King David
I
— His height was six cubits and a span;
his helmet brass,
the weight of his coat-of-mail is five thousand shekels of brass,
he had greaves of brass upon his legs,
and a target of brass upon his shoulders;
the staff of his spear is like a weaver's beam,
the weight of his spearhead is five hundred shekels of iron.
He stood before our camp and shouted,
Am I not a Philistine and you servants of Saul?
Choose a man to fight with me;
if he is able to kill me, we are your servants,
if not, you are ours.
And we stood there, dismayed —
even Jonathan.
Now there had come to the camp a lad from Bethlehem,
whose three eldest brothers had followed Saul to battle:
the lad brought them parched corn, and loaves and cheese for their captain.
And he asked of the soldiers, Who is this Philistine that he should challenge the armies of the living God?
They told him how the king had said that he would enrich the man who killed the Philistine,
and give the man Michal — the king's daughter — for a wife;
and then the soldiers jeered at him and said, Do you think to kill him?
His eldest brother pushed through the soldiers and said,
What are you doing here?
With whom have you left our few sheep in the wilderness?
I know your naughtiness: you have come to see the battle.
The lad answered them all, I will go and fight with this Philistine,
and they reasoned with him: What are you thinking of?
You are only a lad
and he has been a man of war since his youth.
I will go with my staff and sling and the stones in my scrip.
Goliath called out, Am I a dog that you come against me with a stick?
Come on, and I will give your flesh to the birds of heaven and the beasts of the field,
but as he lifted his spear,
the lad took a stone and slung it, and it sank into Goliath's forehead.
At this we rushed upon the Philistines.
Jonathan
has given the lad his own robe, girdle, sword and bow;
now David shall stay among the men of war,
and be Michal's husband.
II
The Feast in Saul's House
— Tell us how Ehud stabbed the king of Moab,
or of Deborah,
of Gideon, Jephthah, or Samson.
Tell us of Jonathan!
Tell us again how the city of Dan was taken.
— The kings came and fought,
they took no spoil;
the river Kishon swept them away.
The stars fought from heaven,
from their courses they fought against Sisera.
Tell of it you that ride on white asses,
that sit on rich carpets,
or walk, far from the noise of archers, by the pools of water.
Sisera's mother is looking from her window.
She cries through the lattice,
Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Her women answer her,
yes, she answers herself,
Have they not found, are they not sharing the spoil?
A woman, two women to every man!
— Micah said to his mother,
The silver taken from you, about which you did utter a curse —
I took it.
She said, Blessed be my son, and gave two hundred pieces of the silver
to the moulder to cast an image of God to stand in Micah's house.
Now there came to the hill country a young man,
a Levite looking for a place,
and Micah said to him, Stay with me, be my priest,
I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of clothes and your food;
the young man was content.
And Micah said, Now I know that God will be good to me,
for I have a Levite as my priest.
The Danites had sent five men to spy out the land and they lodged in Micah's house,
went on and came to a city, Laish,
and saw how the people lived there — quietly, far from other Sidonians.
And their spies told the Danites of Laish.
Six hundred of them set out with weapons of war and on the way passed Micah's house.
The five who had been there went in and took the image and said to its priest,
Be still!
But why not come with us and be our priest?
Is it better for you to be a priest in the house of one man or to a tribe of Israel?
And the Levite went along gladly.
Micah and his neighbors ran after them shouting,
and the Danites said, What is the matter with you?
He answered, You have taken away my God and my priest, and you ask me what is the matter?
A Danite answered him then, Let us hear no more from you; there are angry fellows among us,
and they may fall upon you and sweep you away and the lives of your household.
The Danites went on and came to Laish and killed all who lived there and set it on fire:
there was no one to save it, for it was far from Sidon,
and they had dealings with no one, but had lived — a quiet people — in their valley.
The Danites rebuilt the city and called it Dan.
— Then Abner said, Tell us of Saul,
tell us how he went looking for his father's asses
and met Samuel and was anointed king;
how Saul saved the people of Jabesh-gilead from the Ammonites;
how he fought the Philistines,
not a sword or a spear in the hand of any of us —
did they leave us a smith in all Israel? —
our people had hidden themselves in caves and in thickets and in rocks and in pits,
the Philistines in three companies were pillaging the land,
and not a city was without its garrison of Philistines;
tell us about ourselves, for we are heroes too!
— Now Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who carried his armour,
Come, let us go over to the Philistines' garrison.
The passes by which Jonathan went
were between crags on one side and crags on the other,
and the Philistines said, Look, the Hebrews are coming out of their holes.
And the men of the garrison called to Jonathan,
Come up to us and we will show you a thing or two;
he climbed up on his hands and feet — and they fell before him!
That first slaughter was of about twenty men
within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land;
there was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people,
the garrison and those going out to pillage trembled.
