loyal to Saul's line in the person of his son Ishbaal.1 Though himself incompetent, the ability of his father's old general, Abner, and the loyalty of the people made it possible for Ishbaal to maintain himself in guerilla warfare with David's uncle and general, Joab. Joab was a ruthless man, and when at length Abner, incensed at Ishbaal, sought terms with David, Joab, gaining opportunity through guile, struck him down. The assigned reason was blood vengeance for the death of Joab's brother, but jealous fear lest Abner should become David's commander may have added venom to the blow. It was a deed fraught with grave danger for David's ambitious plans of uniting the northern tribes with Judah. By custom that had come down from the days of the desert life, Joab was justified, and David could not punish if he would. Joab was, too, a general whose services David could not spare, and he continued in a dominant position throughout David's long reign, though at times the king strove to rid himself of the brutal warrior. David had occasion to regret Abner's untimely death and to disavow the deed; we have no reason to suppose that he had any personal affection for Saul's general, who for years had been the chief obstacle to his advancement over all Israel. So far as David's brief lament for Abner goes, it shows no very great emotion, unless toward the slayer, and herein it accords well with the circumstances. The inappropriateness of Abner's death seems the dominant sentiment; 2 to meet death thus was to the Hebrew mind, with its belief in the reward of character by long and prosperous life, a mark of divine displeasure or an incomprehensible experience. As die the base, must Abner die? 1 Ishbaal (man of Baal), the original form of the name of Saul's son, was changed by later generations by substituting bosheth (shame) for Baal. The same is true of the name of Jonathan's son Meribbaal. Evidently in the days of Saul names compounded of Baal gave no offence in Israel. The ostraca discovered by the Harvard expedition at Samaria indicate that "Baal" continued to be used in the same way at least as late as Ahab's time. 2 The thought cannot be fully translated. The word translated as base, usually fool, hardly has an English equivalent. While it means senseless, this to the Hebrew way of thinking is more moral than intellectual blindness. Nor thy feet in fetters placed. As one falls before the wicked, fellest thou.1 In our first English poetry, the dirge for the fallen hero is more prevalent than the victory ode. An interesting example for comparison with David's great elegy is the old Gaelic lament on the death of Oscar, beginning : "Say, Bard of the Feinn of Erin, How fared the fight, Fergus, my son, "The fight fared not well, son of Cumhaill, For Oscar the fearless is slain. At an early date in Israel, it became customary to compose oracles in verse. In the form that these have come down to us, it is clear that they are prophecies ex eventu; it was a popular literary device to put into the mouth of some ancient hero a poetic blessing or curse in which events already historical were pictured as foreshadowed by him. Thus we have in Genesis 49 the socalled Blessing of Jacob, the subsequent situation, character, and fate of the tribes of Israel pictured as predictively declared to the twelve sons, just before the death of Jacob. In its present form, the poem is to be ascribed to the time of the early monarchy, and it represents the history as then known. This oracle is important 1 2 Samuel 3 33. 2 Henry Morley, English Writers, Vol. I, p. 194 f. as an ancient historical monument, but it is not very attractive as a poem. One of its most interesting literary features is its play upon words, of which we have seen examples in early poetry; there seems no very good reason, for example, why Dan should be singled out as judging his people, except that the Hebrew word for judging resembles the name Dan in sound. The Balaam oracles have far more of freedom and charm. As they appear in Numbers 23 7-10, 18-24, and 24 3-9, 15-17, we have approximately the form which they had assumed in the early days of the monarchy. The poems as given in chapter 24 suggest the frenzy characteristic of early prophets in contrast to the later prophets of Israel. A vivid picture of the customs of the prophets of Baal is given in 1 Kings 18 26-29, the description of the Carmel scene where, in their frenzied zeal, they had leaped upon the altar, gashed their flesh, and cried aloud to their god. The condition in which Balaam is pictured as receiving his vision when fallen down is not out of accord with the wild free note of the oracles.1 The poems do not naturally fall into any strophic form, as in the case of David's lament, nor do they exhibit any such well-arranged series of dramatic pictures as the Deborah song. The figures are