the Lord. He wishes you to go to war with the men of Amalek.” Now the
Amalekites were the oldest enemies of Israel. They lived down south in
the deserts, and had been the first to attack the Israelites when they
came out of Egypt. And ever since, they had been like the wild Indians
in the days of our forefathers. They would dash up, with bows and
arrows, and fire upon the villages of the Israelites and kill the
people. “Now,” said Samuel, “you must go to war with these savages and
destroy them utterly. You must not leave any of them alive, and you must
destroy all that they have, that they may be no more a nation.”
So Saul marched against the Amalekites, and won a great victory. But he
did not as Samuel had told him. He spared Agag, king of the Amalekites,
and the best of the sheep and oxen. And back he came, and his victorious
army, driving the cattle before them, and bringing Agag as a captive.
That night the word of the Lord came to Samuel, and the Lord said, “Saul
has turned back from following me, and has not performed my
commandments.” And it grieved Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all
night. And early in the morning Samuel went to meet Saul, and Saul
greeted him and said, “Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the
commandment of the Lord.” And Samuel said, “What, then, is the meaning
of this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen
which I hear?” And Saul said, “The people spared the best of the sheep
and oxen to sacrifice them to the Lord.” And Samuel said to Saul, “Stop!
let me tell you what the Lord said to me last night.” And Saul said,
“Say on.” And Samuel said, “The Lord sent you on a journey, and said ‘Go
and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites.’ Why did you not obey?”
And Saul said, “I have obeyed the Lord: except that the people brought
Agag and the sheep and oxen to sacrifice them to the Lord.” And Samuel
said, “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than
sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. Because thou hast
rejected the word of the Lord, he hath rejected thee from being king.”
And Saul fell down before Samuel and cried, “Forgive me, and the Lord
forgive me; I have sinned.” But Samuel turned to go away. And Saul
caught hold of Samuel’s cloak, and the cloak rent. And Samuel said,
“Thus hath the Lord torn from you the kingdom of Israel this day.” And
Saul cried, “Do not tell the people: honor me now, I pray thee, in the
sight of the people.” And to this Samuel consented. He went with Saul,
and with his own hands hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord. But from
that day he sought another king to set over Israel in the place of
Saul.
XXXIII
A SHEPHERD OF BETHLEHEM
The largest farm in Bethlehem belonged to a man named Jesse. Although he
was now advanced in years, he had lived on the farm all of his long
life, and his father had lived there before him. Indeed, it was still
remembered in the neighborhood how Jesse’s grandfather, as he harvested
the wheat and barley of his broad acres, had fallen in love with a poor
girl named Ruth, who worked among the gleaners, and had married her, to
the surprise and delight of the village.
The corn in the little valleys of the hill farm stood so thick that it
seemed to laugh and sing as it danced with the wind. Apples grew in the
orchard, and grapes in the vineyard. Morning and evening the cows came
to be milked, and Jesse’s wife made the milk into cheese and butter.
Sheep lay along the hillside, and she spun the wool into stout clothes
for Jesse and their sons and daughters.
There were eight sons, most of them grown into tall men; and one of the
older daughters had three boys, who were sturdy lads, Joab and Asahel
and Abishai. About of an age with these three boys was Jesse’s youngest
son, whose name was David.
There was a gleam of red in David’s hair and a glow of red in David’s
cheeks, and he was as brave as he was handsome. His part of the
farm-work was to tend the sheep. In the wild woods near by were lions
and bears, who looked with hungry eyes upon the sheep, and David had to
fight them. When he went out to the pasture he carried not only a bag
which his mother had filled with things to eat, but a thick stick and a
sling. Sometimes he fought the lions and bears with the stick, and
sometimes with the sling; and if the boys of Bethlehem could throw as
well as the left-handed sons of the Benjamin family near by, David could
sling a stone at a hair and hit it. This was an accomplishment which he
afterwards found useful.
Most of the time, however, the tending of the sheep was an occupation so
easy and peaceful that David found leisure to gaze at the clouds, and at
the stars, and to make songs and sing them, to the great satisfaction of
the sheep, accompanying himself upon a harp. He had his music lessons,
and practiced several hours a day.
