LECTURE XXII.

THE YOUTH OF DAVID.

The Psalms which, according to their titles or their contents, illustrate this period, are:

(1) For the shepherd life, Psalms viii., xix., xxiii., xxix., cli.

(2) For the escape, Psalms vi., vii., lix., lvi., xxxiv.

(3) For the wanderings, Psalms lii., xl., liv., lvii., lxiii., cxlii., xviii.

Boaz

1 Chr. ii. 11).

Mahlon
(Ruth iv. 10).

Chilion Orpah.

Ruth
Obed (Ruth iv. 17).

DAVID.

LECTURE XXII.

THE YOUTH OF DAVID.

Or all the characters in the Jewish history, there is none so well known to us as David. As in the case of Cicero and of Julius Cæsar-perhaps of no one else in ancient history before the Christian era-we have in his case the rare advantage of being able to compare a detailed historical narrative with the undoubtedly authentic writings of the person with whom the narrative is concerned.

David.

We have already seen the family circle of Saul. That of Family of David is known to us on a more extended scale, and with a more direct bearing on his subsequent career.

His father Jesse was probably, like his ancestor Boaz, the Jesse. chief man of the place-the Sheikh of the village.' He was of great age when David was still young, and was still alive after his final rupture with Saul.3 Through this ancestry David inherited several marked peculiarities. There was a mixture of Canaanitish and Moabitish blood in the family, which may not have been without its use in keeping open a wider view in his mind and history than if he had been of purely Jewish descent. His connection with Moab through his great-grandmother Ruth he kept up when he

Comp. Ruth ii. 1; 1 Sam. xx. 6. 21 Sam. xvii. 12.

1 Sam. xxii. 3.

Such is probably the design of the express mention of Rahab and Ruth in the genealogy in Matt. i. 5.

Bethlehem.

Mother of
David.

escaped to Moab and entrusted his aged parents to the care of the king.1

He was also, to a degree unusual in the Jewish records, attached to his birthplace. He never forgot the flavour of the water of the well of Bethlehem.2 From the territory of Bethlehem, as from his own patrimony, he gave a property as a reward to Chimham, son of Barzillai; and it is this connection of David with Bethlehem that brought the place again in later times into universal fame, when Joseph went up to Bethlehem, because he was of the 'house and lineage of David.' Through his birthplace he acquired that hold over the tribe of Judah which assured his security amongst the hills of Judah during his flight from Saul, and during the early period of his reign at Hebron; afterwards at the time of Absalom it provoked the jealousy of the tribe at having lost their exclusive possession of him. The Mussulman traditions represent him as skilled in making hair-cloths and sack-cloths, which, according to the Targum, was the special occupation of Jesse, which Jesse may in turn have derived from his ancestor Hur, the first founder, as was believed, of the town, the father ' of Bethlehem.'5

as

6

The origin and name of his mother is wrapt in mystery. It would seem almost seem as if she had been the wife or concubine of Nahash, and then married by Jesse. This

1 Sam. xxii. 3.

21 Chr. xi. 17.

32 Sam. xix. 37, 38; Jer. xli. 17.

4 Luke ii. 4.

a coarse inference from Ps. li. 5; but it may possibly have reference to a tradition of the above. On the other hand, in the earlier rabbis we have an

5 See Exod. xxxi. 2; 1 Chr. iv. 3; 4 attempt to establish an immaculate

and articles on BETHLEHEM and JAARE

OREGIM, in Dict. of Bible.

• Zeruiah and Abigail, though called in 1 Chr. ii. 16 sisters of David, are not expressly called the daughters of Jesse; and Abigail, in 2 Sam. xvii. 25, is called the daughter of Nahash.

"The later rabbis represent David as born in adultery. This is probably

conception' in the ancestry of their favourite King. They make Nahash

'the serpent'-to be another name of Jesse, because he had no sin except that contracted from the original serpent; and thus David inherited none. (Jerome, Qu. Heb. on 2 Sam. xvii. 26, and Targum to Ruth iv. 22.)

would agree with the fact, that her daughters, David's sisters, were older than the rest of the family, and also (if Nahash was the same as the king of Ammon) with the kindnesses which David received first from Nahash, and then from Shobi his son.1

brothers

As the youngest of the family he may possibly have His received from his parents the name, which first appears in and him, of David, the beloved, the darling. But, perhaps for nephews. this same reason, he was never intimate with his brothers. The eldest, whose command was regarded in the family as law, and who was afterwards made by David head of the tribe of Judah,' treated him scornfully and imperiously; and the father looked upon the youngest son as hardly one of the family at all, and as a mere attendant on the rest.5 The familiarity which he lost with his brothers, he gained with his nephews. The three sons of his sister Zeruiah, and the one son of his sister Abigail, seemingly from the fact that their mothers were the eldest of the whole family, must have been nearly of the same age as David himself, and they accordingly were to him throughout life in the relation usually occupied by brothers and cousins. The family burial-place of this second branch was at Bethlehem." In most of them we see only the rougher qualities of the family, which David shared with them, whilst he was distinguished from them by qualities of his own, peculiar to himself. Two of them, the sons of his brother Shimeah, are celebrated for the gift of sagacity in which David excelled.

12 Sam. x. 1; 1 Chr. xix. 1; 2 Sam. xvii. 27. Nahash in LXX. 2 Sam. xvii. 25, is brother of Zeruiah; Nahash king of Ammon was grandfather of Rehoboam's mother, Naamah (LXX. 1 Kings xii. 24, i.e. xiv. 31 Hebr.).

The name is given in its shorter Hebrew form in the earlier books of the Old Testament, in its longer

form in the later books, as also in
Hosea, Amos, Canticles, and 1 Kings
iii. 14. The same word in another
form appears in the Phoenician

DIDO.

3 1 Sam. xvii. 28; xx. 29.
1 Chr. xxvii. 18 (LXX.).

5 1 Sam. xvi. 11; xvii. 17.

2 Sam. ii. 32.