He promised her that she would be richly rewarded if she made it possible for him to speak to the soul of one who had been dead for several years.
The witch asked him what he meant.
Saul answered that he wanted to speak to his old master Samuel.
Then out of the ground there arose the dark figure of an old man,wrapped in a long black cloak.
It was the ghost of Samuel.
Once more Saul,the living King,and Samuel,the dead Judge,were face to face and there Samuel told Saul of the terrible fate which awaited him at the hands of the Philistines.
When Samuel ceased to speak,Saul had fainted.
But he had a brave soul,this old frontiersman.
Early the next day,he attacked the Philistines.
Before noon his army had been annihilated.His sons,Jonathan and Malchishua and Abinadab,had all been killed and Saul himself lay dead with his own sword through his heart.He had remembered the fate of Samson and he had killed himself rather than fall into the hands of his enemies.
His body was found by the Philistines.
They cut off the head and sent it throughout the land that it might carry the glad tidings of victory to all the people.
They took the shield and the spear and the armour and placed these in the heathenish temple of Ashtaroth among the other trophies of their endless wars.
They then fastened the headless corpse of Saul and those of the three royal princes to the walls of Beth-shean.
When the people of Jabesh-gilead heard of this,they decided to rescue the remains of the man who had once saved their city from siege.In the dark of night they stole into Bethshean and they took the bones of their royal master and his three sons and they buried them secretly underneath the sacred tamarisk tree of their own village.
The news of this terrible national tragedy reached David in a curious way.One of the Philistines,hoping to gain favour in the eyes of the new Jewish King,rode at great speed to the village of Ziklag and informed David that Saul was dead.
He also explained how it happened that Saul had been slain together with so many of his sons.
“I came upon them suddenly near the mountain called Gilboa,”he lied,“and I killed them all because I knew that they were your enemies.”
He did not receive the reward which he had expected.
David ordered that he be hanged and when this had been done,he went into deep mourning for his former master and for his dearly beloved friend,Jonathan.
As usual,he found sure relief in music and in poetry and he composed that noble song which begins:“The beauty of Israel is slain.How are the mighty fallen,”which you will find in the first Chapter of the second Book of Samuel.
Then he fasted for a long time and when he had expressed his sense of mourning in such a way that all the people should know the deep sincerity of his grief,he made ready to claim his kingdom.
He asked Jehovah whither he should go at first and Jehovah told him to travel to Mount Hebron.
There all the men of the tribe of Judah met their new sovereign and David was officially anointed as the successor of Saul.
For almost forty years David was king of the greater part of the Jewish lands.
He was a man of great executive ability.Otherwise he would have failed in a task which was well-nigh hopeless.
In the first place,there were the Philistines.Centuries of war had not enabled the Jews to shake off this constant menace.Time and again we read that the power of the Philistines had been broken for good.But a few years later,there would be fresh trouble,and until the end of their national independence,the Jews were forced to pay an annual tribute to the much-hated neighbours,whose superior skill in war made them invincible whenever the armies met in pitched battle.
In the second place (and this was almost worse)David had to contend with interminable quarrels among the Jewish tribes themselves.The different clans were as jealous of each other as only the people of small villages can he.
They wanted a King.
But just as soon as they had a King they began to resent his power.
And even David,with his tremendous prestige,was not strong enough to overcome prejudice and assert himself when he was called upon to punish a popular soldier who had broken the law.
For example,when Joab,his own nephew,who held a high position in the army,murdered Abner,the faithful servant of Saul,David did not dare to execute Joab.He gave Abner a magnificent funeral,but that was all.
Joab was never brought to trial and David was to regret the day that he had spared his life.
Very slowly and only by using all his intelligence and all the strength of his indomitable will,he made himself the absolute master of the land.
A short time later,when the servants of one of Saul's remaining sons killed their master,David was ready for them.He hanged the murderers and announced that a similar fate awaited all those who were going to take the law into their own hands.
This at last put the fear of Jehovah into the hearts of the Jews,and then David took a further step which was to be of great benefit to the new kingdom.
He moved the capital of the country to the city of Jerusalem,which was conveniently situated upon the highroads from Africa to Mesopotamia.
There he built himself a palace.
When that was done,he began to talk of plans for a Temple which was to replace the Tabernacle.
Ever since that memorable day when the driverless cows had brought the Ark back from the land of the Philistines,the Holy Shrine had stood in the house of Abinadab in the village of Kirjath-jearim.It was time that it be given a suitable resting place in the new capital.The Tabernacle had been good enough for wanderers in the desert,but a powerful state like that of the Jews could afford a real Temple and the people felt that the building of such an edifice had become a national duty.
As a preliminary,it was decided to bring the Ark to Jerusalem.
David,therefore,with an entire army-corps,went east to get the Ark.The priests loaded it upon a cart and one of the sons of Abinadab,by the name of Uzzah,took hold of the reins.