15. Yet war again This expression indicates that the document here used by our author contained also accounts of other and earlier wars with the Philistines.

Went down From the heights of Judea to the great plain of Philistia.

Waxed faint Was becoming exhausted.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

David’s Final Victory Over The Philistines Portrayed In Terms Of The Defeat Of The Philistine ‘Giants’ By David’s Mighty Men ( 2Sa 21:15-19 ).

The defeat of the Philistines at the commencement of David’s reign over all Israel has already been depicted in 2Sa 5:17-25; 2Sa 8:1. Now it is re-emphasised and we learn that there were in fact periods of continual on and off warfare leading up to their being finally subdued. But the great emphasis is on the part played by David’s mighty men. This is depicted here in terms of battles between the ‘giants’ (rapha -indicating overlarge warriors) of the Philistines with the ‘mighty men’ of David. Compare also 2Sa 23:8-17. Each ‘giant’ was to meet his ‘David’ (compare 1 Samuel 17). It is testimony to David’s prowess and YHWH’s watch over His people that this time (in contrast with 1 Samuel 17) there were such men to challenge and overcome the ‘giants’.

Analysis.

a And the Philistines had war again with Israel, and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines (2Sa 21:15).

b And David grew faint, and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spearhead was three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with new armour, thought to have slain David, but Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You shall go no more out with us to battle, that you quench not the lamp of Israel” (2Sa 21:16-17).

c And it came about after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob, then Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Saph, who was of the sons of the giant (2Sa 21:18).

c And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim the Beth-lehemite slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam (2Sa 21:19).

b And there was again war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, who had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number, and he also was born to the giant, and when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, slew him (2Sa 21:20-21).

a These four were born to the giant in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants (2Sa 21:22).

Note that in ‘a’ David and his servants fought against the Philistines, and in the parallel the four ‘giants’ fell by the hands of David and his servants. In ‘b’ the impressive Ishbibenob was slain by David’s nephew, and in the parallel the ‘giant’ of Gath was slain by Jonathan, another of David’s nephews. In ‘c’ there was war with the Philistines at Gob, and in the parallel there was war with the Philistines at Gob.

2Sa 21:15-16

‘ And the Philistines had war again with Israel, and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. And David grew faint, and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spearhead was three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with new armour, thought to have slain David.’

In a war which presumably came some time after the battles described in 2Sa 5:17-25 David and his men again fought against the Philistines. During the battle David, who was presumably by this time much older, and had no doubt fought hard, grew faint, and the result was that the Philistine ‘giant’ Ishbibenob, whose spearhead was so heavy that it weighed the equivalent of 300 shekels of bronze (only, however, half that of Goliath in 1Sa 17:7), saw his opportunity and advanced on him in order to finish him off, aided by his ‘new armour’ or ‘new sword’ (the Hebrew text has no noun, but the point is that he was newly equipped). Everything was in his favour.

These were not, of course, giants in the modern fairy-tale sense, but simply overlarge warriors. It is simply that LXX translated raphah as ‘giantes’. The Hebrew has in mind the Rephaim which was the Hebrew word for certain huge and mighty warriors who originally inhabited the Canaanite coastal plain (compare Gen 14:5; Gen 15:19-21; Deu 2:11; Deu 3:11; Deu 3:13). If we identify them with the Anakim (see Deu 2:21) they terrified ten out of the twelve scouts whom Joshua sent out from Kadesh Barnea (Num 13:33). The word indicates overlarge men, who simply terrified their opponents by their size. They were reputedly descended from Anak (Num 13:33; Deu 9:2; compare Jos 15:13) and were also known as the Anakim. A group of them had settled in Philistia (Jos 11:21 ff). There was a well known saying, ‘Who can stand before the sons of Anak?’ (Deu 9:2), and the answer given here is that David’s mighty men can.

2Sa 21:17 a

‘But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid, and smote the Philistine, and killed him.’

Abishai, who was fighting alongside David, saw the threat to David and came to his aid, smiting the Philistine and killing him. As we have already seen Abishai regularly tended to be alongside David (compare 2Sa 20:6; 1Sa 26:6-11). He was a mighty warrior and captain of the second ‘Three’, and was at one time responsible (no doubt with his men) for the slaying of three whole units of Philistines (2Sa 23:18). To such a man a ‘giant’ was easy meat. But we are intended to recognise that he was such a man because YHWH was with him.

2Sa 21:17 b

‘Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You shall go no more out with us to battle, that you quench not the lamp of Israel.” ’

The consequence arising from this incident was that David’s men would no longer allow him to go out with them into the heat of battle, lest ‘the lamp of Israel’ be quenched. In the Tabernacle the lamp was never allowed to go out (Lev 24:2-3), and his men clearly saw David in similar terms. He was ‘the Anointed of YHWH’, thus he represented, outside the Tabernacle, what the lamp represented inside, the symbol of God’s presence, justice and truth among His people. He could not therefore be allowed to be extinguished. Compare Lam 4:20 where the Anointed of YHWH was seen as ‘the breath of our nostrils’. Thus he was seen as both their light and their very life. It was therefore fitting that from him would one day be descended the One Who would claim, ‘I am the light of the world’ (Joh 8:12; compare Joh 12:46) and ‘I am the resurrection and the life (Joh 11:25; compare Joh 14:6), although in a much fuller and more literal sense.

2Sa 21:18

‘ And it came about after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob, then Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Saph, who was of the sons of the giant.’

A further war with the Philistines followed at Gob (near Gezer), and in this war another ‘giant’ named Saph was slain by Sibbecai the Hushathite (1Ch 11:29; compare 1Ch 23:27 where he (or his replacement) is called Mebunnai). It is from this point on that we have a partially parallel passage in 1Ch 20:4-8, which sets this incident in the area of Gezer, and names the ‘giant’ as Sippai (which is Saph with the addition of a yod), but it is by no means the case that one account is simply copied from the other, for there are sufficient differences between them to indicate that the information in both is independently taken from a more detailed account which both have summarised.

2Sa 21:19

‘ And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Yaare-oregim the Beth-lehemite slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.’

This further example of the victory of David’s mighty men over the ‘giants’ of the Philistines again took place at Gob and involved the slaying of ‘Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam’ (compare 1Sa 17:4; 1Sa 17:7). It is quite clear that this occurred many years after David slew the original ‘Goliath’ and ‘Goliath’ thus appears to have been the title of honour given at any particular time to the current recognised Philistine champion. Compare how, in a similar way, Abimelech and Phicol were titles of honour for the king and the commander-in-chief passed down among the Philistines through the generations (see Genesis 20; Gen 21:22-34; Gen 26:26; Psalms 34 heading where Achish is called Abimelech), and compare Rabshakeh, Rabsaris and Tartan, all titles of honour among the Assyrians (2Ki 18:17). Alternately this may have been a son or grandson of the previous Goliath. The previous Goliath may well be ‘the giant (rapha) of Gath’ of 2Sa 21:22.

Note On Goliath The Gittite.

The probable explanation of what appears to be a coincidence of names is that the Philistines gave the title ‘Goliath’ to whoever was their current champion. Thus David slew ‘Goliath the Gittite’ in 1 Samuel 17, and here, many years later, a ‘Goliath the Gittite’ is slain by Elhanan. An alternative possibility is that this was the former Goliath’s son or grandson per 2Sa 21:22.

However, in view of 1Ch 20:5 (although, as we have noted, the passages are not exact parallels), many have sought to deal with the problem by suggesting corruption of the text. Such corruption did sometimes tend to take place, especially when names were being dealt with, because the Hebrew text was written without spaces or word divisions or vowels, and the names might be unknown and non-Hebraic. While writing in this way did not usually cause a problem with the normal text because of the way Hebrew is constructed, (to a person familiar with them the constructions did in most cases immediately point to the right significance of the letters), it did cause a special problem with names, especially foreign ones, which were unknown to the writer and which might not tie in with the usual constructions. In order to present the case for this viewpoint let us parallel the two passages where this subject is dealt with:

2Sa 21:19. ‘Elhanan the son of Yaare-oregim the Bethlehemite slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam (‘oregim).’

1Ch 20:5. ‘Elhanan the son of Yair slew Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam’.

It is suggested that these two texts are so alike that they must be directly related, and in fact, in the Hebrew the two texts are much closer than they are in the English. Thus :

In Samuel ——— elhnnan bn y’ry ‘rgym byth hlchmy ‘th glyth hgthy w’ts chnythy cmnwr ‘rgym –

In Chronicles —— elhnnan bn y’wr ‘th lchmy ‘chy glyth hgthy w’ts chnythy cmnwr ‘rgym

Indeed in Hebrew lettering the likeness is even closer for in Hebrew lettering ‘ch’ and ‘th’ are very similar and can easily be confused. Note also how the additional ‘rgym in the name in Samuel parallels the same letters at the end of the sentence. It is therefore often suggested that that has crept into the text from the end of the sentence, or alternatively that Y’r was known as ‘Y’r of the beam’ being a weaver, something known by the writer in Samuel and therefore incorporated into the text as very apposite in view of the description of the spear. Furthermore, it is argued, the copyist in Samuel, reading the original text which lay behind the Chronicles account, and knowing that Elhanan was a Bethlehemite (2Sa 23:24; 1Ch 11:26), may, in a poor copy, possibly have misunderstood ‘eth Lachmi’ as ‘beth halachmi’ (Bethlehem). But it will be appreciated that this is all necessarily pure speculation.

Alternately it has been suggested that the original text behind the two may have read ‘Elhanan the son of Yair the Bethlehemite slew the brother of Goliath’, the Chronicler then misconstruing Bethlehemite as a noun preceded by ‘eth (which is a Hebrew accusative particle indicating that the noun is an accusative, but which is never translated). But it is not really easy to see how all this could have happened with a copyist who would already be very familiar with the actual wording of the Scriptures. The number of alternative suggestions made in seeking to amend the text brings out that such errors, if they do exist, do not follow a simple identifiable pattern. Thus it would have required an extremely careless copyist to make these errors, a copyist whose work was then allowed to affect all future official copies.

It must be seen as equally possible that the two sentences in fact stood side by side in the original records, with the intention of depicting the slaying of both the current ‘Goliath’ and his brother, and both being deliberately made similar in typical ancient fashion. The original aim would then be to bring out the slaying of both the current Goliath and his brother. In that case, in that original text, the description in Samuel would have come first (because it explains that Yair is a Bethlehemite, something not then needing to be repeated), and the one in Chronicles would have followed.

