2 Samuel 5:8

Whosoever, &c. An obscure and probably corrupt passage. The E. V., which transposes the first two clauses and introduces an apodosis from Chronicles, cannot be defended. The most probable explanations, neither of them however free from serious objections, are:

(1) Whosoever smiteth the Jebusite,

let him hurl down the precipice

both the lame and the blind,

hated of David's soul.

David bids his men give no quarter, taking up the words of the Jebusites, and in derision calling their garrison "blind and lame."

(2) Whosoever smiteth the Jebusite,

let him reach the watercourse,

[and smite] both the lame and the blind,

hated of David's soul.

According to this rendering there is a reference to the way in which the citadel, supposed by its defenders to be inaccessible, was to be scaled, either by some waterworn gully in the rock, or through a subterranean channel which had been constructed to supply the fortress with water.

The author of the book of Chronicles either had a different text in his original authority, or, more probably, omitted an expression which was already obscure. He gives the passage thus: "Whosoever smiteth the Jebusites first shall be chief and captain. So Joab the son of Zeruiah went first up, and was chief."

The Sept. reads; "Whosoever smiteth the Jebusite, let him slay with the sword both the lame and the blind who hate David's soul." The Vulg. gives a mere paraphrase: "For David had offered a reward on that day to the man who should smite the Jebusite, and reach the water-pipes of the houses, and remove the blind and lame who hated David's soul."

Wherefore they said Wherefore they are wont to say: the regular phrase for introducing a proverb.Cp. 1 Samuel 19:24.

The blind, &c. This is understood by the Sept., which reads "into the house of the Lord," and by the Vulgate, which renders "into the Temple," to mean that the blind and lame were excluded from the Temple. But this does not seem to have been the case, although they were forbidden to minister (Leviticus 21:18). The explanation that it was a proverb applied to obnoxious persons, meaning "We will not have disagreeable persons in the house," does not take account of the origin of the saying. Probably it should be rendered as a kind of exclamation: "Blind and lame! he cannot come into the house!" i.e. the blind and the lame are sufficient to defend the fortress: he (the assailant) cannot enter into it.