David over Jordan, where he embraced and kissed Barzillai, wished him Judah 21, all happiness, took his leave of him, and sent him highly pleased to his own habitation and family.

all Israel 14.

2 Sam. xix. 40, &c.

CHAP. IV.

Insurrection under Sheba.

FROM Gilgal the tribe of Judah went down to Jordan, where they received the king and returned back with him to that city, attended not only by that tribe, but by considerable detachments from half of the other tribes, those who lived beyond Jordan, amongst whom the king resided during the rebellion, and that bordered nearest upon that of Judah, and a thousand men with Shimei, of the tribe of Benjamin. When they came to Gilgal, they found that the rest of the tribes were come down by large deputations to pay their submission to David. But understanding that the tribe of Judah had been particularly summoned by David to repair to him, which none of the other tribes had been, and that upon their single invitation, without waiting for that of the other tribes, he had resolved to return to Jerusalem, and that he was actually conducted over Jordan by that tribe, such a difference arose between Judah and them as ended in a new rebellion. For the men of Israel, thinking that the credit of the king's restoration would hereby redound principally to that single tribe, expostulated with David; Why have our brethren the men of Judah stolen thee away-clandestinely, as it were, taken thee from the rest of their brethren-and have brought the king, and his household, and all David's men with him, over Jordan? as though he was their peculiar, exclusive property, with whom the rest of the tribes had no share. The men of Judah, without suffering him to interpose, imprudently replied, “ Because the king is near of kin to us, as being of our tribe, and therefore we have some peculiar interest in him. Wherefore then be ye angry with us for our being the first to show our affection to him? especially as we have put the king to no expense for our attendance on him, nor received any gratification from him for our zeal in serving him." This answer inflamed the men of Israel, who said with indignation, "As David is king over all the tribes, we have ten parts in him as king, as

we are ten tribes, and more right in him than you, who are David over but a single one :"

res est publica Cæsar,

Et de communi pars quoque nostra bono est. OVID. de Trist. IV. 4. Adding in great displeasure, Why then did ye despise us, that our advice should not be first asked in bringing back our king? This the men of Judah treated with contempt, and answered the discontented tribes in so haughty a manner, as that they needed nothing but a leader to head them to bring about a second revolution, and prevent David's resettlement on his throne. Turbulent and factious persons are seldom wanting on such occasions, and such a one soon appeared amongst the Israelites. For Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite, who probably had been an officer in the late rebellion, was certainly a man of influence and authority in his country, though a man of Belial, one of a profligate temper and character, taking advantage of these discontents, immediately blew the trumpet of sedition, and cried out in the midst of the assembly, We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tent, O Israel. This was spoken by way of indignation to the claim of the tribe of Judah, of a superior interest in David as king: "Since you will have it that the king is yours, be it so we renounce all interest in and claim to him; and you and the king may go together. Let us return to our camp, O Israel, and provide a king for ourselves." The immediate effect was, that the body of the Israelites in general deserted David, marched off under Sheba, and probably would have advanced him or one of Saul's family to the crown, had not proper measures been immediately taken to quash the defection in its infancy. The tribe of Judah entirely remained faithful to the king, and attended him to Jerusalem; whilst the rest of those who were present put themselves under the conduct of Sheba.

The blame of this new rebellion hath been charged on David, and he censured "for thus inadvertently plunging himself into fresh troubles, by suffering himself to be conducted home by a deputation from the tribe of Judah." The learned authors of the Universal Historyb have made a like observation on this part of David's conduct, and say, that "the partiality which he b Vol. IV. p. 81.

Judah 21, all Israel 14.

all Israel 14.

David over showed to his own tribe, in inviting it to come foremost to Judah 21, receive him, raised such a jealousy in the other ten, as ended at length in a new revolt." But where doth the history justify this reflection, that he was partial to his own tribe, in inviting it "to come foremost to receive him?" The truth is, that he did not invite them at all to come and receive him till he had been informed by expresses from all the other tribes that they were universally in motion to restore him, and his message to them only was, Why are ye the last to bring back the king? not, "Why are ye not the foremost?" And though the other tribes complained to that of Judah, Why did ye despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king? yet the tribe of Judah was so far from coming to meet the king out of any regard to or contempt of their brethren, that the very zeal and movements of those tribes in David's favour were the principal motives urged by him to bring back the tribe of Judah to their duty, and their great inducement to return to their allegiance to him. This was paying a real deference to their judgment, and what they ought to have been pleased with and highly applauded.

