FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS
JEWISH ANTIQUITIES
Book 7

¹This battle was on the same day that David returned to Sikella, victorious over the Amalekites. When he had been two days at Sikella, the man who had killed Saul came to him on the third day after the battle with the Philistines, fleeing to him with his clothes torn and with ashes on his head. ²When he knelt to him and was asked where he came from, he said : "From Israel's battlefield ," and he told him how it had turned out badly, with thousands of the Hebrews killed including king Saul and his sons. ³He said he could tell him the news, as he had been present when the Hebrews were beaten and was with the king when he fled, nor did he deny that he had killed him, who had implored him to do so as he was about to be taken by the enemy. Although Saul had fallen on his sword, his wounds had made him so weak that he could not end his own life. ⁴As proofs that the king was killed, he produced the golden bracelet that had been on the king's arm and his crown, that he had taken from Saul's corpse and brought to him. As there was no longer any reason to disbelieve him in light of these clear signs of Saul's death, David rent his clothing and spent all that day in tears and grief with his companions. ⁵His grief was increased by the thought of Jonathan, Saul's son, who had been his most faithful friend and who had saved his life. He showed his virtue and his goodwill toward Saul, by not only taking his death so hard, though his own life had often been threatened by him, but also by punishing the man who killed him. ⁶David told him that he was his own accuser, in saying he had killed the king, and learning that he was the son of an Amalekite, he ordered him killed. He also wrote some dirges and poems of praise for Saul and Jonathan, which have lasted to my own time.

⁷After honouring the king in this way, he ceased mourning and through the prophet asked God which city of the tribe of Judas he would grant him to dwell in. When he replied, Hebron, he left Sikella and came to Hebron taking his two wives with him and his warriors. ⁸Then all the people of that tribe came to him and ordained him as their king. When he heard that the people of Jabes-Galadene had buried Saul and his sons, he sent to them and praised them and approved their action, promising to reward them for their care of the dead. At the same time he told them that the tribe of Judas had chosen him as their king.

⁹As soon as Abner, son of Ner, who was general of Saul's army and a very active and good man, knew that the king and Jonathan and his two other sons had fallen in the battle, he hurried to the camp and, taking with him Ishbosheth, Saul's remaining son, he crossed over to the land beyond the Jordan and proclaimed him king of the whole people, except the tribe of Judas. ¹⁰He made his royal seat in a place called Mahanaim in our tongue, but in the language of the Greeks, The Camps. Abner hurried from there with an elite corps of soldiers, to fight any of the tribe of Judas who were so inclined, angry that this tribe had set up David as their king. ¹¹But the general of the army, Joab, the son of Suri and of David's sister Zeruias, marched against him at David's command, along with his brothers, Abishai and Asahel, and all David's warriors. Finding him at a fountain in the city of Gabaon, he prepared for battle. ¹²When Abner said he wished to see which of them had the braver soldiers, it was agreed that twelve of each side should fight each other. Those chosen by both generals for this fight came in between the two armies and after hurling their lances they drew their swords and catching each other by the head, they held tight and stabbed each other in the side and groin, until, as if by mutual agreement, all died together. ¹³When these had fallen, the rest of the army came to a fierce battle and Abner's side was defeated, and after their rout Joab did not give up the pursuit, but pressed them hard, urging his soldiers to follow them closely and not to give up killing them. ¹⁴His brothers also fought hard, most especially the younger, Asahel, famous for his speed of foot, in which he not only outran others, but also is reported to have overtaken a horse, when they raced together. He ran hard after Abner, deviating neither to one side or the other. ¹⁵But Abner turned around and skilfully parried his attack. At one point he told him to give up the chase and take the armour of one of his soldiers, and when he could not persuade him, he urged him to stop following him, or he would be forced to kill him and then would not be able to look his brother in the face. When he ignored these words and still continued his pursuit, Abner struck him by a back-stroke with his spear, killing him at once. ¹⁶Those who pursued Abner with him, on coming to the place where Asahel lay, stood around his corpse and left off pursuing the enemy. But Joab and his brother Abishai ran past his body and more enraged at Abner because of his death, pursued him with incredible speed and passion to a place called Ammah, about sunset. ¹⁷He ascended a hill and stood where he could see the tribe of Benjamin and Abner too. Abner shouted that it was not right to make men of the same nation fight each other so bitterly. Also, his brother Asahel had himself to blame, for not heeding his advice to pursue him no farther, which had led to his wounding and death. So Joab agreed to what he said and accepted these words and recalled the soldiers with the sound of the trumpet, and put a stop to any further pursuit. ¹⁸Joab encamped there that night, but Abner marched all night and crossed the river Jordan and came to Ishbosheth, Saul's son, to Mahanaim. Next day, Joab counted the dead and arranged all the funerals. ¹⁹About three hundred and sixty of Abner's soldiers were killed, but nineteen of David's along with Asahel, whose body Joab and Abishai brought to Bethlehem. When they had buried him in the burial vault of their fathers, they came to David in Hebron. ²⁰This was the beginning of the Hebrews' civil war, which lasted a long time, during which the followers of David grew stronger by the dangers they endured while almost every day the servants and subjects of Saul's sons grew weaker.

