THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME IV BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS

B >> BY LOUIS GINZBERG >> THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME IV BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS

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When David heard Nathan's message for him, he began to tremble,
and he said: "Ah, verily, God hath found me unworthy to erect His
sanctuary." But God replied with these words: "Nay, the blood
shed by thee I consider as sacrificial blood, but I do not care to
have thee build the Temple, because then it would be eternal and
indestructible." "But that would be excellent," said David.
Whereupon the reply was vouchsafed him: "I foresee that Israel
will commit sins. I shall wreak My wrath upon the Temple, and
Israel will be saved from annihilation. However, thy good
intentions shall receive their due reward. The Temple, though it be
built by Solomon, shall be called thine." (89)

David's thinking and planning were wholly given to what is good
and noble. He is one of the few pious men over whom the evil
inclination had no power. (90) By nature he was not disposed to
commit such evil-doing as his relation to Bath-sheba involved.
God Himself brought him to his crime, that He might say to other
sinners: "Go to David and learn how to repent." (91) Nor, indeed,
may David be charged with gross murder and adultery. There were
extenuating circumstances. In those days it was customary for
warriors to give their wives bills of divorce, which were to have
validity only if the soldier husbands did not return at the end of the
campaign. Uriah having fallen in battle, Bath-sheba was a
regularly divorced woman. As for the death of her husband, it
cannot be laid entirely at David's door, for Uriah had incurred the
death penalty by his refusal to take his ease in his own house,
according to the king's bidding. (92) Moreover, from the first,
Bath-sheba had been destined by God for David, but by way of
punishment for having lightly promised Uriah the Hittite an
Israelitish woman to wife, in return for his aid in unfastening the
armor of the prostrate Goliath, the king had to undergo bitter trials
before he won her. (93)

Furthermore, the Bath-sheba episode was a punishment for David's
excessive self-consciousness. He had fairly besought God to lead
him into temptation, that he might give proof of his constancy. It
came about thus: He once complained to God: "O Lord of the
world, why do people say God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of
Jacob, and why not God of David?" The answer came: "Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob were tried by me, but thou hast not yet been
proved." David entreated: "Then examine me, O Lord, and try me."
And God said: "I shall prove thee, and I shall even grant thee what
I did not grant the Patriarchs. I shall tell thee beforehand that thou
wilt fall into temptation through a woman."

Once Satan appeared to him in the shape of a bird. David threw a
dart at him. Instead of striking Satan, it glanced off and broke a
wicker screen which hid Bath-sheba combing her hair. The sight of
her aroused passion in the king. (94) David realized his
transgression, and for twenty-two years he was a penitent. Daily he
wept a whole hour and ate his "bread with ashes." (95) But he had
to undergo still heavier penance. For a half-year he suffered with
leprosy, and even the Sanhedrin, which usually was in close
personal attendance upon him, had to leave him. He lived not only
in physical, but also in spiritual isolation, for the Shekinah
departed from him during that time. (96)

ABSALOM'S REBELLION

Of all the punishments, however, inflicted upon David, none was
so severe as the rebellion of his own son.

Absalom was of such gigantic proportions that a man who was
himself of extraordinary size, standing in the eye-socket of his
skull, sank in down to his nose. (97) As for his marvellous hair, the
account of it in the Bible does not convey a notion of its
abundance. Absalom had taken the vow of a Nazarite. As his vow
was for life, and because the growth of his hair was particularly
heavy, the law permitted him to clip it slightly every week. (98) It
was of this small quantity that the weight amounted to two
hundred shekels.

Absalom arranged for his audacious rebellion with great cunning.
He secured a letter from his royal father empowering him to select
two elders for his suite in every town he visited. With this
document he travelled through the whole of Palestine. In each
town he went to the two most distinguished men, and invited them
to accompany him, at the same time showing them what his father
had written, and assuring them that they had been chosen by him
because he had a particular affection for them. So he succeeded in
gathering the presidents of two hundred courts about him. This
having been accomplished, he arranged a large banquet, at which
he seated one of his emissaries between every two of his guests,
for the purpose of winning them over to his cause. The plan did
not succeed wholly, for, though the elders of the towns stood by
Absalom, in their hearts they hoped for David's victory. (99)

