“Well then, you need not fear him any longer,” I said, trying to use a teasing tone of voice to disguise the pangs of doubt that had begun to gnaw at me. “Madmen are no threat to the security of Israel. Tell Father that, now that David has been officially pronounced insane, you can disband Abner’s army of spies and let the soldiers return home.”
“I might have agreed with you if that were the end of the story, but David didn’t make do with the role of the madman of Gath for very long. Eventually, he revealed his true identity to Achish and asked for refuge for his family and the criminal militia of the sons of Zeruiah. In return, David agreed to serve as the king’s senior advisor on affairs relating to Israel. In other words: he agreed to reveal our most confidential security secrets.”
I opened my mouth, but the scream lodged in my throat.
* * *
When I noticed Jaarah’s round belly, I thought to myself with pride that the hard things I’d said to Jonathan about the celibacy of the men in our family had helped bring about his wife’s quick impregnation. I felt like the prophet Miriam, who reproached her father for abstaining from her mother and thus brought about the birth of her brother Moses. When she grew older, she also reproached Moses for abstaining from Zipporah and, in doing so, reunited them as well.
“I wish you could reproach your father, too,” Rizpah said painfully when I shared my feelings with her.
I looked at her in surprise, for Father’s opinion of me had become so low that any attempt by me to intervene in his personal life would be worse than unhelpful; it might even make things worse. I suddenly recalled how, when I’d burst into the throne room years ago to demand that he not offer Merab as a prize, he didn’t castigate me, but instead declared before his stunned servants that he was proud to have a daughter like the prophet Miriam, who dared to lecture her father. The memory was so painful that I was only barely able to keep my expression under control beneath the watchful gaze of Rizpah. I’d already made my peace with being the rejected daughter, along with my brother Jonathan, but every once in a while the pain came back and plagued me, as it had at the beginning, when I’d returned home after my year of traveling with David, only to find that I’d lost the family I once had.
The pride I felt over Jaarah’s pregnancy renewed my lust for life somewhat, but these shreds of happiness ended when she died in childbirth. When I saw that the stricken Jonathan was unable to give his son love, I made up my mind to raise him in my home with Paltiel. Around the same time, I heard the rumors of Kileab, Abigail’s first son, who was born in the town of Ziklag, which had been given to David by Achish as a reward for his dedicated service to the Philistine people. I felt like Rachel, who watched all the women around her constantly giving birth, not to mention the cattle and sheep being fruitful and multiplying, while her womb remained empty. To my disappointment, Father decided that the orphaned Micah would be given to Rizpah to be raised in her home with Armoni and Mephiel. It was never said explicitly, but it was clear to everyone that I was not considered suitable as a foster mother precisely because I was childless. I couldn’t be trusted to give up the child and return him to his father when the time came.
The sorrow over the death of Jaarah was heavy, but life has its own force, and the sounds of the merriment of the seven beautiful children scampering all through the palace on their little feet brought happiness back to our family. Only Jonathan would not be comforted. He walked among us, grief stricken, and even the sight of his delightful baby boy couldn’t put a smile on his face. He was haunted by the knowledge that he hadn’t brought his wife joy in her short life, and this made him turn morose. Needless to say, the continuing erosion of his status in the family only exacerbated his bitterness. My heart ached to see him suddenly become old before his time, and I asked myself painfully if people also saw me as a downtrodden, bitter woman, who had only ten years before been considered the most beautiful woman alive. Paltiel kept swearing that my beauty only increased with the passing of the years, but I knew I would be beautiful forever in his eyes, even when my hair turned white and my face grew wrinkled.
* * *
When rumors reached the palace of a slaughter carried out in the desert of southern Judah by the army of the sons of Zeruiah, I felt my body turn to stone. That night I cried out in my sleep. Paltiel came into my room and hesitantly ran his hand over my damp hair.
“Tell me that this time you also know that Abner is lying,” I begged.
