is cer-
ed.), where, however, the occasion of this tainly their abruptness which causes 1
poem is not as fully explained as it is here ; Cliron. xviii 1 2 to omit them while alter-
that the Philistines also threatened a re- ing the whole passage; moreover, in the
volt at the same time is quite credible, latter place, Abishai is mentioned as the
The perf. in the second member of ver. 1 1 conqupror of Kdom in opposition to the
[9] follows '•p, as in Ps. xi. 3. The second other authorities,
part of the superscription may be regarded 4 2 Sam. viii. 4.
as genuinely historical. It is evidently g *4^'
very ancient, and is borrowed from an ' feam- vin- 7 sq. 10-12. In Jer. li.
older collection of songs. Of. Dichter des H, however, ]^\y is equivalent to quiver,
A- -Z?" l- but it seems that this is an Aramean use
" 2 Sam. viii. 13. The words allow of of the word, and that elsewhere it signifies
no other interpretation (cf. also supra, p. arms generally.
CAPTURE OF EABBAH. 159
gether with the weapons of gold, silver, and brass, which the
king of Hamath had sent as presents, and the costly articles of
booty from, so many other conquered nations. Finally we may
very well take Ps. xviii. as the great song of victory which
David himself sang on this day of triumph ; for during the
remainder of his life there was never another day of such mighty
victory and untroubled lofty joy as we find described in this
ode. Indeed, there is no more beautiful picture of the course
of David's life, which had steadily advanced to its present mar
vellous elevation, than is contained in this psalm. It is a hymn
of praise and thanksgiving to Jahveh, the rock and the deliverer,
as grand in conception as it is perfect in execution, in which
David first describes his wonderful deliverance from the utmost
danger;1 then enters into the grounds of this divine deliverance,
and shows that, in accordance with the double aspect of the
true God, only the God of justice could so elevate the just man
who is true to Him,2 and only the sole and mighty Spirit God so
elevate him who has faith in Him, as to make many nations, of
the very existence of some of which he was hardly aware, do
homage to him as their royal head.3
In the following spring Joab was sent with the army to ac
complish the one thing which still remained to be done — the
reduction of the strong fortress of Rabbah which had now con
tinued for several years to defy the power of David. This royal
metropolis of the Ammonites consisted of a so-called water-
city (that is, a lower city on a small river) and the citadel, which
was very strong.4 When Joab, after devastating the level
country, had taken the lower city after a severe struggle, he
reported it to David with a request that he would come and
preside in person over the final capture which was now immi
nent, that he might not himself carry off the honour and glory
of the reduction of a city of such extraordinary strength.
David accordingly advanced with a fresh army, and, after some
final struggles, succeeded in taking it. The royal crown,
the gold and precious stones of which weighed a full talent, he
placed on his own head. The captive warriors of this and the
other cities of the country he punished with great severity on
account of the original cause which had led to the war. He
mangled them with saws, iron threshing sledges,5 and iron
shearing-machines, or roasted them in burning kilns.6
1 Vv. 5-20 [4-19]. 2 Vv. 21-31 [20-30]. 3 Vv. 32-46 [31-45].*
4 The sites have been discovered by the 5 P. 150.
most recent travellers, and fully support 6 2 Sam. xi. 1, xii. 26-31, and, much
the Biblical narrative. abbreviated, 1 Chron. xx. 1-3.
* On the division of the Psalm into strophes, see the remarks in ii, p. 354 sq.
160 THE REIGX OF DAVID.
The concluding events of this war enable us to fix its chro
nology, together with a number of earlier events, at least with
approximate accuracy. We know from the history of Uriah,
that this conquest of Rabbah took place in about the same year
in which Solomon was born ; supposing, then, that Solomon be
came king in his twentieth year,1 the beginning of the great
Ammonite war would fall at the latest in the tenth year of
David's rule over all Israel, or perhaps earlier, if it lasted one
or two years besides the three which are specified.
3) The Census.
So great an increase of external power as David had now
attained, is liable to react oppressively upon the masses of the
people, unless they protect their ancient privileges against the
royal prerogative with an energy which grows with the growing-
power of the throne. We shall explain hereafter the form
which this relation assumed in Solomon's reign ; but the ac
count of the numbering of the people (the census) which took
place under David, furnishes a conspicuous proof that even when
he was at the zenith of his power, the ancient popular liberties
did not suffer.2 That the census really took place, admits of no
doubt, though the numbers 3 which have com e down to us are
S
very rough. It is equally certain that it was not undertaken till
the later years of David's reign, partly because the plague which
is mentioned in connexion with it is expressly said to be the
second great national calamity of David's reign,4 partly because
a measure of this nature, to which Joab devoted nine months
and twenty days, could only be undertaken in a year undisturbed
by any foreign wars. We can hardly doubt what was David's
intention in having it made. He cannot have wished to count
the number of his warriors with a view to further conquests,
for the army followed him everywhere with sufficient alacrity,
and he lived in no kingdom where the citizens shrank from
military service, either from simple indifference to a govern
ment which had no command of their affections, or from love of
commercial and artistic industry. It would be still further from
the mark simply to ascribe to him a childish delight in the
great number of the population of his kingdom, if for no other
1 It is true that the Biblical sources 1-xxii. 1, are in part derived from some
give us no information on this subject, other fuller source to which the Chronicler
According to Josephns (Ant. viii. 7. 8), had access, but are also in part pure re-
Solomon -was hardly 14 years old when modelling by the Chronicler himself.
he became king. 3 P. 144.
2 2 Sam. xxiv. ; the additions to this 4 2 Sam. xxiv. ; cf. p. 136 sq.
narrative, which appear in 1 Chron. xxi.
THE CEXSUS. 161
reason, simply because an undertaking of such importance and
such difficulty could not have anything to do with childish
curiosity. The only satisfactory explanation of this measure is
that it was intended as the foundation of an organised and
vigorous government like that of Egypt or Phoenicia, under
which the exact number of the houses and inhabitants of every
city and village would have to be obtained, so as to make it pos
sible to summon the people for general taxation. The progress
towards some such completion of the development of the royal
power in Israel was so thoroughly in harmony with the tendencies
of the age, that under Solomon, at any rate, it was actually ac
complished ; David might, therefore, project some such census
and even commence it, without, strictly speaking, any sinister
purpose. But it is well known what a profound aversion and
what an instinctive abhorrence certain nations, ancient and
modern, harbour against any such design, which they dimly
suspect, not perhaps without good reason, is likely to result in
a dangerous extension of the governing power and its encroach
ment, on the sanctity of the private home. In Israel especially,
where the limitation of the royal power was demanded by the
established religion itself, it might lead to a dangerous collision
between two sets of efforts and duties ; and in the uncertainty
as to the possibility of reconciling any such innovation with
the ancient religion and popular liberty, any national disaster
which happened at the critical moment might very well be in
terpreted in all innocence by the people, by the prophets, and
by the king himself, as a heavenly voice of warning against so
dangerous a step. It deserves notice, though it is entirely in
harmony with the whole nature of David's relation to his age,
that this novel undertaking was not carried through in his
reign, but was given up by him while in progress ; nor could
anything better illustrate the strength of ancient popular
feeling under his rule, and the candour with which he sub
mitted, even in the possession of the great power of his later
years, to the oracle which advised him against this question
able innovation.
The account of the earlier narrator is framed from this point
of view,, and has been but little altered by a second hand. It is
as follows. David, led, as it were, by some evil spirit, jealous
of Israel,1 into the idea of numbering the people, commissions
1 In 2 Sam. xxiv. 1 jt2&J>, which is still where by this narrator, 1 Sam. xxix. 4,
retained by the ChronicleVin this passage, 2 Sam xix' 23 [xix- 2.21 > the connexion
must be inserted before Qn 2 5 the word is Prevents our referring it to a man, as in
. •••'? 1 Kings xi. 14, 23. Cf. also the Jahrbb.
also used with a similar meaning else- ^er 3^ wiss. x. p. 35.
VOL. III. M
162 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
Joab and the oilier generals l who resided with him at Jeru
salem to carry it out. Joab, who here as elsewhere represents
the feeling of the common people, answers doubtfully, cand may
thy God increase the people a hundredfold during thy life ;
but why dost thou take pleasure in this thing? ' But as David
will not allow himself to be thus dissuaded, they set to work
and make a circuit of the whole land of the twelve tribes,
pitching a camp, in soldier fashion, wherever they intended to
make more than a short stay. They pass from Aroer 2 on the
south-east, and the £ city in the midst of the river,' through the
land of Gad and Jazer, as far north as Gilead, and the lower
tracts of Hermon ; 3 then on the north-west from Dan in the
forests of Lebanon, down along the Phoenician cities to Beer-
sheba in the extreme south. After an absence of nine months and
twenty days, they return to Jerusalem and inform David of the
number of men in the whole nation 4 capable of bearing arms
which they had now ascertained. But immediately afterwards
David's heart smites him,5 as though he suspected that he
might have transgressed ; but it is too late, for next morning
the prophet Gad appears before him to announce the divine
retribution, which only leaves him to choose one of three
woes — a famine in the land for three successive years, defeat in
the face of the enemy for three months, or a pestilence for three
days.6 He chooses the last, since he can find more consolation
in falling directly by the hand of God (for so was a pestilence
regarded) than by the hand of man in war, or by the slow
ravages of hunger. So from that very morning till the limit of
the three days, the pestilence rages through the whole land,
sweeping away 77,000 victims; and already the destroying
angel stretches his hand over Jerusalem herself, and stands
1 Vcr. 2 must be emended in conformity 6 It is easy to see the artificial arrange-
with ver. 4. ment by which three woes, each lasting
2 Vol. ii. p. 295. three successive periods (for ]}2&, 2 Sam.
» Instead of the unintelligible <pnn in xxir. 13 we mnst read ^ accOrding to
ver. 6, it seems that we ought to read the Lxx ftnd Chron.) arfreckoned by
JD-irj, and also further on -^ after the years Qr m(mths Qp ^ ^ .f .g ^
Vulgate, instead of jjp, in accordance with more striking that these three woes exactly
Ps. cxxxii. 6. correspond with those which elsewhere
4 1 Chron. xxi. 6 (cf. xxvii. 23 sq.) in- actually occur in the course of David's
sorts the statement that Joab, from dis- history at Jerusalem, for his flight from
like to David's order, omitted Levi and Absalom lasted probably some three
Benjamin from the enumeration. The months, and concerning the famine see
exception of the priestly tribe is under- above, p. 136. This shows, therefore, that
£too<t even in the earlier narrative ; and the?e three woes, as the only ones which
Benjamin is perhaps inserted simply as were experienced during David's thirty-
the tribe of Jerusalem, according to Deut. three years, had long become proverbial
xxxiii. 12. when the narrative assumed its present
5 This agrees in a striking manner with form.
1 Sam. xx iv. 6 [<3] ; cf. p. 96, note 6.
THE CENSUS. 163
with the pestilence at the threshing-floor of Araunah l the
Jebusite, when Jahveh, at the agonised entreaty of the re
pentant king, commands him to refrain, that Jerusalem may
be spared. It was just the time of wheat harvest, and this
Jebusite was busied about his wheat-threshing under the open
sky on the hill north-east of Zion ; 2 so David with his chief
ministers goes forth, by the advice of Gad, to the threshing-floor,
buys it from the Jebusite on the spot, together with the oxen
which are at work and the wooden implements of husbandry,
hastily raises an altar, and offers the oxen to Jahveh. The
pestilence was stayed from further ravages, and it was thus
universally recognised that there was in the neighbourhood of
Zion a place of surpassing sanctity.
The reason for bringing this last circumstance so distinctly
forward, is 110 doubt to be found in the fact that Solomon after
wards replaced the little altar which was hastily constructed 011
this mountain, by a far larger one in the temple itself; 3 and
the choice of this very spot for the site of the temple is un
questionably connected with this occurrence under David, for
in the ancient times a temple would never be built on a spot
hitherto unhallowed. But the Book of Origins describes the
census as being taken under Moses without exciting the anger
of God, and a similar measure appears to have been carried
through under Solomon, without any such melancholy result;
which, it is self-evident, did not spring from any universal
necessity ; but as if to reconcile the higher view of the inno
cence of such a census with the temporary one of its sin fulness,
the Book of Origins, after its law-giving fashion, adds that for
every man enrolled in the census, half a shekel must be paid as
an offering, in order that no divine judgment may be inflicted
during the census.4
3. David's Temptations.
If we now go back in imagination to the moment when David,
victorious over mighty heathen nations alike in the far north
1 This reading of the name is not He- 15, in the LXX, and 1 Chron. xxi. 20,
brew, but perhaps it is all the more likely belongs essentially to the passage, and fits
to be Jebusite ; another reading is Orna in with the nine months and twenty days
in Sam. and Oman in Chron. Since he of ver. 8, the beginning of the year being
is called king in 2 Sam. xxiv. 23, it would reckoned from autumn.
be quite conceivable that he had actually 3 This circumstance is also omitted in
been the king of Jebus before its conquest ; the present Book of Samuel, but is found
but, if so, we must also suppose that the in ver. 25 in the LXX, and in 1 Chron.
title, which appears nowhere but in ver. 23, xxii. 1.
was only omitted from the other passages * Ex. xxx. 12, xxxviii. 25 sq. ; cf. the
in the later redaction. Alterthumcr, p. 350.
2 This addiiion, which is found in ver.
M 2
1G4 THE EEIGX OF DAVID.
and the -extreme south, successful first in restoring and then
in increasing the full power of Israel, celebrated his splendid
triumph in Jerusalem,1 and celebrated it, moreover, not only like
an ordinary conqueror, with magnificent processions, but also
with so wonderfully noble an ascent of the spirit to the true
God as is manifested in the great hymn, Ps. xviii., we might
well wish, in our human fashion, that as he stood at this eleva
tion, he had closed a life hitherto (as far as was possible before
Christianity) almost entirely spotless, and bequeathed to pos
terity a wholly unclouded memory and the purest type of true
royalty. But the ascent of the dizzy height is always attended
by the possibility of a slip and then of a headlong fall. What
seems unlawful to the ruler ? and what, moreover, to the pre
eminently favoured, the beloved of men and God? and the
fresher the success of life, the greater becomes the power of the
temptation. It is true that the strictness of the community of
Jahveh, and the course of a life such as David's had hitherto
been, a life which owed all its superiority simply to a single-
hearted fidelity to the inward and outward demands of the true
religion, a life in fact already matured, which in every trial as
in every success had only become more deeply conscious of the
eternal truth — all this would seem to have disarmed these
temptations beforehand ; but even if all the coarser temptations
before which Saul (for instance) fell, had already lost their
power, yet the more subtle ones germinated all the more readily
in the secret recesses of the heart, while even the least of them
carried all hell within it. As though there were a sort of com
pulsion upon the Old Testament to supply, in the clear light of
history, the most indubitable proof that the last step to the
perfection of true religion was still wanting, we see, at this
point, the very hero who had till now conferred the utmost
glory on his religion by the unblemished purity of his regal life
wavering in his lofty position, and, having once wavered, forced
to exert his utmost strength to render as harmless as possible
the evil results of his fault, both immediate and remote. Thus
while the old religion reveals its grandeur with the greatest
possible distinctness (for after all, David, as the hero of a moral
struggle, did overcome, by its strength, the evil consequences
of his deed as far as they could be overcome), it shows wdth
equal distinctness its deficiencies also. The evidently intentional
omission by the Chronicler of the whole of this aspect of David's
life, from a feeling of reserve which was then on the in
crease, simply shows that he had not conceived the full life of
1 P. ir>9.
HIS INTRIGUE WITH BATH-SIIEBA. 165
Antiquity with the truth and simplicity of the earlier narrators;
for the latter were right in not hesitating to represent, along
with the real and brilliant virtues of the great hero, this sudden
eclipse, the darkness of which the effort of his whole soul could
only gradually succeed in dissipating.
1) It was an immemorial custom in all those countries, from
which even Muhammed (who certainly showed in this a want of
greatness) did not depart, for the magnificence and power of a
ruler to display itself in the multiplication of his establishments,
that is, of his wives, — for every wife involved a separate estab
lishment.1 Now the religion of Israel no doubt set forth the
ideal of true marriage in all its accounts of the creation as well
as in the type of Isaac and Kebekah ; 2 but it had not quite
strength enough fully to carry out this ideal in practice, and so
it tolerated what, strictly speaking, it could not itself approve.
This very history of David, however, gives the most striking
example of the consequences of such a doubtful attitude. That
he should take certain additional wives and concubines in
Jerusalem 3 was by no means unexpected ; but where was he
to draw the line ? It was after his great victories, while Joab and
the army were absent before the Ammonite capital, that, as he
was one evening pacing his palace roof, he saw Bath-sheba4
in the neighbouring house. She was at first unknown to him ;
but it appeared on enquiry that she was a married woman, and
her willingness, in spite of this, to come to him in secret, cer
tainly makes her a partner in his guilt; for the striking example
of the Shularnite, in the Song of Solomon, shows how completely
even a maiden might in the old community defy the very
mightiest. But there is just as little doubt on which side lay
the heavier guilt.
2) It shows the utmost depravity when Christians seek to
shelter their own unchaste and shameless lives under an appeal
to that of David, and that, too, although none of their other
proceedings show the smallest trace of David's noble spirit,
and although they are by no means ready to bear, as David did,
the consequences of their shame. The crime of David was
certainly one which other rulers in that part of the world then
committed freely ; 5 but as soon as he had time for reflexion, he
1 As we see from 2 Sam. xiii. 7 sqq. 20. is said to have borne four sons to David,
2 Vol. i. p. 293. one of whom was called Nathan, but these
8 2 Sam. v. 13-16 ; cf. xv. 16. four names appear in the same order with-
4 She is called m^rna in 1 Chron. iii. out any information about their mother in
2 Sam. v. 14.
5 ; no doubt this is originally only another 5 Thig ig d even b the storieg of
form of the same name, the intermediate thfi wiyes of the Patriarclls . ^ 293
form being yi^Tl2' 1° this passage she 327
1G6 THE EEIGN OF DAVID.
might well remember that his position in Jahveh's commu
nity laid 011 him the obligation of being a very different
prince from heathen monarchs ; and indeed it was only his
dread of the terrible consequences which might ensue, that
dictated his conduct towards Uriah. But the Hittite Uriah, one
of the 600 Gibborim,1 may also be regarded from a moral stand
point as a type of the marvellous power and self-control for
which these troops, then in their prime, must have been dis
tinguished. Thus the attempts to induce the Gibbor, when
recalled from the camp, to sleep with his wife, failed simply
because of the soldierly sense of duty, which made him declare
that as long as his companions remained on the field with the
holy Ark and bore the hardships of service, he would not avail
himself of any special privilege. So far David had attempted
to hush up his solitary lapse, and evidently intended then to
have nothing more to do with the woman; but now his growing
sense of the shame of detection drove him on to commit to the
unlettered soldier, when he returned to Joab, a despatch which
provided for his being stationed unsupported in the front of
the battle. It is certainly true that Saul had once laid a similar
plot against himself; 2 and also that the requirements of service
make it necessary that some of a besieging party should be more
exposed than others ; but all this cannot excuse the action of
David. The valiant Uriah appears consequently to have fallen
by a stone hurled from the besieged city to which he had ap
proached too near. He perished before he had fully learned
the re]ation in which the king stood to him, happy only in his
ignorance ; but when David married his wife after the mourn
ing, and she bore him a son, it is not surprising that in spite of
his care the secret leaked out in more than rumours.
This broke the powerful spell which had hitherto bound the
whole nation to the name of David, for we can readily under
stand that a moral nation such as Israel then was, so far un-
corrupted and just, filled once more with aspirations towards
a grander life, must have been cruelly undeceived by such real
stains on the character of a hero whom it had hitherto regarded
with unqualified admiration. Every morally reprehensible action
involves an infinite series of fatal consequences, partly through
the relaxation of the strength and purity of the sinner's own
soul, partly through the influence of the bad example on
others and the breaking of the spell which knits the uncorrupted,
by a strong bond, all to each ; nor can anything be of avail in
such a case except a genuine penitence accompanied by the
1 P. 139 sq. 2 P- 74<
HIS REPENTANCE. 167
complete removal of the cause of the offence and fall, if it rests
on a real imperfection in existing arrangements.
In the present instance the austerity of the old religion gave
proof of the great vigour of its life in the whole kingdom, in
the fact that David's fault was neither palliated nor endured in
gloomy silence, but was laid before him on the right occasion
with the utmost power, and then fully recognised in its true
colours and deeply repented of by himself. All the good which
the old religion could effect by its own energy, without founding
a completely new order of things, was in this case accomplished
with the most wonderful consistency and the noblest results.
The Prophet Nathan, who was descended l from a priestly
family, and was probably also somewhat younger than the
king, met David after the birth of his son with a combi
nation of firmness and judgment which I shall not here
attempt to reproduce in my own words, since the account in
2 Sam. xii. is as easy to understand as it is inimitable. But if
in this matter Nathan shows himself great, David is no less so.
Though he had but now fallen so low, the cutting truth of the
Prophetic word shakes him out of the hollow passion in which
he has lived since first he saw this woman, and rouses him
again to a consciousness of his own better self. He is still too
full of the better feelings of his earlier life intentionally to resist
the truth which, once revealed to him, tortures him so inexo
rably, and against which no dull torpor can any longer hold out ;
nor is anything wanting except the forcible shock of the Prophet
to awaken in a spirit like David's a perception of the abyss which
yawns at his feet, and a deep yearning to retrace his steps.
Not that after he had long stubbornly endeavoured to conceal
his first fault and had thereby sunk deeper and deeper, the
return to a profound and genuine repentance was as easy to him
as we might conclude from the narrative, which is only too brief.2
On the contrary, we see very clearly from Ps. xxxii. how bitter
were the inward struggles he endured, before he allowed himself
to be reformed by the divine chastisement and became strong
enough openly to acknowledge his sins before God. His great
ness, however, is shown in the fact that, king as he was, he soon
humbled himself like the lowliest before the higher truth, and
although his penitence was as deep and as sincere as possible,
it did not cause him either to lose his dignity or to forget his
royal duties. When the new-born son was struck with sickness
in which it was not altogether groundless to see a result and
divine penalty of the sin of his parents, David besought God
1 P. 89, note 2. 2 2 Sam. xii. 13.
1G8 THE EEIGN OF DAVID.
for his life with prayers and lonely fasts from which the elders
of his house (his uncles and elder brothers) could not move
him. When the child died on the seventh day, no one had
courage to tell him, but he perceived from the whispering of
his servants that his worst fears were realised. He appeared
"before them composed, went out into the sanctuary to pray,
and took food once more, pointing out to those whom his con
duct surprised, the truth that further pining could no longer
avail anything. That his repentance brought with it a genuine
and complete reformation is proved by his subsequent history :
in all the rest of his life he never again fell into a similar trans
gression. Indeed, it is scarcely possible for the man who has
felt, with the intensity expressed in the wonderfully moving
hymn, Ps. xxxii., the horror of sin and the blessing of complete
redemption from its power, ever again to lose the truth so
hardly won and so clearly perceived. NOT was Bath-sheba
without comfort, for she subsequently bore to him another son,
Solomon, and him (we are told) Jahveh loved, and did not slay
him. The pious father in his happiness entreated the oracle,
through Nathan, to confer on the new-born child some name
of lofty import, and Solomon, as his parents called him, received
through the Prophet the glorious additional name of Jedidiah,
i.e. Beloved of God.1 The sadness of the fate of the first child
rendered the omens under which the second stepped into its
place all the more auspicious, and we can easily understand that
of all his sons this one became the dearest.
In this manner the guilt, as far as the guilty man himself
could remove its consequences, was certainly atoned for in the
proper way, and sensible men in Israel would neither recollect
it against the king nor suffer themselves to be seduced by his
example into similar crimes. But the only adequate means
of preventing the further consequences would have been to im
prove as far as possible the social arrangement which supplied
a provocation, from which there was no escape, to these and
1 Thus we see from 2 Sam. xii. 25, that religious capacity. Indeed Jedidiah was
a loftier significance may have been at- a newly-invented name, and does not occur
tached to proper names formed in -jah as elsewhere, whereas Solomon was an ancient
such (cf. Lehrb. p. 671 sqq.) ; this is -why and common name (cf. the similar names
the expression used is ' he called him Lev. xxiv. 11, Numb, xxxiv. 27, 1 Chron.
Jedidiah because of Jahveh,' to call him xxvi. 25 sq.) ; so that nothing is more
after the meaning of Jahveh ; for the untrue than that Solomon first received
words ' because of Jahveh ' are certainly that name from the ( peace ' of his time,
intended to contain an explanation of the This double name, therefore, has nothing
second element of the name. This is how in common with the custom which may be
every Muhammedan, besides his so-called observed among the later kings of Judah,
baptismal name, may have an additional of changing their names at the beginning
name of loftier significance ending in of their reign, as if to secure an auspicious
-cldin, which designates the man in his commencement.
HIS POLYGAMY. 169
similar offences ; that is to say, polygamy ought to have been
abolished, both among the people generally and especially in the
royal household. This institution is the absolutely irrepressible
source of numberless evils of this description ; it ever furnishes
a ready stimulus to unbounded sensual desire in the sovereign ;
and, should he be exalted above it, is likely to introduce a
dissolute life amongst the very different children of different
mothers, by bringing the pleasures of sense so prominently and
so early before their eyes. Moreover, the more completely the
children of different mothers differ from one another, the more
readily is sensual desire kindled between them ; and finally, if
they are kept, by strict supervision, in chaste separation from
each other, threatening evils still remain in connexion with the
choice of one of the various sons for the succession to the throne;
for the son of a favourite wife might suppose that such a re
lationship gave him the first claim to the crown, or a wife who
enjoyed the king's preference might beg the same preference for
her son. In this lies hidden an inextricable tangle of the most
mischievous evils, and no sooner is one set aside than two or
three others spring up ; and any single one is enough profoundly
to disturb the peace of a whole kingdom. If, therefore, the
royal polygamy had been abolished on this occasion and the
whole household of the king arranged on principles of stricter
chastity, this first lapse would hardly have been followed in the
dominions of the kings of Israel by others of a like nature.
But neither David nor Nathan nor any other sage of that
period would be likely to think of a radical cure of an evil
which the whole of Antiquity was yet too far from recognising
as such, either in the royal house or in that of the humblest
subject. Thus the evil, even if it could no longer offer any
temptation to David himself, still retained all its strength for
everyone else, so that the monarchy in Israel remained exposed
to the same perturbations to which it is still subject in all
polygamous countries ; and even in the freshness of its prime
the germ of destruction might already be detected, ready to
cooperate sooner or later with other causes for its dissolution.
Thus the subsequent troubles which Amnon, Absalom, and
Adonijah brought into David's house — and they were the only
ones which temporarily clouded the clear sky in which his star
shone — were all of them connected with this fundamental wrong-,
o y
and on the same thread hung many of the evils which were
felt under David's successors. Hence the account of Nathan's
severe rebuke to David might appropriately assume the form
under which we now possess it. Because he has availed himself
170 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
of war to kill Uriah, Nathan threatens that war shall never cease
from his own house, and because he has taken his wife secretly
for himself, his own wives shall be violated in the open face
of day by another (Absalom ). When David manifests penitence,
Nathan, it is true, withdraws the sentence of instant death
which hangs over his head. He shall still live ; but because
he has furnished cause of offence to the enemies of Jahveh his
new-born son shall die — and this actually happens. Experience
of the sequel, especially the history of Absalom, may have im
parted its very distinct colouring to this short narrative, as the
earlier narrator thus gives, according to his custom, a prophetic
forecast of all the history to come ; but yet there is certainly
an internal connexion between the subsequent troubles of the
house of David and that which first breaks out on this oc
casion, and it must be considered allowable to give it a corre
sponding prominence and force in the representation of the
whole affair.
3) We do not know exactly how long it was after these
events that Absalom found the first motives for his own guilty
conduct in his brother Amnon's infamous deed, but it is
probable that no long period intervened.1 Amiioii was David's
eldest son, and his mother Ahinoam, who does not appear
to have been of specially noble extraction, was David's first
wife. He was a man of very violent and insolent disposition, a
character which is often found in the first-born sons of families
such as David's, and which is attributed by tradition to Reuben
himself as a typical example.2 He was also still further cor
rupted by the low cunning of Jonadab, the son of his paternal
uncle Shimeah, who was ready to truckle to the eldest-born.
This Amnon fell desperately in love with his half-sister Tamar,
the daughter of David's third wife, and though an old Mosaic
law laid a strict prohibition on such attachments, he paid no
heed to it, since this law was at all events not very rigorously
enforced3 at a time when the children of different mothers
1 The chronology of the following his- and forty is certainly found in 1 Kings v.
tory depends almost entirely on the num.- 6 [iv. 26] and 2 Chron. ix. 25. If, then,
ber forty in 2 Sam. xv. 7 ; but this we adopt this reading of the number, some
number immediately involves the greatest ten years would elapse between Amnon's
difficulty and obscurity, for it does not in outrage and Absalom's rebellion, see xiii.
any way suit the case. Perhaps D^WlX 23, 38, xiv. 28, xv. 7. Supposing, then,
is a mistake for y^nj<, arising from the that Absalom's rebellion took place some
fact that this numeral,' being lower than ten Jears Before David's death, Amnon's
ten, was originally connected with a fol- crime must have been committed not long
lowing sing. ; which, though very rare, was after tne affair with Bath-sheba.
yet not quite impossible in the popular 2 Vol. i. p. 373 sq.
language (see my Lehrb. § 287i). A fur- 3 This results clearly from the whole
ther example of this confusion of four tone of the narrative 2 Sam. xiii. 1-16;
AMNOK AND TAMAR. 171
lived, as in the royal court, in separate houses, although it is
quite improbable that David would have sanctioned such a
marriage. The absolute impossibility of obtaining an interview
with the maiden, who led a modest life in another house, only
depressed him more and more every day, until at last he began
actually to pine away.1 When Jonadab at length drew his
secret from him, he advised him to take to his bed as though he
were ill, and, when his father came to see him, to beg him to
send Tamar to him to bake some cakes suited to a sick man's
palate and give them to him to eat. The monster was suc
cessful in his trick, although the maiden resisted to the utter
most, and reminded him in his fury of the special moral law of
Israel. But no sooner is his lust appeased than his love is
changed in a moment into yet more violent hatred, for he now
feels for the first time the sinfulness of his deed, and the im
possibility of his love being ever reciprocated ; and the unhappy
girl is instantly thrust violently out of his house. Uttering loud
lamentations she goes to her own brother Absalom, who bids
her keep silence, and she remains desolate but quiet in her house.
Even David, though greatly incensed, would not punish the
wretch, in consideration of his being his first-born son ; 2 just
as Eeuben, according to the Patriarchal tradition, remained
unpunished up to the close of his father's life.
This outrage, which no doubt brought back the sad memory
of his own former offence, must have weighed heavily on the
king's heart. An ancient custom enjoined on the brothers the
duty of running every risk for the honour of a sister,3 in case
she had no parents or they neglected the duty ; and although
it was quite unheard-of for one of the brothers to attempt any
thing contrary to the king's will, yet Absalom was not the man
to sit quietly down, even in the presence of his royal father.
Absalom was David's third son (of his second son we never
hear anything, and therefore conclude that he was a person of
no importance), and, moreover, his mother was not of plebeian
origin like David's other wives, but the daughter of the king
of Geshur.4 He was a man of daring character, and inherited
from his father nothing but his regal pride. Accordingly
and the ease with which such exceptions yer. 4, formed from ;H, according to my
might be made is seen from the remarks Lchrb^ * 121a. The name Jonathan> p.
in the Altcrthumer, p .226 sq. So quickly 148 ig easil interchangeable with Jona-
would the customs of heathen courts infect ^^
that of Jerusalem also.
1 Instead of rnWinn in ver. 2, which ac- 2 This addition to xm. 21 must be sup-
cording to ver. 5 sq. has another meaning, Plied froni the LXX-
3 Cf. note on Cant. i. 6, viii. 8, in the
it is better to read n^.nn according to pichtcr des A B * P 115
172 THE KEJGN OF DAVID.
he observes tlie profound est silence towards Amnon ; but two
years afterwards, when all might be forgotten, he invites all
his brothers and David himself to a shearers' feast at his estate
at Baal-Hazor several miles to the north of Jerusalem,1 and is
delighted to find that David, whom he is not really anxious to
include in his invitation, while declining for himself, will allow
him to be accompanied by his brothers, and, at his special
request, by Amnon. At the feast, when they are all at their
wine, Absalom's slaves, by a preconcerted arrangement, suddenly
break in on them and slay Amnon with their swords. The princes
all mount their mules and fly in consternation, but the report
that Absalom has slain them all reaches David at Jerusalem
before them. The cunning Jonadab alone suspects the truth,
and strives to comfort David, and he soon sees his conjecture
confirmed by the arrival of the princes and their attendants
hurrying in precipitate flight along the road from Beth-horon.
This man, who probably desired to make himself of some im
portance as David's nephew, was always clever enough to guess
the truth from the first, but it is sad to think that his thoughts
and his advice were never founded 011 anything but a knowledge
of the devil in man. In this case he had observed that ever
since the violation of his sister, there had always been a look
of dark revenge on Absalom's face.2 Meanwhile Absalom had
fled to Geshur, to his maternal grandfather Talmai, son of
Ammihud, who, though only a petty monarch, and doubtless
dependent on David, could very well protect him. But David,
even when the first bitter pang was over, continued for a whole
year to wear mourning for Amnon.3
1 The addition of Baal shows that in derived from the earlier narrator, since
early Canaanite times this place must have he himself calls the -city n*)£y, 1 Sam.
been consecrated, and therefore at one xiii. 17. A still greater objection is, that
time of some importance, but at the time the troop of fugitives could not in this
of which we are speaking it had certainly case have returned along the road from
become very insignificant, though it is the western Beth-horon as they are said
still mentioned, Nell. xi. 33, as a Ben- to have done in an addition to ver. 34 in
jamite place, but without the addition of the LXX which is certainly genuine. We
Baal. According to 2 Sam. xiii. 23, it must suppose, therefore, that the place
appears to have been situated on the skirts lay to the west on the borders of Benjamin
of the eastern desert near the larger city and Ephraim, and that this is what is
of Ephraim which is mentioned as late as meant by the words DH3X DJ? ', if there
John xi. 54 ; and if, as we might conclude was no city DHDK, this interpretation
from the reading jnQy, Qert, or fi^fy follows as a matter of course.
KctMb, 2 Chron. xiii. 19, this was identical 2 It seems necessary to read n»tpb> for
with the rns which lay near Bethel, it HDS^, in ver. 32, unless it can be taken
might perhaps be identified with Robin- Bomething like * > as formed by con.
son's ,*^c Jj'i MM. ^s. i. p. 448, ii. p. \->
traction from 7K£E>, and signifying some-
64, in which case it would lie to the thingfr/'^rt«^d,i.e.forebodingmisfortune.
north-east^ of Bethel. But were this so, 3 A long pause in the narrative must
the narrative in 2 Sam. xiii. could not be be supposed at ver. 37.
THE WOMAN OF TEKOA1I. 173
When Absalom had lived three years at a foreign court in a
sort of exile, David, who was at length consoled for the death of
Amnon, ceased to express himself with indignation against him, l
while in secret no donbt he felt a yearning to see him once
more ; but before a complete reconciliation could be effected,
a further step still remained to be taken ; and this of course
a king has to consider far more seriously than the simple head
of a family. But Joab, whose own daring made him fond of
daring wherever displayed, and who was especially attracted
to it in a probable heir to the throne like Absalom, no sooner
observed this change to be taking place in David's mind, than
he formed a project by which the king, in his very capacity of
chief judge, should find the glimmering fire of paternal love
suddenly fanned into a burning flame. It was a common
practice of antiquity to preface the truth which had to be
inculcated by an easily intelligible example which might serve
as an introduction. In this way a powerful person who had
been guilty of a serious delinquency, might himself be appealed
to as the judge of a case brought forward as a parallel, so that
his judgment, caught in this snare, might be transferred,
without the possibility of escape, to the real matter in hand ;
and this method was in special favour in the case of kings,
the supreme judges, with reference even to their own actions.
Accordingly, just as Nathan had coine before David 011 a
previous occasion with the words ' Give judgment ! ' 2 and a
narrative which simply served as an illustration, so now Joab
sends a wise woman from Tekoah, having previously arranged
with her the course she was to adopt. She came to David
dressed in deep mourning, fell down before him with a cry
for his royal help, and then explained that she was a widow
whose two sons had fallen out with each other in the field, and
one had slain the other ; on this the whole body of her rela
tives demanded that she should surrender her only remaining
son to vengeance as his brother's murderer ; but were she to do
so, she would have no heir to continue her husband's family ;
she would be like a cinder utterly burnt out ! After hearing
this case, which was certainly well calculated for impressing
the truth that there must be something yet higher than blood-
vengeance and the capital punishment of every murder, the
king replied, somewhat indifferently, that she need only go home
1 After TOPlI (for this is the proper case with this narrator ; ' the anger of
form) in xiii"39~ some such word as n»q, David ccfsed to manifest itself against
cf. ver. 21, must have fallen out ; ~)K is in-
( . 2 These words must certainly be added
terchaneeable with Stf. as is so often the in 2 Sam. xii. 1 from the Vulgate.
]74 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
again, and lie would at once give the proper orders. On this,
with the cunning semblance of drawing back, she expressed a
fear that she might perhaps be troubling the king too much,
since, even if the dreaded blood-vengeance were exacted, the
guilt would still pertain to herself and her relations only, not
to the king and his throne ; but David only promised the more
emphatically to punish the first of her relatives who harassed
her any more, even with words. Upon this she became bolder,
and wished that the king would, if such a thing might be, swear
by God that, since the destroying avengers of blood were so
numerous, they should not be allowed to put her son to death ;
and David at once swore that not a hair of her son's head
should be touched. Had she really desired nothing further
from the king than what she had already brought forward, her
object would have been now completely gained. Moved by the
combined tact and persistency of her entreaties, the king had
at last promised her the most complete protection for the pro
secuted murderer, and in so doing had acknowledged the possi
bility of an exception to the general rule But it was only now
that she could come to the application of David's own case,
which was all the more difficult, because she could not use the
same openness and boldness of speech as a Prophet, but, on the
other hand, her only course was to allude slightly, and appa
rently incidentally, but yet clearly, to the case of Absalom. So
she begged permission to lay yet another matter before him, and
with gentle words, yet suddenly adopting a higher tone, she con
tinued, 'How then can the king find it in his heart (since he is
shown to be guilty himself by that very sentence of his own) to
be so cruel to the people of God (that is, to members of the true
community, who have a right to a share in its blessings), as not
to recall his banished son? The life of all men is so transient,
and as water when spilt cannot be gathered up again, so they,
when once they have sunk into the nether world, can never
return thence ; but may God never take away before its time the
soul of that man who cannot find it in his heart to banish any
exile from before his face.' 1 In this way she had touched upon
her real object with a firm but cautious hand, and now, fully
conscious of the position in which she stood towards the king,
1 This is the way in which the difficult radical in a remarkable manner ; s^e notes
words 2 Sam. xiv. 13 sq. are to be under- on Ps. vii. 10 [vii. 9] in the Dichter dcs
stood; ]"liST3 ver- 13 refers to the follow- A. B., and on Ez. xiii. 7 in the Prophetcn
,ng V^n 'rta1? 5 and for ntyni we must des A- B- The whole discourse of the
wi<e woman may serve as an historical il-
read l^fT ™ close subordination to ^93. lustr.ltinn of such proverbs as Prov. xxv.
In this participial formation the *| is else- 15. which is an additional reason for giving
where occasionally written before the first it so fully.
RECALL OF ABSALOM. 175
she turned rapidly back in conclusion to the opening of her dis
course ; ' the facts she had come to lay before the king were
these : the people had made her afraid on account of her son, so
that she had resolved to implore the king's grace for herself and
him, in the hope that he would be sure to help her and son to
gether ; the king's word would set her at rest, for he was like an
angel of God in the just hearing of complaints, and she wished
him every blessing.' Since David could hardly fail after all this
to perceive the real drift of her petition, he asked her whether
she had been instructed by Joab to address him thus : and she
confessed that she had been told by him exactly what she was to
say, since he desired to present the affair of Absalom in another
light ; but surely the king was like an angel in wisdom, to know
everything upon earth. Upon this, David sent for Joab, and to
his great delight gave him permission to bring his friend Absa
lom back; accordingly, Joab fetched him immediately from
Geshur to Jerusalem.
But it was still impossible for David to take him fully into
favour, as though he had committed no great offence against
his king and father ; while, therefore, he allowed him once
more to live quietly in his former house in Jerusalem, he did
not permit him to appear afc court. Treatment like this, how
ever, wounded the young man's pride, for he no doubt thought
that he had already gained a victory in his recall to his own
country. His vain young heart was now quite unsettled by the
previous alternations of his fate, for, ever since the death of
Amnon, as he was probably David's eldest son, he must have
regarded himself as his successor ; and the present intermingling
of good and bad fortune, of honour and disgrace, was as little as
possible calculated to effect a radical reformation in his restless
heart. This seems soon to have originated in his disordered mind
the abandoned project of revenging himself for the imagined
slight, even if it were by expelling his father and seizing his
crown. Many circumstances may have given secret encourage
ment to this design, mad as it appears at first sight. That the
probable heir to the throne should be early surrounded by all
sorts of flatterers and malcontents is only what we should expect.
He was (we are told) the handsomest man of his age, faultless
from head to foot, and wonderfully graced by flowing locks,1 and
exceptional personal beauty and stature were considered 2 one
1 The exact equivalent of the 200 Ibs. have no exact knowledge of this scale of
imperial weight, which the hair which was weights. But see above, p. 69.
cut off each year weighed (2 Sam. xiv. 26) a Pp. 18, 23.
cannot be accurately fixed, as long as we
176 THE REIGX OF DAVID.
of the first marks of royal dignity. No reasonable or right-
minded man had any ground of the least importance for being
dissatisfied with David's rule. The indications of history lead
us to an opposite conclusion, and, from the earnestness of his
penitence for his first display of tyranny, it is by no means
likely that he ever returned to a similar course. But we now
learn to appreciate the extraordinary difficulties with which
royalty itself had still to contend in those days. A king at that
time had to undertake in person an unlimited amount of work
and trouble of a kind which would hardly be thought of in the
present day ; for instance, he had to pronounce judgment in
person for everyone who came to seek justice at his hands, and
we can easily understand that the increasing extent of the king
dom of Israel rendered this task the harder to perform, and
that many a petitioner for justice must have departed not over
well pleased. In addition to this, the feeling of unrestrained
liberty which had been developed in such strength during the
preceding centuries still retained a powerful hold on the whole
people ; and it shows how very gentle David's rule had been,
that he had never yet made any attempt to confine it within
narrower bounds ; but there still remained a great deal of the
old lawlessness, and what was to prevent the people from being
carried away by the idea that as they had been the gainers by
the new supremacy of David in comparison with that of Saul,
so they might profit yet more by a further change ? More
over, the transgression of David, which, as has been said, had
broken the early spell of his rule, may have continued to work
to his disadvantage among many of his younger contemporaries.
But it is yet undeniable that, however powerfully such causes
might contribute to accelerate the progress of any revolutionary
and seditious movement, they were inadequate of themselves
to furnish its primary incitement. We must, therefore, avail
ourselves of sure indications to infer a still deeper cause.
When we reflect that the men who played the most important
parts under Absalom — his general Amasa, who was actually a
near relative of Joab and of David, and Ahithophel a citizen of
Giloh — belonged to the tribe of Judah, and that the insurrec
tion itself sprung into being at Hebron, the ancient capital of
Judah, it becomes certain that some discontent in David's own
tribe here came into play. In fact, after Absalom's death,
Judah remains resentful and apart, when the rest of the tribes
return to their allegiance. This proves clearly that the here
ditary jealousy among the tribes and the early antagonism
between Judah and his brethren is not yet eradicated. Judah,
CONSPIRACY OF ABSALOM. 177
accustomed from the earliest times to independence and pre
eminence, stood proudly apart under David even after Saul's
death,1 and now probably offered some opposition to the
growing unity of the kingdom, and fancied itself put too far
in the background in various ways, while the northern tribes
likewise uttered occasional complaints. And as at such times of
complicated grievance the most radically opposed parties often
form a momentary alliance in order to gain some object which
promises them mutual advantages, some of the malcontent
northern tribes appear to have followed the impulse given by
Judah. This is confirmed by the sequel of the rebellion, for the
ten tribes, from early experience no strangers to the evils of
division and anarchy, were the first to return to their allegiance,
and Judah followed after some delay. According to this view
Absalom was in the beginning at once tempter and tempted.
While Absalom, however, lived in.half-exile excluded from the
court, and was thus deprived of freedom of action, he could not
hope for success in his secret plans. Accordingly, after he had
endured this state of humiliation for about two years, he sent
to entreat Joab to admit him into the royal presence. Joab,
however, as the king's first minister and representative, feared
to venture 011 so decided a step. After a second unsuccessful
attempt of the same nature, Absalom had recourse to his
favourite weapon of revenge, and he employed his servants to
set on fire a large barley field of Joab's, now in full ear, which
bordered upon his own estate.2 When Joab's servants with
their garments rent brought him word of this misfortune,3 he
hastened to Absalom, who now reproached him with not fulfill
ing his reiterated request, and actually succeeded in inducing
him to endeavour to procure his re-admission to the king's
presence. Thus was Absalom brought before David : and, fall
ing at his feet, he received from him a kiss of reconciliation.
But from this moment he knows no bounds to his ambition.
In imitation of heathen monarchs he sets up a chariot and horses
and fifty runners.4 And as persons were constantly coining
from every tribe to seek justice at the court at Jerusalem, he
zealously receives them at the city gates, and does not permit
them to make the prostration customary before a member of
the royal family, but prevents it by shaking hands with them
and kissing them. He informs himself sedulously of the matter
in dispute, assures every suitor that justice is on his side, but that
he will scarcely be able to obtain it, and he even intimates, with
1 See p. 109 sqq. 3 According to the addition of the LXX
• As Samson had done, Judg. xv. 4 sq. in 2 Sam. xiv. 30. 4 P. 111.
VOL. III. N
178 THE EEIG-N OF DAVID.
an occasional word, how superior would be the administration
of affairs were he only king. After thus nattering the people
and stealing their hearts during four years,1 he decides upon
the execution of his cunningly planned project. He alleges
that he is obliged to hold a festival in his birthplace, Hebron,
in fulfilment of a vow which he made during his exile in case
of his happy return to his native land, and he obtains the king's
permission to carry it out. At the same time, he privately
despatches his emissaries through all the tribes to his friends
with instructions to proclaim him king, as soon as they hear
the first trumpet-note of warning. He himself then marches
to Hebron with two hundred men who were ostensibly only to
be guests at the sacrifice, and were, therefore, doubtless taken
for the most part from the poorer and more dependent classes ;
these were not in the secret of the conspiracy, but from their
dependent position it could not prove difficult, at the sacrifice,
to induce them publicly to espouse their benefactor's cause.
"But the main point was that a person of considerable im
portance, Ahithophel, David's chief councillor, whose sagacity
made him the object of general dread, and who must have been
in concert with the conspirators, had withdrawn beforehand to
his native city Giloh somewhat south of Hebron,2 and there
awaited the outbreak of the rebellion. We do not know what
was the cause of his estrangement from David, who was in
ignorance of his defection. Probably it was nothing but the
ambition to play a new and higher part; but his importance
and his crafty nature evidently made him the soul of the whole
enterprise. While the sacrifices were proceeding, Absalom sent
for him from Giloh, and the presence of this influential person
age appears to have caused the final outbreak of a conspiracy
which had been carefully prepared, and which immediately
spread with amazing rapidity, and. pouring like a wild moun
tain torrent from the ancient capital of Judah, soon threatened
to flood the whole country.
4) We cannot blame David for not perceiving what was
taking place until the alarming tidings were brought to him
that the favour of all Israel was turned to Absalom ; for the
monarchy, in that early and unsophisticated age, possessed
none of those agencies which we now sum up under the name
1 On the reading in 2 Sam. xv. 7, see p. Hebron, according to Josh. xv. ol, al-
170, note 1 . though its exact situation is still unknown
2 Cf. 2 Sam. XY. 12 with ver. 31, xvi. to us. A son of this eminent personage
23 ; in xv. 12 it appears necessary to read was in the regiment of the Gibbodm, 2
rbw*\ for r6c?»V Giloh lay south of Sam. xxiii. 34 ; he is not named, however,
in 1 Chron. xi.
HIS FLIGHT. 179
of police, and regard as essential to the security of the state.
It may rather be viewed as a sign of the noble, large-
hearted confidence which we have observed in him throughout
his career, that he granted such complete freedom of action to his
favourite son, who, being now the eldest, was probably popularly
designated as his successor, and whose active nature was
doubtless peculiarly congenial to him. It thus came about
in a moment and without any direct fault on his part, that
matters reached an extremity which could not fail to prove the
very touch-stone of his rule ; for it supplied the test not alone
of the fidelity of his immediate friends as well as of his subjects,
but also of the capacity of his own spirit, in spite of earlier-
failures, to collect and sustain itself by the strength of the true
God in the contest against such unexampled calamities.
Without losing his self-possession David formed the instant
decision to quit Jerusalem, not however alone, but accompa
nied by his servants and guards as well as by the whole of his
royal household. This, under the circumstances, was the wisest
course ; for it was otherwise quite possible that the city might
be stormed by the approaching rebels in the first fury of the
sedition, an unnecessary massacre take place in the streets,1 and
David himself be made prisoner. The best weapon against an
insurrection so violent, but in reality so groundless and unreason
able, was to draw back as quietly as possible, with the intention
of gaining time; for if only the first alarm were successfully
overcome, in many quarters presence of mind would soon be
restored. Even the departure from Jerusalem, for which David
now gave orders, was an admirable means of testing the real
strength of both parties. Only ten concubines a were left behind
in charge of his royal palace in Jerusalem ; all the other members
of his household, together with their attendants, he took with
him. Among all his officers of state no one refused to follow him,
and, in addition to the body-guard, the six hundred Gibborim
marched out perfectly loyally, so that David had at his disposal a
military force far superior to any which Absalom could bring into
the field against him, especially when the first alarm was over.
Among these was Ittai of Gath, who with other brave compa
triots had but lately left his own country to enter David's service ;
and as he had probably in earlier days taken a leading position
in his native city, he had also received from David a high ap-
1 This is hinted at as David's feeling, pained him in his flight follows from 2
2 Sam. xv. 14. Sam. xix. 6 [5].
2 That others besides these ten accom-
N2
180 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
pointment. David now courteously advised him either to remain
with the new king at Jerusalem, or to return with hi,« countrymen
to his own home, as it was not right to draw a comparative
stranger into so insecure a position, and make him the companion
of his wanderings.1 But the valiant Philistine deslared his un
swerving resolve to follow David in life or death, and we shall
see what important service he rendered in the subsequent battle.
The road taken by the fugitives led towards the desert on the
east on the way to the Jordan meadows. The king's first halt
was at the last house on the eastern side of the city. His body
guard with the Gibborim passed on before him over the brook
Kidron, and came to a halt under the first olive tree at the foot
of the Mount of Olives. When the king himself followed them
over the brook, all the people burst forth into loud lamentation.2
It is true that the Levites, with Zadok of the branch of Eleazar
at their head, were also removing the ark of the covenant from
the spot which David had appointed for it,3 in order that as of
old it might protect him in the field ; while the second High-
Priest, Abiathar of the house of Eli, did not follow until all the
rest had left the city. But when they had set down the sacred
ark at the spot where David had commanded the first halt,
the king advised Zadok to take it back to its own appointed
place, for, if God led him back to the city, He would also permit
him to see His sacred ark and its resting-place again ; but if God
had no delight in him, he would still bow with calm submission
O
to His will. On the other hand, he requested the High-Priests
Zadok4 and Abiathar quietly to observe the course of events in
Jerusalem, and, when there was any important news, to send
word of it to him in the Jordan plain by the sons of one or
other of them ; a stratagem of war allowable at all times, which
David must not be blamed for employing. — The procession
now ascended the Mount of Olives, David and all his followers
weeping, and with their heads covered in token of their grief.
The king himself walked barefoot as a penitent. When he was
informed of AhithophePs defection he only exclaimed 'May
1 According to the LXX, after ^fty, in one in the Hex., TV-Til after "aT-I, in ver.
2 Sam. xv. 10, must be inserted the words 23.
^E>y ni^V? nyr1! ; and in the same way 3 P. 129. inn WZfy should bo in-
in Ter. 22, "J7£>n after ''Fljin- sorted, according to the LXX, after
2 All these local details are derived D^? in ver' 24'
from vv. 17 sq., 23, 30, but according to 4 ^n ver- 27, instead of n$i"n we should
one of the versions of the LXX, after read 'in, as an exclamation 't'houseer!
irhbri in ver. 18, we must insert -llpy!! i.e. tho^prophet, since a High-Priest might
fix JV-in'py; and, according to certainly bear this higher but at the same
time antiquated designation.
HIS FLIGHT. 181
God turn his counsel into folly ! ' And as if this wish were to
receive its immediate fulfilment, when he reached the top of the
mount which had often served as his place of prayer, he was
overtaken by his long-tried friend Hushai of Erech in Ephraim,
who, in the garb of a mourner, was prepared to accompany him.
Bat David advised him, as he was no warrior and could only prove
a burden to him, to return to th^ city, and say to Absalom ( that
his brethren and David himself had marched on without him
while his back was turned ; l and now. in the place of the
father he would serve the son, were his life bat spared.' Should
he be received into favour, Hushai was to do all in his power
to frustrate Ahithophel's proposals, and to communicate to
David any important tidings by the two sons of the High-
Priest. So Hushai returned to Jerusalem, which he had scarcely
reached before Absalom arrived. — vVhen David had begun to
descend the mountain and had thus lost sight of Jerusalem, he
was met by Ziba,2 who brought with him a handsome present,,
doubly welcome at the moment of an enforced flight, — a pair
of asses saddled ready for any members of the royal household
who might wish to ride, and bearing likewise two hundred
loaves, one hundred pounds of raisins, and one hundred pounds
of other fruits, and a skin of wine. Upon enquiry he stated
that Meribosheth his master remained in Jerusalem, in the
hope that in the present troubles the people would restore to
him the kingdom of his grandfather Saul ; whereupon David,
not apparently unfairly, presented to Ziba himself the whole of
his master's estate of which he was then the manager.3 Con
tinuing on the other side of the Mount of Olives their direct
way to the wilderness on the Jordan, they reached the insignifi
cant town of Bahurim,4 where one of the inhabitants, Shimei,
son of Gerar, belonging to Saul's family, advanced to meet
them, cursing and throwing stones, and loudly asseverating
that Jahveh Himself brought this misfortune upon David as a
punishment for his many murders and other cruelties against
Saul's house ; what might be said in support of such a charge
has been already explained.5 As he thus insulted the king
before his own troops, Abishai, Joab's brother, proposed to cut
off his head on the spot ; but David sternly rebuked these two
violent sons of Zeruiah, in words which sufficiently indicate
his perfect composure and submission to the Divine will in
the depth of his misery, and his elevation above every base
1 In ver. 34 we should, according to 2 P. 135.
the LXX, insert after D^PIK the words ' ^^ ^ g
5 P. 135.'
182 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
passion : ' Let him curse ! if Jahveh prompted him, how could
any man oppose him ! ' and then turning to all around him he
added, ' if his own son sought after his life, how far more
pardonable was this Benjamite ; let him curse, for God had
prompted him: possibly God would yet look upon the depth of
his sorrow,1 and recompense him for it with good ! ' Thus they
passed on, while Shimei long bore them company upon the hill
side, cursing and throwing at them stones and dust. At length,
full weary, they reached the wilderness, where they rested, for
the present moment at all events secure against surprise.2
We are obliged to assume that David's departure from Jeru
salem took place in the morning, so that he could readily reach
the Jordan on the same day ; for our present authorities indi
cate that it was also on the same day tolerably early that Absalom
arrived at Jerusalem, probably towards noon. Among the first
to tender his congratulations was the crafty Hushai. Absalom
received him at first with some surprise at his desertion of
his friend; but the accomplished courtier, following David's hint,
readily excused himself, and soon made his presence acceptable.
4 Was it not his duty to remain with him whom God and the
people had chosen king? besides, did he not thus serve the son
of his late master and not a stranger P ' This satisfied Absalom,
and he now asked Ahithophel what he would advise him to do
next ? Ahithophel recommended properly enough, at least from
the popular view, that he should take the ten concubines left
behind by his father (in contradistinction to wives proper, these
women might readily be transferred to a successor 3), and openly
-treat them as his own ; all the people would then understand
that he was irreconcilably at enmity with his father, as he had
seized on his house and his whole power, and thus his adherents
would be enabled to act more decidedly. For this purpose the
festal tent was erected on the palace roof, and Ahithophel thus
succeeded in severing completely and irremediably all connexion
between father and son. A councillor of such experience, how
ever, was also well aware that other measures of a very different
character must at once be taken, and David annihilated with
the least possible delay; he therefore told Absalom that he
would pursue David that very night with 12,000 chosen men, in
order to surprise him while his army was weary and dispirited,
put his followers to instant rout, and only slay the king ; thus,
1 For the Kdliib t^y 2 Sam. xvi. 12, the nimy.n has disappeared, although it was
sense at any rate requires that we should nofc £^ , f h ^ translators ;
read ^ ; the explanation of the writmg ^ Arm ^ ^ prol);)bly fmly frQm ^
of the i is given in my Lfhrb. § 156, note, jecture, at the end of the verse.
