even blessed David. For a moment he saw and felt that wonderful patience and forbearance, but his heart hardened itself again, and his last chance of reconcilement with David on earth and with God in heaven slipped by, and for ever!

LESSON LXXXII.

DAVID AT ZIKLAG.

B.C. 1058.—1 Sam. xxvii.; 1 Chron. xii. 1, 2; 1 SAM. xxviii. 1, 2.

And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.

And David arose, and he passed over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.

And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife,

And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him.

And David said unto Achish, If I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country, that I may dwell there for why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee?

Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: wherefore Ziklag pertaineth* unto the kings of Judah unto this day.

And the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.

[Now there came to David to Ziklag, while he yet kept himself close because of Saul the son of Kish: and they were among the mighty men, helpers of the war.

They were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow, even of Saul's brethren of Benjamin.]

And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitants of the land, as thou goest to Shur, even unto the land of Egypt.

And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish.

And Achish said, Whither have ye made a road* to day? And David said, Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites.

And David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring tidings to Gath, saying, lest they should tell on us, saying, So did David, and so will be his manner all the while he dwelleth in the country of the Philis

tines.

And Achish believed David, saying, He hath made his people Israel utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever.

And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly, that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men.

And David said to Achish, Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do. And Achish said to David, Therefore will I make thee keeper of mine head for ever.

COMMENT.-In David's last interview with Saul, he had spoken of being driven to take up his abode among the heathen; and probably some new token of Saul's implacable hatred, and of the impossibility of finding trustworthy shelter even in his own tribe of Judah, led him to resolve on so doing. It seems as if his faith had failed him, and that he had for a while lost that perfect trust in God which had hitherto borne him through so many troubles, and the step he now took carried him out of the sacred land, and involved him in a whole web of double-dealing. Again he repaired to Gath, the city of the Philistines, but this time in a very different manner from when he came as the solitary fugitive forced to feign madness. He brought six hundred warriors with him, and he himself and many more brought their wives, children, and property, and he presented himself to Achish as a deserter from Saul and his kingdom, begging that a city might be assigned for the residence of the tribe he brought with him. Achish gave him Ziklag, one of the border cities between Judah and Philistia, and he was thus able to preserve his people from the corruption of the Hittite idolatry; and indeed he had with him Abiathar the priest, and the ephod, with the Urim and Thummim. There he was joined even by some of Saul's own kindred, and there he remained for a year and four months, keeping his men employed in warlike expeditions against the Geshurites, who seem to have been of the old race of inhabitants before the Philistines; the Gezrites, who were Canaanites; and the robber

An inroad or attack.

Amalekites, with whom the Lord had proclaimed war for ever. Against all these he might rightly and justly make war; but when Achish inquired where he had been fighting, he replied, with something of equivocation, "against the south of Judah." He had really been to the southward of Judah, but he led Achish to suppose that his plunder came from Judah instead of from the heathen tribes beyond; and the King, supposing that he was thus for ever alienated from his own people, believed him attached for ever to his service, and when about to renew the war with Saul, summoned himn to his camp. David made no promise to fight against his brethren; he only said, "Thou shalt know what thy servant can do,” leaving the future to be decided by the event. It is a part of his history in which it would seem as if for a time wavering trust was leading to duplicity, and probably likewise to cruelty and rapine, and that these forays chiefly marked him as a man of blood, unworthy of the highest privilege to which he aspired.

LESSON LXXXIII.

THE AMALEKITE FORAY ON ZIKLAG.

B.C. 1055.-1 Sam. xxix.; xxx. 1—6.

Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel.

And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands but David and his men passed on in the rereward* with Achish.

Then said the princes of the Philistines, What do these Hebrews here? And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, which hath been with me these days, or these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell unto me unto this day?

And the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him; and the princes of the Philistines said unto him, Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us: for wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master? should it not be with the heads of these men? +

Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?

*The guard in the rear, or behind.

How better should he buy his pardon from Saul than by betraying them?

Then Achish called David, and said unto him, Surely, as the LORD liveth, thou hast been upright, and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the host is good in my sight : for I have not found evil in thee since the day of thy coming unto me unto this day : nevertheless the lords favour thee not.

Wherefore now return, and go in peace, that thou displease not the lords of the Philistines.

And David said unto Achish, But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee unto this day, that I may not go fight against the enemies of my lord the king?

And Achish answered and said to David, I know that thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God: notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to the battle.

Wherefore now rise up early in the morning with thy master's servants that are come with thee: and as soon as ye be up early in the morning, and have light, depart.

So David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;

And had taken the women captives, that were therein they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.

Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.

And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.

COMMENT.-The Philistines, after David had dwelt for a year in Ziklag, mustered all their host for a great attack upon Israel, marching into the great plain of Jezreel, north of the hills of Judah and Benjamin. David and his warriors joined Achish's division. What he meant to do we know not, but he was saved from fighting against his own countrymen by the distrust of the Philistine lords, who could not believe that he would not turn against them, and insisted on Achish sending him away again. David remonstrated, asking whether he had ever shown any sign of want of good faith; and Achish owned that he had always seemed to him like an angel. But though we ought to be afraid rashly to censure the holy men of old, it would seem that throughout this sojourn among the Philis

tines David had not been acting worthily, and a terrible chastisement was in store for him, ere he could recover his faithful trust and free spirit. When he and his warriors reached Ziklag, it was to find that the robber Amalekites had taken advantage of their absence to lay the city waste, burn, destroy, drive off the cattle, and bear away the women and children as captives, David's own two wives among them.

When they came to the grievous scene and beheld the smoking ruins, David and his men wept aloud-all wept together till they had no power to weep: and then grief began to turn to rage; there were savage murmurs among them that this desolation had come of David's joining the Philistine army, and there were even whispers of stoning him. But David meanwhile was encouraging himself in the Lord:

I am feeble and sore broken:

I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
Lord, all my desire is before thee;

And my groaning is not hid from thee.

My heart panteth, my strength faileth me:

As for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me.
My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore;
And my kinsmen stand afar off.

They also that seek after my life lay snares for me:

And they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and imagine deceits all the day long.

But I, as a deaf man, heard not;

And I was as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth.

Thus I was as a man that heareth not,

And in whose mouth are no reproofs.

For in thee, O LORD, do I hope :

Thou wilt hear, O LORD my God.

For I said, Hear me, lest otherwise they should rejoice over me :
When my foot slippeth, they magnify themselves against me.

He was pouring out his soul in deep penitence and sore lamentation, sighing at the cruel loss he had sustained, and at the anger and alienation of his kinsmen, probably the nephews, who were hot and hasty men; but patiently bearing their rage, not defending himself, but enduring it like one who was dumb, leaving the cause to his God-praying to Him instead of answering man. And in all this meek silence, was not David foreshowing and prophesying of One whose disciples forsook Him and fled, and who, when placed