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Phoenician Venus), while the skull of Saul was fastened up in the great temple of
Dagon.
But the Philistine host had not halted. They advanced to occupy the towns deserted
by the Hebrews. The main body occupied Bethshan, the great mountain-fortress of
Central Palestine, which from the top of a steep brow, inaccessible to horsemen,
seemed to command not only the Jordan valley, but also all the country round. As if
in utter scorn and defiance, they hung out on the walls of Bethshan the headless
trunks of Saul and of his sons. And now night with her dark mantle once more
covered these horrible trophies. Shall the eagles and vultures complete the work
which, no doubt, they had already begun? The tidings had been carried across the
Jordan, and wakened echoes in one of Israel's cities. It was to Jabesh-gilead that
Saul, when only named but not yet acknowledged king, had by a forced night-march
brought help, delivering it from utter destruction (1 Samuel 11). That had been the
morning of Saul's life, bright and promising as none other; his first glorious victory,
which had made him king by acclamation, and drawn Israel's thousands to that
gathering in Gilgal, when, amidst the jubilee of an exultant people, the new kingdom
was inaugurated. And now it was night; and the headless bodies of Saul and his sons,
deserted by all, swung in the wind on the walls of Bethshan, amid the hoarse music
of vultures and jackals.
But it must not be so; it cannot be so. There was still truth, gratitude, and courage in
Israel. And the brave men of Jabesh-gilead marched all the weary night; they crossed
Jordan; they climbed that steep brow, and silently detached the dead bodies from the
walls. Reverently they bore them across the river, and ere the morning light were far
out of reach of the Philistines. Though it had always been the custom in Israel to
bury the dead, they would not do so to these mangled remains, that they might not,
as it were, perpetuate their disgrace. They burned them just sufficiently to destroy all
traces of insult, and the bones they reverently laid under their great tamarisk tree,
themselves fasting for seven days in token of public mourning. All honor to the
brave men of Jabesh-gilead, whose deed Holy Scripture has preserved to all
generations!
It was the third day after the return of David and his men to Ziklag. Every heart must
have been heavy with anxiety for tidings of that great decisive struggle between the
Philistines and Saul which they knew to be going on, when all at once a messenger
came, whose very appearance betokened disaster and mourning (comp. 1 Samuel
4:12). It was a stranger, the son of an Amalekite settler in Israel, who brought sad
and strange tidings. By his own account, he had fled to Ziklag straight out of the
camp of Israel, to tell of the defeat and slaughter of Israel, and of the death of Saul
and of Jonathan. As he related the story, he had, when the tide of battle turned
against Israel, come by accident upon Saul, who stood alone on the slope of Gilboa
(^)