end, this city was chofen, was eminently and emphatically the chofen city of God, beautiful for fituation, and the joy of the whole earth; more especially, when the Sun of righteousness rose up in it, with healing in his wings, the glory of his people Ifrael, and a light to lighten the Gentiles, till all the ends of the earth have feen the falvation of our God.

CHAP. IX.

The Philistines and neighbouring Nations invade Ifrael, and are defeated in two Battles.

W

HILST civil war fubfifted in Ifrael,

between the partizans of David and Ifbbofheth, the Philistines contented themfelves with being calm fpectators of their mutual ravages and conflicts, which naturally tended to their mutual destruction: but when all 'these were ended, in their unanimous election of David to the throne, and that election fucceeded by all the happy be

ginnings

ginnings and omens of a profperous reign, a powerful and inveterate enemy expelled from the heart of his kingdom, an impregnable fortress taken, and a royal city built and fortified, and crowned with a magnificent palace, and the alliance of a powerful neighbour prince offered unfought; they then began to be alarmed, and thought this the fit season to crush the growing power of this prince, before it rose to a greater height.

BUT it was natural for them to find upon inquiry, that they had now perhaps taken this refolution too late: David had now the most numerous and best disciplin'd militia upon the face of the earth; and fuch foldiers, fighting their own and their country's battles, under the command of fuch a captain, were fufficient to ftrike terror into the boldest of his enemies. The Jews had hitherto been too hard for the feveral nations of Canaan, that opposed them; they had exterminated fome, and brought others under tribute; no fingle nation could stand against them, under the conduct of such a leader as David. The Philistines had too well experienced his prowess, to imagine themselves fingly a match for him; and nothing but an union

of

of all the neighbour nations, could effectually oppress or destroy him.

THAT there was an univerfal confederacy against Ifrael, entered into by all the surrounding nations in the days of David, is undeniably evident from the lxxxiiid Pfal. if that was either written or fet to mufick by Afaph, as the title implies it to have been; and it is certain, it can fuit no other time but this, throughout the whole feries of the Old Teftament history*. And that fuch a league as is referred to in that Pfalm, was entered

into

* I am fenfible, that most commentators refer the lxxxiiid Pfalm to the days of Jehoshaphat; but for what reafon, or what colour of reafon, I own I can neither learn nor imagine. The enemies then affembled against Jehoshaphat are exprefsly faid to be the Ammonites, Moabites and Seirites; and to have come from this fide Syria, and paffed the falt fea, quite out of the courfe of the Philiftine invafions: befides that he himself, in his prayer to GOD, offered up in the greatest terror of his enemies, numbers up only the children of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir: and we cannot doubt but that both his fears, and the occafion, called upon him to recount the whole number of his enemies: And when they destroyed one another, there is no mention of any other that was deftroyed but those three nations. Add to all this, that the fear of the LORD is faid to have fallen upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, (and confequently upon the Arabians and Philistines contiguous to it) fo that they made no war against Jebobaphat. And to crown all, these two nations are expressly faid to have paid him tribute. Give me leave to add, that it is ftrangely improbable (not to fay abfurd) to imagine,

that

into at this time, appears with fufficient evidence from the cxviiith Pfalm, where David (whose Pfalm this is confeffed to be) exprefsly declares, that all nations compaffed him about; and it appears from the fame Pfalm, that this compaffing was before he had destroyed them; and therefore it was in the beginning of his reign.

THE fame thing alfo appears from chap. vii. of 2 Samuel, v. 1. where it is expressly faid, that the Lord had then given him reft round about from all his enemies.

ADD to all this, the teftimony of JoSephus upon the point; who affirms *, that the Phenicians, Syrians, and several other nations, joined with the Philistines against Ifrael at this time. And the reason and nature of the thing vouches for his veracity; as it is most credible, that the attempt was made when it was most prudent and practicable; which was in the beginning of his reign, before his dominion was yet through

that Jehoshaphat should in this Pfalm (lxxxiii.) pray to Gop for fuch a deliverance as he had wrought for his people by the hands of Barak, Deborah and Gideon, and forget or omit all those which he had wrought by the hands of David his father.

*Antiq. 1. 7. c. 4.

H

ly

be

ly established, and the wounds of a long civil. war well healed. And that the express purpofe of this league was to exterminate the whole race of Ifrael, is evident from the lxxxiiid Psalm v. 3, 4. They have imagined craftily against thy people, and taken counsel against thy fecret ones; they have faid, Come, and let us root them out, that they be no more a people, and that the name of Ifrael may no more in remembrance. Accordingly they afsembled their whole force, and spread themfelves abroad in the valley of Rephaim (a large and rich valley to the weft of Jerufa lem); no doubt to intimidate the Ifraelites with their numbers, as it was natural to hope they might. might. Armies fo numerous were truly dreadful, efpecially when they were fo well united, when David could fay of them, as he does in the 'fore-cited pfalm, They have confulted together with one heart, they are confederate against thee; the tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites of Moab, and the Hagarenes, Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek, the Philistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre*.

*There are two objections to this account: the first is, that the Philistines only are mentioned in the Bible to have

warred