David having with much trouble, from his competition with Ish-bosheth, established himself upon the Jewish throne; and having in the latter part of his reign been vexed, and driven to disagreeable extremities, by the seditious humour of his subjects, the rebellion of his own son Absalom, and the revolt of Sheba; his mind now fell a prey to suspicion. He called to remembrance that some of Saul's family were yet living; whom, lest they should hereafter prove thorns in his side, he concluded it expedient to cut of. Whenever David projected any scheme, a religious plea, and the assistance of his old friends,* were never wanting. A famine befel Judea, which continued three years: probably occasioned by the preceding intestine commotions. "David inquired of the Lord: and the Lord answered, it is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites."** But where is this crime recorded? Samuel charged Saul with no such slaughter: he reproached him with a contrary fault, an act of _mercy!_ which is assigned as one of the reasons for deposing him. So that this crime was not recollected,*** till many years after the man was dead! and then God punishes--whom? a whole nation, with three years famine: which, by the by, was not sent as a punishment neither; but merely as a hint of remembrance, which ended in hanging the late king's innocent children! The oracular response dictated no act of expiation; but only pointed out the _cause_ of the famine. So that the Gibeonites (who, by the way, had hitherto made no complaints that we know of) were applied to**** for a knowledge of what recompence they demanded. * The prophets and priests. ** 2 Sam. xxi. 1. *** If God sought vengeance for a particular act of cruelty perpetrated by Saul: when was vengeance demanded for David's massacre of the Edomites, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Jebusites, and others, who at times became the object of David's wrath? That the charge may allude to some former affair, is not contested; it is, however, truly remarkable, that there should be no chronological record of a fact, which after such a length of time demanded an expiation so awfully hinted, and so extraordinary in its circumstances! **** 2 Sam. xxi. 2, 3.