But upon the approach of Saul, not thinking himself able to maintain it, being as yet but six hundred strong, and not choosing to confide in the inhabitants, whose loyalty even his recent kindness to them could not corrupt, he therefore abandoned it, and retired to the wilderness.* This passage alone is amply sufficient to confirm the reality of David's rebellious intentions; it is, therefore, worth analyzing. That he delivered this city from the depredations of the Philistines, and that by this action he hoped to purchase the friendship of the inhabitants, are acknowledged: the use to which he intended to convert this friendship, is the point to be ascertained. Saul was advancing to suppress him. Had he seduced them from their allegiance, and obtained the expected protection, he would have deprived Saul of this city, which city might have been considered as a garrison. The old plea, of his providing only for his personal safety, against his malignant persecutor, has often been urged; but his intended retention of a city, to secure that safety, was a flagrant rebellious intention. Had he gained this one city, as his strength increased, he would have concluded as many more as he could have procured, necessary for his preservation, until he had monopolized the whole country, agreeable to the grant of Samuel, which would then have justified the usurpation; but disappointed in the first step, by the loyalty, miscalled treachery, of the Keilites, he evacuated the town, having lost the recompence of his labour, and with his men "went whithersoever they could go."** In the wilderness Jonathan came privately to see him, and piously engages in the cause against his own father, by covenant; in which it was agreed, that if David succeeded, of which Jonathan is very confident, he was to be a partaker of his good fortune but as Jonathan was not to join him openly, he went home again.
Saul, having received intelligence of David's retreats, pursued him from place to place, until he was called off by news of an invasion of the land by the Philistines;*** whether of David's procuring or not, we are uncertain: thus much is certain, and does not discredit the supposition, that he quickly after took refuge among those Philistines.
* 1 Sam. xxiii. 13.
** Ib.
*** Ver. 16-18, 27.
After repelling the invaders, Saul, however, returned to the wilderness of Engedi, in pursuit of David, with three thousand chosen men. At this place we are told of an odd adventure, which put the life of Saul strangely into the power of David. He turned in to repose himself* alone in a cave, wherein at that time, David and his myrmidons were secreted.**
* The words are, "to cover his feet:" which Josephus and
others, mistake to mean, that he retired into the cave to
ease nature. But in Judges, iii. 21. we find that expression
to imply, that the servants of Eulon, king of Moab, supposed
their master to have locked himself in, to repose himself
with sleep, in his summer-chamber. This is farther
corroborated, in Ruth, iii. 7. where, when Boaz had eaten
his supper, he laid down on a heap of corn, doubtless to
take his rest. Ruth, by her mother's instruction, went,
uncovered his feet, and lay down by him—to have some
refreshment likewise. For, in the middle of the night, when
the man awaked, surprised at finding an unexpected
bedfellow, and demanded who she was, the kind wench replied—
"I am Ruth, thine hand-maid; spread therefore thy skirt
over thine hand-maid, for thou art a near kinsman." In the
present instance, it is evident, Saul slept in the cave; as
he discovered not the operation that had been performed on
his robe, till David called after him, to apprize him
thereof.
** 1 Sam. xxiv. 3.
This, one would imagine to have been a fine opportunity for him to have given a finishing stroke to his fortune, by killing Saul, and jumping into, the throne at once: but David knew better what he was about, than to act so rashly. He could entertain no hopes that the Jews would receive for their king a man who, with such great seeming holiness, should imbrue his hands in the blood of the Lord's anointed. Beside, what evidently destroys the boasted merit of David's forbearance toward Saul, in this instance, is an obvious, though overlooked consideration, that, compared with David, Saul had a strong army with, him; and had the king been missing, had he been observed to enter the cave without coming out again; and upon search, had he been there found murdered, there would not have escaped, of all that pertained to David, any that pissed against this wall. Of this David could not be insensible; and therefore, only privately cut off the skirt of Saul's robe,* and suffered him to depart in peace. When the king was gone out from the cave, David calls after him, and artfully makes a merit of his forbearance, protesting an innocency, to which his being in arms was, however, a flat** contradiction. Saul freely and gratefully acknowledges himself indebted to him for his life, and seems so well convinced of his own precarious situation, that he candidly confesses it; only tying him down with an oath,*** not to destroy his children after him—an obligation which, in due time, we shall see in what manner remembered and fulfilled by David.
*1 Sam. xxiv. 4.
** Ver. 8-15.
*** Ver. 21.
Saul must certainly have been greatly fatigued, or strangely overseen, to have let David catch him at so great a disadvantage—a conduct not usual with good generals. Yet, while we credit the relation, the meanness of his reply to David's harangue, can be no otherwise accounted for. Saul does not appear to have wanted resolution on other occasions; but to acknowledge his assurance that David would obtain the sovereignty, and poorly to entreat a fugitive rebel in behalf of his family! is a conduct not even to be palliated, but upon the foregoing supposition. We must either condemn the general or the king, neither of which characters appear with extraordinary lustre upon this occasion. David, on the other hand, dissembles admirably here, pretending to Saul a great reverence for the Lord's anointed, though conscious, at the same time, that he was also the Lord's anointed, and anointed purposely to supersede the other Lord's anointed; and, moreover, was at this very time aiming to put his election in force! But, as the people were not of his council, and he knew their great regard for religious sanctions, it was certainly prudent in him to set an example of piety, in an instance of which he hoped, in time, to reap the benefit himself: About this time Samuel died.*
We next find our young adventurer acting the chief character in a tragi-comedy, which will farther display his title to the appellation of being a Man after God's own heart.
There dwelt then at Maon, a blunt rich old farmer, whose name was Nabal. David hearing of him, and that he was at that time sheep-shearing, sent a detachment of his followers to levy a contribution upon him,** making a merit of his forbearance, in that he had not stolen his sheep, and murdered his shepherds.*** Nabal, who, to be sure, was not the most courteous man in the world, upon receiving this extraordinary message, gave them but a very indifferent reply, including a flat denial. "Who," says he, "is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give unto men whom I know not whence they be?"**** Upon receiving this answer, David, without hesitation, directly formed his resolution; and arming himself, with a number of his followers, vowed to butcher him, and all that belonged to him, before the next morning.(5) And how was this pious intention diverted? Why, Abigail, the charming Abigail! Nabal's wife, resolved, unknown to her spouse, to try the force of beauty, in mollifying this incensed hero, whose disposition for gallantry, and warm regard for the fair sex, was probably not unknown at that time. Her own curiosity also might not be a little excited; for the ladies have at all times been universally fond of military gentlemen: no wonder, therefore, that Mrs. Abigail, the wife of a cross country clown, was willing to seize this opportunity of getting acquaintance with captain David.