are with him there shall not be left so much

as one.

13 Moreover, if he be gotten into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there be not one small stone found there.

14 And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the LORD had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.

15 Then said Hushai unto Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, Thus and thus did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel; and thus and thus have I counselled.

16 Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, Lodge not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but speedily pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that are with him.

17 Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz stayed by En-rogel; for they might not be seen to come into the city: and a wench went and told them; and they went and told king David.

18 Nevertheless a lad saw them, and told Absalom but they went both of them away quickly, and came to a man's house in Bahurim, which had a well in his court; whiwell in his court; whither they went down.

19 And the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth, and spread ground corn thereon; and the thing was not known.

20 And when Absalom's servants came to the woman to the house, they said, Where is Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman said unto them, They be gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jeru

salem.

8 Heb, commanded.

21 And it came to pass, after they were departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David, and said unto David, Arise, and pass quickly over the water: for thus hath Ahithophel counselled against you.

22 Then David arose, and all the people that were with him, and they passed over Jordan: by the morning light there lacked not one of them that was not gone over Jordan.

23 ¶ And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not 'followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his houshold in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.

24 Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom passed over Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.

25 And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man's son, whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah Joab's mother.

26 So Israel and Absalom pitched in the land of Gilead.

27 And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,

28 Brought beds, and "basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse,

29 And honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.

9 Heb. done. 10 Heb. gave charge concerning his house.

11 Or, cups.

Verse 8. "As a bear robbed of her whelps."-Harmer apologizes for the coarseness of this comparison. We are unable to perceive any coarseness that needs apology. David and his valiant men are not compared to bears; but their state of mind, when chafed by wrong, and contending for honour and existence, is compared to that most awful example of animal rage, and of unswerving vengeance and unconquerable energy, which the bereaved bear exhibits, even to the death. On this point we may remark again, under Prov. xvii. 12, where a similar comparison occurs-limiting our attention at present to the animal itself. We have stated in the note to 1 Sam. xvii., that the bear is now very rare in Palestine, but is not altogether unknown, and is still found in Syria and other parts of Western Asia. We also expressed an opinion that, with some variations, the brown bear is that which is generally found in those regions. The variations are chiefly in the colour, quantity, and character of the fur; and this, though a common effect of climate. goes a great way in giving a very different appearance to animals with the same essential specific distinctions and characteristics. We believe that the only figure extant of a Syrian bear is that given by Hemprich and Ehrenberg, after which the figure in our wood-cut has been drawn. The specimen (a female) was killed by the travellers near the village of Bischerre in Syria. They have determined it to be a distinct species, to which they have given the name of the Syrian bear (Ursus Syriacus). It is perhaps a variety of the brown bear (Ursus Arctos) produced by climate; and the figured specimen of Ehrenberg bears much resemblance to an Albino specimen of the brown bear preserved in the British Museum. This is remarked by the author of the article "BEAR" in the Penny Cyclopædia,' to which we are indebted for the following particulars concerning the animal in question.

The Syrian bear is sometimes of a fulvous brown colour, and sometimes of a fulvous white, variegated with fulvous spots; the fur is woolly beneath, with long, straight, or but slightly-curled hair externally; and between the shoulders there is a stiff mane of erected hairs, about four inches long. "The individual killed was neither young nor old, and measured, from the nose to the tip of the tail, about four feet two, the tail being six inches. They saw her den (where there was much bear's dung), formed by great fragments of calcareous rock that appeared to have been casually thrown together. They ate of the flesh, which they found sapid, but the liver was sweet and nauseous. The gall appears to be held in great esteem; the skins are sold; and so is the dung, under the name of bar-ed-dub; the latter being used as a medicine for diseases of the eye in Syria and Egypt." There was nothing found in its stomach; but it is described as frequently preying on animals, though it, for the most part, feeds on vegetables. It will be observed that Bischerre (Bishirrai of Burckhardt) is a few miles east of Kanobin in Mount Lebanon. It is there said to inhabit the higher parts of the mountain, near the region of snow, in summer; but in winter wanders to the neighbourhood of the villages lower down the mountain. As the Scripture indicates no characteristic of the bear which it mentions, except such as are common to every species, we cannot otherwise conclude than that this bear is that which is intended, and concerning which the information furnished by Ehrenberg. however scanty, is by far the most satisfactory that has hitherto been given.

