20<\/strong>. six fingers six toes<\/em> ] Pliny mentions such a peculiarity ( Hist. Nat.<\/em> 11:43), and it is not unknown in modern times.<\/p>\n Verse 20<\/span>. On every hand six fingers<\/B><\/I>] This is not a solitary instance: Tavernier<\/I> informs us that the eldest son of the emperor of Java, who reigned in 1648, had six fingers<\/I> on each hand, and six toes<\/I> on each foot. And Maupertuis<\/I>, in his seventeenth letter, says that he met with two families near Berlin, where sedigitism<\/I> was equally transmitted on both sides of father and mother. I saw once a young girl, in the county of Londonderry, in Ireland, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, but her stature had nothing gigantic in it. The daughters of Caius Horatius<\/I>, of patrician dignity, were called sedigitae<\/I>, because they had six fingers<\/I> on each hand. Volcatius<\/I>, a poet, was called sedigitus<\/I> for the same reason. See Pliny’s<\/I> Hist. Nat., lib. xi., cap. 43.<\/P> <\/P> THERE are evidently many places in this chapter in which the text has suffered much from the ignorance or carelessness of transcribers; and indeed I suspect the whole has suffered so materially as to distort, if not misrepresent the principal facts. It seems as if a Gibeonite has had something to do with the copies that are come down to us, or that the first fourteen verses have been inserted from a less authentic document than the rest of the book. I shall notice some of the most unaccountable, and apparently exceptionable particulars: –<\/P> <\/P> 1. The famine<\/I>, 2Sa 21:1<\/span>, is not spoken of anywhere else, nor at all referred to in the books of Kings<\/I> or Chronicles<\/I>; and, being of three years’ duration, it was too remarkable to be omitted in the history of David.<\/P> <\/P> 2. The circumstance of Saul’s attempt to exterminate the<\/I> Gibeonites<\/I> is nowhere else mentioned; and, had it taken place, it is not likely it would have been passed over in the history of Saul’s transgressions. Indeed, it would have been such a breach of the good faith by which the whole nation was bound to this people, that an attempt of the kind could scarcely have failed to raise an insurrection through all Israel.<\/P> <\/P> 3. The wish of David that the Gibeonites, little better than a heathenish people, should bless the inheritance of the Lord<\/I>, is unconstitutional and unlikely.<\/P> <\/P> 4. That God should leave the choice of the atonement to such a people, or indeed to any people, seems contrary to his established laws and particular providence.<\/P> <\/P> 5. That he should require seven innocent men to be hung up in place of their offending father, in whose iniquity they most likely never had a share, seems inconsistent with justice and mercy.<\/P> <\/P> 6. In 2Sa 21:8<\/span>, there is mention made of five sons of Michal<\/I>, which she bore ( yaledah<\/I>) unto Adriel. Now, 1. Michal was never the wife of Adriel, but of David and Phaltiel. 2. She never appears to have had any children, see 2Sa 6:23<\/span>; this I have been obliged to correct in the preceding notes by putting Merab<\/I> in the place of Michal<\/I>.<\/P> <\/P> 7. The seven sons of Saul, mentioned here, are represented as a sacrifice<\/I> required by God, to make an atonement<\/I> for the sin of Saul. Does God in any case require human blood<\/I> for sacrifice? And is it not such a sacrifice<\/I> that is represented here? Dr. Delaney and others imagine that these seven sons were principal agents<\/I> in the execution of their father’s purpose; but of this there is no<\/I> proof<\/I>. Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, certainly had no hand in this projected massacre, he was ever lame<\/I>, and could not be so employed; and yet he would have been one of the seven had it not been for the covenant made before with his father: But the king<\/I> spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan – because of the Lord’s oath<\/I> that was between them<\/I>, 2Sa 21:7<\/span>.<\/P> <\/P> 8. The circumstance of Rizpah’s watching the bodies of those victims, upon a rock, and probably in the open air, both day and night, from March to October, or even for a much less period<\/I>, is, as it is here related, very extraordinary and improbable.<\/P> <\/P> 9. The hanging the bodies so long<\/I> was against an express law of God, which ordained that those who were hanged on a tree should be taken down before sunset, and buried the same day, lest the land<\/I> should be defiled<\/I>, (De 21:22-23<\/span>). Therefore, 1. God did not command a breach of his own law. 2. David was too exact an observer of that law to require it. 3. The people could not have endured it; for, in that sultry season, the land would indeed have been defiled<\/I> by the putrefaction<\/I> of the dead bodies; and this would, in all likelihood, have added pestilence<\/I> to famine<\/I>.<\/P> <\/P> 10. The story of collecting and burying the bones<\/I> of Saul and Jonathan is not very likely, considering that the men of Jabesh-gilead had burned their bodies, and buried the remaining bones under a tree at Jabesh, 1Sa 31:12-13<\/span>; yet still it is possible.<\/P> <\/P> 11. Josephus takes as much of this story as he thinks proper, but says not one word about Rizpah, and her long watching over her slaughtered sons.<\/P> <\/P> 12. Even the facts<\/I> in this chapter, which are mentioned in other places, (see 1Ch 20:4<\/span>, c.,) are greatly distorted and corrupted for we have already seen that Elhanan<\/I> is made here to kill Goliath<\/I> the Gittite<\/I>, whom it is well known David slew; and it is only by means of the parallel place above that we can restore this to historical truth.