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From Eternity Past
would permit no such arrangement. “Ye shall not do so, my brethren,”
he said, “with that which the Lord hath given us... . As his part is that
goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff;
they shall part alike.”
David and his band had captured extensive flocks and herds be-
longing to the Amalekites. These were called “David’s spoil,” and
upon returning to Ziklag, he sent from this spoil presents to the elders
of his own tribe of Judah. All were remembered who had befriended
him and his followers in the mountain fastnesses, when he had been
forced to flee for his life.
As David and his warriors labored to restore their ruined homes,
they watched for tidings of the battle fought between Israel and the
Philistines. Suddenly a messenger entered the town, “with his clothes
[504]
rent, and earth upon his head.” He was at once brought to David, before
whom he bowed as a powerful prince whose favor he desired. The
fugitive reported Saul’s defeat and death and the death of Jonathan.
But he went beyond a simple statement of facts. The stranger hoped
to secure honor to himself as the slayer of the king. With an air of
boasting the man related that he found the monarch of Israel wounded,
and that at his own request the messenger had slain him. The crown
from his head and the golden bracelets from his arms he had brought
to David. He confidently expected a rich reward for the part he had
acted.
David Grieved for Saul
But “David took hold on his clothes, and rent them; and likewise
all the men that were with him: and they mourned, and wept, and
fasted until even, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people
of the Lord, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by
the sword.”
The first shock of the fearful tidings past, David’s thoughts returned
to the stranger herald and the crime of which, according to his own
statement, he was guilty. “Whence art thou?” And he answered, “I am
the son of a stranger, an Amalekite. And David said unto him, How
wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord’s
anointed?” Twice David had refused to lift his hand against him who
had been consecrated by the command of God to rule over Israel. Yet