The watchmen of Saul looked and saw the multitude going this way and that,
and Saul said to his priest, Bring the ark of God;
but while Saul talked to the priest the tumult in the Philistines' camp went on and grew —
and we hurried to the battle!
The Hebrews who had come with the Philistines into their camp from the country about,
they, too, fought with Saul and Jonathan against the Philistines;
and those who had hidden themselves in the hills of Ephraim,
when they heard that the Philistines fled, followed them hard.
— The evil spirit is in the king: he neither sees nor hears.
Let David play;
when David used to play,
the king would wipe his eyes upon his sleeves,
and be himself again.
— When the women came out of the cities,
to meet us from the slaughter of the Philistines,
did you not hear them answer each other,
as they played upon the timbrels,
Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his ten thousands?
They said of David ten thousands
and of me only thousands;
can he have more except the kingdom?
— What has he done? What is his wickedness?
He has done nothing that you should want his life!
— You lie, you rebel! you son of a rebellious woman!
Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own confusion
and to the confusion of your mother's nakedness?
As long as the son of Jesse lives upon the ground,
you will not be established nor your kingdom;
bring him to me at once for he shall die!
— Why should he die? What has he done?
III
Michal
— The grave men who will write
the history of the kings of Israel and of the wars of God,
will not trouble to write of our happiness:
I had never hoped for a husband brave as Jonathan,
and handsomer than my father —
there is none like David among the young men.
— What have I done that your father seeks my life?
— God forbid! It is not so!
— There is only a step between me and death:
as I sat before your father at meat —
in all that I have done have I not served him only?
Where is David?
He is sick.
Then we will bring him in his bed to the king. Let us in!
I cannot. He is sick.
Why have you fooled me and let my enemy escape?
IV
— His brothers and all his father's house have come to David,
and every one in distress and in debt,
every one discontented:
he is their captain;
and he and his band are now in the land of Judah — in the forest of Hareth.
— If he is in the land at all,
I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.
— We heard that David is in the land of Ziph;
and that he was lurking in the wilderness of Maon,
and from there that he has slipped away to the strongholds of ndash-gedi —
on the rocks of the wild goats.
— My lord, he and his band have escaped to the Philistines,
and found favor in the eyes of the king of Gath;
the king has given them a town in which to live.
They raid the Amalekites,
and leave not a man or woman alive to tell on them in Gath;
when the king asks, Where have you made a raid today?
David answers, In the south of Judah,
and so the king believes of him, He has made his people hate him.
— Hear, you Benjaminites,
will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards,
and make you all captains of hundreds and of thousands,
that all of you have conspired against me,
and no one shows me that my son has made a league with the son of Jesse,
and none of you is sorry for me?
— I saw the son of Jesse coming to Ahimelech the priest,
and Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for him
and gave him food and Goliath's sword.
— He came to me and I asked, Why are you alone?
And he answered, The king commanded me, Let no one know anything of the business about which I send you.
Now what have you?
Give me five loaves of bread or what there is.
I had only the hallowed bread;
and he answered, Let me have it,
and is there not a sword or a spear here?
I brought neither:
the king's business required haste.
And I gave him the sword of Goliath whom he had killed,
which had been wrapped in a cloth among the vestments.
Who seemed so faithful among all your servants as David,
the king's son-in-law?
And did I begin to inquire of God for him?
Let not the king impute anything to his servant nor to any of my father's house;
for your servant knew nothing of all this.
— You shall die, you and all your father's house!
Kill him!
Because his hand also is with David
and he helped him when he fled.
Here, you Edomite,
kill the priest!
And take his city,
kill his men and women, their children and sucklings,
their oxen, asses, and sheep!
You!
Paltiel,
you shall marry my daughter Michal,
whom I have given to David,
for you are a good man, a quiet man.
And listen, all of you, and you, Jonathan,
let me hear no more of this David —
except to hear that he is dead.
V
— So the leader of the Philistines said to the king of Gath,
what are these Hebrews doing in the rear of your company,
in an army we have gathered against Saul?
The king of Gath answered, This is David who was Saul's servant:
he has been with me many years and I have found no fault in him.
But the leader of the Philistines said, Make the fellow go back to the place you have given him;
let him not go with us to battle,
that in the battle he should not turn against us;
for with what should he reconcile himself to his master
if not with our heads?
And another Philistine said, Is not this the David of whom the Hebrews sang to one another in their dances,
Saul slew his thousands and David his ten thousands?
Then the king of Gath sent for David and said to him,
Surely you have been upright;
I have found no evil in you since the day you came to me,
but the lords will not have you.
Go in peace, then, not to displease the lords of the Philistines.
And David answered, What have I done?
Have you not promised me, Surely you shall go out with me to battle, you and your men?
What evil have you found in me
that I may not fight the enemies of my lord the king
to show what I can do?
