The Garden of Eden 19

The Garden of Eden 19

And as David drew near he heard a noise of shouting. The Philistines

shouted with a great shout, and the Israelites answered. And then there

came a voice, like the voices of ten stout men in one, and called out

something which David was too far away to understand. And when he came

nearer, there he saw in the middle of the plain, with his back to the

Philistines and his face to the army of Israel, a mighty giant. The

giant was ten feet high, and all his clothes were made of brass. He had

a helmet of brass upon his head, and a breastplate of brass upon his

breast, and a target of brass upon his back, and boots of brass upon his

feet. In one hand he carried a huge spear, in the other hand a sword.

Before him went his squire, bearing his shield.

 

And this is what the giant said, “Choose you a man for you,” he cried,

“and let him come to me. If he be able to fight with me and kill me, we

will be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, ye

shall be our servants, and serve us.” And not a man of all the hosts of

Israel dared to go out and fight him.

 

Then the soul of David was stirred within him. He spoke to the first man

whom he met. “Tell me,” he said, “what does this mean?”

 

And the man answered, “Yonder is Goliath, the giant of Gath. Every day

he comes out at this hour and defies our army. King Saul has promised

that whosoever shall face him and overcome him shall have a great reward

in gold, and the hand of the princess, as well. But nobody is bold

enough to try it.”

 

David said, “I will try it.”

 

So the word came to his brother Eliab that David had offered to fight

Goliath; and Eliab did not like it. It seemed to him, as it often seems

to older brothers, that the boy was still a child. As for King Saul,

when they told him, he smiled and shook his head. “You are not able,” he

said, “to fight with this Philistine, for you are but a youth, and he a

man of war from his youth.”

 

But David said, “I have fought lions and bears since I was ten years

old. I have seized them by the beard and killed them. I can do the same

with this Philistine. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the

lion and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand

of this Philistine.”

 

Even so, it seemed like the proposal of a lamb to fight a wolf. But what

else could be done? At last, the king took David into his own tent, and

offered him his armor. But the king was the tallest man in the army, and

the shepherd boy was short of stature. Saul’s helmet came down over

David’s ears, and his coat of mail touched David’s heels. He put them

off. “I can fight best,” he said, “in my own way.”

 

And David took his staff in his hand,--the stout stick with which he

kept the sheep,--and he had his sling, and from the bank of the brook he

chose him five smooth stones. And thus he went out into the plain

between the armies, and faced the giant.

 

And the giant in all his armor came, and his squire carried his shield

before him, and when he looked to see what champion the Israelites had

found at last, there was but a boy,--a red-cheeked boy with a staff in

one hand and a sling in the other.

 

The giant was very angry. “Am I a dog,” he cried, “that thou comest at

me with a stick? I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air and to

the beasts of the field, and they shall pick thy bones.”

 

And David answered, “Thou comest to me with sword and spear and shield;

but I come to thee in the name of the Lord God of hosts, whom thou hast

defied.”

 

Thus the champions drew together, while the two armies watched in

breathless silence. And David ran to meet the giant. And even as he ran,

he put his hand into his shepherd’s bag, and took out a smooth stone and

put it in his sling and slung it. Up went the sling, out went the

stone, down went the giant. Straight as an arrow, the stone struck him

in the forehead. And David ran, and with the giant’s sword cut off the

giant’s head.

 

Then did the Philistines flee, and the men of Israel raised a great

shout and chased them.

 

 

 

 

XXXV

 

UNDER THE KING’S DISPLEASURE

 

 

After David killed the giant, he kept the sheep no longer. He lived at

the court with the king, and became a soldier. Saul made him a general

of the army, and everybody praised him. When the Philistines came again,

David led the men of war to battle, and when they came back in victory

the women came out to greet them at the gate of every city as they

passed, dancing and playing on instruments of music, and singing,--

 

“Saul hath slain his thousands,

And David his ten thousands.”

