5. His houfe was not to fail, tho' he had not his with in other refpects.

8. Dr. Kennicott has difcovered many errors in this account of David's worthies by comparing it with a fimilar one in 1 Ch. xii. 11. &c. It is conjectured by Dr. Kennicott that the original of part of this verfe was, "David had Jafhobeam an Hachmonite, chief among "the captains." See 1 Chron. xi. 11. The words Adino the Eznite are a corruption, for words which should be rendered he raised up his spear against eight hundred &c. In the corresponding passage in 1 Chron. xi, 11, it is three hundred.

9. This verfe is reftored by reading, He was with David at Pasdamoni. And when the Philistines were gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away," i. e. fled, "he arose &c.

11. In the book of Chronicles it is barley.

13. Now these three who were head men, superior to the thirty, went down and came over the rock to David. This cave was one in which David had taken refuge.

14. The advanced guard of the Philistines.

16. This is one of the many inftances of David's great generofity. We here fee that the phrafe before the Lord does not always refer to the fanctuary. He poured out this water, together with an addrefs to God, whom he confidered as prefent in all places.

21. This verfe reftored fhould be as follows, And Je slew an Egyptian, a man whose stature was five cubits high; cad in the hand of the Egyptian was a spear like weaver's beam, &c.

24 Asahd

24. Asahel, the brother of Joab, was also above the following thirty.

32. Gauni, of the sons of Hasham. Jonathan the son of Shamha the Hororite. CoNJ. K.

35. Naari, the son of Arbai.

36. Joel, the son of Nathan.

CoNJ K.

Conj. K.

39. Thirty fix only are recited, and therefore it is supposed that the name of Joab made up the original number. It is probable that David kept an account of all the heroic actions of his followers, arranged accor ding to their merit; and this being known, would be a powerful motive to great exploits.

Ch. XXIV. 1. The cause of the judgments of which an account is given in this chapter, is faid to have been the anger of God against Ifrael. But in v. 10 David without being contra

takes the blame upon himself, dicted by the prophet, No doubt it appeared proper, in the divine administration, that the people fhould fuf-' fer; and the immediate inftrument of most of the fufferings of nations, is the mifconduct of their rulers; which misconduct, like the obftinacy of Pharaoh, is af-cribed to God, as the author of nature, and the governor of the world. In the corresponding account in 1 Ch. 21, it is faid that Satan stirred up David to number the people. But the meaning of this is no more than that an improper thought arofe in his mind; Satan, which there occurs for the first time in this hiftory, fignifying the principle, or caufe of evil, whatever that be, perfo nified.

3 Tho' Joab remonftrated against the propofal of

David, as proceeding from vanity, and perhaps as giv ing himself fome unneceffary trouble, he did not obferve that when the people were numbered, they ought, according to the laws of Mofes (Exod. xxx, 12) to give half a fhekel each perfon. To this David probably thought the people would object.

5 We no where read of fuch a river; but it was probably a fmall brook that emptied itself into the sea of Galilee. Gezer was a town in that tribe.

7. It appears from 1 Chron. xti, 6, that the Levites and the tribe of Benjamin were not numbered.

9. In the book of Chronicles the men of frael are faid to have been three hundered thousand more, and thofe of Judah thirty thousand lefs, than they are here faid to be. But it is thought by fome that in this account the ftanding army was not numbered. For the Jews obferve that there were twenty four thousand men that ferved every month,and this number for each of the tribes,would,with their officers, make up about this number. Or the one may be a general, and the other a more particular account of the numbers. From either of the accounts, there appears to have been a great fuperiority in the tribe of Judah, over any of the others, Allowing the men capable of bearing arms to have been one fourth of all the inhabitants, they will have been five millions two hundred thousand in all, which is a great population for fo fmall a country. David, no doubt, was fenfi ble that there had been a great increafe of the people in his reign, after he had delivered them from all their enemies, notwithstanding the lofs of men in his various

wars;

wars; and this is a reasonable fubject of pride in a prince.

10. There does not appear to be any cause for this ftrong confcioufnefs of guilt, befides the omiffion of the tax which the law required; and the pride and oftentation which suggested the measure.

13. That there was a real miracle in this judgment, is evident from its being made to depend upon David's choice of the mode of fuffering.

14. The hand of God would be more apparent in the peftilence, because the proximate cause of it is lefs evident; but it is not lefs really fo in the calamity of

war.

17. To give David a more lively idea of the hand of God in this plague, he was permitted to fee the appearance of an angel, perhaps with fome inftrument of death in his hand, tho' fuch a Being might have nothing to do in producing the diforder.

18. Threshing floors in the Eaft are level places in the open air. This was on mount Moriah, where Abraham was about to offer up Ifaac, and where the temSee 2 Chron: ple of Solomon was afterwards built. 1. iii.

23 The word king following Araunah is wanting in feveral of the antient verfions, and in four MSS.

24. In the book of Chronicles it is six hundred shekels of gold by weight. Perhaps thefe fifty fhekels might be the price of the building and of the oxen, and the larger fum for that of the ground about it. These differences, however, furnish a proof that the books are no

forgeries

forgeries, at leaft by the fame fee of men. For then they would, no doubt, have guarded againit any charge of inconfiftency.

25. Here we have another inftance of facrificing in a place where there was neither the tabernacle nor the ark.

NOTES ON THE FIRST BOOK OF

KING S.

THE two books that bear the title of the firft

and fecond,or of the third and fourth of Kings, according as the two preceeding books are called by the name of Samuel, or not, contains the hiftory of the Hebrew nation from the acceffion of Solomon to the Babylonish captivity, a period of about fix hundred years. They were probably compiled by Ezra, from authentic records written near the time of the tranfactions, feveral of them being expressly referred to in thefe books and those of Chronicles, as the aets of Solomon Ch. xi, 41, the books of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah and Israel, very frequently the book of Fasher, which contained the acts of Jehofaphat, 2 Ch. xx, 34, Ifaiah alfo wrote the acts of Uzziah, 2 Ch. xxvi, 24, and fome of the particulars of the reign of Ahaz and Hezekiah are found in the book that bears his name. Ch. I.