2 Samuel 12:31

_AND HE BROUGHT FORTH THE PEOPLE THAT WERE THEREIN, AND PUT THEM UNDER SAWS, AND UNDER HARROWS OF IRON, AND UNDER AXES OF IRON, AND MADE THEM PASS THROUGH THE BRICK-KILN: AND THUS DID HE UNTO ALL THE CITIES OF THE CHILDREN OF AMMON. SO DAVID AND ALL THE PEOPLE RETURNED UNTO JERUSALEM._ He brought forth the people ... and put them under saws ... This excessive severity and employment of tortures which the Hebrews on no other occasion are recorded to have practiced, must have been resorted to as an act of retributive justice on a people who were infamous for their cruelties (1 Samuel 11:2; Amos 1:13). Josephus ('Antiquities,' b. 7:, ch. 7:, sec. 5), who gives the same account as in our version, speaks of the conqueror torturing the Ammonites before putting them to death. But for the sake of humani

26-31 To be thus severe in putting the children of Ammon to slavery was a sign that David's heart was not yet made soft by repentance, at the time when this took place. We shall be most compassionate, kind, and forgiving to others, when we most feel our need of the Lord's forgiving love, and taste the sweetness of it in our own souls....

Verse 2 Samuel 12:31. _HE BROUGHT FORTH THE PEOPLE_] And put them _under saws_. From this representation a great cry has been raised against "David's unparalleled, if not diabolic, cruelty." I believe this interpretation was chiefly taken from the parallel place, 1 Chronicles 20:3, where it is said, _he cut_ them _with saws, and with axes_, c. Instead of וישר _vaiyasar, he sawed_, we have here (in Samuel) וישם _vaiyasem, he_ _put them_ and these two words differ from each other only in a _part of a single letter_, ר resh for ם _mem_. And it is worthy of remark, that instead of וישר _vaiyasar, he sawed_, in 1 Chronicles 20:3, six or seven MSS. collated...

For the saw as an implement of torture compare Hebrews 11:37. HARROWS OF IRON - Or rather thrashing-machines (Isaiah 28:27; Isaiah 41:15, etc.). AXES - The word so rendered occurs only here and in 1 Chronicles 20:3. It evidently means some cutting instrument. MADE THEM PASS THROUGH THE BRICK-KILN - The phrase is that always used of the cruel process of making their children pass through the fire to Moloch, and it is likely that David punished this idolatrous practice by infli

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 12:1 JEHOVAH SENT NATHAN UNTO DAVID. Though David had remained unrepentant for nearly a year, for we read in 2 Samuel 12:14 that the child was born, yet we are not to suppose that there had been no compunctions of conscience. A man could scarcely pass from utter callousness to a state of mind so tender as that depicted in Psalms 51:1 without some preparation. Assuredly David had suffered much mental distress, but he had given no outward sign of contrition, and possibly, but for Nathan's message, he might have overpowered his conscience, and his self-reproaches have become less frequent and agitating. More probably he was slowly ripening for re

AND HE BROUGHT FORTH THE PEOPLE THAT [WERE] THEREIN,.... Not all the inhabitants of the place, but the princes of the children of Ammon, the counsellors of Hattun, who advised him to use David's ambassadors in so shameful a manner, and others that expressed their pleasure and satisfaction in it: AND PUT [THEM] UNDER SAWS, AND UNDER HARROWS OF IRON, AND UNDER AXES OF IRON; whereby they were cut asunder, as some were by the Romans and others n, or their flesh torn to pieces, and they put to extreme pain and agony, and so died most miserably; see 1 Chronicles 20:3; AND MADE THEM PASS THROUGH THE BRICKKILN; where they burnt their bricks, by which they were not only scorched and blistered, but burnt to death; so the word in the "Keri", or margin, signifies, which we follow; but in the text it is, they caused them to pass through Malcem, the same wi

2. THE MESSAGE OF GOD AND DAVID'S CONFESSION AND THE BEGINNING OF THE CHASTISEMENT CHAPTER 12 _ 1. The Lord's message through Nathan (2 Samuel 12:1)_ 2. David's anger (2 Samuel 12:5) 3. Thou art the man! (2 Samuel 12:7) 4. The chastisement (2 Samuel 12:10) 5. David's confession (2 Samuel 12:13) 6. The death of the child announced (2 Samuel 12:14) 7. The death of the child and David's grie

2 SAMUEL 12. DAVID'S REPENTANCE. CAPTURE OF RABBAH (J). The section concerning Nathan (2 Samuel 12:1_ a_) is sometimes regarded as a later addition by some one who was anxious to point out and emphasize the moral; but this view is not generally held. Only 2 Samuel 12:10 need be regarded as editorial. The chapter is important because it shows that the primitive ideas as to the morality of Yahweh were very real, though they might be defective in some directions. 2 SAMUEL 12:1. Nathan, by parable and admonition, brings David's guilt home to him; he makes penitent confession. Yahweh puts away his sin, which is thought of as a kind of disease, which would of itself kill the sinner, if it were n

PUT. appointed, appointed over, set, &c. Hebrew. _sum_ (Genesis 2:8; Genesis 45:8; Genesis 45:9; Genesis 47:6; Exodus 2:14; Exodus 5:14. 1Sa 8:11. 1 Samuel 7:10; 2 Kings 10:24.Psalms 78:5;...

Capture of Rabbah = 1 Chronicles 20:1-3...