an that of his
following the bier where lay the bloody corpse of the man who had been
his enemy ever since he had known him, and sealing the reconciliation
which Death ever makes in noble souls, by the pathetic dirge he chanted
over Abner's grave. We have a glimpse of his people's unbounded
confidence in him, given incidentally when we are told that his sorrow
pleased them, "as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people." We
have a glimpse of the feebleness of his new monarchy as against the
fierce soldier who had done so much to make it, in his acknowledgment
that he was yet weak, being but recently anointed king, and that these
vehement sons of Zeruiah were too strong for him; and we have a
remarkable trace of connection with the psalms, in the closing words
with which he invokes on Joab the vengeance which he as yet felt himself
unable to execute: "The Lord shall reward the doer of evil according to
his wickedness."

The only other incident recorded of his reign in Hebron is his execution
of summary justice upon the murderers of the poor puppet-king
Ishbosheth, upon whose death, following so closely that of Abner, the
whole resistance to David's power collapses. There had never been any
real popular opposition. His enemies are emphatically named as "the
house of Saul," and we find Abner himself admitting that "the elders of
Israel" wanted David as king (2 Sam. iii. 17), so that when he was gone,
it is two Benjamites who give the _coup-de-grace_ to Ishbosheth, and end
the whole shadowy rival power. Immediately the rulers of all the tribes
come up to Hebron, with the tender of the crown. They offer it on the
triple grounds of kinship, of his military service even in Saul's reign,
and of the Divine promise of the throne. A solemn pact was made, and
David was anointed in Hebron, a king by Divine right, but also a
constitutional monarch chosen by popular election, and limited in his
powers.

The first result of his new strength is the capture of the old
hill-fortress of the Jebusites, the city of Melchizedek, which had
frowned down upon Israel unsubdued till now, and whose inhabitants
trusted so absolutely in its natural strength that their answer to the
demand for surrender was the jeer, "Thou wilt not come hither, but the
blind and lame will drive thee away." This time David does not leave the
war to others. For the first time for seven years we read, "_The king_
and his men went to Jerusalem." Established there a