people of God.[605]
XXXVI.
SAUL.
1. WAR WITH THE PHILISTINES.--GOLIATH SLAIN.
Samuel ordered Thalout (Saul) to make war upon Gjalout (Goliath), and
to assemble the fighting men of the tribes of Israel. Saul summoned
all the men and they numbered eighty thousand. Samuel gave Saul a suit
of mail, and said to him, “He who can wear this coat with ease will
decide the war, and Goliath will perish by his hand.”
Saul started with his army; his way led through a desert, a day’s
journey across; and it was very hot weather. On the other side of
the desert was a broad river, between Jordan and Palestine, and the
children of Israel had to pass this river to reach the army of Goliath.
Saul thought that now he would prove his soldiers, for Samuel had
bidden him take into battle only as many men as he could rely upon.
The men were faint with heat and thirst as they reached the river of
Palestine, and Saul said, “He who drinks of this water shall not come
with me, but he who drinks not thereof shall follow after me.”[606] For
he would not have them slake their thirst till they reached Jordan.[607]
But, according to another version of the story, the men were fainting
in the wilderness, and murmured against Saul. Then Samuel prayed, and
God brought a water-spring out of the dry, stony ground, and made
standing water in the desert, fresh as snow, sweet as honey, and white
as milk.[608]
Samuel spake to the soldiers, and said, “Ye have sinned against your
king and against God, by murmuring. Therefore refuse to drink of
this water except in the hollow of your hand, and so expiate your
fault.”[609]
Samuel’s words were disregarded. Only three hundred and thirteen men
were found who had sufficient control over themselves not to drink
except slightly out of the hollow of their hand; but these felt their
thirst quenched, whereas those who had laid down and lapped were still
parched with thirst.
Saul and his army came before that of Goliath; then said the majority
of those who had lain down and lapped, “We have no strength to-day to
stand against the Philistines.” So Saul dismissed them to their homes,
to the number of seventy-six thousand men; he had still with him four
thousand men. Next day, when they saw the array of the Philistines, and
the gigantic stature of their king, and their harness flashing in the
sun, the hearts of more of the warriors failed, and they would not
follow Saul into battle, but said, “We have no strength to-day to stand
against the Philistines!”
So Saul dismissed three thousand six hundred men, and there remained to
him only three hundred and thirteen, the same number as those who on
the day of Bedr remained with the prophet Mohammed.
Then said Saul, “God is favorable to us!” and he advanced, and set his
army in array against Goliath. And he prayed, saying, “Grant us, O
Lord, perseverance.”[610]
However, God sent an order by Samuel saying, “Go not into battle
this day, for the man who is to slay Goliath is not here; he is Daud
(David), son of Jesse, son of Obed, son of Boaz; he is a little man,
with grey eyes, and little hair, timid of heart, and slender of body.
By this shalt thou know him: when thou placest the horn upon his head,
the oil will overflow and boil.”
Then Samuel went to Jesse, and said to him, “Amongst thy sons there is
one who will slay Goliath.”
Jesse said, “I have eleven sons, men stalwart and comely.”
Samuel placed the horn on their heads, but the oil was not to be seen.
Then God gave him a vision, and he said to him, “Look not at the beauty
and strength of these men, but on the purity of their hearts and their
fear of God.”
Samuel said to Jesse, “God says thou art a liar, and He says thou hast
another son besides these.”
Jesse answered, “It is true; but he is diminutive in stature, and I am
ashamed to bring him into the company of men; I make him tend sheep; he
is somewhere with the flock to-day.”
Samuel went to the place, and it was a valley into which a torrent
fell. He saw David drawing the sheep out of the torrent by twos. Samuel
said, “Certainly this is the man I seek.” He placed the horn on his
head, and the oil overflowed.
Now Goliath, seeing the small number of the children of Israel,
despised them, and scorned to fight them. He sent a messenger to Saul,
saying, “Thou hast come out to fight against me with this handful, and
I disdain to attack thee with my large army. If thou wilt, come forth
that we may fight each other, or send any one out of the army, whom
thou wilt, to fight with me.”
None in Saul’s army would venture against the giant, and Saul was
himself afraid. He produced the shirt of mail Samuel had given him, and
he tried it upon each of his soldiers in turn; but it was too short for
one, too long for another, too tight for a third, and too loose for a
fourth.