The knowledge that a part of Absalom's following sided with him
in secret,--that, though he was pursued by his son, his friends
remained true to him,--somewhat consoled David in his distress.
He thought that in these circumstances, if the worst came to the
worst, Absalom would at least feel pity for him. (100) At first,
however, the despair of David knew no bounds. He was on the
point of worshipping an idol, when his friend Hushai the Archite
approached him, saying: "The people will wonder that such a king
should serve idols." David replied: "Should a king such as I am be
killed by his own son? It is better for me to serve idols than that
God should be held responsible for my misfortune, and His Name
thus be desecrated." Hushai reproached him: "Why didst thou
marry a captive?" "There is no wrong in that," replied David, "it is
permitted according to the law." Thereupon Hushai: "But thou
didst disregard the connection between the passage permitting it
and the one that follows almost immediately after it in the
Scriptures, dealing with the disobedient and rebellious son, the
natural issue of such a marriage." (101)

Hushai was not the only faithful friend and adherent David had.
Some came to his rescue unexpectedly, as, for instance, Shobi, the
son of Nahash, who is identical with the Ammonite king Hanun,
the enemy of David at first, and later his ally. (102) Barzillai,
another one of his friends in need, also surprised him by his
loyalty, for on the whole his moral attitude was not the highest
conceivable. (103)

Absalom's end was beset with terrors. When he was caught in the
branches of the oak-tree, he was about to sever his hair with a
sword stroke, but suddenly he saw hell yawning beneath him, and
he preferred to hang in the tree to throwing himself into the abyss
alive. (104) Absalom's crime was, indeed, of a nature to deserve
the supreme torture, for which reason he is one of the few Jews
who have no portion in the world to come. (105) His abode is in
hell, where he is charged with the control of ten heathen nations in
the second division. Whenever the avenging angels sit in judgment
on the nations, they desire to visit punishment on Absalom, too,
but each time a heavenly voice is heard to call out: "Do not
chastise him, do not burn him. He is an Israelite, the son of My
servant David." Whereupon Absalom is set upon his throne, and is
accorded the treatment due to a king. (106) That the extreme
penalties of hell were thus averted from him, was on account of
David's eightfold repetition of his son's name in his lament over
him. Besides, David's intercession had the effect of re-attaching
Absalom's severed head to his body. (107)

At his death Absalom was childless, for all his children, his three
sons and his daughter, died before him, as a punishment for his
having set fire to a field of grain belonging to Joab. (108)

DAVID'S ATONEMENT

All these sufferings did not suffice to atone for David's sin. God
once said to him: "How much longer shall this sin be hidden in thy
hand and remain unatoned? On thy account the priestly city of Nob
was destroyed, (109) on thy account Doeg the Edomite was cast
out of the communion of the pious, and on thy account Saul and
his three sons were slain. What dost thou desire now--that thy
house should perish, or that thou thyself shouldst be delivered into
the hands of thine enemies?" David chose the latter doom.

It happened one day when he was hunting, Satan, in the guise of a
deer, enticed him further and further, into the very territory of the
Philistines, where he was recognized by Ishbi the giant, the brother
of Goliath, his adversary. Desirous of avenging his brother, he
seized David, and cast him into a winepress, where the king would
have suffered a torturous end, if by a miracle the earth beneath him
had not begun to sink, and so saved him from instantaneous death.
His plight, however, remained desperate, and it required a second
miracle to rescue him.

In that hour Abishai, the cousin of David, was preparing for the
advent of the Sabbath, for the king's misfortune happened on
Friday as the Sabbath was about to come in. When Abishai poured
out water to wash himself, he suddenly caught sight of drops of
blood in it. Then he was startled by a dove that came to him
plucking out her plumes, and moaning and wailing. Abishai
exclaimed: "The dove is the symbol of the people of Israel. It
cannot be but that David, the king of Israel, is in distress." Not
finding the king at home, he was confirmed in his fears, and he
determined to go on a search for David on the swiftest animal at
his command, the king's own saddle-beast. But first he had to
obtain the permission of the sages to mount the animal ridden by
the king, for the law forbids a subject to avail himself of things set
aside for the personal use of a king. Only the impending danger
could justify the exception made in this case.

