more honorable."

[24] The number of men that came first to David, are distinctly in
Josephus, and in our common copies, but four hundred. When he was at
Keilah still but four hundred, both in Josephus and in the LXXX.; but
six hundred in our Hebrew copies, 1 Samuel 23:3; see 30:9, 10. Now the
six hundred there mentioned are here estimated by Josephus to have
been so many, only by an augmentation of two hundred afterward, which I
suppose is the true solution of this seeming disagreement.

[25] In this and the two next sections, we may perceive how Josephus,
nay, how Abigail herself, would understand, the "not avenging ourselves,
but heaping coals of fire on the head of the injurious," Proverbs 25:22;
Romans 12:20, not as we do now, of them into but of leaving them to
the judgment of God, "to whom vengeance belongeth," Deuteronomy 32:35;
Psalms 94:1; Hebrews 10:30, and who will take vengeance on the wicked.
And since all God's judgments are just, and all fit to be executed, and
all at length for the good of the persons punished, I incline to think
that to be the meaning of this phrase of "heaping coals of fire on their
heads."

[26] We may note here, that how sacred soever an oath was esteemed among
the people of God in old times, they did not think it obligatory where
the action was plainly unlawful. For so we see it was in this case of
David, who, although he had sworn to destroy Nabal and his family,
yet does he here, and 1 Samuel 25:32-41, bless God for preventing his
keeping his oath, and shedding of blood, which he had swore to do.

[27] This history of Saul's consultation, not with a witch, as we render
the Hebrew word here, but with a necromancer, as the whole history
shows, is easily understood, especially if we consult the Recognitions
of Clement, B. I. ch. 5. at large, and more briefly, and nearer the days
of Samuel Ecclus. 46:20, "Samuel prophesied after his death, and showed
the king his end, and lift up his voice from the earth in prophecy," to
blot out "the wickedness of the people." Nor does the exactness of
the accomplishment of this prediction, the very next day, permit us to
suppose any imposition upon Saul in the present history; for as to
all modern hypotheses against the natural sense of such ancient
and authentic histories, I take them to be of very small value or
consideration.

[28] These great commendations of this necromantic woman of Endor, and
of Saul's martial courage, when yet he knew