the tribe of Judah, and was born 1085 years before Christ. The following
is an abstract of his history: He was chosen of God to be king of
Israel, and at his command was anointed to this dignity by the hands of
Samuel, a venerable prophet, in the room of Saul; who had been rejected
for his disobedience to the divine orders, in feloniously seizing, to
his own use the prey of an enemy, which God, the supreme King of Israel,
had devoted to destruction. He was introduced to court as a man expert
in music, a singularly valiant man, a man of war, prudent in matters, of
a comely person, and one favoured of the Lord. By his skill in music, he
relieved Saul under a melancholy indisposition that had seized him, was
highly beloved by his royal master, and made one of his guards. In a war
with the Philistines he accepted the challenge of a gigantic champion,
who defied the armies of Israel, and being skilful at the sling, he slew
him with a stone, returned safely with his head, and thus secured to his
prince an easy victory over his country’s enemies. The reputation he
gained, by this glorious action, raised an incurable jealousy and
resentment against him, in the mind of the king his master; who made two
unsuccessful attempts to murder him. In his exalted station, and amidst
the dangers that encompassed him, he behaved with singular prudence, so
that he was in high esteem both in the court and camp. The modesty and
prudence of his behaviour, and his approved courage and resolution,
gained him the confidence and friendship of Jonathan, the king’s eldest
son, “who loved him as his own soul,” became his advocate with his
father, and obtained from him a promise, confirmed by an oath, that he
would no more attempt to destroy him. But Saul’s jealousy returned by a
fresh victory David gained over the Philistines; who, finding the king
was determined to seek his life, retired from court, and was dismissed
in peace by Jonathan, after a solemn renewal of their friendship, to
provide for his own safety. In this state of banishment, there resorted
to him companies of men, who were uneasy in their circumstances,
oppressed by their creditors, or discontented with Saul’s tyrannical
government, to the number of six hundred men. These he kept in the most
excellent order, and by their valour he gained signal advantages for his
country; but never employed them in rebellion against the king, or in a
single instance to distress or subvert his government. On the contrary
such was the veneration he paid him, and such the generosity of his
temper, that though it was thrice in his power to have him cut off, he
spared him, and was determined never to destroy him, whom God had
constituted the king of Israel. His friendship with Jonathan, the king’s
son, was a friendship of strict honour, for he never seduced him from
his allegiance and filial duty. Being provoked by a churlish farmer, who
evil treated and abused his messengers, he, in the warmth of his temper,
swore he would destroy him and his family; but was immediately pacified
by the address and prudence of a wife, of whom the wretch was unworthy:
her he sent in peace and honour to her family, and blessed for her
advice, and keeping him from avenging himself with his own hand. Being
forced to banish himself into an enemy’s country, he was faithful to the
prince who protected him: and, at the same time, mindful of the interest
of his own nation, he cut off many of those who had harassed and
plundered his fellow subjects. When pressed by the king, into whose
dominions he retired, to join in a war against his own country and
father-in-law, he prudently gave him such an answer as his situation
required; neither promising the aid demanded of him, nor tying up his
hands from serving his own prince, and the army that fought under him;
only assuring him in general, that he had never done any thing that
could give him just reason to think he would refuse to assist him
against his enemies. Upon the death of Saul, he cut off the Amalekite
who came to make a merit of having slain him; and by the immediate
direction of God, who had promised him the succession, went up to
Hebron, where, on a free election, he was anointed king over the house
of Judah; and after about a seven years’ contest, he was unanimously
chosen king by all the tribes of Israel, “according to the word of the
Lord by Samuel.” As king of Israel, he administered justice and judgment
to all his people, was a prince of courage, and great military prudence
and conduct; had frequent wars with the neighbouring nations, to which
he was generally forced by their invading his dominions, and plundering
his subjects. Against them he never lost a battle; he never besieged a
city without taking it; nor, as for any thing that can be proved, used
any severities against those he conquered, beyond what the law of arms
allowed, his own safety required, or the cruelties of his enemies
rendered just, by way of retaliation; enriching his people by the spoils
he took, and providing large stores of every thing necessary for the
magnificent temple he intended to erect, in honour of the God of Israel.