4

SYRIAN BEAR.

10. "He also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion."-In verse 8, the bear robbed of her whelps is taken as the symbol of the rage and boldness of excitement and despair; here the lion is made the symbol of native, or permanently inherent, boldness and courage. In the Bible the native courage of the lion is continually mentioned both as a fact, and as supplying an illustrative figure. Nor is this peculiar to the Bible; for the daring and indomitable warrior is compared to the lion in the poetry of Greece and Rome, and of every nation, ancient or modern, in which the lion exists, or is known by tradition or report. Even we have the same comparison. Men of high courage are called "lion-like;" they "fight like lions;" and it was thought a proud distinction for the fiercest of our kings to be called the lion-hearted." We think that this concurrence of testimony, sacred and profane, ancient and modern, far outweighs whatever evidence may be deduced from the stray anecdotes by which it has, in modern times, been occasionally sought to shake the claim of this magnificent beast to those high distinctions which, from the earliest records of time, it has enjoyed. We believe that Leo Africanus was the first to assail the character of the lion. He says that the lions in some parts of Africa were so timid, that they would scamper away at the cry of children; and this was particularly the case in the neighbourhood of Agla, whence it became a proverb in Fez, to call blustering cowards lions of Agla." Elsewhere he observes, that the most timorous persons might drive the lions away with a small stick. Mr. Barrow and others have also more recently impugned the claim of the lion to the more noble qualities which have been assigned to him; and numerous cases are related in which he has quailed before the eye of a courageous man, and

made an undignified retreat in circumstances of danger. We have ourselves, on the banks of the Tigris, seen the most outrageous insults, by voice and missiles, insufficient to provoke lions from their secure dens, the entrances to which were strewed with the spoils of the animals they had devoured. Nevertheless, we do not see why individual instances, or local modifications of character, should be made to affect the general estimation in which an animal is held. There is perhaps the same individuality of character among wild beasts, as we allow to dogs and other domestic animals; nor probably, are they, in the different climates they inhabit, without, so to speak, national peculiarities, analogous to those which we observe among the dispersed tribes of mankind. It requires therefore the concurrence of a large number of independent observations to establish the general character of any animal, or to authorise us to modify a character which has long been established. We may therefore allow that there are cowardly lions, and that even the lions of particular districts are timid creatures, without being required to admit that the lion is not generally as bold and courageous as the sacred writers and the general consent of mankind affirm him to be.

13. "Bring ropes to the city" &c.-The exaggerated, hyperbolical style which Hushai, here and elsewhere, judges to be calculated to win upon Absalom, shows that he perfectly understood the sort of man with whom he had to deal. In the present instance it is possible that there was some exaggerated reference to a mode actually adopted in the siege of towns. Hooks or cranes were thrown upon the walls or battlements, with which, by means of attached ropes, they were sometimes pulled down piecemeal into the surrounding trench or ditch. The language of Hushai is of stronger import than this, and seems intended to convey the idea, that with such vast power as Absalom could command, the mere manual force of his troops would sweep the strongest town from the face of the earth. It is in fact a true Oriental style of speaking of or to a prince. Forbes, in his 'Oriental Memoirs,' has a passage which, as he states, illustrates this. In describing the manner in which the chopdars or heralds proclaimed the titles of Futty Sihng, the Mahratta chief, as they marched before him, when he visited the British camp at Brodera, he says:-"One of the most insignificant-looking men I ever saw, then became the destroyer of nations, the leveller of mountains, the exhauster of the ocean. After commanding every inferior mortal to make way for this exalted prince, the heralds called aloud to the animal creation, Retire, ye serpents; fly, ye locusts; approach not, guanas, lizards, and reptiles, while your lord and master condescends to set his foot upon the earth. Arrogant as this language may appear, it is less so than that of Oriental pageantry in general. The sacred writings afford many examples of such hyperbole. None more so than Hushai's speech to Absalom." Indeed, all Hushai's speeches to him furnish a choice collection of such Orientalisms. Absalom is to collect an army "as the sand that is by the sea for multitude;" which army is to light upon David and the faithful few "as the dew falleth on the ground ;" and is to pull towns with ropes into rivers until there be not

one small stone found there."

