Shamgar-ben-Anath. Now, however, Israel had the precious memory of a day when her clans had united in Jehovah's name, and thrown off the oppressor's yoke. About the middle of the eleventh century there appeared in the land bands of religious enthusiasts going about with music and song and, in sympathetic connection with them, a seer whose keen eyes had perceived that the time was ripening for a great struggle for independence. This one was evidently watching for the born leader about whom the enthusiasm of the hour might crystallize into effective action. One day there came to his door a man of giant stature and simple heart, searching with persistent zeal for his father's lost asses. In the unawakened soul there was slumbering power capacity for new and consuming enthusiasm and for instantaneous action. Samuel the seer recognized his man in Saul-ben-Kish. There must be the awakening; dogged devotion to the home interests must be turned into larger channels. The conspicuous honor showed at the village sacrificial feast, where the seer presided, the secret anointing in the name of Jehovah, the charge to do as occasion should serve, the predicted meetings, culminating in the meeting with a company of the religio-patriotic enthusiasts, the strange ecstasy so exciting the wonder of those who had known the unassuming giant, that the question, "Is Saul also among the prophets," became a proverb- all these experiences accomplished the inward change which the seer desired. Saul went home and kept his own counsel till the news of the terrible straits of the Israelites in Jabesh Gilead, across the Jordan, reached him, as he came following the oxen out of the field. At last the insight and patience of Samuel were justified; Saul hewed to pieces a yoke of the oxen and sent the bloody tokens throughout the land with bitter threat for every coward laggard. The clans gathered at the summons of a determined leader, the siege of Jabesh was raised, and Israel saw once more what she could accomplish when united; yet the dread of Philistia soon sent the more part of the warriors slinking to cover till Jonathan's strange and gallant exploit at the pass of Michmash and the Philistine rout following gave new courage. Saul was the man for the hour, but was not the statesman who could secure a permanently united Israel. The impulsiveness that gained the first successes nearly cost the nation the life of the gallant Jonathan. The first enthusiasm past, strange moods came upon the leader that could be dissipated only by music. The young musician David, hence brought into Saul's personal service, soon proved a man of military genius whose success called forth from the dancing women an antiphonal couplet: Smitten hath Saul his thousands now, And David his myriads, I trow.1 Quick jealousy followed fond affection and developed, till Saul seemed almost more eager to be rid of David than of the Philistines. David, when forced to flee, became the leader of an outlaw band and then a vassal of one of the Philistine kings. David's own tribe of Judah and the affiliated clans to the south, which had been brought into union with the northern tribes, were now secretly sympathetic with the outlaw. The Philistines, encouraged, it may be, by the internal feud and the loss to Saul of his brilliant officer, united for a great invasion of Israel's territory. They marched up the coast plain, crossed the ridge of Carmel, and came into the Kishon valley, where the fateful battle had been fought in Deborah's day. Mustering on the northern side of the valley of Jezreel near Shunem, they faced Saul's forces on the southern side. The battle was fought on the slope of Gilboa. In the defeat of Israel, Saul and Jonathan, with two other sons of the king, met their death. To David the death of Saul meant the possibility of escape from an intolerable position of double-faced conduct which could not long be maintained, and possible succession to the throne. But it meant also the humiliation of his people, with their land once more open to the plundering armies of Philistia, the death of the anointed king and of his son whose soul was knit to David's. There is no reason to question the Davidic authorship of the wonderful dirge commemorating the death of Saul and Jonathan on Gilboa2; nor is there any reason to doubt the sincerity 11 Samuel 187. The above free representation of the lines finds its only excuse in its effort to reproduce the assonant endings and in its preservation of the relative length of the lines. The final words of the two lines end in phaw and thaw. 2 For a brief but adequate argument, see H. P. Smith, Samuel, Int. Crit. Com., p. 258. of David's respect for Saul and his deep sense of the nation's loss. It was to David's interest, it is true, to show all respect to the fallen king, but all the traditions are unanimous in representing David as most sincerely devoted to Saul, and this contemporary poem rings true. One argument for the genuineness of the poem is that an imitator would almost inevitably give "at least a veiled allusion to David's experience at the court of Saul and during his forced exile." 