We can understand why neither writer wanted to include both, with the Chronicler wanting to dispense with what he saw as an error. But there is no good reason why Elhanan, a mighty warrior, should not have slain both the current Philistine champion and his brother, with both being originally stressed in the initial record. The Chronicler may well have dropped the first because he thought that it conflicted with 1 Samuel 17. The writer of Samuel, nearer to events and not having the same problem, may similarly have dropped mention of the success which he saw as the lesser victory. This may also explain why ‘the Bethlehemite’ was not included in Chronicles, not having been necessary in the statement taken from the original record because the information had already been given in the previous line. If the term ‘the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam’ was by custom attached to whoever was Goliath, we can see why it might also be applied to Goliath’s brother once Goliath had been slain.

Our preference is thus for our original idea that the second Goliath was either the new champion or the son/grandson of the previous Goliath, and that Lachmi was his brother, with Elhanan being ‘Elhanan of the weaver’s beam’ who came from Bethlehem, and had gained victory over both.

(End of note.)

2Sa 21:20

‘ And there was again war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, who had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number, and he also was born to the giant.’

In a further war at Gath there was a ‘giant’ whose name was apparently not known, and who was famed for having extra fingers and toes, who ‘defied Israel’, as the original Goliath had before him (1Sa 17:10; 1Sa 17:25-26; 1Sa 17:36). The description of the number of his fingers and toes is probably, like the ‘new armour’ of the first ‘giant’, intended to make us realise what an awesome prospect he was. The non-mention of his name is, however, strange, and the fact that he ‘defied Israel’, may well have indicated that he had now become the new champion of the Philistines, in which case he might also have been named ‘Goliath the Gittite whose spear was like a weaver’s beam’, the name and description being dropped by the writer in his case in order to avoid confusion.

2Sa 21:21

‘ And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, slew him.’

When this ‘giant’ defied Israel, he was slain by Jonathan, David’s nephew (brother to Jonadab). This Jonathan may have been the same Jonathan as the one mentioned in the list of mighty men which would explain why no further detail is given there (1Ch 23:32), but 1Ch 11:34 counts against that idea.

2Sa 21:22

‘ These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.’

All four of these ‘giants’ were sons of ‘the giant in Gath’. This latter may well have been the original Goliath, with some of his sons becoming Goliaths as the previous one was killed. Alternately he may have named one of his sons Goliath. But the important fact was that all four fell at the hands of David and his men. The ‘giants’ of Gath were no match for the mighty men of David because YHWH was with them.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Exploits During the Philistine Wars

v. 15. Moreover, the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, his standing army, his heroes, and fought against the Philistines; and David waxed faint, he was overcome with weariness.

v. 16. And Ishbi-benob, which was of the sons of the giant, one of the giant race of the Rephaim, to which also Goliath belonged, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, that is, the brazen head of his lance weighed about eight pounds, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David.

v. 17. But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, one of David’s commanders, succored him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him, thus saving the life of David. Then the men of David swam unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, not take part actively in battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel, for so David was regarded by his men, as a symbol of Israel’s life in fortune and honor.

v. 18. And it came to pass after this that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob, probably a small place near Gezer; then Sibbechai the Hushathite, a general in the standing army, slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant, also a member of the ancient giant race.

v. 19. And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan, the son of Jaare-oregim, or simply Jair, 1Ch 20:5, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

v. 20. And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature that had on every hand six fingers and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant, he was likewise a member of the giant race.

v. 21. And when he defied Israel, as Goliath had done in the Valley of Elah, 1 Samuel 17, Jonathan, the son of Shimeah, the brother of David, slew him.

v. 22. These four were born to the giant in Gath and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants, for they were killed by the heroes of David while he was their commander in the field. David here appears as an example to all believers, for they all should work while it is day; for the night cometh when no man can work.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

2Sa 21:15. Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel It appears from chap. 2Sa 15:18-19 that Ittai, an exile from Gath, arrived at Jerusalem with all his men on the very eve of David’s flight before his son Absalom; whence it is probable, that the Philistines, hearing of Absalom’s rebellion, took that opportunity to shake off the Israelite yoke; and to that purpose drove out all the friends and favourers of David’s government over them; and among the rest Ittai and his followers, who arrived very providentially at Jerusalem, to support David in the extremity of his distress. And as this revolt of the Philistines was succeeded by a long famine in David’s dominions, we could not reasonably expect to hear of any measures taken by the king to chastise that revolt, till after the ceasing of this calamity; and then we immediately hear of the wars now recounted.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

XVIII

THE WARS OF DAVID

2Sa 5:11-25 ; 2Sa 8:1 ; 2Sa 10:1-19 ; 2Sa 21:15-22 ; 2Sa 23:13-17 ; 1Ch 11:15-19 ; 1Ch 12:8-15 ; 1Ch 14:1-2 ; 1Ch 14:8-17 ; 1Ch 18:1 ; 1Ch 19:1-19 ; 1Ch 20:4-8

Our last chapter intimated that the union of the nation under such a king as David, in such a capital, would naturally excite the jealousy and alarm of all neighboring heathen nations. This section commences thus: “And when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David.”

Your attention has already been called to the necessity of breaking the power of the hostile heathen nations lying all around Judah, if ever the Jewish nation is to fulfil its mission to all other nations. The geographical position of Judah, which is the best in the world for leavening the nations with the ideas of the kingdom of God, if it maintained its national purity and adherence to Jehovah, also made it the most desirable possession for other peoples having far different ideals. As the salvation of the world including these very hostile nations, depended on the perpetuity and purity of Israel, these nations, through whom came idolatry and national corruption, must be broken, hence the seeming cruelty and partiality of Jehovah’s order through Moses to destroy the Canaanites, root and branch, and to avoid the corruptions of the other nations, were meant as mercy and kindness to the world.

The nations against which David successfully warred, so far as our text records them, were the Philistines, the Ammonites, the Syrians of Zobah, the Syrians of Damascus, the Moabites, and the Edomites. He had previously smitten the Amalekites of the Negeb. On these wars in general the following observations are noteworthy:

1. He was never the aggressor.

2. He never lost a battle.

3. His conquest filled out the kingdom to the boundaries originally promised to Abraham.

4. The spoils of all these wars, staggering credulity in their variety and value, were consecrated to Jehovah, making the richest treasury known to history.

5. By alliance without war he secured the friendship of Hiram, king of Tyre, most valuable to him and to his son Solomon. As Phoenicia, through the world-famous fleets of Tyre and Sidon, commanded the Mediterranean with all its marine commerce, and as David ruled the land through whose thoroughfares must pass the caravans carrying this traffic to Africa, Arabia, India, Syria, and Mesopotamia, it was of infinite value to both to be in friendly alliance. To these merchant-princes it was of incalculable advantage that all the land transportation of their traffic should lie within the boundaries of one strong and friendly nation rather than to have to run the gauntlet between a hundred irresponsible and predatory tribes, while to David, apart from the value of this peaceful commerce, the whole western border of Judah along the Mediterranean coast was safe from invasion by sea so long as friendship was maintained with Hiram, king of the sea.

6. By the voluntary submission of Hamath after his conquest of Damascus, he controlled the famous historic “Entrance into Hamath,” the one narrow pathway of traffic with the nations around the Caspian Sea, thus enabling David to reach those innumerable northern hordes so graphically described in later days by Ezekiel, the exile-prophet.

7. By the conquest of Damascus he controlled the only caravan route to the Euphrates and Mesopotamia, since the desert lying east of the trans-Jordanic tribes was practically impassable for trade and army movement from a lack of water, We have seen Abraham, migrating from Ur of the Chaldees, low down on the Euphrates, compelled to ascend that river for hundreds of miles in order to find an accessible way to the Holy Land through Damascus. In his day, also Chedorlaorner’s invasion had to follow the same way, as we will see later invasions do in Nebuchadnezzar’s time, which at last conquered David’s Jerusalem.

8. By the conquest of Ammon, Moab, and Edom, all the Arabah passed into his hands, checkmating invasion by Arabian hordes, as well as barring one line of invasion from Egypt. By the conquest of the Philistines and Amalekites the other two ways of Egyptian invasion were barred. You should take a map, such as you will find in Huribut’s Atlas, and show how David’s wars and peaceful alliances safeguarded every border, north, east, south, and west.

Besides these general observations, we may note a special feature characterizing these, and indeed all other wars, prior to the leveling invention of gunpowder and other high explosives, namely, much was accomplished by individual champions of great physical prowess and renown. David himself was as famous in this respect as Richard, the Lionhearted, until in a desperate encounter, related in this section, his life was so endangered that a public demand justly required him to leave individual fighting to less necessary men and confine himself to the true duty of a general the direction of the movements of the army.

Your text recites the special exploits of Jashobeam, Eleazer, Shammah, Abishai, Benaiah, or Benajah, after whom my father, myself, and my oldest son were named. With them may be classed the ten Gadites whose faces were like the faces of lions and who were as swift as the mountain deer, the least equal to 100 and the greatest equal to 1000. These crossed the Jordan at its mighty flood and smote the Philistines in all its valley, east and west.

Quite to the front also, as giant-killers, were Sibbecai, Elhanan, and Jonathan’s nephew. Of others, all mighty heroes, we have only a catalogue of names as famous in their day as Hercules, Theseus, and Achilles, Ajax, Ulysses, Horatius, and .King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table, but, as philosophizes Sir Walter Scott in lvanhoe concerniog the doughty champions at the tourney of Ashby de la Zouch: “To borrow lines from a contemporary poet, ‘The knights are dust, And their good swords rust, Their souls are with the saints, we trust,’while their escutcheons have long mouldered from the walls of their castles; their castles themselves are but green mounds and shattered ruins; the place that once knew them knows them no more. Nay, many a race since theirs has died out and been forgotten in the very land which they occupied with all the authority of feudal proprietors and lords. What then would it avail to the reader to know their names, or the evanescent symbols of their martial rank?”

One exploit of three of these champions deserves to live forever in literature. It thrills the heart by the naturalness of its appeal to the memory of every man concerning the precious things of his childhood’s home. David was in his stronghold, the Cave of Adullam, weary and thirsty. Bethlehem and his childhood rise before him: “O that one would give me water to drink of the Well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!” His exclamation thrills like Woodworth’s famous poem, “How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood, As fond recollections presents them to view! The orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wildwood, And ev’ry loved spot which my infancy knew”.

