cles and directions as to his movements.

A fierce burst

of indignation against Doeg, the author of the massa cre, traditionally commemorates the period of the reception of this news.1

The situation of David was now changed by the appearance of Saul himself on the scene. Apparently the danger was too great for the little army to keep together. They escaped from Keilah, and dispersed, "whithersoever they could go," amongst the fastnesses of Judah.

The inhabitants of Keilah were probably Canaanites. At any rate, they could not be punished for sheltering the young outlaw. It may be, too, that the inhabitants of southern Judea retained a fearful recollection of the victory of Saul over their ancient enemies, the Amalekites, the great trophy of which had been set up on the southern Carmel. The pursuit (so far as we can3 trace it) now becomes unusually hot.

He is in the wilderness of Ziph. Under the shade of the forest of Ziph for the last time, he sees Jonathan. Once (or twice) the Ziphites betray his movements to Saul. From thence Saul literally hunts him like a partridge, the treacherous Ziphites beating the bushes before him, or, like a single flea skipping from crag to crag before the 3000 men stationed to catch even the print of his footsteps on the hills. David finds himself driven to a fresh covert, to the wilderness

1 Ps. lii. (title).

5

and perhaps 1 Sam. xxiv. 1-22, xxvi.

2 See Lecture XXI. and Wright's 5-25). Life of David, p. 108.

3 We cease to follow the events with exactness, partly from ignorance of the localities, partly because the same event seems to be twice narrated (1 Sam. xxiii. 19-24, xxvi. 1–4;

4 1 Sam. xxiii. 16.

5 Ibid. xxiv. 14, xxvi. 20; Heb. "one flea."

6 Ibid. xxiii. 14, 22 (Heb. " foot "), 24 (LXX.), xxiv. 11, xxvi. 2, 20.

At Engedi.

of Maon. On two, if not three occasions, the pursuer and pursued catch sight of each other. Of the first of these escapes, the memory was long preserved in the name of the Cliff of Divisions, given to the rock down one side of which David climbed, whilst Saul was surrounding the hill on the other side, and whence he was suddenly called away by a panic of Philistine invasion.' On another occasion, David took refuge in a cave at Engedi, so called from the beautiful spring frequented by the wild goats which leap from rock to rock along the precipices immediately above the Dead Sea. The hills were covered with the pursuers. Into the cavern, where in the darkness no one was visible, Saul turned aside for a moment, as Eastern wayfarers are wont, from public observation. David and his followers were seated in the innermost recesses of the cave, and saw, without being seen, the King come in and sit down, spreading his wide robe, as is usual in the East on such occasions, before and behind the person so occupied. There had been an augury, a prediction of some kind, that a chance of securing his enemy would be thrown in David's way. The followers in their dark retreat suggest that now is the time. David, with a characteristic mixture of humor and generosity, descends and silently cuts off the skirt of the long robe from the back of the unconscious and preoccupied King, and then ensued the pathetic scene of remonstrance and forgiveness, which shows the true affection that lived beneath the hostility of the two rivals. The third meeting (if it can be distinguished from the one just given) was again in the wilderness of Ziph. The

1 1 Sam. xxiii. 25-29.

? Ibid. xxiv. 1, 2.

Ibid. xxiv. 3, "to cover his feet."

The Oriental usage leaves no doubt
as to the nature of the act intended.
4 1 Sam. xxiv. 4.