One day, while David was out in the hill pasture, there came to the
village an old man, driving a cow, and having in his hand a horn of
precious oil. When the men of Bethlehem saw him they were as frightened
as if the cow had been a red lion and the horn had been attached to a
unicorn. For the old man was Samuel, the prophet, who, they thought,
could call down thunder and lightning out of the clear sky. And they
said, “Do you come peaceably?”
And Samuel said, “Peaceably. Come with me, all of you, while I offer a
sacrifice to the Lord.”
So the men followed Samuel till they came to the village well. But David
was minding the sheep. And after the sacrifice, Samuel held his horn of
oil high above his head and looked about among the men. At first his eye
lighted on Eliab, David’s oldest brother; for he looked like a king in
the clothes of a farmer. But the Lord spoke in Samuel’s soul and said:
“The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” So it was also with
David’s other brothers.
Then said Samuel to Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”
And Jesse answered, “There is one more, the youngest. He is keeping the
sheep.”
“Send,” said Samuel, “and fetch him.”
So David came, ruddy and of a beautiful countenance and goodly to look
upon. And when Samuel saw him, immediately he poured the horn of
precious oil upon him. Then Samuel went away, leaving the people
perplexed and wondering. But David knew in his heart that he had been
chosen to be the king of Israel.
Now King Saul was every day growing worse of his disease. Trouble and
disappointment and a perplexed conscience and the stress of war were
telling terribly upon him. He could not sleep. At times, he was beside
himself, and acted like a crazy man. At last, the doctors told him that
the best remedy for him was music. “Find a man,” they said, “who is a
cunning player on the harp; and it shall come to pass that when the evil
spirit is upon thee he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be
well.”
And somebody said, “I know a young man in Bethlehem, a son of Jesse, who
is cunning in playing. He is a mighty valiant youth, and good, and
good-looking.”
And the king said, “Tell him that I want him.”
And the next day there was great excitement among Jesse’s neighbors.
There was David at the farm gate, and his father and mother and his
brothers and sisters telling him good-by, and the king’s messengers in
waiting. On one side of David was an ass laden with loaves from his
mother’s oven; on the other side was a little kid of the goats; and over
his shoulders was a skin of wine made from the grapes which grew on the
warm side of the hill. These were gifts for the king. And in his hand
was his harp.
Thus the shepherd boy became the minstrel of the king. And when the evil
spirit came upon Saul, David took his harp and played with his hand, and
the music refreshed Saul, and he was eased of his distress. And the king
loved the boy, and he made him his squire, to bear his armor.
XXXIV
DAVID FIGHTS THE GIANT
Thus did David divide his time: part he spent in the court of King Saul,
and part in the country on his father’s farm.
Then there came a war, and the king went out to battle. Instead of the
music of the harp he listened to the music of the drums. But David was
needed at home, for his older brothers were in the army, and he kept the
sheep.
One day his father said to David, “David, I want you to take these ten
loaves of bread and this basket of parched corn to your brothers in the
army, and here are ten cheeses for their captain; and bring me word
again about your brothers and about the war.”
And David made his way down a long valley till by and by he came to a
level plain. There was a hill on one side of the plain to the east, and
another hill on the other side to the west, and these hills were full of
soldiers. On the western hill the Philistines had their camp, and on the
eastern hill were the forces of the Israelites; and between them across
the plain ran a little brook.
And as David drew near he heard a noise of shouting. The Philistines
shouted with a great shout, and the Israelites answered. And then there
came a voice, like the voices of ten stout men in one, and called out
something which David was too far away to understand. And when he came
nearer, there he saw in the middle of the plain, with his back to the
Philistines and his face to the army of Israel, a mighty giant. The
giant was ten feet high, and all his clothes were made of brass. He had
a helmet of brass upon his head, and a breastplate of brass upon his
breast, and a target of brass upon his back, and boots of brass upon his
feet. In one hand he carried a huge spear, in the other hand a sword.
Before him went his squire, bearing his shield.
And this is what the giant said, “Choose you a man for you,” he cried,
“and let him come to me. If he be able to fight with me and kill me, we
will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, ye
shall be our servants, and serve us.” And not a man of all the hosts of
Israel dared to go out and fight him.
