CHAPTER XXI _A famine taking place three successive years in Israel, David_ _inquired of the Lord the cause; and was informed that it was_ _on account of Saul and his bloody house, who had slain the_ _Gibeonites_, 1. _David inquires of the Gibeonites what atonement they require,_ _and they ans... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:2. _THE REMNANT OF THE AMORITES_] The Gibeonites were _Hivites_, not Amorites, as appears from Joshua 11:19: but _Amorites_ is a name often given to the Canaanites in general, Genesis 15:16; Amos 2:9, and elsewhere.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:3. _WHEREWITH SHALL I MAKE THE ATONEMENT_] It is very strange that a choice of this kind should be left to such a people. Why not ask this of God himself?... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:6. _SEVEN MEN OF HIS SONS_] Meaning sons, grandsons, or other near branches of his family. It is supposed that the persons chosen were principal in assisting Saul to exterminate the Gibeonites. But where is the proof of this?... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:8. _FIVE SONS OF MICHAL - WHOM SHE BROUGHT UP_] Michal, Saul's daughter, was never married to _Adriel_, but to David, and afterwards to Phaltiel; though it is here said _she bore_ ילדה yaledah, not _brought up_, as we falsely translate it: but we learn from 1 Samuel 18:19, that _Me... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:9. _IN THE BEGINNING OF BARLEY HARVEST._] This happened in Judea about the vernal equinox, or the 21st of _March_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:10. _RIZPAH - TOOK SACKCLOTH_] Who can read the account of Rizpah's maternal affection for her sons that were now hanged, without feeling his mind deeply impressed with sorrows? Did God require this sacrifice of Saul's sons, probably all innocent of the alleged crime of their fath... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:12. _TOOK THE BONES OF SAUL_] The reader will recollect that the men of Jabesh-gilead burned the bodies of Saul and his sons, and buried the remaining bones under a tree at Jabesh. See 1 Samuel 31:12-9. These David might have digged up again, in order to bury them in the family sep... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:15. _MOREOVER THE PHILISTINES HAD YET WAR_] There is no mention of this war in the parallel place, 1 Chronicles 20:4, c. _DAVID WAXED FAINT._] This circumstance is nowhere else mentioned.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:16. _BEING GIRDED WITH A NEW_ SWORD] As the word _sword_ is not in the original, we may apply the term _new_ to his _armour_ in general; he had got new arms, a new coat of mail, or something that defended him well, and rendered him very formidable: or it may mean a strong or sharp... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:17. _THAT THOU QUENCH NOT THE LIGHT OF ISRAEL._] David is here considered as the _lamp_ by which all Israel was guided, and without whom all the nation must be involved in darkness. The lamp is the emblem of _direction_ and _support_. Light is used in this sense by Homer: - Ουδε τ... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:18. _A BATTLE - AT GOB_] Instead of _Gob_, several editions, and about _forty_ of _Kennicott's_ and _De Rossi's_ MSS., have _nob_; but _Gezer_ is the name in the parallel place, 1 Chronicles 20:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:19. _ELHANAN THE SON OF JAARE-OREGIM - SLEW - GOLIATH THE_ _GITTITE_] Here is a most manifest corruption of the text, or gross mistake of the transcriber; _David_, not _Elhanan_, slew _Goliath_. In 1 Chronicles 20:5, the parallel place, it stands thus: "Elhanan, the son of Jair, s... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 2 Samuel 21:20. _ON EVERY HAND SIX FINGERS_] This is not a solitary instance: _Tavernier_ informs us that the eldest son of the emperor of Java, who reigned in 1648, had _six fingers_ on each hand, and _six toes_ on each foot. And _Maupertuis_, in his seventeenth letter, says that he met with... [ Continue Reading ]