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untruthfulness. Again there was to be war between the Philistines and Israel, this
time on a larger scale than any since the first contest with Saul. It was but natural
that Achish should have wished to swell his contingent to the army of the united
Philistine princes by so large, well-trained, and, as he believed, trusty band as that of
David. Of course, there was no alternative but to obey such a summons, although it
must be admitted that the words of David, both on this occasion (28:2), and
afterwards, when dismissed the camp of the Philistines (29:8), are capable of two
interpretations. Achish, however, took them in what seemed their obvious meaning,
and promised in return ("therefore"- for that) to make David the chief of his body-
guard. It need scarcely be told, what terrible anxieties this unexpected turn of events
must have brought to David, or how earnestly he must have prayed and trusted that,
at the right moment, some "way of escape" would be made for him.
The sacred narrative now carries us successively to the camp of Israel and to that of
the Philistines. The battlefield was to be once more the Plain of Jezreel, where of old
Gideon with his three hundred had defeated the hosts of Midian (Judges 7). A spot
this full of happy, glorious memories; but, ah, how sadly altered were the
circumstances! Gideon had been the God-called hero, who was to conquer in His
might; Saul was the God-forsaken king, who was hastening to judgment and ruin.
And each knew and felt it - Gideon when he was content to reduce his forces to three
hundred men, and then crept down with his armor-bearer to hear the enemy foretell
his own destruction; and Saul when viewing the host of the Philistines across the
plain, "he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled" (28:5), and when all his
inquiries of the Lord remained without answer. It seems strange, and yet, as we
think, it is most truthfully characteristic of Saul, that, probably after the death of
Samuel, he displayed special theocratic zeal by a systematic raid upon all
necromancy in the land, in accordance with Leviticus 19:31; 20:27; Deuteronomy
18:10, etc. Such outward conformity to the law of God, not only from political
motives, but from those of such religiousness as he was capable of, seems to us one
of the most striking psychological confirmations of the history of Saul.
The reason why the scene of battle was laid so far north, distant alike from the cities
of the Philistine princes and from the residence of Saul, was, in all probability, that
the Philistines now wished to obtain such undoubted supremacy in the north of
Palestine as they seem to have virtually possessed in the south. A great victory in
Jezreel would not only cut the land, so to speak, in two, but give them the key both
to the south and to the north. With this view, then, the Philistines chose their ground.
Where the great plain of Esdraelon shelves down to the Jordan it is broken in the
east by two mountain-ranges. On the southern side of the valley, which is here about
three miles wide, are the mountains of Gilboa, and at their foot, or rather spur, lies
Jezreel, where the spring which gushes down is gathered into a pool of considerable
size. On the northern side of the valley is Little Hermon, and at its foot the rich
(^)