“He claims to have witnesses from the desert of southern Judah.”
“They are false witnesses! If the army of the sons of Zeruiah killed everyone—man, woman, and child—then there were no witnesses left alive.”
“Perhaps there were a few survivors. These things happen.”
I steadied my rigid body and sat up in bed. My face twisted with pain, and my breathing grew heavy, as if I’d exhausted my body with hard work. Paltiel watched me with concern.
“I know you hate David. Unlike Father and Merab, you at least have good reason. But do you truly believe an Israelite is capable of killing an entire village of his own people only to prove his loyalty to a foreign king? Does it make sense to you that a man would kill children and babies from his own tribe only to make the king in whose land he has taken refuge believe that he has betrayed his people?”
“No.” Paltiel cast down his eyes. “It does not make sense to me.”
I slipped back into bed and turned to face the wall. “I want you to stay the night with me,” I whispered to him.
“I’ll always stay with you, my love,” I heard his voice saying behind me.
* * *
The Philistine attack was like a lightning strike on a sunny day. In the weeks that preceded it, there had indeed been reports of a suspicious deployment of Philistine forces, but Father’s ministers and advisors, including his three sons and two sons-in-law, all declared confidently that we had never been in a better situation and that no enemy would dare attack us in the near future. Our soldiers sat complacently all along the western border and did not even have time to pick up their weapons when the Philistines invaded their camps in a surprise attack. Their accurate intelligence helped them gain control swiftly. They knew which gates to enter, how many guards were stationed at each gate, where the other soldiers would be, where the horses were stabled, and which structures served as weapon stores.
The tribes of Israel received the king’s emergency decree with utter shock, refusing to believe that all the military camps along the western border, from Aphek in the south to Shunam in the north, had fallen to the Philistines. But the call-up took place without a hitch. Husbands left their wives, fathers said good-bye to their children, and boys kissed their old mothers, vowing to stop the uncircumcised ones and save the people of Israel.
My three brothers also took their leave from Mother, and Jonathan even managed to snap out of his detachment from his baby boy before he left. “Micah, my son” we heard him mumble. “When I return from the war, I will take you back.”
Mother’s body shook with the force of her weeping. Merab and I held her shoulders and tried to hold back our own tears, while Rizpah, who stood to the side, gave herself permission to wipe her eyes.
“I can’t be worried about all my sons,” Mother wailed. “My heart cannot take so much worry.”
Merab reminded her that her youngest son, Ishvi, and her two sons-in-law were not going out to battle, but this only made her cry harder.
Adriel and Paltiel did not easily accept their fates. First, they declared firmly that the crown prince was the one who should stay in the palace, but after Father reminded them that Jonathan had been out of touch with the affairs of state for years, they suggested leaving behind Abinadab and Malkishua, who were well versed in leadership and could take over if the situation required it. But a stone-faced Father declared that the sons of the king had to participate in the battle for the sake of the fighters’ morale, and he ordered his sons-in-law to remain at young Ishvi’s side.<
br />
* * *
No news came from the front at Mount Gilboa. Though my nerves were nearly shot, I managed to put on a calm face and tell Mother that I was certain we would soon be welcoming the king and the three princes home with music and dancing as they returned victorious from the battlefield. But when I learned that Abner son of Ner was not joining the battle, I lost control of myself and burst into his room of secrets in a fit of rage.
“You coward!” The roar that came out of my throat frightened even me. “Go and defend Father instead of lying around the palace. It’s your job! It’s what you were appointed to do!”
He looked up contemptuously from the scrolls laid out before him. “And who will expose the critical intelligence about the son of Jesse?”
“There’s nothing more to expose. The Philistines have already overrun our military camps.”
He got up and walked over to me. His body cast a menacing shadow over my face. “There’s still much left to expose. Your first husband will not rest until he sees the Kingdom of Israel fall.”
I stared at him wordlessly.
