** 1 Sam. xix. 11-17. Many critics regard this passage as an interpolation.



Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 430 of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

He was hospitably received by a descendant of Eli,* Ahimelech the priest, at Nob, and wandered about in the neighbourhood of Adullam, hiding himself in the wooded valleys of Khereth, in the heart of Judah. He retained the sympathies of many of the Benjamites, more than one of whom doubted whether it would not be to their advantage to transfer their allegiance from their aged king to this more youthful hero.

* 1 Sam. xxi. 8, 9 adds that he took as a weapon the sword of Goliath which was laid up in the sanctuary at Nob.

Saul got news of their defection, and one day when he was sitting, spear in hand, under the tamarisk at Gibeah, he indignantly upbraided his servants, and pointed out to them the folly of their plans. "Hear, now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards? will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds?" Ahimelech was selected as the victim of the king's anger: denounced by Doeg, Saul's steward, he was put to death, and all his family, with the exception of Abiathar, one of his sons, perished with him.* As soon as it became known that David held the hill-country, a crowd of adventurous spirits flocked to place themselves under his leadership, anticipating, no doubt, that spoil would not be lacking with so brave a chief, and he soon found himself at the head of a small army, with Abiathar as priest, and the ephod, rescued from Nob, in his possession.**

* 1 Sam. xix.-xxii., where, according to some critics, two contradictory versions have been blended together at a late period. The most probable version is given in 1 Sam, xix. 8- 10 [11-18a], xxi. 1-7 [8-10], xxii., and is that which I have followed by preference; the other version, according to these writers, attributes too important a role to Jonathan, and relates at length the efforts he made to reconcile his father and his friend (1 Sam. xviii. 30, xix. 1-7, xx.). It is thought, from the confusion apparent in this part of the narrative, that a record of the real motives which provoked a rupture between the king and his son-in-law has not been preserved.

** 1 Sam. xxii. 20-23, xxiii. 6. For the use of the ephod by Abiathar for oracular purposes, cf. 1 Sam. xxiii. 9-12, xxx. 7, 8; the inquiry in 1 Sam. xxiii. 2-4 probably belongs to the same series, although neither Abiathar nor the ephod is mentioned.

The country was favourable for their operations; it was a perfect labyrinth of deep ravines, communicating with each other by narrow passes or by paths winding along the edges of precipices. Isolated rocks, accessible only by rugged ascents, defied assault, while extensive caves offered a safe hiding-place to those who were familiar with their windings. One day the little band descended to the rescue of Keilah, which they succeeded in wresting from the Philistines, but no sooner did they learn that Saul was on his way to meet them than they took refuge in the south of Judah, in the neighbourhood of Ziph and Maon, between the mountains and the Dead Sea.*

* 1 Sam. xxiii. 1-13; an episode acknowledged to be historical by nearly-all modern critics.



Drawn by Boudior, from photograph No. 197 of the Palestine Exploration Fund. The heights visible in the distance are the mountains of Moab, beyond the Dead Sea.

Saul already irritated by his rival's successes, was still more galled by being always on the point of capturing him, and yet always seeing him slip from his grasp. On one afternoon, when the king had retired into a cave for his siesta, he found himself at the mercy of his adversary; the latter, however, respected the sleep of his royal master, and contented himself with cutting a piece off his mantle.* On another occasion David, in company with Abishai and Ahimelech the Hittite, took a lance and a pitcher of water from the king's bedside.** The inhabitants of the country were not all equally loyal to David's cause; those of Ziph, whose meagre resources were taxed to support his followers, plotted to deliver him up to the king,*** while Nabal of Maon roughly refused him food. Abigail atoned for her husband's churlishness by a speedy submission; she collected a supply of provisions, and brought it herself to the wanderers. David was as much disarmed by her tact as by her beauty, and when she was left a widow he married her. This union insured the support of the Calebite clan, the most powerful in that part of the country, and policy as well as gratitude no doubt suggested the alliance.

* 1 Sam, xxiv. Thought by some writers to be of much later date.

** 1 Sam. xxvi. 4-25.

Skirmishes were not as frequent between the king's troops and the outlaws as we might at first be inclined to believe, but if at times there was a truce to hostilities, they never actually ceased, and the position became intolerable. Encamped between his kinsman and the Philistines, David found himself unable to resist either party except by making friends with the other. An incursion of the Philistines near Maon saved David from the king, but when Saul had repulsed it, David had no choice but to throw himself into the arms of Achish, King of Gath, of whom he craved permission to settle as his vassal at Ziklag, on condition of David's defending the frontier against the Bedawin.*

* 1 Sam. xxvii. The earlier part of this chapter (vers. 1-6) is strictly historical. Some critics take vers. 8-12 to be of later date, and pretend that they were inserted to show the cleverness of David, and to deride the credulity of the King of Gath.

Saul did not deem it advisable to try and dislodge him from this retreat. Peace having been re-established in Judah, the king turned northward and occupied the heights which bound the plain of Jezreel to the east; it is possible that he contemplated pushing further afield, and rallying round him those northern tribes who had hitherto never acknowledged his authority. He may, on the other hand, have desired merely to lay hands on the Syrian highways, and divert to his own profit the resources brought by the caravans which plied along them. The Philistines, who had been nearly ruined by the loss of the right to demand toll of these merchants, assembled the contingents of their five principalities, among them being the Hebrews of David, who formed the personal guard of Achish. The four other princes objected to the presence of these strangers in their midst, and forced Achish to dismiss them. David returned to Ziklag, to find ruin and desolation everywhere. The Amalekites had taken advantage of the departure of the Hebrews to revenge themselves once for all for David's former raids on them, and they had burnt the town, carrying off the women and flocks. David at once set out on their track, overtook them just beyond the torrent of Besor, and rescued from them, not only his own belongings, but all the booty they had collected by the way in the southern provinces of Caleb, in Judah, and in the Cherethite plain.

He distributed part of this spoil among those cities of Judah which had shown hospitality to himself and his men, for instance, to Jattir, Aroer, Eshtemoa, Hormah, and Hebron.* While he thus kept up friendly relations with those who might otherwise have been tempted to forget him, Saul was making his last supreme effort against the Philistines, but only ito meet with failure. He had been successful in repulsing them as long as he kept to the mountain districts, where the courage of his troops made up for their lack of numbers and the inferiority of their arms; but he was imprudent enough to take up a position on the hillsides of Gilboa, whose gentle slopes offered no hindrances to the operations of the heavy Philistine battalions. They attacked the Israelites from the Shunem side, and swept all before them. Jonathan perished in the conflict, together with his two brothers, Malchi-shua and Abinadab; Saul, who was wounded by an arrow, begged his armour-bearer to take his life, but, on his persistently refusing, the king killed himself with his own sword. The victorious Philistines cut off his head and those of his sons, and placed their armour in the temple of Ashtoreth,** while their bodies, thus despoiled, were hung up outside the walls of Bethshan, whose Canaanite inhabitants had made common cause with the Philistines against Israel.

* 1 Sam. xxviii. 1, 2, xxix., xxx. The torrent of Besor is the present Wady Esh-Sheriah, which runs to the south of Gaza.

** The text of 1 Sam. xxxi. 10 says, in a vague manner, "in the house of the Ashtaroth" (in the plural), which is corrected, somewhat arbitrarily, in 1 Chron. x. 10 iato "in the house of Dagon" (B.V.); it is possible that it was the temple at Gaza, Gaza being the chief of the Philistine towns.

The people of Jabesh-Gilead, who had never forgotten how Saul had saved them from the Ammonites, hearing the news, marched all night, rescued the mutilated remains, and brought them back to their own town, where they burned them, and buried the charred bones under a tamarisk, fasting meanwhile seven days as a sign of mourning.*

* 1 Sam. xxxi. It would seem that there were two narratives describing this war: in one, the Philistines encamped at Shunem, and Saul occupied Mount Gilboa (1 Sam. xxviii. 4); in the other, the Philistines encamped at Aphek, and the Israelites "by the fountain which is in Jezreel" (1 Sam. xxix. 1). The first of these accounts is connected with the episode of the witch of Endor, the second with the sending away of David by Achish. The final catastrophe is in both narratives placed on Mount Gilboa and Stade has endeavoured to reconcile the two accounts by admitting that the battle was fought between Aphek and "the fountain," but that the final scene took place on the slopes of Gilboa. There are even two versions of the battle, one in 1 Sam. xxxi. and the other in 2 Sam. i. 6-10, where Saul does not kill himself, but begs an Amalekite to slay him; many critics reject the second version.



Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 79 of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

David afterwards disinterred these relics, and laid them in the burying-place of the family of Kish at Zela, in Benjamin. The tragic end of their king made a profound impression on the people. We read that, before entering on his last battle, Saul was given over to gloomy forebodings: he had sought counsel of Jahveh, but God "answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets." The aged Samuel had passed away at Ramah, and had apparently never seen the king after the flight of David;* Saul now bethought himself of the prophet in his despair, and sought to recall him from the tomb to obtain his counsel.

* 1 Sam. xxv. 1, repeated 1 Sam. xxviii. 3, with a mention of the measures taken by Saul against the wizards and fortune-tellers.

The king had banished from the land all wizards and fortune-tellers, but his servants brought him word that at Endor there still remained a woman who could call up the dead. Saul disguised himself, and, accompanied by two of his retainers, went to find her; he succeeded in overcoming her fear of punishment, and persuaded her to make the evocation. "Whom shall I bring up unto thee?"—"Bring up Samuel."—And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice, saying, "Why hast thou deceived me, for thou art Saul?" And the king said unto her, "Be not afraid, for what sawest thou?"—"I saw gods ascending out of the earth."—"What form is he of?"—"An old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle." Saul immediately recognised Samuel, and prostrated himself with his face to the ground before him. The prophet, as inflexible after death as in his lifetime, had no words of comfort for the God-forsaken man who had troubled his repose. "The Lord hath rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to thy neighbour, even to David, because thou obeyedst not the voice of the Lord,... and tomorrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me. The Lord also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hands of the Philistines."*

* 1 Sam. xxviii. 5-25. There is no reason why this scene should not be historical; it was natural that Saul, like many an ancient general in similar circumstances, should seek to know the future by means of the occult sciences then in vogue. Some critics think that certain details of the evocation—as, for instance, the words attributed to Samuel —are of a later date.

We learn, also, how David, at Ziklag, on hearing the news of the disaster, had broken into weeping, and had composed a lament, full of beauty, known as the "Song of the Bow," which the people of Judah committed to memory in their childhood. "Thy glory, O Israel, is slain upon thy high places! How are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph! Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew nor rain upon you, neither fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil! From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, the sword of Saul returned not empty. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in death they were not divided."*

* 2 Sam. i. 17-27 (R.V.). This elegy is described as a quotation from Jasher, the "Book of the Upright." Many modern writers attribute its authorship to David himself; others reject this view; all agree in regarding it as extremely ancient. The title, "Song of the Bow," is based on the possibly corrupt text of ver. 18.

The Philistines occupied in force the plain of Jezreel and the pass which leads from it into the lowlands of Bethshan: the Israelites abandoned the villages which they had occupied in these districts, and the gap between the Hebrews of the north and those of the centre grew wider. The remnants of Saul's army sought shelter on the eastern bank of the Jordan, but found no leader to reorganise them. The reverse sustained by the Israelitish champion seemed, moreover, to prove the futility of trying to make a stand against the invader, and even the useless-ness of the monarchy itself: why, they might have asked, burthen ourselves with a master, and patiently bear with his exactions, if, when put to the test, he fails to discharge the duties for the performance of which he was chosen? And yet the advantages of a stable form of government had been so manifest during the reign of Saul, that it never for a moment occurred to his former subjects to revert to patriarchal institutions: the question which troubled them was not whether they were to have a king, but rather who was to fill the post. Saul had left a considerable number of descendants behind him.* From these, Abner, the ablest of his captains, chose Ishbaal, and set him on the throne to reign under his guidance.**

* We know that he had three sons by his wife Ahinoam— Jonathan, Ishbaal, and Malchi-shua; and two daughters, Merab and Michal (1 Sam. xiv. 49, 50, where "Ishvi" should be read "Ishbaal"). Jonathan left at least one son, Meribbaal (1 Chron. viii. 34, ix. 40, called Mephibosheth in 2 Sam. xxi. 7), and Merab had five sons by Adriel (2 Sam. xxi. 8). One of Saul's concubines, Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, had borne him two sons, Armoni and Meribbaal (2 Sam. xxi. 8, where the name Meribbaal is changed into Mephibosheth); Abinadab, who fell with him in the fight at Mount Gilboa (1 Sam. xxxi. 2), whose mother's name is not mentioned, was another son.

** Ishbaal was still a child when his father died: had he been old enough to bear arms, he would have taken a part in the battle of Gilboa with his brothers.. The expressions used in the account of his elevation to the throne prove that he was a minor (2 Sam. ii. 8, 9); the statement that he was forty years old when he began to reign would seem, therefore, to be an error (ii. 10).

Gibeah was too close to the frontier to be a safe residence for a sovereign whose position was still insecure; Abner therefore installed Ishbaal at Mahanaim, in the heart of the country of Gilead. The house of Jacob, including the tribe of Benjamin, acknowledged him as king, but Judah held aloof. It had adopted the same policy at the beginning of the previous reign, yet its earlier isolation had not prevented it from afterwards throwing in its lot with the rest of the nation. But at that time no leader had come forward from its own ranks who was worthy to be reckoned among the mighty men of Israel; now, on the contrary, it had on its frontier a bold and resolute leader of its own race. David lost no time in stepping into the place of those whose loss he had bewailed. Their sudden removal, while it left him without a peer among his own people, exposed him to the suspicion and underground machinations of his foreign protectors; he therefore quitted them and withdrew to Hebron, where his fellow-countrymen hastened to proclaim him king.* From that time onwards the tendency of the Hebrew race was to drift apart into two distinct bodies; one of them, the house of Joseph, which called itself by the name of Israel, took up its position in the north, on the banks of the Jordan; the other, which is described as the house of Judah, in the south, between the Dead Sea and the Shephelah. Abner endeavoured to suppress the rival kingdom in its infancy: he brought Ishbaal to Gibeah and proposed to Joab, who was in command of David's army, that the conflict should be decided by the somewhat novel expedient of pitting twelve of the house of Judah against an equal number of the house of Benjamin. The champions of Judah are said to have won the day, but the opposing forces did not abide by the result, and the struggle still continued.**

* 2 Sam. ii. 1—11. Very probably Abner recognised the Philistine suzerainty as David had done, for the sake of peace; at any rate, we find no mention in Holy Writ of a war between Ishbaal and the Philistines.

** 2 Sam. ii. 12-32, iii. 1.

An intrigue in the harem furnished a solution of the difficulty. Saul had raised one of his wives of the second rank, named Eizpah, to the post of favourite. Abner became enamoured of her and took her. This was an insult to the royal house, and amounted to an act of open usurpation: the wives of a sovereign could not legally belong to any but his successor, and for any one to treat them as Abner had treated Rizpah, was equivalent to his declaring himself the equal, and in a sense the rival, of his master. Ishbaal keenly resented his minister's conduct, and openly insulted him. Abner made terms with David, won the northern tribes, including that of Benjamin, over to his side, and when what seemed a propitious moment had arrived, made his way to Hebron with an escort of twenty men. He was favourably received, and all kinds of promises were made him; but when he was about to depart again in order to complete the negotiations with the disaffected elders, Joab, returning from an expedition, led him aside into a gateway and slew him. David gave him solemn burial, and composed a lament on the occasion, of which four verses have come down to us: having thus paid tribute to the virtues of the deceased general, he lost no time in taking further precautions to secure his power. The unfortunate king Ishbaal, deserted by every one, was assassinated by two of his officers as he slept in the heat of the day, and his head was carried to Hebron: David again poured forth lamentations, and ordered the traitors to be killed. There was now no obstacle between him and the throne: the elders of the people met him at Hebron, poured oil upon his head, and anointed him king over all the provinces which had obeyed the rule of Saul in Gilead—Ephraim and Benjamin as well as Judah.*

* 2 Sam. v. 1-3; in 1 Ghron. xi. 1-3, xii. 23-40, we find further details beyond those given in the Book of Samuel; it seems probable, however, that the northern tribes may not have recognised David's sovereignty at this time.

