lectio haud dubie vera est, quoniam Deus | Barcian avrov. 13 auris oiko8ounoet Hot auro eis rarepa, kat auros dorat uot eis vion. move no more; neither shall the children of 11 And as since the time that I com my people Israel, and will plant them, that בַיִת יַעֲשֶׂה לְךָ יְהוָה: 12 כִּי יִמְלְאוּ they may dwell in a place of their own, and יָמֶיךָ וְשָׁכַבְתָּ אֶת־אֲבֹתֶיךָ וַהֲקִימֹתִי -wickedness afflict them any more, as before אֶת־זַרְעֲךָ אַחֲרֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר יֵצֵא מִמֶּעֶיךָ ,time וַהֲכִינֹתִי אֶת־מַמְלַכְתּוֹ : 13 הוּא יִבְנֶה־ : ,mmanded Judges to be over my people Israel בַּיִת לִשְׁמִי וְלָנַנְתִּי אֶת־כִּסֵּא מַמְלַכְתּוֹ and have caused thee to rest from all thine עַד־עוֹלָם : 14 אֲנִי אֶהְיֶה־לּוֹ לְאָב וְהוּא enemies. Also the Loan telleth thee that יִהְיֶה־לִי לְבֵן אֲשֶׁר בְּהַעֲלֹתוֹ וְהִכַחְתִּיו בְּשֵׁבֶט אֲנָשִׂים וּבְנִגְעֵי בְּנֵי אָדָם : thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set 15 וְחַסְדִּי לֹא־יָסוּר מִמֶּנּוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed הֲסִרֹתִי מֵעִם שָׁאוּל אֲשֶׁר חֲסִירֹתִי .kingdom מִלְפָנֶיךְ : 16 וְנֶאֱמַן בֵּיתְךָ וּמַמְלַכְתְּךָ עַד־עוֹלָם לְפָנֶיךָ כִּסְאֲךָ יִהְיֶה נָכוֹן עַד־עוֹלָם : he will make thee an house. 12 And when thy days be fulfilled, and I out of thy bowels, and I will establish his 13 He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men : 9 καὶ ἤμην μετὰ σου ἐν πᾶσιν οἷς ἐπορεύου, kat gold@pevra ravras Tous exepots gou are Tpoooov Tov, kal droined oe vouarrow Kard to youa Tov Heydlan Toy ent ris ms. 10 καὶ θήσομαι τόπον τῷ λαῷ μου τῷ Ἰσραὴλ, kat karaturetoo aurov, kat Karaoknvoces kad tavrov, kat on peplummost obsert kai ot προσθήσει υἱὸς ἀδικίας τοῦ ταπεινῶσαι αὐτὸν, 16 And thine house and thy kingdom sados in doxs, 11 and Tov nuspop by shall be established for ever before thee ; traga spuras ert Tov Aady uov Iopane kat thy throne shall be established for ever. ἀναπαύσω σε ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν ἐχθρῶν σου· καὶ 15 But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. 17 According to all these words, and acdrayelet got suptos, drt otkov oiko8ouicets cording to all this vision, so did Nathan auro. 12 kat dorat day Anpology at speak unto David. ἡμέραι σου, καὶ κοιμηθήσῃ μετὰ τῶν πατέρων Pool.-10 I will appoint a place, i. e., I Tov, kat dvargo To repua Tov uerd ot, os | will make room for them ; whereas hitherto koral de ms Kotlias cov, kat trouudco Tu they have been much constrained and dis tressed by their enemies. Or, I will establish | selves. For the foregoing words in this (for so that verb sometimes signifies) a place verse, and in ver. 10, do all concern the for them, i. e., I will establish them in their people of Israel; but these words seem to place or land. Some learned men render the concern David alone, to whom the speech verse thus, and the Hebrew words will bear it: returns after a short digression concerning And I have appointed (or assigned, or given) the people of Israel. And they may be a place for my people Israel, (to wit, the land rendered either thus, and I have caused thee of Canaan,) and have planted them in it, to rest, &c., or, and I will cause thee to rest, that they may dwell in their own place, and &c., to wit, more fully and perfectly than be no more driven to and fro; or rather, and yet thou dost. He will make thee an house; they shall dwell in their own place, &c. ; i. e., for thy good intentions to make him an as I did long ago appoint it to them, and house, he will make thee an house, to wit, a afterwards planted them, or put them into sure house, as is expressed, 1 Kings xi. 38, actual possession; so now they shall continue i. e., he will increase and uphold thy posor dwell in it, in spite of all their enemies. terity, and continue thy kingdom in thy For my people Israel. Among the favours family. which God had vouchsafed, and would vouchsafe to David, he reckons his blessings to the people of Israel, because they were great blessings to David; partly because the strength and happiness of a king consists in great part in the multitude and happiness of his people; and partly because David was a man of a pious and public spirit, and therefore no less affected with Israel's felicity than with his own. In a place of their own, i. e., in their own land, not in strange lands, nor mixed with other people. As beforetime; either, first, as in the land of Egypt; and so he goes downward to the judges. Or, secondly, as in Saul's time; and so he ascends to the judges. 12 I will set up thy seed after thee; I will set up in thy stead and throne thy posterity, first Solomon, and then others successively, and at last the Messias. So the following words may be understood diversely, part of his posterity in general or indefinitely taken, part of Solomon, and part of Christ only, according to the differing nature of the several passages. 