“You don’t believe me? I understand you. Even the Philistine commanders had a hard time believing that a man could betray his people to such an extent. You should have seen how shocked they were when the son of Jesse begged Achish to let him join them in their war against Israel.”
I continued to gape at him until servants came in to announce that a messenger had arrived from Mount Gilboa with important information. I ran to the throne room as fast as I could. Father’s empty throne made my throat catch, but the news gave me hope. Our fighters had managed to block the Philistine invasion. The Israelite towns in the valley and beyond the Jordan River were saved. But Mount Gilboa was lost. There were many casualties, but the precise number was unknown. The fighters were being counted to see who was missing.
“Are my father and my three brothers safe?” I asked boldly.
“Have no fear, Princess,” replied the messenger. “If something terrible had befallen the king or one of his sons, God forbid, the entire land would already be in an uproar.”
* * *
But at midnight another messenger arrived, and the horror on his face spoke what words could never say.
The whole land cried with us.
Even the heavens wept.
The Israelites fled before the Philistines,
And many fell dead on Mount Gilboa.
The Philistines killed Saul and Jonathan and Abinadab and Malkishua,
So Saul and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men died together that same day.
The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead,
They found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
They cut off their heads,
And stripped off their armor,
And fastened their bodies to the wall of Beth Shan.
Sixteen
Paltiel forcefully grabbed me and shouted that we shouldn’t go inside. Merab surrendered. She didn’t have the power to resist. But I wouldn’t give in. I hadn’t kissed Mother in many years, and I felt I had to kiss her now. I wanted her to have a last kiss from the younger daughter with whom she’d never been close. I struggled wildly, trying to free myself from the strong arms that were gripping me. Paltiel wouldn’t let go. He wanted me to remember Mother the way she used to be.
The pierced body was buried surreptitiously, wrapped in a thick shroud. We told the servants there was no way we could have a large public funeral for our mother while the bodies of our father and three brothers were hanging on a wall. But that wasn’t the whole truth. We were trying to hide the circumstances of the queen’s death from the people. We hoped they would believe that her heart couldn’t bear the news that the messenger had delivered.
But the rumor spread throughout the land. “Queen Ahinoam fell on her sword,” people whispered in horror, trying to imagine what a woman who has lost her husband and three sons in a single day feels the moment before throwing herself upon the sword. They didn’t know that her faithful maid, who couldn’t bear the extended death throes of her mistress, had pulled the sword out of her belly and pierced her heart in order to put an end to her misery.
Ishvi’s coronation was recorded in the chronicles of Israel as a heartbreaking affair. Not one of the tens of thousands of people that crammed into Gibeah could remain dry-eyed at the sight of the two grieving sisters accompanying their only remaining brother to the royal throne. When Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, anointed the young prince, great moans rose up out of the crowd, rather than cheers of joy. Only when the new king managed to steady his feet and stand up straight, supported on both sides by his older brothers-in-law, and the people could see that he was no less tall and handsome than his dead father and brothers, did the cries of fealty begin to sound. At first they were quiet, almost hesitant, and then gradually louder, until they filled the streets of Gibeah: “Long live Ishvi son of Saul, King of Israel!”
Over the course of my brother’s sad coronation ceremony, I recalled the moving stories of the ceremony that had been held for my father so many years before, while I was still in my mother’s womb. “We should never have agreed to let Abner fill the role of the prophet Samuel,” I whispered to Rizpah.
She shrugged her skinny shoulders in a gesture of despair. “What choice did we have? Since the death of Samuel, no prophet has been able to command all the tribes of Israel.”
“Any prophet, no matter how small, is better than this man. A man of God should conduct the holy anointment ceremony, not a man of war.”
“If we had made do with a prophet who lacked authority, the people might have gotten the impression that the previous king’s men did not stand behind his young son. Abner’s public support grants Ishvi the authority he needs so badly these days. Many of our people have been disparaging his youth and inexperience, and an entire tribe has failed to appear at his coronation ceremony.” She grew quiet for a moment, then whispered with revulsion, “I loathe Abner even more than you do. He’s been visiting my house every day since the tragedy. I’ve had enough of his condolence visits.”