Scarcely had Abishai mounted the king's animal, when he found
himself in the land of the Philistines, for the earth had contracted
miraculously. He met Orpah, the mother of the four giant sons. She
was about to kill him, but he anticipated the blow and slew her.
Ishbi, seeing that he now had two opponents, stuck his lance into
the ground, and hurled David up in the air, in the expectation that
when he fell he would be transfixed by the lance. At that moment
Abishai appeared, and by pronouncing the Name of God he kept
David suspended 'twixt heaven and earth.

Abishai questioned David how such evil plight had overtaken him,
and David told him of his conversation with God, and how he
himself had chosen to fall into the hands of the enemy, rather than
permit the ruin of his house. Abishai replied: "Reverse thy prayer,
plead for thyself, and not for thy descendants. Let thy children sell
wax, and do thou not afflict thyself about their destiny." The two
men joined their prayers, and pleaded with God to avert David's
threatening doom. Abishai again uttered the Name of God, and
David dropped to earth uninjured. Now both of them ran away
swiftly, pursued by Ishbi. When the giant heard of his mother's
death, his strength forsook him, and he was slain by David and
Abishai. (110)

VISITATIONS

Among the sorrows of David are the visitations that came upon
Palestine during his reign, and he felt them all the more as he had
incurred them through his own fault. There was first the famine,
which was so desolating that it is counted among the ten severest
that are to happen from the time of Adam to the time of the
Messiah. (111) During the first year that it prevailed, David had an
investigation set on foot to discover whether idolatry was practiced
in the land, and was keeping back the rain. His suspicion proved
groundless. The second year he looked into the moral conditions of
his realm, for lewdness can bring about the same punishment as
idolatry. Again he was proved wrong. The third year, he turned his
attention to the administration of charity. Perhaps the people had
incurred guilt in this respect, for abuses in this department also
were visited with the punishment of famine. (112) Again his
search was fruitless, and he turned to God to inquire of Him the
cause of the public distress. God's reply was: "Was not Saul a king
anointed with holy oil, did he not abolish idolatry, is he not the
companion of Samuel in Paradise? Yet, while you all dwell in the
land of Israel, he is 'outside of the land.'" David, accompanied by
the scholars and the nobles of his kingdom, at once repaired to
Jabesh-gilead, disinterred the remains of Saul and Jonathan, and in
solemn procession bore them through the whole land of Israel to
the inheritance of the tribe of Benjamin. There they were buried.
The tributes of affection paid by the people of Israel to its dead
king aroused the compassion of God, and the famine came to an
end. (113)

The sin against Saul was now absolved, but there still remained
Saul's own guilt in his dealings with the Gibeonites, who charged
him with having killed seven of their number. David asked God
why He had punished His people on account of proselytes. God's
answer to him was: "If thou dost not bring near them that are far
off, thou wilt remove them that are near by." To satisfy their
vengeful feelings, the Gibeonites demanded the life of seven
members of Saul's family. David sought to mollify them,
representing to them that they would derive no benefit from the
death of their victims, and offering them silver and gold instead.
But though David treated with each one of them individually, the
Gibeonites were relentless. When he realized their hardness of
heart, he cried out: "Three qualities God gave unto Israel; they are
compassionate, chaste, and gracious in the service of their
fellow-men. The first of these qualities the Gibeonites do not
possess, and therefore they must be excluded from communion
with Israel." (114)

The seven descendants of Saul to be surrendered to the Gibeonites
were determined by letting all his posterity pass by the Ark of the
law. Those who were arrested before it were the designated
victims. Mephibosheth would have been one of the unfortunates,
had he not been permitted to pass by unchecked in answer to the
prayer of David, (115) to whom he was dear, not only as the son of
his friend Jonathan, but also as the teacher who instructed him in
the Torah. (116)

The cruel fate that befell the descendants of Saul had a wholesome
effect. All the heathen who saw and heard exclaimed: "There is no
God like unto the God of Israel, there is no nation like unto the
nation of Israel; the wrong inflicted upon wretched proselytes has
been expiated by the sons of kings." So great was the enthusiasm
among the heathen over this manifestation of the Jewish sense of
justice that one hundred and fifty thousand of them were converted
to Judaism. (117)

As for David, his wrong in connection with the famine lay in his
not having applied his private wealth to the amelioration of the
people's suffering. When David returned victorious from the
combat with Goliath, the women of Israel gave him their gold and
silver ornaments. He put them aside for use in building the
Temple, and even during the three years' famine this fund was not
touched. God said: "Thou didst refrain from rescuing human
beings from death, in order to save thy money for the Temple.
Verily, the Temple shall not be built by thee, but by Solomon."
(118)