 

But that displeased Saul, and in his displeasure his old malady

returned. And now his insanity began to take a dangerous form. One day

when his madness was upon him, and David was playing on the harp to

quiet him, the king said to himself, “I will kill David!” And his spear

was in his hand, and as David played he threw it at him. But he missed

his aim.

 

Now the king had promised that whoever killed the giant should have not

only a reward in gold, but the hand

 

[Illustration: DAVID ESCAPES BY THE WINDOW]

 

of the princess. But there were two princesses, Merab and Michal. Saul

had intended to give David the hand of Merab, but already Michal had

given him her heart. While David was only a shepherd and a minstrel, the

young princess, listening to his music, had fallen in love with him. And

David, as he played, had played to her.

 

So the mad king made a plot. “Very well,” he said, “you shall have

Michal, but first you must bring me as a dowry the heads of a hundred

Philistines.” For he thought that in the battle, David would be killed.

But David went out into the enemy’s country, and when he came back he

brought two hundred Philistine heads. So he married the princess, amidst

great rejoicing.

 

But hardly had the wedding guests gone home when the king made another

plot. He determined to send men to seize his son-in-law and kill him.

But Michal heard of it. And that night, as she looked out of her window,

the princess saw in the dim light the forms of men moving about among

the trees. And she said to her husband, “David, you must save your life

this very night; to-morrow will be too late.” And she took a stout rope

and let it down out of a back window, and when nobody was looking David

climbed down and ran away.

 

Then Michal took a wooden image which stood in a corner of the best

room and carried it to David’s bed. She laid a pillow of goat’s hair

under its head, and tucked in the bedclothes about its chin, and in the

dark it looked like David. Pretty soon there came a loud knocking at the

street door.

 

“Who is there?” said Michal.

 

A man’s voice answered, “We are come from the king with a message for

David.”

 

“Well,” said Michal, “you can’t see him to-night; he has gone to bed

sick.”

 

So the men went back to Saul, and the delay was long enough to enable

David to get out of the city, where the king could not find him.

 

Then the men returned and knocked again, louder than before.

 

“Who is there?” said Michal.

 

And a man’s voice answered, “Sick or well, we must see David.” And the

man and his companions had daggers in their hands.

 

“Come in, then,” said Michal, “and I will take you to his room.”

 

And when they came into David’s room and saw David, as they supposed,

lying in the bed asleep, they drew their daggers with one accord and

stabbed him with all their might. And the daggers stuck in the wooden

image!

 

Now David had another friend at court beside his wife the princess, and

that was his wife’s brother, Jonathan. Jonathan loved David as his own

soul. Indeed, Jonathan had given David his own royal robe, and his sword

and his bow, and had said, “After my father is dead, you shall be king

and not I.”

 

So David sent word to Jonathan, and said, “Find out how serious this is.

Is it only your father’s madness getting worse, or does he really intend

to take my life?”

 

And they made this plan. The next day there was to be a great dinner at

the king’s house, and David’s place would be empty. And Saul would

notice the empty place, and Jonathan would listen to hear what he would

say, and would let David know.

 

And Jonathan said, “The day after to-morrow I will go out into the field

with my bow, as if I meant to shoot at a mark. And you be hiding. I will

shoot five arrows and send the boy to fetch them. If I say, ‘Here, boy,

the arrows are on this side,’ then you may know that all is well. But if

I say, ‘Go farther, the arrows are beyond you,’ then flee for your life.

But promise me now, David, that when you come, as you surely will, to be

prosperous and great, you will be good to me and to my children.” And

David promised.

 

So at the feast, the place was empty. And Saul said, “Where is David?”

and Jonathan said, “He has gone to Bethlehem.” And Saul rose up in

fierce anger and took his spear and tried to kill his son.

 

Then the next day, Jonathan went out with his bow and shot five arrows,

and as the boy went to pick them up, he called, “Go farther, the arrows

are beyond you.” And David knew that there was but a step between him

and death. And Jonathan sent the boy home and found David, and they both

wept bitterly. Then Jonathan returned to his father’s house, and David fled as fast as he could go into the wilderness.