seeing Kimnor a word ending with the non unum in scriptione priore. Solus Buxsame letters he had just set down, he writes torfius utramque scripturam tueri se putat on the next word from thence D Oregim posse, quod quam incassum conetur, et per—D'IN 719 Ja JɔTT-after which, referring tinacia quanta, vide, si juvat, in ejus Antiagain to his book, and finding his mistake, critica, p. 420. Ego ultimam paral. libri he returns to the line above, and there scripturam sic puto esse amplectendam, 10. (without striking out the word DN Oregim, ut tollatur D, quod abest in paral. libro, which he had inserted improperly) writes on et quod videtur male iteratum ex vocabulo from Jaor, as he should have done at, quod extat linea inferiore. 20. Ut, cum adsciscas "on, Lechmi, non tollas , Bethlehemita, quod hic legitur, ob eam causam, quod in iis verbis occasionem satis first ויך אלחנן בן יעור ארגים את לחמי , את לחמי habuit scriba, cur omitteret אחי גלית -which words, by the farther carelessness of some transcriber or transcribers since, have been corrupted (we see) into the words following simile, quomodo ex ', quod legitur par- |chanam, filius Jair, Bethlehemita, Lechmi -et percussit) El), בית הלחמי את לחמי אחי גלית ויך אלחנן בן יערי ארגים בית fratrem Goliath. Vide notam nostram in הלחמי את גלית הגתי ועץ חניתו So Dr. Adam Clarke. Putant nonnulli se melius con locum parallelum. Recte hoc loco Clericus : adversus Buxtorfium hæc observabat: "Qui talia negant, aut pertinacia ducti, aut impeBp. Horsley.-19 At Gob; read again, ritia, aut præconceptis opinionibus excæcati at Gezer. Where Elhanan-the Gittite. negant. Upon comparing this with the parallel place, sulere autoritati scripturæ, negando ei ulla 1 Chron. xx. 5, I would read, with Houb-inesse menda. Sed si verum sit menda ei igant, and Elhanan the son of Jair, a Beth- inesse, male profecto illi consulunt, dum lemite, slew Lechami the brother of Goliath veritatem, ope mendacii, defendere conantur. the Gittite. Ged. Again there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob; when Elhanam BenJair-oregim, a Bethlehemite, slew Lahami, brother to [supplied from 1 Chron. xx. 5] Goliath, the Gathite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. At Gob. Here again forty MSS. have Nob. In the different copies of Sep. we find Nob, Rob, and Rom. The words are wanting in Syr., Arab., and p. p. 1 Chron. xx. 5. Booth. - 19 Again there was another ...Quærendum est quomodo, admissis non- Dathe.-19 Cum iterum prope Gobam Jairi filius, Lahmæum, fratrem Goliathi, a) a) Sic locus restituendus videtur ex Ver. 21, 22. 22 אֶת־אַרְבַּעַת אֵלֶה יִלְדוּ לְהָרָפָה battle with the Philistines at Gob, where Elhanan, the son of Jair, a Bethlehemite, slew Lahumi, the brother of Goliath, the Gathite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. Houb.—19 Fuit adhuc bellum cum Philistais in Gazer, in quo Elchanan filius Jair Bethlehemita percussit Lechmi fratrem Goliath Gethæi, cujus hasta lignum erat ut jugum textorum. . אלחנן בן יערי ארגים בית הלחמי את גלית In loco 1 Paral. huic parallelo xx. 5 hodie sic legitur: "na ; quam ultimam scripturam anteferunt critici fere omnes, neque dubitant, quin mendum sit οἱ τέσσαρες οὗτοι ἐτέχθησαν ἀπόγονοι τῶν γιγάντων ἐν Γὲθ τῷ Ραφὰ οἶκος, καὶ ἔπεσαν ἐν χειρὶ Δαυὶδ καὶ ἐν χειρὶ τῶν δούλων αὐτοῦ. Au. Ver.-22 These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants. 21, 22, Giant. See notes on ver. 16. Ged., Booth.-These four, of the race of the Rephaites of Gath, fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants, &c. vs. 21 refe- the man who was raised up on high, the וַיִּכֵּהוּ ad אֶת־אַרְבַּעַת אֵלֶּה sativum CHAP. XXIII. 17. 1 anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet 2 The Spirit of the LORD spake by me, 3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth [or, be thou ruler, &c., Ps. cx. 2] over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. 4 And he shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining 5 Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting וּ וְאֵלֶה דִּבְרֵי דָוִד הָאַחֲרֹנִים נְאֻם .after rain דָּוִד בֶּן־יִשִׁי וּנְאֻם הַגְּבֶר הָקַם עַל מְשִׁיחַ אֱלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב וּנְעִים זְמִרוֹת 2 רוּחַ יְהוָה דִּבֶּר בִּי וּמִלָּתוֹ : covenant, ordered in all things, and sure יִשְׂרָאֵל : ,for this is all my salvation, and all my desire עַל־לְשׁוֹנִי : : אָמַר אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל לִי although he make it not to grow. 6 But the sons of Belial shall be all of : 3 them as thorns thrust away, because they מוֹשֶׁל יִרְאַת אֱלֹהִים : 4 וּכְאוֹר בֹּקֶר cannot be taken with hands: 7 But the man that shall touch them must יִזְרַח שָׁמֶשׁ בְּקֶר לֹא עָבוֹת מִנְגַהּ ;be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear מִמָּטָר דֶּשֶׁא מֵאָרֶץ: 5 כִּי־לֹא־כֵן בֵּיתִי and they shall be utterly burned with fire in עִם־אֵל כִּי בְרִית עוֹלָם שָׂם לִי עֲרוּכָה the same place בכל וּשְׁמְלָה כִּי־כָל־יִשְׁעַי וְכָל־חֵפֶץ Pool.