But the king of Gath said, You are good in my sight as an angel of God,
but the princes have said, You shall not go with us to battle;
now then, early in the morning with those of Saul's servants that have come with you,
as soon as you have light, return.
— Now when Saul saw that the Philistines had come by hundreds and by thousands,
and God did not answer him,
neither by prophets nor by dreams,
he disguised himself and came to a woman at ndash-dor
that could bring up the dead, to speak to Samuel;
and said, I was a lad of the smallest of the tribes,
and my family the least of all the tribe of Benjamin
and you met me in the gate of your city,
as I came to ask about my father's asses that had wandered away and were lost,
to ask where they were for a fourth part of a shekel of silver —
and you anointed me king of Israel.
And we spent the night in talk upon your roof;
you showed me all the work before my hand;
though I hid among the wagons when the tribes were called together,
you searched me out and anointed me;
though I followed my oxen, ploughing my fields year after year,
the messengers of Jabesh-gilead came to me.
And all that I did since you know:
how I freed Jabesh-gilead from the Ammonites,
how I fought the Philistines and the Amalekites and ruled our people,
and had no rest, neither by day nor by night.
Now the Philistines come against Israel by hundreds and by thousands —
and Samuel answered, Why have you disquieted me and brought me up from the dead?
Why do you ask me, if God has gone from you and has become your foe?
He has torn the kingdom from your hand and given you to the Philistines;
tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me.
The seer was against him
and all the witches:
Saul and Jonathan are dead
on the field of battle,
on the field of defeat.
Accursed,
nevertheless
they went into battle,
Saul and Jonathan,
and died bravely.
The men ran and fell dead on Mount Gilboa,
and the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and his sons
and killed Jonathan.
The archers overtook Saul.
His head and armour are in the house of their idols,
his body is fastened to the wall of Beth-shan.
An Amalekite who was near the field of battle
to see what he could find
ran to tell David,
and brought him the crown that was on Saul's head,
and the bracelet that was on his arm.
David has taken the spoil that his band has gathered
and is sending it to the elders,
as presents to his friends in the cities,
that he and his may live again in Judah.
— For he saved us from the Ammonites —
let us steal away Saul's body and the bodies of his sons
and bury them here in Jabesh-gilead.
VI
Ish-bosheth and Abner
— Why have you taken my father's concubine?
Do you mean to be king in my stead?
— Who made you king of Israel and Benjamin, if not I?
I am kind to your house not to give you up to the king of Judah.
— Have I not heard how you sent a messenger to David
to make a league with him:
to bring him all Israel,
to say to the elders,
You have looked for David to be your king;
now do it,
for by him God will save Israel?
You have betrayed me, Abner!
But take care, you will meet a sudden death one of these days:
have you forgotten how you killed Joab's brother
when David's men and yours were playing by the pool of Gideon,
when they fought each other and caught each other by the head and sent their swords into each other's sides,
and you struck Joab's brother with the staff of your spear
so that the end of it came out behind his body and he fell down and died?
Do you think Joab has forgotten?
Do you think David's captain will let you become as great in David's court as here?
— Joab knows that I called to the lad to turn away,
to catch one of the young men and take his armour;
that he would not, but turned neither to the right nor left but followed me —
but never fear for me, you unworthy son of Saul,
but for yourself,
that none of your captains
comes into your house as you lie upon your bed
and sticks his knife into the fat of your belly until the dirt comes out,
and cuts off your head to bring it as a gift to David.
— Have you this in mind?
— Not I.
I have no need to steal upon a man asleep or unawares.
But I have come not to quarrel, but with a piece of news:
David sends me word that I should bring him Michal, whom Saul gave him as his wife.
Now send for her that I may bring her to David;
we must humour the king of Judah —
and your father was unjust to take her away and give her to another.
Look at Paltiel,
whom Saul chose for a son-in-law;
look at the tears in his eyes.
What, are you afraid to draw your sword at the Lion of Judah?
Well, well,
we shall let you run beside Michal,
weeping all the way,
as we bring her to David.
But do not go a step beyond the border of Israel,
or David's sword may take a swift dislike to you
at the thought of the five sons she has borne you.
VII
— While I was away on this foray to bring spoil for my lord the king,
you feasted Abner and sent him away in peace!
And now I am told the king mourns for Abner!
— And you sent messengers in my name after Abner;
and as he came back to Hebron, met him in the gate,
and took him aside as if to speak with him — and stabbed him!
The guilt fall upon you!
May your house never be without a leper or one that leans on a staff or one dead by the sword or one that lacks bread!
Put on sackcloth and mourn for Abner;
a prince and a great man has fallen today in Israel!
— You know Abner brought Michal to deceive you,
to find out all you do — .
