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(^89) We may here give a curious extract from Siphre, all the more readily that this
commentary on Numbers and Deuteronomy, which is older than the Mishnah, is so
little quoted even by those who make Rabbinical literature their study. In Siphre
69a, by way of enforcing the duty of modesty, the expression of Samuel, "I am the
seer" (1 Samuel 9:19), is thus commented on: "The Holy One, blessed be He, said
to him, Art thou the seer? by thy life, I shall shew thee that thou art not a seer. And
how did He shew it to him? At the time when it was said: Fill thy horn with oil,
and go, I will send thee to Jesse, the Bethlehemite," etc. Upon which 1 Samuel
16:6 is quoted, when the Holy One reminded Samuel that he had said: "I am a
seer," while nevertheless he was entirely mistaken on the subject of the choice of
Eliab!
(^90) This is the correct rendering.
(^91) The LXX. translators in this, as in several other passages in this section, either
had a Hebrew text somewhat varying from ours or else altered it in their
translation. Notwithstanding the views of some critics (notably Thenius), we have
seen no reason to depart from the textus receptus.
(^92) The Hebrew word indicates a narrow-necked vessel from which the oil would
come by drops.
(^93) The traditional site of Rachel's grave near Bethlehem must be given up as wholly
incompatible with this passage. The reasons have been fully explained in my
Sketches of Jewish Social Life, p. 60.
(^94) The locality cannot be identified. The suggestion of Thenius and Ewald, who
regard Tabor as equivalent for Deborah, is scarcely tenable.
(^95) Thenius and Bottcher render it, "a pillar;" Ewald, "a tax-collector." But the
rendering in the text seems the correct one (comp. 13:3, 4).
(^96) The difference between the navel and the chinnor is explained in my volume on
The Temple, etc., p. 55. The chinnor differed from our harp in that it was carried in
the hand (comp., Samuel 6:5).
(^97) In the original the clauses - "which there a garrison of the Philistines", - reads
like an emphatic parenthesis, altogether meaningless except for the purpose
indicated in the text.
(^)