-1 The last words of David; not 6 וּבְלִיַּעַל כְּקוֹץ מְגָד simply the last that he spoke, but some of כִּי־לֹא יַצְמִיחַ: the last uttered in his last days upon the כָּלָהֶם כִּי־לֹא בְיָד יָקְחוּ : 7 וְאִישׁ יִגֶע ד ke by the spirit of God, assisting and: בָּהֶם יִמָּלֵא בַרְזֶל וְעֵץ חֲנִית וּבָאֵשׁ .directing him in an extraordinary manner שָׂרוֹף יִשְׂרְפוּ בַּשָּׁבֶת : approach of his death; or the last which he .6 .v בנ"א מִכָּךְ .1 .v קמץ בז"ק 1 cut oirot of Adyot Aavid of doxarot πιστὸς Δαυὶδ υἱὸς Ἰεσσαὶ, καὶ πιστὸς ἀνὴρ ὃν ἀνέστησε κύριος ἐπὶ χριστὸν θεοῦ Ἰακώβ, καὶ The sweet psalmist of Israel; or, sweet, or, either, first, As the object of them ; he whom the people of Israel mentioned in compensis Valaot 'Irpain 2 Tyevua Kuptor they sung, Saul hath slain his thousands, Au. Ver.-1 Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and king's duty, answerable to the two tables of Lord; and therefore have not enjoyed that God's law, justice towards men, and piety uninterrupted prosperity which we might towards God, both which he is to maintain and promote among his people. have enjoyed; but our morning light, or the beginning of that kingdom promised to me and mine for ever, hath been overcast with many black and dismal clouds, and my children have not hitherto been like the thriving by the influences of the sun and rain; but rather like the grass that withereth away, or is cut off before its due time. Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant : Others make it a prophecy of Christ; and then the words are or may be thus rendered, There shall be a ruler over men, (or rather, among men, as the Hebrew word properly tender grass springing out of the earth, and signifies, to wit, the Messias, who, though he be the eternal and invisible God, yet shall visibly appear and rule among men,) a just or righteous one (a title oft given to Christ, as Isa. liii. 11; Jer. xxiii. 5, 6; notwithstanding all our transgressions xxxiii. 15; Zech. ix. 9), ruling in the fear of the Lord, making it his great business to advance the service, and worship, and glory of the Lord; or, as it is in the Hebrew, ruling the fear of the Lord, i. e., governing and ordering the worship of God, which is oft called the fear of God. And so this clause is added to prevent or remove scandals and offences which might be taken at the Messias when he should come, because of his changing and abrogating the ceremonial law; and to insinuate that he should have no less power in the governing of God's house and worship than Moses had, and that he might make such laws as he thought meet. whereby we have broken covenant with God, and the confusions and civil wars which have threatened our dissipation and utter destruction; yet I comfort myself with this, that God, to whom all my sins were foreknown before I committed them, was graciously pleased to make a sure covenant, to give and continue the kingdom to me and to my seed for ever, chap. vii. 16, until the coming of the Messias, who is to be my son and successor, and whose kingdom shall have no end. Ordered in all things; ordained in all points by God's eternal and unchangeable counsel; and disposed by his wise and powerful providence, which doth and will overrule all things, even the sins 4 These words are either, 1. A further and sufferings of my house, so far, that description of the king's duty, which is not although he would punish them for their only to rule with exact justice and piety, but sins, yet he will not utterly root them out, also with sweetness, and gentleness, and nor break his covenant made with me and condescension to the infirmities of his mine; as is said, Psal. lxxxix. 31–34. people; to render his government as pleasant Sure, or preserved, or observed, or kept, to and acceptable to them as is the sunshine in wit, on God's part, or by God's power and a clear morning, or the tender grass which faithfulness, in the midst of all the opposprings out of the earth by the warm and sitions and uncertainties to which it seems refreshing beams of the sun after the rain, to be exposed on our part. Compare Rom. which hath a peculiar kind of sweetness and iii. 3; 2 Tim. ii. 13. For, or therefore, as fragrancy in it. Or rather, 2. A prediction the Hebrew particle chi oft signifies; thereor declaration of the sweet and blessed fore, i.e., because God hath made such a effects of such a government, both to the covenant. This is, or, he is, he who hath governor himself, in that peace, and pros- made this covenant; or, in this is, i. e., it perity, and glory, and happiness which it consists in and depends upon this covenant. brings to him, and to his people; to whom All my salvation; both my own eternal it is no less grateful, and comfortable, and salvation, and the temporal salvation, or the beneficial, than those great and public preservation of the kingdom to me and mine. blessings of sunshine and rain, and the fruits | All my desire, or, every desirable thing; the which they produce; which is true of every word desire being oft put for desired, or a good king or governor, but most eminently of the Messias. 