Commentari biblici

1. David the son of Jesse said] The oracle of David the son of Jesse: a peculiar word, generally used of a direct message from God through a prophet in the phrase rendered, “saith the Lord,” and joined with the name of the human speaker only here and in Numbers 24:3-4; Numbers 24:15-16; Proverbs 30:1. It therefore marks these “last words” as an utterance delivered by special divine inspiration.

raised up on high] Raised by God from a low estate to be the king of Israel. Cp. ch. 2 Samuel 7:8-9; Psalm 78:70-71.

the God of Jacob] The use of the name Jacob, instead of the more familiar Israel, is chiefly poetical. It suggests more vividly the connexion of the nation with their great ancestor, and recalls more forcibly the covenant made with him by God. Cp. Psalm 20:1; Isaiah 2:3.

the sweet psalmist of Israel] Lit. pleasant in Israel’s songs of praise: a title deserving to stand by the side of “the anointed of the God of Jacob,” because he was God’s instrument for educating and developing his people’s religious life by means of his Psalms, not less than for governing them as king. See Introd. ch. V. § 6, c, p. 31.

Ch. 2 Samuel 23:1-7. The last words of David

The great hymn of triumph in ch. 22, composed when David was in the zenith of his prosperity, is followed by his “last words:” his last prophetic utterance, delivered not long before his death, a parting testimony to the world of his confidence in the fulfilment of the promise concerning the eternal dominion of his posterity.

A translation of the Targum or Aramaic paraphrase of David’s last words is given in Note IV., p. 237.

2. the Spirit of the Lord] A direct claim of inspiration, to which Christ Himself bears witness (Matthew 22:43).

Observe the parallelisms, which constitute Hebrew poetry.

3, 4. The oracular brevity of these verses hardly admits of translation, and makes the meaning of them obscure. They may be rendered:

A ruler over men, a righteous one!

a ruler in the fear of God!

and he shall be as the light of morning when the sun riseth;

a morning without clouds;

when from sunshine, from rain, grass springeth from earth.

The second half of 2 Samuel 23:3 draws, with a few strong strokes—there are but six words in the original—an outline portrait of an ideal king, ruling with perfect justice, controlled and guided by the fear of God. 2 Samuel 23:4 depicts in figurative language the blessings of his reign.

His appearance will be like the life-giving sunshine of a cloudless morning; blessings will follow him as verdure clothes the earth from the united influences of sunshine and rain.

In order to appreciate the force of the latter figure, it must be borne in mind that verdure is not perpetual in Palestine, as with us. There what in June is “a brown, hard-baked, gaping plain, with only here and there the withered stems of thistles and centaureas to tell that life had ever existed there” is clothed in spring after the rains with “a deep solid growth of clovers and grasses.” David had been familiar with the yearly transformation of the dry and dusty downs of Beth-lehem into a lovely garden of brilliant flowers; an apt emblem of the gracious influences of the perfect rule of an ideal king upon a hard and desert world. Cp. Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 35:1-2. See Tristram’s Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 454.

This prophecy is the companion and complement of the prophecy in ch. 7 There the promise of an eternal dominion is given to the house of David, finding a partial fulfilment in his descendants, and a complete fulfilment only in Christ: here David himself is taught by inspiration to draw the portrait of a ruler, some features of which were partially realised in Solomon and the better kings of Judah, but which finds it perfect realisation only in Christ.

The features of the portrait are developed and the outlines filled in by subsequent prophets, with ever increasing clearness pointing forward to Him Who was to fulfil and more than fulfil all the anticipations of prophecy.

Thus for the ruler cp. Micah 5:2 : for the characteristic of righteousness cp. Psalm 72:1-3 (primarily referring to Solomon); Isaiah 11:1-5 : Zechariah 9:9 : and especially Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 33:15 : for the fear of the Lord, cp. Isaiah 11:2. The figure of the fertilising rain is borrowed in Psalm 72:6 : cp. Isaiah 44:3-4 : that of the light is repeated in Proverbs 4:18 : and the closing words of the last prophet, “Unto you shall the Sun of righteousness arise” (Malachi 4:2), combine and re-echo these last words of David.

5.  For is not my house thus with God?

for an eternal covenant hath he made for me,

ordered in all and secured:

for all my salvation and all good pleasure

shall he not cause it to spring forth?

This seems to be the most probable rendering of an obscure passage. The meaning then will be: Is not my house in such a relation to God, because He has made an eternal covenant with me, that I may look for the righteous ruler to arise out of it, bringing with him all these attendant blessings?