David’s longing for water from that particular well, and Woodworth’s “Old Oaken Bucket” harmonize with my own experience whenever I am delirious with fever. I always see a certain spring on my father’s plantation issuing from the mosscovered, fern-bordered rocks, and filling a sucken barrell. Hard by, hanging on a bush, is the gourd which, when dipped into the cold, clear spring, is more precious to thirsty lips than the silver tankards or gold drinking cups of kings; only in my fever-thirst I never am able to get that gourd to my lips. Three of David’s mighty men heard the expression of his longing for that water out of the Well of Bethlehem, and slipping quietly away, not caring that a Philistine garrison held Bethlehem, the three men alone break through the defended gate and under fire draw water from the well and bring a vessel of it over a long, hot way to thirsty David. It touched his heart when he saw their wounds. He could not drink water purchased with their blood, but poured it out as a libation to such great and devoted friendship.

Some other incidents of the Philistine war are worthy of comment:

1. So great was the defeat of the Philistines in their first battle, where David, under divine direction, attacked the center of their army, the scene is named “Baal-Perazirn,” i.e., “The place of breaking forth.” Splitting their column wide open at its heart, he dispersed them in every direction. They even sat their gods behind them to be burned by David’s men. We need not be startled at the burning of such gods, for history tells of one nation that ate their god, made out of dough, in times of famine. This breaking of a battle-center was a favorite method with Napoleon later, and vainly attempted by Lee at Gettysburg.

2. In the second great battle, again following divine direction, he avoided the center where they expected his attack as before and were there prepared for him this time, and “fetched” a compass to their rear, sheltered from their view by a thick growth of balsam trees, and on hearing “a sound of a going” in these trees, struck them unawares and overthrew them completely.

So Stonewall Jackson, his movements sheltered from observation by the trees of the wilderness, marched and struck in his last and greatest victory at Chancellorsville. And so did that master of war, Frederick the Great, screened by intervening hills, turn the Austrian columns and win his greatest victory at Leuthen. Major Penn, the great Texas lay-evangelist, preached his greatest sermon from “This fetching a compass,” and “When thou hearest the sound of a going in the mulberry trees, bestir thyself.” His application was: (a) Let great preachers attack the center, as David did at Baal-Perazim. (b) But as I am only a layman I must fetch a compass and strike them in the rear where they are not expecting attack. (c) As the signal of assault was the sound of a going in the mulberry trees, which we interpret to mean the power of the Holy Spirit going before, we must tarry for that power, for without it we are bound to fail. (d) But that power being evident, let every member of the church bestir himself. On this last point his zealous exhortation put every man, woman, and child to working.

3. The third incident of this war was its culmination. He pressed his victory until “he took the bridle of the mother city out of the hand of the Philistines;” that is, he captured Gath and the four other cities, or daughters, that had gone from it. To take the bridle of a horse from the hand of a rider is to make that horse serve the new master, so Gath and her daughters paid tribute to David and served him quite a new experience for the Philistines.

4. The result of these great achievements is thus expressed: “And the fame of David went out into all lands; and the Lord brought the fear of him on all nations.”

The occasion of his next war, the one with Ammon, was remarkable. Nabash, the king of Ammon, held very friendly relations with David. The fact is that he may have ‘been the father of Amasa, a son of David’s sister, Abigail. Anyway, the relations between them had been very pleasant, so when Nahash died, David, out of the kindness of his heart, always remembering courtesies shown him, sent a friendly embassy to Hanun, the son of Nahash, but the princes of Ammon said to the young king, “Do you suppose that love for your father prompted David to send these men? He sent them to spy out the land so that he can make war successfully against us.” This evil suggestion led the young king to do a very foolish thing, and one that violated all international policy. He arrested these ambassadors and subjected them to the greatest indignity. Their venerable beards were cut off. I don’t know whether that means cut off half-way or just shaved off one side of the face. Then he cut off their long robes of dignity so they would be bob-tailed jackets striking about the hips, and sent them home. No mortification could exceed theirs. Somebody told David about it and he sent this word to them: “Tarry at Jericho until your beards grow out.”

A deacon of the First Church at Waco, when I was pastor, whenever a young member of the church would propose some innovation on the customs of the church, would draw up his tall figure he was quite tall and would reach out his long arm and point at the young man and say, “My young brother, you had better tarry at Jericho until your beard grows out.” It was very crushing on the young brother, and I used to exhort the deacon about his curt way of cutting off members who, whether young or old, had a right equal to his own to speak in conference.

Having practiced that unpardonable indignity upon the friendly ambassadors, the Ammonites know they must fight, since they have made themselves odious to David, so they raise an enormous sum of money, 1,000 talents of silver, and hire 33,000 men from the Syrians, the different branches of the Syrians. Some of them were horsemen from across the Euphrates, some from Tob, some from Maacah, and the rest of them from Zobah. David sends Joab at the head of his mighty army of veterans to fight them. The Ammonites remain in their fortified city of Rabbah, and as Joab’s army approaches, 33,000 Syrians come up behind them, and Joab sees that there is a battle to be fought in the front and in the rear, so he divides his army and takes his picked men to attack the Syrians, and commands Abishai, his brother, to go after the Ammonites as they pour out of their city to attack in front. Joab says to his brother, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, you help me, and if the Ammon-ites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you,” and so they fight both ways and whip in both directions with tremendous success. Joab destroys the Syrians, and Abishai drives the Ammonites back under the walls of their city.

That victory leads to another war. When the Syrians heard of the overthrow of the contingent sent to succor Ammon, they sent across the Euphrates again for reinforcements and mobilized a large home army to fight David. David met them in battle and blotted them off the map, and having disposed of the Syrians, at the return of the season for making war, he sent Joab with a mighty army to besiege the city of Rabbah, the capital of the Ammonites. Joab besieges them and when he sees them about to surrender he sends for David to come and accept the surrender and David puts the crown of the king of Ammon on his own head. Then having destroyed the Ammonites, he marches against their southern ally, Moab, and conquers them. Following up this victory he leads his army against Edom, and conquers all that country. This war lasts six months. He gains a great victory over the Edomites and through Abishai, his leader, 18,000 of the Edomites were slain. The heir of the king escapes with great difficulty to Egypt, and is sheltered there. Joab remained six months to bury the dead and gather up the spoils. So ends this period of conquest.

The text tells you, in conclusion, who were the administration officers during this period. You will find it on page 122 of the Harmony. Joab was over the host, Jehoshaphat was recorder, Zadok and Ahimelech were priests, Seraiah was scribe, Benaiah, or Benajah, was over the Cherethites and Pelethites and David’s sons were chiefs about the king.

That great round of successes is followed by the magnificent song of thanksgiving, which needs to be analyzed specially and which is transferred to the Psalter as Psa 18 .

That you may have a connected account of these wars, the consideration of three periods is deferred to the next chapter:

1. The great sin of David, with its far-reaching consequences, 2Sa 11:2-12:24 .

2. His treatment of the Ammonites after the fall of Rabbah, 2Sa 12:31 and 1Ch 20:3 .

3. His treatment of the Moabites, 2Sa 8:2 .

QUESTIONS

1. What is the necessity of breaking the power of the hostile nations within and around Judea?

2. Show why the geographical position of Judea was favorable to its mission of leavening all nations with the ideas of the kingdom of God, and why Judea was a desirable possession to those nations.

3. What event brought a tide of war on David?

4. According to the record, with what nations did he wage successful war?

5. What eight general observations on these wars?

6. What special feature characterized them and all other ancient wars, and what modern inventions have now divested war of this feature?

7. Cite the names of some of David’s champions and their exploits.

8. How does Sir Walter Scott, in Ivanhoe, philosophize on the speedy oblivion coming to great champions?

9. Recite one exploit that deserves to live in literature, and why?

10. Cite the notable characteristic of the battle of Baal-Perazirn.

11. Name the more decisive battle which followed, and give illustrations from history of the different methods of attack in those two battles.

12. Give Major Penn’s text and sermon outline on some words concerning this battle.

13. Explain: ”He took the bridle of the mother city out of the hand of the Philistines.”

14. What the result of these great achievements?

15. Recite the occasion of the war with Ammon and its results, and describe the first battle.

16. Give a brief statement of wars with Syria, Moab, and Edom.

17. With a map before you, show just how by these wars and alliances David safeguarded all his borders.

18. How did he commemorate his victories?

19. How did he celebrate them?

20. Into what other book was his thanksgiving song transferred, and how numbered there?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

2Sa 21:15 Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint.

Ver. 15. Moreover the Philistines ] Trusting to their champions, which yet were all cut off, and way made thereby for Solomon’s quiet and peaceable government.

And David waxed faint. ] As being senex emeritus, his best days were done: it was otherwise with him than when he slew Goliath.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

war again. 930-923 B.C.

waxed faint. David was now sixty.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

the Philistines: 2Sa 5:17, 2Sa 5:22, 1Ch 20:4

and David waxed faint: Jos 14:10, Jos 14:11, Psa 71:9, Psa 71:18, Psa 73:26, Ecc 12:3, Isa 40:28-30, Jer 9:23, Jer 9:24, 1Pe 1:24, 1Pe 1:25

Reciprocal: Gen 6:4 – giants 2Sa 8:1 – And after Psa 9:5 – rebuked Psa 18:38 – General Psa 60:8 – triumph Psa 108:9 – over Philistia

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Division 6. (2Sa 21:15-22.)

Overcoming.

The book is not suffered to close in mere distress. Even the present evil is not without its good: for God is good, and Master in every scene and circumstance. This is the closing lesson here: the number of this division is that of mastery, of overcoming; and not only is it God who overcomes, but man also, wherever taught of Him. Faith is the spirit of the overcomer; it is the assurance of victory: “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith.” In the midst of difficulties and trials such as sin has occasioned, faith finds its exercise and opportunity; as Adullam showed itself in David’s time the training-school of heroes. Here let us notice, however, that, as soon as we come once more to the bright side of the history, the typical meaning is that which alone gives it illumination. How much interest is there for us in these conquerors of giants and troops of aliens, except as we read in them the spiritual lessons which everywhere make Scripture what it is? This is the value and glory of the allegorizing method of interpretation, which Scripture itself insists upon and illustrates so fully. Let those who make little of it show us how else the same results “for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” can be attained.