2 After D^'y in ver. 14 some word like 3 P. 115.
HUSHAI AND AHITHOPHEL. 183
he hoped, he should easily be able to divert the affections of
the people from the father to the son, as a bride is easily per
suaded to return to her husband ; only one single man's life
would have to be sacrificed to restore peace to the whole
nation.1 But although this plan commended itself to his most
sagacious advisers, Hushai contrived, with consummate skill,
when Absalom asked his opinion, to throw doubt upon the
possibility of carrying it into execution ; Absalom could not
be ignorant of the desperate bravery of his father and his
warriors, like the she-bear in the wood robbed of her cubs, or
like the wild boar in the field,2 and such an experienced com
mander as David would never allow his men to go to sleep ;
therefore, if he were hidden in any defile or other refuge, and at
the first onset turned upon his pursuers even though with but
partial success, the report would spread of a great defeat of
David's enemies, and terror would seize even the most lion-
hearted warrior, for the bravery of David and his troops was
already well known. His advice, on the other hand, was, that
it would be better for all the levies of Israel to gather round
Absalom, that he might lead them into the field ; then, where
soever they met with David, they could fall upon him as the
dews fall on the earth in drops innumerable, overpowering in a
moment his whole army ; or if he retreated to a- fortified city,
then a countless multitude could lay cords upon it and pull it
down into the trenches, so that not one stone should rest upon
another. 3 The new-made king gave the preference to a pro
posal which promised him, at any rate for a few days, the
enjoyment of complete repose and the gratifications of his high
position, as if God had deluded him into rejecting AhithopheTs
counsel. And as if Hushai was destined to turn everything in
David's favour, he gains a third advantage on that very same
day. He is anxious by the instrumentality of the two High-
Priests to inform David of the aspect of affairs, and of the
desirability of his crossing the Jordan with all possible speed,
lest ruin choke him,4 and all the people that were with him.
A maid from the priest's house carries these tidings to the
two young priests Jonathan and Ahimaaz, who remained the
whole day at the fuller's well south-east of Jerusalem, waiting
for a message. As they set off to convey their tidings, their
1 The words in 2 Sam. xvii. 3 are
clearly to be emended from the LXX, 3 That is, the city must first be Con
B** Pjpa "^ &»Kn-}8 n^3D 1-1P? quered, and then demolished as a penalty.
nr>N 1G8 and then t>b). 4 An equivalent for <it (i.e. disaster or
2 In ver. 8, we must, according to the defeat) is swallowed by me ; ' i.e. I must
LXX, insert ig TTPO) iy!3 after suffer it, I must gulp down death.
184 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
movements are watched by a youth who betrays them to Absa
lom. They, however, proceed in haste to Bahurim, the small
town already noticed,1 and there at a friend's house they descend
into the dry well in the court. The mistress of the house then
places the cover over it, upon which she spreads out some pulse
to dry, so that nothing should be observed. When Absalom's
spies make enquiries of this woman, she directs them on a wrong
track to a small stream (from which they subsequently return
without result) ; David's faithful messengers then come up out
of the well, and succeed in reaching the king with their tidings,
on the receipt of which David with all his retinue crosses the
Jordan before the next day dawns. — Ahithophel, however, who
thus unexpectedly saw his advice overridden by other counsel,
ii-nd his influence with the new king shaken in such a wholly
unexpected manner, was acute enough to foresee the final
issue which had now become inevitable, set off in haste for his
own city, there made his last will, and hung himself; a clear
proof that he had been impelled by nothing else than a mad
ambition, so that life itself became insupportable, when the
attainment of the position he had hankered after proved insuf
ficient to satisfy his desires.
Thus full are the details supplied to us by the earlier nar
rator of the most extraordinary day of David's reign. Of the
subsequent events up to the day of the decisive battle we do
not know so much, as the account of the earlier narrator has
obviously been very much abridged at this point by a later hand.
There remain, however, many traces to show that this battle
did not take place at once, but that the intervening period was
crowded with events, among which we may name the solemn
anointing of Absalom in Jerusalem ; 2 and, as we have already
pointed out,3 probably three whole months elapsed before David
actually returned to Jerusalem. Our knowledge of these events
may be summarised as follows.
David took refuge, with his followers, in Mahanaim, on the
eastern side of the Jordan. It was an important city, and 4 had
already served as a royal residence about twenty years before ;
arid it was certainly strong enough to endure a long siege.
We have already seen 5 that the country on the east had, from
of old, been somewhat indifferent to the movements on the west
side of the Jordan ; but on this occasion, it must have taken
David's part against Absalom with great decision. This was
all the more important, as Moab, Ammon, Zobah, and other
of David's conquests, were thus kept true in their allegiance to
1 P. 116, note 3. 2 Cf. 2 Sam. xix. 11. 3 P. 162.
4 P. 112. 3 Vol. ii. p. 323 sq.
DAVID AT MAHANAIM. 185
him. When David (we are told) readied Mahanaim, Shobi, son
of Nahish of Kabbah (and therefore probably a member of
the rcyal house of Amnon, favoured by David1), Machir, son
of Ammiel of Lo-debar, already mentioned,2 and Barzillai of
Rogelim in Gilead, the venerable old man whom David ever
after held in such high esteem, joined together in supplying
him with all kinds of necessaries for the use of his court and his
troops, from feelings of simple loyalty and affectionate regard.
They brought ten fine mattresses, household utensils of metal
and earthenware, wheat, barley, meal, parched corn, beans and
lentils, honey and cream, flocks and fatted oxen.3 The military
levies of these districts seem, likewise, gradually to have
gathered round him. Undoubtedly his position here was at
first one of extreme danger. Absalom gathered the levies of
all the tribes on the west of the Jordan, and appointed
Amasa, a near relative of David's who was much esteemed, in
command ; 4 with this large force he crossed the Jordan, and
occupied Gilead almost before David could establish himself in
Mahanaim. At tbat time, Mahanaim itself must have under
gone a siege. This fact is necessarily involved in the progress
of the campaign, and is besides presupposed by David's two
hymns, Pss. iii. and iv. These glorious mementos of this
heroic soul during a season of deepest trial5 belong to this
period, and breathe the same high confidence in God which
characterises the recorded utterances of David on the first day
of his flight. Absalom's army, however, compelled, as the re
sult proves, to raise the siege, received a check well calculated
to destroy the courage of the troops of the new king, notwith
standing the superiority of their numbers.
The decisive battle was undoubtedly fought in a wooded
region many miles distant from Mahanaim, but on the same
side of the Jordan.6 The attack must, therefore, have proceeded
1 P. 157. 2 P. 135. xviii. 6, seems to render the supposition
8 In 2 Sam. xvii. 28, according to the that it was on the east of the Jordan
LXX, rnb'.y D^S'lD must be inserted impossible, and, according to xviii. 23,
after 33^D. The' connexion, however, the messenger of the victory seems to
turn from the battle-field towards the
shows that 153 niB£> must have the meadows of the Jordan in order to reach
meaning of fat cattle, as the Vulg. trans- David. After the battle, however, the
lates ; we ought, therefore, to compare army returns to Mahanaim, while, if the
°" . battle had been won on the west of the
t^tL-y whlch 1S connected Wlth P!D> and Jordan, it would plainly have been much
indicates the swellings of beasts growing better for ^ to have remained there
fat 4 p. 87. and occupied Jerusalem. Moreover, a
5 Ps. xxiii., however, does not belong wild and extensive forest is with more
to this age, and was not indeed originally reason to be looked for in the districts on
among David's songs, as bas been ex- tne otner side of tlle Jordan. We must,
plained in the Dichter des A. B., ii. pp. therefore, interpret -|33n IJl^, xviii. 23,
67 sqq. 2nd ed. ' he ran in the style of the Kikkar-running,
B The name ' wood of Ephraim,' 2 Sam. and thereby overtook Cushi,' so that 12)3
186 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
on this occasion from Da.vid's side, this being the natural result
of the retirement of the enemy from the siege. The troops
despatched to follow up the retreating foe probably numbered
about 20,000 men,1 and were distributed by David in three
equal divisions under the command of Joab, Abishai, and
Ittai.2 David himself was anxious to go with them as com-
mander-in-chief, but to this the army offered a strenuous oppo
sition : ' if they should flee, no one would regard it, or care if
half their number fell : his life was worth ten thousand of
theirs, and what would happen should he fall in the battle?
Better that he should be prepared to aid them from the city,
and afford them protection in case they came back beaten.'
The aged hero was obliged to yield to these representations,
and took up his position at the gate, while the troops marched
out before him in excellent order, in detachments of hundreds
and thousands ; and in the hearing of the whole army he pub
licly charged the three generals (among whom Joab now of
course assumed the supreme command) to deal gently with his
son Absalom, and, at all events, to spare his life. The encounter
of the two hostile armies speedily resulted in the decisive
defeat of the much stronger forces of 'Israel,' i.e. of the
numerous tribes united under Absalom, but, as they were not
wanting in bravery, their loss was enormous. Twenty thousand
is roundly given as the number who fell on the battle-field
before David's heroes, but, in the wild flight which ensued, a
far larger number were lost in the thickets and bogs of the
extensive forest near which the battle was fought. A like fate
overtook the new king, for, as he was trying to urge his
mule through a thicket close to the largest terebinth tree of
the forest, he became entangled among the branches, owing to
his height and great profusion of hair, so that his mule ran
away from under him, s-nd he looked like a person who had
hung himself, his terror and despair no doubt rendering him
thus awkward.3 A common soldier discovered him, and brought
the tidings to Joab, who reproached the messenger for not
would here mean a special style of swift district on the other side of the Jordan;
running, cf. ")3"|3 2 Sam. vi. 18; and what made such a title appropriate may
although there is'a difficulty in the simple be scen from "• P- 321 S(l- See also tlle
word -q-n in this connexion having the name of the citJ Ephron, v- P- 228.
"•' f , , , , ' This follows from the words of the
meaning of ' style,' these words must he trnnTV, VM. q
understood of the manner not the direc
tion in which he ran, by which the runner ' P- 1"9-
wasable_to overtake Cushi, as it is clear 3 Calderon's tragedy. 'The Locks of
irom xvin. 27 that he ran in a particular Absalom,' is not only a composition of
way. We must, therefore, apply the groat ignorance, but" is in the highest
name iorest of Ephraim ' to some wooded degree unworthy and weak.
DEATH OF ABSALOM. 187
having dispatched him at once, for which he would have given
him ten pieces of silver and a rich military girdle; but he
replied, ' had a thousand pieces of silver been his guerdon, he
would not have laid his hands on the king's son, since the king
had so publicly charged all to spare him ; even were he willing
against his conscience to tell a lie, yet nothing could remain
concealed from the king, and Joab himself would be certain to
hold aloof so as not to give any support to the lie.' So loyal
was even a common soldier then in his genuine reverence for
the regal dignity ! But the violent Joab, sagacious enough to
see that Absalom's death was the most speedy and certain
method of putting an end to these disturbances, had no in
clination to dwell upon such, considerations. He snatched up
three spears, and drove them through the heart of the still
living prince, and his ten armour-bearers then closed around
him and finally dispatched him. Upon this Joab gave the
signal for ending the pursuit, and the defeated rebels, on
hearing of their king's death, were completely dispersed and
withdrew to their own homes. Some of the victors, however,
succeeded without any interruption in laying Absalom's dead
body in the deepest pit the wood afforded; they then cast a
great heap of stones upon it, an ancient mode of exhibiting
the highest hostility to the departed. Such was the melancholy
monument accorded to a prince, who, having lost all his three
sons/ had already during his own lifetime erected with royal
splendour at a spot which probably owed to this circumstance
its name of King's Dale,2 a very different mausoleum, which
was long after celebrated as 'Absalom's monument,' and was
doubtless adorned with a magnificent inscription recording his
name.
The communication of the news of this great victory to
David gave rise to a strange rivalry. Ahimaaz, the priest's son,
1 According to 2 Sam. xiv. 27 comp. with the older monuments on the east of Jeru-
xviii. 18, he must have lost three sons in salem there was one shown as 'Absalom's
some disaster of which we have no record monument ; ' and it is at this day still
in our present narratives. called ' Absalom s tomb ' (see Carmoly's
2 The only other mention of this 'King's Itineraires, p. 441, cf. p. 472, and espe-
Dale ' is in Gren. xiv. 17, and there only cially the exact description in Tit. Tobler's
in an addition of the third narrator. It Siloahquelle und der Oelberg (1852), p.
was situated according to that passage 267 sqq.): but this supposition, although
not far from Salem, which must not be it occurs in Jos. Ant. vii. 10. 3, rests on
confounded with Jerusalem (i. p. 307), nothing more than a misconception of the
but was a northern city on the Jordan, words in 2 Sam. xviii. 18, Gren. xiv. 17,
and is to be identified with 6 avX&v 2a\7j/i, as though the place were to be looked for
Judith iv. 4, cf. ver. 6. According to close by Jerusalem ; and yet Williams
Gfen. xiv. 17, it was formerly called (The Holy City, p. 374 sq.) chooses to
Shaveh ; the later name was perhaps consider this monument as genuine, and
given to it from Absalom's preference for Saulcy (Voyage, ii. pp. 288 sqq.) leaves
it. In the Middle Ages, it is true, among the matter undetermined.
188 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
who l had on a former occasion brought to David the news of
Absalom's earliest acts in Jerusalem, and who must have ex
celled the numerous skilful runners of the time,2 offered him
self to Joab as the bearer of the joyful tidings to David
that God had avenged him of his enemies : but Joab, who
was better acquainted with David, and foresaw how violently
the news of his son's death would act upon him, withheld him,
as too good for this employment, and gave it to a man named
Cushi.3 But when Cushi had departed, Ahimaaz was anxious,
at any rate, to prove his skill, and after Joab had once more
unsuccessfully attempted to dissuade him, by assuring him that
he undertook a thankless office, he finally gave way to his
urgent entreaties, and the young priest started on his course ;
clearly not witii any expectation of reward, of which no hope
could be entertained, but out of pure love to the king. Mean
while David remained at Mahaiiaim in the inner court of the
gateway, on the side of the town nearest to the battle, awaiting
the tidings ; and when the watchman standing upon the roof
of the gate near the wall observed a single runner approaching
he communicated it through the warder to the king, who was
seated below. To him it seemed a good omen that but a single
messenger was in sight, as defeat and flight are followed by a
confused rush of numbers ; but when the runner came nearer,
and the watchman saw another behind him, and judged the
first to be Ahimaaz from the particular style of his running,
David thought both circumstances auspicious, for the second
messenger also came alone, and Ahimaaz never brought
any but good news. Ahimaaz by his peculiar skill in run
ning actually arrived before his competitor, although he
started later. On reaching the king he kneels before him,
announcing that God has given him the victory over the rebels;
but when the kLig makes instant enquiry respecting Absalom's
welfare, and he answers that he has only seen Joab and Ab
salom let loose the great tumult of battle, and knows no further
particulars,4 he is simply commanded to stand still by the king's
1 P. 183. mentioned io xxiii. 37. By descent he may
2 News was still conveyed by men on have been an Ethiopian ; cf. p. 14:4:, note 3.
foot ; and even at the present day special 4 The first clause of the speech in xviii.
Arab tribes are famous as swift runners; 29 has been very variously and yet quite
cf. Petormitnn's Heisen iin Oriental, p. 301. erroneously understood by the ancient
3 In 2 Sam. xviii. 21 this Cushi is translators, although the cause of the mis
treated as a well-known person, although take lies not in the text, which is evidently
ho is not mentioned anywhere before, correct, but in the misapprehension of a
This simply confirms what we know from rare connexion of chuises. which is ex-
other sources, that many passages from plained by my Lehrb. § 336/j, and 307c?.
the work of the older narrator have been At mo&t the word Q^ns may have
omitted in the present redaction. Pro- .
bably he was one of Joab's ten armour- been left Ollt after TOV 5 atalV rate, the
bearers, xviii. 15, another of whom is Pcsh. and Arm. add it.
DEATH OF ABSALOM. 189
side. When, however, Cushi thereupon enters with similar con
gratulations, and, on David's quick question respecting Absalom,
cannot conceal his sad fate, the unhappy father tremblingly
ascends to the small chamber on the roof of the gate, that in
solitude he may give unmeasured venfr«to his tears and lament
ations, desiring but one thing — that he might have died for
Absalom.
The tidings of David's intense and apparently inconsolable
grief could not remain a secret either from Joab or from the
rest of the army. The day of victory became one of bitter
humiliation to the victorious host ; and returning to Maha-
naim, it stole silently into the city, as though it had itself
sustained defeat, and had been driven to a shameful flight.
As the king with covered face still continued his loud lament,
Joab at length ventured to approach him, and, as a sort of
interpreter of the feelings of the army, declared that ' by acting
thus he deeply disturbed the joy of his faithful followers, who
had ventured their all for his safety and that of his numerous
household, for it appeared that he loved his enemies and hated
his friends ; he cared nothing for his officers and faithful ad
herents who had sacrificed everything for him, for it was now
plain that it would have pleased him well had they all fallen
and only Absalom survived : he must rouse himself and show
himself publicly, and speak a word of heartfelt encouragement
to the people, for he could most solemnly assure him that, if
he did not, the troops would all desert him that very night, and
a greater evil would then befall him than any he had ever
experienced since his youth.' Thus earnestly adjured, he de
scended from the solitary chamber on the roof, and taking his
seat in the open gate, he passed the whole army in review
before him.
5) It was indeed high time for David to attend to affairs of
state ; for, despite the general flight of the defeated foe, the
country on the west of the Jordan was very far from being
once more in his possession, and as Absalom had been solemnly
anointed king, it was open to them to choose any one they liked
as his successor. Western Israel (that is, all the tribes except
ing Judah) soon, it is true, recovered its senses, as it perceived
that in the whole course of the revolution it had been more
deceived by Judah than it had expected to be. In periods like this
of great excitement, public opinion is liable to rapid fluctuations ;
and so a general movement now spread through Israel in favour
of the aged hero-king, whose many acts of kindness in early
days were once more gratefully remembered ; and a solemn
190 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
deputation from this most important portion of his kingdom
invited him to return immediately.1 Welcome as this must
have been to David, the tribe of Judah still remained obsti
nately aloof, and kept its forces together under Amasa, Absa
lom's late general. But David was too cautious and placable
in temper not to try the plan of conciliation, and he accord
ingly sent to the elders of the tribe the two High-Priests,
Zadok and Abiathar, and put the matter directly before them :
( Why should they his nearest relatives be the last to recall
him home, when he has been already invited back by all the
other tribes?' To Amasa, in particular, he solemnly swore
that, cas he was his nearest relative, he should from hence
forth be commander-in-chief in place of Joab,' which was not
simply a measure of prudence and conciliation, but one which,
when strictly considered, involved no injustice towards Joab
himself, for he had long been notorious for too great severity
in war, and had just acted in such direct disobedience to the
royal command in Absalom's case, that it was impossible to
overlook his offence without endangering the royal prerogative.
Thus by his wise conduct he quickly brought all Judah also
round to his side, so that he was invited with all his faithful
adherents to return, and a solemn deputation was despatched
to meet him at Gilgal, the point at which he intended to cross
the Jordan.
This deputation from Judah was accompanied by Shimei, the
Benjamite who had so grossly insulted David during his flight,2
and also by Ziba,3 with his fifteen sons and twenty slaves.
Not satisfied with coming to meet David at the Jordan, they
crossed the river to do homage to the king on the other side ;
and while the ferry-boat which the deputation had prepared
to convey the royal household across arid do anything else the
king might desire, was passing to and fro, Shimei seized the
favourable moment on the further bank to fall at the king's
feet and entreat his pardon for the transgression which he now
so deeply repented : ' he was the very first of the house of
Joseph (i.e. of all the tribes excepting Judah) who came to
render homage, and he trusted that this also would soften the
king's heart. Abishai, indeed, wished to make short work with
him, — ought not he to die who had cursed Jahveh's Anointed?'
But David, in the moment of present happiness, as in that of
recent misfortune, severely reproved the heat of Zeruiah's sons :
c What had he to do with them, that to-day they desired to be
1 The conclusion to 2 Sara. xix. 11 [10] is still preserved in the LXX.
has dropped out of the Hebrew text, but 2 P. 181 sq. 3 ibid.
HIS RESTOEATION. 191
his tempters ? Was it on that, of all days, that one should fall
in Israel ? Nay, rather, he knew that he was now once more king
over Israel, and he would exercise his prerogative by showing
mercy, not by destroying ! Accordingly he granted Shimei his
life, though he would have been perfectly justified in taking it,
and swore to spare him. Saul's lame son Meribosheth also came
down to the Jordan to proffer his homage ; Ziba had already
been presented l by David with Saul's estates on the day of his
flight ; and at this very time had anticipated his former master
in rendering his allegiance to the king. Meribosheth appeared
in deep mourning, as from the first day of David's flight he
had not washed his feet, nor cut his nails,2 nor dressed his
beard, nor washed his clothes. On David's enquiry why he
had not on that occasion accompanied him, he excused himself
by saying, 'his servant had deceived him; as he was lame,
he wished to mount on his ass, that he might ride after him ;
but his servant had left him in order to traduce him ; but
the king, kind as an angel of God, should do as seemed to
him right. All the members of his father's house were as
dead men before him [i.e. in his mighty power he could have
put them all to death], and yet had he deigned to admit him to
his table ; he had nothing more to say in justification or com
plaint before the king.' It could not be difficult to decide which
of the two was in the right, the master or the servant, who had
again come to meet David as if he had an easy conscience ; as
in reality Meribosheth had not denied that he had cherished
hopes of being able to recover Saul's dominion, while his mourn
ing admitted of the ready explanation that he undoubtedly
had cause to be less contented with Absalom's rule than with
David's. But if he was not entirely blameless, still there was
now no reason for punishing severely so foolish a purpose, and
so David cut the matter short by ordering him to divide his
estates with Ziba ; and overjoyed at this, he replied that he
would willingly resign them all to him, now that he had seen
the happy restoration of the king. — From the provinces on the
east David's retinue was also increased by the arrival of Bar-
zillai, the octogenarian who had brought him such generous
assistance in his distress.3 He came to escort the king across
the river, and to take leave of him on the other side. This
venerable old man pleased David so much that he entreated
1 P. 181. TjjYtf read more expressively
* According to the LXX, the words |&J co;ding fo the LXX> rf> j Kings' il 9. In
•Igyj should be inserted in 2 Sam. xix. 25 ver. 38 [37] 1}% is wanting after QriD
[24] after ^31 ; in ver. 26 [25] D^B^TB and is still found in the Pesh. and Arm.
should be read. In ver. 34 [33], for 3 P. 185.
192 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
him to accompany him to Jerusalem, and spend his last years
in honourable maintenance at the court. This gracious pro
posal the old man modestly declined, on the plea that his age
had deprived him of all taste for such pleasures., and for himself
his only wish was to die in his native city and to rest by his
parents' side ; but let the king take his son Chimham with him
to Jerusalem, and show him whatever kindness he thought fit.
David willingly assented, and after their passage over was fully
completed he parted from his aged friend with hearty expres
sions of good-will. This full account of Barzillai is evidently
introduced here because his son Chimham and his family were
afterwards famous at Jerusalem, and contributed much to the
prosperity of the kingdom.
But while David delayed at Gilgal, having crossed the Jordan
with the help of the members of his own tribe, who were joined
by a number of Benjamites and other persons of different
tribes who lived in the neighbourhood, the bands of the northern
tribes reached the Jordan full of disgust and astonishment that
the men of Judah, who had been later than themselves in de
ciding to recognise David again as king, had yet been the first
to bring him home and pay him homage, apparently desirous
to secure by these means a monopoly of the royal favour, and
obtain for themselves exclusive' privileges. In the disordered
state of the nation west of the Jordan, this dissatisfaction soon
found vent in open reproaches against the king himself. It
was in vain that the Judahites reminded them that the kino-
o
belonged by birth to their tribe, and assured them that there
was no legitimate cause of discontent, as they had not received
any advantage or gift of any kind from the king. The Israelites
still maintained that the right of the initiative belonged to
them, because they possessed ten-twelfths of the kingdom and
therefore of the king, besides which they had the advantage of
the birthright ; ! why, then, had the men of Judah despised them
and not fulfilled their wish to restore the king, which they had
been the first to express ? Thus the internal strife, which had
been apparently brought to a close, threatened to burst forth
with renewed violence ; for undoubtedly this was no mere war
of -words, as the northern tribes might well be afraid that such
a course of action at the re-establishment of the kingdom might
also involve the loss of more essential privileges. It was not
possible for David to condemn the men of Judah for what had
just occurred, as there had in reality been no question about
1 According to one of the versions of Joseph as the first-born, and Judah at
the LXX, "fl33 should be read for *in3> any rate could not be so considered ; i.
in 2 Sam. xix. 44 [43], since many counted P- 422 S<1-
REVOLT OF SIIEBA. 193
losing or conferring any real privileges ; but he had no sooner
declared that he could not blame the Judahltes than an ambi
tious young officer on the other side, Sheba, son of Bichri, a
Benjamite, sounded the trumpet with a call to instant revolt,
in words often re-echoed in after times :
We have no part in David,
No inheritance in the son of Jesse !
Every one to his tent, 0 Israel !
And in fact, in the distraction of the moment he found much
encouragement. The Israelites deserted to his side, while the
men of Judah gathered more closely round David, and escorted
him in safety to Jerusalem. Here it was scarcely possible for him
to attend even to the most pressing of his own affairs, but he
nevertheless at once placed his ten concubines, whom Absalom
had violated, under guard in a separate dwelling, where they
were to remain confined for life in a state of widowhood, in
eligible for re-marriage. It was necessary for him to give his
undivided attention at once to Sheba's revolt, the gathering
strength of which might obviously render it even more dan
gerous than that of Absalom. He accordingly commissioned
Amasa, who had just been appointed commander-in-chief, to
assemble the levy of Judah within three days, and then to
present himself again to receive further orders about the war
which was now become inevitable. But, as the event proved,
Amasa had not in such matters the skill and success of his prede
cessor Joab, and he remained absent beyond the appointed time:
David, consequently, without the slightest idea of displacing
him, but to prevent loss of time, gave orders to Abishai, Joab's
brother, to march at once with the forces ordinarily retained in
Jerusalem, in order to prevent Sheba from taking possession of
any fortress, and clouding the king's eyes.1 Abishai accord
ingly departed with the 600 Gibborim, the royal body-guard,
which was united with them, owing to the urgent necessity, and
6 Joab's men.' These last were evidently a band which Joab had
quickly collected in Jerusalem at his own charge ; they were to
serve as volunteers, and he desired, himself a volunteer, to serve
with them in this war. It could never occur to the king to
refuse this, as, ever since he had surrendered his office to Amasa
at the Jordan, he had been on very friendly terms with him,
and, besides that, he was his near kinsman. When these
troops, on their way to take the field, arrived at Gibeon, a little
1 I.e. causing him trouble and anxiety, ing a sort of shadow over them : Ps. vi. 8
because these make the eyes dim, throw- [7] ; ^j-j, 2 Sam. xx. fi. from ^.
VOL. III. 0
194 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
north of Jerusalem, which, together with Jerusalem and almost
the whole of the territory of Benjamin, must by this time be
reckoned as part of Judali, they were met at the great stone in
the city by Amasa, who, after summoning the levies all over
the country, east and south of Jerusalem, had passed on to the
north and west, and was now on his return to Jerusalem, having
completed his mission, at the head of the large force which he
had raised. Joab, dressed in his long military cloak, with his
girdle outside it, in which he wore a sword made fast on his
hip, addressed Amasa with the utmost cordiality, taking hold of
his beard with his right band to kiss him. At the same mo
ment, apparently by accident, this movement of his arm turned
up the scabbard, and the sword fell out ; and as Amasa was
not upon his guard, Joab skilfully seized the sword in his left
hand and ran him through the body, dispatching him by this
single stroke. The friendship and tranquillity of this rough
warrior thus proved to have been mere hypoc-risy while he waited
to take the first opportunity of revenge ; and he might well
rejoice that he had rid himself of so important a rival sooner
than he could have hoped, just as he had formerly done with
Abner.1 He was determined that no one should surpass him in
zeal for David's cause ; and, in fact, he showed himself on this
occasion also the only man capable of bringing the war to a
speedy close. Without any delay by the corpse, the two brothers
continued the pursuit of Sheba ; and, indeed, the dispatch of
Amasa seemed the shortest way of attaining their object. Stand
ing close by the corpse, one of Joab's armour-bearers called
out loudly, * Whoever wishes to serve with Joab, and is for
David, let him go after Joab ! ' As Joab's name no doubt in
spired far more general confidence of victory than Amasa's, all
were ready at once to transfer themselves to his command ;
those, however, who were going to range themselves with his
men, stopped at first on seeing the corpse still weltering in
blood, but when the armour-bearer had moved it aside and
covered it over with a cloth in an adjoining field, Joab's banner
was followed by all.
Sheba was now swiftly pursued, and he found no place of
rest until he reached the city of Abel, near Beth-Maachah,
which was situated like Dan, in the northernmost corner of the
country, and was well fortified, and even here he seems to
have owed his reception more to compassion or to the mis
conception caused by some false report, than to any determined
opposition to David. As soon as it became known that the
1 P. 117 sq.
DEATH OF SHEBA. 195
expedition was directed solely against Sheba, all the free-born
men of the surrounding tribes gathered round Joab.1 He ac
cordingly began the siege, and threw up a wall around the city,
on which he took his stand, while the entire army set to work to
undermine the city walls. But a wise woman desired to speak
with Joab from the wall, and after obtaining permission she
thus addressed him : ' In old time there used to be a proverb —
Ask in Abel and in Dan whether anything has fallen into dis
use, which the God-fearing men of Israel had once ordained !
Such had been the fair fame of this city and the neighbouring
Dan ; and even now they were the most peaceful and the most
devoted men in Israel, while Joab was trying to destroy a city
and a mother in Israel. Why was he desolating Jahveh's in
heritance ? ' 2 Thus referred to the eternal divine laws of the
true community, Joab defended himself, as in duty bound, from
any intention of destruction, and simply required that the rebel
should be given up, which was agreed to by the woman. The
result was that the citizens, upon the representation of the wise
woman, cut off the traitor's head, and threw it over the wall to
Joab, who at once drew off all his troops. — Our present authori
ties do not supply the conclusion of this story, or tell us what
sort of reception David accorded to the victorious Joab on his
return : but he probably felt obliged to show some indulgence
to a man who was indispensable to him as a soldier, and who,
notwithstanding his culpable ferocity, never lost sight of his
master's interests. The ancient liberties and privileges of the
Israelites doubtless remained unaffected after the victory.
4. Close of David's Career.
1) Thus was the heaviest trial of David's royal career over
come. But a man who can, like David, amidst the first mut-
terings of an unexpected storm display such lofty composure
and submission, and then, amidst its fiercest outbursts, sing
hymns like the third and fourth Psalms, penetrated with the
purest trust in God, is already raised in an eminent degree
above human weakness and frailt}^ and whatever be his outward
1 In 2 Sam. xx. 14, for D*"13H (LXX eV with the LXX, be restored as follows ;
Xeppt) it appears necessary to read D"nniin>
' the young men ; ' and, according to ver. 1 5,
the i before nD]7E> JV3 should be struck
out. The word DH W£> in ver. 15, must better with a ' before ™ There
be derived (if the reading is correct) from was certainly an old proverb about the
nn^> pit good repute of the town, to which she
* Tn 2 Sam. xx. 18 sq. the reading and ^XX**' ^ *""* ^ C°mpleted ^
the sense should, partly in accordance
o 2
106 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
fate, lie can only quit this life as one of God's victors. And
now that he had triumphantly outlasted the fury of the storm,
not only had he suffered severely enough in his old age to
atone, humanly speaking, for the fault in which a great part of
these disorders originated, — not only had he been as gravely
tried as any one could in his time be tried and proved, — but
the nation likewise had learnt, by the severe discipline of
events, how terrible a punishment follows any fruitless ill-
advised effort to introduce an imperfectly considered improve
ment. With growing unanimity and prudence, it adhered to
the benevolent rule of its hero-king, whose many trials had
purged his heart and left only the purest piety. The result
thus proved advantageous to each party, though it had cer
tainly not been the object of human desire and pursuit ; and
as many evils were removed as the circumstances of the age
permitted.
The remainder of David's life, a period, probably, of about
ten years, flowed on, so far as we can gather, in a bright calm
and an undisturbed course of improvements. Of such peace
and progress history furnishes few examples, but they then
secured so firm a foundation that they lasted on without any
essential change under Solomon. The very scantiness of the
records of this period in our present historical books does but
attest what happy tranquillity was from that time enjoyed by
the monarchy, in the midst of its great extent and splendour.
In the Chronicles 1 it is stated that David was much engaged in
the latter part of his life with preparations on a large scale for
the erection of the temple, and this statement not only possesses
intrinsic probability, but receives confirmation from the fact,
that Solomon at once carried out this magnificent undertaking
during the first years of his reign. The details of this are,
however, better reserved for Solomon's r^ign. Considering the
extraordinary labours and struggles of his early life, it is not
surprising that David showed signs of old age rather early ; and
as his bodily frame, with its burden of seventy or rather seventy
and a half years,2 seemed at the point of death, and no warmth
could be produced by means of bedclothes, his attendants cast
about anxiously for some means of prolonging his life, and (as
they found no other mode left to them for communicating to
him vital heat) they selected for this purpose a maiden from
Shunem, named Abishag, whom they caused to rest on his
bosom, to revive with her youthful warmth his decaying frame.3
* 1 Chron. xxviii. 2 sqq., xxix. 1 sqq. 3 1 Kings i. 1-4; the infamous insinu-
2 According to 2 Sam. v. 4 sq., 1 Kings ations of Bayle and others about this
ii. 11 ; cf. ii. p. 369. simple affair scarcely deserve mention.
HIS PROPHETIC SPIRIT. 197
Turning away, however, from all these external events, in
order to gaze once more into the soul of this great king as it is
revealed to us during the concluding period of his life by the
clearest testimony, we see in it the completion of a change
affording the highest evidence of the true greatness and eleva
tion of his spirit, as well as of the glorious termination of his
earthly labours. In his youth, a close spectator of the pro
phetic life, and occasionally yielding himself to its inspiration,
he had never, in his maturity, amid the numerous cares of war
and government, desired to be, or to assume the least appearance
of being, a Prophet (in this, exhibiting a striking contrast to
Mohammed). Now, however, as age advances, he becomes a
prophet, not by any intention of his own, or with any public
display of prophetic faculty, but involuntarily, and therefore
with all the greater purity and earnestness ; nor was it for
the sake of others, or to exercise a Prophet's sway, but simply
because the power of the spirit impelled him, and therefore he
looks with the greater singleness of purpose to the future alone.
Prophetic intuition and speech, which were in antiquity life's
most elevated expression, were now developed as the ripe fruit
of a long and varied career in the spirit of one whose position
in the kingdom was enough to have adorned the close of his life
without this distinction ; but filled with its power, he reached
almost the highest possible culmination of kingly glory. Even
the hymns which poured forth from the very depth of his soul
during the pursuit by Absalom, are often illumined with in
voluntary flashes of fire from the true prophetic spirit which
alternately displays the utmost energy and gentleness : so
crushing is his word against the ungodly designs of the enemy,
filled as he is with the clear consciousness of his own election,
and so calm is his subsequent composure in cheerful submission
and supplication for the good of all ; l and even earlier than
this, in the wonderful elevation of his song of gratitude for the
recovery of peace of mind after his aberrations with Bath-sheba,
the deep emotion of his utterance reaches occasionally a pro
phetic height.2 But in that song, which an ancient tradition
justly designates as ' David's last (poetic) words,' the poetic and
moral spirit of the aged king is finally transfigured into the
prophetic. Gathering himself up at the approach of death for a
poetic flight, he feels with unmistakable clearness that he is a
Prophet of Jahveh, and, looking back on his life now near its
close, as well as freely glancing forward to the future, he ex-
1 Ps. iv. 3-6 [2-5] ; iii. 9 [8] ; iv. 7-9 [6-8]. 2 Ps. xxxii. 6-9.
198 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
presses the divine assurance of his soul that the rule of his
house, being firmly established in God, will continue after his
death.1 No prince, and especially no one who had not acquired
his kingdom by inheritance, could possibly close his life with a
more blessed repose in God, and a brighter glance of confidence
into the future.
This is the real stamp of true greatness. For if, standing at
its conclusion, we form a complete picture of his life, we are
forced to admit that his career constitutes the culmination of
that general advancement towards which the people of Israel
had been aspiring with increasing energy for more than a
century, and it is as successful a realisation of this ideal as the
circumstances by which they were then surrounded rendered it
possible for them to attain. The age did riot require in its
leader and representative a man gifted with special spiritual
activity, though it might be of the very highest kind, and hence
it was not a Prophet that it demanded, for its most pressing
want was the completion of the undertaking begun by Moses
at the close of his career and carried on by Joshua, which the
centuries that had since elapsed had not, however, accomplished ;
it needed, that is, the possession of an earthly fatherland
in which unity might be firmly established among all the
members of the nation, and which would secure for that people
in which the highest religion had taken root, that perfect
independence and tranquillity in which its nationality and its
religion could alike find free room, for the utmost expansion.
True religion, if it was to appear on earth at all, could not but
be implanted in the bosom of a given nationality, and it then
became requisite for its higher development that the people
destined to be its organ should first attain a more complete
position as a nation among the other nations of the earth;
then in a nation strengthened by unity and self -consciousness,
it might address itself to higher and heavier tasks ; just as
the individual, however great may be his spiritual powers, must
first reach manhood before these can operate in him with
their full force. Only a warrior, that is, a man of the people,
could serve as the instrument for raising up the nation to
that matured strength which became more and more urgently
necessary for its existence. But on the other hand, 110 man of
the people could satisfy the demands which had been loudly made
in the community since the last spiritual movement of Samuel,
who did not at the same time embody all its sacredness. f If
but a hero might spring forth from the people whose pure
1 2 Sum. xxiii. 1-7 ; cf. the Dichtcr des A.B. i. p. 143 sqq. 2nd ed.
ITS GENERAL RESULTS. 1G9
trust in the spiritual God is his strongest weapon on which he
never relaxes his hold ; ' — this was the cry of the age, and in
answer to it appeared David, the warrior who never alienated
himself from the prophetic and other supreme truths of the
community, but rather had a living part in them, and gradually
brought his own spirit, as well as the entire national inind, more
and more completely under their penetrating influence. Only
a man thus gifted could succeed in uniting for the prosecution
and attainment of this object the whole power of the people at
that time so highly strained, and in completing that under
taking for which the noblest efforts had long before laid a firm
foundation. The new enthusiasm and elevation of the commu
nity was not the creation of David. It met him as his noblest
incentive ; but it is the completeness with which he suffered
it to take possession of him, the fidelity which prevented him
from ever being untrue to it, and the energy with which he
overcame even the one error of his life which threatened per
manently to alienate him from it, so that he was finally brought
only more decidedly under its power, — it is all this that con
stitutes the secret of his peculiar greatness, and the charm
which never failed to attach to his struggles and triumphs all
the strongest and purest spirits of his age.
2) The general results of such labours in such a period were
necessarily greater than any other individual could produce in
the whole course of the national history ; and although, from a
purely spiritual point of view, Samuel's elevation was far higher,
yet the full glory of the age inevitably falls upon the mighty
consummator of its own aim.
a.) In the first place, Israel has now acquired greater strength
and stability, and in a word takes its place among other nations
as a distinct nationality ; and it has gained what it had striven
after since the days of Moses, and never yet completely ob
tained — a beautiful country of which it is not to be so easily
deprived. And if it did not conceive the idea of universal
conquest, still the number and extent of territories and peoples
which now submitted to its sway might well appear sufficient
to assure it a powerful and influential position among the
nations of the earth.
b.) In the second place, as the nation now attains, for the
first time, firmer unity and power, so its monarchy, transfigured
in the person of David, appears, as a genuine earthly monarchy,
to include within its own range all the diverse efforts, powers,
and ranks of the nation. David is warrior and poet ; ruler, and
yet ready to listen to the popular voice ; a man of the people,
i>00 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
yet, if necessity demands,1 he acts and is recognised as Priest; 2
a powerful monarch, and yet, without prejudice to his own
dignity, ever attentive to the voice of great Prophets, and
willingly acting in accord with them. Thus all the various
elements of the nation find their centre of unity in him : he is a
true king, and it seems as if civil discord might be rendered for
ever harmless. It is even in this respect an advantage that he
is neither a Prophet nor by birth a Priest, but simply a man of
the people. In early times Israel needed both the marvellous
spiritual force of isolated great Prophets and the constant super
vision of an hereditary Priesthood to train it to be 6 God's
people ; ' but now a simple man, sprung from the people, has
completed in it a regenerating work, which will contribute more
to the continuous development of the community than anything
which has preceded it,3 and will bind together all members of
the nation into the most compact whole. Thus the popular
element in Israel was ennobled by him, and every cause of
division removed which might have embittered the different
classes against each other. Although there still existed strong
remains of the class distinctions which had sprung up during
the earlier history, their permanent existence for the future now
became dependent upon the actual or possible benefit which
they conferred, and they could never, as before, become in
jurious in consequence of their one-sided pre-eminence. With
David for their great example, there was no aim, not even the
highest, which did not now come within the compass of the
efforts and aspirations of every one, even the most insignificant,
who possessed the power and aid of the true Spirit of Jahveh ; 4
and the one-sided supremacy of the priesthood which was so
powerfully extended at the commencement of the Theocracy, was
now broken through by the whole career and administration of
David, with far more lasting results than had attended the
earlier efforts of the Judges. With the prophetism of the true
religion, however,— this fundamental power in the community
of Israel, — there was now associated a monarchy penetrated
by its spirit, and so far on an equality with it that the prophetic
voice could in its presence no longer lay sole claim to utter the
1 P. 127. tament that this name, so simple yet so
2 As Ps. ex. shows past dispute. elevated, is only merited by the few who
3 Hence the honourable appellation have made some special great divine work
servant of Jahveh ' which David gradu- the task of their lives, and achieved it as
ally receives (as early as 1 Kings viii. 66, true servants of God in His community,
in the Book of Origins), and which he 4 Cf. such expressions as those in 'the
shares with very few great historical per- ancient song 1 Sam. ii. 7 sq., and many
sonages of the Old Testament. For there others which became current afterwards,
is propriety in the feeling of the Old Tes-
ITS GENERAL RESULTS. 201
decisive word for the guidance of the people. In David we
already see realised the relation of the true king to prophetism,
in so far as he, on the one hand, voluntarily follows its direction
only where it seems to him to coincide with the fundamental
laws of the community of the true God, while, on the other,
prophetism demands nothing more from him; and as these
two deepest powers of the community of Israel thus hold
each other in check, David completes in his own person the
Basileo-Theocracy, so that the next question which arises is,
whether this constitution is able to maintain itself as supreme
and final.
c.) In the third place, as David feels himself to be Jahveh's
true king, so the nation, with a prouder consciousness than
heretofore, learns to regard itself as ' Jahveh's people,' a favourite
appellation in the narratives of this period ; l and while it never
forgets who is its actual and immortal King, it renders a cordial
and willing obedience to its earthly ruler, and, deriving glory
from his glory, affords him in return the support of its affection
and fidelity. Thus the necessary changes in the ancient con
stitution appear to be happily accomplished, and the Basileo-
Theocracy is completed. Throughout history there are found
two sorts of sovereignty among mankind, — one over the humbler
beginnings or even the insoluble embarrassments of life, in
which the king is only the warlike leader or possibly the dark
tyrant of his country; and a second one of higher stamp,
refined by the effort to conquer its own deficiencies, and hence,
in spite of the difficulties which beset its establishment, develop
ing its powers and acquiring permanence. By the assistance
of the Theocracy, Israel was enabled to escape the earlier of
these two stages, and to attain at once the higher form, the
only one which could venture on the attempt of blending itself
with the Theocracy. In David, a king sprung from its own
flesh and blood, the whole nation feels that it attains to a
nobler and royal existence. Moreover, through all the sufferings
and changes of life, he found only more and more strength in
Him ' who redeemed him out of all distress ; ' 2 and so a
new and higher spirit passes from him alike into the nation
and the individual, and his influence in this respect is rendered
more permanent by means of his nervous eloquence and the
grandeur of his imperishable hymns, which had secured for him
a home in the hearts of the people.
1 As in 2 Sam. xiv. 13, 16 ; a similar 2 Cf. the standing expressions, 2 Sam.
feeling revived, for instance, in the first iv. 9, 1 Kings i. 29, ii. 26, Ps. iii. 8 [7],
ages of Islam, cf. the narrative in Frey- and many similar ones,
tag's Chrestom. p. 40.
202 THE REIGN OF DAVID.
d.) Finally : it was David and not the earlier military heroes
of Israel who first rendered it possible for the nation per
manently to entertain the idea of gaining an imperial power,
i.e. a position of importance and influence, commanding the
respect of the other nations of the earth. In far other ways
than Moses and Joshua had employed, he made the Heathen
feel the real significance of the connexion of the national power
and the compact kingdom of Israel with its own singular
religion ; and as it was among the Heathen that he himself
took the greatest pride in singing Jahveh's praise, and by his
whole career proclaimed to them His unique greatness.1 it
thenceforth became at once the privilege and the duty of every
member of the community of Jahveh to take up the same
position towards them. And besides, he had now accustomed
all Israel to the wonder-working influence of the royal power
and to an enthusiastic devotion to •' Israel's king,' and at the
same time transformed it, as it were, into a school of heroes
ready to fi^ht against the Heathen ; nor could the Persians
after Cyrus, in the assured expectation of their continuous
supremacy, have clung to their royal house and its members2
with more magic reverence than that which a larire portion
of Israel, at any rate, thus early learned to cherish without
wavering towards David and his house, with a view to the
special kind of imperial dominion of which they dreamed. The
destiny of David, whom God had made a mighty ruler over the
nations, is to be realised again by Israel, and like an inexhausti
ble treasure the divine mercies which it has already experienced
are in reserve for it in the future. Such was the prophecy, at the
close of the exile, of the great Unnamed,3 who only expressed
once more the permanent basis of all the Messianic hopes which
were developed from this time forward : and the only great
question which could arise in the future was this, ly what mtans
should Israel maintain the world-wide supremacy towards which
it had now made its first assured step, or regain it in case of its
loss ? While they are not without a deeper basis of intrinsic
necessity, it is David who. without intending it. supplies the
personal foundation of all the Messianic hopes which from this
1 Ps. xviii. 50 [49] sq. In this David a ruler who announces Goi's will ^of. the
followed, but with incomparably more T ^
force, the example of Deborah, Judg. Y. 3. <A.*.:tr:k. p. 142). as the ^U^ • -^mes
- TUs point is strongly brought out by 0 -
Xenophon in the Cyrop&dia, and with the old Persian (\ What perversity ;:
especial clearness in the Anabasis. ^
3 Is. Iv. 3-5. This Prophet intentionally Kto r^^r the words ver. 4 to the Messiah
chooses the curious and antiquated word OI T^e future, ought by this time to be
•jy. in the meaning of zprophtiie ruler, i.e. self-evident.
ORIGIN OF THE MESSIANIC HOPES. «J03
time contribute with increasing power to determine Israel's
career ; and so he stands at the turning-point in the history of
two thousand years, and separates it into two great halves.
Such, in its main features, is the bearing of David's reign
on the subsequent course of the nation. He was a king who
could never be forgotten by his own people, and moreover he
possessed a unique importance in the history of all true reli
gion. And even his death in no small degree glorified his life.
Few kings have departed amid such universal veneration
and with so direct a prospect of the successful prosecution
of their life's work. He had fixed upon his beloved mount
Zion as his last resting-place, and upon its southern slope had
doubtless, in accordance with ancient royal usage, erected during
his lifetime a magnificent mausoleum, which also served as the
burial-place for most of his successors. His funeral obsequies
were celebrated with the greatest pomp ever yet known in Israel,
and his arms were preserved as sacred relics in the temple.1
But the lapse of time only increased the reverence in which his
memory was held in the national heart, until it finally culmi
nated in a glowing desire to behold him once again upon the
earth in human form, and to see the advent of a second ' David.'
What remains then to the nation now that its king is dead ?
Why cannot it stand at the height which it has reached ? The
history of Solomon's reign w7hich follows will soon show us.
But before we proceed to this let us rest here a little longer,
and at this peaceful central point in the broad daylight of the
whole history of Israel consider more carefully the institutions
and individual laws which from the earliest times to the present
had gradually developed among the people, and the most impor
tant parts of which remained for the future essentially un
changed.2
1 According to the casual remark 2 the Eev. H. S. Solly] belongs, so far as its
Kings xi. 10. arrangement of materials is concerned,
2 My Aiitiqiiities of Israel [translated by especially to this point of the history.
204 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
SECTION II.
THE SPLEXDOUR OF THE MONARCHY; THE AGE OF SOLOMON.
IF we now take up again the continuous thread of the history
at the point where we let it fall, it conducts us at once, in the
life of the great King Solomon,1 to one of its most intricate
knots, which we must attempt rightly to understand and to
disentangle, if we are to pass it and then to follow the altered
direction of the history of this second period. We have seen what
elevation and glory the people of Israel had attained when its
great hero David expired. ' When a man rules over men justly
and in the fear of God, it is as when, after long and dismal rain,
the sun some morning rises the more cheerfully, and causes
the grass to spring up more vigorously : ' thus David had sung
before he died,2 in just retrospect over all the days he had
passed through of Saul's reign and his own, as well as in tranquil
hope for all the future ; and this brightest day long seemed
to the nation the high noon of its whole earthly history, and
tempted forth into blossom everything for which the seed had
been so richly scattered in the former period. Under the
long reign of David's son, who, although very differently
trained and situated, was really scarcely less great, the people
maintains its already powerfully-awakened aspiration towards
a still higher elevation, and by turning to new directions
of activity and culture, acquires a multitude of possessions
hitherto wanting, yet necessary to complete the finer half of a
nation's life. But while all the best that was possible under the
strong protection of human monarchy in the ancient people of
God presses with the greatest speed and versatility towards its
culmination, there is already germinating unobserved in the
_ ] The LXX (according to the best ecli- and other later works. The Syrians and
tions and MSS.) spell the name quite Arabs, however, have preserved the length
correctly in oil the books with an 6, of the vowel, but have transformed the
2aAo^wi/ ; so also Ecelus. xlvii. 13, 23 (but name of the favourite king into a diminu-
not so the Complut. Pol. in the preface) ; tive form, Shtlaemun, Sulaiman. On the
the pronunciation 'SoXo^dav, produced by other hand, in the feminine name Sa
shortening this long vowel, is first found the long 6 has been always retained.
in the Sibylline poet, iii. 214, in the N.T., - 2 Sam. xxiii. 3 sqq.
in Josephus, in the later Greek translations
AUTHORITIES FOR HIS HISTORY. 205
midst of this splendour that corruption which we shall see
break forth openly at the conclusion of this great king's reign,
and from which the succeeding ages of the monarchy in Israel
could never entirely recover. Thus the strongest contrasts
become here apparent; the highest development of national
prosperity possible under the Basileo-Theocracy, and the begin
ning of a canker, which constantly grows, and ends by incurably
corroding both, the national prosperity and the government
itself. Still, during the long days of Solomon, the star of Israel
with its mighty aspirations rises yet higher, bat only within
the very same period to fall into a decline which nothing could
arrest. And it is on this account that this period of forty years
exactly marks the lofty centre of the second period of the an
cient people, with its two directions of ascension and decadence,
and is sharply enough distinguished alike from the unrestrained
efforts of the earlier times and from the continuous decline of
the later. The origin of the two-fold tendency — at the first
glance so hard to explain — of this elevated era, which de
termined the character of the four following centuries, is the
enigma that lies before us for solution ; and if an age like
this, in which an entirely new and powerful tendency is ger
minating in secret, is in itself more difficult to comprehend, the
difficulty is in this case rendered greater by a corresponding
deficiency of adequate historical sources.
That our existing historical books describe Solomon's life at
far less length than that of David, is owing certainly to the
fact that the memory of his age, taken as a whole, did not
afford to posterity a picture of such pure delight as his father's.
Originally, it is true, it was otherwise. The youth of Solomon,
unlike that of David, fell in the most brilliant daylight of the
history of the monarchy. The literature, which was then
powerfully developing itself, early sought to embrace in their
utmost variety all the circumstances of the life and government
of this great monarch, as we may still recognise with sufficient
clearness from some of the larger fragments of such works. Such
are indisputably to be found, on closer inspection, woven in with
the existing account of Solomon in the Book of Kings. The
earliest, which, according to all indications, were composed
as early as the first half of the reign of this king, appear to be
the fragments of the Book of Origins relative to the temple l
1 According to i. p. 76, the description derived from the Book of Origins. First,
of Hiram's works in metal for the fur- on account of their great resemblance to
nishing of the temple, 1 Kings vii. 13-17, similar descriptions of the Book of Origins
as also the fragment viii. 62-66, are to be of the Mosaic sanctuary, alike generally
206
THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
then scarcely completed, pieces with which this book probably
concluded. From the annals of his government, which were
certainly written soon after Solomon's death, is drawn the im
portant survey of his household ; 1 and perhaps to the last
source is due the brief but precise description of his buildings,2
although there are many clear marks that this last has not
come into the present text without many lacunas. Other im
portant fragments have been preserved from the oldest Book of
Kino-s, which had described with admirable minuteness the
C5 ^
events of Solomon's history till his death, in the way in which its
leading portions seemed to the author already conditioned by
"David's history.3 Yet another narrative of Solomon's life must
some time later have followed this. It was not quite so de
tailed as the former ; it already took up a special and more
lofty standpoint, from which it included and artificially ar
ranged the three main stages of the history of the great mo
narch ; yet it did not fail to narrate in due proportion the many
remarkable occurrences of his reign with attractive circum
stantiality. A good many fragments of it have been preserved,4
and in single passages, as vii. 14 ; cf. Ex.
xxxi. 3. Next, because this description
is very perceptibly distinguished in its
style and colouring and in part in its
contents, from the remaining descriptions
of Solomon's buildings, vi. 2-7; vii. 12,
48-51 ; an example of this is given below.
Finally, because the present account from
vii. 13 forwards, plainly takes up from a
fresh MS. source the description of some
of the articles belonging to the temple,
after having conducted the thread of the
narrativein quite a different direction by the
description of the building of Solomon's pa
lace, vii. 1-12. This interruption is in fact
so plain and palpable, that even the LXX
have thrown the description of the building
of Solomon's own house to the end of cap.
vii. ; though they might have placed the
piece still more correctly after cap. viii.
The description of Solomon's house, vii.
1-12, which the Book of Origins could
not in accordance with its design incorpo
rate in itself, may have been composed
like the similar one of the temple, cap. vi.,
some time after Solomon's dentil.
1 Namely, the passages 1 Kings iv. 2-
19, v. 2 [iv. 22] sq., 6-8 [iv. 26-28] ; the
remaining clauses from iv. 1, which are now
woven into the others, may have been first
arranged in this order by the last composer,
while the former, by their contents and
language, are closely connected with each
other, and are sharply enough distinguished
from these.
2 But, in accordance with the remarks
just made, only the passages vi. 2-10, 14
— vii. 12, 48-51 are here meant; how in
complete these are in themselves will be
further pointed out below.
3 Vol. i. p. 149. According to 2 Sam.
vii., cf. p. 1 31 sq., the passage 1 Kings v. 15-
25 [v. 1-11], and, with this, the other, ix.
10-14, belong to this narrator, just as ix.
25-28, x. 28 sq., and the words xi. 11, 12,
with the exception of the clause inserted
by the last author »JV1¥ ")^N Tlpm
1 vy. by their contents and style, point to
the same source.
4 Especially the two passages which by
all indications belong exactly to each other,
1 Kings iii. 5 (where the narrative appears
quite broken off)-28, ix. 1-5, xi. 9 ; fur
ther, the passages viii. 24-26, x. 1-13,
14-27; cf. more on this below. Besides
these there may be many other shorter
passages from this work ; to this must
not be ascribed, on the contrary, by its
language and manner (cf. i. p. 157, note),
the fragment vi. 11—13. This last passage
comes in now so very abruptly and so dis
turbs the connexion of the description of
the building of the temple that it is alto
gcther omitted in Cod. Vat. of the LXX.
But since the last author, even in this
description of Solomon's buildings, arranges
his materials somewhat loosely together,
it cannot be maintained that these have
not been here inserted by him.
AUTHORITIES FOR HIS HISTORY. 207
and since they are interwoven with the other older accounts,
just as we saw in the lives of his predecessors, they may be
ascribed, as other points of resemblance are not wanting-, to the
author whom we have called the second principal narrator of
the history of the Kings.1
But such ancient and circumstantial representations proved
less and less pleasing to later writers ; and if some aspects of
the work of this extraordinary monarch remained always so
remarkable that they still delighted to describe them with all
the detail of the ancient sources, or even specially to present
them in a fresh circumstantial form, much else, on the other
hand, fell into the background, while at the same time many a
new glance was thrown over those periods. After the older
Deuteronomist author had thus worked up Solomon's life for
his own time, the second, coming after all the rest, put together
from the various written sources that lay before him the
present account of his life, with more or less abbreviation of
its various parts, but with only few additions of his own.2 In
this last composition the single fragments, whether larger or
smaller, of earlier works, are only loosely connected together,
and frequently the last author apparently intends to conclude
a subject, while he has still something or other to bring up
about it subsequently ; a practice which is certainly peculiar
to this narrator, whose method is one of selection, but is no
where so constantly repeated as in this case. The very loose
arrangement which thus arose, clearly became the occasion for
the Chronicler 3 to re-arrange a great deal of it, though he
himself does not strictly carry out his plan,4 and certainly,
many transpositions of whole passages in the Yatican MS. of the
Septuagint have no other origin than the attempt to introduce
a more cohesive order into these fragments of narrative, al
though it cannot be said that the order has always been im
proved by this process. But few additions of importance for
the ancient history are contained in the Chronicles.
Only a few detailed narratives, accordingly, remain to us
now, of that history of Solomon which exercised such deci
sive influence on the following centuries. Yet along with
these are many compressed traditions and brief indications
of important events. The difficulty of composing out of these
materials a true picture of the whole of this long reign, is
all the greater because our existing sources supply us with
1 Vol. i. p. 150 sqq. * Cf. 2 Chron. i. 14-17 with ix. 25-28.
2 Vol. i. p. 156 sqq. For some accounts of Solomon outside the
8 2 Chron. i.-ix. Bible, see below.
208 THE REIGX OF SOLOMON.
but few data of time. If, however, we put together, in as life
like a form as possible, all the surviving traditions of that
glorious noon of Israel's whole history, and combine with them
the traces of its events which are scattered in the poetical
books (and of these last there are many more, when closely
inspected, than would be conjectured on a superficial view), it
will not be possible to remain entirely in doubt, at any rate,
about the chief causes of the main tendency of that period, and
consequently, of the entire history of the ancient people. And
happily for this purpose, it is precisely about the beginning of
the reign of this king, which, in his case, as in that of every
other sovereign, conditions the whole subsequent course of his
history, that the most detailed and trustworthy traditions have
been preserved.
