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2. But David had God
going along with him whithersoever he went, and accordingly he greatly
prospered in his undertakings, and it was visible that he had mighty success,
insomuch that Saul's daughter, who was still a virgin, fell in love with him;
and her affection so far prevailed over her, that it could not be concealed,
and her father became acquainted with it. Now Saul heard this gladly, as
intending to make use of it for a snare against David, and he hoped that it
would prove the cause of destruction and of hazard to him; so he told those
that informed him of his daughter's affection, that he would willingly give
David the virgin in marriage, and said,
"I engage myself to
marry my daughter to him if he will bring me six hundred heads of my enemies
(17) supposing that when a reward so
ample was proposed to him, and when he should aim to get him great glory, by
undertaking a thing so dangerous and incredible, he would immediately set about
it, and so perish by the Philistines; and my designs about him will succeed
finely to my mind, for I shall be freed from him, and get him slain, not by
myself, but by another man."
So he gave order to his
servants to try how David would relish this proposal of marrying the damsel.
Accordingly, they began to speak thus to him: That king Saul loved him, as well
as did all the people, and that he was desirous of his affinity by the marriage
of this damsel. To which he gave this answer: -
"Seemeth it to you a
light thing to be made the king's son-in-law? It does not seem so to me,
especially when I am one of a family that is low, and without any glory or
honor."
Now when Saul was informed by
his servants what answer David had made, he said, -
"Tell him that I do
not want any money nor dowry from him, which would be rather to set my daughter
to sale than to give her in marriage; but I desire only such a son-in-law as
hath in him fortitude, and all other kinds of virtue,"
of which he saw David was
possessed, and that his desire was to receive of him, on account of his
marrying his daughter, neither gold nor silver, nor that he should bring such
wealth out of his father's house, but only some revenge on the Philistines, and
indeed six hundred of their heads, than which a more desirable or a more
glorious present could not be brought him, and that he had much rather obtain
this, than any of the accustomed dowries for his daughter, viz. that she should
be married to a man of that character, and to one who had a testimony as having
conquered his enemies.
3. When these words of
Saul were brought to David, he was pleased with them, and supposed that Saul
was really desirous of this affinity with him; so that without bearing to
deliberate any longer, or casting about in his mind whether what was proposed
was possible, or was difficult or not, he and his companions immediately set
upon the enemy, and went about doing what was proposed as the condition of the
marriage. Accordingly, because it was God who made all things easy and possible
to David, he slew many [of the Philistines], and cut off the heads of six
hundred of them, and came to the king, and by showing him these heads of the
Philistines, required that he might have his daughter in marriage. Accordingly,
Saul having no way of getting off his engagements, as thinking it a base thing
either to seem a liar when he promised him this marriage, or to appear to have
acted treacherously by him, in putting him upon what was in a manner
impossible, in order to have him slain, he gave him his daughter in marriage:
her name was Michal.
Footnotes
(17) Josephus says thrice in this chapter, and twice
afterwards, Ch. 11. Sect. 2, and
B. VII. Ch. 1. Sect. 4, i.e. five times in all,
that Saul required not a bare hundred of the foreskins of the Philistines, but
six hundred of their heads. The Septuagint have 100 foreskins, but the Syriac
and Arabic 200. Now that these were not foreskins, with our other copies, but
heads, with Josephus's copy, seems somewhat probable, from 1 Samuel 29:4, where
all copies say that it was with the heads of such Philistines that David might
reconcile himself to his master, Saul.
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