As long as Ishbaal lived, and his dissensions with Judah assured their supremacy, the Philistines were content to suspend hostilities: the news of his death, and of the union effected between Israel and Judah, soon roused them from this state of quiescence. As prince of the house of Caleb and vassal of the lord of Grath, David had not been an object of any serious apprehension to them; but in his new character, as master of the dominions of Saul, David became at once a dangerous rival, whom they must overthrow without delay, unless they were willing to risk being ere long overthrown by him. They therefore made an attack on Bethlehem with the choicest of their forces, and entrenched themselves there, with the Canaanite city of Jebus as their base, so as to separate Judah entirely from Benjamin, and cut off the little army quartered round Hebron from the reinforcements which the central tribes would otherwise have sent to its aid.* This move was carried out so quickly that David found himself practically isolated from the rest of his kingdom, and had no course left open but to shut himself up in Adullam, with his ordinary guard and the Judsean levies.**

* The history of this war is given in 2 Sam. v. 17-25, where the text shows signs of having been much condensed. It is preceded by the account of the capture of Jerusalem, which some critics would like to transfer to chap, vi., following ver. 1 which leads up to it. The events which followed are self-explanatory, if we assume, as I have done in the text, that the Philistines wished to detach Judah from Israel: at first (2 Sam. v. 17-21) David endeavours to release himself and effect a juncture with Israel, as is proved by the relative positions assigned to the two opposing armies, the Philistines at Bethlehem, David in the cave of Adullam; afterwards (2 Sam. v. 22-25) David has shaken himself free, has rejoined Israel, and is carrying on the struggle between Gibeah and Gezer. The incidents recounted in 2 Sam. xxi. 15- 22, xxiii. 13-19, seem to refer almost exclusively to the earlier part of the war, at the time when the Hebrews were hemmed in in the neighbourhood of Adullam.

** The passage in 2 Sam. v. 17 simply states that David "went down to the hold," and gives no further details. This expression, following as it does the account of the taking of Jerusalem, would seem to refer to this town itself, and Renan has thus interpreted it. It really refers to Adullam, as is shown by the passage in 2 Sam. xxiii. 13-17. 1 2 Sam. xxi. 15-17.

The whole district round about is intersected by a network of winding streams, and abounds in rocky gorges, where a few determined men could successfully hold their ground against the onset of a much more numerous body of troops. The caves afford, as we know, almost impregnable refuges: David had often hidden himself in them in the days when he fled before Saul, and now his soldiers profited by the knowledge he possessed of them to elude the attacks of the Philistines. He began a sort of guerilla warfare, in the conduct of which he seems to have been without a rival, and harassed in endless skirmishes his more heavily equipped adversaries. He did not spare himself, and freely risked his own life; but he was of small stature and not very powerful, so that his spirit often outran his strength. On one occasion, when he had advanced too far into the fray and was weary with striking, he ran great peril of being killed by a gigantic Philistine: with difficulty Abishai succeeded in rescuing him unharmed from the dangerous position into which he had ventured, and for the future he was not allowed to run such risks on the field of battle. On another occasion, when lying in the cave of Adullam, he began to feel a longing for the cool waters of Bethlehem, and asked who would go down and fetch him a draught from the well by the gates of the town. Three of his mighty men, Joshebbasshebeth, Eleazar, and Shammah, broke through the host of the Philistines and succeeded in bringing it; but he refused to drink the few drops they had brought, and poured them out as a libation to Jehovah, saying, "Shall I drink the blood of men that went in jeopardy of their lives?"* Duels between the bravest and stoutest champions of the two hosts were of frequent occurrence. It was in an encounter of this kind that Elhanan the Bethlehemite [or David] slew the giant Goliath at Gob. At length David succeeded in breaking his way through the enemies' lines in the valley of Kephaim, thus forcing open the road to the north. Here he probably fell in with the Israelitish contingent, and, thus reinforced, was at last in a position to give battle in the open: he was again successful, and, routing his foes, pursued them from Gibeon to Gezer.** None of his victories, however, was of a sufficiently decisive character to bring the struggle to an end: it dragged on year after year, and when at last it did terminate, there was no question on either side of submission or of tribute:*** the Hebrews completely regained their independence, but the Philistines do not seem to have lost any portion of their domain, and apparently retained possession of all that they had previously held.

* 2 Sam. xxiii. 13-17; cf. 1 Ghron. xi. 15-19. Popular tradition furnishes many incidents of a similar type; cf. Alexander in the desert of Gedrosia, Godfrey de Bouillon in Asia Minor, etc.

** The Hebrew text gives "from Geba [or Gibeah] to Gezer" (2 Sam. v. 25); the Septuagint, "from Gibeon to Gezer." This latter reading [which is that of 1 Chron. xiv. 16.—Tr.] is more in accordance with the geographical facts, and I have therefore adopted it. Jahveh had shown by a continual rustling in the leaves of the mulberry trees that He was on David's side.

*** In 2 Sam. viii. 1 we are told that David humiliated the Philistines, and took "the bridle of the mother city" out of their hands, or, in other words, destroyed the supremacy which they had exercised over Israel; he probably did no more than this, and failed to secure any part of their territory. The passage in 1 Chron. xviii. 1, which attributes to him the conquest of Gath and its dependencies, is probably an amplification of the somewhat obscure wording employed in 2 Sam. viii. 1.

But though they suffered no loss of territory, their position was in reality much inferior to what it was before. Their control of the plain of Jezreel was lost to them for ever, and with it the revenue which they had levied from passing caravans: the Hebrews transferred to themselves this right of their former masters, and were so much the richer at their expense. To the five cities this was a more damaging blow than twenty reverses would have been to Benjamin or Judah. The military spirit had not died out among the Philistines, and they were still capable of any action which did not require sustained effort; but lack of resources prevented them from entering on a campaign of any length, and any chance they may at one time have had of exercising a dominant influence in the affairs of Southern Syria had passed away. Under the restraining hand of Egypt they returned to the rank of a second-rate power, just strong enough to inspire its neighbours with respect, but too weak to extend its territory by annexing that of others. Though they might still, at times, give David trouble by contesting at intervals the possession of some outlying citadel, or by making an occasional raid on one of the districts which lay close to the frontier, they were no longer a permanent menace to the continued existence of his kingdom.

But was Judah strong enough to take their place, and set up in Southern Syria a sovereign state, around which the whole fighting material of the country might range itself with confidence? The incidents of the last war had clearly shown the disadvantages of its isolated position in regard to the bulk of the nation. The gap between Ekron and the Jordan, which separated it from Ephraim and Manasseh, had, at all costs, to be filled up, if a repetition of the manouvre which so nearly cost David his throne at Adullam were to be avoided. It is true that the Gibeonites and their allies acknowledged the sovereignty of Ephraim, and formed a sort of connecting link between the tribes, but it was impossible to rely on their fidelity so long as they were exposed to the attacks of the Jebusites in their rear: as soon therefore as David found he had nothing more to fear from the Philistines, he turned his attention to Jerusalem.* This city stood on a dry and sterile limestone spur, separated on three sides from the surrounding hills by two valleys of unequal length. That of the Kedron, on the east, begins as a simple depression, but gradually becomes deeper and narrower as it extends towards the south. About a mile and a half from its commencement it is nothing more than a deep gorge, shut in by precipitous rocks, which for some days after the winter rains is turned into the bed of a torrent.**

* The name Jerusalem occurs under the form Ursalimmu, or Urusalim, in the Tel el-Amarna tablets. Sion was the name of the citadel preserved by the Israelites after the capture of the place, and applied by them to the part of the city which contained the royal palace, and subsequently to the town itself.

** The Kedron is called a nalial (2 Sam. xv. 23; 1 Kings ii. 37; Jer. xxxi. 40), i.e. a torrent which runs dry during the summer; in winter it was termed a brook. Excavations show that the fall diminishes at the foot of the ancient walls, and that the bottom of the valley has risen nearly twelve yards.

During the remainder of the year a number of springs, which well up at the bottom of the valley, furnish an unfailing supply of water to the inhabitants of Gibon,* Siloam,** and Eogel.*** The valley widens out again near En-Kogel, and affords a channel to the Wady of the Children of Hinnom, which bounds the plateau on the west. The intermediate space has for a long time been nothing more than an undulating plain, at present covered by the houses of modern Jerusalem. In ancient times it was traversed by a depression in the ground, since filled up, which ran almost parallel with the Kedron, and joined it near the Pool of Siloam.**** The ancient city of the Jebusites stood on the summit of the headland which rises between these two valleys, the town of Jebus itself being at the extremity, while the Millo lay farther to the north on the hill of Sion, behind a ravine which ran down at right angles into the valley of the Hedron.

* Now, possibly, the "Fountain of the Virgin," but its identity is not certain.

** These are the springs which feed the group of reservoirs now known as the Pool of Siloam. The name "Siloam" occurs only in Neh. iii. 15, but is undoubtedly more ancient.

*** En-Rogel, the "Traveller's Well," is now called the "Well of Job."

**** This valley, which is not mentioned by name in the Old Testament, was called, in the time of Josephus, the Tyropoon, or Cheesemakers'Quarter. Its true position, which had been only suspected up to the middle of the present century, was determined with certainty by means of the excavations carried out by the English and Germans. The bottom of the valley was found at a depth of from forty to sixty feet below the present surface.

An unfortified suburb had gradually grown up on the lower ground to the west, and was connected by a stairway cut in the rock* with the upper city. This latter was surrounded by ramparts with turrets, like those of the Canaanitish citadels which we constantly find depicted on the Egyptian monuments. Its natural advantages and efficient garrison had so far enabled it to repel all the attacks of its enemies.