King was intrenched in a regular camp, formed by the usual Hebrew fortification of wagons and baggage Into this enclosure David penetrated by night, and carried off the cruse of water, and the well-known royal spear1 of Saul, which had twice so nearly transfixed him to the wall in former days. The same scene is repeated as at Engedi, and this is the last interview between Saul and David. "Return, my son David; for "I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was pre"cious in thine eyes this day. Blessed be thou,

"my son David; thou shalt both do great things and "also shalt prevail." 2

The earlier stage of

The crisis was now passed. David's life is drawing to its close. Samuel was dead, and with him the house of Ramah was extinct. Saul had ceased to be dangerous, and the end of that troubled reign was rapidly approaching. David is now to return to a greater than his former position, by the same door through which he left it, as an ally of the Philistine kings. We seem for a moment to find him in one of the levels of life, which like many transitional epochs have the least elevation. He comes back not as a solitary fugitive, or persecuted suppliant, but as a powerful freebooter. His 600 followers have freebooter. grown up into an organized force, with their wives and families about them. He has himself established a name and fame in the pastures of Southern Judea, which showed that his trials had already developed within him some of those royal, we may almost say imperious, qualities that mark his after-life. Two wives have followed his fortunes from these regions.

David as a

1 1 Sam. xxiv. 8-22. For the Mussulman legend, see Weil, p. 156.

1 Sam. xxvi. 7, 11, 22.

3 Ibid. 25.

4 Ibid. xxvii. 3, 4.

Of one, Ahinoam, we know nothing except her birthplace, Jezreel, on the slopes of the southern Carmel.' The other, Abigail, came from the same neighborhood, and her introduction to David opens to us a glimpse of the lighter side of his wanderings, that we cannot afford to lose; in which we see not only the romantic adventures of Gustavus Vasa, of Pelayo, of the Stuart Princes, but also the generous, genial life of the exiled Duke in the forest of Ardennes, or the outlaw of Sherwood forest.

Nabal and

There lived in that part of the country Nabal, a powerful chief, whose wealth, as might be expected Story of from his place of residence, consisted chiefly Abigail. of sheep and goats. The tradition preserved the exact numbers of each, 3000 of the one, 1000 of the other. It was the custom of the shepherds to drive them into the wilderness of Carmel. Once a year there was a great banquet, when they brought back their sheep for shearing, with eating and drinking, "like the feast of a "king." It was on one of these occasions that ten youths were seen approaching the hill. In them the shepherds recognized the slaves or attendants of the chief of a band of freebooters who had showed them unexpected kindness in their pastoral excursions. To' Nabal they were unknown. They approached him with a triple salutation; enumerated the services of their master, and ended by claiming, with that mixture of courtesy and defiance so characteristic of the East, "whatsoever cometh to thy hand, for thy servants "and for thy son David." The great sheepmaster was not disposed to recognize this new parental relation. He was notorious for his obstinacy, and his low and

1 1 Sam. xxv. 43; Josh. xv. 56. Ibid. xxv. 2, 4, 36.

3 1 Sam. xxiv. 8. The LXX. omit these words.

cynical turn of mind. On hearing this demand, he sprang1 up and broke out into fury: "Who is David? "and who is the son of Jesse?" The moment that the

messengers were gone, the shepherds that stood by perceived the danger of their position. To Nabal himself they durst not speak. But they knew that he was married to a wife as beautiful and wise as he was the reverse. To Abigail, as to the good angel of the household, one of the shepherds told the state of affairs. She loaded her husband's numerous asses with presents, and with her attendants running before her, rode down towards David's encampment. She was just in time. At that very moment he had made the usual vow of extermination against the whole household. She threw herself on her face before him, and poured forth her petition in language which both in form and substance almost assumes the tone of poetry. The main argument rests on the description of her husband's character, which she draws with that union of playfulness and seriousness which, above all things, turns away wrath. "As his name is, so is he: Fool (Nabal) is his name and "folly is with him." She returned with the announcement that David had recanted his vow. Already the * tenacious adhesion to these rash oaths had given way in the better heart of the people. Like the nobles of Palestine at a later period, Nabal had drunk to excess, and his wife dared not communicate to him either his danger or his escape. At break of day she told him both. The stupid reveller was suddenly aroused to a sense of his folly. It was as if a stroke of paralysis or apoplexy had fallen upon him. Ten days he lingered, "and the Lord smote Nabal and he died." The memory of his death long lived in David's memory, and in his ? See Lecture XXI. p. 19.

1 1 Sam. xxiv. 10 (LXX.).