49 Professor A. H. Sayce has argued that David’s original name was Elhanan (2 Samuel xxi. 19 compared with xxiii. 24), and that the name David, which he took at a later time, should be written Dod or Dodo, “the Beloved One,” which according to Prof. Sayce was a name for Tammuz (Adonis) in Southern Canaan, and was in particular bestowed by the Jebusites of Jerusalem on their supreme deity. See A. H. Sayce, _Lectures on the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians_ (London and Edinburgh, 1887), pp. 52-57. If he is right, his conclusions would accord perfectly with those which I had reached independently, and it would become probable that David only assumed the name of David (Dod, Dodo) after the conquest of Jerusalem, and for the purpose of identifying himself with the god of the city, who had borne the same title from time immemorial. But on the whole it seems more likely, as Professor Kennett points out to me, that in the original story Elhanah, a totally different person from David, was the slayer of Goliath, and that the part of the giant-killer was thrust on David at a later time when the brightness of his fame had eclipsed that of many lesser heroes. 50 2 Samuel xii. 26-31; 1 Chronicles xx. 1-3. Critics seem generally to agree that in these passages the word מלכם must be pointed _Milcom_, not _malcham_ “their king,” as the Massoretic text, followed by the English version, has it. The reading _Milcom_, which involves no change of the original Hebrew text, is supported by the reading of the Septuagint Μολχὸμ τοῦ βασιλέως αὐτῶν, where the three last words are probably a gloss on Μολχὸμ. See S. R. Driver, _Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel_, Second Edition (Oxford, 1913), p. 294; Dean Kirkpatrick, in his note on 2 Samuel xii. 30 (_Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges_); _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, iii. 3085; R. Kittel, _Biblia Hebraica_, i. 433; Brown, Driver, and Briggs, _Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament_ (Oxford, 1906), pp. 575 _sq._ David’s son and successor adopted the worship of Milcom and made a high place for him outside Jerusalem. See 1 Kings xi. 5; 2 Kings xxiii. 13. 51 2 Samuel v. 6-10; 1 Chronicles xi. 4-9. M13 Traces of the divinity of Hebrew kings. 52 See for example 1 Samuel xxiv. 8; 2 Samuel xiv. 9, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19, 22, xv. 15, 21, xvi. 4, 9, xviii. 28, 31, 32; 1 Kings i. 2, 13, 18, 20, 21, 24, 27; 1 Chronicles xxi. 3, 23.