THE FIRST KING OF ISRAEL. 165

their iron work done. So there was not a smith in
all the land of Israel.

Marianne. Was not that a strange thing for the
Philistines to do ?

George. Not strange at all. Cyrus did the same
to the Lydians when he conquered them, and other con-
querors have done it too.

Grandfather. It was not so strange that the Philis-
tines should desire to prevent the men of Israel from
making implements of iron; but it was strange that the
Israelites submitted to it. It was very weak in them
to yield to such tyranny. It made them very defence-
less at this time, when detached parties from the Phili-
stines were laying waste their country, and plundering
their people. The Israelites, for their sins, suffered
from terror and oppression, But although terror
weighed down the spirits of almost all the men of
Israel, there was at least one whose brave heart was
not cowed: it was Jonathan, the son of Saul. The
king and his six hundred men sought a sequestered
place to stay in, where no one was likely to spy them
out; but Jonathan did not think of hiding from his
enemies ; his thoughts were of attacking them. He did
not tell his father nor any one, except his armour-bearer,
whom he asked to go with him to the Philistines’
garrison.

George. Why did he not take all the army with him ;
two men could do nothing against so many ?

Grandfather. The others would have been afraid to