— In the heat of the day we came to Ish-bosheth's house —
we were captains of his —
Ish-bosheth lay on his bed,
we came into the house as if to take wheat,
and cut off his head!
— Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of your enemy, Saul;
God has avenged my lord the king today!
— When one told me among the Philistines, Saul is dead,
thinking to have brought me good news,
I killed him:
that was his reward for his news.
How much more should I do
to wicked men who have murdered a righteous man
in his own house and upon his bed?
Cut off their hands and feet,
and hang them up beside the pool in the garden;
bury Ish-bosheth's head in Abner's grave.
— Now, my lord, the elders of the tribes of Israel will come to you and say —
for they have neither captain left nor king —
they will say, We are your bone and flesh;
when Saul was king,
you led us out to battle and brought us back;
be our king.
See, my lord, God was with me when I struck Abner;
the enemies of my lord the king and all that rise against you
be as he is!
— And yet the Michal that I knew
with all the airs that suited Saul's daughter
and pleased me, newly from the sheepfold.
The sweat and fingerprints of another man upon her.
VIII
— I should like to see the mighty men David has:
I hear that they can use both the right hand and the left in slinging stones
and in shooting arrows from the bow;
that their faces are like the faces of lions,
and they are swift as the roes upon the mountains.
— I should like to see Joab and Joab's brother, Abishai —
I have heard that when the Philistines were in Bethlehem,
David said, That I had a drink of the water of Bethlehem from the well by the gate;
and Abishai and two others broke through the Philistines' garrison,
and drew water out of the well and brought it to David;
but he would not drink of it and poured it out to the Lord,
for he said, Is not this the blood of those who risked their lives to bring it?
— We have heard that Rizpah who was Saul's woman,
is under the tree on which the Gibeonites have hanged her sons and the five sons of Michal,
that she is there night and day
to drive away the birds of the air and the beasts of the field
that the birds do not rest on the dead by day nor the beasts tear them by night.
— Did not David himself say that the famine in the land was because of Saul and his bloody house,
because he massacred us, broke the covenant we have with Israel?
We want neither Saul's gold nor silver for atonement;
David himself gave us Saul's two sons by Rizpah and the five sons of Michal
to hang up to the Lord in Gibeah.
— We are an embassy from the king of Hamath:
we have heard how you fought the Philistines
and have taken the bridle out of their hands;
how you have put garrisons in Syria and Moab and Edom and they have become your servants and brought you gifts;
and how you have fought the king of the Ammonites
and taken to Jerusalem their shields of gold;
my father, the king of Hamath, sends me to greet you and bless you,
and bring you vessels of gold, of silver, and of brass.
— The Lord took me from following the sheep
to be ruler of Israel,
and now He has given me rest from all my enemies.
Who am I, my God, and what is my house
that You have brought me so far?
I was surrounded
by the sorrows of death,
and the flood of ungodly men
frightened me;
I cried to my God!
He shot out His lightnings;
He took me
and drew me out of the deep waters.
By Him
I have run through a troop,
and jumped over a wall;
He teaches my hands war,
to bend the bow
He has given me my enemies:
I made them as dust before the wind;
I threw them away as dirt in the street.
IX
David and Michal
— God —
Who chose me rather than your father and all his house
to be king of Israel;
but you shall die childless.
— After you have hanged my sons,
from the eldest who was as tall as I
to the youngest who had not yet learned to walk:
this was my payment.
How much wiser was my father than his daughter or his son Jonathan!
— What did you want now with me,
an aging woman who has had five children?
Only the tarnished glory that still is Saul's,
that you should have Saul's daughter for a wife.
Did you expect the girlish body,
the young and cheerful face I had? —
I knew you would not care for me,
that I should never bear a child of yours,
that you had had a hundred women, a thousand women,
and had sent for me,
perhaps because the name of Saul was something still to you and your Jerusalem.
— Now I see when they say
you found Saul in a cave asleep and caught your servant's hand
that would have killed him —
it was no kindness —
you knew Saul's time would come;
if you had killed the Lord's Anointed,
there would have been war between you and Israel until your death.
And when you killed those who killed my brother Ish-bosheth,
you were the righteous man,
but you had all the profit of their wrong.
Joab you have not killed — who killed Abner —
Joab you need, you are afraid of Joab, he is your captain;
but Joab, too, will find you out some day, as I have found you out —
when his grey hairs go bloody to the grave.
— Your scribes will write you down a great king,
and of me — if they say anything at all —
but I belong to that doomed house of Saul
not even Jonathan could save.
I shall not weep before you again;
these tears are the last:
now I have wept them all away.
And I can speak of all my dead
without a tear.
Your scribes will write me down a cold, proud woman,
wandering about the garden of the king,
and you a glorious king, a glorious king.
