reproached Joab to his very face, before all 34 יָדֶיךָ may kill the most valiant person. Thus he הַכְּמוֹת נָבָל יָמוּת אַבְנֵר : ie people ; which was a great evidence of: לֹא־אֲסְרוֹת וְרַגְלֶיךָ לֹא־לִנְחֹשְׁתַּיִם -his own innocency herein; because other הִגַּשׁוּ כִּנְפְוֹל לִפְנֵי בְנֵי־עַוְלָה נָפָלְתָּ wise Joab, being so powerful, and proud, and petulant to is sovereign, would never וַיֹּסְפוּ כָל־הָעָם לִבְכּוֹת עָלָיו : כנ''א nipǝb ver. 34. 13214 33, καὶ ἐθρήνησεν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐπὶ ̓Αβεννήρ, καὶ εἶπεν, Εἰ κατὰ τὸν θάνατον νάβαλ ἀποθανεῖται ̓Αβεννήρ; 34 αἱ χεῖρές σου οὐκ ἐδέθησαν, οἱ πόδες σου οὐκ ἐν πέδαις· οὐ προσήγαγεν ὡς νάβαλ, ἐνώπιον υἱῶν ἀδικίας ἔπεσας, καὶ συνήχθη πᾶς ὁ λαὸς τοῦ κλαῦσαι αὐτόν. Au. Ver.-33 And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth? 34 Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters: as a man falleth before wicked men [Heb., children of iniquity], so fellest thou. And all the people wept again over him. As a fool. man; ture. have taken the shame and blame of it wholly to himself, as he did. Bp. Patrick.-33 Josephus looks upon what follows as a kind of epitaph upon Abner, whom David buried magnificently, as he speaks, Θάψας δ ̓ αὐτὸν μεγαλοπρεπῶς καὶ ἐπιταφίους συγγραψάμενος θρήνους, &c. By a fool in Scripture is often meant a wicked man, a malefactor; and so the sense, according to this translation is, Did he die by the hand of justice, for some notorious crime committed by him? Or, Did he die by his own folly? No such matter. But the words may be translated out of the Hebrew, "How like a fool died Abner?" Or, "Should Abner have died like a fool?” That is, what a pity is it, that such a valiant man should die on this fashion! By treachery, without any power to defend himself. 34 Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters.] He was not a prisoner, but had both hands and feet at liberty, and yet could make no use of them for his own Ged., Booth.--As a criminal. Pool.-33 As a fool, i.e., as a wicked for such are oft called fools in ScripWas he cut off by the hands of justice for his crimes? Nothing less; but by Joab's malice and treachery. Or did he die by his own folly, because he had not wisdom or courage to defend himself? Ah no. The preservation. Victorinus Strigelius thinks words may be thus rendered: Shall or should Abner die like a fool, or a vile, contemptible person? i. e., unregarded, unpitied, unrevenged; as fools or vile persons die, for whose death none are concerned. Or, How is Abner dead like a fool! pitying his mischance. It being honourable for a great man and a soldier to fight, if met with by an enemy, and not (having his arms at liberty) stand still like a fool to be killed, without making any resistance or defence; which, by this treachery of Joab, happened to be his case. 34 Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters; thou didst not tamely yield up thyself to Joab, as his prisoner, to be bound hand and foot at his pleasure. Joab did not overcome thee generously and honourably in an equal combat, nor durst he attempt thee in that way, as a general or soldier of any worth would have done. Before wicked men; or, before, i. e., in the presence or by the hands of froward, or perverse, or crooked men, by hypocrisy and perfidiousness, whereby the vilest coward that David, in these words, distinguishes him As a Shall Abner die A death like to a villain's? Nor were the fetters to thy feet applied. guilt, So hast thou fallen! He was not taken away by the hand of my kingdom, not well rooted and settled in justice, nor in battle, nor by accident: he it. The metaphor is taken from a young died the death of a culprit by falling into the hands of a villain. This song was a heavy reproof to Joab; and must have galled him exceedingly, being sung by all the people. Houb.-33, An sicut ignavus moritur. Habet interrogationem cum admiratione conjunctam. Miratur et conqueritur David, hominem fortem cecidisse inultum. Nam eum Joab interfecerat per insidias et nihil tale metuentem. Itaque aberrant, qui per interrogationem sine admiratione convertunt, an, ut moritur stultus, mortuus est Abner, quod fecit Clericus. 