1. The first series of overcomings here is of the seed of Rapha or the giant, the kindred of Goliath of Gath, met and overcome, as he was, in the wars with the Philistines. The notion of a giant in Scripture is always connected with evil, the lifting up of man against God, the symbol of pride and self-sufficiency, as well as of oppressive power. He is the opposite of the little and the lowly, the humble in heart, with whom God delights to dwell; but thus may stand for the tyranny of a lust, as in the case of Og, or of a Satanic delusion, as with Goliath himself. In those before us we must see, what we have seen in their kinsman, the monstrous delusions which abide in a system of error such as Philistinism depicts, the ecclesiastical “mystery of lawlessness” of Christian times.

(1) Of these Ishbibenob may well represent the grand pretension, foundationand support of every other error. The name means, according to the lexicons, “his seat (or dwelling) is at Nob,” while Nob is generally given as “hill,” from nabah, “to be prominent,” not used in scriptural Hebrew. But there is another nabah, which is in frequent use, and from which nabi, “prophet,” is derived: so that Nob may be more probably rendered “prophecy”; a not unsuitable name for the priestly town which Saul desolated, where the high priest had lived, and from which, therefore, divine oracles were given.

When we find, therefore, in the Thyatiran assembly, which those skilled in Apocalyptic interpretation do not doubt to foreshadow the Romish church, “the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess” and realize how much is based for Romanism on the claim of divine inspiration for the church, we need not wonder that Ishbibenob should be the first Philistine giant for faith to overcome. And here it is intelligible why Abishai the son of Zeruiah should have to succor David and slay the giant. Abishai is the “source of gift,” which is Christ risen, but thus the fruit of the cross (of which Zeruiah speaks), but which, more than anything in Christianity perhaps, the church of Rome sets aside and dishonors by constantly repeated offerings which make it vain. “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true,” -into which Rome’s masses would keep Him continually entering, -“but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; NOR YET THAT HE SHOULD OFFER HIMSELF OFTEN, . . . for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world,” -which yet they agree He has not; “but now ONCE in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” (Heb 9:24-26.)

No offering without suffering, then; one offering once offered putting sin away; a Christ gone into heaven, not entering into holy places made with hands; and He “the father of gift” to His ransomed Church! Whereas in Rome none of these things are found, -Rome that would force Him to multiply His work on countless altars, put Him into the foul hands of worthless priests to answer to their wills, and as the sure result deny to His people all true knowledge of forgiveness, and, instead of “gift,” sell them their meager pittances of church absolution, unavailing to keep them from paying in purgatory at last “the uttermost farthing.”

No wonder that when Abishai comes to help in the strife, Ishbibenob’s “new” sword should be unavailing! New-forged it is, for all the antiquity of which it boasts, and not “the sword of the Spirit, which is the saying of God.” This sword it cannot and dare not handle.

(2) Saph, as in common use in Hebrew, denotes “basin,” or “door, threshold,” and this (I suppose) is commonly accepted as the meaning of the second giant’s name. Young, however, gives “preserver”; while Simonis, collating with the Ethiopic, translates “extended, long, tall.” If its derivation be from saphah, however, a meaning emerges so entirely in agreement with the connection here that we cannot hesitate to prefer it. Saphah has two meanings, opposed to one another, and yet in perfect spiritual harmony: it means either “to add,” or “to take away.” Saph may in this way stand for “addition,” or “subtraction.”

Now, in the case of Ishbibenob, we have had before us the false claim of modem Philistinism to the inspiration of the prophet, -to be the infallible oracle of God; and we should naturally expect in his brother giant to find some related pretension. Certainly, then, nothing is more nearly related to the claim of infallibilty than that of “adding” from time to time to the authoritative standard of Christian truth. Thus the apocryphal books were added to the canonical; tradition was added to Scripture; and doctrines many have been successively added to the creed of Rome, as the centuries have moved on. Saph is thus clearly another Philistine giant in close affinity with Ishbibenob. That these “additions” are real “subtractions” from the authority of Scripture, no one instructed in the Word can doubt. They are used to subvert some of its plainest teachings, as well as to take it out of the hands generally of the adherents of Rome. The numerical structure, again, is in perfect agreement with this meaning, as is plain: the number two is at once the number of addition and contradiction.

The slayer of the giant is more difficult to interpret; but “entanglement from Jah” seems to be the most satisfactory meaning of Sibbechai, and which would not be unsuited in application here: for this contradiction Of what is added to what they are made to supplement is indeed an entanglement from which the Romanist cannot escape. His “universal consent of the Church” cannot be found. “Fathers” contradict “fathers”; councils are against councils; pope against pope. It is only by bridling the witnesses that any evidence in favor of consent can be made to appear. Sibbechai is thus fairly the overcomer of Saph, and the type so read has consistency of meaning.

(3) In the case of the third giant the text of Chronicles is against that of Samuel, which seems to be an alteration from the other. In Samuel “Jaareoregim,” which means “forests of the weavers,” does not seem like the name of a man; while in Chronicles Elhanan is called the “son of fair,” and the “oregim” (“weavers”) may have crept in from the after-part of the sentence. It is possible, of course, that there may have been another Goliath the Gittite beside the one slain by David, but not very likely that Elhanan should have slain both him and (as in Chronicles) his brother also, and that these two exploits should be told separately, one in each book; while Beth-halahmi, “the Bethlehemite,” in the one, comes suggestively near to “eth Lahmi” -Lahmi, in the objective case -in the other passage. Altogether, Chronicles would seem to give the correct text, though the Septuagint maintains both. A measure of uncertainty seems thus to be thrown over either reading, while some critics still hold to Samuel in preference to the other.

The numerical structure unites, however, here with the spiritual meaning to approve that text of Chronicles, which on other grounds and by the most satisfactory criticism is accepted as the true one. We must remember, as our guide in interpretation, that we are still in the line of the Philistine giant here. In this case Lahmi, which means “my bread,” and under the number of sanctification, -consecrated bread, brings before us another of the gigantic errors of the Roman Babylon, and makes, with all that we have had before of these Philistine types, the picture well-nigh complete. A very small thing in itself may seem the matter of consecrated bread, but who knows not how largely it bulks in Rome’s idolatrous system? Her consecrated bread becomes; by that very fact, as she blasphemously asserts, the very flesh and blood, soul and divinity of Christ Himself; and upon every altar every priest of hers, with a grossness that is perhaps nowhere else equaled, makes and then eats the god he worships!

The special notice of relationship here may at first sight not be intelligible. Why should Lahmi be pointed out as the “brother of Goliath the Gittite,” rather than Saph or Ishbibenob, who seem alike to have been his brethren? Remembering what Goliath stands for, the awful distance from God which is the fruit of unappeased wrath against sin, the magical results of consecration of the bread, however insane and evil in their nature, may seem little akin to this. In fact, it will be found that they are specially near akin. No part of Romanism more than this enables the Church to shadow the consciences of its devotees with awe and mystery, and subject mind and heart to a tyranny which knows no compassion, and whose penal sanctions are gathered from time and eternity alike.

Hence the destroyer of Lahmi is Elhanan, “God hath shown grace,” and he the son of Jair, who “awakens.” These two things, a soul awake and established in the grace of God, give deliverance from the visions and the terrors of darkness. It only needs courage to approach such spectres, and they vanish.

(4) The fourth giant has no name, but is distinguished by his form. The numeral (4) would indicate that we come now to practical walk, and a nearer view confirms this. The hands speak of work; the feet of walk: in both respects there is something supernumerary, like a sixth finger or a sixth toe, and this is eminently characteristic of Romish piety*; the “religious” life is something more than needful, and not super- but unnatural. It has not victory over the world, but flees it. It calls marriage a sacrament, but refuses it as a profanation; while another “sacrament” -penance -is only obtainable through sin! The number 5 is that of the feeble creature (4) with the almighty Creator (1), and of this the hands and feet, in their normal condition, bear witness; but this Romish 6, the number of Antichrist, destroys this relation: the creature walks not with his Creator, but subject to every kind of human and invented rule; and conscience is not before God but man. Thus again the destroyer of this perversion of nature is that which brings in God and His unrepented-of goodness to His creatures, -Jonathan, “Jehovah” -the Unchangeable -“has given”; and he the son of Shimea, “hearkening,” -obedience to God alone. Here the series of giants and their overcomers alike is ended.

{*”Ad majorem Dei gloriam, -“for the greater glory of God,” -the motto of the Jesuits, would illustrate this. -(S.R.)}

2. We have now David’s song of the deliverance to come, to which his “last words” are a necessary sequel. The first is, with but slight differences here and there, identical with the eighteenth psalm, and has, of course, the character of the psalms, in which prophecy is, as generally in the historic books also, typical, not formal, not announced as such, but is developed by the Spirit of God out of experiences in the soul and in the practical life, which are used as men use earth-distances to measure the heavens. In this, therefore, the identity between type and antitype is used and drawn out, while in the “last words” we have the contrast between these: they are distinguished from one another. We know well that both these things are needed throughout such histories, and require careful adjustment. The one encourages us by present realization of the blessing to come; the other prevents unfounded expectations from this, and carries us on in patience of hope to the divine fulfillment.

(1) The character of the psalm already spoken of accounts for a necessary dimness of outline when applied simply to David and the circumstances of his life and reign. These seem often exaggerated, and so far falsified, and the language used is often brought forward to disprove the Davidic reference, or else is ascribed to mere oriental hyperbolism. In this way the word of God is dishonored doubly, and a principle established by which all prophecy is degraded by mean and trivial interpretations, which are justified by the plea of eastern conceptions and manners of thought. It is plain that the question comes to be whether Scripture is the word of Him that cannot lie, or the very fallible word of men who had not even learned the soberness of nineteenth century thought and diction. No true faith will hesitate for a moment in its answer to this.

We propose a fuller examination of the psalm when, the Lord willing, we come to it in the book of Psalms. It will be sufficient here, therefore, to indicate its general meaning. There are seven sections, beginning and ending with the praise of God as the rock of faith and the great Deliverer of His people. Between these two we have the sufferings and deliverance of David from His enemies idealized and enlarged so as to speak of the Great Sufferer and the deliverance in which we rejoice all, and forever shall rejoice, culminating in the rule of an absolutely righteous King over both Israel and the Gentiles: One whom in this character David will presently assure us he too little resembles. To this rule we yet look forward and not backward: it is, thank God, -though David’s may be the shadow of it, -not a memory of the past but a vision of the future.