— His height was six cubits and a span;
his helmet brass,
the weight of his coat-of-mail is five thousand shekels of brass,
he had greaves of brass upon his legs,
and a target of brass upon his shoulders;
the staff of his spear is like a weaver's beam,
the weight of his spearhead is five hundred shekels of iron.
He stood before our camp and shouted,
Am I not a Philistine and you servants of Saul?
Choose a man to fight with me;
if he is able to kill me, we are your servants,
if not, you are ours.
And we stood there, dismayed —
even Jonathan.
Now there had come to the camp a lad from Bethlehem,
whose three eldest brothers had followed Saul to battle:
the lad brought them parched corn, and loaves and cheese for their captain.
And he asked of the soldiers, Who is this Philistine that he should challenge the armies of the living God?
They told him how the king had said that he would enrich the man who killed the Philistine,
and give the man Michal — the king's daughter — for a wife;
and then the soldiers jeered at him and said, Do you think to kill him?
His eldest brother pushed through the soldiers and said,
What are you doing here?
With whom have you left our few sheep in the wilderness?
I know your naughtiness: you have come to see the battle.
The lad answered them all, I will go and fight with this Philistine,
and they reasoned with him: What are you thinking of?
You are only a lad
and he has been a man of war since his youth.
I will go with my staff and sling and the stones in my scrip.
Goliath called out, Am I a dog that you come against me with a stick?
Come on, and I will give your flesh to the birds of heaven and the beasts of the field,
but as he lifted his spear,
the lad took a stone and slung it, and it sank into Goliath's forehead.
At this we rushed upon the Philistines.
Jonathan
has given the lad his own robe, girdle, sword and bow;
now David shall stay among the men of war,
and be Michal's husband.
II
The Feast in Saul's House
— Tell us how Ehud stabbed the king of Moab,
or of Deborah,
of Gideon, Jephthah, or Samson.
Tell us of Jonathan!
Tell us again how the city of Dan was taken.
— The kings came and fought,
they took no spoil;
the river Kishon swept them away.
The stars fought from heaven,
from their courses they fought against Sisera.
Tell of it you that ride on white asses,
that sit on rich carpets,
or walk, far from the noise of archers, by the pools of water.
Sisera's mother is looking from her window.
She cries through the lattice,
Why is his chariot so long in coming?
Her women answer her,
yes, she answers herself,
Have they not found, are they not sharing the spoil?
A woman, two women to every man!
— Micah said to his mother,
The silver taken from you, about which you did utter a curse —
I took it.
She said, Blessed be my son, and gave two hundred pieces of the silver
to the moulder to cast an image of God to stand in Micah's house.
Now there came to the hill country a young man,
a Levite looking for a place,
and Micah said to him, Stay with me, be my priest,
I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of clothes and your food;
the young man was content.
And Micah said, Now I know that God will be good to me,
for I have a Levite as my priest.
The Danites had sent five men to spy out the land and they lodged in Micah's house,
went on and came to a city, Laish,
and saw how the people lived there — quietly, far from other Sidonians.
And their spies told the Danites of Laish.
Six hundred of them set out with weapons of war and on the way passed Micah's house.
The five who had been there went in and took the image and said to its priest,
Be still!
But why not come with us and be our priest?
Is it better for you to be a priest in the house of one man or to a tribe of Israel?
And the Levite went along gladly.
Micah and his neighbors ran after them shouting,
and the Danites said, What is the matter with you?
He answered, You have taken away my God and my priest, and you ask me what is the matter?
A Danite answered him then, Let us hear no more from you; there are angry fellows among us,
and they may fall upon you and sweep you away and the lives of your household.
The Danites went on and came to Laish and killed all who lived there and set it on fire:
there was no one to save it, for it was far from Sidon,
and they had dealings with no one, but had lived — a quiet people — in their valley.
The Danites rebuilt the city and called it Dan.
— Then Abner said, Tell us of Saul,
tell us how he went looking for his father's asses
and met Samuel and was anointed king;
how Saul saved the people of Jabesh-gilead from the Ammonites;
how he fought the Philistines,
not a sword or a spear in the hand of any of us —
did they leave us a smith in all Israel? —
our people had hidden themselves in caves and in thickets and in rocks and in pits,
the Philistines in three companies were pillaging the land,
and not a city was without its garrison of Philistines;
tell us about ourselves, for we are heroes too!
— Now Jonathan, the son of Saul, said to the young man who carried his armour,
Come, let us go over to the Philistines' garrison.
The passes by which Jonathan went
were between crags on one side and crags on the other,
and the Philistines said, Look, the Hebrews are coming out of their holes.
And the men of the garrison called to Jonathan,
Come up to us and we will show you a thing or two;
he climbed up on his hands and feet — and they fell before him!
That first slaughter was of about twenty men
within as it were half a furrow's length in an acre of land;
there was a trembling in the camp, in the field, and among all the people,
the garrison and those going out to pillage trembled.