* This is the Ophel of the Hebrew text.

When David appeared with his troops, the inhabitants ridiculed his presumption, and were good enough to warn him of the hopelessness of his enterprise: a garrison composed of the halt and the blind, without an able-bodied man amongst them, would, they declared, be able successfully to resist him. The king, stung by their mockery, made a promise to his "mighty men" that the first of them to scale the walls should be made chief and captain of his host. We often find that impregnable cities owe their downfall to negligence on the part of their defenders: these concentrate their whole attention on the few vulnerable points, and give but scanty care to those which are regarded as inaccessible.* Jerusalem proved to be no exception to this rule; Joab carried it by a sudden assault, and received as his reward the best part of the territory which he had won by his valour.**

* Cf. the capture of Sardis by Cyrus (Herodotus) and by Antiochus III. (Polybius), as also the taking of the Capitol by the Gauls.

** The account of the capture of Jerusalem is given in 2 Sam. v. 6-9, where the text is possibly corrupt, with interpolated glosses, especially in ver. 8; David's reply to the mockery of the Jebusites is difficult to understand. 1 Citron, xi. 4-8 gives a more correct text, but one less complete in so far as the portions parallel with 2 Sam. v. 6-9 are concerned; the details in regard to Joab are undoubtedly historical, but we do not find them in the Book of Samuel.

In attacking Jerusalem, David's first idea was probably to rid himself of one of the more troublesome obstacles which served to separate one-half of his people from the other; but once he had set foot in the place, he was not slow to perceive its advantages, and determined to make it his residence. Hebron had sufficed so long as his power extended over Caleb and Judah only. Situated as it was in the heart of the mountains, and in the wealthiest part of the province in which it stood, it seemed the natural centre to which the Kenites and men of Judah must gravitate, and the point at which they might most readily be moulded into a nation; it was, however, too far to the south to offer a convenient rallying-point for a ruler who wished to bring the Hebrew communities scattered about on both banks of the Jordan under the sway of a common sceptre. Jerusalem, on the other hand, was close to the crossing point of the roads which lead from the Sinaitic desert into Syria, and from the Shephelah to the land of Gilead; it commanded nearly the whole domain of Israel and the ring of hostile races by which it was encircled. From this lofty eyrie, David, with Judah behind him, could either swoop down upon Moab, whose mountains shut him out from a view of the Dead Sea, or make a sudden descent on the seaboard, by way of Bethhoron, at the least sign of disturbance among the Philistines, or could push straight on across Mount Ephraim into Galilee. Issachar, Naphtali, Asher, Dan, and Zebulun were, perhaps, a little too far from the seat of government; but they were secondary tribes, incapable of any independent action, who obeyed without repugnance, but also without enthusiasm, the soldier-king able to protect them from external foes. The future master of Israel would be he who maintained his hold on the posterity of Judah and of Joseph, and David could not hope to find a more suitable place than Jerusalem from which to watch over the two ruling houses at one and the same time.

The lower part of the town he gave up to the original inhabitants,* the upper he filled with Benjamites and men of Judah;** he built or restored a royal palace on Mount Sion, in which he lived surrounded by his warriors and his family.*** One thing only was lacking—a temple for his God. Jerubbaal had had a sanctuary at Ophrah, and Saul had secured the services of Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh: David was no longer satisfied with the ephod which had been the channel of many wise counsels during his years of adversity and his struggles against the Philistines. He longed for some still more sacred object with which to identify the fortunes of his people, and by which he might raise the newly gained prestige of his capital. It so happened that the ark of the Lord, the ancient safeguard of Ephraim, had been lying since the battle of Eben-ezer not far away, without a fixed abode or regular worshippers.****

* Judges i. 21; cf. Zech. xi. 7, where Ekron in its decadence is likened to the Jebusite vassal of Judah.

** Jerusalem is sometimes assigned to Benjamin (Judges i. 21), sometimes to Judah (Josh. xv. 63). Judah alone is right.

*** 2 Sam. v. 9, and the parallel passage in 1 Chron. xi. 7, 8.

**** The account of the events which followed the battle of Eben-ezer up to its arrival in the house of Abinadab, is taken from the history of the ark, referred to on pp. 306, 307, supra. It is given in 1 Sam. v., vi., vii. 1, where it forms an exceedingly characteristic whole, composed, it may be, of two separate versions thrown into one; the passage in 1 Sam. vi. 15, where the Levites receive the ark, is supposed by some to be interpolated.

The reason why it had not brought victory on that occasion, was that God's anger had been stirred at the misdeeds committed in His name by the sons of Eli, and desired to punish His people; true, it had been preserved from profanation, and the miracles which took place in its neighbourhood proved that it was still the seat of a supernatural power.



Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch published by Schick and Oldfield Thomas.

At first the Philistines had, according to their custom, shut it up in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod. On the morrow when the priests entered the sanctuary, they found the statue of their god prostrate in front of it, his fish-like body overthrown, and his head and hands scattered on the floor;* at the same time a plague of malignant tumours broke out among the people, and thousands of mice overran their houses. The inhabitants of Ashdod made haste to transfer it on to Ekron: it thus went the round of the five cities, its arrival being in each case accompanied by the same disasters. The soothsayers, being consulted at the end of seven months, ordered that solemn sacrifices should be offered up, and the ark restored to its rightful worshippers, accompanied by expiatory offerings of five golden mice and five golden tumours, one for each of the five repentant cities.**

* The statue here referred to is evidently similar to those of the Chaldaean gods and genii, in which Dagon is represented as a man with his back and head enveloped in a fish as in a cloak.

** In the Oustinoff collection at Jaffa, there is a roughly shaped image of a mouse, cut out of a piece of white metal, and perhaps obtained from the ruins of Gaza; it would seem to be an ex-voto of the same kind as that referred to in the Hebrew text, but it is of doubtful authenticity.

The ark was placed on a new cart, and two milch cows with their calves drew it, lowing all the way, without guidance from any man, to the field of a certain Joshua at Bethshemesh. The inhabitants welcomed it with great joy, but their curiosity overcame their reverence, and they looked within the shrine. Jehovah, being angered thereat, smote seventy men of them, and the warriors made haste to bring the ark to Kirjath-jearim, where it remained for a long time, in the house of Abinadab on the hill, under charge of his son Eleazar.* Kirjath-jearim is only about two leagues from Jerusalem. David himself went thither, and setting "the ark of God upon a new cart," brought it away.* Two attendants, called Uzzah and Ahio, drove the new cart, "and David and all Israel played before God with all their might: even with songs, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets." An accident leading to serious consequences brought the procession to a standstill; the oxen stumbled, and their sacred burden threatened to fall: Uzzah, putting forth his hand to hold the ark, was smitten by the Lord, "and there he died before the Lord." David was disturbed at this, feeling some insecurity in dealing with a Deity who had thus seemed to punish one of His worshippers for a well-meant and respectful act.**

* The text of 1 Sam. vi. 21, vii. 1, gives the reading Kirjath-jearim, whereas the text of 2 Sam. vi. 2 has Baale- Judah, which should be corrected to Baal-Judah. Baal-Judah, or, in its abbreviated form, Baala, is another name for Kirjath-jearim (Josh. xv. 9-11; cf. 1 Ghron. xiii. 6). Similarly, we find the name Kirjath-Baal (Josh. xv. 60). Kirjath-jearim is now Kharbet-el-Enab.

** The transport of the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem is related in 2 Sam. vi. and in 1 Ghron. xiii., xv., xvi.

He "was afraid of the Lord that day," and "would not remove the ark" to Jerusalem, but left it for three months in the house of a Philistine, Obed-Edom of Gath; but finding that its host, instead of experiencing any evil, was blessed by the Lord, he carried out his original intention, and brought the ark to Jerusalem. "David, girded with a linen ephod, danced with all his might before the Lord," and "all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet." When the ark had been placed in the tent that David had prepared for it, he offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and at the end of the festival there were dealt out to the people gifts of bread, cakes, and wine (or flesh). There is inserted in the narrative* an account of the conduct of Michal his wife, who looking out of the window and seeing the king dancing and playing, despised him in her heart, and when David returned to his house, congratulated him ironically—"How glorious was the King of Israel to-day, who uncovered himself in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants!"

* Renan would consider this to have been inserted in the time of Hezekiah. It appeared to him to answer "to the antipathy of Hamutal and the ladies of the court to the worship of Jahveh, and to that form of human respect which restrained the people of the world from giving themselves up to it."