Having rescued Jerusalem out of the hands of the Jebusites, he made it
the capital of his kingdom, and the place of his residence; and being
willing to honour it with the presence of the ark of God, he brought it
to Jerusalem in triumph, and divesting himself of his royal robes, out
of reverence to God, he clothed himself in the habit of his ministers,
and with them expressed his joy by dancing and music; contemned only by
one haughty woman; whom, as a just punishment of her insolence, he seems
ever after to have separated from his bed. Though his crimes were
henious, and highly aggravated, in the affair of Uriah and Bathsheba, he
patiently endured reproof, humbly submitted to the punishment appointed
him, deeply repented, and obtained mercy and forgiveness from God,
though not without some severe marks of his displeasure, for the
grievous offences of which he had been guilty. A rebellion was raised
against him by his son Absalom. When forced by it to depart from
Jerusalem, a circumstance most pathetically described by the sacred
historian, he prevented the just punishment of Shimei, a wretch who
cursed and stoned him. When restored to his throne, he spared him upon
his submission, and would not permit a single man to be put to death in
Israel upon account of this treason. He, with a noble confidence, made
the commander of the rebel forces general of his own army, in the room
of Joab, whom he intended to call to an account for murder and other
crimes. After this, when obliged, by the command of God, to give up some
of Saul’s family to justice, for the murder of the Gibeonites, he spared
Mephibosheth, Micah, and his family, the male descendants of Saul and
Jonathan, who alone could have any pretence to dispute the crown with
him, and surrendered only Saul’s bastard children, and those of his
daughter by Adriel, who had no right or possible claim to the throne,
and could never give him any uneasiness in the possession of it; and
thus showed his inviolable regard for his oaths, his tenderness to Saul,
and the warmth of his gratitude and friendship to Jonathan. In the close
of his life, and in the near prospect of death, to demonstrate his love
of justice, he charged Solomon to punish with death Joab, for the base
murder of two great men, whom he assassinated under the pretence of
peace and friendship. To this catalogue of his noble actions must be
added, that he gave the most shining and indisputable proofs of an
undissembled reverence for, and sincere piety to, God; ever obeying the
direction of his prophets, worshipping him alone, to the exclusion of
all idols, throughout the whole of his life, and making the wisest
settlement to perpetuate the worship of the same God, through all
succeeding generations.
To this abstract a few miscellaneous remarks may be added.
1. When David is called “the man after God’s own heart,” a phrase which
profane persons have often perverted, his general character, and not
every particular of it, is to be understood as approved by God; and
especially his faithful and undeviating adherence to the true religion,
from which he never deviated into any act of idolatry.
2. He was chosen to accomplish to their full extent the promises made to
Abraham to give to his seed, the whole country from the river of Egypt
to the great river Euphrates. He had succeeded to a kingdom distracted
with civil dissension, environed on every side by powerful and
victorious enemies, without a capital, almost without an army, without
any bond of union between the tribes. He left a compact and united
state, stretching from the frontier of Egypt to the foot of Lebanon,
from the Euphrates to the sea. He had crushed the power of the
Philistines, subdued or curbed all the adjacent kingdoms: he had formed
a lasting and important alliance with the great city of Tyre. He had
organized an immense disposable force; for every month 24,000 men,
furnished in rotation by the tribes, appeared in arms, and were trained
as the standing militia of the country. At the head of his army were
officers of consummate experience, and, what was more highly esteemed in
the warfare of the time, extraordinary personal activity, strength, and
valour. The Hebrew nation owed the long peace of Solomon the son’s reign
to the bravery and wisdom of the father.
3. As a conqueror he was a type of Christ, and the country “from the
river to the ends of the earth,” was also the prophetic type of Christ’s
dominion over the whole earth.