constantly changing in response to the intensity of feeling; all is spontaneous and at the farthest remove from artificiality or rigidity. The poems of chapter 23 partake less of the wild, free spirit of the desert and show more of the influence of religious ideas which are becoming traditional and stereotyped. This is in harmony with the fact that chapter 23 1-24 comes from a document which is somewhat later and more developed in its theological ideas than that from which 24 1-19 was taken by the compiler of the narrative.2 In chapter 24, we probably have the form in which the oracles were preserved in Judah, and in 23, their Ephraimite, or northern Israelitish form. Before concluding our survey of the poetry of the United Kingdom, we may note that it was very possibly during this century that the Book of the Wars of Jehovah, to which allusion was made in the preceding chapter, was compiled. In the years of 1 Interesting comparisons with the habits of modern Dervishes are often suggested. 2 For discussion of the two documents, see below, Chapters V and VII. conquest and struggle for the possession of the land, Jehovah was chiefly the Lord of Hosts, the great leader of Israel's armies. When, in later centuries, Israel had learned to view her God in other and higher aspects, her warlike cousins, the Assyrians, still thought of their god Ashur mainly as the giver of victory in wars of conquest; the phrase "my god Ashur giving me the victory" recurs with monotonous uniformity in the records of the Assyrian kings. The other book of early poems, to which allusion is made in Hebrew literature, certainly was not completed before David's time, since it contained his great elegy — "behold it is written in the book of Jashar." The name Jashar seems to be used as a synonym for Israel2; and this too was evidently a book of national songs. Our tantalizing glimpses of these early collections of songs lift the veil a little from the real Israel in lusty youth. When one compares these national song books that lie back of the Bible with the great national song book that has been preserved (Psalms), the distance that Israel travelled between the days of the Judges or early monarchy and the latest pre-Christian centuries becomes palpable. Even within individual Psalms the sharpest contrasts between the spirit of early Israel and the post-exilic age may be felt. In 24, for example, verses 7-10 may very well come from David's time, celebrating the entrance of the ark into Jerusalem; these lines by themselves give only the warlike God of Deborah. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; And be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors: And the King of glory will come in. Who is the King of glory? Jehovah strong and mighty, Jehovah mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; Yea, lift them up, ye everlasting doors: 12 Samuel 1 18. 2 "The book of Jashar" would be translated literally "the book of the Upright," as in the margin of the R. V. A familiar example of the diminutive form of the name is found in the song of Deuteronomy 15, "Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked." And the King of glory will come in. Who is this King of glory? Jehovah of hosts, He is the King of glory. The first six verses of this Psalm offer a conception of God attained through the insight of Israel's prophets five hundred years after David's time. Only less marked is the contrast between the ancient poetic bit in Psalm 60 6-10 and the remainder of the poem. The ancient portion is an oracle assigning the east and west Jordan territory to Israel and promising victory over the Philistines, with Edom and Moab reduced to the position of slaves. Yahweh spake in His sanctuary: "I will exult, I will divide Shechem; And the Valley of Succoth will I mete out. Moab is My washpot; Unto Edom will I cast My sandal; Over Philistia will I shout in victory." O that one would conduct me to the entrenched city? O that one would lead me unto Edom? Wilt not Thou (Yahweh) ?1 The later portions which envelop this utterance of confident youth breathe the sense of Jehovah's rejection, so characteristic of the Babylonian exile and the generations following. A comparison of modern hymns as they appear in successive collections will show that they are modified from time to time, in a surprising number of cases. The hymns of ancient Israel evidently suffered successive editings and combinations before they assumed their final form in the late, post-exilic book of Psalms. If we are to find genuine songs of the days of the United Kingdom in the book, it can only be through a process of rigid criticism that separates the late elements from the early. We may well believe that the book of Psalms in its ultimate form contains much that 1 Translation of Professor Briggs, Psalms, in Int. Crit. Com., II, p. 58. |