34, barbare, pro, sicut cadit. Melioris notæ codices habent, sine ; melius,, sicut cadunt. and tender child or plant. Too hard for me, i. e., too powerful. Though anointed king. Bp. Patrick.-Though anointed king.] Or, as the words may be translated, "and anointed king." That is, not born to a kingdom, but newly called to it, without any hereditary right to the authority; which made it more slender, than if it had been of long standing. This seems to have been the reason why he did not punish Joab for this murder, because he himself was not well established. Houb.-39 Ego vero adhuc sum rex humilis ac infirmus. Qui convertunt, unctus [sic Dathe, Lee, &c.] non cogitant unctum regem esse ,משוח non, משיח CHAP. IV. 1. Au. Ver.-1 And when Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands הַמֶּלֶךְ בְּעֵינֵי כָל־הָעָם טְוֹב : καὶ ἤρεσεν ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν πάντα ὅσα were feeble, and all the Israelites were ἐποίησεν ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐνώπιον τοῦ λαοῦ. troubled. Au. Ver.-36 And all the people took notice of it, and it pleased [Heb., was good in their eyes] them: as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people. As whatsoever, &c. Ged., Booth.-1 And when Ishbosheth [LXX, Syr., Arab., Vulg.], the son of Saul, heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, he was discouraged, and all the Israelites were in a state of confusion. (4) For, though JonaHoub.-. Lege, vel, sine nexu. than, Saul's son, had a son, he was lame of Alterum hic membrum inchoatur, ut monet his feet. He was but five years old when punctum Athnac, quod præfixum est. Si the tidings came of the death of Saul and relinquitur, hæc dicentur : et placuit in Jonathan from Jezreel, and his nurse took oculis eorum, secundum omne quod fecit rex him up and fled: and in the hurry of her in oculis eorum bonum, quæ non sunt He- flight, he fell, and became lame. And his braica, ut nec Latina. Veteres hæc vitabant, name was Mephibosheth. et a mendo, ut quisque voluit, declinabant : vide Polyglotta. Ver. 39. 4 And all the Israelites, &c. They had now lost Abner; Ishbosheth was a weak pusillanimous prince; and the son of Jonathan, the next hope of the royal family, was lame. The fourth verse, which mentions this circumstance, comes, therefore, naturally וְהָאֲנָשִׁים הָאֵלֶּה בְּנֵי צְרוּיָה קָשִׁים in here; which it does not after ver. 3; as every common reader must perceive.—Ged. Ver. 2, 3. καὶ ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι συγγενὴς σήμερον, καὶ καθεσταμένος ὑπὸ βασιλέως; οἱ δὲ ἄνδρες οὗτοι υἱοὶ Σαρουίας σκληρότεροί μου εἰσίν· της την κ.τ.λ. 2 LORD shall reward the doer of evil accord ing to his wickedness. Pool.-Weak, or tender, in the infancy of about the king. 6 καὶ ἰδοὺ ἡ θυρωρὸς τοῦ οἴκου ἐκάθαιρε πυροὺς, καὶ ἐνύσταξε καὶ ἐκάθευδε· καὶ Ρηχὰβ καὶ Βαανὰ οἱ ἀδελφοὶ διέλαθον, 7 καὶ εἰσῆλθον εἰς τὸν οἶκον καὶ Ἰεβοσθὲ ἐκάθευδεν ἐπὶ τῆς κλίνης αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ κοιτῶνι αὐτοῦ· καὶ τύπτουσιν αὐτὸν, καὶ θανατοῦσιν αὐτὸν, καὶ ἀφαιροῦσι τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἔλαβον τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἀπῆλθον ὁδὸν τὴν κατὰ dvoμàs öλny Tv vúkta. Dr. Adam Clarke.Captains of bands.] Principes latronum, captains of banditti, says the Vulgate; the Syriac is the same. Au. Ver.-5 And the sons of Rimmon Whether Ishbosheth kept bands of marauders, the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, whose business it was to make sudden incur- and came about the heat of the day to the sions into the country places, and carry off house of Ish-bosheth, who lay on a bed at noon. grain, provisions, cattle, &c., we know not; but such persons would be well qualified for the bloody work in which those two men were afterwards employed. Pool.-2 Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin: this is added as the reason why he called them Beerothites, because though Beeroth was now in the hands and possession of the Philistines, 1 Sam. xxxi. 7, yet of right it belonged to the Benjamites, Josh. xviii. 25. 