4. His inspired psalms not only place him among the most eminent
prophets; but have rendered him the leader of the devotions of good men,
in all ages. The hymns of David excel no less in sublimity and
tenderness of expression than in loftiness and purity of religious
sentiment. In comparison with them the sacred poetry of all other
nations sinks into mediocrity. They have embodied so exquisitely the
universal language of religious emotion, that they have entered with
unquestioned propriety into the ritual of the higher and more perfect
religion of Christ. The songs which cheered the solitude of the desert
caves of Engedi, or resounded from the voice of the Hebrew people as
they wound along the glens or the hill sides of Judea, have been
repeated for ages in almost every part of the habitable world, in the
remotest islands of the ocean, among the forests of America or the sands
of Africa. How many human hearts have these inspired songs softened,
purified, exalted! Of how many wretched beings have they been the secret
consolation! On how many communities have they drawn down the blessings
of Divine providence, by bringing the affections into unison with their
deep devotional fervour, and leading to a constant and explicit
recognition of the government, rights, and mercies of God!
DAY. The Hebrews, in conformity with the Mosaic law, reckoned the day
from evening to evening. The natural day, that is, the portion of time
from sunrise to sunset, was divided by the Hebrews, as it is now by the
Arabians, into six unequal parts. These divisions were as follows:--1.
The break of day. This portion of time was, at a recent period, divided
into two parts, in imitation of the Persians; the first of which began
when the eastern, the second, when the western, division of the horizon
was illuminated. The authors of the Jerusalem Talmud divided it into
four parts; the first of which was called in Hebrew איּלת השחר, which
occurs in Psalm xxii, 1, and corresponds to the phrase, λίαν ϖρωΐ, in
the New Testament, Mark xvi, 2; John xx, 1. 2. The morning or sunrise.
3. The heat of the day. This began about nine o’clock, Gen. xviii, 1; 1
Sam. xi, 11. 4. Midday. 5. The cool of the day; literally, the wind of
the day. This expression is grounded on the fact, that a wind commences
blowing regularly a few hours before sunset, and continues till evening,
Gen. iii, 8. 6. The evening. This was divided into two parts, ערבים; the
first of which began, according to the Caraites and Samaritans, at
sunset, the second, when it began to grow dark. But, according to the
rabbins, the first commenced just before sunset, the second, precisely
at sunset. The Arabians agree with the Caraites and Samaritans; and in
this way the Hebrews appear to have computed, previous to the captivity.
The mention of שעה, _hours_, occurs first in Daniel iii, 6, 15; v, 5.
They were first measured by _gnomons_, which merely indicated the
meridian; afterward, by the _hour-watch_, σκιαθέρικον; and subsequently
still, by the _clepsydra_, or instrument for measuring time by means of
water. The hour-watch or dial, otherwise called the sun-dial, is
mentioned in the reign of King Hezekiah, 2 Kings xx, 9, 10; Isaiah
xxxviii, 8. Its being called “the sundial of Ahaz” renders it probable
that Ahaz first introduced it from Babylon; whence, also, Anaximenes,
the Milesian, brought the first _skiathericon_ into Greece. This
instrument was of no use during the night, nor indeed during a cloudy
day. In consequence of this defect, the _clepsydra_ was invented, which
was used in Persia as late as the seventeenth century in its simplest
form. The _clepsydra_ was a small circular vessel, constructed of
thinly-beaten copper or brass, and having a small perforation through
the bottom. It was placed in another vessel, filled with water. The
diameter of the hole in the bottom of the _clepsydra_ was such, that it
filled with water in three hours, and sunk. It was necessary that there
should be a servant to tend it, who should take it up when it had sunk,
pour out the water, and place it again empty on the surface of the water
in the vase.
The hours of principal note in the course of the day were the third, the
sixth, and the ninth. These hours, it would seem, were consecrated by
Daniel to prayer, Dan. vi, 10; Acts ii, 15; iii, 1; x, 9. The day was
divided into twelve hours, which, of course, varied in length, being
shorter in the winter and longer in the summer, John xi, 9. In the
winter, therefore, the _clepsydras_ were so constructed that the water
might sink them more rapidly. The hours were numbered from the rising of
the sun, so that, at the season of the equinox, the third corresponded
to the ninth of our reckoning; the sixth, to our twelfth; and the ninth,
to three o’clock in the afternoon. At other seasons of the year, it is
necessary to observe the time when the sun rises, and reduce the hours
to our time accordingly. We observe, therefore, that the sun in
Palestine, at the summer solstice, rises at five of our time, and sets
about seven. At the winter solstice, it rises about seven, and sets
about five.