I. THE BEGINNING OP SOLOMON'S REIGN.
1. Solomon grew up in the last and more peaceful years of
his father's reign, and, when he was called to the throne,
was probably not more than twenty years of age.1 At that
primitive period, however, of the monarchy in Israel, the king's
sons, as indeed the history of Absalom proved to us, were not
generally shut out from free participation in public life, and
the possible opportunities it offered for the cultivation of a firm
and healthy disposition ; and Solomon's first step towards
sovereignty was destined to afford an immediate test, in more
ways than one, of his capacity for it.
That the sovereignty should be carried on in David's family,
could not be seriously doubtful after the complete revolution
effected by him in the dominant opinion alike of the Prophets
and of the entire people. A rule which, like David's, closes
with increasing external splendour and internal prosperity,
transmits its sacredness to the ruler's house, and thus pre
serves the blessing of its own uninterrupted continuance in the
same line. But more precise legal prescriptions about the
succession were then still wanting ; and this gave rise, towards
1 Of. p. 160. That Solomon could not ii. p. 371, and according to 1 Kings iii.
l>e much younger, follows also from 1 11-14, a remarkably long life was by no
Kings xiv. 21, according to which his son means among the blessings which antiquity
Kehoboam, at the commencement of his regarded as divinely bestowed upon this
reign, was forty-one years old. When, on monarch. Further, it was believed by
the other hand, Josephus makes Solomon many that, even in the fourth year of his
begin to reign as young as possible, viz., reign, that is, at the beginning of the erec-
at fourteen years of age, this is plainly tion of the temple, he was only thirteen
connected with his supposition of an eighty years old, and altogether only lived to
years reign of this monarch ; this doubling fifty-three; see Jalal-eldin's Hist, of
of the number forty, however, is explained Jerus ed. Reynolds, p. 288.
CONSPIRACY OF ADONIJAH. 209
the end of David's life, to a complication which might easily
have become very injurious, had not one of the contending
parties displayed incomparably more firmness than the other.
1) After Absalom's death, Adonijah,1 the son of Haggith,
was David's oldest surviving son. As he had been bora
in Hebron, he was, towards the end of his father's reign,
more than thirty-four years old. Judging from the reminis
cences of him, he must have borne much resemblance to
Absalom ; he was of handsome figure, imperious and ambitious,
yet mentally scarcely qualified to rule ; his disposition was
reserved, and he was, besides, afraid of open struggle. That he
was no very capable ruler for a kingdom such as Israel then
was, could not fail to be obvious to the more intelligent.
Guided by Nathan, the greatest Prophet of the time, and Zadok,
the honoured chief of the Priests of the house of Eleazar,
these cast their glance upon Solomon, the son of Bath-sheba,
whose birth had taken place under remarkable circumstances.2
David himself inclined to this side. He had (so it was asserted)
assured Bath-sheba that her son Solomon should be his suc
cessor.3 The early and public nomination of a successor, how
ever, was at that time by no means among the royal customs of
Israel ; and David, accordingly, had made no sort of arrange
ments for the public recognition of Solomon as his successor.
He had always been an indulgent father towards all his sons,
and had consequently never said an angry word to Adonijah,
now his eldest son, when the latter, with growing boldness,
assumed new outward signs of royal state, such as horses and
chariots, and fifty runners. Expectation and endeavour might,
therefore, gather round Adonijah as well as Solomon ; and
while the two rivals with their partisans were in open oppo
sition,4 their claims would not certainly have been settled
until after the death of the aged hero, had not Adonijah
allowed himself to be carried away by his desires somewhat too
soon. Whether he thought that David, in an advanced stage
of disease, was too incompetent really to continue to reign, or
to offer any opposition to a new king, or whether he could not
1 'O^vias, a name which, according to (as has been so often done in modern
Joseph. Gen. Hypomnest.c. 63, is equivalent times, and is still done), it must be above
to it, has arisen merely out of a mistaken all things carefully kept in mind that if
reading of the Hebrew. 2 P. 168. Adonijah had triumphed, he would cer-
3 This must have been described by the tainly have put Solomon and all his chief
older narrator in an earlier passage, but adherents to death. Much rather may it
is now wanting. be said that Solomon's conduct was subse-
4 This follows clearly from 1 Kings i. quently proportionately mild ; and that he
12, 21, ii. 22, as well as from the entire let the rest of his brothers live follow
position of affairs ; and, in order not to from Luke iii. 31.
judge unfairly of Solomon and his party
VOL. III. P
i>10 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
any longer restrain his followers, — to be brief, he invited his
adherents to a suitable spot, south-east of Jerusalem, where
there were numerous springs,1 and here solemn sacrifices were
offered, and he caused himself to be proclaimed king. His
party was large and full of courage. The aged Joab, who had
lost none of his early rashness, and the High-Priest Abiathar,2
had yielded to his solicitations, the former probably because he
had received from Adonijah promise of future impunity for his
former offences. All the other sons of the king, moreover,
except Solomon, followed the call of the eldest; and Joab, as
commander-in-chief, was accompanied by all the military officers
of Judah 3 who were in the neighbourhood. Already, at the
boisterous sacrificial feast, success seemed assured. But the
important old regiment which was the nucleus of the army, the
Gibborim, with their brave leader Benaiah, as well as the royal
body-guard and probably the two still surviving brothers of
David, remained on Solomon's side ; 4 and aid still more valu
able than even these warriors could render was derived from
the wisdom and swift determination of the great Prophet. At
his instigation Bath-sheba first of all went into the sick king's
chamber, entreating his assistance in placing her son upon the
throne. After her the Prophet himself was admitted to audience.
He did not go so far as to call upon the king for Adonijah's
destruction, but simply wished to know whether he had con
curred in Adonijah's plans. Thus driven to the necessity of
decisive action, the feeble old hero felt all his power once more
return. With swift determination, he summoned Solomon's
mother before him, and, swearing by Him ' who had redeemed
his soul out of all distress,' he announced to her his firm resolve
to uphold her son. He then called in the three strong supporters
1 'The serpent -stone by the well.'l Kings ages these were favourite spots for the
i. 9, does not occur elsewhere, but this places of prayer (Proseuchse) ; see Jahrbb.
well must have lain on quite a different dcr Bill. Wiss. ii. p. 56 sq.
side of the town from the Gihon, where 2 Jt*. 180.
Solomon was to bo anointed. We cannot, 3 The indeterminate expression 'the men
however, doubt, according to nil indica- of Judah, David's servants,' ver. 9 comp.
tions, that the Gihon lay on the north with ver. 33, ver. 47 with ver. 38, is fur-
side of the city (see below), the Eogel ther explained ver. 25; seep. 1-44 sq.
far to the south, for this latter once formed 4 The two men Shimei and Eei, who,
the boundary of the tribe of Benjamin to- ver. 8, are prominently named as impor-
wards Judah, and lay south of Gehinnom ; tant adherents of Solomon, were probably
Josh. xv. 7, xviii. 16. It corresponds also the two only surviving brothers of David ;
with the later so-called well of Job, or his six brothers are enumerated 1 Chron.
rather of Joab, who here as good as met ii. 13-15. tyri^ is probably the same
his end. How it was still called after as the third, otherwise written n^D^- 2
Joab in the Middle Ages may be learned Sam. xiii. 3, 32, 1 Chron. ii. 13, or ntt£%
now from Carmoly's Itineraires. p. 442. 10 •- ,
That running water was needed for such a ^j XV1" °' XY"' l£™* T! aPP?ara ,to
sacred ceremony is certain, just as in later ""
SOLOMON PEOCLAIMED KING. 211
of Solomon — Zadok, Nathan, and Benaiah, and ordered them
to conduct Solomon on the well-known royal rnule, on which
he himself had always ridden in public processions, down to
the Gihon, which lay north of the town, where there were
numerous springs. After Zadok and Nathan had anointed him
and proclaimed him king amid the blast of trumpets, they were
to escort him back into the palace, and solemnly place him on
the royal throne, that everyone might see that Solomon was to
reign with the king's consent. As it turned out, the great
majority of the people at once joined this procession with loud
acclamation and joyous dance.1 All the officers of the Gibborim
and many other powerful personages attached to the court
hastened to offer to David their thanks and congratulations;
and the aged king sank on his knees upon his couch, to thank
his God for the happiness of being able with his own eyes to
see the successor he had desired. Jonathan, the son of the
High-Priest Abiathar, who was among the conspirators, hurried
off to carry this news to Adonijah and his friends; and as
Adonijah at first thought this fine young Priest a messenger of
joyous omen, the speedy disappointment of this hope was the
more bitter ; and all those who had engaged in the undertaking
separated hastily and fled in terror.
This last public act of the dying king proved once more
in the clearest manner how completely the whole people had
accustomed itself readily to follow him. Whether in Solomon
he had chosen the fittest of all his sons to reign over such
a kingdom it was for the succeeding period to disclose ; and
Solomon was soon to have sufficient call to reveal the nature of
his own character.
Deserted by his terrified adherents, Adonijah had fled in
great alarm to the steps of the sacred altar in the house of
Jahveh, and clung convulsively to it, refusing to loose his hold
unless ' King ' Solomon would agree on oath to spare his life.
Solomon magnanimously promised not to injure a hair of his
head if he would remain loyal for the future ; if not, he must
die. He accordingly quitted his consecrated place of refuge,
did homage to the young king, and received orders from him to
stay quietly at home. But after David's death the infatuated
man was seized with a fresh longing. Knowing very well what
great influence is customarily possessed by the queen-mother in
1 For D[]3 DOP» ver- 40> should ing suggests could not be the action
be read more^correctly, according to the of the first moment, nor of the whole
LXX, a^pjL D^hp because the artis-
tic flute-playing which the former read-
p 2
212 THE REIGX OF SOLOMON.
courts in which polygamy prevails, he entreated Bath-sheba, in
the most submissive language, to grant him but one single
favour and obtain for him from her son the possession of the
concubine Abishag of Shunem, who had been given to David * in
his last illness, but had not been used by him, ostensibly that
he might have some consolation for the diversion of the sove
reign power from himself, the elder son, to the divinely favoured
Solomon. Too simple to perceive any mischief in such a
request, the queen-mother conveyed it to her son. The latter,
however, with instant penetration, immediately recognised what
claims Adonijah and his party could and certainly would base
on the possession of this last wife of the great monarch who
was but just dead ; for the possession of the woman must in
itself be a matter of complete indifference to a man already
somewhat advanced in years, like Adonijah, but in those times
it easily excited the belief that it was accompanied by a right
of succession on the part of the possessor in the house of the
deceased.2 But Solomon himself had already founded a royal
house, which was moreover the only one that had received the
consent of David and the adhesion of the majority of the nobles,
and above all of the Prophet Nathan, and he could not tolerate
the attempt to establish a second alongside of it in Israel.3
He swore, therefore, by the God who had hitherto strengthened
him and had established his house, that Adonijah, after having
so deceitfully broken his previous promise, and clearly revealed
afresh his heart's desires, must at once die ; and Benaiah exe
cuted the sentence of death. This proceeding involved no
excessive or unnecessary severity. In such circumstances and at
such a time every clear-sighted and resolute ruler was obliged
to act in this way; as the artificial means which are resorted
to in similar cases in the present day, e.g. imprisonment for life,
were in that age still entirely unknown.
2) Whether the unfortunate Adonijah was led away to this last
attempt by the special advice of his powerful friends Joab and
Abiathar we are not informed ; it is, however, clearly indicated,4
and is in itself obvious, that they had kept themselves at a
distance from Solomon, and had only waited for the first oppor-
1 P. 193. 2 P. 115. houses, is here self-evident, as in the
3 This is the sense of the words 1 Kings similar cases, 2 Sam. vii. 11, 1 Sam. ii. 35 ;
ii. 24 : 'As Jahveh liveth who hath cf. also Ps. ci. 2, Is. vii. 2, 13.
established me and set me on the throne * In the words 1 Kings ii. 22, and ver.
of David my father, and who hath made 28, where, however, according to the LXX
mean house, as He promised.' That this and Josephus, Ant. viii. 1. 1*4, as indeed
cannot mean the private establishment the foctg f h case demand L, .
(harem) of a king, as in Ex. i. 21 the Ian-
guage applies by the connexion to private to be read for
FATE OF ADOXIJAH AXD ABIATHAR. 213
tunity to declare themselves publicly for Adonijah. Solomon
was compelled, therefore, in their case also to punish any further
attempt to create disturbance in the kingdom ; and the Chief
Priest Abiathar was commanded to withdraw to his patrimonial
estate at Anathoth, north of Jerusalem; 'he was worthy of death,
yet would he at that time spare him, because in former years
he had ever faithfully served his father as Chief Priest, even
in adversity.'1 — Of the subsequent fortunes of Abiathar, who
was probably at that time above sixty years of age, we have
no further particulars. If it be considered, however, that
the narrator indicates clearly enough that it was only for this
occasion that he was spared, and if it be further taken into
account how the same narrator in another preparatory passage
of still greater clearness and detail, lifts the veil from the ap
proaching tragedy of the final ruin of the house of Eli,2 it
becomes evident that the blow which at this time fell upon
this member of the house of Eli, who had been so long and so
highly honoured, was only the beginning of a long series of
terrible disasters for him and for his family. For the present, the
High-Priesthood which had been administered under David by
Zadok from the one house and Abiathar from the other (the
latter, however, with a slightly higher rank) was transferred
solely to the former,3 and all subsequent High-Priests to the
time of the Maccabees belong to his house. Whether it was
that Abiathar could not brook his banishment from the capital,
or from whatever other cause he may have given offence, it is
at any rate evident that he and his house subsequently incurred
with much greater severity the royal displeasure. Not only
did he himself fall by the sword, but to those who looked back
from the end of the reign of Solomon or of his successor, it
seemed as though some ancient divine curse, resting on Eli's
house, permitted none of its members to die in the tranquillity
of age, and extirpated by the sword almost the whole house,
so that scarcely any were saved, reserving even those only
to supplicate the more prosperous house of Zadok for the alms
of charity or else a scanty maintenance as Priests. Such was
the fate in after times of the once powerful Priestly house of Eli.
1 P. 91 sqq. ancient popular belief that the ancestor of
2 1 Sam. ii. 31-36, cf. vol. i. p. 144 ; ver. a family, even after his death, mourned
33 is to be understood as follows : ' Truly over the complete ruin of his posterity ;
I will not remove every man (£>•>&$, ac- cf. i. p. 296.
cording to Lehrb. § 2786) for thee from my 3 * Kings ii. 35, cf. iv. 2 ; 1 Chron. v.
altar, in order not to darken thine eye, and 34-41 [yi. 8-lo] The remark in 1 Chron.
grieve thine heart; but all superfluity of v- 36 tvl' 10] belonSs Properly to ver. 36
thy house shall die by the sword of men' LVI- 9].
(LXX). The words allude, therefore, to the
214 THE REIGN OF SOLOMOX.
Joab, likewise, would certainly have then met with nothing
worse than banishment from the capital, had not other and more
weighty considerations attached themselves to his case. It was
said that upon his dying bed David had recommended the
successor he had already named not to let Joab's grey hair de
scend unscathed into the under world, because he had taken base
revenge on the two great generals Abner and Arnasa,1 had shed
the blood of war in the midst of peace, and had stained himself
over and over with the blood of the noble, ' from the girdle about
his loins to the latchet of the shoes upon his feet.' If, however,
our present customs render the very notion of such a commission
offensive to us, we must recollect that in that primitive age
of the monarchy, the king possessed the power of protection
which had formerly belonged to the sanctuary, so that everyone
whom he had promised to spare was secure of his life. But we
must further remember that this right of asylum expired with
the king's death, as it had formerly done at the end of the High-
Priest's life, and that consequently, if the king had for any reason
pardoned a criminal, this personal forbearance extended only to
the death of this individual king, and could in no way bind his
successor. The actual undeniable guilt was regarded as still
there in spite of a sovereign's temporary lenity, so that a new
king was not necessarily held to any promise of indulgence
made by his predecessor ; nay, it was rather esteemed his duty
at length to eradicate the uneradicated guilt, and free his royal
house from the obligation of punishment.2 As these conside
rations were not wanting in Solomon's case, he did not now
feel bound to exercise any further mildness towards Joab,
who, in fact, on the first report of Adonij all's fate, fled of his
own accord to the altar. To this he clung when Benaiah
came to carry out sentence of death upon him, and Benaiah had
to ask for further orders whether, in spite of his resistance,
he should execute him even there. Solomon, however, deter
mined even under these circumstances upon his death. He was
accordingly slain by Benaiah, yet interred with full honours
on his estate in the south-east of Judah (in the 'wilder
ness ') ; and his office of commander-in-chief was bestowed upon
Benaiah. For Joab's posterity, however, this blow proved the
first of a series of disasters, as in those ages the misfortune of
the head was always dreaded as the precursor of that of the
whole house, which in fact so often resulted from it; and long
1 Pp. 117, 194. clear, especially from ii. 5 sq. 31-33.
2 Cf. \]\e Altertkiimer, pp. 197, 425. The Only a superficial observer can here re-
true import of this narrative is quite proach Solomon with unnecessary cruelty,
EXECUTION OF JOAB AND SHIMEI. 215
afterwards it was told that the only reason why so many loath
some diseases, bloody deaths, and extremities of distress pre
vailed among his descendants, was because their ancestor Joab
had in former days twice so deeply erred.1
David's royal prerogative of mercy had been extended to the
Benjamite Shimei in the same way as to Joab : 2 and his treat
ment, also, was said to have been the subject of a dying charge
committed by David to Solomon. Since, however, he had remained
quiet during the change of sovereigns, Solomon only ordered him
to stay where he was in Jerusalem and solemnly swore that e if
he should pass over the brook Kidron (i.e. should go beyond the
city bounds), his life would be forfeited.' To this require
ment Shimei submitted ; but when, three years after, two of
his slaves (perhaps Philistines) ran away to the king of Gath,3
he pursued them and brought them back from there. He may
thus have broken his promise to the king unintentionally and
inconsiderately, and certainly Solomon had not much cause to
fear him as a relative of Saul and as a rival, since the weakness
of the party of the house of Saul had been sufficiently proved at
the rising of Absalom. But in this fatal forgetfulness which had
befallen the aged arch-traitor against David, there was then
discerned with certainty a divine token that the ancient guilt still
clung freshly to him, and he must suffer the penalty, for other
wise he would not have acted thus madly as if God had forsaken
him. Solomon accordingly had him executed also, plainly not
from desire of revenge or any other passion, but in pursuance
of the belief which then generally prevailed, as though a divine
decree demanded that even the very last should fall who had
once deeply transgressed against David. This proves at the same
time what high sanctity was then attached to "David's memory.
Such firmness of resolution and such vigour of action pro
bably few had expected beforehand from the young prince. If
in the empires of those days, immediate execution of the tra
ditional justice of the nation, and severe treatment of every
offence against royal sanctity were fundamental conditions of
all successful action on the part of the king ; 4 and if every new
government was obliged, in proportion to its strength and
wisdom, to endeavour to carry this out at once, or even to
1 This follows from 2 Sam. iii. 28 sq. ; either that old friend of David was still
cf. p. 118. 2 P. 190 sq. living, which is not quite inconceivable, or
„ m, . . . . „ , ., ,T. it was a grandson of similar name.
3 This kmgis called (1 Kings 11. 39) son 4 Foi. the further elucidation of this
of Maachah. Maachah however being a iod much hel ig afforded b guch ]ain
common name,_ is probably only inter- £roverbs belonging to it as Prov. xx. 8,
changed with -jpyp, 1 Sam. xxvii. 2; and £6 xvi> u xvlf_ fi xix n xx 2
216 THE KEIGN OF SOLOMON.
recover at the proper season much that had been in this aspect
neglected before ; it is easy to estimate what a deep impression
these first acts of the young king must have produced upon the
whole people.1 David's throne must have appeared not over
turned, but endowed with fresh youth and new energy of
existence. And as the new prince began his reign with judg
ments and punishments quite in the spirit of his great sire, and
thus enjoyed the grand prerogative of inheriting that reverence
on the part of his subjects for the royal sanctity which his father
had so firmly established, without being bound to the imper
fections which had prevailed in the previous reign, — he felt
himself under just as sacred an obligation to continue his father's
marks of favour and beneficence towards such as had at any
time rendered him distinguished services. Accordingly he
continued to maintain at his court Chimham and the other
descendants of Barzillai the Gileadite 2 at his own cost, and
granted them other significant favours, so that they became
long after a celebrated family, and themselves again contributed
much to the prosperity of the country.3
Such is our knowledge of the beginning of this reign, derived
from the words of the first narrator, which have been fortunately
preserved to us ; and we may safely infer from them how Solo
mon strengthened his kingdom from within, and what principles
he followed in reference to the people of Israel itself. That the
new king was then recognised by all the tribes of Israel with
a solemn ceremony at which he swore to maintain intact the
laws of the kingdom as his father had done, is in itself quite
probable, although no definite statement to that effect has been
transmitted to us.
2. Of the mutual relations between the young king and the
numerous foreign nations subdued by David, the existing his
torical narratives give but a few brief indications. That so
many strong warlike peoples, after a subjugation of only a few
decades, should at once have done homage to the new monarch
without any resistance, a consideration of all the circumstances
renders quite improbable. Others besides the son of the king
1 Hence the conception of the royal Chimham named in Jer. xli. 17 seems, by
wisdom of Solomon enters quite involun- the rarity of this name, to be the same,
tarily._ but also very justly, into the repre- it appears that through the establishment
eentation of those events, 1 Kings ii. 5, 9. of Caravanserais he had rendered nn im-
2 P. 191 sq. portant service to the country; and such
3_This is certainly only briefly indicated great undertakings for the promotion of
1 Kings ii. 7 ; but the narrator must have commerce are most easily conceived to have
been intending to detail more fully in arisen in Solomon's age. Moreover, from
some later _ passage, now lost to us, what Ezraii. 61, it is clear how much this family
is here intimated beforehand. Since the continued to be respected through long ages.
EEYOLT OF EDOM. 217
of Edom, who had taken refuge in Egypt, may have thought
that now, after the fall of the dreaded David, the irresistible
Joab, and so many others of those valiant conquerors, the right
moment must be arrived for throwing off the yoke of Israel.1
The following accounts include all the details which we now
possess of the efforts of the separate nations in this respect.
1) When Edom2 was subdued by David's troops after an ex
ceedingly bloody struggle, one of the youngest members of the
ruling house, Hadad, probably the eldest grandson of the last
king, succeeded in escaping from the country. Some of the
most devoted of his father's servants had first of all brought
him down south-east to the free commercial town of Midian on
the gulf of Elath,3 and then crossing the sea to the peninsula of
Sinai, had made their way by desert-tracks to Paraii4 and had
there been so fortunate as to find souie trusty guides, who con
ducted them to Egypt. Since Egypt had not yet formed any
alliance with Israel, the Egyptian monarch received the young
fugitive favourably, bestowed 011 him a house for his own. with an
annuity and estates, and subsequently even gave him in marriage
the sister of his own first consort Tahpanes. This was clearly
with the intention of being able to avail himself of his aid in the
future against the powerful aspirations of the kingdom of Israel,
and is quite in accord with another tradition already alluded to.5
This exalted lady bore him a son Genubath, who was brought
up at the Egyptian court quite like one of the royal princes, and
who must subsequently have played in Asia a not unimportant
part, or otherwise he would not have been mentioned. On
hearing of the change of sovereigns in Israel, and the death of
Joab, Hadad demanded his dismissal from Pharaoh, to return
to his native land. But the feeling towards the kings of Israel
had already essentially altered, so that (as will be immediately
explained) the friendship of these monarchs had now become
rather an object of desire. The Idumean prince, accordingly,
received an evasive answer, but, like a true intractable Edomite,
he would not suffer that to withhold him. He fled secretly to the
mountains of his fathers, was there recognised as king by many
of his countrymen, and, though never entirely victorious, he yet
occasioned Solomon many embarrassments in a country which
from its many mountain-summits and caves was always difficult
to subdue completely, and the inhabitants of which had perhaps
by that time somewhat recovered from the bloody defeats they
had sustained from Joab.6
1 1 Kings xi. 21 sq. 2 P. 156 sq. 3 Vol. ii. pp. 189, 194. 4 P. 142.
5 Vol. ii. p. 335. 6 1 Kings xi. 14-22, cf. ver. 25, and
218 THE REIGS OF SOLOMON.
2) This revolt in the far south certainly began (according to
this account) shortly after the accession of Solomon. At the
same time a still more violent rising must have taken place in
the extreme north-east. While David was sfcill 011 the throne,
an Aramean, by name Rezon,1 had come forward in that quarter
as leader, had broken loose from the king of Zobah whom David
had conquered, and with a body of troops, collected from the
forces which had been dispersed in all directions after the disso
lution of the kingdom of Zobah, had roamed as a freebooter
through the deserts. When Solomon, however, assumed power,
Rezon. inarched with gathering hosts to Damascus itself, occu
pied it, and caused himself to be proclaimed king there. Of
course he cannot have maintained himself with his troops very
long undisturbed, as we see Solomon in the middle of his reign
occupying many other distant countries north and east of Da
mascus ; but that for a long period he caused him many embar
rassments is expressly asserted.2
3) Lastly, we still see clearly that in the west, also, soon after
Solomon's accession, considerable disturbances arose. The little
kingdom of Gezer (or Gesliur) between the territories of Israel
and those of the Philistines, which ha,d certainly been long de
pendent on its more powerful neighbours, but had still pre
served a certain independence, was in full insurrection against
Israel, supported probably by the Philistines, who, when the
other enemies of Israel were astir, would not have remained
quiet.3 The Phoenicians indeed, long since devoted only to
the sea and to peaceful commerce, and completely separated
from their ancient brethren, remained tranquil ; but the other
remnants of the Canaanites, headed by the little kingdom of
the remarks vol. i. p. 76 sq. This passage are now narrated after xi. 11-13; but
is evidently incomplete at ver. 22, and the this arrangement proceeds only from the
LXX have some sentences more which last author.
would entirely suit here, although the last i A genuine Aramean name, corre-
appear in the 25th verse of the masoretic spending to that of the later Damascene
text ; and certainly it is better to refer king Eezin, Is. vii, 1 sqq. The LXX spell
these to Hadad and read Q-|£ for Q-j^ ; it'Eo-pefy*, at least in Cod. Vat. ver. 14 ; but
' but as for the mischief that 'Hadad did Cod. Alex, has 'Poo-cfyi ; for further remarks
(Lehrb. pp. 683 sq., 737, note) he abhorred see below.
Israel and reigned over Edom ; ' then all 2 1 Kings xi. 23-25 ; cf., however, the
that is wanting in the masoretic text after remarks already made on ver. 25. The
ver. 22 is that he secretly escaped. The words are then, at any rate, intelligible in
LXX put 'ASe'p for Hadad, since the copyists themselves, al though we must lament their
preferred making of this name a proper great brevity. That Rezon's revolt against
Hebrew word ; the same change is found Solomon began before the second half
Gen. xxxvi. 39 in the MSS. ; cf., also, p. of the latter's reign is clear from the fact
152, note 3. The LXX call the queen 0e/ce- that he was at least from twenty to thirty
fj-iva. Josephus, Ant. viii. 7. 6, only places years older than Solomon.
the events 1 Kings xi. 14-25 in the last 3 1 Kings ix. 16 sqq.; comp. with ii.
period of Solomon's reign, because they p. 328 sq. and further remarks below.
RISING OF THE CANAAN1TES. 219
Gezer, which had with difficulty maintained itself in the south by
the help of their ancient power, and by Harnath in the north,
appear to have attempted at this period to make a last combined
effort to defend themselves against Israel : a fact which explains
how under Solomon the last remnants of their ancient indepen
dence were taken from them, and how from that time they might
sink into a degradation completely outside the pale of the law.
From these traces we cannot doubt that the nations con
quered by David combined either to revolt, or to threaten revolt
against the new and untried king, as soon as they heard of the
death of David and Joab. We do not need to gather this his
torical truth only from the second Psalm, although, since we
cannot refer it to any other king than Solomon, this poem would
in itself afford sufficiently clear evidence of the fact ; it stands
firm independently.
A second severe trial was thus imposed on the young king at
the very threshold of that exalted position which he was to
occupy so long. But if only the lofty spirit grew young again
in him with which David had felt himself true king in the
community of Jahveh, he could not fail to find in it the safest
inward help and power. The feeling by which David had be
come the mighty victor over so many nations was not that of
an ordinary warrior and conqueror, who seeks power and honour
only for himself and his house, or at most for his people. The
true Mosaic feeling worked powerfully in him that Israel should
not find its aim in itself, but in everything should serve the
True above it. And as he ever bore in mind that this must be
true of the king of Israel even more than of any other indi
vidual, he had found it the source of a royal consciousness infi
nitely purer and stronger than that of ordinary kings ; for the
human king is then only the mightiest tool of a necessary divine
purpose, and he can always think and act in this wonderfully
elevating trust. With a frame of mind thus truly royal,
inspired by the solemn anointing and encouragement of so great
a Prophet as Nathan, and elevated in spirit by the lofty position
which a king of Israel then assumed among the nations of the
earth, Solomon should encounter the threatening storm of the
revolt of many subjugated nations with that divine courage and
that admonition sprung from prophetic trust, to which the second
Psalm gives utterance.1 A more expressive monument of the
elevation of that period and of the wonderful firmness of spirit
1 Cf. further the Dichter des A. B., understood Messianically will be men-
Tol. ii. (2nd edition) pp. 61-66. How this tioned below.
Psalm could come in far later times to be
220 THE EEIGN OF SOLOMON.
of the new ruler, it is not possible to conceive ; and we may well
feel that if the young king looked the evil in the face with
such purely divine confidence, one of the main weapons of his
threatening foes was already torn from them.
Yet foreign affairs, too, seemed to promise better than might
have been feared. The only kingdom which, under the circum
stances, might, in alliance with the discontented nations, have
become dangerous to the powerfully aspiring monarchy in Israel,
was Egypt ; and Egypt was more inclined to friendship with the
royal house of Israel. Egypt was then ruled by the twenty-first
dynasty, which had its seat in the extreme north of the country
at Tanis, and could not fail from there carefully to survey the
international relations of the countries as far as the Euphrates.
Since the days of Moses the feeling of Egypt towards Israel may
well have undergone great alteration through the lapse of time
and the change of its ruling houses ; while Israel, in its final
position of dominion over many nations, necessarily entered into
new relations even with distant peoples. What immediate
considerations moved the reigning monarch of Egypt to seek
the friendship of Israel, we do not certainly know. Meanwhile
the accession of Solomon falls in the thirty- fifth year of the
reign of the last king of the Tanitic house, whom Maiietho calls
Psusennes,1 and it may well be conjectured that that dynasty
had already, during the whole reign of this, its last king, be
come so weak that it was glad to seek the friendship of great
foreign powers. But to no nation in anterior Asia would Egypt
then more naturally direct its attention than to Israel, which
was at that time aspiring to a really imperial supremacy. And
it is quite probable, although we have now no evidence of it,
that after David's great conquests over the surrounding nations,
Egypt had already sought to cement a closer alliance with
Israel, in whose dominion, after the Philistines had lost their
power, it saw the nearest check upon its own. Immediately
after David's death, the Egyptian king refuses2 to the Idumeari
prince at his court all co-operation against Israel, and will not
so much as let him quit the country at will ; which would have
been impossible had he not already clearly decided in favour of the
royal house in Israel. We even see him at once in full activity
come to Solomon's aid. He gives him his daughter in marriage,
and assists him to put down the rebels in the south-west. With
an Egyptian army, which evidently advanced by sea and landed at
1 Cf. Bunson's Egypt, vol. iii. p. 120 sq. name of a reigning Egyptian queen is
with the original authorities at the end. mentioned and not that of the king.
Unfortunately in 1 Kings xi. only the 2 P. 217.
EXTENT OF HIS EMPIRE. 221
Joppa, he reduced and burnt the fortified town of Gezer, treated
its Canaanitish inhabitants with the severity of a conqueror's
rights, and then bestowed the territory of this city upon his
daughter as a dowry.1 This Egyptian princess, before Solomon
could erect for her a more fitting residence, had to take up her
abode in the ancient chambers of the palace in the city of David
upon Mount Zion.2 This, as well as every remaining indication,
proves clearly enough that the new event of a matrimonial alli
ance with Egypt falls in the beginning of Solomon's reign.
Against the northern rebels, however, Solomon marched in
person, and conquered Hamath.3 This originally Canaanitish
kingdom had attempted under David 4 to free itself from its
Aramean enemies, and through judicious behaviour had been
able still to maintain a sort of independence. But now it
appears to have been involved in the revolt of the southern
Canaanites and of Rezon against Israel,5 and was incorporated
in the kingdom of Israel. The disturbances of the nations were
everywhere composed, and although the fire of rebellion still
gleamed in the ashes only to break out again at a more oppor
tune time, yet in general the entire Davidic empire, in some
places even extended, was restored to the sway of the great son
of David. From the Euphrates to the Egyptian border, from
Thapsacus on the Northern Euphrates, where powerful com
mercial caravans crossed the river, to Gaza close to Egypt, with
an equally flourishing trade, the whole country belonged to
Israel.6 And assuredly this speedy result was brought about
not only by the firmness of disposition which was soon observed
in the new king, but also by the dread of the name of the scarce
departed hero, who might almost be believed to have become
once more alive in his son.
3. The young king, in short, thus became, alike from within
and from without, master of all the difficulties of his situation :
and the question arose in what direction he would now develop
his assured dominion. A new direction would in any case
have to be struck out, since the most pressing want which
had evoked the establishment of a monarchy in Israel had been
satisfied by David. David took up the work which Saul's royal
1 1 Kings ix. 16 sq., cf. above, p. 218, a quite historically true; it is confirmed also
detached but very important statement. by 2 Kings xiv. 28.
2 1 Kings iii. 1, ix. 24. The feeling to 4 P. 156. 5 P. 218.
which the Chronicler (2 Chron. viii. 11) 6 Only the last composer of the Book of
refers the later removal of the Egyptian Kings, it is true, expresses himself thus,
princess to another palace is quite foreign 1 Kings v. 1, 4 [iv. 21, 24]. The fact
to the spirit of antiquity. itself, however, generally understood, is
3 2 Chron. viii. 3 sq., a statement which correct; cf. also passages like viii. 65,
has only been preserved here, but must be Gen. xv. 18-21, Ps. Ixxii. 8.
222 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
house had let fall before its completion, — the deliverance of Israel
from the supremacy of foreign powers, and its training in unity
and courage to follow the true national aim. But David had
completed this first task of sny monarchy in Israel, as is proved
by the proportionately great ease with which Solomon maintains
the inheritance of his father in spite of some great momentary
dangers. Henceforth, therefore, the monarchy in Israel was
compelled to strike out a new direction, inasmuch as, after sur
mounting the difficulties of its first problem, it stood already
essentially on a higher elevation, and found everything prepared
for entering on a fresh path.
But if everything was then pressing forwards in a new direc
tion, it was in Solomon that the right king had arisen to guide
the course of events as skilfully and as prosperously as possible.
Brought up in the full splendour of the latter days of David, and
thus accustomed to the real elevation and unity of a truly royal
career ; distinguished from his birth by great mental gifts ; of
keen insight as well as poetic disposition; swift to resolve,
yet skilful in judgment ; enjoying the pomp of royalty and all
the arts of peace, while at the same time he took an active
part in increasing in every way the prosperity and power of the
kingdom ; full of reverence for the sanctity embodied in Israel,
although he had grown up without his father's deeper expe
riences of life ; — he was in almost every respect the right in
strument to conduct the monarchy in a new direction, and to
supply what had not been attempted under David.
It was open to him to pursue further the military career, and
to consummate the universal dominion for which David had laid
a firm foundation. This would have been somewhat of a novelty,
since David had, strictly speaking, waged only defensive wars ;
and pretexts for wars of attack would have been then much
easier to find in Israel than they were for that miserable Chris
tian Louis XIV. But the moderation of the true religion of
Jahveh, as it was represented under David by great Prophets,
had long since offered a sufficiently forcible opposition to such
a beginning,1 and it was the less possible for the young king to
devote himself to it, because it was precisely under those Pro
phets and other powerful personages who had promoted his
accession,2 that the moderate policy had become dominant over
every other.3
It remained, therefore, the better task of the new reign to
1 P. 160 sqq. 2 P. 209 sqq. dung aller Geschichte Israel's in ihrerhohen
See further the essay ' Ueber die Wen- Mitte,' Jahrbb. derBibl. Wiss. x. p. 29 sqq.
ITS TASKS A]STD TENDENCIES. 223
make wise use of the lasting peace which had been won through
great victories, and as there is every appearance that this had
already been the sole object of David during the last more
peaceful years of his reign, so Solomon applied himself to it
with great determination.1 Here was still an immense amount of
work to be done which had hitherto either never been attempted
or left entirely imperfect in Israel. And while the young king,
after the first establishment of his power, developed in this
policy all his activity and strength, and by his own creative
fancy and energy as well as by his own lofty example advanced
before his people in all the arts of peace, there was developed
at the same time a prosperity shared alike by the monarchy
and by all classes of the people in Israel, which had never been
possible before and could never again return.
But in the midst of this policy, so different from that of his
predecessors, a new danger lay concealed. Continuous war, had
it become the business of life for the people in their aspirations
after imperial dominion, would have constantly tended to drive
to the outside the fermenting elements of popular power.
Peace, on the other hand, were it elevated into the main prin
ciple of this powerful kingdom, might develop with greater
purity all its different aspirations, yet in the very process of
doing so might urge them the more sharply against one another ;
so that the contradictions which lay still unreconciled in the
entire mass would step forth the more openly, and might break
out into a struggle previously unknown. A long prosperous
peace after great national victories, a period like that in the
Roman empire under Augustus or under the Antonines, in
Germany since 1763 or again since 1815, invariably acts as a
test whether such a people can maintain itself at the elevation
it has once attained or not; and that Israel was not then
capable of this is proved clearly enough by certain indications
towards the end of Solomon's reign. For above all, it must
inevitably lead the new king of Israel into a severe temptation.
Through the arts of peace Egyptian monarchs, too, had often
sought renown and honour, and the reigning king in Egypt, who
allied himself with Solomon by his daughter's marriage, ruled
in this spirit. But do not they, too, conceal, as soon as they
are pursued one-sidedly, a crowd of the most dangerous seduc
tions, which act first of all on the king himself, who is the
immediate centre of all the splendour and charm of such periods,
1 But this is by no means the reason 1 Chron. xxii. 9 depends only on the free
why their king first received the name of representation of the Chronicler ; cf. p.
Solomon, i.e. Peaceful, since the allusion 168.
224 THE REIGN OP SOLOMON".
so long as nothing else than the example of Egyptian monarchs
in time of peace lies historically before his eyes ? — But we will
consider first that side which in this long era of peace displayed
itself earliest and with most brilliancy, the organisation and
greatness of his government.
II. THE ORGANISATION AND GREATNESS OP SOLOMON'S
GOVERNMENT.
The forty years of Solomon's reign stand out unique as the
period of most tranquil and powerful development of all the arts
of peace, in the long history of Israel. The destiny of that nation
not only placed it in opposition to the aspirations of every other
nation of antiquity, but obliged it to sustain an almost uninter
rupted struggle with them, while in addition its call to solve one
of the loftiest problems of the human mind caused it to suifer
severely from violent internal disputes. This period of Israel's
greatest temporal power bears the fruit of David's labours ;
and for a considerable time almost all inward struggles are
silent, and the speedy development of all the arts of peace is
rendered possible. It seems as if this history were intended in
the tranquil elevation of its brilliant noon to teach us under
what conditions the arts of peace may be successfully unfolded,
and how they early rose in Israel to a position of eminence.
It is indeed astonishing to observe what rapid progress wras
made in Israel in the cultivation of the peaceful arts at a period
when, in Europe, the possibility of their development was still
far distant. The first condition needful to enable them to
flourish with vigour and stability is in all cases (and on this too
great a stress cannot be laid) a national power which is strong
in its relation to foreign powers, and permits activity of mind
to exercise itself at once undisturbed and unrestrained in such
aspirations as go beyond what are or seem to be the most im
mediate necessities of life, and seeks in this a source of pride and
emulation in which the rough soldier finds only what is unneces
sary and unworthy of honour. This first condition existed at that
time in Israel. But, that it might not exist without any result,
much besides was indispensable. It needed the rule of a reli
gion which should at every moment remind man of the divine
claim standing over him, and thus impel him rather to inward
composure than to wild unrest. It needed the seeds of a love
for the peaceful improvement of the fertile soil, as well as for
the general spread of culture and skill, which had been long a^o
DEVELOPMENT OF THE ARTS. 225
planted in Israel, and the growth of which ha,d been most power
fully promoted by the labours of such creative rninds as Samuel
and David.1 It needed the proximity of nations who had already,
in earlier ages, acquired a still higher familiarity with the arts
of peace, like the Egyptians, and still more the Phoenicians, the
latter of whom were induced by their own advantage to promote
culture and arts of every kind in Israel, and who during the
last centuries had been continually attaching themselves more
and more closely to Israel. The influence of Egyptian civilisa
tion does not appear to have been equally great, for, in spite of
Solomon's matrimonial alliance with Pharaoh, no definite trace
of it is to be found.2 And it needed, finally, the prosperity which
accrued to the people from the circumstance that David was
succeeded by a monarch who was no less great, who had the
wisdom to enter entirely into the real needs and the better aspi
rations of the age, and who, by the splendour of his own genius,
was capable of promoting them.
If, however, a nation once devotes itself at such an opportune
season, in alliance with its sovereign, to the arts of peace, the
long-existing elements of activity in the arts spread themselves
in every direction, But the result can only be injurious if, at
those rare times when a nation is thus eager to supply all its
former deficiencies, an injudicious compulsion and control should
promote some arts, but restrain others no less necessary, and
thereby succeed only in disturbing the cheerful development of
the whole higher life. Under Solomon, who served to posterity
as the pattern of a wise king,3 we observe the higher art of life
unfolding itself freely in every possible direction. It does not
proceed one-sidedly merely from the sovereign, although from
his natural disposition he has the greatest taste for the arts, but
the entire nation participates in it also, so far as the age permits.
Moreover it displays itself not only in splendid buildings ; it seeks
also to extend the welfare of the whole people, and in those
spheres where it must be freest, because it there becomes most
delicate and spiritual, it never meets with unintelligent restraint.
Let us observe this more closely in detail, as we may deduce
it fiona our historical memorials.
1 Cf. vol. ii. p. 353 sq., 423 sq., and in imitation of 1 Kings v. 16 [2] sq., and
above, p. 134. may be derived from an Apokryphon. Not
2 What Eupolenms (Euseb. Prcep, Ev. much significance is to be attached to a
ix. 30) or Al. Polyhistor (Clem. Al. Strom, slight similarity between the plan of
i. 21) says of the assistance of an Egyptian Solomon's great buildings and Egyptian
king Vaphres in the building of the temple, temples and palaces, since it appears else-
supported by the quotation of letters ex- whore in high antiquity. '
changed between the two kings, is plainly 3 See p. 215.
VOL. III. Q
226 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
1. The Sacred and Royal Buildings.
1) In the case of the Egyptians and other ancient nations we
are able to recognise their modes of paying honour to their
deities, and of ordinary life, almost solely from their buildings,
which have defied all the devastations of time. The buildings
erected in the era of Solomon possess, it must be admitted, no
such high significance for the history of Israel, a nation which
was destined to immortalise itself among mankind by far other
monuments. Nevertheless they not only afford speaking witness
of the lofty power to which Israel had then risen, but they also
exercise so much influence on the course of this history that we
must consider them here more closely.
a.) It had been a firm determination of David in the last
years of his career,1 to erect at Jerusalem a house for Jahveh,
the exalted God and proper Lord of the realm, which should
be suitable to the new splendour of the kingdom. And as he
had employed Tyrian artists for all his magnificent erections,
Solomon followed his example, and very early in his reign
applied to the Tyrian. king Hiram 2 for the aid of skilled
Sidonian artists of various kinds, for the execution of all the
necessary works.3 This Tyrian king was then, at least as
Josephus4 declares, in the eleventh year of his reign. He had
been already on terms of friendship with David, and now readily
acceded to Solomon's wish. Sidonian artists mixed with those
of Israel, since Israel during the last century of war had re
mained far behind the Tyrian s in the higher arts. Besides
them, however, there came as specially superior, almost as
scientific architects, Phoenicians from the city of Gebal— or
in its Greek form Byblos — so celebrated for its science.5 The
1 Pp. 129-133. public libraries; but. unfortunately, we
2 This name was originally pronounced have no more precise knowledge of his
Hirom or Hurom, as its written form still proofs of it : the letters, as he gives them,
shows, 1 Kings v. 24 [10J 32 [18], vii. 40, are only free reproductions of the Hebrew,
and that in the first syllable there was, 4 Ant. viii. 3. 1. According to 2 Sam.
according to my Lchrb. § 163c, originally v. 11, he might seem to have been reigning
an M, is proved by the^spelling Xipa,u and already at the time when David built his
Xetpa/x. in the LXX. Eipa/j.os in Josephus, palace in Jerusalem (which certainly took
with Huram in the Chronicles; it has got place soon after the conquest) and to have
corrupted i nto 'S.ovpAv i n Eus. Frfgp.Ev.ix. helped David in its erection; this is in-
30 sqq., and, stranger still, into Hyptr-n, deed assumed 2 Chron. ii. 3, and Jos. Ant.
in Clem. Al. Strom, i. 21. The Phoenician vii. 3. 2 does not definitely distinguish
name Stpw/tos in Herod, v. 104, vii. 98, two Hirams. But if the mention of the
certainly proves how easily s and h were eleventh yearof the thirty-four years' reign
exchanged at the beginning of a word. of the Hiram who for the most part lived
3 The correspondence between the two in Solomon's era, is correct ( Jos. Ant. viii.
kings is given, 1 Kings v. 16-23 [2-9], 5. 3, Contr. Ap. i. 18, according to Menan-
entirely in the language of the first person, der and Dios), the other Hiram must have
as history writers, universally, easily com- been his grandfather. Hiram's father is
pjete the proper form. Josephus, Ant. named by Josephus from the oldest sources,
viii. 2 8, asserts very earnestly that these Abibal.
letters were to be found in his time with * The term GiWtes, so far as they are
precisely the same tenor in the Tyrian mentioned 1 Kings v. 32 [18], must have
THE TYRIAN ARTISTS. 227
Tyrian king himself erected in his native city several celebrated
buildings : l and the two sovereigns appear almost to have
rivalled one another alike in wise proverbs (of which more
below), and in splendid edifices. Much of the proper Tyrian ar
chitecture was unquestionably transplanted in consequence to
Jerusalem, as the few traces of Phoenician style still known to us
attest. For the metal work an artist was obtained who was de
scended on one side from Israel, though from his Phosnician. father
he derived his regular Phoenician name Hiram — like that of the
reigning Tyrian king. His mother, however, was a widow of
the tribe of Naphtali on the Sidonian borders : he obeyed,
therefore, the more readily, the summons of Solomon.2
That the Sidonian artists, however, could only give free play
to their peculiar art so far as the Jahveh religion permitted it,
was the natural result of the position of this religion at that era.
Yet it seems as if later writers had felt the need of making this
truth as prominent as possible ; for the Chronicler, venturing
here on a freer representation, relates how Da.vid handed over
to his beloved but still too youthful son Solomon the design for
the erection of the temple, drawrn by the hand of God Himself,
with all its parts, furniture, and Priestly ordinances, with the
commission to execute everything according to this divine plan.3
For it was not Solomon but David alone who was generally
regarded at the time of the Chronicler as the great and worthy
originator of all sacred institutions in Jerusalem ; as though
even Solomon's own especial works had only been executed in
exact accordance with his father's design, and thus what the
Book of Origins described as having taken place first of all in
the Mosaic sanctuary 4 might seem to have been similarly re-
some such meaning, with which also (2 Chron. ii. 12. [13] iv. 16) calls him
Ezekiel xxvii. 9 agrees. Moreover it ap- father, i.e. master, workmaster, of king
pears now more and more clearly, that Hiram as also of Solomon. On the other
much as the Canaanitish- (or Phoenician-) hand, while according to the old account,
Hebrew style may have borrowed from he understood nothing but metal work,
the Egyptian as the earlier developed, it the Chronicles make him acquainted with
yet possessed very much that was peculiar ; all possible arts. In giving him the sur-
cf. the Jakrbb. der Sibl. Wiss. x. p. 269 name Abiv or Abif, later writers have
pqq., Gbtt, Gel. Am. 1864, p. 1783 sqq. misunderstood 2 Chron. iv. 16; the name
1 According to the exact Phoenician 'EX^S in Jos. Gen. Hypomn. c. 63 is only
accounts of Menander and Dios in Jos. a corruption of 'E/3/as.
Ant. viii. 5. 3, Contr. Ap. i. 18. * \ Chron. xxviii. 11-19 ; ver. 19 is to
2 1 Kings vii. 13 sqq. from the Book of , , .f ._„;..» L,^;vn_ L.. -.,.->_ ^L«
Origins. That the later Jews took offence r^ T^VM? ^ 71?0 ^
at the name and descent of the man who '>£? instead of ^ ?WJ1 ty as the
made the vessels of the sanctuary, we see sense shows when compared with the
from Eupolemus, in Eus. Pr<ep. Ev. ix. 34 reading of the LXX. The similarity of
(cf. Jos. Ant. viii 3. 4) where he is reck- d L j^ migled h
oned m the family of David; besides, m ' ' •"-" ' ., '
2 Chron. ii. 13. [14] the tribe of Dan is 1
put for Naphtali. Yet the old Chronicler 4 Vol. i. p. 87.
Q 2
228 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
peated in the Solomonic through the instrumentality of David.
As in all such supernatural representations, only one side of the
great event is brought prominently forward, which is not without
Us truth, but may easily lead anyone entirely astray who
ignores the remaining historical truths by its side.
In considering the external resources which were at Solomon's
command for the execution of his undertaking, the prior question
n rises how much he may have already received from his father.
That David had accumulated very large treasures by his great
victories and the tranquillity of the concluding years of his reign,
and had destined much of these for the erection of the temple
which he had already resolved upon, is quite credible, although
the older of the accounts of his reign now preserved to us are
entirely silent on the subject. At his funeral, moreover, there
were doubtless immense sums expended, in accordance with the
custom of antiquity, and yet we should know nothing of it, were
not an account of it preserved in Josephus, which, in spite
of its late composition, contains nothing improbable.1 The
Chronicles, however, supply more particulars about the treasures
destined by David for the future temple. Immediately after
the great plague, David (it is related) disclosed to his son how
he had made every preparation for the erection of the temple
which was to be begun after his death, had engaged stone
masons and artificers of every kind, and had collected 100,000
talents of gold,2 1,000,000 talents of silver, as well as an im
mense quantity of bronze, iron, valuable woods, precious stones
and marbles.3 He then shortly before his death proceeded to
summon all the nobles and officers of every class from the whole
of Israel, together with Solomon, to a solemn diet, and
made known to them how, besides all the royal preparations
and the divine design for all the sacred buildings and ordinances
which he then handed over to Solomon, he further spontaneously,
and from pure love for the cause, devoted to the erection of the
temple what might be called a private fortune of 3,000 talents
of the best gold, and 7,000 talents of the finest silver. He then
1 The High-Priest Hyrcanus opened the 1845, pp. 415-20. (See also below),
tomb of David, and took from one of its 2 A talent of silver is about 390/.,from
chambers throe thousand talents. Simi- which the proportion of a golden one may
larly later, Herod took large treasures be reckoned. The shekel was about !-<?. 8d.,
from another, Jos. Ant. vii. 15. 3: cf. but varied in value very much at different
xiii. 8. 4, xvi. 7- 1. There is no doubt periods.
that tho tomb of David could still be dis- 3 1 Chron. xxii. 2-19, cf. especially ver.
tinguished at those periods (Acts ii. 29), 14 with the further explanation xx'ix. 2.
and certainly no king of Jerusalem, not The Chronicler begins from 1 Chron. xxii.
even Solomon (see below), was buried with 2 to describe the ordinances of David
siu-li treasures as David. The grave of -which where to serve as a pattern for the
David was (1 Kings ii. 10 ; Neh. iii. 10) on future,
/'ion; cf. Williams, 77«? Holy City, London,
PREPARATIONS FOR THE TEMPLE. 229
called upon all assembled to make similar donations, upon
which they also devoted to the same object 5,000 talents of
gold, 10,000 (gold-) drachmas, 10,000 talents of silver, 18,000
talents of bronze, and 100,000 talents of iron, as well as
precious stones.1 It is certainly unmistakably clear that the
whole of this representation is connected with the fundamental
conception of the Chronicler already mentioned, that David
rather than Solomon had been the true spiritual founder of all
the sacred buildings and ordinances in Jerusalem, so that he
had even already engaged all the stone-masons and artificers
(which, according to the older accounts, was done by Solomon
himself). And not only is the peculiar language of the Chron
icler everywhere apparent, but the whole representation of
these last acts of David presents itself as an imitation of
many acts and words of Moses in the existing Pentateuch.
In particular, David commits to his son the execution of all
the sacred works which he is himself no longer able to carry
out, a charge similar to that of the dying Moses to his suc
cessors ; and although a voluntary contribution to the sanctuary
was certainly an ancient usage, yet the one here described
reminds us strongly of that laid by the Book of Origins in the
Mosaic age.2 The round numbers too, as well as the mention of
Persian drachmas, lead to the same conclusion. Still it cannot
be doubted that the Chronicler is here reproducing the ancient
tradition of great treasures being destined by David for the
building of the temple, only, in his usual fashion, he has worked
it up somewhat freely ; and, without finding such treasures,
Solomon would never, so far as we know, have been able to set
to work in earnest at the erection of the temple so soon after
his accession. The quantity of bronze which David3 had won
by his conquest of Zobah, might now find its most suitable use.
b.) Such treasures, however, were chiefly needed only to pro
cure the building materials which had still to be obtained and to
pay the Tyrian and other artists. Labour, that important aid
in the work, Solomon obtained for this, as for his other edifices,
with scarcely any expenditure of money ; and, at any rate at the
beginning, he could boast, like Sesostris in the Egyptian story,4
of having been able to complete this and the other great archi
tectural works of his reign, without exacting any bitter labour
from any of his own nation. Israel had just risen with great
force against all the remnants of the ancient Canaanftes, except
the Phoenicians, and had reduced them to subjection even in
1 1 Chron. xxviii. sq., especially xxix. 3 P. 158.
3-9. 2 Exod. xxv. 1 sq. 4 Diod. Sic. Hist. i. 56.
230 THE KEIGN OF SOLOMON.
those districts where during the period of the Judges they had
again become dominant. These Canaanites, who were never
completely subdued until the time of the monarchy, were now
compelled, wherever they were not yet willing to adopt the reli
gion and nationality of Israel, to perform forced service for the
king, a practice which had been already begun under David.1
Solomon accordingly raised for the preliminary works in Le
banon and other places, where the requisite stone was quarried
and the timber felled, a levy of thirty thousand men, a third
part of whom in turn worked continuously for a month, while
the two others were sent home for two months to procure the
necessary subsistence for themselves and their families. Sub
sequently, it is true, when the buildings of various kinds became
more numerous, there are unmistakable signs that Solomon
claimed even from the people of Israel themselves certain forced
services. The entire number was then reckoned at 70,000 porters
and 80,000 wood- and stone-cutters in Lebanon and elsewhere,
with 3,300 overseers, who were only partly taken from the domi
nant race.2 The preliminary works for the temple were finished
in three years, so that the building itself could be begun in. the
second month of the fourth year of Solomon's reign.3
c.) The locality in or near Jerusalem where the temple should
be placed, could not be a matter of doubt in the king's mind.
It was the Mount Moriah,4 north-east of Zion, which David
1 According to the brief but important a different arrangement of the sentences
account 2 8am. xx. 24, with which the v. 27 [13]-vi. 1 ; and (3) that the 550 (1
account 2 Chron. ii. 16 [17] agrees. If 2 Kings ix. 23) were actual chief-overseers,
yam. viii. 15-18 is compared with it, it while the 3,3uO, 1 Kings v. 30 [16],
appears that the forced service was not (3,600 2 Chron. ii. 17- [18] by mistake), iu-
insututed till the later years of David, elude at the Srime time sub-overseers ; of
With this agrees also the statement that those 550 chief-overseers, however, 300
Adoniram, or shortened, Adoram, who were taken from the Canaanites thein-
already under David occiipied the im- selves, and only 250 (2 Chron. viii. 9 sq.)
port ant post of superintendent of all these were born Hebrews. The expression that
services, was still (according to 1 Kings Solomon had employed only Canaanites
xii. 18) living at the beginning of Eeho- on forced labour, and Israelites only to
boam's reign. command (1 Kings ix. 22), is, in the face
- In the complete impossibility of ver- of such clear evidence as 1 Kings xi. 28,
bally harmonising the passage 1 Kings v. xii. 3 sqq., too general, and proceeds only
27 [13] sq., partly with ver. 29 [15] sq., from the last author. Yet I cannot see
partly with ix. 15-23, 2 Chron. ii. 17 sq., that the assertion of the last narrator is
viii. 7-10, it must be assumed, (1) that entirely groundless; elsewhere also it is
only 1 Kings v. 27 [13] sq., 31 [17] origin- the custom of this narrator, in treating of
ally describe the preliminaries of the Solomon, to express himself somewhat too
building of the temple; on the other hand, generally, as 1 Kings v. 4 [iv. 24].
ver. 29 [15] sq. is originally from another 3 According to the unquestionably cor-
source, probably such a general survey of rect additions of the LXX after 1 Kings
the circumstances of Solomon's reign as v. 32 [18], with which the fourth year fits
the fragment iv. 2-19 supplies; and (2) in properly, vi. 1.
that the expression ' all Israel,' v. 27 [13], 4 The name occurs, except in Gen. xxii.
means only the country and kingdom, not 2 (where the place is intentionally called
Israel in contrast to the Canaanites ; the somewhat generally 'the region of Moriah'),
LXX have, at any rate, introduced quite only in 2 Chron. iii. 1 ; but these two
SITE OF THE TEMPLE. 231
had already consecrated after the grea,t plague by an altar,1 a
spot which had previously been nothing but a field. That this
mountain possessed no other sanctity before that memorable
event under David, is proved by the fact that it is not more
closely interwoven in the traditions of the times of the patri
archs.2 Only the fourth and fifth narrators of the primitive
history venture on a novelty in transferring the highest event in
Abraham's life, the offering of Isaac, to that spot which had in
their day become the most sacred in all the holy land, and thus
attempt at the same time to explain the ancient name Moriah
from a truth of that higher religion which had there, as it were,
become localised.3 But that it had been especially sacred since
the time of the great plague, and was on that account chosen as
the temple-mountain, follows also from the fact that a mountain
should have been then selected which, in comparison with the
Mount of Olives and other summits of that district, was so low,
—while in other cases the loftiest summits of a district were
fixed upon in preference for such purposes ; 4 the lofty Mount
of Olives, for instance, lying somewhat farther to the east, had
already been used by David before the plague as a place of
prayer.5 To this it may be added that a mountain which (a,s
will soon be further explained), on account of its steep and
uneven summit, could not be readily adapted for a temple,
would never have been selected for it if other causes had not
made it appear the only worthy one. Its proximity to Zion
was a further reason for choosing it, since it might be so easily
attached to the ancient citadel.
d.) For this site further preparations of peculiar difficulty
were needed before the erection of the temple itself could be
begun. The ground must be made properly level and firm, as
the weight and extent of the various edifices required. Unfor
tunately, the sources preserved in the Old Testament give us no
passages are quite sufficient to identify perly Jah's seeing, from the main
it. It cannot, moreover, be asserted that contents of the narrative ; (2) passive,
this mountain did not Jie (according to properly 'Jahveh's appearance,' with refer -
Gen. xxii. 4) sufficiently far north from ence to a similar expression in a temple-
Beersheba, since Abraham might depart hymn (now, it is true, lost to us, but then
the first day late, and on the third see the assuredly often sung), ' This is the place
land of Moriah early. The name is lost of which it is said this day, " On the
subsequently in the 'Mount of the Temple,' mountain where Jahveh appears" ....
but is certainly ancient, and connected (perhaps, " let us sing to Him").' H)rV
with the Canaanite proper name Moreh, ^ connected according to my Lehrb.