5 Although my house be not so with God; although God knows that neither I nor my children have lived and ruled as we should have done, so justly, and in the fear of the desirable thing; as Ps. xxi. 2; lxxviii. 29, 30; Ezek. xxiv. 16. David being deeply sensible, and having had large experience, of the vanity and uncertainty of all earthly things, here declares that the covenant made by God with him and his in the his people. Or, 2. By way of caution; to show, that notwithstanding the holiness, and happiness, and sureness of this kingdom, yet there would be sons of Belial in it, who would endeavour to disturb and overthrow it, but to no purpose. Messias, is the only happiness which he prizeth and desireth, in which he doth fully acquiesce. Although he make it not to grow, i.e., my house, mentioned before. So the sense is, Although God as yet hath not made my house or family to grow, i. e., to increase, or to flourish with worldly glory and pros- 7 The staff of a spear; so the meaning perity, as I expected; but hath for my sins is, he must fill his hand, or arm himself cut off divers of my most eminent branches, with some iron weapon, whereby he may and sorely afflicted my person and family; cut them down; or, with the staff of a spear, and although he may for the future deal in or some such like thing, whereby he may like manner with my sons and successors for thrust them away from himself, that they do the like miscarriages, which it is probable him no hurt. Or thus, he will be filled, or they may commit: yet this is my great will fill himself, i. e., his hand, wherewith he support and comfort, that God will constantly attempted to touch and take them, with and inviolably keep this covenant; and thorns, as with iron and the staff of a spear; therefore, in the midst of all the shakings, i. e., he will be as surely and sorely wounded, and confusions, and interruptions which may happen in my house and kingdom, will preserve my line and family until the coming of the Messiah out of my loins, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom; who, as he is the desire of all nations, Hag. ii. 7, so in a special manner is my desire, and the author of all my salvation. as if one should run the iron head and part of the wood of a spear into his hand. And they shall be utterly burned, or, therefore; because men cannot safely touch them, therefore they will burn them up. Or, or, i. e., if they do not cut them down with iron, or thrust them away with the staff of a spear, they will burn and consume them. In the same place, or, in their place, where they grow or stand; and they will not trouble nor hazard themselves to remove them. Withal, it may imply that they shall be destroyed when and where they thought themselves most secure, even in their own place. And it may possibly intimate, that those children of Belial, the wicked and unbelieving Jews, who rejected and rebelled against the Messiah, David's successor, and their lawful King, should be destroyed in their great, and strong, and holy city Jerusalem, where the greatest part of that people were gathered together as fuel for the fire, and were destroyed together by the Romans under Titus, where also their wicked predecessors had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in former times. 6 The sons of Belial, or, the men of Belial, as it is expressed 2 Sam. xvi. 7, and elsewhere. Having in the foregoing verses described the nature, and felicity, and stability of that kingdom which God himself had by a sure and everlasting covenant settled upon him and his seed; and especially, upon the Messiah, who was to be one of his posterity; he now describes the quality, the mischievous nature, the hazardous and miserable condition, of all the enemies of this holy and blessed kingdom, whom he justly calleth sons of Belial, because they rebelled against God's appointment, and against that king whom God had set over them; for which reason others are so called, 1 Sam. x. 27; 2 Chron. xiii. 7. As thorns thrust away; which men do not use to handle, as they do other trees, but thrust them away from themselves, by some instrument chosen for that purpose. And so will God remove or thrust away from himself, and from his people and kingdom, all those who shall either secretly or openly set themselves against it. And this may be here added, either, 1. By way of prescription to rulers, whom, as before he admonished to be just and kind to their people, ver. 3, 4; so here he requires them to be severe in punishing and purging away weak and incorrigible by Samuel. men from about his throne, and from among VOL. II. Bp. Patrick.