In the course of time a quarrel with his kinsman and general precipitated the fall of Ishbosheth. Abner had married Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, and a concubine of Saul. According to the notions of Orientals, this very nearly amounted to treason (Comp. 2 Sam. xvi. 21; xx. 3; 1 K. ii. 13–25), and as such Ishbosheth flung it in the teeth of his general. Abner replied in words of utmost anger and reproaching Ishbosheth with the basest ingratitude, straightway began to open communications with David, who agreed to receive him at Hebron, on condition that Michal, his former wife, was restored to him. This condition was compliedwith, and after sounding the chiefs of Israel and of his own tribe, Abner with twenty men came to David at Hebron. A feast greeted his arrival, and he departed with the avowed intention of gathering all Israel unto his lord the king (2 Sam. iii. 17–21).
He had hardly departed from the royal presence, when Joab returned from a foray, and was informed of this unexpected visit. Jealous probably of a possible rival, and burning with rage against his brother’s murderer, he remonstrated in no measured terms with David for his imprudence, as he termed it, in admitting the general of Ishbosheth to an audience and sending him away in peace. Then, unknown to the king, he sent messengers after Abner to call him back. Not suspecting treachery the latter returned to Hebron, and, as he entered the gate, Joab took him aside, and stabbed him to death, as he had stabbed his brother Asahel. News of this cruel and treacherous deed roused David’s unbounded indignation. Unable to punish the assassin, he imprecated on the house of Joab the most fearful curses, and compelled him to attend the funeral of his murdered victim, robed in sackcloth, and wearing all the signs of mourning. He himself fasted till sunset, and as he followed the bier to the burial-place at Hebron, poured forth a solemn dirge. This incident gave David an insight into Joab’s unscrupulous character, which he never forgot. These men, he said, the sons of Zeruiah, be too hard for me, and I am this day weak though anointed king (2 Sam. iii. 39).
The death of Abner was the signal for the dissolution of the tottering kingdom he had supported. On receiving the tidings of his kinsman’s murder, Ishbosheth’s hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled (2 Sam. iv. 1). His body-guard was composed of men from his own tribe of Benjamin, but two divisions of it were commanded by two men, Baanah andRechab, who, though descendants of the Canaanitish natives of Beeroth[278], were reckoned among the Benjamites. In revenge, it has been suggested, for some injury they had received from Saul—possibly the slaughter of their Gibeonite kinsmen (Comp. 2 Sam. xxi. 1, 2)—and certainly with the hope of conciliating the new king at Hebron, these two resolved to take the life of Ishbosheth. About the heat of the day (2 Sam. iv. 5), therefore, they entered the palace under pretence of fetching some wheat piled up near the entrance (2 Sam. iv. 6), and finding Ishbosheth lying on his bed they stabbed him to the heart, and cut off his head. Then hurrying all that afternoon and all night (2 Sam. iv. 7) down the valley of the Jordan, they presented themselves before David at Hebron with the bloody head in their hands. But they met with no better reception than the pretended slayer of Saul. David sternly rebuked them for their cold-blooded murder of a righteous person in his own house upon his bed, and ordered their instant execution. Their hands and feet were cut off, and their bodies were suspended over the pool at Hebron, while the head of Ishbosheth was buried with all honours in the sepulchre of Abner (2 Sam. iv. 8–12).
CHAPTER II.
DAVID’S REIGN AT JERUSALEM.
2 Sam. v.–vii. B.C. 1048–1042.
EVERY obstacle was thus removed that had hitherto prevented David’s assuming the royal power over all the tribes. Ishbosheth was dead, Abner was dead, Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s only surviving son, was barely 12 years of age. The son of Jesse had long waited forhis hour, and at length it was come. A deputation from all the tribes of Israel (2 Sam. v. 1) repaired to Hebron, and formally offered him the crown. A solemn league was then entered into, and for the third time David was anointed amidst great rejoicings. At Hebron he had reigned for 7½ years over Judah; he was now king of all Israel. His band of six hundred faithful followers had rapidly swelled into a great host, like the host of God (1 Ch. xii. 22). And now not only Dan and Judah and Simeon, not only Benjamin and Ephraim, not only the tribes beyond the Jordan, Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh, flocked around his standard, but Issachar sent men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do (1 Ch. xii. 32), and Zebulun and Naphtali sent not only men, but the peculiar products of their rich territory[279] (1 Ch. xii. 40), while a still more important accession consisted of 4,600 warriors of the Levitical tribe, and 3,700 of the house of Aaron, headed by Jehoiada, and the youthful but valiant Zadok (1 Ch. xii. 25–28). Upwards of 300,000 choice warriors of the flower of Israel were thus gathered together to turn the kingdom of Saul to David, and join in celebrating the three days’ festival which greeted his accession to the throne (1 Ch. xii. 39).