I reached out a compassionate hand to her face, and I was relieved to feel her anguish at becoming a widow and at her sons becoming orphans. But my own calamity was inconceivable. I still couldn’t feel the gaping hole inside me left by Jonathan’s absence. I still couldn’t feel my desperate yearning for Father. I still hadn’t tried to sketch the features of Abinadab and Malkishua in my mind’s eye. The pangs of longing only began gnawing at my heart some time later.
* * *
Abner’s soldiers had no need for sophisticated spying methods to expose the coronation ceremony that the sons of Jesse held for their younger brother in Hebron. People across the land were talking about it. The people of Israel were pinning their hopes upon their new king, Ishvi son of Saul, and prayed aloud that despite his youth he would have the determination to take the army of Israel into the rebellious town of Hebron and use force to put a stop to the attempt to divide the young kingdom his father had established. The disparate tribes of Israel had dreamed for so many years of becoming a single nation. How could the dream be cast aside only a single generation after it had been achieved? While it’s true that only the tribe of Judah seceded from the rest of Israel and crowned David son of Jesse as its king, and the rest of the tribes swore fealty to Ishvi son of Saul, we are all the children of Jacob, and we mustn’t give up on any tribe.
Adriel and Paltiel were attuned to the will of the nation and decided to launch a fraternal war to prevent the division of the kingdom, but Abner son of Ner objected, arguing that the army of Israel was still licking its wounds after the difficult battle at Mount Gilboa, while the army of the sons of Zeruiah was growing stronger. While it was no longer part of the army of Gath and received no more support from the Philistines, many young people from Judah were joining every day, prepared to kill and be killed for the sake of the kingship of the son of
Jesse.
Young Ishvi was torn between the various opinions that were presented to him. After weighing the possibilities, he finally decided to take Abner’s advice and not go to war against Judah.
“Merab is furious with Ishvi and has nothing but contempt for him, but I actually understand him,” Paltiel told me. “The decision to launch a war of brother against brother is one of the hardest decisions for a king to make. Ishvi sees the secession of Judah as a fait accompli and prefers to focus on the post-war reconstruction.”
I tried to change the subject and began talking about Abner’s increasingly frequent visits to Rizpah, which were making her life miserable. My emotions were complex and confused, as they were whenever I thought of David. In the first days after the tragedy, Paltiel waited for me to come seek comfort in his bed. When he saw that I wasn’t coming, he asked me brazenly if I were still waiting for the son of Jesse to take me back and give me his seed. I told Paltiel that I wasn’t waiting for any seed, not from him, and not from David. The calamity had worn me down nearly to death, and the only thing keeping me alive was my duty to protect the kingdom Father had established by assisting young Ishvi in his first steps as ruler.
“And after that?” Paltiel asked.
“I don’t know, Paltiel,” I replied.
When we sat down to have dinner, I noticed that Merab was impatient for the meal to end and for the servants to put the children to bed. Ever since the calamity, we made sure to have a family dinner every night, trying to give the children a sense of security, a sense that the world hadn’t completely shattered, that life goes on. Since we no longer felt we could dine in the large hall we had used for family gatherings in the past, we moved to a smaller room that made the tragic contraction of our family less glaring. Out of the same desperate desire to provide the children with a semblance of stability, we kept to assigned seats on the four sides of the table. Each adult sat with at least one child: Merab and Adriel sat with Asahel and Benjamin, their two younger children; Paltiel and I sat with Elhanan and Joel, their two older children; Rizpah sat with Armoni and Mephiel, the twins born to her and to Father; and Ishvi sat with Micah, the son of Jonathan and Jaarah.
The Secret Book of Kings: A Novel Page 23