The watchmen of Saul looked and saw the multitude going this way and that,
and Saul said to his priest, Bring the ark of God;
but while Saul talked to the priest the tumult in the Philistines' camp went on and grew —
and we hurried to the battle!
The Hebrews who had come with the Philistines into their camp from the country about,
they, too, fought with Saul and Jonathan against the Philistines;
and those who had hidden themselves in the hills of Ephraim,
when they heard that the Philistines fled, followed them hard.
— The evil spirit is in the king: he neither sees nor hears.
Let David play;
when David used to play,
the king would wipe his eyes upon his sleeves,
and be himself again.
— When the women came out of the cities,
to meet us from the slaughter of the Philistines,
did you not hear them answer each other,
as they played upon the timbrels,
Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his ten thousands?
They said of David ten thousands
and of me only thousands;
can he have more except the kingdom?
— What has he done? What is his wickedness?
He has done nothing that you should want his life!
— You lie, you rebel! you son of a rebellious woman!
Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own confusion
and to the confusion of your mother's nakedness?
As long as the son of Jesse lives upon the ground,
you will not be established nor your kingdom;
bring him to me at once for he shall die!
— Why should he die? What has he done?
III
Michal
— The grave men who will write
the history of the kings of Israel and of the wars of God,
will not trouble to write of our happiness:
I had never hoped for a husband brave as Jonathan,
and handsomer than my father —
there is none like David among the young men.
— What have I done that your father seeks my life?
— God forbid! It is not so!
— There is only a step between me and death:
as I sat before your father at meat —
in all that I have done have I not served him only?
Where is David?
He is sick.
Then we will bring him in his bed to the king. Let us in!
I cannot. He is sick.
Why have you fooled me and let my enemy escape?
IV
— His brothers and all his father's house have come to David,
and every one in distress and in debt,
every one discontented:
he is their captain;
and he and his band are now in the land of Judah — in the forest of Hareth.
— If he is in the land at all,
I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.
— We heard that David is in the land of Ziph;
and that he was lurking in the wilderness of Maon,
and from there that he has slipped away to the strongholds of ndash-gedi —
on the rocks of the wild goats.
— My lord, he and his band have escaped to the Philistines,
and found favor in the eyes of the king of Gath;
the king has given them a town in which to live.
They raid the Amalekites,
and leave not a man or woman alive to tell on them in Gath;
when the king asks, Where have you made a raid today?
David answers, In the south of Judah,
and so the king believes of him, He has made his people hate him.
— Hear, you Benjaminites,
will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards,
and make you all captains of hundreds and of thousands,
that all of you have conspired against me,
and no one shows me that my son has made a league with the son of Jesse,
and none of you is sorry for me?
— I saw the son of Jesse coming to Ahimelech the priest,
and Ahimelech inquired of the Lord for him
and gave him food and Goliath's sword.
— He came to me and I asked, Why are you alone?
And he answered, The king commanded me, Let no one know anything of the business about which I send you.
Now what have you?
Give me five loaves of bread or what there is.
I had only the hallowed bread;
and he answered, Let me have it,
and is there not a sword or a spear here?
I brought neither:
the king's business required haste.
And I gave him the sword of Goliath whom he had killed,
which had been wrapped in a cloth among the vestments.
Who seemed so faithful among all your servants as David,
the king's son-in-law?
And did I begin to inquire of God for him?
Let not the king impute anything to his servant nor to any of my father's house;
for your servant knew nothing of all this.
— You shall die, you and all your father's house!
Kill him!
Because his hand also is with David
and he helped him when he fled.
Here, you Edomite,
kill the priest!
And take his city,
kill his men and women, their children and sucklings,
their oxen, asses, and sheep!
You!
Paltiel,
you shall marry my daughter Michal,
whom I have given to David,
for you are a good man, a quiet man.
And listen, all of you, and you, Jonathan,
let me hear no more of this David —
except to hear that he is dead.
V
— So the leader of the Philistines said to the king of Gath,
what are these Hebrews doing in the rear of your company,
in an army we have gathered against Saul?
The king of Gath answered, This is David who was Saul's servant:
he has been with me many years and I have found no fault in him.
But the leader of the Philistines said, Make the fellow go back to the place you have given him;
let him not go with us to battle,
that in the battle he should not turn against us;
for with what should he reconcile himself to his master
if not with our heads?
And another Philistine said, Is not this the David of whom the Hebrews sang to one another in their dances,
Saul slew his thousands and David his ten thousands?
Then the king of Gath sent for David and said to him,
Surely you have been upright;
I have found no evil in you since the day you came to me,
but the lords will not have you.
Go in peace, then, not to displease the lords of the Philistines.
And David answered, What have I done?
Have you not promised me, Surely you shall go out with me to battle, you and your men?
