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A.M. 2972.] Afflictions of David.-2 Kings, xiii. [a.c. 1032. Notwithstanding the brilliant success of his military expeditions, David soon began to feel the chastisements which as foretold by Nathan, were to be inflicted on him by God as a temporal satisfaction due to the Divine justice, even after the guilt of his sin had been remitted by contrition. The first blow that fell upon the guilty king, was the death of his little son, the child of Bethsabee. He was fond of the guileless infant, he prayed that its life might be prolonged; he added tears and fasting to his prayers; but God's decree was not to be reversed. Soon afterwards his daughter Thamar was ravished by her half brother, his eldest son, Amnon, who, in revenge, was murdered by Thamar's brother Absalom, at an entertainment which the murderer had prepared for Amnon as a cover to his design. Absalom, upon this, was obliged to fly from his father's anger, and condemned himself to a voluntary banishment for three years. Being master of much cunning, he gained the confidence of Joab, by whose mediation he recovered the king's good graces, and became as great a favourite with David as ever he had been before.

The goodness of a fond parent ought to have insured a corresponding return of affection from the son. But goodness has seldom any influence upon a bad heart. The ungrateful son had fixed his eye upon the crown, and full of the wicked project of taking it from his father's brow, to place it upon his own, he began by various arts to ingratiate himself with the courtiers and officers of the king. He affected great zeal for the interests of the people; taking his stand near the city gate, he conversed with suitors coming up to Jeru

* The kingdom of David had now reached the limits foretold in vision to the patriarch Abraham : "To thy seed will I give this land, from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates." (Gen. xv. 18.)

The various conquests by which its gradual extension was effected are narrated (2 Kings, viii.-xii.; 1 Paral. xviii.-xx.) in the following order: 1, on the south-west, the Philistines; 2, on the east, the Moabites; 3, on the north, the Syrians of Soba (or Zobah); 4, on the south-east, the Edomites; 5, on the northeast, a Syrian league promoted by the Ammonites; 6, on the east, the Ammonites. (See the map of the United Kingdom of David and Solomon, in the Bible Atlas.)

salem, lamented the delay that they should encounter in obtaining the hearing of their causes, and insinuated how differently justice would be administered if he were king in Israel. He also gained over Achitophel, David's chief counsellor of state; by subtle arts and flatteries he also seduced from their allegiance many of the king's servants, and increased his party by degrees, until at length he thought himself, sufficiently strong to make good his pretensions. Under the pretext of a vow which he said he had made during his banishment in the town of Gessur, he asked his father's leave to go to Hebron. Upon his arrival in that city, he raised the standard of rebellion, and declared himself king. Great were the numbers that flocked to his banner. The news of an insurrection, so unexpected and unnatural, shocked the good king to such a degree that he knew not whom to trust, or what measures to pursue. He had but six hundred guards to oppose the rebels, and was afraid of being besieged in his own city: powerless to offer any effective resistance, he had no prospect of saving himself but by flight. His policy was, if possible, to gain time, and thus to give his subjects an opportunity to come forward in his defence. With that design he called together the few faithful friends he had about him, and leaving Jerusalem, passed over the torrent of Cedron, to the mountain of Olives.*

Descending the slopes of the mountain on the opposite side, as he approached Bahurim, he was met by Semei, one of Saul's kindred, who reviled him in the most insulting language, and threw stones at his followers. They wished to revenge the insult as it deserved. But the humble penitent, regarding this revolt of his subjects as the punishment of his own revolt against God, not only forbade any hurt to be done to the reviler, but with all patience received his insults as from a minister of Divine justice.

Meanwhile, Absalom made a triumphant entry into Jerusalem, accompanied by Achitophel, the prompter of his schemes and the director of all his movements. By the advice of this traitor, who had been David's most trusted adviser, he erected a public tent, and in the face of the sun,

* See Note, p. 230.

DEATH OF ABSALOM.

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violated his father's wives. It was a crime of the most atrocious nature; but it was a chastisement due to the injury that David himself had offered to Urias, and a most distinct fulfilment of the prophetic denunciations of Nathan. In all his afflictions the humble prince saw how justly his chastisement was proportioned to the nature of his sin; how visibly the wicked disorders of his family resembled the crimes of which he had himself been guilty; and how justly his own ungrateful rebellion against God was now punished by the rebellion of his son and of his subjects against their king. By experience he became convinced that, as St. Augustine says, the greatest grace God can show a sinner, is to inflict chastisements upon him in this life, and thus to spare him for eternity. For, the malice of sin cannot, consistently with the order of God's providence, be suffered to go unpunished; sooner or later, atonement must be made, either in this life or in the next. To make full satisfaction, and to obtain a full remission, the sinner has no other choice than voluntarily to submit to such chastisements as God may be pleased to inflict upon him.

