Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/877

Rh DAVID 841 blow was shuck and Amnon was assassinated in the midst of his brethren. Three years of exile and two of further disgrace estranged the heart of Absalom from his father. His personal advantages and the princely lineage of his mother gave him a pre-eminence among the king s sons, to which he added emphasis by the splendour of his retinue, while he studiously courted personal popularity by a pre tended interest in the administration of kingly justice. Thus ingratiated with the mass he raised the standard of revolt in Hebron, with the malcontent Judeans as his first supporters, and the crafty Ahithophel, a man of southern Judah, as his chief adviser. Arrangements had been made for the simultaneous proclamation of Absalom in all parts of the land. The surprise was complete, and David was compelled to evacuate Jerusalem, where he might have been crushed before he had time to rally his faithful subjects. Ahithophel knew better than any one how artificial and unsubstantial was the enthusiasm for Absalom. He hoped to strike David before there was time for second thoughts ; and when Absalom rejected this plan, and acted on the assumption that he could count on the whole nation, he despaired of success and put an end to his own life. David in fact was warmly received by the Gileadites, and the first battle destroyed the party of Absalom, who was himself captured and slain by Joab. Then all the people except the Judeans saw that they had been befooled ; but the latter were not conciliated without a virtual admission of that prerogative of kinship to the king which David s previous policy had steadily ignored. This concession involved important consequences. The precedence claimed by Judah was challenged by the northern tribes even on the day of David s solemn return to his capital, and a rupture ensued, which but for the energy of Joab, might have led to a second and more dangerous rebellion. The remaining years of David s life appear to have been un troubled, and according to the narrative of Chronicles the king was much occupied with schemes concerning the future temple. He was already decrepit and bed-ridden under the fatigues of seventy years, when the last spark of his old energy was called forth to secure the succession of Solomon against the ambition of Adonijah. It is noteworthy that, as in the case of Absalom, the pretensions of the latter, though supported by Joab and Abiathar, found their chief stay among the men of Judah (1 Kings i. 9). The principles that guided David s reign are worthily summed up in his last words, 2 Sam. xxiii. 1 seq., with which must be compared his great song of triumph, 2 Sam. xxii. The foundation of national prosperity is a just rule based on the fear of Jehovah, strong in His help, and swift to chastise wrong-doers with inflexible severity. That the fear of Jehovah is viewed as receiving its chief practical expression in the maintenance of social righteousness is a necessary feature of the Old Testament faith, which regards the nation rather than the individual as the subject of the religious life. Hence the influence upon his life of David s religious convictions is not to be measured by the fact that they did not wholly subdue the sensuality which is the chief stain on his character, but rather by his habitual recognition of a generous standard of conduct, by the un doubted purity and lofty justice of an administration which was never stained by selfish considerations or motives of personal rancour, 1 and was never accused of favouring evil doers, and finally by the calm courage, rooted in faith in Johovah s righteousness, which enabled him to hold an even and noble course in the face of dangers and treachery. 1 That Kuenen still follows Bayle in assigning revenge as the motive of David s charge to Solomoii in 1 Kings ii. 5, 8, 9, can only be matter of surprise. A young and untried sovereign could not afford to continue the clemency which hi* father was strong enough to extend to dangerous enemies. That he was not able to reform at a stroke all ancient abuses appears particularly in relation to the practice of blood revenge ; but even in this matter it is clear from 2 Sam. iii. 28, seq., xiv. 1-10, that his sympathies were against the barbarous usage. Nor is it just to accuse him of cruelty in his treatment of enemies. Every nation has a right to secure its frontiers from hostile raids ; and as it was impossible to establish a military cordon along the borders of Canaan, it was necessary absolutely to cripple the adjoining tribes. From the lust of conquest for its own sake David appears to have been wholly free. The generous elevation of David s character is seen most clearly in those parts of his life where an inferior nature would have been most at fault, in his conduct towards Saul, in the blameless reputation of himself and his band of outlaws in the wilderness of Judah, in his repentance under the rebuke of Nathan, and in his noble Bearing on the revolt of Absalom, when calm faith in God and humble submission to His will appear in combination with masterly command over circumstances, and swift wisdom in resolu tion and action. His unfailing insight into character and his power of winning men s hearts and touching their better impulses, appear in innumerable traits of the history (e.g., 2 Sam. xiv. 18-20 ; iii. 31-37 ; xxiii. 15-17). His know ledge of men was the divination of a poet rather than the acquired wisdom of a statesman, and his capacity for rule stood in harmonious unity with the lyrical genius that was already proverbial in the time of Amos (Amos vi. 5). To the later generations David was pre-eminently the Psalmist. The Hebrew titles ascribe to him 73 psalms ; the Septuagint adds some 15 more ; and later opinion, both Jewish and Christian, claimed for him the authorship of the whole Psalter (so the Talmud, Augustine, and others). That the tradition of the titles requires careful sifting is no longer questionable, as is admitted in such cases as Pss. Ixxxvi., Ixix., cxli. even by the cautious and conservative Delitzsch. The biographer must therefore use the greatest circumspec tion in drawing from the Psalter material for the study of David s life and character. On the other hand, the tradi tion expressed in the titles could not have arisen unless David was really the father of Hebrew psalmody. As a psalmist he appears in 2 Sam. xxii. xxiii. in two poems, which are either Davidic or artificial compositions written in his name. If we consider the excellent information as to David which appears throughout the books of Samuel, the intrinsic merits and fresh naturalness of the poems, and the fact that Ps. xviii. is an independent recension of 2 Sam. xxii., the hypothesis that these pieces are spurious must appear very forced, though it has received the support of some respectable critics, especially of Kuenen, 2 who main tains that the religion of David is far below the level of the Psalter. If we reject this position, which can hardly be made good without doing great violence to the narrative of the books of Samuel, we cannot well stop short of the admission that the Psalter must contain Davidic psalms, some of which at least may be identified by judicious criticism, such as has been exercised by Ewald with singular insight and tact in his Dichter des Alien Buiuhs. Ewald claims for David Pss. iii., iv., vii., viii., xu, (xv.), xviii., xix., xxiv., xxix., xxxii., ci., and probably this list should rather be extended than curtailed. Compare Hitzig s Psalmcn, Leipsic, 1863. Literature. The earliest notices of David in profane history are found in the fragments of Eupolemus preserved by EuseLius [Miiller, Fragm. Hist. Grace, iii. 225 ; Freudenthal, Alexander I olyhistor (Breslau, 1875), p. 120 p. 225] and in Nicolans of Damascus as quoted by Josephus, Arch. vii. 5. 2. [Miiller I.e. iii. 373]. Joseph ns, Arch. vi. 8 vii. 1 5, has no sources independent of the Bible. Modern discussion of the life of David was stimulated in the first instance Uistorisch-kritisch Onderzoek (Leiden, 1865), vol. iii. 140 VI. 106