David King of Israel Author:William Taylor Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. THE CONFLICT WITH GOLIATH. i Samuel xvii. AFTER David's music had produced such a beneficial effect upon Saul, the young shepherd seems to have retur... more »ned to his former charge upon the slopes of Bethlehem. This may appear strange, especially after the statement that "the king loved him greatly," and made him his armor-bearer. But if we take a correct view of the character of Saul, and consider how at a later date he vibrated between the two extremes of inordinate admiration and spiteful persecution of David, our surprise will cease, and we shall have in David's departure from Gibeah at this time only another illustration of that fickleness and instability for which Saul was so remarkable. With his restoration to health, his love for David cooled; or, perhaps, he did not care to be constantly reminded of his malady by the continuous presence of the young minstrel, and so he sent him to his home again. How long David remained at Bethlehem before the occurrence of the events narrated in this seventeenth chapter, we are not informed, and it is vain to make any attempt at conjecture. All we know is that he was brought again into prominence in connection with the renewal of hostilities between Saul and the Philistines: and as this is the first occasion on which we come into contact with that ancient and warlike people, we may pause a few moments to gather into one brief paragraph the main features of their history and character. Coming, as the ablest critics have generally agreed, from Egypt, they occupied the strip of country lying along the south-east coast of Palestine, and comprising a confederacy of five united yet independent towns — Gaza, Ashdod, Ash- kelon, Gath, and Ekron. When the children of Israel took possession of the land, this territory was given, by lot,...« less