David is still more blameworthy on account of the census which he
took of the Israelites in defiance of the law in the Pentateuch.
When he was charged by the king with the task of numbering the
people, Joab used every effort to turn him away from his intention.
But in vain. Incensed, David said: "Either thou art king and I am
the general, or I am king and thou art the general." Joab had no
choice but to obey. He selected the tribe of Gad as the first to be
counted, because he thought that the Gadites, independent and
self-willed, would hinder the execution of the royal order, and
David would be forced to give up his plan of taking a census. The
Gadites disappointed the expectations of Joab, and he betook
himself to the tribe of Dan, hoping that if God's punishment
descended, it would strike the idolatrous Danites. Disliking his
mission as he did, Joab spent nine months in executing it, though
he might have dispatched it in a much shorter time. Nor did he
carry out the king's orders to the letter. He himself warned the
people of the census. If he saw the father of a family of five sons,
he would bid him conceal a few of them. Following the example
set by Moses, he omitted the Levites from the enumeration,
likewise the tribe of Benjamin, because he entertained particularly
grave apprehensions in behalf of this greatly decimated tribe. (119)
In the end, David was not informed of the actual number obtained.
Joab made two lists, intending to give the king a partial list if he
found that he had no suspicion of the ruse. (120)

The prophet Gad came to David and gave him the choice of
famine, oppression by enemies, or the plague, as the penalty for
the heavy crime of popular census-taking. David was in the
position of a sick man who is asked whether he prefers to be
buried next to his father or next to his mother. The king
considered: "If I choose the calamities of war, the people will say,
'He cares little, he has his warriors to look to.' If I choose famine,
they will say, 'He cares little, he has his riches to look to.' I shall
choose the plague, whose scourge strikes all alike." (121)
Although the plague raged but a very short time, (122) it claimed a
large number of victims. The most serious loss was the death of
Abishai, whose piety and learning made him the counterpoise of a
host of seventy-five thousand. (123)

David raised his eyes on high, and he saw the sins of Israel heaped
up from earth to heaven. In the same moment an angel descended,
and slew his four sons, the prophet Gad, and the elders who
accompanied him. David's terror at this sight, which was but
increased when the angel wiped his dripping sword on the king's
garments, settled in his limbs, and from that day on they never
ceased to tremble. (124)

THE DEATH OF DAVID

David once besought God to tell him when he would die. His
petition was not granted, for God has ordained that no man shall
foreknow his end. One thing, however, was revealed to David, that
his death would occur at the age of seventy on the Sabbath day.
David desired that he might be permitted to die on Friday. This
wish, too, was denied him, because God said that He delighted
more in one day passed by David in the study of the Torah, than in
a thousand holocausts offered by Solomon in the Temple. Then
David petitioned that life might be vouchsafed him until Sunday;
this, too, was refused, because God said it would be an
infringement of the rights of Solomon, for one reign may not
overlap by a hairbreadth the time assigned to another. Thereafter
David spent every Sabbath exclusively in the study of the Torah, in
order to secure himself against the Angel of Death, who has no
power to slay a man while he is occupied with the fulfillment of
God's commandments. The Angel of Death had to resort to
cunning to gain possession of David. (125) One Sabbath day,
which happened to be also the Pentecost holiday, (126) the king
was absorbed in study, when he heard a sound in the garden. He
rose and descended the stairway leading from his palace to the
garden, to discover the cause of the noise. No sooner had he set
foot on the steps than they tumbled in, and David was killed. The
Angel of Death had caused the noise in order to utilize the moment
when David should interrupt his study. The king's corpse could
not be moved on the Sabbath, which was painful to those with
him, as it was lying exposed to the rays of the sun. So Solomon
summoned several eagles, and they stood guard over the body,
shading it with their outstretched pinions. (127)