His first act after his coronation was significant. Saul had been always content with the obscurity of his native Gibeah, and had cared little for any central point of union for the tribes. As sovereign over all Israel, both north and south, David resolved to move the seat of government from Hebron nearer to the centre of the country. No spot seemed to present so many advantages as the rocky mass on which rose the city of the Jebusites[280]. It was neutral ground, on thevery meeting-point of his own tribe and that of Benjamin[281]. The lower city had been once taken by the warriors of Judah (Judg. i. 8)[282], but the fortress of the Jebusites, strong in its seemingly impregnable position, had never been reduced. The presence of so many warriors from all the tribes was favourable for making an attempt on so renowned a citadel, and at the head of all his forces David advanced against it, probably from the south. As before, the lower city appears to have been easily captured, but again the fortress held out against every attack[283]. Moreover, so convinced were the Jebusitesof the strength of their castle and of the ancient “everlasting gates” of its rocky ravines, that they merely manned its walls with the lame and blind (2 Sam. v. 6), deeming them amply sufficient for the defence. Their taunts roused the wrath of David, and he promised that whoso first scaled the rocky sides of the citadel and smote the Jebusite garrison, should have the post of captain-general of the forces. Thereupon the agile Joab climbed up first, and as the conqueror of the fastness of Jebus was rewarded with the post of commander-in-chief, the same office that Abner had held under Saul. Then, without loss of time, David took measures for securing his new possession. He enclosed the whole city with a wall, and connected it with the newly-captured fortress, and there took up his abode, and thus the Jebusite stronghold became the City of David.
The effect of the conquest of this celebrated fortress was very great. The news no sooner reached the court of Hiram, king of Phœnicia[284], than he despatched messengers to David with offers of artificers and materials for constructing a palace, which was accordingly built, and hither David removed his wives from Hebron, and increased his already numerous household (2 Sam. v. 13–16). In other quarters the news was very differently received. The Philistines made two distinct attempts to crush the new king, of whose powers they were well aware. On the first occasion they came and encamped their numerous forces in the valley of Rephaim, or the Valley of Giants, south-west of Jerusalem, and stretching thence half-way to Bethlehem. After duly enquiring ofthe Lord, David marched out against them, and swept them away, as though with a “burst of waters,” whence he named the spot Baal-perazim, the Plain of Bursts or Destruction (2 Sam. v. 17–20). A second attempt of the same pertinacious foe met with no better success; they were entirely routed, and the fame of David went out into all lands, and the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations (1 Chr. xiv. 17).
His next care was to consecrate his new capital with religious associations. After consultation with the chiefs of the nation, he assembled 30,000 from all Israel (2 Sam. vi. 1; 1 Chr. xiii. 1), and went to Kirjath-jearim, the Village of Forests, where the Ark seems to have remained all through the reign of Saul in the custody of the Levite Abinadab (1 Sam. vii. 1, 2). The sacred coffer was placed in a new cart drawn by oxen, and with Uzzah and Ahio the sons of Abinadab preceding it, was escorted towards Jerusalem amidst great rejoicings, and the sound of psalteries, cornets, timbrels, and cymbals. On reaching the threshing-floor of Chidon or Nachon (1 Chr. xiii. 9, margin), the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah put forth his hand to hold the ark. In a moment he fell dead (2 Sam. vi. 7). This untoward event filled David with alarm; the spot itself was henceforth known as Perez-uzzah, the breaking or disaster of Uzzah (1 Chr. xiii. 11), and it was resolved to desist from any further attempt at present to remove the sacred coffer. Accordingly it was carried aside to the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite, that is, probably, a native of Gath-Rimmon, a town of Dan, allotted to the Kohathite Levites, of whom Obed-Edom was one, where it remained three months (2 Sam. vi. 10, 11; 1 Chr. xiii. 13).
Meanwhile David prepared a new Tabernacle at Jerusalem, and hearing that the presence of the Ark had brought a blessing to the house of Obed-Edom, he assembled the Levites, and Zadok and Abiathar the tworepresentatives of the Aaronic family, and bade them prepare for the duty of removing the sacred symbol. Solemn purifications, neglected on the previous occasion (1 Chr. xv. 12–14), were now performed, and the Levites, arranged in orderly divisions with singers and musicians, the elders of Israel, and captains of the host, set out for the house of Obed-Edom. On this occasion the Levites, as enjoined in the Law, lifted it with the long staves passing through the rings of the ark[285], and raising it upon their shoulders, commenced the joyous procession (1 Chr. xv. 15).