LECTURE XXIV. THE FALL OF DAVID. The Psalms which, by their titles or contents, belong to this period, are: For the affair of Uriah, Psalms xxxii., li. For the revolt of Absalom, Psalms iii., iv., lxix. (?), cix. (?), cxliii. LECTURE XXIV. THE FALL OF DAVID. THREE great external calamities are recorded in Da vid's reign, which may be regarded as marking its beginning, middle, and close. A three years' famine;1 a three months' exile; a three days' pestilence. Of these the first has been already noticed in connection with the last traces of the house of Saul. The third belongs to the last decline of his prosperity. But the second forms the culminating part of the group of incidents which contains the main tragedy of David's life. Amongst the thirty commanders of the thirty bands into which the Israelite army of David was Uriah and divided, was the gallant Uriah, like others of Bathsheba. his officers, a foreigner—a Hittite. His name," however, and perhaps his manner of speech, indicate that he had adopted the Jewish religion. He had married Bathsheba, a woman of extraordinary beauty, the daughter of Eliam, one of his brother officers,' and possibly the son of Ahithophel. He was passionately 1 2 Sam. xxiv. 13 (LXX.); 1 Chron. xxi. 12. See Ewald, iii. 207. 2 That it took place early in David's reign appears (1) from the freshness of the allusion to Saul's act, 2 Sam. xxi. 1, 2; (2) from the apparent allusion to the massacre of Saul's sons in 2 Sam. xvi. 8; (3) from the apparent connection with 2 Sam. ix. (See Lecture XXI. Ewald, iii. 173, 174.) 1 2 Sam. xxiii. 39; 1 Chron. xi. 41. 4 Ittai of Gath, Ish-bosheth the Canaanite, 2 Sam. xxiii. 8 (LXX.); Zelek the Ammonite, xxiii. 37, Ismaiah the Gibeonite, 1 Chron. xii. 4. 5 Uriah, Ur-Jah = "Fire of JChovah." 6 2 Sam. xi. 11. 7 Ibid. xi. 3, xxiii. 34. Hence, perhaps, as Professor Blunt conjectures (Coincidences, II. x.), Uriah's first acquaintance with Bathsheba. devoted to his wife, and their union was celebrated in Jerusalem as one of peculiar tenderness.1 He had a house in the city underneath the palace, where, during his absence at the siege of Rabbah with Joab's army, his wife remained behind. From the roof of his palace, the King looked down on the cisterns which were constructed on the top of the lower houses of Jerusalem, and then conceived for Bathsheba the uncontrollable passion to which she offered no resistance. In the hope that the husband's return might cover his own shame, and save the reputation of the injured woman, he sent back for Uriah from the camp, on the pretext of asking news of the war. The King met with an unexpected obstacle in the austere soldierlike spirit which guided the conduct of the sturdy Canaanite. He steadily refused to go home, or partake of any of the indulgences of domestic life, whilst the ark and the host were in booths and his comrades lying in the open air. He partook of the royal hospitality, but slept always in the guards' quarter3 at the gate of the palace. On the last night of his stay, the King at a feast vainly endeavored to entrap him by intoxication. The soldier was overcome by the debauch, but retained his sense of duty sufficiently to insist on sleeping at the palace. On the morning of the third day, David sent him back to the camp with a letter containing the command to Joab to contrive his destruction in the battle. Probably to an unscrupulous soldier like Joab the absolute will of the King was sufficient. 1 2 Sam. xii. 3. 2 Ibid. xi. 11. The words are admirably applied by Oliver Cromwell in a rebuke to his son Richard (Carlyle's Cromwell, Letter clxxviii.). 3 Ibid. 9. Comp. Neh. iii. 16. 4 Josephus (Ant. vii. 7, § 1) adds, that he gave as a reason an imaginary offence of Uriah. None such appears in the letter as preserved in 2 Sam. xi. der of The device of Joab was, to observe the part of the wall of Rabbath-Ammon where the strongest The murforce of the besieged was congregated, and Uriah. thither, as a kind of forlorn hope, to send Uriah. A sally took place. Uriah with his soldiers advanced as far as the gate of the city, and was there shot down by the Ammonite archers. It seems as if it had been an established maxim of Israelitish warfare not to approach the wall of a besieged city; and one instance of the fatal result was quoted, as if proverbially,' against it, the sudden and ignominious death of Abimelech at Thebez, which cut short the hopes of the then rising. monarchy. Just as Joab had forewarned the messenger, the King broke into a furious passion on hearing of the loss, and cited, almost in the very words which Joab had predicted, the case of Abimelech. The messenger, as instructed by Joab, calmly continued, and ended the story with the words: "Thy servant also, Uriah the "Hittite, is dead." In a moment David's anger is appeased. He sends an encouraging message to Joab on the unavoidable chances of war, and urges him to continue the siege. Uriah had fallen unconscious of his wife's dishonor. She hears of her husband's death. The narrative gives no hint as to her shame or remorse. She "mourned" with the usual signs of grief as a widow; and then became the wife of David.2. Thus far the story belongs to the usual crimes of an Oriental despot. Detestable as was the double guilt of this dark story, we must still remember that David was not an Alfred or a Saint Louis. He was an Eastern 1 This appears from the fact that Joab exactly anticipates what the king will say when he hears of the disaster. See the additions of the LXX. to verse 22, with the remarks of Thenius thereon. See Lecture XV. p. 391. 2 2 Sam. xi. 27. |