David said in reply that he would rather be held in honour by the handmaids of whom she had spoken than avoid the acts which covered him with ridicule in her eyes; and the chronicler adds that "Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death."*

* [David's reply shows (2 Sam. vi. 21, 22) that it was in gratitude to Jehovah who had exalted him that he thus humbled himself.—Tr.]

The tent and the ark were assigned at this time to the care of two priests—Zadok, son of Ahitub, and Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, who was a descendant of Eli, and had never quitted David throughout his adventurous career.* It is probable, too, that the ephod had not disappeared, and that it had its place in the sanctuary; but it may have gradually fallen into neglect, and may have ceased to be the vehicle of oracular responses as in earlier years. The king was accustomed on important occasions to take part in the sacred ceremonies, after the example of contemporary monarchs, and he had beside him at this time a priest of standing to guide him in the religious rites, and to fulfil for him duties similar to those which the chief reader rendered to Pharaoh. The only one of these priests of David whose name has come down to us was Ira the Jethrite, who accompanied his master in his campaigns, and would seem to have been a soldier also, and one of "the thirty." These priestly officials seem, however, to have played but a subordinate part, as history is almost silent about their acts.** While David owed everything to the sword and trusted in it, he recognised at the same time that he had obtained his crown from Jahveh; just as the sovereigns of Thebes and Nineveh saw in Amon and Assur the source of their own royal authority.

* 2 Sam. viii. 17, xx. 25; cf. 1 Sam. xxi. 1, xxii. 20; 1 Chron. xv. 11.

** 2 Sam. xx. 26, where he is called the Jairite, and not the Ithrite, owing to an easily understood confusion of the Hebrew letters. He figures in the list of the Gibborim, "mighty men," 2 Sam. xxiii. 38.

He consulted the Lord directly when he wished for counsel, and accepted the issue as a test whether his interpretation of the Divine will was correct or erroneous. When once he had realised, at the time of the capture of Jerusalem, that God had chosen him to be the champion of Israel, he spared no labour to accomplish the task which the Divine favour had assigned to him. He attacked one after the other the peoples who had encroached upon his domain, Moab being the first to feel the force of his arm. He extended his possessions at the expense of Gilead, and the fertile provinces opposite Jericho fell to his sword. These territories were in dangerous proximity to Jerusalem, and David doubtless realised the peril of their independence. The struggle for their possession must have continued for some time, but the details are not given, and we have only the record of a few incidental exploits: we know, for instance, that the captain of David's guard, Benaiah, slew two Moabite notables in a battle.* Moabite captives were treated with all the severity sanctioned by the laws of war. They were laid on the ground in a line, and two-thirds of the length of the row being measured off, all within it were pitilessly massacred, the rest having their lives spared. Moab acknowledged its defeat, and agreed to pay tribute: it had suffered so much that it required several generations to recover.**

* 2 Sam. xxiii. 20-23: cf. 1 Chron. xi. 22-25. "Ariel," who is made the father of the two slain by Benaiah, may possibly be the term in 11. 12, 17, 18 of the Inscription of Mesha (Moabite Stone); but its meaning is obscure, and has hitherto baffled all attempts to explain it.

** 2 Sam. viii. 2.

Gilead had become detached from David's domain on the south, while the Ammonites were pressing it on the east, and the Ararnaeans making encroachments upon its pasture-lands on the north. Nahash, King of the Ammonites, being dead, David, who had received help from him in his struggle with Saul, sent messengers to offer congratulations to his son Hanun on his accession. Hanun, supposing the messengers to be spies sent to examine the defences of the city, "shaved off one-half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away." This was the signal for war. The Ammonites, foreseeing that David would endeavour to take a terrible vengeance for this insult to his people, came to an understanding with their neighbours. The overthrow of the Amorite chiefs had favoured the expansion of the Aramaeans towards the south. They had invaded all that region hitherto unconquered by Israel in the valley of the Litany to the east of Jordan, and some half-dozen of their petty states had appropriated among them the greater part of the territories which were described in the sacred record as having belonged previously to Jabin of Hazor and the kings of Bashan. The strongest of these principalities—that which occupied the position of Qodshu in the Bekaa, and had Zoba as its capital—was at this time under the rule of Hadadezer, son of Behob. This warrior had conquered Damascus, Maacah, and Geshur, was threatening the Canaanite town of Hamath, and was preparing to set out to the Euphrates when the Ammonites sought his help and protection. He came immediately to their succour. Joab, who was in command of David's army, left a portion of his troops at Babbath under his brother Abishai, and with the rest set out against the Syrians. He overthrew them, and returned immediately afterwards. The Ammonites, hearing of his victory, disbanded their army; but Joab had suffered such serious losses, that he judged it wise to defer his attack upon them until Zoba should be captured. David then took the field himself, crossed the Jordan with all his reserves, attacked the Syrians at Helam, put them to flight, killing Shobach, their general, and captured Damascus. Hadadezer [Hadarezer] "made peace with Israel," and Tou or Toi, the King of Hamath, whom this victory had delivered, sent presents to David. This was the work of a single campaign. The next year Joab invested Kabbath, and when it was about to surrender he called the king to his camp, and conceded to him the honour of receiving the submission of the city in person. The Ammonites were treated with as much severity as their kinsmen of Moab. David "put them under saws and harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln."*

* The war with the Aramaeans, described in 2 Sam. viii. 3- 12, is similar to the account of the conflict with the Ammonites in 2 Sam. x.-xii., but with more details. Both documents are reproduced in 1 Chron. xviii. 3-11, and xix., xx. 1-3.



This success brought others in its train. The Idumaeans had taken advantage of the employment of the Israelite army against the Aramaeans to make raids into Judah. Joab and Abishai, despatched in haste to check them, met them in the Valley of Salt to the south of the Dead Sea, and gave them battle: their king perished in the fight, and his son Hadad with some of his followers took flight into Egypt. Joab put to the sword all the able-bodied combatants, and established garrisons at Petra, Elath, and Eziongeber* on the Red Sea. David dedicated the spoils to the Lord, "who gave victory to David wherever he went."

Neither Elath nor Eziongeber are here mentioned, but 1 Kings ix. 25-28 and 2 Chron. viii. 17, 18 prove that these places had been occupied by David. For all that concerns Hadad, see 1 Kings xi. 15-20.

Southern Syria had found its master: were the Hebrews going to pursue their success, and undertake in the central and northern regions a work of conquest which had baffled the efforts of all their predecessors—Canaanites, Amorites, and Hittites? The Assyrians, thrown back on the Tigris, were at this time leading a sort of vegetative existence in obscurity; and, as for Egypt, it would seem to have forgotten that it ever had possessions in Asia. There was, therefore, nothing to be feared from foreign intervention should the Hebrew be inclined to weld into a single state the nations lying between the Euphrates and the Red Sea.



Drawn by Boudier, from photograph No. 377 of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

Unfortunately, the Israelites had not the necessary characteristics of a conquering people. Their history from the time of their entry into Canaan showed, it is true, that they were by no means incapable of enthusiasm and solidarity: a leader with the needful energy and good fortune to inspire them with confidence could rouse them from their self-satisfied indolence, and band them together for a great effort. But such concentration of purpose was ephemeral in its nature, and disappeared with the chief who had brought it about. In his absence, or when the danger he had pointed out was no longer imminent, they fell back instinctively into their usual state of apathy and disorganisation. Their nomadic temperament, which two centuries of a sedentary existence had not seriously modified, disposed them to give way to tribal quarrels, to keep up hereditary vendettas, to break out into sudden tumults, or to make pillaging expeditions into their neighbours' territories. Long wars, requiring the maintenance of a permanent army, the continual levying of troops and taxes, and a prolonged effort to keep what they had acquired, were repugnant to them. The kingdom which David had founded owed its permanence to the strong will of its originator, and its increase or even its maintenance depended upon the absence of any internal disturbance or court intrigue, to counteract which might make too serious a drain upon his energy. David had survived his last victory sufficiently long to witness around him the evolution of plots, and the multiplication of the usual miseries which sadden, in the East, the last years of a long reign. It was a matter of custom as well as policy that an exaltation in the position of a ruler should be accompanied by a proportional increase in the number of his retinue and his wives. David was no exception to this custom: to the two wives, Abigail and Ahinoam, which he had while he was in exile at Ziklag, he now added Maacah the Aramaean, daughter of the King of Geshur, Haggith, Abital, Bglah, and several others.* During the siege of Babbath-Ammon he also committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and, placing her husband in the forefront of the battle, brought about his death. Rebuked by the prophet Nathan for this crime, he expressed his penitence, but he continued at the same time to keep Bathsheba, by whom he had several children.** There was considerable rivalry among the progeny of these different unions, as the right of succession would appear not to have been definitely settled. Of the family of Saul, moreover, there were still several members in existence—the son which he had by Eizpah, the children of his daughter Merab, Merib-baal, the lame offspring of Jonathan,*** and Shimei****—all of whom had partisans among the tribes, and whose pretensions might be pressed unexpectedly at a critical moment.

