AND AGAIN THE ANGER OF THE LORD WAS KINDLED AGAINST ISRAEL - This sentence is the heading of the whole chapter, which goes on to describe the sin which kindled this anger, namely, the numbering of the people 1 Chronicles 21:7; 1 Chronicles 27:24. There is no note of time, except that the word “again... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Chronicles 21:2, supplies some missing words. This passage should run, as at 2 Samuel 24:4, “And the king said to Joab and to the princes of the host who were with him,” etc. (compare 1 Chronicles 27:22). They were employed “with Joab” as his assistants in the numbering, exactly as in the previous... [ Continue Reading ]
AROER - Aroer on the Arnon (Deuteronomy 2:36 note). Aroer itself stood on the very edge of the precipitous cliff of the valley; and in the valley beneath, possibly in an island in the stream, stood another city which is here alluded to. RIVER - Rather, “the valley” (margin). They passed from Aroer,... [ Continue Reading ]
TO GILEAD - Jazer was in the plain. They passed from there to the mountain district of Gilead. THE LAND OF TAHTIM-HODSHI - The text here is corrupt, as no such land is known. Possibly the right reading is “the land of the Hittites” Judges 1:26; “hodshi” may be a fragment of a sentence which mention... [ Continue Reading ]
THE STRONG HOLD OF TYRE - “The fenced city,” as it is generally rendered throughout the historical books. THE CITIES OF THE HIVITES - Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim, and perhaps Shechem, besides those at the foot of Hermon and Lebanon, of which we do not know the names. This continu... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Chronicles 27:23 indicates sufficiently why the numbering was sinful. It is also stated in 1 Chronicles 21:6, that Joab purposely omitted Levi and Benjamin from the reckoning. EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND ... FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND - In Chronicles the numbers are differently given. It is probable theref... [ Continue Reading ]
DAVID’S SEER - Margin, references. From the latter passage it is probable that we have here Gad’s narrative.... [ Continue Reading ]
Compare Ezekiel 14:13. The “seven” years of famine correspond with the “seven” years of famine in Genesis 41:27, Genesis 41:30, and with the same number of years in 2 Kings 8:1. But in Chronicles, it is “three years,” which agrees better with the “three” months and “three” days. The whole passage is... [ Continue Reading ]
THE TIME APPOINTED - Perhaps “the time of the assembly,” meaning the time of the evening sacrifice, at three o’clock, when the people assembled for prayer, more commonly described as “the time of the evening oblation” Daniel 9:21; 1Ki 18:29, 1 Kings 18:36; Acts 3:1; Luke 1:10. SEVENTY THOUSAND - It... [ Continue Reading ]
Compare the passage in Chronicles. The account here is abridged; and 2 Samuel 24:18 has the appearance of being the original statement.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HIS SERVANTS - In Chronicles “his four sons,” namely, David’s. It is very possible that David may have taken his sons with him, as well as his elders, and Gad’s original narrative may have mentioned the circumstance, which the compiler of this chapter did not care to specify, and so used the gen... [ Continue Reading ]
HERE BE OXEN - Those, namely, which were at that very time threshing out the grain in Araunah’s threshing-floor 1 Chronicles 21:20; Deuteronomy 25:4. THRESHING-INSTRUMENTS - This was a kind of sledge with iron teeth Isaiah 41:15. It was drawn by two or four oxen over the grain on the floor. OTHER... [ Continue Reading ]
Either, “the whole O king does Araunah give unto the king;” or (2) “the whole did king Araunah give to the king.” The former is preferable.... [ Continue Reading ]
FIFTY SHEKELS OF SILVER - In Chronicles, “six hundred shekels of gold by weight.” In explanation, it is supposed - that the fifty shekels here mentioned were gold shekels, each worth twelve silver shekels, so that the fifty gold shekels are equal to the 600 silver; that our text should be rendered,... [ Continue Reading ]