_DAVID CONSULTS THE PROPHET NATHAN CONCERNING THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE: NATHAN, AT THE COMMAND OF GOD, ANSWERS, THAT THE SON OF DAVID SHOULD BUILD THE TEMPLE, AND THAT THE KINGDOM OF DAVID SHOULD BE FIRM AND PERPETUAL, DAVID RETURNS THANKS TO GOD._ _Before Christ 1043._... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THE KING SAT IN HIS HOUSE— _Dwelt in his house._ Houb. i.e. enjoyed himself in peace and repose in the house which Hiram had built for him. Dr. Delaney supposes, it was during this peace that he composed the 92nd Psalm.... [ Continue Reading ]
NATHAN THE PROPHET— Nathan was both polite and prudent, and knew how to temper the severity of wisdom with the sweetness of good manners. Grotius compares him to Manlius Lepidus, who is celebrated by Tacitus, "for diverting the emperor Tiberius from such cruel purposes, as the vile flattery of other... [ Continue Reading ]
NATHAN SAID TO THE KING, GO, DO ALL THAT IS IN THINE HEART— Nathan answered as a prudent man, not as a prophet; for the prophets did not know all events, but such only as God thought fit to reveal to them. Nathan, however, had great reason for what he said; for he knew the regard which the Lord had... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALT THOU BUILD ME AN HOUSE, &C.— The interrogation here has the force of a negative. The meaning is, _Thou shalt not build me,_ &c. See Psalms 132:3; Psalms 132:18.... [ Continue Reading ]
SPAKE I A WORD WITH ANY OF THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL— _The Judges of Israel._ [שׁפטי] Houbigant. Hallet in his notes, vol. 2: p. 25 makes the same remark.... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL APPOINT—AND WILL PLANT— _I have appointed—and have planted_] Houbigant. _AND MOVE NO MORE_— _Neither may the sons of iniquity afflict them any more, as they have done before time; and even from the time when I placed judges over my people Israel,_ 2 Samuel 7:11. _I also have given thee rest... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL ESTABLISH THE THRONE OF HIS KINGDOM FOR EVER— We have often had occasion to remark, in the course of these notes, that the phrase _for ever_ and those similar to it, frequently signify in the Old Testament only a considerable length of time. There can be no doubt that these words, in their pr... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SAT BEFORE THE LORD— Dr. Pococke, in his first volume, p. 213, has given us the figure of a person half sitting, and half kneeling; that is, kneeling so far as to rest the most muscular part of his body on his heels: which, he observes, is the manner in which inferior persons sit at this day bef... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IS THIS THE MANNER OF MAN, O LORD GOD?— See 1 Chronicles 17:17 where we read, _And thou hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree._ David is full of pious wonder, that God should be willing to shew his kindness to him even dead, as is the manner of men, who establish by wi... [ Continue Reading ]
TO DO FOR YOU— Instead of _for you,_ the LXX, Vulgate, and Arabic read, _for them,_ which is certainly right. See Houbigant, Hallet, &c. By referring to 1 Chronicles 17:21 the embarrassment of this verse may be removed, and the whole rendered thus: _For what one nation upon earth is there like thy p... [ Continue Reading ]