II. Davids 8 Hiitory in corniedion wUk S(nil,-^The vic- tory over Goliath had been a turning-point of his ci^ reer. Saul inquired his parentage, and took him final- ly to his court Jonathan was inspired by the roman- tic friendship which bound the two youths together to
DAVID
688
DAVID
the end of their lives. The triumphant Bongs of the laraelitish women annoonced that they felt that in him Israel had now found a deliverer mightier even than Saul ; and in those songs, and in the £une which Da- vid thus acquired, was laid the foundation of that un- happy jealousy of Saul towards him which, mingling with the king's constitutional malady, poisoned his whole later relations to David. Three new qualities now began to develop themselves in David's charac- ter. The first was his prudence. It had already been glanced at on the first mention of bim to Saul (1 Sam. xvi,18), as ^* prudent in matters ;" but it was the marked feature of the beginning of his public career. Thrice over it is emphatically said, ** he behaved him- self wisely," and evidently with the meaning that it was the wisdom called forth by the necessities of his delicate and difiScult situation. It was that peculiar Jewish caution which has been compared to the sagac- ity of a hunted animal, such as is remarked in Jacob, and afterwards in the persecuted Israelites of the Mid- dle Ages. One instance of it appears immediately, in his answer to the trap laid for him by Saul's servants, ** Seemeth it to you a light thing to be the king's son- in-law, seeing that I am a poor man and lightly esteem- ed ?" (xviii, 28). Secondly, we now see his magnani- mous forbearance called forth, in the first instance, to- wards Saul, but displaying itself (with a few painful exceptions) in the rest of his life. He is the first ex- ample of the virtue of chivalry. Thirdly, his hair- breadth escapes, continued through so many years, im- pressed upon him a sense of dependence on the Divine help, clearly derived fh>m this epoch. His usual oath or asseveration in later times was, *^ As the Lord liveth who hath redeemed my soul out of adversity" (2 Sam. iv, 9; 1 Kings i, 29) ; and the Psalms are filled with imagery taken even literally fh)m shelter against pur- suers, idipping down precipices (Psa. xviii, 86), hiding- places in rocks and caves, leafy coverts (xxxi, 20), strong fastnesses (xviii, 2). This part of David's life may be subdivided into four portions :
1. His Life at the Court of Saul tiU hUJinal Escape (1 Sam. xviii, 2-xix, 18). — His office is not exactly defined. But it would seem that, having been ^rst ar- mor-bearer (xvi, 21 ; xviii, 2), then made captain over a thousand— the subdivision of a tribe — (xviii, 18), he finally, on his marriage with Michal, the king's second daughter, was raised to the high office of captain of the king's body-guard, second only, if not equal, to Abner, the captain of the host, and Jonathan, the heir appar- ent. These three formed the usual companions of the king at his meals (xx, 25). David was now chiefly known for his successfiil exploits against the Philis- tines, by one of which he won his wife, and drove back the PhUistine power with a blow f^m which it only rallied at the disastrous close of Saul's reign. He also still performed from time to time the office of min- strel. But the successive snares laid by Saul to en- trap him, and the open violence into which the king's madness twice broke out, at last convinced him that his life was no longer safe. He had two faithful al- lies, however, in the court — ^the son of Saul, his friend Jonathan — the daughter of Saul, his wife Michal. Warned by the one and assbted by the other, he es- caped by night, and was from that time forward a fu- gitive. ^ B.C. 1062. Jonathan he never saw again ex- cept by' stealth. Michal was given in marriage to an- other (Phaltiel), and he saw her no more till long after her fiither's death. See Michal. To this escape the traditional title assigns Psa. lix. Internal evidence (according to Ewald) gives Psa. vi and vii to this pe- riod. In the former he is first beginning to contem- plate the necessity of fiight ; in the latter he is moved by the plots of a person not named in the history (per- haps those alluded to in 1 Chron. xii, 17) — according to the title of the psalm, Cush, a Benjamite, and there- fore of SauVs tribe. See Cush, 2.
2. Hii Escape (1 Sam. xix, 18-xxi, 15).->He first
fled to Kaioth (or the pastures) of Ramih,to S«& This is the first recorded occasioo of his ■ Samuel since the original interview dnrifif kis b. hood at Bethlehem. It might almost seem u ik had intended to devote himself with his poetical g^ to the prophetical office, and pn ^ik cares and dangers of public life. But he lud i ki^ destiny still. Up to this time botii the king a^k» self had thought that a reumon was possiUe (» a 6, 26). But the midness of Saul now beene ae settied and ferocious in character, and David's dia^ proportionately greater. The secret intemevvd Jonathan, of which tiie recoUeetion was probsUrkn^ ed down through Jonathan's deacendaDts v^ tir came to David's court, confirmed the ahtm ilmr excited by Saul's endeavor to seise him at fiasiikat he now determined to leave hw coontry, aad takei^ uge, like Coriolanus, or Themistocles in like stances, in the court of his enemy. BeftretliiM resolve he visited Nob (q. v.), the seat of fte t^ nacle (1 Sam. xzi), partiy to obtain a finsl interrtf with the high-prfest Ahimelech (1 Sam. xxS; f, " partiy to procure food and weapons. On the {rst of a secret mission ftom Saul, he obtained fi«B i^ elech some of the sacred loaves of shew-bnad ;^t and the consecrated sword of G<diath, of wtifi h said, " There is none like that ; give it me." I^ incident was of double importance in David's csw First, it established a oonnection between Iub ndtb only survivor of the massacre in which DsTid'i n- it involved the house of Ahlmeledli. Second, ^ Ahimelech's surrender of the sacred bread to DnMi hunger (see Osiander, De Davide pcmet recipienie^ Tubing. 1761) our Lord drew the iafsm of the superiority of the moral to the ceremoshlkv- which is the only allusion made to David't USt a the N. T. (Matt, xii, 8; Mark ii, 25; Luke viif It is also commemorated by the traditional tide ef Fa lii. His hospitable reception, when in distna.^ Ahimelech the priest, and the atrocious mssssoe isas- cently brought by him on Nob, the city of the {n* (1 Sam. xxi and xxii, 9-19), must have deqilfift^ his generous nature, and laid tiie fbnndatien tt^i^ dial affection for the whole priestly order, wlwe ^ istrations he himself helped to elevate by hb <itn> tional melodies. See Ahimeuecb, 1.