The insurrection of Absalom against the king was the next important event ; in the course of which there was shewn the general tendency of men to look favourably on young and untried princes, rather than on those whom they know for better and for worse. Absalom erected his royal standard at Hebron first, and was fully prepared to slay his father outright, which might probably have been done, if the energetic advice of AM thophel had been followed. While they delayed, David escaped beyond the Jordan, and with all his troop met a most friendly reception, not only from Barzillai and Machir, wealthy chiefs of pastoral Gilead, but from Shobi, the son of the Ammonite king Nahash, whose power he had destroyed, and whose people he had hewed in pieces. 'We like wise learn on this occasion that the fortunes of David had been all along attended by 600 men of Gath, who now, under the command of Ittai the Gittite, crossed the Jordan with all their house holds, in spite of David's generous advice that they would return to their own country. Strengthened by the warlike eastern tribes, and surrounded by his experienced captains, the king no longer hesi tated to meet Absalom in the field. A decisive victory was won at the wood of Ephraim, and Absalom was slain by Joab in the retreat. The old king was heart-stricken at this result, and, ignorant of his own weakness, superseded Joab in the command of the host by Amasa, Absalom's captain. Perhaps Joab on the former occasion, when he murdered Abner, had blinded the king by pleading revenge for the blood of Asahel ; but no such pretence could here avail. The king was now probably brought to his determination, partly by his disgust at Joab, partly by his desire to give the insurgents confidence in his amnesty. If Amasa is the same as Amasai, David may likewise have retained a grateful remembrance of the cordial greeting with which he had led a strong band to his assistance at the critical period of his abode in Ziklag (r Chron. xii. 18) ; moreover, Amasa, equally with Joab, was David's nephew, their two mothers, Abigail and Zeruiah, being sisters to David by at least one parent (2 Sam. xvii. 25 ; Chron. ii. 13, 16). The unscrupulous Joab, however, was not so to be set aside. Before long, catching an opportunity, he assassinated his unsuspecting cousin with his own hand ; and David, who had used the instrumentality of Joab to murder Uriah, did not dare to resent the deed. [To this period tradition ascribes Ps. cxliii.; and to it also Pss. xlii., Iv., lxix., and cix., are commonly referred. It is less certain if we should place Ps. iii. and Ps. iv. among them.] A quarrel which took place between the men of Judah and those of the other tribes in bringing the king back, had encouraged a Benjamite named Sheba to raise a new insurrection, which spread with wonderful rapidity. Every man of Israel,' are the strong words of the text, ' went up from after David, and followed Sheba, the son of Bichri,' a man of whom nothing besides is known. This strikingly shews that the more despotic character which David's government had latterly assumed, had already gone far to exhaust the enthusiasm once kindled by his devotion and chi valry, and that his throne now too much rested on the rotten foundation of mere military superiority. Amasa was collecting troops as David's general at the time when he was treacherously assassinated by his cousin, who then, with his usual energy, pur sued Sheba, and blockaded him in Beth-maachah before he could collect his partisans. Sheba's head was cut off, and thrown over the wall ; and so. ended the new rising. Yet this was not the end of trouble ; for the intestine war seems to have inspired the Philistines with the hope of throwing off the yoke. Four successive battles are recorded (2 Sam. xxi. 15-22), in the first of which the aged David was nigh to being slain. His faithful officers kept him away from all future risks, and Philistia was once more, and finally, subdued.
The last commotion recorded took place when David's end seemed nigh, and Adonijah, one of his elder sons, feared that the influence of Bath sheba might gain the kingdom for her own son Solomon. Adonijah's conspiracy was joined by Abiathar, one of the two chief priests, and by the redoubted Joab ; upon which David took the de cisive measure of raising Solomon at once to the throne. Of two young monarchs, the younger and the less known was easily preferred, when the sanction of the existing government was thrown into his scale ; and the cause of Adonijah imme diately fell to the ground. [Ps. xcii. is tradition ally, and Ps. ii., on internal evidence, ascribed to this period.]
Numerous indications remain to us that, how ever eminently David was imbued with faith in Jehovah, and however he strove to unite all Israel in common worship, he still had no sympathy with the later spirit which repelled all foreigners from co-operation with Jews. In his early years neces sity made him intimate with Philistines, Moabites, and Ammonites : policy led him into league with the Tyrians. He himself took in marriage a daughter of the king of Geshur: it is the less won derful that we find Uriah the Hittite (2 Sam. xi.), Gether the Ishmaelite (r Chron. ii. 17), and others, married to Israelitish wives. The fidelity of Ittai the Gittite, and his six hundred men, has been al ready alluded to. It would appear, on the whole, that in tolerating foreigners Solomon did not gc beyond the principles established by his father, though circumstances gave them a fuller develop ment.
It has been seen that the reign of David began, as that of a constitutional monarch, with a league between him and his people : it ends as a pure despotism, in which the monarch gives his king dom away to whomsoever he pleases, and his nominee steps at once into power without entering into any public engagements. The intensity of the despotism is strikingly shewn in the indirect and cautious device by which alone Joab dared to hint to the king the suitableness of recalling Absalom from banishment, though he believed the king himself to desire it (2 Sam. xiv.) All rose neces sarily out of the standing army which David kept up as an instrument of conquest and of power, by the side of which constitutional liberty could not stand. The maintenance of this large force per haps was not oppressive, since rich tributes were received from the surrounding nations, and the civil government was not yet become very expensive.
` One more dreadful tragedy is recorded in this reign—the immolation of seven sons of Saul (2 Sam. xxi.), on the occurrence of three years' bad harvests. A priestly response imputed the famine to Satd's violation of the oath of Joshua with the Gibeonites. It therefore became necessary to satisfy this people ; and they, when they were asked to name the satisfaction they demanded, placed the matter on a footing of blood-revenge by demanding that seven of Saul's descendants should be put to death, and their bodies exposed on gibbets. This demand could not have been withstood by David, had he been so minded ; and it is not impossible that he the more easily acqui esced, since it was desirable, for the peace of his successors, that the house of Saul should be exter minated. This suspicion receives some confirma tion from the cold injustice of David towards Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, whom he first stripped of his whole patrimony, on a false and most improbable accusation, and afterwards, in stead of honourably redressing the injury, restored to him the half only of his estate (2 Sam. xvi. 3 ; xix. 24-3o). Such conduct intimates that he was too desirous of weakening the house of Saul to feel any strong inducement to exert himself to avert the blow at that house, which the demand of the Gibe onites involved. That David did not give up Mephibosheth to be slain by the Gibeonites is imputed to the oath between him and Jonathan ; but it does not appear that their covenant was or could be more binding than his most explicit oath to Saul on the very same matter (i Sam. xxiv. 21, 22). Five of the persons thus sacrificed to the keen vengeance of the Gibeonites are stated in the common Hebrew and Greek text, and in our received version, to be children of Michal, David's youthful spouse ; and Josephus imagines that they were born of her after a second divorce from David. But it is certain, from i Sam. xviii, 59, that lifichal is here a mistake for Merab ; which name De Wette has introduced into his version. The description of the other bereaved mother, Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, who took her sta tion upon the rock, and watched the bodies of her sons day and night, lest they should be devoured by beasts of prey or torn by the birds of the air, is deeply affecting. It touched the heart of David when he heard of it. He would not allow public decency to be any farther offended to satisfy the resentment of the Gibeonites, but directed the bodies to be taken down and honourably deposited in the family sepulchre, to which also the bones of Saul and his three sons, which had till now re mained at Jabesh-Gilead, were at the same time removed. This must have been highly gratifying to a people who attached so much importance as the Jews to the honours of the grave.