Page images
PDF
EPUB

wetehi Israel, and Israel were,' etc. It must also be observed, that exclusive of the troops before mentioned, there was an army of observation on the frontiers of the Philistines' country, composed of thirty thousand men, as appears by 2 Sam. vi. 1, which, it seems, were included in the number of five hundred thousand of the people of Judah, by the author of Samuel; but the author of Chronicles, who mentions only four hundred and seventy thousand, gives the number of that tribe exclusive of those thirty thousand men, because they were not all of the tribe of Judah, and therefore he does not say cal Jehudah, 'all those of Judah,' as he had said cal Israel, all those of Israel,' but only Jehudah, 'and those of Judah;' and thus both accounts may be reconciled, by only having recourse to other parts of Scripture treating on the same subject, which will ever be found the best method of explaining difficult passages.'

[ocr errors]

"And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done," etc.-Ver. 10-17.

Bishop Horne has suggested, that there can be no doubt that we are much in the dark upon this point, that is, the sin of David in numbering the people; and that if any light can be thrown upon it, that light must proceed from a passage in Exod. xxx. 12, where God says to Moses, "When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them, that there be no plague among them when thou numberest them." To number the people,

"Critica Sacra Examined," pp. 106-109.

66

the

then, he further remarks, was not merely to count them out of curiosity or vain-glory. It was a religious rite, it was a muster, a review, a visitation, an inquisition into their conduct, into the religious and moral state in which they at that time stood before their God. For upon such inquisition something came out or appeared against them which required an offering by way of atonement or ransom for their souls,- they shall give a ransom, that there be no plague amongst them, when thou numberest them :" a very observable expression; for when David numbered them, this was very thing that happened; there was a plague among them, in consequence of their being numbered. They might be in such a state that God would not accept them, or their offerings. It is not improbable that they should be in such a state, if we consider what corruptions must needs have crept in under Saul's wicked reign, and David's long wars, during most of which time the country had been overrun by the Philistines, etc., who would propagate their idolatry, with its flagitious concomitants. In short, Israel had provoked God; for otherwise His anger would not have been kindled against them, as we are informed that it was; their offences called for punishment, and on the numbering of the people an opportunity was taken to inflict it. Joab appears to have been aware of the consequence, as a known case: Why," he says, "will my lord the king be a cause of trespass [punishment, or forfeiture] to Israel?" (1 Chron. xxi. 3). As if he knew that, upon a visitation, they must be punished who should be found guilty, and was unwilling that the number of the king's subjects should be lessened. But David might think it necessary, and his zeal prevailed.

66

Otherwise it is extraordinary that such a man as Joab should anticipate what David either could not, or would not, see.*

On the whole, to adopt the words of Dr. Chandler, "If they who object, credit the history of the Old Testament in this part of it, and think it is true that one of these three plagues was offered to David, as the punishment of his offence, that he chose the pestilence, that it came accordingly, and was removed upon his intercession, they are as much concerned to account for the difficulties of the affair, as I or any other person can be. If they do not believe this part of the history, as the sacred writers represent it, let them give us the account of it as it stands in their own imagination, and tell us, whether there was any plague at all, how and why it came, and how it went and disappeared of a sudden."

"So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver."-Ver. 24.

This passage will be effectually harmonised with 1 Chron. xxi. 25, by inserting a comma after the word threshing-floor. It will then appear that David bought the oxen for fifty shekels of silver, which the author of Samuel states, omitting the price paid for the threshing-floor, for which the author of Chronicles says he paid five hundred shekels of gold, but omits the price paid for the

oxen.

Bishop Horne's "Letters on Infidelity," pp. 261–265.

THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS.

CHAPTER II.

"And, behold, thou hast with thee Shimei, the son of Gera, a Benjamite of Bahurim, which cursed me with a grievous curse in the day when I went to Mahanaim: but he came down to meet me at Jordan, and I sware to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put thee to death with the sword. Now, therefore, hold him not guiltless: for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him: but his hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood."-Ver. 8, 9.

DAVID is here represented as finishing his life with giving a command to Solomon to kill Shimei; and to kill him on account of that very crime for which, as David here says, he had sworn to him by the Lord he would not put him to death. The behaviour thus imputed to the king and prophet, and which would be justly censurable, if true, should be examined very carefully as to the ground it stands upon: and Dr. Kennicott has done this. He says, it is not uncommon in the Hebrew language to omit the negative in a second part of the sentence, and to consider it as repeated when it has been once expressed, and is followed by the connecting particle. Thus, as he says, on Isa. xiii. 22, "The negative is repeated, or referred to by the conjunction vau, as in Ps. i. 5: "The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, NOR (the Hebrew is AND, signifying, and

not), sinners in the congregation of the righteous." Ps. ix. 18: "The needy shall not alway be forgotten" —(and then the negative understood as repeated by the conjunction now dropped)-" the expectation of the poor shall [NOT] perish for ever." Ps. xxxviii. 1: "O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath; NEITHER [AND, for AND NOT] chasten me in thy hot displeasure." Ps. lxxv. 5: "Lift not up your horn on high: [and then the negative understood as repeated by the conjunction now dropped] speak NOT with a stiff neck." Prov. xxiv. 12-our version is this: "Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth [NOT] he know it? and shall [NOT] he render to every man according to his works?" And Prov. xxx. 3: "I neither learned wisdom, NOR [AND, for AND NOT] have the knowledge of the holy." If, then, there are in fact many such instances, the question is-whether the negative, here expressed in the former part of David's command, may not be understood as to be repeated in the latter part and if this may be, a strong reason will be added why it should be, so interpreted. The passage will run thus: "Behold thou hast with thee Shimei, who cursed me; but I swore to him by the Lord, saying, I will not put thee to death by the sword. Now, therefore, hold him NOT guiltless (for thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do unto him), but bring NOT down his hoary head to the grave with blood." If the language itself will admit this construction, the sense thus given to the sentence derives a very strong support from the context. For how did Solomon understand this charge? Did he kill Shimei in consequence of it? Certainly he did not. For, after he had immediately commanded

« PreviousContinue »