DA VID, KING OF ISRAEL. 



15 



Jesse, the father of David, was a substantial 

 citizen of Bethlehem. He claimed descent through 

 Boaz from the ancieut princes of Judah (Ruth iv. 

 18, seq.), but the family connection was not of 

 note in Israel (1 Samuel xviii. 18). As the young- 

 est son of the house David spent his youth in an 

 occupation which the Hebrews as well as the 

 Arabs seem to have held in low esteem. He kept 

 his father's sheep in the desert steppes of Judah, 

 and there developed the strength, agility, en- 

 durance, and courage, which distinguished him 

 throughout life, and are referred to in Psalm 

 xviii. 32, seq. (compare 1 Samuel xvii. 34, xxiv. 2 ; 

 2 Samuel xvii. 9). There, too, he acquired that 

 skill in music that led to his first introduction to 

 Saul. Theu he became Saul's armor-bearer, and 

 in this capacity, according to the shorter and 

 more consistent form of the narrative, David took 

 part in the campaign in which he slew the Philis- 

 tine champion Goliath, and became by one exploit 

 a popular hero, and an object of jealousy to Saul. 

 According to the Massoretic text of 1 Samuel, 

 Saul's jealousy leaped at once to the conclusion 

 that David's ambition would not stop short of the 

 kingship. Such a suspicion would be intelligible 

 if we could suppose that the king had heard some- 

 thing of the significant act of Samuel, which now 

 stands at the head of the history of David in wit- 

 ness of that divine election and unction with the 

 spirit of Jehovah on which his whole career hung 

 (1 Samuel xvi. 1-13). But there is not the least 

 trace in the history that even David and David's 

 family understood at the time the meaning that 

 underlay his unction by Samuel, which would nat- 

 urally be taken as a special mark of favor and a 

 part of the usual " consecration " of the guests in 

 a sacrificial feast. The shorter text of 1 Samuel 

 xviii., represented by the Septuagint, gives an 

 account of Saul's jealousy, which is psychologi- 

 cally more intelligible. According to this text 

 Saul was simply possessed with such a personal 

 dislike and dread of David as might easily occupy 

 his disordered brain. To be quit of his hateful 

 presence he gave him a military command. In 

 this charge David increased his reputation as a 

 soldier, and became a general favorite. Saul's 

 daughter, Michal, loved him ; and her father, 

 whose jealousy continued to increase, resolved to 

 put the young captain on a perilous enterprise, 

 promising him the hand of Michal as a reward 

 of success, but secretly hoping that he would 

 perish in the attempt. David's good fortune did 

 not desert him ; he won his wife, and in this new 

 advancement continued to grow in the popular 

 favor, and to gain fresh laurels in the field. 



At this point it is necessary to look back on 

 an episode which is found in the Hebrew text, but 

 not in the Greek — the proposed marriage of David 

 with Saul's eldest daughter Merab, who at the 

 time when the proposal was made was already 

 the wife of a certain Adriel. What is said of this 

 affair interrupts the original context of chapter 

 xviii., to which the insertion has been clumsily 

 fitted by an interpolation in v. 21. We have here, 

 therefore, a notice drawn from a distinct source, 

 and of uncertain value. Merab and Michal are 

 confounded in 2 Samuel xxi. 8, and perhaps the 

 whole episode of Merab and David rests on a 

 similar confusion of names. 



As the king's son-in-law, David was necessari- 

 ly again at court. He became chief of the body- 

 guard, as Ewald rightly interprets 1 Samuel xxii. 

 14, and ranked next to Abner (1 Samuel xx. 25), 

 so that Saul's insane fears were constantly exas- 

 perated by personal contact with him. On at 

 least one occasion the king's frenzy broke out in 

 an attempt to murder David with his own hand. 

 At another time Saul actually gave commands to 

 assassinate his son-in-law, but the breach was 

 made up by Jonathan, whose chivalrous spirit 

 had united him to David in a covenant of closest 

 friendship (1 Samuel xix. l-*7). The circum- 

 stances of the final outburst of Saul's hatred, 

 which drove David into exile, are not easily dis- 

 entangled. The narrative of 1 Samuel xx., which 

 is the principal account of the matter, caunot 

 originally have been preceded by chapter xix. 

 11-24, for in chapter xx. David appears to be 

 still at court, and Jonathan is even unaware that 

 he is in any danger, while the preceding verses 

 represent him as already a fugitive. It may also 

 be doubted whether the narrative of David's es- 

 cape from his own house by the aid of his wife 

 Michal (chapter xix. 11—17) has any close connec- 

 tion with verse 10, and does not rather belong to 

 a later period. David's daring spirit might very- 

 well lead him to visit his wife even after his first 

 flight. The danger of such an enterprise was 

 diminished by the reluctance to violate the apart- 

 ments of women and attack a sleeping foe, which 

 appears also in Judges xvi. 2, and among the 

 Arabs. In any case it is certain that chapter xx. 

 must be taken by itself; and it seems safer to 

 conclude that chapter xix. 11-24 are fragments 

 which have been misplaced by an editor, than to 

 accept the opinion of those critics who hold that 

 we have two distinct and quite inconsistent ac- 

 counts of the same events. 



According to chapter xx., David was still at 

 court in his usual position, when he became cer- 