Gen. xn. 6, cf. Judges vn. 1. V *•
! p § 333i., yet with previously-named sub
ject, as in Ps. iv. 8. This affords fresh
Vol. i. p. 306 sqq. proof how cieariv Jeruselem is intended.
8 According to Gen. xxii. 14, the name 4 A hymn of David's own time alludes
is twice (but differently) derived from to this, Ps. Ixviii. 16, [lo] sq,
seeing; (1) • Jahveh sees,1 provides, pro- 5 P. 180 sq.
232 THE REIGN OF SOLOMOX.
information about it ; further details are supplied by Josephus,
although, in the different passages where he refers to it, his
description must be received with some caution, as the dis
tinction is not drawn with sufficient clearness between what
was accomplished in this matter by Solomon himself, and what
by his numerous successors.1 Following the Mosaic model,
several forecourts had to be erected round the sacred house
proper. The house, therefore, could be placed on the actual
summit of the mountain, while the forecourts might be arranged
beneath it in stages ; 2 but for every separate space, the ground
had to be levelled beforehand according to the requirements of
the fundamental idea of the edifice ; where it was too high the
soil was removed, and where it was too low or wanting in firm
ness, it was raised or strengthened by substructures. At first,
relates Josephus, certainly from some ancient source now un
known to us, the level space on the summit of the rock was
scarcely sufficient for the erection of the house and the altar,
that is (since it is unquestionably the altar in the Priests'
court that is meant),3 the first or inner forecourt. The extent of
the second or outer forecourt, that is, of the entire sanctuary,4
was, of course, necessarily determined with accuracy from the
first, because, without such a plan to determine the main parts,
the building could never have been begun. We have, more
over, every reason for supposing that this outer forecourt sur
rounded the temple in a large square, each side of which was
500 paces inside : 5 it was so arranged, however, that the temple,
1 The clearest passage is the oldest, Ezek. xlii. 15-20, xlv. 2, has pin inly not
Bell. Jud.\. 5. 1 ; shortest and least satis- invented this statement arbitrarily, since
factory is the description in Solomon's life the stadium which, according to Josephus
itself, Ant. viii. 3. 2. 9 ; much that is im- also, Ant. xv. 11. 3, cf. viii. 3. 9, was the
portant in reference to Solomon is intro- length of each of the four walls, may
duced in connection with the building t>f describe about the same space when it is
Herod's temple, Ant. xv. 1.1. 3. remembered that Josephus usually prefers
'z Hence in Jer. xxxvi. 10, the upper is general expressions. According to the
the same as the inner forecourt. recent measurements the present platform
3 Just as in the expression 'between of the ancient temple-mountain is on the
the porch and the altar,' Joel ii. 17; for east 1,520, on the south 940, on the west
this must mean ' in the Priests' forecourt.' 1,617, and on the north 1,020 feet long
4 Tor the original temple of Solomon (cf. Catherwood's exact description in
had certainly only two forecourts, as Bart lett' s Walks about Jcrusa (em, London,
Ezekiel only presupposes and describes 1844, p. 174), which Robinson, Bib. Re*.
these two. A third court, which the i. p. 431 sq., attempts to explain by the
second temple had, might seem to have supposition that the Castle of Antonia
existed in the Solomonic also, as in the included the entire north of the present
liJe of Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xx. 5, the platform; while G-. Williams (2 he Holy
new court is mentioned ; if only this could City, London, 1845. p. 329 sqq.) assumes,
have been the third or so-called Gentiles' with somewhat more probability, but yet
court, and if only the successors of Solo- without adequate certainty, that the plat-
mon had laid the foundation for such an form was extended to the south in the
0116 •' erection of the church of St. Mary, the
6 The historical books of the Old Test, present Mosque El-Aqsa, undertaken by
are certainly silent on the point; but the Emperor Justinian. But according
FOUNDATIONS OF THE TEMPLE.
233
with the court nearest to it, lay more to the west, since on the
eaSt as the most sacred quarter was placed the chief entrance
into the temple, in front of which it was desirable to have a
larger space.1 Solomon himself, however, according to this
account, only completed the substructure of the mountain on the
east, the quarter which must, for the reason given, have been the
most important to him, while later kings carried out the plan of
the building on the other three sides also.2 Still better proof
than the descriptions of Josephus of the gigantic size of the walls
with which Solomon and his successors supported and enclosed
the space destined for the sacred buildings, is atforded by the
remains themselves, whxh have been preserved to this day and
appear almost indestructible. Some of the latest travellers
have begun to examine and describe them with somewhat
more exactness.3 They show us clearly that it was not the
oldest races of Greece and Asia Minor only that executed
Cyclopean walls, for the Solomonic may with equal or still
greater propriety be so designated.4 Repeatedly have those
buildings which were erected on the levelled spaces of Moriah,
to Josephus, Sell. Jud. v. 5. 5, cf. Ant.
viii. 3. 9, we are obliged to suppose that
the second forecourt, but not necessarily
the third, was a quadrangle. The plat
form might, therefore, have been extended
in the ages after S >1 onion to admit the
third forecourt, especially towards the
north and south ; as we actually know
from later times that the whole platform
from south to north, including the ad
jacent castle of Antonia on the north
west, was six stadia long, Jos. Bell. Jud.
v. 5. 2.
1 In fact, there still remains a smaller
square which rises, well preserved upon
the hard rock, above all the remains of
the artificially levelled platform of the
mountain, but it is situated more to the
west than the east; cf. Williams, The Holy
City, p. 323 sqq. There stands now upon
this smaller square the house venerated
by the Mohammedan next to the Kaaba,
the Mosque for which Omar laid the
foundation on the capture of Jerusalem,
commonly called the JViosque El-Sachra,
i.e. ot the rock. It is probable that it dots
not stand quite upon the site of Solomon's
temple, but I have no doubt that this
very square enclosed the ancient temple
together with the Priests' forecourt ; cf. 2
Chrou. xxix. 4, xxxi. 14. From the most
recent accounts we learn that in the midst
of this Mosque, hitherto inaccessible to
Christians, there stands a real rock ;
whence, however, this comes, deserves
further investigation.
2 As we know that king Joash built a
good deal, 2 Chron. xxiv. 27, and that
Jotham built the north gate of this court,
mentioned as evidently a very difficult
work, 2 Kings xv. 35 ; cf. further below.
3 After what Kobiusoii says, Bib. Res.
i. p. 415 sqq., the description of Gather-
wood, a professional architect, should be
consulted, especially on this point, in 13art-
lett's Walks about Jerusalem, pp. 161-178.
In tliis work the beautiful and apparently
very trustworthy drawings are especially
noteworthy. Other observations and con
jectures have been collected by Williams,
The Holy City, pp. 315-362. According to
JBarrlett, p. 23, the southern side even of
the smaller square, which extended beyond
the space already levelled, had to be sup
ported by similar gigantic walls.
4 Similar walls are found in the ancient
Phoenician buildings in Gebal or liyblos
(Athenaum franc. 1854, p. 1090), in Cy
prus, Asia Minor (Revue Archeoi. 1865,
July, p. 2 sqq.), Malta, and elsewhere ;
also in Baalbek, as already Wood and
Dawkins had remarked, cf. John Wilson's
Lands of the Bible, ii. p. 381 sqq. 400.
Elsewhere in Palestine also scattered ex
amples are to be found (Tobler's Dcnk-
bldtttr aus Jerusalem, p. 652 ; Saulcy's
Voyages, i. p. 46 sq., 318, 326, ii. p. 159,
534 sqq. ; those in Hebron are touched on
in Hajji Chali'a's Jih&n-Numa) : Herod
employed similar walls for his great
buildings in Jerusalem and Cesarea, Jos.
Ant. xv. 9, 6. 11. 3.
234 THE REIGX OF SOLOMON.
firm and strong as they were, been violently destroyed. The
Solomonic temple with its forecourts and halls was succeeded
by the second (that of Zerubbabel) and the third (that of Herod)
with yet more splendid surroundings. This under Hadrian gave
place to heathen temples and other buildings, and these in their
turn to Christian and Mohammedan structures, which, after
many changes, are standing to this day ; and of all the earlier
erections on the level platform, there is now not the smallest
trace any longer visible. But through all these great and
various demolitions and restorations on the surface, its founda
tions, with their gigantic walls, for the most part unseen, have
been indestructibly preserved, to prove even at this day how
much assistance art must here have rendered to nature, and
by what astonishing means Solomon prosecuted his designs.
The style of the subterranean vaults, the entrance to which is
found on the south, renders it improbable that they were begun
by Solomon. But we may with all the more confidence regard
as the work of Soiomon and the other ancient kings those
enormously large jointed stones which tower up from a great
depth into lofty walls, and above which may be seen, in many
places, layers of smaller and differently cut stones, which must
have been laid over them at a comparatively late period.
The erection of these gigantic supports and walls was cer
tainly not unaccompanied by the noise of work. Complete
stillness on the other hand marked the putting together of the
stones for the actual house of God. The ancient dread pecu
liar to the nation of Israel of making their sacred buildings
& r?
too artificial even then operated so far that the sacred house
was put together 011 the spot without any noise of hammers,
axes, and other tools of the kind.1 The stones were accordingly
so prepared where they were quarried, that they could be put
together on the summit of Moriah into the walls of the sacred
house without further labour; and if (as is in itself probable)
they were provided like the enormous blocks of the walls on the
mountain with jointed edges, there would be no difficulty in
putting them together without noise. The quantity of cedar
and cypress wood required for the building was conveyed, with
the aid of the Tyrians, the nearest way from. Lebanon to the
sea. It was then bound together in rafts, floated to the harbour
1 1 Kings vi. 7, comp. with v. 32 [18] ; mentioned stones for the foundations, of
according to the last passage, some sort of which we know otherwise, from 1 Kings
hewing of the stones for the sacred house, vii. 10 sqq., that like those used in Solo-
at any rale, took place. On the other hand, mon's palace they were eighteen cubits
the words, v. 31 [17], allude to the above- long, and even longer.
THE TEMPLE. 235
of Joppa, west of Jerusalem, and thence brought up to the
capital.1 On these rafts the stone also was probably conveyed,
if it was quarried in Lebanon ; but of the place of its excavation
we havR now no information, and where Lebanon is mentioned
in this connexion, it is always with reference to its valuable wood.
The necessary bronze work was cast in earthen moulds in the
middle of the Jordan valley, in the district between Succoth on
the east, and Zarthan on the west, where there is a fine clay
soil ; and the quantity of it was so great that the king would
not have it weighed at any stage of its preparation, and the
weight of the cast-metal work was not, therefore, recorded.2
All this bronze was polished.
e.) The sacred house itself (the Naos) was, in length and
breadth, half as large again as the Tabernacle. It was, there
fore, only sixty cubits long from east to west, and twenty broad,
and always remained, accordingly, a house rather for God Him
self than for His worshippers, like the temples of all ancient
nations, which were, in fact, mere habitations for the gods, or
rather for the images of the gods, and hence cannot be remotely
compared with our large churches, which are adapted primarily
for the congregation.3 But in two respects the building at
tained larger proportions. In the first place, the height of the
house was fixed at thirty cubits (that is, twice the height of the
Tabernacle), plainly 011 account of the chambers to be erected
round the house, of the height of fifteen cubits, the purpose of
which will be described below. But the Holy of Holies was
left now, as in its earlier model, a perfect cube, and its height
was consequently limited to twenty cubits.4 And, secondly, the
1 1 Kings v. 23 [9], comp. with 2 Chron. ver. 16 sq., 20, nor those in Josephus,
ii. 15. [16], where Joppa is named. This can obscure th^se plainly true proportions;
Joppa does not appear (ii. p. 329) in the the only thing open to question is the
history of Israel during the earlier cen- cause of thes^ differences. — Solomon's tem-
turies, and belonged, most probably, to pie has been made the subject of closer in-
the kingdom of Gezer, which was not sub- vestigations in recent times by Hirt, Stieg-
dued till the beginning of Solomon's litz, Fr. v. Meyer, Griineisen, and Keil,
reign, p. 220. which have been noticed by C. Schnaase
2 According to the Book of Origins, ( Gcschichte der bildenden Kiinste, Diissel-
1 Kings vii. 46 sq. The Egyptian poten- dorf, 1843, vol. i. p. 241-286), but this last
tates certainly acted very differently, who, writer himself goes far wrong when he pro
as we see in the Egyptian sepulchral pic- poses anything new, and in general has too
tures, preferred to have all their glories mean ideas of his subject. One main cause
described with the greatest accuracy. why the numerous important questions on
3 The cubit measures are all to be un- this subject have not yet been answered
derstood, however, of the space within with sufficient certainty, is unquestionably
the walls, which at the bottom were gene- to be found in the incompleteness and
rally very thick; cf. 1 Kings vi. 6, and want of precision in our existing accounts
the more precise statements of Ezekiel's in 1 Kings, of which I shall immediately
temple. bring forward an instructive example in
4 Neither the discrepancies of the num- the case of the two pillars. Nowhere
bers in the LXX, 1 Kings vi. 2 sq., cf. has interpretation failed in its duty so
236
THE REIGX OF SOLOMOX.
simple entrance on the east was widened into a splendid por
tico, which was of the same breadth as the house, yet measured
only ten cubits (in depth) from east to west, but, according to a
later statement, rose to a height of 120 cubits.1 In this a freer
scope was given to art, which in the house proper had been
more strictly tied down to the ancient sacred proportions.
With it, accordingly, was combined a truly splendid piece of
work, which was to adorn the entrance to the whole building.
This was two gigantic bronze pillars,2 each of which was
twelve cubits in circumference. They were each fluted, and
the depth of the fluting was four inches. Each was eighteen
much as here. For the latest essays on
the subject see the Kanstblatt, 1848, p. o
sq., 'Iheul. Stud. K. Krit. 1850, arid Jahrbb.
der Bibt. Wiss. i. p. 60 .sqq., iii. p. 262.
The investigations about the temple most
recently commenced by .De Saulcy, De
Vogue, and Return, are still far from
complete (Rev. Archtol. 1861, p. 322 sqq.,
1863, p. 12 sqq.. 281 sqq.)
1 This height of 12o cubits is wanting
1 Kings vi. u, and occurs only 2 Chron.
iii. 4. Objections m.iy be easily urged
against this towerlike elevation, on the
ground of its disproportion to the length
and breadth. But inasmuch as the rest of
the dimensions in the Chronicles are in per
fect harmony with the older accounts, an
exaggeration in this alone is not in itself
very probable. It might further be thought
th-it the thickness of the two columns at
the entrance would be sufficiently ac
counted for, without any great height, by
the weight they had to support. The
Phoenician temple at Paphos, especially as
it is represented on the copper coins of "the
Empress J ulia and of Caracalla(cf.the essay
of Fr. Miinter upon it, Copenh. 1824j,
appears similarly to have possessed a far
higher portico. But the two still higher
pillars in front of it, which are represented
on the Paphian coins, bear no similarity
at all to those of the Solomonic temple.
Since, however, the temple of /erubbabel
was sixty cubits high and broad, Ezr.vi. 3
sq., and that of Herod 120 cubits high,
the Solomonic appears, at any rate with
the addition of its upper chambers which
were probably built towards the front (see
below), to have been towards 120 cubits
high, and hence may have arisen the state
ment of the Chronicles. Cf. also the
Jahrbb. der Bibl. #£.<«?., ix. p. 2-06.
- It is ^ plain that the description of
them, 1 Kings vii. 1.5-22, was originally
most clear and satisfactory, but has be
come much mutilated and consequently
obscure in the present text. Mtanwhile,
if we compare with it the extracts in ver.
41 sq. and in the description of the de
struction of the temple, Jer. Iii. 21-23 (the
latter agtin stiil further abbreviated 2
Kings xxv. 17), as well as the text of the
LXX, which, though in most passages
much more complete, was elsewhere even
more defective, no uncertainty can remain
as to any of it. To name the chief points
here: the gaps in ver. If) are easily supplied
from the LXX, comp. with Jer. Iii. 21, where
'"IK nr)2 VD? Vny:i should be read, or
something similar, lor "inH- ^ any rate,
the thickness ^y, can only mean that of
the whole pillar, since if the thickness of
the bronze wall alone was four inches,
and the pillars themselves were hollow
(which was, at any rate, what Josephus
meant), then the writer would have said
tJi-' thickness of their wall or of the nronze.
Ver. 18 we must read something like
"W D"3fcn nirn nfryp 'm;^; for 'to
the wind,' Jer. Iii. 23, must mean the
same as exposed to the wind, hanging
loose, epyov Kpe/^affrov as the LXX cor
rectly understood it here, but not in Jer.
The meaning of ver. 19 follows from ver.
22, where the 'lilywork' is the same as
the capitals; hence the mention of their
' belly,' ver. 20, or (what is the same)
ver. 41 sq. their ' bowl.' Ver. 20, sadly
imperfect in the LXX, only becomes clear
when the first words are struck out as a
repetition from ver. 19, and D^'EHl. is re:ul
instead (while, ver. 18, this word occurs
wronl for -- ^n-e two co^umns
before the Paphian temple also, according
to some Paphian coins, possessed loose
hanging ornaments, but certainly fastened
quit.- otherwise athwart from one to the
other ; and on the Ti of the temple of
Gautama at Pegu, just as on Japanese
temples of Buddha, swing little bells
made to sound by the wind (see the pic
tures in Seebold's Nippon, ii. 4).
THE TEMPLE. 237
cubits high ; l but above cheir shaft (which, as in other ancient
sorts of pillars, was left smooth beneath) rose a capital five
cubits2 in height, and very ornamentally constructed. It was
in the beautiful form of a lily in blossom, swelling out at the
top and with overlying leaves. Its smooth bowl was, however,
covered over and held together with a network of seven ingeni
ously linked threads ; and below, where the bowl was more
slender, as well as on the top of the network, a double wreath
of artificial pomegranates 3 was introduced. Four of these in
each wreath, towards the four quarters of heaven, were fixed
firmly on the capital, and probably stood straight upright ; but
the remaining ninety-six, or twenty-four between each pair of
fixed ones, hung more loosely, and could be set in motion by
the plav of the wind, like a real wreath of flowers on a man's
neck. All this, it is self-evident, was of bronze. Over these
triply- adorned capitals of the two pillars extended the beam
which joined them both above ; above this beam a new decora
tion was repeated on both sides, of the same breadth as the
beam;4 and above the whole of this ornamental entrance,
which may have been from thirty to thirty-five cubits high,
towered the upper portion of the portico.5 This work was
magnificent enough to be immortalised by special names. The
pillar on the right received, on its erection and consecration,
the name of Jachin, that on the left the name of Boaz, doubt
less, after some favourite persons of the time, perhaps, young-
sons of Solomon;6 just as the first Herod called his two
1 For this 2 Chron. iii. 15 and the two pillars are not to be conceived of as
LXX, Jer. Iii. 21, put thirty-five cubits, standing detached in front of the temp'e
perhaps including the ornaments on each like obelisks. What, in that case, could
pillar explained below. have been the use of the beam above them,
2 'Four cubits,' 1 Kings vii. 19, and in and the new capitals? Moreover iu ver.
the LXX, ver. 22, like ' three ' in 2 Kings 21 they are clearly called ' the pillars of
xxv. 17, is evidently only a different tlie portico,' as the LXX rightly translate,
reading. If any independent Propyhpa had been
3 Such have been found in many varie- meant, these would have required quite a
ties iu Phoenician art, Eevue Archeol. 1863, different designation. We should rather
Jul. p. 1-6. compare the position of the two pillars in
4 This important fact follows clearly the temples of Heracles at Tyre and Gades,
from ver. 22, according to the more per- Herod, ii. 44, Strab. Geopr. iii. o. 6.
feet text of the LXX, and since in ver. 21 6 Jachin occurs elsewhere also as a
sq. only the putting together of the parts proper name, and Boaz found as one of
of the whole structure is described, men- David's own ancestors. It is inoompre-
tion must have been made of it earlier hensible how anyone can still look in
with every detail. A lofty ornament above good Rabbinical fashion for a typical sense
the capital appears also on the Egyptian in the names of these two pillars, as
and Assyrian pillars ;^cf. the pictures in though they referred to attributes of
the Description de IF.gypte Antiq. vol. i. God. For other improbable meanings
and in Loftus' Chaldcea and Susiana (p. see, for example, E. Eochette in the Me-
366). moires de VAcod. des Inscript. vol. xvii. 2,
5 From a correct comprehension of the p. 54 ; cf. the Jahrbb. der Bibl. Wiss. viii.
perfect text, it of, course follows that the p. 225.
238 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
splendidly built mural towers at Jerusalem Phasael and Ma-
riamne.
Except on the side of the portico, the sacred house was sur
rounded by an outer three-storied house, not much more than
fifteen cubits high. Each story was five cubits high, and the
lowest was of the same breadth ; but each story was a cubit
broader than the one beneath, because the wall of the temple
itself, which was several cubits thick at the bottom, was made
a cubit thinner with every five cubits of height, so that the
cedar-beams of the ceilings of all the three stories of the outer
house rested directly upon these ledges in the temple wall.
This outer house was divided into a number of chambers, the
entrance being in the south-eastern chamber of the lower story,
from which a winding staircase led to the two upper stories.1
What purpose these numerous small side chambers were to serve,
is not explained ; but certainly they were not in any way for the
use of the Priests, since they had their chambers in the fore
court. When it is remembered that they were connected as
closely as possible with the innermost sanctuary, it must be
supposed that they were to contain the offerings and other
treasures of the sanctuary, for which no room could be found
in the house itself. Hence it is narrated that after the com
pletion of the building of the temple, Solomon immediately
brought the various gifts of his father into the sacred store
rooms.2 For the rest, as has been remarked, the actual sacred
house rose still to a considerable elevation above this structure.
The Holy of Holies and the Holy Place, separated within by
a wall, formed outside, according to all descriptions, only one
whole, covered by one roof.3 Since, however, the former was
only twenty, the latter thirty cubits high, the question arises
how the space of ten cubits above the former was employed.
It was probably left quite empty, so that the Holy of Holies
appeared from the Holy Place quite like a house by itself. The
roof over the whole house, which was sixty cubits long, was in
that case the only roof of the Holy Place, the length of which
was forty cubits ; and consisted, as in Grecian temples, of an
ornamental ceiling in squares,4 with small pieces of cedar-wood
1 1 Kings vi. 5 sq. 8, 10 ; these clauses connected with ver. 9.
only should lie taken together, vv. 7 and 2 1 Kings vii. 51, comp. with xiv. 26,
9 belong in another connexion. In ver. 8, and other similar passages. That David's
for the first nJDTl it is better to read consecrated gifts also included arms, fol
lows from 2 Kings xi. 10.
njnne ; ^ ^ ™r. 10 y^ for rva&, as 3 That the roof of the IToIy of Holies
the LXX show ; or at any rate before the wf|s lower, and consequently could be
latter word the former should be inserted ; distinguished from outside, is against the
ver. 10 then treats of the roof of each evidence of all the descriptions,
story of the outer house and is properly 4 D^' ' cavities,' 1 Kings vi. 9, clearly
THE TEMPLE. 239
as dividing beams. Whether the roof was flat or sloping, we do
not know from the ancient books ; but the Chronicles speak
of gilded upper chambers,1 which would presuppose a flat roof.2
The windows were probably placed in the lofty sides of the
house which rose above the surrounding external structure, and
consisted of mere air-holes, with strong gratings, which did not
admit any great quantity of light.3 The awe which the gloomy
interiors of their temples inspired, was dear to all antiquity, and,
according to the foregoing remarks, the Holy of Holies must
even have been quite dark.
Whether the sacred house was ornamented outside, and if
so in what way, we do not know.4 Inside, the walls were over
laid to their whole height with boards of cedar- wood,5 which
were further adorned with carvings. These consisted partly of
common ornaments, such as palm branches, coloquintidas (egg-
like fruits), and beautiful flowers, partly of cherubs as the orna
ment most proper for the Sanctuary.6 All this was interlaced
with strips of the finest gold. The wall which separated the
Holy of Holies from the Holy Place, as well as the altar which
stood exactly opposite the Holy of Holies, and as it were be
longed to it,7 was adorned in like manner. But the floor both
of the Holy Place and of the Holy of Holies was planked with
cypress-wood, and overlaid with gold.8 — Both the doors were
ornamented in precisely the same manner with carvings and
gold. The door of the Holy of Holies, which was naturally the
smaller, consisted of two leaves, and was made of the wood of
the wild olive-tree ; it was five-sided, with projecting posts of
the same wood. The larger doors of the Holy Place was four-
sided with projecting posts of the same wood, while its two
leaves, each consisting of two folding boards (an upper and an
under), were of cypress-wood. Both doors moved on golden
has this meaning, which must also lie in 8 This seems to be the safest meaning
the KoiKoma.Qpeiv of the LXX ; Lat. lacu- of the words vi. 14-22, 29 sq., which are
iiaria. Qarvu/jiaTa, at any rate in the now wrongly interrupted by the descrip-
outer forecourt, are mentioned by Jos. tion of the cherubs, vv. 23-28, which does
Ant. viii. 3. 9. not belong there. In vv. 14-17, 19, is
1 2 Chron. iii. 9. described the first overlaying with cedar-
2 Cf. also the erection of idols upon it wood, cf. vii. 2 sq. ; in vv. 18, 29 the
by Ahaz, 2 King xxiii. 12. second overlaying with carving ; in vv.
3 1 Kings vi. 4. 20-22, 30, the third with gold ; and al-
4 It will always remain a singular thing though scarcely given in their original
that the outside is so little mentioned ; Qrd the wordg ftre t dear The r
and no one can fail to perceive in this ••: '
circumstance a mutilation of the text. TD» ver- 20 S(l- 1S accordingly the fore-
5 This is now asserted to have been part,' i.e. the fore-wall of the Holy of
the case in Egyptian temples also. Athen. Holies ; but the first should then stand
Frang. 1854. p. 153. after inftip- 2 Chron. iii. 6 adds precious
• See the AlterfMimer, p. 139 sq. gtones T ^ decoration>
7 Ibid. p. 374 sq.
240 THE KEIGX OF SOLOMON.
hinges ; ] that which led into the Holy of Holies was further
secured with golden chains, which stretched across the whole
breadth of the door and projected on the wall.2
About the internal and external decoration of the portico our
existing accounts, which are unquestionably very much abbre
viated, give us scarcely any information. Only incidentally has
a statement been preserved3 from which we must conclude that
its inner walls were decorated with lily- work, just as the capi
tals of the pillars of the portico terminated in the shape of lilies; 4
and the same decoration reappeared, as we shall observe, on
the temple vessels. Lilies and lotos served at that time in the
countries from Sinai to Asia Minor for our roses, which were
unknown. The walls themselves were built like those of the
inner forecourt, which was surrounded by a wall of three rows
of large squared stones laid one on another, upon which were
placed shoulder-pieces of cedar- wood.5 In it, or at any rate close
by it, Solomon doubtless also erected the buildings necessary
for the Priests.6 About the arrangement of the great or outer
forecourt, our ancient accounts are silent. What we know
of it from other sources, has been already explained.7 In it
however, were erected, in course of time, the beautiful large
halls where the Prophets so often addressed the assembled
people, and the cells or chambers where disciples gathered round
a teacher.8 How many teachers of eminence in their time may
here have founded schools, of whom we do not now know even the
names ! In such a school in Jeremiah's time assembled the sons
i.e. disciples, of the ' man of God ' Hauan,9 who, to judge by this
title of honour, must have lived long before Jeremiah, but is
now completely unknown to us.10- — Especial splendour doubtless
marked the construction of the numerous gateways; and, besides
the main gateway on the east, we know of the ' Gate of the founda-
1 1 Kings vi. 31-35, vii. 50: cf. the farther, yv. 5, 16.
Julirbb. der liibl. Wisa. i. p. 60 sq. In 2 s 1 Kings vii. 19, and in the LXX,
Chron. iii. 7 sq. the gold in the Holy of ver. 22, according to \\liich the description
Holies alone is estimated at 600 talents, of the lilywork of the portico must already
and the value of the golden nails at 50 have preceded, though it is now wanting,
shekels. 4 P. 237.
- According to the words 1 Kings vi. 5 1 Kings vi. 36, and vii. 2, 12; cf. viii.
21. Ac:ording to 2 Chron iii. 1-i, the 64, 2 Chron. iv. 9. riiD"13 are fragments
ancient Mosaic curtain also had been cufc off< j c. projcctiljg) a^tl renilered by
stretched in front oi the Holy of Holies tjle ],XX, ^fa£<
(probably outside the door), made of « As may be seen with more detail from
variegated Byssus with representations of j^ x]_ ^3 47
cherubs on it ; but the description re- 7 p 932 .sq'.
minds us too much of Ex. xxvi. 31, and 8 Je^xxvi.2 sqq ,xxxvi. 10 20 2 Kings
may have been borrowed from the second xxjji_ n j Chr,-n ix 26 33
temple, which the Chronicler always had 9 jer 'xxxv 4
before him. Similarly the Chronicles ex- 10 p \± no'fe j
tend the golden chains of the pillars much
FUKNITUEE OF THE SANCTUARY.
241
tion,' which must have lain to the north ; l the upper, called
also the upper Benjamin Gate, or, after it had been rebuilt
by Jotham, the new Gate,2 which likewise lay towards the
north, but perhaps in the inner forecourt ; the Gate behind the
6 Runners,' 3 in the south, where, lower down between the tem
ple and palace, were the quarters of the body-guard ; finally,
on the west, the ' Gate of cells,' the least distinguished of all,
so-called, because behind it there stood, as in a sort of suburb,
a crowd of small cells, chiefly such as the Levites occupied in
their hours of release from temple duty.4
f.) The furnishing of the sanctuary with the appropriate
vessels was marked by the same union of feelings as the erection
of the temple ; and reverence for the prescriptions of antiquity
was combined with that moral and artistic liberty which gene
rally distinguishes this elevated age. Thus much we may, on
the whole, still recognise with certainty ; but we cannot help
deeply regretting that the ancient detailed accounts of it have
been most imperfectly preserved to us.5 At first, all these
sacred vessels were considered of sufficient importance to be
described, soon after their construction, with the utmost preci
sion ; so great a novelty in Israel was the art involved in them,
1 For m 2 Kings xi. 6, cf. ver 11,
we should certainly read T)D> according
to 2 Chron. xxiii. 5.
2 Ez. ix. 2, Jer. xx. 2, xxxvi. 10 ; cf. 2
Kings xv. 35.
3 2 Kings xi. 6, cf. ver. 19, according
to which the opposite gate of the palace
was called that of the 'Kunners,' or accord-
ing to 2 Chron. xxiii. 20, by another
name, the npper-le. northern, gate : on
the situation of the palace, see more below,
Outside, in front of this gate, lay (accord-
ing to 1 Chron. xxvi. 15, 17) two special
guardhouses for the porters or door-
keepers, one opposite the temple, the
other towards the palace (that Q^pg
means something of this kind is clear from
Neh. xii. 25, cf. Jahrbb. der BibL Wiss.
iii. p. 123).
4 This results from a comparison of 1
Chron. xxvi. 16-18 with ix. 26, 33, 2 Kings
xxiii. 11 ; according to this, in 1 Chron.
xxvi. 16, for r\Jw ™ should read (as
the LXX also give) ni3l$7 5 and it ap-
pears that this is almost identical with the
expression Qnng or '"EHS, which, ac-
cording to Jos! ''Ant. xv/11. 5, is pretty
much the same as TrpodcrreM, and reap-
pears with a similar meaning in the Tal-
,. . ., . ,_
mudic "in or --, while Pers-
i } meaning roof is found ag t ,
Jj/." J JUJ
in Syriae dictionaries. The assumption of
Lightfoot and others that the Solomonic
temple had four doors on the west, like
the Herodian (Jos. Ant. xv. 11, 6), is
without foundation.
& The Book of Origins gives (1 Kings
..
™- 4°-47» from OT to the end) a sur™y
of all the metal-works of Hiram. The sin-
gle works here named must of course have
been previously described in detail; but
the pots (in ver. 40 we should read riiTp'
according to ver. 45), shovels, and basons,
are only enumerated ver. 40, as they are
in ver. 45, whereas they should have been
here described in detail. In addition to
this, this book had certainly given a do-
tailed description of the rest of the vessels
also, which had not been made by this one
artist, but we now only find a brief enu-
Deration (and that too from the hand
of another author) of all the vessels, m-
eluding those not constructed by Hiram.
The statement that all these vessels were
golden, involves no necessary contradic-
£°n of the Book of Origjns' ^ich makes
*Jiram const™f everything of bronze.
Jhe bronze works might be g,lded before
they were set up in their places.
VOL. in.
242 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
and so great the astonishment excited by this art-power, which
employed such extraordinary means to produce its splendid
works. But later ages found much of it neither so novel nor
so notable ; and while the ancient descriptions of these vessels,
as of the erection of the temple itself, are already greatly
abbreviated in our present Book of Kings, the Chronicler has
still further contracted them. Subsequently, on the other hand,
towards the period of the New Testament, a new impulse was
roused to form clearer conceptions of this among the other
Solomonic glories. In the absence, however, of more ancient
and reliable information, it was left for mere imagination to
describe them as of that completely marvellous character which
was then attributed to the whole age of Solomon, while at the
same time an eifort was made to balance the accounts in the
Old Testament of Solomon's temple with those of the Mosaic
tabernacle. In the statements of Josephus l about those details
of the temple which have been left indefinite in the canonical
books, we possess a clear picture of such later poetical repre
sentations ; and since other statements of his about Solomon
are unquestionably drawn from apocryphal sources, we may
safely assume that, in his account of the furniture or the build
ing of the temple, whatever bears the marks of this play of
fancy was also derived from such writings. What may be
safely affirmed in this condition of the accounts of the temple
furniture is as follows.
The Holy of Holies, as in the Mosaic tabernacle, received
nothing but the ark. No attempt was made actually to renew
this supremely sacred relic, rendered so venerable by its anti
quity and its vicissitudes, but it was left essentially unchanged.
It was, however, furnished with a new lid, on which occasion
it appeared that the ark contained nothing but the two tables
of stone of Moses. The lid, or rather the splendid footstool,'2
was renewed, principally because a pair of new cherubs was to
be fastened to it ; and this ornament was the only addition which
was ventured upon, since the greater space of the Holy of Holies
enabled the two cherubs to be represented on a much larger
scale. They were carved out of olive wood and overlaid with
1 Ant. viii. 3. 7. 8. To bring forward further paraphrases much of what he found
only some of them here: Solomon had more briefly indicated in his materials, but
one large golden table (the Mosaic) made, he never ventures actually to invent such
but together with it 10,000 other similar definite numbers and events. Quite dif-
ones, 80,000 wine-pots, 100,000 golden ferent and peculiar is the description of
vases, 200,000 silver ones (but 2 Chron. the whole temple in Eupolemus' (JEus.
iv. 8 only 100 golden basons are named) ; Tra-p. Ev. ix. 34), the sources of which
and so it goes on, even with the adorn- we do not now know, but which contains
ments of the priests. It may, however, some remarkable statements.
be assumed as a general fact, that this his- 2 [A. V. Mercy-seat. — ED.] See the
torian explains in his own fashion and Alterthumer, p. 165.
FURNITUEE OF THE SANCTUAKY. 243
gold ; their heads were fastened again, as before, to the two ends
of the footstool, which was extended to a length of ten cubits ;
but their height was now fixed at ten cubits to correspond,
and the two mighty wings that were attached to each well
showed how much higher the aspiration of the whole national
spirit of Israel now soared. Each wing was extended five
cubits wide ; and while one wing of each was turned towards
the middle of the footstool, and these two met in the centre,
the others were extended to the wall on either side, so that
the whole space of the Holy of Holies, twenty cubits in length
from east to west, was occupied by these mighty forms. This
large and splendid group was certainly erected immediately
in the Holy of Holies itself * and was placed ten cubits above
the floor, so that from the Holy Place it was not seen through
ihe door. On the other hand, the carrying-poles of the ark
which was to be placed beneath, were lengthened in proportion
to the footstool, and were seen projecting by anyone who placed
himself in the Holy Place right in front of the dark Holy of
Holies, although, as they were covered by the golden chains
stretched2 immediately in front of them, they were not seen
any further outside.3 At the consecration of the temple, the
ark was brought up with solemn procession, bearing on the way
a corresponding image of the cherubs, and was then placed in
this position.
In the Holy Place stood a gilded altar and a holy table.4
Instead, however, of the single candlestick of the tabernacle,
there were here placed five gilded candlesticks on the south
side and five similar ones on the north, but we do not know in
what order, nor why there were exactly ten of them.
In the Priests' forecourt, the great bronze altar, which
certainly stood in the middle, measured twenty cubits square,
and ten cubits in height.5 In detail we know only of two
bronze works which belonged to this court.6 On the south-east
1 This follows from the words 1 Kings 4 Instead of the single table, which is
viii. 6, and agrees very well with what is distinctly mentioned 1 Kings vii. 48, the
remarked in the Alterthumer about the Chronicler (2 Chron. iv. 8) puts ten tables
floor of the cherubs, and the independence arranged like the ten candlesticks; but it
of this work. is difficult to see what purpose these ten
P- 240. tables were to serve in the Holy Place
8 1 Kings viii. 6-9, vi. 23-28. The itself.
obscure expression viii. 8, hardly permits 5 This is stated only in 2 Chron. iv. 1 ;
another meaning, only it must then be but is quite in harmony with the rest of
assumed that the description viii. 6-8 the proportions of the Solomonic temple
was composed before the door of the Holy furniture to the Mosaic, cf. Ex. xxvii. 1,
of Holies (described p. 239) was added, and hence is certainly from an ancient
which is conceivable, since it may be source. Cf. Ez. xliii. 13-17.
derived from the Book of Origins. Later 6 1 Kings vii. 23-39, cf. with 2 Chron.
representations are given in the Mass. iv. 2-6 ; whereas the bronze layer cur-
Middoth, i. 6, ii. 6. sorily mentioned 2 Chron. vi. 13 is evidently
R 2
244 THE EEIGX OF SOLOMOX.
was placed the great laver for the officiating Priests, the ex
traordinary circumference of which is alone sufficient to show
how far these ages surpassed the Mosaic in their splendour
and the multitude of Chief Priests. It was an enormous round
caldron, called the bronze sea, five cubits high, but measuring
ten cubits across, and a handbreadth thick. Its brim was
shaped like that of a cup, with overhanging lily-flowers.
Round the outside of it ran two rows of coloquintidas, all cast
in the same piece with it ; twelve bronze oxen served to sup
port it; three set towards each quarter of the heavens.1 In
order, however, to convey from this temple-reservoir a larger
quantity of water to any part in the wide courts of the temple
where it might be needed on account of the sacrifices, ten
beautifully ornamented bronze trucks were prepared, which
might be called caldron-trucks ; their common name, however,
was simply bases ; five of them were placed on the south, five on
the north side. These were destined for the most direct use in
the sacrifices as sacred vessels, and they were therefore not only
made of bronze, wheels and all, like other temple vessels, but
in the ornamental representations of cherubs, lions, bulls, and
palm branches, which all formed part of the casting, together
with a wreath of flowers beneath, they bore the mark of their
sacred purpose.2 It is very remarkable that, in our own time,
in many places of Europe, bronze movable caldrons of a high
antiquity have been excavated, which bear an unmistakable
resemblance to those of Solomon.3 These productions of art
were doubtless spread by the Phoenicians in the most remote
named
d and described with precision by a vious editions of this work, finally pre-
copyist's mistake instead of the rostrum. sented in a separate essay in reference to
1 As in the Alhambra ; see the pictures these discoveries (see the NackricJiten in
in Murphy, pi. 33 sq., or like the recently the Gbtt. Gel. Am. 1859, pp. 131-146, cf.
discovered similar sculptures of the ancient also the Jakrh. der BiU. Wiss. x. p. 273
Assyrians (Layard's Discoveries, p. 180). sqq.). I here refer to that more detailed
2 Cherubs and flowers or palms were representation and only remark, (1)
found (according to pp. 239, 242) elsewhere, that the sense of m*ODD and D^E?.
also, as decorative forms in the temple, according to Ex. xxvi. 17, xxv. 25, cannot
If, however, lir-ns and bulls are here be matter of doubt ; and (2) that a cor-
added, it must be remembered that the lion rect insight into the construction of these
wae the ancient emblem of the tribe of bases also explains how Ahaz. according
Judah(as will soon be made still clearer); to 2 Kings xvi. 17, could cut off the
but the bull (ii. p. 183) had, as a type, panels of the ten bases, in order to pay
ever since the earliest ages, possessed some the Assyrian tribute with them; for the
sanctity for Israel. _ The sacred fourfold panel formed the greatest part of the
form of Ezekiel, i., is not to be thought of metal of the base, while the latter could
here ; it is much more likely Ezekiel him- be used in case of necessity without the
self was subsequently guided by recollec- former. Perhaps the later editor of the
tion of the temple-forms here enumerated. Books of Kings abstained for that reason
3 The most probable picture of this only t>0m abbreviating the descriptions
base which we can form from the descrip- of these bases and of the bronze sea, that
tion of it, I have, after the attempts that the following narrative of Ahaz might be
have been communicated in the two pre> more intelligible.
DEDICATION OF THE TEMPLE. 245
ages so far east and west. But at the same time those of
Solomon have their peculiar Tsraelitish marks ; and even in
these minor temple-articles, it may be seen with what great art
and splendour Solomon carried out all his designs.
g.) To a sanctuary of wood and stone, however, there was
always attached, in accordance with the ideas of antiquity, a
sacred grove. Nor was the Solomonic temple without one, as
we may conclude from the poetical allusions to it,1 even though
our historical narratives are silent on the point. It consisted,
no doubt, of cedars and palms.
h.) The whole temple, as far as Solomon intended carrying
it for the present, was completed in the eighth month of the
eleventh year of his reign ; its erection had lasted, therefore,2 pre
cisely seven years and a half'.3 Since, however, the great annual
autumn festival at which the people were accustomed to assemble
at the sanctuary in their largest numbers, occurred in the seventh
month, the king determined to arrange the festival of the actual
consecration of the new sanctuary in this month, so that the
dedication of the temple should take place the week before that
in which the autumn festival was celebrated. With this was
to be joined the regular autumn festival,4 in the following week,
which might easily give rise to the idea that the one or the
other feast had lasted fourteen days. For this solemn dedi
cation of the temple, Solomon made arrangements on a grand
scale. All the heads of tribes and families in Israel (whether
by birth or by election) were summoned to Jerusalem for it.
The superior and inferior Priests, besides, assembled for a
festival which could not take place without their most active
participation. The ceremony doubtless began with the removal
of the ancient tabernacle which had been left in Gibeon,5 as well
as of the rest of the ancient sacred vessels which still remained
there. All these, together with the ark of the covenant, which
had been for more than forty years preserved at Jerusalem in a
tabernacle erected for it by David, were brought in solemn pro
cession by the Priests to the new sanctuary. Only the ark, how
ever, found there its destined home ; the remaining relics of the
1 Ps. lii. 10 [8], xcii. 14 [13]. which the people were dismissed. That
2 P. 230. the feast of atonement then fell in the
8 1 Kings vi. 37 sq., comp. with verse middle of the feast of dedication affords
1 and vii. 1, ix. 10. no important objection. That the con-
4 All the circumstances require that the secration did not take place till after
relation indicated 1 Kings viii. 65 sq., cf. Solomon had, in the course of twenty years,
ver. 2, should be more precisely understood completed all his erections, is a foolish
in this way. It then becomes intelligible addition of the LXX before 1 Kings viii.
how, 2 Chron. vii. 8-10, the 23rd day of 1, in words which are borrowed from ix. 1.
the month can be named as that on 5 P. 125.
246 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
Mosaic age had to be stored up as a perpetual memorial in
other appropriate places, e.g. in the chambers of the temple.
An enormous number of sacrifices was consumed. The king
alone offered up twenty-two thousand oxen and one hundred
and twenty thousand small cattle solely as a thank-offering, of
which all those who took part in the festival might eat if they
chose. Many other persons doubtless made similar voluntary
offerings ; and so great was the number of sacrifices that, as the
large altar in the inner court did not suffice to receive them,
the king was obliged to consecrate for the same purpose the
entire space of this forecourt. What an impression, however,
the whole festival made upon the assembled crowds, and with
what feelings they returned home from the combined feasts, we
see clearly from the description of the Book of Origins. After
the removal of the ark to its new home, with which the chief
part of the solemnity was successfully concluded, the shining
fiery cloud, the sign of the presence of Jahveh, settled, it was
said, with such power upon the house, that even the Priests
were compelled to withdraw before it, and for a moment to quit
the house.1 Thus deeply were all suddenly penetrated with the
feeling, that so surely as the bright smoke of the vast sacrifices
rose with favourable auguries over the house, Jahveh would
descend from the clear heaven and graciously dwell there, as
He had in earlier days tarried in other sacred spots. But
though throughout the whole festival the Priests had
necessarily a most active part in the duties, Solomon, no less
than David on a former occasion,2 in virtue of his genuine
sovereignty, assumed the supreme direction of the whole so
lemnity. He himself took an active part in speaking. After
the Priests had performed their functions, he gave thanks in
the solemn assembly with a loud voice to Jahveh, that He had
graciously enabled him to finish an edifice in which Jahveh had
promised with favouring omens 'to abide for ever;' and in
conclusion uttered a solemn address to the congregation, in
which he reminded them of the good promises (oracles) of God
made in former days to his father David, pointed out how
gloriously these had hitherto been fulfilled, and entreated their
further accomplishment for the future. — Such is the information
afforded by ancient sources.3 Later writers, however, availed
themselves of this lofty situation in their ancient history, to
attach to it some other truths of greater significance to them.
Cf. ii. p. 218 sqq., emdiheAlterthumer, sentially after the Book of Origins; on
P- 379. the other hand, vv. 12-21 after the older
P. 126 sq. narrator of the history of the kings, like
8 1 Kings viii. 1-11, and vv. 62-66 es- 2 Sam. vii. ; w. 24-27 after the later.
REORGANISATION" OF THE LEYITES. 247
The first Deuteronomic editor makes Solomon in a long speech
pray that Jahveh, who was actually exalted far above such an
earthly dwelling-place, would hear all the prayers addressed to
Him by His servants within and without the temple, — an
address of great beauty in spite of its length, only it belongs
by its ideas to the seventh and not to the eleventh or tenth
century.1 The Chronicler, on the other hand, completes the
picture of the auspicious consecration by representing that fire
from heaven kindled the sacrifices ; and, with this exception,
limits the detail and eloquence of his usual style to the de
scription of the festive processions.2
i.) As the great sanctuary had now become the centre of the
whole religious life of Israel, where the sacred usages were
solemnised with a splendour unknown before, and where gifts
and consecrated offerings flowed in from such an extraordinarily
large multitude, the position of the Levites necessarily assumed
a new shape and entered on a more steady development.
It was upon them first that the whole splendour of this new
house of Jahveh fell. They found in it a point of union, an
actual citadel, such as they had not possessed since the age
of Joshua, — nay, such as they had never before attained with
equal power and consolidation. Their duties and occupations,
moreover, increased to such an extent, that they were certainly
in need now of more thorough reorganisation and in part of
more complete transformation than had been previously effected
by David.3 Some of the particulars of this new organisation in
the case of the Levites who were to be employed at Jerusalem,
are known to us chiefly through the Chronicles. It is true
the Chronicler really describes everything appertaining to it
only in the shape to which it had been developed towards the
conclusion of the whole history of the monarchy at Jerusalem,4
because his sources supplied him with only such materials ;
while he refers the origin of the organisation to the precepts
of David, — nay, even of Samuel.5 But as this is only the result
of his general view (which will be explained below) of Solomon's
career, we have no ground for doubting that the basis of the
1 The words 1 Kings viii. 22 sq., 27-61, from another source ; the Azariah named
belong clearly by their origin to a far later in the former passage was, according to
composition, that, namely, of the first the latter, one of the last High Priests
Deuteronomic editor ; cf. i. p. 158. before the destruction of Jerusalem.
a The most important additions of the 5 Of David, 1 Chron. xxiii.-xxvi. and in
Chronicler are to be found in 2 Chron. v. other passages ; of Samuel also, 1 Chron.
11-13, vi. 41 sq. (from Ps. cxxxii. 8-10), ix. 22. On the other hand, it is by no
vii. 1-3, 6. means to be concluded from expressions
3 P. 133. like 2 Chron. xxxi. 2, that the Chronicler
4 This is evident, e.g., from 1 Chron. assigned the origin of this organisation to
ix. 11, comp. with v. 37-40 [vi. 11-14] Hezekiau'» time.
248 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
whole of this new organisation of the Priesthood was laid in
the age of Solomon, which omitted nothing from its creative
arrangements. The essential features of it are as follows. For
the performance of the principal temple duties there were formed
out of the two ancient families immediately descended from
Aaron twenty-four smaller families (divisions), each of which
was to provide the service for a week.1 To assist these, twenty-
four families were appointed from the lower ranks of Priests,
each of which was to furnish the proper number of ministraiits
required for a week.2 For the temple music twenty-four
families were appointed, each of which was to send twelve of
its own men.3 All such series of twenty-four were immedi
ately, however, divided into three groups ; 4 and accordingly the
musicians, too, were traced back to the three fathers Asaph,
Heman, and Ethan or Jeduthun, as will be further explained in
considering the development of the arts in the Solomonic period.
Other Levites were engaged in considerable numbers for service
as porters at the different gates and guard posts of the temple,5
others again received the hereditary duty of guarding the
treasures of the temple ; G and similar provision was made down
to the most minute details of the lower temple services.7 The
basis of these arrangements was maintained without interrup
tion from that time to the latest ages. That many Levites and
Priests should now be provided with dwellings in the immediate
precincts of the temple, either permanently or for the periods
of their service, was inevitable ; but their means of subsistence
they still continued to derive chiefly from the tithes and estates
which 8 they had hereditarily possessed from ancient times, and
to which they could also retire for residence.9 In addition to
this, the High Priest with his whole suite retained the extensive
quarters on Zion, which 10 David must have assigned to him.11
2) After the completion of the sacred edifice so far as was
needful for its consecration, Solomon began the erection of a
1 1 Chron. xxiv. 1-19. How the weekly of the realm in Jer. lii. 24. Hence the
service was arranged may be partly gather- Mass. Middoth, i. 1, reckons three Priests,
ed from 1 Chron. ix. 25. twenty-one Levites.
2 1 Chron. xxiv. 20-31. The twenty- 5 1 Chron. xxvi. 1-19.
four here are to be counted thus : Shubael, 6 1 Chron. xxvi. 20-28, ix. 14-27; cf.
Jedeiah, Isshiah, Shelomoth, Jahath, 2 Chron. xxv. 24, Ezr. viii. 29, Neh. x.
Amariah, Jahaziel, Jekameam, Michah, 38-40 [37-39].
Shamir, Isshiah, Zechariah, Mahli, Mushi, 7 1 Chron. ix. 28-32.
Jaaziah, Shoham, Zaccur, Ibri, Eleazar, 8 Vol. ii. p. 308 sqq.
Ithamar (according to the LXX), Jerah- 9 Cf. 1 Kings ii. 26, Jer. xxxii. 7 sqq.,
meel, Mahli, Eder, Jerimoth. xxxvii. 12, Luke i. 23, 39 sq.
s See the principal passage 1 Chron. xxv., 10 Pp. 124, 129.
cf. besides \l\eDichter dcsA.B. i. p. 274 sqq. H After the High Priest of the time, this
4 Cf. the three chief guards of the palace is called 'Eliashib's house,' Neh.
temple threshold according to the annals iii. 20 sq. ; cf. the Altertkumer, p. 328 sq.
HIS PALACE. 249
house which should contribute to the glory of the second power
in Israel, viz. the monarchy, which had then reached its
highest splendour. The house which David had erected for
himself soon after the conquest of Jerusalem,1 appeared too
small for the dignity as well as for the treasures of the king,
considering the lofty elevation which the power of Israel and
its monarch had, since that period, attained. The site of this
house we do not know by any express testimony : but it was
probably erected on the southerly continuation of the temple-
mountain, commonly called Ophel, i.e. hill.2 This structure, of
which we possess only a short description, was, alike in its
extent and its magnificence, a monument of the greatness of
that age no less exalted than the temple itself. As it was to
serve several purposes, it consisted really of a row of different
large buildings, the construction of which occupied a period of
thirteen years, far longer, that is, than the erection of the
temple.3 The chief edifice, a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits
broad, and thirty high, consisted of three stories, each of which
rested on fifteen columns. These columns, however, were not
arranged at intervals in the different stories which each con
tained but a single chamber, so as to serve to support the roof;
but they seem to have been placed in front in three rows, one
above the other, all the columns being first covered over with
cedar planks, and then with a ceiling of cedar wood ; and as
the whole appeared to be constructed of lofty cedars, it was
called e the house of the forest of Lebanon.' No story was
further divided, so that the windows, which from their height
let in an unusual amount of light, stood opposite one another ;
the doors were made with posts of four-cornered beams. The
style of this house clearly proves that it was to serve only as a
place for storing up and preserving the royal treasures and
valuables, and several indications still show with sufficient
1 P. 124. of the tombs of the latest kings, on which
2 That it was not built on Zion proper, see below. This is further confirmed
follows from the passages about the by what we know otherwise about the
settlement of the Egyptian princess, p. carefully made water-conduits which Solo-
221 ; but as a royal castle it would cer- mon constructed in this quarter of the
tainly not have been placed out of the way town (see below). Cf. further, the remarks
in the lower town. On the other hand, in the Gott. Gel. Anz. 1865, p. 1776 sq.,
that the royal castle Iny to the south of the following the work of Theodoric De Locis
temple, follows clearly from Neh. iii. 25 Sanctis. Thomas Lewin is also in favour
(see below), as well as with great proba- of this situation for Solomon's palace ; see
bility from Micah's words about the Mes- his Jerusalem, Lond. 1861, and his later
siah, iv. 8 ; moreover, the words Is. xxxii. work, Gott. Gel. Anz. 1864, p. 7^6. In
14 show that magnificent buildings lay in the times of the New Jerusalem many
this portion of the town. Other proofs places on the Ophel were certainly as-
are afforded by the situation of the horse- signed to the temple-servants and traders ;
gate of the old town, of which more below ; Neh. iii. 26, 31, xi. 21.
by that of the gate of the royal runners 3 1 Kings vii. 1 comp. with ix. 10 and
(on which see above, p. 241), and by that above, p. 245.
250 THE EEIGN OF SOLOMON.
clearness what great treasures were there accumulated.1 But
besides the first forecourt, the existence of which was a matter
of course, Solomon erected a portico, which probably consisted
only of colonnades, and was for this reason called the porch of
pillars, fifty cubits long and thirty wide ; of its use we have, for
the same reason, no information. Eastwards, separated by a
second court,2 there rose the portico to the royal palace proper,
with columns the capitals of which were ornamented with foliage.
