Saul's cona'uct to David.—The denunciations of Samuel sank into the heart of Saul, and produced a deep melancholy, which either really was, or which his physicians (I Sam. xvi. 14, 15 ; comp. Gen. 1. 2) told him, was occasioned by an evil spirit from the Lord ; unless we understand the phrase rivn ;in subjectively, as denoting the con dition itself of Saul's mind, instead of the cause of that condition (Is. xxix. ro ; Num. v. 14 ; Rom. xi. 8). We can conceive that music might affect Saul's feelings, might cheer his despondency, or divert his melancholy ; but how it should have the power to chase away a spiritual messenger whom the Lord had sent to chasten the monarch for his transgressions. is not so easily understood. Saes case must probably be judged of by the same prin ciples as that of the demoniacs mentioned in the N. T. [DEmoNIAcs]. DaVid was recommended to Saul on account of his skill as a musician (I Sam. xvi. 16-23), though the narrative of his intro duction to Saul, his subsequently killing Goliath, Saul's ignorance of David's person after lie had been his attendant and armour-bearer, with various other circumstances in the narrative (I Sam. xvi. 14-23 ; xvii. xviii. 1-4), present difficulties which neither the arbitrary omissions in the Sept., nor the ingenuity of subsequent critics, have succeeded in removing, and which have led many eminent scholars to suppose the existence of extensive dis locations in this part of the O. T. Certainly the solutions offered by those who would reconcile the narrative as it now stands in the Hebrew text demand too much ingenuity, and appear very un satisfactory. That proposed by Hales and others seems to be the most feasible, which would place the passage xvi. 14-23 after xviii. 9 ; yet why should Saul's attendants need to describe so minutely a person 'whom he and all Israel knew so well already ? Also, how can we conceive that Saul should love so much (xvi. 21) a person against whom his jealousy and hatred had been so powerfully excited as his probable successor in the kingdom ? (xviii. 9). Besides, David had occupied already a much higher position (xviii. 5); and, therefore, his being made Saul's armour-bearer must have been the very opposite of promotion, which the text xvi. 21 supposes it was.
Though not acquainted with the unction of David, yet having received intimation that the kingdom should be given to another, Saul soon suspected, from his accomplishments, heroism, wisdom, and popularity, that David was his des tined successor ; and, instead of concluding that his resistance to the divine purpose would only accelerate his own ruin, Saul, in the spirit of jea lousy and rage, commenced a series of murderous attempts on the life of his rival, that must have lost him the respect and sympathy of his people, which they secured for the object of his malice and envy, whose noble qualities also they both exer cised and rendered more conspicuous. He at tempted twice to assassinate him with his own hand (xviii. io, ; xix. to); he sent him on dangerous military expeditions (xviii. 5, 13, ;.
he proposed that David should marry first his elder daughter, whom yet he gave to another, and then his younger, that the procuring of the dowry might prove fatal to David; and then he sought to make his daughter an instrument of her husband's de struction ; and it seems probable, that unless miraculously prevented, he would have imbrued his hands in the blood of the venerable Samuel himself (I Sam. xix. 18), while the text seems to
intimate (xx. 33) that even the life of Jonathan was not safe from his fury, though the subsequent context may warrant a doubt whether Jonathan was the party aimed at by Saul. The slaughter of Abimelech the priest (i Sam. xxii.), under pre tence of bis being a partisan of David, and of eighty-five other priests of the house of Eli, to whom nothing could be imputed, as well as the whole inhabitants of Nob, was an atrocity perhaps never exceeded ; and yet the wickedness of the act was not greater than its infatuation, for it must have inspired his subjects not only with abhorrence of their king as an inhuman tyrant, but with horror of him as an impious and sacrilegious monster. This crime of Saul put David in possession of the sacred lot, which Abiathar, the only surviving member of Eli's priestly family, brought with him, and by which he was enabled to obtain oracles directing him in his critical affairs (xxii. 21-23 ; xxiii. r, 2).
Having compelled David to assume the position of an outlaw, around whom gathered a number of turbulent and desperate characters, Saul might per suade himself that he was justified in bestowing the hand of David's wife on another, and in making expeditions to apprehend and destroy him. A portion of the people were base enough to minister to the evil passions of Saul (r Sam. xxiii. 19 ; xxvi. r), and others, perhaps, might colour their fear by the pretence of conscience (xxiii. 12). But his sparing Saul's life twice, when he was com pletely in his power, must have destroyed all colour of right in Saul's conduct in the minds of the people, as it also did in his own conscience (xxiv. 3-7 ; xxvi.) ; which two passages, though presenting many points of similarity, cannot be re ferred to the same occasion, without denying to the narrative all historic accuracy and trustworthiness. Though thus degraded and paralysed by the indul gence of malevolent passions, Saul still acted with vigour in repelling the enemies of his country, and in other affairs wherein his jealousy of David was not concerned (xxiii. 27, 28).
The Bible chronology, as dues also Usher, dates David's marriage with Michal A. m. 249r, the same year in which Goliath was slain. Hales, with ap parent reason, makes it five years later, when David had attained the age of twenty-five. The same year Mephibosheth was born ; which seems to be alluded to in 2 Sam. iv. 4 ; and about five years more appear to have elapsed. before the death of Saul. Samuel's death had taken place not long before, as the statement in Sam. xxviii. 3 implies. Probably two years are sufficient to allow time for the intermediate transactions (r Sam. xxv.-xxxi.), instead of four, as set down in the Bible chron ology.