Now the father of David had come with his eleven sons into the host;
but he had left David, because he was young and small of stature, to
keep the sheep: and he had bidden him, from time to time, bring him
supplies of food. David came with the provisions. He was dressed in a
woollen shirt, and he bore in his hand the staff, and a pouch attached
to his waist.
As he passed over a pebbly strip of soil, a stone cried to him, “Pick
me up, and take me with thee.” He stooped and picked up the stone, and
placed it in his pouch. And when he had taken a few paces, another
stone cried to him, “Pick me up, and take me with thee.” He did so.
And a third stone cried in like manner, and was in like manner taken
by David. The first stone was that wherewith Abraham had driven away
Satan, when he sought to dissuade the patriarch from offering up his
son; and the second stone was that on which the foot of Gabriel rested
when he opened the fountain in the desert for Hagar and Ishmael; and
the third stone was that wherewith Jacob strove against the angel whom
his brother Esau had sent against him.[611] But, according to another
account, the first was the stone which Moses cast against the enemies
of God, the second was that cast by Aaron, the third was destined to
cause the death of Goliath.[612] When David came into the army, Saul
had finished trying on the suit of mail upon the soldiers, and he said,
“It fits none of them.” Then he spied David, and he said, “Young man,
let me place this shirt of mail on thee.” Then he cast it over him, and
it fitted him exactly.
Saul said, “Wilt thou fight Goliath?”
David answered, “I will do so.”
Saul said, “With what horse and arms wilt thou go?”
David answered, “I will have no horse and no arms, save these stones of
the brook.”
David was feeble in body, he had grey eyes, was short,
yellow-complexioned, thin-faced, and had red hair.[613]
Saul had little hope that David would overcome the giant but he
thought his example might shame and stimulate others, therefore he let
him go.
Now when Goliath came forth and defied the army of Israel, David went
to meet him, wearing only his linen shirt, and belt, and pouch, and he
had his shepherd’s staff in his hand.
Then cried Goliath, “Who art thou, that comest out to meet me?”
Then David replied, “I am come out to fight with thee.”
Goliath said, “Go back, petty fool, and play with children of thine own
age. I despise thee; thou art unarmed.”
“And I despise thee, dog of a Philistine!” cried the stripling; “thou
deservest to be dealt with as men deal with dogs,--pelting them with
stones till they turn tail.”
Then Goliath was in a rage, and he lifted his spear against David; but
David hasted and loosed his belt, and laid in it one of the stones,
and slung it; and the wind caught the helmet of Goliath, and lifted it
in the air above his head, and the stone struck him on the brow, and
sank in, and crushed all his skull, and strewed his brains all over the
horse he rode; then the giant fell out of his saddle, and died.
Then again David placed the second stone in his sling, and he cast it,
and it smote the right wing of the army of the Philistines; then he
cast the third stone, and it smote the left wing, and the host of the
Philistines fled before him.[614]
2. SAUL’S JEALOUSY OF DAVID.
Saul had promised his daughter to the man who should slay Goliath. When
the Philistines had been routed, Saul told Samuel all that had taken
place; and the prophet exhorted the king to fulfil his promise, and to
give to David his daughter in marriage.
To this Saul agreed, and he gave David his ring, and made him manager
of all his affairs, and he exalted him to be his son-in-law.
Several years passed, and Saul became envious of David, whose praise
was in everybody’s mouth.
He sent David into the wars, in hopes of his there meeting his death;
but it was all in vain. Then he spoke to his daughter Michal, that she
should introduce him into her husband’s chamber at night, that he
might slay David with his own hand.
Michal told David her father’s resolution, with many tears; but David
bade her be comforted. “For,” said he, “the God of my fathers, who
preserved Abraham and Moses from the hands of the executioner, will
deliver me from thy father. But do as he bade thee, open the door at
night, and fear not for me.”
Then David went into his smithy and wrought a suit of chain mail. He
was the inventor of chain-armor. And he had received from God the power
of moulding iron, like wax, in his fingers, without fire and without
hammer.
Now he fashioned for himself a whole suit of chain mail; it was so thin
that it was like gossamer, and it fitted to his body like his skin, and
it was impenetrable to the thrust of every weapon.
