Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/874

838 one expioit a popular hero, and an object of jealousy to Saul. According to the Massoretic text of 1 Sam., Saul s jealousy leaped at once to the conclusion that David s ambition would not stop short of the kingship. Such a suspicion would be intelligible if we could suppose that the king had heard something of the significant act of Samuel, which now stands at the head of the history of David in witness of that divine election and unction with the spirit of Jehovah on which his whole career hung (1 Sam. xvi. 1-13). But there is not the least trace in the history that even David and David s family understood at the time the meaning that underlay his unction by Samuel, which would naturally be taken as a special mark of favour and a part of the usual " consecration " of the guests in a sacrificial feast. 1 The shorter text of 1 Sam. xviii., represented by the Septuagint, gives an account of Saul s jealousy, which is psychologically more intelligible. 2 According to this text Saul was simply possessed with such a personal dislike and dread of David as might easily occupy his disordered brain. To be quit of his hateful presence he gave him a military command. In this charge David increased his reputation as a soldier and became a general favourite. Saul s daughter Michal loved him ; and her father, whose jealousy continued to increase, resolved to put the young captain on a perilous enterprize, promising him the hand of Michal as a reward of success, but secretly hoping that he would perish in the attempt. David s good fortune did not desert him. ; he won his wife, and in this new advance ment continued to grow in the popular favour, and to gain fresh laurels in the field. At this point it is necessary to look back on an episode which is found in the Hebrew text but not in the Greek the proposed marriage of David with Saul s eldest daughter Merab, who at the time when the proposal was made was already the wife of a certain Adriel. 3 What is said of this affair interrupts the original context of chap, xviii., to which the insertion has been clumsily fitted by an interpolation in v. 21. We have here, therefore, a notice drawn from a distinct source, and of uncertain value. Merab and Michal are confounded in 2 Sam. xxi. 8, and perhaps the whole episode of Merab and David rests on a similar confusion of names. As the king s son-in-law, David was necessarily again at court. He became chief of the body-guard, as Ewald rightly interprets 1 Sam. xxii. 14, and ranked next to Abner (1 Sam. xx. 25), so that Saul s insane fears were constantly exasperated by personal contact with him. On at least one occasion the king s frenzy broke out in an attempt to murder David with his own hand. 4 At an other time Saul actually gave commands to assassinate his son-in-law, but the breach was made up by Jonathan, whose chivalrous spirit had united him to David in a covenant of closest friendship (1 Sam. xix. 1-7). The circumstances of the final outburst of Saul s hatred, which drove David into exile, are not easily disentangled. The narrative of 1 Sam. xx., which is the principal account of 1 The remarks of Samuel as the sons of Jesse passed before him were presumably not audible. The words "unto Jesse 1 in ver. 10 are not in the LXX. It is not therefore necessary to conclude with some critics that this story is to be taken as a mere figurative embodiment of the idea of David s election by God. When the true sense of the act was divined it is not easy to determine. David appears still unconscious of his destiny in 1 Sam. xviii. 23, but Abigail, 1 Sam. xxv. 30, knows that the prophetic word has marked him out as king. Compare 2 Sam. iii. 9, v. 2. 2 From ch. xviii. the LXX. omits ver. 1 to the middle of ver. 6 inclusive, the first and last clauses of ver. 8, verses 9 to 11 inclusive, the reason given for Saul s fear in ver. 12, verses 17-19 inclusive, the second half of ver. 21. It also modifies ver. 28, and omits the seconr half of ver. 29 and the whole of ver. 30. 3 This seems to be the true meaning of 1 Sam. xviii. 19. 4 1 Sam. xix. 9. The parallel narrative, ch. xviii. 10, 11, may refer to a different occasion. But as the text of ch. xviii. is disordered, anl the verses are wanting ia the Greek, this is not certain. the matter, cannot originally have been preceded by chap, xix. 11-24, for in chap. xx. David appears to be still at court, and Jonathan is even unaware that he is in any danger, while the preceding verses represent him as already a, fugitive. It may also be doubted whether the narrative of David s escape from his own house by the aid of his wife Michal (chap. xix. 11-17) has any close connection with verse 10, and does not rather belong to a later period. 5 David s daring spirit might very well lead him to visit his wife even after his first flight. The danger of such an enterprize was diminished by the reluctance to violate the apartments of women and attack a sleeping foe, which appears also in Judges xvi. 2, and among the Arabs. 6 In any case it is certain that chap. xx. must be taken by itself ; and it seems safer to conclude that chap xix. 11-24 are fragments which have been misplaced by an editor, than to accept the opinion of those critics who hold that we have two distinct and quite inconsistent accounts of the same events. According to chap. xx. David was still at court in his usual position when he became certain that the king was aiming at his life. He betook himself to Jonathan, who thought his suspicions groundless, but undertook to test them. A plan was arranged by which Jonathan should draw from the king an expression of his feelings, and a tremendous explosion revealed that Saul regarded David as the rival of his dynasty, and Jonathan as little better than a fellow conspirator. The breach was plainly irreparable. Jonathan sought out his friend, and after mutual pledges of unbroken friendship they parted, and David fled. His first impulse was to seek the sanctuary at Nob, where he had been wont to consult the priestly oracle (chap. xxii. 15), and where, concealing his disgrace by a fictitious story, he also obtained bread from the consecrated table and the sword of Goliath. It was perhaps after this that David made a last attempt to find a place of refuge in the prophetic circle of Samuel at Raman, where he was admitted into the pro phetic ccenobium, and was for a time protected by the powerful, and almost contagious influences, which the religious exercises of the prophets exerted on Saul s emissaries, and even on the king himself. The episode now stands in another connection (chap. xix. 18, seq.), where it is certainly out of place. It would, however, fit excellently into the break that plainly exists in the history at xxi. 10 after the affair at Nob. Deprived of the protec tion of religion as well as of justice, David tried his fortune among the Philistines at Gath. But he was recognized and suspected as a redoubtable foe. Escaping by feigning madness, which in the East has inviolable privileges, 7 he returned to the wilds of Judah, and was joined at Adullam 8 by his father s house and by a small band of outlaws, of which he became the head. Placing his parents under the charge of the king of Moab, he took up the life of a guerilla captain, cultivating friendly relations with the townships of Judah (1 Sam. xxx. 26), which were glad to have on their frontiers a protector so valiant as David, even at the expense of the blackmail which he levied in return. A clear conception of his life at this time, and of the respect which he inspired by the discipline in which he held his 8 The close of ver. 10 in the Hebrew is corrupt, and the words " that night " seem to belong to next verse. So the Greek reads. 6 Wellhauseu cites a closely parallel case from Sprenger s Mohammed, vol. ii. p. 543. 7 An interesting parallel in Barhebraji Chron., ed. Bruns et Kirsch, p. 222. 8 The cave of Adullam is traditionally placed at Charatun, two hours journey south of Bethlehem. But the town of Adullam, which has not been identified with any certainty, lay in the low country of Judah (Josh. xv. 35). The "cave" is also spoken of as a "hold" or mountain fortress, and perhaps "hold" is everywhere the true reading (Wellhausen, Noldeke). Compare Theodotion in 1 Sam.

xxiii. 15, xxiv. 1.