THE KING'S MIRROR 317 



a man who had incurred the king's wrath should be 

 given a reprieve of forty days in the king's custody, lest 

 a verdict be rendered too quickly in his case and in 

 violent anger; and it seems to me that a king will need 

 to possess much good nature, if he is to spare a man in 

 his anger. But even so righteous and holy a man as 

 Moses was could not control his wrath on that day, 

 when he came in anger to the people of Israel; for I am 

 told that his wrath rose to such violence that he dashed 

 the two tables of stone, which he bore in his arms and 

 upon which God Himself had written the ten command- 

 ments of His law with His own fingers, against a rock 

 and broke them into fragments in his fury; and rushing 

 at once to arms, he and the men who were with him 

 slew many hundred persons that day.* I have also heard 

 that David in sudden wrath ordered the man, who came 

 from the battle in which Saul fell, bringing the tidings 

 that Saul was dead, to be slain immediately; f and he 

 did not order him to be kept for further inquiry. 



Father. Remember what I called to your attention 

 in an earlier remark, namely, that these laws are in- 

 tended for men who do not fall into such evident trans- 

 gressions that a rightful verdict can condemn them to 

 immediate death. But when Moses came away from 

 God, he knew God's wrath toward all the people of 

 Israel, and consequently did a deed of kindness and not 

 of hatred when by this chastisement he turned them 

 from error and evil ways; just as I have told you that 

 [a king in punishing should be moved by kindness and 

 not by hatredAFor all penRltlVs thnt nrp inflirtrH br 



* Exodus, xxxii. f H Samuel, i. 



