Bible History - Old Testament

(John Hannent) #1

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ordinances, priesthood, and law, allegiance to which brings blessing, while
unfaithfulness entails judgments.
Accordingly, after general genealogical tables (in which the work abounds), the
kingdom of David is traced to the Babylonish captivity, while the history of the
kingdom of Israel is wholly omitted. Even in the history of the kingdom of David
and of his successors - especially in that of David and Solomon - all the merely
personal parts are passed over, and the narrative is, if one may use the expression,
rather objective than subjective. The reader will easily find for himself what parts
of history are omitted, although the plan is not always consistently carried out,
especially in regard to the later reigns.


(^257) The expression refers, of course, to these two hundred representative men, and
not to the tribe as a whole.
(^258) Comp. Vol. 2 of this Bible History.
(^259) This might have been inferred from the circumstance that both in 2 Samuel 5
and in 1 Chronicles 11 the capture of Jerusalem is recorded immediately after
David's coronation. But the wording of 2 Samuel 5:5 places it beyond doubt.
(^260) So the words in the original, and not as in our Authorised Version.
(^261) The expression rendered in the Authorised Version "gutter," occurs only again
in the plural in Psalm 42:7, where it undoubtedly means "cataracts" or "waterfalls."
Accordingly we translate the singular of the noun by "watercourse down a steep
brow." Keil, Ewald, and Erdmann render it "abyss." The interpretation of this
difficult verse (ver. 8) in The Speaker's Bible seems to us not warranted by the
language of the text.
(^262) This is the best rendering of this somewhat difficult verse.
(^263) Mr. Lewin's theory (Siege of Jerusalem, pp. 256, etc.) that Millo was the
Temple-area is wholly untenable. There was, for example, another Millo in
Shechem (Judges 9:6), which is also designated as the migdal, or tower of
Shechem (vers. 46, 49).
(^264) So, notably, the four sons of Bathsheba or Bathshua (comp. 1 Chronicles 3:5),
and, of course, the others also. In 1 Chronicles 3:6, 7, two names (Eliphelet and
Nogah) are mentioned, which do not occur in 2 Samuel These two must have died.
(^)

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