What evil have you found in me
that I may not fight the enemies of my lord the king
to show what I can do?
But the king of Gath said, You are good in my sight as an angel of God,
but the princes have said, You shall not go with us to battle;
now then, early in the morning with those of Saul's servants that have come with you,
as soon as you have light, return.
— Now when Saul saw that the Philistines had come by hundreds and by thousands,
and God did not answer him,
neither by prophets nor by dreams,
he disguised himself and came to a woman at ndash-dor
that could bring up the dead, to speak to Samuel;
and said, I was a lad of the smallest of the tribes,
and my family the least of all the tribe of Benjamin
and you met me in the gate of your city,
as I came to ask about my father's asses that had wandered away and were lost,
to ask where they were for a fourth part of a shekel of silver —
and you anointed me king of Israel.
And we spent the night in talk upon your roof;
you showed me all the work before my hand;
though I hid among the wagons when the tribes were called together,
you searched me out and anointed me;
though I followed my oxen, ploughing my fields year after year,
the messengers of Jabesh-gilead came to me.
And all that I did since you know:
how I freed Jabesh-gilead from the Ammonites,
how I fought the Philistines and the Amalekites and ruled our people,
and had no rest, neither by day nor by night.
Now the Philistines come against Israel by hundreds and by thousands —
and Samuel answered, Why have you disquieted me and brought me up from the dead?
Why do you ask me, if God has gone from you and has become your foe?
He has torn the kingdom from your hand and given you to the Philistines;
tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me.
The seer was against him
and all the witches:
Saul and Jonathan are dead
on the field of battle,
on the field of defeat.
Accursed,
nevertheless
they went into battle,
Saul and Jonathan,
and died bravely.
The men ran and fell dead on Mount Gilboa,
and the Philistines followed hard upon Saul and his sons
and killed Jonathan.
The archers overtook Saul.
His head and armour are in the house of their idols,
his body is fastened to the wall of Beth-shan.
An Amalekite who was near the field of battle
to see what he could find
ran to tell David,
and brought him the crown that was on Saul's head,
and the bracelet that was on his arm.
David has taken the spoil that his band has gathered
and is sending it to the elders,
as presents to his friends in the cities,
that he and his may live again in Judah.
— For he saved us from the Ammonites —
let us steal away Saul's body and the bodies of his sons
and bury them here in Jabesh-gilead.
VI
Ish-bosheth and Abner
— Why have you taken my father's concubine?
Do you mean to be king in my stead?
— Who made you king of Israel and Benjamin, if not I?
I am kind to your house not to give you up to the king of Judah.
— Have I not heard how you sent a messenger to David
to make a league with him:
to bring him all Israel,
to say to the elders,
You have looked for David to be your king;
now do it,
for by him God will save Israel?
You have betrayed me, Abner!
But take care, you will meet a sudden death one of these days:
have you forgotten how you killed Joab's brother
when David's men and yours were playing by the pool of Gideon,
when they fought each other and caught each other by the head and sent their swords into each other's sides,
and you struck Joab's brother with the staff of your spear
so that the end of it came out behind his body and he fell down and died?
Do you think Joab has forgotten?
Do you think David's captain will let you become as great in David's court as here?
— Joab knows that I called to the lad to turn away,
to catch one of the young men and take his armour;
that he would not, but turned neither to the right nor left but followed me —
but never fear for me, you unworthy son of Saul,
but for yourself,
that none of your captains
comes into your house as you lie upon your bed
and sticks his knife into the fat of your belly until the dirt comes out,
and cuts off your head to bring it as a gift to David.
— Have you this in mind?
— Not I.
I have no need to steal upon a man asleep or unawares.
But I have come not to quarrel, but with a piece of news:
David sends me word that I should bring him Michal, whom Saul gave him as his wife.
Now send for her that I may bring her to David;
we must humour the king of Judah —
and your father was unjust to take her away and give her to another.
Look at Paltiel,
whom Saul chose for a son-in-law;
look at the tears in his eyes.
What, are you afraid to draw your sword at the Lion of Judah?
Well, well,
we shall let you run beside Michal,
weeping all the way,
as we bring her to David.
But do not go a step beyond the border of Israel,
or David's sword may take a swift dislike to you
at the thought of the five sons she has borne you.
VII
— While I was away on this foray to bring spoil for my lord the king,
you feasted Abner and sent him away in peace!
And now I am told the king mourns for Abner!
— And you sent messengers in my name after Abner;
and as he came back to Hebron, met him in the gate,
and took him aside as if to speak with him — and stabbed him!
The guilt fall upon you!
May your house never be without a leper or one that leans on a staff or one dead by the sword or one that lacks bread!
Put on sackcloth and mourn for Abner;
a prince and a great man has fallen today in Israel!
— You know Abner brought Michal to deceive you,
to find out all you do — .