-These be the last words of David.] These were the last words that he spake by the Holy Ghost, as Abarbinel expounds them. The Chaldee paraphrase takes these words, as if they were a prophecy of the Messiah: for so it expounds them ; "These are the words of the prophecy of David, which he prophesied of the consummation of all things, in the day of consolation, which is to come." 3 The God of Israel said.] By Nathan or He that ruleth over men must be just, 4 0 ruling in the fear of God.] Or, as we render it in the margin, "Be thou ruler over," &c., which the Chaldee expounds of the Messiah in this manner, "The faithful God spake (so he interprets the word Rock), I will constitute to me a king, he is the Messiah, who shall arise, and reign in the fear of the Lord." But this relates first to David, the type of Christ; who was taught to rule justly, and in the fear of God: that is, in the exact observance of all the Divine laws. Or, as Abarbinel interprets it, "When he that rules men is just, then the fear of the Lord will rule and have dominion in the earth;" for all the people are apt to tread in the steps of their king: so that when he that rules is just, it is as if he did not rule, but the fear of the Lord ruled in the earth. 4 He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth.] The dominion of the just (as the same Abarbinel interprets it) shall be as the morning light, when the sun ariseth, and the light continually increases. As the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.] We have in this translation quite transposed the Hebrew words, where they run thus, "From splendour and from rain, grass out of the earth." The sense of which Abarbinel thinks is this, It shall be such a morning, in which there is sometimes sunshine, and sometimes showers of rain, to make grass spring out of the earth. Although my house be not so with God.] Which he thus interprets; Although the kingdom of a just man, by little and little, grows and increases; and sometimes is clouded, and sometimes the light shines upon it: the kingdom of David shall not be so, but God hath made a perpetual covenant, &c. For this is all my salvation.] Or, as he interprets it, This is all my salvation, and my desire, that he would not make it grow or shoot up (for that supposes it to be buried), but that, as was said before, it may always remain in an equal manner ordered and conserved. and stable; in a settled order and sure. For the sun arises, but goes down again; and the morning may be clear, but clouds afterwards arise; and the tender grass springs up, but withers away. Not so, saith he, is my kingdom before God. It is flourishing, like all these, but perpetual: for he hath made an everlasting covenant with me; though some afflictions have befallen me; and he hath not made all my salvation and desire to grow. So he makes the first caph of similitude to stand for three; and to be repeated thrice in this manner : "The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake concerning me; The just man ruleth among men he ruleth in the fear of God. And as the sun ariseth, with a shining light: as the morning is without clouds, by reason of its splendour; as from rain the tender grass springs out of the earth: yet (or truly) so is not my house with God. Because he hath made an everlasting covenant with me; disposed in all things, and well kept and preserved in that order. Although he doth not make all my salvation and desire to grow (that is, though some adversities happen to me and my family), yet that always remains, which, in the covenant of God made with me, is in all things orderly, disposed, and preserved.” 6 The kingdom of impious men shall not be like the kingdom of the house of David: being so far from being like to grass, which is useful, that they are rather like thorns; which are rejected as hurtful and pernicious. That is, such wicked men are not fit for human society. 7 But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear.] If any body will meddle with them, it must be at his peril. For so the word jimmale (which we translate fenced) signifies "shall be filled," with the iron and the staff of a spear. Spears are never used to cut down thorns; but iron gives one a sore wound, like that which a man receives from a spear, when it runs into his body, iron and wood withal. So the same De Dieu very judiciously. It must be acknowledged, that there are no words so obscure in this book as these They shall be utterly burned with fire in two verses. The sense of which Ludovicus the same place.] Therefore men burn them De Dieu seems to me to have most clearly with fire, in the same place where they opened: The stability and perpetuity of grow and so wicked men are destroyed, his kingdom, saith he, David amplifies by a where they think themselves most secure. comparison with three natural things, which Which the Targum applies to the judgment are very grateful to men, but not constant of the great day, saying, "Their punish |