Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

my lord the king: yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eat at thy own table. What right therefore have I yet to cry any more unto the king?"

David was satisfied of his innocence, and revoking the late grant which he had made to Ziba, restored Mephibosheth to the possession of his former rights. This, however, was considered by him as of far less consequence than his regaining the favor of the king, and being considered by him as among his faithful friends; and he exclaimed, "Yea, let him take all, for as much as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house."

Thus, often in the providence of God is treachery detected, and wrong redressed. And when it is not so in this world, we know that a day is coming to give to truth and righteousness a complete triumph. Let our confidence in the justice of God's government be unwavering. Let us be found among the number of his loyal and obedient subjects, and all will be well with us at last.*

* David is supposed to have written Psalms 62, 143, 70 and 71, during the rebellion of Absalom, and Psalm 144, as a song of thanksgiving for his victories over Absalom and other rebels.

[blocks in formation]

CHAPTER XXXV.

Amasa, being sent in pursuit of Sheba, is murdered by Joab. Sheba is killed, and his rebellion quelled.

One of the first things which David did after his return to Jerusalem, was to remove his inferior wives whom Absalom had treated in so shameful a manner, from the palace, and have them placed in a secure retirement, where they were to be maintained in a state of widowhood, and entirely separated from him as long as they lived.

This being done, the king lost no time in taking the most decisive measures to subdue the rebellion in which Sheba and his men were engaged. He directed Amasa, who was now to take the place of Joab as commander of the army, to assemble the men of Judah, within three days, at Jerusalem. Amasa hasted to execute the order, but did not return by the time appointed. His delay caused David great uneasiness, and telling Abishai, another of his generals, that he feared Sheba would do them more harm than even Absalom did, he ordered him to take a suitable military force, and go in pursuit of him, lest he should get into some of the fortified cities, and be secure against an attack.

Abishai immediately assembled a body of soldiers called Joab's men, with the Cherethites and Pelethites, and all the mighty men of war who were in and about Jerusalem, and went forth on the expedition. When they had advanced as far as the great rock of Gibeon, Amasa joined them with his forces, and took the command of the whole.

It seems that Joab was with the army, but whether having any command or not is uncertain. He had his own purpose, however, to accomplish, and this notwithstanding it led him to commit the crime of murder. He was not at all startled at this. It was familiar to him. Abner, Uriah, and Absalom had already been his victims, and now he sought another unsuspecting one, to gratify his revenge at the indignity, as he supposed, which had been offered him, and to subserve the ends of his insatiable ambition. Believing that he could regain the command of the king's forces, only by taking the life of Amasa, he had no scruples about doing it.

Watching a favorable opportunity, and wearing a sword suspended in a sheath from his girdle, he approached Amasa, as if to offer him a friendly salutation. While doing this, his sword dropped out of the sheath, (probably through design, that he might have an excuse for holding it without exciting suspicion,) and grasping it in his left hand, he said to Amasa,

"Art thou in health, my brother?" at the same time he took him by the beard with the right hand, as was customary, to kiss him.

Not having the least suspicion of treachery, he was entirely off his guard, and Joab dexterously availing himself of this, plunged his sword into the body of Amasa, whose bowels gushed out, and he fell lifeless to the ground. This base assassin then placed himself, without opposition, at the head of the troops, and, with his brother Abishai, went in pursuit of Sheba. At the same time, one of his men, probably by his orders, stood near the corpse, and as one after another came to examine it, he cried out, "He that favoreth Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab."

But a crowd soon gathered round the body of Amasa, who lay weltering in his blood, and stood still there as if horror-struck at the sight. The soldier, perceiving this, removed the corpse from the highway into an adjoining field, and covered it with a cloth; so that it ceased to attract notice, and all the people hastened after Joab.

Sheba, by this time, had traversed all the tribes of Israel, doing what he could to stir them up to revolt, and adding considerably to his forces. He was overtaken, at length, by Joab and his men, at Abel of Beth-maachah, a city in the northern part of Palestine, in which he took refuge, and hoped to be secure.

Joab immediately commenced the siege of the place, digging a trench around it, and casting up a bank from which to assail those who were within. He proceeded also to attempt to batter down the walls, probably with engines constructed for the purpose.

Some progress was making in the siege, with hopes of success, when one of the inhabitants, a woman of distinction, and remarkable for her wisdom, cried out to Joab, saying, that she wished he would come near that she might speak with him. On his approaching, and making himself known, she begged him to listen to her words.

"I do hear," said he. She then proceeded to expostulate with him on the injustice of attempting to destroy a city, venerable as that was and noted for the discretion and wisdom of its inhabitants, without first offering it terms of peace. "I am one of them," said she, (speaking probably in the name of the city and the people,) that are peaceable and faithful in Israel: thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel," (a mothercity, one of great importance and influence :) "why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the Lord?"

[ocr errors]

Joab immediately disclaimed such cruelty, saying that all he wished was to take Sheba, who was a rebel against David, their rightful sovereign, and that he would leave the city unmo.

« НазадПродовжити »