2 Samuel 21:1-11. A Three Years Famine for Saul's massacre of the Gibeonites. The Execution of Saul's sons 1. _Then there was a famine_ Render, AND THERE WAS A FAMINE. There is no adverb of time marking chronological connexion with the foregoing narrative. In Palestine a famine was the almost certai... [ Continue Reading ]
_the Amorites Amorites_(highlanders) is here and elsewhere used as a general designation for the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, particularly those who occupied the mountainous country. See note on 1 Samuel 7:14. The Gibeonites belonged to the tribe of the Hivites. _had sworn unto them_ See Joshu... [ Continue Reading ]
_no silver nor gold_ No money compensation could expiate Saul's offence. Money-compensation for murder is allowed by the laws of most nations in a primitive stage, e.g. of the ancient Germans (Tac. _Germ._21); the Anglo-Saxons; and the Arabs of the present day. It was expressly forbidden by the Mosa... [ Continue Reading ]
_devised_ This, and not the marginal alternative _cut us off_, is the right rendering. _in any of the coasts_ IN ALL THE BORDERS. _Coast_, from _costa_, a rib or side, originally meant any border or frontier-line, not the sea-line only; and then, like the Lat. _fines_, the territory enclosed by the... [ Continue Reading ]
_seven men_ A sacred number, for their execution was to be a solemn religious act of expiation. _we will hang them up_ They were to be impaled or crucified, as a public exhibition of the punishment inflicted. In all probability they were put to death first. The practice corresponds to that of hangi... [ Continue Reading ]
_the_Lord's _oath_ See 1 Samuel 18:3; 1 Samuel 20:12-17; 1 Samuel 20:42; 1 Samuel 23:18.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the five sons of Michal … whom she brought up for Adriel_ The Heb. text can only mean WHOM SHE BARE TO ADRIEL. But it was _Merab_, not Michal, who was married to Adriel (1 Samuel 18:19). Consequently we must either read MERAB for _Michal_, or take the explanation given in the Targum and adopted by... [ Continue Reading ]
_in the first_days] Barley harvest preceded wheat harvest, and began about the middle or end of April. Cp. Exodus 9:31-32; Ruth 1:22; Ruth 2:23.... [ Continue Reading ]
_spread it_ As a rough tent to shelter her while she watched the corpses. The usage of the word is decisive against understanding it to mean _spread it under her for a bed_, as is done by the Vulg. and most commentators. _dropped upon them_ WAS POURED UPON THEM (cp. Exodus 9:33): that is, until hea... [ Continue Reading ]
Burial of the bones of Saul and his sons 11. The curious addition of the Sept. to this verse, "and they were unfastened, and Dan the son of Joash, who was of the descendants of the giant, took them down," is almost certainly a corrupt rendering of 2 Samuel 21:15, placed here by mistake.... [ Continue Reading ]
_David went_ Touched by Rizpah's maternal devotion, and wishing to shew that he had no personal enmity to the house of Saul. _the men of Jabesh-gilead_ THE CITIZENS, lit. _lords_or _possessors_of Jabesh-Gilead; a term peculiar to the books of Joshua, Judges, and Samuel (Joshua 24:11; Judges 9:2 ff;... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jonathan his son_ The Sept. adds, "and the bones of them that were hanged." _Zelah_ Enumerated among the towns of Benjamin in Joshua 18:28, but not yet identified. _Beit Jala_near Bethlehem, which has been suggested, is not in the tribe of Benjamin. _God was intreated_ Accepted the intreaty or in... [ Continue Reading ]
_had yet war again_ "Again" refers to earlier wars, the account of which preceded this narrative in the document from which it was taken. _went down_ From the high lands of Judah to the low country of Philistia the _Shephêlah_or maritime plain.... [ Continue Reading ]
Heroic exploits in the Philistine wars This section is quite unconnected with the preceding narrative. It is perhaps a fragment from some "book of golden deeds" recording the exploits of David and his warriors. From such a chronicle may also be derived ch. 2 Samuel 23:8-39, possibly ch. 2 Samuel 5:... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ishbi-benob_ Perhaps = "dweller on a height," a name given him because he lived in some inaccessible castle. But there are good reasons for suspecting that there is some corruption in the text, and that the giant's real name has been lost. _of the sons of the giant_ The word for _sons_is one specia... [ Continue Reading ]
_and smote_ Perhaps, AND HE (David) SMOTE; as 2 Samuel 21:22 seems to imply that one of them fell by David's own hand. _that thou quench not the light of Israel_ Extinguishing THE LAMP is a natural metaphor for changing the light of prosperity into the darkness of calamity; and in particular David's... [ Continue Reading ]
_at Gob_ A place mentioned only here and in 2 Samuel 21:19. The Sept. reads _Gath_, the parallel passage in Chron. _Gezer_; and we must suppose that _Gob_is either a corruption of the text, or some otherwise unknown place perhaps in the neighbourhood of Gezer, for which see note on ch. 2 Samuel 5:25... [ Continue Reading ]
_in Gob_ The Sept. reads _Rom_(B) or _Gob_(A), and Chron. omits the name of the place altogether. _where Elhanan_, &c. Lit. _and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, slew Goliath the Gittite_. The words _the brother of_are conjecturally inserted in the E. V. from 1 Chron. They are not... [ Continue Reading ]
_six fingers … six toes_ Pliny mentions such a peculiarity (_Hist. Nat._11:43), and it is not unknown in modern times.... [ Continue Reading ]
_defied Israel_ Cp. 1Sa 17:10; 1 Samuel 17:25-26. _Jonathan_ David's nephew, brother of the astute Jonadab (ch. 2 Samuel 13:3).... [ Continue Reading ]
_were born to the giant_ Were descendants of _Rapha_, or, _the giant_: not necessarily all four sons of one man. See note on 2 Samuel 21:16.... [ Continue Reading ]