13 He shall build an house: this is meant literally and immediately of Solomon, who alone did build the material house or temple; but mystically and ultimately of Christ, who is the builder of God's spiritual house or temple, Heb. iii. 3, 6; 1 Pet. ii. 5. For my name, i. e., for my service, and worship, and 11 Nor as they did under the judges, glory. I will stablish the throne of his neither so oft nor so long. But all this is to kingdom: this is not meant of Solomon, for be understood with a condition, except they his kingdom was not for ever. And though should notoriously forsake God, or rebel the phrase for ever is sometimes used of the against him; which being so oft declared by time of a man's life, yet it cannot be so God in other places, it was needless to understood here, because the mercy here mention it here. Or this may relate to the latter ages of the world, when the people of Israel shall be converted to Christ, and recalled out of captivity, and planted in their own place; when they shall enjoy a far greater degree of tranquillity than ever they did before. And this agrees best with the future tense, I will appoint——and will plant them, &c.; otherwise the work was already done, God had already appointed this land for them, and actually planted them in it. And have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies, i.e., and until this time in which I have given thee rest. But these words, though according to our translation they be enclosed in the same parenthesis with the foregoing clauses, may seem to be better put without it, and to be taken by them VOL. II. promised to David's son is of another nature, and of far longer continuance, than that which was given to Saul, ver. 15, who yet enjoyed the kingdom as long as he lived. But it is to be understood of David's posterity in general, but with special respect to Christ, in whose person the kingdom was to be lodged for ever, Isa. ix. 7; Dan. ii. 44; Luke i. 32, 33. 14 I will carry myself towards him as becomes a father, with all affection and tenderness, and I will own him as my son. This is intended both of Solomon, as a type of Christ; and of Christ himself, as is evident from Heb. i. 5. If he commit iniquity: this agrees only to Solomon and some others of David's posterity; but not to Christ, who never committed iniquity, as 3 z Solomon did, who therein was no type of Christ, and therefore this branch is terminated in Solomon; whereas in those things wherein Solomon was a type of Christ, the sense passeth through Solomon unto Christ. With the rod of men; either, first, With such rods as men use to correct their sons, or to beat other men; which are here opposed to the rods or strokes which an angry God inflicts. See Job xxiii. 6; Psal. xxxix. 11; Isa. xlvii. 3; Rom. ix. 22; Heb. x. 31; xii. 29. Or, secondly, With such rods as are gentle and moderate, and suited to man's weakness; as a tolerable and resistible temptation is called human, or common to men, 1 Cor. x. 13. 15 My mercy, or, my kindness, i.e., the kingdom which I have mercifully and kindly promised to thee and thine. As I took it from Saul; in regard of his posterity, for the kingdom was continued to his person during life. 16 Before thee; thine eyes in some sort beholding it; for he lived to see his wise and godly son Solomon actually placed in the throne, with great reputation and general applause, 1 Kings i. 39, 40, which was in itself a good presage of the continuance of the kingdom in his family; and being considered, together with the infallible certainty of God's promise to him and his for ever, of the accomplishment whereof this was an earnest, gave him good assurance thereof; especially considering that he had his eyes and thoughts upon the Messiah, Psal. cx. 1, &c., whose day he saw by faith, as Abraham did, John viii. 56, and whom he knew that God would raise out of the fruit of his loins to sit on his throne, as is affirmed, Acts ii. 30, and that for ever; and so the eternity of his kingdom is rightly said to be before him. The LXX and Syriac read before me, which is a usual phrase, which makes no great variation in the Hebrew text. Bp. Patrick.—10 I will appoint a place.] Or, "I have constituted (or established) a place for my people," viz., the land of Canaan. Neither shall the children of wickedness.] The idolatrous people round about them. Afflict them-as beforetime.] When they were in the land of Egypt. 11 Since the time that I commanded judges.] In whose days they were sorely afflicted by the Moabites, Canaanites, Midianites, and other people. Have caused thee to rest.] Given him a quiet possession of the whole kingdom of Israel; which never was in so happy a condition as now. 12 I will set up thy seed.] To sit upon his throne. Which shall proceed out of thy bowels.] This shows that he speaks of one who was not yet born, viz., Solomon: and that Absalom, Adonijah, and the rest who pretended to the kingdom, were not designed for it: being already proceeded from him. I will establish his kingdom.] He reigned a long time himself; and so did his posterity after him. 13 The latter part of this verse can belong to none but the Messiah; if the words for ever be taken in their full extent. 