3 And, or yet, or but; for this comes in to anticipate an objection against what he had now said. It is true, saith he, the Beerothites fled, as others did, upon the overthrow of Saul and his army, 1 Sam. xxxi. 7, to a place called Gittaim, 2 Sam. iv. 3; not that in Benjamin, Neh. xi. 33, but some other place of that name more remote from the Philistines; and so they were Gittaimites by their present habitation, but Beerothites by their original, and place of their birth. 6 And they came thither into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they smote him under the fifth rib: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. 7 For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bed-chamber, and they smote him, and slew him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and gat them away through the plain all night. Fifth rib. See notes on ii. 23. Bp. Horsley.-6 There can be no doubt that this verse has suffered some great corruption. In the 7th verse the murder of Ishbosheth seems to be related a second time without necessity, and after the mention of the escape of the two assassins. But in the version of the LXX, this 6th verse relates the circumstance by which the two assassins were enabled to make their way unperceived to the king's chamber, namely, that the servant, who kept the gate, was . והנה באו... 6 fallen asleep while she was winnowing quod absciderant, abstulerunt, totamque nocwheat. Then the 7th verse describes the tem per viam deserti iter fecerunt. murder in its proper place. See LXX, and Hunc versum fuisse misere compare Vulgate. deformatum multæ res demonstrant; ut illud Ged.-5 The sons of Rimon the Beero- est, quod narratur, interfectores intrasse in thite, then, Baanah and Rechab, went, and medias ædes, etsi posteà versu 7 idem nararrived about mid-day at the house of Ish-ratur, ut non ante-dictum, et illud etiam, bosheth; 6 who was then lying on a bed; illos fugisse, antequam iterum narretur it being noon: and the woman, who kept domum intrasse. Num enim fugerunt, the door, had also fallen asleep, as she was antequam domum intrarent? Denique cleaning wheat. So Rechab, and his brother afferebat mendi suspicionem ipsa Baanah, went privately into the house; ratio repetita ejusdem homicidii, con7 and finding Ishbosheth sleeping on his tinenti in sermone facta, nulla interposita bed, in his inner chamber, they smote him, parenthesi, propter quam res ante-dictas reand slew him, and took off his head. And they took his head, and travelled all night by the way of the wilderness. 6, 7, I have entirely followed LXX, partly corroborated by Josephus and the Vulgate. nar sumere necesse esset. Non mirum igitur aliter scriptam fuisse apud Græcorum Intt. Codices Hebraicos hujus versiculi magnam partem. Nimirum sic habetur apud Græcos, et ecce ostiaria domus purgabat frumenta, et dormituriit et soporata est; Rechab autem et Booth.-6 And they went into the midst Baana fratres latuerunt; ut postea sequatur, of the house, as if to fetch wheat; and the et domum intrârunt, quæ omnia plana sunt, woman who kept the door had fallen asleep. atque etiam talia, ut fieri vix possit, hæc suo So Rechab and Baanah his brother went to marte, quæ non legerent, Græcos addidisse, the house, and as Ishbosheth was lying on cum præsertim eadem memoret de ostiaria his bed, in his bed-chamber, they smote him Vulgatus. Propterea nos Græcorum scripin the groin, and slew him, and took off his tionem, ut fuit, amplectimur, paucissimis head, and escaped. And they took his exceptis. Græci autem pro, fugerunt, head, and went all night by the way of the legebant, latuerunt; propi, wilderness. capientes frumenta, colligens 6, 7, These com. are strangely perverted frumenta: Nam quod habent exálaipe by accident or design. No apposite sense purgabat, ejusdem est sententiæ, quia frucan be derived from them as they now stand. menta non prius colliguntur, quam fuerint The ó clearly read a different text. I sus-purgata; pro ", et percusserunt eum, pect they have not given us the text complete, et dormivit; quid vero pro won ba, as it originally obtained. I would therefore legerent, non divino. Verum recte vorm in, propose to the learned, whether it is not ad solem (dormiebat.) Denique pro highly probable that the historian would