— In the heat of the day we came to Ish-bosheth's house —
we were captains of his —
Ish-bosheth lay on his bed,
we came into the house as if to take wheat,
and cut off his head!
— Here is the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of your enemy, Saul;
God has avenged my lord the king today!
— When one told me among the Philistines, Saul is dead,
thinking to have brought me good news,
I killed him:
that was his reward for his news.
How much more should I do
to wicked men who have murdered a righteous man
in his own house and upon his bed?
Cut off their hands and feet,
and hang them up beside the pool in the garden;
bury Ish-bosheth's head in Abner's grave.
— Now, my lord, the elders of the tribes of Israel will come to you and say —
for they have neither captain left nor king —
they will say, We are your bone and flesh;
when Saul was king,
you led us out to battle and brought us back;
be our king.
See, my lord, God was with me when I struck Abner;
the enemies of my lord the king and all that rise against you
be as he is!
— And yet the Michal that I knew
with all the airs that suited Saul's daughter
and pleased me, newly from the sheepfold.
The sweat and fingerprints of another man upon her.
VIII
— I should like to see the mighty men David has:
I hear that they can use both the right hand and the left in slinging stones
and in shooting arrows from the bow;
that their faces are like the faces of lions,
and they are swift as the roes upon the mountains.
— I should like to see Joab and Joab's brother, Abishai —
I have heard that when the Philistines were in Bethlehem,
David said, That I had a drink of the water of Bethlehem from the well by the gate;
and Abishai and two others broke through the Philistines' garrison,
and drew water out of the well and brought it to David;
but he would not drink of it and poured it out to the Lord,
for he said, Is not this the blood of those who risked their lives to bring it?
— We have heard that Rizpah who was Saul's woman,
is under the tree on which the Gibeonites have hanged her sons and the five sons of Michal,
that she is there night and day
to drive away the birds of the air and the beasts of the field
that the birds do not rest on the dead by day nor the beasts tear them by night.
— Did not David himself say that the famine in the land was because of Saul and his bloody house,
because he massacred us, broke the covenant we have with Israel?
We want neither Saul's gold nor silver for atonement;
David himself gave us Saul's two sons by Rizpah and the five sons of Michal
to hang up to the Lord in Gibeah.
— We are an embassy from the king of Hamath:
we have heard how you fought the Philistines
and have taken the bridle out of their hands;
how you have put garrisons in Syria and Moab and Edom and they have become your servants and brought you gifts;
and how you have fought the king of the Ammonites
and taken to Jerusalem their shields of gold;
my father, the king of Hamath, sends me to greet you and bless you,
and bring you vessels of gold, of silver, and of brass.
— The Lord took me from following the sheep
to be ruler of Israel,
and now He has given me rest from all my enemies.
Who am I, my God, and what is my house
that You have brought me so far?
I was surrounded
by the sorrows of death,
and the flood of ungodly men
frightened me;
I cried to my God!
He shot out His lightnings;
He took me
and drew me out of the deep waters.
By Him
I have run through a troop,
and jumped over a wall;
He teaches my hands war,
to bend the bow
He has given me my enemies:
I made them as dust before the wind;
I threw them away as dirt in the street.
IX
David and Michal
— God —
Who chose me rather than your father and all his house
to be king of Israel;
but you shall die childless.
— After you have hanged my sons,
from the eldest who was as tall as I
to the youngest who had not yet learned to walk:
this was my payment.
How much wiser was my father than his daughter or his son Jonathan!
— What did you want now with me,
an aging woman who has had five children?
Only the tarnished glory that still is Saul's,
that you should have Saul's daughter for a wife.
Did you expect the girlish body,
the young and cheerful face I had? —
I knew you would not care for me,
that I should never bear a child of yours,
that you had had a hundred women, a thousand women,
and had sent for me,
perhaps because the name of Saul was something still to you and your Jerusalem.
— Now I see when they say
you found Saul in a cave asleep and caught your servant's hand
that would have killed him —
it was no kindness —
you knew Saul's time would come;
if you had killed the Lord's Anointed,
there would have been war between you and Israel until your death.
And when you killed those who killed my brother Ish-bosheth,
you were the righteous man,
but you had all the profit of their wrong.
Joab you have not killed — who killed Abner —
Joab you need, you are afraid of Joab, he is your captain;
but Joab, too, will find you out some day, as I have found you out —
when his grey hairs go bloody to the grave.
— Your scribes will write you down a great king,
and of me — if they say anything at all —
but I belong to that doomed house of Saul
not even Jonathan could save.
I shall not weep before you again;
these tears are the last:
now I have wept them all away.
And I can speak of all my dead
without a tear.
Your scribes will write me down a cold, proud woman,
wandering about the garden of the king,
and you a glorious king, a glorious king.
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