th.[Q] The chronology of
this period is obscure. David reigned in Hebron seven years and a half,
and as Ishbosheth's phantom sovereignty only occupied two of these
years, and those evidently the last, it would appear almost as if the
Philistines had held the country, with the exception of Judah, in such
force that no rival cared to claim the dangerous dignity, and that five
years passed before the invaders were so far cleared out as to leave
leisure for civil war.

[Q] The Canaanitish worship of Baal seems to have lingered in Saul's
family. One of his grand-uncles was named Baal (1 Chron. ix. 36); his
son was really called Eshbaal (Fire of Baal), which was contemptuously
converted into Ishbosheth (Man of Shame). So also Mephibosheth was
properly Meribbaal (Fighter for Baal).

The summary narrative of these seven years presents the still youthful
king in a very lovable light. The same temper which had marked his first
acts after Saul's death is strikingly brought out (2 Sam. ii.-iv.) He
seems to have left the conduct of the war altogether to Joab, as if he
shrank from striking a single blow for his own advancement. When he does
interfere, it is on the side of peace, to curb and chastise ferocious
vengeance and dastardly assassination. The incidents recorded all go to
make up a picture of rare generosity, of patient waiting for God to
fulfil His purposes, of longing that the miserable strife between the
tribes of God's inheritance should end. He sends grateful messages to
Jabesh-Gilead; he will not begin the conflict with the insurgents. The
only actual fight recorded is provoked by Abner, and managed with
unwonted mildness by Joab. The list of his children born in Hebron is
inserted in the very heart of the story of the insurrection, a token of
the quiet domestic life of peaceful joys and cares which he lived while
the storm was raging without. Eagerly, and without suspicion, he
welcomes Abner's advances towards reconciliation. He falls for a moment
to the level of his times, and yields to a strong temptation, in making
the restoration of his long-lost wife Michal the condition of further
negotiations--a demand which was strictly just, no doubt, but for which
little more can be said. The generosity of his nature and the ideal
purity of his love, which that incident shadows, shine out again in his
indignation at Joab's murder of Abner, though he was too meek to avenge
it. There is no more beautiful picture in his life th