aim and so strong an arm, that it smote his opponent in
the middle of the forehead, and brought him to the ground.

The praises of the people lavished on David excited Saul's jealousy, and
he sought in various ways to kill David, who seemed to have a charmed
life; for God was with him, and no blow aimed at his life was
successful.

The king's son, Jonathan, loved David devotedly, and more than once
saved him from the wrath of Saul.

After hunting the son of Jesse, consulting witches in his desperation,
and fighting the Philistines in bloody conflicts, near Mount Gilboa,
defeated and wounded, he committed suicide by falling on his sword. Thus
ended the career of the first king of the Hebrew nation.

David, under divine guidance, went to Hebron, and was there publicly
anointed king by the tribe of Judah. But Abner, a splendid general, and
a great friend of Saul, induced the rest of the tribes to acknowledge
Ishbosheth, the only son of Saul then living, as their sovereign. Soon,
however, a quarrel with his protege, led him to join David, who was at
length proclaimed king by all the people.

After years of prosperity in war and peace, he had a sanguinary battle
with the Ammonites. This occurred in the eighteenth year of his reign.
The conduct of this war David intrusted to Joab, and remained himself at
Jerusalem. There, while sauntering upon the roof of his palace, after
the noonday sleep, which is usual in the East, he perceived a woman
whose great beauty attracted his regard. She proved to be Bathsheba, the
wife of Uriah, an officer of Canaanitish origin, then absent with the
army besieging Rabbah, the capital of Ammon. David was so fascinated
with her that he determined to add her to his royal household. He sent
for Uriah to Jerusalem. Having heard from him the particulars of the
war, which he pretended to require, the king dismissed him to his own
home. But Uriah, feeling that it ill became a soldier to seek his bed
while his companions lay on the hard ground, under the canopy of heaven,
exposed to the attacks of the enemy, remained all night in the hall of
the palace with the guards, and returned to the war without having seen
Bathsheba. David made him the bearer of an order to Joab to expose him
to certain death, in some perilous enterprize against the enemy. He was
obeyed by that unscrupulous general; and when David heard that Uriah was
dead, he sent for Bathsheba, and made her his wife. He had already
several