scends and silently cuts off the skirt of the long robe spread, as is usual in the East on such occasions, be- fore and behind the person so occupied— and then en- sued the pathetic scene of remonstrance and for^v^ ness (xxiv, 8-22). The third was in the wOdemess forther south. There was a regular camp, formed with its usual fortification of wagon ^nd bagg^age. * Into this inclosure David penetrated by night, and carried off the cruse of water, and the w^-known royal spear of Saul, which twice had so nearly trans- fixed him to the wall in former days (xxvi, 7, 11, 22). The same scene is repeated as at En-gedi— and this is the last interview between Saul and David (xxvi, 25). B.C. 1055. David had already parted with Jonathan in the forest of Ziph (xxiii, 18).
To this period are annexed by their traditional titles Psalm liv ('*When the Ziphim came and said; Doth not David hide himself with us?"); Ivii ("When he fled from Saul in the cave," though this may refer also to Adollam) ; Ixiii, ** When he was in the wilderness of Judah" (or Idnmea, Sept.) ; cxlii (" A prayer when he was in the cave").
While he was in the wilderness of Maon occurred David*s adventure with Nabal (q. v.), instructive as showing his mode of carrying on the freebooter's life, and his marriage with Abigail. His marriage with Ahinoam from Jezreel, also in the same neighborhood (Josh. XV, 56), seems to have taken place a short time before (1 Sam. xxv, 48; xxyii, 8; 2 Sam. iii, 2).
4. Bis Service tinder Aehish (1 Sam. xxvii, 1; 2 Sam. i, 27). — Wearied with his wandering life, he at last crosses the Philistine frontier, not, as before, as a fugitive, but the chief of a powerful t>and — ^his 600 men now grown into an organized force, with their wives and families around them (xxvii, 8-4). A& ter the manner of Eastern potentates, Achidi gave him for his support a city — Ziklag, on the frontier of PhUistia^-and it was long remembered that to this curious arrangement the kings of Judah owed this part of their possessions (xxvii, 6). Here we meet with the first note of time in David's life. He was settled therefor a year and four numUu (xxvii, 7), and his increasing importance is indicated by the fact that a body of Beigamite archers and slingers, twenty- two of whom are specially named, joined him fh)m the very tribe of his rival (1 Chron. xii, 1-7). Possi- bly during this stay he may have acquired Uie knowl- edge of military organization and weapons of war (1 Sam. xiii, 19-28), in which the Philistines surpassed the Israelites, and in wliich he surpassed all the pre- ceding rulers of Israel. During his outlawry, David had also become acquainted in turn not only with all the wild country in the land, but with the strongholds of the enemy idl around. The celebrity acquired in successful guerilla warfare, even in modem days, turns many eyes on a chieftain ; and in an age which regarded personal heroism as the first qualification of a general (1 Chron. xi, 6) and of a king, to triumph over the persecutions of Saul gave David the fairest prospects of a kingdom. That he was able to es- cape the malice of his enemy was due in part to the direct help given him by the nations around, who were gilad to keep a thorn rankling in Saul's side ; in part also to the indirect results of their invasions (1 Sam. xxiii, 27).
He deceived Aehish into confidence by attacking the old nomadic inhabitants of the desert fhmtier, and representing the plunder to be of portions of the south- em tribes or the nomadic allied tribes of Israel. But this confidence was not shared by the Philistine no- bles, and accordingly David was sent back by Aehish from the last victorious campMgn against SauL In this manner David escaped the difficulty of being pres- ent at the battle of Gilboa, but found that during his absence the Bedouin Amalekites, whom he had plun- dered during the previous year, had made a descent upon Ziklag, burnt it to the ground, and carried off
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the wives and children of the new settlement. A wild scene of frantic grief and recrimination ensued be- tween David and his followers. It was calmed by an oracle of assurance from Abiathar. It happened that an important accession had just been made to David^s force. On his march with the Philistines northward * to GUboa, he. had been Joined by some chiefs of the Manassites, tiirough whose territory he was passing. Urgent as must have been the need for them at home, yet David's foscination cairied them off, and they now assisted him against the plunderers (1 Ctiron. xii, 19- 21). They overtook the invaders in the desert, and re- covered the spoiL These were the gifts with which David was now able for the first time to requite the friendly inhabitants of the scene of his wanderings (1 Sam. XXX, 26-81). A more lasting memorial was the law which traced its origin to the arrangement nude by him, formeriy in the attack on Nabal, but now again, more completely, for the equal division of the plunder among the two thirds wlu> followed to the field, and the one t)iird who remained to guard the bag- gage (1 Sam. XXX, 25 ; xxv, 13). Two days after this victory a Bedouin arrived from the north with the ts^ tal news of the defeat of Gilboa. The reception of the tidings <^ the death of his rival and of his friend, the solemn mourning, the vent of his indignation against the bearer of the message, the pathetic lamentation that followed, well close the second period of David's life (2 Sam. i, 1-27). B.C. 1053.