the whole risk himself. "The day," the day fixed by him (Sept. yi'vtrai ?/ vi-ifpa, 1 Sam. xiv, 1), approached; and without communicating his project to any one, ex- cept the young man, whom, like all the chiefs of that age, he retained as his armor-bearer, he sallied forth from Gibeah to attack the garrison of the PhiUstines station- ed on the other side of the steep defile of Michmash (xiv, 1). His words are short, but they breathe exact- ly the ancient and pecidiar spirit of the Israclitish war- rior: "Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised ; it may be that Jehovah will work for us ; for there is no restraint to Jehovah to save by manj'^ or by few." The answer is no less characteristic of the close friendship of the two young men, already like that which afterwards sprang up between Jona- than and David. " Do all that is in thine heart ; . . . . behold, / am with thee ; as thy heart is my heart (Sept., 1 Sam. xiv, 7)." After the manner of the time (and the more, probably, from having taken no counsel of the high-priest or any prophet before his departure), Jona- than proposed to draw an omen for their course from the conduct of the enemy. If the garrison, on seeing them, gave intimations of descending upon them, they would remain in the vaUey ; if, on the other hand, they raised a challenge to advance, they were to accept it. The latter turned out to be the case. The first appear- ance of the two warriors from behind the rocks was taken by the Philistines as a furtive apparition of " the Hebrews coming forth out of the holes where they had hid themselves ;" and they were welcomed with a scof- fing invitation (such as the Jebusites afterwards offered to David), " Come up, and we will show you a thing" (xiv, 4-12), Jonathan immediately took them at their word. Strong and active as he was, "strong as a lion, and swift as an eagle" (2 Sam. i, 23), he was fully equal to the adventure of climbing on his hands and feet up the face of the cliff. AVhen he came directly in view of them, with his armor-bearer behind him, they both, after the manner of their tribe (1 Chron. xii, 2). dis- charged a flight of arrows, stones, and pebbles from their bows, cross-bows, and slings, with such effect that twen- ty men fell at the first onset. A panic seized the garri- son, thence spread to the camp, and thence to the sur- roimding hordes of marauders ; an earthquake combined with the terror of the moment ; the confusion increased ; the Israelites who had been taken slaves by the Philis- tines during the last three days (Sept.) rose in mutiny; the Israelites who lay hid in the numerous caverns and deep holes in which the rocks of the neighborhood abound, sprang out of their subterranean dwellings. Saul and his little band had watched in astonishment the wild retreat from the heights of Gibeah ; he now joined in the pursuit, which led him headlong after the fugitives, over the rugged plateau of Bethel, and do^vn the pass of Beth-horon to Ajalon (xiv, 15-31). See Gibeah. The father and son had not met on that day : Saul only conjectured his son's absence from not finding him when he numbered the people. Jonathan had not heard of the rash curse (xiv, 24) which Said invoked on any one who ate before the evening. In the dizziness and darkness (Hebrew, 1 Sam. xiv, 27) that came on after his desperate exertions, he put forth the staff which apparently had (with his sling and bow) been his chief weapon, and tasted the honey which lay on the ground as they passed through the forest. The pursuers in general were restrained even from this slight indul- gence by fear of the royal curse ; but the moment that the day, with its enforced fast, was over, they flew, like Muslims at sunset during the fast of Ramadan, on the captured cattle, and devoured them, even to the brutal neglect of the law which forbade the dismemberment of the fresh carcasses with the blood. This violation of the law Saul endeavored to prevent and to expiate by erecting a large stone, which served both as a rude ta- ble and as an altar; the first altar that was raised under the monarchy. It was in the dead of night, after this wild revel was over, that he proposed that the pursuit
JOXATHAI^
996
JONATHAN"
should be continued till dawn ; and then, when the si- lence of the oracle of the high-priest indicated that something had occurred to intercept the divine favor, the lot was tried, and Jonathan appeared as the culprit, .lephthali's dreadful sacrilice would have been repeated; but the people interposed in behalf of the hero of that great dav, and Jonathan was saved (xiv, 24-46).
2. But the chief interest of Jonathan's career is de- rived from tlie friendship with David, which began on the day of David's return from the victory over the champion of Gath, and continued till his death. It is tlie first Biblical instance of a romantic friendshij), such as was common afterwards in Greece, and has been since in Christendom ; and is remarkable both as giving its sanction to these, and as filled with a pathos of its own, wliich has been imitated, but never surpassed, in modem works of fiction. " The soid of Jonathan was knit with tlie soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul"' — '• Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women" (1 Sam. xviii, 1 ; 2 Sam. i, 26). Each found in each the aifection that he found not in his own family; no jealousy of rivalry between the two, as claimants for the same throne, ever interposed : " Thou shalt be king in Israel, and I shall be next imto thee" (1 Sam. xxiii, 17). The friendship was confirmed, after the manner of the time, by a solemn compact often re- peated. The first was immediately on their first ac- quaintance. Jonathan gave David as a pledge his royal mantle, his sword, his girdle, and his famous bow (xviii, 4X His fidelity was soon called into action by the in- sane rage of his father against David. He interceded for liis life, at first with success (1 Sam. xix, 1-7). Then the madness returned, and David fled. It was in a se- cret interview during this flight, by the stone of Ezel, that the second covenant was made betv,-een the two friends, of a still more bintlihg kind, extending to their mutual i)osterity — Jonathan laying such emphasis on tliis iiortion of the compact as almost to suggest the be- lief of a slight misgiving on his part of David's future conduct in this respect. It is this interview which brings out the character of Jonathan in the Uveliest col- ors—Ids little artifices — his love for both his father and }iis friend— his bitter disappointment at liis father's un- manageable fury— his familiar sport of archery. With passionate embraces and tears the two friends parted, B.C. cir. 10G2, to meet only once more (1 Sam. xx). That one more meeting was far away in the forest of Ziph, during Saul's pursuit of David. Jonathan's alarm for his frieiul's life is now changed into a confidence that he will escape: ''110 strengthened his hand in God." Finally, and for the third time, they renewed the cove- nant, and then parted forever (1 Sam. xxiii, 16-18). B C. cir. 1061.