(a) Like the song of Moses, the song of David begins and ends with God. Every true song must. “Of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things”; and there can be no true joy which does not recognize the truth of this. In the flux and reflux of things here, God is alone what His name Jehovah recognizes, the One abiding. If the permanency of natural laws alone saves us from confusion of mind and uncertainty as to all our actions, the abiding confidence and security of faith are that God is a rock. The deliverances of one’s life are but the freshly emphasized assurances of this: the refuge remains to us while the storm still rages; the Voice that calms it says to our importunate cry, “O ye of little faith, wherefore did ye doubt?”

(b) In the second part David, hunted by Saul, is only the foreground of a darker picture in which Messiah may be discerned in Gethsemane and on the cross. With David the deliverance was from death, for the Lord out of death; and such a death as for a righteous man had not a likeness. Here the indefiniteness of details helps the fuller application.

(c) But, in the third section, and with the resurrection of Christ before us, we find it still more impossible to stop short of Christ. The banded powers of earth and hell were there scattered the quaking ground and the rent graves bore witness to the intervention of God. There is nothing in this description which cannot be, without strain, applied to the true David, the Beloved, who could indeed say, He delivered me because He delighted in me.”

(d) In the fourth section, under the number of testing and practical walk, we have the reason for God’s intervention, and the justification of His delight. And here the clear and emphasized declaration of righteousness suits, in fact, only One. He alone could say of God, “I do always the things that please Him”; and this is, above all else, what is needed for the King that God approves, and the world needs. Spite of what might be the general character of David’s reign, we know well that he could not pretend to this. Here, again, David was but the shadow, and not the perfect image of the true.

(e) Now we have the execution of judgment, and the putting of enemies under His feet, and thus from the resurrection go on to the appearing of Christ. We have but to look at the book of Revelation to see how the Lamb will be the warrior; and this is in accord with Isaiah and the prophets generally. Not only is the Lion of the tribe of Judah the Lamb slain, but the Lamb slain is no less the Lion. We think this in opposition, perhaps, to the character of Christ, while yet we recognize that all judgment is given to Him because He is the Son of man. Judgment is what the world needs and must have. Those that destroy the earth must be destroyed. Love can strike in behalf of the loved. And here again the judgment goes beyond the type in David, to reach the Antitype.

(f) Finally here we have One delivered from the strivings of “My people” (Israel), and becoming the Head of the nations. Power is there before which all must bow, even strangers in heart, who finally are exposed and doomed: “Strangers fade away, and are afraid out of their close places.” It is to be remembered that the spirit here is Davidic and not Solomonic, -righteous rule putting down evil, rather than the peace that follows it. As a consequence

(g) The seventh section is rather indicated than outlined. The continuance of blessing is “to David and his seed for evermore,” -the maintenance of the throne in the hands to which it has been trusted. Safe and blessed hands we know these are, and rest to the heart it is to recognize them: but we read this into the picture from elsewhere; we must go elsewhere to find it.

(2) David’s last words, as already said, show us what the song does not, the contrast between type and antitype; and there is correspondingly much greater brightness. It is when David becomes simply a Voice like the Baptist, to speak of Another, that all the sweetness and melody and divine character of this voice is found. David reminds us here of his own lowly origin, and of the grace that raised him up. He is the anointed of the God of Jacob, the One whose glory it is to bring out of the poorest material a vessel for His praise. As the anointed thus, he is rather Israel’s “sweet psalmist” than her king. And so assuredly our hearts deem of him: what is the king in comparison with the psalmist? And no wonder: for here David is but the channel through which God’s own living water has flowed to the lips of the thirsty ever since: “The Spirit of Jehovah spake in me; and His word was on my tongue.”

Sweeter now therefore than the former utterance, though it may be the same theme still, is this of a “righteous Ruler over men, a ruler in the fear of God!” It is now not even simply the Spirit of God speaking through the experiences and in the faith of a divinely constituted instrument, but a direct revelation: “the Rock of Israel spake to me.” Upon that divine revelation David himself rests in faith amid all within and around that may seem adverse to it.

Yet the vision is abrupt, enigmatical; not in itself, indeed, but in its application. This it receives from the lips of the dying king, with the sunset radiance in his eyes. As the world darkens heaven brightens: can he mistake whence the darkness, whence the brightness, is? We shall hear presently his testimony.

“A righteous ruler over man!

A ruler in the fear of God!”

The second thing is here the first foundation of character, as is plain: the only morality worth calling that is the fruit of godliness; the creature place truly kept, the right relation of a soul with its Creator insures all other relations to be right.

When we consider WHO it is that will fulfill this, we may well be amazed. The Word made flesh, a Divine Being in this creature place to teach us the goodness of it: not simply on the throne, but filling the lowliest places on the road to this, which is the reward of absolute perfection in all these; proved Master of Himself, and so fit to be, as none else, the Master of others. And there is much more than this behind it, a deeper depth than ever known by a righteous man beside, a motive of divine love to reach and bring up the captives of sin and the heirs of death, and bring them by his sacrifice to glory!

What must be the kingdom of such a king? Is there -has there ever been -a kingdom of earth that could be in anything but contrast with it? His own words have presented this contrast between the prizes for ambition found in the one and the love-service of the other: “ye know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones use authority over them; but it shall not be so among you, but whosoever desires to be great among you, let him be your minister, and whosoever desires to be first among you, let him be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Thus the blessed consequences:

“Even as the morning-light when the sun arises,

A morning without clouds;

From the brightness after rain

The herb springeth from the earth.”

No more absolute lordship is there than the sun exercises over the earth, none in its sphere more beneficent. The tenderest plant is served by it. By it the showers that refresh are drawn up from under the whole heaven and rained down again. With it rule is surely service. And the sun is Christ’s image, the glory of the light (which God is) upon a material candlestick. But the sun exists not for itself; and the tiniest creature bathes as freely in its brightness as the mightiest.

David’s heart is in his eyes as this vision beckons him. He sees clearly that all his glory and the glory of his house count for nothing here. Amnon, Absalom, have died their deaths of shame; his successor is the child of his own transgression. What hope in nature? None, save from the covenant of the unchanging God:

“Although my house be not so with God,

Yet He hath made me an eternal covenant,

Ordered in all, and sure:

For this is all my salvation and all of delight,

Though He maketh it not to grow.”

For there seems indeed no hope: less and less only as man’s history lengthens. The power of sin, the subtlety and might of Satan, have seemed after all divine deliverances and triumphs again to revive and make of the fairest work the saddest ruin. Every successive dispensation has ended in worse failure than the previous one. Does it not seem as if the salvation of the earth, and the long desire of good in it, were a plant which even God “made not to grow”? Could David have looked over the long gap of time since his day, would he have been encouraged with the progress made? No, it is but the covenant, the eternal covenant, that encourages us yet. God must intervene; judgment, long delayed, must come:

“And the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away,

Because they cannot be taken in the hand;

And the man that will touch them provideth himself iron and wood of a spear,

And they shall be burned up with fire, so as to cease.”

Thus faith and love acquiesce in the judgment which alone can free the earth from its long chain. “Let grace be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn uprightness.” “When thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn righteousness.”

3. We have now the list of David’s mighty men, with some special examples of their prowess, mostly against the Philistines. They read, when spiritually rendered, like a leaf out of the book of accounts in the day fast approaching, when every one shall have his praise from God. The words of the apostle, when referring to it, are much more penetrating than appears in our common version of 2Co 5:10. It is not simply, “we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ,” but “we must all be manifested.” And this is what the record here suggests. Most of it is simply a list of names, which, of course, therefore, as we must read them, stand for persons, not merely for deeds. And the deeds themselves which are related are such as we realize cannot be exceptional or accidental, but show what the men were that did them. They are, of course, David’s men, and their deeds are deeds of war entirely. They are not in that way a full sample even of what will come out in the day of Christ. Probably no sufficient sample could be given us. Probably, also, in the condition of the world in which we are, the most characteristic exhibition of Christ’s people that could be given would exhibit them as soldiers. In their power over the terrible power of the enemy is proved their devotedness to Christ, (against whom all his efforts are directed,) and thus to His people, His representatives in the world. Not that the spirit of strife is the Christian spirit: far from it. The dove would flee far, if it were not held by its affections; and these brought the Lord Himself into the place of sorrow and conflict, who is still the Captain of salvation, and leads His people through fields He Himself has passed through. The very table He spreads for us is in the presence of our enemies.” His love is a banner over us. The inheritance which belongs to us can be attained only by a struggle, not indeed with flesh and blood, but with “principalities and powers, with the rulers of the darkness of this world, with spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.” Bye and bye, how the lists will shine with the names of God’s heroes whose histories have never been written in this world, but whom the King will greet as friends to Him well known!

When we turn to the record here, however, it is disappointing to find how little we can make of it. The record itself seems as if it had been torn out of the hands of contestants, and come down to us with the marks of war upon it. There are difficulties as to the text, difficulties as to the parallel accounts which we find in Chronicles, difficulties as to the meanings of words and of names. Little meaning of any value seems ever to have been seriously attached to what is here; and accordingly as we find here, the mistakes of copyists and commentaries have been allowed to accumulate, and little believing work has been done to rectify them.

(1) In the case of the first and highest in rank here, in the single verse which relates his deeds, almost every word is in question. The name, if it be a name, here Josheb-basshebeth, or, as in the common version, “he that sat in the seat,” is in Chronicles (1Ch 11:11) Jashobeam, “the people return,” or “shall return.” The “Tachmonite” is there written “Hachmonite,” or rather “the son of Hachmoni,” (the wise). The words “he is Adino the Ezrite” are variously read or disputed over. “His delight is in the spear,” “his brandishing of” or “smiting with the spear” have been suggested, hut the meaning of the last word is quite doubtful, and its strongest support is from the parallel place in Chronicles, where the word used is quite different, “he brandished his spear.” If we do not accept this, then the connection with the following words “against eight hundred” has to be arbitrarily supplied. Finally, Chronicles substitutes three hundred for eight hundred.

