Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/341

XXXVII.] uncircumcised; but other Rabbinic writers say that he was born circumcised.

The Jewish authors relate, as do the Mussulman historians, that David had red hair. In Jalkut (1 Sam. xvi. 12) it is said, "Samuel sent, and made David come before him, and he had red hair;" and again in Bereschith Rabba, 'When Samuel saw that David had red hair, he feared and said, He will shed blood as did Esau. But the ever-blessed God said, This man will shed it with unimpassioned eyes—this did not Esau. Esau slew out of his own caprice, but this man will execute those sentenced to death by the Sanhedrim."

David was very small, but when Samuel poured the oil upon his head and anointed him, he grew rapidly, and was soon as tall as was Saul. And this the commentators conclude from the fact of Saul having put his armour upon David, and it fitted him. Now Saul was a head and shoulders taller than any man in Israel; therefore David must have started to equal height since his anointing.

David was gifted with the evil eye, and was able to give the leprosy by turning a malignant glance upon any man. "When it is written, The Philistine cursed David by his gods, David looked at him with the evil eye. For whoever was looked upon by him with the evil eye became leprous, as Joab knew to his cost, for after David had cast the evil glance on him, it is said, Let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper.

"The same befell the Philistine when he cursed David. David then threw on him the malignant glance, and fixed it on his brow, that he might at once become leprous; and at the same moment the stone and the leprosy struck him."

But David was himself afflicted for six months with this loathsome malady, and it is in reference to this that he says, "Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." During this period, he was cast out and separated from the elders of the people, and the Divinity withdrew from him. And this explains the discrepancy apparent in the account of the number of years