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CHAPTER XV.

David marries Abigail, and also Ahinoam. David again spares Saul's life, who blesses David, and returns home: David flees to Gath, and dwells there some time.

The news of Nabal's death soon reached the ears of David, who now rejoiced more than ever that he had been restrained from imbruing his hands in the blood of one whom God himself had thus seen fit to punish in so exemplary a manner. "Blessed be the Lord," he exclaimed, "that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head."

Not long after this event, for such was the custom of the times, David sent a message to Abigail, to see if she would become his wife. She consented, though with much diffidence; distrusting her fitness to be the companion of one who was destined to fill so exalted a station as she knew awaited him. She arose to receive the messengers, "and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord." Returning with them, accompanied by five of her female attendants, she reached the

place where David was, and, with the usual marriage ceremonies, they became husband and wife.

But she was not his only wife. His first wife, indeed, Michal, had been given by her father Saul to Phalti, to cut off all pretensions of David to the throne. But he had still, as it would seem, another wife, Ahinoam of Jezreel, when he married Abigail. He was tolerated in this by the Mosaic law; but it was not in accordance with the original institution of the marriage relation, and was a custom which produced great evils in domestic life. The followers of Christ are taught their duty by him, in this respect, in the most explicit manner; and it is enjoined by an apostle, Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.

How long David continued in the wilderness of Paran is uncertain; perhaps a few months, when he went again to his former haunts in the neighborhood of Ziph. The inhabitants of that city once more sent messengers to Saul at Gibeah to let him know this, and, with three thousand chosen soldiers, he went in pursuit of David. Coming to the hill of Hachilah, they pitched their tents, waiting for more certain intelligence with regard to the object of their search. In the meanwhile, David, who was secreting himself, with his men, in the retired holds of the wilderness, was informed by his spies of Saul's approach, and of the place of his encampment. He

came, with two attendants, Abishai his nephew, and Ahimelech, a Hittite, to reconnoitre the spot, and got near enough, unobserved, to notice the position of Saul as he lay asleep, and also of Abner, his principal commander. Waiting till the deeper darkness of the night afforded more security, David inquired which of the two would go with him into the very camp of Saul. It was a perilous adventure, and, by making this inquiry, he wished to ascertain on whom he could rely to attend him with a ready and unflinching courage.

Abishai immediately offered to go. They advanced cautiously to the place where Saul was sleeping; his spear being stuck in the ground by the bolster on which his head reclined, and a cruse of water near it. Abishai was eager to make a speedy use of so favorable an occasion to despatch the inveterate persecutor of David. Accosting the latter in a low tone of voice, he said; "God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time."

"Destroy him not," whispered David; "for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless. As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed: but I

pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his bolster, and the cruse of water, and let us go."

Abishai did so, and handing the spear and the cruse to David, they immediately withdrew from the camp. No one was awaked, or even disturbed; and it would seem that a peculiar interposition of Providence afforded this security. For, we are told, "they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them."

David and his nephew now ascended a hill at a considerable distance, a wide interval being between it and the camp of Saul. Here he raised his voice, and "cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Answerest thou not, Abner ?"

Abner, starting from his slumber, exclaimed; "Who art thou that criest to the king?"

"Art

David's reply was full of bitter irony. not thou a valiant man? and who is like to thee in Israel? wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord. This thing is not good that thou hast done. As the Lord liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster."

Saul recognized the voice, and inquired if it was that of David. "It is my voice," replied the latter, "my lord, O king. Wherefore doth my

lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand? Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the Lord have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering." (If I am indeed guilty of some heinous offence, and thou art the instrument, in the hands. of Providence, of the divine vengeance, let me be put to death, and do thou present a thank-offering to the Lord for having thus been the minister of his justice.) "But if they be the children of men," (evil counsellors who have instigated thee to persecute one who is innocent, in so unrelenting a manner,) "cursed be they before the Lord; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go, serve other gods." (They are the ones who deserve to suffer; for they have been the cause of my being banished from the enjoyment of the religious privileges to which an Israelite is entitled, and forced to take refuge among idolaters, telling me, as it were, to go and worship the false gods of the heathen.) "Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the Lord: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains."

Saul relented once more. He could not but admire the magnanimity of David; and it seemed, for the moment, as if gratitude and a sense of

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