It is true, that the tribes all concurred in their resolution to restore him, and were taking the proper methods to effect it, yet that David continued at Mahanaim till the deputies from Judah came to him there, with an invitation from the whole tribe to repair to Jerusalem, and to assure him that they would receive him in a body at Gilgal, and prepare every thing necessary for his passage over Jordan. Nor could he indeed set

out for Jerusalem till he had received certain information that the men of Judah and Amasa, who was in possession of it, would quietly permit him to return to it, without endangering his own person, or hazarding the peace of the nation, should he attempt to reduce the city by force. But when he knew that the city would open her gates to him, it is no wonder he should resolve immediately to begin his march to it, as he had now nothing to fear from that quarter, and imagined that, as all the tribes had declared for him, the sooner he acted agreeably to their desires they would be the better pleased, and, without the formality of any particular invitations, receive him with open arms wherever he should meet them.

The pretence that the men of Judah had stolen him away

Judah 21,

2 Sam. xix.

was unreasonable and unjust. For whilst he was at Mahanaim, David over the tribes on that side Jordan all declared for him, and accom- all Israel 14. panied him to the passage of that river, and went over with him to join the rest of their brethren, who were come down to 40. meet him; so that, when they were all united at the passage of the river, there were actually present, by large deputations, the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and five others, who waited on him in his march to Gilgal. The truth of the case seems to be, that the deputations from the more distant tribes, not being able to get further than Gilgal before the king's arrival there, envied the other tribes, and particularly that of Judah, which had the principal share in providing every thing necessary for the king's passage over Jordan, and laid hold of the first opportunity to express their resentment against them. This was heightened by the imprudent, haughty answer which the men of Judah made to their expostulation, that they had a peculiar right in the king, as he was near akin to them, because he was of their own tribe; and seeming to insinuate that they came voluntarily, but that the other tribes came with an expectation of being provided for at the king's expense, and hoping some donative from him, as the reward of their submission to him. This, I think, is plainly implied when they told them, Have we eaten at all at the king's cost? or hath he given us any gift? words which seem to carry a tacit insinuation that other tribes expected both. This reflection, and the claim of a particular interest in the king, disgusted all the other tribes in general, and disposed them to enter into violent measures to revenge themselves. David upon the whole seems to me to be no ways blamable on account of Sheba's revolt, but that it was occasioned by misunderstanding between the tribes themselves, which it was not at that time in his power to prevent.

CHAP. V.

The insurrection under Sheba suppressed, and the murder of

Amasa by Joab.

3, &c.

AFTER David had taken possession of Jerusalem, and was 2 Sam. xx. resettled in his palace, he ordered the ten women his concubines, who had been incestuously violated by Absalom, into a proper apartment, where they were kept in close confinement,

David over honourably maintained, but never touched by him afterwards all Israel14. to the day of their death.

Judah 21,

And, as the insurrection under Sheba was become too serious to be neglected, he gave orders to Amasa, who was now general in Joab's room, to assemble the troops of the tribe of Judah within three days, and put himself at the head of them, that David might review them in person at Jerusalem. Amasa by some means or other did not appear at the time appointed, and therefore David, to prevent the inconvenience of any further delay and the increase of Sheba's party, ordered Abishai, Joab's brother, to gather together the king's guards and what other forces he could collect, and immediately pursue Sheba, and to prevent him, if possible, from seizing any of the fortified cities for his security. Abishai accordingly took Joab's own regiment, the Cherethites and Pelethites, and all the mighty men that were in or near the city, and marched out of Jerusalem in pursuit of the rebel. Joab attended them, though not as general; and when they were arrived at the great rock of Gibeon, Amasa joined them with the men of Judah he had collected, and put himself at the head of them as commander-in-chief. Joab's garment was girt round him in the military manner, and over that was the belt of his sword, so fastened as that the sword hung upon his loins in the scabbard. And as Joab went up to Amasa, the sword falling out of the scabbard, Joab caught it in his left hand, and said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? and immediately took hold of Amasa's beard with his right hand to salute him. Amasa, either not

c Mr. Le Clerc supposes that Joab's sword fell out of the scabbard, either by accident or design, upon the ground, and that Joab pretended to take it from thence, that he might not terrify Amasa. So also Josephus explains it. But, as F. Houbigant observes, there is no mention in the history of the sword's falling, or Joab's gathering it up. The sword, by Joab's contrivance, being loose in the scabbard, was falling out of it, which he immediately caught, as by accident, in his left hand, to prevent its falling; which, if Amasa saw, he would naturally think it was merely casual.

The words are, en 1: literally, he went, and that fell, viz. the sword out of the scabbard. The sense of which is easy and natural. For it was by Joab's coming up to Amasa that the sword began to fall out of its sheath. I can therefore conceive no reason, but the good father's love of correcting the text, why he should alter the present reading into en ny, and the sword going out, fell out of the sheath; as though we need to be told that the sword must go out of the scabbard, when it was actually dropping out of it. I see neither information nor elegance in this version.