him a great king, but promised that his posterity, and, at last, the Lord Christ, should sit upon His throne. So Abarbanel himself expounds these words, "a great while to come"; intimating, says he, the Messiah, the son of David, who acknowledges there was no example of such kindness to be found in this world, where kingdoms are not perpetuated; but this is the manner of angels, who always continue in their dignity.*

as the

45,

2. Kennicott suggests, and his suggestion is adopted by Dr. A. Clarke, that the words vesat torat headam literally signify "and this is (or must be) the law of the man, or, of the Adam": that is, this promise must relate to the law or ordinance made by God to Adam, concerning the seed of the woman; the man, or the second ADAM Messiah is expressly called by Paul in 1 Cor. xv. 47. This meaning will be yet more evident from the parallel place (1 Chron. xvii. 17), where the words of David are now miserably rendered thus: "And thou hast regarded me according to the estate of a man of high degree"; whereas the words literally signify, "And thou hast regarded me according to the order of THE ADAM THAT IS FUTURE, or, THE MAN THAT IS FROM ABOVE (for the word hemoleh very remarkably signifies hereafter as to time, and from above as to place); and thus Paul, including both senses, the second man is the Lord from heaven "—and “Adam is the figure of him that was to come, or the future" (Rom. v. 14).† If the remarks on this whole passage are just, says Kennicott, then may we see clearly the chief foundation *Bp. Patrick in loco.

66

† See Sermon on "A Virgin shall conceive," by Dr. Kennicott, and Preface to Peters on Job.

of what Peter tells us (Acts ii. 30) concerning David, "that, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne."

"For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know them."-Ver. 21.

Geddes and Boothroyd both render this passage better, "For thine own word's sake, and according to thine own heart [Geddes, out of thine own bounty], thou doest all those great things which thou hast made known to thy servant."

"And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods ?"-Ver. 23.

By inserting the word you, the transcribers, as Hallet observes, have quite spoiled the grammar here, as by introducing the words for thy land, they have disturbed the sense. Taking for his authorities the parallel passage in 1 Chron. xvii. 21, the LXX., the Arabic, and the Vulgate, he renders the passage, more consistently, as Boothroyd also has done: "And what one nation on the earth is like thy people Israel, whom thou, O God, wentest to redeem for a people to thyself, and to make thyself a name, and to do for them great and terrible things, to drive out before thy people, whom thou redeemedst to thyself from Egypt, the nations and their gods?"

CHAPTER VIII.

"And David took from him a thousand chariots, and seven hundred horsemen."-Ver. 4.

IN 1 Chron. xviii. 4, it is said that the number of horsemen taken from Hadadezer by David was seven thousand, a far more probable number than seven hundred. When it is known that stands for seven thousand, and for seven hundred, it will be seen that a mistake might easily be made by a transcriber in such a case.

CHAPTER XII.

"And he took their king's crown from off his head, the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones: and it was set on David's head."-Ver. 30.

A TALENT, according to the usual computation, would amount to nearly one hundred and fourteen pounds, a weight which it is obvious could not be borne upon either the head of the king of Rabbah, or the head of king David. But to this we must add the weight of the precious stones, which was not included in the former estimate; and then the relation will be still more incredible. To avoid the difficulty, several critics have proposed to take the Hebrew Meshkeleh for value, instead of weight. But this is doing too great violence to the ordinary meaning of the word, which in no other instance, that we can find, is used in such a sense.

After having given to the passage the most anxious attention, we have not been able to conceive of any fair way in which it can be disposed of; there is no ambiguity in the text, nor is there any diversity of reading in the MSS. There is one

consideration, however, which will not fail to present itself to the mind of the impartial critic, and that is this: that we are far from being certain of the absolute meaning of the Hebrew carcar zehab, translated a talent of gold; and while the term is involved in so much uncertainty, no valid objection can be urged against the narrative on the ground of its supposed incredibility.

"And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln "-Ver. 31.

David has been reproached for the cruelty he here inflicted upon the Ammonites, but the cruelty is to be found only in the translation of the narrative, and Dr. Chandler has assigned very conclusive reasons for rendering the passage in the following manner :-" He brought forth the inhabitants, and put them to the saw, and TO iron mines, and iron axes, and transported them to the brickkiln;"—that is, he reduced them to slavery, and put them to the most servile employments. But to this it has been objected, that in the parallel passage, 1 Chron. xx. 3, it is expressly said that "he CUT (jesher) them with saws," etc.; and in reply it has been urged, that there is reason to believe this passage has been accidentally corrupted, by the exchange of one letter for another, than which nothing could be more easy, if there were any imperfection, any partial erasure in the MS. from which the present copies were taken.

But the objection and the reply are equally uncalled for, since there is no real discrepancy between the two passages, even according to the present reading. The verbs sher and jesher signify to

regulate, to rule, etc., and therefore the obvious meaning of the passage in the Chronicles is, that David subjected the Ammonites to the laborious employments specified, which is also the idea conveyed by the author of Samuel.

CHAPTER XV.

"And it came to pass after forty years, that Absalom said unto the king," etc.-Ver. 7.

As David only reigned forty years, and the text seems to refer to the period which elapsed between the first fomenting of Absalom's conspiracy and his open rebellion, critics have supposed a corruption in the Hebrew; arboim, forty, having been inserted for arba, four, which is the reading of the Syriac, Arabic, Josephus, Theodoret, and some copies of the Vulgate. Lightfoot, however, refers the commencement of the forty years to the first anointing of David by Samuel, and not to the conspiracy of Absalom; and since this solution does no violence to the text, and supersedes the necessity of an arbitrary emendation of the original, it is conceived to be preferable to the former one.

"While I abode at Geshur in Syria."-Ver. 8.

For

There are several instances given by Dr. Kennicott, in which the similar Heb. words Aram (Syria) and Adum (Edom), have been exchanged by mistake; and, as he has suggested, it is so in the text. that Geshur, the country of Talmai, to whom Absalom fled, lay on the south of Canaan, and in or near Edom, is certain from Judg. i. 10; 2 Sam. xiii. 37; 1 Sam. xxvii. 8.