This porch was wainscoted from floor to roof with cedar-wood,
and received, from the purpose to which it was destined, the
name of the throne- or judgment-hall. Here doubtless stood
the throne of Solomon, elsewhere 3 described as a marvellous
work, made of ivory and overlaid with pure gold. It stood on
six steps, on both sides of which were placed, in the ancient
sacred number, twelve splendid lions, unquestionably because
the lion was the ensign of Judah ; 4 on each of its two elbow-
pieces, also, was a lion, and it terminated above, in a round
crown.5 — Close on this portico abutted the actual residence of
the king ; and finally, behind it (just as the Harem always
occupies the most retired place) was erected another for the
Egyptian princess, both in similar style. A large court, the
walls of which were constructed like those of the inner temple
court,6 surrounded the whole of this complex palace. The whole
building, from the foundations to the roof, was constructed with
large stones of the best kind, from eight to ten cubits in size,
which, not only where they were visible but where other parts
of the building covered them, were carefully shaped. The
walls on the inside were overlaid with cedar-wood, just as in
the temple.7 The palace was erected on a somewhat lower level
1 There, according to 1 Kings x. 16 sq., from Is. xxix. 1, Ezek. xix. 2 sqq.
lay the 200 golden shields, mere objects of 5 Cf. Zcilschr. der Leutsch. Morgenl.
display, and according to ver. 21 many Ges. 1861, p. 153.
other costly vessels besides. We know, 6 P. 240.
therefore, now where the royal treasure- * Thjs ig the most probable aspect of
chambers were, mentioned 1 Kings xiv. the whole royal edifice, which results from
26; further, where the armoury of the the words 1 Kings vii. 4-12. It will be
torest-houso, i.e. the Lebanon house, lay generally found that such descriptions,
(Is. xxn. 8), which besides must have been wnere they are at all completely preserved,
distinguished from the arsenal on Zion give a very clear sense In ver 2 three
which was the older, Neh. iii. 19. should be read instead of four. ' Ver. 6 I
* This inner court is also noticed 2 read DH^O for the last DHOQ, and
Kings xx. 4, according to the Oeri. ._ v " . T „
3 1 Kings x. 18-20. According to 2 strike out the 1 from the first *™ "}
Chron. ix. 17-19, on the top of the steps ver" 7'.so tha* this ponies the second
overlaid with gold, was a footstool over- Accusative; otherwise, the last six words
laid in the same way ; this is, at any rate, m ver' .6 would &™. »° sense at a11; a"d
the sense of the words ver. 18, if the second no indication would J>e afforded of the
...» , , i i r. situation of the portico. In ver. 7, for
Kg)5b be placed before nnT3- _ the last yp^p we should rather read (ac-
4 This follows from the ancient image cording to vi. 15) niTp> arl(i this is to be
applied to Judah, Gen. xlix. 9, as well as understood here in the same way as there.
HIS PUBLIC WOKKS. 251
than the house of God which adjoined it, and was connected
with it by a staircase. This was reserved for the king's special
use, to make his solemn entry into the temple, and must have
been constructed with great magnificence, although we have no
further information about it.1 In the temple itself the king
had a special stall to which this ' king's entrance ' led up. It
was a covered seat, placed on a strong pillar, from which on
Sabbaths the king might survey or address the whole assembly,
and which was hence called the 6 Sabbath-pulpit,' in contra
distinction to the court-pulpit where the king gave judgment.2
This raised stall was moreover placed in the inner, not the
outer forecourt ; 3 for round it were drawn the boundaries of
the Holy Place, formed probably in an arc by an ornamental
balustrade.4
3) But both these edifices, the royal and the sacred alike,
unquestionably required, in addition, a number of other costly
works, in part for their completion, in part for their corre
sponding embellishment. To a large royal castle appertained
extensive gardens, parks, and beautiful grounds of every descrip
tion ; nor could these be easily kept up without the most costly
water-conduits ; and in the same way the requirements of the
temple, also, with its numerous sacrifices and priestly purifica
tions, necessitated an artificial arrangement for the constant
supply of water, at once abundant and clear. Of Solomon's
further works of this kind in connexion with those great
edifices, our present historical books give only a very imperfect
and scarcely intelligible account ; 5 but that antiquity, in ac
cordance with a fixed tradition, ascribed them to this monarch,
1 This follows from 1 Kings x. 5, where below); this is clearly required by the
H?V» °r rather (according to 2 Chron. ix. connexion of the words, and p"np£ has
4) n*?lf cannot possibly mean ' sacrifice,' a somewhat similar meaning ; the name
either according to the connexion of the 7^™", in Jos. Ant. viii. 3. 9, is not
words or the nature of the case itself. Hebrew. That the royal stall was by
This approach is hence called similarly the Sreat laver we learn frora the desc«P-
(2 Kings xvi. 18) the ' king's entry with- tlon m Euseb- Pr(BP- Ev- 1X- 34 (men-
out/ tioned p. 242, note 1) which is probably
2>This follows from 2 Kings xvi. 18 ^dependent of 2 Chron. vi. 13. Accord-
comp. with xi. 14, xxiii. 3. ing to Ezekiel the ' prince might only
8 This is, at any rate, clearly required remain at the gate of the inner forecourt,
by Ez. xlvi. 2 ; the words in 2 Chron. vi. 13 . In the WQpdfl , and all Solomon's
(p. 243, note 6) point to the same con- desire (i e all his edifices) which he was
elusion, and the words of a Psalm pro- leasedv to out , 1 Ki ix. lf cL
bably composed by King Josiah, xxvm. 2, vep> 19> where not jerusalem alone (as
receive in this way their best explanation. in ver 1} ig referred to. But the original
« Somewhat as m the forecourt to the Hebrew text clearly named as works of
Paphian temple, according to the coins Soiomon the sea and the wells of tkefore-
mentioned above. The boundaries were court ag the Lxx after } Ki ^ 35
called nVW, properly ranges, and are proveS) just as the bases and pillars here
mentioned 2 Kings xi. 8, 15 (cf. further named must also be works in the temple.
252 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
may be safely concluded from the short enumeration of the
great undertakings and estates of Solomon in the Book of
Koheleth1 (Eeclesiastes) : we must therefore investigate how
far indications, otherwise scattered, will enable us to recognise
with precision this side of Solomon's activity.
a.) In the history of ancient Jerusalem nothing is at once
more important and more obscure than the arrangement of
its water-supply, which all traditions2 unite to represent as
always copious and derived from different sources, yet which in
its origin remains to a great extent incomprehensible to us.
The most recent investigations have led to the two important
observations that many of the pools and wells were connected
with one another by subterranean conduits ; and that even in
the present day, as in the age of Christ, a copious spring of the
best water must be concealed beneath the summit of the temple-
mount.3 Nor can any doubt be entertained that even from the
time of Solomon all the needs of the temple were supplied from
these subterranean streams of constantly-flowing water. Pro
phetic imagination contemplates this with greater freedom than
reality would allow, when it anticipates that in the fulness of
time a mighty stream may issue from the house of Jahveh far
and wide, to quicken every waste place and to cleanse every
thing unclean ; 4 but without such a cause, the fundamental
idea of the prophetic conception could never have arisen. We
know, from the ancient history of the holy city, of several open
pools, of the sources of whose supply we are ignorant; and
modern travellers have described similar tanks, some as still
available, others as dried up. Some of these also, we have
every reason to refer to Solomon. Unfortunately, however, we
do not now possess any passage of great antiquity in which a
connected and clear account is given of all these reservoirs
1 ' I planted me vineyards ; I made me 3 See Kobinson's Sib. Res. i. p. 341 sqq. ;
gardens and parks, and I planted in them Williams' The Holy City, p. 385 sqq. ;
all kinds of fruit-trees ; I made me pools and, of the most recent date, W. Krafft's
of water to water from them a luxuriant Topographic Jerusalem's, 1846 ; butespeci-
wood of trees,' Ece. ii. 4-6. Herein lies ally Tit. Tobler, Die Siloahquelle und der
unquestionably a historical reminiscence Olbcrg, 1852.
which the composer may even have de- 4 The most ancient words are in the
rived from older books. prophecy of Joel iv. 18 [iii. 18] ; later on
2 The expression in Tacitus, Hist.v. 12, this is carried out further, Zech. xiii. 1,
'fons perennis aquse, cavati sub terra xiv. 8; Ezek. xlvii. 1-12, Kev. xxii. 1.
montes,' by no means refers, by the con- For with these anticipations were un-
nexion of the words, merely to a spring questionably mingled the images of the
under the temple ; the description of the water of life in Paradise. But without
temple-well in the book of Aristeas (see some local cause they could never have
vol. v. p. 249, 472) is, however, very re- taken the form in which we find them first
markable, cf. also Philo, in Eus. Prcsp. of all in the priest Joel.
j&'w. ix. 37.
WATER-SUPPLY OF JERUSALEM. 253
of Jerusalem. And what in particular was the source of the
copious flow of water under the temple-mount, cannot — even so
far as it is at the present day capable of being determined — be
satisfactorily investigated so long as the chief European powers
are satisfied in their unholy blindness to allow the Turks to
treat all Christians, and so all scientific explorers, like dogs.
We might be tempted to derive that subterranean temple-well
and the supply of other pools from springs outside the city
bounds. In that case, the aqueduct from the three so-called
wells of Solomon south-west of Bethlehem would suggest itself,
the remains of which are still clearly to be traced. The style
of these three great tanks at Bethlehem certainly proves them
to be very old.1 There is no reason in the nature of things why
Solomon should not have constructed them ; and it is pleasant
to think what delight the great king might take in providing
and embellishing the residence of his ancestors with magnifi
cent works. It is true that it cannot yet be proved that the
aqueduct, which was repaired and restored in the fourteenth
century after Christ, was constructed before the age of Pontius
Pilate ; 2 still less can we prove that Solomon provided Jeru
salem or the temple with water from those very reservoirs at
Bethlehem ; 3 yet probability preponderates in favour of this
supposition. Our definite knowledge on this point is limited
to the following. The city had at all times in its environs some
inexhaustible springs of water, while the brook Kidron, which
flows by on the east, and was certainly formerly much larger, is
now at any rate always without water in the dry season. In
particular may be named here the two springs, which, according
to the explanations already given,4 must have lain in opposite
directions outside the city; the spring Rogel on the south
east,5 and Gihon on the north. If we now reflect that the
ancient and certainly Canaanitish name for a spring, Eogel, en
tirely disappears just after the age of Solomon, we are led to
believe that Solomon formed it into a reservoir, which (because
the Kidron flows from north to south) was called 'the lower.'
From this doubtless proceeded many water-conduits for the
irrigation of the gardens laid out by Solomon on the south of
the town. But it was not in any way connected by Solomon
1 See Robinson's Bib. Res. ii. p. 164 sq. 3 Zschokke tries to prove this in detail
2 Cf. Williams' The Holy City, p. 411 in an essay on ' die versiegelte Quelle
sqq. That Pilate built some aqueduct Salomo's' in the Theol. Quartalschrift,
may be concluded from Jos. Bell. Jud. ii. 1867, pp. 426-442.
9. 4; Ant. xviii. 3. 2; but the distance 4 P. 210 sq.
there given would extend far beyond Beth- 5 Its water has a different taste from
lehem (see on this point more below), that of Siloah.
254 THE REIGN OP SOLOMON.
with the more northern reservoirs, and it was king Hezeldah
who united its water with the Siloah in the valley, in order to
draw it off in that direction.1 The Gihon, on the north,2 how
ever, probably had from Solomon's time a double outlet. One
of these was called ' the upper,' which was certainly the same
as the upper or ancient pool, the waters of which were first
brought into the city in the reign of Hezekiah, by an artificial
conduit further west.3 This upper outlet Solomon clearly left
as he found it, as its name ' the ancient pool ' in fact indicates.
He may, however, have drawn off one or more other streams
from the spring, and conducted them eastwards towards the
temple, so that perhaps the pool of Bethesda was fed by it ;
perhaps, too, the subterranean temple-spring as well as the Fount
of the Virgin south-east of the temple, and what is now called
the spring of Siloam at the outlet of the valley of the Tyro-
pceon, were derived thence ; for the more recent investigations
have proved that these two were connected with the temple-well
by subterranean passages.4 On the other hand, the ancient
spring Siloah may have originated on the south-western slope
of Zion, and thence flowing open in numerous conduits, may
have formed the pool of Siloah, or King's pool, as well as
another called the ( artificial pool,' 5 until it descended to the
1 This follows from Is. xxii. 9 comp. with the western corner, where the northern
2 Chron. xxxii. 3 sq. The connexion of wall of the city of David and the later
the reservoirs of modern Jerusalem accord- wall abutted on one another, the passage
ing to the traces hitherto discovered applies well to the large reservoir within
may be best seen from the plan of the the city, which is still called after Heze-
city published at Berlin in 1845 by Kie- kiah. The old reservoir maybe imagined
pert arid the Consul Schultz. ' The ancient to be the great northern cistern of which
Siloah in the valley is best regarded as the Consul Schultz speaks, p. 35 of his
brought within the ancient city wall. Jerusalem (Berlin, 1845). This 'double
2 To look for the Gihon on the west wall ' was not the same as the wall by
in the present pool Mamilla is certainly the king's garden on the south-east,
wrong, if only because the Serpent's pool where the walls of Zion and Ophel met, 2
must have been situated there, as is ex- Kings xxv. 4.
plained below It is true that valley is 4 J^ing by the colour the present
often called Gihon (see Burchard in water of ^thcsda is indeed different-
Laurent s Pcregrinatores p. 63 65. 76), the taste of the water in the temple how-
but that this name had no other or.gm PV01,_ is the same ag fhat of the ^^ of
than among the monks of the holy the virgin and of Siloam, as Williams
sepulchre close by is seen from the fact ^oes on to describe. Recent investigators
that formerly the whole western valley hnve alrpad discovered a s,ll)terral)ean
was called Gehmnom, cf. Bahaeldin s Lrfe cotu]uit from the Fount Qf ^ y. .
of salaam, p. "3, and Jvemaleldin, in Siloam
Freyt. Chr. Ar. p. 122 sq. That the Gihon
lay on the north of the city, west of the The proof of this lies especially in the
Kidron valley, follows also from 2 Chron. description of the ancient walls and orates,
xxxiii. 14. Neh. ni. 1-32. On closer consideration it
8 This is according to Is. xxii. 11, comp. appears thatthisbeginsnorth of thetemple,
with vii. 3; 2 Chron. xxxii. 30; 2 Kings and makes a complete circuit from the
xx. 20. From this it is clear that this north-east. If it be observed further, that
was a very extensive structure, and since in sucn descriptions the expression K^n
the 'double wall' maybe understood of can only mean the valley west and south
WATEE-SUPPLY OF JERUSALEM.
255
east nearly opposite to the entrance of the valley of the Tyro
pceon, and was here united with the water from the north in the
basin now known as the ' spring of Siloam.' This conduit of
the Siloah was certainly an excellent work of Solomon's. It
was the only open flowing stream in the ancient city, and in
addition to this it flowed right round the city of David,1 while
its water was probably in some way or other connected with the
temple. And so in succeeding ages it easily became, with its
gentle yet never- failing flow, a type of the dominion — essentially
as mild and gentle — of that kingdom of God and that royal house
which now appeared to be for ever firmly bound to the rock of
Zion.2 Whether Solomon also excavated the two great reser-
eastern water-gate and horse-gate, which
led down into the valley of the Tyropceon,
vv. 26-28, until it gradunlly comes to the
east gate opposite the Kidron ; and here
taking a northerly direction, finally reaches
the sheep-gate, vv. 29-32. With this the
shorter description, Neh. ii. 13-15, agrees,
where the valley-gate serves for exit, as
well as the somewhat longer one, Neh. xii.
31-40, where two processions start from
the temple and march through the town
to the dung-gate, from which point one
makes the circuit of the city on the south,
the other on the north, and both at last
meet again south of the temple. These
remarks may suffice to correct the nume
rous errors about the position of the various
gates and reservoirs of the city, which are
still to be found not only in Robinson and
Williams, but even in the map of Kiepert
and Consul Schultz. If closer investiga
tions should procure us more precise
knowledge than we now possess about
the site of the ' sepulchres of David,' we
should be able to pronounce with greater
certainty about detnils. As to Siloah, it
is clear from Is. viii. 6 that it was origin
ally a running stream, not merely a pool,
&nd so it may have been connected with
the present Siloam, but was something
more than this reservoir ; perhaps the
present Sultan's pool south-west of the
city was formerly derived from this spring.
Cf. also the explanation of Jer. xxxi. 37-
40 in the Propheten des A. B. 2nd ed. ii.
p. 266.
1 P. 124.
2 Is. viii. 6, Ps. xlvi. 5 [4] ; both pas
sages are of the same period. The name
D?^tf' Is- v"i- 6, modified by the Hel
lenists into SiAoja^u, is pronounced rather
differently in Neh. iii. 15, nWrj 5 at any
rate, both names must certainly mean the
same water. The name denotes by itself
(Gehinnom), and pn^rt only that on the
north and east (the Wadi Kidron) ; fur
ther, that yi¥p?3ri' ' the corner,' Neh. iii.
19, 24, probably means the later so-called
valley of the Tyropoeon, the whole passage
is not so obscure as it appears. The
sheep-gate, on the north-east of the tem
ple, was followed by the fish-gate farther
north, ver. 3, in the neighbourhood of
which there must have been a pool from
the spring Grihon. The old gate, ver. 6,
cf. Zech. xiv. 10, lay then to the north
west. After a long interval this was suc
ceeded by the valley-gate, ver. 13, evi
dently towards the northern end of
G-ehinnom, and further south, almost at
the beginning of the city of David on the
north, was the dung-gate, ver. 14 (no
doubt the same as the potsherd-gate,
Jer. xix. 2). Then came the spring-gate,
where was plainly the source of the
Siloah, which then a little further
south formed ' the pool of Siloah of the
king's garden,' ver. 15, hence called more
briefly 'the king's pool' (Neh. ii. 14),
where steps led down from the city of
David into the valley of Hinnom. Not
till this point, ver. 16, do we reach the
spot called the ' sepulchres of David,'
which is now shown on the south-west
(cf. above, p. 228 sq.) with the 'artificial
pool,' the name of which indicates that it
was a new pool. After a long interval,
where the wall turns right round to the
south, there follows (ver. 19) 'the stair
case to the armoury at the corner,' evi
dently at the southern entrance of the
valley of the Tyropceon. The wall now
proceeds on the western side of this valley
northwards until the point at which the
valley ceases south of the temple, ver. 24 ;
continues on its eastern side, where Solo
mon's palace abuts to the north on the
southern out-buildings of the temple, ver.
25 ; goes round Ophel, including the
256 THE KEIGtf OF SOLOMON.
voirs in the valley named Gehinnom on the west side of the
city, we cannot determine with equal certainty.1 Thus much,
however, is clear — that the general artificial water-supply of
the city and its neighbourhood2 is to be referred in its essential
features to Solomon, and that it remained as he had arranged
it, until under king Hezekiah it underwent some important
changes to accommodate it to the altered requirements of the
age. In the meantime, however, with all these artificial reser
voirs the ancient city could not entirely dispense with the col
lection of rain water in large wells, although this certainly
was not so necessary for it then as it is at the present day, now
that the artificial water-supply is to a great extent destroyed.
b.) Aided by these elaborate water-works, Solomon now laid
out on the broad southern slope of the city,3 gardens of every
kind, vineyards, orchards, and these again in every variety.
We may reasonably imagine that he sought to grow in them
specimens of most of the species of plants c from the cedar
to the hyssop,' on which he composed a book. How far
these gardens, which belonged to the palace, extended to the
south, we have no precise knowledge. Five miles farther to
the south, however, by the three reservoirs at Bethlehem, he
doubtless had similar ones. Of his splendid parks and a sort
of gymnasium at Etam in the same district, to which Solomon
often made pleasure excursions, a vivid remembrance, drawr
certainly from ancient writings, was preserved even to the times
of Fl. Josephus.4 Similar parks probably gave to the mountain-
city not far eastwards — the situation of which the Arabs still
know as Fureidis, i.e. little Paradise — the genuine Hebrew name
Bethkerem, i.e. House of Vineyards.5
c.) Solomon further undertook the erection of similar palaces,
only fountain, stream; that it signifies xxi. 18), Neh. iii. 15 (where all the diver-
the extensive aqueduct, mentioned p. 253, gence of the explanation of the LXX rests
is rendered quite improbable by every in- on a false reading), and also the royal
dication. wine-presses, Zech. xiv. 10.
1 The 'Serpent's Pool,' Neh. ii. 13. lay 4 Ant. viii. 7. 3. Williams asserts (The
opposite the valley-gate, possibly, there- Holy City, p. 413 sq.), that the valley
fore, on the same spot where now the great at the entrance of which lay the three
reservoir Mamilla lies. But this reservoir, celebrated reservoirs south-west of Bethle-
as it now appears, does not belong (ac- hem. is still called Wadi Etan; of this
cording to Williams, The Holy City, p. Robinson says nothing.
410 sq.) to an early antiquity. 5 The Bethkerem mentioned Jer. vi. 1,
2 That the Phoenicians were acquainted lay, according to this passage, as well as
with similar arts of supplying water and according to the Fathers of the Church,
had brought them to a high pitch of per- not far north of Tekoa ; it agrees therefore
fection, is proved even now by the traces with the position of the hill which is now
in Malta ; see Eaumer's Hist. Taschenbuch, called Fureidis, and where many ro-
1844, p. 261 sq. mains attest the existence of ancient cul-
8 It was principally there that the royal tivation. It is now called, after Christian
gardens lay, 2 Kings xxv. -i (and tgain tradition, the hill of the Franks.
HIS PUBLIC WORKS. 257
for purposes at once of pleasure and utility, in other spots in
his wide dominions, as we may gather very clearly from some
historical traditions. He seems to have found especial delight
in the forest-clad heights of Lebanon, with their crown of
snow;1 and his father's conquests and his own afforded him,
in the beautiful northern districts, plenty of room for such
parks, without obliging him to subtract from the estates of his
countrymen. It was there, in Antilibanus, that he built the
towers (alluded to in the Canticles), which proudly looked
towards Damascus, and were adorned with glittering ivory; for
such towers as these are clearly enough distinguished in this
song from the towers of David with their military appurte
nances.2 To the north, not far from Lebanon, the slopes of
which always produced the best wine, lay also Baalhamon,
where he laid out a celebrated vineyard ; and for every thousand
stocks a tenant could get a thousand pieces of silver, four-fifths
of which must be paid into the royal treasury.3 How the king
would make excursions of pleasure from Jerusalem to such
favourite spots ; how he would sometimes ride in a chariot,
surrounded by the most practised horsemen, or sometimes
would be borne on a litter of two seats, constructed of the most
costly materials ; how he would be guarded by sixty of David's
Gibborim, once so terrible, now but little occupied with war,
and how a numerous suite would accompany him, — all this the
Canticles describe from faithful reminiscence with great vivid
ness.4
2. Measures for the Security and Prosperity of the Realm.
Solomon, however, would have been but a sorry king had he
contented himself merely with erecting these royal and sacred
edifices. But we find him equally zealous in taking measures
on the grandest scale for the security and prosperity as well as
for the orderly administration of his vast dominion. We may,
therefore, supply at this point much information which has
general reference to the condition of Israel during the ages of
the monarchy.
1 To which the historical work, 1 Kings iv. 42, is shortened into Shalisha, 1 Sam-
ix. 19, especially refers. ix. 4 ; there is no reason at all for refer-
2 Cant. vii. 5 [4] comp. with iv. 4. ring it to Baalbek, i.e. Heliopolis ; it would
3 Cant. viii. 11 sq. comp. with the pro- be better to identify it with the place
verbial expression Is. vii. 23. As to Baal- Bc\a/j.c!)i> in the tribe of Ephraim, Judith
hamon I still hold to the probability of viii. 3. Cf. vol. v. p. 476, note 3.
my observation in 1826, that it is the 4 Cant. iii. 6-10 comp. with vi. 12, i. 9
same with Hammon in the tribe of Asher, and Jos. Ant. viii. 7. 3.
Jos. xix. 28, as Baal-shalisha, 2 Kings
VOL. III. S
258 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
The security of the kingdom did not indeed require Solomon
to take the severer measures which became necessary in a later
and more oppressed age, — for King Hezekiah, for instance,
who, in order to protect the capital from hostile attack, either
stopped up or drew off all the supply of water outside its walls.
The age of Solomon felt itself too powerful and too prosperous
to need such precautions. Still he did not neglect anything in
this respect. He even attempted to confirm the safety of the
kingdom by new means which had never before been employed
in Israel, as though greater security externally should become a
lasting guarantee for the unusual prosperity internally, which
was now spreading undisturbed in peace.
1) The capital, accordingly, was newly fortified; and we
further know that this undertaking was not commenced till the
second half of the king's reign.1 The fortification of the city
at the time of David was limited, as far as we can recognise, to
the broad mountain of Zion on the south, which became the
nucleus of the whole city. In the walls of this ' city of David,'
however, a weak point must have been observed, which Solomon
improved at considerable expense.2 This was probably to the
north-east, westwards therefore of the temple, not far south of
the spot — perhaps even upon the very spot — where the later
fortress of the city lay.3 Zion, as well as the mountain north
of it, appears formerly to have sloped down here further into
the valley of the Tyropoeon, so that Solomon had an earthwork
thrown up there, and within the lines erected a fort, which
might serve as a powerful defence alike for Zion and the
temple. This fortification, which derived from the earthwork
the name of Millo, or more fully, Beth-Millo, was evidently of
considerable extent, and took some years to complete ; more
over, it is still spoken of in the following centuries. Later
1 This is clear from 1 Kings ix. 24 on the south into the valley of Hinnom,
cTLwitl\!V- 10' 15- Neh. iii. 15, 19 (where D^tf, as in v. 31
2 This follows from 1 Kings xi. 27, for .\ , '*' „. .. .„
the words here 'he closed the breach of S(l" 1S to 1>e read for TOfy but Zion itself
the city of David,' cannot according to was there of considerable height, while on
the clear connexion of the words be any- the n<>rth-east it still shows traces of an
thing else than an explanation of the fore- artificially-raised mound (see the Jeru-
goino- ' he built Millo ' salem of Consul Schultz, p. 28 : he makes
3 The only passage besides that iu^t a ?reat mist;lke< however, with Williams,
adduced from which we may gather a little in confounding (p. 81) the 'high street,
more definitely the situation of Millo is that * Chron- XXV1' 16' 18< which la-v on the
in 2 Kings xiu 21 [20] : ' Beth-Millo which tomple-hill, with this Silla in the valley) ;
goethdownto the steps.' for Si 1 la or Sulla cf" 1 Macc" xiii" 52' The mentlon of
^11, i T • 4. j j. L Millo so early as in 2 Sam. v. 9 is plainly
is probably abbreviated from D^ ' steps,' Qnly ft brief /^j^ in the lang£age of
so that it results that from this structure a later day of the part of the city intended,
a flight of steps led down into a deep That Millo is much the same as Akra is
valley. Now such a flight did indeed lead proved also by the version of the LXX,
down front- Zion on the west, and another 1 Kings xi. 27, and elsewhere.
FORTIFICATION OF THE KINGDOM. 259
still, Solomon appears to have carried the wall round the
mountains on the north and east ; l since the eastern hill with
the temple and palace, and the northern, on which the popula
tion of the capital was rapidly increasing, formed one whole
with Zion, and required defence. Of course, besides this, the
temple, as such, had its own walls. The most northern portion
of the city, however, which was so closely connected with Zion,2
bore from that time the name of Mishneh, i.e. second or later
city, which we might translate by New-Town.3
Solomon further sought, however, to protect the whole of
the kingdom by erecting a new chain of forts. He was clearly
the first who endeavoured to defend the ancient boundaries by
selecting a series of fastnesses to form a sort of girdle round
the land ; as though he had a presentiment that hereafter new
dangers from countries then subdued might threaten the terri
tory of Israel. Accordingly, in the extreme north he fortified
Hazor; 4 farther south, Megiddo, in the plains of Galilee ; next,
west of Jerusalem, the city of Gezer ; 5 the two towns of Upper
and Lower Beth-horon,6 which lay in dangerous and narrow
passes, and Baalath, situated not far from Gezer. This chain
is evidently deficient in towns in the south ; and probably
Solomon had no time to complete the series in this direction,
so that it was left to his successor to carry out this part of the
plan. If we reflect, moreover, that Gezer7 had been taken in
war, and that the neighbouring cities alluded to may have been
involved in its revolt, and further that, in the north, Megiddo
and Hazor were for a long time in the possession of the
Canaanites,8 it will appear that Solomon first of all transformed
into new fortresses only such towns as might be claimed as royal
conquests.
Still more violent was the innovation on which the king
ventured in the style of arms, in introducing, contrary to all
ancient Israelite custom, horses and chariots, not merely in
small numbers and for his own pleasure, but in large quantities
1 For the words ' and the wall of Jem- 8 The upper town, which is even more
salem,' 1 Kings ix. 15, cf. iii. 1, must important than the lower, is wanting in
mean a different wall from Millo, and it is the present text, 1 Kings ix. 15-18, but
also naturally to be expected that Solomon occurs in the LXX in place of the latter,
carried the wall round the rest of the and together with it 2 Chron. viii. 5 sq. In
city. From his time till its first destruc- the two Beit-urs Robinsnn still found re-
tion Jerusalem does not seem to have in- mains of ancient fortifications. The situa-
creased much in circumference. tion of Baalath is given by Josephus in
2 P. 125. agreement with Josh. xix. 44; the city is,
8 At least, this is the most provable moreover, the same as the Baalah men-
meaning of the name ; Zeph. i. 10, 2 Kings tioned p. 126, note 4.
xxii. 14, Neh. xi. 9. 7 P. 221.
4 Vol. ii. p. 253. 8 Cf. Judges i. 27, iv. 2.
4 P. 221.
82
260 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
for military purposes. In this the Egyptian monarchy was
evidently his pattern; and that his handsome chariots and
horses were imported thence is attested by the proverbial ex
pression, f Pharaoh's chariots at Solomon's court.' l He imported
fourteen hundred chariots, of course with the necessary horses,
and twelve thousand trained horses for cavalry ; the proportion
of which clearly discloses how very much horsemen were then
beginning to be employed in Egypt, along with chariot men ;
for in the oldest times, Egypt, as its monuments prove, possessed
only war-chariots, not war-horses. The forces equipped in this
novel Egyptian fashion were in part kept by Solomon in the
capital, in part stationed by him in the country round ; for the
latter he was obliged to build separate little towns (barrack vil
lages).2 From this time onwards, the question whether or not
such chariots and horses were to be introduced contrary to the
ancient customs of the community of Israel, forms a subject of
contest, the importance of which may be estimated from what
has been already said.3 The great Prophets, whom we know
in the ninth and eighth centuries, always kept in view only
what was essential for the true religion ; but there had been a
contest once.
2) Great, however, as was the king's care for the security of
the kingdom, his efforts to promote the commerce and trade
of his country were equally prodigious ; and these he certainly
commenced at once, after securing the stability of his power.
These arts of peace, it is true, had already taken root in
Israel during the period of the Judges,4 but during the exces
sive military activity of the last century they must have been
severely repressed. A combination of prosperous relations, such
as had never before been witnessed, now invited the nation to
pursue them with zeal ; and if the king himself entered upon
the work with the greatest activity, he assuredly did so, not
(like many other princes) to divert the proceeds from the
pockets of his subjects into his own, but because these arts of
1 Cant. i. 9. This is plainly the mean- of Kustem, in the Shahnameh, signifies
ing of the expression. the war-horse proper; between the two
2 According to 1 Kings ix. 19, x. 26 ; on significations stands that of the fleet-horse,
the oilier hand, in v. 6 [iv. 26] instead of in Esther viii. 10, 14. Josephus, Ant.vin.
40,000 chariot-horses we must of necessity 7. 4, turns the towns where chariots
read 4,000, according to 2 Chron. ix. 25, were stationed into commercial cities with
cf. i. 14; more properly 4.200, supposing chariots upon fine military roads con-
that to every chariot, besides the two re- structed by Solomon. In this as in other
gular horses, there belonged another in fanciful embellishments he probably fol-
reserve. Moreover, the chariot horses lows some apocryphal work about Solo-
( according to 1 Kings v. 8 [iv. 28], Micah mon, of thf use of which distinct traces
i. 13) had the special name ^3% while the appear in his writings.
« o -" 8 Vol. ii. comp. with p. 14-5 sq. above.
Syrian | • Qv and still more the • , 4 Vol. ii. p. 354.
EFFORTS TO PROMOTE TRADE. 261
peace needed the stimulus of a more energetic impulse, which
could not be successfully imparted without the whole weight of
royal power and royal will. In the broad extent of the posses
sions of Israel at that time, it lay open to the king to develop
traffic alike by land and by sea. He promoted both with
courage and success.
a.) To increase the land-traffic, he had small cities built in
advantageous localities, in which goods of all sorts in large
quantities were kept in suitable storehouses ; a practice simi
lar to that which had from ancient times prevailed in Egypt.1
Such commercial centres had, therefore, for the most part, to
be erected on the boundaries of the country,, where an active
exchange of commodities between remote nations easily sprang
up. As to further particulars, we know, at any rate, that they
were established chiefly in the most northern districts of Israel,,
towards the Phoenician boundaries, as well as in the territories
of the kingdom of Hamath, which was first conquered by
Solomon himself.2 — The main road for the land traffic between
Egypt and the interior of Asia must have been the great high
way leading past Gaza and further west of Jerusalem to the
Northern Jordan and Damascus. Here it was joined by the
road from the Phoenician cities, and continued as far as
Thapsacus, on the Euphrates.3 This was entirely in the
dominions of the king ; and here, under the peaceful banner
of a great and powerful monarchy, commerce could nourish as
it had never flourished before. It was clearly for the improve
ment of this route, which had to traverse the Syrian desert on
the north, that Solomon built, in a happily chosen oasis of this
wilderness, the city of Thammor, or Tadmor, of which the
Greek version is Palmyra. There is not a single indication
that this city was of importance before Solomon's time, but
from that era it flourished for more than a thousand years.4
A little more light is thrown, by one single example, upon the
1 Cf. ii. p. 13. That a similar custom which nothing now corresponds in the
exists even at the present day in the in- Hebrew. The reading in the passage 2
terior of Africa may be seen from W. Chron. xvi. 4 has certainly been altered
Munzinger's Ostafrlkanischen Studien, pp. from another, 1 Kings xv. 20, not, how-
567-9. From Spetice Hardy's Eastern ever, without the precedent of an ancient
Monachism, p. 182, we learn that it existed account of such cities.
also in ancient India. 3 1 Kings v. 1, 4 [iv. 21, 24].
2 According to 1 Kings ix. 19, 2 Chron. * l KinS8 ix- ] 8> where the Kethib -fon
viii. 4, 6, xvi. 4: for the cities of this is to be read. The pronunciation Tadmor
description in Naphtali named in the last (2 Chron. viii. 4) which prevailed later,
passage may have been founded only by has not, however, arisen through the
Solomon ; and perhaps this is referred to spread of Aramaic, but is original (cf. a
in the sentence 'Solomon began to open Tedmor in Lebanon, in Seetzen's Rdscn,
the 8vva(rTev/j.a.Ta of Lebanon,' which i. p. 244); inasmuch, however, as that an-
occurs in the LXX, 1 Kings ii. 46, to cient pronunciation appeared to call Palms
262 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
way in which commerce was conducted upon this route. The
desire for Egyptian war-horses and war-chariots was at that
time very generally spread, even among the petty Hittite (i.e.
generally Canaanite) and Aramean kings, whether they were
dependent upon Solomon or not. But the key to this traffic in
Egyptian arms was in the hands of Solomon alone, especially
so long as he continued on friendly terms with the sovereign
of that country. He accordingly had it conducted by his own
merchants, who were bound to deliver up the profits to him for
a fixed salary, an arrangement somewhat similar to that which
we have already noticed1 in the case of the newly laid-out
vineyards ; and it is remarked that the profits (of course after
reckoning all expenses) on a war-horse amounted to one
hundred and fifty shekels, on a chariot with its three horses,2
to six hundred shekels.3 How many horses and chariots of
the kind may have thus passed northwards and crossed the
Euphrates ! — The laying-out of great military roads, which met
in Jerusalem,4 and the establishment of convenient travelling-
stations (caravanserais),5 could not be neglected. Of both of
these operations we still possess some indications.
b.) For any distant navigation, however, Solomon was obliged
to rely on the aid of the Phoenicians, inasmuch as they were
in that age the only nation which possessed the necessary
jibility and inclination for it. It is true that the idea of com
peting with the Phoenicians upon the Mediterranean could hardly
have occurred to him, since they had long before that time
attracted all the commerce upon it to themselves, and would
to mind, Tadmor passed the more easily in Reisen, ii. p. 325). The whole passage
Grecian mouths into Palmyra. No great then means, ' as for the export of horses
weight is to be attached to the belief of which ^Solomon got from Egypt, and
its later inhabitants, mentioned by the the profit of the royal traders which they
Arabian geographer Jaqut, that the city received as clear profit, the carriage and
had already existed before Solomon. On export of a chariot from Egypt amounted
the correct reading found elsewhere 1 to &e., and thus they were exported by
Kings ix. 18, see below; on other points, means of these traders for all &c.' The
the Jahrbb, tier Bill. Wiss. vi. p. 89. mere carriage and export, therefore, of a
1 P. 257. horse or chariot cost the sum named, in-
" P. 260. dependency of the price at which it was
3 This is the meaning of the words 1 purchased in Egypt. The Chronicler re-
lyings x. 28 sq. They are certainly made peats the passage, only with the trans-
rather obscure by the word mpE (which position of a word (similar transpositions
made the LXX think of a country Koue), occur elsewhere in his worlO, 2 Chron. i.
which does not again occur in such a con- 16 sq., but in ix. 28 reproduces its mean-
nexion; but since it is wealth and profit ing with a change which represents the
which are here spoken of, one cannot horses as exported for the king from Egypt
hesitate to compare the Arabic L <»•, which anf, a11 other countries. Cf. besides, Lay-
. . ' . . . *-J\ . . ards Nineveh, ii. pp. 359-61.
111 some of its derivations is used of the
rise of prices or the surplus and profit of 4 ^os- ^nt. viii. 7. 4.
trade (cf. chaue or chue in Seetzen's 6 P. 216, note 3.
NAVIGATION OF THE RED SEA. 263
scarcely have desired or even tolerated such a rival.1 Still
even in this direction the only small harbour which was easily
available for the ancient Israelite government upon this coast
was now opened in Joppa ; 2 while cities like Csesarea, Dora, and
Acco (Ptolemais) north of Joppa did not acquire any great im
portance for Palestine till a much later age, when the special
efforts and requirements of the Greco-Roman period brought
them into prominence. But the Red Sea, which had been
thrown open to the kings of Israel by the conquest of the
Idumeans, offered the finest opportunity for the most distant
and lucrative undertakings, the profit of which might perfectly
satisfy a nation in the position of Israel in the dawn of mari
time activity ; and on their part, the Phoenicians could not fail
to be most willing helpers in the promotion of undertakings
which it lay in the hands of the powerful king of Israel entirely
to cut off from them, or at any rate to encumber with great
difficulties. In this way the mutual desires and needs of two
nations coincided without any injury to the one or the other;
and nothing but such a combination can give rise to advanta
geous and lasting alliances. Except the erection of the temple
and its consequences, no external event throughout the whole
reign of Solomon was richer in its results for Israel than this
successful attempt at navigation to far-distant lands. Phoeni
cian sailors were at first, it is true, the teachers of the Israelite.
It was they who aided them in constructing and manning the
tall ships, which, destined to distant voyages upon uncertain
seas, needed to be strongly built ; but yet how many new ideas
and what varied knowledge the nation would in this way ac
quire ! The ships were built in Ezion-geber, the harbour of the
town of Elath (or Eloth), probably on the very spot where
Akaba now stands.3 The cargo brought back each time from
the three years' voyage consisted of four hundred and twenty
1 The ships 1 Kings x. 22 are indeed i.e. Spain, this can only have arisen
named Tarshish-ships. But we see, from through a misunderstanding of the later
passages like Is. ii. 16, Ps. xlviii. 8 [7], narrator, as all more exact investigators
that in ancient times nothing more was in modern times since Th. Ch. Tychsen
intended by this than great and strong and Bredow, have recognised,
ships; the name is therefore no more to 2 P. 221.
be taken literally than ' ships of Hiram,' 3 Akaba, i.e. back, is probably only a
x. 11, only we muse admit that the con- dialectic variation and at the same time
tents and style of the clauses x. 11 sq. 22 an abbreviation for the Hebrew and
show them to have been derived from an ancient mythological Ezion-geber, i.e.
older source than the passage ix. 26-28. giant's back ; and the name of the present
In the repetition of these passages in 2 Wadi el-Gudjan, farther north and deeper
Chron. viii. 17 sq., ix. 10 sq. 21, the read- in the interior, still perhaps contains a
ing 450 for 420 talents maybe correct; reminiscence of the former glory of the
but if the ships of Tarshish be turned maritime city,
into ships which then sailed to Tarshish,
264 THE REIGJST OF SOLOMON.
talents of gold, besides silver, ivory, red sandal-wood, apes,
and peacocks, probably also nard and aloe.1 The sandal- wood
had never before been introduced into the country, and was
used by the king in the same way as in India, partly for
making balustrades before the doors of the temple and the
palace, partly for the decoration of lyres and harps. The term
Ophir itselr', the goal of these long voyages, is to be extended,
according to all these indications, to the most distant coasts of
India,2 and the ( gold of Ophir ' became from that time a pro
verbial expression in Israel.
c.) The royal revenues were further increased by the custom-
duties which the merchants not in the royal employ were obliged
to pay out of their profits,3 as well as by the presents of subject
kings or of petty princes seeking protection, and the tributes
of the governors of conquered countries ; and no inconsiderable
accession was derived from the resort of numerous rich pilgrims
to Jerusalem. (See p. 254 sq.) Independently, however, of all
such sources of income, which were more or less accidental, the
total revenue of the king in ready money, which accrued chiefly
from the tributes of subjects and the proceeds of the maritime
trade, was estimated at six hundred and sixty-six talents of
gold annually.4 We shall subsequently investigate somewhat
more closely what proportion of this was contributed by the
tribes of Israel themselves.
Thus the splendour of the royal rule of Israel extended even to
the arms and household furniture of the kins'. The rich Aramean
o
monarch Hadad-ezer had once provided his body-guard with
golden arms;5 and Solomon in like manner had two hundred
1 The pnssages of the 0. T. where these proper names: an example of this \ve
two occur were none of them written be- have already observer!, p. 226, notel. The
fore Solomon, while their Indian origin is reasons by which Quatremere in his essay
indisputable ; see Lassen, Indische Alterth. on Ophir (Mcmoires de VAcad. des Inscrip-
i. p. 285, 288. turns, 1845, t. xv. 2, p. 349-402) tries to
2 Even if Ophir originally (according make out that not India but Sofala in
to G-en. x. 29) lay on the south-east coast Africa is meant, possess little depth. We
of Arabia, it might, after the voyage pass by, among other strange statements,
was extended from there to India, just as that in Wellsted's Eeise nach der Stadt
well include this land in common usage, der Khalifen, p. 278 sqq. — The island of
as the quite similar name Havilah, Urphe in the Red Sea, where, according to
Gen. x. 7, 29, designates countries much Eupolemns and Theophilus (Eus. Trcep.
further east. The most recent exact in- Ev. ix. 30), David had already dug for
vestigation about Ophir is that of Lassen, gold, has probably arisen out of the name
Indische Alterthuwsk. i. p. 538 sq., only Ophir.
it is not necessary to limit oneself to the 3 As the sense of the words 1 Kings
In&mnAbMra. From proof that India in x. 28 sq. has been correctly determined
ancient times was rich in gold, see Joi/rn. above, it becomes clear how in x. 15, 2
As. ^1846, i. p. 371. — The pronunciation Chron. ix. 14, two different kinds of mer-
20<J>/p or 2ot«f>efp in the LXX merely de- chants may be named together, and "jnDDi
pends on a habit, in other cases also as distinguished from nipt), appears ac-
widely spread among the Hellenists and cordingly to mean the custom-duties.
other Greeks, of putting an s before foreign 4 1 Kings x. 14. 5 P. 158.
HIS WEALTH. 265
great shields prepared, each of which was overlaid with six
hundred pounds (or rather six m in.se) , and three hundred smaller,
of which each was overlaid with three hundred pounds of arti
ficially wrought gold. These golden shields were carried before
him by the guards in solemn processions, especially when the
king went in state 1 from the palace into the temple.2 All the
drinking vessels and a quantity of other furniture in his palace
were made, in the same way, of pure gold ; and silver seemed
to be of no value anywhere in his eyes.3 All Israel then, as a
later narrator expresses himself, ate its bread with joy, every
man sitting peacefully under his own vine and fig-tree.4 We
probably still possess from the midst of that contented and
happy age an important fragment of a song which, in its higher
flight of gratitude to God, glorified with eloquent and picturesque
words the universal prosperity of these long days of peace.5
Over the inhabitants even of the rural districts throughout the
whole kingdom was diffused the contented tranquillity and
cheerfulness of a happy life satisfied with itself, to which we
see in the Canticles a brilliant testimony still preserved from
the age immediately after Solomon. Jerusalem, however, was
the chief receptacle of all this wealth and splendour ; and as
the other inhabitants of the capital sought to rival the king in
the magnificence of their residences and equipments, silver
seems to have taken the place there of stones, and cedar-beams
of the common sycamore planks otherwise used in building.0
Nay, so deep an impression was made upon the nation by the
remembrance of the extraordinary prosperity and long tran
quillity of the age of Solomon, and so slight was the extent to
which in succeeding centuries similar circumstances ever re
appeared, that the nation always looked back to this period
with a longing which increased with every generation ; though,
naturally, in the remembrance of those who came after, the
unexampled prosperity of this age was blended into a single
image with the glory of the age of David.
1 P. 251. tion,Mieah iv. 4, and it is only the second
2 This clearly results from the narra- Deuteronomic narrator who ventures on
tive 1 Kings xiv. 27 sq., 2 Chron. xii. 10 thus transferring it.
sq. a The fragment Ps. cxliv. 12-14, of a
3 1 Kings x. 16 sq., 21, 23 ; cf. 2 Chron. style in every respect rare, belongs in all
ix. 15, sq. probability to this period ; there is a clear
4 1 Kings iv. 20 sq., v. 4 [iv. 24] sq. The allusion in ver. 12 to the newly flourishing
beautiful expression of the vine and the architecture of that age.
fig-tree has certainly only passed into this 6 1 Kings x. 27.
narrative from Joel's Messianic descrip-
266 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
3. The Administration and the Manners of the Monarchy under
Solomon and his Successors.
Even prosperity like this would have been destitute of sta
bility, had it not been supported by a well- arranged and careful
administration of the realm. Such prosperity had already long
existed in Egypt, and much of the royal usage of Israel was
unmistakably derived from this source. And even of the ne
cessary reflection of the prosperity of the whole people in that
of the king and his court, Egypt had long ago supplied the
type. Certain customs of the monarchy and the court accord
ingly now grew up, which were sedulously maintained in every
succeedino: ai>'e in Israel, and which we must here describe in
O G 7
detail, with reference to their origin.
1) The simplest method of conducting a monarchical govern
ment is for the sovereign to associate with himself one or two
4 friends,' l on whom he publicly confers his entire confidence,
and who preside over and administer everything in the realm,
the one perhaps over the civil, the other over the military de
partment. Nay, in the simplest form of all, the king appoints
only one single friend, in whom is placed the highest trust ; in
which case it is of course the commander of the army who is
selected, inasmuch as the strict order, unity, and protection of
the realm alike within and without constitute the object of
all kingship, and so far everything in it proceeds from the
sovereign. This was the arrangement in the petty kingdoms
round about Israel in the earliest times ; 2 and the same simple
organisation of the supreme administration still prevailed in
Israel also under Saul.3 But such a representative of the king
easily acquires only too much power, and stands forth as sole
master in government and war.4 When the enlargement of the
state increases the difficulties of its administration, the different
departments are necessarily more subdivided, and new offices
of i friends ' or ministers of the king assume a sort of indepen
dent importance by the side of the first simple office. This
change was effected in Israel under David. There were then
in the first place two offices, which, in contrast to the ministry
of war, may properly be called civil. Their creation appears to
have been a matter of necessity, and they subdivided between
1 Cf. the names Gen. xxvi. 26, 1 Kings the similar remarks (soon to be men-
iv. 5, and the beautiful description of what tioned) about the government offices under
such a person ought to be, Prov. xxii. 11. David and Solomon.
2 Gen. xxi. 22, 32 comp. with xxvi. 26 ; 4 As Abner under Ishbosheth, accord-
see above, p. 103. ing to p. Ill sqq.
3 According to 1 Sam. xiv. 50 ; comp. \vith
HIS MIXISTEKS. 267
them all the rest of the administration of ordinary affairs. The
first was that of the Mazkir, i.e. 6 the reminder,' who was to act
as the mouth of the king, or as chancellor. It was his duty to
bring before him all more important questions, the complaints,
petitions and suits of subjects, or of foreigners ; but he probably
had also papers and memorials of his own to lay before the king ;
and as he was specially skilled in the art of composition, he
had further to prepare the records and issue the commands of
the king himself.1 The second was that of the Sopher, i.e.
'the writer,' whose duty it was to prepare the decrees in
all civil matters, especially about the revenues. This ap
pears at any rate the safest interpretation of these two
words, of which the first especially has now become somewhat
obscure. The Mazkir was accordingly required to be well
acquainted with all the treaties with foreign nations,2 and had
the superintendence of the record-office (the archives). The
business and authority of the Sopher, who is mentioned far
oftener, were certainly more extensive. He could sign the judi
cial decisions,3 but the whole accounts of the realm also passed
through his hands, the rating-lists of the people,4 as well as the
money matters (finance) which were most closely connected
with them.5 We shall not, therefore, be surprised to find that
under Solomon there were two Sophers appointed at once,6 who
probab'y divided the business between them according to these
two different departments.
While the basis of the ancient arrangement of the Priesthood,
which served as the hereditary protection of the existing Jahve-
ism, remained like the religion itself unchanged under the
monarchy, the office of the High Priest, as the representative
1 It cannot indeed be expected that appears accordingly as supreme judge him-
the names of the royal court-offices of self; Judges v. 14.
Israel should still have been everywhere 4 Just as, again, every single tribe might
easily intelligible in the last centuries have its Sopher for the family-lists, and
B.C. ; but it is to be noticed that the LXX every commanding officer his Sopher for
translate these names in 2 Sam. and Kings the army lists ; 1 Chron. xxiv. 6, 2 Kings
quite literally 6 a.va/^.i/j.i'^a'Kiav, in 2 Sam. xxv. 19.
viii. 16, however, with still greater clear- 5 He appears clearly as minister of
ness, 0 eVi rcav v-no^v^^drfav, and Is. xxxvi. finance and public Avorks, 2 Kings xii. 11
3 as in the Chronicles, 6 inTo^^/j.aro'Ypd- [10], xxii. 3 sqq., in like manner also xviii.
tyus ; this name recurs in the Ptolemaic 18 sqq. ; cf. 1 Chron. xxvii. 32. The^pa^-
period in the city-administrations (Strabo, yuuTcTi or ypa^fj.a.Ti(rrai occupied elevated
Gcogr.xvn. 12), and its holder is named qui posts at the Egyptian and Persian courts
e memoria Avgusti, according to the best (comp. also vol. v. p. 314, note 2); and
reading, Suet. Aug. c. 79. The nearest 12DH ;lt Carthage was, no doubt, as others
parallel is in the name now found in in- have already remarked, the Carthaginian
bcriptious, ,ui/T7jitoj/eiW ; cf. Sauppe in the Quaestor.
Gott. Gel. Nachr. 1863, p. 310 sqq. a The words 1 Kings iv. 3 cannot be
- This must be concluded from his part understood in any other way, certainly
in the negotiations about war or peace ; 2 not as if these two had successively ad-
Kings xviii. 18 sqq., Is. xxxvi. 3 sqq. ministered the office.
3 In the most ancient times a Sopher
268 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
of the entire Priesthood, could not fail to be now brought into
closer connexion with it. The first act of the monarchy, when
it was quite firmly established in Israel, was to confirm the
Hio-h Priest; as was first done under David.1 It was now his
tD
duty, accordingly, to take care both by his knowledge and
character to maintain his authority and power erect at once
towards king and people. And inasmuch as the events of
the age of David 2 left room for choice between the two most
illustrious High-Priestly houses, the closer connexion between
the Priesthood and the Monarchy was the more easily com
pleted. Moreover, the division in the High-Priesthood itself,
which continued to exist 3 under David, ceased 4 under Solomon.
The family of Zadok, as far as we can conclude from later
accounts, retained from this time onwards without break the
High-Priestly dignity in Jerusalem ; 5 but it was still open to
the king to choose in addition to this High Priest by hereditary
right a House Priest to be his special ' friend,' 6 and it was this
personage certainly who laboured as his proper ' minister of
spiritual affairs,' while the High Priest continued to retain the
rest of his ancient privileges.
As it was under Solomon that the monarchy attained its
highest splendour, it was he who completed the circle of the
principal government offices already introduced by David with
the post of a Governor of the royal house, or chamberlain.7 The
duties of this officer were certainly limited at first to the
superintendence over everything relating to the royal palace,
as well as the royal etiquette ; and nothing indicates so well
the great importance which Solomon, following the example
of the ancient and highly developed court usage in Egypt and
Assyria, attached to such things, in striking contrast with
David. But this post had a special tendency to become one of
increasing influence. The chamberlain readily acquired the
right of introduction to the king, and thus easily became the
chief minister ; nay, himself the representative of the king, to
be compared with the Hajib 8 in Arabian courts. And in later
1 P. 125 sq. 2 P. 134. contrary, does not belong here, and is only
3 Ibid. 4 P. 212 sq. repeated from 2 Sara. xx. 25); and pro-
5 1 Chron. y. 34-41 [vi. 8-15], unfor- bably, the Ira at David's court, men-
tunately the only passage in the 0. T. tioned in 2 Sain. xx. 26, was such an officer,
where the line of these High Priests is At the court of the Indian kings there
recorded. According to this, from Zadok was the Purohita, see Laws of Manu, vii.
under David to the Hilkiah known to us 78, and that he was a minister as well we
from 2 Kings xxii. sq., there were only know from Somadeva (cf. Brockhaus in
ten High Priests, perhaps nothing but a the Berichten der K. Sachs. Ges. dtr Wins.,
round number, see i. p. 23 sq. 1860, p. 158).
6 This is clear in Solomon's case, 1 7 rVSiT^y? 1 Kings iv. 6, xvi. 9, xviii. 3.
Kings iv. 5 comp. with ver. 2 (the clause 8
about Zadok and Abiathar, ver. 4, on the i^ ^cplasjJ •
HIS MINISTERS. 260
times he had certainly won for himself this position in Jeru
salem, by the side of which the earlier Mazkir remained simply
minister of foreign affairs and master of the rolls.1
It is inevitable that among the principal ministers of the
king, one should stand nearest to him, that the unity of the
administration may not be impaired. The only question is,
who this is to be? and it is instructive to observe how this
foremost position shifted about in the course of the history of
the monarchy in Israel.2 Under David, Joab, as commander-
in- chief of the army, always to the last stands at the head of
the various high court officials, just as he had done in the
simplest times3 and in the actual necessities of war. Under
Solomon, it is the High Priest himself who fills this post of
honour,4 in accordance with the high external respect which 5
the ancient religion then enjoyed. In still later ages, when the
power of the kingdom sank lower and all its forces required to
be held together with a firm hand, we see the chamberlain
occupying the first rank ; 6 while from ancient times in Egypt
lofty wisdom came to be more and more looked for as the
qualification for this supreme dignity.7 — When, however, a
kingdom is either not yet sufficiently civilised, or is already
declining again, a chief officer and representative of the king
like this easily becomes, with all his household and dependents,
a power only too dangerous to the well-being of the state.
Such a personage may even seek so to aggrandise and confirm
the power of his own house that the wish may well be formed
that his place should, at any rate, be filled by a better man,
with an extensive family influence and a powerful party. Even
David found in Joab, with his family and adherents, a burden
which he was obliged to carry till his death. Solomon's king
dom was preserved, so far as we can see, from this evil ; but in
later days, when Shebna had come from a foreign country and
was installed as chamberlain under king Ahaz, Isaiah could find
it worth while to exert himself, under a sovereign like Hezekiah,
1 Hence in 2 Kings xviii. 18, Is. xxxvi. 3 P. 266.
3. he occupies the last place among the 4 2 Sam. viii. 16, xx. 23, 1 Chron.
three first ministers. xxxvii. 34, comp. with 1 Kings iv. 2.
2 We can recognise this with great cer- 5 P. 211 sqq.
tainty, especially from the arrangement in 6 As we may conclude from his position,
the three short lists of the chief offices, as 2 Kings xviii. 18, Ls. xxxvi. 3, comp. with
thev existed with their holders in the xxii. 15. The most civilised kingdoms in
earlier and later years of David, and Egypt and India returned to the practice
during the very long reign of Solomon, of nominating a regular representative of
2 Sam. viii. 16-18, xx. 23-26, 1 Kings iv. the king, Gen. xli. 40-44 ; Laws of Manu,
2-6, comp. with the Araluable fragment of a vii. 141, comp. with 54.
very minute list (a court-calendar) from 7 Gen. xli. 41-45 ; cf. Is. xix. 11.
the later period of David, 1 Chron. xxvii.
270 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
to displace him with his party, and to secure the appointment
to his post of a worthier person.1
Together with these regular government officers, there were
besides many mere court officials and persons charged with
special affairs of importance. The commander of the royal body
guard 2 always received his orders direct from the king, and is,
consequently, always placed in the same list as the ministers
of state.3 The compulsory service which4 became so import
ant, was, in David's last years, placed under the charge of a
high commissioner; and in Solomon's time another was ap
pointed over the rich domains,5 the twelve superintendents of
which had in turn each month to provide the court with all the
needful supplies.6 Already under Saul,7 a principal overseer
had been placed over the king's flocks, which formed the
simplest and firmest foundation of the royal economy which the
age and the country could afford ; and such an overseer con
tinually appears in all similar circumstances as holding one of
the court offices.8 Under David the number of such overseers
over the estates and movable treasures of the king was im
mensely increased, and we still possess an instructive court
calendar about them dating from that period.9
All these higher royal officials still bore the ancient name
of ' princes,' i.e. heads, or superior officers. The king might
besides associate with them ' counsellors,' in any number he
pleased, of whom one was specially distinguished as his 'friend.'10
Following the ancient custom of the royal courts in Asia and
Egypt, a court historian was certainly appointed in Israel also,
whose function was to record all important occurrences affecting
the royal house and kingdom, and at the close of a sovereign's
reign to give perhaps a public survey of its history. But
although some traces of his activity are certainly still pre
served,11 we no longer know his title.