David put upon him his armor, and lay down in his bed. He slept,
but was awakened at midnight by the knife of Saul stabbing at him
as he lay. He sprang up, struck the weapon from the hands of his
father-in-law, and thrust him forth out of the house.[615]
After this, Saul came to Michal and said, “He was not asleep, or I
certainly would have slain him. Admit me again into his chamber at
night.”
Michal went to David and told him all with many tears.
Then said David, “I must escape from my house, for my life is not in
security here. But do thou fill a leather bottle with wine, and lay it
in my bed.”
Michal did so; she took a large skin of wine and placed it in the bed,
and drew the cover over it. But David fled away to Hebron.
And in the night came Saul, and he felt the clothes, and he thought it
was David in the bed, so he stabbed at him with his knife, and the wine
ran out in the bed. Then Saul smelt it, and he said, “How much wine the
fellow drank for his supper!”[616]
But when he found that David had escaped him once more, he was wroth,
and he gathered men together, and pursued after him; in his anger,
moreover, he sought to kill Michal, but she fled away and concealed
herself.
Saul pursued David in the mountains, but David knew all the caves and
lurking-places, and Saul was unable to catch him. One night, David
crept into the camp and thrust four arrows, inscribed with his name,
into the ground, round the head of Saul. When Saul awoke, he saw these
arrows, and he said, “David has been here; he might have slain me had
he willed it.”
During the day, Saul came upon his enemy in a narrow valley; he was
mounted, and he pursued David, who was on foot. David fled as fast as
he could run, and managed to reach a cave a few moments before Saul
could reach it. Then God sent a spider, which spun a web over the mouth
of the cave; and Saul saw it and passed on, saying, “Certainly David
cannot have entered in there, or the web would be torn.”[617]
One night, Saul and his soldiers lodged in a cavern. And David was
there, but they knew it not. In the night David carried off the sword
and banner and seal-ring of the king, and he went forth out of the
cave, for it had two openings. In the morning, when Saul prepared to
continue his search, he saw him on a mountain opposite the mouth of the
cave, and David had girded the royal sword to his side, and brandished
the flag, and held forth his finger that all might note that he had on
it the king’s signet.[618]
Then Saul said, “His heart is better than mine;” and he was reconciled
with David, and he bade him return with him and live at peace. And he
did so.
3. THE DEATH OF SAUL.
Now when Saul had gone forth against David, the wise men of Israel had
gathered themselves together, and had remonstrated with him. But Saul
was wroth at this interference, and he slew them all, and there escaped
none of them save one wise woman, whom his vizir spared. This vizir was
a good man, and he took the woman into his own house, and she lived
with his family.
Some time after that, Saul had a dream, and in his dream he was
reproached for having slain the wise men. And when he awoke he was
full of remorse, and he went to his vizir and said, “It repents me
that I have put to death all the wise men of my realm; is there none
remaining of whom I might ask counsel how I could expiate my crime?”
Then the vizir answered, “There remains but one, and that is a woman.”
Saul said, “Bring her hither before me.”
Now, when the wise woman was come before Saul, the king was troubled in
mind, and he said, “Show me how I can make atonement for the great sin
that I have committed.”
The woman answered, “Lead me to the tomb of a prophet; I will pray, and
may be God will suffer him to speak.”
They went to the tomb of Samuel, and the woman prayed.
Then Samuel spake out of his sepulchre, and said, “Let his expiation
be this: He shall go down, he and his sons, to the city of Giants, and
they shall fall there.”
Saul had twelve sons. He called them to him and said to them all the
words of Samuel. They then answered, “We are ready, let us go down.”
So they went to the city of Giants, and fought against it, and fell
there, all in one day.[619]
XXXVII.
DAVID.
David says of himself, “_Behold, I was shapen in wickedness; and in
sin did my mother conceive me._”[620] The Rabbis explain this passage
by narrating the circumstances of the conception of David, which I
shall give in Latin. The mother of David they say was named Nitzeneth.
“Dixerunt Rabbini nostri beatæ memoriæ, quod Isai (Jesse) habebat
ancillam, eamque sollicitabat ad turpia; quæ, cum esset pudica et
fidelis uxori Isai, eidem retulit; quæ seipsam aptavit (loco ancillæ)
et congressa est cum Isai, ex quo concubitu egressus est David. Et quia
Isai intentio fuerat in ancillam, quamquam res aliter evenerat, idcirco
dixit David,--super eum sit pax: Ecce in iniquitate formatus sum, et
peccato calefecit me mater mea.”[621]
On this account, Jesse, having discovered the deception, lightly
esteemed his son David, and sent him to keep sheep, and made him as
a servant to his brethren. And to this David refers when he says,
“_The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the
corner_;”[622] for, from being the despised brother, put to menial
work, he was exalted before his brethren to be king over Israel.