“The eternal covenant” is the promise in ch. 2 Samuel 7:12 ff., to which David refers as the ground of his confidence in the fulfilment of this prophecy in and through his house. The epithets “ordered in all and secured” compare the covenant to a carefully drawn and properly attested legal document.

Finally he expresses his confidence that God will in due time cause the salvation promised to him and his house, and all His own good pleasure, to grow and prosper, using a metaphor suggested by that in 2 Samuel 23:4. Cp. Psalm 132:17; Jeremiah 33:15; and for God’s “good pleasure,” cp. Isaiah 53:10.

6. But the sons of Belial] But the wicked, &c. All ungodly men and evil things are described as worthlessness or wickedness. Their judgment and destruction is the necessary consequence of the perfect rule of the righteous king. Cp. Matthew 13:41.

7. But the man, &c.] But the man who toucheth them must arm himself with iron and a spear shaft. The thorns cannot be touched by hand, but must be torn up with an iron hook fastened to a long handle. The expression is chosen so as to be applicable to the enemies who are figured, as well as to the thorns which figure them.

burnt with fire] Cp. Matthew 3:10; Matthew 13:30; Luke 19:27; Hebrews 6:8.

in the same place] Or perhaps, until they are consumed. But the word is probably not part of the true text, and should be omitted altogether.

8–12. The first Three

8. the mighty men] Used here in a narrower sense, not of the whole body-guard of six hundred. See note on ch. 2 Samuel 15:18.

The Tachmonite that sat in the seat] The text is corrupt, and we must follow 1 Chronicles 11:11 in reading Jashobeam the Hachmonite. He joined David at Ziklag (1 Chronicles 12:6), and was afterwards made general of the first division of the army (1 Chronicles 27:2). Jehiel, the tutor of the king’s sons, belonged to the same family (1 Chronicles 27:32).

chief among the captains] The word translated captains probably means aides-de-camp, or personal attendants on the king. See 1 Kings 9:22 (E. V. captains); 2 Kings 7:2; 2 Kings 7:17; 2 Kings 7:19 (E. V. lord), 2 Kings 9:25, 2 Kings 10:25, 2 Kings 15:25. But it is possible that we should alter the text slightly, and read chief of the three (Vulg., E. V., marg.). Cp. 2 Samuel 23:23. In fact all through this section there is a constant confusion between the words for captain or aide-de-camp, three, and thirty, which are all closely similar in the Heb.

the same was Adino the Eznite] These words are probably a corruption of some words equivalent to those in 1 Chronicles 11:11, which are needed to complete the sense here: he brandished his spear. The Sept. reads “Adinon the Asonæan, he drew his sword.”

eight hundred] Chr. reads three hundred, perhaps by confusion with 2 Samuel 23:18. There is no ground for supposing that two different occasions are referred to.

slew at one time] With the help perhaps of some of his men. Yet cp. Jdg 3:31; Jdg 15:15.

8–39. David’s Heroes and their exploits

= 1 Chronicles 11:11-41This section is placed in Chronicles after the account of David’s election as King of Israel and his capture of Zion, and is prefaced by the heading: “These also are the chief of the mighty men whom David had, who shewed themselves strong with him in his kingdom with all Israel, to make him king, according to the word of the Lord concerning Israel.” The list therefore belongs, at any rate in substance, to the earlier part of David’s reign.

9. Dodo] The Kthîbh may be read Dodai, as the name is given in 1 Chronicles 27:4, where we learn that Dodai, as next in rank to Jashobeam, was general of the second division of the army.

the Ahohite] A patronymic derived from Ahoah, the son of Benjamin’s eldest son Bela (1 Chronicles 8:4). Perhaps Dodo, like Jashobeam, was one of the Benjamites who joined David at Ziklag (1 Chronicles 12:1-2).

that were there gathered together] There implies the previous mention of the name of some place, and certain anomalies of construction also indicate that the text is defective. 1 Chronicles 11:13 reads: “Eleazar … one of the three mighty men. He was with David at Pas-dammim, and there the Philistines were gathered together to battle.” Pas-dammim, or Ephesdammim, where David slew Goliath, was in the valley of Elah, between Shochoh and Azekah. The name, signifying “boundary of blood,” was probably due to its being the scene of frequent skirmishes with the Philistines. See 1 Samuel 17:1.

were gone away] Rather, went up to battle. The words “and the people fled from before the Philistines,” which appear to correspond to this in 1 Chronicles 11:13, really belong to Shammah’s exploit (2 Samuel 23:11). Several lines have been lost from the text there.