the very next day after. And the Amalekite, who fled from thence that day towards night, might reach David at Ziklag on the third day, inclufive, from the battle; that is, on the third day, inclufive, from David's last return to Ziklag. If then we suppose him and his army to have rested one day, after all this fatigue, before their return, and to have spent three days in their return * (which, confidering their own fatigue, and that of the women, children, flocks and herds, which came along with them, will not, I believe, be deemed unreasonable); then will David's fecond arrival at Ziklag be on the eighth day after his departure from the Philistines; that is, on the very day on which Jofephus affures us the battle with the Philiftines was fought for it was fought (as he tells us) on the day of David's return to Ziklag from the flaughter of the Amalekites ; and his authority is of weight enough in this point, because fuch a tradition might easily be tranfmitted with truth.

THIS, I hope, will be deemed a fair and rational account of the matter; I am fure, it is a candid one.

*As the Amalekites spent three days in their march from Ziklag, to the place where David overtook them.

BUT

BUT ftill it is objected; That, fuppofing this to be the cafe, as I have stated it, yet ftill this perfonater of Samuel falfifies: because he fays in one place, that Saul and his fons fhould be with him, i. e. among the dead, to-morrow; and in another, The Lord hath done this thing unto thee this day. Now one of these affertions must be falfe, even though we fuppofe this spoken in the prophetick style; which, to imply the certainty of the prediction, speaks of things to come as already paft; for Saul and his fons could not be killed this day and to-morrow too.

I ANSWER; That both affertions were perfectly confiftent, and strictly true.

THE Jewish day began at fix o'clock in the evening; and therefore, whatever was to come to pass on the enfuing day, (i, e. light) was, in propriety of common fpeech, to happen to-morrow; and yet at the fame time might, in a true, a proper, and a philofophick fenfe, be faid to come to pass on this very day.

CHAP.

CHAP. XXVIII.

David receives an Account of Saul and Jonathan's Death. His Lamentation upon that Head.

TH

:

HE third day after David's return to Ziklag from the flaughter of the Amalekites, a young man arrived from Saul's camp * with all the marks of ill news upon him; his cloaths rent, and earth upon his head and when he came before David, he fell down to the earth, and did obey fance. David was ftruck with the fight, and asked him, with great eagerness, whither and whence he came? He answered, That he had escaped from the camp of Ifrael. And when David earnestly enquired how matters went there? he replied, That the army was put to flight, with a great flaughter; and that Saul and Jonathan fell among the reft. the reft. David then enquired the certainty of the account, how he knew that Saul and Jonathan were dead?

In the Hebrew, it is, from the camp, from with Saul. This plainly fhews, that the battle was in the camp.

The

The young man told him, That as he happened by chance * upon mount Gilboa, he faw Saul leaning upon his fpear, and the chariots and horfemen following hard after him; that the king called to him, and asked him who he was? And being answered, that he was an Amalekite, begged him to ftand upon him, and kill him ||, being in great diftrefs, because his life was yet whole in him; and that he did as the king commanded, being very fure that he could not recover of the wounds he had already received. And, to confirm his relation, he prefented David with Saul's crown ‡ and bracelet, which he himself had taken from him. Then David, and all that were about

There always are a great number of ftrollers that follow camps, and this lad, probably, was one of them. Their bufinefs is pillage, and ftripping the dead. This lad, it feems, knew his bufinefs, and got the ftart of the Philiftines in the pillage of Saul.

+ This Amalekite was as great a lyar as Sinon; but, it feems, not altogether fo dextrous. Whether an account of chariots pursuing upon a mountain hath an air of probability, military men will beft determine.

Saul, in the true hiftory, was afraid of being flain by the uncircumcifed: And how was the matter mended, by defiring to die by the hand of an Amalekite?

Poffibly the serious reader may not think it an obfervation altogether unworthy of his regard, that an Amalekite now took the crown from Saul's head, which he had forfeited by his disobedience in relation to Amalek.

him, rent their cloaths, and mourned and wept, and fafted all that day for Saul, and Jonathan his fon, and for the people of the Lord, and for the house of Ifrael, because they were fallen by the fword.

AFFER this, David called again for the meffenger of these evil tidings, and examined who he was. And being again informed, that he was an Amalekite, asked him, how he dared to stretch forth his hand against the LORD's anointed? And immediately crying out, Thy blood be upon thy head; for thy mouth bath teftified against thee, faying, I have flain the Lord's anointed; he called to one of his attendants, and commanded him to fall upon and kill him. He instantly obeyed, and dispatched the felf-convicted wretch, doubly devoted to destruction; who, after all, died for a crime which he had not committed; yet well deserved to die, for taking the guilt of it upon him. David rightly judged, that Saul had no power over his own life; and, confequently, should not have been obeyed in such a command: GoD and the ftate had as much right to his life when he was weary of it, as when he most loved it. And befides all this, it behoved