²¹By this time David had fathered six sons, born of as many mothers. The eldest was by Ahinoam and was named Arenon; the second was Daniel, by his wife Abigail; the name of the third was Absalom, by Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; the fourth he named Adonijah, by his wife Haggith; the fifth was Shephatias, by Abital; the sixth he named Ithream, by Eglah. ²²While this civil war went on and the subjects of the two kings were often engaged in battle, it was Abner, general of the army of Saul's son, who, by his prudence and great influence among the people, got them to stay with Ishbosheth, and for a long time they stayed on his side. ²³Later on, Abner was blamed and faulted for having intercourse with Saul's concubine, Rispah, the daughter of Aiah. When Ishbosheth faulted him for this, he was indignant and angry, that one of whom he had taken such care was unfair to him. He threatened to hand the kingdom to David and so prove that it was not by his own power and wisdom that Ishbosheth ruled the people beyond the Jordan, but by his generalship and fidelity. ²⁴He sent envoys to David in Hebron, asking for his guarantee on oath to treat him as his ally and friend, if he persuaded the people to leave Saul's son and elect him as king of the whole region. ²⁵When, pleased with the message Abner had sent him, David agreed to this, he asked as the first sign of their agreement that his wife Michal be returned to him, for he had purchased her at great risk, with those six hundred heads of the Philistines which he brought to her father, Saul. ²⁶So Abner took Michal from Phaltiel, who was then her husband and sent her to David, with the consent of Ishbosheth, for David had written to him that by right he should get his wife back. Abner also gathered the elders of the people, the officers and officers of thousands and told them ²⁷that he had formerly argued against it, when they were ready to forsake Ishbosheth and join with David, but now they could do so if they wished, for they knew how God had chosen David as king of all the Hebrews through Samuel the prophet, foretelling that he would punish the Philistines and overcome them and bring them down. ²⁸When the elders and officers heard this and saw how Abner had come over to their own earlier opinions about the public affairs, they changed their policy and joined in with David. ²⁹When these had agreed to Abner's proposal, he called together the tribe of Benjamin, for all of that tribe were Ishbosheth's bodyguards, and he spoke to them to the same purpose. Seeing that they did not in the least oppose what he said, but came over to his opinion, he took about twenty of his friends and came to David, in order to personally receive assurance upon oath from him, for we may rightly reckon those things to be firmer which each of us do by ourselves than those which we do by another. He also gave him an account of what he had said to the officers and the whole tribe. ³⁰David received him courteously and treated him with great hospitality for many days. When he was dismissed, Abner wanted to bring the people with him, for them to hand over the leadership to him with David himself present to see it done.

³¹When David had sent Abner away, Joab, the leader of his army, came immediately to Hebron. He knew that Abner had been with David and had parted from him a little earlier with promises and agreements that the leadership would pass over to David, and feared that David would give the highest dignity to Abner, for helping him to gain the kingdom, especially since he was in other respects shrewd at understanding affairs and managing them skilfully, as occasion required, and that he himself should be ranked lower and be deprived of the command of the army, so he followed a sly and wicked course. ³²First he tried to calumniate him to the king, urging him to be suspicious of him and not to heed what he had engaged to do for him, because of all he did to establish the leadership to Saul's son; that he had come to him deceitfully and with guile and had left hoping to gain his purpose by this procedure. ³³When he could not persuade David of this, nor get him at all exasperated, he embarked on an even bolder project : he decided to kill Abner, and in order to do this, sent some messengers after him, with orders that when they overtook him they should recall him in David's name and tell him he had something to say to him about his affairs, which he had not remembered to speak of when he was with him. ³⁴When Abner heard what the messengers said, ( for they overtook him in a certain place called Besira, twenty furlongs from Hebron, ) he suspected none of the harm which awaited him and returned. Joab met him in the gate and received him in the kindest manner, as if he were Abner's most benevolent acquaintance and friend, for such as undertake the vilest actions, in order to prevent the suspicion that any secret harm is intended, often make the greatest imitation of what really good men sincerely do. ³⁵So he took him aside from his own followers, as though to speak with him in private, and brought him into a quiet place at the gate, accompanied by no one but his brother Abishai; then he drew his sword and struck him in the groin. ³⁶Abner died by this treachery of Joab, who explained it as by way of punishment for his brother Asahel, whom Abner had struck and killed as he was pursuing after him in the battle of Hebron, but in truth it was from his fear of losing the command of the army and his dignity with the king, and to avoid being deprived of those advantages, and lest Abner should obtain the highest rank in David's court. ³⁷By these examples one may learn how many and how great evils men will venture upon for the sake of gaining money and authority and to avoid failure in either of them, for as when they are eager to gain these, they acquire them by ten thousand evil practices, ³⁸so when they are afraid of losing them, they hold on to them by practices much worse than the former, as if no worse disaster could happen to them than failure to gain so exalted an authority; or when they have acquired it and by long habit enjoyed the sweetness of it, to lose it again. Since the latter would be the heaviest of all sufferings, all of them plan and risk the most difficult actions, for fear of losing the same. But let it suffice that I have made these short reflections upon that subject.

