The lower part of the town he gave up to the original inhabitants,* the upper he filled with Benjamites and men of Judah;** he built or restored a royal palace on Mount Sion, in which he lived surrounded by his warriors and his family.*** One thing only was lacking—a temple for his God. Jerubbaal had had a sanctuary at Ophrah, and Saul had secured the services of Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh: David was no longer satisfied with the ephod which had been the channel of many wise counsels during his years of adversity and his struggles against the Philistines. He longed for some still more sacred object with which to identify the fortunes of his people, and by which he might raise the newly gained prestige of his capital. It so happened that the ark of the Lord, the ancient safeguard of Ephraim, had been lying since the battle of Eben-ezer not far away, without a fixed abode or regular worshippers.****
* Judges i. 21; cf. Zech. xi. 7, where Ekron in its
decadence is likened to the Jebusite vassal of Judah.
** Jerusalem is sometimes assigned to Benjamin (Judges i.
21), sometimes to Judah (Josh. xv. 63). Judah alone is
right.
*** 2 Sam. v. 9, and the parallel passage in 1 Chron. xi. 7,
8.
**** The account of the events which followed the battle of
Eben-ezer up to its arrival in the house of Abinadab, is
taken from the history of the ark, referred to on pp. 306,
307, supra. It is given in 1 Sam. v., vi., vii. 1, where it
forms an exceedingly characteristic whole, composed, it may
be, of two separate versions thrown into one; the passage in
1 Sam. vi. 15, where the Lévites receive the ark, is
supposed by some to be interpolated.
The reason why it had not brought victory on that occasion, was that God’s anger had been stirred at the misdeeds committed in His name by the sons of Eli, and desired to punish His people; true, it had been preserved from profanation, and the miracles which took place in its neighbourhood proved that it was still the seat of a supernatural power.
Drawn by Faucher-
Gudin, from a
sketch published
by Schick and
Oldfield Thomas.
At first the Philistines had, according to their custom, shut it up in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod. On the morrow when the priests entered the sanctuary, they found the statue of their god prostrate in front of it, his fish-like body overthrown, and his head and hands scattered on the floor;* at the same time a plague of malignant tumours broke out among the people, and thousands of mice overran their houses. The inhabitants of Ashdod made haste to transfer it on to Ekron: it thus went the round of the five cities, its arrival being in each case accompanied by the same disasters. The soothsayers, being consulted at the end of seven months, ordered that solemn sacrifices should be offered up, and the ark restored to its rightful worshippers, accompanied by expiatory offerings of five golden mice and five golden tumours, one for each of the five repentant cities.**
* The statue here referred to is evidently similar to those
of the Chaldæan gods and genii, in which Dagon is
represented as a man with his back and head enveloped in a
fish as in a cloak.
** In the Oustinoff collection at Jaffa, there is a roughly
shaped image of a mouse, cut out of a piece of white metal,
and perhaps obtained from the ruins of Gaza; it would seem
to be an ex-voto of the same kind as that referred to in the
Hebrew text, but it is of doubtful authenticity.
The ark was placed on a new cart, and two milch cows with their calves drew it, lowing all the way, without guidance from any man, to the field of a certain Joshua at Bethshemesh. The inhabitants welcomed it with great joy, but their curiosity overcame their reverence, and they looked within the shrine. Jehovah, being angered thereat, smote seventy men of them, and the warriors made haste to bring the ark to Kirjath-jearim, where it remained for a long time, in the house of Abinadab on the hill, under charge of his son Eleazar.* Kirjath-jearim is only about two leagues from Jerusalem. David himself went thither, and setting “the ark of God upon a new cart,” brought it away.* Two attendants, called Uzzah and Ahio, drove the new cart, “and David and all Israel played before God with all their might: even with songs, and with harps, and with psalteries, and with timbrels, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.” An accident leading to serious consequences brought the procession to a standstill; the oxen stumbled, and their sacred burden threatened to fall: Uzzah, putting forth his hand to hold the ark, was smitten by the Lord, “and there he died before the Lord.” David was disturbed at this, feeling some insecurity in dealing with a Deity who had thus seemed to punish one of His worshippers for a well-meant and respectful act.**
* The text of 1 Sam. vi. 21, vii. 1, gives the reading
Kirjath-jearim, whereas the text of 2 Sam. vi. 2 has Baale-
Judah, which should be corrected to Baal-Judah. Baal-Judah,
or, in its abbreviated form, Baala, is another name for
Kirjath-jearim (Josh. xv. 9-11; cf. 1 Ghron. xiii. 6).
Similarly, we find the name Kirjath-Baal (Josh. xv. 60).
Kirjath-jearim is now Kharbet-el-Enab.
** The transport of the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem
is related in 2 Sam. vi. and in 1 Ghron. xiii., xv., xvi.