Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/346

324 "Was not Abraham saved from a fiery furnace?" asked one.

"Did not David slay the giant Goliath?" asked the other.

"But what has David done that will compare with the obedience of Abraham, who was ready to offer his only son to God?" asked the first.

When David reached home, he fell down before God and prayed: "Lord! Thou, who didst give to Abraham a trial of his obedience in the pyre, grant that an opportunity may be afforded me of proving before all the people how great also is mine."

But others relate this differently. They say that David besought the Lord to endue him with the spirit of prophecy. Then God answered, "When I give great gifts, he who receives them must suffer great trials. I proved Abraham by the fire, and by the sacrifice of one son, and separation from others; Jacob by his children; Joseph by the well and the prison; Moses by Pharaoh; Job by the worms. I afflicted all these, but thee have I not afflicted." But David said, "O Lord, prove me and try me also, that I may obtain the same degree of celebrity as they."

One day, as David sang psalms before God and the congregation, a beautiful bird appeared at the window, and it attracted his whole attention, so that he could scarcely sing. David concluded his recitation of the psalms earlier than usual, and went in pursuit of the bird, which led him from bush to bush, and from tree to tree, till it suddenly disappeared near a secluded lake. Now this bird was Eblis, and he came to tempt David into evil.

When the bird vanished, David saw in the water a beautiful woman, bathing, and when she stood up, her hair covered her whole person.

David hid behind the bushes, that he might not startle her, till she was dressed; then he stood forth, and asked her her name.

"My name," said she, "is Bathsheba, daughter of Joshua, and wife of Uriah, son of Hanan, who is with the army."

Then David departed, but his heart was inflamed with love,