When David was born he would have died immediately, had not Adam, when
he saw his posterity marshalled before him, taken compassion on David,
and given him seventy years.[623]
However, David was without a soul for the first fourteen years of his
life, and was so regarded by God, as he was uncircumcised;[624] but
other Rabbinic writers say that he was born circumcised.
The Jewish authors relate, as do the Mussulman historians, that David
had red hair. In Jalkut (1 Sam. xvi. 12) it is said, “Samuel sent,
and made David come before him, and he had red hair;”[625] and again
in Bereschith Rabba, “When Samuel saw that David had red hair, he
feared and said, He will shed blood as did Esau. But the ever-blessed
God said, This man will shed it with unimpassioned eyes--this did not
Esau. Esau slew out of his own caprice, but this man will execute those
sentenced to death by the Sanhedrim.”
David was very small, but when Samuel poured the oil upon his head and
anointed him, he grew rapidly, and was soon as tall as was Saul. And
this the commentators conclude from the fact of Saul having put his
armor upon David, and it fitted him. Now Saul was a head and shoulders
taller than any man in Israel; therefore David must have started to
equal height since his anointing.[626]
David was gifted with the evil eye, and was able to give the leprosy
by turning a malignant glance upon any man. “When it is written, ‘_The
Philistine cursed David by his gods_,’[627] David looked at him with
the evil eye. For whoever was looked upon by him with the evil eye
became leprous, as Joab knew to his cost, for after David had cast the
evil glance on him, it is said, ‘_Let there not fail from the house of
Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper._’[628]
“The same befell the Philistine when he cursed David. David then threw
on him the malignant glance, and fixed it on his brow, that he might
at once become leprous; and at the same moment the stone and the
leprosy struck him.”[629]
But David was himself afflicted for six months with this loathsome
malady, and it is in reference to this that he says, “_Thou shalt
purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Thou shalt wash me, and I
shall be whiter than snow._” During this period, he was cast out and
separated from the elders of the people, and the Divinity withdrew from
him.[630] And this explains the discrepancy apparent in the account
of the number of years he reigned. It is said that he reigned over
Israel forty years,[631] but he reigned seven years in Hebron and
thirty and three in Jerusalem. In the Second Book of Samuel, however,
it is said, he reigned in Hebron seven years and six months;[632]
though the statement that he reigned only forty years in all, that is,
thirty-three in Jerusalem, is repeated. Consequently these six months
do not count, the reason being that David was at that time afflicted
with the disorder, and cut off from society, and reputed as one
dead.[633]
The Rabbis suppose that David sinned in cutting off the skirt of Saul’s
robe;[634] and they say that he expiated this fault in his old age, by
finding no warmth in his clothes, wherewith he wrapped himself.[635]
For it is said, “_King David was old and stricken in years; and they
covered him with clothes, but he got no heat._”[636]
To David is attributed by the Rabbi Solomon the power of calling down
the rain, the hail, and the tempest, in vengeance upon his enemies.
“Our Rabbis,” says he, “say that these things were formerly stored
in heaven, but David came and made them to descend on the earth: for
they are means of vengeance, and it is not fitting that they should be
garnered in the Treasury of God.”[637] But the rain and hail fell at
the Deluge, in Egypt, and on the Amorites; therefore the signification
to be attributed to this opinion of the Rabbis probably is, that David
was the first to be able to call them down by his prayer.
