The Philistines occupied in force the plain of Jezreel and the pass which leads from it into the lowlands of Bethshan: the Israelites abandoned the villages which they had occupied in these districts, and the gap between the Hebrews of the north and those of the centre grew wider. The remnants of Saul’s army sought shelter on the eastern bank of the Jordan, but found no leader to reorganise them. The reverse sustained by the Israelitish champion seemed, moreover, to prove the futility of trying to make a stand against the invader, and even the useless-ness of the monarchy itself: why, they might have asked, burthen ourselves with a master, and patiently bear with his exactions, if, when put to the test, he fails to discharge the duties for the performance of which he was chosen? And yet the advantages of a stable form of government had been so manifest during the reign of Saul, that it never for a moment occurred to his former subjects to revert to patriarchal institutions: the question which troubled them was not whether they were to have a king, but rather who was to fill the post. Saul had left a considerable number of descendants behind him.* From these, Abner, the ablest of his captains, chose Ishbaal, and set him on the throne to reign under his guidance.**
* We know that he had three sons by his wife Ahinoam—
Jonathan, Ishbaal, and Malchi-shua; and two daughters, Merab
and Michal (1 Sam. xiv. 49, 50, where “Ishvi” should be read
“Ishbaal”). Jonathan left at least one son, Meribbaal (1
Chron. viii. 34, ix. 40, called Mephibosheth in 2 Sam. xxi.
7), and Merab had five sons by Adriel (2 Sam. xxi. 8). One
of Saul’s concubines, Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, had borne
him two sons, Armoni and Meribbaal (2 Sam. xxi. 8, where the
name Meribbaal is changed into Mephibosheth); Abinadab, who
fell with him in the fight at Mount Gilboa (1 Sam. xxxi. 2),
whose mother’s name is not mentioned, was another son.
** Ishbaal was still a child when his father died: had he
been old enough to bear arms, he would have taken a part in
the battle of Gilboa with his brothers.. The expressions
used in the account of his elevation to the throne prove
that he was a minor (2 Sam. ii. 8, 9); the statement that he
was forty years old when he began to reign would seem,
therefore, to be an error (ii. 10).
Gibeah was too close to the frontier to be a safe residence for a sovereign whose position was still insecure; Abner therefore installed Ishbaal at Mahanaim, in the heart of the country of Gilead. The house of Jacob, including the tribe of Benjamin, acknowledged him as king, but Judah held aloof. It had adopted the same policy at the beginning of the previous reign, yet its earlier isolation had not prevented it from afterwards throwing in its lot with the rest of the nation. But at that time no leader had come forward from its own ranks who was worthy to be reckoned among the mighty men of Israel; now, on the contrary, it had on its frontier a bold and resolute leader of its own race. David lost no time in stepping into the place of those whose loss he had bewailed. Their sudden removal, while it left him without a peer among his own people, exposed him to the suspicion and underground machinations of his foreign protectors; he therefore quitted them and withdrew to Hebron, where his fellow-countrymen hastened to proclaim him king.* From that time onwards the tendency of the Hebrew race was to drift apart into two distinct bodies; one of them, the house of Joseph, which called itself by the name of Israel, took up its position in the north, on the banks of the Jordan; the other, which is described as the house of Judah, in the south, between the Dead Sea and the Shephelah. Abner endeavoured to suppress the rival kingdom in its infancy: he brought Ishbaal to Gibeah and proposed to Joab, who was in command of David’s army, that the conflict should be decided by the somewhat novel expedient of pitting twelve of the house of Judah against an equal number of the house of Benjamin. The champions of Judah are said to have won the day, but the opposing forces did not abide by the result, and the struggle still continued.**
* 2 Sam. ii. 1—11. Very probably Abner recognised the
Philistine suzerainty as David had done, for the sake of
peace; at any rate, we find no mention in Holy Writ of a war
between Ishbaal and the Philistines.
** 2 Sam. ii. 12-32, iii. 1.
An intrigue in the harem furnished a solution of the difficulty. Saul had raised one of his wives of the second rank, named Eizpah, to the post of favourite. Abner became enamoured of her and took her. This was an insult to the royal house, and amounted to an act of open usurpation: the wives of a sovereign could not legally belong to any but his successor, and for any one to treat them as Abner had treated Rizpah, was equivalent to his declaring himself the equal, and in a sense the rival, of his master. Ishbaal keenly resented his minister’s conduct, and openly insulted him. Abner made terms with David, won the northern tribes, including that of Benjamin, over to his side, and when what seemed a propitious moment had arrived, made his way to Hebron with an escort of twenty men. He was favourably received, and all kinds of promises were made him; but when he was about to depart again in order to complete the negotiations with the disaffected elders, Joab, returning from an expedition, led him aside into a gateway and slew him. David gave him solemn burial, and composed a lament on the occasion, of which four verses have come down to us: having thus paid tribute to the virtues of the deceased general, he lost no time in taking further precautions to secure his power. The unfortunate king Ishbaal, deserted by every one, was assassinated by two of his officers as he slept in the heat of the day, and his head was carried to Hebron: David again poured forth lamentations, and ordered the traitors to be killed. There was now no obstacle between him and the throne: the elders of the people met him at Hebron, poured oil upon his head, and anointed him king over all the provinces which had obeyed the rule of Saul in Gilead—Ephraim and Benjamin as well as Judah.*
* 2 Sam. v. 1-3; in 1 Ghron. xi. 1-3, xii. 23-40, we find
further details beyond those given in the Book of Samuel; it
seems probable, however, that the northern tribes may not
have recognised David’s sovereignty at this time.