Then the soul of David was stirred within him. He spoke to the first man
whom he met. “Tell me,” he said, “what does this mean?”
And the man answered, “Yonder is Goliath, the giant of Gath. Every day
he comes out at this hour and defies our army. King Saul has promised
that whosoever shall face him and overcome him shall have a great reward
in gold, and the hand of the princess, as well. But nobody is bold
enough to try it.”
David said, “I will try it.”
So the word came to his brother Eliab that David had offered to fight
Goliath; and Eliab did not like it. It seemed to him, as it often seems
to older brothers, that the boy was still a child. As for King Saul,
when they told him, he smiled and shook his head. “You are not able,” he
said, “to fight with this Philistine, for you are but a youth, and he a
man of war from his youth.”
But David said, “I have fought lions and bears since I was ten years
old. I have seized them by the beard and killed them. I can do the same
with this Philistine. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the
lion and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand
of this Philistine.”
Even so, it seemed like the proposal of a lamb to fight a wolf. But what
else could be done? At last, the king took David into his own tent, and
offered him his armor. But the king was the tallest man in the army, and
the shepherd boy was short of stature. Saul’s helmet came down over
David’s ears, and his coat of mail touched David’s heels. He put them
off. “I can fight best,” he said, “in my own way.”
And David took his staff in his hand,--the stout stick with which he
kept the sheep,--and he had his sling, and from the bank of the brook he
chose him five smooth stones. And thus he went out into the plain
between the armies, and faced the giant.
And the giant in all his armor came, and his squire carried his shield
before him, and when he looked to see what champion the Israelites had
found at last, there was but a boy,--a red-cheeked boy with a staff in
one hand and a sling in the other.
The giant was very angry. “Am I a dog,” he cried, “that thou comest at
me with a stick? I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air and to
the beasts of the field, and they shall pick thy bones.”
And David answered, “Thou comest to me with sword and spear and shield;
but I come to thee in the name of the Lord God of hosts, whom thou hast
defied.”
Thus the champions drew together, while the two armies watched in
breathless silence. And David ran to meet the giant. And even as he ran,
he put his hand into his shepherd’s bag, and took out a smooth stone and
put it in his sling and slung it. Up went the sling, out went the
stone, down went the giant. Straight as an arrow, the stone struck him
in the forehead. And David ran, and with the giant’s sword cut off the
giant’s head.
Then did the Philistines flee, and the men of Israel raised a great
shout and chased them.
XXXV
UNDER THE KING’S DISPLEASURE
After David killed the giant, he kept the sheep no longer. He lived at
the court with the king, and became a soldier. Saul made him a general
of the army, and everybody praised him. When the Philistines came again,
David led the men of war to battle, and when they came back in victory
the women came out to greet them at the gate of every city as they
passed, dancing and playing on instruments of music, and singing,--
“Saul hath slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands.”
But that displeased Saul, and in his displeasure his old malady
returned. And now his insanity began to take a dangerous form. One day
when his madness was upon him, and David was playing on the harp to
quiet him, the king said to himself, “I will kill David!” And his spear
was in his hand, and as David played he threw it at him. But he missed
his aim.
Now the king had promised that whoever killed the giant should have not
only a reward in gold, but the hand
[Illustration: DAVID ESCAPES BY THE WINDOW]
of the princess. But there were two princesses, Merab and Michal. Saul
had intended to give David the hand of Merab, but already Michal had
given him her heart. While David was only a shepherd and a minstrel, the
young princess, listening to his music, had fallen in love with him. And
David, as he played, had played to her.
So the mad king made a plot. “Very well,” he said, “you shall have
Michal, but first you must bring me as a dowry the heads of a hundred
Philistines.” For he thought that in the battle, David would be killed.
But David went out into the enemy’s country, and when he came back he
brought two hundred Philistine heads. So he married the princess, amidst
great rejoicing.
But hardly had the wedding guests gone home when the king made another
plot. He determined to send men to seize his son-in-law and kill him.
But Michal heard of it. And that night, as she looked out of her window,
the princess saw in the dim light the forms of men moving about among
the trees. And she said to her husband, “David, you must save your life
this very night; to-morrow will be too late.” And she took a stout rope
and let it down out of a back window, and when nobody was looking David
climbed down and ran away.