men- venerunt usque ad, suspicor eos legisse, tion their ostensible reason for coming to the ostiaria; nam apud Nehemiam sunt king. The first part of the 6th com. con- Janitores. Sic igitur hic versus potest ad tains this reason: they came to fetch wheat. eorum fidem resarciri: pa mewn nam , לקטה חטים 2, , לקטה הטים ינומה אל השמש: ורכב ובענה אחיו כלטו | Alarmer has shown that it was and is the custom for soldiers to receive a certain et ecce ostiaria media in æde purgans fruquantity of wheat, &c. per day, and their menta, et dormivit ad solem; Rechab autem coming for such a supply could excite no et Baana frater ejus latuerunt. suspicion. See vol. i., p. 434, TN 6 הבית לקחי חטים והשערה ינומה: 7 ובאו רכב ובענה Ver. 8. Au. Ver.-8 And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth unto David to Hebron, &c. 1712” 1200 1772 inco by me now', &c. Of the propriety of this emendation the Boothroyd's Heb. Bible.-8 pan. The learned will judge.-Boothroyd's Heb. Bible. various lection [ two MSS.], in the Houb.-6, 7, Ostiaria domus, dum media in æde triticum purgabat, ad solem obdor-and as all the versions support it, ought to judgment of De Rossi, is here necessary; mierat; itaque Rechab et Baana frater ejus be deemed genuine. domum clam ingressi sunt, dum ille in cubiculo interiore super lectum decumbebat, per cussumque eum occiderunt, et caput ejus, N Ver. 10, 11. 10 ὅτι ὁ ἀπαγγείλας μοι ὅτι τέθνηκε Σαούλ, CHAP. V. 1. Au. V'er.-And spake. Booth. And spoke to him. [LXX., Syr., Arab., five MSS]. Ver. 2. אֶתי καὶ αὐτὸς ἦν ὡς εὐαγγελιζόμενος ἐνώπιόν μου, της την γη ΤΩΝ Au. Ver.-10 When one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought [Heb., he was in his own eyes as a bringer, &c.] good tidings, I took hold of him, and slew him in Ziklag, who thought that I would have given him a reward for his tidings [or, which was the reward I gave him for his tidings]: 11 How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? shall I not therefore now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth? σὺ ποιμανεῖς τὸν λαόν μου τὸν Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ σὺ ἔσῃ εἰς ἡγούμενον ἐπὶ τὸν λαόν μου Ισραήλ. Au. Ver. Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be a captain over Israel. Feed. Ged. Thou shalt be the shepherd of my people, &c. Booth.-Thou shalt tend, as a shepherd, my people, &c. Captain. Ken., Booth.-Ruler. Gesen.- m. (r. 2) pp. the foremost, hence leader, prefect, prince, etc. See the Houb.-10 Ego eum, qui mihi nuntiavit root, and comp. Syr. præivit Ephr. Saülem esse mortuum, quanquam lætum nuntium afferre videbatur, apprehendi et in I. 114, also Germ. Fürst i. q. Engl. first. Siceleg interfeci, cum sperabat nuntii mer-Chald. T2, T3, id. Arab. prince, also cedem se à me accepturum: 11 Num igitur, cùm scelerati homines hominem immeritum جيل domi lecto in suo interfecerunt, non ego istum brave, valiant, whence to be brave, sanguinem de manu vestra requiram, vosque magnanimous, noble. Spoken de terra eripiam? 10 m. Clericus, ut boni nuntii pretium ei persolverem, grammatica, ut ipse loquitur, conculcata. Nam inauditum est Tò, cùm significat ut, vel eo ut, subjunctum habere velle gerundium, præfixo, ut est ; cum rò et rò sint unum et idem. Chaldæus legebat, , qui dixerat, vel cogitarat me sibi daturum mercedem; nam sic convertit, , qui erat cogitans dandam sibi (mercedem). Omissum fuit prope sex similitudine. 1. Of any prefect, overseer, e. g. of the treasury, 1 Chron. xxvi. 24, 2 Chr. xxxi. 12; of the temple, 1 Chron. ix. 11, 2 Chron. xxxi. 13; of the priests, 1 Chron. xii. 27; of the palace, 2 Chron. xxviii. 7; of military affairs, leader, chief, 1 Chron. xiii. 1, 2 Chr. xxxii. 21. 2. Absol. prince of a people, a general word comprehending also the royal dignity, 1 Sam. ix. 16, x. 1, xiii. 14, 2 Sam. vi. 21, vii. 8, 1 Kings i. 35, xiv. 7, al. Ten the anointed prince, i. e., Messiah, Dan. ix. 25. Videtur legendum, cum Arabe prince of the covenant, i. e. con; ut sit, igitur, cum nexu orationem federate, Dan. xi. 22. Plur. princes, Job continuante; autem, cum, vel quando. xxix. 10, Psalm lxxvi. 13-Hence Nam si vertas, quanto magis, ut se .אף כי 11 3. Noble, honourable, in general; Plur. |