Out of all this it is hard to gather any meaning fully to be relied on. The text in Chronicles is easy, and the substitution of it as a whole would simplify things; but who can assert that the one passage was ever identical with the other? Names especially varied much among the Hebrews, and seem to have been used with a certain latitude, so that no one could say that Jashobeam and Josheb-basshebeth were not alternative names for the same person. In this case there arises a possible spiritual significance for the foremost of David’s warriors so suitable apparently to all the connection, that it claims at least to be suggested. It is the spiritual meaning that should surely give us largest help amid difficulties so great and many as we find in this place.

“One sitting in the seat,” (or “abiding in the abode,”) is the meaning of the first name here; and the numerical place would easily attach to this the thought of power shown in persistence, -continuance in the place belonging to him. If we think, as we must in connection with the typical meaning, of Christian warfare in its highest character, then we must undoubtedly go to the epistle to the Ephesinus for the account of it: thus to that conflict with principalities and powers in the heavenly places, of which the epistle speaks. But as the prelude to this and the necessary introduction to it, Ephesians brings into the place itself which is, as it were, the place of the conflict. God “has raised us up” -with Christ from the dead, says the apostle, “and made us sit together in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:6.) Here is undeniably a “sitting in the seat” essential to the highest, that is the Christian, warfare: and the maintaining of this place, -the abiding in it, -is the grand necessity for spiritual triumph. The place every believer has. The practical abiding in it, -ah, how little is this to be seen! How few among Christians know the meaning of it! How few among those who know it as a doctrine, know its power in the soul! How few of these, once more, abide in the place in which divine grace has set them!

Josheb-basshebeth, then, may well be the Hachmonite, the “Wise,” and with that the prince of warriors. Who will question, that know in any wise, what these things mean?

The second name is that of Eleazar (“help of God”) the son of Dodo (“his Beloved”) the Ahohite (brotherly?) Here, also, Chronicles differs from Samuel. Instead of being only one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines,” -in which case one would expect the others to be noticed in the action, -Chronicles simply represents him as being “with David at Pas-dammim, and the Philistines assembled there” to battle. Here, however, Chronicles seems to have a gap in the text, which thus ascribes the action of Shammah (whom it omits) to Eleazar. Single-handed, as it would appear from the narrative here, he smites the Philistines till his cramped hand cleaves to his sword-hilt. The people, who were absent from the battle, returned only to the spoil. Thus Jehovah through him wrought a great deliverance; and this the number seems to emphasize.

Shammah’s deed, on the other hand, in accordance also with the numeral, is a work of resurrection. The Israelites are not merely absent: they have fled. His own name means “astonishment,” and he is the son of Agee, perhaps “sprout,” the Hararite, or “mountaineer.” Words such as these are capable of easy combination in relation to the lesson of his acts. The power of revival is found in him who has learned amid the difficulties of a rugged path the awe of the God of resurrection.

(2) The power of God is manifest indeed in the exploits of these first three; we now find a second three, at first unnamed, but the two names that follow, Abishai and Benaiah, reveal two of the number. The third is unknown, and probably not one of the thirty-one that follow, who thus with these two threes make up the total of thirty-seven given at the end.

But this second three should thus have a different lesson for us from the first. Accordingly, while the power of God is still manifested, it is less prominent in these, while the tender sympathy with David shown in the next exploit may well speak to our hearts of Christ’s delight in our fellowship with Himself. It is striking, too, that now first we find, instead of merely individual exploits, fellowship with one another. The chivalry of the act (as men would say) is magnificent. There is no common need that appeals to them; there is no danger such as would make men brave a world in arms; David’s thirst even could be as effectually quenched with water from many another well beside that of Bethlehem; even that expressed wish would never, with the risk involved in its fulfillment, have been seriously uttered: it was but the sigh of a heart escaping from the burdens and sorrows of late so heavy, back to the days that were, to the fresh breezy hours of simple childhood, and the joys that, after all, never could be revived. It was not the water of Bethlehem, after all, that could satisfy David’s soul. Ask him did he really mean it, it would be found but one of those passing illusions by which for a moment a strong man may willingly allow himself to be deceived, but which can last but for a moment. An impassable gulf separates the man of today from the child of yesterday: could you bring back the whole surroundings you would accomplish nothing, except you could bring back, as you cannot, the child that moved among them. Bring them back, and you only make him realize the more, with a sharpened pain, that it is only in his sorrow he can be now the child: its joys are passed forever.

They do not stay to think of all this, nor ask if he means it seriously, as he does not. With a devotion sublime in its utter recklessness, they think but that they can give this water he so longs for to the lips of the “beloved” one they serve, and serve now the more joyfully in a service he never has commanded, -which he never would command. What is the Philistine host, that it should stand between David and the well of Bethlehem? The very slightness of the object of desire makes it perhaps seem but the more impossible that it should be denied him. With dauntless heroism they break through the enemy’s camp, and the water for which David longed is here: let him drink and be satisfied.

But David dares not drink. The glory of that deed of love falls on him with an awe that humbles as with the sense of the divine presence. This love stronger than death, -this peril of life to gratify but a passing desire of his heart, -he is not worthy of it, must not accept it: God alone is worthy of it, God alone should have it. He pours it out before Him with disclaiming words that come to us with the claim of another “Beloved” upon us, carrying us from type to Antitype, to One human and yet divine, to One who has shown us Himself a love, which is henceforth the pattern of all other: “hereby perceive we love, because He” not risked, but “laid down His life for us.” David disappears from our gaze, and Christ our Lord is before our souls.

Passing from type to Antitype, we see how great the contrast is and must be, amid all the resemblance. All that is trivial, passing, mistaken even, and that even in that very character appeals to and affects us in the story before us, can of course have no place in the higher application. Yet this only makes the lesson for us so much the fuller, so much the more solemn, so much the sweeter. Our David has cravings and longings of heart, which need also the water of the well of Bethlehem for their satisfaction; -no passing desires, but, as His nature is, abiding, perfect, necessary to His perfection. Is it not the water, living water, whose spring is at the outgoing of the Father’s “house of bread,” -which He longs to receive from us; wherein He finds but the fruit of the travail of His soul, and with which alone He can be satisfied?

Moreover, like this expressed wish of David, which never was a command, nor intended to be, if we are to reach any worthy thoughts at all, we must distinguish between commands that are laid upon us (which there are), and His “word,” which shows us what is in His heart, and in receiving which we come into intelligent communion with Himself. So the Lord in His last words with His disciples expressly, distinguishes. (Joh 14:21; Joh 14:23.) Commands may be given to servants only,who are never admitted into the secrets of the heart, but the words which are spoken as to friends claim also response, and will find response, from the truly devoted. Not “what must I do?” but “what may I do?” is the expression of attachment to His Person; and so only can we be in sympathy with the act of the mighty three.

But then, if we will act in this spirit, -if we have this spirit, -we shall find the world a hostile world to Christ. Yes, and not the world only -but right in the way, barring the way, to the well of Bethlehem, we shall find the Philistine camp, the host of natural men that have intruded into spiritual things. We must be prepared to break through the entrenchments of tradition, formality, worldliness in religious guise, if we are to gratify the Lord’s longing for us. And shall men take their lives in their hand for men after this manner, and the world have its heroes of self-sacrifice, and the love that passeth knowledge have no fit return?

Abishai and Benaiah, as two of these three mighty men, express in their names correspondingly this fellowship with Christ. The father of gift,” as we have already seen, may speak even of Christ Himself in resurrection receiving gifts for men. And there are almost always in these histories secondary applications of such things in which it is shown how those who look on Christ’s unveiled face are changed into His image. Thus the knowledge of Christ as the source of gift becomes in us fruitful in forming in us this image. A dewdrop may thus shine with the image of the sun. Nor need we wonder that still what is recorded is a history of conflict. It must needs be so while Satan rules the world.

Benaiah the son of Jehoiada means “Jah builds” with all the perfection of “Jehovah’s knowledge”; but the least of His people are called now to be builders too. As to his exploits we may be little able to speak at present. We are moving among things that have been so little supposed in general to contain any spiritual meaning, that the only wonder is with the light and little labor thus bestowed on them, to have seen so much. More and more, as we learn nevertheless to question, will the answer come.

(3) Of the thirty (thirty-one), known only by their names, little can be said also till they have been more minutely studied. Chronicles, it is well known, though giving practically the same list (1Ch 11:1-47), with additions at the end, differs yet very considerably when we come to details. It is just in such lists as this also, dry and barren as they have been suffered to remain through our negligence, that we may expect to find textual errors abounding. There are evidently many, though variations in lists in general identical are, of course, not necessarily such. Let the people of God study His word; dig deep, and expect much; and we shall soon have few such utter gaps in our knowledge as for the present we have to lament here.

4. We end with the divine overcoming of man’s sin, -a suitable and beautiful ending for such a history. God is the great Overcomer. The Lamb is the perfect expression of this, and in that double way in which God works, governmentally and in the nearer personal action of His grace. Both things we find in the chapter before us.

The state of Israel is such that God is provoked to anger against them, and out of this comes the thought which God permits to be suggested to David, to number the people. It is a military order, clearly having respect to their strength for war, and which shows the spirit dictating it, a spirit in which king and people shared alike. The victories abroad, the growth of a petty kingdom hardly able to preserve its independence of the nations round it, into an empire, -had no doubt intoxicated them with pride and ambition. And pride is the giant sin of a fallen nature, the essential evil, man lifting himself up, even against God. It is the typal sin, therefore; and against which God must, in very mercy, show Himself. He therefore exhibits it, and smites upon it. So plainly is it manifest, and yet so blind is the one actuated by it, that Joab sees at once the evil which David cannot see. He demurs to the numbering, shirks it as far as possible, but is overborne by the king’s mandate. The sum of the people is delivered to the king; and only then does his conscience awake to the meaning of what he has done. Little, after all, would it seem in man’s eyes; but God seeth not as man seeth.

Word comes, therefore, to David through Gad his seer, offering him his choice of three modes of chastisement: three years of famine, three months of flight before his enemies, three days of pestilence. The number is that of divine holiness and manifestation. David beautifully chooses (yet how could he do otherwise?) to fall into God’s hand, the mercies of which he knows; and the pestilence comes upon the land.

