_ZIBA, BY PRESENTS AND FALSE SUGGESTIONS, OBTAINS HIS MASTER'S INHERITANCE. SHIMEI CURSETH DAVID; WHO RESTRAINS THE SONS OF ZERUIAH FROM KILLING HIM. HUSHAI COMES TO ABSALOM; WHO TAKES HIS FATHER'S CONCUBINES, BY THE ADVICE OF AHITHOPHEL._ _Before Christ 1023._... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AN HUNDRED OF SUMMER-FRUITS— These _summer-fruits_ the LXX suppose were _dates;_ but the more common opinion is, that they were _figs;_ which, it seems, was that also of the Chaldee paraphrast. Grotius, however, supposes, that the original word קיצ _kaiits,_ signifies the fruit of trees in gener... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ASSES BE FOR THE KING'S HOUSEHOLD TO RIDE ON— _The asses are for the king's household, for carriage;_ for the carrying their baggage. Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, THINE ARE ALL THAT PERTAINED UNTO MEPHIBOSHETH— David, too rashly credulous, although of an unsuspected servant against the son of a tried friend, and too hastily resenting his imagined ingratitude, immediately concluded Mephibosheth a traitor, who had forfeited his whole fortune; and accord... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN KING DAVID CAME TO BAHURIM, BEHOLD, THENCE CAME OUT—SHIMEI—AND CURSED.— This vile and calumnious treatment of Shimei was one of the severest trials of patience that ever human magnanimity endured. The accusation, 2 Samuel 16:8 was notoriously false, and the king for that reason could bear it th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AS DAVID AND HIS MEN WENT BY THE WAY, SHIMEI—CAST DUST— When the Consul whom Dr. Pococke attended entered Cairo, the Doctor tells us, "according to an _ancient custom of state,_ a man went before, and sprinkled water on the ground to lay the dust." Every one knows the convenience of this practic... [ Continue Reading ]
CAME WEARY, AND REFRESHED THEMSELVES THERE— Josephus tells us, that David suffered his people to take no refreshment till they reached the banks of the Jordan; and the 16th, 21st, and 22nd verses of the next chapter seem to confirm this reading. Houbigant, instead of _came weary,_ renders it, _came... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MEN OF ISRAEL— The Syriac version omits these words; and Dr. Kennicott informs us, that they are not found in any of the manuscripts at Cambridge. See his State of the printed Hebrew Text, p. 464.... [ Continue Reading ]
NAY, BUT WHOM THE LORD, &C.— The attentive reader will discern the salutation and whole apology of Hushai to be as evasive, and well calculated to delude, as art could contrive them; for he neither prays personally for Absalom, nor professes allegiance to him: yet the bait took, and Absalom's self-s... [ Continue Reading ]
AHITHOPHEL SAID—GO IN UNTO THY FATHER'S CONCUBINES— Ahithophel advised this action, because it would prove his enmity to his father to be irreconcileable, and consequently attach firmly to his interest all those who were disaffected to David, when they once saw that they were out of all danger of be... [ Continue Reading ]