down the walls, probably with engines construct

ed 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 ?"

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 unmolested if they would only deliver up the offender to him.

The woman in reply told Joab that the head of Sheba should be thrown to him over the wall, and she had sufficient influence with those in authority to have her promise immediately fulfilled. Joab also kept his engagement. He withdrew his forces, and disbanded the army, the soldiers

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returning to their respective homes, and himself to Jerusalem; while he continued to hold the post of chief military commander under the king, which he had usurped when he so treacherously took the life of Amasa. For it would seem that David, in the critical circumstances in which he was placed, did not think it safe to treat Joab as strict justice required, so powerful was his influence, especially over the whole body of the soldiers in the various tribes.

At this time Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and Pelethites; Adoram was over the tribute; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder; Sheba was scribe; Zadok and Abiathar were the priests; and Ira the Jairite was a chief ruler.

Thus David was again securely established in his government, and as it would seem too in the hearts of his people. Though chastising him in the severest manner for his sins, the Lord had not forgotten to be gracious. That almighty arm in which he trusted had sustained him in his late conflicts, and enabled him to gain a complete triumph over those who had rebelled against him. We have reason to believe that the deepest emotions of gratitude were mingled in his breast with those of a sincere penitence, and that while advancing in years this illustrious monarch was also ripening for heaven.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

A GRIEVOUS FAMINE.

SEVEN SONS OF SAUL ARE

PUT TO DEATH. DAVID SUBDUES HIS ENEMIES.

DAVID had soon another trial to endure, in which the whole nation suffered with him. There was a famine that continued for three successive years. Its severity and length seemed to indicate the divine displeasure against those upon whom it was sent, and David was led to inquire of the Lord the reason of it.

"It is for Saul and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites," was the reply.

This people were a remnant of the Amorites, a aame sometimes used to denote the Canaanites in general. They had persuaded Joshua and the Israelites, it will be recollected, to enter into a league with them, confirmed by an oath, that their lives and property should be secure. They were condemned, however, to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for all the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord, in the service of the tabernacle. It is supposed that they had renounced idolatry; and they were living among the Israelites, a quiet, inoffensive people, faithfully discharging the servile duties which had been imposed upon them.

Saul it seems, on some occasion of which there

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is no particular account, put many of them to death-his own family, probably several of his sons, assisting him in this work of cruelty and blood. He did this to ingratiate himself with the people, and under the pretext of great zeal for their interests. It was a gross violation of the public faith, and a murder of the most aggravated kind; and being sanctioned, or at any rate not disapproved by the nation at large, it subjected them to the judgments of God, which, for some wise reason, were not inflicted till this time.

David was aware of all this, and was led to conclude from the answer which he received from the Lord with regard to the cause of the famine, as well as from the demands of justice itself, that retribution should be made to the Gibeonites, and that the perpetrators of the bloody deed who were still living ought to suffer for their crime.

He thought it best, however, and it is not improbable that he received divine direction to that effect, to inquire of the Gibeonites what they thought should be done, so that the guilt of the offenders might be expiated. "What shall I do for you?" said he, "and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord ?" For he would not undervalue the good will and prayers even of this poor and degraded people.

Their answer was, "We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill ány man in Israel." Private

revenge was not what they sought, but some measures in the way of public justice, which should let the Israelites see that a repetition of such violent wrongs could not take place with impunity.

On David still referring the whole matter to the Gibeonites, and assuring them that he would do whatever they might require, they replied, "The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the Lord"-to satisfy the claims of his justice "in Gibeah of Saul, whom the Lord did choose," that is, to be king. They selected this undoubtedly as the place of execution, because it was where Saul resided, and the punishment to be inflicted would thus be rendered the more severe and striking.

David complied with their demand. He delivered up to them seven of the sons of Saul, who had been concerned, as we have every reason to believe, in the murder of the Gibeonites, and the putting of whom to death would not affect at all the continuance of Saul's name among his descendants. He thus preserved inviolate his promise to Saul that he would not cut off his seed after him, nor destroy his name out of his father's house. On this account, he was particularly careful to spare Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, from whom, in the male line, sprung