Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/873

Rh DAVID 837 blow in the battle of Ebenezer (1 Sara, iv.), when the collapse of the ancient hegemony of Eohraim and the destruction of the sanctuary of the ark at Shilo, left the Hebrews without national leaders and without a centre of national action. Then arose Samuel, whose prophetic activity rallied the Israelites around Jehovah God of Hosts, and brought about a great national and religions revival. The struggle with the Philistines was renewed with better success, though without decisive issue, and at length the election of Saul as king embodied in a permanent institu tion the stronger sense of national unity which had grown up under Samuel. But Saul was not equal to the task set before him. He broke with the prophetic party, which was the mainstay of the national revival which the king was called to lead. He felt himself forsaken by Jehovah, and his last years were clouded by accesses of a furious melancholy which destroyed his vigour and alienated his subjects. When at length he was defeated and slain at Gilboa, the Philistines appeared to be absolute masters of the position. They even moved forward and occupied the cities in the plain of Jezreel and on the Jordan, which the Israelites forsook in terror a movement which cut the country as it were in two, and apparently made it impos sible for the Hebrews again to unite under a single head. From this humiliation David in a few years raised his country to the highest state of prosperity and glory, subduing his enemies on every side, and extending his suzerainty, as he expresses himself in Psalm xviii., even over nations that he had not known. To do this work other qualities than mere military capacity were required. David was not only a great captain, he was a national hero, who united in his own person the noblest parts of Hebrew genius, and drew to himself by an unfailing personal attraction the best valour, patriotism, and piety of the nation ; while his political tact and inborn talent for rule enabled him to master the old tribal particularism, and to shape at Jerusalem a kingdom which, so long as he lived, represented the highest conception of national life that was possible under the rude social conditions then existing. The structure erected by David was, in truth, too much in advance of the times, and too wholly the creation of unique genius to be permanent. Under a successor whose wisdom lacked the qualities of personal force and sympathy with popular feeling, the kingdom of David began to decay, and in the next generation it fell asunder, and lived only in the hearts of the people as the proudest memory of past history, and the prophetic ideal of future glory. The books of Samuel, which are our principal source for the history of David, show how deep an impression the personality of the king, his character, his genius, and the romantic story of his early years had left on the mind of the nation. Of no hero of antiquity do we possess so life like a portrait. Minute details and traits of character are preserved with a fidelity which the most sceptical critics have not ventured to question, and with a vividness which bears all the marks of contemporary narrative. But the record is by no means all of one piece. The history, as we now have it, is extracted from various sources of unequal value, which are fitted together in a way which offers con siderable difficulties to the historical critic. In the history of David s early adventures the narrative is not seldom disordered, and sometimes seems to repeat itself with puzzling variations of detail, which have led critics to the almost unanimous conclusion that the First Book of Samuel is drawn from at least two parallel histories. It is indeed easy to understand that the romantic incidents of this period were much in the mouths of the people, and in course of time were written down in various forms which were not combined into perfect harmony by later editors, who gave excerpts from several sources rather than a new and independent history. These excerpts, however, have been so pieced together that it is often impossible to separate them with precision, and to distinguish accurately between earlier and later elements. It even appears that some copies of the books of Samuel incorporated narratives which other copies did not acknowledge. From the story of Goliath the Septuagint omits many verses 1 Sam xvil 12-31, xvii. 55-xviii. 5. The omission makes the narra tive consistent, and obviates serious difficulties involved in the Hebrew text. Hence some have supposed that the Greek translators arbitrarily removed passages that puzzled them. But this hypothesis does not meet the facts, and is inconsistent with what we know of the manner of this part of the Septuagint. There can be little doubt that both here and in other cases the shorter text is original, and that the disturbing additions came in later from some other docu ment, and were awkwardly patched on to the older text. 1 So too the history of the gradual estrangement of Saul from David is certainly discontinuous, and in the opinion of most critics the two accounts of David sparing Saul s life are duplicate narratives of one event. Even in the earlier part of the history these minor difficulties do not affect the essential excellence of the narrative preserved to us ; and for the period of David s kingship the accounts are still better. All that relates to personal and family matters at the court of Jerusalem (2 Sam. ix.-xx.) seems to come from some. writer who had personal cognizance of the events recorded. It does not appear that the plan of this author included the history of David s foreign campaigns. The scanty account of great wars in ch. viii. is plainly from another source, and in general our informa tion is less adequate on public affairs than on things that touched the personal life of the king. The narrative is further enriched with poetical pieces, of which one at least (2 Sam. i. 19-27) is known to be extracted from an anthology entitled The Book of the Upright. Several brief lists of names and events seem also to have been taken from distinct sources, and sometimes interrupt the original context (e.g., 2 Sam. iii. 2-5). Some important lists were still accessible to the author of Chronicles in a separate form. 1 Chron. xi. 10-47 is fuller at the end than the corresponding list in 2 Sam. xxiii.; and 1 Chron. xii. contains valuable matter altogether wanting in Samuel. See also I Chron. xxvii. Besides the books of Samuel (with 1 Kings i. ii.), and the parallel narrative of the Chronicler, we have a few hints for the history of David in 1 Kings xi. and in the titles of Psalms (especially Pss. vii. and lx.), and of course such psalms as can be made out to be really by David are invaluable additions to the Davidic poems incorporated in tbe books of Samuel. Jesse, the father of David, was a substantial citizen of Beth lehem. He claimed descent through Boaz from the ancient princes of Judah (Ruthiv. 18,se&amp;lt;2-.),but the family connection was not of note in Israel ( 1 Sam. xviii. 1 8). As the youngest son of the house David spent his youth in an occupation which the Hebrews as well as the Arabs seem to have held in low esteem. He kept his father s sheep in the desert steppes of Judah, and there developed the strength, agility, endurance, and courage which distinguished him throughout life, and are referred to in Ps. xviii. 32, seq. (comp. 1 Sam. xvii. 34, xxiv. 2 ; 2 Sam. xvii. 9). There, too, he acquired that skill in music which led to his first introduction to Saul. Then he became Saul s armour-bearer, and in this capacity, according to the shorter and more consistent form of the narrative, David took part in the campaign in which he slew the Philistine champion Goliath, and became by 1 The proof of this turns in good measure on arguments ^that cannot be reproduced here. But the discussion in Wellhausen a Text df.t Biicher Samuells, Gottingen, 1871, appears to be conclusive.