His stay at the court of Achish (q. v.) wis ^ Discovered possibly by " the sword of GoUsth," 1» presence revived the national enmi^ of tbe Pb& tines against their former conqueror; and he oelff' caped by feigning madness, by violent gMtrncs, p^ ing on the gates of the city, or on a drum or c^nU letting his beard grow, and foammg at the m^A } Sam. xxi, 18, Sept.). (See Ortlob, De Ikm& *«* Lips. 1706; Hebenstreit, De Dav, Jkrvrm nmal(^ Vit.1711; Krafft, /)« Dap. Ml oafa GeAww, Erf»^ 1768.) The 56th and d4th Psalms are both refentdK their titles to this event, and the titles state (v^ does not appear in the narrative) that be had bta seized as a prisoner by the Philistines, and thit b was, in consequence of this stratagem, sel free tf Acfaish, or (as he is twice called) Abimdeek £*< Achish, 1.
8. His Life as an independent OvOiam (xxii, \-tsn- 25).— (1.) His first retreat was the cave of AdoB» probably the large cavern (the only very Urp <»«» Palestine), not fiir from Bethlehem, now calW t^ reitAn (see Sonar's Land qf Promise, p. 2«> ft* its vicinity to Bethlehem, he was joined there by » whole fkmily, now feeling themselves in danger ^^ Saul's fury (xxii, 1). This was probably the fo«if tion of his intimate connection with his nephews,^ sons of Zeruiah. B.C. 1061. Of these, Abiriui, r» two other companions, was among the earlier 1' Chron. xi, 15, 20; 1 Sam. xxvi, 6; 2 Ssm. xxSU* 18). Besides these were outlaws and debton ^^ every part, including, doubtless, some of the
DAVID
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DAVID
aanltes, of whom the name of one, at least, baa 1 preserved, Ahimelech the Hittite (1 Sam. xzvi,
See Adulj.am. 2.) His next move was to a stronghold, either the mtain. afterwards called Herodium, close to Adul« , or the fastness called by Josephus (^War, vii, 8, Maaada, the Grsdsed form of the Hebrew word 'scuiah (1 Sam. xxii, 4, 5 ; 1 Chron. xii, 16), in the ;hborhood of En-gedL While there, he had de- Ited his aged parents, for the sake of greater seco- % be3roiid the Jordan, with their ancestral kinsman ULoab ^b. 8). The neighboring king, Nohash of ,mon, also treated him kindly (2 Sam. x, 2). Here •ther companion appears for the first time, a school- ow, if we may use the word, from the schools of aael, the prophet Gad, his subeeqnent biogn^her Sam. xxii, 5) ; and wliile he was there oocnrred the valroos exploit of the three heroes jost mentioned vociire water from the well of Bethlehem, and Da- *B ehivalrous answer, like that of Alexander in the ert of Gedrosia (1 Chron. xi, 16-19 ; 2 Sam. xziii, 17). He was joined here by two separata bands : ) a little body of eleven fierce Gadite mountaineers, lo swam tiie Jordan in flood-time to reach him (1 ron. xii, 8) ; the other, a detachment of men from dab and Benjamin, under his nephew Amasai, who nceforth attached himself to David's fortunes (1 iron, xii, 16-18).
(3.) At the warning of Gad, he fled next to the forest Hareth (somewhere in the hills of Jndah), and then ain fell in with the Philistines, and again, apparent- advised by Gad (xxiii, 4), made a descent on their raging parties, and relieved Keilah (q. v.), in which I took up his abode. While there, now for the first ne in a fortified town of his own (xxiii, 7), he was ined by a new and most important, ally — ^Abiathar, e last survivor of the house of Ithamar, who came ith the high-priest's ephod, and henceforth gave the Bcles, which David had hitlierto received from Gad siii, 6, 9; xxii, 28). By this time the 400 who had tined hhn at Adnllam (xxii, 2) had swelled to 600 csiii, 18).
(4.) Thie situation of David was now changed by the ;>pearanoe of Saul himself on the scene. Apparently le danger was too great for the little army to keep igether. They escaped from Keilah, and dispersed, whithersoever they could go,'* among the fostnesses f Judah. Henceforth it becomes difficult to follow is movements with exactness, partly fh>m ignorance f the localities, partly because the same event seems } be twice narrated (1 Sam. xxiii, 19-24 ; xxvi, 1-4, nd perhaps 1 Sam. xxiv, 1-22 ; xxvi, &-25). But thus inch we discern. He is in the wilderness of Ziph. )nce (or twice) the Ziphites betray his movements to ^ul, who literally hunts him like a partridge; the reacherous Zipliites beating the bushes before him, ind 3000 men being stationed by Saul to catch even he print of his footsteps on the Idlls (1 Sain, xxiii, 14, 12 [Heb.], 24 [Sept.] ; xxiv, 11 ; xxvi, 2, 20). David inds himself driven to the extreme south of Judah, in he wilderness of Maon. On two, if not three occa^ nons, the pursuer and pursued cato^ sight of each >ther. Of the first of these escapes, the memory was long preserved in the name of the " CJliff of Divisions," given to the cliff down one side of which David climbed, while Saul was surrounding the hill on the other side (xxiii, 25-29), when he was suddenly called away by the cry of a Philistine invasion. On another occasion David took refuge in a cave ** by the spring of the wad goats" (En-^di), immediately above the Dead Sea (1 Sam. xxiv, 1, 2). The rocks were cov- ered with tiie pursuers. Ssful entered, as is the cus- tom in Oriental countries, for a natural necessity. I^e followers of David, seated in the dark recesses of the cave, seeing, yet not seen, suggest to him the chance thus thrown in their way. David, with a characteristic mixture of hnmor and generosity, de- ll.—X X