The blow is heavy, for it is needed; and yet rightly has David counted on his Lord. It is from the Lord’s own grace that the staying of the evil comes. “When the angel stretched forth his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, Jehovah repented Him of the evil, and said unto the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thy hand. And the angel was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

Government has done its needful work, and now the story of divine grace begins. And where should grace be shown as God would show it, but in the case of one of the chief of sinners? Araunah is a Jebusite, one of the Canaanite races of the land, long since under the curse, and a Jebusite, a “treader down” of God’s royal city.

Now God was treading down; not ruthlessly as a destroyer, however, but as threshing is accomplished under the feet of the patient ox, where, with all the roughness of the process, the precious grain is sought and secured, -God’s harvest, if man’s the blessing. Judgment thereafter goes not beyond the “threshing-floor.” There it halts, stayed by the pity of God, and Araunah (“filled with lamentation”?) receives his divine name Aranjah, “the singing of Jah”! How gloriously is the Lord’s story of God’s reception of His prodigals anticipated here! -a joy, not of man, but of God: “He will rest in His love; He will joy over thee with singing”! What music, touching all the chords of nature with the ecstasy of its blessedness, and penetrating with its divine sweetness all the harmony that it awakens round, this music in the heart of God! What a close for a history such as this has been! God’s victory it surely is, over man’s sin, -over man’s enmity and pride and unbelief. God is God, and all that man has done against Him only has brought out the more the meaning of this. Not in Israel alone, not alone in the full tide of the earth’s praise hereafter, -no, not alone in the songs of the redeemed in heaven, will be the sufficient answer to this, which shall fill the universe of the unfallen also with ceaseless joy and praise. The throne of God shall be thus forever also the “throne of the Lamb.” If the glory of God be seen in its splendor in the Jerusalem of God, the Lamb shall be the lamp of its display.

To one who knows the inefficacy of the legal sacrifices, and yet how God by this very inefficacy only pointed men forward to the true offering that was yet to come, it will not be strange to find that David does not here offer sin- or trespass-offering. Burnt-offerings and peace-offerings only are enjoined and offered. The place of offering is purchased for fifty shekels of silver, in which we once more see the full responsibility of man recognized, and the debt to divine government completely met. David for a moment here stands forth again as the type of Christ our Lord, meeting, as alone He could, the whole claim of God, the whole due of sin. Thus the book closes fitly, with the lustre of such a vision for the anointed eyes of faith.

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

2Sa 21:15-16. The Philistines had yet war again with Israel After, or besides the other wars with the Philistines mentioned in this book, they yet again disturbed Davids repose. David waxed faint Being no longer in the vigour of youth, but probably in declining years, though not old in age. Ishbi-benob, of the sons of the giant Either of Goliath, who, by way of eminence, is called the giant, or rather, as the Hebrew word, , rapha, signifies, any giant. The words should rather be translated, Of the race of the giants, that is, of the Anakims, who fled into this country, particularly to Gath, when Joshua expelled them from Canaan, Jos 11:22. Whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass This is to be understood of the head of his spear, which weighed half as much as that of Goliath, 1Sa 17:7. He being girded with a new sword One made on purpose for him, larger and heavier than those commonly used. Thought to have slain David Thought he had a fair opportunity to do it.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

B. Four Giant Killers 21:15-22

This record emphasizes the supernatural character of the victories David was able to enjoy because God fought for him by using various men in his army.

"The lists of heroes and heroic exploits that frame the poetic centre-piece represent human instrumentality, but not the underlying reality, which is Yahweh." [Note: Gordon, p. 298.]

The pericope may describe what happened when David was fighting the Philistines early in his reign (cf. 2Sa 5:18-25), probably right after he became king of all Israel in 1004 B.C. [Note: Merrill, Kingdom of . . ., pp. 237-38.] However, it is really impossible to tell how the incidents recorded here relate to others mentioned in the book, or even if they do.

"The giant" (2Sa 21:16; 2Sa 21:18; 2Sa 21:20; 2Sa 21:22) appears to have been the father or ancestor of all four of the huge Philistine warriors mentioned in this passage. However, the Hebrew word translated "giant" (raphah) is a collective term for the Rephaim. The Rephaim were the mighty warriors who originally inhabited the Canaanite coastal plain (cf. Gen 15:19-21; Deu 2:11; Deu 3:11; Deu 3:13). They terrified ten of the 12 spies that Joshua sent out from Kadesh Barnea (Num 13:33).

"The lamp of Israel" (2Sa 21:17) refers to David, the source of Israel’s human guidance, prosperity, and wellbeing-its leading light. As God was a light to His people, so the king was a source of life as His vice-regent. Similarly, Jesus is the light of the world, but Christians are to let our light shine before men.

". . . when a man dies his lamp is extinguished (Job 18:6; Pro 13:9); David’s death would be tantamount to the extinction of the life of the community (cf. Lam 4:20). The figure of the lamp, which came to symbolize the Davidic dynasty as maintained by Yahweh (1Ki 15:4; Psa 132:17), possibly derives from the world of the sanctuary, in which a lamp was kept burning ’continually’ (see on 1Sa 3:3)." [Note: Gordon, p. 303.]

Gob (2Sa 21:18) was evidently another name for Gezer (1Ch 20:4). The reference in 2Sa 21:19 to Elhanan killing Goliath the Gittite (i.e., a resident of Gath) seems to contradict 1 Samuel 17. However 1Ch 20:5 says that Elhanan killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath. Evidently that is the correct reading. [Note: See Archer, p. 179.] Sometimes David was able to slay his enemies personally, but at other times he had to rely on the help of others (2Sa 21:17).

The point of this brief section is that God blessed David with military victories far beyond anyone’s normal expectations because he was God’s faithful anointed servant. Yahweh brought blessing through him to Israel militarily as well as agriculturally (2Sa 21:1-14). The first incident in the appendix (2Sa 21:1-14) illustrates that breaking covenants reduces fertility, but this one (2Sa 21:15-22) shows that God’s favor results in supernatural victories.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER XXIX.

LAST BATTLES AND THE MIGHTY MEN.

2Sa 21:15-22; 2Sa 23:8-39.

IN entering on the consideration of these two portions of the history of David, we must first observe that the events recorded do not appear to belong to the concluding portion of his reign. It is impossible for us to assign a precise date to them, or at least to most of them, but the displays of physical activity and courage which they record would lead us to ascribe them to a much earlier period. Originally, they seem to have formed parts of a record of David’s wars, and to have been transferred to the Books of Samuel and Chronicles in order to give a measure of completeness to the narrative. The narrative in Chronicles is substantially the same as that in Samuel, but the text is purer. From notes of time in Chronicles it is seen that some at least of the encounters took place after the war with the children of Ammon.

Why have these passages been inserted in the history of the reign of David? Apparently for two chief purposes. In the first place, to give us some idea of the dangers to which he was exposed in his military life, dangers manifold and sometimes overwhelming, and all but fatal; and thus enable us to see how wonderful were the deliverances he experienced, and prepare us for entering into the song of thanksgiving which forms the twenty-second chapter, and of which these deliverances form the burden. In the second place, to enable us to understand the human instrumentality by which he achieved so brilliant a success, the kind of men by whom he was helped, the kind of spirit by which they were animated, and their intense personal devotion to David himself. The former purpose is that which is chiefly in view in the end of the twenty-first chapter, the latter in the twenty-third. The exploits themselves occur in encounters with the Philistines, and may therefore be referred partly to the time after the slaughter of Goliath, when he first distinguished himself in warfare, and the daughters of Israel began to sing, “Saul hath slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands;” partly to the time in his early reign when he was engaged driving them out of Israel, and putting a bridle on them to restrain their inroads; and partly to a still later period. It is to be observed that nothing more is sought than to give a sample of David’s military adventures, and for this purpose his wars with the Philistines alone are examined. If the like method had been taken with all his other campaigns, – against Edom, Moab, and Ammon; against the Syrians of Rehob, and Maacah, and Damascus, and the Syrians beyond the river, – we might borrow the language of the Evangelist, and say that the world itself would not have been able to contain the books that should be written.

Four exploits are recorded in the closing verses of the twenty-first chapter, all with “sons of the giant,” or, as it is in the margin, of Kapha. The first was with a man who is called Ishbi-benob, but there is reason to suspect that the text is corrupt here, and in Chronicles this incident is not mentioned. The language applied to David, ” avid and his servants went down,” would lead us to believe that the incident happened at an early period, when the Philistines were very powerful in Israel, and it was a mark of great courage to “go down” to their plains, and attack them in their own country. To do this implied a long journey, over steep and rough roads, and it is no wonder if between the journey and the fighting David “waxed faint.” Then it was that the son of the giant, whose spear or spear- head weighed three hundred shekels of brass, or about eight pounds, fell upon him “with a new sword, and thought to have slain him.” There is no noun in the original for sword; all that is said is, that the giant fell on David with something new, and our translators have made it a sword. The Revised Version in the margin gives “new armour.” The point is evidently this, that the newness of the thing made it more formidable. This could hardly be said of a common sword, which would be really more formidable after it had ceased to be quite new, since, by having used it, the owner would know it better and wield it more perfectly. It seems better to take the marginal reading “new armour,” that is, new defensive armour, against which the weary David would direct his blows in vain. Evidently he was in the utmost peril of his life, but was rescued by his nephew Abishai, who killed the giant. The risk to which he was exposed was such that his people vowed they would not let him go out with them to battle any more, lest the light of Israel should be quenched.

During the rest of that campaign the vow seems to have been respected, for the other three giants were not slain by David personally, but by others. As to other campaigns, David usually took his old place as leader of the army, until the battle against Absalom, when his people prevailed on him to remain in the city.

Three of the four duels recorded here took place at Gob, – a place not now known, but most probably in the neighbourhood of Gath. In fact, all the encounters probably took place near that city. One of the giants slain is said in Samuel, by a manifest error, to have been Goliath the Gittite; but the error is corrected in Chronicles, where he is called the brother of Goliath. The very same expression is used of his spear as in the case of Goliath: ”the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.” Of the fourth giant it is said that he defied Israel, as Goliath had done. Of the whole four it is said that “they were born to the giant in Gath.” This does not necessarily imply that they were all sons of the same father, “the giant” being used generically to denote the race rather than the individual.

