2 Samuel 8 - Introduction
_DAVID SUBDUES THE MOABITES; THE KING OF ZOBAH, THE SYRIANS, AND EDOMITES, AND BRINGS THE SPOILS TO JERUSALEM._ _Before Christ 1041._... [ Continue Reading ]
_DAVID SUBDUES THE MOABITES; THE KING OF ZOBAH, THE SYRIANS, AND EDOMITES, AND BRINGS THE SPOILS TO JERUSALEM._ _Before Christ 1041._... [ Continue Reading ]
METHEG-AMMAH— Some learned men think this should be translated, _Metheg, and her mother; i.e._ the daughter and the mother city; Metheg, and Gath her metropolis: though others choose to translate these words, the _bridle of the angle,_ apprehending that Gath was so called, on account of its being a... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SMOTE MOAB— It is frequent in the sacred writings to put the inhabitants of a country for the country itself: see Isaiah 15:4. The LXX favour this interpretation, and thus Grotius understands it. And to this the Psalmist seems plainly to refer, when, speaking of the wars of David with Moab, Edom,... [ Continue Reading ]
TO RECOVER HIS BORDER AT THE RIVER— The Hebrew ידו להשׁיב _lehashib yado,_ may be literally rendered, _as he went to turn back his hand,_ &c. _David smote Hadadezer, when he,_ David, _went to turn back his,_ Hadadezer's, _hand, by the Euphrates; i.e._ to _repel_ Hadadezer and his forces at the river... [ Continue Reading ]
A THOUSAND CHARIOTS— The word _chariots,_ though not in the Hebrew, is rightly supplied from the parallel place, 1 Chronicles 18:4. Instead of _seven hundred horsemen,_ says Houbigant, I read also as in the parallel place _seven thousand,_ for the horses were always more than the chariots. These are... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SHIELDS OF GOLD— See Solomon's Song, chap. 2 Samuel 4:4. _Note;_ (1.) The enemies of God's church may associate themselves, but they shall be broken to pieces. (2.) Better to be relied on than shields of gold, is God, the shield and the defence of every spiritual Israelite.... [ Continue Reading ]
DAVID GAT HIM A NAME, &C.— _To get a name,_ in the Eastern style, does not mean to be called by this or that particular name, but to be celebrated as a happy and glorious person. Thus it is joined with _praise,_ Zephaniah 3:20. It is said of God himself, upon account of the signs and wonders he wrou... [ Continue Reading ]
JEHOSHAPHAT THE SON OF AHILUD WAS RECORDER— i.e. as is generally believed, _remembrancer,_ or _writer of chronicles:_ an employment of no mean estimation in the Eastern world, where it was customary with kings to keep daily registers of all the transactions of their reign; and a trust, which whoever... [ Continue Reading ]
SERAIAH WAS THE SCRIBE— Supposed to be the king's secretary of state, or prime counsellor in the law. Bishop Patrick says, that as the Hebrew word סופר _sopher,_ which we translate _scribe,_ imports something of learning, as the word _scribe_ does in the New Testament, he takes Seraiah to have been... [ Continue Reading ]
BENAIAH, &C.— Benaiah was one of David's three worthies of the second order, eminent for many great exploits, but of which three only are particularly recounted by the sacred historian. There seems to have been something in the fortitude of Benaiah similar and congenial to that of David, which, poss... [ Continue Reading ]