described—from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, from Gilead and Aroer in the east to the Phoenician borders in the west; but he avoided the Benjamites, probably because they were the fiercest and most disaffected, and the Levites, because they were not obliged to serve in war, except by choice like Benaiah. The numbers were so great as to show the prosperity of Israel; but probably it was the finding that the ransom money had been neglected, and that the great mass of the people had incurred the penalty threatened in the Law, that caused David's distress and repentance even before he had received the message from the Lord through the prophet Gad. The message offered three choices, all chastisements to the sinful people and diminutions of the numbers in which he had been putting his trust. They were: war, famine, and pestilence. David's reply in his submission seems to have meant that he would rather that the Lord should choose for him, and send the natural punishment, linked already with the offence-one, too, which would peril himself more than famine or than war would, at his age. He committed himself to the Lord, knowing the greatness of His mercy; and the pestilence came, brought by an Angel of destruction, smiting, as we may fully believe, the men who had grudged their offering of faith to the Lord. That deadly plague can almost always be traced to men's uncleanliness and neglect, is no reason for doubting that still it is sent by the Angel of the Lord, who has messengers of wrath as well as messengers of mercy. The sight of that terrible Angel, pausing with his sword over the beloved Jerusalem, is the only supernatural vision recorded in David's whole life. Inspired prophet as he was, there were no more miracles connected with his history than there are with our own. When he beheld the Angel, he fell on his face, clothed in sackcloth as he already was, and broke out in a prayer of agony. He it was who had caused the trespass by commanding the sum of the people to be taken. "Let thy hand be on me and on my father's house; but these sheep, what have they done?" And his prayer was heard. He was bid to offer an atonement, and then the wrath should be appeased, the people pardoned. Nor does this law of the half-shekel ever again appear to have been neglected. When there were yearly numberings in the later times, the offering was gathered as a matter of course; and this

was the tribute money, or didrachma, that our Lord Himself paid by the miracle of the coin in the fish's mouth, after the protest that He, as the sinless Son of God, was not liable to that atoning price, which indeed He has paid for us, once for all. (Matt. xvii. 24--27.)

LESSON CXX.

THE PURCHASE OF THE SITE OF THE TEMPLE.

B.C. 1020.-2 SAM. xxiv. 19-25; 1 CHRON. xxi. 19-30 (collated); I CHRON. xxi. 1—5.

And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD.

And Araunah turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Araunah was threshing wheat.

And as David came to Araunah, Araunah looked and saw David, and went out of the threshingfloor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

Then David said to Araunah, Grant me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar therein unto the LORD: thou shalt grant it me for the full price: that the plague may be stayed from the people.

And Araunah said unto David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes: lo, I give thee the oxen also for burntofferings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meat-offering; I give it all. All this did Araunah, as a king, give unto the king.

And king David said to Araunah, Nay; but I will verily buy it for the full price for I will not take that which is thine for the LORD, nor offer burnt-offerings without cost.

So David gave to Araunah for the place six hundred shekels of gold by weight.

And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and called upon the LORD; and he answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering.

And the LORD commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof.

At that time when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.

For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of the burnt-offering, were at that season in the high place at Gibeon.

But David could not go before it to inquire of God: for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt-offering for Israel.

And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.

And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight;

Also cedar trees in abundance for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David.

And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.

COMMENT.-Just beyond the walls of the new City of David, separated from it by a narrow, sharp, rocky valley, was a rocky hill, very steep on every side, and so flat and stony at the summit as to serve for one of those breezy threshing-floors used in the East. It was the same Mount Moriah whither Abraham had been sent to offer up Isaac, where he had received his son, as it were, from the dead, and had given the prophetic name Jehovah-jireh. It belonged to one of the conquered Jebusites, called, from a little change in the language, Araunah in Samuel, Ornan in Chronicles. Some fancy he had been king of Jebus, but this is not likely. At any rate, like many other of the heathen, he had submitted to David, given up his idolatry, and been admitted among the chosen. He was threshing wheat, with his four sons, watching the oxen tread it out from the straw, when the awful sight of the angel with the drawn sword was seen, and, in great terror, he and his sons hid themselves among the straw. But it was the Mount of Mercythe hand was to be stayed. "The LORD will provide" an atonement was still true of it. In the midst of Araunah's terror the aged king, clothed in sackcloth, with the elders of Jerusalem, and probably the priests, were seen climbing up the hill-side, and Araunah went out to meet them, and bowed before them. The first words of David were a request to be allowed to buy of him the rock of Moriah, that he might build an altar there, in obedience to God's message that on the offering of faith the pestilence should cease. Araunah, in the fulness of his heart, would fain have freely given all—the rock itself, the oxen for the sacrifice, the threshing implements for wood-but David, in words that have

been a lesson to all times since, declared that he could not offer to God what had cost him nothing, and caused the full price of the whole hill to be paid to Araunah. The altar was raised in haste, burnt-offerings for sin were prepared, and peace-offerings to be partaken of in token of reconciliation; and then that special answer of God, now and then vouchsafed, was granted: the fire came down from heaven to consume the burnt-offering; and, as it appears, the awful and majestic form of the Angel threatening in the sky was seen, as it were, to sheathe the sword of vengeance and depart!

It is explained that the visible presence of this Angel, and the express command given through the prophet, had prevented David from going to make this expiatory sacrifice at the tabernacle at Gibeon; and when this answer by fire had come to him, and the spot had received this wonderful consecration, he knew that it must verily be the place which the Lord chose to set His name there, in preference to Shiloh, to Gibeon, or even to His own hill of Zion; though, even through David's own prophecies, further glory was promised "to the hill of Zion which He loved." And so the king designated the spot, and prepared more heartily than ever the work that his son was to carry out. Observe, that this great fulfilment of his desires was granted after the forgiveness of a sin of which he had repented before the punishment came. Our best blessings arise out of penitence.

LESSON CXXI.

DAVID'S CHARGE TO SOLOMON.

B.C. 1018.-1 CHRON. xxviii. (abridged).

And David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the captains of the companies that ministered to the king by course, and the captains over the thousands, and captains over the hundreds, and the stewards over all the substance and possession of the king, and of his sons, with the officers, and with the mighty men, and with all the valiant men, unto Jerusalem.

Then David the king stood up upon his feet, and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people: As for me, I had in mine heart to build an house

of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and for the footstool of our God, and had made ready for the building:

But God said unto me, Thou shalt not build an house for my name, because thou hast been a man of war, and hast shed blood.

Howbeit the LORD God of Israel chose me before all the house of my father to be king over Israel for ever: for he hath chosen Judah to be the ruler; and of the house of Judah, the house of my father; and among the sons of my father he liked me to make me king over all Israel :

And of all my sons, (for the LORD hath given me many sons,) he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel.

And he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts: for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.

Moreover I will establish his kingdom for ever, if he be constant to do my commandments, and my judgments, as at this day.

Now therefore in the sight of all Israel the congregation of the LORD, and in the audience of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the LORD your God: that ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you for ever.

And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.

Take heed now; for the LORD hath chosen thee to build an house for the sanctuary: be strong, and do it.

Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat,

And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things.

All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.

And David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and of good courage, and do it fear not, nor be dismayed: for the LORD God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD.

And, behold, the courses of the priests and the Levites, even they shall be with thee for all the service of the house of God: and there shall be with thee for all manner of workmanship every willing skilful man, for any manner of service also the princes and all the people will be wholly at thy commandment.

COMMENT. Two charges of David to Solomon are recorded; but as they are much alike, only one is given here. The first seems to have been in private, when showing him the stores of gold,