AFTER THE YEAR WAS EXPIRED - The next spring after the escape of the Ammonites into their city 2 Samuel 10:14. THE CHILDREN OF AMMON - The marginal reference supplies the word “the land of,” which is obviously the right reading. DAVID TARRIED AT JERUSALEM - The Syrians being subdued, the war with... [ Continue Reading ]
AN EVENINGTIDE - The evening began at three o’clock in the afternoon.... [ Continue Reading ]
ELIAM - Or Ammiel, 1 Chronicles 3:5, the component words being placed in an inverse order. Bath-sheba was the granddaughter of Ahithophel 2 Samuel 23:34.... [ Continue Reading ]
David was forced to stoop to falsehood and dissimulation in the vain hope of hiding his sin.... [ Continue Reading ]
A MESS OF MEAT - Compare Genesis 43:34. The word denotes the honorable portion given by the host to his chief guest.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ARK - Perhaps there was a double purpose in taking the ark; one, to excite to the utmost the enthusiasm of the people for its defense and against the Ammonites; the other, to have the means at hand of inquiring of the Lord, which David had found so serviceable.... [ Continue Reading ]
OBSERVED THE CITY - In the sense of besieging it closely.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MEN OF THE CITY WENT OUT - i. e. they made a sally and attacked the troops which were blockading the city on that side, chiefly to entice them to pursue them, and so come within shot of the archers who lined the wall 2 Samuel 11:20, 2 Samuel 11:24. THERE FELL SOME OF THE PEOPLE ... - They, too,... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO SMOTE ABIMELECH ... - This reference indicates the existence in David’s time of the national annals of that period in an accessible form, and the king’s habit of reading, or having read to him, the history of his country. (Compare Esther 6:1.)... [ Continue Reading ]
Bath-sheba’s mourning, like that of Abigail 1 Samuel 25:39, was probably limited to the customary time of seven days.... [ Continue Reading ]