Shlmaah (9 Sam. zzi.91).
L
(one DAVID.
(Raal. (Aaam. b not
JoMph. ilirf. JoMph. ^itf. clran,
Ti, 8, 1 ; rt, 8, 1). nnleM
Rei,Kwald). Eliha,
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(9 8i IChrc
>.xzi,91: Ihnw. xxvU,39).
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on 1 Sam. zrl, 19).
Joel I (Joroma,
on 1 Chron. xl, 88).
lOnnulifjlS).
mentary notices contained in 1 Chron. xi, 1 to xxix, 80. (2.) The »' Chronicles" or State-papers of David (1 Chron. xxvii, 24), and the original biographies of David by Samuel, Gad, and Nathan (1 Chron. xxix, 29). These are lost, but portions of them no doubt are preserved in the foregoing. (8.) The Davidic portion of the Psalms, including such fragments as are pre- served to us from other sources, viz., 2 Sam. i, 19-27; iii,8a,84; xxU,l-51; xxiii,l-7. See Psalms. (II.) The two slight notices in the heathen historians, Nico- laus of Damascus in his Universal History (Josephus, Ant. vii, 5, 2), and Eupolemus in his Hitiory of the Kings of Judah (Euseb. Praep. Ev, Ix, 80). (III.) David's apocryphal writings, contained in Fabricius, Oxfer Apocryphus V. Test. p. 906-1006. (1.) Psa. cli, on his victory over GoUath. (2.) Colloquies with God, on madness, on his temptation, and on the building of the Temple. (8.) A charm against fire. Of these the first alone deserves any attention. (TV.) The Jewish traditions, which may be divided into three classes : (1.) The additions to the Biblical narrative contained in Josephus, Ant. vi, 8- vii, 15. (2.) The Hebrew tra- ditions preserved in Jerome's Quautiones Hebrcdca in Ubros Regum et ParaUpomenon (vol. iii, Venice edit).
It thus appears that David (bom B.C. 1088) was the youngest son, probably the youngest child, of a family often. His mother's name is unknown. SeeNAHASH. We can only conjecture her character from one or two brief allusions to her in the poetry of her son, from which we may gather that she was a godly woman, whose devotion to God's service her son commemo- rates as at once a token of God's favor to himself, and a stimulus to him to consecrate himself to God's service (Psa. Ixxxvi, 16 ; and perhaps cxvi, 16). His father, Jesse, was of a great age when David was still young (1 Sam. xvii, 12). His parents both lived till after his final rupture with Saul (1 Sam. xxii, 8). Certain points with regard to his birth and lineage deserve special mention.
(a) His connection with Moab through his ancestress Ruth. This he kept up when he escaped to Moab and intrusted his aged parents to the care of the king (1 Sam. xxii, 8). This connection possibly gave greater breadth to his views, and even to his lidstory, than if he had been of purely Jewish descent. Such is prob- ably the significance of the express mention of Ruth in the genealogy in Matt, i, 5.
(5) His birthplace, Bethlehem (q. v.). His recol-
DAVID
686
DAVID
leetkm of the well of Bethlehem Is one of the most touching incidents of his later life (1 Chron. zi, 17). From the territory of Bethlehem, as from his own pat- rimony, he gave a piece of property as a reward to Chimham, son of Barzillai (2 Sam. xix, 37, 88; Jer. xll, 17). It is this connection of David with Bethlehem that gave importance to the place again in later times, when Joseph went up to Bethlehem, ** because he was of the house and lineage of David" (Luke ii, 4).
(c) His general connection with die tribe of Judah, in wliich the tribal feeling appears to have been stron- ger than in any of the others. This connection must be borne in mind throughout the story both of Da- vid*s security among the lulls of Judah during his flight fh)m Saul, and of the early period of his reign at Hebron, as well aft of the jealousy of the tribe at having lost their exclusive possession of him, which broke out in the revolt of Absalom.
(d) His relations to Zeruiah and Abigafl. Though called in 1 Chron. il, 16, sisters of David, they are not expressly called the daughters of Jesse ; and Abigail, in 2 Sam. xvii, 25, is called the daughter of Nahash. Is it too much to suppose that David's mother had been the wife or concubine of Nahash, and then mar- ried by Jesse ? This would agree with the difference of age between David and his sisters, and also (if Na- hash was the same as the king of Ammon) with the kindnesses which David received first from Nahash (2 Sam. X, 2), and then from Shobi, son of Nahadi (xvii, 27).
2. As the youngest of the family, he may possibly have received fh>m his parents the name, which first appears in him, of David^ the darling. But, perhaps for this same reason, he was never intimate with his brethren. The eldest brother, who alone is mentioned in connection with him, and who was afterwards made by him head of the tribe of Judah (1 Chron. xxvii, 18), treated him scornfully and imperiously (1 Sam. xvii, 28), as the eldest brothers of large families are apt to act ; his command was regarded in the family as law (xx, 29) ; and the father looked upon the youngest son as hardly one of the fiimily at all (xvi, 11), and as a mere attendant on the rest (xvii, 17). The fdmil- iarity which he lost with his brothers, he gained with his nephews. The three sons of his sister Zeruiah, and the one son of his sister Abigail, seemingly from the fact that their mothers were the eldest of the whole family, were probably of the same age as David him- self, and they accordingly were to him — especially the three sons of Zeruiah-Hhroughout life in the relation usually occupied by brothers and cousins. In them we see the router qualities of the family, which Da- vid shared with them, while he was distinguished from them by qualities peculiar to himself. The two sons of his brother Shiraeah are both connected with his af- ter history, and both seem to have been endowed with the sagacity in which David himself excelled. One was Jonadab, the friend and adviser of his eldest son Amnon (2 Sam. xiii, 8) ; the other was Jonathan (2 Sam. xxi, 21), who afterwards became the counsellor of David himself (1 Chron. xxvii, 32). It is a conjec- ture or tradition of the Jews preserved by Jerome (Qw« Jleb. on 1 Sam. xvii, 12) that this was no other than Nathan the prophet, who, being adopted into Jesse's family, makes up the eighth son, not named in 1 Chron. ii, 13-15. But this is hardly probable.