* Ahinoam is mentioned in the following passages: 1 Sam. xxv. 43, xxvii. 3, xxx. 5; 2 Sam. ii. 2, iii. 2; cf. also 1 Chron. iii. 1; Maacah in 2 Sam. iii. 3; 1 Chron. iii. 2; Haggith in 2 Sam. iii. 4; 1 Kings i. 5, 11, ii. 13; 1 Chron. iii. 2; Abital in 2 Sam. iii. 4; 1 Chron. iii. 3; Eglah in 2 Sam. iii. 5; 1 Chron. iii. 3. For the concubines, see 2 Sam. v. 13, xv. 15, xvi. 21, 22; 1 Chron. iii. 9, xiv. 3.

** 2 Sam. xi., xii. 7-25.

*** 2 Sam. ix., xvi. 1-4, xix. 25-30, where the name is changed into Mephibosheth; the original name is given in 1 Chron. viii. 34.

**** Sam. xvi. 5-14, xix. 16-23; 1 Kings ii. 8, 9, 36-46.

The eldest son of Ahinoam, Amnon, whose priority in age seemed likely to secure for him the crown, had fallen in love with one of his half-sisters named Tamar, the daughter of Maacah, and, instead of demanding her in marriage, procured her attendance on him by a feigned illness, and forced her to accede to his desires. His love was thereupon converted immediately into hate, and, instead of marrying her, he had her expelled from his house by his servants. With rent garments and ashes on her head, she fled to her full-brother Absalom. David was very wroth, but he loved his firstborn, and could not permit himself to punish him. Absalom kept his anger to himself, but when two years had elapsed he invited Amnon to a banquet, killed him, and fled to his grandfather Talmai, King of Geshur.*

* It is to be noted that Tamar asked Amnon to marry her, and that the sole reproach directed against the king's eldest son was that, after forcing her, he was unwilling to make her his wife. Unions of brother and sister were probably as legitimate among the Hebrews at this time as among the Egyptians.

His anger was now turned against the king for not having taken up the cause of his sister, and he began to meditate his dethronement. Having been recalled to Jerusalem at the instigation of Joab, "Absalom prepared him chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him," thus affecting the outward forms of royalty. Judah, dissatisfied at the favour shown by David to the other tribes, soon came to recognise Absalom as their chief, and some of the most intimate counsellors of the aged king began secretly to take his part. When Absalom deemed things safe for action, he betook himself to Hebron, under the pretence of a vow which he had made daring his sojourn at Geshur. All Judah rallied around him, and the excitement at Jerusalem was so great that David judged it prudent to retire, with his Philistine and Cherethite guards, to the other side of the Jordan. Absalom, in the mean while, took up his abode in Jerusalem, where, having received the tacit adherence of the family of Saul and of a number of the notables, he made himself king. To show that the rupture between him and David was complete, he had tents erected on the top of the house, and there, in view of the people, took possession of his father's harem. Success would have been assured to him if he had promptly sent troops after the fugitives, but while he was spending his time in inactivity and feasting, David collected together those who were faithful to him, and put them under the command of Joab and Abishai. The king's veterans were more than a match for the undisciplined rabble which opposed them, and in the action which followed at Mahanaim Absalom was defeated: in his flight through the forest of Ephraim he was caught in a tree, and before he could disentangle himself was pierced through the heart by Joab.

David, we read, wished his people to have mercy on his son, and he wept bitterly. He spared on this occasion the family of Saul, pardoned the tribe of Judah, and went back triumphantly into Jerusalem, which a few days before had taken part in his humiliation. The tribes of the house of Joseph had taken no side in the quarrel. They were ignorant alike of the motives which set the tribe of Judah against their own hero, and of their reasons for the zeal with which they again established him on the throne. They sent delegates to inquire about this, who reproached Judah for acting without their cognisance: "We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more right in David than ye: why then did ye despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king?" Judah answered with yet fiercer words; then Sheba, a chief of the Benjamites, losing patience, blew a trumpet, and went off crying: "We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel." If these words had produced an echo among the central and northern tribes, a schism would have been inevitable: some approved of them, while others took no action, and since Judah showed no disposition to put its military forces into movement, the king had once again to trust to Joab and the Philistine guards to repress the sedition. Their appearance on the scene disconcerted the rebels, and Sheba retreated to the northern frontier without offering battle. Perhaps he reckoned on the support of the Aramaeans. He took shelter in the small stronghold of Abel of Bethmaacah, where he defended himself for some time; but just when the place was on the point of yielding, the inhabitants cut off Sheba's head, and threw it to Joab from the wall. His death brought the crisis to an end, and peace reigned in Israel. Intrigues, however, began again more persistently than ever over the inheritance which the two slain princes had failed to obtain. The eldest son of the king was now Adonijah, son of Haggith, but Bathsheba exercised an undisputed sway over her husband, and had prepared him to recognise in Solomon her son the heir to the throne. She had secured, too, as his adherents several persons of influence, including Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and Benaiah, the captain of the foreign guard.

Adonijah had on his side Abiathar the priest, Joab, and the people of Jerusalem, who had been captivated by his beauty and his regal display. In the midst of these rivalries the king was daily becoming weaker: he was now very old, and although he was covered with wrappings he could not maintain his animal heat. A young girl was sought out for him to give him the needful warmth. Abishag, a Shunammite, was secured for the purpose, but her beauty inspired Adonijah with such a violent passion that he decided to bring matters to a crisis. He invited his brethren, with the exception of Solomon, to a banquet in the gardens which belonged to him in the south of Jerusalem, near the well of Eogel. All his partisans were present, and, inspired by the good cheer, began to cry, "God save King Adonijah!" When Nathan informed Bathsheba of what was going on, she went in unto the king, who was being attended on by Abishag, complained to him of the weakness he was showing in regard to his eldest son, and besought him to designate his heir officially. He collected together the soldiers, and charged them to take the young man Solomon with royal pomp from the hill of Sion to the source of the Gibon: Nathan anointed his forehead with the sacred oil, and in the sight of all the people brought him to the palace, mounted on his father's mule. The blare of the coronation trumpets resounded in the ears of the conspirators, quickly followed by the tidings that Solomon had been hailed king over the whole of Israel: they fled on all sides, Adonijah taking refuge at the horns of the altar. David did not long survive this event: shortly before his death he advised Solomon to rid himself of all those who had opposed his accession to the throne. Solomon did not hesitate to follow this counsel, and the beginning of his reign was marked by a series of bloodthirsty executions. Adonijah was the first to suffer. He had been unwise enough to ask the hand of Abishag in marriage: this request was regarded as indicative of a hidden intention to rebel, and furnished an excuse for his assassination. Abiathar, at whose instigation Adonijah had acted, owed his escape from a similar fate to his priestly character and past services: he was banished to his estate at Anathoth, and Zadok became high priest in his stead. Joab, on learning the fate of his accomplice, felt that he was a lost man, and vainly sought sanctuary near the ark of the Lord; but Benaiah slew him there, and soon after, Shimei, the last survivor of the race of Saul, was put to death on some transparent pretext. This was the last act of the tragedy: henceforward Solomon, freed from all those who bore him malice, was able to devote his whole attention to the cares of government.*

* 1 Kings i., ii. This is the close of the history of David, and follows on from 2 Sam. xxiv. It would seem that Adonijah was heir-apparent (1 Kings i. 5, 6), and that Solomon's accession was brought about by an intrigue, which owed its success to the old king's weakness (1 Kings i. 12, 13, 17, 18, 30, 31).

The change of rulers had led, as usual, to insurrections among the tributary races: Damascus had revolted before the death of David, and had not been recovered. Hadad returned from Egypt, and having gained adherents in certain parts of Edom, resisted all attempts made to dislodge him.*

* It seems clear from the context that the revolt of Damascus took place during David's lifetime. It cannot, in any case, have occurred at a later date than the beginning of the reign of Solomon, for we are told that Rezon, after capturing the town, "was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon" (1 Kings xi. 23-25). Hadad returned from Egypt when "he had heard that David slept with his fathers, and that Joab the captain of the host was dead" (1 Kings xi. 21, 22, 25).