As long as Ishbaal lived, and his dissensions with Judah assured their supremacy, the Philistines were content to suspend hostilities: the news of his death, and of the union effected between Israel and Judah, soon roused them from this state of quiescence. As prince of the house of Caleb and vassal of the lord of Grath, David had not been an object of any serious apprehension to them; but in his new character, as master of the dominions of Saul, David became at once a dangerous rival, whom they must overthrow without delay, unless they were willing to risk being ere long overthrown by him. They therefore made an attack on Bethlehem with the choicest of their forces, and entrenched themselves there, with the Canaanite city of Jebus as their base, so as to separate Judah entirely from Benjamin, and cut off the little army quartered round Hebron from the reinforcements which the central tribes would otherwise have sent to its aid.* This move was carried out so quickly that David found himself practically isolated from the rest of his kingdom, and had no course left open but to shut himself up in Adullam, with his ordinary guard and the Judsean levies.**
* The history of this war is given in 2 Sam. v. 17-25, where
the text shows signs of having been much condensed. It is
preceded by the account of the capture of Jerusalem, which
some critics would like to transfer to chap, vi., following
ver. 1 which leads up to it. The events which followed are
self-explanatory, if we assume, as I have done in the text,
that the Philistines wished to detach Judah from Israel: at
first (2 Sam. v. 17-21) David endeavours to release himself
and effect a juncture with Israel, as is proved by the
relative positions assigned to the two opposing armies, the
Philistines at Bethlehem, David in the cave of Adullam;
afterwards (2 Sam. v. 22-25) David has shaken himself free,
has rejoined Israel, and is carrying on the struggle between
Gibeah and Gezer. The incidents recounted in 2 Sam. xxi. 15-
22, xxiii. 13-19, seem to refer almost exclusively to the
earlier part of the war, at the time when the Hebrews were
hemmed in in the neighbourhood of Adullam.
** The passage in 2 Sam. v. 17 simply states that David
“went down to the hold,” and gives no further details. This
expression, following as it does the account of the taking
of Jerusalem, would seem to refer to this town itself, and
Renan has thus interpreted it. It really refers to Adullam,
as is shown by the passage in 2 Sam. xxiii. 13-17. 1 2 Sam.
xxi. 15-17.
The whole district round about is intersected by a network of winding streams, and abounds in rocky gorges, where a few determined men could successfully hold their ground against the onset of a much more numerous body of troops. The caves afford, as we know, almost impregnable refuges: David had often hidden himself in them in the days when he fled before Saul, and now his soldiers profited by the knowledge he possessed of them to elude the attacks of the Philistines. He began a sort of guerilla warfare, in the conduct of which he seems to have been without a rival, and harassed in endless skirmishes his more heavily equipped adversaries. He did not spare himself, and freely risked his own life; but he was of small stature and not very powerful, so that his spirit often outran his strength. On one occasion, when he had advanced too far into the fray and was weary with striking, he ran great peril of being killed by a gigantic Philistine: with difficulty Abishai succeeded in rescuing him unharmed from the dangerous position into which he had ventured, and for the future he was not allowed to run such risks on the field of battle. On another occasion, when lying in the cave of Adullam, he began to feel a longing for the cool waters of Bethlehem, and asked who would go down and fetch him a draught from the well by the gates of the town. Three of his mighty men, Joshebbasshebeth, Eleazar, and Shammah, broke through the host of the Philistines and succeeded in bringing it; but he refused to drink the few drops they had brought, and poured them out as a libation to Jehovah, saying, “Shall I drink the blood of men that went in jeopardy of their lives?” * Duels between the bravest and stoutest champions of the two hosts were of frequent occurrence. It was in an encounter of this kind that Elhanan the Bethlehemite [or David] slew the giant Goliath at Gob. At length David succeeded in breaking his way through the enemies’ lines in the valley of Kephaîm, thus forcing open the road to the north. Here he probably fell in with the Israelitish contingent, and, thus reinforced, was at last in a position to give battle in the open: he was again successful, and, routing his foes, pursued them from Gibeon to Gezer.** None of his victories, however, was of a sufficiently decisive character to bring the struggle to an end: it dragged on year after year, and when at last it did terminate, there was no question on either side of submission or of tribute:*** the Hebrews completely regained their independence, but the Philistines do not seem to have lost any portion of their domain, and apparently retained possession of all that they had previously held.
* 2 Sam. xxiii. 13-17; cf. 1 Ghron. xi. 15-19. Popular
tradition furnishes many incidents of a similar type; cf.
Alexander in the desert of Gedrosia, Godfrey de Bouillon in
Asia Minor, etc.
** The Hebrew text gives “from Geba [or Gibeah] to Gezer”
(2 Sam. v. 25); the Septuagint, “from Gibeon to Gezer.” This
latter reading [which is that of 1 Chron. xiv. 16.—Tr.] is
more in accordance with the geographical facts, and I have
therefore adopted it. Jahveh had shown by a continual
rustling in the leaves of the mulberry trees that He was on
David’s side.
*** In 2 Sam. viii. 1 we are told that David humiliated the
Philistines, and took “the bridle of the mother city” out of
their hands, or, in other words, destroyed the supremacy
which they had exercised over Israel; he probably did no
more than this, and failed to secure any part of their
territory. The passage in 1 Chron. xviii. 1, which
attributes to him the conquest of Gath and its dependencies,
is probably an amplification of the somewhat obscure wording
employed in 2 Sam. viii. 1.