2 Samuel 6:2

from Baale of Judah Baale of Judahis generally supposed to be another name for Kirjath-jearim, which is called Baalahin Joshua 15:9; 1 Chronicles 13:6, and Kirjath-Baal in Joshua 15:60. Here the Ark had remained since its return from the country of the Philistines (1 Samuel 7:1-2). If the preposition "from" is correct, we must assume that the narrator passes over the journey to Kirjath-jearim, and speaks of the return only: but this seems improbable, and most commentators emend the text in accordance with 1 Chronicles 13:6, and read " to. "

The ancient versions however do not take the words as a proper name, but render them "of the rulers" or "of the men, of Judah," the word being the same as that translated "men" in ch. 2 Samuel 21:12. If this is right, the name of the place has dropped out from the text and must be restored, so that the verse would read, "And David and all the people that were with him of the rulers of Judah arose and went to Baalah to bring up, &c." This appears to have been the reading found by the LXX., though partly misunderstood by them, and has strong claims to be considered as the true text.

The usual identification of Kirjath-jearim with Kuryet-el-enab(see note on 1 Samuel 6:21) has lately been called in question by Lieut. Conder, who proposes to place it at "Erma, four miles E. of Ain Shems(Beth-shemesh), on the edge of the Wady-es-Suraror Valley of Sorek. The name "Ermacorresponds to the form Arim, which took the place of the original Jearimin later times (Ezra 2:25); the dense brushwood still clothing the hills agrees with the meaning of the name "city of forests;" and the position suits the data much better than the Kuryet-el-enabsite. See Pal. Expl. Fund Quart. Paperfor Oct. 1881, p. 261.

whose name, &c. Better, which is called by the Name, the name of Jehovah of Hosts, who sitteth enthroned upon the cherubim. Cp. Deu 28:10; 1 Kings 8:43. "The Name" is first written absolutely, as at the end of Leviticus 24:16, and then more fully defined as "the name of Jehovah of Hosts." In later Jewish writings "the Name" is commonly used to signify God, and especially as an equivalent for the sacred name Jehovah which might not be pronounced.

The Ark is specially said to be "called by the name of Jehovah of Hosts," because it was the symbol of the covenant between Jehovah and Israel, and because it was the place where He chiefly chose to manifest Himself by visible tokens to His people. Cp. notes on 1 Samuel 4:4; 1 Samuel 4:21; and for the meaning of the title "Jehovah of Hosts" see Additional Note 1 Timothy 1 Sam. p. 235.