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.

Ver. 8. Whosoever getteth up to the gutter.] This bitter scoff had not so much encouraged as enraged David and his men to assault the fort, which they took by scaling, Joab venturing almost as hard for it, as that brave Englishman did, who, at the storming of an earthwork in the low countries, caught hold of a pike in the hand of his enemy, and was thereby drawn up to the taking of the place.

Wherefore they said.] Or, Because they had said, even the blind and the lame, He shall not come into the house, that is, into the hold. Now because they had put this scorn upon him, David was set upon it to have them out. So the king of France, jesting at William the Conqueror's great belly, whereof he said he lay in at Rouen, so irritated him, as he being recovered of a sickness, entered France in the chiefest time of their fruits, making spoil of all in his way till he came even to Paris, where the king of France then was, to show him of his activity after his illness: and from thence marched to the city of Mentz, which he utterly sacked, &c. a

a Dan Hist., 42.

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