Drawn by Boudior, from photograph No. 197 of the Palestine
Exploration Fund. The heights visible in the distance are
the mountains of Moab, beyond the Dead Sea.
Saul already irritated by his rival’s successes, was still more galled by being always on the point of capturing him, and yet always seeing him slip from his grasp. On one afternoon, when the king had retired into a cave for his siesta, he found himself at the mercy of his adversary; the latter, however, respected the sleep of his royal master, and contented himself with cutting a piece off his mantle.* On another occasion David, in company with Abishai and Ahimelech the Hittite, took a lance and a pitcher of water from the king’s bedside.** The inhabitants of the country were not all equally loyal to David’s cause; those of Ziph, whose meagre resources were taxed to support his followers, plotted to deliver him up to the king,*** while Nabal of Maôn roughly refused him food. Abigail atoned for her husband’s churlishness by a speedy submission; she collected a supply of provisions, and brought it herself to the wanderers. David was as much disarmed by her tact as by her beauty, and when she was left a widow he married her. This union insured the support of the Calebite clan, the most powerful in that part of the country, and policy as well as gratitude no doubt suggested the alliance.
* 1 Sam, xxiv. Thought by some writers to be of much later
date.
** 1 Sam. xxvi. 4-25.
Skirmishes were not as frequent between the king’s troops and the outlaws as we might at first be inclined to believe, but if at times there was a truce to hostilities, they never actually ceased, and the position became intolerable. Encamped between his kinsman and the Philistines, David found himself unable to resist either party except by making friends with the other. An incursion of the Philistines near Maôn saved David from the king, but when Saul had repulsed it, David had no choice but to throw himself into the arms of Achish, King of Gath, of whom he craved permission to settle as his vassal at Ziklag, on condition of David’s defending the frontier against the Bedawin.*
* 1 Sam. xxvii. The earlier part of this chapter (vers. 1-6) is strictly historical. Some critics take vers. 8-12 to be of later date, and pretend that they were inserted to show the cleverness of David, and to deride the credulity of the King of Gath.
Saul did not deem it advisable to try and dislodge him from this retreat. Peace having been re-established in Judah, the king turned northward and occupied the heights which bound the plain of Jezreel to the east; it is possible that he contemplated pushing further afield, and rallying round him those northern tribes who had hitherto never acknowledged his authority. He may, on the other hand, have desired merely to lay hands on the Syrian highways, and divert to his own profit the resources brought by the caravans which plied along them. The Philistines, who had been nearly ruined by the loss of the right to demand toll of these merchants, assembled the contingents of their five principalities, among them being the Hebrews of David, who formed the personal guard of Achish. The four other princes objected to the presence of these strangers in their midst, and forced Achish to dismiss them. David returned to Ziklag, to find ruin and desolation everywhere. The Amalekites had taken advantage of the departure of the Hebrews to revenge themselves once for all for David’s former raids on them, and they had burnt the town, carrying off the women and flocks. David at once set out on their track, overtook them just beyond the torrent of Besor, and rescued from them, not only his own belongings, but all the booty they had collected by the way in the southern provinces of Caleb, in Judah, and in the Cherethite plain.
He distributed part of this spoil among those cities of Judah which had shown hospitality to himself and his men, for instance, to Jattir, Aroer, Eshtemoa, Hormah, and Hebron.* While he thus kept up friendly relations with those who might otherwise have been tempted to forget him, Saul was making his last supreme effort against the Philistines, but only ito meet with failure. He had been successful in repulsing them as long as he kept to the mountain districts, where the courage of his troops made up for their lack of numbers and the inferiority of their arms; but he was imprudent enough to take up a position on the hillsides of Gilboa, whose gentle slopes offered no hindrances to the operations of the heavy Philistine battalions. They attacked the Israelites from the Shunem side, and swept all before them. Jonathan perished in the conflict, together with his two brothers, Malchi-shua and Abinadab; Saul, who was wounded by an arrow, begged his armour-bearer to take his life, but, on his persistently refusing, the king killed himself with his own sword. The victorious Philistines cut off his head and those of his sons, and placed their armour in the temple of Ashtoreth,** while their bodies, thus despoiled, were hung up outside the walls of Bethshan, whose Canaanite inhabitants had made common cause with the Philistines against Israel.
* 1 Sam. xxviii. 1, 2, xxix., xxx. The torrent of Besor is
the present Wady Esh-Sheriah, which runs to the south of
Gaza.
** The text of 1 Sam. xxxi. 10 says, in a vague manner, “in
the house of the Ashtaroth” (in the plural), which is
corrected, somewhat arbitrarily, in 1 Chron. x. 10 iato “in
the house of Dagon” (B.V.); it is possible that it was the
temple at Gaza, Gaza being the chief of the Philistine
towns.
The people of Jabesh-Gilead, who had never forgotten how Saul had saved them from the Ammonites, hearing the news, marched all night, rescued the mutilated remains, and brought them back to their own town, where they burned them, and buried the charred bones under a tamarisk, fasting meanwhile seven days as a sign of mourning.*