176 BOYS OF THE BIBLE.

of the Philistines round about, to publish it in the house of
their idols and among their people. And they put his armor
in the house of Ashtaroth; and they fastened his body to the
wall of Beth-shan.” .

Could anything be more humiliating? Israel’s heart was
broken. For in the fall of Saul all the land had fallen—in
Saul’s disgrace all Israel was disgraced. There are not many
passages in all the scriptures more tender and beautiful than
David’s lament over Saul and over Jonathan his son:—

“Tell it not in Gath!
Publish it not in the streets of Askelon!
Lest the daughter of the Philistine’s rejoice,
Lest the daughter of the uncircumcised triumph!
Ye mountains of Gilboa,
Let there be no dew, neither let there be any rain upon you,
Nor fields of offerings:
For here the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away:
The shield of Saul;
As though he had not been anointed with oil.
Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,
Who clothed you in scarlet with other delights;
Who put on ornaments of gold on your apparel.
How are the mighty fallen?
And the weapons of war perished.”

Nearly a generation had passed since the death of Saul,
and the Gibeonites had resumed somewhat of their former
position. But we may be sure they had not forgotten the
wrongs Saul had inflicted upon their fathers. There were
probably many living who had shared in the terrors of that
awful massacre. What tales of horror they would have to
tell! They were a singing people, and would probably throw
into the shape of ballad, or song, or poem, the record of
their wrongs. Anyway, a bitter and vengeful spirit was
kept alive in the hearts of these Gibeonites for all the sur-
vivors of the house of Saul. .