14 I will be his father.] This the Apostle shows is meant of Christ, Heb. i. 5. For though Solomon was called Jedidiah, in token that he was beloved of God, yet, in the complete sense of the word, Christ only is intended: who is "God's beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased." If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, &c.] This is a mixed prophecy, some part of which belongs to Christ, and the other part to Solomon, and his successors in the kingdom of Israel: who, it is plain, is solely intended in these words. And by "the rod of men, and the stripes of the children of men," is meant gentle correction; such as parents give their children. 15 He promises not to translate the kingdom into another family; as he took it from Saul, to give it to David: but the kingdom shall continue in his line. 16 That is, saith Kimchi, for a long time, between four and five hundred years, which was a rare thing, and seldom known, that the kingly authority continued in any one family so long. But this is chiefly intended of the kingdom of Christ, as Procopius Gazærus here observes: from whence the Jews said (John xii. 34), "We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever." This is confirmed by the rule which Maimonides lays down in his More Nevochim, that though olam alone doth not necessarily signify eternally, yet when it is joined with ath, either before or after it, it doth so signify. And that is the case here; this kingdom is said to be established ath olam: which can belong to none but Christ; for David's kingdom had an end, but Christ's every one knows that Christ was born a Jew; nath none (par. ii. cap. 28). Ken. This chapter is one of the most important in the Old Testament; and yet some of its most interesting verses are very improperly rendered in our translation: it therefore demands our most careful consideration. And as, in the course of these remarks, I propose to consider, and hope to explain some of the prophecies descriptive of the Messiah, which were fulfilled in Jesus Christ; amongst which prophecies, that contained in this chapter is worthy of particular attention: I shall introduce it, with a general state of this great argument. and consequently descended from Jacob, the grandson of Abraham. And we all know, that the promise given to Abraham concerning the Messiah is recorded in the history of Abraham's life, in Gen. xxii. 18. Christ being also to descend from David, there can be no doubt, but that this promise, as made to David, was recorded likewise in the history of David. "Tis remarkable, that David's life is given more at large than that of any other person in the Old Testament; and it cannot be supposed, that the historian omitted to record that promise, which was more honourable to David than any other circumstance. The record of this promise, if written at all, must have been written in this chapter; in the message from God by Nathan to David, which is here inserted. Here (I am fully persuaded), the promise was, and still is, recorded: and the chief reason why our divines have so frequently missed it, or been so much perplexed about it, is owing to our very improper translation of the 10th and 14th verses. It having pleased God, that, between the time of a Messiah being first promised, and the time of his coming, there should be delivered by the prophets a variety of marks, by which the Messiah was to be known, and distinguished from every other man; it was impossible for any one to prove himself the Messiah, whose character did not answer to these marks and of course it was necessary, that all these criteria, thus divinely foretold, should be fulfilled in the character of Jesus This wrong translation, in a part of ScripChrist. That these prophetic descriptions of ture so very interesting, has been artfully the Messiah were numerous, appears from laid hold of, and expatiated upon splendidly, Christ and his apostles (Luke xxiv. 27, 44; by the deistical author of "The Grounds Acts xvii. 2, 3; xxviii. 23, &c.), who re- and Reasons of the Christian Religion,' ferred the Jews to the Old Testament, as who pretends to demonstrate, that the containing abundant evidence of his being promise of a Messiah could not be here rethe Messiah, because he fulfilled all the prophecies descriptive of that singular character. The chief of these prophecies related to His being miraculously born of a virgin; from; corded. His reasons (hitherto I believe unanswered) are three. 1st Because, in ver. 10, the prophet speaks of the future prosperity of the Jews, as to be afterwards fixed, and no more afflicted; which circumstances are totally repugnant to the fate of the Jews, as connected with the birth and death of Christ; 2dly Because the son, here The miracles he was to perform; promised, was (ver. 13) to build an house; The manner of his preaching; which house, it is pretended, must mean the His humility and mean appearance; temple of Solomon; and of course Solomon The perfect innocence of his life; must be the son here promised; and 3dly, The greatness of his sufferings; Because ver. 14 supposes, that this son The treachery of his betrayer; might commit iniquity; which could not be The circumstances of his trial; supposed of the Messiah. The first of these The nature of his death and burial; objections is founded on our wrong transAnd, to his miraculous resurrection. lation of verse 10; where the words should Now amongst all the