David had a lute which he hung up above his head in the bed, and the
openings of the lute were turned towards the north, and when the cool
night air whispered in the room towards dawn, it stirred the strings of
the lute, which gave forth such sweet and resonant notes, that David
was aroused from his sleep early, before daybreak, that he might occupy
himself in the study of the Law. And it is to this that he refers when
he cries in his Psalm, “_Awake lute and harp: I myself will awake right
early._”[638]
When Absalom was slain, David saw Scheol (Hell) opened, and his son
tormented, for his rebellion, in the lowest depths. The sight was so
distressing to the king, that he wrapped his mantle about his face and
cried, “_O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God I had
died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!_” Here it is to be noted
that David called Absalom either by name or by his relationship seven
times. Now in Hell there are seven mansions, and as each cry escaped
the father’s heart, Absalom was released from one of these divisions of
the Pit; and he thus effected his escape from Gehenna through the love
of his father, which drew him up out of misery.[639]
David was very desirous to build a temple to the Lord, but God would
not suffer him to do so, as he was a man of blood. This is the reason
why he so desired to erect a temple. When he was young, and pastured
his father’s sheep, he came one day upon a rhinoceros (unicorn) asleep,
and he did not know that it was a rhinoceros, but thought it was a
mountain, so he drove his flock up its back, and fed them on the grass
which grew thereon. But presently the rhinoceros awoke, and stood up,
and then David’s head touched the sky. He was filled with terror, and
he vowed that if God would save his life and bring him safely to the
ground again, he would build to the Lord a temple of the dimensions
of the horn of the beast, an hundred cubits. The Talmudists are not
agreed as to whether this was the height, or the breadth, of the horn;
however, the vow was heard, and the Lord sent a lion against the
rhinoceros; and when the unicorn saw the lion, he lay down, and David
descended his back, along with his sheep, as fast as possible; but when
he saw the lion, his spirit failed him again. However he took the lion
by the beard, and smote, and slew him. This adventure the Psalmist
recalls when he says, “_Save me from the lion’s mouth; Thou hast heard
me also from among the horns of the unicorn_;”[640] and to his vow he
alludes in Psalm cxxxii., “_Lord, remember David, and all his trouble;
how he sware unto the Lord, and vowed a vow unto the Almighty God of
Jacob._”[641]
One day David was hunting in the wilderness. Then came Satan, in the
form of a stag, and David shot an arrow at him, but could not kill
him. This astonished him, for on one occasion, in strife with the
Philistines, he had transfixed eight hundred men with one arrow.[642]
Then he chased the deer, and it ran before him into the Philistine
land. Now when Ishbi-benob, who was of the sons of the giant, knew
this, he said, “David has slain my brother Goliath; now he is in my
power!” and he came upon him and chained him, and cast him down, and
laid a wine-press upon him, that he might crush him, and squeeze all
the blood out of him. But God softened the earth beneath him, so that
it yielded to his body, and he was uninjured; as he says in the Psalms,
“_Thou shalt make room enough under me for to go._”[643] And as David
lay under the press, he saw a dove fly by, and he said, “_O that I had
wings as a dove, that I might flee away, and be at rest_;”[644] and he
alludes to his being among the pots, and noting the wings of the dove
as silver, in another Psalm.[645]
Now Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, heard the plaining of the dove, which
had seen the trouble of the king, and came into Jerusalem in grief
thereat. Then Abishai went to the chamber of David to search for him,
but he was not there. Then he knew that the king must be in danger,
and the only means of reaching him with speed was to mount the royal
mule, which was fleet as the wind; but this Abishai did not venture to
do without advice, for he remembered the words of the Mischna, “Thou
shalt not ride the king’s horse, nor mount his throne, nor grasp his
sceptre.” But as the danger was pressing, Abishai went to the school,
and consulted the doctors of the Law, who said, “In an emergency all
things are lawful.” Then he mounted the mule of King David, and rode
into the desert, and the earth flew under him, and he reached the house
of Ishbi-benob. Now the mother of Ishbi-benob--her name was Orpha--sat
without the door spinning. And when she saw Abishai galloping up, she
brake her thread and flung the spindle at him, with intent to strike
him dead. But the spindle fell short of him. So Orpha cried to him,
“Give me my spindle, boy.” Abishai stooped and picked it up, and cast
it at her with all his force, and it struck her on the brow, and broke
her skull, and she fell back and died.
Then, when Ishbi-benob saw what was done, he said, “These two men will
be too much for me!” so he drew David from under the wine-press, and
flung him high into the air, and set his lance in the ground, that
David might fall upon it, and be transfixed. But Abishai cried the
Sacred Name, and David was arrested in his fall, and hung between
heaven and earth, and gradually was let down, not on the spear, but at
a distance. Then Abishai and David slew Ishbi-benob.[646]