19. "Had a well in his court; whither they went down."-This may have been either a proper well, at that time dry.or a cistern for the preservation of rain-water, which happened at this time to be exhausted. The water in common cisterns is often out before the end of summer, and wells also sometimes become dry in the same season. Some wells remain Ary permanently, and cisterns can of course be kept dry when once exhausted. Hence there are in the East great numbers of dry cisterns and wells, which furnish occasional retreats to such as require concealment. Hushai himself had, in verse 7, suggested the probability that David was hid in some pit-perhaps referring to some such a place of refuge as that which the sons of the priests now found. Instances are often heard in the East of persons who have remained concealed a considerable length of time, under similar circumstances. They are also occasionally used as prisons. Scott Waring mentions a descendant of Nadir Shah whom he found acting as head groom to Mihdee Ulee Khan, on a saiary of about forty shillings a month. "At two different periods he was confined in a well for two, and then three years, and was indebted for his escape each time to the disturbances which distracted Khorassan." Empty cisterns (sometimes however with mire at the bottom) were used for the same purpose by the Jews, as we see by Jer. xxxviii. 6; Zech. ix. 11.

29. "Chcese of kine.”—This is mentioned, we conclude, to distinguish the cheese from that made from the milk of goats and sheep. These, with cows, furnish most of the cheese used in the East. Camels' milk is not used for the purpose, or very rarely. In different times and countries, the milk of a great variety of animals has been used for making cheese. In the middle ages, we read of cheese from deers' milk. The Arabs near Mount Carmel readdy believed D'Arvieux, when, to prevent them from seizing the cheeses which formed part of the cargo of a vessel wrecked on the coast, he told them that they were made with sows' milk. We conclude, that when cheese is mentioned without such distinction as in the present text, we are to understand that it is made from the milk of goats, and perhaps that of sheep.

1 Heb, set their heart on us.

under the hand of Ittai the Gittite. And the king said unto the people, I will surely go forth with you myself also.

3 But the people answered, Thou shal not go forth: for if we flee away, they wil not 'care for us; neither if half of us die will they care for us: but now thou art wort ten thousand of us: therefore now it is bet ter that thou succour us out of the city.

4 And the king said unto them, Wha seemeth you best I will do. And the king stood by the gate side, and all the peopl came out by hundreds and by thousands. 5 And the king commanded Joab an Abishai and Ittai, saying, Deal gently fo

my sake with the young man, even with Absalom. And all the people heard when the king gave all the captains charge concerning Absalom.

6 ¶ So the people went out into the field against Israel and the battle was in the Wood of Ephraim;

7 Where the people of Israel were slain before the servants of David, and there was there a great slaughter that day of twenty thousand men.

8 For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the Sword devoured.

9 And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that ras under him went away.

10 And a certain man saw it, and told Joab, and said, Behold, I saw Absalom hanged in an oak.

II And Joab said unto the man that told him, And, behold, thou sawest him, and why didst thou not smite him there to the ground? and I would have given thee ten shekels of silver, and a girdle.

12 And the man said unto Joab, Though I should receive a thousand shekels of silver in mine hand, yet would I not put forth mine hand against the king's son: for in our hearing the king charged thee and Abishai and Ittai, saying, 'Beware that none touch the Toung man Absalom.

13 Otherwise I should have wrought alshood against mine own life: for there s no matter hid from the king, and thou hyself wouldest have set thyself against

ne.