Then Michal took a wooden image which stood in a corner of the best
room and carried it to David’s bed. She laid a pillow of goat’s hair
under its head, and tucked in the bedclothes about its chin, and in the
dark it looked like David. Pretty soon there came a loud knocking at the
street door.
“Who is there?” said Michal.
A man’s voice answered, “We are come from the king with a message for
David.”
“Well,” said Michal, “you can’t see him to-night; he has gone to bed
sick.”
So the men went back to Saul, and the delay was long enough to enable
David to get out of the city, where the king could not find him.
Then the men returned and knocked again, louder than before.
“Who is there?” said Michal.
And a man’s voice answered, “Sick or well, we must see David.” And the
man and his companions had daggers in their hands.
“Come in, then,” said Michal, “and I will take you to his room.”
And when they came into David’s room and saw David, as they supposed,
lying in the bed asleep, they drew their daggers with one accord and
stabbed him with all their might. And the daggers stuck in the wooden
image!
Now David had another friend at court beside his wife the princess, and
that was his wife’s brother, Jonathan. Jonathan loved David as his own
soul. Indeed, Jonathan had given David his own royal robe, and his sword
and his bow, and had said, “After my father is dead, you shall be king
and not I.”
So David sent word to Jonathan, and said, “Find out how serious this is.
Is it only your father’s madness getting worse, or does he really intend
to take my life?”
And they made this plan. The next day there was to be a great dinner at
the king’s house, and David’s place would be empty. And Saul would
notice the empty place, and Jonathan would listen to hear what he would
say, and would let David know.
And Jonathan said, “The day after to-morrow I will go out into the field
with my bow, as if I meant to shoot at a mark. And you be hiding. I will
shoot five arrows and send the boy to fetch them. If I say, ‘Here, boy,
the arrows are on this side,’ then you may know that all is well. But if
I say, ‘Go farther, the arrows are beyond you,’ then flee for your life.
But promise me now, David, that when you come, as you surely will, to be
prosperous and great, you will be good to me and to my children.” And
David promised.
So at the feast, the place was empty. And Saul said, “Where is David?”
and Jonathan said, “He has gone to Bethlehem.” And Saul rose up in
fierce anger and took his spear and tried to kill his son.
Then the next day, Jonathan went out with his bow and shot five arrows,
and as the boy went to pick them up, he called, “Go farther, the arrows
are beyond you.” And David knew that there was but a step between him
and death. And Jonathan sent the boy home and found David, and they both
wept bitterly. Then Jonathan returned to his father’s house, and David
fled as fast as he could go into the wilderness.
XXXVI
THE CAVE OF ADULLAM
When David fled for his life from the displeasure of King Saul, he
became an outlaw, like Robin Hood.
On the way he stopped at a village called Nob, where the Ark of God was
kept. And he asked the priest for bread and a sword. And the priest
said, “There is no bread here except that which is on the holy table.”
And David said, “Let me have that.” So the priest gave him five loaves.
And the priest said, “There is no sword here except that with which you
cut off the giant’s head. It is wrapped up in a cloth.”
And David said, “I am on the king’s business, and in great haste, and I
have no sword. There is none like that; give it to me.” So the priest
gave him the sword. But a man named Doeg, the king’s chief herdsman, saw
what was done, and told the king.
Then David went to Bethlehem to his father’s farm and told the bad news
of the anger of the king. “He has threatened to kill me. Indeed, he has
already tried twice to kill me, once with his own hand. You and mother
must go at once to a place of safety. Come, let me take you to our
cousins in Moab, the family of my great-grandmother Ruth.” So over they
went, across the Jordan, and put themselves under the protection of the
king of Moab.
As for David, he found a place of refuge in the Cave of Adullam. And
there men gathered about him.
The first to come was Abiathar. He had been a priest at Nob, and he told
David what had happened. Doeg had gone straight to Saul. “I saw the son
of Jesse coming to Nob,” he said, “and the chief priest gave him bread
from the holy table and the giant’s sword.” And Saul sent for the chief
priest, and the priest said, “Here am I.”
And Saul frowned upon him, and said, “Why have you conspired against me
with the son of Jesse, and have given him a sword to slay me?”
