rauder, and tear away from the jaws of the lion morsels of the lost treasure-two legs, or a piece of an ear.1 Such feats as these were those performed by the youthful David. It was his pride to pursue these savage beasts, and on one occasion he had a desperate encounter at once with a lion and a she-bear. The lion had carried off a lamb; he pursued the invader, struck him, with the boldness of an Arab shepherd,2 with his staff or switch, and forced the lamb out of his jaws. The lion turned upon the boy, who struck him again, caught him by the mane or the throat, or, according to another version, by the tail, and succeeded in destroying him. The story grew as years rolled on, and it was described in the language of Eastern poetry how he played with lions as with kids, and with bears as with lambs.

5

These encounters developed that daring courage His martial which already in these early years had disexploits. played itself against the enemies of his country. For such exploits as these he was, according to one version of his life, already known to Saul's guards; and, according to another, when he suddenly appeared in the camp, his elder brother immediately guessed that he had left the sheep in his ardor to see the battle. The Philistine garrison fixed in Bethlehem may have naturally fired the boy's warlike spirit, and his knowledge of the rocks and fastnesses of Judea may have given him many an advantage over them.

1 Amos iii. 12.

2 See Thevenot, Voyage de Levante, ii. 13; quoted by Thenius on 1 Sam. xvii. 35.

3 Joseph. Ant. vi. 9, § 3.

5 Ecclus. xlvii. 3.

6 1 Sam. xvi. 18, xvii. 28.

7 2 Sam. xxiii. 14.

8 There is no satisfactory method of reconciling the contradictory ac

4 LXX. 1 Sam. xvii. 35 (rès þápvy- counts in 1 Sam. xvi. 14-23, and xvii.

yos).

12-31, 55-58. The first states that

of Ephes

Through this aspect of his early youth, he is gradually thrust forward into eminence. The scene The battle of the battle which the young shepherd "came daminim. "to see" was in a ravine in the frontier-hills of Judah, called probably from this or similar encounters Ephesdammim, "the bound of blood." Saul's army is encamped on one side of the ravine, the Philistines on the other. A dry watercourse marked by a spreading terebinth runs between them. A Philistine' of gigantic stature insults the whole Israelite army. He is clothed in the complete armor for which his nation

David was made known to Saul and that "Goliath of Gath, the staff of became his armor-bearer in consewhose spear was like a weaver's quence of the charm of his music in beam," was killed (not by David, assuaging the king's melancholy. The but) by Elhanan of Bethlehem. This, second implies that David was still a combined with the fact that the Philshepherd with his father's flocks, and istine whom David slew is usually unknown to Saul. The Vatican MS. nameless, has suggested to Ewald (iii. of the LXX., followed by Kennicott 91, 92) the ingenious conjecture that (who argues the question at length, the name of Goliath (which is only Dissertation on Hebrew Text, 418-432, given thrice to David's enemy, 1 Sam. 554-558), rejects the narrative in 1 xvii. 4, 23, xxi. 9) was borrowed from Sam. xvii. 12-31, 55-51, as spurious. the conflict of the real Goliath with But the internal evidence from its Elhanan, whose Bethlehemite origin graphic touches is much in its favor, has led to the confusion. Jerome and it must at least be accepted as (Qu. Heb. ad loc.) makes Elhanan an ancient tradition of David's life. the same as David. But see ELHAHorsley, but with no external author- NAN in the Dict. of the Bible. (2.) In ity, transposes 1 Sam. xvi. 14–23. 1 Chron. xi. 12, Eleazar (or more Another explanation supposes that probably Shammah, 2 Sam. xxiii. 11) Saul had forgotten him. But this is said to have fought with David at only solves half the difficulty, and is Ephes-dammim against the Philistines. evidently not the intention of the It is of course possible that the same narrative. It must therefore be ac- scene may have witnessed two encepted as an independent statement counters between Israel and the Philof David's first appearance, modified istines; but it may also indicate that by the counter-statement already no- David's first acquaintance with Elea⚫zar, afterwards one of his chief captains (2 Sam. xxiii. 9), was made on this memorable occasion.

Siced.

1 Variations in the common account are suggested by two other passages. (1.) In 2 Sam. xxi. 19, it is stated

was renowned, which is described piece by piece, as if to enhance its awful strength, in contrast with the defencelessness of the Israelites. No one can be found to take up the challenge. The King sits in his tent in moody despair. Jonathan, it seems, is absent. At this juncture David appears in the camp, sent by his father with ten loaves and ten slices of milk-cheese fresh from the sheepfolds, to his three eldest brothers, who were there to represent their father detained by his extreme age. Just as he comes to the circle of wagons which formed, as in Arab settlements, a rude fortification round the Israelite camp, he hears the well-known shout of the Israelite war-cry. "The shout of a king "is among them."2 The martial spirit of the boy is stirred at the sound; he leaves his provisions with the baggage-master, and darts to join his brothers (like one of the royal messengers) into the midst of the lines.* There he hears the challenge, now made for the fortieth time, -sees the dismay of his countrymen, - hears the reward proposed by the king, goes with the impetuosity of youth from soldier to soldier talking of the event, in spite of his brother's rebuke, — he is 'ntroduced to Saul, he undertakes the combat.

