2 Samuel 5:8

_AND DAVID SAID ON THAT DAY, WHOSOEVER GETTETH UP TO THE GUTTER, AND SMITETH THE JEBUSITES, AND THE LAME AND THE BLIND, THAT ARE HATED OF DAVID'S SOUL, HE SHALL BE CHIEF AND CAPTAIN. WHEREFORE THEY SAID, THE BLIND AND THE LAME SHALL NOT COME INTO THE HOUSE._ Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites х_ KAAL_ (H3605) _ MAKEEH_ (H5221) _ YªBUCIY_ (H2983), whosoever smiteth a Jebusite: so also the Septuagint, Pas tuptoon Iebousaion, everyone striking a Jebusite; _ WªYIGA`_ (H5060) _ BATSINOWR_ (H6794), and reacheth by the watercourse (Psalms 42:8) the lame and the blind, etc.] Stanley ('Sinai and Palestine,' p. 171, no

6-10 The enemies of God's people are often very confident of their own strength, and most secure when their day to fall draws nigh. But the pride and insolence of the Jebusites animated David, and the Lord God of hosts was with him. Thus in the day of God's power, Satan's strong-hold, the human heart, is changed into a habitation of God through the Spirit, and into a throne on which the Son of David rules, and brings every thought into obedience to himself. May He thus come, and claim, and cleanse, each of our hearts; and, destroying every idol, may he reign there for ever!...

i. e. “Whosoever will smite the Jebusites, let him reach both the lame and the blind, who are the hated of David’s soul, by the gutter or water-course, and he shall be chief.” The only access to the citadel was where the water had worn a channel (some understand a subterranean channel), and where there was, in consequence, some vegetation in the rock. Joab (see the marginal reference) took the hint, and with all the activity that had distinguished his brother Anabel 2 Samuel 2:18, climbed up first. The blind and the lame are either literally such, placed there in derision by the Jebusites who thought the stronghold impregnable, or they are the Jebusite garrison, so called in derision by David. WHEREFORE THEY SAID ... - i. e. it became a proverb (as in...

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 5:1 THEN CAME ALL THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL. As Ishbosheth reigned only two years, and David's reign at Hebron lasted for seven years and a half, there is an interval of more than five years to be accounted for; and we have given reason for believing (see note on 2 Samuel 2:10) that it must be placed after the death of Ishbosheth. The treacherous murder of Abner, and the tragic fate of Ishbosheth following upon it so rapidly, must have filled all Israel with horror, and made them look upon David as "a bloody man" (2 Samuel 16:8). But gradually his innocence became clear to all except inveterate partisans, and as the prejudice against him passed away, th

AND DAVID SAID ON THAT DAY,.... On which he took the strong hold of Zion: WHOSOEVER GETTETH UP TO THE GUTTER; where it is generally supposed the blind and lame were, whether images or real men: but what is meant by "Tzinnur", we render "gutter", is not easy to say; we follow some of the Jewish writers, who take it to be a canal, or water spout, used to carry off the water from roofs of houses into cisterns, as the word is rendered in Psalms 42:7; which is the only place besides this in which it is used in Scripture; but R. Isaiah takes it to be the bar or bolt of the gate, and the sense to be, whoever got up to the gate, and got in at that, unbolting it, or breaking through it; the Targum interprets it of the tower of the city, or strong fortress, and so Abarbinel; but Jarchi says it was a ditch, agreeably to which Bochart h translates the words, and indeed more agreeably to

2. DAVID'S CONQUEST OF ZION AND VICTORY OVER THE PHILISTINES CHAPTER 5:6-25 _ 1. David's conquest of Zion (2 Samuel 5:6)_ 2. Hiram King of Tyre (2 Samuel 5:11) 3. David's additional concubines and wives (2 Samuel 5:13) 4. The victory over the Philistines (2 Samuel 5:17) Zion is closely linked with David's anointing as king over all Israel. Here 1 Chronicles 11 must be read for a more complete account of what took place. Jerusalem is now to become the capital of the great kingdom. The oldest name

DAVID BECOMES KING OF UNITED ISRAEL AND JUDAH. HE CAPTURES JERUSALEM (J). (_Cf._ p. 282.) Two notes have been added to this section (2 Samuel 5:4 f. and 2 Samuel 5:13), of the same character as 2 Samuel 2:10_ a_, 11, 2 Samuel 3:1, and probably by the same hand. 2 SAMUEL 5:1. On the basis of terms, a covenant, agreed upon between him and the elders, or Sheikhs, of Israel, David is anointed king over Israel, thus becoming king of both Israel and Judah. This act brought Judah into organic union with the other tribes, for the first

TO THE GUTTER. by (or through) the _zinnor,_. rock-cut passage from the lower Gihon or En-Rogel (now the Virgin's Fount on east of Ophel), leading up into the _city_ and supplying water. Discovered by Sir Charles Warren. Compare note on Nehemiah 2:13, &c. SOUL. Hebrew. _nephesh._ App-13. HE SHALL BE CHIEF AND CAPTAIN. These words are supplied from 1 Chronicles 11:6, which tells that Joab got up the _zinnor_ first. Probably revealed to him (or to David) by Araunah, who (though. Jebusite) was not slain, but is found, later on, owning property quite near (2 Samuel 24:16). Josephus says Araunah was. friend of David's. WHEREFORE. Because....

The Capture of Jebus = 1 Chronicles 11:4-9 6. _to Jerusalem_, &c. The Chronicler paraphrases the text thus, "to Jerusalem, which is Jebus, where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land." Writing after the Captivity, he felt it necessary to explain how the Jebusites came to be dwelling in Jerusalem by a reference to its ancient name of Jebus. It is not a little remarkable that the metropolis of the Jewish monarchy, the most sacred city in the world, does not take its place in the history of the nation until a comparatively late period. As the capital of the important Canaanite tribe of the Jebusites, it bore the name of _Jebus_. It was assigned to Benjamin (Joshua 18:28), but, lying on the border, was first attacked by Judah ...

WHOSOEVER, &C.— Dr. Kennicott observes, that the Hebrew word צנור _zinnor, gutter,_ occurs but once more in the Bible, and does not seem commonly understood in this place. The English version calls it a _gutter;_ the Vulgate, _pipes;_ Vatablus, _channels;_ Junius and Tremellius, _a common sewer;_ Poole, _a pipe for water;_ and Bochart, a _bed or channel of a river._ But most interpreters agree in making the words signify something _hollow,_ and in applying it to _water;_ which might well be applied to a _subterraneous passage,_ or great hollow, through which men could pass and repass for water. That this _zinnor,_ in the text, was _such an under-ground passage,_ might be strongly presumed from the text itself; but it is proved to have been so by Josephus. For, speaking of this very transaction, he says, "The citadel being as yet in possession of the enemy, the king promised that he would...