DAVID IN PARADISE

The death of David did not mean the end of his glory and
grandeur. It merely caused a change of scene. In the heavenly
realm as on earth David ranks among the first. The crown upon his
head outshines all others, and whenever he moves out of Paradise
to present himself before God, suns, stars, angels, seraphim, and
other holy beings run to meet him. In the heavenly court-room a
throne of fire of gigantic dimensions is erected for him directly
opposite to the throne of God. Seated on this throne and
surrounded by the kings of the house of David and other Israelitish
kings, he intones wondrously beautiful psalms. At the end he
always cites the verse: "The Lord reigns forever and ever," to
which the archangel Metatron and those with him reply: "Holy,
holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts!" This is the signal for the holy
Hayyot and heaven and earth to join in with praise. Finally the
kings of the house of David sing the verse: "And the Lord shall be
king over all; in that day shall the Lord be one, and His name one."
(128)

The greatest distinction to be accorded David is reserved for the
judgment day, when God will prepare a great banquet in Paradise
for all the righteous. At David's petition, God Himself will be
present at the banquet, and will sit on His throne, opposite to
which David's throne will be placed. At the end of the banquet,
God will pass the wine cup over which grace is said, to Abraham,
with the words: "Pronounce the blessing over the wine, thou who
art the father of the pious of the world." Abraham will reply: "I am
not worthy to pronounce the blessing, for I am the father also of
the Ishmaelites, who kindle God's wrath." God will then turn to
Isaac: "Say the blessing, for thou wert bound upon the altar as a
sacrifice." "I am not worthy," he will reply, "for the children of my
son Esau destroyed the Temple." Then to Jacob: "Do thou speak
the blessing, thou whose children were blameless." Jacob also will
decline the honor on the ground that he was married to two sisters
at the same time, which later was strictly prohibited by the Torah.
God will then turn to Moses: "Say the blessing, for thou didst
receive the law and didst fulfil its precepts." Moses will answer: "I
am not worthy to do it, seeing that I was not found worthy to enter
the Holy Land." God will next offer the honor to Joshua, who both
led Israel into the Holy Land, and fulfilled the commandments of
the law. He, too, will refuse to pronounce the blessing, because he
was not found worthy to bring forth a son. Finally God will turn to
David with the words: "Take the cup and say the blessing, thou the
sweetest singer in Israel and Israel's king. And David will reply:
'Yes, I will pronounce the blessing, for I am worthy of the honor.'"
(129) Then God will take the Torah and read various passages
from it, and David will recite a psalm in which both the pious in
Paradise and the wicked in hell will join with a loud Amen.
Thereupon God will send his angels to lead the wicked from hell
to Paradise. (130)

THE FAMILY OF DAVID

David had six wives, including Michal, the daughter of Saul, who
is called by the pet name Eglah, "Calfkin," in the list given in the
Bible narrative. (131) Michal was of entrancing beauty, (132) and
at the same time the model of a loving wife. Not only did she save
David out of the hands of her father, but also, when Saul, as her
father and her king, commanded her to marry another man, she
acquiesced only apparently. She entered into a mock marriage in
order not to arouse the anger of Saul, who had annulled her union
with David on grounds which he thought legal. Michal was good
as well as beautiful; she showed such extraordinary kindness to the
orphan children of her sister Merab that the Bible speaks of the
five sons of Michal "whom she bore to Adriel." Adriel, however,
was her brother-in-law and not her husband, but she had raised his
children, treating them as though they were her own. (133) Michal
was no less a model of piety. Although the law exempted her, as a
woman, from the duty, still she executed the commandment of
using phylacteries. (134) In spite of all these virtues, she was
severely punished by God for her scorn of David, whom she
reproached with lack of dignity, when he had in mind only to do
honor to God. Long she remained childless, and at last, when she
was blessed with a child, she lost her own life in giving birth to it.
(135)

But the most important among the wives of David was Abigail, in
whom beauty, wisdom, and prophetical gifts were joined. With
Sarah, Rahab, and Esther, she forms the quartet of the most
beautiful women in history. She was so bewitching that passion
was aroused in men by the mere thought of her. (136) Her
cleverness showed itself during her first meeting with David,
when, though anxious about the life of her husband Nabal, she
still, with the utmost tranquility, put a ritual question to him in his
rage. He refused to answer it, because, he said, it was a question to
be investigated by day, not by night. Thereupon Abigail
interposed, that sentence of death likewise may be passed upon a
man only during the day. Even if David's judgment were right, the
law required him to wait until daybreak to execute it upon Nabal.
David's objection, that a rebel like Nabal had no claim upon due
process of law, she overruled with the words: "Saul is still alive,
and thou art not yet acknowledged king by the world."

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