As a soldier, Solomon was neither skilful nor fortunate: he even failed to retain what his father had won for him. Though he continued to increase his army, it was more with a view to consolidating his power over the Bne-Israel than for any aggressive action outside his borders. On the other hand, he showed himself an excellent administrator, and did his best, by various measures of general utility, to draw closer the ties which bound the tribes to him and to each other. He repaired the citadels with such means as he had at his disposal. He rebuilt the fortifications of Megiddo, thus securing the control of the network of roads which traversed Southern Syria. He remodelled the fortifications of Tamar, the two Bethhorons, Baalath, Hazor, and of many other towns which defended his frontiers. Some of them he garrisoned with foot-soldiers, others with horsemen and chariots. By thus distributing his military forces over the whole country, he achieved a twofold object;* he provided, on the one hand, additional security from foreign invasion, and on the other diminished the risk of internal revolt.

* 1 Kings ix. 15, 17-19; cf. 2 Chron. viii. 4-6. The parallel passage in 2 Chron. viii. 4, and the marginal variant in the Book of Kings, give the reading Tadmor Palmyra for Tamar, thus giving rise to the legends which state that Solomon's frontier extended to the Euphrates. The Tamar here referred to is that mentioned in Ezeh. xlvii. 19, xlviii. 28, as the southern boundary of Judah; it is perhaps identical with the modern Kharbet-Kurnub.

The remnants of the old aboriginal clans, which had hitherto managed to preserve their independence, mainly owing to the dissensions among the Israelites, were at last absorbed into the tribes in whose territory they had settled. A few still held out, and only gave way after long and stubborn resistance: before he could triumph over Gezer, Solomon was forced to humble himself before the Egyptian Pharaoh. He paid homage to him, asked the hand of his daughter in marriage, and having obtained it, persuaded him to come to his assistance: the Egyptian engineers placed their skill at the service of the besiegers and soon brought the recalcitrant city to reason, handing it over to Solomon in payment for his submission.* The Canaanites were obliged to submit to the poll-tax and the corvee: the men of the league of Gibeon were made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of the Lord.** The Hebrews themselves bore their share in the expenses of the State, and though less heavily taxed than the Canaanites, were, nevertheless, compelled to contribute considerable sums; Judah alone was exempt, probably because, being the private domain of the sovereign, its revenues were already included in the royal exchequer.***

* 1 Kings ix. 16. The Pharaoh in question was probably one of the Psiukhannit, the Psusennos II. of Manetho.

** 1 Kings ix. 20, 21. The annexation of the Gibeonites and their allies is placed at the time of the conquest in Josh. ix. 3-27; it should be rather fixed at the date of the loss of independence of the league, probably in the time of Solomon.

*** Stade thinks that Judah was not exempt, and that the original document must have given thirteen districts.

In order to facilitate the collection of the taxes, Solomon divided the kingdom into twelve districts, each of which was placed in charge of a collector; these regions did not coincide with the existing tribal boundaries, but the extent of each was determined by the wealth of the lands contained within it. While one district included the whole of Mount Ephraim, another was limited to the stronghold of Mahanaim and its suburbs. Mahanaim was at one time the capital of Israel, and had played an important part in the life of David: it held the key to the regions beyond Jordan, and its ruler was a person of such influence that it was not considered prudent to leave him too well provided with funds. By thus obliterating the old tribal boundaries, Solomon doubtless hoped to destroy, or at any rate greatly weaken, that clannish spirit which showed itself with such alarming violence at the time of the revolt of Sheba, and to weld into a single homogeneous mass the various Hebrew and Canaanitish elements of which the people of Israel were composed.*

* 1 Kings iv. 7-19, where a list of the districts is given; the fact that two of Solomon's sons-in-law appear in it, show that the document from which it is taken gave the staff of collectors in office at the close of his reign.

Each of these provinces was obliged, during one month in each year, to provide for the wants of "the king and his household," or, in other words, the requirements of the central government. A large part of these contributions went to supply the king's table; the daily consumption at the court was—thirty measures of fine flour, sixty measures of meal, ten fat oxen, twenty oxen out of the pastures, a hundred sheep, besides all kinds of game and fatted fowl: nor need we be surprised at these figures, for in a country where, and at a time when money was unknown, the king was obliged to supply food to all his dependents, the greater part of their emoluments consisting of these payments in kind. The tax-collectors had also to provide fodder for the horses reserved for military purposes: there were forty thousand of these, and twelve thousand charioteers, and barley and straw had to be forthcoming either in Jerusalem itself or in one or other of the garrison towns amongst which they were distributed.* The levying of tolls on caravans passing through the country completed the king's fiscal operations which were based on the systems prevailing in neighbouring States, especially that of Egypt.**

* 1 Kings iv. 26-28; the complementary passages in 1 Kings x. 26 and 2 Chron. i. 14 give the number of chariots as 1400 and of charioteers at 12,000. The numbers do not seem excessive for a kingdom which embraced the whole south of Palestine, when we reflect that, at the battle of Qodshu, Northern Syria was able to put between 2500 and 3000 chariots into the field against Ramses II. The Hebrew chariots probably carried at least three men, like those of the Hittites and Assyrians.

** 1 Kings x. 15, where mention is made of the amount which the chapmen brought, and the traffic of the merchants contains an allusion to these tolls.

Solomon, like other Oriental sovereigns, reserved to himself the monopoly of certain imported articles, such as yarn, chariots, and horses. Egyptian yarn, perhaps the finest produced in ancient times, was in great request among the dyers and embroiderers of Asia. Chariots, at once strong and light, were important articles of commerce at a time when their use in warfare was universal. As for horses, the cities of the Delta and Middle Egypt possessed a celebrated strain of stallions, from which the Syrian princes were accustomed to obtain their war-steeds.* Solomon decreed that for the future he was to be the sole intermediary between the Asiatics and the foreign countries supplying their requirements. His agents went down at regular intervals to the banks of the Nile to lay in stock; the horses and chariots, by the time they reached Jerusalem, cost him at the rate of six hundred silver shekels for each chariot, and one hundred and fifty shekels for each horse, but he sold them again at a profit to the Aramaean and Hittite princes. In return he purchased from them Cilician stallions, probably to sell again to the Egyptians, whose relaxing climate necessitated a frequent introduction of new blood into their stables.** By these and other methods of which we know nothing the yearly revenue of the kingdom was largely increased: and though it only reached a total which may seem insignificant in comparison with the enormous quantities of the precious metals which passed through the hands of the Pharaohs of that time, yet it must have seemed boundless wealth in the eyes of the shepherds and husbandmen who formed the bulk of the Hebrew nation.

* The terms in which the text, 1 Kings x. 27-29 (cf. 2 Citron, i. 16, 17), speaks of the trade in horses, show that the traffic was already in existence when Solomon decided to embark in it.

** 1 Kings x. 27-29; 2 Chron. i. 16, 17. Kue, the name of Lower Cilicia, was discovered in the Hebrew text by Pr. Lenormant. Winckler, with mistaken reliance on the authority of Erman, has denied that Egypt produced stud-horses at this time, and wishes to identify the Mizraim of the Hebrew text with Musri, a place near Mount Taurus, mentioned in the Assyrian texts.

In thus developing his resources and turning them to good account, Solomon derived great assistance from the Phoenicians of Tyre and Sidon, a race whose services were always at the disposal of the masters of Southern Syria. The continued success of the Hellenic colonists on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean had compelled the Phoenicians to seek with redoubled boldness and activity in the Western Mediterranean some sort of compensation for the injury which their trade had thus suffered. They increased and consolidated their dealings with Sicily, Africa, and Spain, and established themselves throughout the whole of that misty region which extended beyond the straits of Gibraltar on the European side, from the mouth of the Guadalete to that of the Guadiana. This was the famous Tarshish—the Oriental El Dorado. Here they had founded a number of new towns, the most flourishing of which, Gadir,* rose not far from the mouths of the Betis, on a small islet separated from the mainland by a narrow arm of the sea. In this city they constructed a temple to Melkarth, arsenals, warehouses, and shipbuilding yards: it was the Tyre of the west, and its merchant-vessels sailed to the south and to the north to trade with the savage races of the African and European seaboard. On the coast of Morocco they built Lixos, a town almost as large as Gadir, and beyond Lixos, thirty days' sail southwards, a whole host of depots, reckoned later on at three hundred.

* I do not propose to discuss here the question of the identity of the country of Tartessos with the Tarshish or Tarsis mentioned in the Bible (1 Kings x. 22).

By exploiting the materials to be obtained from these lands, such as gold, silver, tin, lead, and copper, Tyre and Sidon were soon able to make good the losses they had suffered from Greek privateersmen and marauding Philistines. Towards the close of the reign of Saul over Israel, a certain king Abibaal had arisen in Tyre, and was succeeded by his son Hiram, at the very moment when David was engaged in bringing the whole of Israel into subjection. Hiram, guided by instinct or by tradition, at once adopted a policy towards the rising dynasty which his ancestors had always found successful in similar cases. He made friendly overtures to the Hebrews, and constituted himself their broker and general provider: when David was in want of wood for the house he was building at Jerusalem, Hiram let him have the necessary quantity, and hired out to him workmen and artists at a reasonable wage, to help him in turning his materials to good account.*

* 2 Sam. v. 11; cf. the reference to the same incident in 1 Kings v 1-3.