14 Then said Joab, I may not tarry thus with thee. And he took three darts in his and, and thrust them through the heart of Absalom, while he was yet alive in the 'midst f the oak.

15 And ten young men that bare Joab's rmour compassed about and smote Absaom, and slew him.

16 And Joab blew the trumpet, and the eople returned from pursuing after Israel: or Joab held back the people.

great heap of stones upon him: and all Israel fled every one to his tent.

18 Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in 'the king's dale: for he said, I have no son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name: and it is called unto this day, Absalom's place.

19 Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, Let me now run, and bear the king tidings, how that the LORD hath "avenged him of his enemies.

20 And Joab said unto him, Thou shalt not bear tidings this day, but thou shalt "bear tidings another day but this day thou shalt bear no tidings, because the king's son is dead.

:

21 Then said Joab to Cushi, Go tell the king what thou hast seen. And Cushi bowed himself unto Joab, and ran.

22 Then said Ahimaaz the son of Zadok yet again to Joab, But howsoever, let me, I pray thee, also run after Cushi. And Joab said, Wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing that thou hast no tidings "ready?

23 But howsoever, said he, let me run. And he said unto him, Run. Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain, and overran

Cushi.

24 And David sat between the two gates: and the watchman went up to the roof over the gate unto the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold a man running alone.

25 And the watchman cried, and told the king. And the king said, If he be alone, there is tidings in his mouth. And he came apace, and drew near.

26 And the watchman saw another man running: and the watchman called unto the porter, and said, Behold another man running alone. And the king said, He also bringeth tidings.

27 And the watchman said, "Me thinketh the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok. And the king said, He is a good man, and cometh with good tidings.

28 And Ahimaaz called, and said unto the king, 15 16 All is well. And he fell down to the earth upon his face before the king, and said, Blessed be the LORD thy God, which hath "delivered up the men that lifted up their hand against my lord the king. leb multiplied to devour. 5 Heb. weigh upon mine hand. Heb. Beware whosoever ye be of, &c. 7 Heb. before thee. 8 Heb. heart. Gen. 14. 17. 10 Heb. judged him from the hand, &c. 11 Heb. be a man of tidings. 12 Heb. be what may. 13 Or, convenient? 14 Heb, I see the running. 15 Or, Peace be to theo. 16 IIeb, Peace. 17 Heb. shut up.

17 And they took Absalom, and cast him b a great pit in the wood, and laid a very

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29 And the king said, "Is the young man Absalom safe? And Ahimaaz answered, When Joab sent the king's servant, and me thy servant, I saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was.

30 And the king said unto him, Turn aside, and stand here. And he turned aside, and stood still.

31 And, behold, Cushi came; and Cushi said, "Tidings, my lord the king: for the LORD hath avenged thee this day of all them that rose up against thee.

18 Heb. Is there peace?

32 And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, The enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is.

33 And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!

19 Heb. Tidings is brought.

Verse 6. "In the wood of Ephraim.”—This wood was, of course, not in the tribe of Ephraim, but on the east of the Jordan, near Mahanaim. It was so called, as some suppose, from the slaughter of the Ephraimites in this neighbourhood by Jephthah. Others think that the Ephraimites had pasture grounds there: for it is a remarkable fact, which, if true, will well explain why the name of Ephraim occurs in places remote from the inheritance of the tribe, that the Hebrews believe that Joshua gave to them the privilege of feeding their cattle in any wood within the lot of any of the other tribes: and the present wood being conveniently situated near the Jordan, they used to drive their cattle across the river for pasture.

8. "The wood devoured more people.... than the sword."-Josephus explains this by observing that more of Absalom's army were slain in the pursuit through the forests and valleys than on the field of battle. This not unfrequently happens.

....

