47

THE LAMENTATION OF DAVID OVER SAUL AND JONATHAN

II Samuel i. 19-27

Thy beauty, Israel, is fled,

Sunk to the dead;

How are the valiant fallen! The slain

Thy mountains stain.

Oh, let it not in Gath be known,

Nor in the streets of Askelon!

Lest that sad story should excite

Their dire delight;

Lest in the torrent of our woe
Their pleasure flow;

Lest their triumphant daughters ring
Their cymbals, and their paeans sing.

You hills of Gilboa, never may
You offerings pay;

No morning dew nor fruitful showers
Clothe you with flowers;

Saul and his arms there made a spoil,
As if untoucht with sacred oil.

The bow of noble Jonathan

Great battles won;

His arrows on the mighty fed

With slaughter red;

Saul never raised his arm in vain,

His sword still glutted with the slain.

THE LAMENTATION OF DAVID

How lovely, oh, how pleasant, when
They lived with men!

Than eagles swifter; stronger far
Than lions are;

Whom love in life so strangely tied,
The stroke of death could not divide.

Sad Israel's daughters, weep for Saul;
Lament his fall,

Who fed you with the earth's increase,
And crowned with peace;

With robes of Tyrian purple deckt,
And gems which sparkling light reflect.

How are Thy worthies by the sword
Of war devoured!

O Jonathan! the better part

Of my torn heart!

The savage rocks have drunk thy blood;
My brother! oh, how kind! how good!

127

GEORGE SANDYS

There were two men, both dwellers in one town;
The one was mighty, and exceeding rich
In oxen, sheep, and cattle of the field;
The other poor, having nor ox nor calf,
Nor other cattle, save one little lamb,

Which he had bought, and nourished by his hand;
And it grew up, and fed with him and his,
And ate and drank as he and his were wont,
And in his bosom slept, and was to him
As was his daughter or his dearest child.
There came a stranger to the wealthy man,
And he refused and spared to take his own,
Or of his store to dress or take his meat,
But took the poor man's sheep-his only store-
And drest it for this stranger in his house.
What, tell me, shall be done to him for this?"
DAVID. Now, as the Lord doth live, this wicked

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man

Is judged, and shall become the child of death; Fourfold to the poor man he shall restore That without mercy took his lamb away." NATHAN. "Thou art the man, and thou hast judged thyself.

'David,' thus saith the Lord, thy God, by me,

'I thee anointed king in Israel,

And saved thee from the tyranny of Saul;

PARABLE OF NATHAN AND DAVID 129

Thy master's house I gave thee to possess,
And Judah and Jerusalem withal;

And might, thou know'st, had this been too small,
Have given thee much more.

Wherefore, then, hast thou gone so far astray
And hast done evil, and sinned in my sight?
Urias thou hast killed with the sword,-

Thou hast him slain; wherefore, from this day forth,

The sword shall never go from thee and thine.' DAVID. "Nathan, I know against the Lord I have Sinned, O sinned grievously, and lo!

'Fore Heaven's throne doth David throw himself."

NATHAN. "David, stand up; thus saith the Lord by me:

'David, the king, shall live,' for He hath seen

The true repentant sorrow of thy heart.

But for thou hast in this misdeed of thine

Stirred up the enemies of Israel

To triumph, and blaspheme the Lord of Hosts,
And say: 'He set a wicked man to reign
Over His loved people and His tribes,'

The child shall surely die that erst was born."

DAVID. "How just is Jacob's God in all His

works!

But must it die that David loveth so?

Mourn, Israel; weep in Sion's gates;

Wither, ye cedar trees of Lebanon.”

GEORGE PEELE

49

DAVID'S GRIEF FOR HIS CHILD

II Samuel xii. 15-23

'Twas daybreak, and the fingers of the dawn
Drew the night's curtain, and touched silently
The eyelids of the king. And David woke,
And robed himself, and prayed. The inmates, now,
Of the vast palace were astir, and feet
Glided along the tessellated floors

With a pervading murmur, and the fount
Whose music had been all the night unheard,
Played as if light had made it audible;
And each one, waking, blessed it unaware.

The fragrant strife of sunshine with the morn Sweetened the air to ecstasy; and now

The king's wont was to lie upon his couch

Beneath the sky-roof of the inner court,

And, shut in from the world, but not from Heaven,

Play with his loved son by the fountain's lip;
For, with idolatry confessed alone

To the rapt wires of his reproofless harp,
He loved the child of Bath-sheba. And when
The golden selvedge of his robe was heard
Sweeping the marble pavement, from within
Broke forth a child's laugh suddenly, and words-
Articulate, perhaps, to his heart only-

Pleading to come to him. They brought the boy,
An infant cherub, leaping as if used

To hover with that motion upon wings,