The accession of Solomon was a piece of good luck for him. The new king, born in the purple, did not share the simple and somewhat rustic tastes of his father. He wanted palaces and gardens and a temple, which might rival, even if only in a small way, the palaces and temples of Egypt and Chaldaea, of which he had heard such glowing accounts: Hiram undertook to procure these things for him at a moderate cost, and it was doubtless his influence which led to those voyages to the countries which produced precious metals, perfumes, rare animals, costly woods, and all those foreign knicknacks with which Eastern monarchs of all ages loved to surround themselves. The Phoenician sailors were well acquainted with the bearings of Puanit, most of them having heard of this country when in Egypt, a few perhaps having gone thither under the direction and by the orders of Pharaoh: and Hiram took advantage of the access which the Hebrews had gained to the shores of the Red Sea by the annexation of Edom, to establish relations with these outlying districts without having to pass the Egyptian customs. He lent to Solomon shipwrights and sailors, who helped him to fit out a fleet at Ezion-geber, and undertook a voyage of discovery in company with a number of Hebrews, who were no doubt despatched in the same capacity as the royal messengers sent with the galleys of Hatshopsitu. It was a venture similar to those so frequently undertaken by the Egyptian admirals in the palmy days of the Theban navy, and of which we find so many curious pictures among the bas-reliefs at Deir el-Bahari. On their return, after a three years' absence, they reported that they had sailed to a country named Ophir, and produced in support of their statement a freight well calculated to convince the most sceptical, consisting as it did of four hundred and twenty talents of gold. The success of this first venture encouraged Solomon to persevere in such expeditions: he sent his fleet on several voyages to Ophir, and procured from thence a rich harvest of gold and silver, wood and ivory, apes and peacocks.*

* 1 Kings ix. 26-28, x. 11, 12; cf. 2 Citron, viii. 17, 18, ix. 10, 11, 21. A whole library might be stocked with the various treatises which have appeared on the situation of the country of Ophir: Arabia, Persia, India, Java, and America have all been suggested. The mention of almug wood and of peacocks, which may be of Indian origin, for a long time inclined the scale in favour of India, but the discoveries of Mauch and Bent on the Zimbabaye have drawn attention to the basin of the Zambesi and the ruins found there. Dr. Peters, one of the best-known German explorers, is inclined to agree with Mauch and Bent, in their theory as to the position of the Ophir of the Bible. I am rather inclined to identify it with the Egyptian Puanit, on the Somali or Yemen seaboard.

Was the profit from these distant cruises so very considerable after all? After they had ceased, memory may have thrown a fanciful glamour over them, and magnified the treasures they had yielded to fabulous proportions: we are told that Solomon would have no drinking vessels or other utensils save those of pure gold, and that in his days "silver was as stone," so common had it become.*

* 1 Kings x. 21, 27. In Chronicles the statement in the Book of Kings is repeated in a still more emphatic manner, since it is there stated that gold itself was "in Jerusalem as stones" (2 Chron. i. 15).



Doubtless Hiram took good care to obtain his fall share of the gains. The Phoenician king began to find Tyre too restricted for him, the various islets over which it was scattered affording too small a space to support the multitudes which flocked thither. He therefore filled up the channels which separated them; by means of embankments and fortified quays he managed to reclaim from the sea a certain amount of land on the south; after which he constructed two harbours—one on the north, called the Sidonian; the other on the south, named the Egyptian. He was perhaps also the originator of the long causeway, the lower courses of which still serve as a breakwater, by which he transformed the projecting headland between the island and the mainland into a well-sheltered harbour. Finally, he set to work on a task like that which he had already helped Solomon to accomplish: he built for himself a palace of cedar-wood, and restored and beautified the temples of the gods, including the ancient sanctuary of Melkarth, and that of Astarte. In his reign the greatness of Phoenicia reached its zenith, just as that of the Hebrews culminated under David.



Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph published by the Duc de Luynes.

The most celebrated of Solomon's works were to be seen at Jerusalem. As David left it, the city was somewhat insignificant. The water from its fountains had been amply sufficient for the wants of the little Jebusite town; it was wholly inadequate to meet the requirements of the growing-population of the capital of Judah. Solomon made better provision for its distribution than there had been in the past, and then tapped a new source of supply some distance away, in the direction of Bethlehem; it is even said that he made the reservoirs for its storage which still bear his name.*

* A somewhat ancient tradition attributes these works to Solomon; no single fact confirms it, but the balance of probability seems to indicate that he must have taken steps to provide a water-supply for the new city. The channels and reservoirs, of which traces are found at the present day, probably occupy the same positions as those which preceded them.



Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by M. C. Alluaud of Limoges.

Meanwhile, Hiram had drawn up for him plans for a fortified residence, on a scale commensurate with the thriving fortunes of his dynasty. The main body was constructed of stone from the Judaean quarries, cut by masons from Byblos, but it was inlaid with cedar to such an extent that one wing was called "the house of the forest-of-Lebanon." It contained everything that was required for the comfort of an Eastern potentate—a harem, with separate apartments for the favourites (one of which was probably decorated in the Egyptian manner for the benefit of Pharaoh's daughter);* then there were reception-halls, to which the great men of the kingdom were admitted; storehouses, and an arsenal. The king's bodyguard possessed five hundred shields "of beaten gold," which were handed over by each detachment, when the guard was relieved, to the one which took its place. But this gorgeous edifice would not have been complete if the temple of Jahveh had not arisen side by side with the abode of the temporal ruler of the nation. No monarch in those days could regard his position as unassailable until he had a sanctuary and a priesthood attached to his religion, either in his own palace or not far away from it. David had scarcely entered Jerusalem before he fixed upon the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite as a site for the temple, and built an altar there to the Lord during a plague which threatened to decimate his people; but as he did not carry the project any farther,** Solomon set himself to complete the task which his father had merely sketched out.

* 1 Kings vii. 8, ix. 24; 2 Ghron. viii. 11.

** 2 Sam xxiv. 18-25, The threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite is mentioned elsewhere as the site on which Solomon built his temple (2 Ghron. iii. 1).

The site was irregular in shape, and the surface did not naturally lend itself to the purpose for which it was destined. His engineers, however, put this right by constructing enormous piers for the foundations, which they built up from the slopes of the mountain or from the bottom of the valley as circumstances required: the space between this artificial casing and the solid rock was filled up, and the whole mass formed a nearly square platform, from which the temple buildings were to rise. Hiram undertook to supply materials for the work. Solomon had written to him that he should command "that they hew me cedar trees out of Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants; and I will give thee hire for thy servants according to all that thou shalt say: for thou knowest that there is not among us any that can skill to hew timber like unto the Zidonians." Hiram was delighted to carry out the wishes of his royal friend with regard to the cedar and cypress woods.



Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph.

"My servants," he answered, "shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea: and I will make them into rafts to go by sea unto the place that thou shalt appoint me, and will cause them to be broken up there, and thou shalt receive them; and thou shalt accomplish my desire, in giving food for my household." The payment agreed on, which was in kind, consisted of twenty thousand kor of wheat, and twenty kor of pure oil per annum, for which Hiram was to send to Jerusalem not only the timber, but architects, masons, and Gebalite carpenters (i.e. from Byblos), smelters, sculptors, and overseers.* Solomon undertook to supply the necessary labour, and for this purpose made a levy of men from all the tribes. The number of these labourers was reckoned at thirty thousand, and they were relieved regularly every three months; seventy thousand were occupied in the transport of the materials, while eighty thousand cut the stones from the quarry.**

* 1 Kings v. 7—11 * cf. 2 Chron. ii. 3—16, where the writer adds 20,000 kor of barley, 20,000 "baths" of wine, and the same quantity of oil.

** 1 Kings v. 13-18; of. 2 Chron. ii. 1, 2, 17, 18.

It is possible that the numbers may have been somewhat exaggerated in popular estimation, since the greatest Egyptian monuments never required such formidable levies of workmen for their construction; we must remember, however, that such an undertaking demanded a considerable effort, as the Hebrews were quite unaccustomed to that kind of labour. The front of the temple faced eastward; it was twenty cubits wide, sixty long, and thirty high. The walls were of enormous squared stones, and the ceilings and frames of the doors of carved cedar, plated with gold; it was entered by a porch, between two columns of wrought bronze, which were called Jachin and Boaz.*