<\/P> <\/P> That there have been attempts to remove some of these objections, I know; and I know also that these attempts have been in general without success.<\/P> <\/P> Till I get farther light on the subject, I am led to conclude that the whole chapter is not now<\/I> what it would be, coming from the pen of an inspired writer; and that this part of the Jewish records has suffered much from rabbinical glosses, alterations, and additions. The law<\/I>, the prophets<\/I>, and the hagiographa<\/I>, including Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes<\/I>, c., have been ever considered as possessing the highest title to Divine inspiration<\/I> and therefore have been most carefully preserved and transcribed; but the historical books, especially Samuel, Kings<\/I>, and Chronicles<\/I>, have not ranked so high, have been less carefully preserved, and have been the subjects of frequent alteration and corruption. Yet still the great foundation of God standeth sure and is sufficiently attested by his own broad seal of consistency, truth, and holiness.<\/P> <\/p>\n In Gath, <\/B>i. e. in the territory of the city of Gath; which circumstance intimates that this, and consequently the other battles here described, were fought before David had taken Gath out of the hands of the Philistines, which he did 2Sa 8:1<\/span>, compared with 1Ch 18:1<\/span>, and therefore not in the last days of David, as some conceive from their mention in this place. <\/P> A man of great stature, <\/B>or, a man of Middin or Madon<\/I>, as the LXX. render it; so called from the place of his birth, as Goliath<\/I> is said to be of Gath for the same reason. <\/P> <\/p>\n And there was yet a battle in Gath<\/strong>,…. Besides the battles in the above place or places; for this does not necessarily suppose that one of the said battles had been there, only that this, which was another battle, had been there:<\/p>\n where was a man of [great] stature<\/strong>; for so the sense of the word appears to be from 1Ch 20:6<\/span>; though here it signifies a man of strife and contention, a man of war, and both were true of him:<\/p>\n that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number<\/strong>; twelve fingers on his two hands, and twelve toes on his two feet. Pliny a speaks of one M. Curiatius, a patrician, who had two daughters that had six fingers on an hand, and were called “Sedigitae”, six-fingered; and of Volcatius, a famous poet, called “Sedigitus”, or six-fingered, for the same reason; and elsewhere, from other writers b he makes mention of a people that had eight toes each foot; so Ctesias c speaks of a people in the mountains of India, which have eight fingers on each hand, and eight toes on each foot, both men and women:<\/p>\n and he also was born to the giant<\/strong>; a son of a giant.<\/p>\n a Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 43. b Megasthenes apud ib. l. 7. c. 2. c In Indicis, c. 31.<\/p>\n 20<\/strong>. <\/strong> Six fingers six toes <\/strong> Persons thus abnormal have been elsewhere met with. “Tavernier informs us that the eldest son of the emperor of Java, who reigned in 1648, had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot. Maupertius, in his seventeenth letter, says that he met with two families near Berlin, in which sedigitism was equally transmitted on both the father’s and mother’s side. I once saw a young girl in the county of Loudonderry, in Ireland, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, but her stature had nothing gigantic in it. The daughters of Caius Horatius, of patrician dignity, were called sedigitae <\/em> because they had six fingers on each hand.” Clarke.<\/p>\n 2Sa 21:20 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.<\/p>\n Ver. 20. A man of treat stature.<\/strong> ] Yet not so great, likely, as he of whom Pliny writeth, that he was found in Crete, in the opening of a monument by an earthquake, to have been forty-six cubits long. Fides sit penes Authorem.<\/p>\n yet a battle: 1Ch 20:6 <\/p>\n the giant: or, Rapha, 2Sa 21:16, 2Sa 21:18, *marg. <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Num 13:32 – men of a great stature Num 13:33 – saw the giants Isa 45:14 – men of stature<\/p>\n 2Sa 21:20-22. There was yet a battle in Gath That is, in the territory of that city; which circumstance intimates, that this, and consequently the other battles here described, were fought before David had taken Gath out of the hands of the Philistines, which he did many years before this, 2Sa 8:1, compared with 1Ch 18:1; and therefore not in the last days of David, as some conceive, from the mention of them in this place. A man of great stature Or, a man of Medin, or Madon, as the Seventy render it; so called from the place of his birth, as Goliath is said to be of Gath for the same reason. Who had on every hand six fingers, &c. Tavernier, in his relation of the grand seigniors seraglio, p. 95, says, that the eldest son of the emperor of Java, who reigned in the year 1648, when he was in that island, had six fingers on each hand, and as many toes on each foot, all of equal length. These four fell by the hand of David That is, by his conduct and counsel, or concurrence. Indeed he contributed by his hand to the death of one of them; while maintaining a fight with him, he gave Abishai the easier opportunity of killing him. But what is done by the inferior commanders is commonly ascribed to the general, both in sacred and profane authors. <\/p>\n 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. 20. six fingers six toes ] Pliny mentions such a peculiarity ( Hist. Nat. … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 21:20”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"