It is an encounter which brings together in one brief space the whole contrast of the Philistine and Israelite warfare. On the one hand is the huge giant, of that race or family, as it would seem, of giants which gave to Gath a kind of grotesque renown; such as in David's after-days still engaged the prowess of his followers, —

1 1 Sam. xvii. 20; xxvi. 7, A. V. "trench."

Comp. Num. xxii. 21; Josh. vi:

5; Judg. vii. 20.

22.

4 As in 1 Sam. iv. 16, 2 Sam. xviii.

5 Josh. xi. 22; 2 Sam. xxi. 20, 22. Compare the speech of Harapha in

3 1 Sam. xvii. 22. The same word Milton's Samson Agonistes. I used as in xxii. 17.

monsters of strange appearance, with hands and feet of disproportionate development. He is full of savage1 insolence and fury; unable to understand how any one could contend against his brute strength and impreg nable panoply; the very type of the stupid "Philistine," such as has in the language of modern Germany not unfitly identified the name with the opponents of light and freedom and growth. On the other hand is the small agile youth, full of spirit and faith; refusing the cumbrous brazen helmet, the unwieldy sword and shield,. - so heavy that he could not walk with them, — which the King had proffered; confident in the new3 name of the "Lord of Hosts," — the God of Battles, — in his own shepherd's sling, and in the five pebbles which the watercourse of the valley had supplied as he ran through it on his way to the battle. A single stone was enough. It penetrated the brazen helmet. The giant fell on his face, and the Philistine army fled down the pass and were pursued even within the gates of Ekron and Ascalon. Two trophies long remained of the battle, the head and the sword of the Philistine. Both were ultimately deposited at Jerusalem; but meanwhile were hung up behind the ephod in the Tabernacle at Nob. The Psalter is closed by a psalm, preserved only in the Septuagint, which, though prob

1 According to the Chaldee Paraphrast, he declares himself the conqueror and slayer of Hophni and Phineas.

2 Philisterei.

* See Lecture XXIII.

♦ For the Mussulman legend, see Weil's Legends, p. 153.

5 1 Sam. xvii. 53 (LXX.).

61 Ibid. xvii. 54. The mention of Jerusalem may be either an antici

5

pation of the ultimate deposition of these relics in his Sacred Tent there, 2 Sam. vi. 17, or a description of the Tabernacle at Nob close to Jerusalem, where the sword is mentioned, 1 Sam. xxi. 9.

7 Ps. cli. (LXX.) Ps. cxliv., though by its contents of a much later date, is by the title in the LXX. alsc "against Goliath.”

ably a mere adaptation from the history, well sums up this early period of his life: "This is the psalm of "David's own writing, and outside the number, when "he fought the single combat with Goliath." "I was "small amongst my brethren, and the youngest in my "father's house. I was feeding my father's sheep. My "hands made a harp, and my fingers fitted a psaltery. "And who shall tell it to my Lord? He is the Lord, "He heareth. He sent his messenger and took me from "my father's flocks, and anointed me with oil of His "anointing. My brethren were beautiful and tall, but “the Lord was not well pleased with them. I went out "to meet the Philistine, and he cursed me by his idols. "But I drew his own sword and beheaded him, and "took away the reproach from the children of Israel." The victory over Goliath had bee a turning-point of David's career. The Philistines henceforth

His rise in the court of

Saul.

2

regarded him as "the king of the land" when they heard the triumphant songs of the Israelitish women, which announced by the vehemence of the antistrophic response that in him Israel had now found a deliverer mightier even than Saul. And in those songs, and in the fame which David thus acquired, was laid the foundation of that unhappy jealousy of Saul towards him, which, mingling with the king's constitutional malady, poisoned his whole future relations to David.

It would seem that David was at first in the humble but confidential situation-the same in Israelite as in Grecian warfare of armor-bearer. He then rose

1 1 Sam. xxi. 11.

2 Ibid. xviii. 7 (Heb.). Of these and of like songs, Bunsen (Bibelwerk, Pref. cl.) interprets the expression in ? Sam. xxii. 1, not "the sweet singer

of Israel," but "the darling of the songs of Israel." See Fabricius, Cod. Pseudep. V. T. 906.

3 1 Sam. xvi. 21; xviii. 2.