We may still see the fields of wheat and barley in the valley below us from which “Boaz went _up_ to the gate.”[62] We may still hear the very same greeting as when “Boaz said unto the reapers, The Lord be with you, and they answered him, The Lord bless thee.”[63] We may see the reapers resting at noonday, sheltered from the fierce heat of the sun by some spreading tree, dipping their morsel of bread into the vinegar or eating their parched corn from the ears,[64] the gleaners bearing home the wheat and barley they have gathered in the coarse cloth which serves the peasant women for a veil, or beating it out by the roadside that they may carry it more easily.[65] Yonder are the threshing-floors in the field where the master will spend the nights of harvest to protect his produce from robbers.[66] And here is the gate of the city where Boaz sat with the elders to redeem the possession that was Elimelech’s and take the beautiful young widow to wife.[67] Well was the nuptial benediction fulfilled, “The Lord make the woman that is come into thine house like Rachel and like Leah, which two did build the house of Israel: and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem.”[68] Nearly a hundred years must have elapsed before we hear again of Bethlehem, for the grandson of Boaz and Ruth is now an old man.[69] He is the father of eight stalwart sons, the youngest of whom keeps his father’s sheep upon the mountain-side. Though treated as of no account by the elders of the family,[70] he is yet called David (the darling), is described as “ruddy, blue-eyed, and beautiful;”[71] he is already famous as a musician, and has distinguished himself for strength, courage, wit, and piety.[72] These qualities commend him to the servants of Saul, and he is chosen to play before the moody king and charm away his gloom.[73] The life of a Bethlehemite shepherd was one of no common toil and danger, and it remains so down to the present day. Hordes of wandering Bedouin are waiting to swoop down upon the flocks and herds of the peaceful inhabitants, and need to be watched against with ceaseless vigilance and repelled with fearless courage. Bears descend from the neighbouring mountains. Lions have disappeared, but in the days of David they came up from their lairs in the valley of the Dead Sea, driven forth by the swelling of the Jordan. The prowess of the shepherd lad had been tried against these, familiar perils.[74] Yet, modest and pious, as he was strong and bold, he ascribes his success to the Lord, who taught his hands to war and his fingers to fight.[75] No wonder that He who “seeth not as man seeth, for the man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart,”[76] should have rejected the elder sons of Jesse and directed his prophet to anoint the youngest as the future king. [Illustration: ENTRANCE TO CAVE OF ADULLAM.]