But the tenor of the narrative and many of its expressions carry us back to the early days of David. There seems to have been a nest at Gath of men of gigantic stature, brothers or near relations of Goliath. Against these he was sent, perhaps in one of the expeditions when Saul secretly desired that he should fall by the hand of the Philistines. If it was in this way that he came to encounter the first of the four, Saul had calculated well, and was very nearly carrying his point. But though man proposes, God disposes. The example of David in his encounter with Goliath, even at this early period, had inspired several young men of the Hebrews, and even when David was interdicted from going himself into battle, others were raised up to take his place. Every one of the giants found a match either in David or among his men. It was indeed highly perilous work; but David was encompassed by a Divine Protector, and being destined for high service in the kingdom of God, he was “immortal till his work was done.”

We have said that these were but samples of David’s trials, and that they were probably repeated again and again in the course of the many wars in which he was engaged. One can see that the danger was often very imminent, making him feel that his only possible deliverance must come from God. Such dangers, therefore, were wonderfully fitted to exercise and discipline the spirit of trust. Not once or twice, but hundreds of times, in his early experience he would find himself constrained to cry to the Lord. And protected as he was, delivered as he was, the conviction would become stronger and stronger that God cared for him and would deliver him to the end. We see from all this how unnecessary it is to ascribe all the psalms where David is pressed by enemies either to the time of Saul or to the time of Absalom. There were hundreds of other times in his life when he had the same experience, when he was reduced to similar straits, and his appeal lay to the God of his life.

And this was in truth the healthiest period of his spiritual life. It was amid these perilous but bracing experiences that his soul prospered most. The north wind of danger and difficulty braced him to spiritual self- denial and endurance; the south wind of prosperity and luxurious enjoyment was what nearly destroyed him. Let us not become impatient when anxieties multiply around us, and we are beset by troubles, and labours, and difficulties. Do not be tempted to contrast your miserable lot with that of others, who have health while you are sick, riches while you are poor, honour while you are despised, ease and enjoyment while you have care and sorrow. By all these things God desires to draw you to Himself, to discipline your soul, to lead you away from the broken cisterns that can hold no water to the fountain of living waters. Guard earnestly against the unbelief that at such times would make your hands hang down and your heart despond; rally your sinking spirit. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?” Remember the promise, “I will never leave you nor forsake you;” and one day you shall have cause to look back on this as the most useful, the most profitable, the most healthful, period of your spiritual life.

We pass to the twenty-third chapter, which tells us of David’s mighty men. The narrative, at some points, is not very clear; but we gather from it that David had an order of thirty men distinguished for their valour; that besides these there were three of super-eminent merit, and another three, who were also eminent, but who did not attain to the distinction of the first three. Of the first three, the first was Jashobeam the Hachmonite (see 1Ch 11:11), the second Eleazar, and the third Shammah. Of the second three, who were not quite equal to the first, only two are mentioned, Abishai and Benaiah; thereafter we have the names of the thirty. It is remarkable that Joab’s name does not occur in the list, but as he was captain of the host, he probably held a higher position than any. Certainly Joab was not wanting in valour, and must have held the highest rank in a legion of honour.

Of the three mighties of the first rank, and the two of the second, characteristic exploits of remarkable courage and success are recorded. The first of the first rank, whom the Chronicles call Jashobeam, lifted up his spear against three hundred slain at one time. (In Samuel the number is eight hundred.) The exploit was worthy to be ranked with the famous achievement of Jonathan and his armour-bearer at the pass of Michmash. The second, Eleazar, defied the Philistines when they were gathered to battle, and when the men of Israel had gone away he smote the Philistines till his hand was weary. The third, Shammah, kept the Philistines at bay on a piece of ground covered with lentils, after the people had fled, and slew the Philistines, gaining a great victory.

Next we have a description of the exploit of three of the mighty men when the Philistines were in possession of Bethlehem, and David in a hold near the cave of Adullam (see 2Sa 5:15-21). The occasion of their exploit was an interesting one. Contemplating the situation, and grieved to think that his native town should be in the enemy’s hands, David gave expression to a wish – “Oh that someone would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem which is before the gate!” It was probably meant for little more than the expression of an earnest wish that the enemy were dislodged from their position – that there were no obstruction between him and the well, that access to it were as free as in the days of his youth. But the three mighty men took him at his word, and breaking through the host of the Philistines, brought the water to David. It was a singular proof of his great personal influence; he was so loved and honoured that to gratify his wish these three men took their lives in their hands to obtain the water. Water got at such a cost was sacred in his eyes; it was a thing too holy for man to turn to his use, so he poured it out before the Lord.

Next we have a statement bearing on two of the second three. Abishai, David’s nephew, who was one of them, lifted up his spear against three hundred and slew them. Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, slew two lion-like men of Moab (the two sons of Ariel of Moab, R.V.); also, in time of snow, he slew a lion in a pit; and finally he slew an Egyptian, a powerful man, attacking him when he had only a staff in his hand, wrenching his spear from him, and killing him with his own spear. The third of this trio has not been mentioned; some conjecture that he was Amasa (“chief of the captains” -“the thirty,” R.V., 1Ch 12:18), and that his name was not recorded because he deserted David to side with Absalom. Amoi .g the other thirty, we cannot but be struck with two names – Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, and apparently the father of Bathsheba; and Uriah the Hittite. The sin of David was all the greater if it involved the dishonour of men who had served him so bravely as to be enrolled in his legion of honour.

With regard to the kind of exploits ascribed to some of these men, a remark is necessary. There is an appearance of exaggeration in statements that ascribe to a single warrior the routing and killing of hundreds through his single sword or spear. In the eyes of some such statements give the narrative an unreliable look, as if the object of the writer had been more to give clat to the warriors than to record the simple truth. But this impression arises from our tendency to ascribe the conditions of modern warfare to the warfare of these times. In Eastern history, cases of a single warrior putting a large number to flight, and even killing them, are not uncommon. For though the strength of the whole number was far more than a match for his, the strength of each individual was far inferior; and if the mass of them were scarcely armed, and the few who had arms were far inferior to him, the result would be that after some had fallen the rest would take to flight; and the destruction of life in a retreat was always enormous. The incident recorded of Eleazar is very graphic and truth-like. “He smote the Philistines until his hand was weary and his hand clave unto his sword.” A Highland sergeant at Waterloo had done such execution with his basket-handled sword, and so much blood had coagulated round his hand, that it had to be released by a blacksmith, so firmly were they glued together. The style of Eastern warfare was highly favourable to deeds of great courage being done by individuals, and in the terrific panic which followed their first successes prodigious slaughter often ensued. Under present conditions of fighting such things cannot be done.

The glimpse which these little notices give us of King David and his knights is extremely interesting. The story of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table bears a resemblance to it. We see the remarkable personal influence of David, drawing to himself so many men of spirit and energy, firing them by his own example, securing their warm personal attachment, and engaging them in enterprises equal to his own. How far they shared his devotional spirit we have no means of judging. If the historian reflects the general sentiment in recording their victories when he says, once and again, ”The Lord wrought a great victory that day” (2Sa 23:10; 2Sa 23:12), we should say that trust in God must have been the general sentiment. “If it had not been the Lord that was on our side, . . . they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us.” It is no wonder that David soon gained a great military renown. Such a king, surrounded by such a class of lieutenants, might well spread alarm among all his enemies. One who, besides having such a body of helpers, could claim the assistance of the Lord of hosts, and could enter battle with the shout, “Let God arise; and let His enemies be scattered; and let them also that hate Him flee before Him,” might well look for universal victory. Trustworthy generals, we are told, double the value of the troops; and the soldiers that were led by such leaders, trusting in the Lord of hosts, could hardly fail of triumph.

And thus, too, we may see how David came to be thoroughly under the influence of the military spirit, and of some of the less favourable features of that spirit. Accustomed to such scenes of bloodshed, he would come to think lightly of the lives of his enemies. A hostile army he would be prone to regard as a kind of infernal machine, an instrument of evil only, and therefore to be destroyed. Hence the complacency he expresses in the destruction of his enemies. Hence the judgment he calls down on those who thwarted and opposed him. If, in the songs of David, this feeling sometimes disappears, and the expressed desire of his heart is that the nations may be glad and sing for joy, that the people may praise God, that all the people may praise Him, this seems to be in the later period of his life, when all his enemies had been subdued, and he had rest on every side. Even in earnest and spiritually-minded men, religion is often coloured by their worldly calling; and in no case more so, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse, than in those who follow the profession of arms.

But in all this military career and influence of David, may we not trace a type of character which was realized in a far higher sphere, and to far grander purpose, in the career of Jesus, David’s Son? David on an earthly level is Jesus on a higher. Every noble quality of David, his courage, his activity, his affection, his obedience and trust toward God, his devotion to the welfare of others, reappears purer and higher in Jesus. If David is surrounded by his thirty mighties and his two threes, so is Jesus by His twelve apostles. His seventy disciples, and pre-eminently the three apostles who went with Him into the innermost scenes. If David’s men are roused by his example to deeds of daring like his own, so the apostles and disciples go into the world to teach, to fight, to heal, and to bless, as Christ had done before them. Looking back from the present moment to David’s time, what young man of spirit but feels that it would have been a great joy to belong to his company, much better than to be among those who were always carping and criticizing, and laughing at the men who shared his danger and sacrifices? And does anyone think that, when another cycle of ages has gone past, he will have occasion to congratulate himself that while he lived on earth he had nothing to do with Christ and earnest Christians, that he bore no part in any Christian battle, that he kept well away from Christ and His staff, that he preferred the service and pleasure of the world? Surely no. Shall any of us, then, deliberately do to-day what we know we shall repent to-morrow? Is it not certain that Jesus Christ is an unrivalled Commander, pure and noble above all His fellows, that His life was the most glorious ever led on earth, and that His service is by far the most honourable? We do not dwell at this moment on the great fact that only in His faith and fellowship can any of us escape the wrath to come, or gain the favour of God. We ask you to say in what company you can spend your lives to most profit, under whose influence you may receive the highest impulses, and be made to do the best service for God and man? It must have been interesting in David’s time to see his people ”willing in the day of his power,” to see young men flocking to his standard in the beauties of holiness, like dewdrops from the womb of the morning. And still more glorious is the sight when young men, even the highest born and the highest gifted, having had grace to see who and what Jesus Christ is, find no manner of life worthy to be compared in essential dignity and usefulness with His service, and, in spite of the world, give themselves to Him. Oh that we could see many such rallying to His standard, contrasting, as St. Paul did, the two services, and counting all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord!

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary