David was very small, but when Samuel poured the oil upon his head and anointed him, he grew rapidly, and was soon as tall as was Saul. And this the commentators conclude from the fact of Saul having put his armour upon David, and it fitted him. Now Saul was a head and shoulders taller than any man in Israel; therefore David must have started to equal height since his anointing.[626] David was gifted with the evil eye, and was able to give the leprosy by turning a malignant glance upon any man. “When it is written, ‘_The Philistine cursed David by his gods_,’[627] David looked at him with the evil eye. For whoever was looked upon by him with the evil eye became leprous, as Joab knew to his cost, for after David had cast the evil glance on him, it is said, ‘_Let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue, or that is a leper._’[628] “The same befell the Philistine when he cursed David. David then threw on him the malignant glance, and fixed it on his brow, that he might at once become leprous; and at the same moment the stone and the leprosy struck him.”[629] But David was himself afflicted for six months with this loathsome malady, and it is in reference to this that he says, “_Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow._” During this period, he was cast out and separated from the elders of the people, and the Divinity withdrew from him.[630] And this explains the discrepancy apparent in the account of the number of years he reigned. It is said that he reigned over Israel forty years,[631] but he reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty and three in Jerusalem. In the Second Book of Samuel, however, it is said, he reigned in Hebron seven years and six months;[632] though the statement that he reigned only forty years in all, that is, thirty-three in Jerusalem, is repeated. Consequently, these six months do not count, the reason being that David was at that time afflicted with the disorder, and cut off from society, and reputed as one dead.[633] The Rabbis suppose that David sinned in cutting off the skirt of Saul’s robe;[634] and they say that he expiated this fault in his old age, by finding no warmth in his clothes, wherewith he wrapped himself.[635] For it is said, “_King David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he got no heat._”[636]