1 Is. xxii. 15-25. Q/rq. Vezir, p. 128 sqq. of the Paris edi-
2 Pp. 75, 143. tion.
3 2 Sam. viii. 18, xx. 23; under Solo- 9 1 Chron. xxvii. 25-31, containing also
mon he is only apparently omitted, since very instructive particulars as to the agri-
in 1 Kings iv. 6, before Adoniram are to cultural affairs of Palestine in that age.
l)e inserted (following the LXX) the words 10 See above, p. 178 sqq.; comp. with
ny£t^£>n by D££*"i5 HK^>&0» on^y tne * Clmm. xxvii. 32-34, and the didactic
LXX have incorrVctl/confounded the last pr°Vei'bs' Pr<JV' xi'14'.x0v: 22> an
word with nn^'D, irpfe, just as in the exPr(flons also ?« Is. i. 2o ,q, xx
passage 1 Chion xi. 25, adduced p. 75, , ^ P' i > T" ^ atW
1 f ? 4 p OOA h;ive been made to identify him with the
* 2 Sam xx 24 1 Kinwiv.'e Mazkir' * 26J : but the <latter must afc
6 1 Kings iv. 5,'cf. vv.Vl9 ; see more ^ <**&*& ^ had * much higher
on this point below. ^Ce, m ^ Administration of the
7 Pp 83 90 kingdom, and passages like Ezra iv. 15,
Esther vi. 1, do not warrant the positive
8 The Turkish K'opan-Salari in the conclusion that he was also the court
HIS MINISTERS. 271
In all these arrangements, however, the point of greatest
importance was this — that the king originally selected all such
assistants in the administration of the kingdom from his own
people alone, and so far not the least ground was afforded for
the existence of any jealousy or discord between court and
people. This was still the case under Solomon, according to
all that we have hitherto been able to learn. Not till a much
later age did a king, under the influence of caprice, or depen
dent on foreign powers, engage a foreigner as his first counsel
lor.1 Moreover, the introduction of eunuchs first into the royal
harem, and thence into the court at large, and the entrusting
of the most important affairs and offices to them by the side
of the ministers, was an immorality which crept from the
Assyrian (Syrian) and Egyptian courts little by little into
Israel also,2 but it jarred most severely against the true re
ligion.3 This custom was certainly started by the princes of
the kingdom of the Ten Tribes who, in this as in other cases,
wished to make a public display of their royal glory ; 4 yet
they were gradually followed in this practice by David's suc
cessors, so that this canker continued to exist to the latest days
of the monarchy in Jerusalem.
2) It will be readily understood that as the monarchy in
Israel rose in civilisation after the age of David and Solomon,
even the outward marks of its power would be more and more
derived from those heathen monarchies whose civilisation had
been much earlier developed. Solomon still appears at the
commencement of his reign 5 riding just as David had done,
following ancient Israelitish custom, upon a simple mule ; but
at an early period the foreign usages of kingly state began to
be imitated.6 To the same tendency must be ascribed the
assumption of a new royal name on the day of accession to the
throne, a practice which had long since been introduced in
Egypt and doubtless elsewhere. In Israel it does not occur 7
until later, but it appears then to become fixed in Judah,8
though it was never introduced into the kingdom of the Ten
historian, although from the nature of his 3 See the Alterth. p. 187.
other occupations he would not have been 4 Wlth their introduction was connected
ill-qualified for the work. the new style of building Armenoth, of
1 As Ahaz appointed Shebna, Is. xxii. which more below.
15 sqq. s p. 211.
2 Though Saristm (eunuchs) are men- '
tioned in the statement cited above, 1 Sam. FP' * ' '' 209<
viii. 16, and by the Chronicler also 1 Chron. 7 P- 168. note.
xxviii. 1, even in David's time, we are not 8 See the examples below. Had not
warranted in concluding thsnce that they such a practice existed, Isaiah could never
were actually introduced even under Solo- have anticipated -that instead of the child's
mon. name Immamiel, a still loftier one would
27'2 THE EEIGN OF SOLOMON.
Tribes ; yet these new names always remained in this nation at
any rate very simple. The sort of servile adoration of the
human king which easily acquired the force of custom in
heathen states, could never establish itself in Israel.
The polygamy of the king would almost inevitably exercise
an influence, which could not fail to be prejudicial, on the
course of the administration and the well-being of the com
munity in this as in every other kingdom, whether old or new,
which has suffered from this evil. How quickly the evil conse
quences revealed themselves in Israel has been already pointed
out.1 This was the origin of the high importance which even
in this kingdom was very soon acquired among the royal wives
by the king's mother, particularly if he himself were young,2
and which once enabled a woman, contrary to every national
tradition, to succeed even in seizing the reins of government.3
No mention is made of the actual coronation in the case of
the three first kings of Israel. Only the unction, when received
from the proper hand, possesses from the beginning of monarchy
in Israel,4 its own high significance. The crown as a royal
distinction was, according to all indications, transferred from
foreign kings to the sovereigns of Israel. David placed on his
own head that of the Ammonite king.5 Solomon, who did not
at first wear it,6 probably did not assume it till his Egyptian
marriage. From that time, however, it remained in both king
doms the clearest mark of royalty,7 for which the sceptre only 8
had hitherto served. — On the other hand, the king of Israel
enjoyed from the first, like every other heathen monarch, the
right of having one of the court dignitaries to carry a basin
after him everywhere both within and without the house, and
to look after his quarters for the night.9
On the whole, the court manners became already under
1)6 assigned to the Messiah at his real en- 5 P. 159. 6 P. 211,
trance on his dominion ; Is. ix. 5 [6]. 7 Ps. xxi. 3 ; here probably, it is true,
1 P. 169 sqq. of a king of the kingdom of the Ten
>z See what has been already said above Tr'bes; cf., however, Cant. iii. 11, and
(p. 210) ; hence the Books of Kings, even remarks on Ez. xxv. 9.
in the^r present shape, name the mother 8 P. 73
of each successive king. She received 9 Cf. above, p. 96 sq. We have here,
also the special title of honour nTIl;in> accordingly, the chamberlain, the TSyzan-
•the mistress,' 1 Kings xv. 13, 2 Kings x. tine Accubitor (cf. Matthias of Elessa,
13. Jer. xiii. 18, xxix. 2. In Egypt, on Arm- Hist- P- 26S. and the a cubiculo or
to the monu- cwwularius in Friedlander's Pom. Sitten-
the other hand, according to the monu-
ments as well as according to 1 Kinsjs ffeschichf-e, pp. 92 sqq. 170). It was for-
xi. 19, the first consort of the king m.orly the dllt.V of the High Chamber-
already acquired as such this lofty desig- lain of the German Empire, when a public
nation. court was held, to offer the Emperor the
3 Athaliah, 2 Kino-s xi. ^asin and towel- His Hebrew title is later
* p. e. nrrnp i;y, Jer. 11. 59.
MANNERS OF THE COURT. 273
Solomon more Egyptian; and the necessary effect of this
change will be made clear further on. But however the
manners and modes of life of the kings of Israel gradually
departed from the primitive simplicity of a Saul and David,
they could hardly, especially in Judah, abandon that elevated
type which had been exhibited to them in David, alike in
the character and aspiration, and in the habitudes and honour
of the monarchy. How the precedents of his life and spirit
operated on the majority of his successors in the most varied
relations, will subsequently appear by numerous examples. At
least in death and burial, his descendants wished to be associ
ated with him alone. Even Solomon, who had erected for himself
a splendid new palace, would still choose no other place for his
remains to repose in than by David's hereditary sepulchre ; and
there in the ( city of David,' l on the same consecrated spot on
Zion, all the kings of Judah down to Hezekiah, as the his
torical books state with emphasis in every case, built their
last resting-places close by one another, so that this spot was
•called ' the sepulchres of the kings.' 2 Unquestionably these
were once splendid structures, and their position will perhaps
hereafter be discovered with a certitude greater than the pre
sent tradition 3 about them can justify.4 Why king Manasseh
was the first to introduce a change into this practice, and erect
for himself a monument at a quite different end of the city,5 we
no longer exactly know. Perhaps he did so less from his well-
known disinclination for good old popular customs than from
want of space in the ancient consecrated ground : at any rate,
he was followed in it by his successors.6 A spot was, however,
1 1 Kings xi. 43 comp. with ii. 10. the space ' of the sepulchres of the sons
2 Yet this name does not occur till the of David ' close by the descent of the
Books of Chronicles ; see besides the pas- mountain, as though there had been here
sages mentioned p. 254 note 5,2 Chron.xxi. no further available space.
20, xxiv. 25, xxviii. 27. The Chronicles 3 P. 228 sqq.
here represent the three unworthy kings, 4 The efforts hitherto vainly made by
Joram, Joash, and Ahaz, as being buried Saulcy and others, since 1852, to discover
in the city of David, but not in the ' sepul- with certainty these sepulchres of David
•chres of the kings,' as though this was the are well known ; cf. Jahrbb. der Bibl.
work of the popular will. But since in Wiss. v. p. 223, vi. p. 82.
Asa's case, 2 Chron. xvi. 14, it mentions a 5 2 Kings xxi. 18. ' The garden of his
•special monument which he had erected own house, the garden of Uzza,' can only
for himself in the city of David, and the be the name of one of many royal gardens,
monuments, according to this evidence, lay which, perhaps, derived its name from
at some distance from one another, this re- one of Solomon's sons (p. 257), hence ver.
presentation probably has no better foun- 26, more briefly, simply ' TJzza's garden.'
dation than a later opinion about those 6 Amon, 2 Kings xxi. 26, and Josiah
whose remains reposed in isolated tombs, according to the still shorter expression,
Hezekiah, according to one account, want- xxiii. 30 ; this is not contradicted by what
ing in 2 Kings xx. 21, but preserved in 2 is said of Jehoiachim, xxiv. 6. 2 Chron.
Chron. xxxii. 33, was interred ' by the xxxiii. 20, 25, speaks much less definitely*,
•steps,' consequently on the boundary of
VOL. ITT. T
274 THE REIGX OF SOLOMON.
now chosen, evidently intentionally, which appeared to be irr
other respects much better adapted for such a purpose, in one of
the royal gardens which lay north of Solomon's palace ; and
hence1 it was very near the temple on the south side, and in fact
abutted closely upon it.2 But when the kings formed the design
of thus resting almost under the same roof and protection as the
Holy of Holies, this proximity of human remains to the sanc
tuary appeared to others, who took an opposite view, in the
highest degree reprehensible ; for there still prevailed the
ancient abhorrence of any dead object as the easily polluting
contrast of all that was pure, divine, and holy.3
flfc. Progress in Science, Poetry., and Literature.
Although the remarks already made point to many un
equivocal signs that the sovereignty of Israel was even already
in danger of becoming like an Egyptian or heathen one, yet
these signs were little noticed amidst the splendid prosperity of
Solomon's long reign. Such times, at first, could not but add
a powerful impulse to all intellectual efforts. No nation that
has not, like Israel, overcome the true difficulties of life in the
actual world, and, advancing from victory to victory, learnt to
carry its head high among its neighbours, can easily lift its
thoughts above the world of sense, and attain those acquire
ments and capacities which only such an elevation can secure
permanently to a whole people. It is, indeed, possible, in
a nation already sunk or sinking, for individuals to resist
degeneracy, and to make wonderful new acquisitions— as we
shall see in the next stage of this history. But no entire people
can add new capacities and intellectual possessions to its pristine
store, and successfully employ them, unless the whole nation
has reached and still continues to occupy a lofty position.
Through a century of struggles Israel had gone on raising
itself with increasing success ; and while it now enjoyed a long
peace and unprecedented prosperity as the reward of stubbornly
fighting out so many contests, and thereby acquired the know
ledge of many new countries, objects, and relations, and at the
same time the thirst for fresh enquiry, it nevertheless continued
— in the first half of Solomon's reign, at least — sufficiently un-
corrupted and moderate, in spite of its power, to throw itself
1 P. 249 sq. those the latest, lay buried there ; and if
2 That that garden, as was to be ex- the question about the propriety of it was
pected according to p. 249 sq., actually lay then much agitated, such an expression as
in this direction, results from the remark- Jer. Tiii. 1 sq. can be the more easily ex-
able words Ezek. xliii. 7-9, which at the plained.
same time show that several kings, and 3 See the Alterth. p. 169 eqq.
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE AGE. 275
with fresh, energy into the new intellectual paths which this
period opened to it. Thus a new era also for science, poetry,
and literature dawned on the people, the rich effects of which
still lasted long after the wealth and superfluity which the age
brought with it had vanished together with the national power.
The direction imparted in this new era, however, was neces
sarily very different from that of the early beginnings of poetry
and science. Lyric poetry, as the earliest species, was then as
good as completed, in its direct development, by David, and
had at any rate begun its artistic application ; 1 and although
music and song, and hence possibly poetic composition also,
were, in the ruder times before David and Samuel, left rather to
women,2 yet they were now, through David's genius and example,
so vigorously as well as tenderly developed, and so ennobled,
that they were henceforth esteemed the most dignified occupa
tions of men, nay of princes and kings, rendering it hard for
any nation of antiquity to surpass Israel in this branch. The
foundations of an historical and legal literature also had already
long been laid ; 3 and the establishment of pure religion had itself
also set up the beginnings of a kind of science; thus, for in
stance, the history of creation according to the Book of Origins,
Gen. i. 1— ii. 4, bears clear traces of earlier theories of the nature
of mundane things which prevailed long before the date of that
work. But as the whole nation during the preceding centuries
had been more exclusively occupied with its self-preservation
against many powerful enemies, so its mind also, in all relating
to thought, poetry, and art, was chiefly absorbed in itself, and
had not, therefore, as it was then situated, warmly embraced any
subjects except those of religious or popular interest. But now,
in the long peace, the mind first gained the leisure, while, in
the fortunate elevation and power of the nation, it acquired the
courage, and, in the stream of so many new experiences and
traditions from foreign lands, found the incentive and the sum
mons, to investigate secular things also with keener eyes, and
to roam beyond its former narrow horizon. Of what kind were
the many wonderful impressions from foreign lands with which
Israel was now flooded ? What relation did the religious tra
ditions and legends of other nations, with which Israel now had
much freer intercourse, bear to its own ? What is kingly rule,
which now arrived at its highest stage ; and what is the do
minion over other nations, to which Israel is now called, after
a long and extraordinary career ? What, in fine, is a beneficial
1 Vol. ii. p. 356. 2 Vol. ii. p. 355. 8 Vol. ii.
T 2
276 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
and noble influence, a dignity of human life such as Israel was
now pledged to maintain, and if possible to develope ? Many
such questions then presented themselves ; and they all turned
the mind to a more searching scrutiny of all things, especially
of the world of man, and all outside man. Thus the new ten
dency sets vigorously and steadily to the end which we are
accustomed to call philosophy, and which, in conformity with
the Bible and the simple fact, we might just as well call wisdom.
Every new mental energy like this, if only directed to a grand
subject, and persistently exercised, leads to an art correspond
ing to itself. But in those bright days, when art sought to
elevate all the lower sphere of life, it was itself the more zealously
pursued and more happily exercised in new essays of purely in
tellectual skill. The new intellectual impulse succeeded, there
fore, in also creating a new species of art, as the plastic body of
those profound ideas to which it was necessarily led by its
present task of penetrating into the mysteries of the universe.
All this was, indeed, visibly fostered by the active rivalry in
which Israel was now engaged with those neighbouring nations
of the day which were most eminent for science and art, the
Egyptians, Phoenicians, Sabeans, and others. Of the historical
reality of this rivalry we possess the surest evidence. Of all the
advantages which a nation derives from a noble independence
and power none is perhaps greater than that of being able, by
virtue of that power, to enter into close, honourable contact with
the best and most cultivated of its contemporaries, and thus to
compete with them in arts and sciences also ; nor is there
any emulation that more evokes the noblest national efforts.
We do not, indeed, now possess the means of discerning what
constituted the great ' wisdom of all the sons of the east and of
Egypt,' which Solomon surpassed.1 Nevertheless we can draw
some conclusions from the few examples explained below ; and
there are indications which distinctly show us what new tra
ditions and theories subsequently poured into the holy land
from foreign countries. How much expanded and enriched, for
instance, is the primitive history of this earth and of man, in
the form which it gradually assumed under such influences,
when compared with the much simpler form in which the Book
of Origins first exhibits it ; 2 the Book of Proverbs also shows
that the more definite representations of Paradise, of the Tree
and Fountain of Life, and others, were now introduced.3 But
1 1 Kings v. 10 [iv. 30] compared with 136 sqq.
x- 1-9. a Cf. vol. i. p. 38 sq. ; the Dichter des
3 See the Jahrbb. der Bill. Wi™. ii. p. A. B. ii. p. 4, 2nd Ed.
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE AGE. 277
Israel's strong and sound national feeling prevented the merely
external adoption of the newly imparted elements, and did not
suffer rivalry to lead to weak imitation.
Philosophy does not only exist where it struts in the ostenta
tiously worn fetters of the strict laws of thought (logic), or
where it tries to bring all truths and conceptions into an ordered
whole (a system). We may admit that system is its completion, —
although this completion, like every other tharb men strive after,
is often wholly erroneous and misleading, — but it is neither its
origin nor its permanent arid vital principle. Its origin and
very life is rather the restless and insatiable desire to examine,
and to examine all subjects without exception, high and low,
far and near, human and divine. When the enigmas of things
no longer allow a thoughtful man any rest, and an indefatigable
zeal to solve them is kindled in the most gifted minds of a
nation, or of several nations simultaneously, the auspicious
youth of all philosophy is already begun. At that early period,
when the Greeks had not advanced anything like as far, the
noblest Semitic nations had evidently arrived at this stage ;
and Israel, which received through its higher religion a special
summons to ponder on the relations of all things, now entered,
in this noble arena of honour, into the most equally matched
competition with them. The queen of Sheba came from afar
to try the king of Israel with problems. When, after a few
preliminary trials, she found him prepared to answer her, she
poured out her whole heart to him in questions, drew forth even
the greatest mysteries that were still wholly dark to herself,
and penetrated deeper and deeper into his inmost mind, revel
ling in their joint unwearied researches ; and he did not disap
point her in the smallest question, but solved all her difficulties.1
Happy is the time when mighty princes whose realms are en
compassed by the sacred peace of God, are thus able to make
pilgrimages to each other's courts and to compete in wisdom,
and, what is better, in the zealous pursuit of it ! Menander
similarly relates in Phoenician history that a Phoenician,
younger son of Abdemon, solved all the problems that Solomon
laid before him. Dius recounts more circumstantially that
Solomon used to send difficult questions to his royal brother
Hiram, with a request to have similar questions sent to him in
return, under the condition that he who failed to solve them
should pay the other a penalty in money, and that Hiram, acced
ing to this proposal, had to pay these fines, until he reversed
his fortune by employing Abdemon, a Tyrian, against Solomon.
1 This is the meaning of 1 Kings x. 2 sq.
278 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
We see no reason to question the general veracity of these
accounts preserved by Josephus.1
According to the prevalent tradition, the man to whom the
whole renown of the new wisdom of this era in Israel belongs
was none other than the remarkable sovereign of the time ;
but we must take care not to understand Solomon's proverbial
wisdom too slavishly in an historical sense. The whole age
had the most powerful impulses in that direction ; and, even in
the last ten or twenty years of David's reign, everything favoured
the happy development of this zeal for wisdom. It is, indeed,
difficult to recognise the beginning of it before Solomon, for
the surpassing intelligence, the magnificence of the king him
self, and the great change which subsequently came over all
the tendencies of the popular mind, united to exert a common
influence in obliterating all exact recollection of the wise men of
this era. Nevertheless, we can still discover some facts on this
subject.
The brief narrative itself asserts that Solomon was wiser
than Ethan and Heman, Chalcol and Darda, the sons of Mahol.
However little we now know about the wisdom of these once
famous sages,2 we must assume that, as elder contemporaries
of Solomon, they cultivated nearly the same kind of wisdom
as that for which he himself subsequently became still more
famous ; for no discreet writer could compare any men with
Solomon but such as resembled him in quality, and who there
fore were not much anterior to him in date. But we must also
suppose that the Canaanites, with whom Israel had long enjoyed
the most peaceful intercourse on almost all sides, were far ad-
1 Ant.vni. 5. 3. According to the Phoe- Mahol in 1 Kings v. 11 [iv. 31]. They
nician history of Theophilus (in Euseb. might, however, all belong to the tribe of
Prccp. Ev. ix. 34, 19) they had also com- Judah, and, in that respect, the Chronicler
peted with each other in presents of gold, may have rightly inserted them there.
2 They occur elsewhere than in 1 Kings According to this, the Chronicles them-
v. 11 [iv. 31], but not quite so distinctly selves distinguish those there named from
as we wish. We find all four in 1 Chrori. the celebrated musician Ethan, a grandson
ii. 6 in the same order, as sons of Zerah of the great Samuel, and from Heman.
the son of Judah, for ' Dara' is there pro- Yet in Ps. Ixxxviii. 1 [title], Ixxxix. 1
bably only a mistake for ' Darda.' Butal- [title], they are evidently identified ; and
though Zerah may be equivalent to Ezrah, when we consider that both the musicians
from whose family Ethan and Heman and sages of this name must have lived
were descended (cf. Ps. Ixxxviii. 1 [title], in the same time, as also that, in the time
Ixxxix. 1 [title]), yet the Chronicler has of the Chronicler, music and wisdom were
probably only inserted the other three still near each other, it seems probable
names there, from 1 Kings v. 11 [iv. 31], that the Levitical schools of music adopted
because he could conveniently annex them these two into their guild, and therefore
to Ethan (who, according to ver. 8, origin- into their family, only because they really
ally stood there). Eor, according to 1 Kings were the fathers of this knowledge ; and
v. 11 [iv. 31], the four could hardly belong this may have been done at an early
to such a remote period ; and Chalcol and period. Cf. Dichter des A.B. i. p. 274 sq.
Darda are, on the contrary, called sons of
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE AGE. 279
vanced in wisdom and art long before the time of Moses ; and
that as Israel was obliged, during the long stormy period of the
Judges, to maintain itself against its enemies in the land by
other means as well as the sword, it had also begun to compete
with them in intelligence and knowledge. Samson had known l
how to subdue his enemies by devices of the intellect also, and
with him the mind of the whole people had more freely de
veloped itself in this direction, in the last century before David.
Wit, riddles, poetry, and legend are the signs of these fresh
efforts of a new intellectual life that is just ready to grapple
with higher problems ; and we have already seen how Solomon
competed in these with Hiram.2
And, if we look beyond this first kind of Solomonic Book
of Wisdom, and survey the general character of the literature
of the age, we discern at any rate one writer, although no
longer known to us by name, who was an elder contemporary
of Solomon, and who has a just claim to be called a sage in the
wider sense of the term, — the author of the Book of Origins.3
He was a Levite, and, as such, his task naturally was to compare
Israel's great past with the splendour of its present, and to point
out all those things which had been in ancient time the germs
of its existing greatness. The lofty wisdom and genuine royal
•dignity, which had become naturalised in Israel in the first
half of Solomon's reign, are brilliantly displayed in his repre
sentation of the eminent men of antiquity : and his work shows
most admirably with what exuberant art and finish, with what
comprehensiveness and order, a very detailed historical narra
tive could be then written. We could not wish for a more
striking proof of the high development of literary art in the
beginning of Solomon's reign than we can find in the Book of
Origins, judging by the abundant remains in which we are still
able to recognise it distinctly.
Now c God gave Solomon very much wisdom and intelligence,
a mind immeasurable as the sand on the sea shore,' as the last
narrator comprehensively expresses himself.4 But it was only
because this richly-gifted mind fell in the midst of such an era,
such an already thriving garden of many similar spirits, and
was thus impelled from all sides to more vigorous development
and complete maturity, that he became the great sage who sur
passed his predecessors, and who — because the whole tendency
of the popular mind underwent so great a change after his
death — remained for all subsequent time the unique exemplar
of wisdom in Israel.
1 Vol. ii. p. 400. 2 P. 277. s Described in vol. i. * 1 Kings v. 9 [iv. 29].
280 THE KEIGN OF SOLOMON.
It is in reality difficult for us now to estimate the compass
of Solomon's wisdom, as expressed in writing. For these
writings of the wise king, whether he composed them him
self or availed himself of the assistance of others, are now lost
to us, some of them altogether, others at any rate in their
original form ; and they had probably already disappeared be
fore the formation of the Old Testament, since otherwise they
would have been included in the collection of the sacred books.
Nevertheless that historical book which is our principal autho
rity for Solomon's life,1 has preserved a brief record of the
chief topics of his original writings, which has all the marks
of historical trustworthiness, inasmuch as its statement of
subjects does not agree with the writings which have been
received into the Old Testament under Solomon's name, while
it is perfectly credible in itself. Following this ancient tradi
tion, and comparing with it the remains of Solomon's writings
actually preserved in the Old Testament, we form the following
conception of the whole.
The wisdom of that time consisted, as has been said, of an
abundance of partly evident and partly still problematical kinds
•of knowledge, which burst forth with great force, but still
retained their original freshness, and which were therefore
simply and truthfully expressed, without any need of artificial
proof, just as they had no intrinsic coherence with one
another, and felt as yet no sense of its want. Now, as these
varieties of knowledge concerned the elevated subjects of God
and the relations of God and man, they required an elevated
style of language, and consequently the dignity and charm of
verse. And so, out of the ancient Hebrew poetry at that time
so highly developed, there sprang a new special kind, — the short
but pointed and pregnant apothegmatic verse, — which was
fully commensurate with the requirements and with the limits
of the wisdom of the age. A mind at once so poetical and so
profoundly imbued with the wisdom of his time as that of
Solomon, was most fitted to create such a verse, and to sanc
tion it by its authority ; nor can we fail to discern that he is
the true father of an artistic poetry, which was never lost in
the people of Israel, and which was capable of indefinite modifi
cation. He is said to have composed three thousand proverbs :
not too great a number, if we consider that each proverb of the
sort is very short, though it must exhaust a complete thought
in the magic circle of the verse. Of these — mostly composed
^ 1 Kings v. 12 sq. [iv. 32 sq.] ; the Chronicles have, we know not for what reason,
omitted the whole passage.
HIS WISDOM. 281
"by himself, but in part to be ascribed to the poets of his period,1
— we still possess no inconsiderable number in the canonical
Book of Proverbs. It is here that we find the peculiar and
really creative product of the great king's mind, which could
not fail, therefore, to be the best preserved. I forbear, however,
from repeating what I published on this subject as long ago as
the year 1837. Even the small portion of those three thousand
proverbs which has been preserved is the most emphatic testi
mony to the equally profound and pregnant wisdom, as also to
the artistic skill, of Solomon and his time.
But wherever any genuine striving after wisdom is energeti
cally awakened, it endeavours to embrace all provinces of thought
and knowledge. Solomon, it is said, wrote also e about trees,
from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that sprouts on the
wall, also of beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes.' It would, in
many respects, be highly instructive to possess this rudiment
of a complete natural history ; 2 but its early loss is doubtless
due to the fact, that, soon after Solomon, the popular mind
turned away from all deep speculation 011 the world outside
man ; and we have now no means of estimating its exact pur
port. These descriptions of the natural world may, however,,
have been composed not in verse but in simple prose, inasmuch
as this style of composition, as distinguished from verse, had
been long familiar in Israel. But this statement is highly
significant as an unequivocal sign of the comprehensive nature
of the wisdom of Solomon's time, the very extent of which
subsequent ages could hardly understand.
While new paths were thus successfully opened in poetry and
literature, the primitive form of all poetry, the lyrical, was by
no means neglected ; the same account states that Solomon
composed a thousand and five songs. There is every indication,
that the second Psalm is a genuine song of Solomon himself,
belonging to the first period of his reign, which may have been
saved out of that collection, and which for dignity and energy
of sentiment, as well as for art and grace, is quite worthy of
1 The beautiful maxims on the majesty 2; De Bell. Jud. i. 6. 6, iv. 8. 3; Plin.
and awe of the true king, between Prov. Hist. Nat. xii. 54, xiii. 9), that the balsam
x. 1 andxxii. 17, are unquestionably from plant (why not the date palm also?) at
Solomon's time, but hardly directly from Jericho was introduced by the queen of
his own pen. Sheba, and was therefore first cultivated in
2 Josephus' notion (Ant. viii. 2. 5) that Solomon's time J and the same Valle7
Solomon only spoke about all those natural whlch forms the eastern entrance of the
objects in comparisons, i.e. in proverbs Ho1^ Land nRar Jericbo> and whl^h waa
like those that have come down to us is formerly called ' Troubled, according to
a mistake easily accounted for. On the "• P- 249, really seems at this time to have-
other hand, he has a very remarkable tra- been also called ' the valley of the balsam
dition (Ant. viii. 6. 6 ; cf. xiv. 4. 1, xv. 4. Plant'tolin), Ps- Ixxxiv. 6.
282 THE EEIGN OF SOLOMON.
him.1 Nevertheless as the song proper had been already de
veloped by David to as high a degree of perfection as it could
attain without becoming artificial, the powerful artistic impulse
of Solomon's time could hardly long content itself with merely
repeating this simple species of composition. Whenever a song
springs freshly out of a momentary excitement, it is always
ready to reappear, later on, in its simplest form ; but at a period
when artistic activity was at such high tension as in that of
Solomon, the ancient song might easily be applied to special
poetic functions, and then it would invest itself with new forms
of art. When we find — and not so very long after Solomon —
.a Hebrew cantata, and therefore most undeniably a kind of
drama, in the Song of Songs, it is by 110 means improbable
that, at Solomon's court and through his aid, pure lyric song
had been developed into the more artificial dramatic song. As
its theme, in that case, probably had less direct concern with
lofty interests, we can understand how these dramas, in the
succeeding centuries, were less satisfactory to the popular taste,
and were consequently lost.
The time was certainly then ripe for a written collection of
the best songs of ancient and recent date. The stream of such
.songs had long overflowed its banks in Israel ; and that long
peace in which every kind of literary composition flourished as
it never had before, and in which men looked back with pride
on all the past, was also quite suited for such undertakings.
At any rate, we can still trace the clear indications of such a
collection, which, since it also contained songs of David, (and —
as is expressly added — such as were previously only intrusted
to memory), cannot well have been formed at an earlier date,
but which we have also no reason to assign to a later one.
This is the Book of the Upright,'1 in which, to judge from its
title and from its fragments, the collector combined the most
various songs for a moral purpose, and accompanied them with
brief historical remarks, to show, namely, by them how the
upright man in Israel — a Joshua, Jonathan, David — had acted
in the community at all times, and how he should, therefore,
always demean himself. Moreover, tha.t David's songs were
also collected separately and circulated in writing might be
expected from Solomon's filial piety and artistic taste, and the
traces of such collections of great antiquity are, in fact, not
hard to find in our present Psalter.3
1 Cf. p. 219. in a song of David, mentions this source,
2 Cited in Jos. x. 13, 2 Sam. i. 18. On it probably derived others also from the
the first see ii. p. 179 sq. ; and as the same authority.
Eookof Kings, the first time that it brings 3 When one considers, namely, what
ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE AGE. 283
But the development of the manifold kinds of poetry and the
zealous collection of songs were also certainly connected with
a similar improvement in vocal and instrumental music. The
new requirements of the magnificent temple, where such beau
tiful hymns as Ps. xx. were early sung alternately by the con
gregation and the Priests, also furthered such arts ; and the
music of the temple services was doubtless conducted on a
splendid scale,1 after Solomon's regulations, in all subsequent
centuries ; and we know for certain that Solomon set a great
value on musical instruments of costly workmanship.2 We
have every reason to believe that this music was preserved
among the people until Greek culture superseded it, and, there
fore, that it is the same of which we find some indications in
the inscriptions of the songs of the Old Testament,3 and which
is so often noticed by the author of the Chronicles.4 All know
ledge of it was, however, gradually lost after the Greek period,
and cannot now be recovered ; for even the Chronicles, from
which we derive most light for understanding it, contain no
more than faint reminiscences of the ancient music. We do
not precisely know why the temple-music was divided into the
three main classes already mentioned,5 yet we distinguish three
really different kinds of musicians, — those on stringed instru
ments, those on instruments of percussion, and those on wind
instruments; those of the third kind, as they were not at the
same time singers, seem indeed to have occupied a lower
grade as musicians, but, as being properly Priests, they stood
higher.6
In all this province, however, it was not, as in David's
case, his poetry that constituted Solomon's glory, but his
wisdom and his wise proverbs. To his other high excellences,
his prudence and firmness as a ruler, his power and order in
•everything touching the throne and the realm, his extraor
dinary wealth, and the magnificence of his sacred and royal
edifices, he added a glory the rarest among kings — a spon
taneous love of the deeper wisdom, and a creative energy in it.
^position Pss. iii., iv., vii., viii., xi., xviii., similar import, do not warrant our con-
.xix. 2-7 [1-6], xxiv. (two songs), xxix., eluding too much.
.xxxii., ci. still occupy in the great Psalter, 6 The most distinct expressions occur
and how manifestly they, even from this in 1 Chron. xv. 28, 2 Chron. v. 12 sq.
•point of view, constitute an original basis There is another division, dating from
of Davidic songs. David's time, in Ps. Ixviii. 26 [25]. Con-
1 P. 248. cerning the priests as trumpeters, see Al-
2 1 Kings x. 12. terthumer, p. 330, and Dichter des A.B.
3 See Dichter des A.B. i. 267 sqq. i. p. 253, 2nd ed. Flutes, however, only
4 See vol. i. p. 176. occur in Ps. Ixxxvii. 7, as connected with
5 The few words in 1 Chron. xxv. 3, the temple ; but there we must think of
•5, when weighed with other passages of dancers.
281 THE EEIGN OF SOLOMON.
Such a thing had never been seen in Israel before ; and as the
fame of it spread during his long reign, foreign nations, and
specially their princes and nobles,1 were powerfully attracted by
it, and made many pilgrimages to the place where a sovereign,
with this astonishing union of great capacities and achieve
ments adorned the throne. One instance of this, which occurred
in Solomon's later years, in subsequent times always received
special notice. When the Queen of Sheba in the far south-east2
heard what fame Solomon had acquired by the glory of his God,3
she came to Jerusalem to try him with enigmas, surrounded
by a large and brilliant retinue, with camels richly laden with
the most costly products of her country. Her presents to him
consisted of one hundred and twenty talents of gold, jewels,,
and such a quantity of the finest balsam as had never come into
Jerusalem before. Solomon gratified her curiosity and thirst
for knowledge, and also showed her his palace with all the
rarities it contained, the costly vessels from which he ate and
drank, his ministers and other associates sitting in great
number at his splendid table, and even his gorgeously dressed
servants waiting so neatly and attentively, in a very different
style from that to which other monarchs of the time accustomed
their friends and servants; and lastly, the beautifully carved
1 This is the exact sense of the words Essai sur Fhistoire chs Arabcs, i. p. 76 sq.,
1 Kings v. 14 [iv. 34], where ' from all and the hardly reliable lucubrations of
kings of the earth ' is only a more definite Eresnel in the Journal Asiat. 1850, ii. p.
statement of the preceding ' from all the 279-81. Beyond doubt, however, the
nations.' Himyaric Christians first searched out
- Even Josephus erroneously makes her this name of an ancient queen, in order
a queen of the Egyptians and Ethiopians, to find in it a point of contact with the
so that the Ethiopian Christians would be Biblical history. Tel Belkis near Bira on
excusable in that case for claiming her. the Euphrates, which Ainsworth (Travels
According to the sense of the narrative, in Asia Minor, i. p. 304) connects with
however, she was a queen in Southern her. has certainly nothing to do with her;
Arabia ; andwhilein 1 Kings v. 10 [iv.30], audit must be decided by further research,
with evident allusion to her, the wisdom whether Solomon's friend lived in North-
of ' the children of the east ' is eulogised, east Arabia on the Persian Gulf, as
we have been enabled by the most recent Rawlinson says he reads in a cunei-
investigations to discover from the Him- form inscription. Nikaulis, whom Jo-
yaric inscriptions what culture and wealth sephus (Ant. viii. 6. 2. 5 sq. ) identifies with
prevailed there in ancient times, and how her, is only a mistake for the Egyptian
far the traditions of the past glory of that Nitokr is, Herod, ii. 100. In later times,
country are from being baseless. Cf. the she was just as iinreasonably confounded
essay on these inscriptions in Hofer's with the Babylonian Sibyl Sambethe, ab-
Zeitschrift fur Sprachwi$s<"nschaft, vol. i. breviated into Sabbe.
part 2, Berlin, 1846, and the 'Himyaric 3 This is the meaning of the words 1
Inscriptions from Southern Arabia in the Kings x. 1, therefore she too at length
British Museum, Lond. 1863. The Arabs praises Solomon's God, ver. 9, although
call the Himyaric queen herself Balqis, she does not acknowledge Him as hers,
and have many stories of her. Cf Ham- and for this reason also Solomon could
zer^s Atinalcs, ed._ Gottwaldt (1844), p. not show her anything actually connected
125, and Nuwairi in Schulten's Imper. with the temple or its offerings.
Joctan. p. 53 ; also Caussin de Perceval's
INTERCOURSE WITH FOREIGN NATIONS. 285
staircase by which he went up from his palace into the temple.1
Then she confessed, in her astonishment, that she had found
twice as much as ever she had expected, she proclaimed all
those happy who had the good fortune to be about such a king,
and blessed that God who, in love to His people Israel, had given
them such a wise king to rule over them. Solomon dismissed
her, after having not only solemnly given her such presents of
his own selection as he was bound by his royal dignity to give,
but also having, out of mere benevolence, and rather as a friend
than a king, presented her with everything else that she desired
of him 2 — one of the many signs how little the king had in him
destroyed the man. Similar pilgrimages to Jerusalem were an
nually repeated, and the richer pilgrims always brought vessels
of gold and silver, splendid dresses, spices and balsam, horses
and mules, as free gifts of homage, each according to his means.3
Jerusalem never saw such a season again in all its splendour ;
but these pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the sake of paying homage
not only to the king but also to the God he worshipped, were
soon so deeply impressed in the popular memory that the pic
ture of them floated in later days before the prophetic anticipa
tions of the Messianic glory, and the noble in Israel could never
again forget to what splendour Jerusalem had once been raised
t>y the wisdom of one of its early kings, and the true religion
by which it was directed.
But wisdom or philosophy had now become a pursuit and a
treasure to the people of the true God, which, having once so
strongly occupied their mind, could never be entirely relin
quished. Earnestly to seek truth as such, to acknowledge it,
to cleave to it, and to apply it to life, and therefore to seek
and to appropriate knowledge as also a good in itself, with
such zeal that it becomes a doctrine and a tradition and more
and more profoundly pervades the efforts of the people, — this
is a state of human life to which every people aspires in favour
able times, and which, when once attained, preserves itself
as fixedly as possible by the charms of its own excellence.
Moreover, everything true and eternal that has at an earlier
period sprung up through creative effort and the compulsion of
1 P. 251. are at the same time led astray by their
2 When the Himyaric and Ethiopian own imPuf? conceptions of the married
Christians, as may be seen at length in state, of which they never can divest them-
the Chronicles of the latter, deduce from selves- feee the extracts m Dillmann's
this that Solomon begat a son with her Catal Codd. Mihwp. Oxon. p. 69-72.
Trill or against her will, they only do so ' KinSs x- 24 S<1- where P$?J>. can *>y
because they would have liked to derive no means signify armour, but must be a
their ancient royal families from him. and kind of perfume, as it is in Arabic.
286 THE EEIGJNT OF SOLOMON.
higher necessity, is now both ready and able to maintain itself
the more firmly by quiet investigation and discernment of its
correctness. But Israel had now enjoyed for centuries a power
of true religion first founded by mere prophetic creation, which
such quiet investigation and discernment tended more and more
to render an inalienable possession. However much, therefore,
the subsequent external fortunes of the people might impair
and limit its once earnest zeal for wisdom, wisdom itself was
steadily preserved in it through all succeeding ages, and
through its aid again the great truths which Israel possessed
from ancient days, descended more and more deeply from their
prophetic height into the consciousness of the whole people,
and were worked out with increasing completeness in all its
thought and action. Before long, wisdom was developed in
rival schools in Israel, and zealous students sought it even for
money.1
III. THE RESULTS OF SOLOMON'S REIGN.
But each stage of greatness achieved, whether in the com
monwealth, the monarchy, or the church, points upwards to
another higher and purer still ; and amidst the full activity of
all the good and the bad elements called into play, this upward
tendency seeks earnestly to shape itself, and must attain its
realisation, unless the greatness already reached is to be allowed
to fall away and sink back into its original nothingness. It
is precisely in a period of continuous peace and prosperity,
such as Solomon's age afforded, that ancient evils which have
not as yet been rightly met, again present themselves with in
creased force, and at the same time new wants arise, which it is
found impossible permanently to ignore. But if these evils are
not removed, and these wants are not satisfied in the right
manner, the glory that has been won will be found to contain
the germ of continuous decay ; a decay springing out of that
very power in which all the greatness of the kingdom is concen
trated. The renewed activity of these ancient evils cannot be
satisfactorily repressed unless the governing power first ac
quires those fresh forces in which it is as yet wanting.
If then, in accordance with what has been just stated, we
now survey all the greatness originating with Solomon as well
as that which, springing up at an earlier period, was neverthe
less indebted to him for its extension, its consolidation, or even
1 See the Jahrbb. der Bibl. Wiss. i. p. 96 sqq., iv. p. 145 sq.
ITS KESULTS. 287
possibly for its fullest development, — we see at once that it
could not fail to confer more glory on the royal house than on
any other estate of the realm. In so far as any single earthly
power could create the whole glory of this period, the monarchy
had done so, or rather perhaps had rendered its attainment
possible by the energy of its cooperation. All its lustre, con
sequently, was reflected on the monarchy itself with the more
intensity because as a new power in Israel it was just then
aspiring with the energy of youth, and never hesitated to
attempt all that it was possible to embrace by its yet un
broken power. David had laid deep its foundation for all
time. In fact, he seemed to have also fettered it spell-bound
to his own house ; but it was under Solomon that it first com
pletely unfolded its power in every direction, and attained the
highest splendour as well as the utmost authority which it was
ever destined to reach. And if perchance some other estate
bloomed into new power at the same time, as was the case,
for instance, with the sacerdotal order,1 yet it only flourished
because it leaned upon the strong power by which it was sup
ported and protected.
The supreme power and glory of the monarchy was the very
essence of that favoured time, and was the cause and the ob
ject of its extraordinary prosperity, pride and joy. That very
nation which had been the last to set up a human monarchy,
could now rejoice in it with the utmost delight ; and it natu
rally seemed to the sages of Israel, on looking back now to the
beginning of its history, that no greater blessing could have
been predestined by its God, than that from it should spring a
race of kings.2 And as, in that century, the nation could have
no greater blessing than the possession of two such monarchs
as David and Solomon, so perfect and yet so contrasted in cha
racter, succeeding each other in the happiest order and each
swayedby the true sentiment of royal dignity, the whole people also
was penetrated by the same feeling of the real dignity and lofty
blessing of the unstained monarchy, and was therefore filled by
a genuine reverence for it and for its methods of administration.
As we have already seen,3 Solomon, at the outset of his reign,
had, like David, been deeply impressed with the feeling of what
Jahveh's king ought to be, and ruled with firmness and success
1 P. 247 sq. in Num. xxiii. 21 is not to be understood
2 As the clear expressions of the Book of Jahveh as in Deut. xxxiii. 5, is shown
of Origins indicate ; see i. p. 75. This has by the corresponding passage Num.xxiv. 7.
been subsequently imitated poetically, 3 P. 219.
Num. xxiii. 21, xxiv. 7 ; that ' the king'
288 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
•under the inspiring influence of this idea ; and a multitude of
proverbs full of wisdom and of practical shrewdness bears dis
tinct and striking testimony to the popular conviction of the
noble and blessed influence of a true king ; 1 while they who had
most pondered the history of the nation saw in him the man
who was to complete the principal portion of the divine destiny
of Israel. In fact, the great Prophets of that age announced
nothing less than that ' Jahveh's name ' should remain eternal
in His chosen Jerusalem, i.e. Jahveh Himself should be
here for ever revealed, acknowledged, and honoured ; while
Israel should never again lead a wandering unsettled life : 2 so
firmly did the true religion and the national power seem to them
united with the glorious temple founded under circumstances
so remarkable, as well as with Zion, the mountain fortress,
which had endured so severe a test during David's reign.
The culminating point of Solomon's reign here stands before
us ; and hence we likewise reach that of this second epoch in
Israel's history. But amidst the meridian sunshine of Israel's
human monarchy, new problems have come into existence,
and though at first their importance was scarcely recognised,
yet henceforth in every instance their weight really turns the
scale. The monarchy had fully solved its lower problems, — it
had made the country powerful, the kingdom strong, and
the people peaceful and industrious ; but for this very reason,
during the long peace, all the higher problems involved in the
national life of a civilised people pressed upon it with increas
ing force. And upon the extent of its ability to solve these
new, importunate, and grand problems, its entire future history
must depend.
One error, however, still adhered to it, despite its perfection
and its glory. It had still to free itself from one redundancy
cleaving to it from of old, which had in fact overgrown its
whole nature. All the supreme power in the kingdom ought to
centre permanently in the monarchy : but on this very account
violence readily clings to it as a deadly offset, and in fact from
the first accompanies it as shadow does light ; and when it casts
off its rougher semblance it only too rapidly reappears in a more
cunning form. The requirements of the Jahveh religion were
opposed to violence, indeed, from first to last, and under the two
first kings the Prophets had successfully combated its grosser out-
1 Cf. the Dichter des A. B. iv. p. 18 sq. 29, ix. 3. xi. 36, 2 Kings xxi. 4, 7 sq.
ii. 26 sqq. 2nd Ed.; Prov. xvi. 14 is to be xxiii. 27; they all refer to a celebrated
added to the proverbs collected there. prophetic expression which may still be
2 This is plain from such words (quoted recovered most exactly from 2 Kings xxi.
quite oxit of connexion) as 1 Kings viii. 7 sq. (cf. 1 Kings viii. 16).
ITS RESULTS. 289
bursts, and had thus contributed to bring about the milder days
of Solomon. But if, in this era also, this evil was to be wholly
cast out, it was necessary for the entire nation to turn its heart
completely away from it. But this could only take place with
the full realisation of the true religion, and as this constituted
the end of the entire history, the time for it was not yet ripe.
Absolutism, consequently, though for the instant softened in
its features, remained characteristic of the monarchy, while
in another form, and springing out of widely different impulses,
it was the unconscious accompaniment of prophetism ; l but
the monarchy itself was more liable to it in proportion to its
increased power and its native tendency in that direction.
This is the terrible rock on which all Antiquity split, and
with it the ancient Theocracy of Israel, for though the opposite
truth that affection not violence is the regenerating power
was indeed stated in it in theory,2 it had not yet attained
sufficient strength in practice. Thus the monarchy could
neither permanently maintain true and perfect unity in the
realm, nor speedily eradicate pressing ancient evils, nor guard
itself with satisfactory care from the dangers attendant on its
own tyrannous acts ; and the germ of this tendency had already
appeared during Solomon's long reign.
No doubt the brilliancy of this reign long threw into the shade
the seeds of decay which lay already embedded in it ; but amid
the shining brightness of its regal power and glory and its
national prosperity, there sprang up in silence an evil among
the people, which spread with accelerated speed and threatened
with destruction the very essence of the government. The in
creased prosperity of a large part of the nation during this long
and happy peace, and the growing feeling of security which
it engendered, encouraged a degree of luxury, effeminacy, and
indolence of life which had been before almost unknown ; and
along with this was a moral carelessness, a bold assumption,
and a vague desire of innovation, leading to a forgetfulness
of the efforts made and the price paid for the blessings in the
possession of which they now revelled. And now with Israel's
proud security and power came the full realisation of the time
which a prophetic song 3 of two centuries later truthfully depicts
as the days in which it was too well with the people in its
peaceful, fruitful land, for like an overfed, fiery horse, it kicked
1 Vol. ii. pp. 51, 115. 3 Deut. xxxii. 15-18 comp. with pas-
2 Cf., for example, what is uttered even sages in every respect similar, such as Is.
by a prince, and king of Israel, 1 Sam. ii. i. 3 sq.
9, ' not by violence shall a man prevail.'
VOL. III. U
200 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
against its benefactor, and, forgetting Him who alone had
formed it and made it great, hastened after strange gods,
yielded, that is, to all the evil inclinations, errors, and perver
sities, which are always drawing men away from true religion.
In like manner its extensive intercourse and commerce and its
sway over foreign nations could only lead it on to a fuller ac
quaintance with heathen customs and religions, whose seductive
charms it was little able to withstand, owing to the slumber
stealing over its own better spirit. The poison of such moral
dangers works with increased force, no doubt, in every period
of national life in which there is outward security and pros
perity, and all restraints are taken away from the desire of
gain and the enjoyment of temporal blessings ; but at no other
period in the long history of Israel was the temptation so strong
and the possible loss so great as during these forty years in
which it stood at the hard-won summit of its entire national
power. And it is incontestable that during this long period,
owing to the fault of the people themselves, an internal moral
revolution was effected, whose evil influences, long smothered,
were finally all the more destructive in their violence. How
completely not only David's band of heroic warriors, but all
true tranquillity and circumspection, had disappeared by the
end of Solomon's reign, the course of this history will speedily
disclose.
The monarchy of Israel ought, therefore, however difficult
the undertaking, to have withstood this dangerous character
istic of the age ; but in fact, human monarchy is easily carried
away by every evil influence pervading the people, especially
when, as was at that time the case, it conceals itself beneath
the deceptive appearances of glory and prosperity ; and we can
not say that Solomon was quick enough in foreseeing and suffi
ciently firm in guarding against the hidden but most formidable
peril. The high power with which the king of Israel seemed
now to be for ever armed, his constantly increasing grandeur,
the position which he assumed among all the neighbouring
monarclis, all tended, with the continuance of almost undisturbed
repose, to assimilate his court and his dominions to the other
powerful kingdoms of the day ; and innovations were soon in
troduced for which the only excuse is to be found in the all-
powerful influences of the age itself.
HIS POMP AM) HIS DEBTS, 291
1. Solomon's Royal Pomp and Royal Debts.
The growing attachment to Egyptian customs shown by
Solomon in the arrangements of his court may be not only
inferred from remarks already made,1 but seen with special
distinctness in one single instance. According to the Song of
Solomon he had sixty princesses, eighty concubines, and maidens
innumerable ; according to the historical account,2 he had as
many as seven hundred princesses and three hundred concu
bines ; the first statement may represent the round number of
those who were at any one time present at the court, and the
second refer to the total number of women drawn to the court
during his long reign, though the number seven hundred stands
out of all proportion to the three hundred, and may be due to
the exaggeration of later tradition. But all this was, in fine,
only such an imitation of the hereditary customs of the neigh
bouring courts as seemed to be demanded by Israel's splendid
position and zeal for novelties.3 But undoubtedly Solomon
went much further than David in the luxurious arrangements
of his court, and further than the sensible part of the nation
approved; for they, penetrated by the earnest spirit of the
religion of Jahveh, were unable to trace any token of true
kingly dignity in such magnificence and self-indulgence.4
Besides Pharaoh's daughter, who undoubtedly retained through
out her place of honour, and many consorts taken from allied
or subjugated nations, Solomon was fond of drawing likewise
to his court Israelite maidens, but sometimes found among
these, perhaps wholly unexpectedly, a victorious obstinacy in
asserting their freedom ; for this is undoubtedly the meaning
of the incident narrated in the Song of Solomon. And from a
hint furnished by this same poem,5 it seems to have been
Bath-sheba especially who, in her all-important position as
queen-mother, flattered this inclination of the monarch.
Yet more unfortunate was it that the grand buildings of
every description on the one hand, and the magnificent court-
life on the other, could not in the last resort be carried on
without some sacrifice of the honour and the freedom of the
people. As Solomon's wealth and wisdom have alike passed
into a proverb, it is not a little singular that his resources
could prove so deficient as to compel him to sacrifice for this
1 P. 268. 4 Hence Deut. xvii. 17 expressly forbids
2 1 Kings xi. 3, cf. ver. 1 ; Cant. vi. 8, a king to take many wives,
cf. ver. 9. * Cant. iii. 11.
3 Pp. 165, 240; ii. p. 388.
v 2
292 THE REIGX OF SOLOMOX.
purpose some portion of the national liberty and honour. But
the prosecution and completion of such immense works ob
viously required pecuniary resources which could scarcely be
calculated beforehand ; it is equally clear that the magnificent
and lavish expenditure at the court constantly increased ; and
the more abundant the revenue which flowed into the royal
treasury, the more danger might spring out of its extravagant
employment in the hands of a monarch devoted to grand works
and a magnificent style of living. On one occasion, as we
know with certaint}r, Solomon helped himself out of the diffi
culty by the sacrifice of a small slice of his territory. After
the completion of the two largest buildings in the capital, it
became necessary to close Hiram's account, and it then ap
peared that Solomon owed him so much not only for building
materials, but also for money which he had advanced towards
the undertaking, that, in addition to the annual tribute which
he was to receive of twenty thousand measures of wheat l and
twenty thousand measures of the best oil, Solomon was com
pelled to give up to Tyre twenty small cities, in acknowledgment
of which the Tyriaii king at once presented him with an addi
tional sum of one hundred and twenty talents of gold. The
twenty small Galilean towns lay close to the Tynan boundary,
and clearly were very welcome to the Tyriaii dominion, re
stricted as it was to a narrow strip of sea-coast. As, however,
popular wit has always free play on occasion of such cessions
of territory, and neither of the contracting parties is willing to be
at a disadvantage, the story soon ran in Israel, that when king
Hirain surveyed in person his new acquisitions, they appeared
to him of little importance, and did not come up to his expecta
tions, so that henceforth the territory bore the name Cabul, i.e.
As-Nothing.2 But no prince can long continue to avail himself
of such expedients for supplying the deficiencies of his purse.
1 Kor, the largest measure = 10 Attic is represented, though with great brevity,
Metrette. as though Hiram had given these cities to
2 1 Kings ix. 10-14, of. v. 24 [v. 10] sq. Solomon, who had then placed Israelite
The word 'babul was interpret d as Ca, i.e. inhabitants in them; but this view pro-
as, and bid = nothing. It becomes readily bably arose from the difficulty at the time
apparent that this" is one of the many of the Chronicler of entertaining any idea
witty derivations which occur in the Old of Solomon iiirworthy of his greatness.
Testament. The strip of land certainly Even the inference of Josephus, Ant. viii.
derived its name originally from the town 5. 3, from Hiram's words, 1 Kings ix. 13,
of Cabul in the south of the territory of that he had given back the cities to Solo-
the tribe of Asher, Josh. xix. '27. The mon for nothing out of disgust, is just as
ruins as well as the name have now been arbitrary as that Xa£aA.o>j/ meant ' not
to some extent discovered, see Hitter's pleasing' in Phoenician; unless, indeed,
ErdTcunJe, xvi. (1852) p. 677, and the M could be Considered identical with
map belonging to it, and also the recent {
Reisebeschr. nach Palastina by Fiirrer, p. /^ty ruined.
299. In 2 Chron. viii. 2 the transaction
SOURCES OF HIS REVENUE. 293
Our present materials are unfortunately too scanty to permit
of our understanding in detail the financial affairs of Solomon's
reign ; and we are still less able to determine accurately the
sources and amount of the yearly revenue of the other kings of
Israel. As the first institution of the Theocracy, i.e. the first
constitution of Israel, was founded without any calculation for
the necessity and requirements of a royal house, and the people
had been educated under this constitution, it became difficult
for the monarchy to obtain any considerable funds b}>- means
of direct taxation. To this was added the hereditary dislike of
all free nations to a compulsory money tax, and Israel, since
its deliverance from Egypt, regarded itself as the freest nation
upon earth. Nor must we overlook the fact that the position
of the monarchy in Israel was thus rendered very difficult, and
the weight of this question was felt with considerable force in
every stage of its development. Two sorts of aid, however,
the people could not well refuse to an acknowledged king, even
from the very first. On the one hand, it must accord to him
the right to levy troops as indispensable for the protection of
the country ; and as this at once placed a store of human force
at the disposal of the kings, it is not very surprising that they
manifested an inclination to extend their authority beyond
these limits, and to use the labour and skill of their subjects in
providing for the immediate management and support of their
own households ; and this made it the interest of each one of
their subjects to see whether by any means he could escape from
military duty or the civil burdens to which he was subjected
by the king. This state of affairs l existed without doubt in
the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, but scarcely earlier ; for it is a
state of difficulty, which, as will be shown below, the monarchy
would encounter first in that kingdom. A second source of
support was found in the ancient tithes and first-fruits, a
tribute from the land to its protector and master; 2 and as the
priesthood to which this tribute first fell for its own mainte
nance and that of the sanctuary, had now shown that it was
too weak to protect the country, it was not an unreasonable
demand that the king also, as the more powerful protector and
£ Jah veh's Anointed,' should appropriate a portion of it. In
fact, the propriety of this arrangement was acknowledged from
1 It is clearly described 1 Sam. viii. the king to tithes (and first-fruits), each,
11-13; cf. above, p. 230 sq., note 2 ; comp. however, in the widest extension. This
with the origin of the freeholders, p. 42. has therefore nothing to do with contri-
The passage 1 Sam. viii. 11-17 cannot be butions in money, a fact which is most
rightly understood without considering that instructive historically.
vv. 11-13 describe the royal prerogative of 2 See the Alterthiimer, p. 344 sqq.
raising levies, and vv. 14-1 7 the right of
294 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
the very first.1 Moreover, Israel liad long been accustomed to
taxation of this nature ; and the only question which could
arise was to what extent it might be carried, whether the king
ouo'ht to receive the whole or a part only of the present taxes,
and whether the existing system might be further extended to
all apparently analogous cases. On the other hand, a poll-tax,
and indeed any money payment, was the constant object of
Israel's dislike, and the nation always remained very sensitive
on this point. But the primitive basis of all royal resources
from which the king must start in the first place, and to which
he had always in the last resort to return, was formed by his
own domain ; 2 and as the existence of monarchy without a
military power3 devoted to its service cannot be conceived,
the king has at first to support this force, as in a certain
sense supporting himself, entirely out of his own private posses
sions. But if the king maintains his power and reigns success
fully, he readily finds a hundred methods of adding to his
original domain. Subject foreign nations and conquered for
tresses are then readily regarded as the increase of his own
power and that of his house ; the annual tributes or voluntary
offerings from foreigners flow into his treasure-houses; the
taxes upon trade and commerce fall to his share as the recom
pense of his protecting guardianship ; but then, in fact, the
national income, which is obtained quite as much by the
strength of the kingdom as by the personal efforts of the
king, becomes so mixed with the royal estate (Domanium),
originally of very much more limited extent, that it becomes
increasingly difficult to separate the two ; nor can such a sepa
ration seem desirable to any royal house which strikes deeper
and deeper roots in the whole people and its power, and so
becomes more and more bound up with it. But the time came
when, in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, the firm foundations
of the polity and power of Israel were again destroyed, and one
royal house after another, displacing its predecessor, was obliged
to build up its own power slowly from the very bottom, and
to strengthen it with laborious care, while at the same time it
emulated the magnificence of a Solomon. Then it was that
the kings, on the refusal of all money taxes, sought to maintain
1 P. 21 sq. (as in 2 Sam. ii. 17, in. 22. xviii. 7, 9,
2 Of. Is. iii. 6 sq., which exactly bears x*. 6 ; cf. xyii. 20, 1 Kings i. 33, cf. ver.
on this point. 38, 2 Sam. viii. 7), as being most closely
3 The term 'servants' or 'young men' bound to obe^ce by path, hire, or in
of David may, besides the explanation other ways. So j_K»J.l]2) often exactly
already given, also denote his 'soldiers,' corresponds to the German 'Landsknecht '
where the sense of the passage suggests it [a foot-soldier of the sixteenth century].
SUPPLY OF HIS TABLE. 295
themselves by the widest expansion of the two primitive sources
of revenue ; and thus not only would the royal right of exacting
labour be violently extended, but also the idea of tenths and
first-fruits would readily be transferred according to caprice to
everything to which the king took a fancy, — to landed property,
to handsome men and women, and beasts of burden ; 1 such
tyrannical demands being the ordinary usage in many other
ancient kingdoms.
On the other hand, so far as we can now judge, the financial
affairs of the state under David and Solomon were on the
whole as well arranged and as advantageous for the people as
we should expect even in a period of such prosperity and pro
gress. Solomon had introduced a fixed arrangement for the
support of his court and of his standing army. He placed
twelve officials or principal receivers of customs in the terri
tories of the tribes of Israel, with the exception of Judah, whose
first duty was to take charge of the scattered royal domains,
and who had further to collect the other taxes, each in his own
district ; and each one of these had to supply the wants of the
king for a month. These wants were great : the royal table
itself, at which, according to custom, many houses allied with
the royal family were supported,2 and whose splendour has been
already briefly described,3 required for daily use thirty measures
of fine and sixty measures of ordinary meal,4 ten fatted oxen
and twenty pasture-fed oxen, one hundred sheep or goats, be
sides game, such as harts, deer, and gazelles, and fatted swans.
This arrangement existed during the latter half of Solomon's
reign at all events ; 5 nevertheless it remained defective, accord-
1 Of. 1 Sam. viii. 14-17, Amos vii. 1. the twelve tribes. This is clear, partly
See also below. from the description itself, partly from
2 As is expressly said 1 Kings v. 7 [iv. the express addition that their duties were
27], cf. iv. 7; cf. the case mentioned p. arranged by the number of the months.
216 sq. In fact, it is impossible in the twelve dis-
a P. 284. tricts of these officers to find any portion
4 From this it has been calculated in of the extensive possessions of the tribe of
various ways that considerably more than Judah. The description begins with a
ten thousand men ate daily at Solomon's part of Ephraim in ver. 8, passes in ver. 9
table. westward to the territory of Dan, in vv.
5 Because two of these officers are in- 10-12, to districts north of both, jumps,
troduced, according to 1 Kings iv. 11, 15, in ver. 13 sq., to the north-east districts
as Solomon's sons-in-law. Some of the on the other side of the Jordan, returns, in
names of places which occur in this im- vv. 15—17 to the most northern provinces
portant document (1 Kings iv. 7-19, v. 2 on this side, and in ver. 18 sq. takes up
sq., 6-8 [iv. 22 sq., 26-28]), and nowhere Benjamin with the southern provinces
else, are very obscure ; and the expression on the other side of the Jordan ; wher-
' all Israel' (iv. 7) might easily be under- ever smaller cities are separately named,
stood, as in iv. 1, of all the twelve tribes, these must plainly be considered simply
The twelve officers, however, were evi- as domains, where the officers resided,
dently appointed neither from the popular The land of Hepher (ver. 10) we can,
sanctity attaching to this number, cf. i. p. therefore, only suppose to be that lying
362 sq., nor according to the districts of in the tribe of Manasseh, the situation of
296 THE KEIGN OF SOLOMOX.
ing to our present notions, inasmuch as each one of these
officials could employ as he pleased any surplus revenue ; and
that these posts were very lucrative is clear from the fact that
two out of these twelve officials are described as Solomon's
sons-in-law. Another officer of the same sort was placed over
the royal province of Judab, but we are not now able to say
to what purposes this revenue was applied ; a superintendent
again was appointed over these thirteen officials.1 A large part
of these expenses was undoubtedly borne by the Canaanite cities
which Solomon had at last brought under complete subjection.2
This lies partly in the nature of the case ; but it is partly dis
coverable even in the very brief account preserved of the twelve
provinces of these wardens, in which such cities have special
notice obviously because they contributed the most.3 Subject
nations, like Moab, Ammon, Damascus, and the Philistine
cities, were no doubt obliged as fa.r as possible to pay tribute in
money ; but their contributions flowed into the national
treasury. Whether every man of Israelite birth had to pay a
poll-tax from his ready cash, we do not learn by express testi
mony ; but it is extremely probable, at all events during the
later years of Solomon's reign, as the nation at its close com
plains so much of its heavy burdens, and as in the kingdom
of the Ten Tribes this kind of impost was avoided not without
valid reason. The feudal services also, which at an earlier
period were probably but rarely required from the people, clearly
increased constantly during this long reign,4 and in this respect
also the kingdom became undoubtedly more and more like that
of Egypt.
2i. Solomon's Attitude towards Religion and the Priesthood.
But amid the growing jealousy springing up from below,
the inability of the monarchy salutarily to remove antiquated
limitations which broke out as fresh evils, is most clearly
visible in the treatment of one great principle connected with
the predominant religion of that time. A greater freedom in
which would exactly suit the other pas- purpose to which the revenue of the warden
sages where the name occurs (Josh. xii. of Judah was applied, did not belong to
17, xix. 13. 2 Kings xiv. 25) ; and we do this connexion.
not know of any other. If this is so, the i Azariah son of Nathan, 1 Kings iv. 5.
last words in ver. 19 cannot have meant 2 p 218
that it was anything surprising that there
was only one officer in Gilead, for this is ComP- ! Kin£s 1V- 9 Wlth Judges i. 33-
not so very surprising; but we should 35 '> ver- n S(3- Wlth Judges i. 27; seen.
follow the LXX^ and insert m-1iT after P- 3'28 8<W- This renders the scope of
T = the document 1 Kings iv. a little clearer;
as also, in ax. 18, D after the cf> aboye< p 2ft9<
same word pJO- Specifications of the 4 P. 229 sq.
RELATION TO FOREIGN RELIGIONS. 297
religion was a necessity of the age. It can indeed by no means
be shown from ancient authorities that Solomon, even in ad
vanced life, ever left the religion of Jahveh, and with his own
hand sacrificed to heathen gods. All traces of contemporary
history extant testify to the contrary ; and we still find an
express statement that upon the altar which he erected to
Jahveh he sacrificed thrice during the year (at the three great
festivals) with all solemnity, as was indeed only becoming in a
king such as he.1 But we must reflect that under him the king
dom of Israel had the strongest tendency to become an imperial
power, and emancipate itself completely from all its ancient
limitations. Bat in a prosperous empire, and especially in one
which seeks its well-being in peace and commerce, the tolera
tion of diverse religions is absolutely indispensable, for a
government of this nature cannot desire any sudden change in
the various tendencies and views of the people. Still less will
it desire to destroy them, with violence ; and thus every form of
religion was without doubt tolerated within the wide circum
ference of Solomon's kingdom. This is the true explanation
why, in later life, as this tendency became more developed in
his kingdom, he caused altars to Astarte, Cheniosh, and Mil-
corn for his Sidonian,2 Moabite, and Ammonite wives to be
built on the mountain south-east of Jerusalem, below the Mount
of Olives.3 This innovation was due neither to any desire to;
gratify a taste for building nor from any weak tenderness to
wards his foreign wives; but, from the position which the
nation assumed, especially during the latter half of his reign,
he could have no reason for not building such altars, nor could
he give a better token that in his kingdom there was a universal
1 1 Kings ix. 25 ; cf. also the account Solomon to have also had a daughter of
of the queen of Sheba, p. 284 sq. The word the Tyrian king Hiram ; yet this is only
D^, in this passage, must be equiva- stated by later writers, as Eusebius, after
. f «,.,. , ... Tatian, Pra>p. Ev. x. 11.
lent to ' saying farewell, taking leave with
a blessing, which we must obviously sup- 8 The passage 1 Kings xi. 7 sq. is the
pose followed the general fashion of Solo- only ancient part of the narrative, vv. 4-
mon's time, and was a composition of poetic 10 ; only that instead of Molechwe ought
art. The worship celebrated by him al- here to read Milcom, according to Arv. 5,
ways consisted, accordingly, of three parts: 33, 2 Kings xxiii. 13, cf. ver. 10, so that
( 1) the great sacrifice in the forecourt ; (2) it remains uncertain whether Solomon also
the solitary prayer and offering of incense built an altar for Molech. Considering
alone directly before the Holy of Holies that in 2 Kings xxiii. 9-15 only the three
('he offered incense by himself at the idol-altars on the mountain south-east
place before Jahveh,' i.e. in the Holy of Jerusalem (hence called in later times
Place, "1K>&? indicating locality according Mons scandali] are expressly traced back
to my Lehrb. § 333«) ; (3) the return to to Solomon, it seems improbable that he
the forecourt and public utterance of the built an altar to Molech ; for there is no
concluding prayer. doubt that this deity was different from
2 Hence it would be quite possible for Milcom.
208 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
religious tolerance, than by permitting his own wives to sacrifice
to their national deities. In fact, even in that early period,
under the wise Solomon a legal tolerance of different religions
had a tendency to spring up, which the true religion would
undoubtedly have to permit as soon as it became more distinctly
conscious of its own nature,1 and against which, in our own
day and in countries west of the Niemen, no one feels called
upon to act excepting Jesuits and persons of similar sentiments.
Undoubtedly the religion of Jahveh was afc that time in some
respects too weak to rely wholly upon itself without any ex
ternal support ; for this religion, attached by its origin to the
single nationality of Israel, and for centuries entwined with in
creasing firmness in its life and victories, had at that time loo
little recognised its own character, and was too little conscious
of its true power against the heathen, to be able with its
spirituality to endure with ease the seductive proximity of its
sensuous rivals. But if Solomon's rule had not already,
through other causes, somewhat estranged from him the national
feeling, who can tell what might not have been successfully and
permanently achieved in this age of wisdom ! Bat now, as this
innovation was carried through by the sole exercise of the
royal prerogative, many of the stricter believers, cherishing the
memory of their early history and the glorious days of the
past, were soon led to regard this freedom of the philosophic
king with a dislike which deepened as they saw the increasing
laxity of the national life 2 causing in many a growing indif
ference, even towards what was essential in the ancient religion.
In this way also Solomon undoubtedly alienated the hearts of
many of his subjects ; and there sprung up silently two parties
which in the later history stand out with increasing distinct
ness and abruptness, one party favouring this innovation, and
hence easily giving way to the admission of looser heathen cus
toms into Israel, and the other resolutely opposed to the whole
movement. Under a rule so powerful and brilliant as Solomon's
such a change in the national life could only gradually make
itself felt, and the evils accruing to the religion of Jahveh
from the growing freedom did not fully manifest themselves
until a later period. After they had been long laid bare during
the course of centuries, the Deuteronomic redactors of the his
tory treated this point as if the heart of the once wise king
1 It is, howeArer, self-evident that no ought now to tolerate polygamy in coun-
dominant higher religion ought, on this tries where Islam has hitherto not pre-
account, to tolerate such usages and cus- vailed,
toms of other religions as are positively 2 P. 289.
immoral ; for instance, no Christian state
HIS RELATION TO PROPHETISM. 299
had in his old age been drawn away from the religion of
Jahveh into idolatry by his numerous heathen wives.1
Solomon, like his father David, certainly retained in his own
hands the supervision of the Israelite priesthood, and, as we
have seen,2 on suitable occasions probably acted himself as
High Priest of his people. During his long reign the Levitical
priesthood seems to have remained in a peaceful state, satisfied
that its ancient privileges were respected and that the king
concerned himself no less for the glory of the temple than for
their security.3 But his own glory even here cast into the
shade the growing contradictions of his rule. A king who per
mitted heathen religions also to exist in all honour, might well
seem to be no longer a worthy High Priest in Israel ; and how
this situation grew more and more gloomy under his successors
will be shown afterwards more clearly in Uzziah's reign.
3. Solomon's Relation to Prophetism.
As monarchy in Israel was at that time nourishing in its
utmost strength, its original position and consequence rendered
a collision with prophetism the only quarter from which it
could receive its first really damaging blow, and be threatened
in its present course of high development. The relation, there
fore, of these two independent powers to each other again
becomes the decisive question at this noon-day of the national
history.
It must not be forgotten that when the monarchy attains to
its full power and development, it naturally seeks to become
in every direction the real centre of unity in the state, in
order that there may be no opportunity for a second indepen
dent anti-regal power arrogating equal rights to arise, and
cause an ever-widening breach in the completed unity and
power of the kingdom. Hitherto the monarchy had been
placed by the side of the Theocracy, which had found in pro
phetism its strongest representative. These two independent
powers, whose cooperation had alone called into being the high
prosperity of this royal age, worked together in unison under
David, not, however, because they were compelled to this course
by any external law or settled arrangement, but because David
possessed a greatness of soul which enabled him to listen to the
voice of a true prophet without in any degree compromising his
1 1 Kings xi. 1-10 ; comp. with the 3 According to p. 247 sqq., and the Al-
remarks already made p. 297 sq. terthumer, p. 328 sq.
2 P. 246.
300 THE EEIGN OF SOLOMON.
own royal dignity, or suffering any possible loss of it. As we
have seen,1 they still continued to act in unison at the begin
ning of Solomon's reign; but with the consummation of the
royal power which had just been reached in Solomon, this
duality, by logical necessity, tried to pass into unity in the
person of the king. After Nathan, who probably did not long
survive David, we hear no longer of any great prophets acting
in harmony with Solomon as Gad and Nathan did with David.
Not as if Solomon, imitating the example of Saul, designed
to annihilate the prophetic power. It seemed rather that his
great wisdom joined to his high kingly dignity rendered this
second power superfluous, and the great king and the true
prophet of Jahveh seemed capable of assimilation in his august
person.2
In this way, therefore, an effort was made to complete in
Solomon what 3 was undoubtedly involved in the straight
forward progress of the fundamental forces already active
throughout this great period in Israel's history. The rivalry
of the two independent powers was to be brought to a close
by the advent of a king who should be able likewise to take
the place of the prophetic power. But to have secured the
actual accomplishment of this in the case of even such a wonder
fully endowed king as Solomon, the age must have possessed
a heritage of experiences and powers which as yet it had by
no means attained. The monarchy would have had wholly to
incorporate the prophetic office in that of the king, and the
one must have been wholly transfused into the other, so that
the true king must also have become the true prophet, and the
perfect prophet the right king; and thus the perfect man, the
lofty goal of the history of Israel, would appear. But the per
fect prophet cannot come until the advent of the perfect religion,
for of this he is the harbinger and founder upon earth ; but the
religion of Jahveh, sure and true as was its basis, was at that
time too little advanced in self-development, was as yet too
liable to violence, and had too little recognised its own nature
and proved its own power in the struggle with foreign religions,
to be able to attain the last stage of its own perfection by pro
ducing a perfect prophet-king. But the monarchy, as the new
power of the age, was too completely the offspring of mere
national wants, and was still, therefore, too exclusively devoted
to mere national objects, to be capable of freeing itself from
J P, 208 sqq. does not deceive,' Prov. svi. 10.
2 Cf. such proverbs as 'An oracle is on 3 P. 6.
the king's lips, in judgment his mouth
HIS KELATIOX TO PROPHETISM. 301
the fault of violence ; nor was it possible for a king springing
out of this circle to become a true and perfect prophet. Both
powers, then, still suffered from the same error of violence, and
could not fail at length to repel each other, instead of amal
gamating together.
Hence it arises that the first earnest attempt at an actual
union and reconciliation of the two great independent powers
of the age brings to the surface those deeper deficiencies which
still placed the strongest obstacles in the way of such union,
hindrances which even Solomon's wisdom and power altogether
failed to remedy. The monarchy is not yet capable of incor
porating prophetism in itself, nor can prophetism fill the place of
the monarchy. These two independent powers therefore, as soon
as this is recognised, at once separate farther from each other
at the moment when each was desirous to merge into the other.
But this separation is now a very different thing from their
former beautiful union in the beginning of this period of the
history. For the object which at that time so advantageously
joined them together and long held them fast to each other
is now attained : the threatened nationality of Israel and its
religion is now saved, in fact rendered powerful and glorious
beyond expectation. Then it is that the monarchy, for which
in itself the national power and glory suffices, desires to repose
upon its own great conquests and advantages ; it advances
unchecked to its highest development as well as to its greatest
glory. It appears able to dispense with the cooperation of
prophetism, and it does dispense with it for a time, while
it borrows something from it and appropriates it to itself;
but scarcely has it thus fully advanced to its own swift and
one-sided development, when the yawning gulf becomes visible
which separates it from prophetism, and suddenly it is turned
against it. It is not until the latter half of Solomon's rale that
O
we again learn anything of the activity of the great prophets,
and we then find this activity turned against him and his
house, — Ahijah of Shiloh and Shemaiah, of whom more will
be said hereafter, and Iddo, of whom we know but few par
ticulars.1 The course of his reign shows us on this point a
complete subversion of its strongest supports. At first we ob
serve the most willing and joyful cooperation with the prophetic
power, such as naturally marked the harmonious continuation
1 He lived for about twenty years after spoke about the future sovereignty of
Solomon, 2 Chron. xii. 15, xiii. 2; with Jeroboam, 2 Chron. ix. 29 ; the LXX, how-
Jjrjy may probably be identified the fay* ever, have here '
or ^y who, like Ahijah under Solomon,
302 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
of David's rule ; Nathan was still the approved friend and
councillor of the young king as of his late father, and two of
his sons were even designated Solomon's ministers, and long
retained this lofty dignity.1 There was, further, the best under
standing with the priesthood, to which Nathan also belonged,2
and between the prophetic power and the priesthood there was
at that time no serious division. And now towards the decline
of his reign the younger generation of prophets was in complete
opposition to him, but certainly only out of the consciousness,
however dimly felt, that the monarchy in Israel by its narrow
aims was degenerating into a tyranny and violence which en
dangered the Theocracy itself, and with it the sacred and
inviolable basis of Israel's whole existence.
The form assumed by the swift development of Israel during
the last hundred years, and the failure of Solomon, in the
splendour and tranquillity of his time, to turn the helm power
fully enough against the perversities which were spreading
unobserved among the people at large, the court and the
state, exposed the monarchy, which from the nature of the
age embodied the most violent portion of all the efforts and
exertions of the nation itself, to the danger of becoming
nothing better than a secular, i.e. an ordinary monarchy,
resembling that of Egypt or any other heathen kingdom.
But an undisturbed continuance upon this path would neces
sarily soon bring about much which was opposed to Israel's
national life, which was as austere as it was free : and there
still existed in Israel deep in the heart of the people too much
simplicity of morals, and too strong an opposition against all
that was heathenish, to make it possible for the monarchy to
degenerate, without resistance, into a heathen kingdom. It is
true, as we have already seen, that a great part of the nation
during the long and prosperous peace constantly grew in wealth
and luxury, and so became more languid and effeminate; but
in spite of this the spirit of independence was yet far too rife
among the people. In many places they obviously strongly
opposed the growing taste for luxury and revelry ; they still
stood too near the days in which prophetism had lifted itself up
under Samuel with a strange new power, and still the prophetic
word, when it was raised energetically against degenerating
morals, found many a willing hearer.
It is therefore a remarkable fatality, but one easy to appre
hend, that when in the noontide of the history of Israel its
human monarchy is in danger of becoming like that of Egypt,
1 1 Kings iv. o. ' p S9j noie ^
DANGERS OF THE MONARCHY. 303
and the very same question of compulsory servitude is raised,
the result is not unlike that of the ancient rule of the Pharaohs
over Israel. There is indeed this one great difference, — that
the revolt of Israel against the service of the Egyptian king
marks the beginning of all its national elevation, while the
opposition to the compulsory services demanded by the
monarchy which sprang from its own midst is the first step
towards its own annihilation as a nation. For what is highest
throughout this history revolves round something higher than
mere nationality and external freedom, and so even the human
monarchy in Israel, which was at that time their only possible
support, could possess only a temporary significance. Com
pulsory services, rendered not to a stranger or to an enemy of
the nationality, but to a king of the same race, are, strictly
speaking, and apart from the mere method in which they are
rendered, no evil at all. The most civilised, legal, and pros
perous states are obliged to make the severest demands on the
powers of their citizens, because they secure to them so many
real blessings of life which would be otherwise unattainable ;
and our present high taxes of all kinds, our military service
and official duties, are in fact only better expedients in place
of the compulsory services, which would otherwise be demanded
of each citizen. Had Israel, when its monarchy was most
powerfully developing, willingly accommodated itself to the
increasingly heavy burdens which it laid upon it, who can
measure the progress which it would have made towards the
completion of the universal dominion which it had begun to
seek with such full vigour ! Instead of this, the monarchy,
the sole means by which Israel had attained its present great
prosperity, was so weakened that even this earthly blessing
was again dissolved. But at the former period Israel, by
resisting Egyptian tyranny, had won in the first place spiritual
freedom, and through this had attained national importance,
not as though resistance to royal demands was an abstract
good, but because that just resistance became to it only -an
occasion for the knowledge of the higher truth which is ever
striving to impart itself to men, and the seizing of which be
comes the beginning of all better human, and therefore also
national, life. So now, after it had found in the human
monarchy the culminating point of its national prosperity, it
allowed itself to be carried away into an opposition to the
heavier demands of its own kingdom, similar but less desirable,
because that high truth which could not cease to fulfil in it its
concealed work, remained in its deepest foundation far mightier
304 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
than every external form of nationality, though it would
have been repressed in its development by the achievement of
all the secular designs at which the human monarchy in its
growing strength was aiming. Thus an event recurs in the
noon of this history resembling one which took place at its
beginning, externally with a wholly different result, for it did
not lead, like the earlier, to the powerful elevation of an op
pressed people, but to the overthrow of a flourishing one, an
overthrow, however, involving new progress without limit; and
while the human instrument, in repeating and imitating the
external course of action, made a complete miscalculation, the
unseen God, the real agent, unmoved by human error, carried
forward His own infinite design.
As Solomon, at the height of all his power and glory, was
constructing an earth-wall between Zion and Moriali1 he noticed,
no doubt, among the lower overseers of the labourers, a young
man of extremely powerful and vigorous appearance who
pleased him much, and whom he on this account soon raised
to the office of a general surveyor over the services due to the
crown from the tribe of Joseph. This man, destined later to
bring so much sorrow to David's house and to Solomon himself,
wras Jeroboam the son of Nebat, from Zereda in the tribe of
Ephraim, which had from of old been jealous of the power of
Judah. He was then a mere isolated youth, as his mother,
who was still alive, had lon^' been a widow. Of his feelings
o o
when he thus unexpectedly became the chief superintendent of
his tribe, our present narrative tells us nothing.2 Suffice it to
say, that when he had left Jerusalem behind him and reached
the open country, he was met by the prophet Ahijah from
Shiloh, an ancient sacred city of the tribe of Ephraim,3 who had
already uttered words of warning to Solomon himself; and, as
if he had long in spirit beheld the instability of David's house,
the sight of Jeroboam appearing in its proud new official dress
prompted the thought that this young, handsome, and energetic
man was too good to be a new supporter of the existing power.
though the religious innovations did not
2 1 Kings xi. 26-40. The basis of this operate in Solomon's favour, they were not,
narrative is derived from the prophetic according to the plain meaning of the
narrator of the history of the kings, and older narratives, the immediate cause of
from vv. 11-13 it follows with certainty the revolt of the Ten Tribes. The Deu-
that Ahijah had already .spoken to Solo- teronomic narrators are the first to ascribe
mon himself to the same purport. This every misfortune to the religious innova-
iwrrator had certainly, as ch. xii. proves, tions, and in accordance with this the re-
only specified the severe oppression which presentation in ch. xi. is altered, chiefly
the people suffered at Solomon's hands as by the additions vv. 1-10,33, which betray
the cause of tho divine determination con- their real character by the connexion,
cerning the revolt of the Ten Tribes ; for * Vol. ii. p. 260.
AHIJAH AND JEROBOAM. 305
Overcome by this sudden thought, he tore (as the narrative only
too truly relates) the new garment, the symbol of the power of
David's house and its efforts after perpetuity, into twelve pieces,
and announced to him that thus by Jahveh's will the kingdom
of the twelve tribes should be torn to pieces, but that over
ten tribes he should himself be king. The history of this
prophetic selection of a king, amid much that is dissimilar,
shows in many features a resemblance to that of Saul by
Samuel ; l but to what totally different results was it destined
subsequently to lead ! Jeroboam at once openly rose against
Solomon's rule ; and although we do not know in detail the
course of this insurrection, ifc is distinctly seen from all the cir
cumstances that he found adherents and support in the northern
tribes, and that the contest with him was not a very easy
one. Subdued at length, he succeeded in escaping to Egypt,
and in that country, where about this time a new dynasty had
arisen with very different feelings towards Solomon, he found
willing protection at the hands of king Shishak. But the
men of his tribe did not forget during the remainder of Solo
mon's life-time the bold youth who, after a long period of re
pose, was the first to renew the contest against Jadah and
Jerusalem ; and the extent of the communications which they
maintained, in spite of Solomon's power, with the refugee in
Egypt will soon be seen more distinctly in the course of this
history.
4. The New Importance of Jerusalem.
Human monarchy, then, in Israel reached under Solomon
the limits of its development. These limits it ought indeed to
have passed, but it was unable to do so, and after that time
its fall, earlier or later, became certain. Thus also a like fate
could not but overtake the institutions originated by it.
The magnificent new temple in the heart of the kingdom
now became a sort of citadel of the higher religion. Hence
there first gathered around it the numerous inhabitants of
Jerusalem ; and then the rest of the nation attached them
selves more closely to it. At first, in the days when the higher
religion with difficulty obtained recognition among men, and
had to contend for a place for itself, only separate small places
where once a sanctuary had stood were regarded as hallowed
ground, and as the inviolable refuge of all who approached them.2
This was the universal usage of all early antiquity ; now, how-
1 P. 18 sq. happiness of the state sanctuary, as is
- These were always regarded as par- proved by descriptions like Ps. xxiv. 3,
tiupating immediately in the security and xv. 1, Ixxxiv. 5 [4], Is. xxxiii. 14-16.
VOL. III. X
306 THE KEIGN OF SOLOMON.
ever, there arose a great city, the centre of a powerful state,
possessing a similar sacredness. Here also were assembled all
the higher Priests, here were the most magnificent sacrifices
offered, and here were laid up the most costly gifts. It is true
that there still remained at first other sanctuaries scattered
through the land, preserving their full freedom. The chief of
these were the ' heights,' so often mentioned in after times, an
ancient Canaanite kind of sanctuary, which had also at that
time been adopted in Israel. They consisted of a high stone
block as the emblem of the Holy One, and of the ' height '
itself, i.e. of an altar, a sacred tree or grove, or even the image
of the special deity,1 to such a degree of art had the ancient
Canaanite worship of sacred stones developed.2 But none of
these could in any way compare with the glory and grandeur
of the new sanctuary in Jerusalem. It drew to itself the largest
number of adherents, but from that very cause it easily aroused
a growing jealousy in the rest of the country ; so that while
the higher religion, under the royal protection, seemed ready to
attain in it a firm and enduring unity, a division, on the con
trary, was prepared which nothing could heal.
And as Jerusalem was now regarded as the great sanctuary
and place of refuge, and besides, being the place where David
had formerly established his permanent camp, was pre-eminent
over all other cities,3 so now through Solomon it had become 4
an extremely well fortified city, and, especially in conjunction
with the wide girdle of fortresses which Solomon had begun to
erect in a circuit of more or less distance from it, seemed
able to brave every storm. In fact, Solomon in these for-
1 What sort of things these ' heights' That the sacred tree or grove which over-
were may be seen most clearly from Ezek. shadowed the whole was called Asherah, as
xvi. 16-39, compared with passages so the LXX translate, is proved from passages
clear as Num. xxxiii. 52, 2 Kings xxiii. like 2 Kings xxiii. 15 comp. with Judg. vi.
15, Deut. xii. 3, as well as with the repre- 26-32 ; similar trees were found in Phce-
sentntions of Phoenician temples, for in- nician temples also, Tertull. Apolog. ix.
stance, of that at Paphos. on the coins As, however, the word Bdmah, ' Height,'
under Augustus (cf. Hunter's essay on which was now appropriated specially
it. Kopenh. 1824). On such coins the to it, generally denoted also the whole
sacred block is clearly to be seen set up in building in which it stood, so in the same
the interior ; and it was, accordingly, the way the term Asherah might denote espe-
principal object of sanctity in the whole cially the goddess to whom such Heights
temple. It was often adorned with robes were generally consecrated in certain
and ribbons of variegated stripes as signs ages, namely Astarte, as is clear from
of vows, Ezek. xvi. 16 (cf. a similar prac- Judges iii. 7 comp. with ii. 13 and 1 Kings
tice in Ethiopia and elsewhere ; see many xv. 13. That this cannot, however, be
passages in Harris' Highlands of Ethiopia; the original meaning, is proved by pas-
Hildebrand on Arnobius Adv. Nat. i. 39 ; sages like Deut. vii. 5, xii. 3, and especi-
Bodenstedt's Kaukasus, p. 175); the sur- ally xvi. 21 so.
rounding buildings were of the most varied a See the Altcrthumer, p. 1 34 sq., 259 sq.
height, just as the Buddhists still have all 3 Cf. 1 Kings xi. 36, Is. xxix. 1, &c.
sorts of little temples in great numbers. 4 P. 258.
IMPORTANCE OF JERUSALEM. 307
tresses only followed the example long set in the older
important monarchies of the East ; and the want of such
fortified places Israel had often bitterly experienced during
previous centuries. Jerusalem, therefore, now appeared doubly
inviolable and unconquerable, guarded by its strong fortifica
tions, and by the protection (the asylum) of its great sanctuary.
The momentous consequences which flowed from this new
confidence in a city so peculiar in its character will appear
hereafter. But there were yet wanting to the monarchy
deeper and imperishable foundations : and thus all such sacred
fortresses could avail it little, especially among a people
which, like Israel from the time of its earliest youth, had
always cherished some degree of repugnance to living in for
tresses,1 and whose religion so strongly inculcated recourse to
a higher protection than that which fortresses and external
sanctuaries were able to afford.
The monarchy itself indeed now stood too firmly established
in the ideas and requirements of Israel. But not so the special
royal house of David. On Solomon, indeed, rested the double
glory of inherited dignity, but in his own person he stood
somewhat remote from the multitude, and certainly shrunk
from mixing in the popular affairs of Israel as David had done,
who had not felt ashamed, even when a powerful king, to appear
at the right moment among the multitude as one of themselves,
and to rejoice with them with child-like simplicity.2 From this
cause, combined with the others already named, the signs of
growing indifference to the rule of David's house were multiplied
towards the close of Solomon's life, while the inability of the
monarchy, when fully developed, to break through the barriers
which the religion and the nationality of Israel opposed to it,
was made clearer and clearer. Hence, by the side of all the
splendour which marks the whole of this great period of Solo
mon's rule, is seen already the shadow of that decay which
no human wisdom or skill could avert. The reign of a per
fect king of Jahveh, the object of all the efforts and the final
desire of every pious soul, had not come ; and that without
this all the treasures and all the glories of the king, all the
external protection of the kingdom, the horses, and the for
tresses, could furnish no true happiness and security, the
prophets could already foresee, and their anticipations were
soon fulfilled. Israel in the early times had already learned
1 This is unmistakable, and is explicable 2 Of. for example, the incident related
from the ancient condition of Israel; cf. p. 127.
ii. p. 130 sq., 241 sq., 247 sq.
x2
308 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
this in Egypt, and by the prophets after Solomon the lesson is
constantly repeated in reference to Israel itself.1 No doubt,
so long as David's illustrious son remained on the throne, the
external power of the monarchy was firmly maintained ; so
powerful was the abiding influence of the name of the great
and wise prince, who had begun his reign under such favourable
auspices. But immediately after his death the violent rivalries,
which had been for some time with difficulty restrained by the
name of the great ruler, burst out openly.
5* The Disruption of the Kingdom of David ; the Beginning of
its Decline.
Every change in the succession raises immeasurable hopes
or fears, especially if the previous reign, like that of Solomon,
has been one of unusual length, and if also the monarchy, as
was at that time the case in Israel, is passing into the here
ditary stage, but has not yet been bound to it by any long-
existing law. But if the death of Solomon was followed by
an incurable disruption of David's kingdom, and thus by the
greatest misfortune which could befall not only the monarchy
of Israel but the entire nation and its earthly prosperity, we are
tolerably prepared, by explanations already given, to see in this
something different from an event produced by the capricious
will of any particular individuals. The earlier author of the
history of the kings calls the disruption which took place a
divine fate.2 This affords clear evidence how dark it was in
its deeper causes, but also how unavoidable it seemed, humanly
speaking, to those who lived nearest to it. We must therefore
follow this momentous event (which in its immediate disastrous
consequences was as marked as the rise of David's rule had been
in its joyful results) more closely, investigating its concealed,
but yet not quite undiscoverable causes and motives.
Respecting the existence of the monarchy itself, there was
at that time no strife on any side. It stood already too firmly
established in the opinion and the habits of the people, and
had already secured for them too many benefits, to be lightly set
aside. But the conditions of its maintenance might become a
subject of bitter controversy. The monarchy was at that time
very highly developed, and was therefore less and less able to
endure individual caprices dangerous to the commonwealth ;
1 As in Hos. xiv. 4 [3], Is. ii. 7,Mic. v. ver. 24, although the expression is by no
9 sq. means a common one in the Old Testa-
2 There is no other way of understand- ment.
ing rn!T Qy$ nap. 1 Kings xii. 15, cf.
DISRUPTION OF THE KINGDOM. 309
and having become extremely active, it made increasing de
mands on the labour and resources of the people. This royal
power, the last which had developed itself in the community
of Jahveh, was still in course of growth, animated by its own
special impulses and aspirations, and might therefore easily
seem somewhat dangerous to the other powers, and even likely
to threaten the existence of the ancient religion, as was in fact
in some degree the case. It seemed likewise bound, as by a
charm, exclusively to David's house. The house of Saul had
never attained such firm and wide-spread power. With the
continuance of David's dynasty the monarchy seemed to grow
constantly greater and more irresistible. In all this, however,
lay the real peril of the age, which threatened nothing less than
destruction. For if the power and sway of this Davidic house
were questioned or destroyed, all those necessary and invalu
able benefits which it alone secured to the people became
liable to forfeiture. These benefits consisted in settled unity
and the national strength resulting from it ; the general pros
perity of the country which had so wonderfully increased during
the last half century; and, yet more, the whole higher culture
alike of the people generally and of its religion in particular
which had sprung up under David and Solomon, and now in
Jerusalem had found a permanent centre. All these laborious
acquisitions of the two great kings were imperilled so soon
as popular feeling was turned against the monarchy and the
dynasty through which alone they had been won; for the
longer a royal house rules successfully, the more deeply and
indissolubly does it grow into the whole existence, the life and
prosperity, of its people. And yet it was scarcely possible to
avoid that contrariety of efforts and divergence of views which
characterised that decisive age.
The monarchy, when once highly developed and intertwined
with the national consciousness, might, indeed, part with some
unessential tokens of its power, as, for instance, the multitude
of wives, but it could scarcely by its own will surrender its strict
demands on the national services and the public taxes. But
again, very many of the best men in Israel might regard as
highly dangerous a further increase of power, and a one-sided
development of the monarchy, because in their eyes the ancient
freedom of the people, and at the same time Jahveism itself,-
were thus endangered. An indistinct conception of the course
which it might be best to follow, together with exaggerations and
useless obstinacy, might thus hamper both sides all the more
readily, in proportion to the license of a rich, luxurious age,
310 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
and to the distance by which they were removed from those
difficulties out of which the people had been brought by the
growing- strength of the monarchy. But that the contrariety
of aims was beyond cure, and that precisely the best men of the
nation distinctly feared from a further growth of royal power
the most dangerous injury to the higher and permanent bless
ings of the community, to their freedom and their religion, is
clearly seen from the energetic and successful action of such
prophets as Ahijah and Shemaiah against Solomon and his son:
for prophetism, pure and strong as it then was, did but an
nounce by such direct results as early and forcibly as possible
some higher truth which was already deeply felt throughout the
nation. Undoubtedly it was possible to reconcile the opposing
pretensions, and without any violent overthrow, to put on one
side the dreaded dangers; and the means of this lay in the con
stant interchange of views between the king and the best and
most intelligent of his subjects, — in short, in what is now called
constitutional government, and which, when wisely arranged,
is the safeguard of the best modern Christian nations. There
were also, according to all indications, meetings of deputies in
ancient Israel ; l but while the monarchy, in the protection of
which they had full confidence, was striving upwards with an
entirely new power, they met together, probably, only when the
accession of a new king was to be confirmed, and a compact
to be made with him which was to last for his life. Their
power was therefore all the greater, but possibly also all the
more disturbing ; and we have no evidence that they ever met
again until Solomon's death.
The general feeling, accordingly, might be expressed in the
two assertions — (1) that the monarchy, as developed towards
the close of Solomon's life, could not stand ; and (2) that, on
the other hand, it must be carried back to such principles as had
prevailed say in Samuel's time. With this the prophets, so far
as we know, were in accord ; and all the better minds in Israel
probably shared their sentiments. But if we try to imagine the
state of affairs in reference to the special means or instruments
by which this object might ultimately be attained, this passage
in the ancient history will be found the best adapted to exhibit
clearly, along with the true greatness of prophecy in those
centuries, the earthly limits also which it was not yet able to
break through. Prophecy holds firm for the present age a pure
1 See above, p. 1 1 sq. ; the names of 16-22 ; and are here evidently enumerated
the heads of tribes of the last years of as important members of the state.
David have been preserved, 1 Chron. xxvii.
DISRUPTION OF THE KINGDOM. 311
truth, which the nation is inclined to neglect, and beholds with
a bright glance its victory in all future time ; but it is not
its duty to comprehend and promulgate any national or other
truths which a deeper experience has not yet proved to be
necessary, and which, therefore, have not as yet any percep
tible signifiance in the present. The great truth which pro
phecy then announced was that in the kingdom of Jahveh the
human monarchy, even in the midst of its highest development,
ought not to degenerate nor to injure the freedom of the
people; and this truth was rendered triumphant for the time
and was saved for the future by means of its activity. That
the religion of Jahveh, as it then existed, could not tolerate
any general religious freedom, was the next truth — one spring
ing, however, simply from the weakness of the age — which
prophecy also made known at that time. But no prophet of that
day could possibly desire any better organisation of the deputies
of the realm, because no one had as yet discovered any defect
in the existing usage. In the same way they had not then
sufficient experience of the evil and the good resulting from a
constant change of dynasty ; while the single change which had
hitherto occurred in the substitution of the house of David
for that of Saul, seemed rather to point to the advantage of
such changes. As prophecy, therefore, after its renovation by
Samuel, had throughout been most active in establishing and
guiding the kingdom in Israel, and as it had raised up the
house of David against that of Saul, it might think it possible
by a fresh change of this kind to remove the evils of this age ;
and even during Solomon's life Ahijah had ventured to utter
words to this effect which were repeated everywhere.1 Whether
they had found in this a means of rooting out the evil, further
experience alone could show. Whether they could at once push
forward their plan depended upon the national sentiments, and
the capacity displayed by Solomon's son and successor.
Some parts of the country, at all events, had great reason to
desire the permanence of David's house, — Jerusalem, the capital,
which owed its prosperity entirely to this house, and the royal
tribe of Judah, which, undoubtedly, continued specially favoured
by it. It might also be the view of many of the best Jews,
apart from all tribal prejudices, that the monarchy might be
improved by degress without a violent change. On the other
hand, the ancient jealousy of the tribe of Joseph against Judah
had manifested itself strongly even in David's time ; 2 and so
far from knowing that Solomon had taken any trouble to allay
1 P. 304 sq. 2 P. 193 sqq.
312 THE REIGtf OF SOLOMON".
it, we may ratlier infer the contrary from the description of the
distribution of his officers.1 Standing upon its ancient preten
sions as the first and leading tribe, it might raise the strongest
opposition at the head of the other tribes ; and if its demands
were not conceded, it might even resolve to try what could be
accomplished by a monarchy raised from its own midst upon a
new basis. The bold Jeroboam, a man of its own blood, was
already awaiting in Egypt such a turn of affairs. But the
accomplishment of the threatened division of David's king
dom before the northern tribes could learn from experience
how they might fare under the new rule of Solomon's son, was
undoubtedly caused chiefly by the folly of Rehoboam 2 himself.
He was a son not of the Egyptian princess, who, probably,
had not borne a son to Solomon, but of the Ammonite princess
Naamah.3 At the time of his father's death he was already
forty-one years old,4 and may long have awaited impatiently
the possession of power, although he was little qualified for it
by his own training, and was altogether very unlike what his
illustrious grandfather had been in his youth.
The deputies of the kingdom on this occasion had assembled
not in Jerusalem or Hebron, but in Shechem, the ancient
capital of Joseph, — a significant hint, if Rehoboam had suffi
ciently understood it. But they had still the fullest inten
tions 5 of confirming his power as king if their wishes were
granted ; and they permitted him with his guard and the
deputies of Judah to come peaceably to the national assembly.
On his arrival they declared their complaints, on account of the
burdens which Solomon had multiplied upon them, and begged
that they might be lightened : in that case they would be his
devoted subjects. He promised to give them an answer on
the third day : and there soon appeared among the advisers of
the crown themselves a diversity of view respecting this de
mand. The elder counsellors recommended, with the wisdom
1 P. 296 sq. unintelligibility of ver. 2 and ver. 20 in
2 The LXX spell the name DJOrTV this text proves the contrary; and the
Po/3oct/x LXX have (according to Cod. Vat. every-
3 She was a daughter of the last Am- where' according to Cod. Alex, in ver. 12
monitekingHanun, 2 Sam. x. 1. as a note at an? rate) the reading which is nearer
of the LXX on i Kings xii. 24 informs us. the original and in part more perfect, on
4 1 Kino-s xiv 21, 31 which the representation above is based.
1 This we should certainly be compelled In fact> the Jewish hatred against Samaria
to doubt altogether, if in the narrative seems to have subsequently magnified the
1 Kings xii. 1-30 the Masoretic text were Sullt of the Ten Tribes' and to have trans"
correct, for, according to it, the deputies formed the text accordingly ; this was first
had already taken the independent step done' however, only m 2 Chron. x. In
of summoning Jeroboam from E^ypt to accordance with this, we should follow
Shechem, and had even made him their ver- 20 and 2 Chron. x. 2, and read in
spokesman against Kehoboam. But the ver- 2 and
DISRUPTION OF THE KINGDOM. 313
of Solomon, that to-day they should be mild and give way, in
order that the people might allow themselves to be quietly ruled
ever after ; and these counsellors, who were descended from a
better age, may really have intended to give way on some points
of less importance. But Rehoboam listened more willingly to
the flattering advisers of his own age whom he had just ap
pointed, and whose spirit reveals the moral degeneracy to
which Jerusalem had sunk during the last years of Solomon's
rule. Following their counsel, he then solemnly declared, if
not in these very words, yet to the same purport, ' His little
finger was thicker than his father's loins, and if his father,
laying on them new burdens, chastised them with whips, he
would, by increasing these burdens, chastise them with scor
pions (i.e. whips with sharp points on the lashes) .' When this
answer was made known, there sounded everywhere the terrible
word which l had already, even under David himself, been
raised by a scattered few :
What part have we in David,
What inheritance in Jesse's son ? —
To thy tents, 0 Israel !
Now look to thy house, 0 David !
and the unity of the nation was at once torn in twain. Judah
declared itself in favour of Rehoboam, who belonged to its own
tribe.2 Apparently encouraged by this, and yet already almost
desperate, the new king sent the old chief overseer of compul
sory labour, Adoniram,3 to treat with the insurgents, and to
promise them some alleviation of their burdens. But the mul
titude, once embittered, stoned him to death ; and the king, in
great alarm, hastily ascended his chariot and fled to Jerusalem.
Now, for the first time, however, the remaining deputies
thought seriously of that Jeroboam who had formerly taken
refuge in Egypt, as likely to make them a more suitable king.
This bold and at the same time cunning man, on hearing of
Solomon's death, had returned from Egypt, without being in
any way hindered by the new sovereign ; and had betaken him
self to his native city, Zereda. In the state of feeling then
pervading the country, he could do this with great security.
As his presence in the territory of the tribe of Joseph was
generally known, the deputies who revolted from Rehoboam
invited him to come to the national assembly of the people.
He came, and was chosen their king. The son of Solomon in
1 P. 193. signed to the words 1 Kings xii. 17 ; cf.
2 The obvious connexion of the narra- 2 Chron. xi. 3.
tive permits no other meaning to be as- a P. 230, note 1.
314 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
Jerusalem certainly made preparations, in his pride and wrath,
for war against the Ten Tribes, in order to bring them back
into obedience, and he actually assembled an army of 180,000
fighting men, the greater number belonging to the tribe of
Judah. But in the decisive moment Shemaiah, a prophet, pro
bably from Jerusalem itself,1 who was much esteemed, and was
a very different man from Ahijah, opposed with the divine
counsel to shed no brother's blood, because the present misfor
tune was due to the hand of God Himself, and therefore no
man should obstinately oppose what had taken place. And, in
fact, his advice was approved of by the warriors who were already
armed. They separated, and no human determination could
now stop the disruption, which only brought clearly to light
the irreconcilable opposition hitherto veiled under the different
yet decisive efforts of the two portions of the nation.
There is no doubt that there may occur times in which a
great national and religious disruption, however deplorable may
be the causes which bring it on, and whatever serious results
may be foreseen from it, becomes nevertheless a higher neces
sity ; as, for instance, the disastrous schism which the Refor
mation, or rather its opponents, brought into Germany more
than three hundred years ago. Every disruption contains
within itself an evil, which developes itself continuously, until it
is possibly removed in the right way : but if an impenetrable
darkness presses upon an age, because it is torn by two antago
nistic efforts, the one being as necessary and inevitable as the
other, without any higher view and aim to reconcile them, then
the mournful disruption may, at least for the immediate future,
even become a benefit, because it assures to each movement the
possibility of developing itself purely and fully, and thus in the
end that higher view which at an earlier time was too weak, or
perhaps not even in existence, may come into free play and win
acceptance. Thus, in the last years of Solomon's life, and im
mediately afterwards, even prophets of Jahveh, whom we have
no right to regard as false prophets, might urge the disrup
tion, because the higher blessing of the true religion and of
the human rule answering to this, a blessing which in Israel
always remained the supreme though hidden power, determin
ing and deciding everything else, ran at that time the risk of
being set aside by a further one-sided development of the
monarchy. Nevertheless this disruption, like every other, re
mained a great evil : and whether it was ever again to be re
medied during Israel's independent national life, or whether
1 Cf. I Kings xii. 21-24, 2 Chron. xi. 1-4, with 2 Chron. xii. 15 (5).
DISRUPTION OF THE KINGDOM. 315
the preservation of the spiritual blessings of the people must
finally involve the destruction of all its earthly blessings, could
be known only when the wholly different movements which
were involved in the disruption should have attained their
full development. For the moment all those blessings were
threatened which the monarchy for more than a hundred years
had secured for the people with such great effort, a fatal dis
ruption was effected in the community of Jahveh, such as even
the most unfortunate period of the Judges had not known, and
the age of Solomon, as elevated as it was joyful, closed with a
tragedy so sad that no worse can be experienced by any power
ful nation which has already reached the higher stages of civi
lisation.1
IV. LATER REPRESENTATIONS OP SOLOMON.
When the course of the next centuries had sufficiently shown
the incurable nature of the schism which cast a shadow over
the last half of Solomon's reign, and when regret for the de
struction of David's kingdom influenced more and more deeply
the historians of Judah, then too the memory of the acts and
works of the great son of David became in many ways obscured,
and many particulars of his history received, it is evident, less
and less consideration. On the other hand, its chief points
were submitted to a keener criticism by those who looked back
on the great suffering with which it had closed, under a vivid
consciousness of the great principle upon which it properly
turned. The earlier prophetic narrator still regarded him
quite simply, as a king highly favoured indeed by God, and
loved as a son ; yet, if his sins deserved it, punished by Him
like the most ordinary mortal. So correct was the view then
taken of the genuine monarchy in Israel, recognising alike the
exalted and peculiar character of the king, the possible de
generacy even of the greatest, and his responsibility to God
for every one of his actions.2 But in the mind of a somewhat
later narrator there was formed far more definitely a distinct
conception of the highest elements in the three great eras of
his reign ; and nothing can exceed this in truth of fact and
artistic beauty, but it can only be properly interpreted when
the point of view of its narrator is borne in mind. It has not,
1 That the great, prophets soon learned unique position of the true king of Israel
to consider the disruption in this light, is expressed by the image of the son, ver. 14,
clear from expressions like Hos. i. 7, iii. entirely harmonises with Solomon's own
5 • Is. vii. 17 ; Zech. xi. 7, 14. feelings in the noblest period of his life,
2 2 Sam. yii. 12-15 ; the original of the Ps. ii. 7.
later Ps. Ixxxix. 31-33. The elevated and
31G THE REIGX OF SOLOMOX.
indeed, been fully preserved down to the present time,1 but we
can still clearly discern its most important features.
The narrative is an ancient one that Solomon, as soon as he
had time to collect himself after the troubles at the beginning
of his reign, went to Gibeon, in order to offer his homage to the
God of Israel at the spot where at that time 2 there still stood
the ancient Mosaic tabernacle and a much-frequented altar,
and to strengthen himself for the successful completion of his
difficult career. We still know 3 from this that there existed in
Gibeon an altar, with a high artificial block. After he had
sacrificed a thousand offerings (says the somewhat later nar
rator), God appeared to him in a dream in the night, bidding
him ask of Him whatever he might desire.4 Solomon, in reply,
having regard to his own youth and the difficult task of govern
ing such a numerous people properly, entreated from God
nothing but wisdom ; and well-pleased that the young son of
David, in his yearning for this divine gift, asked not for such
blessings as kings ordinarily wish for themselves, — long life,
riches, triumph over enemies, and the like, — God promised to
give him not only wisdom far above that of other men, but also
the riches and glory for which he had not prayed, but length of
days only if, like David, he would walk in perfect righteous
ness. This conception supplies a framework of exquisite de
scription, capable of completely embracing all the varied events
of Solomon's reign. The surprising fulfilment of this promise
of wisdom is then vividly described by the same narrator in the
well-known story of Solomon's judgment respecting the dead
and the living child of the two harlots,5 which established the
young king's reputation for sagacity in discovering the truth
and for wisdom in judgment. This sentence must not, indeed,
be criticised according to the views of many Roman- Germ an
jurists of the present day, who desire to have everything in
vestigated and judged by written laws alone; so long as, even
in our own day, striking quickness of discernment and aptitude
1 The representation in 1 Kings iii. 4— * The words in ] Kings iii. 5 sound
15, from the beginning of his career as like an echo of Ps. ii. 8. The whole
sovereign, is preserved complete, and is account is reproduced with more freedom
the standard of all the rest; from the in 2 Chron. i. 1-13.
middle we have the representation in ix. 5 1 Kings iii. 16-28, certainly by the
1-9, which, however, only received its same narrator. The only wonder in this
present form from the last narrator ; case is, that a man so young, who had
briefest of all is the passage belonging to scarcely grasped the sceptre, should give
this representation and marking the close, so firm and wise a decision ; for, in other
xi. 9 sq. respects, similar anecdotes are related of
2 P. 125. many sovereigns, even of those who were
3 The style of 1 Kings iii. 4 proves its but little distinguished ; see, for instance,
great age. Suet. Claud, c. 15.
LATER REPRESENTATIONS. 317
for judgment are regarded as praiseworthy qualities in a genuine
ruler, and above all in a king still young, all honour must be
accorded to this narrative, which exhibits Solomon as the true
judge. — This writer must next have described how riches and
glory were given to him in full measure. And then we are told
how, when he had built the temple and transplanted the sanc
tuary of Gibeon to Jerusalem, God appeared to him a second
time in the high seat of his power, and promised him that if,
like David, he would keep uprightly all the divine commands,
his seed should rule for ever over Israel.1 But we no longer
possess the description of this narrator of how, towards the
close of his life, neither the promise of a long life 2 nor that of
the continuance of the sovereignty of Israel in his house was
accomplished, and of the severe threats with which God spoke
to him for the third and last time.
Thus clouded by the closing portion of his history, Solo
mon's fame in the centuries immediately succeeding shone with
far less brightness than that of David ; in fact, he was much
less frequently alluded to than his father. And yet Solomon
had. two great and lasting merits, which survived all the woes
and the complaints of these centuries. In the first place, he
had given to the ancient religion in the temple at Jerusalem a
fixed position, and at the same time to its priesthood a dignity
and legalised order, the principles of which, at all events,
were able to outlast all the commotions and misfortunes of the
succeeding centuries, and the results of which had an important
influence upon succeeding ages. Secondly, he had awakened
among the people a strong desire for deeper wisdom and higher
art, which even in the stormier ages which followed never
wholly died away, and, in fact, in some directions constantly
developed itself with more and more power and beauty.
While these influences of his great spirit could not possibly
be lost, his reign was marked by other wonders which were
never witnessed again in equal force. And thus in still later
times, when, in the second Jerusalem, sorrow for the misfortune of
David's house had long since lost its edge, the fame of Solomon
rose up again with wholly new power, until at last a bright
1 In 1 Kings ix. 1-9, the evident allu- with the transposition of this divine ad-
sion to the destruction of the temple as dress to Solomon till after the completion
having already taken place, vv. 6-9, clearly of all the great edifices, ver. 1 , cf. ver. 10 ;
proceeds from the last author of the pre- for this does not accord with the words in
sent book of Kings ; the transition to a ver. 3, cf. ch. viii.
wholly different representation in ver. 6 2 The age of 61 years which he may
is strongly marked even outwardly, and is have attained, could not be reckoned a
perceptible in many ways. But the same really long life like David's ; cf. p. 208,
author must certainly be credited also note 1.
818 THE REIGN OF SOLOMON.
halo surrounded him, which, through a long period, constantly
increased in brilliancy, and which gathered also more and more
densely around the recollections of his history. The Chronicles
credit David, indeed, with all the merit of a more settled
organisation of the priesthood and the temple service,1 but
even they avoid touching any part of the darker side of Solo
mon's reign, entirely omitting most of it, but turning some
points to his advantage by means of a slight alteration.2 But
it was especially as the founder and great master of wisdom that
Solomon continued to be venerated in Israel ; and, even when
his fame in all other respects was dim, his reputation for wis
dom spread further and further with the cultivation and varied
fortunes of wisdom itself. In the centuries immediately suc
ceeding his death, the proverbial style which he founded among
the people made constant progress, as the canonical book of
Proverbs demonstrates. Philosophers in Israel always love to
rest upon him and his name, and the halls in the court of the
temple, where scholars collected around a teacher of wisdom,
were commonly named after Solomon.3 So again, in the days
of the second Jerusalem, the attempt was made with ever
increasing boldness to compose books of wisdom under the
name or, at all events, under the fame of this great king ; and
some of the most beautiful of this class have been preserved
entire in our Hebrew or Greek Bibles down to the present time.
The most universal knowledge of all mysteries, of all worlds
and ages and cycles, was then ascribed to him, as we see
already in the second century B.C. in the book of Wisdom
composed under his name.4 — It naturally resulted in the latest
ages that his name was abused by those who regarded magic
and the invocation of demons as wisdom, especially as the
wonderful power and glory of this king seemed only explicable
by the supposition that they were the result of magic. Even
Josephus5 looked upon a book of magic of this kind as a
genuine work of Solomon's, and he presents some extracts from
it which make us little regret its loss. Such Jewish works of the
latest age became a source for Christian writers, especially of the
Gnostic schools,6 and again with renovated zeal Mohammed
1 P. 227. * Joseph. Ant. viii. 2. 5
2 Yet in a passing remark in 2 Chron. 6 .See fragments and notices of similar
xxxv. 4 he is represented, in conformity works in Fabricii Cod. Apocr. V. T.i.p. 1042
with the older historical tradition, as taking sqq.; Rosen's Catal. Codd. Syr. Mus. Brit.
part with David in the Levitical arrange- p. 105, and Dillmann's Cat. Codd. Ethiop.
ment of the temple service by various p. 56, 60. The Testament of Solomon, a
legal enactments. rather ingenious composition by a Gnostic
3 John x. 23 ; Acts iii. 11, v. 12. Christian, is now edited (in Greek in
4 Wisdom of Sol. vii. 17-20, viii. 8. F. F. Fleck's Anecdota, Leips. 1837. pp.
LATER REPRESENTATIONS.
319
and his followers drew from them their airy fancies respecting
Sulaiman's magic powers.1 In particular he was represented
as possessed of a magic ring, on which the mysterious name of
five letters (the Hebrew word for God, Sabaoth) was engraved,
and with which he exercised the widest and most marvellous
jurisdiction over the spirits. With the gradual infusion of
heathen symbols, names, and fables, the king who had been
famous for his knowledge of all kinds of animals and plants,'2
was credited with the power of conversing with birds, beasts, and
plants in their own languages, a story resembling those told of
heathen sages.3 The representations of the extent of his king
dom were naturally exaggerated in the same way.4 — The
Ethiopian-Christian kings boasted that they were descended
from him,5 and the Gothic sovereigns in Spain asserted that
they possessed his golden table.6
113-140, cf. IllgenV Zeitschr. fur Hist.
Theolog. 1844, iii. pp. 9-56): according to
this work Solomon built the temple with
the aid of all the demons, the names and
natures of which are described. This book
is perhaps the source of many later legends,
especially of that of Solomon's ring. The
recently discovered book, 2 Bar. cc. Ixi.
Ixxvii. shows that the essential features
of these tales were already in existence
during the fir^t century after Christ. For
other Apocrypha of this sort see further
the Epistles of Ignatius, Patres Aposfolici,
ed. Dressel, p. 220 sq., 242 sq. Psalms
and Odes of Solomon are enumerated in
the catalogue of Apocrypha by Nicephorus.
On the former see vol. v. p. 301 sq.
These probably include the Gnostic hymns
(preserved in Coptic and edited by Miinter,
Copenh. 1812, and in the Pistis Sophia],
1 See a narrative put together from
passages in the Koran and other places in
WeiFs Biblischen Legenden der Mus>l-
manner, p. 225-279; cf. Tabari's Chronicle
i. p. 56, Dub.; Jalal-eldin's History of
Jerusalem (Reynolds' Transl. Lond. 1846),
pp. 32 sqq., 44 sqq., &c.
2 P. 281.
3 As of Melampus, see Diodor. Sic. Hist.
i. 98 ; of Pythngoras, see Jamblichus, Vit.
Pythaq. c. xiii. (60-63).
< Cf. Sibytt. iii. 167-170.
5 P. 284 sq.
8 P. 243. Cf the statements of the Chro
nicle of Tabari and the Futuch of Abdal-
hakam, both of which works I carefully ex
amined in manuscript some time ago, and
in which these passages are still only
found in manuscript; see some extracts
from them in Weil's Geschichte der Cha-
lifcn, i. p. 530 sq. The Spanish fairy
tale of the miraculous table perhaps be
longs to this (e.g. in the Qirq Vezir, ed.
Paris, p. 72) ; many miracles of Solomon
were transferred to Spain ; see Tabari,
i. pp. 43-47, Dub. ; for the reason of this
see vol. v. p. 400, note 3, vol. vi. [2nd ed.
Germ.] p. 807, note 2. In Enoch Ixxxix.
50, 4 Ezr. ix. 19, this table already
acquires sufficient prominence : at how
early a date evangelical traditions got
mixed up with the idea of the miraculous
table, is clear from Sura v. 112-114.
Other representations of the kind attached
themselves to ' Solomon's golden throne ; '
cf. P. Cassel in the Wissenschaftl. Berich-
ten drr Erfurter Akademie, i. (1853) pp.
48 sqq.
INDEX.
ABD
Abdemon, a Tyrian, solves Solomon's pro
blems, 277 sq.
Abel, near Beth-maachah, 194; besieged
by Joab, 195
Abiathar, escapes from the massacre at
Nob, 91 ; takes refuge with David, 91 ;
high priest at Jerusalem. 134; offers
to accompany David in his flight, 180 ;
sent to conciliate Judah after the death
of Absalom, 190; supports the conspi
racy of Adonijah, 210; banishment to
Anathoth and subsequent fate, 213
Abigail, wife of Nabal, 98 ; marries David,
99
Aftmelech stands for A7^imelech in
1 Chron.xviii. 16, 82 note 2, 134 noted
Abinadab, son of Saul, falls on Mount
Gilboa, 106
Abinadab, the ark in his house at Kir-
jath-jearim, 126
Abishag, of Shunem, 196, 212
Abishai, son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab,
96; an officer in David's army, 113;
his rank and prowess, 142, 148 ; in
command against the Ammonites, 155 ;
proposes to execute Shimei, 181, 190 ;
commands a division against Absalom,
186; marches against Shebna, 193
Abner, Saul's general, 71, 75; at his
table, 80 ; his careless watch over him,
96 ; espouses the cause of Ish-bosheth,
111 ; conveys Ish-bosheth across the
Jordan, 112; his power, 266 note 4;
slays Asahel, 114; marries Saul's con
cubine Kizpah, 115; makes overtures
to David, 116; assassinated by Joab,
117 ; David's lament for him, 117
Absalom, born at Hebron, 115; David's
third son, 171 ; slays his brother Am-
non, 1"2; flees to Geshur, 172; allowed
to return to Jerusalem, 175 ; reconciled
with David, 177; assumes royal state,
177; outbreak of his rebellion at He
bron, 178 ; arrives at Jerusalem, 182 ;
appoints Amasa his general, 185 ; oc
cupies Gilead, 185; his fate, ]86 sq. ;
his tomb, 187 note 2
Acco (Ptolemais), on the coast, 263
VOL. III.
ALT
Achish, king of Gath, shelters David, 83 ;
receives David a second time, 100 ;
places him in Ziklag, 101 ; dismisses
him, 104
Administration of the kingdom under
Solomon, 266 sqq.
Adonijah, son of David by Haggith, 209 ;
his conspiracy, 210; executed by
Benaiah, 212
Adoniram, collector of the taxes under
Kehoboam, 270 note 3; stoned to death,
313
Adriel of Meholah, husband of Merab, 74
Adullam, cave of, in Judah, 85
Agag, king of Amalek, spared by Saul,
38 ; sacrificed by Samuel, 39
Ahaz, king of Judah, appoints Shebna
his chamberlain, 271 note 1 ; his place
of burial, 273 note 2
Ahijah, a priest, in Saul's camp, 36
Ahijah, a prophet, of Shiloh, 301 ; meets
Jeroboam, 304
Ahimaaz, a priest, son of Zadok, carries
news to David from Jerusalem, 183;
announces David's victory over the
rebels, 188
Ahimelech, priest of Nob, 82 ; supplies
David with food and weapons, 83 ; ex
ecuted, 90 ; confused with Abiathar,
134 note 5 ; to be read for Afomelech
in 1 Chron. xviii. 16, ibid.
Ahinoam, of Jezreel, marries David, 99 ;
mother of Amnon, 170
Ahio, son of Abinadab of Kirjath-jearim,
126
Ahithophel, of Giloh, 176 ; his treachery
to David, 178 ; his advice to Absalom,
182 ; his plan frustrated by Hushai,
183 ; hangs himself at Giloh, 184
Ain, in the district of Jezreel, 103 ; pro
bably an abbreviation of Ain Jalud,
103 note 5
Akaba, on the Red Sea, 263
Akra, in Jerusalem, 123 note 5 ; identified
with Millo, 258 note 3
Altar, the brazen, in the court of the
temple, 243
Altar, the gilded, in the Holy Place,. 243
322
INDEX.
ALT
Altars, erected by Saul, 44
Altars, to heathen deities, erected by Solo
mon, 297
Amalekites, the, campaign against, them
undertaken by Saul, 37 sq. ; his wars
with them, 43 ; David's campaigns
against them, 102; sack Ziklag, 104;
pursued by David, 105 ; subsequent
conflicts, 149
Amasa, nephew of David, identified with
Amasai, 87 note 6 ; appointed Absalom's
general, 185 ; murdered by Joab, 194
Amasai. leader of a troop from Benjamin
and Judah, joins David, 87 ; identi
fied with David's nephew Amasa, 87
note 6
Ammonites, the. 24; Nahasb, king of,
besieges Jabesh Grilead, 24 ; Saul's wars
with them, 43 ; death of Nnhash, 151 ;
Hanun, king of, ill-treats David's am
bassadors, 152 ; assisted by Hadadezer,
152; conquered, 159 ; chronology of
the war with, 160; remain loyal to
David during Absalom's rebellion, 184 ;
pay tribute to Solomon, 296
Amnon, eldest son of David, 170; his
outrage on Tamar, 171; is killed by
Absalom, 172
Amon, king of Judah, his place of burial,
273 note'6
Anathoth, a town, north of Jerusalem, 213
' Anointed of Jahveh,' position of the king
as, 6, 45, 65, 81, 95, 107
Aphek, in the north of Israel, Philistine
army encamped at, 103 ; probably iden
tical with 'Afuleh, 103 note 5
Arameans, the, David's wars with, 151 ;
defeated by Joab, 155 ; by David, 156 ;
rising under Rezon against Solomon,
218; traffic of their kings in war horses,
262
Araunah the Jebusite, 163
Ariel, title of honour of a king of Moab,
142 'note 4
Ark. the, its removal from Kirjath-jearim,
126; detained three months in the
hou«e of Obed-Edom, 127; transferred
to Jerusalem, 127 ; sent back to Jeru
salem by David on his flight, 180 ; its
place in the Holy of Holies, 242 sq. ; its
now lid. 242 sq. ; the cherubs. 242 sq. ;
placed in the sanctuary at the dedica
tion of the temple. 246
Armoury, in the Lebanon-hoiise, 250 note 1
Arms, new style of, introduced by Solo
mon, 259 sq.
Army, organisation of David's, 139 sqq. ;
its officers. 140 sq. ; its size, 144 sq. ;
its equipment. 145 sq.
Aroor. on the northern bank of the Arnon,
162
Arsenal, erected by David in Jerusalem,
124
BEN
Asahel, nephew of David, one of twelva
officers, 113, 145 note 4 ; his prowess,
143; slain by Abner, 114; buried at
Bethlehem, 115
Asaph, a musician, 248
Asherah, meaning of the term, 306 note 1
Asia, commerce with, 261
Astarte, altars to, built by Solomon, 297
Asylum, royal, right of, 214
Azariah, high priest before the destruction
of Jerusalem, 247 note 4
Azariah, son of Nathan, 296 note 1
Azekah, a city of Judah, 68
Baal-hamon, Solomon's vineyard at, 257
Baal-hazor, north of Jerusalem, murder of
Amnon at, 172
Baal-perazim, defeat of the Philistines at,
147
Baal-shalisha, shortened into Shalisha,
257 note 3
Baalah, identified with Baalath, 259 note 6
Baalah, fortified by Solomon, 259
Baanah, officer of Ish-bosheth, murders
him, 118, 136
Bahurim, on the southern border of Ben
jamin, 116 note 3 ; between Jerusalem
and the Jordan, 181, 183
Baka-trees, omens from the rustling of, 147
Balsam plant, introduction of, 281 note 2 ;
valley of, near Jericho, ibid.
Barathena, a city near the Euphrates, 1 53
Barracks, erected by David at Jerusalem,
124
Barrack villages, erected by Solomon, 259
Barzillai, of Rogelim in Grilead, assists
David in his flight, 185 ; escorts him
back across the Jordan, 191 sq. ; his
descendants, 216
Bases, the, in the fore-court of the
temple, 244
Basileo- Theocracy, its nature, 5 ; its re
conciliation with the Theocracy, 200 gqq.
Basin of the king, 97, 272
Bath-sheba, wife of Uriah, David's in
trigue with, 165 ; mother of Solomon,
168 ; gains David's support for Solo
mon, 210 ; intercedes with Solomon for
Adonijah, 212 ; her influence at Solo
mon's court, 291
Beeroth, a town of Benjamin, 118 note 3
Beersheba, a city in the south of Judah,
86 note 3, 162
Benainh, son of Jehoiada, commander of
David's body-guard, 142; supports
Solomon's claim to the throne, 210 ;
executes Adonijah, 212
Benjamin, tribe of, its claim to the dignity
of a leading tribe, 48
Benjamites, join David in the cave of
AdnllHtn, 87; at Ziklag, 102; left-
handed warriors, 114
INDEX.
323
BER
Berothah, probably the Phoenician Bery-
tos. the modern Beirout, 153 note 2
Berothai. a city near Zobah, 153
Besor, a brook. David and his men at, 105
Beth-aven, flight of the Philistines
through, 35
Bethel, Israelite troops at, under Saul, 30
Bethesda, pool of, 251
Beth-horon. Philistine marauders at, 33 :
road from, 172 note 1 ; Upper and
Lower, fortified by Solomon, 259
Bethkerem, Solomon's parks at, 256
Bethlehem, birth-place of David, 66; in
Judah, 85 ; residence of David's pn rents,
86 ; well at, 88 ; family sepulchre of
David at, 115 ; reservoirs of Solomon
near, 253, 256
Beth-maachah, near Dan, 194
Beth-mi llo, see Millo
Beth-rehob, kingdom of, assists Ammon,
153
Beth-shan, on the Jordan, bodies of Saul
and his sons at, 110
Beth-zur, in the south of Judah, 86 note 3
Bezek, on the Jordan, muster of Saul's
army in, 24
Bithron, the, probably a mountain ridge,
114 note 5
Blood revenge, practice of, 117, 118. 173
Boaz, one of the pillars of Solomon's
temple, 237
Body-guard, of Saul, 75 ; of Achish, 103 ;
of David, 142, 143, 179; of Absalom,
177; of Solomon, 257; ifs quarters,
241 ; commander of the, his position
and influence, 75, 142, 270
Book of Koheleth (Ecclesiastes), 252
Book of Kings, 206
Book of Origins, 163; 200 note 3 ; 205;
227 note 2; 229; 235 note 2; 241
note 5 ; 243 vote 3 ; 246 ; 279
Book of the Upright, or Kighteous, a
collection of national songs, 282
Book of Wisdom, composed in the name
of Solomon, 318
Bozez, mountain ridge of, 33
Bronze sea, the, in the priests' court, 244
Bronze work, the, in the temple, 235
Burial-places of kings of Judah, 273
Bvblos, Greek form of Phoenician Gebal,
'226
Cabul. name of territory ceded by Solomon
to Hiram, 292
Csesarea, on the coast, 263
Caldrons used in the temple, 244
Calebite, Nabal the, 97
Canaanites. their relation to Israel, 138 ;
employed in theworksforthetemple,230
Candlesticks, the, in the Holy Place, 243
Canticles, the. composed soon after Solo
mon's era, 165, 257, 265, 282, 291
DAY
Caravanserais established in Solomon's
reign, 262
Carmel, a city in southern Judah, 38, 86
note 3
Carrael, Mount, Nabal's herds on, 97
Castle of Antonia, its position, 232 note 5
Cavalry, introduced by Solomon, 260
Census, the, in David's reign, 160 sqq.
Chalcol, a s-age, one of the sons of Mahol,
278
Chamberlain, the, an officer of Solomon's
court, 268
Chariots introduced by Solomon, 259 sq.;
imported from Egypt, 262
Chemosh, Moabite deity, altars to, erected
by Solomon, 297
Cherethites, foreign soldiers of David's
body-guard, 143
Cherubs used as decorations in the temp^,
239 ; placed over the ark, 242 sq. ; on
the bases, 244
Chimham, son of Barzillai, accompanies
David to Jerusalem, 192; maintained
at Solomon's court, 216
Chronicles, the, 207
Chronology of Saul's reign, 52 ; of David's
war with Ammon, 160
City of David, 124, 221, 258, 273
Commerce, Solomon's efforts to promote,
260 sqq.
Concubines, position of, as royal widows,
115, 182, 212
Coronation of Hebrew monarchs, 272
Court-pulpit of Solomon, the, 251
Courts, the, of Solomon's temple, 232, 240 ;
of the priests, 232 note 3, 233 note 1,
243 ; of the second temple, 232 note 4
Craft, of David, 62, 102
Crown, the, of the king of Ammon cap
tured and worn by David, 159 ; as
sumed by Solomon on his marriage,
272 ; use of by Hebrew kings, 6, 272
Cush, a Benjamite, his treachery to
David, 88
Cushi carries the tidings of Absalom's
death to David, 185 note 6, 188 sq. ;
probably one of Joab's ten armour-
bearers, 188 note 3
Cyclopean walls, 233
Damascus made tributary to David, 156 ;
occupied by Solomon, 218; commercial
roads through, 261 ; pays tribute to
Solomon, 296
Dan, in the extreme north of Israel, 162,
194 sq.
Darda, a sage, one of the sons of Mahol, 278
David, his name, 54 note; his relation to
his age, 54 sqq.; his religious nature,
58 ; his poetry, 59 ; his playing, 60,
67 ; his dancing, 60 ; his eloquence,
60; his qualifications for ruling, 61;
Y 2
324
INDEX.
DAV
his harshness, 62; his craftiness, 62;
his dissimulation, 63 ; the son of Jesse,
66, 87 note 6 ; born at Bethlehem, 66 ;
anointed by Samuel, according to the
later narrator, 66 ; sent for to soothe
Saul with his playing, 63 ; narratives
of his combat with Goliath, 69 sqq. ;
Saul's jealousy of him, 73, 77 ; marries
Michal, 74 ; is appointed commander of
Saul's body-guard, 75 ; his friendship
with Jonathan, 76, 78 ; is assisted by
Michal to escape, 77 ; takes refuge with
Samuel in Raman, 78 ; meetings with
Jonathan, 79, 81 ; compelled to floe
from Saul's dominions, 81 ; at Nob, 82 ;
repairs to Achish, king of Gath, 83 ;
feigns madness, 83 ; and is expelled,
84 ; gathers an army round him in
Judah, 85; conduct to the elders of
Judah, Sfi ; places his parents under the
care of the king of Moab, 87, 149 ; his
warriors, 88 ; relieves Keilah and de
feats the Philistines, 89 ; pursued by
Saul in the wilderness of Ziph, 92, 93 ;
visited by Jonathan. 93 ; retires to the
heights of En-gedi, 94 ; his magna
nimity to Saul, 95, 96 ; descends into
the wilderness of Paran, 97 ; insulted
by Nabal, is about to seek revenge, 98 ;
having lost Michal, marries Abigail, 99 ;
and Ahinoam, 99 ; repairs again to
Achish, 100; settles as Philistine
vassal at Ziklag, 101 ; learns the,
Gittite music, 101 ; campaigns against
the Amalekites, &c., 102; captain of the
body-guard of Achish, 103 ; dismissed
by Achish, 104 ; pursues the A male-
kites, 105 ; hears of the death of Saul
and Jonathan, 107 ; his lament, 107.
Anointed king of Judah in Hebron,
109 ; probably paid tribute to the
Philistines, 111 ; war with Ish-bosheth,
113 ; his matrimonial connexions, 115 ;
receives overtures from Abner, 116;
demands the restoration of Michal.
116; lament for Abner, 117. King of
Israel, 119 ; executes the murderers of
Ish-bosheth, 119; conquest of Jeru
salem, 121 sqq.; fortifies it, 124;
erects barracks, an arsenal, his palace,
a tabernacle for the ark, 124 ; presides
over the removal of the ark to Jerusa
lem, 127 ; his desire to erect a temple
to Jahveh, 129 sqq., 226 ; his designs,
227 ; his preparations, 228 ; his re
organisation of the Levites, 133 sq. ;
247, 318; cultivates the arts, 134;
treatment of Saul's descendants, 135
sq. ; restores his family estates to
Meribosheth, 135; surrenders seven
descendants of Saul to the Gibeonites,
136; buries the bodies of Saul and
Jonathan at Zelah, 137. His wars, 137
DRE
sqq.; military organisation, 139 sqq.;
his body-guard, 143; his levies, 144;
number of his troops, 145 ; said in the
Koran to have invented chain-armour,
146 note 2'; war with the Philistines,
148; feats of prowess. 148; conflicts
with the Amalekites, 149 ; conquest of
Moab, 149 sq. ; Aramean war, 150 sqq. ;
insulted by Hanun. king of Ammon,
152 ; marches against Hadadezer, 155 ;
defeats the Arameans, 156 ; reduces
Damascus, 156; returns triumphant to
Jerusalem, 158 ; reduces Rabbah, 159 ;
institutes the census, 160 sq. ; rebuked
by Gad, 162; three woes in his reign,
162 note 6. His temptations, 163 sqq. ;
his polygamy, 165, 169; contrives the
death of Uriah, 166 ; will not punish
Amnon, 171 ; wears mourning for him,
172 ; consents to the return of Absalom,
175; reconciled with him, 177; quits
Jerusalem on the outbreak of Absalom's
rebellion, 179 sq. ; is cursed by Shimei,
181 ; rebukes Abishai, 181 ; presents
Ziba with Meribosheth's estates, 181 :
takes refuge in Mahanaim, 184 ; length
of his absence from Jerusalem. 1 84 ; his
lamentation for Absalom, 189 ; is in
vited to return by Western Israel, 190 ;
sends Zadok and Abiathar to con
ciliate Judah, 190 ; receives the homage
of Shimei, 190 ; of Meribosheth, 191 ;
is escorted over the Jordan by Bar-
zillai, 191 ; restoration to Jerusalem,
192. His old age, 196; his prophetic
spirit, 197 sq. ; his priestly dignity,
133, 200 ; general resiilts of his career,
199 sqq. ; has Solomon proclaimed king
before his death, 211 ; death and
burial, 203 ; treasures buried in his
tomb. 228 note I ; ' sepulchres of,' 254
note 5 ; organisation of the government
afterwards attributed to him, 266 ; sub
sequent collection of his songs. 282
David, city of, 124, 221, 258, 273
Davidic kingdom, the, 307 sqq.
Deborah's (Tabor's) Terebinth, 21 note 4
Dedication of the temple, the, under Solo
mon, 245 sqq.
Dcputi es, or elders, their positi on under the
monarchy, 11, 109, 119, 216, 310 sq.
Destiny-rock, 93
Deuteronomist authors, their labours on
Solomon's life, 207
Disruption of the kingdom, the, 308 sqq.
Doeg the Edomite, at Nob, 84 ; massacres
the priests of Nob, 90
Dora, on the coast, 263
Dragon-Wfll. or Serpent's- pool, position
of the, 254 note 2, 256 note 1
Drama in Israel, the, 282
Dreams, divination by means of, 51
INDEX.
ECC
Ecclesiastes, book of, 252
Edom, Saul's wars with, 43 ; subjugation
of by Joab, 157 ; revolt and conquest
of, 217 sq. ; importance of its possession
for the navigation of the Red Sea, 263
Egypt, its magic, 50 ; relations of Israel
with, under David, 142 ; under Solomon,
220 sq. ; Hadad takes refuge in, 217 ;
commercial road from, 261
Egyptian manners and civilisation, in
fluence of, on Israel, 225, 260, 266, 268,
270, 271, 273
Egyptian princess, married to Solomon,
220 sq., 272 ; her residence, 221, 249
note 2, 250
Ekron, a Philistine city, 72
Elath, Gulf of, in the Red Sea, 217
Elath, harbour of, 263
Elders, or deputies, their position under
the monarchy, 11, 109, 119, 216, 310 sq.
Eleazar, son of Dodo, colonel in David's
army, 141
Eleutheropolis, its position, 89 note 4
Elhanan, son of Jair, slays Goliath of
Gath, 70, 148
Eli, fate of the house of, 213
' Eliashib's house,' 248 note 11
Endor, witch of, 51
En-gedi, on the shore of the Dead Sea,
94 ; David at, 96, 97
Ephes-dammim, a mountain in western
Judah, 68
Ephraim, city of, 172 note 1
Ephraim, forest of, 185 note 6
Ephraim, tribe of, its claims and dignity,
48, 304 ; land of, Ish-bosheth king
over, 112
Erech, a city in Ephraim, 181
Eshtemoa, a city in the south of Judah,
86 note 3
Estates of the realm, see Deputies
Etam, near Bethlehem, Solomon's parks
at, 256
Ethan, a musician, 248 ; and a sage, 278 ;
great grandson of Samuel, 278 note 2
Ethiopian Christians, their legends of
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, 284
note 2, 285 note 2, 319
Eunuchs, introduction of, 271
Euphrates, the, contest of David with the
king of Zobah on its banks, 1 52 ;
boundary of the kingdom of Zobah, 154 ;
of Solomon's empire, 221
Ezion Geber, harbour of, on the Red Sea,
2fi3
Ezrah, a Levite, ancestor of Ethan and
Heman, 278 note 2
Finances of the kingdom under Solomon,
293 sqq.
Fire, sacred, at the dedication of the tem
ple, 247
GIB
Footstool, the sacred [A.V. ' mercy-seat '],
242 sq.
Forecourts of the temple, see Courts
Fortification of Jerusalem by David, 124
sq. ; by Solomon, 258
Fortresses, circle of, erected by Solomon,
259
Freeholders, their origin and position, 18,
42, 293 note 1
' Friend,' the king's, a minister of state,
266
Friendship of David and Jonathan, 76
Fureidis, modern Arabic name of a hill
near Bethlehem, 256
Gad, land of, 162
Gad, a prophet, joins David in the Wilder
ness, 89 ; rebukes him for the census,
162 ; harmonious action with David. 300
Gad, tribe of, eleven heroes join David in
the wilderness, 87
Gates of Jerusalem, 254 note 5
Gates of the temple, 241
Gath, a Philistine city, 70, 72 ; David's
flight to, 84; his settlement at, 101 ;
gigantic warriors from, 148 ; had a king
of its own under Solomon, 148 note 9 ;
Shimei pursues his slaves to, 215
Gath, a city in the south of Judah, 86
note 3
Gaza, on the Egyptian frontier, 221, 261
Gazerites, see Geshur
Gebal, a Phoenician city celebrated for its
science, 226
Gehenna, see Hinnom
Gehinnom, see Hinnom
Generosity of David towards his enemies,
94
Genubath, son of the Edomite prince
Hadad, 217
Geshur, king of, 115 ; kingdom of, Absa
lom takes refuge in, 172, 175 ; land of,
Ish-bosheth king over, 112
Gezer, west of Jerusalem, Philistines
pursued to, 147, 148; revolts against
Solomon, 218 ; captured by the king of
Egypt, 221 ; fortified by Solomon, 259.
See Geshur
Gibborim, the, regiment of, 139, 143 ;
accompany David on his flight from
Jerusalem, 179 sq. ; employed to quell
Sheba's revolt, 193 ; support Solomon's
claim, 210; Solomon's guards, 257'
Gibeah of Benjamin, probably the present
Geba, 22 note 1
Gibeah of Saul, his residence, 19, 22, 48,
136; seat of his government, 82, 103 ;
troops stationed at, under Jonathan, 30
Gibeon, encounter between Abner and
Joab at, 114; ancient tabernacle re
mains at, 125, 134; defeat of the
Philistines at, 147 ; its situation, 147
INDEX.
GIB
note 6; murder of Amasa at, 193;
tabernacle removed from, 245 ; God
appears to Solomon at, 316 sq.
Gibeonites, the, Saul's cruelty to, 135 sq. ;
revenge on Saul's descendants, 136
Gihon, valley of, west of Jerusalem, 124
Gihon, well of, north of Jerusalem, 210
note 1, 253 sq.
Gilboa, Mount, defeat of Saul at, 106
Gilead, east of the Jordan, 162; occupied
by Absalom, 185
Gilgal, on the south-west bank of the
Jordan, assembly at, 25, 28 ; political
and religions importance of, 29 ; Saul
sacrifices at, 38
Giloh, city of Judah, 176, 178
Gittite style of music, 101
Goliath, narratives of his combat with
David, 69 sqq.
Goliath of Gath, slain by Elhanan, 70, 148
Goren-Nachon, afterwards called Perez-
Uzzah, 126
Gothic kings in Spain, possessed Solomon's
golden table, 319
ypaufj-ar^vs, an officer at Eastern courts,
267 note 5
Grove, the sacred, in the temple, 245
Groves, connected with the 'heights,' 306
Hachilah, hill of, in the wilderness of
Ziph, 06
Hachtnoni, father of Jashobeam, 141
Hadad, prince of Edom, 217
Hadadezer, king of Zobah, 150; assists
the Ammonites, 152 ; defeated by Joab,
155; by David, 156; golden arms of
his body-guard, 264
Hadoram, son of Toi, king of Hamath,
carries presents to David, 156
Hasrgith, wife of David, mother of Adoni-
jah, 209
Halamath, its situation, 153, 155
llaleb (Aleppo), identified by Jews of the
Middle Ages with Zobah, 153
Hamath, kingdom of, on the Orontes,
154, 156; attempts to revolt under
Solomon, 218 ; conquered by Solomon,
220, 261
JTammon, for Baal-hamon, 257 note 3
Hanan, son of Igdaliah, a prophet and
teacher in Jerusalem, 14 note 1, 240
llanun succeeds Nahash, king of Ammon,
151 ; insults David, 152 ; his daughter
Naamah married to Solomon, 312 note 3
Harem, the royal, under Solomon, 250,
271
Ilareth, forest of, in Judah, 89
Havilah, Amalekites defeated at, by Saul,
38
Havilah, in the east, its position, 264 note 2 I
Hnzor, in the north, fortified by Solomon,
259
ISR
Hebron, in the south of Judah, 86 note 3 ;
David king at, 109 ; placeof meeting for
the national assembly, 119, 312; out
break of Absalom's rebellion at, 178
Heights, adopted in Israel, 306
Heman, a musician, 248 ; and a sage, 278
Hepher, land of, in the tribe of Manasseh,
295 note 5
Hermon, northern boundary of the area
of David's census, 162
Hezekiah, king of Judah, improves the
water supply of Jerusalem, 254, 256 ;
dismisses Shebna, 269 ; his place of
burial, 273
High priest, his quarters on Zion, 248
High priesthood, the double, under David,
134 ; confined to the house of Eleazar
after the death of Abiathar, 2 1 3
Hilkiah, a high priest, 268 note 5
Hinnom, valley of, south of Jerusalem,
124, 254 note 5
Hiram, king of Tyre, assists Solomon in
the erection of the temple, 226 sqq. ;
exchanges problems with him, 277 ;
receives twenty cities in payment, 292 ;
whether Solomon married his daughter,
297 note 2
Hiram, a Phoenician artist, 227 ; his
metal work, 241 note 5
Historian, the court, under the kings, 270
Historical composition, progress of the
art of, 282
Hittite kings, their traffic in horses, 262
Holy of Holies, the, in the temple, 235,
238 sq., 242 sq., 246
Holy Place, the, in the temple, 235, 238,
243, 246
Hormah, in the south of Judah, 86 note 3
Horses, importation of, from Egypt, under
Solomon, 259 sq., 262
Hushai, David's 'friend,' 181; received
by Absalom, 182; frustrates Ahitho-
phel's counsel, 183
Hyrcanus, high priest, opened the tomb
of David, 228 note 1
Iddo, a prophet under Solomon, 301
Idumeans, the, see Edom
India, trade with, under Solomon, 264
Ira, an officer at David's court, 268 note 6
Isaiah, the prophet, procures the dis
missal of Shebna, 269
Ishbi-benob, a Philistine giant, his com
bat with David, 148
Ish-bosheth, son of Saul, reigns over
Israel, 109 ; seat of his government
transferred to Mahanaim, 112; his re
lations with Moab, 150 ; power of his
general Abner, 266 note 4 ; murdered,
118 ; his murderers punished, 119, 136
Islam, legends of Solomon, 319
Israel, Ish-bosheth king over, 112; David
INDEX.
327
ITH
king over, 119, 120 sqq. ; intercourse
with other nations, 276
Ithmah, a Moabite, 144 note 3
Ittai, of Gath, 144 note 3 ; accompanies
David on his flight from Jerusalem,
179 ; commands a division of the army
against Absalom, 1 86
Jabbok, the, tributary of the Jordan, 112
note 1
Jabesh Gilead, besieged by Nahash, 24;
Saul's aid to the inhabitants of, 44 ;
citizens of, rescue Saul's body, 110, 137
Jachin, name of one of the pillars of
Solomon's temple, 237
Jahveh, use of, in compound names, 168
note 1
' Jahveh of Armies' [A. V. Lord of Hosts],
meaning of, 62, 73
' Jahveh's Anointed,' position of the king
as, 6, 45, 65, 81, 95, 107
Jair, father of Elhanan, 70
Jashobeam, son of Hachmoni, colonel in
David's army, 141
Jattir, in the south of Judah, 86 note 3
Jazer, land of, 162
Jebus, or Jerusalem, originally a Canaan-
ite fortress, 121
Jebusite, Araunah the, 163
Jedidiah, name conferred on Solomon, 168
Jeduthun, a temple musician, 248
Jehoiachim, king of Judah, place of his
burial, 273 note 6
Jerahmeelites, the, in the south of Judah,
86 note 3 ; attacked by David, 102
Jeroboam, his origin, 304 ; his insurrec
tion, 305 ; his sojourn in Egypt, 312;
returns to Zereda, 313; is chosen king
of Israel, 314
Jerusalem, conquest of, by David, 121
sqq. ; meaning of the name, 122 note 1 ;
its topography, 123 sq. ; fortified by
David, 124; David's palace in, 249;
its water supply, 252 sq. ; its walls
and gates, 254 note 5 ; additional for
tifications of Solomon, 258 sq. ; its
growing importance, 305 sqq. ; import
ance to it of the permanence of David's
house, 311
Jesse, father of David, 66, 87 note 6
Jezreel, Philistine victory at, 105 ; a name
for the vale of Galilee, 112 note 3
Jezreel, a city of Judah, 99
Joab, son of Zeruiah, David's commander-
in-chief, 113, 122 note 4, 144, 269;
assassinates Abner, 117; assists David
in laying out Jerusalem, 124; carries
out the census, 162; effects the return
of Absalom, 173, 175; commands a
division of the army against Ab
salom, 186; despatches Absalom,
187; to be replaced by Amasa, 190;
KIN
murders Amasa, 194; pursues Sheba
and besieges Abel, 195; supports the
conspiracy of Adonijah, 210 ; executed
by Benniah, 214
Joab, well of, 210 note 1
Joash, king of Judah, his place of burial,
273 note 2
Job, well of, 210 note 1
Jouadab, nephew of David, 170, 172
Jonathan, eldest son of Saul, 30 ; called
the ' Gazelle,' 30 ; slays the Philistine
officer in Gibeah, 30; attacks the
Philistine camp, 34 ; his age at the
commencement of Saul's reign, 52;
divines David's future greatness, 66 ;
friendship for David, 76; secures
David's escape, 78-81 ; parts from
David in the wilderness of Ziph, 92 ;
falls in the battle on Mount Gilboa,
106; fate of his body, 110; buried
at Zelah by David, 137
Jonathan, son of Abiathar, a priest, con
veys tidings to David of Absalom's
movements, 183 ; joins the conspiracy
of Adonijah, 211
Jonathan, son of Shimeah, nephew of
David, slays a giant of Gath, 148
Joppa, harbour of, 221, 235, 263
Joram, king of Judah, his place of burial,
273 note 2
Jordan, river, 110; districts on the east
loyal to Saul's house, 112; David
crosses it on his flight from Jerusalem,
184; on his return, 190; commercial
roads past, 261
Josiah, king of Judah, place of his burial,
273 note 6
Judah, kingdom of, under David, 109 sqq.;
tribe of, its discontent, 176 ; holds
aloof under Amasa after Absalom's
death, 190, 192; position at the dis
ruption of the kingdom, 311 sqq.
Justice, administration of, by the kings,
173, 176, 177, 250, 251
Keilah, city of, besieged by the Philis
tines, 89 ; occupied by David, 91
Kenites, the, among the Amalekites, 38 ;
in the south of Judah, 86 note 3 ; at
tacked by David, 102
Kidron, the brook, east of Jerusalem,
124; crossed by David in his flight, 180;
supplied water for Jerusalem, 253 sq.;
valley of, 254 note 5
King, his position with reference to the
Theocracy, 6 ; his sceptre, 6 ; his crown,
6 ; his unction, 6, 7 ; his title, 6; bound
to obey the law, 7 ; David a true king
of Jahveh, 201 ; prophetic view of the
true king, 315
Kingdom, the, its origin and development
in Israel, 12, 13 ; under David, 120 sqq.;
military organisation of, 139 sqq. ;
INDEX.
KIN
under Solomon, 201 sqq. ; administra
tion of, 266 sqq. ; its disruption, 308
sqq. See Monarchy
King's right, not to be confounded with
state-right, 27 note 6
Kings, book of, 206
Kinisrin, identified with Zobah by Jaqut,
154 note 2
Kirjath-jearim, removal of the ark from,
126
Kish, the father of Saul, 18
Koheleth, book of (Ecclesiastes), 252
Kommagene, identified with Zobah by
Eupolemus, 154 note 2
Laver, the priests', 243 sq.
Lebanon, northern boundary of the area
of the census, 162; timber and stone
brought from, for the temple, 230, 234
sq. ; Solomon's estates on, 257
Lebanon, ' House of the Forest of,' 249 ;
used as an armoury, 250 note 1
Lechi, victory of Shammah at, 141
Levites, massacre of, at Nob, 90; take
part in the removal of the ark, 129 ;
their reorganisation by David, 133 sq.,
247, 318 ; their quarters in the temple,
241 ; further organisation by Solomon,
247 sq.
Levy, the king's right of, of troops, 144,
293 ; of labour, 230, 293
Lion, the, the ensign of Judah, 250
Literature, progress of, under Solomon,
275 sqq.
Lo-debar, east of the Jordan, 185
Lot, use of the sacred, 23, 34, 36
Maachah, kingdom of, 153
Maachah, king of Gath, 215 note 3
Machir, son of Ammiel of Lo-debar,
shelters Meribosheth, 135 ; assists
David, 185
Magic, arts of. practised in Israel, 44, 51
Mahanaim, east of the Jordan, the seat of
Is-h-bosheth's government, 112; David
takes refuge in, 184 ; siege of, 185
Mahol, the sons of, famous for their
wisdom, 278
Mam ilia, pool of, not identical with the
Gihon, 254 note 2 ; possibly the same
as the Serpent's-pool, 256 note 1
Manasseh, king of Judah, place of his
burial, 273
Manners of Israel, under Solomon, 271
sqq.
Maon, in Judah, David and his troops at,
85, 93, 97
Mareshah, a city near Keilah, south of
Eltmtheropolis, 89 note 4
Mariamne, name of a mural tower built
by Herod, 238
Mary, Church of St., on the temple
mountain, 232 note 5
MOR
Mazkir, the, at Solomon's court, 267, 270
note 11
Medeba, in the tri':e of Reuben, invested
by the Ammonites, 154
Megiddo, in the plain of Galilee, fortified
by Solomon, 259
Melchi-shua, son of Saul, falls on Mount
Gilboa, 106
Mephibosheth, see Meribosheth
Merab, eldest daughter of Saul, 74 ; her
five sons given up to the Gibeonites,
136 sqq.
Meribosheth, son of Jonathan, 119; re
ceives his family estates from David,
135; remains in Jerusalem at the out
break of Absalom's rebellion, 181 ;
does homage to David, 191
Mercy Seat, see Footstool
Messiah, see Anointed of Jahvch
Messianic hopes, origin of the, 11, 202
sq.
Michal, second daughter of Saul, 73 ;
married to David, 74 ; assists him to
escape from Saul, 77 ; taken away from
David, 99; restored to him, 116; her
contempt for him, 127
Michmash, Saul with his troops at, 30;
Philistine camp at, 31 ; war of, 33 sqq.
Midian, on the Gulf of Elath, 217
Milcom, altar to, built by Solomon, 297
Millo, a fortification erected at Jerusalem
by Solomon, 258, 259 note 1
Mishneh, i.e. New Town, a part of Jeru
salem, 259
Mizpeh, north-west of Jerusalem, assem
bly at, 23
Moab, Saul's wars with, 43 ; relations
with Israel, 87 ; repressed by Saul, 149 ;
relations with Ish-bosheth, 1 50 ; con
quest of, by David, 150 ; remains faith
ful to David in Absalom's rebellion,
184; pays tribute to Solomon, 296
Molech, not to be identified Avith Milcom,
297 note 3
Monarchy, its defects, 8 sqq. ; its founda
tion under Saul, 15 sqq., 25, 36,46; its
consolidation under David, 120 sqq.; its
military organisation, 139 sqq. ; its rela
tions with the priesthood, 200, 267 sq.,
297 ; its splendour under Solomon, 204
sqq.; its administration, 266 sqq. ;
relations to prophetism, 298 sq. ; esta
blished in Israel, 307 ; its disruption,
308 sqq.
Mons Scandali, origin of the name, 297
note 3
Moreh, Canaanite proper name, connected
with Moriah, 230 note 4
Moresheth Gath, the ark detained there
three months, 127
Moriah, Mount, north-east of Zion, the
site of the temple, 230 ; cause of its
sanctity, 231
INDEX.
329
MOS
Mosque El-Aqsa, on the temple mountain,
232 note 5
Mosque El-Sachra, position of, 233 note I
Music, David's skill in, 60, 67; the H-ittite,
101; in the temple services, 248; de
velopment of, in Solomon's time, 283
Naamah, mother of king Eehoboam, 312
Nabal, his residence at Maon, 97 ; insults
David's messengers, 98 ; dies, 99
Nahash, king of Ammon, besieges Jabesh
Gilead, 24 ; death of, 151; succeeded
by Hanun, 151
Nahash, husband of Zeruiah, 87 note 6
Nahash, of Rabbah, an Ammonite, 185
Names, formation of proper, in -jak, 168
note 1
Nay>htali, tribe of, on the Sidonian bor
ders, 227
Nathan, son of David, by Bath-sheba,
165 note 4
Nathan, the prophet, forbids David to •
erect the temple, 131 sqq. ; rebukes
David for his intrigue with Bath-sheba,
167; supports Solomon's claim, 209;
relations with Solomon, 219, 300, 302 ;
belonged to the priesthood, 302
Navigation of the Red Sea, 263 sqq.
Nebat, father of Jeroboam, 304
Necromancy, art of. introduced from
Egypt, 50
Ner, uncle of Saul, 18 note 1, 22 note 4
Nesstbin (Nisibis), identified by the early
Christians with Zobah, 152
Nezib, east of Eleutheropolis, 89 note 4
Nob, David's visit to, 82 ; massacre of the
priests at, 91
Nobility, origin of a hereditary order of,
42
Obed-Elom receives the ark into his
house, 126
Olives, Mount of, east of Zion, 180, 231,
297
Omens, use of, 16, 21, 28,34, 39,126; from
the rustling of leaves, 147 note 5
Ophel, site of Solomon's palace on, 249,
254 note 5
Ophir, its situation, 264-
Ophrah, baud of Philistine marauders
at, 33
Oracle, divination by the, 51, 82, 89, 91,
136
Origins, book of, 163, 200 note 3, 205, 227
note 2, 229, 235 note 2, 241 note 5, 243
note 3, 246, 279
Orna, or Araunah, 163
Oman, or Orna, 163
Orontes, river, 154, 156
Palms, used as decoration in the temple,
239 ; on the bases, 244 ; in the sacred
grove, 245
PRO
Palmyra, orTadmor, founded by Solomon.
261
Paneas, fortress of, called Zobaiba by
Abulfida, 154 note 2
Paran, wilderness of, 97; city of, 217
Pas-dammim, victory of Elenzar at, 141
Pelethites, soldiers of David's body-guard,
143
Perazim, Mount, identified with Baal-
perazim, 147 notes 1, 6
Perez-Uzzah, origin of the name, 126
Persian drachmas, 229
Phaltiel, husband of Michal, compelled
to relinquish her, 116
Phasael, name of a mural tower built by
Herod, 238
Philistines, severity of their oppression of
Israel, 33 sqq. ; defeated by Saul and
Jonathan in the war of Michmash, 34
sq. ; Saul's wars with, 43 ; 200 of them
slain by David and his men, 75 ; defeated
by David, 89 ; their victory at Jezreel,
103 ; and at Mount Gilboa, 106 ; pro
bably received tribute from David, 111;
defeated by David at Baal-perazim,
146 sq. ; support the revolt of Gezer,
218; pay tribute to Solomon, 296
Philosophy, or wisdom, its progress under
Solomon, 276 sqq.
Phoenicians, their tranquillity xinder Solo
mon, 218 ; their skill as architects, 219 ;
influence of their civilisation, 225 ; as
sist in the navigation of the Red Sea,
262 sq. ; their skill in solving problems,
277
Pilgrimages of Foreigners to Jerusalem,
277
Pillars, the, of the temple ^37
Plague, the, in David's reign, 162 sq.
Poetry, lyric, completely developed in
David, 59, 275
Polygamy, of David, its evil consequences,
165 ; its influence on the administra
tion of the kings, 272
Porch, the, of the temple, 236
Prerogative, the king's, 41; of mercy,
214 sq.
Priesthood, hereditary, its connexion with
the monarchy, 133 ; its position under
Solomon, 267, 299
Priests, massacre of, at Nob, 90 ; their
organisation under David, 125 sqq. ;
their position at the time of the re
moval of the ark, 129 ; their quarters
in the temple, 238, 240 ; their fore
court, 243 ; their part in the dedication
of the temple, 245
Princes, i.e. superior officers, 270
Prophetism, development of under Solo
mon, 299 sqq.
Prophets, position of, under the monarchy,
6, 131, 162, 167 sqq., 219, 299 sqq.,
310
330
INDEX.
PRO
' Prophets,' ' Saul among the,' 50
Proseucha. 210 note 1
Proverbs, composition of, by Solomon,
280
Proverbs, book of, 318
Psalms of David, 56, 134. 197
Psalms of Solomon, 219, 281, 319 note 1
Ps. ii., circumstances of its composition,
219 ; authorship of, 281
Ps. iii.. origin and composition of, 185,
196 note I
Ps. iv., origin and composition of, 185,
197 note 1
Ps. xviii., composition of, 159, 164
Ps. xxiv., composition of, 128
Ps. xxviii., probably composed by king
Josiah, 251 note 2
Ps. xxxii., origin and composition of, 167,
197 note 2
Ps. lx., composition of, 158
Ps. Ixviii.. composition of, 128
Ps. ci., composition of J28 sq.
Ps. ex., composition of, 158
Psusennes, last king of the Tanitic dynasty
in Egypt, 220
Pulpit, the royal, in the temple court, 251 ;
the court-pulpit, ibid.
Queen-mother, the, her position at the
court. 272
Eabbah, the capital of Ammon, 151, 185 ;
besieged by Joab, 154, 165 ; reduced by
David, 159
Rachel, sepulchre of, 21
Ramah, residence of Samuel at, 19, 47;
school of the prophets at, 50
Ramoth, in Judah, 86 note 3
Rechab. an officer of Ish-bosheth's, mur
ders him, 118, 136
Red Sea, the, navigation of, 263 sq.
Rehoboam, son of Solomon, succeeds him,
312 sq. ; prepares for war with the Ten
Tribes, 314
Religion of Jahveh, its spirituality, 130
sq. ; its requirements, 288 sqq.
Religions, foreign, toleration of, by Solo
mon, 297 sq.
Rephaim, valley of, 146 ; its situation,
147 note 6
Revenues, royal, under Solomon, 292 sqq.
Rezon, one of Hadadezer's generals, 156 ;
defeated by Solomon's troops, 218
Righteous, or Upright, book of the, a
collection of national songs, 282
Rizpah, Saul's concubine, married to Ab-
ner, 115 ; her two sons given up to the
Gibeonites, 136 sq.
Rogel, well of, south-east of Jerusalem,
253
Rogelim, in Gilead, 185
SEA
Sabaoth, Jahveh of [A.V. Lord of Hosts],
62, 73
Sabbath-pulpit, in the temple court, 251
Salem, a northern city, on the Jordan,
187 note 2
Salt valley, the, the Idumeans defeated in,
157
Samuel, anoints Saul at Ramah, 20 ;
summons an assembly at Mizpeh, 23* ;
lays down his office, 28 ; rejects Saul
for sacrificing at Grilgal, 31 sq. : for
sparing Agag, 39 ; sacrifices Agag him
self, 39 ; concedes full powers to the
king, 41 ; breach between himself and
Saul, 47 sq. ; anoints David, 65 sq. ;
protects him from the jealousy of Saul,
78; dies two years before Saul, 53;
organisation of the Levites referred to
him by the Chronicler, 247
Sanctuary, the, right of refuge in, 214 ; in
the temple, 235, 238 sq. ; its furniture.
241 sqq. ; importance conferred on
Jerusalem by, 306
Saph, a Philistine giant, slain by Sibbe-
chai, 148
Saul, a Benjamite, the son of Kish, 18:
his genealogy, 18 note 1 ; visits Samuel
to inquire for the lost asses, 19 ; is
anointed by him, 20 ; encounters the
three signs, 21 ; relieves Jabesh Gilead,
24; his authority confirmed at Gilgal,
25 ; later representations of his elec
tion, 27 ; raises levies against the
Philistines, 30 ; rejected by Samuel for
sacrificing at Gilgal, 31 ; attacks the
Philistines, 34 ; his vow, 35; campaign
against the Amalekites, 37 ; rejected by
Samuel for sparing Agag, 39 ; his royal
prerogative, 43 ; his wars, 43 ; expels
sorcerers, 44; his jealousy, 46; real
cause of his breach with Samuel, 47 ;
among the prophets at Ramah, 50 ;
duration of his reign. 51 ; consults the
witch of Endor, 51 ; his jealousy of
David, 73 ; attempts to kill him, ibid. ;
anger with Jonathan, 78, 80 ; orders
the massacre of the priests at Nob, 90 ;
pursues David in the wilderness of
Ziph, 92 sq. ; at En-gedi, 94 ; narratives
of David's magnanimity towards him,
95, 96 ; his relations with Moab, 149 ;
his death at the battle of Mount Gil-
boa. 106 ; treatment of his body by the
Philistines, 110; buried at Zelah by
David, 137; his descendants, 135 sq. ;
his cruelty to the Gibeonites, 136; his
estates. 181, 191
Sceptre, the. a mark of royalty, 6. 73. 272
Schools of the prophets. 21 ; at Ramnh,
49 sq. 89 ; development of poetry in, 59
Science, commencement of, in Israel, 275
Sea, the bronze, in the temple, 214, 251
note 4
INDEX.
331
SEN
Seneh, mountain ridge of, 33
Serpent-stone, the, conspiracy of Adonijah
at. 210 note 1
Serpent's pool, or Dragon-well, position
of the, 254 note 2, 256 note 1
Shaaraim, a city of Judah, 72
Shalish, title of an officer in David's army,
140
Shalisha, situation of, 19 note 3 ; shortened
from Baal- shalisha, 257 note 3
Shammah, son of Agee, a colonel in
David's army, 141
Shaveh, ancient name for Salem, 187
note 2
Sheba, son of Bichri, revolt of, 193 sqq. ;
flees t0 Abel, 194 ; put to death by the
inhabitants, 195
Sheba, its position, 284 note 2
Sheba, queen of, visits Solomon, 277, 284
Shebna, chamberlain of Hezekiah, 269 ;
of Ahaz, 271 note 1
Shechem, in Ephraim, meeting of the
deputies in, 312
Shemaiah, a prophet, 301 ; forbids Keho-
boam to make war on the Ten Tribes,
314
Shephelah, the. the great plain of Judah,
85
Shiloh, ancient sacred city in Ephraim,
301, 304
Shimeah, brother of David, father of Jon-
adab, 170
Shiraei, son of Gerar, insults David on his
flight, 181 ; does homage to him on his
return, 190 ; executed by Solomon's
orders, 215
Shobi, son of Nahash of Rabbah, assists
David. 184
Shochoh, a city of Judah, 65
Shunem, probably identical with Solam,
103 note 5
Shur, on the Egyptian frontier, 38
Sibbeohai, slays a Philistine giant, 148
Sidonian artists, assist Solomon in the
erection of the temple, 226
Silla, or Sulla, a flight of steps at Jeru
salem, 258 note 3
Siloah, well of, 254
Solomon, son of David, his birth, 168 ;
his name, 204 note 1, 223 note 1, 270 :
authorities for his history, 205 ; age at
his accession. 208 ; proclaimed king,
211; has Adonijah executed, 212;
banishes Abiathar from Jerusalem, 213 ;
has Joab executed. 214 ; and Shimei,
215 ; his foreign relations, 216 sqq. ;
his wars, 21 6-221 ; marries an Egyptian
princess, 220. Organisation of his go
vernment, 224 pqq ; resolves to erect
the temple. 226 ; preparations for it,
229 sqq. ; its various parts, 235-245 ;
presides at its dedication, 246 sq. ; his
palace, 248 sqq. ; its site, 249 ; its
TAB
various parts, 249 sq. ; his porch, 250 ;
his throne, ibid. ; his entry to the tem
ple, 251 ; his court- and sabbath -pul
pits, ibid. ; his public works, 251 sqq. ;
improves the water supply of Jerusalem,
253 ; his gardens and parks, 256.
Measures for the security of the realm,
257 sqq. ; towers and vineyards, 257 ;
fortifies Jerusalem, 258 ?q. ; erects a
chain of forts round the kingdom, 259 ;
introduces a new style of arms, 259 sq. ;
promotes trade, 260 sqq. ; by land, 261
sq. ; by sea, 262 sqq. ; his revenues,
264, 293 ; his state, 265, 271 ; his
administration, 266 sqq. ; his officers,
overseers, &c., 270 ; manners of his
court, 270 sqq. ; his mule, 271. Pro
gress in science, art, and literature
during his reign, 274 sqq. ; sends
problems to Hiram, 277 ,' is visited by
the queen of Sheba, 277, 284; his
wisdom, 279 sqq. ; composes proverbs,
280 ; and songs, 281 ; his -wives, 291 •
and lavish expenditure, 292 ; surrpn-
ders twenty cities to Hiram, 292 ;
supply of his table, 295 ; relation to
the priesthood. 296 sqq. ; his toleration
of heathen religions, 297 sq. ; whether
he married a daughter of Hiram, 297
note 2 ; officiated occasionally as high
pripst. 299 ; his relation to prophetism,
299 sqq. ; instability of his rule, 307
sq. ; later representations of his great
ness, 242, 315 sq. ; God appears to him
in Gibeon, 316; his judgment between
the harlots. 316; his age, 317 note 2 ;
place of his burial, 273 sq. ; subse
quently venerated for his wisdom, 318 ;
his ring, 319 ; said to have understood
the language of animals, 319 ; the
ancestor of the Ethiopian-Christian
kings, 319 ; his golden table, 319
Solyma, origin of the name, 122 note 1
Song of Solomon, 165, 257, 265, 282, 291
Songs, of David, 57, 67, 134, 197 ; of
Solomon, 281 ; collections of, 282
Sophene, not to be identified with Zobah,
1 54 note 2
Sopher, the. officer at Solomon's court, 267
Steps, the flight of, from Solomon's palace
to the temple, 251
Succoth, in the Jordan valley, 235
Suffa, Mount, north of Hauran, ] 54 note 2
Sultan's pool, the, at Jerusalem, 254 note 5
Tabernacle, of the ark at Jerusalem, 129 ;
the Mosaic, at Gibeon, 129 ; relation
of its dimensions to the temple, 235 ;
removed from Gibeon, 245
Table, the sacred, in the Holy Place, 243
Table, Solomon's golden, 319
Tabor, the Terebinth of, 21
332
INDEX.
TAD
Tadmor, or Thammor (Palmyra), built by
Solomon, 261
Tahpanes, an Egyptian queen, 217
Talmai, king of Geshur, grandfather of
Absalom, 172
Tamar, daughter of David, 170 ; outraged
by Amnon, 171
Tarshish, ships of, 263 note I
Taxation of Israel under Solomon, 293 sq.
Tebah, a city near Zobah, 153
Tekoa, wise woman of, 173 sq. ; near
Bethkerem, 256 note 5
Telaim, on the southern frontier of Judah,
37
Temple, David's idea of erecting one at
Jerusalem, 129 sq. ; accumulates trea
sures for it, 196, 226, 228
Temple of Solomon, his resolve to erect
it, 226 ; preparations for, 229 ; labour
employed in, 230; site of, 231; foun
dations and forecourts of, 232, 233,
234 ; its noiseless erection, 234 ; tim
ber and stone for, 2 "5 ; relation of its
dimensions to those of the tabernacle,
235 ; the sacred house (Naos), 235 ;
the porch, 236 ; the pillars, 237 ; its
outer chambers, 238 ; its roof, 238 ; its
windows, 239 ; its doors and decora
tions, 239 ; its portico, outer court, and
gateways, 240 ; its furniture, 241 sqq. ;
its grove, 245 ; length of time of its
erection, 245; festival of its dedication,
245 sqq. ; importance conferred by it
upon Jerusalem, 306
Temple, mount of the, 230 note 4
Temple, the second, 232 note 4
Terebinth of Tabor, 21
Thapsacus, on the Euphrates, 221, 261
Theocracy, the, its relation to the mo
narchy, 3 sqq. ; its reconciliation with
the Basileo-Theocracy, 200, 205
Tob, land of, 153
Toi, king of Hamath, 156
Towers, of David, 257 ; of Solomon, in
Antilibanus 257
Treason, nature and guilt of, 6
Tyre, Hiram, king of, 226 sq., 277, 292,
297 note 2
Tyropoeon, valley of the, north of Zion,
124, 254 sq., 258
Unction, the, of the kings, 6, 7, 20, 66,
211, 272
"Upright, book of the, 282
Uriah the Hittite, a Gibbor, 139 note 5 ;
his prowess, 143 ; his religion, 144 note
3 ; falls before Kabbah, 166
ZUP
Uzza's garden, 273 note 5
Uzzah, son of Abinadab. struck dead at
the removal of the ark, 126
Vaphres, an Egyptian king, 225 note 2
Virgin, fount of the, at Jerusalem, 254
War, booty in, 37, 106
AVars, the, of Saul, 43; of David, 146-160;
of Solomon, 216-221
Water supply of Jerusalem, 252 sq.
Wisdom or philosophy, progress of, 276
sqq.; of Solomon, 279, 318
Wisdom, book of, 318
Witch of Endor, 51
Zadok, appointed high priest with Abia-
thar, 134 ; offers to accompany David
on his flight, 180; sent to conciliate
Judah after Absalom's death, 190 ;
supports Solomon's claim, 209 ; his
house receives the high priesthood
alone, 213 ; and retains it, 268
Zarthan, in the Jordan valley, 235
Zeboim, valley of, 33
Zelah, family tomb of Saul at, 137
Zelek, an Ammonite, 144 note 3
Zereda, in Ephraim, native place of Jero
boam, 304
Zeruiah, sister of DaATid, mother of Joab,
Abishai, and Asahel, 113
Zibih, house-steward of Saul, 135 ; brings
David a present on his flight, 181 ; does
homage to David, 190 ; divides Saul's
estates with Mephibosheth, 191
Ziklag, a Philistine city, David's settle
ment at, 101 ; sacked by the Amalekites,
104
Zion, i.e. dry mountain, 121, 123, 125,
163, 221, 254, 273, 288, 304; David's
grave upon, 203, 228 note 1 ; quarters
of the high priest on, 248 ; arsenal on,
250 note 1 ; fortification of, by Solomon,
258 sq.
Ziph, wilderness of, south-east of Hebron,
92, 93
Zobah, Saul's wars with the kings of, 43 ;
kingdom of, 150 ; its situation, 152 sq ;
remains faithful to David in Absalom's
rebellion, 184 ; bronze acquired in the
conquest of, 229
Zobaiba, not to be identified with Zobah,
1 54 note 2
Zuph, land of, 19 note 3
END OF THE THIRD VOLUME.
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