A.M. 2981.] Death of Absalom.—2 Kings, xviii. [A.c. 1023.

Absalom having now become master of the royal city, consulted his council of war as to how he should follow up his good fortune. Achitophel, the most able of his counsellors, was for vigorous measures; and had this advice been followed, it must have ended in the total ruin of the king, who had not yet drawn his troops together. But a superior wisdom presided over those deliberations, and directed them to a better end. Chusai, who was secretly in David's interest, being called upon by Absalom to deliver his opinion, differed from Achitophel. He represented the danger of driving men at once into despair; he urged that even a small body of desperate warriors, such as David's were, was capable of great achievements; that Absalom's party, being but lately formed, could not have that steadiness which is requisite to execute successfully an attack of such difficulty; and that if some of them should chance to fall in the attempt, the rest might grow disheartened, and thus the scale of war might be turned in favour of David. He advised, therefore, that before

any attack should be made upon the king, the entire army of the nation, from Dan to Bersabee, should be brought together. Absalom approved of this advice, and Achitophel, chagrined at the adoption of another's counsel in preference to his own, immediately went home, and by a violent death, put an end to his life.

Chusai contrived to give David notice of the preparations that Absalom was making to march against him, and advised him to cross the river Jordan. David followed the advice, and having mustered a body of troops, resolved to give the

rebels battle. His courage prompted him to lead on his troops in person, but his trusty officers, who knew how much depended on a life so precious, would not suffer him to expose it in the field. He yielded to their remonstrances, and gave the command to Joab, with the strictest orders to preserve the life of Absalom.

Absalom had taken the field with an army much superior in number to that of the king. He appointed as commander, his cousin Amasa, the son of his father's sister, Abigail. The two armies came to an engagement in the forest of Ephraim;* the rebels were defeated, twenty thousand

The forest thus designated was situated, not in the territory of Ephraim, but on the east side of the Jordan, in the territory of Gad. It was not far from Manaim, or Mahanaim, one of the border cities of that Tribe. Various reasons, more or less probable, which, however, it is unnecessary here to recount, have been assigned by commentators to explain the fact of its being designated by the name of a Tribe different from that in whose territory it was situated.

of them remained dead on the field of battle, and the rest, with Absalom, endeavoured to save themselves by flight. Absalom was remarkable for the length of his hair, which now proved fatal to him. For in his eagerness to escape the pursuit of the royal forces, he rode beneath the spreading branches of an oak; his hair became entangled in the boughs, and his mule going on, left him suspended from the tree. He was discovered in this position by some of the royal party, but out of deference to the king's order, no one presumed even to raise a hand against him. Joab, when informed of Absalom's situation, hastened to the spot. He had no such scruples as his men, and taking three darts in his hand, he struck them one after another into the heart of the unhappy prince.

The leader of the rebellion being thus cut off, Joab ordered the signal to be given for a retreat, and commanded that no more blood should be spilled. Messengers were immediately despatched to give the king notice of his success. David's first question was, whether his son Absalom was safe? When the sad news was conveyed to him, his countenance fell, and the tears gushed from his eyes. The untimely fall of a darling though rebellious son, damped the joy of victory; he shut himself up in his apartment; and the day so glorious to his arms, and so advantageous to his subjects, was changed into a day of mourning.

Joab, who had expected to see the people rejoicing for the success he had achieved in suppressing the rebellion, took great offence at this behaviour of the king. With the freedom of a brave but rugged soldier, he broke in upon his sovereign, and reproached him for the little concern he seemed to have for his friends and faithful subjects. He told him how ill this grief became him on the day of triumph; that it shamed the faces of his victorious servants who had saved his life, and the lives of his sons and daughters; that he seemed to love none but those who hated him; that his nobles were convinced how little he cared for them, and how pleased he would have been if they, instead of Absalom, had perished in the field: Joab moreover added, that if the king did not rise and show himself to the satisfaction of his faithful