³⁹When David heard that Abner was killed, it grieved his soul, and he called all people to witness, stretching out his hands to God and crying out that he was not a partaker in the murder of Abner and that his death was not by his command or approval. He also wished the heaviest curses to come upon the one who killed him and upon his whole house, and he prayed the same penalties on those who had helped him in this murder. ⁴⁰He took care not to appear to have had any hand in this death, contrary to the assurances he had given and the oaths he had taken to Abner. On the contrary, he ordered all the people to weep and lament this man and to honour his corpse with the usual solemnities; that is, by rending their clothing and putting on sackcloth and that this should be their dress as they walked before the bier. ⁴¹Then he followed it himself, with the elders and the officers, lamenting Abner and by his tears showing his goodwill toward him while he was alive and his sorrow for him now he was dead, and that he was not removed by his consent. So he buried him magnificently at Hebron and published funeral elegies for him. ⁴²He also stood first over the monument, weeping, and caused others to do the same; indeed so deeply did the death of Abner affect him, that there was no way his companions could force him to take any food, but he declared on oath that he would taste nothing until the sun was set. ⁴³This gained him the goodwill of the people, for those who had an affection for Abner were very satisfied with the respect he paid him when he was dead and the keeping of the fidelity he had promised him, which was shown in his giving him all the usual ceremonies, as if he had been his kinsman and his friend and not letting him be neglected and insulted with a dishonourable burial, as if he had been his enemy. So the whole nation was pleased by the king's gentleness and mildness of disposition, each being ready to suppose that the king would have taken the same care of them in similar circumstances, which they saw him showing in the burial of Abner's dead body. ⁴⁴David valued his good name and therefore was careful to act prudently in this case, which is why no one suspected him of causing Abner's death. He told the people how greatly troubled he was at the death of so good a man, and that the affairs of the Hebrews had suffered a heavy loss by being deprived of one so gifted at saving them by his excellent advice and by the strength of his arms in war. ⁴⁵He added, "God, who sees all people's actions, will not allow this man to go unrevenged, but please realize that I am unable to do anything to these sons of Zeruias, Joab and Abishai, who are more powerful than myself. But God will repay their insolent actions upon their own heads." Such was the fateful end of Abner's life.

⁴⁶When Ishbosheth, Saul's son, heard of his death, he took it hard to be bereft of a man who was both his relative and had won him the kingship, and was greatly afflicted and grieved by Abner's death. He did not survive him for long, but was treacherously attacked and killed by the sons of Erremon, Baanah and Thaenas. ⁴⁷These, from a Benjamite family of the highest rank, thought that for killing Ishbosheth they would be richly rewarded by David and be made officers by him, or win some other mark of his esteem. ⁴⁸Finding Ishbosheth alone and asleep at noon, in an upper room, with none of his guards present and the woman at the door asleep, tired with the work she had been about and with the heat of the day, these went into the room where Saul's son lay asleep and killed him. ⁴⁹They cut off his head and travelled a whole night and a day, thinking they were escaping from those they had wronged, to one who would accept it as a favour and would give them security, and so reached Hebron. As they showed David the head of Ishbosheth, they presented themselves as his well-wishers, who had killed his enemy and his rival for the kingdom. ⁵⁰But David did not welcome their deed as they expected, but said, "You wretches, you shall get justice without delay. Did you not know how I took revenge on Saul's murderer, who brought me his golden crown, though his killer was doing him a favour, to stop his enemies from taking him prisoner ? ⁵¹Or do you think I have changed and am not the man I was, but would be glad of evildoing by men and reckon your villainy in murderering your master as a benefit to me? You have killed a just man in his bed, who never did evil to anyone and treated you with much kindness and respect. ⁵²You shall suffer the due penalty I must inflict on you for killing Ishbosheth and thinking I would be glad at his death, for you could not stain my honour more than by such a notion." Saying this, he had them tortured in many ways and then executed; but he used all the rites of honour when burying the head of Ishbosheth, and laid it in the grave of Abner.

