David had now passed from the obscurity of a chief of a wandering and exiled band of followers to the dignity of an Oriental monarch, and turned his attention to the organization of his kingdom and the development of its resources.  His army was raised to two hundred and eighty thousand regular soldiers.  His intimate friends and best-tried supporters were made generals, governors, and ministers.  Joab was commander-in-chief; and Benaiah, son of the high-priest, was captain of his body-guard,—­composed chiefly of foreigners, after the custom of princes in most ages.  His most trusted counsellors were the prophets Gad and Nathan.  Zadok and Abiathar were the high-priests, who also superintended the music, to which David gave special attention.  Singing men and women celebrated his victories.  The royal household was regulated by different grades of officers.  But David departed from the stern simplicity of Saul, and surrounded himself with pomps and guards.  None were admitted to his presence without announcement or without obeisance, while he himself was seated on a throne, with a golden sceptre in his hands and a jewelled crown upon his brow, clothed in robes of purple and gold.  He made alliances with powerful chieftains and kings, and imitated their fashion of instituting a harem for his wives and concubines,—­becoming in every sense an Oriental monarch, except that his power was limited by the constitution which had been given by Moses.  He reigned, it would seem, in justice and equity, and in obedience to the commands of Jehovah, whose servant he felt himself to be.  Nor did he violate any known laws of morality, unless it were the practice of polygamy, in accordance with the custom of all Eastern potentates, permitted to them if not to their ordinary subjects.  We infer from all incidental notices of the habits of the Israelites at this period that they were a remarkably virtuous people, with primitive tastes and love of domestic life, among whom female chastity was esteemed the highest virtue; and it is a matter of surprise that the loose habits of the King in regard to women provoked so little comment among his subjects, and called out so few rebukes from his advisers.

But he did not surrender himself to the inglorious luxury in which Oriental monarchs lived.  He retained his warlike habits, and in great national crises he headed his own troops in battle.  It would seem that he was not much molested by external enemies for twenty years after making Jerusalem his capital, but reigned in peace, devoting himself to the welfare of his subjects, and collecting materials for the future building of the Temple,—­its actual erection being denied to him as a man of blood.  Everything favored the national prosperity of the Israelites.  There was no great power in western Asia to prevent them founding a permanent monarchy; Assyria had been humbled; and Egypt, under the last kings of the twentieth dynasty, had lost its ancient prestige; the Philistines were driven to a narrow portion of their old dominion, and the king of Tyre sought friendly alliance with David.