in his wings, the glory of his people Ifrael, and a light to lighten the Gentiles, till all the ends of the earth have feen the falvation of our God.

CHAP. IX.

The Philistines and neighbouring Nations invade Ifrael, and are defeated in two Battles.

WHILST civil war fubfifted in Ifrael,

between the partizans of David and Ifbbofheth, the Philistines contented themselves with being calm fpectators of their mutual ravages and conflicts, which naturally tended to their mutual deftruction: but when all these were ended, in their unanimous election of David to the throne, and that election fucceeded by all the happy beginnings and omens of a profperous reign, a powerful and inveterate enemy expelled from the heart of his kingdom, an impregnable fortrefs taken, and a royal city built and fortified, and crowned with a magnificent palace, and the alliance of a powerful neighbour prince offered unfought; they then began to be alarmed, and thought this the fit feason to crufh the growing power of this prince, before it rose to a greater height.

BUT it was natural for them to find upon inquiry, that they had now, perhaps, taken this A a 4 refo

refolution too late: David had now the most numerous and best disciplined militia upon the face of the earth; and fuch foldiers, fighting their own and their country's battles, under the command of fuch a captain, were fufficient to ftrike terror into the boldest of his enemies. The Jews had hitherto been too hard for the several nations of Canaan, that opposed them; they had exterminated fome, and brought others under tribute; no fingle nation could stand against them under the conduct of such a leader

as David. The Philistines had too well experienced his prowefs, to imagine themselves fingly a match for him; and nothing but an union of all the neighbour nations, could effectually opprefs or destroy him.

THAT there was an univerfal confederacy against Ifrael, entered into by all the furrounding nations in the days of David, is undeniably evident from the lxxxiiid Psalm, if that was either written or fet to mufic by Asaph, as the title implies it to have been; and it is certain, it can fuit no other time but this, throughout the whole series of the old Teftament history *. And that fuch a league as is referred

I am fenfible, that most commentators refer the lxxxiiid Pfalm to the days of Jehoshaphat; but for what reason, or what colour of reason, I own, I can neither learn nor imagine. The enemies then affembled against Jehoshaphat are exprefly faid to be the Ammonites, Moabites, and Seirites; and to have come from this hde Syria, and paffed the falt fea, quite out of the courfe of the Philifline invafions: befides that he himself, in his prayer to Go D, offered up in the greateft terror of his enemies, numbers up only the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir; and we cannot doubt

referred, to in that pfalm, was entered into at this time, appears with fufficient evidence from the cxviiith Pfalm, where David (whofe pfalm this is confeffed to be) exprefly declares, that all nations compassed him about; and it appears from the fame pfalm, that this compaffing was before he had deftroyed them: and therefore it was in the beginning of his reign.

THE fame thing alfo appears from chap. vii. of 2 Samuel, ver. 1. where it is exprefly faid, that the Lord had then given him reft round about from all his enemies.

ADD to all this, the teftimony of Jofephus upon the point; who affirms *, that the Phenicians, Syrians, and several other nations, joined with the Philistines against Ifrael at this time. And the reason and nature of the thing vouches for his veracity; as it is most credible, that the attempt was made when it was most prudent and practicable; which was in the beginning of his reign, before his dominion was yet throughly

doubt but that both his fears, and the occafion, called upon him to recount the whole number of his enemies: and when they deftroyed one another, there is no mention of any other that was destroyed but those three nations. Add to all this, that the fear of the LORD is said to have fallen upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were round about Judah, (and confequently upon the Arabians and Philiftines contiguous to it) so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat. And, to crown all, these two nations are exprefly faid to have paid him tribute. Give me leave to add, that it is ftrangely improbable (not to say abfurd) to imagine, that Jebobaphat fhould in this Pfalm (lxxxiii.) pray to Go D for fuch a deliverance as he had wrought for his people by the hands of Barak, Deborah, and Gideon, and forget, or omit, all thofe which he had wrought by the hands of David his father.

* Antiq. 1. 7. c. 4.

cftablished,

cstablished, and the wounds of a long civil war well healed. And that the exprefs purpose of this league was to exterminate the whole race of Ifrael, is evident from the lxxxiiid Pfalm, ver. 3, 4. They have imagined craftily against thy people, and taken counsel against thy fecret ones; they have faid, Come, and let us root them out, that they be no more a people, and that the name of Ifrael may be no more in remembrance. Accordingly they affembled their whole force, and fpread themselves abroad in the valley of Rephaim (a large and rich valley to the weft of Jerufalem); no doubt to intimidate the Ifraelites with their numbers, as it was natural to hope they might. Armies fo numerous were truly dreadful, efpecially when they were fo well united, when David could fay of them, as he does in the 'fore-cited pfalm, They have confulted together with one heart, they are confederate against thee; the tabernacles of Edom, and the Ifhmaelites, of Moab, and the Hagarenes, Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek, the Philiftines, with the inhabitants of Tyre *.

THIS

There are two objections to this account: the first is, That the Philistines only are mentioned in the Bible to have warred against David at this time; and the second, That the Tyrians are in this pfalm mentioned among David's enemies, tho' Hiram their king was then at peace with him.

To the firft, it is obvious to anfwer, That confederate armies are frequently denominated from the principal hoft: as in the late war we called that the French army, which oppofed the confederates, though confiderable bodies of Bavarians, Irish, Swiss, &c. helped to compofe it. And I humbly apprehend, that the reafon

why

THIS is plainly spoken in the spirit of a man who had all these several nations, their different encampments, tents, and enfigns, then before him, all which (the Syrians only excepted) were long fince familiar and well known to David: nor was it hard for him to diftinguish them with great exactness, confidering that their encampment was in a valley of confiderable extent, contiguous to Jerufalem, from whofe furrounding eminences he might fee them to great advantage which, as I before observed, seems to have been partly their purpose, upon the fame principle of conscious fecurity, that made Scipio carry. Hannibal's fpies through every part of his camp, to intimidate his enemy with the true account of his number, order, and discipline*.

UPON the enemy's approach to Jerufalem, David quitted it, and retired to the cave of Adullamt; with whose faftneffes, and various advan

why the Philiftines are not first mentioned in this Pfalm, is, that the author recounts the feveral armies, in the order in which he beheld them ranged in their several encampments.

To the fecond I answer, that the king of Tyre might be in friendship with David, and the princes not: and it is well known, that the very merchants of Tyre were princes (as well they might, when the wealth of the world was in their hands); as the Philiftine king had lately been in frienship with David, and the lords not; or as the emperor might now be in friendship with England, and fome of the electors not.

The fame thing is reported of Xerxes.

+ Here he had all the advantages of a fortress without expofeing either himself, or any of his cities, to the danger and inconveniencies of a fiege.

It is objected, That David was not long after this in a condi tion to invade the Philiftines: and then a queftion is asked, Is a man always in readiness to invade, and not to defend ?

I answer,