And the chief priest answered, “Who is so faithful among all your
servants as David, your son-in-law, and honorable in your house? I knew
nothing of any trouble between you and him.”
Then the king’s old madness came upon him, and he called for men to kill
not only the chief priest, but all the other priests. And at first,
nobody would do it. Not a man would lift his sword to strike those
unarmed, innocent men. Finally, Doeg did it. He fell upon them with such
fury that only one escaped. Abiathar escaped, and became one of David’s
band.
And others came, till there were six hundred men. Some had chosen the
outlaw life because they were in distress, some because they were in
debt, some because they were discontented and were weary of peace and
quiet and desirous of adventures. A wild and hardy life they had, among
the hills, under the stars, fighting the Philistines, chasing the
Amalekites, defending shepherds from the attacks of brigands, and making
rich sheepmasters pay for their protection.
There was Abishai, David’s nephew. One day David was fighting the
Philistines, and the army of the enemy lay about Bethlehem. And in the
midst of the battle, in the dust and heat, David was very thirsty; and
he looked across the valley over the heads of the struggling soldiers,
and there in the distance were the green trees of his native village.
And David said, “Oh, that one would give me drink of the waters of the
well of Bethlehem, that is by the gate.” And Abishai and two others who
stood by and heard these words started straight for Bethlehem. Running
and hiding and fighting, they made their way through the Philistine
army, and filled a cup with water and brought it back and gave it to
David. And David would not drink it. He said it was too sacred to drink,
gained as it was by the peril of men’s lives. He poured it solemnly upon
the ground. That was Abishai’s adventure.
There was Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada. One time, he went down into a
pit on a snowy day and single-handed fought a lion and killed him.
Another time he was attacked by an Egyptian, eight feet high, whose
spear was like a weaver’s beam. Benaiah had only a stick in his hand
when the Egyptian fell upon him; but he plucked the spear out of the
Egyptian’s hand, and slew him with his own spear. That is the sort of
man Benaiah was.
There was Jonathan, another of David’s nephews. He had a fight with a
Philistine, on each of whose hands were six fingers, and on each of his
feet six toes, and the man was big in proportion. But he was not big
enough to vanquish Jonathan.
There were eleven men of God, whose faces were like the faces of lions,
and their feet as swift as the wild roes on the mountains. Once in the
spring, when the water of the Jordan was in full flood, brimming from
bank to bank, they swam across and put to flight, some east and some
west, the people who lived on the other side.
David also had his share of danger. Once he ventured into a Philistine
city and entered the service of the Philistine king. And the Philistines
found out who he was. “This,” they said, “is the man who killed our
champion the giant.” And they proposed to make an end of him. And David
pretended to be crazy. He opened his mouth so that his spittle fell down
upon his beard; he scrabbled on the doors of the gate; so that the king
said, “See, the fellow is mad.” Thus he escaped.
In such adventures David and his men of Adullam passed their days.
XXXVII
THE OUTLAW AND THE SHEEPMASTER
There lived in the land of Israel, among the southern hills, a man named
Nabal, with Abigail his wife. Nabal had three thousand sheep and a
thousand goats, and his pastures reached farther than the eye could see;
but he had a stingy and sullen temper. Abigail, however, was as generous
as she was beautiful.
They were shearing sheep, one day, on Nabal’s farm, and there were good
things to eat and drink, and the shepherds were all very merry, when
suddenly they saw ten men coming up along the dusty road. One was
Abishai, and one was Jonathan, and one was Benaiah the son of Jehoiada,
and the other seven were lusty outlaws, and they came with a message
from their captain, David. “Peace,” they said, “be to thee and to thy
house, and unto all thy great possessions. We have protected thy
shepherds in the fields, as they will tell thee. We have driven off the
Amalekites who came to steal the sheep. Remember us, now, and send a
gift to David the son of Jesse.”
And Nabal was very angry. “Who,” he said, “is David, and who is the son
of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from
his master. Shall I take my bread and my water, and my flesh that I have
killed for my shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not whence they
be?”
To this the ten men listened in grim silence, and straightway turned
about and went away, and Nabal and his shepherds watched them till they
were lost to sight over the top of the hill.