Before the captivity, the night was divided into three watches. The
first, which continued till midnight, was denominated the commencing or
first watch, Lam. ii, 19. The second was denominated the middle watch,
and continued from midnight till the crowing of the cock. The third,
called the morning watch, extended from the second to the rising of the
sun. These divisions and names appear to have owed their origin to the
watches of the Levites in the tabernacle and temple, Exod. xiv, 24; 1
Sam. xi, 11. In the time of Christ, however, the night, in imitation of
the Romans, was divided into four watches. According to the English mode
of reckoning they were as follows: 1. The evening, from twilight to nine
o’clock. 2. The midnight, from nine to twelve. 3. The cock crowing, from
twelve to three. 4. From three o’clock till daybreak. A day is used in
the prophetic Scripture for a year: “I have appointed thee each day for
a year,” Ezek. iv, 6. See COCK.
DEACON, from the Greek word διάκονος, in its proper and primitive sense,
denotes a _servant_ who attends his master, waits on him at table, and
is always near his person to obey his orders, which was accounted a more
creditable kind of service than that which is imported by the word
δοῦλος _a slave_; but this distinction is not usually observed in the
New Testament. Our Lord makes use of both terms in Matt. xx, 26, 27,
though they are not distinctly marked in our translation: “Whosoever
will be great among you, let him be your _deacon_; and whosoever will be
chief among you, let him be your _servant_.” The appointment of deacons
in the first Christian church is distinctly recorded, Acts vi, 1–16. The
number of disciples having greatly increased in Jerusalem, the Greeks,
or Hellenistic Jews, began to murmur against the Hebrews, complaining
that their widows were neglected in the daily distribution of the
church’s bounty. The twelve Apostles, who hitherto had discharged the
different offices of Apostle, presbyter, and deacon, upon the principle
that the greater office always includes the less, now convened the
church, and said unto them, “It is not reasonable that we should leave
the ministration of the word of God, and serve tables: look ye out,
therefore, among yourselves, seven men of good report, full of the Holy
Ghost, and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will
give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.”
And the saying pleased the whole multitude; and they (the multitude)
chose Stephen, and six others, whom they set before the Apostles, &c.
The qualifications of deacons are stated by the Apostle Paul, 1 Tim.
iii, 8–12. There were also, in the primitive churches females invested
with this office, who were termed deaconesses. Of this number was
Phœbe, a member of the church of Cenchrea, mentioned by St. Paul,
Rom. xvi, 1. “They served the church,” says Calmet, “in those offices
which the deacons could not themselves exercise, visiting those of their
own sex in sickness, or when imprisoned for the faith. They were persons
of advanced age, when chosen; and appointed to the office by imposition
of hands.” It is probably of these deaconesses that the Apostle speaks,
where he describes the ministering widows, 1 Tim. v, 5–10.
DEAD. See BURIAL.