1 We have, then, in David's lament over Saul and Jonathan, a valuable contemporary historical monument, a genuine production of one of Israel's most versatile geniuses to whom later generations assigned many songs, and the earliest example of the dirge in Hebrew literature. That David was a musician is attested in the earliest prose narrative of his relations with Saul. This narrative was perhaps the earliest connected prose of Israel and was certainly written not much later than Solomon's time.2 About two centuries after David's death the prophet Amos speaks of those who devise musical instruments like David. Poet and musician were one in antiquity, and David may have composed many songs, though it is impossible to say how many of these are preserved, or with certainty to assign any specific ones to him, except this lament and that for Abner. The spirit of the dirge for Saul and Jonathan is national first, then personal. It affords an example of magnanimity, of freedom from petty feelings of revenge that would do credit to a Christian statesman; but it is quite without any definitely religious thought. In this last fact, we have another proof of genuineness, since the latter ages, which made David such a religious hero, could hardly have failed to include some mention of Jehovah in a pseudoDavidic poem composed to fit an occasion like the death of Saul. This early elegy certainly implies in its artistic adequacy a considerable development of this type, although the characteristic elegiac metre appears very little, if at all. In the much earlier Deborah song there seemed to be genuine examples of the metre.1 1 H. P. Smith, op. cit. 2 This document will be discussed in Chapter IV. 3 Amos 6 5. 4 See p. 22. In David's lament, lines of two and four beats prevail and are sometimes arranged quite effectively in groups that begin with short lines and culminate in lines of four beats. Of the few five-beat lines in the poem, the one which gives the refrain, with an addition, seems most like the typical elegiac line: How are the mighty fallen, in battle's midst. Even here, however, there is no considerable logical pause between the third and fourth accents, and it is doubtful whether any line of the poem is properly to be classed as one of the Qina rhythm. The absence of the elegaic verse-form is an argument against calling the measure elegiac; but its frequency of occurrence in later elegies and its appropriateness to the expression of the emotion of grief justifies the name. Like the Deborah song, the text of David's elegy has suffered in transmission, and it may be that its metre was originally much more regular than its present form indicates. In the varied measures of the lines as we have them (two, three, four, five beats), there is discoverable no such adapting of rhythm to thought and feeling as was manifest in the earlier great poem. On the other hand, the parallelism is notably symmetrical; except for the addition of the last two lines, the poem divides itself naturally into six groups of four lines each. In general, these groups are made up of couplets in which the parallelism is very distinct, while the second couplet stands in synthetic relation with the first. This becomes evident, if the first and third lines of each quatrain are read consecutively. These uniformly show a true synthetic parallelism, and the second and fourth lines usually stand in the same relation. The translation which follows is based upon a Hebrew text considerably revised and sometimes of doubtful conjecture:1 Wail, O Judah! The slain are on thy heights. 1 Commonly the textual emendations adopted by Dr. H. P. Smith in the International Critical Commentary have commended themselves to the present writer, although, in some cases, other readings have been preferred. As in the previous translations of this volume, effort has been made to approximate the accentual character of the original lines. Tell it not in Gath, Publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon; Lest the Philistine daughters rejoice, Lest the foreigners' daughters triumph. Mountains of Gilboa, may no dew descend, For there the shield of heroes was defiled, Saul and Jonathan, the beloved and the lovely, Than lions were stronger. Daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, Who made you scarlet wear, with luxuries,1 Jonathan, by thy death am I pierced,2 I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. How are the mighty fallen, And perished the weapons of war! Two of the most beautiful aspects of David's life were his attitude toward Saul as king and his friendship with Jonathan. The poem seems to end with the line: How are the mighty fallen, in battle's midst! The note of public loss has been dominant to this point; Saul and Jonathan have been thought of as mighty warriors, the defenders and enrichers of Israel; then the poet's personal grief bursts forth in four unsurpassed lines of lament. After the death of Saul and his three sons on Gilboa, the people of Judah chose David as their king, while the northern tribes were 1 Possibly fine linen. See H. P. Smith after Graetz. 2 Following emendation suggested in Kittel, Biblia Hebraica. |