⁵³When these matters were duly concluded, all the leaders of the Hebrew people came to David to Hebron, with the heads of thousands and other officers and yielded to him, reminding him of the goodwill they had shown him in Saul's lifetime and the respect they then had not ceased to show him when he was leader of a thousand, and that he, with his sons, was chosen by God through the prophet Samuel. They also declared that God had given him power to save the land of the Hebrews and to overcome the Philistines. ⁵⁴He was gratified by their commitment and urged them to continue so, for they would have no reason to regret it. When he had feasted them and treated them kindly, he sent them to bring all the people to him. ⁵⁵Then about six thousand eight hundred warriors of the tribe of Judas, armed with shields and spears, came to him, who had continued with Saul's son, when the rest of the tribe of Judas had chosen David as their king. ⁵⁶From the tribe of Simon there came seven thousand, one hundred; and from the tribe of Levi came four thousand, seven hundred, led by Jodas. After these came Sadok the high priest, with twenty-two officers related to him. From the tribe of Benjamin came four thousand warriors, while the rest of the tribe continued to hope that someone of the house of Saul would reign over them. ⁵⁷From the tribe of Ephraim came twenty thousand, eight hundred mighty men of unusual strength. From the half tribe of Manasses came eighteen thousand mighty men. From the tribe of Issachar came two hundred who could predict the future, and twenty thousand warriors. ⁵⁸From the tribe of Zebulon fifty thousand elite warriors. This was the only tribe to totally rally to David and all these had the same weapons as the tribe of Gad. From the tribe of Naphtali came a thousand eminent people and officers, whose weapons were shields and spears and the tribe itself followed after, being uncounted. ⁵⁹From the tribe of Dan came twenty-seven thousand six hundred who were chosen; and forty thousand from the tribe of Asher. From the two tribes beyond the Jordan and the rest of the tribe of Manasses came a hundred and twenty thousand. These used shields and spears and head-pieces and swords, while the rest of the tribes used swords only. ⁶⁰These thronged together to Hebron to David, with a large amount of corn and wine and all sorts of other food and established David in his kingdom by common consent. When they had celebrated for three days in Hebron, David and all the people moved and came to Jerusalem.

⁶¹The Jebusite inhabitants, of the Canaanite race, shut their gates and placed the blind and the lame and all their maimed people upon the wall, by way of derision of the king, claiming that even the lame could stop him from gaining entrance. Thereby they mocked his power and showed their confidence in the strength of their walls, so that David, enraged. began to besiege Jerusalem. ⁶²He did so with utmost commitment, intending by capturing this place to demonstrate his power and intimidate any others who might be similarly disposed toward him, and took the lower city by storm. ⁶³The citadel still held out, so the king, knowing that the promise of dignities and rewards would encourage his soldiers to greater actions, announced that the first man to cross the gorge and go up to the citadel and take it, would become general of the entire people. ⁶⁴In their eagerness for command they all wanted to go up and thought no pains too great to do so. Joab, son of Zeruias, got ahead of the rest, and as soon as he reached the citadel he shouted to the king and claimed the chief command.

⁶⁵When David had expelled the Jebusites from the citadel he rebuilt Jerusalem and named it the City of David and stayed there throughout his reign, except for the seven years and six months that he reigned in Hebron over the tribe of Judas alone. Assigning Jerusalem as his royal city, his affairs prospered more and more, by the providence of God, who gave them improvement and increase. ⁶⁶Hiram the king of the Tyrians sent envoys to him and made with him a treaty of friendship and alliance, and sent him gifts, cedar-trees and mechanics and men skilled in building and architecture, to build him a royal palace in Jerusalem. Now David took the upper city and joined the citadel to it and made it one entity, surrounding it with a wall, and appointed Joab to take care of them. ⁶⁷David, therefore, was the first to expel the Jebusites from Jerusalem and called it by his own name, The City of David. For under our forefather Abraham it was called Solyma, but some say it was after that time, since Homer mentions it by that name of Solyma, calling the temple Solyma, which in the Hebrew language, means security. ⁶⁸The whole period from the war campaign against the Canaanites under general Joshua when he defeated them and distributed the land among the Hebrews, for the Israelites could never expel the Canaanites from Jerusalem until David took it by siege, was five hundred and fifteen years.

⁶⁹I shall now recall the memory of Araunah, a wealthy man among the Jebusites who was not killed by David in the siege of Jerusalem, because of his goodwill to the Hebrews and his special care and graciousness to himself, of which I shall speak a little later at a suitable time. ⁷⁰Now David married other wives along with his former ones and also had concubines. He had eleven sons, whose names were Amases, Amnon, Sebas, Nathan, Solomon, Jebar, Elien, Phalnagen, Naphes, Jenae, Eliphale, and a daughter, Tamar. Nine of these were born of legitimate wives, but the two last-named of concubines, and Tamar had the same mother as Absalom.

⁷¹When the Philistines learned that David had been made king of the Hebrews, they made war against him in Jerusalem, and when they had captured the so-called Valley of the Giants a place not far from the city, they encamped there. ⁷²The king of the Jews, who never permitted himself to do anything without prophecy and God's command, depending on him as a security for the future, bade the high priest to foretell the will of God to him and what would be the outcome of this battle. ⁷³When he foretold that he would win and come to rule, he led out his army against the Philistines, and suddenly coming up from the rear during the battle, he attacked the enemy and killed some and put the rest to flight. ⁷⁴Let no one suppose that it was a small army of Philistines that came against the Hebrews, drawing that conclusion from the swiftness of their defeat and that they made no great resistance; that they were slow to march and lacking in courage; let him know rather, that all Syria and Phoenicia, with many other warlike nations came to their help and took part in this war, ⁷⁵which was the sole reason why, after being so often defeated and losing so many thousands of their men, they attacked the Hebrews with still greater armies. Despite their losses they attacked David with an army three times as numerous as before and encamped on the same piece of ground. ⁷⁶So the king of the Israelites asked God again about the outcome of the battle, and the high priest told him in prophecy to post his army in the so-called Groves of Weeping, not far from the enemy's camp and not to move or begin to fight until the trees of the grove moved without the wind's blowing. ⁷⁷Once these trees moved and the time God foretold to him arrived, he should go out unhesitatingly and gain a manifest victory, for the various ranks of the enemy's army would not hold but retreat at the first onset. He attacked and killed them and pursued them to the city of Gaza at the border of their region and ransacked their camp where he found great wealth, and destroyed their gods.

⁷⁸On this outcome of the battle, after consulting the elders and officers and officers of thousands, David decided to send for those who were in the flower of their age among all his countrymen and from the whole land and for the priests and Levites, to go to Kariathjearim and bring up the ark of God from that city to Jerusalem and to keep it there and offer before it the sacrifices and other honours which the divinity used to accept. ⁷⁹This they had done in the reign of Saul, when they had suffered no great misfortune. When, as they had resolved, all the people had assembled, the king came to the ark, which the priest brought from the house of Aminadab and laid it upon a new cart and let their brothers and their children pull it along with the oxen. ⁸⁰Before it went the king and the whole people, singing hymns to God with all their usual songs and a variety of musical instruments and dancing and psalm-singing and the sounds of trumpets and of cymbals; and so they brought the ark to Jerusalem. ⁸¹But when they reached the place called Chidon's threshing-floor, Uzzah was killed by the wrath of God, for as the oxen shook the ark, he stretched out his hand and wanted to take hold of it, but because he touched the ark without being a priest, God struck him dead. ⁸²The king and the people alike were grieved at the death of Uzzah, and the place where he died is still called the Destruction of Uzzah. David was afraid, thinking that if he personally took the ark into the city, he might suffer as Uzzah had, who died like that merely for putting his hand to the ark. ⁸³So he did not himself receive it into the city, but took it aside to a certain place belonging to a righteous man named Obadar, a Levite by family, and deposited the ark with him where it remained for three whole months. This caused the house of Obadar to grow and conferred many blessings upon it. ⁸⁴When the king heard what had happened to Obadar, how from being a poor man of lowly estate, he had prospered and become the object of envy to all who looked at his house, he took courage, and, hoping to meet with no misfortune thereby, transferred the ark to his own house. ⁸⁵The priests carried it, while seven companies of singers, arranged by the king, went before it and he himself played on the harp and joined in the music, so that when his wife Michal, the daughter of Saul, our first king, saw him doing so, she laughed at him. ⁸⁶When they had brought it in they placed it under the tent David had pitched for it and he offered perfect sacrifices and peace-offerings and treated the whole people and presented to both women and men and children a loaf of bread and a cake and another sweetmeat, with the portion of the sacrifice. When he had so feasted the people, he sent them away and returned to his own house.

⁸⁷Michal his wife, the daughter of Saul, came and stood beside him and wished him all prosperity and prayed that anything whatever he might desire would be given him by God's favour. And still she blamed him, that such a great king should dance so inelegantly and uncover himself among the servants and the serving girls. ⁸⁸He replied that he was not ashamed to do what was acceptable to God, who had favoured him above her father and above all others, and that he would often play and dance, no matter what the serving girls and she herself thought of it. ⁸⁹David's wife Michal had no children with him, but when she was later married to the man to whom Saul her father gave her, ( from whom she separated when David took her, ) she bore five children. But I shall treat of them in a suitable place.

⁹⁰When the king saw his affairs improving almost every day, by God's will he thought it would be an offence while he lived in a lofty house of cedar, adorned with the finest works of art, if he were to let the ark go on being housed in a tent. ⁹¹So he wished to build for God a temple just as Moses had predicted and after speaking of it with the prophet Nathan and being instructed by him to do as he desired, for God would help him in all things, he was keen to set about building the temple. ⁹²But that very night God appeared to Nathan and told him to tell David that he appreciated his purpose and his desires, since no one before had thought of building him a temple, but that as he had many times gone to war and was defiled by slaughtering his enemies he would not let him build a temple for him. ⁹³After his death however, after living a long life, a temple would be built by one of his sons, his successor as king, who would be called Solomon; and God promised to provide for him, as a father provides for his son, by preserving the kingdom for his son's descendants and giving it to them, though he would still punish him if he sinned, with diseases and barrenness of the soil. ⁹⁴When David heard this from the prophet and was overjoyed to learn of the sure continuation of his descendants as rulers, and that his house should be splendid and very famous, he came to the ark ⁹⁵and falling down on his face he began to adore God and thank him for all the benefits he had given to him in raising him from his lowly state as a shepherd to such high dominion and glory, and for all he had promised to his descendants, and for his providence toward the Hebrews in gaining them the freedom they enjoyed. After saying this and singing a hymn to God, he went away.

¹⁰⁰When Hadad, king of Damascus and of Syria, heard that David fought against Hadadezer, who was his friend, hoping to rescue him he came to him with a powerful army, and when he had fought David at the river Euphrates, he was defeated and in the battle lost many of his soldiers, for of Hadad's army twenty thousand were killed and all the rest fled. ¹⁰¹Nicolaus also mentions this king in the fourth book of his histories where he says : "Long after this a man of that region named Hadad became very powerful and reigned over Damascus and the rest of Syria, except Phoenicia. He made war on David the king of Judea and risked many battles and particularly the last one at the Euphrates, where he was defeated. ¹⁰²He was judged to be the most excellent of all their kings in strength and manhood ," Then he says that his descendants succeeded each other to his kingship and his name. He adds "When Hadad was dead, his descendants reigned for ten generations, each of his successor inheriting his father's his rule and name as did the Ptolemies in Egypt. ¹⁰³But the third was the most powerful of them all and wanted to avenge the defeat of his forefather so he attacked the Jews and ravaged the city which is now called Samaria." This is no mistake, for he is the Hadad who made the expedition against Samaria, in the reign of Achab, king of Israel, of whom we shall speak in due place.

¹⁰⁴After attacking Damascus and the other parts of Syria and conquering it all and setting garrisons in the region and making them pay tax, David returned home. He dedicated to God in Jerusalem the golden quivers and all the armour worn by Hadad's bodyguards, ¹⁰⁵which was later taken away by Shishak, the king of Egypt, when he fought David's grandson, Rehoboam, along with other wealth which he took from Jerusalem, as will be explained in its proper place later. The king of the Hebrews was helped by God, who gave him great success in his wars and his expedition against the finest cities of Hadadezer, Betah and Machen, which he stormed and laid waste. ¹⁰⁶He found there much gold and silver and the brass said to be more valuable than gold, of which Solomon made that large vessel called The Sea and the intricate lavers, when he built the temple for God.

¹⁰⁷When the king of Hamath learned of Hadadezer's failure and heard of the ruin of his army, he was afraid for himself and resolved to bind himself in friendship and loyalty to David lest he should come against him, so he sent to him his son Joram to express his thanks to him for fighting against his enemy Hadadezer, and made a treaty of alliance and friendship with him. ¹⁰⁸He also sent him gifts, vessels of ancient workmanship, of gold, silver and brass. After David had made this alliance with Thainos, which was the name of the king of Hamath, and had received the gifts he sent him, he dismissed his son with expressions of mutual respect. Then he brought the gifts the other had sent and the rest of the gold and silver he had taken from the cities he had conquered and dedicated them to God. ¹⁰⁹Not only did God give him victory and success when he went personally to battle at the head of his army, but also gave him victory over the Idumaeans through Abishai, the brother of his chief general, Joab, when he sent him with an army into Idumaea. For Abishai destroyed eighteen thousand of them in the battle, and the king placed garrisons through all Idumaea and gathered tax from the region and from every head among them. ¹¹⁰He was just by nature and made his decisions in truth. He had Joab as general of his whole army, and he appointed Josaphat, son of Achilos, as recorder. He also appointed Sadok, of the family of Phinehas, as high priest, along with Abiathar, for he was his friend and made Sisan the scribe and gave the command of his bodyguards to Banaias, the son of Jodas. His elder sons were also around him for his protection.

¹¹¹He recalled the covenants and oaths he had made with Saul's son Jonathan and the friendship and affection he had shown him, for along with his other good qualities he was very mindful of those who had done him good at other times. ¹¹²So he had an inquiry made to see if any of his lineage were living, to whom he could repay Jonathan's friendship toward him, for which he was still in his debt. When one of Saul's freedmen was brought to him, who knew the surviving members of his family he asked if he could tell him of any of Jonathan's family were still alive who could be repaid for the benefits he had received from Jonathan. ¹¹³When he said that a son called Memphibosthos remained, but that he was made lame because when his nurse heard that the child's father and grandfather had fallen in the battle, she snatched him up and fled but let him fall from her shoulders and his feet were lamed. Once he learned where and by whom the boy had been brought up, he sent messengers to Machir in the city of Lodebar, with whom Jonathan's son had been reared and sent for him to come to him. ¹¹⁴When Memphibosthos came to the king, he fell prostrate and worshipped him, but David encouraged him and told him to take heart and to look forward to better times. So he gave him his father's house and all the estate owned by his grandfather Saul and invited him to dine with him at his own table and not to be absent from it a single day. ¹¹⁵When the youth had bowed down in homage at his words and the gifts given to him, he called for Sibas and told him he had given the youth his father's house and all of Saul's estate. He sent Sibas to cultivate his land for him and to bring all the profits of it to him in Jerusalem. So David had him at his table every day and gave Sibas and his fifteen sons, along with twenty servants, to the boy Memphibosthos. ¹¹⁶When the king had made these arrangements and Sibas had worshipped him and promised to do as he was told, he left; and this son of Jonathan lived in Jerusalem and dined at the king's table and was cared for like a son. He himself also had a son, whom he named Michanos.

¹¹⁷The remnants of Saul's and Jonathan's line received these honours from David. About this time the king of the Ammanites, Naases, died who had been David's friend, and when his son succeeded to his father's kingdom, David sent envoys to comfort him, urging him to accept his father's death with patience and saying he would continue to show him the same friendship he had shown to his father. ¹¹⁸The princes of the Ammanites resented this message and misrepresented David's intent, and misled the king, saying that David had sent men to spy out the region and its strength, under the pretext of kindness and further advised him to be careful and not to heed his words or be tricked by him into terrible disaster. ¹¹⁹Then, the king of the Ammanites, thought that what they said was probably true and so mistreated the envoys by shaving off half of their beards and cutting off a half of their clothing and so sent his answer not in words, but in deeds. ¹²⁰On seeing it, the king of Israel was angry and publicly stated that he would not condone such shameful treatment; but would make war on the Ammanites and take revenge on their king for so abusing his envoys. ¹²¹His friends and officers, realizing that they had violated their alliance and were liable to be punished for it, prepared for war. They also sent a thousand talents to the Syrian king of Mesopotamia as the price to get him as an ally, and also invited Souba. These kings had twenty thousand infantry; and they also enlisted the king of the region called Micah and a fourth king, named Ishtob, who had twelve thousand warriors.

¹²²David was not alarmed by this alliance, or by the forces of the Ammanites, but trusted in God because he was going to war in a just cause in response to the abuse done to him, and immediately sent his commander-in-chief Joab against them with the flower of his army. ¹²³They encamped by Rabbah, the metropolis of the Ammanites and the enemy came out and arranged their ranks not in one group but in two, for the allies were arrayed together in the plain but the army of the Ammanites at the gates opposite the Hebrews. And seeing this, Joab planned a counter move. ¹²⁴He chose the bravest of his men to face the king of Syria and the kings with him and gave the rest to his brother Abishai with orders to set them facing the Ammanites. He told him that if he should see the Syrians pressing him hard and defeating him, to order his troops to wheel around and help him, and he said that he himself would do the same for him, if he saw him hard pressed by the Ammanites. ¹²⁵So he sent his brother ahead urging him to act everything bravely and with commitment, to avoid disgrace and fight manfully, and so sent him off to fight the Ammanites, while he attacked the Syrians. ¹²⁶For a while they put up strong opposition but then Joab killed many of them and put the rest to flight. On seeing this and also being afraid of Abishai and his army, the Ammanites waited no longer but fled like their allies to the city. After so defeating the enemy, Joab returned in splendour to Jerusalem to the king.

¹²⁷This defeat did not still induce the Ammanites to keep the peace or to accept their [enemies as ]
superiors, but they sent to Chalaman, the king of the Syrians beyond the Euphrates, and hired him for an ally. He had Shobach for the officer of his army, with eighty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry. ¹²⁸When the king of the Hebrews learned that the Ammanites had again gathered such a large army he decided to make war with them no longer by his generals, but he crossed the river Jordan himself with all his army, and when he met them he fought them and overcame them and killed forty thousand of their infantry and seven thousand of their cavalry and also wounded Shobach, the general of Chalaman's forces, who died of that blow. ¹²⁹Seeing how the battle ended, the people of Mesopotamia surrendered to David and sent him gifts, and he returned to Jerusalem for the winter. But at the beginning of the spring he sent his general Joab to fight the Ammanites, and he overran and ravaged all their region and shut them up in their metropolis Rabbah and besieged them there.

¹³⁰But David fell into a grievous fault, though by nature he was a just and godly man who kept firmly to the ancestral laws. Late one evening as he was looking out from the roof of his palace where he used to walk at that hour, he saw a woman of supreme and unsurpassed beauty washing herself in her own house. Her name was Bathsheba and captivated by her beauty and unable to restrain his desire, he made love with her. ¹³¹The woman became pregnant so she sent to the king to plan some way of hiding the sin, for according to their ancestral laws, an adulteress should be put to death. So he sent to recall the woman's husband, Urias, Joab's armour-bearer, and when he arrived, inquired about the army and the siege. ¹³²When he replied that it was going according to plan, the king offered him a part of his supper and told him go home to his wife and relax with her. Urias did not do so, but slept near the king, along with the rest of the armed men. ¹³³When the king learned of this, he asked him why he did not go home to his house and his wife after such a long absence, as people naturally do when they come back from being away. The man replied that it was not right for him to rest and take comfort with his wife, while his fellow soldiers and the general slept on the ground, camped in enemy territory. ¹³⁴When he said this, the king told him to stay there that night and he would send him to the general the following day. Inviting Urias to supper, the king slyly and deliberately plied him with drink until he was drunk, but still he slept at the king's gates without any inclination to go to his wife. ¹³⁵Infuriated by this, the king wrote to Joab telling him to punish Urias, claiming he had offended him, but suggesting a form of punishment that would not point to himself as the author. ¹³⁶He told him to set him opposite the part of the enemy's line that was hardest to attack and to leave him there in danger, ordering his fellow soldiers to retire from the battle. After writing this to him and sealing the letter with his own seal, he gave it to Urias to take to Joab. ¹³⁷When Joab received the letter he saw the king's meaning and set Urias with some of the best soldiers in the army just where he knew the enemy would be toughest, saying that if they could break down part of the wall and enter the city, he would reinforce them with the whole army. ¹³⁸Being a valiant soldier esteemed both by the king and by his countrymen, he was glad of the chance to prove his bravery by such great efforts and was not upset by it. When Urias willingly undertook the task ahead, his companions were privately ordered to leave him when they saw the enemy make a charge. ¹³⁹When the Hebrews attacked the city, the Ammanites feared that the enemy might outflank them and get into the city just where Urias was stationed, so setting their best soldiers in front they opened the gates suddenly and attacked, running at the enemy in force. ¹⁴⁰When Uriah's companions saw this, they all retreated as Joab had directed them, but Urias, ashamed to run off and leave his post, stayed facing the enemy. He withstood the violence of their charge and killed many of them, but being surrounded and caught in the middle of them, he was killed and some of the others fell alongside him.

¹⁴¹After this had happened Joab sent messengers to the king to tell him he had done all he could to capture the city quickly, but that they had been forced to retire with great losses as they assaulted the wall. He said that if they saw the king getting angry with this, to report the death of Urias. ¹⁴²When the king heard this from the messengers, he took it badly and said it was wrong to attack the wall, and they should have tried capturing the city by undermining and other means. Surely they knew how Abimelech, son of Gideon, had tried storming the tower in Thebai and was killed by a large stone thrown at him by an old woman, and though he was a man of great prowess, he died ignominiously because of his inept attack. ¹⁴³They should have remembered this and not come near the enemy's wall, for the best method of success in war was to recall the actions of former wars and how things turned out in similar dangerous situations, so as to imitate the one and avoid the other. ¹⁴⁴When he was in this vein, the messenger told him of Uriah's death, then his rage ceased and he sent him back to Joab to say that such misfortune often happens to people and that it is the nature of war that one side now succeeds and then the other. ¹⁴⁵He should take care with the siege, so as to suffer no further losses in it, but raise bulwarks and use siege machines, and once the city was captured, to destroy its foundations and kill everyone in it; and the messenger hurried to bring the king's instructions back to Joab. ¹⁴⁶When Bathsheba, the wife of Urias, learned of the death of her husband, she mourned him for many days, but as soon as her mourning and tears for Urias had ceased, the king took her as wife, and she bore him a son.