DEAD, MOURNINGS FOR THE. The ancient Israelites, in imitation of the
Heathen, from whom they borrowed the practice, frequently cut themselves
with knives and lancets, scratched their faces, or pricked certain parts
of their bodies with needles. These superstitious practices were
expressly forbidden in their law: “Ye are the children of the Lord your
God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your
eyes for the dead.” The bereaved Greeks tore, cut off, and sometimes
shaved, their hair; they reckoned it a duty which they owed to the dead,
to deprive their heads of the greatest part of their honours, or, in the
language of Scripture, made a baldness between their eyes. The same
custom prevailed among the ancient Persians, and the neighbouring
states. When the patriarch Job was informed of the death of his
children, and the destruction of his property, he arose and rent his
mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and
worshipped; and in the prophecies of Jeremiah, we read of eighty men who
were going to lament the desolations of Jerusalem, having their beards
shaven, and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, in direct
violation of the divine law, with offerings and incense in their hand,
to bring them to the house of the Lord, Jer. xii, 5. Shaving, however,
was, on some occasions, a sign of joy; and to let the hair grow long,
the practice of mourners, or persons in affliction. Joseph shaved
himself before he went into the palace, Gen. xli, 14; and Mephibosheth
let his hair grow during the time David was banished from Jerusalem, but
shaved himself on his return. In ordinary sorrows they only neglected
their hair, or suffered it to hang down loose upon their shoulders; in
more poignant grief they cut it off; but in a sudden and violent
paroxysm, they plucked it off with their hands. Such a violent
expression of sorrow is exemplified in the conduct of Ezra, which he
thus describes: “And when I heard this thing I rent my garment and my
mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head, and of my beard, and sat
down astonied,” Ezra ix, 3. The Greeks, and other nations around them,
expressed the violence of their sorrow in the same way; for in Homer,
Ulysses and his companions, bewailing the death of Elpenor, howled and
plucked off their hair. Mourners withdrew as much as possible from the
world; they abstained from banquets and entertainments; they banished
from their houses as unsuitable to their circumstances, and even painful
to their feelings, musical instruments of every kind, and whatever was
calculated to excite pleasure, or that wore an air of mirth and gaiety.
Thus did the king of Persia testify his sorrow for the decree, into
which his wily courtiers had betrayed him, and which, without the
miraculous interposition of Heaven, had proved fatal to his favourite
minister: “Then the king went to his palace, and spent the night
fasting; neither were instruments of music brought before him,” Dan. vi,
18.
2. Oriental mourners divested themselves of all ornaments, and laid
aside their jewels, gold, and every thing rich and splendid in their
dress. This proof of humiliation and submission Jehovah required of his
offending people in the wilderness: “Therefore, now put off thy
ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. And the
children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the Mount
Horeb,” Exodus xxxiii, 5, 6. Long after the time of Moses, that
rebellious nation again received a command of similar import: “Strip
you, and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins,” Isaiah
xxxii, 11. The garments of the mourner were always black. Progne, having
notice of Philomela’s death, lays aside her robes, beaming with a
profusion of gold, and appears in sable vestments; and Althæa, when her
brethren were slain by Meleager, exchanged her glittering robes for
black:--
“_Et auratas mutavit vestibus atris._” OVID.
These sable vestments differed from their ordinary dress, not only in
colour, but also in value, being made of cheap and coarse stuff, as
appears from these lines of Terence:--
“_Texentem telam studiose ipsam offendimus
Mediocriter vestitam veste lugubri
Ejus anus causa, opinor, quæ erat mortua._”
“We found her busy at the loom, in a cheap mourning habit, which she
wore I suppose for the old woman’s death.” In Judea, the mourner was
clothed in sackcloth of hair, and by consequence, in sable robes; and
penitents, by assuming it, seemed to confess that their guilt exposed
them to death. Some of the eastern nations, in modern times, bury in
linen; but Chardin informs us, that others still retain the use of
sackcloth for that purpose. To sit in sackcloth and ashes, was a
frequent expression of mourning in the oriental regions; and persons
overwhelmed with grief, and unable to sustain the weight of their
calamities, often threw themselves upon the earth, and rolled in the
dust; and the more dirty the ground was, the better it served to defile
them, and to express their sorrow and dejection. In this way Tamar
signified her distress, after being dishonoured by Amnon, “She put ashes
on her head;” and when Mordecai understood that the doom of his nation
was sealed, he “rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes.” Our
Lord alludes to the same custom, in that denunciation: “Wo unto thee,
Chorazin! wo unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were
done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented
long ago, in sackcloth and ashes,” Matt. xi, 21. Intimately connected
with this, is the custom of putting dust upon the head. When the armies
of Israel were defeated before Ai, “Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to
the earth upon his face, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon
their heads.” The mourner sometimes laid his hands upon his head; for
the prophet, expostulating with his people, predicts their humiliation
in these words: “Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon
thine head; for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt
not prosper in them,” Jer. ii, 37. In both these cases, the head of the
mourner was uncovered; but they sometimes adopted the opposite custom,
and covered their heads in great distress, or when they were loaded with
disgrace and infamy.