< Previous | Contents | Next >
(2.) The eldest son of king Saul, and the bosom friend of David. He is first mentioned when he was about thirty years of age, some time after his father’s accession to the throne (1 Samuel 13:2). Like his father, he was a man of great strength and activity (2 Samuel 1:23), and excelled in archery and slinging (1 Chronicles 12:2;2 Samuel 1:22). The affection that evidently subsisted between him and his father was interrupted by the growth of Saul’s insanity. At length, “in fierce anger,” he left his father’s presence and cast in his lot with the cause of David (1 Samuel 20:34). After an eventful career, interwoven to a great extent with that of David, he fell, along with his father and his two brothers, on the fatal field of Gilboa (1 Samuel 31:2, 8). He was first buried at Jabesh-gilead, but his remains were afterwards removed with those of his father to Zelah, in Benjamin (2 Samuel 21:12-14). His death was the occasion of David’s famous elegy of “the Song of the Bow” (2 Samuel 1:17-27). He left one son five years old, Merib-baal, or Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 4:4; comp. 1 Chronicles 8:34).
(3.) Son of the high priest Abiathar, and one who adhered to David at the time of Absalom’s rebellion (2 Samuel 15:27, 36). He is the last descendant of Eli of whom there is any record.
(4.) Son of Shammah, and David’s nephew, and also one of his chief warriors (2 Samuel 21:21). He slew a giant in Gath.
•JOPPA beauty, a town in the portion of Dan (Joshua 19:46; A.V., “Japho”), on a sandy promontory between Caesarea and Gaza, and at a distance of 30 miles north-west from Jerusalem. It is one of the oldest towns in Asia. It was and still is the chief sea-port of Judea. It was never wrested from the Phoenicians. It became a Jewish town only in the second