Mephibosheth came also to welcome David on his return, and undeceive him with regard to the false Ziba's representation of him;—but he appears to have met with no other redress, than a remittance of half the grant made to Ziba of his estate.**
* 2 Sam. xix. 28.
** Ver. 29.
These intestine troubles put David upon pondering how to secure himself, as far as he could forecast, from any future disturbance.
It is the part of good politicians, not only to form wise designs themselves, but also to make proper advantage of public occurrences, that all events indiscriminately may, more or less, lead to the purposes wanted to be obtained. Of this policy we shall observe David to be mindful, in the ensuing transaction. Not that a panegyric upon his contrivance in this instance is by any means intended; for certainly a more barefaced transaction was never exhibited: such indeed as could only have been attempted among the poor bigoted Jews. It is sufficient, however, that it answered David's purpose; than which more could not have been expected from the most complete stroke that refined politics ever produced. But view it in a moral light, and certainly a blacker piece of ingratitude and perfidy can hardly be imagined. It was impossible to continue the narrative without prefacing thus much.
David having with much trouble, from his competition with Ish-bosheth, established himself upon the Jewish throne; and having in the latter part of his reign been vexed, and driven to disagreeable extremities, by the seditious humour of his subjects, the rebellion of his own son Absalom, and the revolt of Sheba; his mind now fell a prey to suspicion. He called to remembrance that some of Saul's family were yet living; whom, lest they should hereafter prove thorns in his side, he concluded it expedient to cut of.
Whenever David projected any scheme, a religious plea, and the assistance of his old friends,* were never wanting. A famine befel Judea, which continued three years: probably occasioned by the preceding intestine commotions. "David inquired of the Lord: and the Lord answered, it is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites."** But where is this crime recorded? Samuel charged Saul with no such slaughter: he reproached him with a contrary fault, an act of mercy! which is assigned as one of the reasons for deposing him. So that this crime was not recollected,*** till many years after the man was dead! and then God punishes—whom? a whole nation, with three years famine: which, by the by, was not sent as a punishment neither; but merely as a hint of remembrance, which ended in hanging the late king's innocent children!
The oracular response dictated no act of expiation; but only pointed out the cause of the famine. So that the Gibeonites (who, by the way, had hitherto made no complaints that we know of) were applied to**** for a knowledge of what recompence they demanded.
* The prophets and priests.
** 2 Sam. xxi. 1.
*** If God sought vengeance for a particular act of cruelty
perpetrated by Saul: when was vengeance demanded for David's
massacre of the Edomites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the
Jebusites, and others, who at times became the object of
David's wrath? That the charge may allude to some former
affair, is not contested; it is, however, truly remarkable,
that there should be no chronological record of a fact,
which after such a length of time demanded an expiation so
awfully hinted, and so extraordinary in its circumstances!
**** 2 Sam. xxi. 2, 3.
They required no gifts, neither that for their sakes David should kill any man in Israel (which qualifying expressions seems artfully intended; since they only required David to deliver the men to them, that they might kill them); but that seven of Saul's sons, should be surrendered to them, that they might hang them up—unto the Lord.* David, not withheld by any motives of gratitude toward the posterity of his unhappy father-in-law, but in direct violation of his oath at the cave of En-gedi,** granted the request he must himself have instigated,*** sparing only Mephibosheth, who luckily was so unfortunate as to be a cripple, and so much a dependant on David, and kept under his own eye, that he had no room for apprehension from him. He therefore reserved Mephibosheth, in memory of another oath between him and his father Jonathan. Mephibosheth having such a shocking scene to contemplate, and, considering his decrepitude, might (as he really was) with little hazard be preserved, as an evidence of probity in this pious king.
A conscience of convenient flexibility is of great use: thus David being under obligation by two oaths, forgot one, and remembered the other. When Creon, in OEdipus, was interrogated concerning his conscience, he replied—