17. "Cast him into a great pit. and laid a very great heap of stones upon him."―The common opinion is, that this was intended as a dishonourable grave, for one who wanted nothing but the power to have been a parricide. Under this view, Divine Providence rendered his death dishonourable, by hanging in a tree; and man made his funeral dishonourable, by subjecting him after death to the punishment of stoning-awarded in the law to the rebellious son (Deut. xxi. 21). And this opinion is alleged to be supported by the fact, that the people are continually throwing stones toward the monument of Absalom, in the valley of Jehoshaphat, to mark their detestation of his crime. We feel obliged to dissent from this view. We will not decidedly contend that the heap of stones was intended to honour the memory of the king's beloved, though guilty, son; but we are certainly persuaded that no such stigma was originally intended by this mode of interment. Where do we read that a heap of stones over a grave was accounted disgraceful? So far from being so, perhaps the most ancient and prevalent method of preserving the memory of the mighty dead was to erect over their graves a heap of earth or of stones: and how shall we say, that what was deemed honourable under ordinary circumstances, was disgraceful in the case of Absalom? It is even possible that those wonders of the world, the Egyptian pyramids-if they be indeed sepulchral monuments-were, as such, founded on the idea which the primitive heap of loose unwrought stones suggested. A pyramid is little other than such a heap, in such a regular and stable form as an ingenious and laborious people might naturally think of giving to it. A pyramid is, in this view, a tumulus; and the rude tumulus of heaped earth or stone being perhaps deemed unseemly by so refined a people, they determined to retain the essential character of this kind of monument, but at the same time to render it a gigantic effort of human art and human labour. Princes, and chiefs slain in battle, seem to have been most generally distinguished by such heaped monuments. Absalom was both. Nevertheless, it must be confessed, that in instances which occurred some centuries earlier, a heap of stones does, on the first view, appear to have been considered a posthumous degradation (See Josh. vii. 26; viii. 29); but on this too much stress must not be laid, as we know that the same posthumous treatment of the body became, in other instances, honourable, which had originally been accounted degrading-burning, for instance.

But we are disinclined, in any of the cases mentioned, to consider the heap of stones as a peculiarly sepulchral monument, whether for honour or degradation. If we consider the declared sense in which heaps of stone are thrown up, we find that they were "heaps of witness," or memorials of various transactions- of covenants or events-and not individual monuments, or only so as connected with events. In short, they were general memorials; and if we find them thrown over the bodies of deceased persons, it was not, we conceive, solely for the purpose of a personal monument, but as a commemoration of the event of which the death of such a person formed the crisis or termination. Thus the heap of Achan commemorated the termination, by his punishment, of the public evil which his sin had occasioned; that over the king of Ai commemorated the downful of that city; and that in the text was a memorial of the rebellion which terminated in Absalom's death.

As to the fact that the natives throw stones at the tomb of Absalom; the act has many meanings in the East, and we are not sure that travellers have not given it, in many instances, the explanation which they judged probable, rather than that which the natives had in view. We will mention a few instances of this practice. It is customary to make a heap of stones where a traveller has been murdered, and every one who passes throws one to increase the heap, from some superstitious feeling which has not been well defined. Some think it a mark of detestation of the deed; this it may be in part, but we believe the leading idea is-to cover deep the innocent blood shed there, that its cry from the earth for vengeance may not be heard. It may also be a contribution of respect to the memory of the deceased. The idea is not confined to the blood of man. Burckhardt notices that the man who sacrificed a goat at the tomb of Aaron, at Mount Hor, covered the blood with a heap of stones. The throwing of stones is also an act of respect. The Mohammedan pilgrims to Sinai visit what they believe to be the print of Mohammed's foot (or his camel's foot, according to some) impressed on the rock; and, to testify their respect, they bring a stone with them, which they lay there, and which has occasioned a very large heap to accumulate. The Arabs also thus distinguish the stone which they suppose to be that which was twice stricken by Moses. This mode of doing honour may be very widely traced. The Egyptian and Grecian Hermes was thought to be honoured by stones being thrown at the feet of his statue. Purchas, after Acosta, remarks the same custom among the Peruvians: "And such as their gods be, such are the things which they offre unto them in their worship. They have used, as they goe by the way, to cast in the crosse wayes, in the hils, and tops of mountaines,