circumstances, which be expressed as relating to the time past or form this chain of prophecy; the first re- present. For the prophet is there declaring ference made in the New Testament relates what great things God had already done for to his descent: for the New Testament David and his people-that he had raised begins with asserting, that "Jesus Christ David from the sheepfold to the throne-and was the son of David, the son of Abraham." that he had planted the Israelites in a place As to the descent of Christ from Abraham; of safety; at rest from all those enemies, who had so often before afflicted them. [very promise in Samuel concerning a son to That the verbs and may be ren David, and of the house which he should dered in the time past or present, is allowed build; when he says (iii. 6):-"Christ, as by our own translators; who here (ver. 11) a son, over his own house; whose house are render and have caused thee to rest, we." and also render Tam and telleth; which construction, made necessary here by the context, might be confirmed by other proofs almost innumerable. The translation therefore should run thus: "I took thee from the sheepcote—and have made thee a great name —and I have appointed a place for my people Israel; and have planted them, that they dwell in a place of their own, and move no more. Neither do the children of wickedness afflict them any more; as before time, and as since the time that I commanded judges to be over Israel; and I have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies." As to the third and greatest difficulty, that also may be removed by a more just translation of verse 14; for the Hebrew words do not properly signify what they are now made to speak. Tis certain, that the principal word is not the active infinitive of Kal, which would be ; but a from is in Niphal, as from . "Tis also certain, that a verb which in the active voice signifies to commit iniquity, may in the passive signify to suffer for iniquity: and hence it is, that nouns from such verbs sometimes signify iniquity, sometimes punishment. See Lowth's Isaiah, p. 187, with Objection the 2d is founded on a mistake many other authorities, which shall be proin the sense. David indeed had proposed to duced hereafter. The way being thus made build an house to God; which God did not clear, we are now prepared for abolishing admit. Yet, approving the piety of David's our translation, "if he commit iniquity;" intention, God was pleased to reward it by and also for adopting the true one, "even in promising, that he would make an house for his suffering for iniquity." The Messiah, David; which house, to be thus erected by who is thus the person possibly here spoken God, was certainly not material, or made of of, will be made still more manifest from the stones; but a spiritual house, or family, to whole verse thus translated :-"I will be his be raised up for the honour of God and the father, and he shall be my son: even in his salvation of mankind. And this house, suffering for iniquity, I shall chasten him which God would make, was to be built by with the rod of men (with the rod due to David's seed; and this seed was to be raised men) and with the stripes (due to) the chilup, after David slept with his fathers: which dren of Adam." And this construction is words clearly exclude Solomon, who was set well supported by Isaiah liii. 4, 5, “He hath up, and placed upon the throne, before carried our sorrows (i. e., the sorrows due to David was dead. This building, promised us, and which we must otherwise have sufby God, was to be erected by one of David's fered); he was wounded for our transdescendants, who was also to be an ever-gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities : lasting king and indeed the house and the kingdom were both of them to be established for ever. Now that this house or spiritual building was to be set up, together with a kingdom, by the Messiah, is clear from Zachariah; who very emphatically says (vi. 12, 13):-" Behold the man whose name is the Branch; he shall build the temple of the Lord. Even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne," &c. Observe also the language of the New Testament. In 1 Cor. iii. 9-17, St. Paul says, "Ye are God's buildingKnow ye not, that ye are the temple of God? -the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." And the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews seems to have his eye upon this the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." See Note, p. 479, in Hallet, on Heb. xi. 26. Thus then God declares himself the father of the Son here meant (see also Heb. i. 5); and promises, that, even amidst the sufferings of this Son (as they would be for the sins of others, not for his own), his mercy should still attend him: nor should his favour be ever removed from this king, as it had been from Saul. And thus (as it follows)" thine house (O David) and thy kingdom shall (in Messiah) be established for ever, before me (before God): thy throne shall be established for ever." Thus the angel, delivering his message to the virgin mother (Luke i. 32, 33) speaks, as if he was quoting from this very prophecy, "The Lord |